Still waiting

We are becoming more and more frustrated with the planners as we are still waiting for permission. They do not seem at all concerned that they are nearly eight weeks over time. Geoff tried to chase it up last week and was told that there were some alterations to be done to the planners report, then it has to go back to the senior officer so we could be looking at the end of next week. We won't hold our breath. We have carried on with arrangements so that we can forge ahead once we have the piece of paper.

Even though we are at a standstill with the house we have been doing other jobs and now have the chicken house completed. We have installed 23 lovely chickens which are just coming into lay. They are a mixture of black, brown and grey birds.

Geoff has been busy repairing doors and along with Alistair discussing the next phase of rewiring in the out buildings. The electrician has been and done a site survey and preparing a quote for us.

The next couple of weeks will be devoted to getting the bees prepared for the winter. The most important job is to treat them for the verroae mite. If the mite is left it can destroy colonies of bees therefore it is really important to treat them. We also put a mouse guard on the entrance and give them some candy to ensure they have enough food to get through the winter. We had one colony which was rather small and had managed to lose its queen. When we looked in the hive today they were all dead, they were too small a colony to stand up to the wasps.

Now there has been some rain the grass is growing well and the sheep are beginning to look in much better condition. We are hoping to start lambing at the end of February.

Millie has settled well and still away being trained. She is quite a handful we believe as she keeps trying to chase pheasants. The other dogs went for their annual check up and inoculations last week and we took Lass to be weighed. The vet was thrilled with how good a condition she is in now. We have been taking her round the sheep to help her get used to them. It is amazing to see how much natural instincts she has.

Hopefully when I complete the next blog I will be able to say that we have planning permission.