The Donated House

I just ordered two cherry trees, a plum and a greengage for delivery in early Feb. We shouldn’t really be spending money on that stuff, but I am so keen to get them in and have a crop as soon as possible. I know you’re supposed to take all the fruit off a cherry the first year to let it reinvest the energy in growth, but I’m not sure I’ll be able.

I got a Montmorency cherry, which is an American variety (or at least popular in America) and has the best flavour of any cooking cherry I’ve ever tasted. I hope it will get enough cold hours to produce anything on our plot; it will probably depend on the year. I also got an Albalu, originating from Iran, but I know almost nothing about it, besides that it’s a cooking cherry, which is what I’m after. And they fruit at different times so I don’t have to face too much of a glut at once. Possibly wishful thinking.

Elmo was reticent to buy them because the site is such a mess and they might potentially be in the way of his wheelbarrow path, but, as if by miracle, when I showed him all the plum and greengage varieties, he suddenly felt we should go ahead and get them. So I’ve bought a Greengage (old) – that’s really the name of the variety – and plum called Czar, which is a suitable pollenation partner and a really pretty, deep purple plum suitable for cooking or eating, depending on how long you leave them on the tree.

We spent the weekend up there, not doing anything particular on the building, but getting through a bunch of other odd jobs, including clearing the site for the electricity box to go on Wednesday (and very soon thereafter, hopefully, to become a set of useable outlets.)

The stones we took up from the floor have become a rather better walking surface in front of the cabin than the mud we have been trudging through all winter.

At the other end of the building, which was the driest of the sheds (though by no means dry, as the roof leaked quite badly) we took all the ivy off the roof and used one of the mangled old tarps to cover it. I had to cut some bits to fit round the chimney and add some eyelets around the new edges, but it seems to have worked pretty well at first glance. I guess the time to judge it will be after a rainstorm. We have plenty of those.

We tightened it all down and tied it at every eyelet to nails driven into the mortar between the bricks, so hopefully it will not be subject to too much wind disturbance.

The other thing we got done was the sawing up of a big branch that had been blown down in the recent winds. It should go some way toward satisfying our heating needs next winter. We’ve put it in long-ish pieces in the least dry shed (there is a roof, technically, but it could fall in at any moment) on the strength of the argument that it’s better in there than it is being rained on while sitting in mud. But a better solution will need to be found. Hopefully with a month’s drying it will be a bit easier to saw; it was binding really quickly, being really green. And once it’s sawn, Elmo will no doubt have a lovely time splitting it with the axe he got for Christmas.

…and all that.

Spent Monday morning at the cabin, quite a busy day, actually. Rae and Gill on the roof spreading bitumen with plywood offcuts (because the brushes were too soft for the cold bitumen), Barbara working on the door, everyone making little bits of progress here and there. I managed to get all the brackets hung for the rain guttering, though it can’t go on the back til the scaffolding comes down.

We had to leave about noon, so I’m not sure how much roofing got done, but we are very close to being able to take the tarp and frame away and see the building in all its charming smallness. In its charming field of mud. Still, progress is progress and I’m really looking forward to longer days and eventually warmer days and sometime in the middle of all that, moving in.

Dropped by the land today to make sure the woodstove hadn’t been stolen (and to bring it inside the building and board up the door, out of what is probably paranoia, but I’d feel really bad if it got stolen.) Everything was comparatively fine, besides that a strong westerly wind had blown open the gate by way of ripping the hasp off its fittings. I screwed it back together and locked the gate, with the assistance of some WD-40 in the now very rusty lock. And must remember that we need to bring the key next time we want to get in. But I feel a bit better about my stove.

Still, want to be getting up there a lot in January and getting as much done as we can. I just looked up sunset times and we gain nearly an hour a month over January and February; sun sets at nearly 6pm at the end of Feb. That will make things so much easier up there.

My new goal is to be living up there in March. I know my goals change all the time according to what I actually accomplish, but I think of it as a strength rather than a weakness. In fact, it is the secret of my success in life.

Bit of a surprise weekend up at the land, since a few people at a recent party said they were free. I decided, what the hell, might as well get a few things done, since Barbara was free to come and tell us what to do with the roof. Good thing we did decide to go, really, because on arrival, we found that a giant gash had appeared at the bottom of the slope of the marquee roof and was channelling all the water from that side of the roof down onto the cooking area. Awesome.

Still, a quick tarp over that end of the building solved it (good thing we have so many tarps lying around) and the end result is that I spent the weekend moving stuff out of the marquee, which was really unsuitable for use in winter anyway, what with condensation just pissing down all over everything all the time. So a timely message from the universe actually spurred me to do what needed to be done. We got everything sensitive out and what’s left can stay there til we get the top shed waterproof and cleaned out to take it.

All cooking activities now reside in the new caravan, which is also a great little social space, suitable for about half a dozen people to sit around and drink wine of an evening.

It doesn’t have a battery yet, but it’s delightful by candle-light (and LED lantern). We are deeply grateful for the donation!

It also serves as a guest bedroom, for which Alec is particularly grateful, though at -2C he about froze last night even with an all weather sleeping bag, a feather duvet and all his clothing. Still, better than a tent.

Elmo and I made use of it Friday night to play cribbage during the very very long evening. It’s too dark to do much else by about 4pm, so we play a lot of games, including Roborally, which I highly recommend if you’re a bit of a nerd. Hours of fun. Sometimes too many hours and we give up before someone wins.

We managed to disengage the wood stove from its pipe in our living room and get it into the back of the van, though it was going to be a nightmare getting it down the steps to the house.

It took Barbara’s sack trolley and four people to get it down, but it wasn’t all that bad in the end.

It ended up on the porch, since I’ll have to build a plinth to put it on, and install a backboard and all sorts, to meet building regulations. And prevent my house from burning down. All very sensible, really.

While contemplating the interior of the house, placement of bed relative to stove, etc, we got to thinking of space saving alternatives for the bed placement, including slightly raised, enough to allow storage and possible seating underneath, but enough headroom to sit up in bed. There didn’t turn out to be enough height to achieve that, but Elmo had a hare-brained idea for a bed on a pulley system that could be raised and lowered, horizontally, not drawbridge style. I, of course, immediately dismissed such a ridiculous notion. Then I spent a day contemplating it and an evening designing it, so now we’re going to do it. There’ll be eating and a table underneath, so a nice space for socialising and eating, and also a workspace for me, but just clear the table and crank down the bed at night. I’m quite excited, having worked out all the engineering. It’s not even that hard.

Anyway, Saturday night it snowed a bit, and stayed pretty cold all day, but really sunny and beautiful. It makes such a difference to my attitude, a bit of sun. And the mud all covered over with beautiful snow and frozen hard. We got lots done, moving stuff out of the marquee, nailing down roof felt, moving the caravans further along the track (less in view of the neighbours, who must fear a gypsy encampment sometimes) and just generally tidying and organising stuff.

Elmo climbed up on the roof and caused a very amusing avalanche of the ice and snow that had stuck to the tarp.

I think the Montmorency cherry trees I am about to order will do ok in the walled garden; there was some concern that they wouldn’t get enough cold hours to fruit properly, but it seems to be a couple of degrees colder in the walled garden than outside it in winter. It was also a couple of degrees warmer in summer, which I think will be good for Montmorencies, which do well in parts of the US that have large seasonal variations. Time will tell.

Ok, so I’m hopefully back in the saddle in terms of going to the land to do interesting stuff and then writing about it here. Sorry for the lapse. I’m sure it will happen again. I’ve only got a couple of trips up there planned over the next couple of weeks, but I mean to get the place in a good condition to have work parties all winter, so hopefully we’ll be getting lots done and even maybe move in before spring.

I would say that I was the laziest blogger in history, but I know the history of blogging is so littered with far lazier bloggers that I would just seem unnecessarily self-deprecating.

The truth is, very little has happened. We had a second caravan donated and drove it up there with very little trouble. Seems very nice, sleeps four, so much posher guest accommodation now. I spent one day up there helping Rae finish off some carpentry and apparently the skylights went in last Thursday in my absence. Aside from that I am just waiting til there’s electricity which will make it a lot less silly to be there during the long dark nights.

Until then, things on the blog might be a bit quiet.