Blogs

On Saturday i went down the road to work with some friends to get an area ready for planting with spuds.

We went off with trailer attached to their car to get well wormed horse manure that had been stading idle for a few years. After a few years the horsey stuff gets quite solid and is beautiful for using a compost. The worms have mostly moved on to better stuff leaving only the die hard worms.

We barrow the stuff down a small hill and into the trailer and then drive that and unload next to the plot. Laying it on top of the existing grass and then covering with some weed control material, at that point you cut some holes in the material and its ready for planting with spuds.

The spuds are in the house being "chitted", I hope we have enough of them.

By the end of the day I was fairly knackered I can report to you.

But considering then end result of piles of spuds and the land being cleared of weeds once we lift the spuds at the end of the eason, its very much worth the effort.

We also did some other smaller jobbies, I think we could do a couple more runs to gather the composted horsey stuff again. It'd be good to have too many spuds and all that lovely land ready for other plantings next year or indeedy later in this year.

It wasn't the best of days but its just lovely to get outdoors and get my hands dirty.

Seedy Sunday happened today, I didn't stay for the whole thing as I've once again been bugged by a bug.

So I left some of the other MASTT members there looking after the fort and I came back home to get on with some stuff here. I took down some printed papers that I thought might be good to have there, some of the AGM reports, wow, those things fly away as  soon as they're put down on the table. I was scheduled to go to Leeds this weekend for a permaculture course I'm on but because I felt so low I thought it was better to conserve my energy for the coming week. So I wasn't down to help at Seedy Sunday so I left them all to get on with it. It felt nice walking away for the hall, knowing I was doing the right thing.

I'd sent one of the AGM reports to DB and he was so happy to have recieved one that I was also made happy to think that a few bits of paper could thrill people so much.

I think at times we are so close up to what we're doing that we don't see how other people view us.

Friday I took Mary along to the Craft Mafia session at the Media centre in Town for an hour of chat about what various women are doing with crafty stuffs. Mary does a couple of different prodded rugs. She's going to take along a stack of gear to the next Mafia sesion so every one else can have a go at prodding a ruggy type piece.

I cleared out the garage, once again, yet again, went and looked at some work to do this week. Picked up a door frame to make up and insert an outside door into for work this week at someone's house. I'll do all that stuff tomorrow. I'm intending to take it fairly easy for the next two or three days, just to allow myself some recovery time.

Also I've been thinking about just how I want to change the garden for this years planting. Ange gave me some cuttings from Blackcurrant, redcurrant and gooseberrys, so I'll probably heel those in tomorrow too to keep the ends of roots from drying out too much.

I was looking at buying some apple trees to plant onto the side of our drive which will house the chickens this year. I was wondering about espalier trees but Ange said that fan shape trees might be better. Along the side of the drive is a lovely big stone wall that gets beautifully warm most of the summer. Its the side opposite where the chicks will live and it seems better use of the ground to plant a couple of trees. I'll have another look at what I can order after finishing this blogging.

Saturday saw a small group planting the last of the fruit trees in the orchard.

The tree guards were closed off with chicken wire. Weed control material was put around each tree.

It was a fairly cold day but the sky was sooooooooo beautiful, full of blue colours and the sun peeked out at us.

I sometimes resent going out to the orchard to work on a weekend but once I get there all that resentment disappears, even when the snow was falling in January looking around at the surroundings was enough to lift my spirits.

There is still quite a lot of work to do at the site to get it working properly. Theres going to be watering the trees once the weather warms up, a couple of us are going to sort out quite how to bring water from the edge of the uphill site onto the orchard site. I imagine that watering the trees could be needed several times a week.

Are you interested in going to the site and doing some watering ?

If so you only need to tell us via the site info link.

And hey,,,,if you only fancy walking along and looking that'd be fine too.

We have put weed control material around  the base of each tree to stop the weeds competing with the trees for the nutrients and this material needs covering with wood chips. The chips will be made on site from whatever material that lies around the site. We'll be using a noisy machine to do the chipping so try and avoid that day for a visit, Ok ?

Also we are going to look at the whole of the two plots, one plot holds the fruit trees and the other plot has to be managed by us. The two plots are linked at the moment, a stone wall down the middle of the two plots has fallen down, this wall needs putting back up, because it could be useful to seperate the two plots at times.Sheep are going to be put onto both plots to keep weeds under control. A local farmer is going to bring some sheep onto the site once the local council has repaired the wooden fencing which seperates the plots from the railway.

KMC has been very good in letting us use the orchard site, I hope that they can hear me shouting,

" Thankyou KMC "

They are continuing to assist us as well, the people who work for KMC have been very helpful as well, because a council makes decisions but how that is implemented is down to the people who work inside the organisation. And the peeople are lovely, very helpful but at the same time looking after the interests of the council. Professional is the word I'd use to describe them.

Whoops, I went off on a tangent there with a bit of passionate applause for KMC.

Ah yes, the work left to do. bu the work aside leaves us as a group needing to set up a management group for the orchard and to tackle the issue of just what to do with the whole site. We need a plan.

If you feel inclined to get involved at any point in this process do come along and take part, don't be shy now.

Well work , real life work beckons me, time is ticking on and somebodies house needs mending. So with a smile and a nonny noo its off to work I go.

Have a good one today folks where ver you may bee.

We had the AGM for MASTT on Teusday night.

It went well, we had a few new faces, and some of our core group came along, it was a decent turnout.

We had a fair old chat ( as usual), meetings can be a pain in the butt but this one was ok.

PB, out treasurer is indeed a treasure. she had complied all the reports sent to me by members who had initiated projects.

JW was writing  about the TT confernce last november, SS for the Vegetable Sundays down at Paddock Farm and the "Changemaker" workshop, JM for the Slaithwaite Community Notice Board, SP for the Orchard, TS wrote about the Seedy Sundays and the Information Stalls, and the film Screenings, and the Ethical Fashion Show.

PB ran us through the treasurers report and answered questions.

I stood and talked a bit about other projects we have provided, the big projects are good but any of the little projects mean a lot as well.

We have talked about putting the whole reprot onto this site so it can be seen by you.

We do need to start moving the "Changemaker" workshop forward, it seems to have stalled somewhat, the workshop itself uses processes that provide information and then asks the attendees to make a commitment (if they want to) to effect chage in their own lives or business or organisation. We have planned to sell the kits that provide all the props and further info so other groups from any walk of life can deliver the workshop.

I've been to the local training session here in Marsden and I can tell you it works. Theres more to it than I can tell you here but maybe you'd like to attend one of of the "Changemaker" workshops with some of your friends ?

I'm happy to tell you that this weekend sees the last 18 trees being planted, we are goin gup to the site on Saturday for a 9.30 start. Do come along.

The other thing we need to get on with is sorting ourselves out to become incorporated. It seems like a choice between a cooperative or a charity. We've been offered some help to get some more info to base our decision upon.

Of course the one thing we need to be thankful for is our dedicated team of volunteers who make projects happen.

TS seems set on Swishing in a month or so, try googling that to find out what it is. She seems set on having a "swish" in Slaithwaite ( I think).

Yep its another random thought process blurb.

Lets set the scene with some music.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm lets settle for little fluffy clouds by The Orb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWMIXgCaJPQ 

The little fluffy clouds is or are the first track of a whole double CD/LP by The Orb, who are a fabulous bunch of folk who make CD's.

Hey do they even make LP's now ? I know that they use them in clubs and muck bout with the LP's with their fingers to make different sounds, sorry, showing my age and lack of grasp here.

Lets move onwards and upwards.

Well, MASTT is heading towards its 1st AGM. Lets sing and cheer.

Anyone can attend, I was looking at the list of what we the small group of members of MASTT have achieved this year. My god but it adds up to us all getting thoroughly exhausted. I'll post the list on the homepage as soon as I can work out how to do that. (mental note to self-work that out pip).

One big thing we are working towards at the moment is being incorporated. Yep , exactly what I thought.

What the hell is being incorporated when its at home?

Well at the moment MASTT is an association of people no different from any other group of people who join together to do stuff in their neighbourhood. But we have our eyes set on yet more.

When the local council licensed a peice of land to use to use as a community orchard we had a lot of trouble with the council because we do meet their criteria. For them to be happy with us a group we basically need to be a limited company, in England its shown by having a Ltd sign after our group name. And the Ltd sign means we are incorporated.

Does this make sense to you. I have just grasped the concept now because I attended an afternoon workshop to teach about Social Enterprise ! hehehehehehe i really don't see why you should be spared from all of this jargon and hoop jumping if I have to get to grips with it.

Social Enterprise and incorporated add up to one thing. We would be an offiacally recognised group able to trade as we see fit for the benefit of the community.

We have been looking at CIO's, CIC's, Charitable status, Cooperatives, and its been a heady plod for me.

But one thing finally made the breakthrough for me. The lady leading the workshop entioned that we'd be setting up in business with partners to buy and sell stuff so we should feel safe with them, (the partners).

Thats when the penny dropped for me, and I thought "Blow all this fancy talk of Social enterprises and what model we need to choose, we're setting up a business".

Its simple. MASTT will be run more along the lines of a business with a single aim in life---- to serve the community. We'll have to produce accounts and have them audited properly. Have proper meetings and keep records, which I'll  point out that we already do this stuff, but it means that big organsiations like the local council will feel safe in dealing with us. So, for instance when the council struggled to find a good way to lease us a piece of land, if we had been incorp'ed the structure for protecting us from disposing of the land in any way would ahve been in place already.

Phew I'm glad that I got that off of my chest. Its been bugging me for a while.

Social Enterprise, as a term gets bandied about too easily IMO.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB6urWmrM4k The last track of The Orb CD. )

Yes this term of SE is chucked about so easily and it gets assumed that everyone who hears it already understands, well I didn't but I do now and hoepefully this bundle of thoughts will help spell it all out for you.

We'll be having a meeting to sort the form of incorp. we will pick in the near future. I'll tell you more as it happens. Now I'm heading back to the online game I play most nights for a while as it settles me down nicely pre-bed.

Night night.

And this is the number thats hits my spot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qgum7hFXk

I had started with a light bit of Regina Spector, yep i mentioned her a few times already elsewhere.

Drifted into a little bit of Laura Veirs, whi sings in a divine way.

But now its this hard hitting Spanish guitar played by these two little darlings.

I am knackered tonight, we've been up to the orchard today, a few of the usual darlings turned out on a misty day, we got all of the tree guards , except one, timbered up. Yeeeeehaaaaaa

And we met this week to finalise our order for 18 more trees, they arrive next Friday so on Saturday, ( yep this is becoming a recurring theme in my life) I'll be up to the site to plant trees and finish the tree guards.

Then it'll be time to rest from all that ache of tree guards and trees and get into the garden again and get ready for the spring. God, I cna hardly wait.

Yet another occasion where you the poor reader looks at  Pip's Blog and thinks "What the hell is this guy on about now? "

Easy to explain. Just follow along and maybe you will learn something to your advantage.

I sometimes need a laptop, well truthfully I don't need one, I want one, I like precise talk.

But it would be good to have a laptop present for MASTT meetings now we are entering our next phase of development, we are looking at becoming a Ltd company, or should I call it "incorporation" ?, damn but I have come to hate that word.

We want to make ourselves more effiecient, using proper meeting stuff like minutes and agendas , which we do do  but haven't always managed to do everytime in the past.

We need to make ourselves more accountable and thats where a laptop comes in for me. I can do minutes, I can type those things, and then the minutes and agendas for a future meeting could be posted to e-mail addresses very quickly. Maybe they'd be delivered straight after a meeting before an attendee could even get home.

Well you've seen the adverts on TV for a free laptop computer surely, the freebie comes with a deal for a mobile phone connection so you can use it anywhere that there's moblie phone masts and coverage.

The trouble is the price.

They cost between £25 and £40 per month and you're tied into a contract for 18-24 months typically.

I've been looking at these offers covetously, I want one, although I don't want to pay for a laptop that costs peanuts in real money and is inflated up to a hideous price.

Do the Maths, say you take the laptop @ £30 per month for a contract period of 18 months,

 thats £30 x 18 = £540, and thats with a contract too so it'll probably be hell to wiggle out of if you find it don't work so well orquite how you want.

Thats £540, when the laptop can be bought for possibly £300 at retail prices, when we gotta know that the laptop possibly costs a fraction of that price . Thats an awful lotta money for a mobile phone connection for the 18 months.

So I was telling this story to AR when I saw her today and she started telling me about--------------Dongles.

It turns out AR's sister has one.

Yep there's a gadget on the market called a dongle.

It plugs into the back of a laptop computer, well actually it plugs into the USB port, and gives the laptop a mobile phone connection. You buy one of these Dongles with a smaller contract, yep heres the link folks for Dongles

http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/guides/what_is_a_mobile_dongle/#

You buy these little gadgets with a cheaper contract than if you were going for the "free laptop", you need to buy a laptop instead but if you shop around it could eb as cheap as you want it to be.

Hell, laptops sell for £200-£1000 depending on what specs you want on the machine. but if like me you go for a cheapish machine and a " Dongle " you could after the purchase of the machine only be left with a reasonably priced contract for the Dongle.

Come on check it out. I'm going to be hcecking this new gadget out. Heck I'm a sucker for new gadgets.

But this could be my best buy ever. And then I could be blogging from work or the train into town, or the garden.

I could be downing tools and grabbing the laptop to chat to you lovely folks out there in blogland. Imagine that

What is it ?

Well thats for you rto word search on google or whatever search engine you use.

I do too many searches for you folks, its time you learnt how to perform such simple tasks yourselves.

Well,,,,,today was the 1st day of the Permaculture course I've enrolled on.

Its in Leeds,  geeky fact here---Leeds was proud in the past to boast of being the motorway city of the 70's .

Yes the course is in Leeds, I went across on the train with RL who also is on the course. We took our bikes, damn but my butt hurts tonight, I haven't been riding my bike for 3 months during the really awful winter weather. But today it was lovley clear but cold weather. Perfecto for riding of the bicycle. When we almost missed our connection back from Leeds and RL said we could always ride home I could have cried at the thought of my poor little butt hurting after that injustice.

But the train was on time. Phewwwwwwwwww.

The course was groovey. 20 of us course'ees and 4 of the trainers. We did mostly basic learning eahc others names and some basic lessons about what Permaculture is.

You still have to look it up yourself. Hehehehehhe (wicked LOL's).

One bit we did do was to be sent out of doors to search for "What does it mean to be alive?"

Lovely sort of stuff which is right up my street, not literally as we were in Leeds still.

I went with 3 others outside into the daylight, and I thought wow this will be easy, its going to be all concrete and angular building out there. Hey its the  city after all. Know what I mean?

But I was so deluded, we walked a bit up the road and there was a canal flowing and a river , and  damn me a park.

It was Kirkstall Abbey. An old monastery knocked down by nasty old King Henry the 8th, I think.

I have to admit that Leeds is in fact a beauitful place down near Kirkstall. Really beautiful.

Wide open spaces with grass and stuff growing. You know? Trees and much less of the cars intruding inot places where children learn how to ride bikes, and lovers walk hand in hand.

Oh, I'm sure there must be some ugly places but its easy enough to find beauty in the most unexpected places like I did today.

I'll write more about the permy stuff another time, I gotta go to bed now, its another early start tomorrow , and its sunday tomorrow, no lazing around for me.

Night night folks sleep thight , don't let the bed bugs bite.

Happiness for me is ................................finding my ipod after loosing track of it before xmas.

Oh happiness its like finding a long lost friend.

I've just listened to Regina Specktor, God she is so good.

One of my favies from her is.....called "Somedays"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAMJRFRSY2E

And now I've got a retro blast playing....................................yes folks its the BeeGees.

Hehehehehehehehe yep i like the Beegees, how unfashionable of me. I don't care, music is the vehicle to happiness sometimes. and if the BeeGees do it well what can we say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpqqjU7u5Yc&feature=PlayList&p=8EADAC3CA9D2299D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=80

Enjoy

Today sees a wonderful sight on the orchard - 5 of us made the trip to the site and we've made fantastic progress.

We now have 22 tree guards timbered up and 17 are chicken wired up too !

This is wonderful happiness shining glistening happiness for me.

Thanks to MC, JA, JM, JD and Meself, for a job well done.

Don't get me wrong here there's still a fair amount of work to get completed onsite, but enough is now completed to make me a very happy chappie. It won't be such a pile of obnoxious  cack to get that little bit more done now.

I can also tell you that one day soon(ish) I'll sort out the bugs in my head to allow me to put photos on these wordy blog things. A few pictures would be just fine and dandy.