Day One Hundred and Four: A Field

When I started this blog I didn’t have much idea of where I was going. All I knew was I was burned out and wanted to move away from technology and towards nature. I titled it The Field.

I guess we should be careful what we name things, because one hundred and four days later that seems to be what I have manifested. A field.

This is it. It’s a beautiful field, bounded by the River Axe, with uninterrupted views of the Mendip Hills, so I am not complaining.

I live in an old Mercedes bus, lovingly converted by my friend Henrik. He is off being Scandinavian somewhere and was happy to loan it to me. It has a wood burner and solar panels so I am able to be fully off-grid.

The field is part of Wookey Farm, a small goat farm near Wells in Somerset. It’s a campsite too, and where I am is the part that’s only open in the height of summer because, unlike the other field, it lacks electric hook-ups.

Last time I wrote, the blog moved to a new home, goatremote.com. At that point, I had already started speaking with Sarah and Ian, the owners of Wookey Farm, but the deal was not sealed. It's goat as in goats, and also ‘Greatest of All Time’. I was thinking I’d create a brand for rural coworking, featuring at least one goat, and it would be great.

 Hmm.

That seems a little optimistic in retrospect. I mean I knew that the remote working part of the plan would be challenging. The numbers didn’t look good, whichever way I sliced them. But it was a starting point. I’d spoken with Sarah and we’d agreed to launch something in their existing farm shop. Coworkers could double as shopkeepers, allowing the shop to be open all hours, unlocking an extra revenue stream for the farm.

And this has worked, to some extent. For the past month or so I have been coworker and shopkeeper number one, selling everything from soap to cider, from goat milk to slinkies. But there have been two big challenges:

Firstly, it hasn’t stopped raining and wind-ing. It’s been cosy in the bus, but it’s also been a pain in the arse getting set up / existing. And it’s not been good for coworking, goat-rearing, camping and glamping, rural craft activities, or anything really.

And secondly, the shop building, gorgeous as it is, turns out to be a pretty much perfect Faraday cage. WiFi signals don’t get through, let alone rural 4G. Forget simultaneous Zoom calls, we’ve not been able to process transactions from the till without hot-spotting from my phone, placed in a particular spot outside the goat barn. With the shop door open, letting in all the lovely cold weather.

So now, as we go into May, I am hoping the weather will improve. The internet connection, at least, is sorted. A large directional aerial, pointed at the hills, routed via ethernet into the shop means we now have a fully functioning coworking café / farm shop. Except that I’m the only one there. And hardly anyone comes into the shop.

Baby steps.

I am still upbeat about it all. There are so many other opportunities here. I have been working on some easy wins for the farm: improvements to their booking systems, SEO, digital brand etc. I’m turning the farm shop into a mecca for local produce: the farm’s own cheeses and meats, plus ciders, wines, craft ales from our neighbours. We’re launching it all with a series of events this summer.

Coworking is still part of the plan. Now that the internet connection is sorted, the next major obstacle is the lack of showers on the campsite. My personal solution to this is the Axe Bath, which I will cover in the next post.

Monty is happy.