While the eco-makeover of the smallholding’s accommodation carries on, Emma and I continue to seek as much practical help and advice as we can to prepare for the adventure ahead.
So it was one Saturday last month that we found ourselves visiting The Empire Farm in Somerset for their course ‘Living the good life on less than an acre’ which sounded perfect for us at The Secret Acre. Continue reading
Four weeks further on and Stevenson the builders continue to make amazing progress in the sunshine on our smallholding’s eco-makeover.
The timber frame extension shot up almost overnight, so now the whole building is in place just awaiting the windows to get us water tight. In the original part of the house the first fix has been done and the walls beautifully re-plastered. Continue reading
We know we can expect to spot a wide range of wildlife once we are finally living at The Secret Acre. Deer, badgers, foxes and rabbits all live at the bottom of the field, not to mention the birds (Slimbridge is just down the road) and a variety of life in our ponds. When we catch more on camera, we’ll post more here.
The Secret Acre – a bungalow no more!
When we found The Secret Acre the original 1930s bungalow on site was in need of modernisation.
Our plans for an eco-makeover included creating upstairs space for two bedrooms and a bathroom.
So it was a special moment for us when the new staircase went in. A bungalow no more!
And Emma and I no longer have to sway precariously up and down ladders to measure up upstairs.
Since finding The Secret Acre, what to do with the paddock field has been, and remains, a matter of hot debate.
Donkey cheese was an early favourite with Emma, but it appears to only have a market of one, a Wimbledon tennis player, and the Alpaca and Llama market now seems saturated. Friends even suggested planting woodland or vines. But sheep and/or goats seem the most likely eventual choice. Continue reading
The new concrete base in the old house is in, ready for insulation and underfloor heating.
It started at Easter, with the roof coming off first. So naturally I was predicting a biblical deluge all month long from that moment. Miraculously instead we have enjoyed a month of nearly continuous blue skies and summer like heat.
Our main contractor Stevenson Building Contractors Ltd have made amazing progress in just a few weeks. We chose Stevenson because everyone in the area recommended them, plus they have a lot of experience installing the whole range of eco-measures in big Cotswold retrofit projects. Continue reading
Legal searches at The Secret Acre revealed that we receive the princely sum of £1 per annum ground rent for the electricity pole in the garden.
But the wire off it that delivered our mains electricity looked like it would be dangerously within reach of small children once the dormer was built. More importantly the pole was slap bang in the middle of the proposed foundations for the timber frame extension. It would have to go. Continue reading
A decade and more ago, the Government were paying grants to grub up and destroy orchards. Today there are loads of Government grants and projects to protect, save and replant orchards, which apparently had been disappearing at an alarming rate. It’s what politicians like to call joined up thinking.
So, blessed with a small old orchard at the Secret Acre, prolific in apples and plums, we decided to do the responsible thing and joined the Gloucestershire Orchard Trust, to add our heritage varieties to the County’s register. Continue reading
Like most eco-warriors I had the standard comprehensive list in my heart of eco-bling I wanted at The Secret Acre – PV, solar thermal, rainwater harvesting, green roof, etc.
But having worked at Forum for the Future on pathfinder retrofit projects, I knew in my head that our first priority on a budget had to be insulation, insulation, insulation.
So making it warm and properly insulated for the next 100 years has to come first, and then worry about the bling. And as with every retrofit, you have to work with the existing building you have to do what is possible, practical and appropriate. Continue reading
On collecting the keys for the Secret Acre in July 2014, one urgent task was to excavate the greenhouse and save it from the Triffids.
We’d inherited a splendid 18 foot old greenhouse, but like everything else it was ‘in need of repair’. About a third of the glass was broken, and a dense thicket of brambles had colonised every square inch inside, sprouting out in escape bids through the missing panes, and generally putting so much pressure on the remaining glass that the whole structure looked like a pressure cooker ready to explode. Continue reading
The Secret Acre 