Snow. Again.

I have got so used to spring coming so early in this country, even if it does take months to turn into summer. Usually you get some lovely warmth from about March. But here it is staying below freezing all day and snowing.

It’s beautifully sunny, mind you, contrary to how it was when I took that picture, so at least from the cozy, lovely cabin, it looks beautiful.

At the weekend, Anna, Sam and Alec came and we got a bunch of stuff done. One thing I’d been meaning to do for ages is to audit and sort the wood we got from freecycle a long time ago, with a view to using it to build an outdoor barbecue and eating area.

Sam is a terrifically hard worker, and an all-round lovely guy. I hope he’ll come back. And do the dishes again, even though we forgot to mention the lack of plumbing, and point out the tiny drip-bucket under the sink, so when he charmingly offered to wash up, and dumped the water down the sink (as any right-thinking person would do) rather than take it outside to chuck, a veritable comedy of jumping about and panicking with towels ensued. No harm done, and a good reminder to me to mention the lack of plumbing to new people from now on. Poor Sam, I hope he recovered.

Between them, Anna and Sam moved the whole pile of freecycle wood onto the work area, where I can start cutting it up to length for the pergola/wendy-house/barbecue room I’m hoping to finish in time for Anna’s birthday in July.

There are 12 good long ones, 3m and change in length, which need some cleaning up, but that’ll build the majority of the frame. I’m going to use pressure treated 4×6 at the bottom and put it on foundation stones in the hope of this building lasting a long time, though they won’t be cheap. Also, if I can find some that’s not ridiculously expensive, I’d like to roof it in corrugated plastic, letting light through but keeping rain off.

This is as far as I’ve got on the plan. The mid-wall studs and door and window frames will just be pressure-treated 1×2, not at all structural. And I’ll fill the walls in some trellis and grow stuff up it. I’ve got to make a proper diagram and price up what I don’t already have. I can use up a lot of the scrap lying around, so hopefully it won’t break the already fairly strained bank.