Here's a lovely drawing that our architect, Mark Ledgard at Stratton & Holborow has done, to show a little better what the building will look like.
Car tyres are now arriving from our friends at ATS in all the towns hereabouts, who have been collecting the right size tyres for our foundations. We have around 130 of the 180 we need and the students have been setting them out on site. It doesn't look very rural at the moment!
Other highlights - we have commissioned local Devon woodsman Brian Williamson to prepare the 570 pointed hazel stakes we will use to pin the straw bales together, and he's started work already on this, delivery expected early January when we will start on the walls. Here's a picture of Brian's apprentice, Ruth, at work in the woods cutting the hazel rods.
Today a class of College students have had a straw-bale building course on site under Nick's tuition, as a dry run prior to the real build, and have also started fabricating the wall plate out of timber. This sits between the tyres and the straw and is used to anchor everything together.
A static caravan has been manoevred onto site today. Donated by Hoburne Holiday Park in Paignton, the caravan will act as the site office for the next few months, giving the students much-needed shelter and R&R facilities during the doubtless wet Devon winter that's to come.
