How to Live Off-Grid by Nick Rosen

Author:Nick Rosen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2007-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

Agricultural co-operative

We set off for nearby Fivepenny Farm at 9 a.m. By ten we were completely lost. It was the only time throughout the whole journey that I regretted my inability to navigate the GPS devices. Somewhere we had taken the wrong road, and now I was trying to turn from one narrow side road into an even narrower lane. With Caitlin bawling in the seat between us, I shunted the Bus back and forth. There was a solitary house on the corner and an elderly couple slowly emerged, disturbed by the roaring of the engine. Their wearily practised instruction made me realise I was not the first driver to get stuck here, and with their help I finally coaxed the Bus around the corner.

It was then that we heard the sound of shattering glass. I jerked my head round to find a road sign poking through the broken rear side window bearing the legend ‘Whitchurch Canonicorum 1 mile’. It was one of those traditional narrow white village signs that symbolise the cosy, orderly regime of the English countryside. In every other vehicle I have ever driven, road signs are out there, separate, for information only, not part of the obstacle course. I just hadn’t included the height of the Bus in my steering calculations. The shards of glass were all over the floor at the back. Thank goodness for the Electrolux mini vacuum cleaner, part of my panoply of PR freebies. Praying that its cordless battery would not run down, I set to work. Half an hour later, with no more than a few cut fingers, I had transferred every fragment I could into a series of plastic bags. There were bound to be a few more shards lurking under the seats where only Caitlin could find them, so Fiona insisted I double- and triple-check every cranny where glass may have flown. Then, under the watchful eye of the octogenarians, I had somehow to reverse out of the situation I (or they) had engineered, make my way back up the lane and turn around in a field with an unlocked gate.

We arrived at Fivepenny Farm to find Jyoti Fernandes and her husband Dai Saltmarsh hard at work in the fields. They had a rush order from a local restaurant: two and a half kilos of mixed salad leaves in time for lunch. In 1988 Jyoti joined the Tinker’s Bubble commune which had been co-founded by Simon Fairlie, but tired of the communal ethos after five years, by which time she and Simon had become firm friends and business partners, co-publishing The Land magazine and running a planning advice service they called chapter 7 (www.tlio.org.uk/chapter7/). Together with another family, she and Dai bought forty-two acres near Bridport in Dorset on which they proceeded to demonstrate everything they had learned in their years of campaigning for the right of individuals to live ecological, self-sufficient lives in the countryside. They started farming within a few weeks of arriving, then built their cabin.

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