The hardstanding is down and the tree stumps are off site. Craig-the-digger-man loaded them onto an enormous trailer behind an equally huge tractor belonging to some farmer friend of his, and they have gone off to goodness knows where along with a lot of topsoil (possibly the farmer's payment for taking on the stumps!)

The Big One going into the trailer


We'll need to watch for honey fungus around the garden and put down something to kill it off as it can kill of many types of tree and shrub. Anyone who has any good idea on how to use this without using chemicals is invited to write to the author.

That was a good event. Not so the electricity connection saga which is now going into it's fourth week. The electricity supplier came to fit the meter but the electricity contractor had put in different connectors than he thought he was connecting to, if you see what I mean, so he went off again. The electricity contractor had been misinformed about the kind of connectors to install and came straight out to replace them, but not fast enough to stop the electricity supplier from going off to his next job. So we have another week with spaghetti wires across the carpet and the the toaster sitting on the floor on account of it having a very short lead! It will be great to be able to have a shower in the light! This Friday coming is the great day when we hope to celebrate the Great Switch On.

The hardstanding means we can now get up the second, and temporary, shed, this one made of metal. It makes assembling an Ikea bed seem like putting the lid on a jar of jam. R has made a wonderful wooden base out of stuff lying around on the site and we will put the superstructure up this week.
R making the base.

If you have been paying attention, you will know that this shed is a crucial part of the Masterplan. We build it then put all the stuff in the garage into it. Then we can demolish the garage which is over the south east corner of the house, and is therefore taking up space which we require for other purposes.

This week we will lay out the house on the ground, with string.

Tomorrow we get the results of the soil analysis and here is another Good Thing. I had a preliminary chat with the partner of the bloke who did the augering the other week and it looks like our soil may not be as bad as we thought and we might not need such humungous foundations as we thought.

Lots of technical stuff this week. On Wednesday I am going to the Ecobuild exhibition in London where I hope to find a whole new system of housebuilding which will give us thermal mass, insulation, speed of construction and precise dimensions for a price we can afford .... we can but hope.