Most of these outbuildings will be constructed on the lowest right-hand terrace (R0) which is the best area to minimise the impact on the views both of the land from the valley and on the land itself. We will also be planting trees and shrubs along the edge of this terrace to obsure these esential buildings.



Planning permission for the main house is progressing slowly, but this is not a problem at the moment as there is so much else that needs to be done first.

Chicken Run

The Chicken Run is on the far right end of the bottom right-hand terrace (R0). Two fenced compounds have been built either side of a 2x3m chicken house that will be home to between 10-20 chickens. It is not possible to have free-range chickens because of the risk from predators, however, the compound is quite large. It has been split into two sections so that the earth can be rested from time to time. Roughly every three months the chickens will be moved from one side to the other.



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Storage

Two temporary steel storage units have been erected onto a concrete base at the end of the bottom right-hand terrace (R0) next to the Chicken Run. These temporary stores allow us to keep equipment protected from the elements.



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Pergola shade

A pergola has been constructed on one of the central terraces (C2). This will provide some shelter from sun in the summer and rain in the winter.



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Water Deposit

The water deposit is the most critical construction work on the land. Planning permission was required, and granted on 21 September. This deposit is a steel circular structure 3m high and just over 8m in diameter that will hold 150,000 litres of water.

The deposit had to be built on the highest terrace so that the irrigation can flow down to the rest of the terraces. Unfortunately that also means that it is in one of the most difficult areas to access. The original plan estimated that construction would take about 20 man days over the course of 2 weeks. So far the work has taken about 55 man days and a further 10-15 man days are required to finish the work.

A JCB digger had to be used to dig out an area big enough to construct the base (the original terraces were only about 4m wide). The digger spent about a day widening access routes so that it could get up to the terrace and a further 3 days digging out the base and moving the earth to lengthen terraces C9, R10 and R11.



A complex iron mesh framework for the base had to be made, as shown in the diagram below. All the iron materials were carried up hill by hand and the framework constructed on site. This took Patrik and Tomas almost two weeks to complete.





We had to source a specialist mini-cement mixer that we hired, along with a small dumper. The dumper was used to move sand, cement and water to a staging-post half-way up the hill (a large flat area between C7 and R5).



The first 1m high ring of the steel water deposit had to be aligned with the deepest foundations and set in about 10cm of concrete.



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Select these links to find out more about the project.

Introduction   Outline layout   Log of progress on the Land
Our project plans   Planting and landscaping
Before, during and after images   The team