Legality of living in a yurt in the UK...

[Janne]

Could you use the soot to mix with BLO to stain? Or other oils maybe?

Next weekend I will start making Birch oil or tar from the Russian Birch I brought with me. Must have confused a security checker or two on the airports, transporting bits of wood, bark, bone.

There was a Greenpeace action in Lofoten while we were there. They put their city nosed in the local politics as usual.
Not the whale hunt, offshore drilling.
Of course their ship runs on bunker oil, the most polluting stuff. Saw them saiking about, black smoke pouring from the smokestack.

The big ferry Bodø to the islands runs on gas. LPG or similar.

I think the airport security thought we were Greenpeace.

 

[Robson Valley]

As long as the archaeological facts are acceptable, JA was able to weave quite a construct.
Clearly, it's many millenia condensed into less than a single lifetime.
Phytolithic evidence suggests that the ethnobotany is far older that we imagine.
Another rejection of indigenous livlihood.

If you like volume-based heat output, OK, but mass-based is factually different.
That's in part why the pellet industry does not use hardwoods.

I doubt that you could burn pellets effectively with your high humidity.
Sitting warm and dry over a summer here, they suck up just enough
humidity (and my house is very dry) to slow the burn.

What that means is that I waste money to heat the water in the wood and throw that up the chimney.

 

[Janne]

I did enjoy her books a lot, movie was ok too. Daryl Hannah?
On a tangent, we have now seen the third series of Outlander.

Have read the books, enjoyable too.

The 1700’ seems to be plausible and quite real. I know nothing about the British life and customs in that time.
Any thoughts?

 

[Robson Valley]

If all you can manage might be permission for a month, the capital cost of a yurt seems crazy.
You can't pull out and leave no evidence of your habitation, waste management will give you away
and contaminate the site for decades. Don't drink downstream from the herd.

Drilling bogs for pollen cores is usually quite revealing about ancient vegetation.
The technique and the palynology must work well everywhere.
Same puzzle = Doggerland is flooded like the west coast of the americas.
Travel evidence may be there but hard to examine.

Phytoliths are fascinating = little fragments of plant surface cuticles, starch grains.
The patterns are nearly as unique as fingerprints and wood anatomies.
Microscopic things, pressed into the surfaces of mortar & pestle grindiing stones.

Oral histories are so important here among First Nations, even now.
I have a modern textbook regarding the ethnobotany of Haida Gwaii.
Refreshing to read the negation of caucasian-imposed interpretations.

 

[Janne]

https://favim.com/orig/201105/10/amusing-comics-funny-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-lol-Favim.com-40130.jpg

 

[santaman2000]

I believe they say Grey Water in UK?

Not sure but "grey" water is more likely the non toilet waste water (bath water, dishwater, etc.) "Black" water would normally refer to the toilet sewage with human waste?

 

[santaman2000]

It's a different thing entirely though when you want to stoke a fire and let it burn for a long while. Pine races through as those volatile organics are burnt off, while our hardwoods burn with a good heat but slowly…and they don't spark and spit....

Likewise here. Hardwood is the preferred wood. It imparts better flavor to smoked food; gives a more even and long lasting heat (the coals will last all night if properly banked) and deposits much, much, much less residue on the chimney walls.

 

[santaman2000]

Archaeologically we find arcs of small post holes; from Africa to Siberia, from the Med to the Atlantic islands, from the old world to the new. Anthropology shows that these 'windbreaks' were covered with plant material. Leather is too hard to make to waste on sheeting exposed to the elements.

M

The local Seminoles and the Choctaw along the eastern Gulf Coast used thatched palmetto to roof their chickee huts with just the pole construction you describe. They sometimes wove a rollable wall of the same palmetto leaves.

 

[santaman2000]

....Condensation in an attic can simply be caused by opening the loft hatch to go up and fetch something down. We try to limit the number of times we open it up in Winter for that very reason.....

Sounds like your problem is going from a warm house into a cold attic? Ours is the opposite; going from an air conditioned house into a hot attic (attic temps can get above 150f. Sometimes closer to 180f)

 

[Janne]

I do not know.....
Should it not be “brown water”?

 

[santaman2000]

Possibly so Janne.

 

[Robson Valley]

In an open sewer, the water is actually gray. Black water is a term used here for human waste water.
Down the pipe, it somehow changes.
As I observed as the entire sewer pipe system in my neighborhood was totally dug up and replaced.

First Nations tipi were made of bison hide. Horses did not reappear until after 1510. Canvas appears after 1700.
Don't neglect the climatological evidence of the Grassland Biome of North America = it is nearly polar desert dry.
I lived in it for a couple of decades.

Buffalo Jumps can kill a thousand at a time. Natives tried to manage what they wanted and needed. Hides by the hundreds.
Ever cut up bison with a flint knife? I have. One of the most deceptively dangerous things that I have ever done in my kitchen.

 

[Toddy]

'earliest' doesn't really mean first nations Americans though, and those people were both culturally widespread, and material culture rich.

Grey water is the stuff from the kitchen sinks, baths, showers, washing machines. Black water is from the loos.
Grey can be simply filtered in a reed bed or the like, generally with no health issues. Black water, and it's contents, need more care, and moreso in populated areas.
There are really good reasons that the ultimate capitalists built free potable water supplies and decent civic sewerage systems.

M

 

[Theda]

Hello... I know this is an old thread... but I've just joined and haven't worked out hw to post a new one yet... please bear with me!
I happened across this very interesting post. I'm also trying to find a way of making a small plot of land viable so that I can live on it.
I bought a redundant pumping station on greenbelt land... it has a deep well full of potable water, so I could go off grid if I needed to... The building which housed the equipment is still on site, and has permission for B1 use but is very small at only 19' by 11'... To increase storage space, I have recently placed a grain silo on the land, but have now been visited by the planning dept, saying that it is unlawful development. Apparently, there is an article 4 direction in place, which prevents the usual Permitted Development... a shame as office buildings now have automatic PD to change use to housing.
I am currently managing the land as a small private nature reserve and would like to use the silo as a live/work art studio, but I doubt that would go down very well with the LA. Another option could be a 'glamping' site...I'm open to anything, really...
I wondered if anyone has an views as to how I might go forward. I am a pensioner and can't afford to continue renting as my savings have almost run out.
Thanks, Theda.

 

[Janne]

Wellcome!
I restored a Grade 2+ property, which is quite tricky, and found that the best source of information about what is permitted ir not, is the local council itself. Make them your friends, not your enemies.

Check old maps if there was a house there, and see if there are any foundations left. In my area (Wealden) that was sufficient to erect outbuildings if I could prove there were there before.

Ask them if you can place containers ( temporary) as storage for example.
Work with them, not against them.

 

[Robbi]

Wellcome!
I restored a Grade 2+ property, which is quite tricky, and found that the best source of information about what is permitted ir not, is the local council itself. Make them your friends, not your enemies.

Check old maps if there was a house there, and see if there are any foundations left. In my area (Wealden) that was sufficient to erect outbuildings if I could prove there were there before.

Ask them if you can place containers ( temporary) as storage for example.
Work with them, not against them.

that's good advice, I wish you well and health to enjoy.

 

[Theda]

Hi... many thanks for your replies!
The land was agricultural way back up until 1918, and belonged to the local farm which owns pretty much all of the surrounding land. Then it was purchased by a local waterworks company in order to bring a good supply of drinking water to the area. A very deep well was dug right down into the chalk, some 300ft deep and the water in it is fabulous even after all this time... the water extraction stopped in around 1986.

I have unearthed the foundations of the original pump house which show that the building was considerably larger than the one currently in situ... about 3 times bigger. This is because the water was brought up using a steam pump, which, along with the well, took up a lot of space. Then, after the 2nd World War, the old steam pump was removed, the building demolished and replaced by a smaller one and the system electrified, using an electro submersible pump... ( I have installed one of these into the well and it pumps around a gallon every 6 seconds or so and I was able to create a small pond area... it is a seemingly inexhausible supply!)

I noticed in yesterday's Sunday Times there was a property for sale which they state was previously an old pumping station... so I guess getting pp is not entirely impossible... and there are so many of these redundant buildings across the country, it would be a shame not to bring them back into some kind of use...but the problem I have is the Article 4 direction, which I believe councils use to prevent any future development as would normally be allowed with Class B properties...and that the only way to get around this problem would be for the secretary of state to override the direction... some LAs apply article 4s on practically every redundant/commercial property, as they don't want them to be developed for housing... but there is a huge need and brownfield sites are supposed to be made available... In my case, the Article 4 is apparently to 'preserve the open aspect of the area'...

Used properly, Art. 4s are a good thing, especially in conservation areas and SSSIs, etc... but this land is very ordinary... mixed residential/agricultural/light commercial, and surrounded by prairie sized fields, hardly any trees or hedgerows, (I hope to rectify this), and criss crossed by telegraph poles and larger electricity pylons and with a huge solar panel 'farm' directly opposite. There are two farms within 500m of my land and both have a large assortment of modern outbuildings... not very easy on the eye, so to single out my silo as encroachment of an open space would be crazy... The pump house itself is a small, ugly brick built block... it looks very much like a public convenience... the silo fits in much better with its surroundings and there are quite a few silos in the area, two of which are less than 500m away down the lane...

I am keeping my eye on an application less than 900m away, where someone has put it to build a pair of cottages ona similar parcel of land, using some redundant storage outbuildings as a footprint... this development will be in the coastal zone, indeed, several houses have been built in the (protected?) coastal zone in the last 20 years...(my land falls just outside of the zone)... so it will be very interesting to see what happens there...

I intednd to try and keep the planners onside, of course... and so far the communication with them has been verbal... I've had nothing in writing. I contacted a planning consultant who told me I am not obliged to seek retrospective permission until they have notified me in writing... but it feels like Russian roulette to carry on with the silo conversion, with a chance that I might be made to pull it all down again...

The planning consultant also advised that we go for a pre application thing... 'to see if permission is likely'... but as the silo is already in place, I wonder if this is just to make more money, as there will still be fees invoved, so wonder if I should just go straight in with the retrospective application...?

I just feel like a rabbit paralysed by the headlights at the moment... but I need to do something...

Many thanks again for you views...

Theda.

 

[Tengu]

Well, you sure seem to do your homework.

And having a good well is an investment in any age, no?

Im afraid I cant help; never really been in that situtation. I have a property and I hope one day to get planning permission to do something to it. Its got various development potential. Next door have TWO conservatories, an extension and a granny bungalow. I know that assuming just because they can do it you would be sucessful in your application is dangerous thinking.....

(Next door have a glass fetish. Instead of getting their windows cleaned, they get new double glazing every few years...I swear it)

People tell me I should sell it as it is, and I say I have £100K buried in the back garden. All I need do is dig for it.

Have you looked at static vans or containers?

 

[Janne]

Excellent research.
I would present my case to the council.
Create a 'spiel' about sustainability, low impact, you know, these fashionable buzz words.

It sounds like it is a very exciting property to develop!

 

[Theda]

Well, you sure seem to do your homework.

And having a good well is an investment in any age, no?

Im afraid I cant help; never really been in that situtation. I have a property and I hope one day to get planning permission to do something to it. Its got various development potential. Next door have TWO conservatories, an extension and a granny bungalow. I know that assuming just because they can do it you would be sucessful in your application is dangerous thinking.....

(Next door have a glass fetish. Instead of getting their windows cleaned, they get new double glazing every few years...I swear it)

People tell me I should sell it as it is, and I say I have £100K buried in the back garden. All I need do is dig for it.

Have you looked at static vans or containers?

Hiya! Is yours a plot of land or do you have outbuildings or whatever? I know that commercial properties, such as B1 can automatically convert to residential without planning permission...
I'm thinking about vans/containers, but the rules are very strict...and permission unlikely. I think you can park a van for 28 days per year... anything static is very doubtful... I'm even considering a boat... I wonder what the rules would be to keep a boat in 'dry dock'...ostensibly for renovation purposes ... staying in the boat meanwhile...Hmmm!