The Foundation Story

Things are moving on. Peter Post action is happening under the lean-to. Out in the field the art studio footprint has been oriented to solar south, foundation trenches have been dug and are now being filled with stone.

We’ve lit our midsummer fire and bathed in the dawn light before retiring exhausted. This seems to have provided the energy for us to push forward. A blue moon is also engorging itself in the sky, blurring the edge between day and night. We’re on the downhill run to the equinox now, a time to focus and set firm goals.

Nothing like foundations to get one focussed. When this happens repressed fears emerge from the dark like so much unwanted baggage. Will it sink? Will it fall? Will I die? No matter what level of denial you employ in answering these questions you are sure to err on the side of caution, just in case. This involves a lot of work and quite a bit of grief. It could also get extremely expensive. Friends and neighbours, not to speak of family, all of have firm opinions on the subject. Oftentimes it is the weight of their fears which pushes one over the edge. As you fall you hear them proclaiming ‘it’s all for your own good!’.

Wood is a very loving and forgiving material. Even if a foundation sinks a little a wooden building will simply bow gracefully like a ballerina or a good waiter. This has so much charm that one might even want to create a deliberately weak foundation in order to encourage a little bowing here and there. Stiff materials like concrete or even hemp-lime are another matter entirely. They are like biscuits or overbred mares which snap if you look at them sideways. No charm in that – only cracks in the walls and endless I-told-you-so’s.

So, we’ve stripped off the topsoil in this sodden Leitrim field, a mere four to six inches of peaty stuff bound together with roots and the occasional worm. Below that there is grey daub, limestone ground to dust by the retreating ice ten thousand years ago. This is impervious to water so the trenches filled up when it rained, necessitating the digging of a small pond to dry them out again. Next, the trenches were filled with stone and roughly levelled . These ‘footings’ will now be dressed with smaller stone and railway sleepers will be laid on top of them to receive the floor structure. This will ‘float’ over a foot above existing ground level, just in case that climate change gets out of hand and I get inundated with water…

On the video clips you can see the process of filling and roughly levelling the foundation trenches. More to come on the construction process shortly.