Wildlife in abundance

Although Redlands has suffered many years of neglect the fields are full of wildlife. It is great to see the skylark hovering and then swooping down into the grass. Their singing is beautiful and one could listen for hours. Along with the skylarks are pheasants partridge and down in the farm buildings the House Martins have returned. There are at least four pairs swooping around the yard.

The stands for the water tanks have been erected and ready for the tanks. Hopefully they will be in and ready for filling by the end of the week.

We have heard from the local council who are very non-committal. They haven't given much away at all except criticise the number of bathrooms the plan has. Hopefully when they have seen the full plans and our covering letter they will be more supportive.

We managed to hire a breaker this morning to break through the floor and wall of the barn and link up with the trench. The bricks were really hard and even with the breaker it was a struggle to get through. Quite reassuring to know that one building is structually strong.

Progress on the trench went well today and we have managed to cover the water pipe with sand, add the electric cable and fill the trench in.

Next job is to build brick pillars, add railway sleepers onto them ready for the water tanks. We will be having two tanks, one for the farm and one for the house. Finally new pumps will be fitted and we should have our water supply.

Trials and Tribulations

The last two days have been eventful to say the least. Yesterday began with a visit from the National Grid. The helicopter had flown over the gas main the previous night and noticed our trench was going over the top of the pipe. They informed us that they should have inspected the site before we began work. We explained that we had contacted them asking them to come out and that they had replied to say we could go ahead. He was very understanding and told us that he had not been given the message and appreciated the fault at their end. He inspected the trench and told us we had to let them know when we began to fill in again.

Alistair was getting on really well when the digger decided to break down. Our local mechanic soon went out and got him going again. There had been a blockage in the diesel filter.

Our next problem was trying to find the electric cable for the gate. We went very carefully and found a pipe. We thought this was the electric cable and were really pleased that we had found it without damaging it. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. Alistair began digging again this morning and came across the cable. Unfortunately it was damaged, we should have known things wouldn't be that easy. The electrician came out this afternoon and repaired it. The trench was finally completed, Alistair has done a really good job. Sand was put onto the bottom and the water pipe has been unravelled and laid. We are about 10 metres short of pipe and cannot get any more delivered before early next week. Alistair has managed to get a friend to help him and has begun to add the next layer of sand on top ready for the electric cable to be added.

We have managed to get a bonfire going in the orchard and start to burn all the dead wood and rubbish that was in there. We are trying to prepare it for setting up an apiary and hope to get five hives set up before the summer.

We contacted the architect this afternoon to find out if there was any news from the Council. He has been chasing them up and the reply he got was, 'We are still considering it'.

The vet has contacted us and the puppies have been put onto a particular anti-biotic as they have finally diagnosed that the pups have a bacterial infection called campylobacta. Hopefully this will kill off the infection and we will not have any more problems.

Let Digging Commence

Work began today on digging a trench for putting in the new water pipe and the electric cable to work the new pump. Once the trench is completed we have to line the bottom with sand. Next the water pipe is laid then another layer of sand on the top followed by the electric cable and finally more sand before filling the trench back in. We are having two tanks installed, one for the farm and one for the house. We have been reassured that the well has never run dry even when there was the drought in the 70's the water was still plentiful.



Lass had her second inoculation today. We are still waiting for results from the lab so been supplied with an emergency stock of anti biotics just in case the pups begin to show symptoms again. The vet was very pleased with how well Lass is looking and she is now at a more realistic weight and no longer undernourished.



We have finally managed to get hold of 'telecare'. For months we have been trying to get hold of someone to inform us of the aids that there are for people suffering with Alzheimer's or dementia. Our main concern is mother leaving the house to go for a walk and getting lost. We are hoping that they can help us with an alarm so my father can hear when she has crept out of the house. It has been a mammoth task trying to get hold of the relevant people and we have spent months of being pushed from 'pillar to post'. The numbers they kept giving us were either wrong or no longer available. Today was 'D' day, we intended to get somewhere before the day was out. After numerous phone calls and a telephonist saying "You appear to be getting somewhat agitated" (yes I was getting cross as I was getting nowhere and nobody could help wouldn't she get agitated?) Eventually I was put through to the supervisor who finally found me the right person to speak to. Naturally they can't help immediately as they are undergoing reorganisation, what a surprise. She has promised to contact us within a fortnight and make arrangements to come and visit.

Some progress at last

As we suspected e-on never got back to us and Geoff had to chase them up. They informed us that it would take 90 days to get a quote together. We have managed to persuade them that we need to get on with it and they have promised to put us down as urgent. No doubt we will be chasing them yet again.

Today has been glorious sunshine and we have managed to mark out where the trench needs to go for installing the new water supply. The trench will be dug next and we are hoping the weather holds so that we can get on with it next week.

The end wall of the pigsty is completed. We are waiting for the door posts before we can finish off as they have to be cemented in. At long last it feels as if we are beginning to get something done.

Good old E-on!!

Yesterday was a breath of fresh air, at long last a decent day, although it was windy the ground was drying out. The builder was able to get back to rebuilding the pigsty wall and made really good progress. A different story today as it has been raining on and off for most of the day.


Geoff decided that e-on's three weeks were up and tried to contact them. Naturally the phone call was far from easy. He was passed from one department to another all claiming that they knew nothing about it. He calmly kept telling them that we needed to change the supply as the electricity for the farm came via the house and we would probably be knocking the house down but obviously still required electricity in the farm buildings. Eventually the message got through that we did not require a new connection for the house after all and they gave us another number to contact. This time the lady was very helpful and directed us to the correct person, who told us that the manager was dealing with it and he would contact us later today or tomorrow. We won't hold our breath!!


We are still having our problems with the puppies and frequent visitors at the vets. They have done some tests and we are hoping to get some results by the weekend. They are becoming convinced that they have a bacteria infection of some kind in their stomach because as soon as they have anti-biotics they get a lot better. The anti-biotics obviously suppress the infection but not completely kill it off so we are hoping they can find out which anti-biotic would do the job. In spite of all their problems they are putting on weight. Millie is 8Kg and Lass is 7Kg which is good progress.