It's Not Easy Being Green - self sufficiency in the 21st century.

Skintmama

The slate ripping off upset me too and it is obviously no conservation and restoration project. I would like to have seen them salvaging what they could of the slates and reusing them on some of the smaller buildings.

Also, the house is and will continue to be part of Cornwall and it's history so I am not sure why they object to the listed building rules. They could have bought a building that was not listed and had more scope for modern green ideas. I felt the focus was more on self-sufficiency and less on green-ness. It will be interesting to see how it progresses and I admire them for having a go.

MATH

I watched this prog late last night wrapped around a coffee laced with baileys! It has the makings of a very good series and good on them for having the guts to change they way they live. I must admit I find some of the critics on this thread a tad irritating.

1. At the top of the programme they made it quite clear that they were going along the road to becoming more green but would want to balance that with 20c living, not every choice they make will always be a green one and they were honest about that so I don't think we sitting in our centrally heated homes should !!!!! about them having a flush loo:rolleyes:

2. How do we know the slates were good and reuasble? What were they made of? The roofer said the roof had been redone three times in the past and a lot of really old building have been retiled using concrete ones which the supports are too weak to carry. Maybe this is why they were scrapped Having lived in a listed building I can tell you you have no choice but to follow the rules even when you don't want to.

3. The mill race was elevated to allow for max drop when it got to the wheel, if you were to put a ground level gutter in you loose all the energy along the decline and gain nothing from the land drop.

I do agree with Austin that this style of country living is not an option for every one in the uk cos there is not enough land for us all to have 2/3 acres each. I too would have liked to see a second example of a 'normal' house going green as a more achievable goal for more viewers.

!!!!!! (part man. part warlrus) gets my vote and I wish him luck:D

sarahspain

Well I enjoyed it! :j

It was a good hours viewing which is hard to find these days.

newbiemum05

I really enjoyed the program - esp as !!!!!! (world's best tash grower !!) has a nice upbeat outlook.

Am I the only one who noticed all the parts where the green advisor gave tips, and showed how to make at least some of these ideas work in a normal city/town homelike his ????? - got some great info and ideas from his home !

I hope they show progress from the Strawbridge home as well as these ideas working on a smaller scale in a small city/town home.

Great replacement for "Jimmys Farm" on a Tuesday night !!

Will definately be an avid viewer !!

tr3mor

I don't think we should be critical of them having their comforts, it's all about a balance, the roof needed replacing as a matter of urgency, so they had to do what they had to do. I loved the waterwheel and the ideas of a willow coppice etc.

As for the £600k, bear in mind that it is a 7 bed farmhouse in Cornwall. A 2 bed cottage with a couple of acres in, say, Northumberland would be at most £200k, and all of the ideas would be just as useful.

As for !!!!!!, well, he's a legend. I remember the first series of Scrapheap Challenge, I wonder if he'll be inviting Bowser around for a few beers any time soon

thriftlady_2

Austin_Allegro wrote:

I think the way forward is to show that minimal impact, green, frugal living is perfectly possible in a normal suburban house like most people live in, for example I would have been interested in seeing more of the Green Audit man's house, as they said he lived in the centre of London.

Perhaps the BBC should commission 'The OldStylers'...?

I agree,whilst I enjoyed the programme enormously and shall watch them all I felt the chap living in London had more relevance to me.I would absolutely love to know how he produces so little rubbish-I think he said 2 dustbins a year! Also the Strawbridge's house cost £530 000 didn't it? There's no way most of us can afford that sort of property- mind you he was moving from what looked like the Malvern area of Worcs and property prices round there are high :eek:

More of the green audit man indeed

atrebor

even with washable nappies and recyclying I still have managed to produce a carrier bag full of rubbish over the weekend. Anyone know how the Green Audit man produced so little??

I second your call for more of the green audit man.

Austin_Allegro

I assumed that the green audit man was talking about the amount of actual rubbish he put in his bin, not the amount of waste products he produced.

If you used minimal resources and packaging to begin with, then recycle all your glass, metal, paper, (plastic?) etc, and composted all your vegetable matter, then crushed down all your remaining rubbish, you could probably do it, but it would be quite tricky and probably impossible if you had kids I would think.

tootles_2

We watched the programme and found it very entertaining and an acceptable replacement for Jimmys Farm.

There appears to be two families involved so the house is not their entirely, what they paid for it is really irrelevant, what they are going to do with it is the pertenant thing, they are obviously going to try and live in a sustainable manner as far as they can.

OK I agree that baths are a luxury, but the chappie from London did tell them that they should reuse the water to water the garden, whether they do so it not yet clear. It will be interesting to see if they do install a composting toilet and I will be interested to see how the project develops.......some of it is relevant to what you can do in your own home some not, you have to take out the bits that you can achieve............I too would love to know how he ends up with so little rubbish..... we recycle what we can, our bin goes out once every two weeks and is not always full...........

nabowla

IMHO the green lifestyle programmes & books seem very removed from 'real' life.
I'd love to see someone trying to go green whilst living in a modern one bed flat in London. Where I live there's only room for one tiny bin in the kitchen: no room for separate glass/paper/plastic/composting bins. The underground carpark has no allocated spaces for bikes and local kids get in regularly so it's not safe to leave bikes down there anyway. Drying clothes on an airer rather than the tumble dryer takes days (literally). Organic veg deliveries are impossible as we're all out at work.