A new natural building for Orchard Barn

Thanks to your generous pledges we are able to progress the craft room. We have now booked our traditional carpentry teacher to deliver Round Wood Timber Framing training starting on Monday 26th September. We'll be needing some heavy mallets, so last Thursday Nigel taught Orchard Barn Volunteers how to make mallets from Elm off-cuts. Here is Lee using a traditional hand operated auger to drill a hole for her mallet's handle!

Four days to go! I'm trusting we'll make it, but it's going to be close. A HUGE thank-you to everyone who has made a pledge. We really want to see this new craft room go ahead. Might you be able to share with friends, family, colleagues? We've added a new reward - for £50 I'll come and give a talk about the project to your group/club/business. Here's a photo of one of our new students enjoying learning greenwood work in our temporary shelter. It was hot that day under the tin roof. Our new craft room will give us so much more useable airy space!

This short video shows you the fun, fitness and friendships that develop as a result of our natural building projects. Here we are making clay lump blocks in a time-honoured fashion - with wellingtons and human energy!! A BIG THANK-YOU for all your pledges and support:)

A BIG thank-you to everyone who has made a pledge so far. Here are some of your names on rafters. John, will do yours asap!! 48 days to go, fingers crossed we make the target! If you have comments you would like to leave about the project, there is a comments box on the pledge platform.

A BIG thank-you to Mike, Lewis and Jez for their pledges. VERY EXCITED We've been given more Elm poles. Volunteers have stripped the bark from them using a traditional 'spud' (debarker) and now there's a pile of them waiting to be converted into rafters. We've saved some of the wider pieces of bark to make into labels. I hope the sound on this video works. We're good with trees, but IT is a bit of a mystery sometimes!