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Thursday 16th April - Thea and Laurie
We've made it and are so happy and relieved we have got everything we wanted finished in time. Our first happy guests have arrived and got all the stoves roaring hot, unfortunately they brought the rain with them! It has been a very busy last few weeks with all our families helping, we can't thank them enough. It will be nice to have a lie in tomorrow.
We now have pictures of our own yurts on this website. We are really grateful to Carmen from Annwn Valley yurts for letting us use her images for all this time. Please check out her website for a lovely yurt holiday in the woods by the stream
Friday 10th April - Laurie
This week has gone really well.
We have had Ed, our special Devonshire friend up who has amazingly turned some ash planks form the farm into beautiful kitchen sideboards.With a curved back they fit snugly to the wall in each yurt.
I have been busy making toilets from oak and ash and have ended up looking like whiskey barrels. With a bit of plumbing over the weekend they will be ready to go.
Thea has only got one bed left to make, she has been busy with Jan and Kitty and Boris all week making bunk and double beds for our newly arrived super squishy organic futons (thank you dojo eco).
And finally dad has fitted all over half the stoves which are pumping out loads of heat.
We are being cooked really tasty food by our mums dads and sisters to keep us going, thank-you everyone.
Sunday 5th April - Laurie
Jan and Simon built us an outdoor washing up area beside the cabin which looks great. Its a lovely sun trap so you can get some sun on your backs while doing the dishes. Thank-you very much boys, we're really happy with it. The toilet block now has a curving wall inside, all it needs are some toilet seats and it's finished! Today is sunny again so we're going to try and get all the stoves and chimney flues in. Dad and Suzanne filled up the woodshed with lots of dry wood from the farm which will burn really well. Can't wait to try out the stoves.
Thursday 2nd April - Laurie
I've just been down the field for an early start after getting woken by a very exctied baby Mossy at 5:30! The wind turbine is all in place and the cables laid, ready for our electrician to connect up. The yurts will all have woodburning stoves in them this weekend ready for our first guests. The oak framed toilet block is almost finished, i have been busy making the doors and laying the floors the last two days. Both Thea and I are very optimistic that everything will be finished in time but i think it will be a tight squeeze none the less. I'm off outside now to put the windows in the toilets and make some steps.....the weather is amazing.
Wednesday 1st April - Thea
I've spent the day sanding and waxing the floor of our cabin. Here it is, a lovely light space now ready to be used. The chiff chaffs are busy chiffing and chaffing as we work, geese honking as they fly overhead and the red kites and buzzards are battling for the best nesting spots. There are lambs bleating away in the field nextdoor. Even will all this noise it feels really peaceful in the yurt field, I am really happy with how things are coming together and really grateful to everyone who's helping us. Laurie spent the day finishing off the toilet block, with mossy chattering away beside him in the sunshine.
Tuesday 24th March - Laurie
Today has been another milestone as we have just put up the timber frame for the toilet block. With help from Henry we have been turning the hewn timber we felled in February into a cruck framed toilet. In total I think we have spent 12 days turning standing trees into a timber frame. It has been so satisfying and a huge learning experience. The bending nature of the wood has given the building a lot of character!
I think we were all amazed at the speed with which the building went up today. We started at 4:30 and had all the pole rafters on by 7. Generously, Sam Holden of www.hafodcheese.co.uk gave us a hand today and made all the oak pegs for the building. The weather looks good for the weekend so we are going to clad and roof the building. This should be really quick as we have got some lovely deep larch boards for the cladding.
Our visiting Eagle Owl is still sitting proudly in his tree, I hope he hangs around until we open.
Monday 16th March - Laurie
We are on a high today as the sun shone and we have finished putting up all the yurts. It is great to see the field coming slowly alive in the spring with the yurts popping up. With luck all the yurt floors wil be laid by Friday which will allow us to kit them out with the bits and pieces we have been making during the winter.
Last night i ordered 2, maybe 3 Oxford Sandy and Black pigs. We have had pigs on the farm a few times in the past but this will be my first time rearing them myself. The pigs are due at the beginning of April and weaned and ready for collection in mid May, I can't wait.
Wednesday 11th March - Laurie
The Yurt Farm has had its first guest in the form of the rare, huge Eagle Owl! The owl has been sleeping in the trees all day and not been bothered by us at all. He has flown up to a higher branch but will hopefully be around again tomorrow. Dad tried to give him some fresh chicken for supper but looking at the size of the owl he must have just eaten a rabbit.
The yurt farm is all off grid so we have ordered a wind turbine and PV solar panel to power the solar hot water heating system. This dual power solution will hopefully mean that the weather will always provide some power whether its a bright and sunny or a fresh gusty autumn day. I'm off to Cowbridge on Saturday to collect a bank of submarine and train batteries to store all the power.
Tuesday 10th March - Thea
Whoopee! Now we really are a yurt farm...we've put up two beautiful yurts. One is a huge 21 footer, with dark green canvas at the foot of a sunny bank, and the other is a little dot of a yurt just for two. It feels really good to see them up. Its amazing how the covers were loose yesterday, and this morning after a soaking with dew, they are tight as a drum. Thank yous are due to Peter Skinner, and Sarah and Steve for making us such stunning yurts, and Sridama for coming with them to help put them up. Jan turned up with some chocolates just when we needed them. I can't wait to put up the other 3 yurts... I hope the sun shines on Saturday..
Saturday 7th March - Laurie
Good news, the solar panels are in position and ready to be connected. Jan and Simon have been busy for 2 days knocking up a frame and positioning the panels. Apart from forgetting to put the gaskets in, all went well. Meanwhile I finally finished the shower floors whihch have become a labour of love. The showers are designed to be wetrooms and so the floor slopes to one point. They will be clad with corrugate and have a rubber floor.
Saturday 7th March - Thea
I am really pleased with our log baskets, and need to thank Jane (Laurie's Granma), Jane, Eleanor, Leah, Linzi, Izzy, Kitty (my mum), Marion (my sister) and Lucy2 for their help. We turned the borders down today...after the baskets had had a good soak in the duck pond. They were full of mating frogs...spring is in the air!
Tuesday 3rd March - Laurie
Today has been a great day...we started to turn our hewn oak into a toilet block frame and are nearly halfway through making all the beds
With Henry showing me the ropes we have nearly made two complete walls that are ready to be marked and temporarily pegged together. It has gone much faster than i thought so with a bit of luck we will have all the walls and some of the cruck 'A' frames made by Thursday.
Thea and Lee completed making all the bases for the bunk beds and are now in the middle of making single folding futons. The beds are made from Douglas Fir which is a lovely pinky colour when the wood is still green.
Sunday 1st March
Its St Davids day and our first lambs of the year arrived! Its always nice to have new lambs bouncing around the fields, it makes you feel like spring is on the way.
Friday 20th Feb
We decided to experiment by putting a white tarpauline on the roof to let in lots of light. So far the experiment is going well and we are all happy to be working in the dry inside. Jan and Simon are making an oak sideboard for the cabin for people to cook on and to store cooking gear. Meanwhile Laurie is getting frustrated trying to get the slope in the shower/wetrooms right so they drain properly. Thea has finished making all the firewood and vegetable baskets for the yurts with each being a little bit different from other.
Tuesday 10th Feb
Laurie and Henry Russell started work on the timber framed toilet block. We have 60 acres of oak woodland on land close to the farm. Henry is one of the leading timber framers in the UK so was able to show us how to turn a standing oak into usable timber using traditional techniques. Once a suitable tree was felled and cut to length the timber was marked with a chalk line and then hewed using side axes. Within 3 days we managed to hew all the timber we needed.
It was a very fast and efficient way of making your own timber but also very tiring and knuckle bashing for Laurie the novice!
It feels really good to be using turning wood off the farm into such a beautiful building. The oak pieces will be taken back up to farm where we can make all the joints and peg it together. What this space.....!
Tuesday 3rd Feb
The farm got a good layer of snow which stopped put working on the cabin on hold for a few days. Luckily the nice weather before allowed us to put in all the windows and fit the doors. Only the roof and floor to go and then we will have somewhere dry to work while down in the field.
Thursday 29th Jan
Thea, Eleanor, Izzy and Laurie's grandmother Jane have been weaving willow baskets all weekend. The babies, Mossy and Leah, really enjoyed all the chatter and sitting in the baskets (Mossy is on the sofa in the picture). We are really grateful to everyone who is mucking in to help, and to Jane Welsh, our basket making teacher who lives down the road.
Friday 23rd Jan
We have been cladding the cabin with waney edge larch boards during the week while dodging the rain and snow. The windows, doors and roof will go on next and then we will have a cosy dry cabin to work in. Our meeting today with the solar expert went well and we are going to order solar panels and the storage tank over the next 2 weeks.
Tuesday 20th Jan
The fields are covered in snow so Laurie has taken refuge in the workshop to make doors for the cabin and showers. We are looking forward to our solar heating consultant from Trellyn coming on Friday so that we can order the system ready for the spring.
Sunday 11th Jan
The ground froze solid over Christmas so we were able to take the cabin frame down to the yurt field.. After being busy all winter making the frame in the cattle barn, Laurie and Jan hope to have the cabin up within a few weeks. Let's hope we get a bit more sun to help us along the way.
The whole family enjoyed skating on the icy pond. It was the first time Jan (Thea's dad) has used his skates in 30 years.
Saturday 3rd Jan 09
Happy New Year and Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!
Over the winter we bought a load of freshly felled timber sycamore from a local and sustainable woodland. Chopping logs has kept us warm over the last few weeks, and with the help of some strong friends we have nearly finished cutting, chopping, and stacking the wood. All our friendly neighbours have stopped to admire the pile. We hope it will be enough to keep your yurts toasty this year.
Autumn 2008
We have been busy transforming the old chicken shed with the help of Libby and Joe. The hens love their new home.
Laurie and Jan are busy building the facilities cabin using wood from Cefnllwyn Timber. They are sharing a workshop with the cows that have just come in for the winter.
Thea and little Mossy are making willow baskets for the yurts.
