Buying local brings us local benefits

Once again we’re seeing the value of buying local...





...Ian is working on the floor for the new eco lodge.

First step was to get rid of the old floor and non-structural block walls. We were going to break up the concrete and re-use it in gabions to build a bank and reinforce the front of the building (waste not want not!). But Martin Bragg, our local (and reliable ... and well-priced...) digger driver had a better idea - scrape up a temporary bund, build the bank with the recycled concrete, then cover over with earth. Thanks Martin, that saved a few pounds on difficult-to-fill wire gabions, gave us the structure we needed, and created a much better feature.

Next task was to source the aggregate for the floor. The first lot came from Jewsons in Okehampton (11 miles), but it arrived in a huge delivery truck that buckled the edge of the concrete drive and barely manoeuvred through the gate. So when we realised a local builders merchant, AMP building supplies, was based at Winkleigh’s old WWII airfield, that seemed much more sensible. Phil turned up in a much smaller vehicle, and instead of having to set up a business account, with credit references etc, he just said ‘I’ll leave the tab open if you’ll be wanting some more'.

And once that was done, we needed some custom-made steel ‘shoes’ to keep the existing wooden posts inside the building from penetrating the damp course (see picture). Sounds complicated. But luckily, Chris Hodgson’s engineering workshop in nearby Hollocombe was more than willing to help, even tidying up Ian’s sketched drawings before they went for fabrication.

It's surprising what's available on your doorstep when you look! It's good for us, and it's good for the local economy too - these are the people we meet 'down the pub' and in the village, and that make Winkleigh a thriving community.

Green green heating fuel

Here's some of our green heating fuel, three times green but not because it's green wood though...





...it's actually dry and seasoned - always more efficient in a wood burner.

More importantly, it's reusing waste - saw mill offcuts.


And it's local - the mobile mill is working a wood about 8 miles from us.


And on top of that it's a conservation project restoring an oak woodland by selectively felling conifer plantation. So the felling will be matched by a rejuvenated 'native species' woodland in our lovely corner of Devon.

And the icing on the cake? It probably saves us a significant outlay on heating oil for the house. OK, the house is 'cool' in the original meaning of the term, but we haven't had to buy central heating oil for about a year and a half now.

Here's Ian unloading the trailer.

And here's another earlier blog post about this source of sustainable timber - which we also hope to use in the new eco lodge we're building. The cutting list has been sent off already!

Recycled office paper

I've bought a ream of recycled copier paper. Not big news, you'd think...




...Except that I can't remember when we last bought paper, so this time I thought I'd make a note of it and see how long it lasts.

We just don't use it much - the prompt this time was needing to refresh the welcome information in the lodges and cottage.

We used to buy office supplies from Viking, but got so fed up with endless catalogues we asked them to take us off their mailing list. The last thing we bought from them was a replacement printer I think - delivered to the farm house door. A fat brochure was delived to the door separately the next day by courier. The paperwork was delivered to the door separately the day after that by the postman. And we'd partly done it to save driving to a shop!

This recycled paper came from a local high street retailer, though I've seen it in the big supper markets too. At least it's getting easier to buy recycled products now.

I'll add a comment on this post when the paper runs out. Sweepstake anyone?

Rainwater harvesting in recycled industrial containers

[Maggie] 2000 litres of lime and ginger body lotion, 1000 litres of tri enzyme rejuvenating mask and 1000 litres of Japanese camelia oil - supplies for our self catering welcome packs? Not quite...





They are four 1000 litre industrial storage cubes we'll be re-using in the new eco lodge to store rain water off the roof. Because of the legislation about drinking water quality in the accommodation we'll probably only be able to use rain water for flushing the loos, unless we get into energy intensive treatment sytems. But we'll see. Maybe a clearly labled tap in the kitchen and or bathroom?

The cubes have come from a local company, Barnstaple-based Devon Pallet Recycling. They cost of £48 each. A new one might have cost us up to £600. So thanks are due to our friend Paul for the tip. And good on Devon Pallet Recycling for turning waste into a marketable resource.

The cubes will need a bit of a rinse. Ian reckons there may be a litre or so of the lime and ginger left in one. If I get body lotion in my stocking in a recycled plastic bottle I'll not know whether to be apalled or impressed.

Probably appalled actually - lime and ginger isn't really me.

Buying recycled goods

[Maggie] It may seem obvious, but if we want to be able to recycle our rubbish we'd better buy it back again...




...otherwise there'll be no market. It makes sense intrinsically, but I have to admit I've only recently really taken it on board. Of course, we've long bought recycled toilet and kitchen paper. And charity shops provide our replacement teapots etc. But that has been more about not cutting down trees and reducing waste rather than closing the recycling loop.

So in future, I'll be looking out for products made from recycled materials as a matter of priciple. Yes, I bought these from Tesco. Some might question my principles there... But at least the labling was clear - they're made in the UK from recycled farm plastic. And today I almost got conned into buying 'recyclable' bags in Lidl. On the shelf it said Recycle rubbish bags. Bad English? An eco instruction? More like a fiddle. On closer inspection, the bags were made from recyclable, not recycled, plastic. Well, most of it is if you have the right facilities - but who recycles their bin bag?! Certainly not the council after they've collected it. Green wash I call it.

Buying a reconditioned phone

Ian has bought a refurbished / reconditioned phone. The scroll buttons on his old one finally wore out and he could no-longer read more than the first couple of lines of a message. So we had to change it.

The good-as-new ERI 200i came from Dextra solutions, ordered online and delivered to the door for £22.51 all in.

Ian's old phone will go for recycling too - once we've managed to get all the numbers off it!