Ups and Downs

The house is up to the first floor and the joists have been put in. We have had a delay as the arch over the front door did not arrive as scheduled. It finally arrived nearly two weeks late and this slowed progress up as well as the building company having a weeks holiday last week. Since coming back this week things have been all go. The arch is in position and looks super. The stone headers above the windows are in place and again we are delighted with them.

We are now beginning to think about kitchens, tiles, bathrooms and other finishes so the next few weeks we will be trawling around showrooms.

All very exciting now.

Alistair has been on a sheep shearing course and able to shear the sheep this year rather than employ someone else to do it. He has done very well and nearly completed them, about 15 more to be done.

This week has had its ups and downs and we have been very upset as our beautiful sheepdog Millie became very ill and has had to be put to sleep. Our vet sent her to the specialist centre run by the Animal Health Trust at Newmarket. They tried very hard to find out what was wrong and save her but it became apparent on Friday morning that she wouldn't pull through. At the moment we are waiting results of a post mortem as they did not know what was causing her symptoms. We also need to know whether her condition was genetic because we are worried that Lass could become ill. She was only 18 months old.

Next week the builders are hoping to put the first floor down and install the underfloor pipes as they think it will help with the bricklayers work more safely and quickly.

Progress!

It is wonderful to visit the farm each day and see how much progress the builders have made on the house. All the foundation and footings have been completed without any rain on them. They are up to floor level and beginning to lay the bricks. Next week the main gang of bricklayers begin. The bricks and blocks have arrived and once they get going we know it will progress quickly. The revised position has been an advantage as we are taking advantage of the views.

The lambs are growing rapidly and there are just a couple more sheep to lamb and then lambing will be over for this year. The latest addition has been another litter of saddleback piglets. This time the mum produced 13 babies but unfortunately laid on 3 which means there are 10 left. The first litter of saddlebacks are going to a new home this weekend. The chicks are growing rapidly and 3 of the 5 Indian runner ducks have hatched.

The latest project has been to build a run in front of the chicken house for the chickens to use in the summer months. Geoff has also installed automatic drinkers which means we don't have to cart buckets of water any more.

Mixed Emotions

Since our last posting we have been experiencing a wide range of emotions. Geoff's father had been struggling with his health for the last eighteen months and after a long battle passed away peacefully on 19th February. He had asked to be at home and this wish was granted. All the family pulled together along with support from the local district nurses, carers from age concerns and the renal nurses. We are very sad to think he will not be able to move to the new home at the farm with us but his ashes are going to be buried in the orchard and we will be planting a tree in his memory, which means he has moved with us after all.

The farm has been extremely busy with lambing, So far just over 80 ewes have lambed so the end is in sight. Alistair has been flat out helping the sheep to give birth and caring for the lambs. Gladys the goat has produced a beautiful white kid, the spitting image of Billy. He has been named Horis and doing very well. We have hatched out two batches of chicks and have 7 chicks approx. 6 weeks old and 11 chicks approx. 3 weeks old. Presently 5 Indian Runner ducks are in the incubator which are due to hatch at the beginning of April.

We are still waiting for the local council to approve the repositioning of the house. Having looked at the web site there have been no objections to our application and we are hoping we will soon hear that permission has been granted.





So the emotions we have been experiencing have been sadness at the loss of a loved one, amazement and elation at the birth of so many young lives, frustration as we await the planning officer to make a decision and anger at the incompetence of a large company.

The anger we have been feeling has been with the lack of service from BT. Originally we had two telephone connections one for us and another for Horace's lifeline. We asked BT to disconnect H's line but they had to disconnect both lines. This left us without a telephone and the internet. When contacted BT announced that it would take up to 7 days to reconnect us. Strange it took less than an hour to disconnect why the wait? To add insult to injury they informed us that we would have a new number. Again we complained and insisted that our original number was reinstated. After numerous heated conversations and days coming and going we finally had our telephone in operation again but no internet. Promises kept being made that we would expect it back in about two days but these promises never materialised. After three weeks we finally got the internet back. What service!

The builders have been and marked out the footings. We wanted to make sure that the house would fit in this time. As soon as we get permission it will be all systems go.
Meanwhile work on the farm building has continued. The pigsties are finally completed giving the pigs a small yard to wander around in. Water has been laid on to the chicken house and the field at the back.

One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

The house has gone completely and the builders have begun to mark ready to begin digging. We have yet again encountered a problem again. The electric pole has two wire braces and one of them is right in the way and needs to be moved before the foundations can be dug. We were very upset as we had discussed this with the architect when he was drawing the plans and we thought he had measured up and made sure this would not be a problem, hence one step forward and two steps back. Unfortunately it doesn't look as if Geoff's dad will be able to make the move with us as he is very unwell and the outlook is not good for him.

One of the Saddleback pigs has farrowed and we now have three piglets. She had four but one died shortly after birth. The other pig is due to farrow in March.

We have four chicks hatched out and four more should hatch within the next couple of days.

House nearly gone!

It is so hard to believe that after all this time things are moving so fast. The contractor anticipates he will be finished by next Tuesday. Just two walls and there will be only the ground to clear.

It was so reassuring to be told that we have made the right decision as the woodwork is full of woodworm and the roof trusses took no effort to destroy. The house has also suffered with subsidence as one end and had been reinforced with concrete but not very well done. The house would have required constant work so we are so relieved that we made the decision to build a new one.

Demolition

At long last we finally feel as if we are getting somewhere. The run up to Christmas was extremely frustrating, the demolition contractor had been in touch with the council for the relevant permits so that he could make a start and that it could take four months for them to approve. The local council decided that they had not received the arborial plan and other information they required with regard to the conker tree and stated that on no condition should work begin. The architect had hand delivered the plans etc. to the council offices two months ago and they stated that they had not received them, clearly they are stuck on a desk somewhere in an unopened envelope. After contacting them and convincing them that they were at fault they promised they would look at them straight away providing the architect re submitted immediately. Permission was given but the contractor has to inform them once the conker tree is protected and they will be out to inspect. The contractor has moved onto site and the work began today. After all this time we can finally believe things are happening.

Work would normally take a fortnight but we are having to allow for the weather therefore the builders have been told that they should be able to commence at the beginning of February.

New Addition

During this week Alistair's sheep were scanned to see how many were in lamb. Several ewes are having triplets so he will have a very busy lambing time. Whilst the scanner was here we had Gladys the goat scanned also. She is 80-90 days pregnant so round about February March time we will have a kid born.

At long last we have a date to demolish the old house. The demolition squad will be arriving on the first working day in January and they tell us that we can give the builders a start date of February 1st. All the builders quotes are finally in and we have a meeting with one of them tomorrow.

The electricians have rewired the outbuildings so we have light and sockets now in most areas of the farm. The chickens are gradually increasing their egg production, probably because we have put a time switch on the lighting circuit to give them a longer day.

The recent cold weather has meant that we have had difficulty with water supply as all the main pipes and taps have been frozen. Another area to improve and modify.

Presently our time at Redlands is very limited as Geoff's dad is very poorly and we cannot leave him on his own for very long, the dark nights aren't helping either.