Hi there, everyone! Thanks for tuning in. This is the first of a flow of updates and stories from the S.H.I.R.E. Pilot Project down here in Manor, Texas at the Hundred Acre Wood. I'm excited to share with you what we have been up to; there's so much to say, I don't know where to start. In lieu of boring you with endless descriptions and chronologies, I think each time I'll just pick one "theme" to focus on. So here we go!

    A brief description of the space, so you can construct a picture in your head: The land is rectangular in shape and is a mixture of native grass pastures, about 40 acres of agricultural pasture, and a brushy forest of cactus, mesquite, and scrub oaks. Wandering around the land for just 15 minutes brings enthusiastic brainstorming about the potential of the space and what can be done with it. Near the north end of the property there are various buildings: a two bedroom house, barns and sheds, and a beloved old green shack, whose paint is flaking slowly off to reveal the weathered wood beneath. 

So far in 2010, the overarching theme has been growth! The year has started off on a productive note for us. We kicked off the year with our New Year's Solutions volunteer day on January 9th. Around 20 volunteers came out for the day and participated in various activities.

These included building water filtration islands out of used plastic bottles, mesh fencing and water plants, constructing erosion control terraces around the back pond, building bird and bat houses with reclaimed building materials, starting seedling flats for the kitchen garden and even picking rocks out of a field in exchange for hot cider and freshly baked pastries! It was a great day; very brisk and sunny with a high of 35. We have kept the ball rolling in the weeks since and whenever the weather is nice we are outside working on land improvements and projects. When the weather is more rainy and cold, we stay under the eaves and do research and planning for future projects and events.

On top of all this internal activity, we have had some lovely and interesting guests come to stay and are expecting three long-terms visitors to arrive by the end of January. It is fun to imagine all the progress that will be made in February with the help of all these eager extra hands.

As Sandor briefly mentioned in his article about the Hundred Acre Wood, we have three goats, two pygmy does and a Nigerian Dwarf buck. January is also a month of growth for them; I am happy to announce that both of our does are pregnant! We will have 2-5 brand new baby goats bouncing around sometime soon! The kids will be a pygmy/nigerian dwarf mix. We are raising all our goats for meat and milk; I am excited to soon be adding cheese-making to my repertoire!

I'll be sure to keep you updated as kids are born and veggies start producing! We are beginning out spring workshop series in early March, so keep checking the calendar to see when you can come out and learn how to build a wind generator or can that bumper crop of green beans and okra.

In the past year The New SHIRE Institute began a relationship with a Texan friend of sustainability, resulting in our first demonstration site.  We have put together a work trade lease with the owner of a property called The Hundred Acre Wood.  The owner of the Hundred Acre Woods intended for the land to serve as an event-space, focusing on sustainable practices.  We became involved with the project as sustainability consultants and green builders, partnering with the landowner to improve the property, "greening" the infrastructure.  We will help turn the Hundred Acre Woods into a sustainability demonstration site, holding workshops to showcase various green building practices and appropriate technologies.  This one hundred acre property is less than thirty minutes from Austin, TX, a city renowned for a vibrant music scene and progressive populace.     

Currently, the Hundred Acre Wood is being managed by four residents.  They work around the property, doing work trade to pay for the lease.  Lease credit projects are approved by the land owner in bi-weekly meetings.  The work being done on the land ranges from beautification, pond construction and maintenance, small livestock management and grey-water system development.    

Austin has been in a drought the past few summers.  This makes water issues a big portion of what       The New Shire Institute is doing on the property.  Before we arrived the property featured two large ponds to hold water and minimize runoff.  These work as a passive rainwater catchment system (as well as a great way to wash the dogs when they get muddy!) We have been improving the ponds by fostering the development of a functioning ecosystem within them, planting water plants from various local aquatic environments.

 
In addition to the human residents of the Hundred Acre Woods, three dogs co-inhabit the land, performing various functions around the property.  One of these is Brutus, a Great Pyrenees, acquired to keep the coyotes off the land. The other two dogs- Romo and Star- are vocal backup when the coyotes decide to try to come on to the property.  The dogs guard the three pygmy goats and seven laying chickens from many wild animals.

 
Eventually all the property will be used for farming but there is not enough time and labor to manage all one hundred acres.  In the mean time about thirty acres are leased to a neighbor for pasture hay to keep the land categorized as being "agricultural".  Additionally, the residents planted a small garden to minimize the amount of food purchased off-site.  The residents planted a future CSA field with rye grass and beans in preparation for the other crops to be planted as the weather warms.    

A one acre field was planted with rapeseed and rye-grass.  The rapeseed is a test plot for oil production to make bio-diesel. This trial run of bio-diesel production, from seed-to-tank, represents the sort of experiments The New SHIRE Institute will do more of as resources become available.  As we are able to put more land in production (and as we learn the ins and outs of bio-diesel production,) we hope to run a bio-diesel co-op on the property.  Ideally, this bio-diesel will be a mixture of waste vegetable oil and fresh pressed rapeseed.  The bio-diesel brewing equipment we will be using was acquired from Dieselgreen in Austin.

As additional labor, money and equipment become available, we will be able to increase the scope of our projects at The Hundred Acre Wood.  With such a large property it takes a lot of time to do anything.  Just moving stuff from one place to another can take a while: it took four weeks to burn half the brush excavated from one of the ponds.  Though intimidating in scale, this pilot project will allow us to test ideas as we create a sustainable living space.  Our hope is to get more projects going by exhibiting how we can make this property a sustainable habitat incorporating renewable education.  By creating one SHIRE at a time we hope to create a future into which we can be proud to bring our children.