And that’s pretty much what Ian and I did, all weekend. We had all the tools, and I had remembered to bring the fence for my circular saw, which made it far easier to saw down the narrow edge. I also forked out the money to buy a dedicated blade for rip sawing (all the teeth were in a line, rather than sticking out slightly either side, in case you were interested).

This upgrade made the work proceed much more quickly, but it would have gone even quicker had we the assistance of a third person to hand us up boards of the appropriate size. Unfortunately we had to wait until Sunday before Andrew Goodbody was able to offer some much appreciated assistance.

And so, slowly but steadily the boards rose towards the sky, darkening the southern end of the longhall. There were a few pauses along the way, as rebates were deepened, and edges were straightened, but considering none of the boards had been through the thicknesser, or indeed had been approached by a plane, they fitted together adequately enough.

The overall effect was more pleasing inside than out, with the contrasting colour of some of the planks (which had received greater exposure to the elements), being placed next to the more golden hued ones, being more apparent on the outside than in. This would fade in time, and would also, eventually, be painted green.

Having a chance to examine our handiwork during daylight hours on Sunday afternoon, it did make it noticeably darker inside, but as it is all going to receive a liberal dosing of white lime wash - well, we’ll see what the effect of that will be when it happens. I have my doubts as to its effectiveness.

Other than that, that was it for me and Ian. We were asked to leave the centre section of the framing open, effectively creating a window. This was unexpected, but fairly easy to accommodate, and actually reduced the amount of prepared timber that needed to be used. What exactly will happen to the hole will depend on what the smoke does, after the other end is boarded up (in March/April next year). Current bets on what will go in the hole (if indeed anything will) are leaning towards a wattle screen set in a frame that will be nailed into place.

Finally, we had the tedious but necessary job of tidying up and putting away of tools, stacking scaffolding, and relocating unused timber and recovering of wood piles.

Interspersed with this, Kevin and I tried to persuade Kim of the economical viability of buying a £400 thicknesser, to lessen the expense of fabricating the external doors. These items of furniture are going to have to be made of decent timber, with yet more rebated edges, and possibly of laminated construction. Our choice of material is kiln/air dried/prepared timber. But that costs a lot of money. Probably more than Regia is willing to spend. To persuade our glorious leader, I think some careful costings are in order. Something to think about over the winter months, I guess.

But such conversations were swiftly (if temporarily) forgotten, as with the generator switched off, and the site tidy, we could appreciate our work to date, and look back on the working year with a sense of satisfaction.