Having safely demolished the old barn, and removed the asbestos, before it fell down, it was time to start preparing the foundations.

Since preparation is key, the first act was actually to install a new field gate in the paddock to allow access to get materials deliver to site.

So that when the cladding duly arrived, our friendly farmer neighbours were able to lend us a mechanical hand to get it off the lorry and delivered through the paddock to the orchard.

With materials on site, work could start on the foundation, or more correctly in our case, the second foundation. Like the pig sties, we decided to work with the old un-level concrete base on slopping ground, so that we don’t have to pour lots of new concrete.

The effect made it look like we were building a tiny paddling pool, but gave us a level baseplate for the next stage, the structural frame.