We have shelter on the farm!

We have finally seen some positive progress on the farm. Every farm needs a shed, and we finally have ours. We decided to have the shed company only erect the framework for the shed, and that we would do the cladding ourselves. In addition to providing us with the satisfaction of building our own facilities, we managed to save ourselves a bucketload of cash.

We took a three day weekend to start cladding the shed, and got most of it complete. The roller doors posed a bit of a problem, and we had a false start on one of them when it unrolled on us! They say that practice makes perfect. It certainly did in this case, with the first roller door taking almost four hours to put up before it immediately unrolled. By the time we came around to rehanging the first door, it only took us about twenty minutes.

The shed is 6m x 12 m, which has induced a bit of shed envy amongst our friends. Realistically, it might when we finish putting the roof on. I am looking forward to being able to camp in the shed, even if Jane isn't too sure. Maybe if we build a mattress of straw bales she might be a little more excited. Have to see once we get there!

We also took the opportunity to have a geotech survey done, to determine the soil quality and types for building. We might have a problem for some of our plans, as we hit a pretty solid granite shelf at about 50cm. Lucky we were never planning an underground cellar… although it might have given me the excuse to play with dynamite!

We did have a major stroke of luck, with Leigh and Clare being in the area on Saturday. We very gladly used Leigh's help to put up the roller doors, and they stayed overnight on the farm. I hope they had fun, because we can see that there will be elements of our future build that we will need to lean on Leigh for. The man is a magician, and has the practical experience to mean that our roadblocks are pretty easily worked through.

When we went up to the farm, we stayed with our future next door neighbours. They are winemakers (Rosnay Organic) who also grow olives and figs. We took up sourdough bread, duck breast prosciutto (our own) and a range of meals for the weekend. The figs are being processed two ways, both of which are insanely good. I can’t decide which of the end products I enjoy most. They do a dried fig, which ends up like a hard, chewy candy. As good as it is, the glace figs are – wow! We had them sliced with good cheese and duck prosciutto, and I reckon they would be equally good with vanilla ice cream. MacK had a great time playing with Floyd and the girls, and spent part of Saturday dressed as a clown. We think he looks pretty cute!

Just clowning around...

See below a photo essay of our progress this far:

Nothing exciting - just a little geotech...

This was what we found when we rocked up to the farm

The walls start to go up

Bazinga! - Jane the screw guru

MacK showing me how its done

The first end wall goes up

And so does part of the roof. Note the safety equipment on top of the scaffold

This was where we finished up at the end of day one

Clare's help was fantastic

This is what we get to look at every night we are up on the farm. Who needs reality TV, when you can simply have reality?

I was in the shed before dawn each day, and the sunrises were almost as good as the sunset.

Leigh, Mark, Clare and I trying to work out the instructions. Can I say that what they contained was less than underwhelming!

We are two smart men. Surely we can work this out!

This was the state of play when we walked away on Sunday. Hopefully this Saturday will see most of the rest finished.