This has been a pretty busy week, all things considered. On Tuesday the oil tanks for the farmhouse were replaced after we found out they didn’t meet current regulations. The previous owners of Ley Farm had installed two tanks next to the conservatory and kitchen – one for the heating and hot water and one for the aga (after the husband had turned off the oil for some reason we can’t remember and ruined the wife’s cake that was cooking!) That was over 20 years ago so we decided to put a new one in between our autumn guests. The challenge put to our oil engineer was to replace the two tanks with a gigantic new one without damaging the wisteria that’s been so beautifully growing over and hiding the tanks for more years than I can guess. They arrived on a wet morning and spent several hours pumping the oil out into temporary tanks before unscrewing one side of the trellis and moving the old tanks out. They installed new concrete lintels and then manoeuvred the new giant tank into place, before screwing the trellis back and weaving the wisteria back over the top. They’ve done an incredible job given that it would have been much quicker to simply cut the wisteria and wait a few more years for it to grow back, leaving an unsightly black oil tank next to the conservatory. As it is, it’ll take a year or two for the wisteria to cover the higher tank.
The same day Openreach arrived to repair the broadband cable – my heroes!! The road was closed most of the day and we had countless vans and cherry pickers arrive with people climbing up and down various poles to replace the damaged cable. Interestingly there was one gentleman in a truck with highways equipment who seemed to park outside our house all day. Our theory was that he was the person who put out and took away the road closure signs – although it did seem like a waste of time sitting there all day. I hope he had some good games on his phone!! Anyway – our internet was fixed and working from home became much easier. They did manage to cut the internet to the Farmhouse – but after a phone call from John they came back out on Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday to finish the job…. Lucky we didn’t have any guests staying!
Our Autumn diary is looking quieter than we had hoped, especially compared to last year when we had a lot of last minute bookings. John’s been working with Cottages.com to fix a couple of pricing issues and try to escalate the AirBnB dog issue (because of the system integration between the two digital platforms we only show on AirBnB when people search for one dog although we accept up to four). However last year we were barely covering costs and didn’t have the games room open – so we’re trying to decide whether it’s better for the Farmhouse to stand empty and not have the opportunity to secure guest reviews or to open it for very little profit and potentially secure more public reviews that might encourage more guests to stay in future. It’s a hard trade-off – although the gaps do give us a chance to touch up and deep clean the Farmhouse – this week with the oil switched off John focused on cleaning the aga and polishing it up nicely.
On Wednesday we had our 12 month ‘post move-in’ meeting with our builder and architect where we went through all the things that needed fixing after 12 months (well 15 months really). Our list was pretty small which shows just how good our builders are. Now we’re hoping they can find a gap to get started on the Cow Shed (our one-bed cottage). It’s been over six weeks since we finished the prep work on the beams and we’re very keen to get it started!!
A warm Saturday gave us the opportunity to catch up on garden jobs. Our latest batch of spring bulbs arrived during the week so we duly planted them in our brick flower bed (alliums and daffodils); in our despairing snowdrop bed (Chionodoxa and Cyclamen ) and in the front garden (crocuses). Despite our best efforts in January, three cornered leek is still popping up in the front beds so we took the opportunity to dig up a few more bulbs. If we clear a bit each year it might eventually disappear!
After being impressed with the new shelf in our black chilli greenhouse, we ordered an aluminium version for our main greenhouse which – again – arrived during the week and we installed on Saturday. It’s given us a great opportunity to tidy up the bench and has made a lot more space. It feels far less cluttered and messy now – so guests walking past to the games room won’t judge the state of it!! And of course it gives me more room to plant seeds next year – which John will love haha!
Sunday was supposed to be a bad-weather day so we’d planned a day of jam-making. In the end the rain didn’t arrive till mid-afternoon but we’d already committed to our job list. We’d received an email during the week from a previous guest who loved our plum and apple jam so much she wanted us to post some to her! To say we were chuffed is an understatement As we only had one jar left we had set Sunday aside to make a new batch and also clear through some of the fruit in our garage. We ended up making five batches – plum and apple jam; quince and apple jam; and trying out a new recipe using greengages. 35 jars later, it feels like rather a long day!!
P.S. Thanks to everyone who checked we were ok when the blog didn’t arrive on Sunday evening… blame a computer malfunction which I was too tired to fix last night!
Ley Farm Cottages 