Blogs from Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 5

The English language has such a wonderful selection of idioms describing the consumption of alcohol to excess and perhaps. on occasion, alcohol has indeed been consumed to excess in the straw bale house after a hard day's work, but I shall leave such occasions to your imagination. This entry describes the frenetic burst of activity required to achieve weather-tightness before the first frosts and co-incidentally before a spell of very wet weather hits the UK. This wet weather is related to the hurricanes threatening the Caribbean... but you didn't log on for a metereology lecture did you?. On Sunday, I came home from my holiday on the building site ready for a week of sitting in front of a PC resting those aching muscles. On Monday, Dean and John arrived with the Infernal Sprayer. The Infernal ... read more

Ewan tok a few days off so we hoped to concentrate on straw but the ever unsettled weather made that difficult and somewhat frustrating. Franck and Alison got on with stuffing the wool into the roof while I dashed out between showers to trim and stuff (and trim and restuff and trim and ..... ) the outside of the walls Found it difficult in explaining to Franck that we would keep doing it till we, ie Wendy and I, were satisfied that all the holes that could be filled had been filled. After all - that straw plus a bit of clay and lime will be all that's between us and the winter gales. Early in the week, the roofers came back to fit the ridge pole and do the last few rows of slates. So ... read more

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 ... read more

It's Friday and I'm taking the weekend off or was. Today should have been relatively relaxing chasing up suppliers etc however the best laid plans etc. Firstly the joists are now all in, the northside of the roof has sarking, the wall for the bales is nearly there and we have a temporary floor upstairs to provide some storage for the straw. See photos (I left just after Dan, Ewan and Malcolm started sarking - thanks guys). We also managed to get some sample bales which unfortunately proved to be rather loosely packed. After much chasing (telephoning around) we managed to find a local farmer who is willing to rebale any which require it (thanks Hamish and David). So it looks like we might just about get started with the walls next weekend as planned (weather ... read more

Yesterday, I went on a trip with my study abroad program up to Blair Castle (in Blair Atholl) and Dewar's World of Whiskey (in Aberfeldy). Although I didn't get to spend nearly enough time exploring the castle grounds and whiskey isn't quite my thing, I enjoyed the trip, especially because it gave me a much needed break from homework. A Bumpy Start When we all boarded the bus, we thought we'd be well on our way to Blair Castle but after getting just outside of Edinburgh, the bus pulled over to the side of the road and my friend (who went on the Loch Lomond trip with me) and I thought, another smoke break? But no, after a little bit, we pulled back onto the road and continued for a while until we pulled over once ... read more