Early Summer 2007

The Big Urn story continues apace....Having been quite pleased with the relative cheapness of the build costs (per litre), it was then time to apply a sealer to the inside before filling. Wow! Expensive stuff or what! And then I bought the exterior stuff - even more expensive. Still, the result is fantastic and we are now proud owners of a big potty with 14,000 litres of water safely stored. Fortunately (for me) my brother was visiting when I was about to attempt to get the sealer on the inside. What a hard job. The stuff was like Evostick and started going off after an hour or so. Anyway, job done. Do you like the colour?

May 10th and interestingly, I was browsing through some photos and the one on Into 2006 Proper where Anne is helping to lay a platform is exactly a year ago. Here we are 1 year on. (Well, I thought it was interesting.)

May sees me completing the upstairs walls and putting the blocks in place for the upper ring beam. This means that I really must decide on the type of roof structure (I suppose I should have known this at the outset - but I like challenges!). I've been toying with the idea of building a series of A-frames but after talking to a real builder decide to go for a long ridge pole, supported by an internal wall but resting on the ring beam and placing vigas (rafters) to sit between the ridge pole and ring beam.

The wood for the roof structure arrives. An 8 meter chestnut pole about 25cm in diameter is a pretty hunky piece of wood and we will need a crane to get it into place (on the back of the delivery lorry). The 26 chestnut vigas are 3.5 meters long. They all need the inner bark removing (with a draw knife and electric plane) before anti-bug treating and putting in place: about 4-5 days work. The lorry driver isn't sure whether the crane will be able to reach the middle of the gable end which is potentially a bit of a problem since the ridge pole is really quite heavy - not the sort of thing a couple of guys can shift around!

June 25th. Big Day. We put the main ridge pole in place. What a relief. We are elated that we managed to do it with help from Gunner pulling rope tied to one end and me at the other end. Its hard to describe the sheer joy at getting the last huge piece into place and we really are at the top of the house. OK so the roof still has to be built, but its possible to see this part of the major construction phase coming to an end in 5 or 6 weeks time - fingers crossed, of course. Here is a bit of a blurry picture of the great moment.

Having got the ridge pole up, I was a little concerned about whether I would be able to get the vigas in place by myself. You must think I do nothing but worry about things. Have no fear, super-builder is here! On the 3rd July, I put the last viga in place - it actually is taking on the semblance of a roof.

By the way, I'm not holding a gun in my hand, that is the best tool purchased so far, an impact driver. With the number of screws going into this place, I would be simply struggling without it.

Anne is now busy preparing the chestnut tablas (2m planks) - all 240 of them. They have to be cut to size, planed, treated with anti-bug and then two coats of diesel/linseed oil mixture.

On other news, I built a shade over the power house because I wanted to keep the batteries as cool as possible during the summer heat. They deteriorate really quickly if allowed to become hot and being that they are a few thousand euros to replace, a couple of hundred on a shade seemed a reasonable proposition. (As of July, it seems to be working well.) I have to say that we are really pleased with our solar setup so far although, of course, we aren't living there yet. We are becoming more confident with its ability to provide power. Many thanks to Brian who has done a great job.

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