project complete

 The yurt is now ready for guests, it looks so inviting with the shadows filtering through the canvas walls and the sound of the breeze in the trees.

Glass wash basin in the roundhouse with a sneaky reflected glimpse of the

 hole in the roof and stunning cordwood wall.

Peak inside the composting toilet, all that's missing is a toilet roll holder

leaving the yurt, looking up towards the roundhouse.  it looks a bit stark at present, but the forest will soon reclaim the bare patches.

somewhere quiet to carry out business in the woods

Matty's steps.  Simple, effective and very inkeeping

Looking down from the roundhouse towards the yurt.

None of this was here two months ago.

There is even a pole lathe in the woods, should guests want to try it out, I'll 

have to blog further about pole lathes in a few days time.

Awaiting the first guests.  I hope they are as happy to be here as I have been building it.

the roundwood house is getting there

NW bale wall finishing.  We discussed endless possibilities for finishing the end of the bale walls.  Due to the nature of the building and the fragile nature of straw, when it comes to moisture and rot, there were not a huge number of feasable options.  The straw had to be covered and kept dry whilst the earth needed to fall and look fairly natural down the side of the building.  Here, the waterproof layers continue to encapsulate the straw behind the willow horizontals and are secured with the large vertical trunk.  The tyres hold the willow in place at the other end without damaging the layers behind.

SE side, needed a different solution of finishing and retaining, so we used oak planks to hold the soil back and finish the straw wall.  The shower tray is still visible as the final wall isn't in place yet.

Interior straw walls clipped neatly ready for rendering.  The cloth protects the plumbing for the kitchen sink.  For the moment the tyres will remain visible.  They protect the bales from the damp floor/ground and are filled with large stones.

Adam working the first layer of lime mortar well into the bales.  The further into the bales this layer goes the better supported the final wall will be.  Not particularly strenuous work but hard on the fingers with constant forcing of mix into the straw.  3 parts sharp sand, 1 part lime and enough water to form a slurry.

Cordwood wall sections under construction.  They rest on horizontal beams of cleaved chestnut wrapped in polythene to keep them off the ground.  The two sides of the wall are mortared and the central area is filled with wood chippings, this reduces the amount of mortar used and in enclosed buildings provided an added layer of insulation.  

Second layer of lime mortar in position, scratched to take the final finish coat once dry.

Evening sunshine on a portion of finished cordwood wall.  It's starting to look good.

roundhouse walling

reciprocal roof detail

the roundhouse before the walls went up

straw retaining walls pinned with chestnut stakes

protecting the straw from moisture and the liner from damage

backfilled with soil

A couple of weeks ago, after getting the garden up to speed I became involved in the roundhouse project.  The round ‘henge’ complete with reciprocal roof were already in place.  We have since worked on the back, straw wall, its protection from the earth backfill.  We used a wooden trellis behind the bales to allow the wall to breathe, followed by an old padded pool layer to provide cushioning and then a double layer of heavy duty polyethene which drops way below ground level and is held in place with a land drain.  All of which is then protected with a layer of woven landscape fabric.  Where there are protruberances, they are further cushioned with squares of pool cover, not exactly ecological, but great use of something that would otherwise contribute to landfill.

Backfilling and compressing of the earth was hot, time consuming work and me being the thinnest spent most of the day squeezed between the back wall and the earth tucking in the layers of protection and then guiding and compressing the earth into place.  Happy days.

willow roof structure

Matt and Matty encouraging the first willow onto place on the roof.

Nearing completion with Harry, Nic and Matty hard at work

Too good to cover with soil

layers of protection

and a topping of soil

The roof was much more fun.  Giant spirals of willow wound and attached round the roof to be viewed from below once the structure is complete.  This process was amazingly time consuming and energetic, each length of willow being encouraged into place, often against its natural tendencies.  The result was amazing and almost too good to cover with earth.  

The willow spiral was covered with white fabric to show it off well then double layers of polyethene, landscape fabric and then earth.  The plan is for the roof to return to nature with ivy, perrywinkle and woodland plants creating a green carpet and disguising the building from above.  It’ll take a while and there are more pressing things to do at the moment than wandering about the woods looking for rooted ivy and interesting specimens to relocate.  Better done in the autumn when it is cooler too I would have thought.

making things

Tying a yurt wall

the floor deck being constructed in sections so that 

it can be moved into position later

yurt walls and willow working in the background

sunset dinner location

Woodworking?  Not yet, I spent my third and fourth day in the kitchen helping deal with two slaughtered pigs.  Processing offal into pate and faggots.  Not something that I had expected, but as life never goes exactly as planned, a good bit of experience which may well come in handy at a later date.  Sausages followed, but I managed to escape outside to help with yurt walls that had to be retied.  It’ll be slicing bacon next, once it has cured for a while.

The project is picking up pace here, eight days to go and still about a months work to complete.  I am looking at it as the possibility to gain experience and to embrace the madness that is sure to arrive as and when I get my own place.  I have been here ten days and have worked every one of them.  However hard we work there always seems to be more to do, new challenges to face, unexpected problems to resolve and endlessly changing weather to keep us on our toes.  There is no stress, no harsh words or pressure the team jovially embrace the challenge and several have prolonged their stay to see it through to completion.  Wendy and Matt, the hosts look after us all admirably and we end each day with a great meal, plenty to drink and a good evening round an open air fire.

I don’t think that I have ever spent time with such a committed bunch of volunteers.  My time in the vegetable garden is over and my ‘expertise’ with straw bale construction is being stretched to the max.  Being the only person here with any experience of working with this medium all eyes are on me for the wall building and shaping the walls of the round house.  I am so glad that I have read so many books on the subject, even things that I have never done seem to be familiar and the project is coming on a treat.  Everyone seems to have fallen into specific rolls, each contributing their unique skills.  With a boat builder, architect, stonemason landscaper, bodger woodworker, conservator, pub manager and all round handyman on the case, it appears that every base is covered.  We have some great conversations and discussions, everyone puts their point of view forward when they think it is needed and the project advances.  Steps are built, retaining walls are fashioned out of old tyres, planting is organised, whittling, weaving and construction continues.  There are always numerous books open on the giant farmhouse table for reference so we eat outside under the shade of beautiful elms next to a field of sheep or if a beautiful sunset presents itself we move ourselves to a prime viewing on top of the hill.

glamping

Wow, that all happened a bit fast.  One minute I am with french friends planning the summer, playing boule and chilling french style.  Forty minutes later I am in another hamlet a few miles away, seemingly back in england, surrounded by english speaking people drinking a good cup of tea (with milk) and discussing the weather.  I had been warned that the Dordogne was like little england and whoever it was, wasn’t wrong.  That statement was reaffirmed this morning at the local market when the stall holders automatically speak english to you and the dominantly overheard voice is not of the local tongue.

I feel as if I have been transported into a different world.  The weather has been scorching hot and sunny all day, my bedroom is a yurt in the corner of a sloping field overlooking rolling arable countryside and my main task for the day has been weeding along side a New Zealand girl called Nic. She is one of 6 other helpers here, all the rest are english through and through.  Disappointingly so are the hosts, so I won’t be getting much french practice here.  On the positive side the location has been on my favourites list on HelpX for at least two years and have been invited a couple of times in the past.  

The location is an off grid luxury camp site that is in the process of getting off the ground.  Two yurts up and running and a third in the process of construction.  The wooden frames are hand crafted on site and the canvas cut and sewn to fit. Alongside the third yurt site is a partially build ‘hobbit’ style round house that is to serve as a kitchen and showering area for the accommodation. It will be semi underground, with a grass roof, solar shower and old style larder food storage.  

At present the framework for the third yurt is being whittled, drilled and threaded, the roof poles are ready and a large roll of canvas awaits final measurements before being transformed into a weatherproof cover.  There are no straw bale walls to the roundhouse, nor flooring, water supply or roof.  The area is a building site and has to be completely transformed by early next month when the first paying guests are due to arrive for a relaxing and tranquil holiday.

I know that I have been weeding today, but I can hardly wait to get stuck in to helping out with these projects on hand.  A brilliant opportunity is unfolding before my very eyes to pick up those carpentry skills (and more) that I have been pondering about for the last few months, to glean first hand information about yurt building and rustic constructions that have been on my mind and to see just what it is like to run a camp site.  It is fortuitous, I feel, that the french hosts that I originally asked to stay with were unable to find space for me at this time.  Hopefully I will get to visit them a bit later on this summer.