Getting plastered

After two weeks of hard graft, our latest wwoofers,  Brodie and Molly are on their way, but what a difference they’ve made. We promised them building work, and our first task was fitting out battens and wood-wool board in the little cottage.  Then they moved on to helping Brendan (the master) plaster the outside of the cottage. Here they are on day one –

 

and between lime plastering, we got stuck into mixing cob.

 

The rocket mass heater needed some adjustment so I took the chance to take the drum off, clean out the inside, and lift the drum a little to improve the burn. Here are the guys freeing the drum from the cob –

 

and the state of the core when we got the drum off. Somewhat sooty – a sign that it hasn’t been burning just as hot as we’d like.

 

Having cleaned things up we set about reassembling, and then cobbing the drum and burn chamber back in, and adding some embellishments –

 

and getting the old cottage wall earth plastered..

and the results-

 

somewhere along the line the remaining 1950’s window on the corner by the tree got taken out and replaced with a modern unit that someone gave us, and a nice new wooden lintel put back in (the old one was so rotten it fell out).

So – well done the pair of you, it was a pleasure to have you stay, and you’re welcome back any time..