BARN Building Day 2, May 6th

Day 2 dawns on a magnificent BARN. (Without a roof or anything, but still.) It's definitely upgraded from a shed. A was skiving off to Bath today to meet friends, but we had Architect J at arriving at lunch time to inspect the goings on. He seemed okay with it, although some things weren't quite to plan... (It's, er, quite a bit taller than was intended)

But it actually looks like a BARN. It has structure and everything. Little M and Artichect J put up the first roof truss, which really makes it look... barn-some. (I know no terminology at all - you'll have to look elsewhere for knowledge).

Putting up the first truss

... and up...

And it's up!

Definitely looks barn-y!

The sheep still wanted to get in on the action.

Playing with the shingles...

... and on the wood...

and asking for milk. Again.

Here's another tea break. They're very necessary for builders. It's at least one cake and about three tea pots/cafeterias per break. The purpose of non-builders is purely to cater for builders. Sexism abound! (Although little M is bucking the trend - go little M!)

And E having a brief moment of glory on the roof - good for reading and posing until they needed the palette for real 'builder-y' things.

Nancy was very hungry, as per usual.

The sheep decided it was very hard work watching the shed being built: relaxing necessary.

From my untrained eye, building appears to involve a lot of pointing.

Lots of things going on, growing and looking more building like...

\

That's a serious mallet. I think the mallet was called Jamie.

I thought their screws were quite pretty. That's probably
not allowed in builder-speak.

A mark on one of the pieces of wood was found that looked vaguely like a monkey, and this was dubbed the 'third monkey.' This is because when you have two people working on a job, and you suddenly need a third you call for a monkey. And then it was decided it was a flying monkey. I think everyone were monkeys at some point.

I believe this is the flying monkey, although I'm
not sure. There may have been a flying and non-flying monkey.
Feel free to correct me, builders!

They worked from dawn...

...till dusk.

And look at it now!! All structure-full. Stay tuned for tomorrow, day 3.

Shed Building, Day 1, May 5th

So, what was originally termed a 'one-day shed building,' has turned into something much more realistic: a four day event with (in total) six builders, from all over the UK. It's been in the planning for a months with emails flying, and the time is finally here. The Molly Tunnel (however wonderful it is) has had clear problems for sheep husbandry, with their tendency to eat it. So, they get a proper wooden barn, instead. Pretty cool, huh?

They don't know how lucky they are, do they?

Flagging

Before anyone even arrived, essential things had to be prepared:

Pom-pomming

More flagging

So, builders and architects and general dogs bodies' travels from all over the UK (Leeds, Brighton, Suffolk, Edinburgh, Brighton... Winscombe) are congregating to build The Sheep Shed. There are still debates as to its name, JAM ² (or (JM) ²AC. It might just be called the Sheep Shed.

So, on this first proper building day, they were four extra builders down - one flew on an airy-plane from Scotland mid morning, and the other arrives tomorrow.

There was a marvellous safety course, in which people were told not to cut themselves. So far, only J has managed it. (Minor digits, don't worry, they'll survive.) But it's all falling into place: the wood arrived in TWO trucks on Wednesday (not sure why they didn't just bring a bigger truck), as the foundations and hard-standing were laid by little M neighbour B, and J a few weeks ago. (With an extra hand from a friend, H, in the village - thanks!). So, here is where they started, at the beginning of day one:

A hard standing of concrete and then the beautiful wood that had arrived. There were specific uses for each: the oak to form the sturdiest frame possible, the Canadian cedar for the shingles (tiles to lay people) and larch for the walls.

The sheep are impressed even by the wood, so we're hoping
they're easy to impress!

There was a split between the older and younger members of the team: the younger wore hats, and the elder didn't. In this glorious sun, we have had some burning despite being enticed by this:

Please wear me!

There were also many builders' breaks for various fussy drinkers: tea, rooibos, tea, coffee, squash, water, juice etc. A mulberry and apple cake was eaten. It was good apparently.

Now, I', even less than a dogs' body. I think I could be some kind of Chihuahua. So whenever I came to see them, I just listened to them talk (even when they're not talking building, they might as well be talking pig latin they're all so clever!) and decided my little job in feeding Baby Nancy was good enough. She was always pleased at absolutely EVERYONE because she thought that there was a chance EVERYONE might feed her. I think she got pretty confused, poor lamb.

Nom nom nom.

The rest of the sheep were either: completely uninterested, or quite keen to run around the concrete:

Luckily there were no sheep related injuries either, as some of the tools looked very sharp indeed:

If I were a sheep, that would hurt

Lots of clever things were happening:

Look...

it fits!

A having fun with the saw (it's harder than it looks!)

And many action shots:

M sawing away.

C eating cake counts as action, right?

E briefly got her moment in the limelight (even without a role):

Woo-hoo!

And E's arm were exposed to the sun for the first time in seven years.
No hyperbole. Pretty impressive, huh? Good vantage point for photos

And Little M's amazing builder's boots have to be shown because they are pretty awesome:

All in all, the five builders seem very contented. To my untrained eye, it certainly looks more structural, and, although they were talking about some of the angles being wrong, it seems to be staying up. And some of the joints (I don't know the technical names), look really beautiful:

It's on stilts! So it can technically move, but find someone
who can carry a structure this big...

Tiring work, but we think that the cake helped. 

The barn so far - it actually looks like a barn!

Bring on tomorrow! And the designer will come to survey his work...

Lazin' sheep

Exclusive Sneak Peak: GIRLS ON FIRE

Girls on Fire comes out TOMORROW, but here's a little sneak peak! Very exciting stuff...


But I'll only say a few things here, as I don't want to spoil it for everyone!

I'd never come across Wasserman before, which really surprises me. She has an exquisite turn of phrase; her prose is almost syrupy (but not sweet!). In fact, she has written quite a few novels before which are fairly well read - where was I missing in all of this?

Anyway, Girls on Fire. It was one of those hard-to-rate books because, though wonderfully written, it wasn't exactly enjoyable. I don't think I'd recommend it to people, although if I did it would definitely come with a health warning. It's, just to be blatant, horrific. But it's also viscerally real. It's certainly an experience reading it; emotional engagement is a non-negotiable.

In a way, I loved it. It was an amazing portrayal of the potential destructiveness of female friendship: a subject I feel I can really understand. It was a girl moulded by another. Familial scars being saddled on children. Secrets begetting secrets. 

But I just can't give it a higher rating, because it was so awful to read. Does that make any sense? Perhaps I get too emotionally involved in books...

All the same, I don't think this is the last novel I'll read by Wasserman; my feelers are out now, trying to see what I'll go for next.

Wordless Wednesday: Bloody News

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters We'd Love to Revisit as Adults

Linking up to TOP TEN TUESDAY at the Broke and Bookish

For future Top Ten Tuesday topics & info on how to participate, click here!

Today's topic is: Ten Childhood Characters You'd Love To Revisit As Adults (i.e. a novella or something to see what they grew up to be) -- you could always just pick YA characters you've read recently you wouldn't mind revisiting in 10 years or so. Or you could pick 10 characters and guess what you think they'd be doing in 10 years or 20 years. OR you could go the other way and wish for coming of age stories for adult characters you love. 

Giving the Top Ten Tuesday Thing another go... see what I can come up with!

1) Nancy, Peggy, Titty, Roger, Susan and John from the Swallows and Amazons series. Just a quick look in to see how they're all getting on!

2) Susan from the Narnia series. Her character, for me, and the way she behaved was completely heart-breaking. I'd love to see her as an adult, and realise that it was real after all.

3) Matilda from Roald Dahl. I have such hope for her as an adult :)

4) Garnet from Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson. I guess I'd like to see Ruby too, but Garnet's my favourite.

5) Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. Just to see her again - I love her!

6) Everyone from Harry Potter. 'nuff said.

7) Jo and Meg from Little Women.  I know we see them more grown up, but I'd love to see how their lives panned out.

8) Georgia Nicholson. I would love to see what kind of adult she turns out to be!

9) Becky Morley from Out of the Ashes.  It's actually my favourite Michael Morpurgo book, I think. Such a heart-breaking story, set during the height of the foot and mouth crisis, which was such a huge deal for anyone in rural areas, dreading it wouldn't come. (We had goats, which we planned to hide. Even though it was a bad idea.) Anyway, if you haven't read it - go ahead!

10) Richard or any surviving characters from The Secret History. Such an amazing book, made a big impact on my reading life.

So, there we have it! While writing this list, I'm not completely sure I'd like to meet any of them again. I thought of ten that would be very interesting to read as older characters, but I'm not sure I really would want to know if given the chance. A book is a completed thing. So, really, my answer is none of them :)

But that would've been a very boring post.

Go check out other people's choices at The Broke and the Bookish! It's fun seeing others' choices, particularly the difference between US and UK bloggers. 

Wordless Wednesday: Caddy Lamb Bottle Feeding

Wordless Wednesday: 200 Years Old

Wordless Wednesday: 30 seconds old