Operating manual
Pinwheel
Everything particular to this treehouse. The shared essentials — water, logs, waste, departure — are at the bottom of the page.
- Dorset
- Guest information
- Pinwheel
A printed copy of this lives in the guest folder inside, with QR codes to short films for the stove and the pizza oven.
The ceramic stove
- Open the air intake fully below the glass door.
- Build a Jenga-like square of kindling, four or five layers high, at the back of the chamber.
- Drop a lit firelighter into the hole in the middle, shut the door, and let it burn down to embers.
- Add kindling and small logs in a tipi, split side down.
- Once the starter logs have gone, add larger ones and close the intake down a notch or two.
Pinwheel’s plan means the heat finds its way round the centre and into all four arms, so it warms evenly and does not need feeding hard. Overloading it blackens the glass and achieves nothing else.
Never leave it unattended when lit, never run it with the door open, and never dry clothes or towels near it.
The hot tub
The square tin tub on the deck is left empty and clean. Fill it with fresh hot water just before you want it, and be generous with the hot — the metal takes a lot of heat out of the first fill.
Cover it between uses, or the oaks will fill it with leaves.
Shower room and dressing room
Two separate arms of the pinwheel: a shower room with a heated towel rail, and a dressing room next to it. The flushing loo is en suite. On-demand hot water, so allow a minute or two.
The two-person swing
On the deck, built for two people facing each other. It is stronger than it looks and still not a climbing frame.
The four windows
Each arm ends in a full-height window facing one point of the compass, and the glass is one-way — you can see out, and the wood cannot see in. There is no need to close anything for privacy.
For darkness, though, you do need to close them. Blinds are fitted to all four, and the glass roof over the central space has its own. In midsummer the east window starts working on you at about half past four.
The hammock
Store it under cover by the back door when you are not using it, or it comes back damp and mouldy.
Electric blanket
Dual control, with a handset each side of the bed by the mattress.
If you are here in late April or early May, the ground below the deck will be blue. Please keep to the paths — bluebells take years to recover from being walked on, and the colony under Pinwheel is an old one.
Water and hot water
Mains water throughout, and good to drink. Hot water is heated on demand, so give it a couple of minutes to arrive; after that it is plentiful.
Never put wet wipes down the loo — they block the biodigester and do not degrade.
Logs
Your basket is filled before you arrive. Help yourself from the log store when it runs low — refills are free. Extra kindling and firelighters are in the honesty shop.
Fire safety
- Enclosed lanterns only. No tea lights, no unguarded candles.
- Never leave the stove, barbecue, fire pit or pizza oven unattended.
- Do not move the barbecue or fire pit off its metal safety disc.
- Leave all embers and ash for us to clear.
Waste
Bins are at ground level below the steps, split four ways: glass, recycling, food waste and general waste. There is a full breakdown on the guest information page.
Leaving
Out by 10am, and move your tag on the in/out board to ‘departed’ as you pass. Nothing else to do.
Text or call the duty phone — the number is below the in/out board at the camp centre, and it can change during a stay.
The pizza oven
Allow forty-five minutes. The first one is always the worst one.