Two pieces of communication

In this last week we have had movement on our application front. On Tuesday we receieved a confirmation of receipt of our application from the mayor's office in our local town. This gives us our application number and lets us know that things are slowly turning. This was a joyful occasion. We deduced that if we hear nothing else before the 1st of June then we would be home and hosed. Unfortunately today I received an email from the second line of defence as it were in the application process and they had a fair bit to say but they also had some solutions which is good.

To put it bluntly the pitch of the roof is too great (it needs to be 35%, whatever that means), the window openings are not long and narrow enough, we have put in a fair few wide windows and it turns out that in this region the windows need to be tall and thin (like I wish I was :P), the garage needs to be simplified and we need to apply for a sewage something or other (this is where my google translate let me down).

They also said we were missing two parts to the application, one of which was the descriptive notice. Now since that fell under my jurisdiction I know, without a doubt, that it is done.

On the other hand they did give us a time and place to meet with a government appointed architect to help us with these problems so I am in the midst of trying to find somebody to attend the meeting for me as I can't really make it back and I don't think my French is up to it. Once I have done that then I can address the issue of the missing parts of the application and verify exactly what is missing and perhaps send it again.

This may seem like bad news but I think it is pretty good as they seem to be quite keen on helping sort these issues. Will keep you informed!

Permaculture: saviour of the world that nobody can afford

So I have been sort of interested in permaculture for a while and reading bits and pieces but now that we have our blank canvas to create I figured it was time to really come to grips with it. Unfortunately while there are a million and one courses out there you have to be a millionaire to attend any of them.

Permaculture is any system of sustainable agriculture that renews natural resources and enriches local ecosystems or the design, installation and maintenance of indefinitely sustainable human communities set in balanced ecologies, both urban and rural.

This seems rather strange as most of the people who follow permaculture and are interested in this sort of thing are people who are concerned with the state of the world and want a naturally sustainable, barter system to become prevalent so that we can halt the destruction. All of this is fantastic in theory but then they want to charge you hundreds of pounds to learn. Obviously if this is their livelihood then they have to charge something but it really isn't accessible to the people who would probably implement it the most out of sheer necessity, so they are cutting out a whole swathe of the population who would help save the world because they don't have enough money to live the consumer type lifestyle we are all caught up in.

I can tell you that when I finally come to grips with it I shall be extremely open with paying my knowledge forward!