Energy and rubbish

Well after a 10-day stint in Mexico I am back on the farm. In Mexico I learnt a little about weaving and made a piece of my own yarn. Don’t think I will take it up as a job though,

So back on the farm, more clearing done whilst I was away and that looks good. We have had the final builder down and now have made two very large decisions. We have chosen the builders to do the alterations to the house, but even more exciting, we have now chosen the type of energy we are going to use in the house.

We have, against all odds, decided to go for geothermal energy or ground source energy as it is also known. This is supposed to be better then air, but I am not so sure, but we got a good deal and we are going for air in the other house anyway.

This means lots of work for me. We need to dig 4, 75 metre trenches a metre deep to put the heating coils in. SO I have been busy sorting out a digger to do the job and measuring out the group. It is all somewhat nerve wracking.  We also need 25tons of sand to insulate the pipes, which came today!

So dig trenches, 100mm of sand, lay piping, add 100mm of sand and then infill – then we have the technical bit but more of that as it happens.

On another line I decided to dismantle some staging where I want to build the compost bins. They will back onto a small stream and low ,what did I find? A whole load of rubbish, most of it really bad stuff. Four tractor batteries, old iron and lead pipes, metal sheets, masses of concrete and plastic. I have begun clearing it out but will need a skip and a lot more time to finish. Need to do this before the compost bins can be built as will hinder access to the steam just here.

Anyway this is all in the life of the farm. So hopefully tomorrow will be sunny and we can do more shifting. Await developments dear reader.