No photos! Imagination required.

So, without a camera to illustrate my words, I am challenged. I like a challenge!

My back is so much better, but still, I have to be careful and not over do it. I have been staring at the big beam for days and just longing for it to be up on the wall so I can see how it fits and how all the other beams fit around it.... and then I heard some activity up by the windmill. Aha! Workmen. I felt like some crafty old spider trying to lure some meat into my lair! So two hefty young lads and R put the beam up more or less where I wanted it, in the middle of the circle. Took them five minutes, and that was just the journey down the hill and back up.

Then I spent a couple of days staring at it and offering up poles. Of course there are not enough of the eucalyptus poles... but maybe there are, because I will make them fan out somewhat, near the centre, and I will use some other bits that we have here: olive, chestnut, pine. Shorter bits. It's quite exciting when I stop trying to think like a conventional builder. I can't because I am not. So, I am a dress maker, a quilter, a patcher, a mender... a cobber. This roof doesn't need to be straight, to hold hard flat things on top of it. It is going to have wool, and cardboard, and plastic and earth/straw. As long as it can drain away from the centre, the shape is ... what is the word? well, use your imagination. I'm going to!

I do have to raise the wall some, so that means more mud work. I am trying to pace myself. I think that if I had a couple more helpers it would be much quicker, but this is my 'Everest'. It looks so beautiful. The walls have gone a light tan, the colour of the earth, of course. I whitewashed the inside bits next to a window to see how it looked. It looked like it has been there for ever. And it stops the mud plaster from dusting off.

The broody hen has been sitting on a couple of dud eggs. So sorry for her. I gave her two more and she sits on.  What's up with Cocky? Is he not doing his thing at the moment? Maybe he is waiting til there is more green grass, when the autumn dampness comes. I am thinking of building a cob hen house... I know, I'm bonkers, but it would be so cool for them. I love this earth we live on. It is so perfect.

The garden is slowing down. Tomatoes are rather small. Celery is doing well. Always one or two strawberries. Some animal ate the rest of the sweet corn. There are grapes, beautiful, red grapes hanging from the vine near the house. Yes! Our shade plant is doing the right thing in a permaculture fashion. (Stacking functions - shade and fruit.)