Vandalism in the River Field

Our beautiful log seats have been burnt and our armchairs trashed.

Making coracles

Traditional, ancient river boats and the biggest water-worthy vessel you can make with one ox hide, coracles have been found in river and lakeside communities the world over, from Vietnam to India to Tibet to America to the British Isles. I'd been wanting to make one for ages, especially since I realised I'd be able to go round the maze in one during the winter floods.

Puddling - take two

Who knew that finding the right consistency for daub would be so difficult? Too much sand and it crumbles. Too much clay and it cracks. The 80/20 sand to clay rule doesn't seem to apply, so we're on our second attempt (the first lot gave way almost entirely and had to be pulled down) and now that it's starting to dry, crevices are appearing. We hope they're only superficial - winter will let us know, no doubt...

Here are some photos of Clare and Aideen mixing the daub and applying it:

Early summer in the River Field

A few photos taken this week...

The Roundhouse so far...

Autumn & winter in the River Field

Autumn was colourful as ever in the River Field. Below is a picture of the bare roundhouse in October.

We'd hoped to get thatching soon, but after a post-roofing rest, the snow set in and everything froze to within an inch of its life in temperatures as low as -18C! It was absolutely beautiful, but by the time the thaw came almost a month later we were well and truly sick of it.



These pictures were taken on an old SLR with out of date film, so that's why they look at bit surreal. I kinda like it :)

Doing the roof

We got the roof done in a couple of installments in August, November and January. All of the wood for the rafters was cut from trees in the field - ash, beech, sycamore, willow, pine and alder - and the batons were from an old leylandi that mum wanted felled. A few local people came down to lend a hand. Lynn helped mum and I get the first few up, then Michael and Ann came down with Conor and Liam to finish the job.























The tricky work came a few months later at the end of autumn, though. We needed to fit collars over the rafters for the thatch to lay on - a kind of lattice arrangement, with batons every ten inches. I'd managed to cut the top off my left index finger with a sickle and wasn't good for much, but thankfully Pete, Pat and Eoin stepped up and got the whole thing done in a day while I ferried around one handed with flasks of tea.

The roundhouse gets going!

Sorry for the delay, folks... This is the first of a bunch of new posts. We'll be up to speed soon!

In May 2010, I started constructing a bronze age-style wattle and daub roundhouse in the River Field. The first picture shows the planning permission request submitted to the fairies: two stones, one small one on top of a big one, left out overnight... thankfully none of them were knocked over. That means permission was granted!