Settling into life in the country

Just over two weeks ago I left London to join a community called Pilsdon, situated in the heart of rural Dorset.  I am volunteering here at least for the next six months, plenty of time to get the dirt properly ingrained under my fingernails.

Before I departed, one or two friends gave the impression they’d like to know how I’m getting on, no doubt due to a deep concern for how a city boy like me will survive in the sticks, so I’ll be posting up occasional blogs such as this one to keep them and you, dear reader, updated. 

The first thing to say about this place is that it is peaceful. Sirens, low flying planes and cacophonous neighbours are replaced by birdsong and the odd moo. Each morning I open my attic window and look southwards over the Pilsdon lawn and then fields and hills which obscure the view of the sea in the distance, and listen to the tweets, caws, coos and other bird languages I’m not so familiar with. A couple of small finches live just below me in the roof, so I spy on them as they perch on the gutter surveying the same scene, chirruping to each other.

Pilsdon is a Christian community providing a refuge for people in crisis. Many of the people here have been homeless or on the verge of homelessness, or are working through alcoholism, depression, addiction or other issues.  Some stay for a few months and then move on; a few have been here for years.  A small team of permanent members live here to help keep things ticking over. There are about twenty people in total at the moment but growing, as two new community members join tomorrow. Everyone has been very welcoming and open and I feel settled here already.

Pilsdon is also partly self-sufficient as around the main house (a wonderfully well preserved 17th century Manor house) are large gardens and fields where the community grows vegetables and fruit, and holds three dairy Jersey cows, several beef cattle, a sow with two piglets (the other six were slaughtered last week), five sheep (two of which lambed in the last couple of days), a brood of chickens and five ducks. 

As a volunteer, my role is to get stuck in with whatever needs doing to keep all this going, whether it be planting onions, cooking dinner or milking the cows!  All this is new to me and I am relishing the challenge of becoming at least a little bit competent at living off the land. A community can do this so much easier than a lone smallholder as was demonstrated yesterday morning when with a team of four we planted the entire main crop of Sarpo potatoes before lunch.

The cows are milked at 6am and 5pm. So far I’ve only been rota’d in for the 5pm slot although last week I misread the rota and turned up at the milking shed at 6am - that taught me to study the rota more carefully in future. It was only yesterday though that I finally seemed to get the hang of milking and got about a bucket and a half of frothy creamy white stuff from Veronica, who was very patient. 

There’s a lot more to say but I’ll leave it till the next post. Thanks for reading thus far!