They're a modern stone-age family!

Hello everyone,

Today's blog has taken place over two days, and believe me, it's probably going to take two weeks to get rid of the backaches!

So, as you know, the bread oven's chimney has been fortified so that it doesn't collapse, bringing our en suite down with it...phew.

The outside of the bread oven was a pile of rubble, but it still had a decent base. Those granite stones are certainly not going anywhere soon.

The stone archway, beneath the wooden lintel however, was very dodgy. It needed to be shored up to prevent anymore stones falling out.

The lime mortar that had originally been used to keep it together had disintegrated, plus the heat and cold temperature differences of the original oven had also taken its toll.

Simon's plan for this space is that it's going to be the boiler house, containing the water heater and the wood pellet boiler that will run our central heating....eventually. (Hopefully the rest of my clothes arrive before Winter sets in, either that or I'd better get knitting).

Now, to get this pig's ear to resemble a silk purse, Simon needed to fix the hole, attach some wooden posts to the stonework and build a boiler room...simple really 😁💪

The first post went up with not too much difficulty...

But to put up the horizontal post and a matching left hand one, the mess in the middle needing sorting and the hole needed filling.

First though, we had to move the stones that were in the way.....

When we'd cleared the rubble, this was what we found.

Time to get out the cement mixer...Simon is a welder fabricator by trade, not a bricklayer, but he has done a fantastic job.

Contemplating his mortar mix

What is the mystery wooden box?

So, this piece of ingenuity is the box that will carry the heating pipes from the utility room, inside the house and the water supply to the boiler room outside the house. 

The next problem that we encountered was the bloody massive granite stones that needed moving! These stones are huge and heavy, they had to go, Simon needs a flat base to start building the boiler house.

Of course, it was no problem for...The A Team....

As I said, Simon started life as a welder, but he has engineering in his bones. He hopped in the Hilux, hurtled off down to the barn and, after some hammering, clanking and a few choice swear words later, he emerged, triumphant!!

He'd only gone and turned our pickup truck into a bloody crane!!

This particular stone weighed around 30 stone, truly phenomenal, God only knows how the original builders got them in place 😲

It took an hour to move, mostly because once we'd got it off the base we didn't have enough length left in the lever hoist to let it onto the ground. We placed other, smaller stones underneath but every time we lowered it the weight of it pushed the stones into the ground. Eventually we drove the truck onto some car ramps so the rear was low enough to let the stone onto down...what a palaver!

We were broken, and I'd had a little cry due to the stress of being a Banksman (this is the correct term, I am told, for someone who oversees lifting operations!) I hope I'm getting a pay rise.

Day Two

Simon thought the crane needed fortifying, and added some more ratchet straps, generally making it look more hench..

We needed to shift these other buggers...so we were off...again

Now we had the dilemma of, what to do with these enormous great monoliths. We happened upon the idea of edging the veggie plot with them....well where else were we going to stash them.

So now we could clear away the sand and remaining smaller stones and Simon could start pointing up the base.

Before the magic of mortar on the right hand side......and

After....

I think a round of applause is called for......