Sunday April 4th - Wallin Lefkada Style

I heard the alarm go off for another hour or so with so many snoozes that I kept thinking it must've been me, but it wasn't (I've been pretty alarm free for the past week). I got some ridiculous song stuck in my head - I'd rather not try to recall it (or even ask how it got there) for fear of reviving it. This morning it was a bit earlier than the past few - 8:30 or so which seemed pretty reasonable. Alex was up and had made some Greek coffee for us which I have been grateful to receive each morning though I can't help but pine for a big ass 20 oz cup of it, followed by a refill or two. Ugly American? Ok, fine!

The weather was beautiful; moderately warm with blue skies all around. We started off moving wall building stone from the pile in the driveway to the building site, strewing it all around so we'd have some choices once we started building. I wanted to catch up on some internet stuff I'd left unfinished from the night before, so I wrote a message to some of my friends an colleagues back home trying to remotely help plan our Burlington Permaculture Fruit Tree Giveaway (good thing this is a 'working' vacation) and then putting together a tree order for one of my clients and trying to figure out how to send it to the company electronically. Things took a bit longer on the internet than I'd anticipated - big surprise - and before I knew it, it was 10:30.

Alex and I kept moving stone and not too long thereafter, I began placing it, roughly laying out our building's perimeter walls. It was exciting to start to see the building grow, but it grew a bit daunting as I began to see how much more work we had to prepare. Alex graciously offered to continue to lug stone over while I set to setting out the stones. Trying to balance aesthetics with practicality and speed was a challenge as I couldn't help but feel well behind things and a bit stressed by the fact that the workshop started in less than 48 hours. Much of the day is a blur at this point so I'll spare you the details.

I basically did my best to lay out the first course of the foundation - about 50 cm wide (18 or so inches) and as high as I could make this first course - 12" or so. I tried to vary up the stones every so often to create visual interest, use the one appropriate hammer to do a bit of shaping so they'd fit better, use the nicest stones on the south, west and east exterior walls with the ugliest ones on the north and do it all as quickly as I could while still feeling half decent about myself. It's some type of local limestone which I found really interesting to use - it had a pretty blocky form and broke fairly irregularly with the hammer - pretty similar to the Panton stone I've worked with back home. I did enjoy the occasional fossilized shell and other ancient relics embedded in it.

It got pretty hot today and I think the sun started to get to me at one point. I made the first test brick using the silty clay that we have access to here and then encouraged Alex and Stamatina to do some more. We tried 1:1, 1:2, 1:2.5 and 1:3 (clay to sand) and while we don't have any dry bricks yet to check, I believe we have an effective winner - 1:2.5. Seeing as how the clay is our most inaccessible material, this ratio works great as it'll stretch the clay that we do collect and bring back. Thankfully Alex spent several hours in the afternoon loading up the back of their family wagon with clay he harvested from the old local source in the village - a place people used to go to get clay for their ovens and which they actually call 'clay'. We've been talking about actually using daily or so trips to the clay source as an educational tool during the course, bringing students to the site and collecting it with them so as to optimize the use of our time prepping the foundation.

Once I'd gotten the entire base of the wall roughly set, I started mixing some mortar and doing my best to play wet stone mason. Equipped with some beautiful lime putty from the local building supply, our mix was 1:cement, 1:lime, 6:sand. We made do with a partially broken plastic trough for a mixing rig and a hoe of some sort to mix with. About 3 liters of water seemed to create a perfect consistency.

I then set about resetting each stone I'd laid out, leveling it and setting it well in the gravel base (to economize on mortar, I chose to set the stones in the gravel bed, rather than mortar them in. Gravity seems to be a plenty strong force to keep them from moving - especially considering there'll be several tons worth of cob on top.) I felt like I was re-inventing the mortar wheel and after watching progress move incredibly slowly, I started to feel defeated, with 13 more lineal meters left to go in the first course. Stamatina must've detected this and asked if I'd like some fresh squeezed orange juice - like she squeezed it. Well, I bet you can guess what the answer was.

This definitely helped but I still wasn't going to get much done at this pace. So I set Stamatina up with mortar while I mixed up another batch and proceeded to move ahead of her, setting each stone along the way, making sure it was 'level'(ish) and stable before she reached it. It was really the first time so far that we'd had a chance to work and talk and it was very relaxing and enjoyable. I'm really glad we had a chance to do that. She'd been spending the earlier part of the afternoon burning up some of the remaining brush around the site and roasting the lamb for our eastern celebration. When Alex returned from his first clay trip, we broke for lunch and enjoyed a veritable mini feast with juicy lamb (Stamatina - a staunch vegetarian even eats it for the easter celebration), and other goodies - I've since forgotten - but it was really good and it dramatically improved my attitude.

After that meal and a bit of strategizing about tomorrow (students should be arriving in the afternoon), we set back to work and proceeded to continue with mortaring and stone setting until the light no longer enabled me to read the bubble in the level. We did well (or at least the best we could). Equipped with clay and most all of the materials we should need for the workshop, tomorrow we'll be putting the finishing touches on the foundation stemwall with Alex and Stamatina laying mortar while I start to fill in the second course. We're definitely taking it down to the wire and I'll be so excited if I have a few hours of 'doneness' before the students start to arrive. It's been pretty full on ever since I've been here.

I headed straight in for a shower and while I chose not to use my salty seawater soaked loongi towel from yesterday's trip to the beach, the drip dry wasn't all that unfulfilling. I devoured some leftovers and wine, talked a bit about work, determination, dreams and burnout and then I set to trying to catch up with all the blogging that I've fallen behind on so far this trip. I've got a few minutes planned with my racquetball (shoulder massage) and then it's time for bed. One more day of prep. The four day foundation!!

Catch up or give up?

So I've fallen so dearly behind on my blogging and don't have the real time to catch up I've come to realize. I'm in Macedonia at present and really want to be present and not on a computer. What I had/have done is written down bullet point recollections of my days in England and early days in Greece with the hopes of properly fleshing them out when I have time. Well, that might never happen so I'm just gonna get em up and see.

Here goes!

Monday the 29th - Prickly Nut Wood, UK

Back in the coppice

Start with Splitting Firewood

Move to snedding/brash fires with the guys

Lunch

More of the same

Head to Lickfold to make flight reservation to Athens - pricey but straightforward

Back for dinner with Ben and Bea

Night

Tuesday the 30th

Day in the copse

Run a GPS area calculation on the cant - 3.3 acres

Snedding along the edge while Kris fells and crosscuts

No Ben till late

Making progress in the woods slowly but surely

Rainy for quite a bit

Ben comes by late and we sned together and reminisce

Call it a day

Run to the brewery in town (run by Ben's friends) - say hi to James and try out the Flor'Ale

Beautiful light and a nice short drive

Back home for a quick meal

To the pub - Lickfold to confirm my passport for my flight

The place is dead - and so is the beer

We switch to bottles

Head home and Ben and I scheme till 1-2.

Wednesday the 31st - UK/Greece

Pack and shower

Goodbyes to Kris and Nick

Ben and I set off for Haselmere

Stopped to see in-cycle hazel coppice - 3 years old

Goodbyes

Got on train - cutting it close - 11:40 for 12:40 flight

Transfer in Guildford

Transfer in Red Hill

Arrive at Gatwick

Chaos at Easy Jet

Long ass line - skip to front

Security, then no gate number

Rush to gate - plane leaves late

Typing up Maria's report and lease proposal

Flight to Athens

aisle seat, No views - caught a glimpse of the Alps

Arrive and all is good

Money, ticket, wrong train right

Back to Agios Dimitrios - got a crepe and juice

Hopped on bus but got off a mile too soon

Walked back and enjoyed the groundcover and green

Scent of jasmine before the last turn

Catch up with Yianni

Watch Ben Hur as I take care of e-mails and chat

Up late late - finishing lease proposal, e-mails, Maria's report

Night at 3:45am

Thursday April 1st - Athens - Lefkada

Slept on in til 10

Finish up some nettin (that's internettin)

Yianni drove me to bus stop

Bus to Station

Bus full - gotta wait till later

Lunch - souvlaki - 1.60 Euro - then frosticcino mocha

No go on 1pm bus

Got on 1:30

Reading Natural Farmer - nutrient dense food production. Great stuff!

Bus trip - sleepy meander with lots of traffice

Gorgeous sun and warm weather across Peloponese

Stop at snack shack for mystery pastry & chocolate bar

finish maria's report

Arrive in Lefkada at 7:30

Got picked up

Food shopping

Back to house

Materials and project update

Dinner and catch up

Bed

Friday April 2 - Lefkada

No foundation!! Yet

Start digging

Keep digging

Coffee, food

Materials and tools run - very interesting to see the way things are done there. Everything will close for the eastern weekend so we gotta get it done

More digging - boy do I love digging

Dinner/wine

Catch up

Saturday April 3rd - Lefkada

Beautiful morning

Greek Coffee and Strategy with Alex

Start filling trench

Drill Pipe

Lay out drain pipe

Line Trench with fabric

Backfill pipe and tamp around

Fill trench completely

Lunch

Finish filling

Quality time at the Beach/ It's Spring

Dinner

Movie - Polar Express

Easter Night at the monastery up the mountainside - very interesting ceremony - passing/sharing the candle flame that traveled there all the way from Jerusalem

Pretty

Candle

Egg Breaking - egg eating

Warm Milk with Honey

Weald and Download - Sunday the 28th

I got a good night's rest in again (though actually I think that's a lie because I believe after our convesation which went until 2:30 or so, I was up till almost four catching up on e-mails). But I 'slept in' a bit. Ben ran out to pick up his children for the day and I hung out for a bit until they got back. I had decided that today was going to be the day for my meander along the footpaths into Midhurst along with a visit to the Weald and Downland traditional open air museum. Knowing full well that rain was about as probable as not, I brought my raincoat and umbrella with me to make sure that my computer was sheltered if it were to downpour.

I remembered the route without fail despite not having walked it for 6 plus years. By the end of the day, my phone's pedometer had registered 33,000 steps - about 15 miles so it was a pretty big walking day. I shot a ton of photos along the way, enjoyed some glorious views of the south downs (hills), visited the hazel 'hedge' we'd laid while I was an apprentice and even shifted into mp3 ville for a little bit, setting something of a soundtrack to the latter half of my walk. It felt so good to be out on foot along this familiar path, walking past familiar ancient trees and out for a mini-adventure.

To my dismay, when I arrived in Midhurst, I learned that the fish and chip shop which I'd been eagerly awaiting for weeks didn't open until 3:45 which didn't work at all with my lunch plans. I explored the village to see what was out there - ideally I was looking for a nice place with wireless to try to pin down my travel plans. I ended up settling for the first place I'd passed when I arrived and they just about overwhelmed me with food. It was quite good though a bit much. I felt very deserving of the meal I'd just walked six miles to get, enjoyed it and then scoured the internet for the travel solution that wasn't to be.

Afterwards I decided to set off for the Weald and Downland museum - about 6 miles south - this was to be a bus trip. But the next bus didn't leave for another hour plus which was quite frustruating. What it meant was that I'd only have 2 hours at the museum. Knowing that I might not make it at all if I didn't jump at this chance, I waited it out and made my way there.

I was primarily interested in taking photos of some of the laid hedges at the museum. I was there during my last trip and it's an incredible wealth of information on tradtional building craft and industry. I did the hotstepper, making it from one ancient structure to the next, snapping up a couple of hundred photos (more or less) along the way. Just as I was finishing up, the rain started to come. I fortunately was able to cover the entire grounds in the 2 hour limit. Some of the highlights included - springy baby lambs (is that incredibly redundant?), an elderly man describing life during the middle ages with the driest sarcastic wit one could possibly imagine, the hazel coppice, views overlooking the structures and the surrounding landscape, skirret!!, visible interior framing on a 200 year old house and a installation showing different milling techniques, the brick making installation and probably much more.

I caught the bus back north, got off in Midhurst and stopped in at the supermarket for a snack. I settled on McVitie's biscuits - a treat for me seeing as how they sell them for like 5x the price in the states. That said, they weren't the best choice nutritionally speaking. We had just entered daylight savings time (the second time for me in 2 weeks - Britain did it this weekend) which meant I had light until 8 but I was heading back home on an hour's walk at 7 and have gotten lost in the woods before and definitely was not in the mood to do it again. It was raining fairly lightly but an hour in it was enough. I kept up a solid pace and made the six mile hike (or something like that) by 8pm. I was so happy and exhausted to be home. Ben and I caught up over a couple of bottles of Hip Hop (picking up on a trend, are ya?), ate some dinner and called it a reasonable night.

Re-Covering the Coppice

As you might imagine, dear reader, Saturday was a slow one. Ben certainly helped lighten things up for me, waking me up by bringing me a copy of The Elephant Man and telling me that I might find a kindred spirit in it. I'm grateful to have been able to contribute fodder for so much humor during the rest of my stay. I think we all were a little wrecked after our night of catch up, and I was delighted when Ben chuffed up a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast with tea - just about exactly what I needed at that moment. As the alcohol poisoning began to ware off, we talked about building for a bit and he showed me Lloyd Kahn's newest book - Buildings of the Pacific Northwest - something that had been an inspiration to him in his roundwood construction innovation. We sat fixated on some of Sun Ray Kelley's designs and words of wisdom and the whole things made me feel a whole lot more competent (though not nearly as creative).

Ben was to give a tour of his place to a permaculture design course from Brighton that afternoon and he wanted to pick up a few supplies beforehand so we headed back to the Larder (right next to the Hollist - scene of the 'crime') so that I could scour the place for my glasses. Not remembering what happened to you the night before really doesn't help you find things you lost and that was probably the most disturbing part of the whole thing - realizing I had no idea what had happened where. After wandering around the rough area for a bit, asking if anyone had returned any glasses in the pub and being shown a half dozen or so that weren't mine (and comtemplating trying each of them on and hopefully finding a pair that fit), I finally found mine just along the edge of the road. A bit dirty and a tiny bit bent, they were otherwise as perfectly scratched as they were before. Whew!! I would've made it without them though I wouldn't have appreciated the trip nearly as much.

When we got back home, we started to clean up a bit for the impending tour group. Not too long thereafter, Kris headed down to the outdoor kitchen and remarked something about his head which I assumed was a sarcastic comment about mine. I then noticed that he had a nice little scabbed wound above his eye that he didn't have before. I'm not sure what was in those 'Hip Hop's but I guess I wasn't the only one that met their match (though his paled in comparison to mine- not to brag).

The design course arrived and I quickly learned that I was going to need to come up with some explanation as to what had happened to my head because it was going to be a common question for some time to come. Never did come up with anything good except that 'I fell'. I'm not very good at lying.

We enjoyed a pot luck lunch and I got a chance to meet several of the students as we sat around the outdoor kitchen fire enjoying a cup of tea. It started pouring rain for about 30 minutes or so and then things died down a bit - a great time for us to get out if we were going to try. Ben led us on an excellent tour of his place, showing various examples of managed and unmanaged woods, talking about how his lifestyle revolves around his livelihood, showing us the innovative roundwood structures he's built, the renewable energy system and finally his house. It turned out to be a gorgeous afternoon with blue skies, lovely clouds and even a rainbow! None of us wanted to go anywhere but it was time for Brighton Permaculture to go.

With them gone, Ben, myself and Bea and Ruth hung around chatting on Ben's verandah, enjoying - guess what? More tea! - and some leftover biscuits (cookies). I truly relished the moment - hanging in such a relaxed environment - no cell phone to not be called by anyone on, no internet to constantly scan for e-mails, and no memory of the past 24 hours (just joking - only about 2-3 of them). We had a great conversation talking about the role of the arts in transition culture and looking at how to motivate people who may not feel like their voice is valued or heard. No resolutions but a good discussion nonetheless.

We soon retreated inside and Ben delivered with an incredible meal - grilled veggies, creamed something that I've forgotten and something else too - whatever it was, it was off the hook. We shared stories of some of our less than best decisions and having already planned to head to the Lickfold for an evening walk and a drink, set off.

The night was lit with a beautiful near-full moon and our walk along the woodland ride was truly memorable. I'd made that walk many a time in the old days and I was so happy to be doing it once again. About 20 minutes from Ben's place, over half is spent walking on a public right of way through is property, which is bounded by a Batman-like electronic gate, leading you to a narrow country lane lined with some beautiful and ancient timber framed houses (some as old as 15th century!).

Another motivation for us going to the Lickfold was that it gave me an opportunity to search my travel options to Greece - I needed to arrive there by Thursday the 1st. We promptly took up residence in the four stuffed chairs around the massive Inglenook fireplace and couldn't have been cozier. It was another lovely moment and a level headed and even keeled night out at the pub. After 14 beers each (just kidding)... I did some net surfing and found that it was going to be either more difficult or more expensive getting to Athens than I'd thought. I couldn't seem to find an overland route that wasn't impossibly inconvenient and the plane tickets would run nearly $400. I didn't end up doing anything about it but complain.

We walked back home in the moonlight and then engaged in an engrossing discussion about our respective need for (and the incredible market for) personal clones, cause there's just too many incredible things to do in life. Fully conscious of the moral implications of our discussion, we explored clone rights and duties, etc. And then it was definitely time for bed.

Unforgettable eve

I was grateful to learn that that they start work at a remarkably civilized hour these days - I was up by 8 and spent a bit breakfasting with Ben's friend Bea before I headed out to meet Nick and Kris in the cant by 9. Ben spent the day finishing up the woodland management course at the Sustainability Centre about 15 miles away in Hampshire.

The weather was cool but it was not bad at all for a day working outdoors. This season Ben and his apprentices cut a massive cant - what the Forestry Commission determined to be 4.6 acres. By comparison's sake, I'd estimate that we cut 2 acres during my stay. Much of it is derelict, not having been managed for nearly 60 years. What's also different about this cant is that it is a mix of species - a good bit of it contains a fair amount of alder and birch, while it was once much more uniformly hazel and ash. The southern portion of the cant is primarily chestnut. The cant is also littered with 'standard' trees (large single stemmed trees left to grow to their full size so as to add a long term yield/product and diversity the woodland structure).

Because this cant had not seen any management activity for over five decades, it requires significantly more work to restore to a working woodland. And at the same time, the size of the material (and the species) leaves it of little use for much other than cordwood (firewood) or charcoal material. I learned from Ben that he receives 42 pounds per green cord of unsplit 6' lengths of birch firewood. I'm not sure how much total volume this

cant will yield, but typically coppice yield figures project one cord per acre per year. Conservatively speaking, fifty years of growth over four acres should yield at least 200 cords - a fairly sizable amount of fuelwood. That said, cordwood is about the lowest possible value for this material - if he were able to turn it into a higher value product, he could see quite a bit more economic return. It's not the size (volume) that matters - it's what you do with it!

Now that the stage is set, my task for the day was to basically clean up the massive friggin mess these guys had made. With spring fast approaching an

d a schedule that had been delayed by a very abnormal winter snowfall that set back felling and clearing operations, they still had quite a bit of work to do before they were 'finished'. The priority was clearing up the edge of the cant - piling up the cordwood and burning the 'brash' (side branches and tree tops) so that things would be accessible the next time they come through to cut. So I spent the day manning a fire, collecting and burning brash and heaving heavy wet logs onto the nearest possible pile.

It's an interesting task, burning greenwood. Especially when it's wet which is just about all the time in the UK. I got some help from my friends getting this nightmare of a fire going (they'd been doing it all winter so they were pretty good). Once it had built up sufficient heat, it was fairly easy going, but it took a while. As a relevant side note, the season I was there, we actually chipped all the brash and used it to improve access in some of the muddier areas and Ben was also able to sell it as garden mulch to some of the locals. Thus, I was not the most skilled green/wet wood fire tender on the block.

But probably one of the biggest highlights of the brash fire (which I had come to know during the 2 or so weeks of hedgelaying that we did that season) was the lunchtime potato and fire-warmed cup of tea. In my mind, few things compare to a wet, cold day of work in the woods, with a colder, wetter, exposed lunch break spent enjoying the best baked potato you've ever tasted and a cup of tea warmed by the fire you've been tending all day - even if your enamel mug has some strange floaties at the bottom of it. This time we didn't have any butter around so we settled for olive oil, soy sauce, and hot sauce.

This time through I also missed out on the hunted squirrel roast - a prized outcome of the necessary coppice pest control (squirrel do a lot of damage to young regrowth, eating the cambium from below the bark of young stems). Ben's dog Oily is actually trained to hunt squirrels, either running them down herself or treeing them so that Ben or one of his apprentices can take them out with an air rifle. It's a pretty elegant little system that they've got going.

After a good conversation and lunch around the coals, we set back to work. I was feeling a bit slow seeing as how it has been weeks since my last bout of repeated lifting along with the fact that much of the brash I needed to burn lay downwind of the fire I was tending (asphyxiation really sucks!). The other guys continued felling and cross cutting logs, nearly finishing the cant off. Around 5:30 or 6 or so, we knocked off and headed back to the homestead (for lack of a better term).

Nick was headed to visit his girlfriend for the weekend and Kris and I had already made up our minds that happy hour at the pub had our names all over it. When we returned, we found Ben back home and invited him to join

us. He replied something to the effect of - 'I couldn't possibly turn that down', so we set off on foot for the pub (about a 20 minute walk from the woods). We realized that we were cutting it pretty close for happy hour and fortunately Nick swung by and picked us up as he headed out of town.

We arrived at The Hollist and immediately took our posts along the long, age-old wooden bar.

Conversation flowed like Niagara Falls (about as coherently sometimes) and we had a grand old time. Taking turns with each round, enjoying a big plate of chips (french fries) with ketchup, chili and mayo, making friends or at least acquaintances with some of the neighboring, rich as hell, patrons and then waking up on Ben's couch... Waking up on Ben's couch? Seems a few things must've been missed. Namely the large bump on my forehead and the gnarly gravel wounds that remained (and my glasses that seemed to be missing). Well, I'll leave you to wonder because your guess is as good as mine - and don't you go worrying about me one little bit. I can take care of myself - well, actually, tw

o kind passers by helped apparently, picking the gravel out of my forehead after what must've been a pretty tremendous spill. At this point (nearly 10 days later) the scabs are almost all gone, the bump(s) still there though relived and my neck is still pretty sore. Chalk it up to my first British MDI (mysterious drinking injury

of 2010) - and yes, it is kinda disturbing to know that there's an acronym for it.

Re-Connecting - Lots of Back Posts - 4/24

With the overcoming of jet lag as a relatively honest excuse, I spent the better part of Thursday morning sleeping in. It was grey outside, threatening rain, more or less the

norm in the UK, and it felt as if there was little beckoning me to arise at a reasonable hour. That said, I headed outside to find Ben with a his Woodland Management course, milling up a 16" diameter oak log on his mobil 'LumberMate' bandsaw sawmill. They had squared up three of four sides by the time I arrived, and I was disappointed to have missed the discussion as to how the determined the best way to approach the log based on the product (4x4 and 3x6 boards for a pergola) they were looking to produce.

Once they had squared up the log, the processing went very smoothly, extracting some gorgeous oak lumber from a sawlog that just a few years ago would have been worth very little to Ben in and of itself. After reducing the stem to a bunch of 'big sticks', it was time for lunch and tea around the outdoor kitchen.

The outdoor kitchen at Prickly Nut Wood is the operation central during the spring, summ

er and fall. With meals cooked on the open fire, it makes for a wonderful conversational setting, in the shade of a rustic cruck timber frame set against the backdrop of a massive fallen chestnut stool (coppice regrowth) that still continues to resprout despite its horizontality.

After lunch we gathered for a hands on craft/value adding session. The students worked together to produce two rustic chestnut trellis panels - they were joined using rough mortise and tenon joinery and feature woven hand-split chestnut wattle in-between the frame. They're very beautiful and make wonderful garden backdrops. They also represent a relatively simple means of adding value to a small quantity of chestnut coppice. The teams did a good job working together and while they were at it, I took an opportunity to wander through the coppice woods to the south of Ben's homestead.

Much of this area is 'overstood' or derelict coppice, meaning that it hasn't been cut for quite some time and will require a fair amount of work (with limited financial return - much of the product is unusable for craft and really is only good for firewood) in order to bring it back into rotation. As I'd

been told, the harsh winter they'd experienced there this season left them at least two weeks behind where they'd otherwise be in a normal spring. The precious ephemeral bluebells were just beginning to emerge, with their glossy green foliage carpeting the forest floor though no heart melting blossoms yet to my dismay. As I wandered through the coppice, the memories from seven (or perhaps six) years ago came flooding back of a much simpler life that revolved around the woods. It was one of the most fulfilling times of my life and it will forever remain as one of my most formative experiences. I made my way back to Ben's, checking on the cants (area of coppice) that we had felled during my season there on the way.

It wasn't long before the woodland management course was complete (it concluded around the fire in the outdoor kitchen with a discussion on 'pests and their management' in the coppice) and afterwards Ben and I headed off to visit the new general store in the village of Lodsworth - the small hamlet where Ben lives. The 'Lodsworth Larder' is a new installation, courtesy of Ben and his roundwood timber framing crew and company - a gorgeous project built (with a few exceptions - lime...) using materials that had traveled less than five miles to the construction site. It's another c

hestnut cruck frame - a timber framed structure that features joined A-frame shaped bents which carry the ridge pole (the primary member of the roof system). The (I believe) straw bale walls are lime plastered and the roof is covered with locally sawn chestnut shingles. The interior features some beautiful detail work, including woven wattle panels and a great staircase. All in all, it's a gorgeous structure, and what might be most impressive is that it was built in only four months. You can read more about it in the most recent issue of the British Permaculture Magazine.

After checking out the store - I forgot to mention that it was full of wonderful local foods (cheeses, beer, milk, bread...) - Ben and I nipped into the neighboring Hollist country pub for a pint. I love the country pub atmosphere and it's probably a good thing I don't live too close to them as I may likely end up moving in (or at least spending most of my free time there). More catching up and great local beer which I found out is being produced just up the street by Ben's good friends Steve and James - two gents I came to know during my stint there years back. We spent a good little while with their delicious 'Hip Hop' Ale and headed back home for a meal. Who knew Lodsworth was becoming the center of the universe?

Back Across the Pond

The first of April finds me spending my first morning in sunny Athens. I'm serenaded by a chorus of stray cats, one of them trying to find their way into the house. I've actually been overseas for a full week now but am only just today finding time to actually start to recount my trip. I'm not sure that I'll have the time to go into the same detail as I did during my last visit to Greece but I'll see what I can do.

I just arrived in Greece after a one week stay with my friend and mentor Ben Law at Prickly Nut Wood copse in West Sussex England. The days were full and living off the grid makes it pretty tough to stay connected with the internet, not to mention squeezing in time to 'blog'. Now Ben's being off the grid, doesn't mean that we didn't have access to most of the same services we're used to - just that the vast majority of his electricity actually comes from a 12Volt DC system (with the exception of a couple of outlets) and he had a very slow internet connection which essentially provides him with enough bandwidth to frustratingly keep up with his e-mail.

It was wonderful to be back. The place had changed considerably since I'd left with four or so new buildings, lots of new garden infrastructure and a modified charact

er to the woodland. Ben is a coppice worker, which, for those of you who don

't know, means that he annually cuts broadleaf trees during winter which are left to regrow from the stump. This is a traditional forest management system in Britain and much of Europe for that matter but Ben has been one of the most visible advocates for its revival in the wake of industrial life swallowing up these longstanding traditions. Trees managed as coppice can have lifespans that dramaticall

y exceed that of a normal unmanaged tree - easily doubling or tripling their lifespan. Ben's chestnut woodland was actually planted out 160 years ago (in the mean time, they tore out the existing hazel coppice which had been there for who knows how long) and despite 40 years of utter neglect, it comes back with remarkable vigor each time he comes through to recut it.

Most of Ben's woodland is sweet chestnut which is a fantastic wood on many levels. Fast growing, rot resistant, a good fuel, strong and useful for a variety of products. He's definitely fortunate to have such a generally useful resource.

One of the primary purposes of this visit to Europe is to carry out research and documentation of these traditional silvicultural (forestry) practices for a forthcoming book I'm

co-authoring with permaculture designer and ecologist Dave Jacke entitled - Coppice Agroforestry - Perennial Silviculture for the 21st Century. After having apprenticed for Ben for a season in 2003-4, I knew Prickly Nut Wood would be a great place to start.

I arrived in London Heathrow early on Thursday morning, March 24th. To my surprise, it was a beautiful sunny day, even a bit hot at times. Anticipating a spat with proper English spring weather, I'd gone for redundancy in my rain protection, bringing both a raincoat and an umbrella with me. Well, it turns out I needed neither.

Feeling a bit groggy after two consecutive nights of four hours sleep (one due to long work hours and the second due to the time change during my overnight flight) I too

k public transport to the town of Haselmere, the nearest train stop to Lodsworth, where Ben makes his home.

From Haselmere I set off on foot, meandering along the ancient footpaths that line the British countryside, strolling for seven miles and exploring the landscape along the way. It's an incredible way to get to know a place - walking through land both public and private and largely staying off roads. I had brought with me the old Ordnance Survey map that has a super-detailed survey of the entire countryside (my section only covered a small segment of the southeast British landscape).

About three or four hours later I arrived in the village of Lickfold - one of my old stomping grounds and decided to stop at the pub for a pint. Their sign denoting free wi-fi was another motivator as I saw it as an opportunity to check in with friends and family.

The ancient pub hadn't changed much and it was absolutely wonderful to settle in next to the massive Inglenook fireplace and enjoy a pint of English ale. With that done, I made

my way the last 20 or so minutes to Ben's.

I arrived just as a Woodland Management course he was teaching broke for tea around the fire of the outdoor kitchen. I had a chance to meet Kris and Nick, his apprentices for the 2009-2010 season. We caught up - they told me about the extremity of the winter this

past season - nearly of foot of snow which made coppice work much more difficult for them, cold temperatures, etc. It nearly sounded as if our climate patterns had swapped.

Kris and I walked around the woods and he showed me the cant (area of coppice) they had cut this season - it was impressive in scale. More on that later. We returned to find Ben with two of his kids enjoying the trampoline in his yard.

It was really great catching up and reminiscing about our season seven or so years ago. Lots had changed in both our lives but it also felt as if little to no time had passed. After lots of laughter and good food, I retreated the my room for the week in the straw bale e

xtension of Ben's roundwood timber framed home.

So much more to share but that's it for now.