June 25th

The "scalpings" arrived yesterday - actually not skin and hair removed by Indians but rough sand and gravel to lay into the foundation trenches. Shifting four tons of the stuff the 60 yards from the carpark to the site was a lot of wheel barrowing. People said "whats the access to your site like?" and I didn't take much notice. Now I see what they meant. Closer you can get when dumping materials the better. So we wheelbarrowed them down to the site, dumping them on large sheets of ply (very useful things to have at your site because its so mcuh easy shovelling them off the ply then off the ground). Then in a very disorganised style we spread them out in the trenches.

13th June

Helped by my son Ty and his friend Mark Holt we get busy digging the trenches for the foundations. As you can see there is a lot of rock to contend with. The up side of this is that we won't need much in the way of foundations. I've decided not to put in concrete foundations but instead lay the walls straight onto compressed scalpings. I'll have to hire a "Whacker" (one of those compressed air machines that jump in the air and then land with a "Whack!") but that should make the base firm enough. You've got to remember that this is a very lightweight building compared with concrete block walls so we don't need to go overboard. Anyway I'm not that keen on loads of concrete everywhere.

11th June

Steve the digger driver clears the site. Lots has to be clawed out because the site is on a slope, and Steve has to have several goes at it to get enough ground cleared. At one stage I suffer the indignity of having to explain my hairbrained scheme to both Steve and my two builder friends Mike ("The Crunch") Woodley and Keith ("Where's the Ball"). Questions about what happens when the wolf comes, the danger of striking matches and the leaning on the walls. Ho Ho Ho. Revolutionary Hippy musician meets the Somerset levels.