Frustratingly slow progress

Okay. So people had some feedback building a bridge over here. I came up this morning with the chainsaw, contemplating that and see how much the water is flowing now. I realized I could probably just drive on the ice. So last possible day that this is probably workable. So we've actually changed some things around. We got all the timber right next to this spot that requires no trees felling. And then we've actually found a new spot down here where no trees need felling. So we've got three platforms that don't need any trees taken out. I'm in the stream and I'm actually now taking timber back down. So I was actually going to build the bridge where the second stack was. I'm going to take this material down because I found another way up the steep hill and I got the bottle to try it and it worked well. So I've already taken some timber up for one of the platforms there. So no bridges needed and should be able to get all the material up today. So for some reason I could not get up here yesterday. But today I came up this path and that worked out well. So I've actually done a lot of preparation now. I've brought up all of the decking and subframes and the hardware for all three of the small teepees. Second one here, third one's a bit further up the track. And we've changed the position so that no trees are being cut for these. And I've got the subframes as far as I can. There's one there and one there. And there's all the decking to bring up. But because it's so wide and the paths have trees on the side, I've decided I'll empty a trailer that's full of trash right now and pull it up. And we can't get it right up to where the platforms will be. But that's okay. It's been a real bonus just getting these up here. And with the ground thawing out now, it really was the last time to do it to get up on the ice with the tractor. That's all starting to really flow. You can just see on the other side there now. And I've managed to do it without making a mess of the track, which is nice. So now the job is to mark out the positions for all the feet. And what I'll do is just smash through any ice on the top and put the feet in the position without screwing them down fully. Just so I don't need so many marking pegs. And then I think I'll come back ready. I still need to buy the legs. The timber stalls are out of the 90x90 that we'll be using for the feet. This is the location of this yurt looking out onto Nutfield. But I think I should be able to get all the spots marked out. So the next day I have three I can come up here and start putting them together. Next days are pretty busy for me. I've been doing every two weeks now online day long online course for people farmers in Ireland. And tomorrow is no dig market garden day. So it's big day. So 100 people joining for the training. So I've got a lot of prep to do and that's going to take it up to the weekend. And then at the weekend I'm going down to Cleta to get photo shots ready for renting out that property for certainly for the first half of the summer. And so it's busy time. So I won't be able to pick this up again probably till next week. But I'll be hopefully in a good position to just start really building on the frames. Big job now coming up is to take down the other yurt platforms which is going to be a bit of a job. We've got to store the yurt somewhere temporarily while we do that. And taking it down is probably going to be more work than building up a new one. But we'll see how that goes. I could really use a helpy handy carpenter at this time. But we'll see if anyone's free nearby and wants to get stuck into some manual carpentry. Then hit me up and I'll let you know if we've got some days that will work out. So that's what it looks like marked out. We've got straight line down the middle octagon around the sides and just cross check the measurements against each other. As I said in previous videos, I've got a bit of wiggle room. This one is very tied up against the trees there but that's okay. I can't move it to the right without a beam hitting that tree. Now I could obviously take trees out but I don't want to if I don't have to. And that seems like it'll work. Always got the option to take trees out after if I want to. Don't really want to have to do that. I like the idea of the the platforms a bit bigger than the tent which is 6 meter diameter. Platforms are 7 meters. I like the idea of having butting up against the trees somewhat perfect so these are just temporarily in. I've just made a little hole through the ice with a bar and put these down. But that will secure their markings so I can take the pegs off to the next spot. Very nice. They're actually surprisingly big decks. I'm thinking of the other ones where we're doing nine and nearly 12 meters. They're going to be huge, but seven is quite big anyway. What a difference a couple of days makes, you know, this ground is really getting softer. The snow's just disappearing. It's going to get really wet and muddy. I'm really thankful I got most of the heavy lifting up here just in the nick of time because it's going to become a mud bath up here pretty soon. But still, it dries out fairly well because this is just rock underneath. It's got 10, 15 centimeters of topsoil. I managed to get one of these pegs in over for the yurt that I marked out already, but maybe I have to cut some of them short if I'm hitting rock. And we'll see. We'll see how we go. It'll be next week till I get deep into that process. Okay, second one marked, post in place. Bit of a fall on this one. I'm pretty wet at the moment over there, but I managed to get the holes in. So next step on this process is going to be coming back here and using a bar just to make those holes a bit deeper. And then I'll screw down the fittings into the ground. The ground seems like it's only about 10cm of frozen ground on the top, so I'm not so worried about that now. And once I've got all the fittings in place, I'll come along with the laser level, set it up over here, and then I'll take measurements on each station to work out how long to cut the different legs. And then I'll probably mark those out on the cutting list, cut them off in the yard, bring them up here and put them all in place. I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna do step by step on each platform so they're all simultaneously being built, or whether I'll just do one at a time. We'll see. Haven't decided yet. I think the yurts are gonna have to wait now because I'm losing the sun. It's beautiful up here in the forest, but it's going to be dark soon, so that's as far as I get with this today. Well, a bit of evening sun has come in, which is beautiful. Can't wait for these sunny long days to come back to the northern land. It's hard to be motivated and it's hard to actually put in the hours like we can in summer when we've got sunlight till half eleven at night. It's interesting. We just had blood tests and Johanna and I and turns out I've got too much vitamin D. Don't know where that's coming from. But Johanna was brought up in Peru and in the Congo and really suffers a lot from not having enough vitamin D. So she's been supplementing quite intensely every winter. But it's funny, I haven't naturally felt like doing it and it's interesting that I'm above where I should be with that. No other health complaints. That's good to know. Yeah, Things are going to get busy now. We've got about four weeks till the team come and then things really ramp up. I've got a huge amount of building to do with these platforms. It's a bit of an overwhelming task that's held up by broken up days. Doing a lot of other admin stuff and trying to get this book ready for you. Seeding will begin soon in the next couple of weeks and you can start to just see the tips of the garden beds coming out the snow now and can't wait to see greenery again. It's something that you just get used to here. But the fields will look a bit olive and drab when the snow goes. It's going to be very wet for a while, so just have to take it easy on the fields. You can probably hear the birds singing there. It's really nice as life comes back. Can't wait for the trees to start putting in leaf. It'll be the birch trees first here. Still waiting for our kitchen unit to arrive and we'll have to set all that up with water, sewage, etc. But that's going to really make the farm yard center very different this year with the big teepees and sort of lounge seating area as well as a new kitchen with a pop up window. So the chef is really highlighted and central to the farm. We wanted to have a chef again because obviously we do trainings here and so we have a chef always for the trainings, but because of the camping, hopefully we can get this running in the spring. We want to be able to create food connections with the farm for people. So rather than just renting out tents for people to stay to come and see their local area, we specifically want people to come and have food experiences, see how food is created, get their hands dirty, maybe, if they want to, and then eat the food from the farm and we produce a whole human diet here. So it's really something special. And Johanna is really excited to work on some themes and concepts for that, which I think will be a really remarkable thing. It's also the time that we're going to work on the Ridgedale Cookbook. It's an idea that's been brewing for several years, but Elan, who is our original chef on the first year at the farm, as well as the person that we've hired back to cater for our trainings over the years, is the person for the job. And so we're really excited to employ her as a chef and see if we can get a Ridgedale recipe put together, how to cater for a family from the farm, or for groups of 10, 20, 50, how to do preserves, butchering, all that kind of stuff. We haven't fully outlined the details of the book, but it's going to be pretty epic and really excited to be producing loads of books. It's really fun. And the Ridgedale Builds book is going really well. We've got about 50, 60% of the projects done, and so it's a busy few weeks to really try and ramp that up and get it wrapped up before the season. So it's going to be next week till I'm back out on the land, but I'm hoping to get these platforms really going again, and it might be that I call in some help to just get that moving, because once seeding starts, it's just going to get too hectic here with me on the land alone. So we'll see how that goes. Now, in a simple twist of fate, it turns out we have a position open for an apprentice farm manager for the focus on layers and the big animals, working as part of our team from the beginning of April till the end of October. Now, this is not a paid role. Technically, it's a paid role, but in food, accommodation and education, and we pay your insurance and taxes, etcetera, but it won't leave you money in the bank. It's an apprentice role, where you're learning the ropes and getting it to grips with understanding how these things work. Every year, we have some employed roles and some apprentice roles to support the employed people, to give you an experience of what it takes to run these enterprises in the context of this incredible learning hub and all the amazing things and people that come through and go on here. So if you think you've got what it takes. We're taking applications until the 28th of February. Only, please, only European people. You need to be able to travel here safely and so you'll need to have Covid tests two days before arriving here. It's a bit of logistics, so sorry for folks that are further afield, it's just too much complication with all this Covid stuff. But if you think you've got what it takes, you can fill in the application form on ridgedalepermaculture.com make a little video, introduce yourself and we'll be getting back to people on the 1st of March. I hope to find someone awesome to join the rest of the team. All right, that's it for today folks. Got a lot of things to do on the computer. Maybe I'll do a 12 hour workday special sometime this summer. You can follow me all day long, see what happens if I like. I guess there'll be about three views on that, so. So we'll see. But anyway, you can find out a whole bunch more in the links below. As always, click subscribe if you don't follow our channel already, share the video with your friends, etc. We'll see you in the video soon. Bye for now.