The Donated House

It’s really felt like spring here the last couple of days. I’m busy redecorating one of the caravans in preparation for my parents using it when they visit in April, but also just because I was so inspired by Alice’s wonderful caravan in Wales. But no pictures of that til it’s done and I can show you before and after shots.

Meanwhile:

Steven and I got a bit farther on the taking down of the willow tree. We’ve completely ringed the bottom now, but we broke a strap trying to pull it with the van and it didn’t appear to move an inch. I think we’ll need to undercut it a lot more.

Root cutting did go a lot faster with the chainsaw, but I insisted on not only clearing out soil to leave three inches clearance all round, but also washing down the root with a brush and water to avoid dulling the chainsaw on the soil. Pretty amusing seeing someone washing roots with a brush.

Lily continues to enjoy her new home, and is exploring the grounds more and more. She comes running in the most delightfully cute way when you call her. I think she remembers too well the 5 months in a cage and running is that much more of a delight to her.

Primulas are out, some survivors from last year and some new, as well as some bulbs from last year and the year before.

Stuff pretty much has to survive on its own in my garden; I’m not very good at dedicating much time or energy to coaxing stuff along. But luckily, bulbs seem to do ok. I planted a load of them around the front of the cabin in the autumn and some are poking their noses up, but nothing very exciting yet. This crocus, whose brethren I planted autunm 2010, seems to be doing alright.

Still long shadows but the sun is climbing ever higher and it’s still a bit light at 6pm these days. Spring definitely on the way, and none too soon. I’m tired of the cold! We ran out of firewood and are burning odd bits of not-quite-seasoned-enough stuff until the new bag arrives.

Lily appreciates the warmth of the cabin though.

Not much to report.

Have been doing a bit of networking, hoping to get a bit of larch or douglas fir from Tree Station in Manchester, who do urban and suburban tree surgery and woodland management and mill any felled trees for local, small-scale use. I’m hoping to go visit their yard in the next couple of weeks and get some wood from which to build the planned shed/workspace over the summer.

I’ve also been cooking up plans to pimp the caravans into something a bit more glamping-appropriate, including building little porches for them and kitting out the inside with better shelves, etc.

But none of this yields any pictures yet…

All I’ve got by way of pictures is my regular thursday  trip to the market, on Junk Day.

Very often I find useful old tools, dishes, interesting books (like last week’s ceiling paper find) and this week I found a great, faux-victorian jacket thing for a pound.

Even if you don’t find anything worth buying, it’s worth the trip just for the atmosphere.

I’m off to Somerset for a week of teaching dance (yes, actual paid work! Hooray!)  and then it’s Kinnersley, so things will likely be a bit quiet for a bit. But then it will be properly spring (please god) and things around here will pick up the pace!

It threatened rain all day but never delivered, thankfully, so we got the whole pile of ex-willow-tree bits sawn up to splitting size. Splitting can be for another day, and possibly the arrival of someone with something to prove, as axe splitting is hard work.

It all got stacked, either in the woodshed or on some pallets with a tarp over for the short-term while we sort out some better system longer term. It’ll need seasoning for at least a couple of years. We just tested some smaller stuff we seasoned only one year and it’s still pretty hissy. Not dry enough. Looks like we might be buying in next year as well.

Elmo sawed up the smaller stuff while I ran the chainsaw on the bigger stuff. I do like my chainsaw. I can’t imagine what we were thinking, before we got it. That job would have taken weeks.

With the wonder-chainsaw, we got through the whole pile in a couple of hours.

We also managed to install the cat door, finally, which has amused Lily no end. She was clearly familiar with its use from her previous home, and she’s spent the day delightedly hopping through it back and forth for no apparent reason.

Bit of a productive day, and thankfully, a sunny one. The marquee started out looking like this:

And slowly got dismantled, the fabric bits bundled and put by the gate for the council to collect, and the metal bits sorted between “still the right shape” and “really not useful for the frame of any marquee anymore”.

Lots (really, satisfyingly lots) of stuff went into the van and to the tip.

By the end of the day we’d found a home for most things, even if it’s not ideal. Having failed to come up with the money to buy the sheds, we will have to look at alternatives for storage. I’m hoping to build a small shed and covered work area this spring/summer, so maybe we can incorporate some general storage space there.

And finally: it’s been cold. Not as cold as the recent week of below freezing that left all the buckets totally solid, but cold enough to create this sheet on top of the rain barrel. We hung it in a tree. It lasted til the first stiff breeze.

Just returned home from Felin Uchaf, having failed to take pictures of the roundhouses or the fabulous composting toilet. You’ll just have to see their website for that stuff.

I worked in the workshop all morning, not because the weather was inclement (it was sunny and beautiful) but because Dafydd was kind enough to let me spend my time working on a new skill: chiseling.

It’s not nearly as easy as Dafydd made it look, but he was incredibly kind and helpful, a very good teacher, and very skilled. By the end of my second one I was fairly pleased with my work.

But I did find that every tenon was a new challenge because the grain was so different on each one. I guess after 20 of them I’d be good at it though!

I think I might use some of my freecycle timber to frame a shed using mortise and tenon joints.

In the afternoon we took a trip out to the end of the Llyn peninsula, overlooking Bardsey Island to see St Mary’s Well, a beauty spot of historical value as a setting off point for pilgrims of old.

Very windy and very beautiful.

I have decided to drag Elmo (and Anna and Steven and anyone else who’ll accompany me) back to Felin Uchaf as soon as possible.