Last year went completely pear shaped due to an unexpectedly enormous software project which kept me working seven days a week right through till August. Loadsamoney (on my scale!) but no time and somewhat drained by the end of it. However once I came up for air, managed to crack on with many of the smaller jobs. With the much appreciated help of the Lochwinnoch cludge-heaving team (you know who you are), finally got the roof finished, and looks like it'll pretty much green over this year, with grass and sorrell being the main colonisers at present. Have planted strawberries, herbs and garlic, but will leave it to sort itself out while other major tasks await.

Also sanded and varnished the floor, moved some furniture and a bookcase in and lastly completed the stove, which thanks to Eli's decoration wouldn't look out of place in the corner of Professor Dumbledore's study! Ended up merely lining under the floor joists with trashed blue fibreglass tarps (the same ones responsible for MkI getting demolished) but now performing very well as a breathable membrane under the floor which has been enough to stop the floor being icy cold even in the worst weather. By trapping air between the joists like a giant string vest, it works well, doesn't interfere with the efficient ventilation of the basement and doesn't create a haven for rodents as loose straw or wool might, nor smell either. A concern with unprocessed raw wool, rancid lanolin not being my favourite aroma, could be washed of course but then may not be as durable. Anyway thankfully, no longer an issue here.

Winter this year has been mild and very, very wet. The fields are like sodden sponges, standing water in the basement, every footstep puddles with water. Only occasional hard frosts (up to -9o C). The Slab Stove has (unsurprisingly) improved beyond measure by the addition of a flue damper and a proper close fitting front. Can now regulate the draught and fuel use has been rewardingly slight. (See Stove section in Designs for latest info and photos).

Again Limewash & Render has stood the winter well except for the most exposed corner of the house where the limewash has again flaked away gradually (due to frost action on rain soaked walls). Render underneath is still sound ~ will try limewash with casein or tallow on these areas this year to see if durability improves. Straw remains fine and dry throughout. Humidity rarely above 68% even when unlived in for a week or more in very wet conditions outside, often down to 52% when the fire is on. This is a huge improvement over last year, partly due to heating the house all winter, but also I think there was a considerable body of moisture remaining from the rendering, which was only completed internally in December last year. Lime is slow to dry and the walls themselves probably held more than we realised at the time. I also blocked off the East nostril as one seems sufficient in conjunction with the bowfront vent. Only Northerly gales penetrate this and they are thankfully rare, and it's still cosy by the stove even then, so I'll probably leave it at that.

The poor old temporary workshop out the back has nearly collapsed after three winters, and needs to be replaced asap. This beautiful tensegrity design has proved to be far too troublesome to implement, at least for a structure of this importance, so have reverted to plan 263c and will use 3 inch poly water pipe on a roundwood frame to create a spacious if rather more pedestrian enclosure. Shame, but another day, another place.

One of the most rewarding aspects of this endeavour has been the ability to open minds not only to the possible, but the essential need for people to rediscover both the inner peace acheivable living surrounded by natural shapes and materials, and the slow realisation that we really MUST no longer bow our heads to the yoke of debt, refuse to pledge our lives to further the multi billion pound free lunch of banks and speculators or even sell our children into debt, as they are now proposing. STOP paying millions of pounds every week to subsidise a national forestry dedicated to producing cheap toilet paper and use these national assets for the true national good, which can never be anything else but sufficiency and sustainability for all creation, not just the parasites. Which would you rather do; spend a year or two and a few thousand pounds creating a beautiful home and then get on with life, or tie yourself to an entire working lifetime of struggle, abuse and sacrifice for a matchbox that is not even guaranteed to last as long as your mortgage? Why are we not allowed to even make that choice in a 'free' country? If the best that civilisation can offer is a life that is nasty, brutish and expensively long, then perhaps it's time we looked somewhere else for inspiration.

I think the nicest thing that anybody has said is: "It's a very cuddly house, it seems to softly put it's arms around you". We all deserve the choice to live like this.