Saturday 1 June 2013

First steps

May 2013

While Dave is nailing floorboards, I'm getting on with the wall, and have made it round the bend to the south wall.  This area is planned to be indoors - behind glass for passive solar heating in the winter, so the stem wall can be a lot lower, as we want to maximise the amount of cob wall here.  It's great, I've galloped along the front with only two courses of stone to lay.  By the 26th I've reached the door, and decided to make a couple of steps at the threshold, to drop down to a lower floor level in the trombe wall / mini-conservatory area.  As the wall is 60 cm (two foot) wide, I can make two 30 cm steps within the wall thickness, using a few of the floor slabs otherwise destined for the bathroom.  Here's the first step completed, and the top one under construction.


And this, below, is my trusty 'sack-barra' (or sack-barrow as someone more southern might say) for moving those inconveniently large rocks.  The uneven ground makes it a bit of a challenge, but between us, me and the barra are shifting those stones into place.


On Thursday 23th, we gathered for Art as we usually do, at Mamma Mia in the morning.  Spiros had arranged a priest to stop by to give the restaurant a blessing to freshen up the space and get rid of any negative energies.  Jessica, Amanda and I stopped to watch as he made Holy Water, and splashed it into the corners.  After he'd left, Spiros bottled up the water, and gave us each a little bottle to take home and do our own spaces.  I wanted a photo of the priest in full regalia, but didn't want to be too touristy, so he'd taken off his gold front before I managed this shot.


 Then on Tuesday 28th, we decided that we couldn't leave the boat any longer, if we didn't get it in the yard for maintenance it would be unfit for use in the summer, and if we left it any later, it would be impossible to work in the heat.  So out she came, with maybe two weeks work to do before we can get back to full time building the house.


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