24 Jun - 1 Jul 10

24 Jul

Dave tried out the sample brackets today - the front face one happened quickly, the other took some time because the positioning was tricky.

While Dave chiseled I painted the last batch (for now at least) of the never ending white planks. Someone remind me next time to source pressure treated wood and get it spray painted - please! My back will never forgive me otherwise.

Btw, that black blotch on the wall behind me is a bunch of spiders - take a look at the pic below for a close up.

Sociable spiders These spiders are unbelieveable - I've never seen spiders community living. There are hundreds all bunched up together, and they seem to stay like that for days. Does anyone know anything about them?

Scarey monster I forgot to put the hats in the car today so Dave had to do a Blue Peter and cobble together one from what we had with us - scarey isn't it?!! I called him Russell, but he couldn't hear me above the, ahem, rustling.

26 Jul - Sunseed open day

We had a lovely day at Sunseed today, a fab vegan lunch and to top it all saw a geodesic dome that may be the answer for our round room roof. It could be constructed out of wood (not cane as in the photo) with metal joints, something that we'd be happy to do ourselves on site.

We also saw this Rocket Stove - constructed by Jeff and a team of volunteers. It's super insulated and stores the heat in fire bricks within the seating area for a slow release very efficient heating system. And the top of the drum gets hot enough to boil a kettle or cook on - marvelous. I'm busy re-gigging the floor plan (again) to see if we can get one in with a 'sofa' seating area.

1 July

YES - we've cut and fitted all the ceiling planks for the greenhouse! We almost had heart attacks doing it as it was full on all day in blazing sunshine. But it's done which is such a relief. I'm now working out the plan of action to - at last - make the roof waterproof. There's loads to organise so I'll sign off now and get to it.