Testimonial from a self-builder.

"I have had a great today - fun, productive and exhausting - on the land helping build what is going to be a fantastic structure for our children and Iona school. I know some of you have already been helping  (and are planning to help) and am sure enjoyed it as much as I did.

These students are spending weeks of their holidays doing this and Alina has already spent weeks (if not months) on this project.  I just wanted to let everyone know what amazing work they are doing - and how much we will all appreciate the structure when it is finished. We are so lucky to have their help and expertise.

I also wanted to encourage any of you to go and spend a bit (or a lot!) of time on the land while this project is underway - even an hour's help would be appreciated I am sure - and if your children are with you they can keep you sustained with all the wonderful foraging to be had on the land at this time of year."

Day two construction

The second day of graft was all about bringing the foundation excavations up to the size specified by the engineer- 60cm by 60cm wide holes, 1.4m deep. Those are deep holes, big enough and deep enough to stand in, and we need 8 of them, plus 3 more the same size but half as deep.

Digging in heavy clay with lumps of limestone dotted about is hard work and the NTU students Jack, Jaspreet, Rhys, Kingsley and Simon toiled away tirelessly, having given up their weekends to get this going. Anyone who thinks students are lazy should have seen these guys in action!

 They were joined by Iona parents Tom, Alina, Louise and Aiden. Valuable guidance also from Terry and Nick. Together we made good progress, and hope that by the end of Sunday we'll be nearly there.

End of day progress shots:

Main structure- Larch logs

Sourcing tree trunks for the main structure was a bit of a nightmare- until someone put us on to Hingley & Sons sawmill. These guys know there stuff, were friendly, helpful and good value to boot.

We have 8 humungous larch logs on site... Now the fun can begin moving them the final 200m uphill to the site. Ideas (and hands on help) welcome!