The Donated House

Start as you mean to go on, I always say. That couch (thanks, Armelle!) looked so inviting, we were a long time getting started to get anything done. Which was fine, after last weekend’s marathon of mega-progress, a slower pace suited me fine.

We did get some more work done, clearing out sheds and soforth, but more importantly we took some time to look around the area. There is a mysterious wall visible across the valley, so we set out to see if we could find it (and if we happened to find a couple of pubs, well, it couldn’t be helped.) Several interesting bits of local architecture popped up, including a very interesting tower, which turned out to house waterwheels (apparently three, one above the other, wow! Would love to see that in action, though it looked less than active) and a beautifully big and steep-roofed methodist chapel with wonderful windows.  We stopped at two pubs, both a bit take-your-aunty-for-sunday-lunch-y, but a decent selection of beer at the first anyway, and a view across the valley back to ours from the second.

Here (helpfully) is a picture highlighting the place where we saw tiny flashes from the sparkly bits on the Boggarts whirligig, which we put up just for that purpose.

And here is the view of the pub the picture was taken from, as seen from the top of our wall. Nice dining room with huge windows overlooking the valley, so that alone might get us to bring our aunty for sunday lunch sometime. And apparently there’s a reservoir at the top of that hill with a beach!

However, the real highlight of the weekend was Saturday night’s campfire dinner, with credit to my mum for the recipe. When I was a kid we used to go camping in a friend’s field, for no other reason than that it was fun, and we always had steak strips marinated in olive oil, garlic, lemon and pepper, and my favourite food in the world, potatoes, carrots and onions cooked with butter, salt and pepper in tinfoil packets over the coals. It was such a trip making them again; I hadn’t made them since I was a kid and had to sort of guess how long to leave them (3o minutes, turns out) but they were delicious, especially the slightly burned bits. Just as I remembered.

The steak strips were teriyaki this time, since Elmo’s not that keen on lemon in a meat context, but they were absolutely delicious, skewered on a green stick and flash-cooked in the mega-heat of the generous fire built by Elmo. I’ll definitely be doing a lot more of that.  Campfires aren’t all that common in this country and I’d forgotten how much I love them (and the cuisine they inspire).

And then there was dessert, marshmallows and chocolate digestives (being the closest thing to a square of hershey bar and a graham cracker that you can easily get) making a hot-sugar-dripping mess of a s’mores that I actually think might be better than the original.

Like I said, there was time spent doing useful stuff. When I got up Sunday morning, Alec had been hard at work shovelling out the floor of the mullioned-window-shed for a couple of hours already, and the stack of plywood and the giant cable spool from our back garden had made the journey in our new trailer without incident. But the main thing we accomplished was falling a little further in love with the place.

The cherry laurel had to go. Luckily, Dan was willing to work on it all day.

Having a bit of lunch.

Grace and Simon having a laugh.

Grace wielding power tools. That toilet won’t build itself.

Our new home (a touring caravan I bought on ebay.) Very good views.

Since the weather was so good, we did all the cooking and tea-making outdoors.

Liz’s steps before all that work.

Liz’s steps after all that work.

The rudimentary loo. It does the job (so to speak.)

The marquee (or great hall) and the caravan (or domestic quarters.)

There was a stone at the bottom of one of the walls that was threatening to fall off down the hill. It would have been a ridiculous pain to get it back again, so Elmo sensibly led a campaign to replace it.

The beautiful mullioned windows in one of the outbuildings.

We found this very useful crosscut saw in the shed. Several uses were made of it.

The view from inside one of the sheds, now lovely and clean (well, relatively) and ready to hold our stuff with some level of security.

The sheds from the outside.

The table, set for dinner.

A wide view of the site.

Sarah-May and Lea raking up the grass after strimming.

Well, the landwarming party far exceeded all my expectations, in terms of what we got done, though didn’t quite meet my expectations in terms of the catering, that having been my job. I overcatered by a fair amount and though most things can be put away for next time, my giant stew fermented in the 48 hours it waited to be dinner and had to be thrown away. I went to such lengths to keep it cool, too. But we ended up discovering the REALLY good chinese takeaway down the hill, so it was all worth it.

We managed to strim a whole quarter and a bunch of pathways (and tent spaces) and to clear and burn a terrific amount of brush. Below is a picture of the brush pile that is missing from the picture above. The wall behind it is pretty well collapsed, but that’s where we hope to bring a road in anyway, so that’s fine.

Simon, almost single-handedly, cleared all that brush and burned it so efficiently I thought he might make a play for Elmo’s fire-king status. Everyone did a stint at raking and shovelling away at what was underneat the brush, and Sal and Catie in particular did a stellar job of removing some stubborn stump with the old crosscut saw we found in the shed. And underneath it all there was another lovely set of stone steps, which Liz cleared with much shovelling and scraping and “getting rid of GRRRRR” as she put it. She shall have a plaque for her troubles. Liz’s Steps. In brass.

Sarah-May and David and some friends of theirs (including the utterly charming Darcy, 10, who worked all day on all sorts of things without getting bored or whining) worked all Saturday clearing the paths, which has been barely visible under all the encroaching vegetation, but are now crystal-clear, weed free and practically dust free. That crosscut saw also took out one of the very big, very old stumps nearly blocking the path. The place really is starting to look a lot less like a derelict field.

The marquee, visible in this picture, was put up on Friday, in the most level and unlumpy bit of the field, which is neither level nor unlumpy, despite our great efforts to get the highest bits shovelled into the lowest bits. I think one of the upcoming tasks will be to strim, rotovate, rake and tamp another quarter so we can have a slightly less hillocky floor. However, that being said, it kept us dry during the brief showers and provided a lovely space to eat and socialise. We’re leaving it standing, I only hope there won’t be any mega-wind-storms for the rest of the summer. And I think we might need to make the odd repair to the window plastic, but I think it will last the summer, which is all I ask of it.

Elmo and Simon kept a fire going at the entrance and we managed to cook a few sausages on Saturday night. I’m going to be looking for a tripod and cauldron to do the cooking from now on, and maybe we can build a slightly more permanent fire-pit with some seating round it.

Dan and Catie did loads of clearing, and I was particularly delighted to learn of Dan’s enjoyment of removing stumps. I think he got through 4 or 5 on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

Lucy was a tireless worker and extremely knowledgeable about the plants on site and what they are good for (who knew there were skin, hair and nails advantages to having an horsetail infestation?)

We had the new caravan delivered (thanks to the guy I bought it from who bravely burnt out his clutch getting it up to the site.) and Lea did tons of nettle-bashing and raking around the door so we won’t get stung as we go for a wee in the night. The caravan is lovely. Difficult to keep it from getting tracked full of mud and leaves, but we might lay a bit of lino if we can get an offcut. It’s great to have just a little bit of mod-con in the middle of all that jungle. And the bed was very comfy.

It will also serve as the site office, as I’ve now got an account at the local builders’ merchant and have to start keeping track of bills so I can reclaim my VAT.

Here’s a picture of the Secret Garden door, with newly clear path. This bit is not ours yet, we’re hoping to buy that plot by the end of the year, but we’ve got permission to clear it up and re-roof the sheds. The one on the left under the arch has lovely stone mullions in the windows and is pretty sizeable, maybe 4×4 metres-ish. The roof has fallen in in places, so I hope to get that addressed reasonably soon, so that we can use that space to store the stuff that got put in the bottom sheds (less badly off, roofwise) when we eventually repair those roofs.

Thanks to Anne and Susannah, we can no see bits of the lower roof. I walked round the corner to find Anne on the ladder I’d found in the shed and put out to be burned, but I’m sure she knew what she was doing. Anyway, she’s still alive. We gave her the proper ladder after that.

A huge amount of shed-clearance got done, and 5 full carloads to the tip with polystyrene planting trays and various junk. An absolutely admirable job was done cleaning out two of the sheds, so we now have storage for tools and other stuff; tea-making equipment and soforth. A couple of metal shelving units (painstakingly erected by Alec) have been put in there to hold lots of plastic tubs of lots of non-perishable stuff. Hopefully next weekend I can offer better tea facilities, now that all the stuff is there and organised. Organised, I might add, by Mike and Heidi, who are the master organised-clearer-uppers, being very experienced at clearing up after dancing weekends. Many many many thanks to them for their marvellous help at the end of Sunday.

Mucho thanks also to Barbara and Rae who came to not only lend 2 pairs of very skilled hands but a head full of topical knowledge that led to a deal with a lady who will come and remove all the scrap metal from the place. She gets to sell it and keep the proceeds and we get to be rid of it with a minimum of hassle.

And finally, a picture to remind myself of what it looked like before the party. Don’t get me wrong, I love a wild meadow, and I don’t ever intend to over-manage the growth, but the exciting discoveries of pathways, stone steps, interesting enclosures and not a few bits of treasure made such a difference to the feel of the place. I am feeling quite at home there, and I hope all my minions will too. I have nothing but praise for the incredibly hard work of everyone who came, and I am eternally grateful and not a little gobsmacked that people could work so hard. And I hope to see as many again next weekend!

Saturday’s Meet The Neighbours party went very well; everyone was really welcoming and generous. Lots of offers of “if you need anything at all” and lots of interesting tales trespassing! It is very much the sort of place that makes you want to go have a look around.

We managed to clear out a bit of one of the sheds so we’ve got a place to store a few things. It’s a bit damp, but the roof is pretty sound (if mainly made of ivy at this point) and I think it’ll be reasonably secure with the new hasp and padlock.

There’s an enormous amount to be done, and I’m really hoping my army of volunteers is as enthusiastic as I am when they get to see it.