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| Lake Windermere |
We arrived about 11AM and immediately left to the Lake District. Barrow
was a sleepy village of 400 before Henry Schneider came to mine copper and
iron. After 10 years of searching, he finally hit a rich seam of iron. That led
to the building of the Furness Railroad and the growth of the town to 40,000.
He built a magnificent home on Lake Windermere and would
commute to work with his steamship across the lake and then take his railroad
to town. Today Burrow has a population of 60,000 and has both a nuclear
submarine facility and British Aerospace Engineering.
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| Goats on John's Farm |
The Lake District includes a 900 sq. mi. park, forests and
grazing land. Everywhere we looked the fields were separated by drystone
fences. We had our lunch of Bangers and Mash in Schneider’s mansion, now a
hotel. Then we headed to a farm. John the owner is a 6th generation
farmer. We watched him quickly shear a goat. In today’s economy it is important
to diversify beyond farming. Maria has helped him by adding campsites, selling
wool yarn and products and milk soap. They advertise primarily by farm visits
and interviews explaining to others how to diversify your farm.
That evening we had a dynamic speaker who teaches how to
build drystone walls that
will last 500 years without the use of mortar. There are five key points:
1 The width of the bottom should be ½ the height and the top
½ the width of the bottom.
2 Periodic flu stones, heavy stones that go through the
width and stick out a little.
3 Fill the voids with small stones that are hand placed.
Fill under each face stone, giving a slight tilt to 3ach stone so that water
flows away from the center.
4 Big stones on top that are layer at a slant
5 Break any vertical lines as you the stones with the long
side going deep in the wall.
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| Drystone Wall |
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