Newsletter December 2012
Season’s greetings and best wishes for 2013!
And many thanks for the news and greetings you sent us in cards, notes, and messages, read with pleasure every one. They brightened the dark days of winter at LSF. :-)
Introductory
Helpers at LSF are sometimes asked to do extraordinary things, outside the call of normal duty. For example, a couple of years ago, two brave Americans were persuaded to sit up all night on ‘dragging monster’ watch. Well, more recently, one chilly morning in December, willing wwoofers were asked to help mop the drive. Yes, mop the drive. And they did, with mop and bucket, every puddle in every pot hole, all the way from lane to yard. Passersby stopped and stared as we mopped away, attempting to make the flooded puddle-riddled driveway presentable and passable for people coming to Carols by Candlelight.
And we did. By 5pm the drive was dry, relatively smooth, and candle-lit. Scores of people came, young and old, through the darkness, guided by twinkling candle light, into the yard, for mulled wine, mince pies, and to gather round the roaring fire or in the cowshed, where more candles provided light for the musicians and wishing pool fairy. And there, the evening proper began with this year’s shadow play, featuring Mr Turkey and a man without home. See the video below.
Shadow Play @ LSF Carols by Candlelight 2012 from Jacob Hirsch-Holland on Vimeo.
Notwithstanding Mayan predictions, 2012 was a decidedly good year at LSF. Buoyed by the security of a 25-year lease, we launched ourselves into the year with renewed energy, optimism, and ideas.
Projects & Changes
To keep the wheels of LSF turning, we use a lot of firewood, coal, and electricity, more than we like. We have always wanted to find ways to use less or ways to produce some of our own energy. Well, fuelled by this wish and encouraged by a government feed in tariff for home-produced electricity, we looked into installing solar panels onto the part of the big red barn roof that is south-facing. We found another Co-op that specialises in providing advice and panels, the Renewable Energy Co-op. And a jolly nice and competent bunch of people they turned out to be. Over a six-month period, they came, they saw, and they consulted, answered our numerous questions, and produced a proposal for 20 panels with a maximum 5kw output for the barn roof.
By mid-November, it was all systems go. First in were a pair of muscled scaffolders, who built a tubular climbing frame and platform to raise workers to the necessary heights. Next, our own builder Chris put in a number of extra roof trusses and specifically-spaced noggins to make the old corrugations strong enough to support the installation team and equipment, while poet in temporary residence George slapped on another coat of red oxide paint. Then the R-ECO team moved in with panels, struts, inverters, and all, and the photovoltaic panels were up in no time. The wiring, down to cowshed, across the yard to house, and into mains system, proved a little more tricky, the ageing LSF set up being what it is.
But all got done, set up, and signed off; and on Monday 17th December at 10.13am, on a normal working day at LSF, with various appliances up and running and pulling power, our old fashioned meter had stopped turning and clocking up the units. In other words, LSF was being powered entirely by mid-winter mid-morning sunlight. It gave us a terrific thrill. Roll on summer! We’ll have sunshine electricity coming out of our ears, or rather, running our show, and going back into the national grid.
The intention is to make LSF ever-more energy efficient. Next, we’ll be looking at insulation everywhere and the possibility of installing thermal panels to heat our water by sunlight.
In fact, 2012 also saw a complete Centre Kitchen re- fit, so this key communal space (remember all the eggs you have boiled, toast you have made, washing ups you have done, and good chats you have had there?) is now right and ready for an eco- friendly hot-water supply.
Events & Groups
One of this year’s big events, Summer Activities, was a wonderful international celebration of creativity, co-operation, and camaraderie. It brought together people of all ages from nearby, from around the UK, and from overseas and far away. It was just the way we like it: different ages, languages, skills, and interests to share. Tremendous people, terrific fun, and fabulous friendships.
Common interests and friendship are also key to the success and continuity of the many local groups and organisations that use LSF for their various activities. These include pre-natal, post-natal and regular Yoga groups, Pilates, Writers’ Cafe, Mum’s the Word writing group, Reading Group, Swindon Feminist Network, Breast-mates, Swindon Samba, Slack-lining sessions, and weekly Crafts Group.
We have also hugely enjoyed visits and events from Swindon Harbour Project for asylum seekers and refugees, St Werburg’s City Farm, DEFRA Compliance conference for local farmers, a Keep in Touch gathering for people who formerly lived on the Bruderhof Community, a Village Open Gardens Day, the Swindon-Ocotal Link AGM, and the first LSF Christmas Crafts Fair.
Participants at all these events made their way down our often-puddled and dark drive. In 2013, we are determined to make LSF more readily accessible by giving the drive a serious groundwork make-over and installing lights to use some of our solar energy to brighten the way.
Animals
In summer, resident Matt met a nice man in a van called Mervin, who keeps a few turkeys. Matt expressed an interest. Mervin gave Matt three turkey eggs. Matt put them under a broody bantam. The bantam sat, awkwardly but patiently, for four weeks. Then, one egg hatched and the bantam was surprised. The single hatchling has grown into a big white turkey. His head changes colour; he has a beard; and he likes people, plastic bags, and shiny cars, in an odd sort of way. He was, possibly, heading for Christmas dinner, but then, his luck changed and he was made the main character in this year’s Carols’ by Candlelight Shadow Play. This made him a ‘celebrity’ and saved his bacon, his beard, and his life. He now struts his stuff around the yard, in the paddock, and by the car park. Ex- resident Anna, who, by making a weird guttural sound herself, can get him to gobble-gobble on command, reckons that ‘It’s good to have a new feature creature at LSF’. Basically, to this chronicler anyway, Mr Turkey is a strangely attractive unfathomable oddball who brings an alarmingly pleasing new vibe to LSF and stirs something inside us that is slightly scary but with which some of us can identify. Come and meet him. You may or may not regret it.
The Kuni Kuni pigs, Charlie & Maggie, continue to thrive in the way that anyone would if fed twice daily on the best out of date imported fruit and veg our friendly local supermarket can provide; praised and petted by adoring children who find ferocious foam- flecked fangs, upturned snouts, and grubby eating habits attractive; and inhabiting a snug stable in a bed of golden straw. Their neighbours, the black sheep, Daisy and Lou, are currently away on what could either be called a romantic holiday or a sex tour. Basically, they have gone to the nearby fields of a friendly sheep farmer, to join his friendly flock and, hopefully, meet some friendly randy rams. If their friendship flourishes and results in a successful sexual union, spring should see black and white lambs frolicking hereabouts.
As ever at LSF, the flow brought other livestock our way. In May, the landlady of a local pub had a surprise. Her erstwhile duckling-less Indian Runner produced seven ducklings which, though cute, were deemed too messy, quacky, and young for life in a hostelry. With our up-duck numbers low, we were happy to adopt; and now have a healthy pond-happy family of four up-ducks and three up-drakes. Their comic up-waddle and perpetually puzzled quacking produces smiles in all who see and hear them.
People
Residents apart, there are numerous people who make LSF what it is. Willing workers from near and far have been numerous and wonderful. A key new member of the LSF working family this year has been Jessica, who, still only in her mid-teens, has proved to have all-round skills, wisdom, and sense of responsibility beyond her years. She is great company and has been a boon to well being at LSF, turning her willing hand to all manner of duties. She makes the best bread, super soup, and even understands the turkey.
Home-bred family ex-residents continue to thrive. Rosa’s design brand Rosa Bloom is becoming well- known and features regularly in London shows. Her clothing is sold via her beautiful stall at the summer’s major festivals.
But to ensure she remains one step ahead of other designers and suppliers, she needs to travel, think, and plan, year-round. Here is a nice little film of silversmiths at work on jewellery for Rosa Bloom.
And this is her website: http://www.rosabloom.bigcartel.com
Jake has gone on to become more than a juggler. Slack-lining and high-lining are now his new passions and take him to ever greater heights. He was a main attraction at the launch of sailing events at the Olympics, has high-lined for a sheikh at a FEI world endurance horse racing event, and for Swindon town centre shoppers at Christmas. The press has hailed him a ‘daredevil’!
Jake will be spending the first three months of 2013 teaching juggling and performance skills to vulnerable children in Nicaragua. He is going with a small charity called ‘Performers without Borders’. He has already raised the necessary funds but any further donations are welcome and would be used to supply the schools with equipment. Please see below.
www.performerswithoutborders.org.uk
uk.virginmoneygiving.com/jacobhirschholland
Anna’s work in the British Red Cross international disaster management department has taken her to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Malawi this year, to support humanitarian projects in response to conflicts, cholera outbreaks, and earthquakes. These trips have proved to be steep learning curves and have led to the acquisition of much new knowledge not only about universal human relations but also into the ratios of cement to sand in the construction of latrines.
Parents, farm managers, and long-term residents, Andrea and Matt keep themselves occupied, happily. Some days are completely taken over by routine duties, while others happen in more spontaneous, high-spirited, and joyful fashion. Certain jobs are always there but moments of happiness come unbidden. When work and surprise meld and mix, life is wonderful.
Notwithstanding this high level of farm-based job satisfaction, they did both manage to tear themselves away, far away, Andrea for sun, rocks and sea, and body-stretching yoga with friends in Turkey; and Matt, for a longed-for but tricky, yet delightfully-memorable trip with siblings round Paraguay. See http://paraguaymatt.blogspot.co.uk. Andrea came back tanned, tuned, and relaxed, while Matt returned rapturous, relieved, and ready for a run round Lydiard Park.
If you want to know more about the LSF people, their quotidian lives, awesome adventures, primary projects, or simple thoughts, please come and we’ll chat at breakfast or later round the woodstove.
Peroration

As 2012 ends, we are able to look back on the year with gratitude, for the terrific people with whom we have worked and played; the new friends we have made; the events we have run; the work we have done; and the development projects we have completed at LSF.
Here, to help put us all in good spirits for the New Year’s, is a link to a very short but, we think, delightful little video from a Paraguayan friend, Luis Szaran (he’s the big one with the baton) who is director of Sonidos de la Tierra (Sounds of/from the Earth) which takes music to young people, especially disadvantaged ones. He has been to LSF a number of times and is part of the cultural exchange of writers and musicians between Paraguay and Swindon.
We look forward to welcoming you to Lower Shaw Farm in 2013!
Best thoughts and greetings from Andrea, Matt, and, on behalf of all animals at LSF, Pond Frog.