From the back of the barn, along one side of the ‘garden’ (the enclosed area to the back of the barn) runs a mortared stone built wall. This wall butted up to the rear wall of the barn and so needed to be removed or rebuilt to avoid damp problems. Additionally, an entrance to that side of the barn is a must to allow the shortest route between the yard where we park cars and the back door to the barn.

So, a broken chisel and a few pints of sweat later, the concrete cap was off the wall, the majority of the stones had been carted away, the lime and concrete mortar had been carted away to my woodland path and the monster was uncovered…

This part of the base of the wall was mainly formed by a large rock (pictured). After weighing it up from every angle it became obvious that it had to be moved – if not the gateway would be too narrow. So down came more of the wall and a mammoth struggle between me, my father and a seemingly immoveable object began.

In its entirety a long and painful story, suffice to say that eventually, an inch at a time and after some 3 hours, the rock was dislodged from its position in the wall and man-handled, via crowbars and wooden rails some 3 or 4 metres to its new position at the side of the yard.

Phew!

Seems to me that the negativity around the recent ‘British Monsoons’ is getting out of hand. If you’ve been flooded out, then fair enough, but for those of us lucky enough to live on high ground, let’s stop moaning!

So in my attempt to redress the balance here are my reasons for embracing the rainy weather.

• A least we’re not moaning that it’s too hot as we would be if the sun was out.
• The garden is happy… it’s too wet to cut the grass and there is no need to water the plants (hooray!)
• They can’t enforce a hose-pipe ban (can they?)
• I can happily sit and watch the rain rather than rush around like a lunatic trying to get all those summertime jobs done.

…anymore?…

I’ve had a few concerns about the foundations of the barn, specifically how much of the soil that has built up around the walls we will be able to clear to install new drains and discourage damp without exposing the foundations. With pick and spade I sunk a trench to see what was what (or at least take a guess).

The barn is built on a slope, with the walls at the top of the slope being shorter than those at the foot of the slope and with a horizontally level roof line. Digging down, I found what I take to be the original ground level some 9 inches down, with a similar depth of footing stones beneath that. These sit on either, further foundations or (I guess more likely) packed earth and rubble. So, we have firm foundations (a fact that is attested to by the lack of movement and cracking in the stonework) and as we are not greatly adding to the load to be borne by them then hopefully no issues there.

My mini-excavation also tells me that we’ll need to clear out less soil from around the barn than I originally thought and that the slope should provide sufficient drop for drainage.

Yes!

I’ve been at the barn for a few days, digging holes, hitting things with hammers & lugging things around with a wheelbarrow – my builder competency level is somewhere around that of navvy.

The most constructive of my efforts has been in putting walls up on a previously opened sided barn using corrugated galvanised sheets.

The barn had three open sides, with one wall and the roof already built from galvanised sheets. Therefore, the most obvious way to build the remaining walls was to use the same material. I’ve left the front open as we’ll reuse some of the barn doors on it.

This choice of materials did give me some slight pause in its selection from a sustainable / green perspective. However, as the choice of material was so obvious and if properly maintained these sheets can last a very long time I didn’t worry for too long.

Other options would have been nice; local, sustainable timber cladding or similar, would I’m sure have been nice, but the sourcing of such a product eluded me and if found I’m sure the cost and the extra work involved would have frightened me off.

Am I being practical or just lazy?

The younger sibling of the ground source heat pump (GSHP), the air source heat pump (ASHP) is an exciting development in heating technology. They operate on the same principles as the under-ground alternative, but draw thermal energy from the air rather than underground – air at ambient temperatures is passed over a finned heat exchanger and heat energy extracted into the evaporator of the heat pump. ASHP’s release up to four times more heat energy than they consume in powering their various components and so offer an energy efficient, sustainable heating solution. They are best coupled with well insulated, energy efficient buildings and under floor heating systems.

Currently (summer 2007), a 6kW ASHP costs around £3,500 with a larger 12kW pump weighing in at about £6,000. This excludes the cost of the distribution system such as an under floor heating installation.

As air is the medium from which thermal energy is extracted, the installation of an ASHP is relatively straightforward – there is no need to dig extensive trenches or drill the borehole necessary for a GSHP. The pump is sited at a suitable distance from building and connected via pipe work buried in trenches. ASHP’s are designed to operate with minimal noise pollution.