Rag Rug Course 4th September 2010

Eight of us had a very enjoyable day learning the basics of rag rug making with Jenny Barnes. Jenny is a Companion of the Guild of St. George who promotes the craft at home in York and beyond. The Ruskin Studio was full of Jenny's rugs, an array of coloured cloth and our work in progress. We had a lunch of home-made soup, bread and cheese on the lawn in the sunshine, then continued with our creations in the afternoon, all enthusiastically making plans to carry on our new skills at home and at informal gatherings in future.

Rob's picture of the Studio

This is Rob's finished product which will be used as a post card and for invitations to special events at the Studio - thanks Rob

Rob Taylor paints the new Ruskin Studio

Rob has been our architect for the Ruskin Studio and he is also a very good artist. Here he is creating his drawing of the studio during its construction

Work starts on the Burlton's Field Barn

Our builder Ron Clowes has now started work on restoring this small field barn on the outskirts of Bewdley.

The work is being made possible through an 80% grant from Natural England through the Uncllys Farm Higher Level Stewardship scheme.

The work will include stripping and relaying the roof tiles on new cleft laths, stabilising the walls and pulling the building back into shape.

It will continue to be used as a field barn for the storage of hay.

Our first training course in the Ruskin Studio

Here's Nick Dunn from Frank Matthews nursery in Tenbury explaining to local orchard owners how to plan a new orchard and sharing his life's experiences of managing the production of fruit trees.

James fitting the solar panels

Here you can see the evacuated tubes of the solar hot water panels being fitted by James after he had completed all the plumbing.

They feed hot water into a large (750 litre) thermal accumulator. Additional sources of heat are the Esse woodburning stove and an electric immersion heater.

The heat from the accumulator is used for the underfloor heating system as well as for hot water for wahing.

Kev and Norris laying the floor

- here you can see the floor scree being laid over the underfloor heating pipes. The scree is 70mm thick and will be gently heated by the pipes beneath. They will be drawing hot water from a large (705litre) thermal store which will be heated by the Esse Ironheart stove and by the solar hot water panels on the roof.

As you can see it's a skilled job getting the floor perfectly level and smooth.

Underfloor heating goes in

Today James the plumber, with help from Kev and Norris the builders, was busy laying the underfloor heating coils. You can see from the pic that they first put down a 70mm thick slab of insulation, then the pipes are clipped to it before a 70mm scree is floated over the top. The whole thing then forms a thermal store.

In the corner you can see the Esse Lionheart stove installed ready for James to plumb in. Above the stove is a 750litre thermal accumulator that will hold heat overnight and then this will be used to heat the floor the next morning. The solar hot water panels will also feed heat into the store.

Mr Cockerel

Cockerell trying to look smart!

Here he is - a very smart looking chap - a Rhode Island Red - he fluffs up his plummage every morning to show off to the girls and tries to pounce on one or two as they come out of the hen house. Don't think he's had a lot of success yet!

Cattle in the snow

Our Dexters are mostly back at the farm staying in the barn at night and then going out during the day to soak up some rays. Some even seem to prefer to stay outside at night and you can see frost on their backs in the morning - showing just how effective their coats are at keeping them warm.

We have plenty of feed for them but keeping the water flowing is quite a challenge - I usually manage to get it going by about 3pm in the afternoon.

Uncllys in the snow

Taken 7th January 2010 - that night it got down to -9.5C!!

Inside the studio

Here you can get an idea of what it's like inside - decorated for James' 21st birthday party on 19th December. The owl was kindly lent by the Forestry Commission's Discovery Centre (thanks Liz!)

The new Ruskin Studio - less scaffolding

Looking good once we had taken down the scaffolding and got the PV panels (they generate our electricity) back in place.

With the roof being steeper (50 degrees) and higher we should be able to capture more sunlight.

On the left side of the roof you can see the two manifolds for the solar hot water system - the evacuated tubes will be fitted once all the plumbing is done.