August 26th - An appeal

Spent the morning bracing the scaffold, building another tower and lugging the planks up to form a platform. Another lovely day, but not as hot as the last couple. Discovered that slating around the stepped roofline at the front of the house was pretty tricky and time-consuming, with lots of cutting and a bit of lead flashing to work out. Our three boys and Buggy and Boo were on site, but disappeared for three hours up the hill with a picnic, arriving back muddy, bloody and shattered.

Mal spent the day inside, framing up the internal walls on the first floor. He's off the job for a week, fitting a kitchen in Edinburgh and cladding a house near Berwick.

I had a call from Tom Wilkinson in the evening. He's the contractor who'll be baling the straw later this week. Quoted £2 / bale, or £2.50 delivered.

And now the appeal. Building straw walls is traditionally tackled by a group of lusty, energetic volunteers - no honestly, it really is! A bit like an Amish barn-raising, but without the beards. I'm planning to get the straw into the walls during the first week of September starting on Saturday 1st. If anyone out there in blog-land feels like a day or two of wholesome manual toil in a gorgeous part of the country, maybe even learning a new skill or two I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email at damon.rodwell@gmail.com or call me on 01573 440761.

Plenty of on-site camping space and a few local B&Bs if you want to make a holiday of it. Food, drink, banter and guaranteed fine weather will be provided.

Go on - bring a pal - it'll be a blast. No previous experience or building knowledge needed (although if you've ever used Lego, you'll be laughing!)

Cheers,

Damon

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