Moving dirt around

The digger arrived at 8.30,and we got going, moving the soil excavated from the studio. We put a load as backfill to keep the studio snug, and started filling the veg beds. It turns out Ali was better at driving the digger, but don't tell him I said so.

Roof and floor, almost at once

J&J Roofing came last Saturday and had the standing seam aluminium roof on in no time. They will come back to finish the flashings and gutters when K & I have put up and painted the fascia boards. The studio is watertight, on the top side at least.

Ali came home to help with the concrete floor. K&I had a busy day on Sunday cleaning the damp proof membrane, putting in the insulation (150mm polystyrene), cutting an fitting the steel mesh, and various other bits. Ali arrived around midnight and we saw him in the morning. Jewson's failed to have our bull float ready this morning, and the concrete arrived early, so we had a mild panic. The conveyor didn't want to work, and we didn't want try to push even 2 m3 of concrete up from the driveway. Fortunately, it all finally worked and we got the concrete in with the help of Paul. Final float was at about 7PM, well after dark and just before a welcome roast chicken and sticky toffee pudding.

The truck with the conveyor had a faulty drum, so a second truck brought our little load

Larry, Curly and Moe

Broadcasting the pigment - this will be the finished floor

The micro orchard

The bed for the espaliered fruit trees went in today. Karen and I shifted soil and put up the boards on the high side. This will form the back edge of a flower bed, which Karen marked out today. We have decided on steel posts for the trees to minimise the size of the posts. Next project is pouring the floor slab for the studio, booked for next Monday, and shifting the "ramp" that was created by excavating the studio - Rob on a digger!

Top board level to within 5mm. Check it out, Tom.

Just add manure.

Bottom bed got bigger and will swallow tons of soil.

Veg garden rising and PHPP

Timber for raised beds arrived week ago and Tom was booked in for some more building.

Rob ready to do some damage

Test run of the boards

Tom under close supervision - the architect is banished indoors for this operation

The day's work finished at dusk, and in light rain, but the progress is evident

Following much heated discussion about how level and how much of a circle segment the walls should be, the freestylers won out (since they were doing the work). A fair bit of fill was added to the lowest bed - manure needed now! We have the trailer hitch and all we need is the trailer and a shovel.

Peter Warm came today to discuss how to approach the Passivhaus standard and get me going on the detailed design and calculations. More on this later. Thanks, Pete! You managed to give straight answers with great diplomacy today.