Journey Map

Unfortunately this is a post about our solar aspirations... Before we put the wind and hydro to work, I thought it would be a good idea to get in some “quick solar” to run the place, so I’ve been doing some research. I know I left this waaaay too late. I didn’t even start looking at this until the plant room was nearly finished. The thought of getting stuck into something that is a fast-evolving field too early felt a little futile and the sheer vastness of sources, products

... and watching it dry... You voted, and we listened... here's the first small batch of the Red Ochre you asked for! But let me back up... Now that we are in the "painting and decorating" phase of the house refurbishment, it's only fair that we talk about paint. You may have seen from photos that we've limewashed the internal walls (and the exterior of the mill). Limewash is essentially lime and water and it's a very traditional finish for stonework, internally and externall

So we just spent all of Saturday pulling flax. It was only a small field, 10 x 10m I reckon. Flax has to be pulled by hand, roots and all. I didn’t think it would take as long as it did although I was prepared for it, knowing everything seems to take longer than I anticipate… We were pretty shattered by the end of it and my knuckles are still pretty sore today, Monday... For a couple of days, my body was in that stiff state that comes after one has spent a day doing something

Are you ready to hear our sob story? Typo intended... It has been nearly three years since the inception of this little project. Back in 2023 when we were putting the wetland in place, we asked the digger man to make a little rectangular dip in the ground for our foundation (in hindsight it ended up a little too deep). Then nothing happened for almost a year. It was our intention to hold a cob workshop at the first SPAB party but as no teacher was found at the time, this idea

Oh look! The yearly post!!! Sorry about the hiatus... We’ve been so busy with the refurbishment of our cottage and generally adulting at last, that I simply didn't have the time to post, put videos together or any of the stuff that I had originally resolved to do religiously. We dropped just about everything, including gardening, my original pastime while we were waiting for solicitors during the conveyancing era... the geodesic dome "gone with the wind" (storm Darragh follow

What do we get up to during the break in the works, you ask? Well, before we even had time to recover from the works, we had a group of...

It's all about planning this week. As you know, we received our planning permission (another week before it's official) and we just sent...

Today marks two years since our very first visit to our mill (before it was our mill). I still remember the day so clearly! We knew there was a mill at the back of the site, but we could not see it and we could not visit on the day we first spoke to the then owner (he had a poorly animal at the back and didn't want to upset it). We chatted to him about our hunt for a mill to purchase and ambitions for restoring one. We asked if we could see it as we were, at the time, traveli

The boys and I have been coping well with van life. There are a few glitches along the way, like our running water stopped running,...

It's been an incredibly busy few weeks and our site is undergoing some significant changes. We have been able to move along with the...

I may have mentioned I was making a post box one or two times on here. Well, it has been a 10 week undertaking, and it's not 100% but...

Look what we found at the mill! A stone bearing!!! We have it on good authority (Dr. Colin Rynne) that it is the only one known in...

So we had a wonderful week with our visitors and we got lots done. But we also started to feel like spring was upon us because it had...

We’ve been a little quiet for a few weeks. Not because we haven’t been working, but because we’ve been working so hard getting ready for...

Last weekend was Chris' birthday weekend! So we decided to go to the mill for a change! Hahahahahaha! Nah, we're too predictable! We went...

We're bringing you a backlog video! It's very special to us! The achievement is on par with the prop building. Something we never thought...

Hi everyone. We've been quiet for a while, but we've not been idle. In fact, it's been a ridiculously busy time with a bunch of things on...

We're finally bringing you Part 1 of the Greenhouse video. It's 20 minutes long, so it shows most of the pain, but if you want the really...

We're both passionate about our wild neighbours, as you can probably tell from the outfits we always seem to wear. Our Secret World...

Contrary to the exciting title, we made a pretty boring (and the longest yet) video of the hedge planting we did at the mill this holiday...