Strong and stable…hmmm sounds familiar, but this is nothing to do with political elections or Brexit…it is about building our foundations for the first two log cabins.

The incline of the field makes for interesting foundations. I’ve had to dig 24 holes a minimum of 1m deep down for each these two smaller cabins.

Setting these foundations out was a challenge in its self, which proved too much of a challenge for me. After several hours, and a few choice words, I phoned a builder friend, Johnny. He arrived that evening took one look at the plans and with the light fading and the rain falling, we had the foundations set out in less than an hour!

Digging the hole was also a challenge as some were less than 300mm apart and the Blackdown Hills is not the best soil to dig in – you’ll find flint, clay and greensand (if you’re really unlucky)!

These holes are then filled with concrete – but not before the holes are inspected by the Building Inspector. My holes were approved – never have I been so relieved about my holes.

Just to fill these 24 holes I needed 7m2 of concrete. Once filled, we had to build block pillars for the cabins to sit upon. But due to the incline of the field, some of these pillars are just 300mm high and others are 1800mm high.

Once again, the best brickie in Somerset, Johnny, came to our aid and did a grand job – often working on the weekend or after a long day on other jobs to build these pillars in time for the first cabin build to begin. So far 48 pillars have been built. I’ve still got to dig 64 holes and 64 pillars need building for the two larger cabins – this will happen a bit later in the year. But now we are ready for cabin number 1 and number 2 to start going up – exciting times!