Many horses make light work

In truly unbelievable act of generosity, one of our favourite neighbours gave us a tractor that looks exactly like this:

Renault tractor buffs will immediately recognise an R 7051 - but that's not important right now. Blog followers will spot the cut off plastic bottle preventing rain getting into the air intake and killing the engine (I'm not getting caught like that again) - but that's not important either.

What is important is that this new toy - includes bucket (but no battery) - has made our big winter project of collecting rocks from the field and dumping them on the road through the woods far, far easier. After only a few days it already looks like this:

Next year's guests can look forward to their own access - and écovallée parking (thanks Simon) - when visiting the yurt camp. Which currently looks like this:

How to make a yurt platform - Alex's fairly definitive guide (including pictures)

Now that I've made a raised wooden platform for the play yurt,


a beaten earth platform with dry-stone retaining wall for our 18-foot yurt,


an 18-foot beaten earth platform with woven chestnut retaining fence for our first guest yurt,


a wooden platform for our second 18-foot yurt,


and a second 18-foot earth platform on a slope for our second guest yurt,


I feel qualified to write a fairly definitive guide to how to build a yurt platform. I'll be happy to answer questions if anything needs clarification, time permitting.

Before I started my latest platform, I bought:
o Thirty 2.5-metre lengths of rough 7.5 cm by 4 cm douglas fir from a nearby woodyard
o A six-litre tin of treatment against wood-boring insects
o 27 square metres of pine flooring, 23 mm thick, 10 cm wide and 2 m long
o A five-litre tin of protective treatment for the finished floor - oil with a white pigment
o A box of 200 screws 70 mm long, 5 mm wide
o A box of nails 40 mm long, 2 mm wide

On day one, I laid down and levelled the floor joists 61 cm apart, and screwed noggings between them to strengthen the frame.


I was lucky enough to have almost level ground to work on, and some old tiles and bits of wood lying around. Levelling an area like this takes a huge amount of work and is covered in other posts.


On day two, I joined the ends of the joists, trying to get these outside noggings as close to the finished edge as possible.


The weight of the yurt will be resting on this edge, which is why I put supports at the top, bottom and sides.


An important point here, in capital letters: THE FINISHED FLOOR FOR AN 18-FOOT COPPICED YURT IS 18 FEET 4 INCHES - the 18 feet is in the internal measurement. If you are using sawn timber, just add the wall width on both sides to your internal finished size.


On day three, I started laying the floor, aiming for as little wastage as possible, pre-drilling holes diagonally through the tongues wherever the boards crossed a joist.


This is what I can do in about 10 hours working alone.


On day four, I finished laying the floor while Her Outdoors applied the first layer of oil. Unfortunately, the oil had an eight to 12-hour drying time between coats, so this day ended up being quite long too. Rain had appeared on the forecast I use and we were now chasing the weather as so often happens.


On day five, I screwed 10 cm strips of 5 mm ply to the outside edge of the platform.


For some reason this doesn't come up much in yurt books, or sites talking about yurt platforms, but we find it essential. The edge makes putting the frame up a breeze, doesn't cost much, cuts down on draughts, holds in the insulation and even stops slugs coming in to eat the cat food.

If you have large items of furniture and small doors like us, you'll want to move these onto the platform before putting your retaining edges on.

UPDATE

I've since discovered you don't need to pre-drill those holes. Just make sure they are angled nicely into the wood. Saves a bit of time.

Night yurt

This is for Dave, who wanted to see why I said the yurt and gazebo look awesome and make two yurts look greedy. Who could want more than this?


Except someone who would want it in focus.

Something for us

This week, I've been trying to get the work:work balance sorted out. I've been doing the physical stuff in the mornings: cutting and stripping acacia, and digging post holes in readiness for a gazebo next to our yurt (it's about time we did something just for us). In the afternoons I've been doing the mental stuff: tweaking the website, writing a book, getting in touch with an agent and all that.

Gazebo-wise, it's worked out pretty well. Here it was a few minutes ago:


Problem is, the physical stuff is such fun that lunch gets later and later, and the time for writing before the kids come home from school gets shorter and shorter. And as I found in the summer holidays, kids and book writing don't mix. At all.

Interest in rocks

I love this time of year. When we don't have guests we are open to people who come and help, bringing all manner of interests and skills with them. Yesterday, Marc and Aimee rocked up at the start of their long walk to Italy. You read that right - they're walking (you can follow them on their freedombyfoot blog link on the right).

Now Marc is an archaeologist. And you may know I've been wanting an archaeologist here for YEARS. Especially one specialising in prehistory. So you won't be surprised that I quickly exposed him to my Interesting Rocks.


These are some of the countless rocks I have unearthed during the making of écovallée. Some or all of these rocks have been dissed by some or all of the people who have seen them. But I kept the faith, and Marc has identified these as being definitely shaped by man or woman.


He actually got quite excited about one of them.

Instant wood store

Last week I spent two days being an extra in a French film and two nights being the first person to sleep in a friend's beautiful straw-bale house. While I was away, Alex and Laura made this.


A couple of mornings cutting and splitting wood, and it's already one third full. We've never been so prepared for winter.

It's timing all about

Just back from a 10-day holiday in England, where I was an usher at my little brother's wedding.

It all went very well, thanks. The only complaints I'd make are the slate-grey sky we saw almost every day, the size of the new shopping centres in Exeter and Leicester (which seem to be excessively large), and the price of beer in pubs.

Although Alex and Laura looked after écovallée and our guests magnificently while we were away (see their Life in Brian blog link on the right), you'll appreciate there's a lot to do right now. Projects include making a shelter for our wood pile, building a gazebo and roof for the clay oven (see below), tweaking the website to reflect next year's more rustic offering, laying a 100-metre (100-yard) road and car parking area near the Play Yurt using our own hand-gathered stone, building the snail-shell shower cubicle we swapped through project1p, and writing a book designed to coincide with the screening of a 12-part TV series called "Little England".

Which is why I'm in a blind panic at this very moment. You see, I used to think I had months to write the book. I used to think the TV show was going to be aired some time between October and April 2012.

But I was wrong.

Today's post (US: mail) included a flyer that informs me "Little England" will start on Monday. This Monday. Monday September 12th. I don't know which of the 12 shows we're going to be in, but I strongly suspect I won't have much time for blog writing between now and Christmas.