First session in the new hide...

Today was the day I had planned to have my first session in the new hide; "The Hive". Unfortunately, I hadn't read my messages properly and so I arrived to find Simon on site, trashing Rhodies again. No big deal, he said, and switched to putting the perch up on the barn owl box instead - since it required two people. Very pleased with it, the perch looks really natural and a bit like an arm beckoning the birds in. With any luck it will make the box more attractive to a breeding pair as the owlets will be able to venture out of the box, pre-fledge, with a little more safety now. I'm also hoping that the knot on the tree that is directly below the box, will sprout shoots in the spring and give the birds some cover and a slight safety "netting", in case they fall.

The forest pheasant flasher

Whilst up there, Simon discovered a load of twigs inside the box which we assume were the beginnings of a squirrel's drey, as Owls don't make nests as such, so they were removed and Simon kindly left shortly afterwards; crashing around in the Rhodies and photographing wild birds from a hide don't mix at all.

So toastie I steamed the window panes

I chucked some mixed fruit, seed and nuts about the ground in front of the hide, checked the suet log holder was full and left a dead mouse out on the old tree stump (courtesy of my cat) in case there was a hungry bird of prey about. I stuck the camera through the third window and left the panes in the others for warmth and settled in for my first go at shooting from this newest hide. I was expecting a fair wait on account of Simon's activity all morning, but thankfully it was an almost immediate start with woodpeckers and nuthatches zooming down in a frenzy to get at the peanuts. They were followed by the smaller tits and a couple of Robins. I let them all feed awhile first without shooting. I wanted them to get used to the moving lens poking out of the front of the hide and not see it as something to be scared of. Then I progressed to randomly clicking the shutter whether birds where there or not. Eventually I started shooting and I'm certain I needn't have waited - the birds weren't bothered at all!

Two hot coffees and a second mug-shot soup later, and I had to resort to lighting the gas cooker to take the chill off - one open window really does change the comfort rating of the hide in Winter - soon afterwards, another wave of birds came through and a third hour was lost, camera clicking away. By this time I had the wellies off, and the burner on the floor beneath my feet, between my stool and the camera shelf - warm air rising up to my hands and face and steaming up the 3 remaining window panes - proper toastie.
A pair of blackbirds visited me one at a time and didn't stay long, unlike the two greedy male pheasants that seemed to be far less fearful than those of last winter. Male pheasants really are stunning at this time of year - so many colours and such water-logged lighting really brings them out, as it does with bluebells after rain.

the first proud male ("Flasher")

The mist made everything seem slightly eerie and mystical, but the low light was horrendous for shooting in. I juggled the ISO for a while and then reverted to timing the shutter to coincide with the moment the nuthatch pauses to check for predators. A challenging, but brilliant, first shoot. A few tweaks needed on the suet log feeder and a cushion for the stool would make life a little more comfortable. I also think that putting an old piece of underlay down on the floor would deaden the noise of me fidgeting on the stool, but most of all, I need to fill the beanbag properly; balancing a D4 and 500mm lens on a bag of apples and macaroni really isn't ideal.

and the second slightly shabbier male ("skunk") who is
a Mongolian Ring-necked pheasant - no less

Wow - What a Yule!

Saturday 24th December
After unpacking and getting everything set up, Tracey spent the afternoon making snowflake decorations for the Yardarm whilst the rest of us pretty much sat around our new makeshift dining table, drinking and relaxing or feeding the fires.
Visitors came and went and the Yule log went on the main fire sometime late afternoon, the plan being for it to burn throughout Sunday and on into Monday morning. We each made wishes or cast thoughts into the flames of things we wished to get rid of, as is ancient custom for Yule logs - thankfully they are not just chocolate sponge and icing.

Christmas morning chores

Cassius was lit and drying out nicely all afternoon and by 9pm the temperature at the door had reached 350 degrees C... so hot in fact, that it blew the glass out of the thermometer and cooked a roast potato in just 9 minutes!  A worrying amount of smoke was escaping from a crack in the back though, so we calmed things down and shunted the fire over to the other side of the oven, then let it die down.

Christmas morning saw more visitors, bucks fizz (or just fizz), and a breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled egg on toast - perfect. This was followed by Flee making minor repairs to Cassius using some remaining fire cement and Ant getting the Turkey going on the spit.
The boys kept the flames perfectly adjusted all day, with the kettle on it's own fire... constantly on the go, the Turkey over some hot embers and the main fire burning away with the remains of the Yule log just rolled to the edge still smouldering. Another fire was laid inside "pac-man" (an old donated BBQ which was to serve as our hostess trolley to keep things warm if our timings were all out) and a final fourth fire inside Cassius of course for the spuds and veg.

Pac-Man

The Turkey took a little over 3 hours to cook, but unfortunately the 9-minute-spud of the previous night had given us false hope that we would be fine to put them on only once we knew the Turkey was cooked. Sadly Cassius reached only half the heat of the night before and took an absolute age to cook anything, so we transferred the majority of the oven food to Pac-Man to cook whilst we desperately tried to crank up the fires inside the oven and stall the Turkey. We had to have a cut-off point as none of us wanted to eat in the dark, so come 3pm we decided to just go for it and whatever state it was in, would be how it turned out - and actually, it wasn't half bad. The spuds were a little anaemic and the parsnips pretty solid, but the cauliflower cheese was awesome as were the bird, the sprouts, the stuffing balls and the carrot and swede combo. All in all a mighty effort and a mighty meal. Way better than the sandwiches and leftover pizza lunch that Ryan and Gemma had brought with them!, (Becky's Camembert however, did look pretty tasty). After lunch, the washing up was swift as most cooking dishes were single-use metal recyclables - oh what joy! The mead was opened and we retired to the fire and got it roaring. It had not been a cold day at all, but we feared the evening was going to turn chilly and possibly wet. The mist had rolled in quite quickly and everything felt just a teensy bit damp.
Mungo and Rain arrived shortly after 7pm and after a few more drinks, chocolates and presents, it was time for the evening movie... a very short, but memorable episode of "This is Your Life". I remember the programme being a fairly nostalgic and emotional affair when I was a kid, with the guests of the show often ending in tears. Well I'm relieved to say, ours was no different - and thankfully they were tears of laughter. Side-splitting laughter; the very best kind. Our cheeks hurt, our eyes stung and a gob-smacked Tracey took some time to compose herself after the shock and realisation of it all - brilliant. Unfortunately the movie is not suitable for public consumption on account of it being most definitely rated 18. Sorry folks - can't share here! The laughter continued long into the night and I think I crawled into my sleeping bag around 330am.

Best present ever... Cassius' new front door - made by Ant!

I have no idea what went on Boxing day morning, as I was the last one up. Apparently everyone had a bit of a lie-in but mine lasted until 11am - lovely. Tracey came to my tent with her god-awful frostie-the-snowman plastic singing toy thing and let me know we had guests, so it was definitely time to get up. More first time visitors to Rais, who had already been given the tour and were about to get going and enjoy their boxing day. Albeit brief, and I stank of booze and bonfires, it was lovely to see them and good that they got me out of my pit, I was close to going into hibernation - think I will when I get home and have had a bath.... 4 separate fires surrounding you all day plays havoc with your eyes - they need to be shut right now... for a very long time!

Autumn catch up.... been a little busy lately...

Not even sure where to start - it's been a bit hectic this autumn what with work being so manic and me travelling all over the place. But that doesn't mean work at Rais has stopped - not by a long shot...
I've personally not been to Rais as often as I'd like (I fear this will always be the case with my job), so most of November saw Simon up there alone again, path strimming and clearing rhodies like a machine - and regularly baiting the new hive for me; making the place unrecognisable, accessible and awesome all at once.
So much so, that in late November Simon caught his first woodpecker at the Hive on his mobile (I'm working on his camera angle but give me time) - the birds are regularly visiting the feeding post and seem to be un-fussed by human presence. I just hope it was as exciting for him as the news was for me - the Hive is working!
I had my birthday in November too, which meant I was blessed with some fantastic presents, including a full size, totally camouflaged, home made, Tawny owl box. So excited.
Early December we took ladders up there to get the thing fixed in one of the oaks on the Northern border. We faced it East to ensure any chicks don't cook in the summer and the box doesn't face any prevailing winds.

Moving the Yule Log

Since then, Ant has completed phase 1 of the mammoth (5 month) campervan renovation, so we had the privilege of his company (and his muscles), and after some searching, he picked out the perfect Yule log.
Now, considering it must burn for three days straight and provide enough light and heat for everyone, it has to be a pretty impressive and important piece - which means it weighs a tonne!
Light work for the boys to get it down into camp, where Flee and Ant had spent a long day logging in preparation for the yuletide celebrations.
Beside myself with excitement... christmas eve til boxing day in the wood - I can't wait. Cassius will be fired up to cook the roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese whilst the turkey turns on the spit - what could be finer? Except knowing that I will be sharing it with my nearest and dearest who have spent all year making it possible. Love you all and can't thank you enough - it's a dream come true - smiling all the way to the moonlit wayleave. x

anyone know what this is?

I think it might be a pale Tussock Moth catepillar (Calliteara pudibunda) as I found it on my tent when I went to go to sleep. Because they are known to eat hops, they used to be known as "Hop Dogs" in Sussex, but we dont have hops at Rais, only Brambles which are another favourite apparently. The hairs are said to cause a severe allergic reaction in some people, so I'm glad I didn't try to pick it up, it would have been just my luck.

Slash and burn.

Yay it's that time of year again, when we get to burn the rhodies! Or someone does! feel really bad I've not been down to the wood in a while. Work has been overwhelming and a few weekend commitments have left poor Simon slashing and burning alone. But he seems to be doing a cracking job.... he has even managed to replace the shutters on the Immac Hide with new ones that match the Hedgery and provide a much more secure and easy access opening for upcoming woodland bird photography sessions.

Pond is filling already

The clay lining seems to be holding in the pond area and the new pipework doing its job perfectly. Fingers crossed for the start of a natural pond and solid dam over the course of the winter.
Feeding has started at the Hedgery with the fallen Oak providing the perfect perch to leave feed on.
Simon has been busy in the outdoor gym clearing the rest of the fallen limbs and starting to work through the Rhodies back towards the wayleave. I've been away on a weekend trip to Glastonbury and so haven't been much help, but judging by his photos, the place looks very different now and light will at last reach the woodland floor in the northern areas along the path.

Finally finished the kitchen worktop

Using 3 of the remaining clay sausages we finally finished the kitchen worktop all the way along on the left side of the fridge today - looks great and hopefully should make rainy days in the Yard Arm a little more spacious.
The existing shelves were moved to a more accessible position for the vertically-challenged amongst us and new shelves went up to store more utensils off ground.
The final set of clay sausages were used to line the pond where the new dam is well underway again with two new pipes being bedded in and some shorter up-stands attached to start filling again in preparation for the Autumn rains.

Who knew I would grow to bear carpentry!

Arrived to see some upsetting storm damage at the top of the wood. One of the twin oaks had dropped a couple of major limbs a few yards from the Hedgery. Not good and created a fair amount of work to clear, but it did provide me with some much needed twisted oak branches for my "tree of life" project at home.
Armed with loppers, a saw and a few nerves, Simon and I managed to clear enough fallen wood to free the poor Birch that was trapped underneath. It's lost the top third, but there is a good chance the bottom will survive. A very lucky Birch and will probably need a name.

Toggle closures on the inside for security

Hive windows made from old fencing

Once the oak was made safe, we started on the task we came for.... installing the hive shutters to provide both security and independent easy access for photography from any of the 4 windows. Very impressed with the end result - a bit of faffing getting the right hinges, mounted in the right place to allow them to be worked easily when alone, but all in all I think they look awesome and will certainly keep the weather out when not in use.

back from Israel... and "Hedgery Hive" is born!

Strimming the camping area

Crikey it's been a bit whirlwind lately, but we are back with a vengeance...
We have decided a much-needed investment for Rais would be a good quality petrol-powered clearance tool. So after a play with a borrowed Stihl one, we will be going for a fairly lightweight, interchangeable head job, starting with the brush-cutter and strimmer attachments only and deciding on the hedge trimmer and long-reach chainsaw as needed. It will at least help us keep the paths clear and should make light work of clearing the brambles in the southern way-leave section so we can at least reach the Rhodies there this Autumn. I can't believe I am actually looking forward to Rhodie clearance this year! Possibly because it's not clay-related and it makes such a difference in a short space of time.

Giving the Hive a woodland green camo coat

A few weeks ago Rais new Tiger shed arrived and we lugged it down into the new clearing, where it's been stacked waiting for a free weekend.  This one will be the bird of prey hide, situated on the edge of a clearing beside twin oaks, which we will eventually put a tawny owl box in. We have resident Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk has recently been spotted zooming through the trees at low level, so I have high hopes. It's going to take some time and the right feeding station, but the site seems perfect for birds, deer and rabbits, so I'm super excited about it.
This weekend, (with 40th birthday party hangovers), came the big dig to sink it into position on yet another slope on the northern boundary of the wood. A dig of about 2 feet!
The plan for Sunday was just to dig the base out, but of course with some awesome volunteers and a lot of sweating, we managed to get the base dug, the shed erected, painted and the roof felted in a matter of hours.

"waiting"

We started by raking the area clear of dead bracken and debris, which was going well until I raked away a bee's nest. A little unsure what to do, and not sure whether the nest had been built completely in the debris or in the ground, we left the area for a bit while we had a brew and a think. I didn't feel too happy about making a colony of much-needed bees homeless, and worried for the rest of the workers who were out foraging and would return home to their hive to find it decimated or worse ...buried. But after half hour, we decided we had no choice but to press on, the damage was sadly already done - they would have died off at the end of August anyway as apparently the colony only lasts 2 seasons. Still, I feel bad.
The digging took a little over two hours with four of us working at in and of course Flee is the equivalent of three people so in reality it was a fair amount of work to do. But we got there and laid down some solid wooden planks to keep the shed off the ground which was clay, bordering on sandstone.
The shed went up in no time and looks fantastic I now need to plan the inside and how the windows will need to be adapted for ease of photographic work. The bird perches and feed need to be thought out as well as their distance from the front of the hive itself. Lots to do and lots to get excited about. For the first few weeks though, I will not attempt to shoot, but bait and wait, then set the camera trap and watch.
Once again I can't thank the team enough - they never fail - and we always have a laugh doing it. So proud of all of us.

Bring on the pizza!

Tracey rowing with pizza paddles

Sorry for the delayed write up - had to fit in a quick trip to Africa!....
But the weekend before we left, Tracey and I managed to complete Cassius and were able to provide Flee with his first woodland pizza, as requested all those months ago.
Armed with not one, but two pizza paddles, made in two different materials by two different people, we set off for the wood, laden with pizza bases (yes, I know, pre-bought, but we all have to start somewhere) and a huge selection of toppings (think I might have overdone it a bit!).

The make-your-own selection platter

After a few hours firing, Cassius' thermometer was swinging between 170 and 200 and so we shoved in a cheap and cheerful, cheese and tomato mini to test him out with....We were expecting a black bottom, and possibly soot on top as the smoke level is quite low, but the sacrificial pizza looked so good we ate it! Cassius was roaring and so were we. The sense of achievement was immense; digging clay from the pond and turning it into something usable and "free" was fantastic. We now had the means to make roasties and bread, cakes and casseroles. So excited. But today's task was pizza for eight people. It was dark by the time the gang were all assembled, but with our solar lighting in the Yardarm it wasn't long before Cassius was in full swing and pizza after perfect pizza came out. The wooden paddle was great for getting them in and the metal one made light work of retrieving them - we didn't lose a single slice.

the first sacrificial mini

Everyone knows you can't have pizza without a movie, so we pegged out a pillow case over the woodpile to make a movie screen and all sat round the fire to watch "The making of Cassius" sent from a handheld projector mounted on a tripod - magic.
The journey has been longer than anticipated, and harder work than we could ever have imagined, but Cassius is a fully functioning thing of beauty and the aches and pains are now long forgotten.
We laughed, we worried, then we laughed some more. A massive thank you to everyone who made it possible, you're amazing.

PS: Flee, you can now have your pond back. We are well and truly done with clay.

final set of repairs and they were major!!!

I was supposed to be having a weekend off from Rais and getting some gardening done at home, the back garden is looking horrendous at the moment and the Bay tree has gone completely mad, so if anyone knows a friendly, knowledgeable gardener with some time on their hands to help me tame it, please get in touch. I managed to mow the front lawn, cut the edges and plant up the few cuttings I had on my kitchen window sill, but by 430pm I simply had to get to Rais and check on Cassius, I could bear it no longer.. when I got there the shrinkage was soul-destroying. The soggy clay really was way too water-logged and cracked beyond belief... but thankfully we still have quite a lot of spare clay to make repairs and go again. It took longer than expected to fill the cracks and make good, but by 8pm I was packed and ready to get home again; bath calling me.

I was up again this morning and back with Cassius by half nine. I repaired the new hairline cracks and re-did the chimney after a dodgy attempt at making a snake coiled around it that looked more like a giant turd.
We only have one weekend left before Tracey and I set off for Zambia, so the pizza fest is going to be next weekend... ready or not... we have to have a rest at some point and with any luck it will come next weekend with pizza, wine, and good friends to help christen Cassius properly.
I also have to mention Simon in this blog, who has had his hard work on the bracken overshadowed by Cassius in the past few weeks. The whole time we have been puddling, mashing, mixing, brick-making, and modelling, Simon has been pulling endless amounts of bracken out by hand, which seems to grow a foot or so a week and appears to grow back within days, so it's a pretty thankless and back-breaking job. Sterling work Sewell, thank you so much for rescuing our efforts and ensuring next years growth is hugely reduced.  

Final layer - yay!

300 bricks, made in clay so soggy we couldn't stack them meant we were very lucky it didn't rain all weekend. I think I can safely say Tracey and I have seriously had enough of clay now! NEVER doing this again; the life of an oven at Rais will be the life of Cassius... and that's IT!
We rewarded ourselves with a few glasses of the red stuff of course, well chuffed that we had gotten it all done on the Saturday and could afford a lie in and a leisurely Sunday. More importantly, Tracey would get to watch Andy Murray in the Wimbledon final.
I tried out my new camp bed in the blue tent and slept like a log - so much so that I didn't get up until 10:30am, the best nights sleep I've had up there... ever. :-)
We decided to head over to see the neighbours on Sunday, but unfortunately Bob and Rita were not in, so we continued on to see John at his bird haven in Millers Wood. What a difference some light makes, his woodland is very open in comparison to Rais. He has thinned his trees quite a bit at the Eastern edge of his wood and worked incredibly hard to get a number of hides in situ already, including an impressive drinking hide which I'm keen to have a go in. John has an Alaskan chainsaw mill which gives the ability to turn felled trees into planks... incredibly useful when you want to build solid hides, and flat benches but don't have the need or space for a permanent saw mill. As a result there are benches dotted around to enjoy the peace and watch the birds.  I was particularly impressed with how close the birds were coming in to his feeders, even with us standing not too far away. Then to see the juvenile woodpeckers come in almost immediately after we got seated inside - particularly as we were not even being quiet!  John is renting his hides, and offers photography workshops from his wood so check out his website... http://www.johnstantonphotography.co.uk/
He has sown a lot of wildflower seeds and planted a number of natives around the site which will be stunning in a few seasons time when it all takes hold. I'm also looking forward to seeing how his pond turns out, as he has opted for a man made version with pond liner whereas we are attempting to dam our stream again using the clay instead of liner. I'm intrigued to see if there is a difference in the time they take to establish.
Going to be an exciting summer / autumn.

Found the perfect hangover cure at last!

After a cracking family party Friday night and feeling a tad battered and bruised, I arrived at Rais late morning on Saturday, armed with a second bale of sawdust from the country store in Handcross and the determination to get Cassius' insulation layer on before I left - hangover or not, it was the goal for the weekend and so I had to just get on with it, and get on with it we did. Despite the late start we worked tirelessly til 930pm, by which point it was getting dark but we had successfully mixed and made 300 clay/sawdust bricks!

A lovely stir-fry, followed by some fireside relaxation, washed down with a few glasses of red and we were tucked up in bed by 1130pm; Me in my hammock and Flee and Tracey tenting it on Fox ridge as usual. Happy, but seriously knackered.

half way through adding the insulation layer

Sunday 
Not a bad night's sleep, but thoughts of the build kept waking me up... we had a figure of at least 500 bricks in mind for completing the insulation layer and I was concerned we would run out of time with just the two of us at it, as Flee was heading off to work first thing. I needn't have worried.... Tracey and I worked like troopers all morning, stopping only to refuel on pain-au-chocolat and more tea. By lunchtime we had almost 400 bricks and we were just considering the plan for the afternoon when the cavalry arrived and life got a little easier. Ant made light work of filing down Cassius' entrance and chimney to improve the smoke egress and Tracey encouraged me to get started on actually laying the bricks while she continued mixing and moulding.
I believe I'm only alive this evening because I took her advice; had we continued to make 500 bricks together before getting started on the laying, she would most definitely be up for murder right now.... turns out we only needed 350 bricks to cover Cassius in a double layer of insulation material! oops.

Hairline cracks repaired with fire cement

It was hot, hard, achy work, laying the bricks in such a cramped space, and I managed to add to my mounting injuries by stabbing my backside on the hurdle fencing, ripping a hole in my trousers at the same time - but I have to say it was all worth it, Cassius looks awesome, and I cannot wait until we finish. Only one final clay layer to go and we can relax.
We have given ourselves next weekend off to spend with the lovely Sarah and my godson Charlie. This will also give the insulation layer time to dry more naturally, so it's going to be a good two weeks at least before Cassius' "christening" and probably a good few more before my nails, muscles, and joints recover. I will certainly be pleased to get rid of all the buckets, trugs and plastic sand bags floating about - The Yardarm was starting to look like a seriously bad building site at times. In preparation for our toddler visitor next weekend, we did have a bit of a clean up, sorted out the wood pile, put a some things away and used up all the remaining bricks and slip on levelling the work surface which looks so much better.

Gall mites on the Alder

Whilst wandering back and forth putting bedding and such away, I spotted some deformities on the leaves of a few of our Alder trees. After some googling, I have discovered they are caused by gall mites, specifically the Aceria nalepai species. The bobbles or "galls" are filled with russet hairs which the mites live in, and these hairs have, in many cases, projected through to the underside of the leaf to form triangular, pale yellow patches.  Thankfully these mites rarely cause stress or injury to an affected tree, so the Alders are simply playing host to the little buggers, who will in turn feed other creatures higher up the food chain.
Another find today was this gorgeous white wildflower. Growing in the south west camping corner between mine and Tracey's beds.
A common-spotted orchid, which apparently likes wet meadows and damp woodland. Very pleased to have it at Rais, particularly as the area we found it in was covered in nothing but Rhododendrons 2 years ago.

Common-Spotted Orchid

sawdust and sawn nails

clay and sawdust mix

Finally feel like we broke the back of the prep this weekend. Can almost see the light at the end of the clay tunnel.
With only 41 days to go til our trip to Africa, Tracey and I wanted to get everything ready to lay the second layer next weekend. The all-important insulation layer. With an oven the size of Cassius, we need to be sure he will stay hot for many hours or we will be forever feeding him with logs.

Cassius' entrance drying out

So we spent today mixing up the clay slip and sawdust into batches ready for brick-making. Did quite well, and managed to deplete half a bale of sawdust and 3 trugs of slip. to create enough mix to make 300 or so bricks. Giving ourselves a pretty good head start for next weekend. Cassius has been drying out nicely all the while and with a couple of layers of slip wash is also now void of cracks which is promising.
We have some more filing to do around the chimney/doorway as the smoke level is still a little high, but he's looking in pretty good shape.
We, however, are not! Both Tracey and I have no nails left, aching joints and severely clay-logged skin and clothes.

making trugs of clay slip

Sausage count hits double figures...

Still a long way to go, but at least the sausage counter is nearly where it needs to be. We think we need 16 eventually and we now have 13 thanks to Tracey's endless puddling.

making a trial batch of insulating bricks

After a trial run at making insulating bricks (clay slip and sawdust), we have a much better idea of the numbers required for the next 10cm layer;

1. Two jugs of slip to eight jugs of sawdust makes 7 "bricks" 
2. With the planned width we need approximately 250 bricks to cover it once (5cms deep)
3. Then to cover again will take another 280 bricks as by then it will be almost 120cms wide!
4. One trug of slip we now know makes roughly 12 mixes (84 bricks)
5. So we need five and a half trugs of slip to make a decent insulating layer.

It might not be such great news for our hands, but it certainly makes me feel a lot more comfortable with the amount of clay we will have available. Such a thick insulating layer also means we only need a single outer layer of clay (290 bricks).
Since we plan on starting with 13 sausages, we need to get at least 35 bricks out of each sausage. Sounds reasonable. Any spare can then be used for repairing cracks and moulding the oven into the work surface and rest of the kitchen.

Of course whilst Cassius is coming to life, so is the rest of Rais, and more worryingly... the bracken - it's rampant. The areas we pulled last year have thankfully only come back at probably 50% the volume they were before, so it's important we keep on top of it, else all that hard work will have been for nothing. Simon kindly spent the best part of a day hand-pulling throughout the way-leave to get rid of it before it sets spores and we are back to square one. A back-breaking job, but very rewarding, as large areas can be covered relatively quickly.

I did another one just for you Tracey!

Weekend 3 : Weary and worried

Cassius has been drying out all week, aided by small fires every night in the form of disposable BBQs. Easy to get going and easy to pull in and out when it looks like the fire is being starved of oxygen.
The drier Cassius got, the easier it was to keep the fire going. At times it was too hot to hold a hand on the top of the clay and so we know it will work well as an oven once it's all done. Worryingly though, there was smoke also escaping from cracks all the way round as the last lower 6 inches dried out. We have since filled them with fire cement and also raised the opening an inch or so to meet the level of the smoke ceiling in the oven. We don't want to start on the next layer (the flammable layer!) until we are 100% certain no more cracks will form and the existing crack repairs are solid.
This expected setback didn't stop us of course and we spent the weekend building the entrance way and continuing with the sausage-making in preparation for the third layer when we get there.
We are on schedule at the minute with 7 sausages ready, 7 buckets waiting to be puddled and a trug full of slip, We still need 2 more buckets of clay, 9 sausages and another trug of slip but the end of the prep is in sight and it should get easier from here on in.... although having said that we have done some calculations to work out roughly how many bricks we need for each of the next stages and it's going to take a while! We think 200 bricks of insulating material and 550 bricks for the final clay layer. We don't yet know how many bricks per sausage so it's all still a bit of a guess... but the oven is currently 106cms in diameter, if all goes to plan with the rest of the build, Cassius will be 140cms wide when finished, which is quite large!
The brick entrance arch/tunnel wasn't quite as easy as I thought it would be, but thankfully I was alone during the build and so no-one had to suffer my foul-mouthed-headless-chicken impression. It took about an hour, an entire sausage, a terracotta flower pot and half a bag of sand (as well as the log template of course) to complete. The sheer size of it has actually made the oven dome itself look tiny all of sudden, but I know it will swing back the other way when the final layers are on. Now starts the drying out process yet again and with fingers crossed I am off to Wales for a couple of days, so we shall see how successful it's been when I get back and remove the log template currently holding it up.