Strawbale Frenzy

Last week I was on a fantastic Building With Straw-bales course run by amazonails and held at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), near Machynlleth in Wales.  The course was massively inspiring and motivating, to the point that on the train home I ended up eulogising about the virtues of straw building to a young couple (un)lucky enough to be standing in the same vestibule as me on the train between Birmingham's New Street and International. At Birmingham International I met a couple of friends who I was staying the night with, and despite having arrived 2.5 hours late (due to a poor, overworked train from Machynlleth which was overheating "due to the hot weather" that day) I still managed to have a crack at persuading them the best way to build their planned extension was (of course) with straw, before finally giving in to tiredness and need for bed.

I think the rampant evangelical fervour has now calmed slightly, but the course certainly confirmed and amplified everything I'd been suspecting about what a truly genius way to build, straw is.  Here's some reasons why: 

Planning issues - Part 3

I think when I first read the Local Plan planning policy documents I was either in a very optimistic mood, or reading late at night when my mind was shutting down, or quite likely both.  The positive bits of policy I thought would apply straightforwardly to our eventual planning application now seem to me not quite so clear-cut.  But there are still helpful statements in the local plan and also some Regional and National planning guidance that could help us get the go ahead once we’ve found a site. 

The Local Plan allows for limited development outside the DDB (Defined Development Boundary) of a town/village in certain cases.  Here are those that I think could apply to our scheme:

• Dwellings for which there is proven local need (either for affordable housing – which won’t help us in our application, or essential rural workers dwellings – which might be relevant to us)
• On site replacement of dwellings
• Conversion/replacement of buildings
• Employment development
• Tourist, recreation or community facilities appropriate to a rural area.

Planning issues - Part 2

What is our scheme, and why would we need to build outside the DDB (Defined Development Boundary – see last blog, Planning issues – part 1)?

We want to build ourselves a home and place to work.  We want it to be built using as sustainable materials as possible, and to have as little impact as possible both on the actual site and on the environment in general.  Practically this means building with straw-bales, sustainably grown timber, little or no concrete.  We’ll be aiming for as high a rating as possible according to the Code for Sustainable Homes which details high specifications for energy efficiency, insulation, energy use and ventilation (I’m likely to write more about this in later blogs, along with more about building and materials, as I find out more).

It’ll be a single story, green-roofed home, with a separate building for workshop and a massage (and other) treatment room on site.  The wood-fired pottery kiln would also be on site.  I want to try and grow most (if not all) of the wood for firing it on site as coppice.  BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) website indicates that 5 acres of coppice should produce up to 6 tonnes of mixed hardwood a year (once mature), which is equivalent to 2 firings a year of a large kiln (provided I get the design right, the wood is well seasoned, and the kiln works well!). 

Planning issues - Part 1

So then, trying to find somewhere to build a low-impact straw-bale home and workshop.  As I knew, it's not going to be straightforward... The main problem will be finding a site we can afford that we have a good chance of getting planning permission on.

Right now I feel like my brain is melting after hours downloading and reading too many planning policy documents.  It seems like planning guidelines for each region are generally out there online, but are far from easily accessible.  To be fair, I am sure this is at least in part due to District Councils’ limited resources.  For example: though I find it frustrating I’d probably rather they spent money on more important things than upgrading their webhosting/servers etc to allow the online Local-Plan-map to operate at a speed actually approaching usefulness.   Ah well.  A visit to the local Council office will be in order shortly to purchase a much more practical paper version (£5 for the Bridport area map, £50 for the whole of West Dorset).

Tangent

There's a danger that this blog could deteriorate into a woodlouse obsession and that really isn't the idea.  That said, I keep discovering more woodlouse related sites and I'm loving them.  I think the single one-inch black-and-white outline drawing with the word "woodlouse" underneath and nothing else on the page remains most inspired though.  I was trying to use google to find out who made that site and found http://www.woodlouseconservation.co.uk/ instead.  Not what I was hunting but sounds like a great small business to me.

And now I've just been back to check I knew what I was talking about and I realise that Woodlouse Conservation is based just outside Wiveliscombe, Somerset.  Wivey is just up the road from the workshop I shared with a potter friend for a year.  It wasn't the happiest year in either of our lives, but Wivey and surrounding area was lovely, so it's a pleasing connection to randomly discover, all thanks to woodlice.

I'm finding new sites while writing this.  Walking With Woodlice is on the Natural history museum site and has a series of maps showing UK distribution of different types of woodlouse; click on the map for a large version and a lovely picture of the relevant species.  Brilliant.

After a quick look at http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/wlice.htm I have learned that woodlice are the "the only crustaceans that have properly invaded land" and been reminded of a fact I read yesterday but couldn't remember: that Pill Woodlice (Armadillidium) are the only ones that can roll into a ball.

Okay, now I'm starting to find sites listing a number of ways to cause slow painful deaths to woodlice (like abrasive stuff that sticks to them, rubs holes in their shell, causing "dehydration and death") so I think I'd better stop.  Have found one final nice site though woodlice.co.uk

I promise the next post won't be about woodlice. 

Woodlouse

I'm new to blogging so please bear with me as I find my way.  I thought maybe I'd start by explaining or at least elaborating on the "woodlouse" title.

I like woodlice.

At a young age I was acquainted with the little bugs, they were a long time resident in the loo in the house I grew up in.  They'd wonder around the floor, crawl up walls onto the ceiling, and occasionally drop to the floor unexpectedly if they lost their footing.  They'd curl into a ball for protection if I poked them (an instantly endearing behaviour to me) and wave their legs around desperately in the air when a fall left them on their backs (I did used to put them back on their legs).  The armoured bugs were also everywhere to be found under any old lump of wood I overturned in the garden.

More recently they seem to converge on the wood stacked ready to fire my kiln with.  I have tried talking to the stacks of wood, imploring the many woodlice and other bugs who've misguidedly chosen a firewood pile as a good home to leave before it's too late.  I even recommend them  suitable "wildlife piles" of neglected rotting wood near by as alternative accommodation.  Sadly though, I've yet to achieve human-crustacean communication and I can't escape a lingering sense of guilt for the untold legions of lovely woodlice who have probably died a fiery death in my kiln.  My only hope is that many are knocked off the wood and make a successful bid for safety when armfuls of wood are dropped to the floor in front of the kiln prior to stoking.

My current kiln (soon to be decommissioned) has become known as the woodlouse as it has eaten far more wood than previous models.  My next kiln will be a move back to the older models in terms of using as little wood as possible to get the maximum amount of effect on my pots (the ash from the burning wood lands on the pots and melts to a glaze at the same time as the flames react with the clay and bring out a range of earthy colours).  Wood is a renewable fuel (if from properly managed genuinely sustainable sources) but I still think it's best to burn as little as possible.

A final woodlouse note:

Have a look at this fantastic website which appears to be a simple homage to the wood munching creatures - www.woodlouse.co.uk