The evolution of the camping kitchen has been a slow process! It began life as a curved strawbale wall, constructed as part of a natural building course in June 2016….
There were all sorts of ideas about what we could do with the wall…project films onto it or make a storage for the camping equipment were 2 suggestions. In the end we realised the need for an outside kitchen for the use of volunteers and people who come to camp. So, Ba began a design….
Then during the natural building course in April 2017 the foundations for the rest of the structure were prepared and the other walls of straw bales and cord wood went up……
So already by this stage MANY beautiful, creative, inquisitive hands had shaped the building. We used the kitchen over the summer, and people enjoyed it – but we knew it was not finished….
…it was missing a waterproof roof and the final lime wash for example.
In mid January work restarted – necessity of protecting the walls and the wood from possible rain was one of the reasons – and the second was WE needed to use it as the temporary communal kitchen!
Eric and Barbara began by removing the temporary tarp roof, treating the wood for bugs and then lime washing the walls – keeping busy on COLD days!
Then came the new roof – which needed to be cut into various shaped to fit rather unique shapes!
And the final pieces on the top required Ba to climb with a make-shift harness and surf on the roof!!
Marcia and I removed all the contents of the stone kitchen – taking some to the camping kitchen and storing the rest in what was the old guest room. We celebrated the achievement of the move with a well earned cup of wine.
We are enjoying the space a lot – in the mornings the sun warms cold faces as we prepare breakfast, or wash dishes. The place is cute and we are looking forward to it being used by guests and volunteers later in the year.
Next big project is the renovation of the stone kitchen which starts this week……
