Pigs. Logs.

Bit of a delay since the last entry, but it's been raining so unbelievably hard that not a lot has been going on to be honest.  Apart from pigs.  And the renovation, of course...

We're sharing these two grubby swines with some of our neighbours, and they (the pigs) have been busy ploughing everyone's spud patches for the coming year.  They're with us for a few weeks then it's lights out piggies!  I can see why you'd get attached to them, they're a lot more interactive than a bloody chicken or our loud and to be frank, bloody annoying geese.  They were a bit annoyed at being woken up to get a photo taken, but soon recovered and went back to bed.

K has been hard at it cutting wood for next year - these are the big bits I keep promising to saw up and never get around to doing.  All from the roadside where the trees were cut to give clearance for the phone lines.  Everyone here has either moved over to pellets or "aerothermie" so we're the only ones with a use for it!

In the middle of sorting out the veg plan for 2013 - we're moving the spuds, corn and squash break into the field so we have 4 extra beds in the veg plot.  This means I can put more brassicas in and generally stop trying to squeeze two crops into one space.  Doesn't really work for me.  In theory we should have a lot more food!  Roll on Spring!

November pics

New trees planted (thanks Polly).  Orchard now full.

Busy mulching and covering beds for winter.  Brassicas crap - caterpillars and slugs and lack of vigilance to blame.  Roots good.  Leeks ok but splitting in this wet weather.

Geese noisy, dirty and (I imagine) happy with about quarter of an acre to waddle about in.

House blog

I'm doing a separate blog about the renovation because it's a whole new subject.  I will keep this for pretty pictures of cabbages and such.  Link on left.

The Final Render Frontier

Just finished the slating and thought I'd put some pics on.  Quite pleased with it although there are some mistakes.  Can't see them unless you're looking though, so ne bother.

Still got to sort the damp wall out though, so next week I shall be at it with a spade and pick, making a drain.  See tide mark below.  Also have to tidy up the window area but that'll wait until new windows are put in next year.  Oak so they shall be.  Unpainted.  Double-glazed.  Sand and linseed mastic - no squirty foam.  Opening OUT so the rebate's on the right side and no water gets in and we can have nice latch thingies to hold them open a wee bit so steam escapes from the kitchen and doesn't soak into the walls causing dry rot.  Revolutionary.

How it looked after I knocked the render off:

Cracks

Just a quick entry to say the cracks have disappeared!  Looks like the lime has healed itself, saving me a job.

Render finished.

I have been working on this since February so I am a bit relieved!  Some small hairline cracks to address but literally a dozen and I think it's because I made the mix too rich.  I was following a recipe in the Building with  Lime book (2:1.5!) and did the back wall but changed it to 2:1 for the other walls and scoured it more when loads of cracks appeared on the first wall I did.  Not bad for a first attempt though - and hopefully my last attempt as well!

Wind got up last night and tore off all the hessian covering but apart from some small stains from the oak roof timbers, all is well!  I expected to see most of it on the floor this morning but it's held up.  So far.  Next is to cover the end timbers with slate, then dig some drains...

First wall we did.  Note the joins.  Hopefully it will blend in a bit when it cures fully.  Maybe some trellis if it doesn't.

View of the back and side.  The join looks ok - again, I hope it will blend in a bit when cured.  If not, I will paint it all the same colour, but I will have to lime-wash the bottom and Sandtex the cement top so it will still be a bit iffy...

Detail of the corbels on the front sides.  Quite pleased with these.

I wanted an open-grained texture on the walls and settled on a "rag-rub" finish with the idea that a bunched-up ball of hessian would follow the undulations of the wall and give the desired effect.  It kind of worked but I also needed to float it off with a wooden float beforehand to help consolidate the render as it was cracking a lot when it was setting.  A lot of work, so it was.  Cramped hands, so I have.  If I was to do it again, I'd harl all the coats on and just take the big lumps and undulations off with a wooden batten.  I would probably do this:

Harl Method for Lazy Bastards
Coat 1: lime to coarse, gritty sand 1:2
Coat 2: lime to coarse sand with a handful of hair per load 1:2.5, levelled slightly when "green hard"
Coat 3: lime to coarse sand 1:3

Each wall done all at once, finishing about 30cm around each corner of the building to prevent funny edges.

What I did was far too hard for one (occasionally two) person to do who had no previous experience.  Learning on the only and most important job you're likely to do is a wee bit daft.  Do a course and help someone with experience on a couple of other jobs first if you can: an extra month out of nine isn't going to make a lot of difference to the schedule!  Also, ideally you need three people - one to mix, one to render, one to finish.  Everyone works differently and mixing work styles on the same job is asking for variations in the work unless you've worked together for years.

Still, I am looking forward to doing the inside!  Madness!

Wee cow, big geese.

I have been mauled by a cow.  Luckily, she only comes up to my knee and was just playing.  Hopefully she will have grown out of it by the time she's a quarter ton!  We're babysitting "Rosalie", our friend's Dexter, which is to be her house cow in a year or two.  Super cute.

We have also been very kindly given a trio of geese by other friends who don't want them any more, proving again that it's who and not what, you know.  Should give us a gaggle of goslings every year to sell/swap, and I can finally, finally try my idea for rum-marinaded applewood smoked goose for Christmas next year!

Apart from that, working on the render, pointing, mowing, etc, etc.  Same as.