Rhubarb

The rhubarb I stuck in the ground a few weeks ago is growing....hurray !

Grey water system

Finally SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) has come back and approved of our greywater treatment system. All I have to do now is convince the nice building control officers that I can construct and install a home made straw and woodchip filter to "British standards".

In the meantime I have started planting trees in the greywater discharge area and made a small "soakaway". Of course nothing will soak away as the ground water level is just 10-20cm below the surface this time of year. So the trees will have to grow quickly and soak up all the water coming out of our house. The soakaway is just there to prevent land movement over time.

 

Today at the beach

Ann persuaded me to take some time off today to have a walk at Thurso beach...

Winter time....

It's wet and cold and muddy.
Even pigs don't like it...

Making a pig feeder

After looking at commercial pig feeders and their prices I decided to make my own a while back.
In good old low impact fashion I used pallet wood. What else? I also had a plastic tray that I bought for plants a long time ago when we had a small garden, which wasn't used any more.

The piglets loved it so much they stood in it and shoved each other out the way.

So I added a board in the middle, which worked much better.

Eventually the pigs grew bigger and bigger until the were too big to stand in their feeder....

Time to plan

Live Time Planner

Keep up to date with the project. Anytime Anywhere...

Plans are ready

Final changes have been made to the plans and submitted to the planning department. Hopefully all will go through quickly and we can start building in 3 weeks.
We have changed the battery bank extension to be cooperated into the house. It will now be my office / dog room. A patio door leads straight into the garden and a small log burner will heat up the room quickly after the dogs have been in and out on a cold winter day....

Have a look at our plans and feel free to comment.

Location Plan
Site Plan
Foundation
Downstairs
Upstairs
Elevation Plan

Electricity in sight

The quote has come in and is more than 5000 pounds lower than we thought. So we have decided to connect to the grid. It means we won't have to buy a battery bank, back up generator and inverter. It's good news for the budget although not quite as eco as we had planned.
Ann is now toying with the idea of a conventional fridge rather than a cool box and an electric cooker. It would be cheaper.... Why is it so expensive to be green ???

Off grid or not ?

After long and careful consideration we have approached our local electricity supplier for a quote for grid connection. We still want to put up the wind turbine and solar panels but with a grid connection and the new feed in tariffs we wouldn't need the battery bank, inverter and back up generator.
Those three item cost 12k to buy, so if the quote comes in below that figure we would be no worse off.
We should know within 6 weeks...

Will we ever build a house?

After getting our building warrant a year ago we are still fighting with financial paperwork, but hopefully it will all come to an end in the next few weeks and we can start building as soon as the weather improves.

Boris finds a new home

Pigs like company. Most of them do and Boris certainly did. Unfortunately Doris didn't like his company, in fact any food competitor gets eyed up, pushed out the way and puts her in a bad mood. You can't blame her considering her past, but Boris was feeling lonely...
So after weighing up the pro's and con's we decided to let him go. He found a lovely new home with sea views and three girls all to himself. We miss him, but we are sure he is a lot happier now.

Bye bye Boris....

Time flies

I can't believe it has been 4 months since I last posted on here. So many things have happened and I will try and update the blog in the next few days.

Building another hen house

As the population of chicken grows more hen houses are needed.

We have made a simple frame for the floor from pallet wood.

We found some laminate flooring in the outhouse, cut it to size and taped the underneath to prevent moisture from entering. (We later get told off by Ann, as she had the flooring earmarked for another job.)

The laminate flooring gets screwed onto the base. (Note: Chris is working ;-))

Rather than taking pallets apart we then cut out the boards with a circular saw (thanks to the invention of petrol generators and the founder of "Praktiker" in Germany).

We end up with a nice pile of boards which are free from nail holes and cracks.

Using a tabel saw at a 45° angle the boards are cut either side.

These "rain screen" boards can now be screwed onto the house. Which reminds me: we need a frame first.

First post, cut at a 45° angle at the top.

 The bottom frame is done.

The roof is taking shape and the first boards are up. Due to rain we are working inside the van.

The front boards are going on. There isn't much room in the van so it's difficult to take pictures.

More boards on the front and the roof frame is finished.

The front is all filled in, now to the back.

Day 3 and the sides are now being done. Both will be hinged to allow easy access.

Sides are done and the roof has been covered with odd bits of board to support the roofing felt.

Time for finishing touches. Ann is painting whilst I am working on egg laying boxes and Chris, who lost interest and motivation on day 2, is sleeping.

Branches from our garden make some excellent perches.

Egg laying boxes are in. Ann finishes the felt before the house is moved into the field.

After fitting the automatic door the chickens move in.