The Good Life

Meet one of our new hens. Yesterday we went to collect and rehome some more ex-battery hens via the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. This bunch were in quite good form with a bit of strength and 'perkiness' about them despite the sorrowful state of their bodies. We first rehomed 10 battery hens 2 years ago and I'm pleased to report that some of those are still with us and have enjoyed a good quality life with considerably extended life expectancy.

The girls below are just venturing out of their transport box, somewhat bewildered at the concepts of sunshine, grass and fresh air. Before too long their combs will change to a more healthy red and their feathers will fairly slowly come back too. In today's rain showers some of them noticeably shivered so we popped them into the hen house to keep warmer as their bodies start adjusting to the variable temperatures of the outside world.


Today's weather was so much better than the forecast of storms and humungous rain so a bit of gardening time was presented. We're currently picking salad leaves, spinach, chard, sorrel, peas, broad beans, radish, onions and new potatoes. Plus one courgette so far. Very exciting! Well we're pretty chuffed anyway. Not too long ago this area was a bleak concrete n mud mess so the change is very inspiring. Most crops are thriving although the french beans are looking a bit peelywally and something ate all but one of the young courgette plants (mouse?). Thoughts and plans already abound for next year - more peas to be grown as they're just totally gorgeous; the potatoes are going in the bed which seems to have an awful lot of weed seeds in it to help clear those out; more beds will be under construction before too long and as usual I haven't really got my head around succession planting.

Holiday Postcard

The freedom of holidays....lots of larking about and some time together here on the long long sands at Holkham with all those fabulous colourful beach huts

watching the waves crashing on the shore at Salthouse

flying kites on the beach of millions of smooth peebles

the weather wasn't always good, you can just about see the driving rain on the following pic taken just south of Southwold, lots of glorious boats and huts on the quayside, a real hive of activity. We'd just spent an hour on the beach but the storm was threatening with spectacularly high and very dark clouds overwhelming the area inshore

elsewhere we cycled on a few trails, spotting lots of butterflys, bees, birds and a few other creatures; unfortunately Steve had a valve blow out so had to walk the final stage of one trip

but just around the corner we were lucky enough to spot this slow worm moving across the path

our lovely trip to North Norfolk is now over, its a very fine part of the country to visit

top food places - The Pigs, Edgefield (particularly fab for carnivores) and Pulse, Norwich (top veggie food)

great campsite - Kelling Heath, nr Holt

fave beaches - Holkham for sand, Salthouse for wind, waves and slightly more wild appeal

best bit of all was also getting to spend some time with our friends in Garvestone - best accomm and food of course, thank you t,j,i,m

The Next Phase - Renovation of the Dairy

Welcome to your new holiday home..........needs a bit of work to get that roof sorted out but you can see the potential for the restoration of the stonework arch. We've been working on the design for the two holiday properties we're going to create out of the former dairy and these have been through the planning process so now the detailed drawings are underway before a building warrant application is submitted. We've used the same architect Thomas Robinson Architects (see links) because we like their ethos and design approach. The renovation will continue the low energy principles, using high quality materials and a sympathetic but contemporary design.

The design for this south elevation makes the most of the existing stone arch as the main entrance to the house and also brings some more light into the property with full height glazing both on and adjacent to the door. The stonework will be cleaned up, the slate roof completely replaced using the existing slate alongwith the slate we retrieved from the original farmhouse and there'll be a small area of larch cladding to tie in with materials on the adjoining holiday house and the main 'new' house. This is the East elevation - the stone building on the left is the one whose elevation and entrance door are shown above. The large doors on both holiday houses will open onto patios and terrific views across the fields towards the Campsies. So this is where I envisage guests may be sitting munching their cornflakes in the morning sun planning their day ahead!

We're making electricity!

It's now over two years since we dismantled our solar PV system from our previous house and nearly a year since we put the panels on the new woodshed at East Cambusmoon. So high time we made the connection to the grid again!

With Jim the electrician round to do some bits and bobs around the house, we took the opportunity to dust off the inverter, check all the cables and connect it up.

After a few hours work by Steve and Jim came the time of the big switch on late afternoon. Firstly the solar voltage was checked - 180V in cloudy conditions - then the final connection made. After a final check all disconnects were connected and all switches switched on, and the inverter buzzed into action. A couple of minutes later 300W of power registered on the output meter, then as the sun appeared from behind a cloud as if to clebrate our latest milestone we were up to 900W - 8 times more than we were using with our excess, renewable, organic green electrons spilling back onto the local grid!

By the end of the day (we were still generating a few watts at 8:30pm) we had generated over 2kWh, half of which was exported. Next step is to register with Scottish Hydro and get paid 28p for each of those units we export!

Home made power doesn't get much better than this...!

totally fabulous weather, so much time outside, its such a great part of the world, bbqs, walks and mucking about....and the garden is coming together too!

hope you're all well

Today we walked up the Dumpling. A short refreshing stroll with a terrific view of Loch Lomond from the top.

Lots of Lovely Compost

It didn't take long for the contents of our compost bins and the horse muck heap to be consumed by the raised beds and we were wondering where/how to get some more in order to grow veggies etc this year. Through Jane I discovered that Scottish Water can supply POD which is peat free compost/soil booster which has been created from composted green waste, 'sanitised' -whatever that means and is biologically active and environmentally friendly. Also it came with the recommendation of James, the owner of Damhead who grow organic veggies to supply throughout central and southern Scotland.
So, a couple of weeks ago, we had approx 19 tonnes delivered and dropped from the back of this very large lorry. Fabulous! The existing beds are now all filled and we'll have plenty to use in the next area where beds will be built (in due course!) and for topping up the areas for general planting of flowers, shrubs etc.
Today I finished planting the seedlings which have been grown in the house and the caravan, I also sewed some crops directly in the soil. The list of goodies in the ground is now as follows;
Potatoes - desiree, maris piper, ratte and pentland javelin
Broad beans - aquadulce claudia and sutton (the latter being good for windy sites - which this is)
Peas - kelvedon wonder
Courgette - all green bush
Dwarf beans - sonesta (a yellow variety)
Spinach - renegade and bordeaux
Baby carrots - ideal
Spring Onion - white lisbon
Radish - rougette
Chard - bright lights
Salads - a california leaf mix; and a few bits from 'leftover' packets

We'll make some direct sewings of other veggies shortly. But it has only recently started warming up here - and to remind ourselves on sunny days of the Scottish wisdom "ne'er cast a cloot 'til May is oot" has certainly been apt this year.