This week they rebuilt the wall, up to first floor level,  that was knocked down last week. They have started the stone facing to the wall, hopefully they won’t be too fussy or it will take too long and not match the remaining part of the wall. The pictures show the progress through the week. The last picture is the new stone lintels and cills for the windows.

Cecilia is to be interviewed at home by BBC Look North ( local news), they particularly want to film her spinning.
Cecilia was last seen rushing around in a mad panic screaming about the state of (un)tidiness of the house.

After a short delay while the level 3 archaelogy report was approved, the building work has progressed. The inside of the barn was pointed (all the gaps between the stones filled in), scaffolding erected to give access to the back wall and support the roof. There was a great view from the top of the scaffolding but going up there confused the goat

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What to do when you accidentally buy seville oranges instead of clementines? You don’t eat them – its like eating a lemon!
You can make marmalade…except we don’t eat marmalade much. Or you can make Orange Chocolate Chip cookies!

Orange Chocolate Chip

Simple to do – add the juice and grated rind of one seville orange to your favorite chocolate chip recipe.

Or you can use this recipe:

• 3oz of butter
• 6oz of sugar
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 6oz of self raising  flour ( add 1tsp of baking powder if using plane)
• pinch of salt
• 2oz of roasted hazelnut pieces
• 2oz of chocolate chopped into small pieces ( green and blacks maya gold works well)
• Grated rind + juice of one seville orange

Cream butter and sugar together, add the egg / orange and beat well. Now mix in the flour/ nuts /chocolate  which should end up with a very stiff mixture. Place spoonfuls onto two baking trays as far apart as possible – this should make about 20 cookies. They are going to spread out and probably merge together when cooked. Bake in the oven at 180 C for 12- 15 minutes. Leave to cool for a few minutes before taking off the baking tray – if the cookies have merged then cut between them with a knife before they cool.

builders take over

The builders are taking over, they now have a rather large tool shed on our drive. At least I think its a tool shed, I don’t think they have moved in and are living there yet!

They didn’t get too distracted by the weather this week; no show on Monday but it was rather snowy and I had to work from home. The rest of the week they were busy with concrete, even though it was freezing a lot of the time.

concrete floor slab

This is the about 2/3 of the floor which is where the living room is going to be plus the unused bit at the far end. We plan to have a wooden floor over this with the insulation under that. The remaining part of the floor, to be done after they have rebuilt part of the back wall, will be the boiler room/log store/work shop. Its going to be either tiled or plain concrete depending on the area, so the insulation will be put under the concrete.Not sure what they are planning for next week…