Waterloo Farm: a self-sufficient blog

As you know part of our goal moving to Waterloo Farm is to try live a bit more ‘green’, or to be trendy, a more eco lifestyle.

To help achieve this we are proud to support ‘Nigel’s Eco Store‘, and can I hasten to add this is not a website that I knocked up earlier! (I also have more hair…well a little more anyway! )

Nigel’s store has a great product range, and makes it easier to find everyday items which have been designed with the planet specifically in mind. From out in the garden to inside the house, to tasty treats and things you can wear, Nigel’s Eco Store appears to have it all. One item we use and would love to draw your attention to is a pair of balls!

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We have a great opportunity, as we are likely to have to replace the existing oil fired boiler, to install a renewable energy source to heat the Farm and its hotwater. However the options are not cheap! Even assuming they will pay back over a period of time, not something you even consider when buying fossil fuel boilers, they do require a size-able chunk of cash up front.

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OK, maybe the title is a little mis-leading as I guess strictly speaking we didn’t actually ‘grow’ the crop ourselves, but the food came off our land so in a sense it is ‘home-grown’ . I’m referring of course to blackberries! The kids had a great time at the weekend picking some blackberries from the garden. Fortunately they didn’t have to go very far as there is a large bramble just by the patio, and another one just next to the stable (before it got cut down anyway!).

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OK, I admit, it’s only a very small thing, but it feels good, and like a step in the right direction on the path to becoming self-sufficient, which in many ways is our ultimate aim with Waterloo Farm. The picture shows the pile of kindling that we generated by stripping the branches from the (soon to be completely deceased!) Weeping Silver Birch [see here for the post about it]. Big son and I spent several hours (some in the rain, we were enjoying it that much!) with the secateurs, loppers and bow saw making the kindling out of the smaller branches and as you can see, there was actually quite a lot of it! It will need to be seasoned (dried) for a year before we can use it, but it will feel like a real achievement when we come to burn it next winter, knowing it is available because of our hard work, and better still, was free!

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