Thursday 24 February 2011

Winter’s Work


It’s been a while since the last post but we have not been idle in the woods. A few trees at the edge of the glade have been felled and put to good use as posts for the ‘forestry shelter’ we are building. Construction was delayed by the local planners but they have now been provided with evidence that the wood is being managed for forestry and that seems to have satisfied them. This is inspired by the classic roundhouses but is unlikely to see any wattle, daub or thatch; we are building for practicality rather than reconstructing the past so plan ‘A’ will be a tarpaulin roof. A central tripod construction adds stability as well as supporting the roof timbers and doubles as somewhere to work with the fro that Santa Claus bought (he also bought an axe, both made by the elves at Grandfors). The fro will be really useful in splitting wood for walls and roof supports, and maybe sometime in the future we’ll supplement the tarpaulin with some chestnut shingles. We have also bought a Mazda Bongo which is a 4x4 camper van, so we now have more room for bringing stuff to/from the woods as well as having some weekends away.