How to build a carpark!

And so the landscaping continues.  This time on a larger scale with machinery and a professional!  Now that we have bought part of the field nextdoor, we have room to park the cars on our own land (up until now they have been on a little slope at the side of the track).  So Bob's brother-in-law, Chris, came over on Saturday to get on with it.  He does groundworks and landscaping for a living and is just much better than us at knowing what needs moving where to make a flat bit, etc.  This was all decided at quite short notice, but we arranged to borrow a neighbour's digger and sorted out a delivery of stone from our quarry.  Chris was impressed that we could sort that out so quickly and for a Saturday morning too.  Bob and I had an afternoon in the week cutting down hedge and clearing back overhanging branches and marking out and measuring so we were ready to go.

On Saturday morning Chris arrived at about the same time as the neighbour, Dave, with his digger.  Dave gave Chris a run through of all the little quirks of his digger, like that all the controls are the opposite way round to a normal digger.  I could see Chris looking more and more dubious as he went on and when Dave left saying to give him a ring if the tracks came off, Chris looked even more troubled.  Well, within two minutes one of the tracks had come off and that was that.  A quick discussion led to the decision to try and hire a digger as we'd get nowhere fast if we had to keep putting the tracks back on.  Bless him, it was really kind of Dave to lend it to us, but because the first bit was on quite rough ground, it just wouldn't have worked and so he came and took it back again.  Bearing in mind that it was now about 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning, I think we did quite well to get a digger delivered.  We do know the people from the hire shop quite well and have always got on well with them, so that probably helped.  Bob always gets me to do the ringing for these things because he thinks I can get away with being cheeky!  So, the digger arrived at about 11.30 and by the time we'd had a cuppa and a chat with the driver (having just had a cuppa and a chat with the lad who delivered the stone), it wasn't worth starting anything before lunch!  I'd forgotten how much time you spend socialising when you're having deliveries.

The hired digger suited Chris very well and he soon got
on with spreading out all the hardcore we'd accumulated to
help fill in the dip along the hedge.

There we are, he is happy in his work.

I had a go at a bit of bucket work - takes a lot of thinking about
you know.  I'm sure it'd soon become second nature and
you'd do it without thinking about it, but not in the 10 minute
session I had!

None of us had thought about a membrane to put between the soil
and stone so we had a hunt round and found enough roof breather
membrane, hessian, old tarpaulins and builders bags to lay out (having
stabbed them with a garden fork to allow drainage).  By the end of Saturday
the site was cleared and we'd laid some of the membranes and spread some
of the stone.

I was working and Bob was out on Sunday, so we left Chris to it
and he finished spreading, levelling and compacting the stone
and started on the path down from the workshop.  This will be
how Bob gets his motorbikes up and down eventually, but we
ran out of stone.

We can now park side by side and reverse in.  Our visitors should
be pleased about that, it's surprising how many people ask us to
reverse their cars out!  Behind the cars we will store the trailer and
also build another log store.  It all looks a bit new and harsh just now,
but once we've sorted the edges out and the stone has mellowed a
bit it should look fine.  We will also lay the hedge to thicken it up so
it should be more hidden from the track.

Ancient herb-stones and elephants

Next border's finished!  Yep, we've finished the building part of the terraced herb border and here it is.  Towards the top are little stone walls going across just to stop the soil all sliding downhill.  We now need to get some ericaceous compost and horse muck to put in the top two sections for the blueberries.  Then the next bit is going to be a bit rockery-like for the rosemary, etc and, surprisingly,  the bottom bit has turned out to be quite good soil.  There used to be a path up the side of the house with a little wall to the side and the bit this side of it ended up being a real dumping ground for us.  Because we used what is now the lounge as our builders yard/workshop, it was handy just to empty the last bit of mortar or plaster outside the door.  We used old sacks of cement that had gone hard as steps for quite a while and all sorts of other bits of stone and wood got dumped on the pile, so all that had to be cleared.  Once we'd built the walls we forked over the soil in the bottom bit and found all sorts of bits of metal, toys bits of clothes and bottles (a really sweet little bottle which is in almost perfect condition as well as broken bits of a bottle with Castle Hotel, Oswestry on the side - shame that was broken).  So we weren't the first to dump stuff there.  
Buried under the middle of the bed was the remains of the old wall so we managed to get some sizeable stones out including this one which took absolutely ages to get out as it was buried quite deep.  We could just have left it because I'm sure herbs don't need that much depth for their roots, but once we started we had to finish and I'm glad we did.  It's a bit difficult to see from this picture, but it is a perfectly triangular wedge shape and is bigger than it looks.  We've always thought some standing stones would be nice in the garden and so we decided to stand it where it was (rather than lugging it around!) and I'm now calling it our ancient herb-stone - I don't think there is really such a thing, but it sounds quite authentic!  Not quite Stonehenge, but it looks quite good.

Last week we went to see some friends the other side of Oswestry who said they had a bit of timber Bob may be interested in.  Well, yes, but not really just a bit!  They had some very straight Ash which will be perfect for legs for things and some nice straight Cherry.  So we ended up with a trailer and boot full. They have planted an orchard of heritage fruit trees and so we had a tour trying the various apples straight off the trees - when they said they'd get a bag so we could take some home I thought they meant a carrier bag, but they meant a farm sack!  So we ended up with a kitchen full of apples and I spent the afternoon peeling and cooking them for the freezer.  I also made some juice from each type and we had a juice tasting session which was interesting - all very different.  The courgettes went into a courgette cake and some apples went into a crumble-pie.  The wood is in a pile and Bob was amazed at how beautifully it split - just like in the books!   This week we went back to get some more wood (they are trying to clear a shed so they can concrete the floor) and ended up with more apples!  I get the feeling they are a bit overwhelmed by how much fruit they have and are quite glad to give some away so they don't have to peel and stew it!

The route to see these friends takes you across country past the Old Racecourse and when we got to a little crossroads in the middle of nowhere it was all cordened off by police with police cars and flashing lights all over the place.  One of the policemen came over to explain that we couldn't get through because of 'that' (pointing to a little post box on a post).  He was obviously not impressed!  Apparently some youths had posted a firework and blown up the post box, but because all their calls are co-ordinated centrally in Worcester, the Bomb Squad from Birmingham had been alerted and were on their way and no-one was allowed near until they gave the all-clear.  He was really disgruntled about the waste of time, money and resources but said it was because the whole country was on heightened terrorist alert at the moment.  I guess they have to be careful, but a little post box in the middle of nowhere is not really likely to be a prime terrorist target for bringing the whole country to a standstill is it?

Yesterday we had a Green Deal Assessment.  Because we have solar tubes on the roof, we should be able to claim a payment from the Government for 7 years.  They just don't make it easy though - surprise, surprise.  You have to have this assessment done which to a degree I can understand - they have to be sure you actually have the product you're claiming for and also that you have done everything you can to make your home energy efficient.  For Building Control sign-off you have to get, and pay for, an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) which tells you how energy efficient your house is and how you could improve it.  Ours came out at a C which is as good as it could be for the type of house and much better than most of the old cottages you see for sale.  Now wouldn't you think we could have used that to support our claim for the Govt payout (especially as it was done by a Govt employee)?  Oh, no, no, no.  You have to have another one done, and pay for it again.  It's all people making money and just not a joined-up system at all.  So, we forked out again and the girl came and spent 2 hours measuring, photographing and questioning and when she sends her report, we can file that along with our solar tube installation certificate on some website and then, hopefully, get a bit of money back from it.  Watch this space!

We also had a visit yesterday from the lady who did our bat survey right back at the beginning of this project.  She was really excited to see the house finished as she was there when we started taking the roof off in the snow and doesn't usually get to see the finished property.  She was even more excited when we told her about the bat that has taken up residence under the eves of Bob's workshop.  She brought a colleague from the Small Mammals Conservation Group because they have discovered evidence of doormice near here which, again, they were very excited about.  She thought Ben might be interested in getting involved if he's around when they are doing their surveying - all good experience and I'm sure he will be interested.  They had a look at our bit of woodland behind the top barns and declared it perfect habitat for doormice, if they can find it.  So, anyway, one of our next projects now is to make and install some doormice boxes.  When we were knocking the hole through the wall for the stairs, we found a hoard of nibbled hazelnuts in the wall and wondered if it had been where building had stopped for the Winter and doormice had overwintered.  The nuts had a very round hole in one end which we thought was characterisitc of doormice.  I managed to find the shells to show the chap, but he said they were from woodmice which is a little disappointing.  Again though, they were really excited to think that those nuts were nearly 200 years old and he's going to send us some photos of a doormouse hazelnut so we know what to look out for.

A few days ago we had a visit from an elephant!  Can you believe it?  Well, actually, not quite.  Having seen a Hummingbird Hawk Moth a couple of weeks ago, Bob found an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar making its way up the drive - quite impressive I'm told, but it had run away before I got home from work.  We'll have to look out for the moth next year - they're pink I think!

As well as the apples we have been given, we
have quite a good fruit crop of our own.  This is a tiny
pear tree, but has loads of fruit.

and this is the plum which is so laden down that the chickens
can just help themselves from the ground which they are quite
happy about!

Gas finally runs out!

Don't worry, I'm not talking about some global crisis, but our never-ending bottled gas!  We, obviously, used bottled gas in the caravan to cook and heat water and a big bottle lasted 8-10 weeks - oh, I remember the joy of having a shower when it was due to run out and wondering if the hot water would last until the shampoo was rinsed off.  Did get caught out a couple of times, but whoever wasn't in the shower was at the ready with the spanner to change the bottles over double quick during the few days when it was due to run out.  So, when we moved into the house we took our bottled gas with us, but just for the hob on the cooker (there is no mains gas here) and I do prefer the 'turn-on-and-offableness' of a gas hob.  Friends and neighbours do the same and the concensus seemed to be that a bottle lasts about 18 months which didn't seem too bad.  Our bottle was part-used from the caravan and so we thought we'd get about a year out of it . . . . next week it will be three years since we moved into the house and it has only just run out!  AMAZING!  We didn't think it'd ever run out.  Recently, we've started using the whistling kettle we bought for on the woodburner instead of the electric kettle as I'm sure it's got to be cheaper.  I suppose we do most of our cooking on the woodburner through the Winter and so that is why the gas has lasted so long.

We have started building another garden wall - it's never-ending!  We have started on the herb bed which is in front of the lounge windows, so we wanted that bit of wall to look good which meant using some really big stones - it does grow quickly that way though!  We're still managing to use stone we have lying around, but they are getting smaller and more awkward in shape - you just can't help using the easiest ones first.

This border will be terraced within itself to make it go down the slope.  If we can get our heads round it properly, it should work quite well because we can have different soil conditions in each bit to suit different plants - stoney and free-draining for the mediterranean-type herbs, normal for others and acidic at the top where we will plant the two blueberry bushes which are currently in pots.  Once the herbs and blueberries are planted out, we'll be able to put something solid down outside the lounge - maybe cobbles or maybe we'll have to bite the bullet and actually buy something.  We've got so used to having all sorts of materials lying around and thinking of ways to use them that it seems very odd to have to contemplate going out and buying something . . . . maybe we'll come up with a plan to save us the trauma!  While we were building this wall, I noticed a very strange (and quite large) insect hovering over the sweet peas just behind Bob.  It had a big long body and a very long nose and, apparently, no wings?  Weird!  Bob turned and got a better look, but it flew off before I could get there to look at it properly.  We had a look in the book though and it would seem that it was a Hummingbird Hawk Moth which flies during the day.  It does have wings by the way, but it moves them so fast that you can hardly see them (hence the name I guess).  They are Summer visitors and some years are very scarce and others not - don't know if this is a rare year or an abundance year.

We just had a weekend in bonny Scotland visiting Laura who lives between Edinburgh and Glasgow.  It wasn't actually so bonny on Friday because it was piddling down, but the rest of the weekend was lovely and warm - I kept finding myself thinking 'You know, it could almost be Summer'  and then realising that it was actually still August!  We have had a very chilly couple of weeks haven't we?  We've had the fire lit a few times and Laura said she had to scrape ice off her car one morning!  We had a day in Edinburgh and took an open-top bus tour to introduce us to the sights although Laura did a pretty good job of pointing things out to us too.  We had a lovely couple of hours in the Botanic Gardens in the sun and then a quick run around the museum before closing time.  You know, there are quite a lot of tartan, cashmere and whiskey shops in Edinburgh!

On the way home we passed a couple of convoys of Police minibuses just before the motorway gets to England.  We were a bit worried that they were on their way to close the border before the election in a couple of weeks and had to try to overtake them (at about 71mph!).  We made it back across the border just in time though - phew!  Before we went, a chap in the pub told us to look out for a special woodland on the way up the M6 which we had never noticed before.  Apparently, in the war a German plane crashed into a hillside killing the pilot and after the war his widow managed to buy the piece of land where he'd come down.  She planted a woodland in the shape of a heart to mark the spot - how romantic.  I don't know if that is true, but going north on the M6 about a mile before J38 you can definitely see a heart-shaped woodland on the steep hillside to your right - have a look if you're ever passing.