The Donated House

Well, the frame is ready to be put together and hoisted up (I think we can use two of those trees and some rope) but Elmo points out that it will be easier to put the floor in place without a middle leg to worry about, which means putting the frame up after the floor is in place, which is after the straw has been taken off it, which is basically at the end of the whole weekend’s work.

Still, it’s ready to go up WHENEVER it goes up.

I met the son-in-law of the former owners of the plot (Harry and Peggy, who still live just down the hill a bit. Those are their trees behind the fence.) He was a very friendly, nice guy, did a bunch of cutting back of branches that were overgrowing the fence and shared a couple of memories of the place.

As Elmo (who hates cooked tomatoes) was at home, I took the opportunity to make myself one of my invented dishes for lunch. It hasn’t got a name, and it certainly hasn’t got a nationality, unless it’s half-Italian, half-Chinese. Onions, courgettes and tomatoes fried into a sort of ratatouille with soy sauce, served on rice. Delicious. I invented it when I was about 15 and it was Zucchini season (that’s what we called courgettes in America) when you can get paid to take them away because everyone has hundreds.

Spent the rest of today baking for the weekend, and now it’s nearly two in the morning. I really need to get to bed. There are pies to be made tomorrow morning before I go back up.

It’s nice to be building things rather than taking them apart. Yesterday Lisa and I built the ridgepole for the giant tarp and cut out all the pieces for the legs. My trusty (old) cordless drill gave up after a few hours (bless it) so we didn’t get the thing constructed, but I bought a shiny new one on the way home, so the tired old one can mostly do the screw-driving, and two people can usefully work at once. If I had two people, which I don’t today. Just contemplating whether to go up there and work on it on my own.

Obviously it’ll be slow and difficult without a second pair of hands, but I can see the appeal of the pioneer spirit driving me to innovation. And I can always go for a lovely walk if I can’t do the work.

On blogging, not on building. There’s no such thing as behind on building when you don’t have a strict schedule to stick to.

Here are the promised picture from the incredibly productive, sunny, still, warm day. That’s the frame we built to hold the tarp up off the straw while we take it apart, even if it’s raining, which it is most of the time in Todmorden. And here’s the tarp, expertly attached by Elmo. I include Elmo for scale. And because he’s so cute.

And because I’m almost more obsessed with what we eat than what we get done, here’s a shot of my breakfast, apple porridge with nutmeg. Idyllic early morning sun is a bonus.

The only other progress worth noting is that the electricity might go in in the next couple of weeks. We’ve finally figured out how the initial installation works (or at least well enough to muddle through the process with a few corrections here and there) and are being held in a queue (“your call is important to us…”)

I’m heading off up there now to build the big version of the ridgepole over the build site with Lisa in preparation for next weekend’s work party.

Quick post from my phone, mainly to see if I can do it.

Marvellous, lovely, beautiful day up here. Yesterday’s forecast was so miserable we canned it and went home to clean the house (indoor work for indoor weather) and left the tarping and tidying up here for today, with a forecast of sun all day and no wind. Got SO much done, amazing what nice weather does for motivation. Second half of building now tarped suitable for working on rain or shine, all parts ready to build super-tarp-roof over build site so we can work there rain or shine, and I’m going to get this building up before Christmas, rain or bloody shine.

Prefer shine, obvs.

Oh, did I tell you we got the building regs people on board? Foundations approved and they know about straw buildings and they’re familiar with Barbara’s work, so hopefully it’ll all sail on from here.

Pictures later, I don’t know if I can get my phone to do that…

Well, we needed a tropical storm like a hole in the head, frankly.

The straw that is still on the buildings at the top of the drive ranges from damp to sodden, much of it will be written off, I suspect. But the good news is, progress is occurring, since we’re no longer beholden to anyone else to get things going. It would be nice if it was dry for more than a few hours running, but the plan is to get a tarp up over the building site and get everything down there so we can be working under cover, even while it’s raining. The prospect is not entirely comforting, but it’s better than making no progress at all.

Speaking of making no progress, I really need to send an email to everyone who’s ever come to help and tell them about the upcoming weekend of work work work!