sounds like a nail run along a comb

Down the plot today after finishing off the concreting we had shuttered up the mixer was cleaned and washed. Just as I turned it off the strangest sound came from the rushes below the plot between us and the sea. Sounds like a nail drawn across a comb very slowly. Quite loud and so distinctive - the corncrake is pretty rare and lovely to hear. Its not even common in the Hebrides - a stronghold. I have heard only one before on Gigha two years ago, so to have one just 50 metres away is quite something. Later we refloated the cat on today's spring tide and put it back on the mooring with Micky and Tracy's help. The very low tidal range on Gigha means that even on a Spring tide if it is a high pressure system then the high tide is depressed so we were lucky today.

To see some great pics try Steve Round's website http://www.stevenround-birdphotography.com

embodied energy

Today we laid some concrete down for the first time - apart from the very small pad foundations for the wee shed. This is now functioning well. The two gutters are draining away runoff very well - in the end we finished them with epoxy as a waterproof sealer which also binds the roof membrane. However this is a digression. Despite the fact that we got rained off at about 1700 BST we managed about 30 loads today. This is about 2.4 cubes of C35 mix. So roughly 80 litre mixes. This means we will need to do over a thousand by the time we have got all the concreting done - only 970 to go then. This means about 25 days mixing and laying concrete in the next few months. I mixed and carted and J placed.

We were late onsite too after blethering with Neil and Malcolm at the fish farm then Lindsay and Karen whilst on our way. Blethering is a Gigha pastime. A good blether is a part of island life. This deflective behaviour was because we both had little energy this morning - neither of us sleeping at all well - J woke me up with her amazing snoring - a Bach fugue at 3 a.m.I think it was, but I was going to stay awake for two reasons. One was running through the whole build logistics in my head and the other simply arthritis. So we ended up knackered at normal getting up time and were very slothful in getting moving. Eventually we did arrive down the plot with a two hour window before the rain was due in. In fact we had about 4 hours actually concreting - after we had relevelled the shuttering with the laser level. We eventually got a better than 5mm differential over a 10 metre run so less than 1% out. This is a relearning process for me as it is a long time since I have done much concreting and a new skill for Jayne who actually proved expert at laying, inserting the reinforcing and tamping off. J has a good eye. There was no runoff from the stuff we had done by the time it came on to rain so it must have been level. Thankfully it was light rain and the concrete had mostly gone off so no risk of wash outs.

We are using a lot of concrete in the build as all the floor areas are solid (with 100mm PI foam beneath). This is to create a good sized thermal mass inside the highly insulated structure to store heat. Also it will heat up more slowly and there be less chance of overheating in high summer. Concrete and glass are not the most highly rated eco-materials. We have had to compromise. There is a vast amount of energy used in their production so our house will have a high embodied energy inasmuch as we are laying 90 cubes of concrete in all and have a lot of glass to optimise passive solar gains. Mind you, in energy use the house will have very low energy consumption as the space heating is wood burning, cooking by wood range in winter and hot water from solar and wood range. We are pretty committed to seeking out cost effective LED lighting too.

So despite our own energy levels being pretty much on the low side today we got about a third of the footings done - but in high energy materials and hard graft in mixing and laying.

bath time

Some friends of ours (who live just down the road - you know who you are) tend to catch up on their day whilst sharing a bath once the kids are in bed. We are only having one bath in Tigh Cruinn but two showers, and we wanted a freestanding thing with a wee table to hold the odd glass of wine or G&T next to it and space for two. We found just the right thing whilst hunting for bathroom stuff at the end of January during our Celtic Connections break in Glasgow.

However it was the most expensive bath we saw. Now Jayne likes sloshing around in water quite a lot and a hot soak does my knees good, as well as the arthritis. Should we go for this lovely feature even though it was over our budget ? Well we did - firstly, we had a very good discount and managed to source all the other bathroom items very reasonably so we are only £200 over our total bathroom budget anyway. We also came in over £500 under budget on our underfloor insulation and have pretty much been under budget on most other things so we did go over just this once. I'll have to set the drainage outlet and waste pipe into and under the cement floor which means locating the bath position exactly even before the house is built.

Jayne is very pleased with "her" bath and shows the brochure to everyone who calls. The freestanding tap mount was over £300 so I'm making one up from a lump of wood - probably burr oak - net saving £275.

Any thought over going over budget brings me out in a cold sweat - that and the logistics of getting the substructure built and the kit installed, so it was a major achievement for me to agree to the bath. Anyway here it is. Our floor will probably be multicolour Brazilian slate which we have already sourced too. Yes- we have put the cart before the horse but got some good deals by buying in the retail slump in the recession and during the January sales. We did have a hiatus whilst waiting for the digger to be repaired so have advanced other tasks.

By the way we'd recommend both the bathroom suppliers we used in Glasgow. Both are on Hillington Industrial estate - Try Crest bathrooms and Scope bathroom interiors - both have given us excellent service and no hard sell. Funnily enough the sales lady in Crest used to stay at Pininver on her holidays near Campbeltown with the now retired former Gigha nurse - another strange connection. Frances is a field archaeologist and has done some great survey work on Gigha where every stone big enough to trip over has some significant history attached to it. Scotland is big enough to be independent (if it wishes) and small enough for people to know each other or have friends over long distances such is the network of small communities. Scots are rightly proud of being outward looking and welcoming. Every visitor survey that is done for the tourist industry highlights the Scottish welcome and friendliness- along with the stunning scenery and history.

mud, mud, glorious mud

The north east corner of the plot is on schists and has some clay underneath. It is very wet and yet this is where we are building our shed. The shed needs to go up very soon as it also includes the hardstanding and parking area. There is a culvert which runs water right on to the wet bit and this has a drain to take this away round the edge of the plot. The drain was too shallow as the mini digger could not dig into the schists though there was a decent fall. We also need to level off for the footings for the big shed. Today, after digging out for the duct for our mains water pipe and phone line across the track about 100m away on the croft boundary, I thought I'd have a go with the JCB. Now trenching across the track was wet enough. After backfilling it was somewhat wobbly. So, in the full knowledge that even in 4WD the machine would probably struggle I managed to get the JCB on to the wet bit. Two hours later and it looks like a mudbath and definitely a brilliant spot for some mud wrestling for those who indulge this particular passion. I managed to get stuck on several occasions though the new channel is finally dug into the bedrock about 300mm deeper than it was. The footings are not dug as before this can be done the drains need fixing and the waste backfilling. We are going to use 200mm old fish farm pipe which has an internal diameter which allows conventional 160mm pipe to sleeve it for joining bits up. Have also fettled two rodding chambers ready for installation. Just in case we are also putting in a line of wavy coil - seen in the foreground. I was going to make it into a full french drain but now its deep enough we'll pipe the flow from the culvert runoff and the parallel run of wavy coil field drain will handle any other seepage so we'll just backfill with what's there.

Problem is now that we won't be able to get the JCB on to this area until it really dries out so we'll see what its like after the next few days which should be drying weather. Chances are we'll need to use a tracked mini-digger to backfill and excavate and level the footing runs so I can get on with concreting those and do the blockwork for the shed.

After that the problem will be solved as we will level out the large pile of crusher run in this pic to give is a solid working surface for the drive and hardstanding. After the very dry but cold winter there always was the chance of a very wet Spring and that is what we have had.

turf

The small shed at 3.6 x 2.4 m is just about complete. Made up as a prefabricated kit the sections were taken down to the plot on the Cabstar before assembly on pad foundations - nine concrete filled sections of reclaimed fish farm pipe - 35cm diameter. The roof trusses were prefabricated in 150x50 C16 timber - somewhat over the top but designed to take the very heavy weight of a wet turf roof.

We finally completed turfing the shed roof this morning. After a rainlashed night the ground was pretty wet but we still managed to cut the last couple of square metres, trim them off and get them on the roof. The weather has made it a bit of a stop go process this last week. We put the edge trim on this afternoon and only need to line the two drain hoppers to seal the whole thing.

The roof is the prototype for the big shed following next and then the house. The specification is 18mm OSB over the trusses, then a woven polyester/PVC pond/reservoir liner as the waterproof membrane. We have placed a wool mulch mat over this to retain moisture and provide nutrients as it rots down over the next couple of years. Over that is a layer of coir fibre biodegradable mat. This is to prevent the turfs from slipping on the 26° roof pitch and bind the roots of the turf layer as it grows. The pebbles allow runoff to drain to the gutter hopper.

The turfs are hand cut for this roof but the others will be machine cut. These ones are a bit more variable in thickness and are taken from the actual footprint of the smaller roundhouse. We should have some lovely meadow flowers - tormentil, eyebright, harebells and the like on the roof this summer.