The CyberGnome's Garden

Applications

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:47:14 +0100

This application post is temporary, for early applicants. Please post applications to the Haven project in comments to this post.

The Lady from DEFRA

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:08:46 +0100

Well, that was a lot easier than I expected.

It turns out that Silverfish knows some people who know some people. Once I’d explained Haven to him, he got me in touch with some of his superiors at the MoD. It seems they’ve been thinking about this sort of thing for a while, but from a military perspective - apparently the boys with guns don’t like the idea of an enemy they can’t shoot (names ReDs), so they’ve been wanting to look into new quarantine situations. The governments haven’t been keen on their pitch, though, mostly because it was a military pitch, it seems. Apparently the government don’t like the idea of the army setting up on their own private, practically autonomous islands. Too many countries have had rumblings about military coups.

So, this colonel that Silverfish introduced me to put me straight onto a woman at DEFRA. I suppose it makes the most sense to go through them, as we’re talking about taking unused land and setting up modern, small yield farming. It’s small yield, yes, but it’s farming, and apparently DEFRA are actually getting really concerned about this whole Rasvenous global threat GEAS are talking about. Food production is top of their list.

The nice DEFRA lady likes our plans so far, but the location is a bit of an issue. Thanks to the wonders of devolution, the site’s actually under the jurisdiction of the Scottish National Assembly (makes sense, I guess). She’s got people on the case, though, and they’re talking to Hollyrood right now, discussing freeing up the land for a government-backed sustainability research project.

Yes, she really called it that.

In the current climate, with so many things for the gov to worry about, it seems there isn’t the money to throw at research into long-term solutions - as ever, they prefer to put funds into plugging holes and waiting for the future to fix itself. If we have a future, it’ll be held together with gaffer tape, if the UK government has anything to do with it.

So, no funding, or at least only a little actual monetary funding, but DEFRA think they can sort out securing the land for us and throw us a little hardy crop seed to get us started - something their scientists have been working on.

I’m a little worried about that colonel, to be honest. I mean, it’s great that he got us onto the right people at DEFRA - that’s all moving faster than anticipated - but I now have horrible visions of soldiers coming in and trying to take over. Maybe I’ll have to be stern about no military presence. It would help with the quarantine situation, though.

No, that’s stupid. I do not want Haven turning into some sort of martial law military installation. Thank you Colonel, but no thank you.

Things are progressing nicely, though.

Haven Needs You!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:19:00 +0100

Ok, so, I guess we need to decide who we need.

Haven has to be fully self-sustaining, like a kibbutz for the catastrophe era, so the community needs members who can get the place running and keep it running.

On the food side, while everyone will be involved in the day to day growing (that’s part of the package - if you want to be part of Haven, you have to be willing to get dirty: weeding, pulling up spuds, sewing etc), we need professionals, too. At least a couple of real farmers, who know about growing grain crops and getting the best yields out of the space we have. And that’s just for the arable farming - we’ll need people who know about animal husbandry, too. There are already a few sheep on the island, but we’ll need a flock big enough to keep us in wool and meat, which means we’ll need a proper shepherd who knows about such things. Chickens are easy enough to look after, so a nice number of chooks will keep us in eggs and meat. Then we’ll need someone who knows about cattle - raising, milking and butchering. Actually, a butcher’s a good point - or at least a proficient game hunter, who knows how to kill, draw and dress anything we want to eat.

A vet’s vital, of course, to look after the health needs of the animals. And a doctor or two (or a doctor and a nurse) to do the same for the human inhabitants.

We can probably suppliment our diets with fish, too, so we’ll need some residents who know how to fish.

Then it’s the infrastruture side of things to think about. Engineers who can set up our power supply, so maybe specialists in renewable energy, who can set up and maintain enough wind turbines and solar cells to keep us powered, and whatever sorts of capacitors and transformers we’d need for a fully functioning local power grid. Maybe I’m thinking too big. Maybe we wouldn’t need a grid, just generators churning out enough juice for each individual house. A couple of turbines or a little solar farm behind each dome. See, this is why we need experts - this isn’t my area.

Also, a computing and communications expert to get us set up with lines of communication to the outside world and an intranet.

We’ll need a few folks who know about construction. The domes are meant to be fairly easy to erect, but we’ll need to level the ground for them and get them built, along with polytunnels and other small building projects.

Long term sustainability means kids, so we’d need a small scale education system, with a couple of professional teachers - a lot can also be taught by the community, like home schooling on a grand scale. Who better to teach the children about renewable energy than our engineers?

Oh, a mechanic, I guess, to keep any machinery going.

librarian-cum-archivist for the information archive might be a luxury, but it’s something to think about.

Who else do we need?

The mercenary realist in me says that we’ll need some sort of militia-style defence force, but I really don’t want it to come to that. I’m just slightly concerned about maintaining the quarantine when there are so many fugees about. All we need is one ReDs carrier to hop a boat over to Haven and the whole project, the whole community, is screwed. We have to be able to prevent that. I guess I know a couple of people at the MoD. Silverfish might have some ideas. Hell, he’ll have more than just defense ideas - he could probably help with most of the infrastructure setup. Definitely a useful geek to know.

So much planning to do!

Another snap from the island. Fantastic views.

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:29:35 +0100

Another snap from the island. Fantastic views.

All that’s left of the old settlements on the island are...

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:19:44 +0100

All that’s left of the old settlements on the island are heaps of stones. The views are stunning, though, and everything’s so lush - great for growing crops and rearing livestock. There are even sheep and red deer in residence.

This green and pleasant land

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:45:25 +0100

To quote a certain Hobbit, well, I’m back.

I decided not to log in while I was visiting the Haven site, because there was too much risk some troublemaker might zero my signal and spoil everything. Better safe than sorry.

And yes, I did just refer to it as the Haven site.

It’s perfect. A little tricky to get to, but that’s sort of the point - we’ll need to set up a quarantine ring if we want to keep ReDs out, so the harder the site is to breach the better.

It’s actually really pretty there - all green hills and sandy beaches. The plans shouldn’t make too much of an ugly dent in the natural environment there, so it’ll stay a beautiful place to live.

And there’s so much space! We’re figuring on a population of a hundred, so we’d need about a hundred acres for crops and livestock, plus space for living and infrastructure; the site’s a little over 2000acres. Even if only half of it’s useful, that’s more than enough room for all our needs. The wilder half will stay a little bit of wilderness on our doorsteps.

Even BigDamnHero admitted that the place is beautiful, and he’s a real urbanite so he’s been tough to convince that the plan’s the best course. He says he could see himself living at Haven. I can see it too.

So, I got on to Mongoose as soon as we were home yesterday and showed her the photos and a local map I’d managed to source. She agrees that it looks ideal. So, time to start making proper plans. The site’s officially actually owned by the government, which is perfect - no private owners to fight it out with. The idea of pitching it as a social experiment is definitely the best route, I think. If we can show the brass that we’re doing this for the betterment of blah blah blah - to test whether self-sufficient communities are sustainable. For England, James.

So, we have to figure out exactly how to pitch it to the .gov

Actually, I should talk to rhizomorphic - he’s a prof in London now, sow getting an accademic’s name on the paperwork might give it some extra force.

I need to run to the plots - they’ve been neglected for a few days - but then I’ll get down to work.

Project Haven is a go.

A Little Trip

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:57:10 +0100

Well, that’s sorted, then.

I’m taking a little trip. I told the Mongoose I’d look into the posible location, and I’ve got no more work this week that I can’t do on the move (how the hell did we live before laptops?), so I’m off for a few days.

I’ve got tickets. I’m taking the bullet up as far as I can and then I’ll have to organise a boat. Yes, a boat. We’re talking about an island, here. It’s the only way to keep ReDs out. An island, and no-one lands without permission. Enforcing that might be tricky, yes, but Silverfish has a lot of useful contacts at the MoD and I’ve already had a word with him. He’s interested in helping. And there’s Mongoose’s dad, of course. He could be very useful.

BigDamnHero’s insisting on coming with - he says he doesn’t like the idea of me going out into the wilds on my own, not in the current climate (and I don’t mean the weather). So he’s taking a few days off and joining me. My knight in shining armour. I suppose he’s right.

I remember when a ‘fast’ train up to Edinburgh used to take about six hours from London, but now you can hurtle the length of the UK in less than four. Thing’s will be a bit slower at the other end, but the location being tricky to get to is sort of the point. Sweet isolation.

BDH is packing now - making sure the tent’s serviceable and all that, and then we leave first thing in the morning. Strange to think that by tomorrow night we should be there, at the place which might eventually be home.

I’ll try to stay online as long as I can, but I doubt I’ll get much signal once I’m over there.

Here goes nothing.

Wish me luck.

Safe Haven

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:23:06 +0100

Guess what I did at the weekend? That’s right, I talked to the Mongoose. Lots.

We sat up for hours discussing things.

Discussing what it would really be like to set up a new home somewhere away from here. Secluded. Making our own power, growing our own food. A little haven of quietude.

We even talked about building a library there. So if the worst of GEAS’s predictions come true and in a couple of decades there’s nothing left, we’ll at least have saved something from the fires of societal collapse. With all the griefing and viralware out there, actually keeping stuff digitally for posterity just isn’t safe anymore. We’ve gone back in time and good old-fashioned ink on paper is the safest way to keep stuff. I mean, how much of my fiction did I lose when my account got hacked a few years ago? Stuff that I can never replace. If I’d had hard copy I’d still have it.

So, a library. Books. Reference stuff and fiction. Anything we can save. Take it somewhere safe and keep it. Not locked away so no one can read it - books are meant to be read - but secure and fireproof.

We even had an idea about how to go about it all without raising suspicions. Hide it in plain sight. The best way the tell a lie is to hide it between two truths. So how’s this for an idea: a social experiment. We get the ball rolling on this little haven and tell people it’s a social experiment. Like Big Brother, but with useful people. We get engineers, growers - all the useful skills - and we say we’re running an experiment to see if medium-scale self-sufficiency works. Just to run for a couple of years, to prepare for future projects when the shit hits the fan.

Only it doesn’t just run for a couple of years. We hand pick our little community and then we stay there. Safe and sound, making our own power, growing our own food.

Hell, if we pitch it right we could even get government funding - tell them it’s for the good of the nation and society, to find out what works. It would be true, but at the same time we’d be building a new home for ourselves, away from all the danger.

I even know where. Well, I have to look into it, maybe take a trip, but the place I’ve found… it looks perfect on paper. Better than perfect. Fertile, secluded and unihabited.

It could be home.

Idle Thoughts

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:25:19 +0100

I talked with the Mongoose lots at the weekend. We were have idle thoughts that were almost turning into the seeds of a plan. It’s a sort of extreme plan, but a very appealing one.

A haven.

The whole world starts to fall apart, but we build ourselves a nice little haven with self-sufficient living, clean energy and no reliance on the outside. A little idyll to call home.

I even started idly researching possible locations, based on the area and requirements Mongoose and I came up with. I think I’ve found a possible spot.

Obviously I’m slightly concerned that I’m turning into some sort of weirdo isolationist, but central society breaks down, fringe and isolation societies might stand the best chance.

Amateur Hysterics

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:13:12 +0100

My mother’s been watching the tv news (she still resists taking a leap into the 21st century) and finally heard the GEAS announcements, and then heard that a load of people went off the deep end and decided to make nicey-nicey with trains.

So what does she do? Call to make sure I’m ok. Why, because I might throw myself into traffic? I’m worried but I’m hardly hysterical.

Of course, at least she doesn’t have to worry about ReDS - she has the almighty aloe vera to protect her!

"Wouldn’t want to be a GEAS employee right now. I mean, surely they could have anticipated the range..."

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:07:58 +0100

“Wouldn’t want to be a GEAS employee right now. I mean, surely they could have anticipated the range of likely responses? Who made the decision to go public? And did they run their findings past national governments first?”

- Rhizomorphic

I feel an REM song coming on, and it isn't 'Shiny Happy People'

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:41:00 +0100

God, have you seen the leaked reports from GEAS? I’m not sure if they’re leaked or official, but I can’t believe they’d put out something so… drastic.

I mean, that’s all end of the world type stuff. And it’s likie the world’s suddenly gearing up for the apocolypse. And I’m not talking a Buffy Summers ‘it’s the end of the season so time for another apocolypse but it’s ok we can save the world with a yellow crayon’ sort of apocolypse.

Riots and mass shootings and. Not good. Really not good.

It sort of makes you want to run away and hide.

My news and chat feeds are going insane about some sort of announcement by GEAS. WTF?

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:41:00 +0100

My news and chat feeds are going insane about some sort of announcement by GEAS. WTF?

I got distracted from work by lots of waffle on my news streams about the colapse of society. It all...

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:43:34 +0100

I got distracted from work by lots of waffle on my news streams about the colapse of society. It all seems a bit overdramatic, if you ask me.

Anyway, I have to nip out to the north plot - told bigdamnhero I’d try to get the empty bed turned over this afternoon so we can get sowing.

Scrumpers

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:46:23 +0100

Almost forgot, looks like the veg thieves have been back. There’s a hole in the ground where there used to be carrots, and some tatties are gone, too. They’re going for the crops we have lots of, at least, so it could be worse, I guess. Still, I put a lot of hard work into those veg, and didn’t do it just so some sods could come and pinch them!

On my mind

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:40:07 +0100

The stuff we talked about last night over dinner has been stuck in my head today. I got some work finished this morning (God, remember the days when people actually commuted to work? I can’t imagine that now - a digital office is so much more practical, and all that time I used to spend travelling I can actually get things done) and then found myself surfing the net and checking out how much space is recommended for self-sufficient living.

This guy waffles a lot, but basically works out that you need about a tenth of an acre per person. Obviously you’d need more if you wanted to raise animals. I’m not quite up to raising sheep (though the wool would be good), but a bit more space for the birds would be good - lots of eggs and the occasionalt chicken feast.

So about 0.3 acres would supposedly feed the bigdamnhero and me, if we planned the space properly. I guess the plots we have add up to about a fifth of an acre, but it would be nice to have the land all together.

It’s a hell of a lot of work, though.

I’m really thinking about this too much. We’d have to move, for one thing, and we’re happy where we are.

I popped to the west plot after lunch and had a bit of a dig. The root veg are coming on nicely, and the late squashes are really ripening up. I think the blackberries are all done now, though, which is a shame. I like my berries.

Oh, and there are some nice apples ripening up. Now that the first tree’s nicely established I’d like to try my hand at some more fruit trees - maybe a nice pear tree, sans partridge.

Food for Thought

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:24:45 +0100

We had a bit of a dinner party tonight. Nothing special, just the usual suspects. It was a bit of an event, though, because it’s the first time we’ve made a proper dinner party type meal with all our own produce. Impressive, no?

We’ve come a long way. God, I remember when we first got the allotment. The brambles were over my head and it took a while to clear, and that first year all we managed were a ton of potatoes and a batch of onions. The bastard slugs ate my beans. Cut to ten years later and we’ve got three plots, growing enough stuff to actually feed us. Proper Tom and Barbara style.

We even had chicken tonight. I couldn’t bring myself to kill it, so my bigdamnhero stepped into the fray. I’ve got to say, the bird was good. They don’t have as much room to move as we’d like, but it’s enough to call them free range, just about.

I did a butternut squash soup to start - the squashes are a pain to grow, with all the water they need, but they’re lovely and sweet. Then the chicken, roasted with some of the wild garlic I found up on the Downs and brought back to the east plot. It’s really good. Not quite like cultivated garlic, but tasty. With the garlic and some rosemary (out of the garden, not the allotment). We had roast tatties and root veg on the side. And some nice green beans - the bloody slugs don’t get them any more. And then a berry compote and home made ice cream for afters. Ok, so I cheated slightly on the ice cream - we don’t exactly have the space for a cow, so I bought the milk. Everything else was grown with our own little, hands, though.

The wine wasn’t. I’ve never managed to get grapes growing properly, but I’ve found a nice little Sussex vintner who does a good drop. I’ll say one thing for the weather changes in the last few years - they have helped southern England’s vinyards. We finished off with a little of my homebrewed blackberry brandy, which was pretty damn good.

Good food, good company, and with everything being from the plots it got us talking about the old chestnut again. Self-sufficiency. We’ve being talking about it on and off for years - ever since Mongoose and I got the first allotment, really. We weren’t exactly going to live on the potatoes and onions we were growing back then, but I’ve always sort of loved the idea of just setting up a Pacific Dome in some secluded spot up on the downs with a sea view. A couple of wind turbines and maybe some solar panels to power it, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the power grid or the insane costs of buying electricity. A nice big veg plot, maybe with a greenhouse or two. Fresh, organic veg right on my doorstep. It’d take a lot of work, of course, but just think of it.

The simple life.

Tom and Barbara style. Except that I’m more Margo.

Mongoose would still be up for it, I think, and could probably twist Mr Mongoose’s arm. She was always organic this and food miles that. Still, even ten years on, I guess it’s mostly a pipe dream. I mean, what am I going to do, drop my life in town and just go off to live in the wilds. Can you get broadband in the wilds?