Lath, scratch coat, top and finish

Top facts about lime plaster:

1) Lime is sacrificial, it rots away so the timber does not

2) It burns

3) Several Chinese goats were shorn to provide hair for the mix.

4) Lime plaster is very very heavy.  I may mock my lovely sister here on the blog, but I now have the muscles of an Olympic weightlifter.

There is obviously a lot more to know about lime plaster and we were lucky enough to have the wonderful Roy Cafferty running the lime plaster course.  What Roy does not know about lime is not worth knowing and he is an incredible craftsman.  Thank you to Roy and once again Katie Seabright from Essex CC Heritage team for an excellent course.  And to all the participants who worked very hard and lathed and plastered up a storm. The majority of panels were covered in only two days, and as you will see, the Mill House is looking rather spectacular.

We're currently finishing the last few panels, and then have 2 - 3 weeks grace (with some care) until we start on the top coat.

Best of all, restore a couple of doors and the windows*, and hey presto, Humbug and I have a new hiding place.

Thanks once again to everyone on the course.   It was lovely to see familiar faces from last year's Managing a Masterpiece timber frame course. I do not think we could have asked for a more enthusiastic group of pro-lathers!

If you missed this course and are interested in learning about traditional building techniques and materials, information on future seminars, lectures and hands-on courses can be found in the Essex CC Traditional Building Courses booklet.

*...plus a little work on the roof etc...

Little Pig Robinsons

So, our pair of calm, docile, lop-eared Houdini-piglets have decided they would rather be roaming the mean streets of Horkesley as opposed to a life in their lovely green meadow.  Thank you to everyone who took part in the attempts to get them back into the field.  The way to revitalise the Big Society?  Community animal herding.

   I very kindly left the escapists in the care of others to head to our twin farm in Dorset, to witness the remarkable results of Adam Henson's new agricultural show, "Pimp My Calf Hutch".Me and Calf-Tel have had our differences in the past, but if I were ever to consider camping was a good idea, I would like to take one of these with me - canvas is very overrated. [NB. Had I had to assemble this I would probably be thinking differently. The smaller version drove me to near-violence.]

But, there is no need to run away!  Better than a calf hutch or pig sty, is our pimped-out barn here in Essex.  For those who didn't make it to OFS, we are proud to introduce our new-look Mill House.

 Hats off to the incredible Richard Green for the work he put in to turn this side around in under a week.  And for patiently dealing with the site Führer, sorry, foreman.

Not to mention a bricklaying apprentice with little (to no) spatial awareness.  "Is that level?" Genuinely, no clue.  I could blame the PTSD from stacking 1600 Victorian bricks for the new plinth the day before my short-lived apprenticeship, but I would be lying.

The barn is now boarded against the weather.  Naturally, this is a temporary measure and distressingly, the boards will have to come off (joy!) to reinstate the original features we've preserved in the frame beneath.  However, our priority at the moment is making sure the barn is weatherproof and structurally sound in order to continue the work.  I did not get a chance to put these pictures up for Open Farm Sunday, but the change in a year is quite remarkable.

JULY 2011

 

JUNE 2012

 

Inside, it is looking fabulous with Roy Cafferty prepping sections for the lime plaster course next week.  Following my "success" at bricklaying, I am confident lime plastering will uncover my hidden genius.

Thank you again to everyone on the Essex CC courses, but particularly to Richard, Essex/Suffolk's premier timber frame restorer, for the incredible work.  It is lovely to have an area getting back into a usable shape and to see progress on the farm.

Lime Plaster Course 12th - 13th July 2012

Essex County Council are delivering a series of free Traditional Building Skills courses for the Managing a Masterpiece Stour Valley Landscape Partnership aimed at people based or working within the Stour Valley.

Hosted at Lower Dairy Farm, this practical course will cover:

-  Introductory talk -  Correct methods of repair -  Laths (riven or sawn) & fixings -  Sands & aggregates including hair -  Preparation of lime plaster, including mixing & gauging -  Ways of giving a set -  Methods of aftercare -  Patching existing plaster

The focus will be on increasing awareness of the need to continue working with traditional materials and in traditional styles to ensure the survival and continuation of built heritage.  This course is aimed at craftspeople and plasterers working in the Stour Valley.

Course tutor - Roy Cafferty - Traditional plasterer

Roy Cafferty runs his own plastering business and has been in the trade for forty years.  He works in all aspects of lime plaster but specialises in fine plaster finishes.  He is one of the few lime plasterers who still run mouldings in situ.

For further information and bookings contact Katie Seabright on 01245 437672 or e-mail traditional.buildingskills@essex.gov.uk

From scaffolding to walls!

From scaffolding...

 

to walls!

 Excellent progress in only three days!  Thanks to everyone who took part in the course.  A collection of very skilled carpenters allowed the barn restoration to leap forward, and the soleplate is now complete.  Hurrah!

We'd particularly like to thank Katie Seabright and Richard Green for once again running and leading a fantastic course.  Special mention to Richard for going above and beyond the call of the course and unblocking the gutter that had not recently been cleared...maybe not for over a decade? Lovely.

Below, you will find a gallery of the course in action, to give you a little insight on the process from a pile of timber to a new wall.  It really is remarkable!

Bank Holiday madness

I spent the weekend working so can take no credit for any of this.  But look!

1) The clearing is complete - there's even electricity!

2) The floor has been excavated back to the original plinth ready for the new soleplate. Plus, a huge bonus is the uncovering of the original floor  - an excellent incentive to keep breaking!).

3) The rubble has been smashed, shovelled, smashed again and redistributed for that rustic farm track look.

(Picture by special request of Mrs H "Arnie" Rogers to demonstrate her hard work*)

And, 4) The happy carpenters have replaced the top beam...

..and are still speaking.  All this means...we were ready for the course on time.

Incredible work!  If you'd like to see what we're doing, come along on 17th June when we'll be opening the doors for our third Open Farm Sunday!

[ * Apologies to the farmers of Dorset for returning a tired (but not broken) vet.  Our Arnie, she's made of tough stuff. ]

Bye bye bulk tanks...

One patient man, one man with a JCB, one hole in a wall and bye bye bulk tanks!

 

Soon to be recycled as boats for our own Jubilee River Pageant...

A prize for the first person to spot the water tank.

The case of the hanging window

  No skeletons, no sideburns, only one rat's nest, and a lot of spiders!

   Despite the expectation of several feet of debris, the “smooth, impervious, easy-to-clean” surface backed by a range of weather boarding, panelling (we're very posh) and the Devil's own concrete shuttering, revealed quite a clean wall.  Plus, the metal sheeting did it's job well and the frame has only sustained minimal damage.  Thank goodness they used all those nails.

One insistent rodent gnawed through this joint, but nothing was found in need of urgent repair and not an Acro in sight!  Excellent news.

For the next timber frame repair course, we hope to work on two sections which will complete the majority of the repairs to the Mill House (see pictures of previous work here) - so named because it housed the feed mill.

The first area is an internal support where the Mill House joins the extended nave of the barn.  Timber supports were removed to open up this stretch as a long cowshed.  Whilst this worked at the time, this very important beam is now a hanging feature beginning to bow under the load from the barn.

We could, of course, prop it up with the help of the bulk tanks found beneath it...

But monumental news!   Over thirty years since they were last used, the bulk tanks are leaving the building.  Or we hope they are.  The only way out is the way they were carried (?!??) in...

Which brings us to the second section we have to navigate round to do this.

. 

 

We're in the destruction phase and experiencing a sense of deja vu/Olympic weight training as we remove more concrete shuttering.  It's heavy, unbreakable and will always land on your foot.  But it is essential to be gentle so we preserve the hanging window above.  This is the only sash window in the whole barn and must have looked very smart when it was installed.

 

Hopefully no surprises there!  This week, one surprise was enough.  As the hokey-cokey of cow/grass management continued (you put your cows out, bring them back in...etc), yesterday, Dad discovered this little beauty frolicking in the Poor Field (according to the records, either two weeks late or one week early).

Let this be a lesson to you all;  surprises like these make year-round calving even more fun!

What lies beneath?

 

(Less Harrison Ford, more sheet metal.)

40 years ago, one man used 5 million nails to create the world's most hygienic parlour wall.  Now, the harmonious farmhands are set to remove it.  Nail by nail.

 

But what's that?  A ghost?  Am I losing my mind?  Or have we found the missing sideburns (and hair) of this man, last seen milking in this very dairy in 1982...

 Nope, the barn won't give up it's secrets easily.

It's just more tin.  And (more worryingly) water appearing from somewhere.

Just as we allowed ourselves a little hope....another layer, and overlapping, and joy! - another row of nails which are totally unreachable.

But the harmonious farmhands persevered and today, for the first time in 40-years, we have an exclusive sneak peek behind the metal facade...

    

 Looking good....?

  Join us for a week of discovery as we determine the condition of the timber frame.  Fancy a flutter?  Join our pool and guess the number of mummified rats behind the facade.  And join me in hoping there are no emergency Acro prop situations and more importantly, we don't find one of the child's shoes/clothing/similar that were put there for luck (thus must be put back) but really freak me out.

Forget London, this is going to be quite a week!