Busy as usual

Almost finished the shovelling of rubble for the entrance but got a little side tracked as I am part of a team of 7 ladies, who have various fund raising events raising much needed funds for cancer research and the charity CRY

The first event was a Winter Wonderland evening. Held in Carolyn's barn atLower Damgate Farm near Ilam. Beautiful part of the country in the peak district. We spend most of last week tooing and frowing as we took this beautiful, large and empty barn, decorated it and set it up ready to receive 200 guests for a sit down meal.

We did it and the evening was a great success. Marie a friend of mine sang and entertained for most part of the evening. We ate the most delicious beef stew and dumplings served by a fantastic team of teenagers who had all kindly given up their evening for us. The atmosphere was buzzing with happy chatty people enjoying themselves who danced their little feet off till the wee small hours. The conga was like no other, even the teenagers were impressed.

We raised circa £5,000 which is fantastic as there was no raffle or auction.

Many have asked me when the next might be?

Watch this space but if you are interested please let me know as it promises to be a good one and sell out quickly :)

Nearly there

Just signs and lights to sort now and the rubble to level but I am so pleased with our new gates.

It is throwing some people as they think they have gone to the wrong place. We will all get used to them.

The electric element to them is fantastic and gives us so much security as outside the hours pre set by me, the gates will not open.

Looking good

Just waiting for the gates to arrive ( they keep moving on a couple of days at a time)
and we are there for now.

I will take a picture to show you once there here :)

Business wise a little quiet at the moment, which is no bad thing and gives me time to catch up with maintenance jobs. Christmas will be completely chocker, I have no doubt and amongst the animals I have to care for I shall try and spend some time with my lovely boys.

They are all in happy places now.

Eldest seems to be getting on well at Futaba (Toyota) He talks about future plans and ideas which is great. he is on the mundane production line at the moment, learning the job which is what the apprenticeship scheme is all about

Middle son seems to be coping well and even enjoying his AS level subjects especially economics.

Youngest has settled incredibly quickly and easily into Denstone College. He is loving the sport and is bringing exam results home which are A passed. I couldn't have hoped for better as he is clearly happy now.

On the farm

We have a problem with the mink at the moment!! Lets hope they reduce the rabbit population as my lawn is alive at the edges when I go out at  night, put the light on to collect the coal.

I sat and watched a beautiful, big, black tailed fox on my lawn yesterday too.

To help clear up the storm fallen apples off the lawn the horses have been recruited to the job. They are loving it and doing a great job but I do wish they wouldn't have a run around as they do make a mess :)

They did make me laugh at the weekend as they were having a good canter around the field together and flinging legs up in the air. The dogs were out in the run but desperately wanted to play. Good entertainment for all :) :)

Exhausted!!

17 tonnes of scalpings (rubble) later and lots of wackering.

6 cubic metres of concrete and despite this dreadful weather the gateway is prepared for our new gates.

The electric and sensor pads are in situ. The gates are scheduled to arrive this Saturday :)

We will be able to walk through but no vehicles for another couple of weeks as the concrete takes a while to harden off.

Like most things in life "a little patience goes a long way".

I won't fully complete the job until next year as I intend to tarmac the new area and tidy up the existing but the new entrance will make a huge difference from both aesthetics and security.

Better not start any more projects this year as we have puppy arrivals pending and then we will be very, very busy over Christmas as getting booked up already :)

It is exhausting but a great life!

On holiday :)

Phoebe and I have been away.

We went over to Oakham for a couple of days and spent lots of time with a very dear friend of mine.

We watched kites flying over head which was very impressive. I hadn't realised they were so far north.

Phoebe was such a good girl and I felt very proud of her as the vast majority of time she was off the lead. We passed sheep, swan, geese, bikers, runners and oooodles of fellow walkers. She wasn't perfect as is very sociable but, for such a young dog she never embarrassed herself. She was also very good in our accommodation, for some reason she chose to sleep under my bed. There wasn't a lot of room.

It was lovely just to have a couple of days off and get away and I shall do it again one day :)

Visitor

Just 2 metres outside our house, sat on the arm of a chair, this cheeky buzzard is taking a rest.

We never used to have rabbits on our land but over the last few years they are everywhere. They consume huge amounts of grass but more importantly they burrow under buildings and undermine foundations to the timber barns. Cute but a nuisance. The birds of pray have followed them of course and I hope he is successful and eats well as I cannot bring myself to reduce their numbers by any other means. Yes, I am a softy :)

Making progress

Despite the dreadful weather we are getting there.
The brick layer, my boys and myself soldered on regardless all week end.

This slab area was concreted Friday and the pillars and walls are now completed.

The electric gates are being made and will be hung in 2 weeks time.

It has been a huge undertaking but will be worth it to improve our security and aesthetics.