Straw!

Well, the first lot of straw arrived.

It was about two hundred bales, a little over a third of the total I need.

Since the delivery vehicle couldn’t get up the hill to the site, I enlisted the help of a local farmer, who sent his two young assistants and his tractor and trailer.

they made two trips, between which we had to unload and remove all the straw.

Luckily, approximately all the people in the world arrived to help move it.

We set up a veritable conveyor belt and got it moved almost faster than I could believe.

And as a bonus, I made several new friends, as my neighbour Steve brought his son and his friend, and Nora invited a friend, so a whole bunch of totally new people turned up.

With them, Anna, Ben, Sarah-May and me, it was a small army of helpers.

We all sweated and ached a bit, but it really went so well and so fast. And when we were done, we took a well earned break.

Now that the house is full of straw, it’s a little more challenging as a woodworking space, but we have still managed to put up the last bits of the internal framing pieces and lay out the entire base plate. We’ve got about 80 hazel stubs to whittle and a lot of guest accommodation prep to do before Wednesday, but we’re pretty much on track I think.