September 2006

The time flew by. Literally! Only two or three weeks after the work week (then Detling) we were back, but with a difference this time. On Saturday we were called upon to do some film-work for an educational piece, which may go straight to DVD. Consequently, little work got done that day, other than Ketil and Chris nailing new sheeting onto the un-shingled side of the roof. It was by all accounts, damned hot work. The black colour of the tarp didn’t help a bit, as moments after it was up it became almost too hot to work with. I personally don’t hold up much hope for its survival if the sunshine continues for too long. Much kudos to the pair of them for putting up with it for as long as they did! I did have a little bit of woodwork before the film-work after I arrived with Carole mid Saturday morning. I had to replace the broken-off third leg on the currently two-legged stool. It may have been trivial work, but it was fun. Plus I had a go with a shave-horse, which is a rarity for me! But that was over too briefly, and after lunch (some adrenalin-shopping by Liz, Carole and Peter was required soon after our arrival), I spent the rest of the day pretending to be Beowulf. Oh the hardship! One other plus side to the filming was that three quarters of the hall was cleared out, swept up and set-dressed. It looked mighty fine and we were all very impressed with the end result. It certainly went some way to bring home exactly what we’re all doing this for. Sunday was more productive, as Ian and I set to work finishing the construction of the second frame onto which the rebated boards will be nailed. Hopefully it will be installed the following month. In other news, the palisaders, having either reached a natural conclusion in the palisade work, got all the young-uns together to dig out the rear of the hall to increase the surface area for the work to take place. This did rather heighten the need for some steps to me constructed opposite the rear porch entrance. Not sure on what’s going to happen next. Apart from putting in the framing, which I may not directly be involved with, there’s going to be a hell of a lot of rebating of planks to be done. Plus I’ll be bringing my curved adze and sander to clean up a trough that was lying around, looking rather sad for itself. Finally, much fun was had with rope-swings. There’s something slightly perverted about young girls in wimples and dresses giggling as they swing to and fro. The kids had their own fun the following day, while the grow-ups did work. They, of course did it over the previous days fire-pit. End result: grey (and very tired) children! And that was it – hot, fun and over far too quickly.