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Again Easter 2002 was a disaster as far as work went.

I was only here for a couple of days to dump the Transit and to go back to pick up the new van I'd bought. (The fact that I didn't get the new van in the end is another story). The simple response was that nothing was done except to move the old white Transit round the back ready for cutting up.

Summer was again somewhat problematic as by this time I'd had a recurrence of my old health problem which slowed me down considerably. Paul came down and we cut up the crashed Passat and started on the white Transit, as well as tidying up the front of the property to please the neighbours.

It's looking quite impressive now out front. You can even see the conifer hedge I planted in Spring 2000.

But look at this! Apples! Yes, three of my apple trees have produced fruit - so much so that the trees were bending over to the floor under the weight!

This is great news! So an emergency propping system was called for to support them. And when I go down at the end of October I'm going to do some harvesting.

Another job we did was to take the old chassis from underneath the Lomax body. The chassis was as rotten as a pear and Paul had obtained a galvanised chassis in the UK, so we decided to take the body back to the UK and assemble it there.

Even more good news.

I went on holiday to the United States of America and while I was there I went to visit the people at Southwest Windpower in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Really nice, friendly people and one of the few commercial companies who have to date merited a link from this site. A good cup of coffee and long chat led to a brief phone call, which resulted in my returning from the USA clutching a pair of Air 403 wind turbines in my sweaty little mitts.

Nearly 1 Kilowatt of wind power and all for little me. All I need now is some wind.

Not only that, but EBAY produced an old 4-kilowatt diesel engined generator in which I can use biodiesel, and also a new Studer 1200watt inverter, so it'll soon be "all systems go" for a solar, wind-and-plant oil powered 230 watt home for me once I'm organised, whenever that might be.

While I was in the USA another thought led me to Home Depot in the USA and a whole ship-load of American 110-volt power sockets and switches, just right for running 12-volt current.

The amp-loading on American cabling is heavier due to the reduction in voltage so the cabling is thicker than European cabling, and my 12-volt DC circuits will require heavy cable.

This will mean that I'll revert to British plugs and sockets for the 230-volt mains - for the reason that the British use fused plugs on their appliances, which will protect the appliances in case of a major disaster. I'll use European sockets with a central fuseboard on high-output appliances such as a washing machine or MIG welder that will be run off the generator.

I shall have to go to the United States again. It isn't half condusive to constructive though.

I was down on the farm for almost the whole of November and didn't get much chance to do very much to the electrical system - due mainly to having to repair a collapsed outbuilding.

Having said that, I

• cleaned all the battery terminals and installed all new cables and cable connections
• started to change over the sockets to the American ones I bought
• connected up the wind turbine again to the controller in the house instead of to the batteries in the barn, on the assumption that the power loss over the ... gulp ... 50 feet of extra cable would be outweighed by the removal of about 4 surplus joints, one diode and a neon charge indicator.
• installed two new patent "pesto jar and halogen bulb" lights in the barn, one over the chemical toilet and one over the kitchen area to replace the outside lights on the caravan that weren't working properly - and when I was dismantling the now-redundant caravan lights I found the fault that had been causing all of the problems.
• started to install the workbenches in the workshop area of the barn, with flourescent light over.
• planted 14 more fruit trees, 6 laurel bushes and 9 conifer hedge plants
• cleared another large part of the field from brambles and cut as much grass as I could.
• finally started on the rainwater storage system.
• went to Marseille to tow a car back for my neighbour
• and, of course, repairing the outbuilding that had collapsed

Then I went back to work in Brussels for a well-deserved rest.

See more photos from 2002 in the photo gallery.

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