Things have been progressing as fast as they can, but you’d be surprised how long it takes to dig 10 holes down to subsoil and below it, and fill those holes with tyres rammed with pea gravel. Especially when nothing can be delivered to the site, it all gets delivered to the top of the wall and has to be taken down to the site by hand. We moved 1.5 tons of gravel in about half an hour.
A total of 4 tons has been delivered, and I’m hoping we will know how much (if any) more we need by Saturday morning so I can have it delivered. We really cannot leave this any longer.
The house is being delivered on Monday, Barbara having negotiated leaving it in the building a little longer, which is very helpful, because this pace would kill me if I kept it up too long. I’m incredibly grateful for all the helpers that have come along, particularly Sam who’s been there all week and has been indispensible, and a joy to be around.
Below are the holes that are going to be our foundations.
They guy who is going to bring the houses up to the site couldn’t get them there in one piece, which some people would have thought was game over, but Barbara just shrugged and said, “no worries, I’ll just chainsaw it in half!” She’s either a genius, or nuts, and I’m getting closer to the conclusion that she’s both. Anyway, she was as good as her word and the building has been cut in two successfully. I asked her to give me warning so I could go down and photograph it. It took a while and clogged the chainsaw a number of times (and blunted it in the end, we think there may have been a few nails in there) but it got done and the two halves of this finished building will go at either end of the foundations, with the other base and some used bales she’s selling me to fill in the gaps.
I should be trying to get my head round how this will work once it’s on site, but I can’t even get my brain to think about it. I’m not even sure how we’re going to get the half-buildings onto the foundations, though we’re assuming it will entail the use of ramps and rollers (fenceposts!) and a whole lot of brute force.
Once it’s in place, the centre bit will have to be bolted to the end bits and Barbara is going to get us started with how to build the walls and make the windows. We’ll need a lot of tarps to keep the rain off during this fairly delicate stage, and I don’t know how long this will take us, but I’m guessing we might have a roof on it by the end of the month if we play our cards extremely well.
Anyway, on a series of lighter notes, I’ve been really enjoying the crowds of blackbirds that have been picking over all the freshly turned earth for worms. They are quite bold and hop around the site cheeping at you as if to say “why have you stopped digging?”
The lovely, lovely, lovely neighbours brought us a pot of bilberries (really must get them to tell me where the picking grounds are) and we made bilberry pancakes with them one morning. Thanks, Ma, for the maple syrup to go with them! Elmo was particularly appreciative.
We’ve also been enjoying the local butchers’ meats, including a couple of mornings of bacon, some sausages, and a very very good bit of steak with the teriyaki sauce I’m getting really good at now.
The markets are incredible, between the variety and the quality of local produce. There’s a really strong local food movement and people are very tuned in to green issues. Even the supermarkets don’t try to send you away with a bagged bag to put your bag in.
Alec and I finished painting the new sign. It was unclear whether we’d be allowed to, what with all the neighbours and passers-by who wanted to chat about the origin of the name and the techniques of sign-painting. The people around here are stupendously friendly. The more I think of it, the more I realise it’s quite similar to what I grew up with, in Vermont, but I’ve got a bit out of the habit, perhaps gone a bit native and now it feels quite fresh. Not that English people aren’t friendly normally, but there’s a social reserve that seems to have been shed (or maybe never developed) by people here. I love it. You get asked your name while chatting about your life to the ladies selling you sausages. I just feel really really at home. I love it here.
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