Mrs Bentley becomes Mason

It has to be said that Mrs Bentley is not a great fan of heights that involve the use of ladders or scaffolds and so for the first few days had spent her time clearing out the side of the house we hadn’t touched, sorting out the garden and sheds into some sense of tidy and cleanliness and kept us fed and watered. She was also cleaning up the old wood we had decided to use as lintels for the back windows, as shown here.

After about 5 or 6 days most of those jobs had dried up and she was getting a bit restless and wanted to be more hands on with the build. 

She felt a bit disenfranchised due to the heights we were working at and didn’t want to be a “passus” which is basically a “pass us that love, no not that, pass us that”.
It was decided that she would have a go at the back walls covering the concrete block with a 30 cm thick stone wall. 

Being no stranger to the cement mixer she soon knocked up a suitable mortar mix ( multiples of - 3 coarse sand, 1 lime, 1 sieved mud/torchis ) and as Mick and myself clambered up the roof for another mornings “daring do” Mrs. B set about the wall.

We came down for coffee, which Mrs B had made, after about two hours but she then tried to get us to drink at the front of the house. 
We wanted to see the wall but an unhappy and despondent Mrs B was none to keen on us having a look . In fact her exact words “It’s f@#ing sh!t, I am going to tear it down and start again. I just don’t know how to get it to look right” 

I don’t think Mick had ever heard her swear before so was a little taken aback, but when we looked at the wall it was difficult to disagree because, in fairness and all honesty, it did look like she had upended a wheel barrow of muck and spent two hours throwing stones at it. 

Mick having done quite a lot of stonework as well as carpentry also showed of his sitherto unknown diplomatic skills and said “I think I can see what you are doing wrong. Can I show you?”
“Please do because I know I am doing something wrong” says Mrs B 
So Mick sets about showing Mrs B how to use a length of stick to ensure that the wall stays level all the way up (rather than mucking about with string plums lines etc) 
How to pick your stones (every stone has a place and should normally only be picked up once and placed) 
Finding the right face of the stone for the wall, placing it in face out, and then move along. Then just fill in behind with any old stuff you have knocking about and what you have dropped and some fresh mortar for the joins and to bind it all together. 
So muck first for a couple of feet, then stone, then another stone, then another stone, or one big one, fill in behind and the gaps and move along, making sure the stones cross over the gaps on the row below. 
10 minutes later Mrs B says “I’ve got it” 

She then ripped all the old stuff down and set to work on “her’ wall.

 
If either one of M and me were in the ground and a big corner stone needed lifting into place she would explain what one, and what way up it had to be, thank us for our efforts and get back to the stones.
So these were the bare block walls before she started with just some earlier big foundation ones that had been put in the previous summer in place. This is about 9am

When we came down at time things were starting to take shape and as you can see it was starting to look like a wall.

The next photos are taken over a period of about 4 or 5 days and by the time we had finished the whole roof in terms of timber and batten Mrs B had completed both walls. Up to the level where they just needed the last layer of stones to seal them up. 

In this next shot you can already see where she has begun work on the left hand side wall

This is Mrs B sussing out and foiling my pervy plan of getting a “down shirt shot” whilst perched 

on the beams.

The dog on realising the Mrs B had found her own job decided that she felt a little left out as well so she decided to ask if she could come up on the roof and help as well.

And made a good attempt at getting there

Now if you can stop all the “Awww isn’t that sweet” business for a minute and look behind her attempts to get up the ladder, you can see the second wall near enough complete as well. 

It must be mentioned at this stage that about 4 days into the wall building process we were tucked up in bed in Number 1 shed having a read before dropping off to sleep when Mrs B suddenly said “Oh look at this page, if you don’t see them as words they all look like different sized stones fitting together”

I suggested she take a day off the wall

Next up joining the roofs together and putting in the eyebrows. 

Mrs B is now the official stone mason on site and is responsible for all pointing and stone facing work, as will be shown in later installments.