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Basketry week, cont...

I was making a kisheen basket yesterday when Leo and I realised that we liked it as it was - with no border.

I'm tempted to put one or two other dried, decorative twigs in it, or dried opium poppy heads or beech twigs... hmmmm, I'll give it a fiddle and see.

It would work well as a plant holder too, with maybe one of those indoor jasmines or something. Mind you, I like it natural so maybe I'll just leave it as it is...



If you want to see more detail you can click on the picture to make it bigger.

hen
x

Basketry week

I'm skiving off making another basket as my fingers and wrists are aching! I've made a basket or two every day this week so far and I'm learning more and more with each one I do. At the moment I'm making a basket based on an Irish kisheen basket.

The little basket in the picture, with the apples in, was the first I made this week and I found it very hard as I'd used withies that were too thick. So I decided to move on to making the easier, larger, shopping type baskets and practicing the different rands. The basket in the middle is waiting for a handle and the one on the far left I've decided to have as a chucking basket. The little basket at the front is a blackberry basket and is strong as anything. I'm always amazed at the strength of baskets.



I'm loving making baskets, in fact, I'm missing it now so I'm off back to the kisheen!!

hen
x

Green Meme #1

Kittyboo over at A little slice of life has tagged me! Thank you Kittyboo, I've enjoyed doing this one!




The Guidelines:

1. Link to Green Meme Bloggers

2.Link to whoever tagged you

3.Include meme number

4.Include these guidelines in your post

5.Answer questions (erm - that bit’s quite important)

6.Tag 3 other green bloggers.


1. Name two motivations for being green:

1. If the planet is polluted, so am I.

2. I love children, I love animals and I love plants. Who am I to take away their future?

2. Name 2 eco-unfriendly items you refuse to give up

1. Milton. If I'm doing things with raw meat I have to know that I've cleaned up properly. Maybe when I get used to it I'll be able to give it up!

2. Tweezers. These are THE most useful things on earth (and umbrellas). They'll remove splinters and the stubborn hair I get on my chin!

3. Are you at peace with, or do you feel guilty about no.2?

I tend to work hard not to feel guilty at all, about anything. I try to be mindful of what I'm doing, so if I choose to do something there's probably a good reason for it (or bad one I'm trying to work through). I wouldn't say I was at peace with no.2, I'm more at peace with being mindful and my awareness of no.2 helps me to remember to be mindful.

4. What are you willing to change but feel unable to/stuck with/unsure how to go about it?

I would love to live on our land. It's just not possible as it's in a national park and we can't afford to buy a house near to it (or at all, now we've bought the land!). Maybe one day.


5. Do you know your carbon footprint for your home? If so, is it larger/smaller than your national average?

We've only just moved in to our rental property. I should think it's quite high though as there's no insulation in the roof.


6.What’s eco-frustrating and/or eco-fantastic about where you live?

Eco frustrating:

This village has excellent roads. Why then, does every house have a 4x4? Why do all the mothers need a 4x4 to pick their children up form school and pick up the shopping?

Eco fantastic:

I am a member of the VEG SHED box scheme and get the most delicious organic veg and eggs delivered every week.


7. Do you eat local/organic/vegetarian/forage/grow you own?

I eat local, organic(mostly) and I forage too.

Food is a big deal for me. I was vegetarian most of my life. I then became vegan for years when I learned that in order to have dairy products cows had to keep having young, if male calves were born these were sent to slaughter for meat.

Then I realised, after many years of research and meditation, that (in this country) the most environmentally sound diet includes a small amount of meat during the lean months of winter. Living in the UK means that to be vegan/vegetarian you have to import a lot of products. With soya having the worst impact on the environment two fold. Primary rainforest being cleared to grow it in huge mono cultures and then the transporting of it across the world to our belly's.

I hate eating meat. I find it deeply troubling and spiritually difficult. However, my life is dedicated to the nurture of life on the small piece of Earth that I've landed on. So if that means I have to do something I find difficult then that's the way it's got to be. If I do eat meat, it has to be local, compassionately reared and organic - or I go without. Ultimately I will produce my own meat.


8. What do you personally find the most challenging in being green?

I feel constantly held back by the rules and regulations of society. I could be living 99.99% green if I could be left to get on with it.


9. Do you have a green confession?

When I turned 17 I was bought driving lessons. I finished them and decided that if I didn't get my license I wouldn't be tempted to get a car. I managed to stick to this for 13 years until I finally relented and got my driving license 3 years ago. Family and friends had spread themselves across the country and I'd had enough of the days and days spent traveling on over-priced public transport. So now I have a car. I'm not proud of it but I do enjoy being able to decide to go somewhere in the morning and just throwing stuff in the car and going!


10. Do you have the support of family and/or friends?

I've been ranting on about the environment and animal welfare since I was 10 yrs old. My family thought I was mad. Now they can see what I've been going on about all this time - now it's been on telly. I feel vindicated!

It's very annoying when they put me right about recycling that bit of paper instead of chucking it in the bin!


I tag...

Oakmoon

21st Century Housewife

Sensible Living


hen

xx


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Now playing: Explosions in the Sky - Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean
via FoxyTunes

Remembering early summer

At this time of year I always find myself drawn in to the shapes of naked trees. Sometimes they remind me of ballet dancers, petrified in wood. I imagine them, with their arms thrown up, stretching, grasping at something, anything, to set them free from being rooted to the earth. Ballet dancers shouldn't have to be bound by the laws of gravity.
Sometimes they're not.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my reminiscences of early summer. In between making baskets, I've been sorting through my photos. Photos like these are perfect for me at this time of year. A reminder that winter is not here to stay, it's a part of a cycle and will wane. I do love winter, but spring and early summer are my favourite..


This is from a camp I did on the land in early summer. I felt right cosy.


Our woodland is a typical Exmoor woodland. Confined to the slopes - but not for long! It's not the steepest forest I have been in though. I think that this woodland is well over a hundred years old. There is quite a few trees that are a couple of hundred years old, they tend to be the ones near the top of the slope, that haven't grown very straight. There are lots of lings (tree seed-lings) in the woodland now, as it's had some time to rest from cattle grazing. It was heavily grazed by cattle and sheep before. Thi s type of woodland grazing, if managed properly, would potentially be beneficial to the regeneration of the under canopy of the woodland. However it wasn't managed at all and the cattle caused a lot of erosion, damaged the bilberry and fern population (as well as all the other herbage) and prevented the lings from growing.


This is from one of our hedges. *sigh*



This is the top of our woodland. Although this picture doesn't show the oldest trees, these ones are quite old. Standing next to them is a grounding experience. To grow here these trees have to be tough. The grazing has kept a lush grassy ground cover. It looks great, but isn't very diverse.


I sat here for a good few hours just watching the light through the trees. It's very sheltered here, you can tell by looking at the wild flowers growing in the grass.



I don't know if my nest looks cosy in this photo. It felt cosy to be in at the time. Normally I would have my tarp backed up against a hedge or something as extra wind protection. It wasn't windy though and I was using the huge oak log that's out of shot but in front of my nest for splitting lots of wood and making baskets. The stack of coppice wood at the back of the photo is the poles for the large shelter.

Go nowhere without an umberella.

On our land we have red deer. The stags are magnificent. This one is a 5 pointer (the amount of points on his antlers). It tells you how old he is I think. There is normally five of these stags, hanging out together, munching their way through our regeneration area. It's been a while since I last saw them though.

I almost hunted one of these stags. With a gun and everything. I had decided it was important to be able to do it, part of the whole meat thing. Being able to feed, clothe and shelter myself is of huge importance to me and on this piece of land a stag would go a long way towards all of those things. Meat, skin for clothes, antler to make all sorts of things and tendons to make strong cord.

In the end I just couldn't do it. A step too far for me at the moment. Theory is all very well, but listening to your heart in the moment is important. In those moments everything is stripped bare and all that is left is pure insight. Well, I may not have had pure insight, but my heart certainly stopped me shooting this stag.

Clear Blue Autumn



Today there was magic in the air. Magic that gets me deep in my belly and gives me clarity and peace. My mind is turned towards Yule, the coming of mid-winter. Already the signs of labour that has carried on through these months of winter, out of sight, beneath the soil, are beginning to show. Roots and bulbs swelling and preparing for the wane of winter heading towards the birth of spring.



I happen to love autumnal days like this one. Especially when I can spend my time in the woods, exploring, feeling and learning. It is so important to our well being to be able to experience nature in this way. So important. My greatest wish is that as many people as possible can experience their world like this and find peace and solidity.



My other greatest wish is that Willow would stop rolling in poo. Especially when I'm trying to get all spiritual and that.

Bivouac, insomnia and what I'm not doing.

Here's what I'm not doing this weekend anymore as I've had a bowt of insomnia this week and I'm wasted...


This is how I bivvy. I use the outer of an old one man tent as a shelter, my thermarest and sleeping bag - which Willow sleeps on too. Even when I'm in it she sleeps on it!


When there is two of us on a bivvy this is how we like to set up. It makes it easier to throw things at each other and talk rubbish all night. It also means we can put the fire between us and catch the heat in both tarps. When it gets late we can climb into our sleeping bags and still maintain the fire, continuing to talk crap and poke each other with sticks.

A bivouac is totally different to staying on the land. Everything is light, compact and each thing I carry has to have more than one use.

So, this is a post about what I'm not doing.

*Yawwwwnnn*

Baking Bread, Curing Pork, Brawn, Soup, Willow Platter. Busy weekend!

This weekend has been a cooking weekend. I've had lots of gorgeous veg from our organic box scheme, which inspired me to make lots of soup and roast veg. Which, of course, made me have to bake some bread!

I also decided to cure some of the pork I butchered last week. The bacon I made using a wet cure was ready today as well and tasted delicious. I don't want to post any pictures of it though, it looks good, but I just didn't want lots of shots of pork in the post!

Here is how I made bread. I'm getting a 6ltr Dutch oven so I can start baking bread when I'm staying on the land. I can't wait to do that!!!

Malted Loaf

1.5kg Malted flour
3tbs runny honey
2 tsp fine sea salt
3 tsp dried yeast (the Doves farm one in the little orange pack)
1.5 pints of warm water (or thereabouts)

I used 1.5kg organic malted flour. This is quite a lot, but I wanted to make some rolls as well as a loaf. 1 kg makes a decent sized family loaf, normally, adjust the recipe to suit. Remember that if you're using white flour you wont need as much water.

Dissolve the honey in the warm water.
Put the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl and mix together.
Make a hole in the centre of the flour and pour about half the water mixture in it. Bring the flour in from the sides to the middle and gradually mix with your hands.
Add half of the water mix that you have left and continue to work it with your hands.



You can then add more water, in little bits, until you have the right consistency.
The dough should feel sticky and a little bit wet. It'll probably be stuck to your hands quite badly.


Then turn it out onto a floured surface. The surface you knead on shouldn't move around, your going to be shoving the dough about a lot so you need it to be pretty solid. If you're using something, like a chopping board, that might move around, stick a folded tea towel underneath it and that should help keep it still.



Knead the dough thoroughly for 10 mins. Time yourself, as you'll never do it for long voluntarily! Kneading is basically a series of actions where you try and push the dough away from you, pull it towards you, pull it apart and scrunch it together. Be really tough on it! You're trying to build up the gluten in the bread which will give it it's lovely consistency.



Put the dough into a floured bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Put it in a draught free, warm place to rise for 1 hour. Time it so you don't forget!



Then turn the dough out on to your floured surfaced and punch it over and over to get the air out of it. Odd I know.

This is where you make the shape of your loaf. I made a square loaf by putting it into a square cake tin and 6 long rolls, I shaped them by hand and put them on oiled greaseproof paper on a baking tray.

Then I covered them with a damp tea towel and put them back in the draught free, warm place. This next proving is REALLY important. Don't bang or open and close doors near the dough now. Treat it like a sleeping baby. DON'T rush this second proving either, this is the proving that will give you a lovely light bread instead of a brick.

I gave mine over an hour.

In the meantime I put the oven on so it was up to temperature (I've got an electric oven, it was at 190c).

I then REALLY CAREFULLY, without banging or subjecting the dough to a draught put it in the oven and baked the loaf for 30 odd minutes and the rolls for 20 mins.



Yum.

Leek and potato soup.

2 Large leeks
4 medium potatoes
2 pints of any good stock
1/2 pint of milk (if you like)
seasoning
3 dried bay leaves.
knob of butter and some oil to stop it burning




Slice the leeks and add to the heated oil and butter. Stir well until all the leek is covered in the butter, cook until soft.

Chop the potatoes into inch - ish cubes and add to the soften leeks. Stir well until the potatoes are coated in butter.

Add the stock, bay leaves and seasoning to taste.

Put a lid on it and cook until the potatoes are very soft.

Remove the bay leaves.

Blitz with what ever you have to blitz things with. I use one of those handheld blitzers.
NB: If you don't have a blitzer use a potato masher, mix well and remember to cut everything small initially.

This is where I would add the milk if I was using it. Make sure the soup is still warm after adding the milk. If it isn't, warm it up GENTLY making sure it doesn't come to the boil.

I fried up some of our bacon that had been wet cured and added it to my bowl. It worked very well. mmmmMMMmmm...very, very well...slobber....


I have displayed my wares on the willow platter I made the other week. I LOVE it. I think it would make an excellent tray/place mat thingy. A bit full on maybe, but I like it!!


Roasted veg.

1 celeriac
1 giant parsnip
4 medium potatoes
1 huge onion
2 beetroots
4 large carrots
Dried or fresh Rosemary
butter and oil
seasoning


Loads of different veg, whatever you like, as much or as little of each thing. Chopped into inch and a half cubes - ish!

Bung it all in a roasting tray with some seasoning, butter and oil, cover with tin foil and bake at 180c (electric) for 45 mins.

Take it out and sprinkle 3 cloves of chopped up garlic (or whatever number is siutable for the amount you're cooking!) and any herbs you want to add. Give it a mix and cover with tin foil. Bake for a further 20 mins.

Take the tin foil off and then bung it back in the oven for about 15 mins.
Bobs your uncle.



Dry curing some pork

The cure...

750g fine sea salt
250g dememera sugar
25g pepper

all mixed together in a clean bowl, with clean hands and clean utensils.

The Pork

Belly or any other cut suitable for this sort of crazy thing.




Put the pork on a clean surface. I slashed the skin and fat of the pork at this stage to push the cure into.

Then rub the cure into the meat, all sides, all crevices. Really work it in. When you've got a complete covering of the cure put it in a NON-METALLIC container. [pork reacts with metal, it gives the meat an unpleasant taste]

You'll have cure left over, keep that as you'll need it.



If you have more than one piece of pork to cure, repeat the above technique and place it on top of the original piece of pork in your NON-METALLIC container.

Again, saving any cure that's left over.



Then every 24 hours remove the pork from the tub, drain the salty liquid, rub more cure over the pieces of pork and put them back in the container. However, this time put the piece of pork, that was originally on the top, on the bottom and turn them both upside down. Repeat this everyday for a minimum of 4 days and a maximum of 10 days. The longer you leave it the more salty it will be but the longer it will last.

I plan to do ours for 5 days. As it's been reported that it will be very tasty by then. After the 5 days I'm going to give it a good wash under the cold tap and dry it off with a clean cloth. I'll then wrap it in muslin or greaseproof paper and keep some of it in the fridge. What we wont use I'll wrap in greaseproof paper and put it in a freezer bag in the freezer.

This recipe is a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe and is widely discussed as too salty. Have a mooch about the net to find other cures and advice. Keep yourself, your tools and your work area as clean as possible to help win the race against the bacteria.


Brawn or Head Cake, as I like to call it.

No offence but this was a harrowing experience for me. I don't look forward to having to do it again, but I will if I ever end up with another pig head.

We took half the head of the pig and removed it's eye. Well, Leo did. I'm not normally squeamish but I'd had enough of the gruesome nature of dealing with the head so took a break and let poor Leo remove it.

I then put the head, trotters and a hock (the bit of the leg above the trotters) into my stock pot and covered them with water. As I had chosen to make this as dog food for Willow I didn't add any herbs, onion or seasoning. There are brawn recipes out there for humans.

I then boiled the lot up for 4 hours. Yes, 4 hours. Skimming away any scum that developed. The smell was unpleasant and I found it disturbing when the head bobbed.

After the 4 hours, yes, that's 4 hours, I removed what was left of the bones and pushed off any meat still attached into the remaining liquid. I then strained the liquid off into a loaf tin. I flaked the meat and added it to the liquid in the loaf tin. Let it cool and then covered it and put it into the fridge. Over night it turned into this...



It's sliced up now into portions for Willow. She'll have it as a treat every other day. Most of the slices are frozen.

Making brawn just wasn't my cup of tea. Not my cup of tea at all.

Lots of people will be aghast at the fact I've made it for Willow, what a waste! Perhaps one day I will make it using the human recipe and try and enjoy it. Not this time though I'm afraid.


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Now playing: Dick Gaughan - The Father's Song
via FoxyTunes

Camp Craft



When I stay on the land there are certain things that I really enjoy and that make my stay more comfortable... even luxurious!

First is my tent. I love my tent, it's protected me from some pretty serious weather in some pretty serious situations. I can trust it not to leak, collapse or blow away! It's a Terra Nova Super Quasar and I love it! Anyway, enough of that!

Seriously though, what you sleep in is so important to your over all well being on a trip. If your tent/bivvy bag isn't up to the job you wont sleep well, you'll get wet, stressed and generally be exhausted and grumpy, much quicker, in the day time.

Part of enjoying being outdoors for any extended period is having the basic essentials of keeping warm and dry sorted. Sleeping bags have to be up to the job of keeping you warm and a good sleeping mat is essential to stop you getting cold from the ground up. I've got a Thermarest which no one could part me from! I also bought a camp bed this summer which is fabulous! A ridiculous treat! It doesn't fit in my Quasar though so only gets used if I borrow a large tent or stay under the shelter. What it does do, is put me on a different level to my dog, away from ticks and general stink.

What I'm going to talk about in this post isn't what I would take on a hiking trip, it's what I would take to the land to camp. Which is quite different. There's no way I'd carry this lot on my back up a hill!



If I go on my own to the land this is my usual set up. My Quasar (hallowed be), an old army poncho, my dog and tools for fire preparation. As well as food and my umbrella (brilliant piece of kit).



This little shelter not only protected Willow and I from the roasting sun, it protected us 2 minutes later when it got windy and rainy. I use a little Coleman Alpine stove to cook on for hot choc and basic meals. I don't tend to bother full on cooking when it's just me. Although I plan to rectify that!




This is the main, daddy shelter. It's made from a large piece of commissioned heavy weight tarp and birch coppice. The poles are supposed to be straight, ours aren't, which tends to make the tarp tricky to get taught all over. We slid the ridge pole into a plastic pipe and that's sorted that problem out now. The shelter will fit a lot of people under it as well as a fire and all the other stuff that accumulates in a camp.

This design has withstood gale force winds, storms, serious rain and kept us cosy, if a little full of adrenalin!


It really is a satisfying experience getting your camp organised. Often the simple things take about three times as long to do when your living outdoors. I think it's partly because things don't have a place, so you can spend most of your time trying to find stuff.


A beautiful sight! Lots of wood! We have a lot of beech wood on the land as well as oak. Even though the beech wood is well seasoned it can give off an acrid smoke that was really getting at us. Often our fires would not get hot enough, quickly enough to stop them being so smokey. It was a pain having to use up so much wood to keep it hot. It's very windy where we are too so no matter where you sat you would get a faceful of smoke that burnt your eyes and lungs. Nasty and made me grumpy as often I would be trying to cook on it!

I decided to bring my chiminea to the land (I use it for keeping me warm when I'm making baskets usually!) to see if it would help make a less smokey fire. It did, it is amazing! I am not ashamed whatsoever in using it!! It's quick to light, easy to maintain, gives off a good heat without using up lots of wood and is more efficient than an open fire. I can cook lots of things in the different recesses of it too. Fabulous!



This is normally how I cook now. The pot is sitting on an old bracket from a telegraph pole that is acting like a trivet. It is solid too. I got the pot for £1 at a local car boot sale - it's a le creuset, ooOOOoh!!

There are so many little things that make our camp life easier. I've decided to document them all. More installments to follow!

I love living outdoors. I love it!




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Now playing: Lamb - Gorecki
via FoxyTunes

Wild camping, filming, willow withies and butchering half a pig

Been a bit busy recently having a thoroughly good time. Excitingly my first batch of willow, for weaving, arrived. It's been semi sorted into thicknesses now and I've worked out my next batch of baskets and got what I need (hopefully!) soaking in our pond. More pics of that to follow!



It gives me butterflies looking at this next picture!!


I'm just back from a weeks wild camping on the land, with two very good friends who have their own film production company - Snowline Productions.


Snowline Productions shoot in the alps - picture shamelessly nicked from their site.

They do amazing short films and documentary footage, mainly of snowy mountain peaks and wild places. It's worth a look at the footage they have on their website, stunning work!



Yes, these are tent pegs, mmmm, interesting...

Last week their bread and butter work was filming tents going up for a reputable outdoor company. They roped me in to help put up the larger of the tents and I took the opportunity to do lots of camp care, cooking and carving. It was very satisfying! I didn't manage to photograph anything I cooked and I'm thoroughly ashamed of what I carved so there'll be no photies of that abomination!! There was casseroles, dumplings, curry, chappattis and soup. Then there was the pub - The Beggars Roost Inn, Exmoor! The best pub food I've ever tasted actually. The atmosphere was amazing, just what you want out of a pub on a cold night. Good music, warm fire, great company, amazing food and a friendly landlord.


Autumn this year is a triumph. These pictures don't do it justice, but the hedges are looking amazing and the light, at times, is incredible!



As part of a barter for the rental of a couple of our fields our neighbours gave us half a pig and showed us how to butcher it and make all the different cuts and sausages! It was fantastic to learn the skill and get all the meat! The pork was a berkshire and ironage pig cross (an ironage pig is a cross between a traditional pig breed and a wild boar). The meat is unbelievable. Great colour and flavour when cooked. Hidden Valley Pigs

I've never done butchering before and I was very apprehensive! Seeing half a dead pig, head intact did deeply unsettle me. However, it's important to me that if I'm going to eat meat I understand, really understand, where it has come from. Pork is meat from a pig. Everybody knows that, I know! But I don't think I really knew that. Now I feel I do. I watched this pig grow up across the river and now it's roasts, chops, bacon and sausages in my freezer. That's the reality of meat.

I still have reservations about the spiritual aspect of eating meat. But right now I am thoroughly of the opinion that eating a small amount of meat, to supplement our diet at this time of year in this country, is the most environmentally sound thing to do. So I just have to get on with it until I can prove otherwise.

Oh, it's hard though.


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Now playing: Cocteau Twins - Seekers Who Are Lovers
via FoxyTunes

Samhain

I'm off to the land for a couple of weeks. This is going to form part of my Samhain ritual.

Honouring the lives of those that have passed over this year, those I have known, those I have not known.

Communing with the spirits of the woodland and rocks, river and meadows, wind and sun to gather strength for my practice to carry me through this New Year.




Warm wishes for your happiness in this New Year!

hen
x


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Now playing: Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - River Man
via FoxyTunes
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