Working again

We've been lucky enough to have Steve and Laura here for the last week which has meant that my normal inability to get motivated has been kicked into touch. The major missions for the week have all revolved around stone walls.

First up was the gable end of the house where, having replaced the main roof timbers, there were some gaping holes left in the end of the wall. With much lumping and grunting, numerous lumps of rock and buckets of cement were transported up the ladder to the top of the scaffold where, with a minimum amount of skill, they were used to fill the gaps around the beams.

Mission 2 was to rebuild the back wall of the barn. This has been on my priority list since we first took ownership of the house however it only became apparent how much of a priority it was as we started to remove the loose stones and rubble. One of the main floor joists was precariously balanced on some loose stones with just a small amount of mud holding them in place. Higher up the wall the internal face was leaning over a foot into thin air and needed to be dismantled. This revealed that the main A frame holding the roof up was, and still is, balanced on another loose pile of stones with just mud holding them in place. I hope to rectify this next week when I've got some more sand and cement in.