Clingfilm drawer!

This moment was so exciting that I thought, after about three years of not adding to this blog, I'd see if I could remember what to do.  For the whole of my adult, home-owning life I have kept clingfilm, tinfoil, etc in a cupboard or a cubby-hole, stacked one on top of another.  Then when you want the one from the bottom they all fall over - just so flippin' annoying.  So I was determined to have a clingfilm drawer in this house and it's been a very long time coming hasn't it?  But finally it's here and I was just ridiculously excited about it . . . Bob told me I'm a bit weird and the postman gave me a funny look when I was excitedly telling him about it!  This is the utility room and the drawers on the left will have painted wooden fronts screwed on them then the next two bays will have doors.  The middle bay is the food store and each 'shelf' pulls out on drawer runners so you can easily see what's at the back.  In order to 'move into' these drawers, we had to empty lots of other drawers and cupboards for a big move around.  Course, now we can't find anything at all.

If this post works, I might just do a few updates covering the last few years, we'll see.  I'm gradually re-reading the whole blog and I'm so glad I wrote it because there are so many little details and funny incidents that we had completely forgotten about.

Logs, logs and more logs!

We finally got round to hiring a log-splitter last Friday and what an easy job it made of our piles of big logs.  It took us all day, but was nothing like the arm/back-aching work it would have been by hand.  In the morning Ben was around to help and we got quite a rhythm going - one passing logs to the splitter, the splitter and the other loading the split logs into the log store.  In the afternoon, with all our log stores full to the rafters, Bob and I split the remaining logs and piled them up ready for our next store.

And here it is.  As I said before, it's made from the timbers from our old tin barn and is going to have a slate roof so should look quite 'swiss chalet' I think.  This one's not huge, so we'll definitely need another on the other side of the 'carpark'.  You really need to stay two or three years ahead of the game with firewood to make sure you are always burning dry wood, so you just can't have enough log stores!

The hedge we laid is greening up  nicely with loads of new buds, so that's a good sign.  Mind you, when Ben and I were cutting some logs we noticed that some of them had new green shoots on too, so Maybe we'll wait a while before we declare the hedge-laying a success.

A few weeks ago we planted our 'orchard' . . . . does four trees count as an orchard I wonder?  We moved a little pear tree from the other side of the house where it wasn't very happy and bought a cherry, plum and apple to keep it company.  In the Autumn we will plant a Shropshire Damson (makes amazing jam with a dash of Port added) where the pile of logs is at the moment and maybe something else, so that'll be six trees.  There's also a couple of crab apples in our new hedge, so I think that will count as an orchard.  Rob and Becky have also planted a variety of fruit trees the other side of the new hedge, so they'll all help each other with pollination.  At the same time we planted an ornamental quince on the other side of the house between the lounge doors.  The chickens are very grateful for their new bath!

All the Spring flowers are coming out everywhere - we are up to the bluebell stage here, with lots of primroses, wood sorrel, wood anemones and daffodils.  The snowdrops are over and the cowslips are just starting to appear.  Everything is shooting up in the borders too - weeds and plants!  There are a couple of things coming up that have us completely baffled.  One in the middle of a border has a stick next to it to mark where it is, but neither of us can think for the life of us what it is or where we got it from!  Nice to have these surprises . . . every year, I'm not very good at keeping track of where everything is at all!

Our little woodland just covered with primroses, sorrel,
anemones and violets

This isn't a very good photo, but can you see they're even
growing in a crevice of the branch of this Cherry tree
which looks so pretty. 

New Chickens

Yep, we now have our two new (well, second-hand actually) chickens.  Bob went to collect them a week and a half ago along with three for Rob and Becky - Rob was still building the run when Bob set off!  I have to say that these have been the easiest chickens to get settled that we have ever had.  The first time we introduced new ones to our existing ones was just so traumatic that I seriously thought we'd never do it again.  All the books you read say to keep the two lots separate, but so they can see each other and so get to know one another . . . . it was like a cock fight with chicken wire between them and one chicken even pulled a claw out in the violence.  It didn't get any better and they were 'at each other' all the time until we eventually just put them all in the run together and let them get on with it - they still fought but eventually settled and sorted out the pecking order.  We then bought some chickens from an old farmer-type and he suggested we collect them in the evening when ours were going to bed, dust both the new ones and the old ones with mite powder which has a smell, so they all smell the same and then just pop the new ones in the house on the perch next to the others, shut the door and leave them to it in the dark.  The next morning they wake up and they've got new friends who smell the same as they do.  It works and although there was a little bit of pecking and sorting out the order it was much less traumatic for all.  We did this with these ones and they didn't even argue or peck at all and have all settled down together really easily and quickly.  After a couple of days, we let the new ones out of the run for a few minutes while we were close by and made sure they found their way back to the run.  They now come out with the others and roam around all day quite happily together.  They know the lay of the land and know to go back to the nest box to lay their eggs.  After Bob picked them up, we put them all in Rob and Becky's chicken house and collected them at dusk so we could do the night introduction.  When we went to get them, one was standing up, neck stretched almost saying 'Me, me, pick me!' so we did and she's called Mimi because of that.  The other one is a bit smaller and has no feathers at all from under her chin (mmmm, do chickens actually have chins?) down to her chest in a very neat stripe almost as if she'd been to the barber for a shave or has grown sideburns.  So, she's called Sweeney - either after the barber Sweeney Todd or after the John Thaw / Dennis Waterman programme which featured sideburns.  They are both laying well, as are Horse and Lottie, and so we are back to being able to give eggs away, make lots of cakes and squander extra eggs in Yorkshire puds.

Our flock of four - from left to right Sweeney, Horse, Lottie
and Mimi

We have now cut all our wood to length ready for splitting - we're going to hire a log splitter to get the job done as it would take forever to do by hand.  We have set out some old kerb stones we had lying around (you know I can't imagine not having all this stuff around to use for various projects) for the base of a log store at the end of the 'carpark'.  We are going to use the old roof trusses from the wriggly tin barn for the roof with walls just a couple of feet tall.  Then we are going to try our hand at a random slate roof to use up some of our pile of old slates from the original house roof - it should look really nice when it's finished, especially when it's crammed full of logs.  Do you know, I'm getting quite passionate about log piles!  There is a very definite warm feeling of wealth and security in having a log store full of wood, a freezer full of pies and a shelf full of jam - who needs money?!  Well, OK we all do, but there are different riches too.

By the way, for those of you who are Facebook-minded, Bob has finally taken the plunge and set up a Facebook page (under Robert Shelton Furniture Maker).  Reluctant though we were, it seems it had to be done as websites are just soooo last year!

New cooker

So, what do you think of this idea?  We do quite a lot of cooking and thought that two cookers - matching of course - might be a good idea, as well as the woodburner which has an oven and hotplates.  Or do you think that's perhaps a bit over the top?  For a short while, we did have two cookers in the kitchen.  We bought a new cooker when we moved out of the caravan (so, three and a half years ago) and it has been fine until a couple of weeks ago when the cooling fan stopped working - this blows cool air out under the knobs and stops them getting hot when the top oven or grill is on.  As we had taken out a cover plan we got the engineer to come and have a look.  He couldn't see anything obvious, but thought it might need a new control panel, so he put it all back together again and, as if by magic, it all worked again (loose wire???).  Anyway, he went off to order a new part and we later got a phone call to say they don't make that model anymore and the part was obsolete and so the cooker would be written off!  Can you believe that, just three and a half years old and still looking almost new (I cleaned it before the engineer came!) and it was to be scrapped - what a throw-away society we live in.  So, after much rigmarole with them suggesting a shiny steel replacement, etc we went for one that looks exactly the same but has a gas oven as well as hob.  The electric oven used to take ages to heat up and because Bob makes bread most days we felt we were wasting a lot of energy and money.  So, we now have a new LPG cooker and are trying to get used to a gas oven again - it is nice to only have to wait a couple of minutes for it to heat up.  Bob has had to amend his bread technique to take into account that it is not a fan oven and I made a disastrous sponge cake which had to have its middle cut out, Bob is just about back on track with the bread and I think I know what to do with the cake next time, so we'll get there.  We have the other cooker in storage and will decide what to do with that shortly.

The new hedge across the field is now planted and rabbit-guarded and some of the plants already have tiny, bright green buds on.  It's mostly Hawthorn with a few Field Maple, Gelder Rose and Hazel as well as some tiny holly plants which I dug up from around and about.  There is also a Rowan and two Crab Apples in among them, so it should look quite nice if it all takes.  It's not chicken-proof yet though and they just go wandering off up the field to see what's going on under the neighbour's bird feeder and chat with their cats.   Luckily Rob and Becky don't mind and said they actually spent about an hour just watching the chickens the other day.  We have had to fence off the bottom of the garden outside the kitchen because the chickens suddenly decided to scratch the lawn up and had made quite a good job of it in just one day!  So they have been excluded and I think it came as a bit of a shock to them which is why they have adopted Rob and Becky!  We are getting our two new chucks next weekend and Rob and Becky have decided to take the plunge and we are collecting three for them at the same time.  This could get interesting because they are planning to let them roam around like we do when they are at home and as ours often wander down the field they are bound to meet.  That could either mean fighting for supremacy or they'll be best buddies and think they are all one flock and all come running when we call.  Watch this space!

Our current project outside is firewood.  Ben and I spent an afternoon chopping all the Oak we got out of the quarry wood last winter to length ready to be split and that should hopefully be ready to burn next winter.

The bigger diameter Oak for splitting . . . . 

. . . .the smaller Oak stacked ready for next Winter . . . . 

. . .  and then there's this - right had side for next Winter and
left for the Winter after . . . . 

. . . and this from our end of the hedge-laying . . . .

. . . and this which the quarry people left for us to pick through.
There are some really quite big logs in among this tangle.  So,
that should all keep us busy for a while!  Oh, and of course
we need to build log-stores all over the place to keep it all dry.

Ben starts his new job tomorrow at long last.  This morning we went on a tree identification walk to up his plant knowledge a bit - part of the initial surveys he will have to do include recording the type of plant-life, trees and hedges there are in the area which in turn gives and indication of the type of animals that may live there.  So, a steep learning curve ahead I think - course he has an intimate knowledge of Hazel and Hawthorn from laying the hedge here, so that's a start!

This is Bob's latest creation - a sweet little writing
desk in Cherry and Burr Maple for a lady in Oswestry.
Isn't it pretty?

Breakfast Pie

Woo Hoo!  We've finished the hedge-laying - all 70m of it!  Yesterday we put the finishing touches to it by planting in the gaps and weaving twigs and branches into the bottom to protect the new shoots.  That means that we can now plant our new hedge to divide the field (didn't want to do that while we were felling quite big trees or it'd get squashed).  We are also going to plant a few fruit trees in our bit - I think Rob and Becky are going to plant some in their half too, so they should all happily pollinate each other.  In my week off we also chopped down the other half of the Sycamore next to the beer bench (we did the first half last year) which was quite big and overhanging the bridleway.  We started sorting through the timber left by the quarry when they cleared the bit opposite, so we now have lots of wood to log (and loads more to pull out) which is all good.  We're going to hire a log-splitter for a weekend and get it all sorted at some point, it'd just take sooo long to split it all by hand.

We had a good few days in Hereford - strange for us to stay in a city (just 10 mins walk from the centre) instead of out in the middle of nowhere, but it made a nice change.  We had to do an emergency funeral before we set off though.  Bob went to let the chickens out for a bit before we went and found Dot stretched out on the floor of the chicken house.  Usually we have a fairly good idea that one is going to die because they go off their food, look pale and listless, but she was her normal greedy self the day before so we had no inkling at all.  She hasn't laid eggs for a couple of years and definitely ate more than her fair share of everything so perhaps that had something to do with it!  So, we have two second-hand chickens on order and should be able to get them in the next few weeks, just depends when the next cull at the chicken farm is.  Horse and Lottie both seem well and are looking pretty smart after their Winter moult.  Lottie was laying an egg every other day without fail until Horse started laying again (they stop for a while in the Winter), but since Horse started, we haven't seen a single egg from Lottie?????  Does that mean there's a pile of eggs under a bush or something?!

Way back on a rainy, cold day in November, we'd finished eating lunch and were sitting round the table when one of us brought up the idea of a breakfast pie.  An hour and a half later we'd come up with a plan with drawings and everything.  It was a very detailed planning meeting covering everything from what should be incorporated, how to segregate it so you don't get black pud if you don't like it to whether it should include fried bread (it shouldn't by the way).  By far the most time-consuming bit was how to have the eggs and how to keep the yolk runny.  So, three months later and after much subsequent discussion, we finally got round to making the prototype this weekend for Sunday brunch.  This is how it goes - shortcrust pastry base followed by a mixture of beans and cooked mushrooms, then a layer of thinly sliced cooked sausage.  Now it gets a bit complicated - an outer ring of either black pud or sausage and then partition walls to match and divide the pie into portions.

Crack an egg into each partition . . .

. . . carefully lay cooked bacon on top, trying
not to pop the eggs followed by more of the
bean/mushroom mix.  Add the pastry lid being
careful to mark it in some way to show the partitions
and indicate which bits have black pudding.

And, tah dah!  One very tasty (and very
filling pie.

It should be noted that this is the prototype and more work needs to be done on its design - namely, how on earth do you cook the pastry, but keep the yolk runny?  We hoped by cooking all the ingredients and keeping the pastry thin and with the eggs in the middle they might just stay a bit runny, but they didn't.  Very tasty, but how fantastic it'd be to cut into your portion and yolk oozes out . . . . . . work in progress!

Getting the life/hedge balance right!

Never mind that old thing about getting the life/work balance right, just now we're having to contend with the life/work/hedge balance!  For the last few weeks I'm either working or hedge-laying it seems!  Most days off seem to involve a bit of hedging somewhere along the line.  Still, the end is in sight aand I think we've got about 10m left to do.  We seem to have managed quite well with felling the bigger trees with Bob on the chainsaw and me (and Ben if he's around) on the end of a rope in the field.  More by luck than design, they have fallen very gracefully just about where we want them to which is a bit of a bonus.  We have this system of attaching a rope as high up as we can reach and then Bob cuts a wedge out of the side we want it to fall (standard practice) and then he cuts almost, but not quite, through the other side.  Then with my superior strength pulling on the rope the tree gently topples over.  Anyone watching might even be fooled into thinking we know what we're doing!  We did have a three-man tree to do this morning - actually two trees that had grown twined round each other and completely covered in ivy.  It was quite windy too, but luckily Ben was around to help and so we managed it without too much of a problem.  It's funny, we spent quite a while discussing how to do it, should we try and chop one first, untangle the ivy, have two ropes (one for each tree), try to climb up and cut a big branch off . . . . . in the end we said 'sod it just chop them both together and lets see what happens!' .  So, that's what we did and it was fine.

This is a bit deceptive and foreshortens it quite a bit - it's
quite long really, honest!

Rob and Becky are going to have to have a massive bonfire at some point - we've been piling all the branchy stuff for them on the other side of the field and then made lots of piles of wood for cutting for firewood along the edge of the hedge as we go along.  They have some catching up to do, but it should keep them going for quite a while!

The loneliness of a long-distance road sweeper!

Now that all the leaves and needles have fallen off the trees, Ben kindly spent a day clearing our lane.  It's surprising how thick the layer of sludgy stuff becomes.  Half the lane is fairly smooth tarmac and that's relatively easy to shovel up, but then the far end is quite rough and it is really hard work.  Sensibly, Ben started with the difficult end (there, can you just see him all that way away . . . he's got quite a lot left to do hasn't he?!), last year when I did it I started with the easy bit and it ended up taking me about three days!  So, now we need a good downpour to rinse off the remains.  Poor Ben pulled a muscle or something in his leg doing this and so is hobbling a bit.

Guess what this is? . . . . . . 

. . . . . hard to believe, but this is actually going to be a kitchen cupboard . . . . for us!!!!!  This will replace the caravan cupboard and worktop we are still using.  It has taken about 18 months to get this far because Bob had started it and just roughly cut the timber to size when he started making the pub furniture out of scaffold boards and got really busy with that, and then started making proper furniture for other people, doing shows and so on and so this got put on hold.  He could have just done a quick job on this, but we'd always planned that this would be a proper piece of furniture with dovetailed drawers etc and so we're sticking to that - it'd be a shame to bodge it.  We have a big slab of slate from a snooker table for the top and this Oak is all quite local, so it should look lovely when it's done.

Bob and I are going away for a couple of days tomorrow leaving Ben house/chicken sitting.  Before Christmas we planned to have a couple of nights in Hereford and do a bit of Christmas shopping, go and see the Mappa Mundi (a map of the world from the days of the crusades which, incidentally, a chap we know locally has just re-framed) and the Chained Library and generally mooch around.  We didn't go then though because we were going to have visitors, then we weren't, then we were, and then we weren't and by the time that was decided it was too late to go and so now we finally have it planned (but we won't have to do Christmas shopping which is a bonus!).

We have snow on the ground at the moment - just a very thin layer, but a couple of weeks ago we had quite a lot and Ben took this photo of dawn making our house glow!

Happy New Year!

Oh, my goodness, what happened to December?!  I know, it's getting to be a bit of a habit starting each entry with 'where did the time fly to', but I honestly don't know where December went.  Stupidly busy at work as you can imagine with the amount of food and stuff people think is essential to buy for Christmas - I don't think anyone in Oswestry will have starved!  Ben was busy, busy, busy too trying to find space in the warehouse for the huge deliveries.  All that has, thankfully, calmed down now and things are at last getting back to normal and the Easter stuff is on the shelves in good time so we don't need to panic about that which is, of course, a relief (you know I think I'm just too cynical for this game!).

We had a good Christmas - quiet and quick.  I actually did quite well for time off with the way my normal days work and had a three-day weekend just before, three days over Christmas itself and then four days over New Year, so I can't really complain.  We did our usual family tour the weekend before which was good if a little rushed.  Laura came for a few days over Christmas before travelling around seeing family and friends and then calling in overnight on her way back to Scotland yesterday.  As I said, Ben was busy with lots of hours at M&S, but finishes there on Saturday.  Best news though is that he has a job starting at the end of February working for the company who did our bat survey when we first moved here.  Ben had met the chap at a volunteering day a few weeks ago and then on Christmas Eve he knocked on the door completely out of the blue to ask if Ben wanted some work as his assistant doing bat/newt surveys - fantastic.  I think Ben was beginning to think he'd have to find any old job for money and do lots of volunteering to gain experience.  Now he'll be able to kill two birds with one stone (oops, probably not a good choice of phrase given the job we're talking about).

Our main project at the moment is hedge-laying.  We've started on the neighbour's hedge which was part of the deal for having a bit of their field.  It's going quite well I think and we're getting better at it.  We have done several sessions and got about 20m done which is about a third of the total.  It's quite good fun, but you certainly know you've done it after with aching shoulders and arms.  There are some gaps of course, but once this is done we need to plant a hedge across the field and so we'll get extra plants and put them in the gaps protected by some of the brushwood and, come the Spring, you won't recognise it.

Spot Bob!
There are some fairly large trees in this hedge, some of which are
staying and some not.  As there's a telephone wire across the path
we have to be a bit careful and this is Bob climbing up to lop off some
branches to make it easier to fell.

So, now our 'carpark' bit looks exposed and open, the far end of the field is opening up and over the last two days the bit right next to our house has undergone a transformation!  The land the other side of the bridleway is still owned by the quarry although it is no longer worked.  There is a wooded slope which opens onto a flat piece which is covered in wild flowers in the Spring including lots of orchids.  In the last year or so the small saplings have started to take over and it's not as pretty as it used to be - that's what happens when land is just left to its own devices.  

Sorry, this is a bit dark, but it was getting a bit late in the day.

A good way to maintain the limestone grassland is to graze sheep on the land for part of the year and grants are available to do that.  So the quarry are going to fence part of it so a local farmer can bring his sheep there for a few weeks every now and then.  Before the fence can be put up though some of the trees need felling and space needs clearing and so for the last couple of days a couple of men have been here with their chainsaw and digger and have made a huge difference.  We knew about this a couple of months ago as the quarry manager told us what they were planning.  I must admit when I saw them with their digger I was a bit worried and then when Bob told me on the way home from work today that they had cleared loads of trees I was dreading it, but it actually looks tonnes better.  We have a view down the valley from that corner now and it will be much lighter.  It will be quite nice to have sheep there now and then.  Bob has been chatting to the blokes doing the work (and making them coffee of course) and they are quite happy for us to help ourselves to any wood we want - they even left a pile cut up right next to the fence for us!  So, all in all, our world's opening up!

Mega bonfire

Blimey, doesn't time fly?!  When I last reported in, we had just laid a bit of hedge and had a huge pile of brash to burn.  Well, right after that we all got really horrible colds (I even had a day off work which is very rare) and we had to postpone Bob's stepmum's visit.  So, bonfires weren't a good idea with tickly coughs really, but on Sunday Ben and I finally got round to having a mega-huge bonfire.  It took a little while to get going properly because it has rained quite a bit here so it was a bit soggy.  Once we got it going though it was brilliant.  It took three hours solid of both of us piling branches on to get rid of it all!  We got quite a routine going piling on loads of branches then weighting them down with ivy-covered logs or holly.  That green stuff burns surprisingly well - it does nothing but crackle for a few minutes while it dries out and then whoosh, up it goes.  There wasn't any breeze so when the holly whooshed you could see the holly-leaf-shaped bits of ash shooting straight up about 20' in the air.  Oh, I do like a good bonfire.  We were left with a very sizeable pile of ashes at the end - about waist high!

As well as all the hedge, we got rid of two massive bags of
wood chips from Bob's workshop.  You can only put a bit on at a
time or it smothers the fire . . . . 

. . . . but just a handful produces an impressive flare.
Fun, fun, fun!

As well as the hedge and two bags of chips, we also put the
last bits of the caravan on.  We had saved some of the thin wood
to cut up for kindling, but to be honest it's a pain as it has so many
staples and nails in it and Bob produces a plentiful supply of kindling.
So, onto the bonfire with it.  This, then, is the very last bit of our caravan
going on - oh, except the kitchen unit we're still using . . . forgot that!

So, what else has been happening?  Well, Ben now has a job as a Christmas temp at M&S, lucky lad!  He's been given plenty of hours which is good and works mostly backstage in the warehouse.  Trouble is, none of his hours match mine . . . ever.  We have to have a nightly transport meeting to sort out who has which car or who needs a lift if Bob needs a car.

Here's Graham's rocker finished and
polished and getting plenty of use.  I
think they can be proud of that between
them, don't you?

Bob had a show at one of the museums at Ironbridge at the weekend.  It was a Christmas craft and food fair in one of the old engine houses and had a really nice atmosphere.  Bob did quite well and sold everything except four pieces of furniture!  That includes the child's chair we've been trugging around shows for the last ten years.  Can you believe it that the very next day someone else e-mailed to ask if they could buy it having seen it at another show a few weeks ago!  Weird.  So, Bob will now have to make some new stock I think.  He just has one more market stall in  a couple of weeks and then that's it until the Spring, so hopefully he'll get chance to come up with some nice new things. 

Just look at this picture Ben took on
his phone.  Can you see the steam
shooting out of the end of one of the
branches? Fascinating!

Hedge Laying

In my last post I said we were going to lay the hedge round the carpark . . . . . well, we've done that now!  Carol and Graham came for a couple of days and wanted a bit of a project for while they were here, so this seemed like a good one.  Ben is here as well, so there were plenty of us to haul on the taller trees and to chop up the brash and stack it ready for a mega bonfire.  We got quite an efficient team going after a while with Bob on the chainsaw, whoever was necessary persuading the tree to fall in the right direction and then clearing away to the log pile or bonfire pile.

The planning meeting - chop here, pull that way, check
escape route

OK, take the strain . . . gently now . . . . and . . .

. . . . . RUN AWAY!
This was quite funny to watch!

This bit of hedge didn't have much in it that we could lay and so looks a bit sparse to say the least.  We have photos taken about 50 years ago showing a lovely, thick well tended hedge all around this field, but it hasn't been touched for at least 30 years and so the thick bushes had turned into very leggy, tall trees.  So, along this bit we have just had to chop the trees down and they should sprout again from the base and we can fill in the gaps with new plants when we plant the new hedge across the field.  The other bit we did, along the lane, had much more usable material in it and doesn't look too bad considering.  Again there were some quite big trees we had to just chop down and we had the added excitement of the telephone cable the other side of the lane to spice things up a bit.  At one point there was a small tree we wanted to lay growing right alongside a bigger, split trunk we had to take out, but the tops were all tangled up.  So Ben grabbed the smaller one and was pulling it back and forth to free the tops, to add a bit of extra force he pushed on the bigger trunk with his foot while he pulled on the smaller one.  Once they were free he let go of the smaller one which pinged back towards the smaller one trapping his foot between the two about 5 feet in the air!  Oh, it did look so funny!

This does look better, but it could have done with more little trunks to lay which makes the hedge thicker and higher, but you can only work with what you've got - it'll grow.  Now that the hedge has been reduced by about 25 feet in height, it does make everywhere look a bit open and vulnerable - it'll take a bit of getting used to, but it definitely needed doing and will look fine in a couple of years.  I think I now need to tidy up the builders yard that has built up and was hidden by these bits of hedges and is now in plain view.

We now have a huge pile of brash to burn (doesn't look very
big on this picture, but believe me it is!).  Luckily, Ben and
I had managed to burn all the previous pile (from clearing back
to lay the carpark) a couple of days ago in readiness for this next lot.

Work-wise, Bob has just finished making a big, round oak table.  It's a good job Ben was here to help as it was very heavy and Bob couldn't have kept turning it over to sand, etc without his help.  It took the three of us to cut it into a circular shape with Ben and I taking the weight and feeding it round while Bob manned the bandsaw and made sure it kept to the line.  The finished article looked really good and the customers were really happy with it.  Phew!  Bob was quite nervous as it is a bit of a leap of faith on their part to tell you what they want and hope you can interpret their ideas.  He needn't have worried though.  This table was to go in a winter house (as opposed to a summer house) in the garden and has a hole in the middle for a Japanese cooking plate so you sit around and cook your own food as you go.  Bit different, eh?

While Carol and Graham were here, Graham and Bob finished off the rocking chair Graham has been making for the last 6 months on odd weekends here.  Bob hasn't made a rocking chair before, but people are always asking about them, so good to now be able to say he has made one and Graham will send us some photos when he's oiled and waxed it at home.

We are in the middle of a visitor frenzy - Mum and Dad were here last weekend, followed by Carol and Graham and then Bob's stepmum, Jan, is coming on Monday.  So, the washer's working hard and the pub in the village is doing quite well out of us as each set of visitors wanted to eat there.  Funny how we go for months and months with no visitors and then everyone comes within a few days of each other . . . do you think they plan it?!

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.