pantisocracy in anaheim (onto the next duck)

horsemouth has been continuing his investigations of utopian communes. in this case a bunch of poles who ended up in anahem california  (including henryk sienkiewitcz noted polish author). unlike the pantisocratists southey and coleridge they actually get there, start farming, and then realise they are no good at it. the brook farmers were at least competent farmers. the icarian communes in the states (texas initially) fissioned. 

sienkiewitcz writes about the experiment in quo vadis (which horsemouth will now have to read), susan sontag writes about it as well. 

of the colonists most returned to europe, if not poland.  the noted polish actress helena modrzejewska changed her name (to helena modjeska) and had a successful career in california as an actress. 

wednesday horsemouth goes to a zoom meeting for the consortium (he'd better do some reading today). thursday he goes to explain the wonderful self-build to some enthusiasts in west london. friday the penultimate zoom meeting of this stage of the consortium - they will either have enough places to put in their bid this time round (or they will have to wait for the next cycle). thereafter the weekend.

hopefully by the end of the month they will have the interest rate details from the bank and will be able to get the mancom to vote on borrowing money to purchasing more property (and housing more members). 

then (vote completed) horsemouth can go off to christmas secure in the knowledge that he has enabled the co-op to house more people more securely. (what a hero he is) or that the mancom have rejected it (no blame). 

the downside of doing the deal is that the co-op will be borrowing money at one of the worst times to do it in a while (but them's the breaks). the co-op has borrowed similar amounts of money before (and repaid them early), it has borrowed on higher interest rates and for longer periods of time (and repaid it early), the core activity of the co-op is very strong and generates a strong surplus (and will continue to do so). it looks to horsemouth that while conditions are not ideal they are good to go. 

of course (and at the same time) the co-op will need money to pay for its share of the retrofit of its existing houses up to EPC C standard (and if the consortium bid is not successful it will need  all of it). this horsemouth is confident of getting this from existing surpluses (and the cyclical maintenance reserve). hitting the government's decarbonisation targets for social housing (68% by 2030 is the first one) will be difficult and so horsemouth is keen to get on with it. 

the difficulty with the decarbonisation scheme is telling what shape it is yet - of working out what will be required of them. horsemouth thinks of it as getting their ducks in a line and getting them to jump through hoops - as the duck jumps through the final hoop its data goes off to the government and the government pays out half the cost of the insulating measure installed in the house (ker-ching!). job done (onto the next duck).

one of the useful things to horsemouth about the blog is that it enables him to think out loud and to rehearse arguments.  he accepts though that it may not make for the most entertaining reading. horsemouth looks forward to getting this done. and then on to the next duck.