Cairn Of Dunn Croft Permaculture
Cairn Of Dunn Croft Permaculture
We are Andy and Gabrielle Williams.
Cairn Of Dunn Croft is a 5 acre permaculture smallholding in Caithness, in the far north of Scotland.
In 2018 we bought a croft with a derelict house and barn. This channel documents its transformation to a permaculture paradise. A mosaic of food forests, pastures, ponds, swales and livestock systems.
We use permaculture design to build a croft that meets virtually all our needs, beyond sustainably. We don't aim to be low impact, we aim to maximise our impact on the land by becoming truly regenerative.
It's not just our home, not just a business, a croft, a garden or a demonstration site. It's a permaculture life.
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The tree from Robin Hood. Prince of Thieves 1991.
I just got a bunch of Amercan Elder at the Edible Landscaping place, we have a ton of wild Elder that will cross pollinate these two, and i'm planting them out front with lots of sun!
You should explore domesticated wetland plants like taro and rice for example. If you’re looking for timber trees that thrive in swampy temperate conditions i would emplore you to get a hold of some kahikātea seed and huon pine seed. Ka is endemic to NZ and hu to Tasmania. I’m growing some seeds for the swamp below my house. These seeds are a little bit high maintenance as you will need to grow them in a shadehouse environment until theyre ateast half a meter tall though the taller the better according to the climate
Taro won't survive outdoors here, and rice is very challenging this far north because of the day length. We have run trials with it though.
I wonder if that's the same stone they used to construct all the stone walls you see across the highlands (Outer Hebrides have tons of them anyway). I recall reading they were all excavated from the crofts themselves and just moved around by sledge.
It's likely to have come from a small quarry two fields away.
Oh, you guys are going to have so much jam :D
I hope so!
Hey I bought a chicken coop door that's automatic and solar recharging for about 50$ and it's been working great for a year. If you really want ducks you could buy one of those systems? I don't recommend ducks though.
I do keep ducks, just not on that pond.
Amazing! Just wanted to ask - I notice you've planted lots of stuff in your ditch! We have a ditch running round our croft too and I've been tempted to plant willow all along it since it's nice and wet. Did you have any concerns about drainage being inhibited at all? Or even legal issues if it's running beside a road like ours? Not technically sure I'm allowed to do it since it's a public road either, but oh well - guerilla gardening!
I've planted along the top of the bank rather than in the ditch itself, so there shouldn't be an issue.
@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture that's a solid shout!
This is really cool. Do you know if it will produce fruit? You can always wait for the grafts on the wild pears if it doesn't.
It should produce fruit soon, because it's effectively an old tree already.
Grafting is just a great wonder of nature. I would like to better understand what would be the most appropriate state of the tree that would be used a host. I assume one should aim for the healthiest, well established and local climate hardy tree they can find. Did you go for the hawthorn mostly because you had it available?
Yes, mostly. I have a lot of wild pear in the shelterbelts I'll graft to later, but they're too young yet.
That's interesting. In Norway pears are traditionally grafted onto rowan stocks since the climate is too cold for pear trees. I've never heard about hawthorn being used as stock before though.
Excellent! You are bringing so much variety to the Far North.
Thanks!
I wonder could you do a hawthorn pear cross....
As far as I'm aware they won't hybridise.
Wow!! Great, GREAT idea! Gonna try this-- yes, i love pears, and have other trees, and live in a remote area, no produce available to buy. Thanks, and best wishes 🍐🌱
Thanks!
Oh cool. Have seen apple and pear swapped onto the other stock tree. But not on hawthorn before. 🙂 Made me remember a lot of grafting experiments my and my Nanna did together.
That's very cool! I didn't know pear could take on hawthorn at all 🤩
Medlar too, it's a very cool technique.
Unbelievable this, didn't even know you could do stuff like this. How do you graft it to the tree? Have you got a previous video
I'm not great at grafting yet, so haven't made a video on it. But it's a simple cleft graft, there a loads of good resources on the subject on KZread.
Had a similar thing when we lived in Ireland - there was an old cart track on part of the field, similar in that it was submerged in grass. I didn't really notice it until I tried to put some drainage in, was an absolute nightmare to dig in 🤣 I chatted to the local farmer and he knew about it, that one made some sense as it was basically on the way onto the land from the house/road. I like your idea of quarrying it. Depending on how much below ground it is perhaps it might also be a useful area for plants that like well drained soil if you're on clay?
It's pretty much flush to the ground and large rocks.
If you use skimmed milk, nearly no curds will form. Skimmed milk is the residue of making butter from milk. In German it is called Buttermilch 'butter milk', in Dutch 'karnemelk'.
You didn’t mention Building Standards (Regulations/ Codes for those not in Scotland) As far as I recall from my days as an Architect, this would not be permissible, and probably illegal, and void your insurance. Please set me straight if I am mistaken.
Why are people who are opposed to mass heaters, always so angry?
@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture Who is opposed, and who is angry? I love rocket mass heaters. Regulations are there to protect folk. As you said, a poorly built one is potentially dangerous. It would be difficult, though not impossible, to regulate the design and construction. As combustion fuel as a prime source of heating is likely to become not allowed, I don’t see this happening. This is a real shame, as it is very appropriate in many rural areas. The CO2 it adds is negligible. (Though growing trees, then burying under clay soil to capture the carbon is better
Whilst I think these are great, not sure about your claims of efficiency. ( please prove me wrong!) Perhaps over the worst open fire. But a good wood stove is, say 60% efficient. I guess yours is maximum 90%. So some facts to back this up please. How much fuel do you use. Did it replace a wood stove, so you have a comparison. How big and well insulated is your house.
All these challenges of the efficiency of a mass heater I think are because of a misunderstanding. A standard wood stove only heats when it's running. A mass heater heats for days after it's been run, and you have the option of sitting on the mass for conductive warming, which is something you can't do with a conventional stove. Comparing a wood stove with a mass heater isn't a level comparison, they function differently.
@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture point taken. Yes apples and oranges, but both still fruit. It would be good to see an episode giving the fuel use over winter. And details of your house. I run a small wood stove, mainly just for a few hours in the evening. My house is all brick, including internal wall so holds the heat quite well. Insulated cavities and good loft insulation. I burn trimmings from the garden, plus I am trying out wood brickettes, I got a one ton bag for £100, and that will last a winter, supplemented with found wood.
I had chickens dig up a bare root of horseradish that never got to grow for a whole year they just kept getting to it. Stuck it in after I redid their run, and this year the horseradish is growing fine.
It's tough stuff.
If that road is fairly old it's possible that it should be preserved for cultural heritage reason. Do check with whoever is responsible for that sort of thing before digging it all up!
Can I suggest a frivolity? Creeping nasturtium. Easy to grow, not invasive, edible leaves,, flowers, and seeds. And pretty§
We grow them sometimes.
I know the feeling you're having now the horseradish is planted. I've put so many plants and trees in the ground over the last six months that we've carted around in pots for years, I'm almost beside myself with the release! Good job.
Thanks!
Thanks for the effort! What kind of temperatures are you getting over there this time of the year?
It's up into 20s now, but at time of filming it was just above freezing.
The caps you've used for marking pathways - I have lots of orange safety caps from marking/protecting rebar ends during our foundation pour. You've given me a good use for them!
We foraged dozens of them that were floating along the edge of a reservoir years ago, they've been incredibly useful.
My favorite part was watching your teddy bear ears flapping in the wind. 😂 Time stamp 15:16
Glad you enjoyed it!
It would be interesting to see how much materiel you do have still left in that area. As with most things some of the material may have been robbed out over the years, but hopefully you may have still a significant amount to be able to use. 👍
Hey Andy love your videos, been following your journey since near the start, great to see it coming along. If you ever have time I would love to hear you recommend some books on permaculture and the likes in a video.. god bless the good work.
Thanks so much! I have a video along those lines planned soon.
i second this!
Congratulations on finding your own better-than-a-quarry!
Thanks! There's a quarry two fields over from us, so I keep hoping I'll hit solid stone one day, but until then this will no nicely.
do you know any one with any ground penetrating radar equipment?
Unfortunately not.
Love it.
Thanks!
There are a few of these videos on KZread, for some reason nobody ever talks about the lid on the jar. Do you tighten it by trial and error, do you tighten it until you feel a little bit of resistance, do you tighten until you feel resistance and then back off a little. I'm guessing you can't really screw down on it hard where the machine won't be able to suck the air out of it.
Generally I tighten fully without really cranking it down. Too much force can deform the seal so it won't be airtight.
That little digger needs a raise!
Agreed. But what it really deserves is to come live on the croft full time. (I really want a digger)
@@CairnOfDunnCroftPermaculture hahaa dont we all?
That video is very helpful 🙏🙏
Thanks!
Read about AMOC. The AMOC reaching its shutdown state, caused by Arctic meltwater, is going to stop carrying you hot air from Florida. The growing season may not be affected so much, but winters will be killer. Speaking of wind, I tried to seat an aspen shrub that had gotten to about 3 meters height and got cut down and carelessly left in my front garden in the ground in my back garden and it got blown over. I'm gonna have to reseat it and dig the hole deeper, but I think it's not long for this world anyway as it hasn't had a root system for six months or more. Upd: holy [censored] that is devastating. Looks almost like nuclear devastation.
Thanks, it's a challenging site!
How about instead og one cutting pr 20 cm you put two and angle them opposite ways and end up with a mesh ( if that's the right word) ? Any conserne with this idea? And those 45° ,beneat the railing will they sprout and seal of the whole fence? Btw. I love your projects!✌❤
Yep, that way can look very attractive and a lot of people do it that way without issues.
Sycamore is a non indigenous species, the national trust is actively trying to remove large Sycamore seed trees. I hate the 2 guys who cut down that tree, I went and looked at the stump last month. Will it recover ? not showing any sign of regrowth when I was there a few weeks ago. Crowd fund a replacement large tree, if it costs 1 million it would have been doable just after it was cut down but not now as it is old news.
Inspirational... Beautiful heater couch! Thankyou lovely man.
Thank you!
How do you ensure you are getting lots of various varieties?
Every nut is a new variety, potentially. I try to source them from different places when I can though, just to add diversity.
Love this from the ground up solution; kzread.info/dash/bejne/nn5lpbuaqK_TYc4.html
wow. you really are going through it. good to hear it doesn't (show?) affect your spirit. i'm hoping to get up and visit sometime to see this work in person. i think someone else has said similar, but would earthworks around the poly help? even if partial height and just on the sides facing into the prevailing? stick with it
Absolutely yes, there will be a lot of berms going in whenever we build in future.
We have had more extreme wind events even in inland vIrginia than I've ever seen, we have wildfires like the western mountains and that was absolutely unheard of a decade ago! Was living in the High Sierra and gusts of 100 mph were not unusual, but here on the flatland east coast? That is really odd. I've been in Scotland in some of these storms that are "once a 100 year storm", but I've seen two in the past two years? This is not normal....
Hi mate weherr are ye from, Alba? Sorry Scotland? Cairn of Dunn, sounds as a place in Scotland I been in dunfermline, not to far the north crossing the firth of forth, Fife
I'm up in Caithness, between Wick and Thurso.
Got to watch those rising sea levels 🤣
Which climate change are you preparing for, the IPCC fantasy or the very real +10c reports from James Hansen...
If I understand you right, you're suggesting the IPCC predictions are far lower than the reality. I agree.
It hasn't been that windy this season really. We've had about 10 years of relatively calm, non-stormy weather. Its to do with North Atlantic Oscillation. In the mid 00's - early 10's we had much more severe wind & +NAO. Fair Isle weather was tracking this for many years & even that period was less stormy than the mid-late 90's. This year was what I'd call normal/revert to the mean north Scotland weather. Wind ramping up to 75mph during an extra-tropical cyclone for a few days is actually a fairly normal event.
Farmers who have worked the land since the 70s are saying they've never seen anything like it, and the data supports it's getting more extreme.
Climate change or massive geo-engineering; either way, it's getting extreme.
Wat a LOON, and the sad part is that your kind get to vote
Shouldn't you be off shouting at clouds or something?
Spell check does work, you might try it, but I know that can be scary for someone afraid of facts and science.
@@FoxyintheForest Don't concern yourself too much with my spelling, worry more about getting all your boosters in a timely manner
Is that supposed to be an insult? Wooooo. Good one bruh.
I envision (sorry if you’ve already addressed this and I missed it) a modified walipini with earthworks easing the transition from ground level to top of growing chamber. I don’t know to what depth your soil is digable, but maybe some inground foundation will reduce that sticking up in gale force winds thing. What have other cultures in exposed regions (yours included) built in the past and present. The sod houses of the Central US. Canadian plains. Mongolian plains? Rammed earth or adobe brick type structures at least on the windward wall? Watching you work through solutions will be exciting. Thanks for setting up your camera and taking the time to share.
We're fairly limited for depth here because of waterlogging in winter, but the plan is to compensate by berming along the back and sides, earthship style. Pretty much everything will be either partially buried or bermed around, in future. It's how people lived here thousands of years ago.