Another dreary day - but action is on the way

Hello friends and colleagues, and others interested in our yurting,Here's today's report on another Saturday down in Slough.

First the bad news:

• The covers blew off and the nursery staff had to take them all down during the week - following all the storms. I think we are probably not their flavour of the week!
• The sand is all quite wet
• Only two of us - David and I - turned up today
• We didn't get as far as we would have liked (=rough cob laid)

Now the good news:

• The yurt is on its way from Madrid and should be with us by Mon/Tues
• The woodburning stove, ditto
• We have 20 straw bales in a polytunnel for our circle of seating (left)
•  And lots of tarp to cover it with - to keep it in its bales, so it stays fire-resistant 
• I have the phone numbers of the people who supply yurt chimneys for the stove, and water urns to sit on top of them

And David and I managed to do quite a lot of useful work:

• Sort our all the post-storm untidiness
• Finish the sand layer with about 12 barrows of sand
• Roughly enough for levelling the whole area to have a domed shape (below)

• Worked out how to do the outer drainage ditch (above)

• Made a sample of cob - and checked its consistency with the 'ball test' (right)
• Tidied the site up 
• Re-covered the yurt site with slightly tented tarps (to allow a bit of air, and hopefully drying), skewered and weighed down at the edges (below)
  
  
  
  
  
  

 Unfortunately, I got my jeans wet and filthy - so left them in the shed at  the nursery and drove home in my
underpants. And ran out of petrol. Enough said.

So the next jobs are in three different 'work streams', for the floor and drainage, the path and the yurt itself.
Weather, progress and item arrival will determine exactly how they fit
together with each other:

EARTHEN FLOOR
1)      Level the sand with a long wooden batten - radial from the middle.  Do it so the middle is about 2" higher than the edges - to make the dome.
2)      Tramp it down with lots of walking on it, so it's quite  solid.
3)      Make a good lot of rough cob, to be like a pancake 2 - 3" thick to go on top of the sand
4)      Spread it neatly, and smoothly
5)      Allow to dry. This might be difficult with the weather at the moment. If needed, and things come together at the right time, we could erect the yurt on top of the rough cob layer, with the fire in place, and light it for a few days to dry it out really well.
6)      Make a smaller lot of fine cob, to make the final layer of 0.5" to go across the top of the rough layer. Get it as smooth as possible, with a wet plasterer's float.
7)      Allow to dry. Method maybe as above.
8)      Mend any cracks that appear with fine cob mix, and let them dry out.
9)      4 coats of linseed oil - 100%, 75%, 50% and 25%, diluted in spirit. Allow to dry between each.
10)    Beeswax finish, and polish to perfection!

DRAINAGE
11)     Dig trench round whole floor - 6" wide, 8" deep
12)    Ensure damp-proof membrane runs downhill to take water AWAY from yurt
13)    Fill with gravel
14)    Planks over the trench outside the door

PATH
15)      Agree and mark out its course
16)      Dig it out 3-4" deep
17)      Edge with wooden sides and batons (like we have for the yurt floor, but thicker and stronger)
18)      Lay base membrane already in situ along the side of our site - will need moving
19)      Thin layer of sand
20)      Finish with thick layer of wood chips (from John Whitby's farm?)

YURT
21)     Allocate whole day for erecting it (earliest is probably Sat 25Nov), and gather the troops
22)     Obtain proper chimney and urn-boiler
23)     Put it up
24)     Get the stove in place (on the slate slabs that are loose on the site, laid flush into the earthen floor)
25)     Do the things with the floor (as above) if necessary
26)     Cover the floor with old rugs and carpet if necessary (if not able to dry enough until spring)
27)     Move all the 'furniture' in -  wrap the straw bales in tarps and rugs for the seating all round the edge, and a central table.
28)      Make it homely
29)      Use it regularly - for the TC's afternoon groups, and any other groups we can get going there during the week
30)     Organise our 'Yurt-Warming Party' - and get as much publicity and recognition as possible
31)     Think about our next projects - pond, solar electricity for lighting, partnership bids with SEEDS and others, second yurt, restoring secret garden, etc...
32)     Maybe ducks instead of geese?

So that's it for this week.
Do forward this to anybody else you think might be interested.
And Saturday volunteers will be welcome for at least a couple more weeks! (we do about 11.30 till 2.30 usually)

Rex