Just doing an update - not about the minis (they are all doing great) but about what is happening on the farm/in my life right now plus explaining why I might not be around for the next week or so.
Some may remember that approx 2 years ago we were trying to 'reduce' the farm here mainly to ease our financial obligations - me wanting to retire/family all moving away to their own lives etc. Well it has taken all this long time (and loads of stress and frustration!) to get things sorted! Friend Pat and her daughter Gemma have now purchased our big stone barn and are having it converted for residential, plus 7 acres of land. And at last we have found just the right folks to purchase the main farm house plus 5 acres - Martin and Dawn keep Alpacas, chickens and honey bees, Dawn makes her own honey so am looking forward to some of it coming in my direction soon!
After taking so long to organise of course it has all come to a head very fast and Martin and Dawn will be moving in this coming Friday which means that for the past two weeks we have all been flat out trying to get all our belongings, stuff (and rubbish) out of the house and buildings, plus moving some 200-250 plants in pots from the garden over to our 'side' of the farm. I will be left with the smaller stone barn (which we will eventually convert to living) and the rest of the land (although Martin and Dawn may buy a further 9 acres in the future). Until we convert our barn I will be once again living in my big towing caravan (last spent 4 years in her before we moved up here nearly 8 years ago) and am having a little man coming tomorrow morning to check over her electrics, gas etc to make sure she is still safe. Tonight is the last night I will sleep in my room here as tomorrow night I will be in the caravan - reducing the amount of clothes and stuff that I can house in the van has been a bit of a nightmare, essentials only!! All our otherfurniture etc is now being stored in two huge mobile homes on our 'part' of the farm until needed once the small barn has been converted, so I'm sure I shall be rummaging in thosefor things I realise I need and have forgotten to keep with me, plus chuching out things I have taken but find I can really do without!
Have also got to errect some sort of 'garden' fenced area around the van to keep the dogs close at hand when not out with me during the day or they will be back visiting the main house on a regular basis and Mrs Nest (JR) will be poppng back through the cat flap at will by mistake! My other main problem is the cats - 4 of them - as they too have got to transfer themselves to the caravan from the house, not easy as it is all the same property to them, but with the lack of food in the house and plenty of food stations over our 'side' plus in the van i'm hopig it wont take them long to adjust.
Our side of the place is just a mass of chaos as we have simply moved everything over in a great hurry and dumped it to sort later, we have a huge bonefire going for the rubbish, piles of stuff to go to the rubbish tip, huge tree trunks waiting to be logged for next winter, plus groups of dumped plants wherever there is a free corner. There is still one more building that we have to dismantle and re-errect to give us some winter housing for the minis, trouble is that the 'site' for this is presently the bonefire (!!) so not sure where we will dump it nor when it will then get errected! So much to do and everything is such a muddle LOL!! And of course w still have the stables that were quickly errected in the barn for the two foaling mares, little old Heidi and my boy Mootie, so no coverting the barn until we can errect the other building for them!
But one thing I do know is that because we have been working from dawn to dusk for the past three weeks, from Friday onwards for the next week or so, once the official sale goes through, we are taking a break and doing nothing except drawing breath and just existing and chilling out!! Which finally brings me to one of the reasons for posting this - I am not sure I will be able to get here from Friday onwards due to the lack of a phone line/internet connection until we can get a new line put in to our barn (and therefore extnded to my caravan) - got it arranged for the 7th July. Am so hoping that Lily and Indy have their babies in the next two days, but bet they will wait until I'm 'offline'!
Also as I'm not likely to be here on Friday may I wish all my friends in the USA a VERY HAPPY 4th JULY!!
Thanks for reading all this folks - please excuse any typing errors/missing words, the old laptop doesn't always do what I ask these days!
Some may remember that approx 2 years ago we were trying to 'reduce' the farm here mainly to ease our financial obligations - me wanting to retire/family all moving away to their own lives etc. Well it has taken all this long time (and loads of stress and frustration!) to get things sorted! Friend Pat and her daughter Gemma have now purchased our big stone barn and are having it converted for residential, plus 7 acres of land. And at last we have found just the right folks to purchase the main farm house plus 5 acres - Martin and Dawn keep Alpacas, chickens and honey bees, Dawn makes her own honey so am looking forward to some of it coming in my direction soon!
After taking so long to organise of course it has all come to a head very fast and Martin and Dawn will be moving in this coming Friday which means that for the past two weeks we have all been flat out trying to get all our belongings, stuff (and rubbish) out of the house and buildings, plus moving some 200-250 plants in pots from the garden over to our 'side' of the farm. I will be left with the smaller stone barn (which we will eventually convert to living) and the rest of the land (although Martin and Dawn may buy a further 9 acres in the future). Until we convert our barn I will be once again living in my big towing caravan (last spent 4 years in her before we moved up here nearly 8 years ago) and am having a little man coming tomorrow morning to check over her electrics, gas etc to make sure she is still safe. Tonight is the last night I will sleep in my room here as tomorrow night I will be in the caravan - reducing the amount of clothes and stuff that I can house in the van has been a bit of a nightmare, essentials only!! All our otherfurniture etc is now being stored in two huge mobile homes on our 'part' of the farm until needed once the small barn has been converted, so I'm sure I shall be rummaging in thosefor things I realise I need and have forgotten to keep with me, plus chuching out things I have taken but find I can really do without!
Have also got to errect some sort of 'garden' fenced area around the van to keep the dogs close at hand when not out with me during the day or they will be back visiting the main house on a regular basis and Mrs Nest (JR) will be poppng back through the cat flap at will by mistake! My other main problem is the cats - 4 of them - as they too have got to transfer themselves to the caravan from the house, not easy as it is all the same property to them, but with the lack of food in the house and plenty of food stations over our 'side' plus in the van i'm hopig it wont take them long to adjust.
Our side of the place is just a mass of chaos as we have simply moved everything over in a great hurry and dumped it to sort later, we have a huge bonefire going for the rubbish, piles of stuff to go to the rubbish tip, huge tree trunks waiting to be logged for next winter, plus groups of dumped plants wherever there is a free corner. There is still one more building that we have to dismantle and re-errect to give us some winter housing for the minis, trouble is that the 'site' for this is presently the bonefire (!!) so not sure where we will dump it nor when it will then get errected! So much to do and everything is such a muddle LOL!! And of course w still have the stables that were quickly errected in the barn for the two foaling mares, little old Heidi and my boy Mootie, so no coverting the barn until we can errect the other building for them!
But one thing I do know is that because we have been working from dawn to dusk for the past three weeks, from Friday onwards for the next week or so, once the official sale goes through, we are taking a break and doing nothing except drawing breath and just existing and chilling out!! Which finally brings me to one of the reasons for posting this - I am not sure I will be able to get here from Friday onwards due to the lack of a phone line/internet connection until we can get a new line put in to our barn (and therefore extnded to my caravan) - got it arranged for the 7th July. Am so hoping that Lily and Indy have their babies in the next two days, but bet they will wait until I'm 'offline'!
Also as I'm not likely to be here on Friday may I wish all my friends in the USA a VERY HAPPY 4th JULY!!
Thanks for reading all this folks - please excuse any typing errors/missing words, the old laptop doesn't always do what I ask these days!
Looking forward to your return!
