Hellloooooo from Aberdeenshire, Scotland

[diver]

Hi Shirlz, I'm in Merseyside but looking to move so I can have more land, as I have only a very small garden but I do have an allotment or two. I live on my own but I have a partner. I am going to move either up north...I've been looking at Skye or over to portugal where we have some family. Fortunately I have a house to sell. I have no livestock but am veggie anyway so that doesn't trouble me but I would like bees and now hae permission from my local council to keep them on my allotment. I would love to keep hens...just for the eggs and because I like them but that will have to wait til I move

by the way..welcome to the site

[Wombat]

G'Day Shirlz2005,

Sorry, been away up north for a week witb work..............anyway, welcome to the site!

Nev

[Muddypause]

There are still the odd few bargains to be found Stew - if I hear of anything I'll let you know.

Thanks Shirlz; its encouraging to know that there is still something out there. Unfortunately I am not going to be able to commit to anything before next spring now at the earliest. But I really should make a New Year's resoulution that next year is going to be the year I actually do it. Alas these things are never straight forward.

Is it something to renovate that you are looking for? How rural? pm more details or post them here.

Well now, ideally I want a couple of acres or so in perfect isolation where I can build a strawbale house and pretend I'm on Destert Island Disks; where the sun always shines, and midges don't go.

I realsie I may have to compromise on a few of these things.

Come the time I am able to make a move, I may contact the Northern Contingent here for advice.

[Shirley]

Hi

thanks for the welcome - what a friendly site this is.

Diver - BEES!! Wow... that is something that I couldn't handle because I'm a complete wuss and I don't like honey that much anyway lol. In fact, that's not entirely true - I do like honey, but it sometimes makes my throat feel lumpy when I eat it. Raw fruit and veg do that too - would love to know why as it means that most of the time I have to cook fruit and veg to eat them.


Greenbean - I will wave next time we drive through Stirling on our way to visit my mum in Manchester.

Muddypause - strawbale building is so interesting. My other half is interested in this too (he's currently working for a place that does green oak timber framed houses) - I like the idea of the earthships too!

Shirlz x

Shiney - go for it!! Chooks are great fun and reward you in so many ways. I'd have two minimum though so that they have a bit of company. If you are having a cockerel too, then you would need a few more hens to cope with his amorous ways ;)




[/quote]

[ina]

I've thought of strawbale housing, too - that way it would be possible to start saving up for a house in bales rather than in money... Can I get enough bales for a house into the garage, I wonder? And what about using Hesston bales - little bales are so difficult to get nowadays - but with those huge ones the walls would be like in a medieval castle, at least a meter thick, and definitely warm enough! And at last I'd have window sills wide enough for all my plants!!!

I'm not desperately trying to be funny - well, maybe I am, because the more you think about it the more problems seem to loom at the horizon...

Seriously though, if anybody hears about a strawbale house building course up north, let me know. Ot maybe, if there's several of us interested, we could encourage somebody to offer one?

Ina

[Muddypause]

In America they talk of building with '3 string bales'. Is this what you mean by a Hesston bale, or are they the big round ones?

There are several strawbale builings in Scotland, I believe. I have heard of a housing co-op project (can't remember the details, and the forum that I read about it on is now defunked) that I think is still in the planning stages, and there is a chap on one of the western isles who wants to build a tower house of some huge proportions out of load-bearing bales. I believe the Findhorn community in Morayshire has also done some strawbale building, there is an artist's studio in Overbrae, near Banff, and I'm sure other stuff around too.

The artist's studio was built under the auspicies of Amazon Nails, who can put you on their email list to keep you informed of courses they run. They are here http://www.strawbalefutures.org.uk/

Another useful contact who has an email list to keep you informed of what's going on, and also runs courses is Chug (Chris Tugby) who has a site here http://www.strawbale-building.co.uk/ . I've done a course with him, and there was a woman who had travelled down from Glasgow there.

I would think these people would be very approachable to see if you can put together a project.

There are various email lists about SB building; mostly they reflect an American view - the European SB list is almost completely inactive at the moment. Google should find more details. And the online book stores will have a host of books about the subject.

[ina]

Hesston bales are much, much bigger even than the round ones... I hate them, they are solely useful for machine handling, and I have to do all my bedding by hand. I'd have to measure them properly, but I'd say they are more than a metre wide and high, and two long.

Thanks for the tip with the courses - I think I'd had a look at the second one you mention before, but that is a bit far from here. I'll look into the one near Banff, hadn't heard of that one. And I assume that Findhorn has done something along these lines; no courses, though - not when I last looked.

Shirley - bees aren't really dangerous, not if you know how to handle them, and have a peaceful strain... They are useful for pollination just as much as for producing honey; that's one of the reasons why I'd like some! Keep them in the garden for fruit tree flowering time, and then move them up the hill a bit for the heather.

Ina

[Shirley]

thanks for those links on the straw bale building Muddypause - have you looked at the Centre for Alternative Technology website? They have some good strawbale building books listed on there. www.cat.org.uk - they have lots of other information there too.

Ina... I don't dislike the bees - they are very welcome in my garden, just that I don't fancy the handling of them. Wasps are a different story - I REALLY don't like them

Shirlzxx

[Andy Hamilton]

Ah the wasps the farmers friend. Most people hate them but they are good polinators by all accounts. Still they have a nasty sting and look evil

welcome to the site shirlz2005. been off line for a bit hence the late response.

[Shirley]

Hiya Andy

I did wonder for a while whether you actually existed but then did spot a post that said you were offline. Rich talk coming from me as I've not visited the site for a few weeks.

I think I read about you and your brother in our local paper (when we lived in Bath) The Bath Times. My other half was brought up in the Bath & Wells area.

Anyway - nice to 'meet' you and thanks for the welcome.

Shirlz xx

[Andy Hamilton]

Yep nice to 'meet' you too. The Bath Times eh? I knew we were in the BAth Chronicle last year, did not realise that we made it to the free paper as well. Nice to hear

[gunners71uk]

hi shirl i like chickens but i can only eat one at a time !!

[ina]

Hi Shirlz

Good to see you are still with us. Thought you'd already succumbed to the Scottish climate! But I don't get on as much as I'd like to at the moment - too much work. Spent half the weekend powerwashing a very dirty shed... Could have thought of something more interesting than that on a day with glorious weather like today!

Ina

[Shirley]

Hi Ina

Good to see you again!!

Been very busy - and about to get even busier as we will be receiving around 350 trees at the end of the month so we need to get digging in preparation for planting. All the trees are native species, including some willows which I hope to turn into a living fence. Hopefully will learn basketry too!!

The weather has been glorious today hasn't it - we went for a walk with puppy and toddler - was even a touch of snow on the hills. Beautiful.

Shirlz xx