Recently we have been spending weekends at the kiln taming the land, cleaning around the kiln and building a camping deck. We hacked through bamboo and forest on the lower level of the land. Clearing the land was so much fun and surprisingly took no time at all. Preparing the soil was another story. We pulled up meters of bamboo roots in an attempt to stop it from coming up through the tent. This was back breaking work which will probably be undone by the hardy nature of bamboo. We laid landscaping fabric and recycled shingle which we got from a roofing company that breaks up old roof tiles and delivers them for free. The deck we built took three days and was a very simple construction of 5mx5m to fit a 4.5m bell tent. It has taken weeks to get to this point but finally we had our first camping session. We stayed two nights and had fun creating a bonfire and working on the property. Our children are loving being so close to nature and doing very manual work.
Now we can stay over we can do our first firing of the kiln and work on the kiln house.