Thankfully, these photos are not of our fields, which, though deeply soggy, didn’t actually flood – but of the flood plain of the River Leadon, a tributary of the Severn, that usually meanders quietly in its banks through neighbouring fields. During most of December however, it barged its way out of its banks and occupied many hundreds of acres of low-lying grassland, leaving it under a coating of red soil as it receded. This gave local livestock farmers a tremendous headache – first the urgent need to relocate stock from fields in danger of flooding, and second the difficulty of housing and feeding animals when fodder is already in short supply following last summer’s atrocious weather. The knock-on effect of a poor harvest will be keenly felt by livestock farmers during the months ahead, and I think everyone will be hoping for an early spring to stimulate grass growth and take the pressure off precious fodder-stocks.
The ‘holy grail’ for most smallholders is to be as self-sufficient in as many ways as possible, and weather-related events such as flooding bring home to us all just how reliant we really are on the infrastructure of the 21st Century! I recall writing an earlier diary entry on this subject some time ago (October 2009), pondering the possibility of becoming at least, less reliant on the supermarket, and at best, relinquishing the checkout and ‘loyalty card’ schemes altogether! So, how have we managed? Well, we continue to collect a small quantity of ‘Nectar’ points from the mega-Sainsbury store in Gloucester (it’s convenient, parking’s free ‘n’ easy, they stock items you can’t get from the local stores, etc., etc.) – all the usual excuses for failing to learn to be more personally resourceful and socially responsible, and blindly continuing to be an obedient consumer! We do, however, in rain or shine, make our regular pilgrimage to frequent the many and varied independent shops in our local market town, Newent. It’s a lovely trip out, and as well as the luxury of being able to buy a myriad of locally-produced products, we meet friends in the high street and stand for ages, blocking the narrow pavement having a good old chin-wag!
Continuing on the theme of self-sufficiency, we’d love to be able to exist off-grid. We have solar panels on a conveniently south-facing roof, and even on an overcast day between the end of March and the beginning of October we rarely need to heat water by any other method. We would have liked to install photovoltaic panels, but a survey confirmed our suspicion that our 16th century farmhouse roof would not support the weight! Try as I might, I cannot learn to love wind turbines, and the idea of having one constantly in my line of sight could not be borne.
So, life, as always, is a compromise between dreamy idealism, and what the individual decides he or she can or cannot do without.
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