Fine days

Last week our good buddies from Norfolk came for a holiday. As always it was lovely to catch up with them and it was also fun to have the house busy with the noise, mess and activities of two families. This marks one of those transitions between this place being a home rather than a house. Other self-builders have commented on the time it takes to settle in after designing, planning and constructing a house. Tamzin and her family bought us a beautiful handcrafted box for collecting apples from the orchard in years to come and some herbs for the garden. The herbs are being planted in the beds we've created between the top of the stone wall and the hen enclosure until we have formed our raised beds. The trailer in the picture above is full of plants ready to be put into the bed.

We officially had one rainy day in May.

The pile of top soil which was created at the start of the contract has been levelled and will return to grass over time. We haven't delineated the garden/field boundary formally yet but will do so over the summer. We've asked Allan who built the long drystone wall on the east side to undertake various jobs over the next few months and the new garden wall will be part and parcel of that package of work. We've still got plenty of sandstone left from the old house to reuse. Since this picture was taken the hens have a had a field day (in the precise sense of the words) with the newly turned soil.
When the render was being cast one area fell off and was redone with the adjacent wall (on this picture to the left) within a couple of days but it is very clear where there is a variation in colour. The product is from K Rend and we've asked the architect to speak with their rep to see how this can be remedied. The wet dash finish is very typical of this area and much of Scotland. Variations between batches of the same colour can be a problem in a number of areas be they render, paint or other finishes but for us its very noticeable on this elevation.

On the snagging list for the window supplier - the paint on the aluminium cills is dropping away at a fair rate. Thankfully the maintenance man from the supplier came here last week, remedied a number of problems and are going to replace the damaged cills. The cause of the problem appears to be unknown so we hope the issue will not return with the new ones.

One week to go?

Just one person on site to day, Billy the tiler has given the slate floor its final coat of sealant (Lithofin) so its looking quite smart. He's also sealed the showers so we'll test those out this weekend, after some serious cleaning as its pretty thick with dust inside the house.

There has been no action on the replacement chimney which is a shame as it has a knock-on effect for reslating that part of the roof, finishing the joinery in terms of boxing out the area in the bedroom and painting thereafter. As the builder is away on holiday we'll need to do the chasing. We received an invoice from the architect yesterday which is quite amusing/bemusing as we haven't seen them for some time now.

We're at the stage where there are a lot of small things to finish off but its all going very slowly. We're still moving in to a couple of rooms next Friday come what may!!!!

The cleared area where the huge dairy shed used to stand was originally going to be gravelled for car parking but we have realised how large this area is and how ridiculously expensive it would be to gravel. We really don't need such a big area just for vehicles so this is where we intend to start creating the raised beds for our veggies. We're going to use the remainder of the reclaimed roof joists from the original house (the 5m x 2m woodshed is utilising a few) to lay out the area and start filling it with last year's matured horse muck. We have presumed linear beds to follow the line of the wall but after seeing this evening's Gardener's World I quite fancy a more interesting layout, be that triangles, diamonds or some other such whimisie.

The on site compost producers...... our friends' horses Danny and Lily.

Hens eat fries!

The apple trees in position - if you look closely you can see 2 McDonalds fries on the cardboard, the scaffolders thought the hens might like a snack

Feel Good Day

We're back in the caravan now and love being at the heart of it again. Glorious weather here at present so I spent the early morning putting cardboard 'mulch' circles around the newly planted apple trees to keep the weeds at bay. There was no wind so it was really beautiful being out in the Spring sunshine and I was thinking of putting a bench seat in the new orchard. It's a bit rich calling it an orchard yet but Steve and friend Allan planted 12 apple trees yesterday. I chose mainly Scottish heritage varieties from Butterworths organic nursery who are renowned for the quality of their stock and for the range of species they grow. Very kindly the nursery added an extra tree to the bundle but I haven't worked out where that should go - should I just pop it in with the others and ignore the separation distance they're meant to be or put it in the ground elsewhere and hope it pollinates, ether way its temporarily heeled in nearby.
Here's my list of species:- Dessert Apples are White Joaneting which dates from before 1600 and produces early fruit from August, Thorle Pippin (2 of) a Scottish apple first described in 1831, Charles Ross which fruits from Sept to Dec and is a cross of Peasgood Nonsuch and Cox's Orange Pippin, Golden Pippin (2 of) which was described in Scotland's first gardening book in 1683 as the 'best variety for Scotland', Wheeler's Russet which is originally English but was grown in the big Clydesdale orchards in the late 1700s and is a late cropper from Jan to March, Maggie Sinclair is also probably from Clydesdale and finally for the dessert apples is the Ribston Pippin which I chose as it heralded in 1707 from Knaresborough which is the nearest apple connection to my place of birth. Culinary apple choices are Stobo Castle which is an early cooker from Stobo, Golden Spire which originally hails from Lancashire (as does Steve) and is a good cider variety so we can dust off our apple press in seasons to come, Scotch Dumpling which has particularly attractive blossom apparently and is another Clydesdale species, Scotch Bridget which dates from the 1850s and crops from Oct to Dec.
I've spent quite a few hours reading up on the subject and working out the best species for our site (wet and windy west), its conditions (fairly shallow soil with rocky strata), the pollination days of each species to ensure they remain fertile and cropping times so we that we don't end up with too many apples at the same time. Obviously we'll have far too many apples but it'll be fun to see it all grow over years to come.

In amongst the quagmire, building rubble, scaffolding and general building site detritus we have signs promising the return of life to the land. There is very little planting to speak of here (so far) but the rhubarb last year was gigantic and gorgeous so its exciting to see new growth. If I get my act together I'll get some buckets over a couple of plants to force some early crop. However as its driving rain and howling wind just now and there's a huge dump of snow forecast it'll certainly not be happening this weekend.

Inside the building the heat pump is being installed. It is a heavy piece of kit and took everyone here today to move it into the utility room. We've agreed its final position and from there Steve and I can order the utility room cabinetry. In a few days time the heating will all be connected and set to work. It'll take quite few days to come through as the pipework is deep in the slab but this will help dry the concrete before we look to putting flooring down. It'll also help to warm the rest of the house. Before the electrician left earlier he switched the heat recovery system on as it is now in place. We're pleased to report it is silent in its operation.

Rambling catch-up

Have realised that I haven't taken any new pictures in the past few days...sorry! Lots happening though so here's a random list....

We've taken deliveries of towel radiators (Molly had requested a purple one for their bathroom but thankfully B&Q haven't realised there's a market need out there yet); three Grohe showers purchased online from Bathrooms365; we've also purchased two bathroom units from B&Q, with slightly adventurous acid lime coloured fronts; and there is a shower tray on the way which should complete all purchasing for the bathrooms except for flooring and tiling;

The kitchen design is being tweaked hither and thither but we are hoping to be making a decision by the end of next week, essentially the decision is between Magnet and John Lewis; both have been good on customer attention so far and both have well manufactured products, the latter have a slightly better selection of unit sizes which is a plus point but we haven't had the final quotes yet!

The search for slate floor tiles and hardwood flooring is next (Steve's job) and also for sliding wardrobes for the bedroom and hall (my job); when we finish this house build we should have so much spare time...I wonder?

On site the work on installing the Heat Recovery Ventilation system ducting has commenced. Steve spent a bit of time with the electrician as the system was new to him, I don't pretend I can explain the detail so will let the engineer expand on that soon. The principle is that the house is so well insulated and airtight that ventilation is an important requirement, and the system we are installing continuously extracts stale, warm, moisture laden air from the house and replaces it with fresh air from outside, transferring the latent heat from the former to the latter in the process . Other electrical work is largely complete for this stage with the positions for electrical sockets and other outlets for lighting, telephone, DAB, SAT/TV, RJ45 (computer network - CAT5e cabling) all firmed up. Thankfully we'll be having some of those neat multimedia sockets so the house doesn't look like an electrical showroom.

I have been striving to get quotes from landscaping firms to undertake some tree planting around the perimeter before the current planting season is over. I am submitting an application for a grant scheme which the National Park operate and although the rules are numerous I hope to get some help towards improving the local landscape. In addition I have been perusing the website of Butterworths which is an Ayrshire based organic apple nursery. Last year I missed the planting season but want to get 12 apple trees planted shortly with a mix of eating and culinary varieties. The hens currently occupy the orchard plot in its bare and bleak state so I'm sure they'd welcome the trees. Butterworths is a really specialist and very well regarded small nursery and they have many old Scottish species which I hope we can have here. I shall include a cider variety too so that we can dust off Steve's Vigo apple press in future Autumns.

And finally..we did watch some TV this week and were pleased to see the Hugh FW and Jamie Oliver programmes on chickens. Obviously we are pleased to have our own former battery hens which have flourished and are still laying eggs through the winter. We don't have chicken very often because organic is expensive (but delicious) but we are wondering whether to get some chickens for the table as well as for their eggs.

5 more nights in the caravan ('til mid March anyway).......

Hens and Hedges

We've had company in the office today as one of the hens can't walk. At this stage we don't know if its a temporary state or permanent injury. Despite the impression created by this photo the hen's left leg has no power or weight bearing ability. So for today the hen has been in the warmth of the office in a box of hay with water and food; we're hoping the easy life will assist recovery but will see what tomorrow brings.

On other matters I spent some time last weekend drafting a brief for tree and hedge planting around the farm. I've had good chats with the National Park landscape officer and trees person and a local contractor so hope to get some prices back soon. The planting season for bare root stock lasts until March time. The other element of this is really to get some trees growing - as to quote the original farmer's son "he didn't like trees" so there aren't too many round here. I'm keen to get a small orchard planted to reap fruit in years to come.