KW-42 Guardhousing around
The first frost came early. Real early.
It has been a mushroom picking sort of a week at the barracks. I’ve been out most days, meandering slowly and staring at the feet of trees. It’s such a beautiful experience, to be out and to be silent in the silent forest. Actually, most of our mushrooms come from the barracks itself, but the excuse to be contemplative outside the fence is too good to pass up.
And not just here. After a slow and uncertain start, with our subterranean colleagues maintaining a suitably mysterious start to the fruiting seasons, the forest which holds the barracks has exploded in shrooms every bit as much as Instagram has.
It seems that the abundance this year has encouraged everyone to get out and get mushrooming. This is good. I like it when my social feeds explode in nature.
We also had our first ground frost, and it was a hard one. The weather station recorded a minimum night time temperature of 1.7 C, but the weather station sits atop a pole exactly two meters above the ground. Which is where weather stations should be. The ground itself was a good deal colder. I don’t know how much exactly, but as the first frost of the year, it was a good’un. The afternoons are still warm, and we’ve managed to get one more mow in this week, but winter is definitely coming.
The manifestation programme for next year is to attract people to the barracks who want to build businesses here. They have to be appropriate to the ethos of the place and the radical authenticity of the pirate. That means, it should take care of a need of the place, and make a profit with the surplus. The herbs are taken care of (medicinal and culinary). I am manifesting hard people who have their own ideas, but were I to be asked for suggestions, the top of my list would be
A tree nursery. We like planting trees here. Doing it from seed, and selling some seems like a good fit.
Oils and soaps. When we crack the making oil at the barracks problem, the making soap problem is actually only a small step beyond
Charcoal. A very useful thing to have, but maybe not worth doing in any sort of mass production kind of way. It would be great to have some, and some left over for the shop though
Flowers. Despite all my growing knowledge and experience being targeted at filling bellies, I am a big fan of having an explosion of colour and scents as well
Bee-based products. Flavoured and natural honey, mead, candles, body butters and beard wax. No list is endless, but this one is extensive!
Eggs. From the start of the barracks adventure, I have wanted to rescue chickens. I love the idea of an old chooks home. Palliative care for former laying hens. They will still lay eggs. I know where we can sell all of them, even if I saved 60 or so of the adorable birds. It might not be vegan, but it might keep us in pig food.
I fully trust that the people who want to come here to be all entrepreneurial and stuff will find their path, and come with their own ideas. Those are just some of mine.
The main purpose of the barracks, though, will always to Be Useful. And that means the retreats and the visitors who bring so much, and hopefully take something with them as well.
And these, necessarily, have to happen in the summer when people are more inclined to do outdoorsy things anyway, but up until now, there has never even been the possibility to stay here over winter. It’s just too damn cold in the Big House. Which is why we are cracking on apace with the guard house. It’s super toasty warm when the Kachelofen1 gets going and we can squeeze a bed in to each side of it.
We shall put residents, volunteers and guests in there over winter, with an aim to airbnb it from next year!
Anyway, more than usual, I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you were going to start at mini business at the barracks, what would you want to come here and do? Or what would be your perfect retreat idea? Or even, what event would you want to organise at the barracks if you were to organise a barracks event?
I look forward to hearing your ideas in the comments. Otherwise, be good to each other, take care of each other, and that person who doesn’t join in much from work, go have a conversation with them. It might be good.
And until next week
your loving Pirate Ben
xoxo
Apparently, the English for a Kachelofen is a Masonry Heater. I did not know this 5 minutes ago. They generally have a fairly small firebox, but a huge mass of firebricks, usually built so that the hot gasses have to weave their way through to the flue, heating them up as they go. Via radiative heating, it can keep an entire house warm for 12 hours after the fire has gone out. The teeny tiny guard house has two of them!
A growing community is a good thing - I, for one, am excited to follow along and see what entrepreneurial activities sprout from The Barracks...