Fuddland

Operation: Turf-Shed Roof is well underway here — possibly the most unsafe building work ever undertaken, but we never claimed to be a professional outfit.

Still, I think even the dodgiest cowboy builder may draw the line at standing on a very unstable pile of turf, knocking joists into place using a three-foot long log whilst their Dad stands, pushing up the remaining parts of the roof, directly in the line of swing, so that if I were to miss my target the log could fly out of my grip and hit him squarely in the back with some force. In fact, this almost happened: I was mid-swing when my Dad shouted, “Wait!” as he re-adjusted his footing — the momentum was too great for me to stop, so I just kept a firm grip on the log and tumbled forwards, down the pile of turf. No damage done though, so nothing to worry about. [Not yet, anyway.]

Next came the task of separating the pieces of corrugated iron which form the roof from the pieces of joists which the wind had ripped from the main structure. The good thing about the galvanised nails which afix the iron to the joists is that they rust slightly with age and form a firm bond between the two components. The bad thing about galvanised nails is that they rust slightly with age and form a bond so firm it’s a real effort to pull them out again. Despite the chilly wind — at times fairly high up the Beaufort wind scale — blowing across the bogland, which meant I started out wearing a fleece top and my jacket over that, it was warm work and I was down to my t-shirt by the time the last nail was out.

Some of the wood we’re using to replace the joists was originally part of the main house, which was built over a hundred years ago by my great-grandfather; they were floorboard supports in the main room downstairs, replaced when that room was gutted and refurbished a few years ago. It’s amazing to see the century-old wood is still in good enough condition to be used for this new purpose.

The following is an entry which follows on from the above:

1. Photos of Ireland [Fuddland]. Excerpt: Photos from my visit to the west of Ireland last week. Fixing the turf shed Using the iron salvaged from those ripped off by the wind, plus some spare bits from storage, I think we did a pretty good job...

#1

mrtn | 2004 / 03 / 26 – 12:39

heh, since your post of the other day about fixing “the turf shed roof”, i’ve been envisioning a traditional celtic construction with a peat/turf roof. obviously i read it as ‘turf shed-roof’ and not ‘turf-shed roof’ - somewhat confused when you started on about galvanised iron!

#2

David | 2004 / 03 / 26 – 14:58

Re #1: Ah, sorry for the confusion. Despite being fresh from reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves, I still forgot the importance of the clarifying hyphen. Those of you similarly confused, please suitably adjust your mental image. :)

#3

brown | 2004 / 03 / 30 – 07:11

Re #1: I made that same mistake! It may be a silly question, but what does one keep in a turf-shed?

#4

David | 2004 / 03 / 30 – 07:45

Re #3: Turf!

#5

David | 2004 / 03 / 30 – 07:50

Further to #4: Okay, that may not be very helpful. Turf is what the Irish call peat — it’s a fuel that’s halfway to being coal but still burns for a long time and generates a lot of heat [although its use is becoming less and less popular due to scarcity of resources and the pollution it generates].

#6

Gordon | 2004 / 03 / 31 – 09:20

Only just got the title.. good ole Bernard eh!

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