Finishing the front of the shippon

Back in July last year we painted the first coat of mortar paint on the shippon and kept meaning to do the second coat. It never quite got to the top of our list throughout the summer – in part because when we started renting the farmhouse out, we lost every Sunday to changeovers. Then the weather got too cold and wet and we had to put painting on hold. With the beautiful weather this weekend we finally had our opportunity. Saturday was too windy – despite sweeping up all the leaves and dust along the front of the shippon, the wind kept blowing new dirt onto the wall and we didn’t want it sticking to the wet paint, so we waited until Sunday morning for the wind to drop. We managed to paint the whole wall before lunch (despite a rather unhelpful dog who then sat against the wet paint!) – it looks so much brighter and fresher already. We needed to touch up the fascia boards where we’d painted underneath them, so John also filled in the holes where they had been screwed in and painted over them.

We also decided to tidy up all our ceramic plant pots which have been stored all around the site, including some in front of the shippon and in the shell of the one-bed cottage. We’ve moved them into one place behind the three-bed barn and have planted up the first few to go back in front of the shippon, including a lovely rose that we want to eventually trail around our front door. The dahlia tubers stored in the garage have started to bud so we planted a few of those out too. With the cold nights we can’t yet plant out any of the seedlings we’ve been growing, which is a little frustrating as I could really do with the space in the greenhouse!

Finally, while the guests staying in the Farmhouse were out, we got out our [very noisy!] SDS drill and put up our house sign for the Shippon to finish the wall. It already feels more complete, even though we have more pots to plant up and put along the front, and the one-bed Cow Shed house sign which we’ll leave until we finish converting it. That’s one more major job for 2025 done!

Our Easter holiday bookings started on Friday, with three week-long bookings back to back. This means we only have a limited changeover window each week so John spent the week getting the Farmhouse and New Barn games room ready – deep cleaning the aga and windows, and mowing all of the lawns. We stocked the Games Room with more DVDs, and put more books and toys into the Farmhouse that were kindly donated to us to provide more entertainment for our guests. Last year I painted a whole load of stones with garden creatures – we found them while tidying the garage and so I’ve put them around the Farmhouse back garden and in the wood for our younger guests (and dogs!!) to enjoy finding. We’ve put out a special treat for our Easter guests in their welcome pack as a thank you for booking with us – hopefully a lovely start to their holiday here!