Turning Apples into Food

Posted on December 12, 2015 by emmaalesworth

It might not sound as impressive as turning water into wine, apples are basically already food after all, but tuck into the delicious apple cake at The Canteen in Nailsworth, or enjoy the apple sauce with your pork at The Hog in Horsley, and you may have eaten apples from The Secret Acre.

Last year we turned our apples into test batches of juice and cider, with a view to scaling up production this year. But despite getting an industrial size press, the timing of our moving into The Secret Acre meant that our cider empire had to be largely put on hold for 12 months. Continue reading →

Our new Energy Performance Certificate

Posted on December 9, 2015 by paulrainger

It was with some trepidation recently when Neil from the Severn Wye Energy Agency came round to assess The Secret Acre’s new Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). This was after all the independent validation of our smallholding’s whole eco-makeover!

When we found The Secret Acre in 2013 its EPC stood at a lowly score of 44 (in band E). Continue reading →

Rural reality… transport

Posted on December 3, 2015 by paulrainger

Moving to The Secret Acre has meant reluctantly taking up driving again. Like painfully slow Broadband, having a car is just part of rural reality.

Having driven all my life, I eventually gave up the car after moving to London, but only after paying out shed loads of cash to keep it in a garage for a year first, just to have used it three times in 12 months, before the penny finally dropped that I really could get by without it and be much better off financially. But it still felt like losing a limb at first. Continue reading →

Rural reality… broadband

Posted on November 19, 2015 by paulrainger

When I lived in the city with 40Mb cable broadband I used to wonder what all the fuss was about when programmes cropped up from time to time moaning about the lack of internet speeds in the countryside.

Now I know why! It feels like we’ve gone back to the days of dial up internet at The Secret Acre. Basically you get 2Mb through the phone line, which all the commercial service providers of course claim is just enough for streaming. Sadly the independent regulator OfCom says you need 10Mb. Continue reading →

First Glimmers of the Good Life

Posted on October 30, 2015 by paulrainger

Amid the stresses of moving in, unpacking and snagging it can be easy to temporarily lose sight of why you wanted to chase a more balanced life in the first place. So it has something of a relief to almost immediately get the first glimmers of the promised Good Life.

My top three so far have been – Continue reading →

Six Months In: Moving, Snagging & Landscaping

Posted on October 15, 2015 by paulrainger

It seems hard to believe, but just over six months into the smallholding’s eco-makeover, the excellent builders had stuck to both the timetable and the budget and we were ready to move in.

So after lots of internal finishing in September, and a disappointing lack of readily available Triple A rated energy efficient appliances, we finally booked the removal van for the start of October, worried only by the alarming amount of stuff we had to pack up.

Now safely in, we are starting to work through the inevitably long list of snagging issues, top of which on day one was the alarmingly absent manhole for the bathroom sewer! Continue reading →

M is for… Moving

Posted on October 9, 2015 by paulrainger

Finally just over six months into the smallholding’s eco-makeover, the big day arrived for moving in all our unnecessarily large amount of stuff.

A week of unprofessional packing, cleaning up after the builders and writing out an unfeasibly long snagging list, led to a mere four hours of highly professional stuffing it all into the removal van, a near miraculously quick two hours of unloading and a highly commendable lack of any breakages. Continue reading →

The Triple A Desert

Posted on October 4, 2015 by paulrainger

It seemed a no-brainer that when buying new appliances for The Secret Acre’s eco-makeover we would of course only choose from the most energy efficient A+++ rated.

So we were genuinely surprised and disappointed to discover that there is a real lack of affordable A+++ appliances available in the UK. Continue reading →

The Story of Stuff

Posted on September 30, 2015 by paulrainger

The day of our big move into the smallholding is nigh. Just over a year since we bought The Secret Acre, and after six months of eco-makeover.

So this week we sit among ever increasing piles of packed moving boxes. An alarming reminder of just how much unnecessary stuff you accumulate. The uncomfortable feeling is particularly acute for Emma who moved into the house in Bristol with just a rucksack and no furniture. Now 15 years later we are going to need two large removal vans to shift it all! Continue reading →

Why the Government is so wrong on renewable energy

Posted on September 16, 2015 by paulrainger

Apart from the blindingly obvious, the Conservative Government’s concerted attack on the renewables industry, now they are free from the restraining influence of the Liberal Democrats, is also simply out of touch with the way the public feel about these new green businesses.

This was bought home to me recently by the AGM of Westmill Solar Park, an investor co-operative of which I am a member. Continue reading →

The Secret Acre

Our journey to a happier life, more in tune with nature, on a one acre smallholding

Category Archives: Good Life