...
It's Not Easy Being Green
The family move into the house, and with the help of friends - beer guzzling students and local businesses, they plant crops, re-tile the roof and construct a wooden aqueduct from a stream to a water wheel, which it is hoped will provide enough energy to power the lights of the house.
A greenhouse is erected with a unique heatsink designed by Dick and made from recycled bottle glass to keep it warm, and the family acquire two pigs, ominously named 'Christmas' and 'New Year'.
Dick attaches a generator to the water wheel that powers all the lights in the house and the family enjoys a bumper first harvest.
A heating distribution system is installed to help spread the warmth from the efficient wood burning stoves to the rest of the house and to clear the house of damp. Dick and Jim make bio-diesel from chip fat.
Winter is closing in, but the heating distribution system is not working as well as intended - the wood burners can't quite keep up with the cold Cornwall winds. The children are off at university, spreading the green message. The well at the bottom of the garden gets a wind turbine-powered pump, and the water mains is disconnected.
Both the heat sink and the water wheel have proven reliable. Dick installs a solar hot-water panel to complement the wood burners in the spring and autumn. December 28 arrives, and with help from Mike the farmer, and Chris the butcher, the pigs are slaughtered and butchered on the farm. People gather for the big New Year's Eve party, the centrepiece of which is spit-roast pig.
A second wind turbine is erected, and a composting toilet is installed. Brigit gets into the cosmetics business by making her own moisturiser. Donnachadh McCarthy returns for a new ecological review. Result 9/10 (up from 6/10 before the move to Cornwall.)
