2 Dec 07

Sorry for the silence everyone, just when it was getting exciting and you thought we were ready to put the roof on....a pause.

A number of things have been happening though.

Firstly we've been sourcing roofing materials and water tanks. This has meant re-reading through the books and trying to convert American materials and measurements into local ones. We've had a fair few discussions about things and have eventually come to some sort of decision. So, the wood for the bond beam, the first stage of the roofing, has been ordered from a local carpenter. We've decided on the beams and columns, the next stage of the roofing. The beams will be 4 metre logs that we can source fairly locally, they're unfinished so are lovely and natural. We'd like to use old telegraph poles for the pillars and have seen some ripe for wombling. We need to get permission, a few good strong arms and a truck to get them to the land, Dave's working on that one!

The second thing that has been happening is planning permissions. The application for the round room generated much discussion between Dave and the town hall. We've had the local police come to the land to check that they're happy with what we've done and what we've requested so far - the good news is that THEY'RE HAPPY! The even better news is that the local planning officer who we saw last Thursday is very interested in the project and would like to help us with the next stage of planning - the main building and outsheds. This means applying to change the use of the land. We've written a Project of Actuation, are just finalising the translation of it and will send it to the town hall hopefully this week. If they're happy with it they will send it on to the provincial urban dept - then it's fingers crossed.

When I get a chance I'll put up more info on the Project of Actuation and the local materials we've found so keep checking the site.

Lastly we've been picking the almonds from the trees on the land. There's not that many because the trees are in need of some serious tlc, but they've still given us enough almonds for a few months and we still have a few trees to pick. So thank you trees and we'll try to spend some more time getting you back to full health. (I haven't forgotten the three D's Harry - dead, damaged, diseased - we'll get to it soon, honest).

Btw, does anyone know about roofing felt and R values for insulation? We're having a job converting R-values into anything we can recognise here and as for roofing felt, what's that all about? It doesn't seem to be used here at all! The nearest thing we can find is bitumen sheets.