Text message received from Ellen on 14 June 2008 at 01:24:
Just woken, big first day. All going well. No majors. Boat fine, us fine. Touched the board on a rock yesterday but all OK. Fixed!
Ellen
Last Saturday was fascinating as Katie, her parents and I headed off into the Devon countryside to see what people there are up to with regards to sustainable living. We visited two places, Dalwood Hill House near Axminster and Blacklake Farm near Ottery St Mary. More about Blacklake Farm shortly, but right now I’ll write about our first visit.
At Dalwood Hill House we were shown round by Peter Addie who is an inspirational character. He has been living an incredibly low impact lifestyle for years now, and it was a joy to hear him explain how his little 1 acre small holding works. He and his wife Kit are pretty much completely self sufficient, growing 95% of their vegetables, 60% of their fruit and 75 % of their chicken food and creating all the energy they need for the house. The house is actually carbon positive which means that they are sending energy back to the grid, amazing in our world of today, but what really struck me was just how happy Pete and his wife were on their site, how innovative he is, and how his persistence has not only taught him new methods of working, but methods which work!
What Pete has done is mainly common sense, and if I remember correctly, his quote of “Its unbelievably simple but it works” sums things up nicely. What Pete has done for years is use what he has on site to maximise the resources he has. He uses only hand tools, has no car, just the incredible recumbant trikes he has developed, and the trains of course, and I have to say he looks very healthy on that!
His “gym” is cutting and working his coppice and cycling. Both which have a fantastic outcome. His pleasures are tending his land and seeing the fruits of his labour. I respect what Pete is doing enormously, he is content, healthy and always busy. We humans are supposed to be the most intelligent beings on the planet, Pete, I feel, is using his intelligence to the max, and as a result, has a lifestyle most people would only dream of!
His creations have included air heaters using the sun, pivoting solar panels which work the lights and freezer, recumbant trikes with trailers and a mobile chicken pen so he can fertilise any piece of ground.
I would be very happy being one of Pete’s chickens! They get great grub, fresh ground to scratch about on weekly, dry leaves from autumn for bedding in winter. Really healthy birds.
He composts everything, uses everything, and appreciates every resource he has. In the past as Pete admitted himself, he was treated as a bit of a “Good Life” (a UK TV series from the 1970s that featured a couple trying to live a sustainable lifestyle) character. But now, you’d be amazed how many people call at his house to not only see what he is doing now, but hear his experiences of doing this for years. If everyone was as happy and content as Pete we would be living in a different place, to me he was a real inspiration.
If you would like to find out more about how Pete has made his home sustainable, you can call him on 01404 831288.
When I went along to the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards last Wednesday, I was really impressed. Not just because there were 800 people all there in one room to celebrate the amount of energy that had been saved, but that the scheme had been voluntary.
The Awards were about people saving energy over 100 days as part of the CIBSE/E.ON 100 Day Carbon Clean Up Campaign. CIBSE provided information packs to help people understand the simple ways that they could save energy in the workplace.
I really enjoyed being there, the MC and other speaker was the geologist Dr. Iain Stewart and his film and speech were very interesting. I was lucky enough to get to meet him later in the evening and have a chat – some of what he has seen is truly amazing.
It was just a really nice feeling being in a room with so many people who ‘get it’. People who are not just ‘understanding’, but who are ‘doing’. People who are saving energy, and who are, above all, questioning what is going on around them. People who are stopping to think, and making those first steps to do something about it. I had been asked to speak for a few minutes which I did, and you could feel in the room that everyone really cared. As I said in my speech – it was great to see that energy saving could work financially. What was in that room was the proof – and that it was great to see that things had actually been done, and were real savings.
From mineral extractors to hospitals, universities to councils and institutions to individuals, they were all very motivated people. I felt privileged to be among them!
In Paris today for announcement about our new partnership with BT, all pretty exciting! Beautiful Extreme 40 in new BT colours assembled and floating on the river Seine – great job by our shore team. Nick Moloney and Seb Josse are here too – it’s great to see this project finally taking off. Go to the home page at www.btteamellen.com for the full story.