What a week! It’s been so wet, the rain has been truly horrendous at times, coming down sideways so there’s no escape. And still our builders have managed to make progress on the site, digging out the floor of the extension and then the outer wall foundation trenches for our extension, and putting down temporary drainage solutions to route the rain away from the immediate vicinity.
It was an exciting moment when we looked out of the window to see a cement mixer in the courtyard – although typically it was a particularly wet day! Despite the rain, our builders managed to start filling the extension foundations with concrete, as well as the trench they’d dug previously in the main barn to support the new wall that’s going in.
A grab lorry also came to remove the soil left from digging out the foundations, and some of the rubble left over from digging in the shippon, before it takes up all of the remaining space on site. We’ve still got various piles of ‘stuff’ across the site that needs sorting – including salvaged stones to be cleaned and stacked up; soil from our sloe bush bank that we need to separate the stones from (when it’s dry); our bonfire pile; and the bags of smaller stones we cleared while digging last year – the space we had is starting to disappear!
The other nice change this week is the time. With the clocks going forward and with the lighter evenings, we now have time to go for a walk in the evening after work. Over winter it’s too dark to walk the lanes in the evening, so it makes such a difference to be able to get out and about. We’ve already managed two walks (despite the rain) – just in time to see the lambs getting bigger and jumping around the fields. Even if the rain and clouds hide the view!
Between the rain and the walks, we’ve not had as much time to catch up with garden jobs, so we still have a long list to work through. We did manage to fill in the mouseholes in the orchard though – we’ve left them for a while and the mice must have been having some fun – there were holes everywhere!
Ley Farm Cottages 