Probably the nicest laundry in the world*

* potentially, Carlsberg not included.

February has been a strange month.  The snow and freezing temperatures at the beginning of the year more or less put a stop to work but once that cleared a couple of weeks ago, it has been all systems go.

Eilir Rowlands has been with us for a few weeks and as well supplying us with photos of Ty Hen through the decades, more of these later, he has been building stone walls and creating lots of holes in existing walls.  This is all good and planned.  We are turning the (pictured) pig sty into a laundry.  The door opening has been widened and made taller so a washing machine and tumble dryer can be installed and unless you are 7ft tall, one can also enter without the fear of decapitation.  Eilir has also started work on creating a new window in the barn and closing up the east end wall. Laundry room

I do love a nice stone wall and the one that Eilir has built is particularly nice:

holiday accommodation

And here are some pictures of the rest of the work that has been taking place:

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Gwyn has been with us throughout and has been in charge of concrete, floors, shuttering, block work and other things that keep him outside in the snow, hail, sleet and rain.

I’ve been working on the website, which has been tweaked and updated, and the facebook page.  In a nice warm house.

Splosh – a post about cleaning

Is it possible to get excited about cleaning? As recommended by our friends at Casal dei Fichi, Splosh will be supplying our cleaning products.  Eco friendly, non animal tested and using refillable containers, it will mean less trips to the recycling centre and fits in nicely with our environmental aims.  And they’re based in Wales. Something like this should be arriving through the post any day soon…… Splosh If you want to try them for yourselves use the code 2704A6 to get £5 off a starter pack.

Byd bach, small world

We have a new person on site. Eilir Rowlands, landscape gardener and stonemason, is building a retaining wall and creating new openings for windows and doors in the old stone walls. Eilir knows the house well as his grandmother, Kate Rowlands, lived at Ty Hen. Byd bach.  Her diary is being serialised on twitter by St Fagan’s National History Museum.  The tweets are in Welsh and often in the local dialect so they are a little difficult to understand (for me), but they do offer a fascinating insight into life on the farm 100 years ago.  From taking a large sow to Bala (I may not have understood that tweet correctly), to the travels of the threshing machine and the news of a young man in Llandderfel dying of TB.  And the weather is usually ofnadwy.

Eilir also gave us a photo of Ty Hen from 1960s and a picture of him in front of the pig sty.  Eilir is on the right. Eilir Rowlands Ty Hen c1960