Slow but sure

We completed the internal timber framing before Easter and have been doing some fiddly bits - last week we finished the pitch pine panelling around the roof opening. THis required 72 bits of 10mm thick pitch pine joined at some interesting angles, plus holes for the ceiling lights, as the makeup show

We're well on with the first fix electrics now, and also about to plumb in the piping to the solar water collectors for our hot water. This has to be done in silver solder which has an annoyingly high working temperature of 630 Deg C. so needs a massive blast from the blow torch. Drylining boards arrive Tuesday. Here's a few pics

Insulating the roof. Spaceship Ardailly

spaceship

layer 1 

half way there

We've just finished infilling the gaps with foam

Hat and overcoat

from the west

Temporary porch to north

From the south

Space for solar panels left

Looking west

More photographs of the turf roof

We finished turfing just before Hogmanay. It stood up to all the December gales even partially finished and we are ready now to over-seed the turf with primroses, cowslips, harebells and bluebells for the Spring

Coir mat under turfs with wool mat under that

5-8k each

Box guttering

Edge Upstands

The roof apex was complicated joinery wise - all compound angles

The watcher in the skies as Jayne dropped in the last turf

Watertight at last

We stapled up 12 segments of PVC membrane and then welded the other 12 between them so the roof  membrane is fixed down and watertight. The eaves fringe is 20cm to allow for the upstand and gutters to be fixed in.

So now two yeears fter we finished the floors and having been defrauded by our kit builder we have one 9m roundhouse up and watertight. Next job is to fix the eaves and geotextiles and lay the turfs which we cut this week

PICS

Progress at last !!

This last eight days have seen a build crew get the 9m roundhouse shell up and fit the windows.

ALL of our blog input - comments and photos have been put on our Ardailly Ecoroundhouse Facebook page as it is much easier to upload photos.

Please visit the page and put a like on it if you will - as it has been really encouraging to us to have the support of our friends.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ardailly-Ecoroundhouses/179195655511861

The Power of Publicity

We have been very unfortunate in our choice of some of the people we have done business with. As the law is very weak - the only option is to expose - just like Cowboy Builders does. Your average dodgy dealer is usually a good talker and often manages to survive exposure because there are always new targets for their business. Politically, Private Eye does a good job on greedy and hypocritical businessmen, MPs and councillors but there really isn't a co-ordinated equivalent for consumers. All the TV programmes are rather mild. We need a press champion exposing corruption and the ease with which business men can avoid proper regulation. For example, it is, de facto, a criminal offence to be late with your business accounts submissions - but the law seems to be rarely enforced  with only warnings issued. Politicians ignore the huge weaknesses in 
business regulation as anything else would be viewed as 'anti-business'. This is utterly feeble - when Rangers went under the losers were hundreds of one man bands and small businesses in Govan who have gone bust and lost their livelihoods - whereas the ex owner has just walked away scot free.

First Lamb

Our lambs are later than most folk as we delayed putting them to the tup. This has worked out okay for us as it is only now the ground is warming up - even last weekend lambs were being lost to cold. Anyway Jayne found one of our ewes with a large lamb when she went to feed them. Now we just need a few sets of twins.

Tree Huggers

Our 3/4 acre plot is pretty exposed to the west and north west and Gigha still gets a lot of salt laden westerlies - the hurricane of 31st May two years ago scorched all our young trees then, though most have almost recovered. Jayne has her own native cherry tree which is recovering well now, but almost every leaf was burnt by that storm. We also have too many rabbits and have to protect against them. Izzie does chase and kill rabbits, but they get their revenge by eating anything we plant unguarded.

We have a large strip of wet ground with rush (now sprayed) about 15m wide by 50m long. This ground has to do something useful so it might as well grow wood fuel for us.

We also need to provide shelter for our other garden ground without taking away from the incredible views.

There are two wee copses of trees on the adjacent Mill Croft about 25 to 30 years old so we have worked out what is best to plant for our own coppice on the wet ground at the bottom of the plot from what has done well there. The only species we don't have is sweet chestnut which seemed a surprising choice as it isn't a local tree but has done well there and is great for coppicing. We have avoided Sycamore too.

We've had to abandon our plan to plant a lot of Ash - chalara has done for us there. We planted fifty last year but can't plant any more. We've added fifty Hazel in the hedge mix instead. It is native and local.

The Alder has been very successful, is great on Scotland's west coast and is a good coppice firewood tree so we have a hundred of those. They'll put on two to three feet a year when established. Our first trees planted last year put on 30-50 cm in their first year.

Our 100 metres of hedging, all along our boundary fences,  has been planted as a double row of Blackthorn, Hazel, Hawthorn, Oak, Ash, Crab Apple, Elder and .... Swedish Whitebeam. This last species is salt tolerant and very pretty - I have seen them in gardens in Torshavn in the Faroes and they have to be very wind firm to survive there. So we managed to source some Scottish cell grown stock for our plot.

This year I have managed to find two of my own favourites, both Scottish natives - Aspen and White Poplar so we'll have wee clumps of these in the wetter corners - and they are fast growing and coppice too so can provide wood fuel for us in our dotage.

We have native Scots Pines in each corner and birch and rowan for show. Every house needs to have rowan near the front door. Keeps witches away. Pity we didn't plant it sooner - might have worked for our cowboy builder. Rowan is also Jayne's grandson's name so we have ten of these.

At the top of the drive is a large rocky area with lovely native heath/rocky plants - harebells and bluebells, wild primrose. tormentil and eye bright, wild thyme and now a dozen young Junipers in the sheltered crevices. We have a few broom for the odd dry spot too.

Almost all the trees we've planted will coppice so can be cut back every ten years or so and will provide enough wood for the wood fuelled Esse and our two Danish wood stoves and not block the views. In fact we ought to be pretty much self sufficient for fuel - just hope we have enough strength and energy to cut the trees down, and log them in our 70s cos that's how old we'll be by the time these trees are big enough. Luckily modern wood stoves work best on 3-6 inch diameter sticks, so no splitting will be needed.

We have tried to plant 90% natives - everything else is salt and wind tolerant except the fruit trees which we were given last year.

Tree planting at 60 is an act of faith. You know you're not going to see the full benefits but then if we have to leave a legacy a few hundred trees is not such a bad choice.