Out On The Tiles

    Our philosophy on life is the old and well worn mantra, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Why spend your hard earned moola on new stuff when there is perfectly good stuff available for free or almost nothing. Every time you buy something new you are using up valuable resources for no valid reason.

    With this in mind we are keen addicts of freecycle and freegle in our local area. Just last night we collected a used toilet, a couple of beds and a great treasure... 307 roof tiles in perfect condition. They were collected from a builder who had been doing repairs on a property and just wanted to get rid of them.

    Big result!

    Here are the guys unloading. We have no exact plan for these at present but you can be sure we will put them to good use soon.

     It's mind blowing to think of all the raw materials that have gone into the products we have bought over our life times. Think about all the energy consumed to collect, process and transport all those raw materials and the energy used to make the products. Then think of all the energy to drive the ships, planes, trains and vehicles to ship the products around the world, just so you have the latest thingamy Dyson Mc-i-wotsit, just like the neighbours thingamy Dyson Mc-i-wotsit. We are all a bit susceptible to advertising and peer pressure but maybe it's time to actively say 'no' and start to reduce, reuse and recycle, all the time!

    Why not find your own freecycle or freegle site and become a member. Not only can you give your unwanted stuff to people who will use it but you can also collect your own items from others and save yourself a little money. And best of all... it's free to join and use! Good luck!

http://uk.freecycle.org/
http://www.ilovefreegle.org/
http://www.ilovefreebiesuk.net/free-cyclesites.htm
http://www.freegive.co.uk/

What's Cooking Arnault?

    So what will you do if you come to volunteer with us, here at Radford Mill Farm. Well we do our very best to try and vary the work but when it all comes down to it, we have a lot of manual work in the soil (I'm trying not to say the 'W' word ...  weeding!). It's an organic farm so to produce great tasting healthy food, the weeds are a part of our life! C'est la vie :) 

    Sometimes though we change things around a bit. A snapshot of the tasks from today is as follows: planting leaks, picking gooseberries and blackcurrants (and weeding them), weeding out an invasive species (Himalayan Balsam) from our willow plantation, repairing a trailer, planning a rainwater harvesting system, doing improvements to the mill building, collecting a large number of old stone slabs and a used toilet for reuse (thanks freecycle!), more planning for our soon to be fitted new solar photo voltaic systems and of course everyone over the week, takes turns washing up and cooking. 

    Many people find it a challenge to cook for 10 or 15 people but theres always help at hand and once completed, you can enjoy a great sense of achievement, when you produce a nice meal for everyone. Don’t forget to cook something for the vegetarians though!!

    Here’s Arnault from Brittany, one of our long term WWOOFers, cooking us all pork chops, which were yummy! Arnault will also give you advice on anything to do with Cheese because everyday is cheeseday! Arnault is also a big fan of cakes and is a dab hand at making them.

    This chocolate treat graced our dinner table for nearly 2 whole minutes! You can't buy any of Arnault's cakes as we are guarding them with a high security fence but we will be selling our freshly picked, organic gooseberries and blackcurrants throughout July. You can get these at the Radford Mill Farm shop, in Picton Street in Bristol. Pop in if you're nearby and treat yourself! 

www.facebook.com/#!/radfordmill

It's Not All Fun, Down On The Farm

    Working hard as we do, to grow our crops and bring them in, we work our machinery and tools quite heavily too and sometimes they break. It’s quite frustrating at times but fortunately we have a number of people with some engineering skills, to get things moving again. In the last few days the safety brake on the chainsaw and the steering arm on our little Yanmar tractor have both failed.

The Husqvarna 230 is a cracking little chainsaw

    The chainsaw part was a nice simple fit once it arrived, courtesy of an excellent ebay shop. A quick clean of the air filter and a top up of chain lube oil and its ready and safe for action.

 Yanmar mid repair

    Here is the Yanmar mid repair, with the kingpin and bearing in clear view. Of course the spare seal we bought to compliment the new steering arm wasn’t the right size!

Our Yanmar Workhorse 

    The Yanmar 1500D is our main workhorse for all the small jobs on the farm. We have 5 tractors in all and the bigger ones are used for lifting and ploughing but the little Yanmar mops up all the small jobs nicely. It’s perfect for shifting loads of stones, soil or building materials around and moving tools or irrigation water to newly planted leeks and squash. A quick trip to Shepton Mallet and a new seal for £3 will get her back in action shortly and we shall be working and smiling again. Yesterday evening after dinner we had a lively debate about whether work is necessary to be happy. A working Yanmar certainly is necessary to keep the farm running smoothly and happy!