Watch Out, Watch Out There's a Man About!!

A jokey stocking filler bought by Lovely Hubby for me at Christmas, and now it's about to come true .... but we've both been looking forward to this happening for the last three and a half years  :-)

With the flat about to be occupied so it's self financing and most of the big expenditure out of the way for the small holding it's time for LH to step away  from his weekly round trip of ten hours drive and do what work he has to do from home.  Visiting base only as and when he really needs to.  The plan has come together .... phew!!

There will be more of him around the place mid-week, cleaning the solar panels, helping with the heavy stuff, bee keeping, woodworking, animal rearing ... whenever he is not ensconced in our office here that is because he will still have about twenty hours of 'his day job' to do each week, that will bring in some income for the next year.

He'll be able to drink in the views of home while he works, instead of daydreaming of home stuck in a busy work environment.

But I won't always keep him up ladders .... unless he's very naughty  ;-)

Sue xx

Our Little Wildlife Haven

This weekend's main job apart from all the other little jobs that fill our days was to finally finish off Nut Wood.  It's in the corner of our main paddock and is so called because most of the trees planted in there are nuts.  My nickname for it is Nutbush City Limits ... but Lovely Hubby gave it it's sensible name ;-)

In fact in there we have three Oak trees, three Birch, two Sweet Chestnuts, two Almonds and four Walnuts.  One day, hopefully, we will get a glimpse of what it will become after our lifetime.  It should be a wonderful heavily wooded area, in the meantime we are continuing to make it into a wildlife haven on a much smaller scale.

Yesterday this area was raked and had lots of flower seeds scattered onto it, a mix of flowers and wildflowers that will be allowed to run rampant and set seed.  It should be a haven for all sorts of bees, insects and other types of creepy crawlies.  The bushes that were already here and the nettles along the fence are staying, and I have a few Borage plants that I will transplant into here in the next day or two.

The old plastic paddling pool that we found here when we moved in, has slowly filled with rainwater and is half buried in the soil with grassy edges, inside it there are rocky ledges and a ramp to help creatures that fall in climb out again.

Talking of climbing I climbed onto one of the soil piles to try and get a higher shot to give you an idea of the whole place.

As well as the huge boulders that we excavated when we dug back into the hillside for the garage and workshop, there is a huge chunk of the old oak tree that we had to cut down when we moved in.  These are already proving to be little wildlife havens, each in their own way for small creatures and insects.  The black charred stump behind the oak was found on an old bonfire site when we moved in and was put in here for it's unique ability to attract things.

The chippings had been piled high over the whole circle of flattened grass that you see, Lovely Hubby moved it mostly with the tractor, tipping it over the fence from the front bucket and then raking it all out, but the last loads he filled wheelbarrow and wheelbarrow full of and moved it to where he wanted it.

Including all around the doors of the poly and net tunnels.

Everywhere was looking so much neater until some of the chickens got out again and started rooting around in the chippings for bugs. The last I saw of Lovely Hubby he was chasing two chickens up the hill brandishing a sweeping brush and shouting 'get back to where you should be you little f***ers'.

There's never a dull moment!!

Sue xx

Filling in the Holes

The view is looking decidedly wet and misty around the house, and the wind is blowing a gale at the moment.  

We have just got back from a long doggy walk on the prom at Llandudno, where quite unbelievably as it's only a fifteen minute drive away, the sun is out and the mild wind is warm and refreshing.  I was contemplating stripping the guest bed and getting all the sheets on the line until we were half way home ... now I think I'll leave that for another day.

I grabbed the camera when I was called outside to help Lovely Hubby with the tape measure as soon as we got back.  We needed to check the measurements for the steel beams that are being manufactured to hold up the new conservatory roof.  The holes in each corner have been filled in with concrete now and are ready to take the steels, which in turn will take the weight of the conservatory roof.  I guess once this is all done we should change it's name, really a conservatory has the type of roof that this has at the moment, perhaps we will go all posh and call it the Garden Room.  

It will be used for our dining table and a small comfy sofa for doggy use once the large chest freezer relocates to the workshop next year.  So I guess it could equally be called the Dining Room or the Dogs Room, but with the doors flung open in Summer leading directly onto what will be a tarmac-ed and plant filled patio area, for me at the moment the name Garden Room is winning ...

.... any other suggestions?  

It's still a mess outside at the moment and you really don't need to see photos of the conservatory floor to know what mess four dogs, one cat and two humans make with their mucky feet each time they step back inside after being outside.

Once the measurements were taken the boards went back over the filled in holes and we retired to the warmth of the house and the kettle went on.  So that's us inside for the rest of the day, we will be venturing out later this evening when we go to the October meeting of the Maenan Gardening Club.  The talk tonight is Welsh Historic Gardens, I'll let you know if Lovely Hubby manages to stay awake through that one  ;-)

Sue xx