Upcycling

If you can call building walls out of random rock upcycling. You can certainly call making bookshelves out of a salvaged drinks bar upcycling. And then there is definitely upcycling when we made the final splashbeck to go behind the cooker.

All the splashbacks have been based on some old red painted plywood. The boards originally came out of the skip between Salau and Couflens. Heaven knows what they were used for originally but they had been painted white and then red. We picked them up years ago and since then they have been temporary flooring when we only had joists in the main barn. Another evolution was when they became a bridge for Walter (the wheelbarrow) when we laid the concrete floor in the barn. They became a slide for mortar to get it from the mixer down to the base of the wall when we built that. At one point they had wheels attached to make a trolley to keep the leisure batteries on. They have been used as a platform for mixing concrete for the second outbuilding. And finally they have been cut down, attached to the wall, pointed in, tiled, framed and grouted as splashbacks. That they shall remain, and rather good they look too!

On the nature side we have some resident black redstarts and grey wagtails. Oh and about 8 rooks which are digging up compost, eating the fruit and pecking the lettuce and blet. Generally they are a pain. We also have various adders which we need to be careful of, especially when picking up rocks from the pile. Breezy found a couple of adders and one definitely seemed to be eating the other. Is this normal behaviour? It went on for over an hour and was definitely more than a love bite.

We have made progress on outbuilding 2 with a view to putting a green roof on. Also some copicing, foraging and tending the garden. The home grown garlic is fab.

Categories: Summer 2017, The Project