let sleeping dogs lie

too hot to stand up and eat our lunch, we'd prefer to just sit down or lie down to eat it!!!!

painting a kilometer of wood

We wanted to weather/insect and fungus proof the house a long time ago, we tried making pine tar for the job, which did work, but we realised we would need so much of it and the only way to make huge amounts was not only time inefficient but also required fire and at the time we were in a serious drought and a fire ban......then the rains came.  So, we ordered some stockholm tar (which is essentially the same thing) and mixed it with linseed oil and diesel to make our own preservative.

Other than keeping the workforce (of one) fed and watered and working on the rest of the farm, I haven't been able to help much with the build so it seemed only right that I paint the house. It's been a mucky job and tricky, reaching in and around inaccessible places, hanging off of bits of frame and leaning into the abyss, at times just down right dangerous but nothing compared to what rick has to go through on a daily basis.

a walk round the garden

shakes and shingles

- this may sound like a post about some form of illness, but in case you didn't know it is actually about an ancient form of roof covering. hundreds, if not thousands of years of tradition.

shingles are sawn timber roof tiles, usually 16" (400mm) or more long, and random widths, laid tripple lapped. generally they're made from cedar and some species of pine or chestnut and oak. shakes are split instead of sawn, which gives them a better natural resistance. it also gives them a rustic appearance, and because of the way they are made, they are usually available only in narrower widths (50-175mm)

i've hankered after using shingles or shakes for years, and now i have an opportunity. i like the woodsyness of them, i like the naturalness of them, their beauty, the way they age (silvery). i like how easy they are to make (shakes not shingles), that they are one of the only kinds of renewable roofing materials. and that, from the woods themselves i can make another essential part of the house. of and from it. they are the woods.

the process of making shakes is quite easy. you don't need many tools, a froe ( a special tool for splitting) a wooden club to hit the froe blade with, and an axe for trimming. having felled your poles, cut the blanks (the rounds of timber also known as bolts from which you will split the shakes), and debarked them, begin by splitting them in half, then quartering, then subdividing. you should be able to subdivide somewhere between 32nds and 64ths, for most bolts.

you can also split them right across the diameter of the bolt, which, because of the difficulty of obtaining anything from it, is called a bastard shake.

rounds much less than 200mm diameter wont make very big shingles, so you will need subsequently more of them. fresh growth on a coppiced stump is the best. somewhere between 20-30 years is ideal. past 50 years and its over-stood, and probably suffering from one or more defect, like heart rot, or shakes (radial splits). shingles are an easy to manufacture solution to roof covering, they take less material than thatching, are lighter than most other forms of roofing material (particularly clay or concrete tiles, or stone slate), easy to install, and very durable. you could expect up-to 70 years out of a shingle roof before it needs re-roofing, about the same as you would expect from slate, and more than you would from clay tiles. the church of east greenstead in essex, england, is one of the oldest surviving timber frame buildings anywhere, and like many other early churches in northern europe (especially stave churches, which to some extent it resembles) it has a shingle clad spire.

why i chose chestnut, was principally because we had some (enough as it turned out for 2500) and it is more durable than pine which i also considered. although i would have had enough pine to do all the shingles i could ever imagine doing, it still would've needed treating with a tar based product to prevent insect ingress or fungal growth.

in the end we traded some labor for raw materials, so all the 7000 shakes cost us was about 5 litres of petrol and some oil for the chainsaw. well that, and the physical toll on me, which was not inconsiderable. i wouldn't want to make them everyday, put it that way.

why 7000? well that's what estimated it would take to cover 100m2 of roof, and how long did it take? including felling, hauling out of the woods, making, and stacking, 40 days and 40 nights, how very biblical, how very appropriate.

hummingbird moth on sage flowers

hair today, gone tomorrow

People will always need hairdressers, or so they say. Like most women I am very particular about my hair (actually most men I know are too!!), I'm not overly vain, don't wear make up, would never consider plastic surgery, but something that I hadn't factored into the whole "living in the middle of nowhere with no money thing" was that I might need to get my haircut. I have always been terrified of hairdressers, they never listen to what you want and always seem to charge the earth, if you're lucky enough you find one that gets you and gets your hair and you stick with them until they give up or move or you give up and move on. Then you have to start all over again. Long hair has never suited me (believe me I have tried) which would make life a lot easier, I always imagined that if you had long hair you could just flip it over your forehead and cut it in front of your face, easy. But I know it's not as simple as that. Going to the hairdressers is suppossed to be a treat as well as a necessity, an hour or so of banal chit chat, leafing through magazines you would never dream of buying but can't resist looking at, having your hair washed,although I never liked that bit as I have whiplash and always found leaning backwards over a sink incredibly uncomfortable, and don't get me started on the water temperature, "is that OK" they always say, "not its f******g freezing" or "no, you just burnt my scalp off", but we always say "yes thats fine", like if we complained about the water temperature or the unnecessary pain of being backwards it would offend the washer person and that would in turn affect how your hair will be cut and then the obligatory head massage at the end of the washing fiasco, sometimes you'd get a good one, most times it would just feel like a small child fiddling with your hair, which is frankly rather annoying. So infact going to the hairdressers is not a treat at all it's just more stress which you have to pay for. I have only been to the hairdressers once since being here in Portugal, it was an unpleasant experience, thankfully I didn't have to go through the hair washing bit, they ommitted to wash my hair, I was roughly handled I had no time to leaf through the magazines of hair cuts to show them what I wanted, I just got what they wanted and quickly, charged not very much but was miserable for days. So after that i decided to cut my own hair, this way I get what I want and it doesn't cost me anything and if i cock it up then it's my fault. I have also been cutting Rick's hair,

which I am getting rather good at, he only wants it done with scissors and a comb, at first I was worried but every 6 weeks he gets a hair cut and over time i have got better. I thought it only fair that he should be able to cut my hair, it's very hard to cut the back of your own hair for obvious reasons, so figured that if I cut the front and sides he can do the back, sounds like a good deal, NO. Imagine my horror when the person you are trusting with the back of your hair (ok, you don't have to look at that bit, but you kind of want it to be in keeping with the front and sides, mullet springs to mind!) all he did was stand behind me either giggling or occasionally saying "oh god", i lost faith very quickly. So now all he has to do is stand behind me with a mirror and i do the rest myself.

It's not too bad this DIY haircutting, it's not stressful anymore, nowhere near as stressful as going to the hairdressers, it's totally free and over time you do get better. Have a go and save your pennies for something else like chocolate or shoes.....