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The rain
This gives an idea of just how wet it's been this week - not ideal when you're trying to dry bales and get them re-baled It was raining and it rained and rained and rained - and then it rained some more. Winnie the Pooh was unhappy - he wanted to make straw bales- NOW. Winnie the Pooh looked at his big, wet, round bales of straw lying in the field and he muttered under his breath, then he walked around the courtyard three times just for luck. It was still raining, so he looked at the sky and it was still raining. Then he swore under his breath, smoked a cigarette and walked around the courtyard three more times. Winnie the Pooh spent all morning doing this - he didn't even want to play with his friend Tigger - just told him "home Tigger" and off went Tigger.
By lunch time it was still raining and Winnie the Pooh was getting grumpier and grumpier and ruder and ruder to his friends. Kanga told him to go home, so he did: where he continued to be rude, grumpy and curse the weather, straw, the house and anything else that happened to cross his mind.
Eventually he got over it and having apologised to everyone who had had the misfortune to cross his path in
Sawing the bales
This is Keith from the Octagon and Carrie customising a bale to fit around a window upright. Saing straw is much harder work than sawing wood the previous 48 hours, we carried on.
Malcolm, Dan and Ewan lifted the big bales off the ground and covered them, so that they would be dry and ready for baling as soon as the sun came out.
Sue and Tober cleared space in the byre to make room for stacking bales somewhere dry and another group of volunteers arrived to finish the ground floor bales before our deadline of Monday. (The deadline was that Malcolm had to leave after Tuesday, so could only lower the roof on Tuesday - and without the roof being lowered we couldn't progress any further with the house, so it was a nail biting finale to the ground floor.)
So, on Saturday I started work at 6.30. shaping hazel stakes and making staples to make sure we had enough to finish the ground floor walls. Our volunteers arrived just after ten and helped us finish the ground floor walls on Sunday afternoon well before our Monday deadline... and we didn't run out of straw either.
Thank you to Andy, Carol, Tim, Martin, Gibson, Carrie, Jan, Bryn and Keith.
On Saturday afternoon, Dan left for a short break before building
Tim, Martin and Gibson
A happy band of volunteers - just finished the ground floor walls a(nother) yurt: we hope to see him again later in the year.
The weather was patchy, with a lot of showers, but it cleared up in time for a bonfire on the beach on Saturday evening - getting a bit short of firewood down there now.
On Monday, Carrie and I stuffed gaps in the walls with loose straw, while Willy helped Ewan to fit wall plates.
On Monday evening, we met Rob another WWOOFer, (another nice guy), who'll be with us for a couple of weeks.
Then I went back to work for a rest....
On Tuesday, the timber frame was carefully lowered post-by-post. It took three tense hours before all 12 were safely lowered. I was Ok - I was at work, getting occasional updates by text, or sitting beside the grave of Reverend Robert Nimmo Smith in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, where I can get a good enough signal on my mobile to have a conversation. Dean Cemetery will always have connections with this house! Meanwhile, Willy paced the floor and smoked cigarettes, (again) while Malcolm looked pale and anxious. When it was all over, the pair of them were grinning like Cheshire
Ewan at work on wall plates
Ewan of North Steading made a brilliant job of building his own house and is now building ours cats - I'm surprised they didn't organise a group hug or do a lap of the building with their shirts over their heads!
On Wednesday, it was goodbye to Malcolm, who is now in the South of France for a well-deserved break. Thanks Malcolm. On Wednesday, Ewan of North Steading, who'd been helping Malcolm for ages anyway, took on the newly vacated role of "construction manager".
Willy had a vist from his sister Eve(lyn) and her husband Willie, who were able to experience the Perthshire rain at first hand. I think it was just like they remembered Perthshire rain.
On Thursday Duncan returned, with a friend Dominic, to lend a hand. He made three persuaders - large wooden hammers - using a huge log from the wood pile. These were used to batter the bulges on the walls and persuade them fairly successfully that they wanted to be vertical again.
Meanwhile Carrie and Rob started to put bales into the window openings.
Today's Friday .... Carrie & Rob finished off the windows, while Willy and Ewan put in wall plates above the window openings - so the downstairs straw work is pretty well complete. A small
Lowering the frame
Rob operates the jack while Malcolm supervises operations. It took over 3 hours to lower all 12 posts. step forwards.
Oh, and I didn't mention that at some point during this week, the Octagon was turned into a breakfast, lunch and general chill out zone for WWOOFers and Willy and the Tree Bog at the Manse was re-erected: just the other compost toilet to move now and that's the environmental issues sorted.
Next week French Franck arrives - I like that alliteration.
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