After several long months, the Welsh border has opened and this week, we were able to explore our land for the first time in any sort of detail. This was an event now so loaded with hope and expectation, I almost held back, preferring the sweetness of anticipation (albeit the bitter and frustrated kind). What would we find? Encampments of vagabonds? Fly-tipping, Hostile locals? All were possible. Instead we found enormous hope and potential coupled with some hopefully not too serious challenges.

We have to start an ambitious project of this scale with some clear guiding principles. Otherwise, I expect we will lose our way in the face of conflicting options and budget priorities. What are our core values? These will inform design choices, materials selection and the lifestyle we create. Of course, there will be some compromise; we don’t have unlimited funds – or even limited but comfortable. We are scraping this together. So when I say our first guiding principle is to achieve energy self-sufficiency using only renewable sources while remaining stubbornly off-grid, my wallet contracts in my pocket with an involuntary spasm. This tech is very cool but it…