12 months (Oct&Nov)

I had intended to start blogging a year ago as a record of our new life as smallholders but never really got around to working out what to do and how to begin. Thankfully I managed to keep a daily diary of everything as we went along which is proving to be pretty useful. As we celebrated our first year it seemed a good time to get a wiggle on and investigate this blogging malarkey. So, 12 months have passed and I thought it would be prudent to record a brief post on what we have been up to. A lot has happened and hopefully I can summarise it all in monthly bite size segments.

October 2015

This was our first (and last) big move and once the removals men had left, the task of unpacking seemed daunting but once our bed was assembled there no longer seemed to be a rush to do everything at once, thankfully. What I remember most about October was how cold this old 1900s farmhouse was and how grateful we were for the wood burner and massive supply of logs left by the previous owners. Three different heating/water systems caused a lot of confusion and running around in dressing gowns trying to find a hot shower!

We also found out on our second day that we had no tv signal, not normally a catastrophe for us but the rugby world cup was on and we just couldn't miss that. Hence the aerial man appeared that evening to fit a dish for our freesat and then, with the fire lit, we dined on pizza, garlic bread and fizzy wine while watching sport - blissful.

Unfortunately during the move our car and computer died so time was also spent trying to revive them which was both frustrating and expensive. Despite the large amount of cleaning, unpacking and sorting to be done we couldn't wait to explore the woods with the dogs. We successfully developed a system of unpacking a few boxes and then heading out for a walk.

  

We even got the ride-on mower out for a test run.

   

The Stanley stove took a bit of getting used to but thankfully M became a master of the stove and I was more than happy to let him chef to his heart's content. Having our own (little) wind turbine has been quite exciting and we have become serious weather watchers, trying making the most of windy days to get washing etc done.

We are truly blessed to be in such a wonderful part of the country and in the early days ventured out to investigate the nearby beaches with the dogs. Even on the not so sunny days it's a beautiful place to walk.

The view from the top of the dunes was just stunning.

I also needed to find a temporary home for all the plant pots we had brought from our old house. In my eagerness to keep gardening I had taken a multitude of cuttings of all our favourite plants with no idea whether they would be suitable in a different climate. My thinking was that if we could provide them with some winter protection they may have a chance. For the first time ever I planted some acorns, from the woods near our old house where we used to walk the dogs, in a vain attempt to grow some oak trees.

However, the majority of the month was spent attempting to unpack, putting up pictures and generally making the house more homely. It was also amazing to find so many things we had forgotten we had and to find the perfect place for them all. One of M's wishes was to have all our books accessible and in one area and thanks to the previous owners who left us numerous bookcases, this was a delightful achievement - now we just need to get around to reading them all! Another of his wishes was for a proper man shed and he now has a huge barn where he can potter, make stuff and paint (pictures). I on the other hand am fortunate to have my very own craft room which was instantly filled with a variety of crafty projects to complete.

November 2015

The weather in November was surprising good, a little chilly but quite sunny which meant we could get out and about doing some jobs, mainly clearing weeds and with M using his new strimmer/brush cutter. Walks along the beach on chilly days were invigorating and gave us the best start to the day you could possibly imagine.

 

I also managed a trip to the Knit and Stitch show with mum which was great fun but did ultimately just increase my number of 'to do' craft projects. Darker evenings allowed for time to catch up on some crochet which had the additional incentive of needing to be finished in time for Christmas.

 

I successfully completed my niece's Christmas present, she said she liked pink and purple so I did a ripple blanket using the pattern from Lucy's Attic24. I had a little go at some C2C crochet and tried a couple of Sarah's Repeat Crafter Me Christmas squares. Although I didn't want to make all nine into a blanket they were fun to do and looked good as wall hanging decorations.

During this month we started to try and identify some of the many trees in the woods but unfortunately the task was made much more difficult since most of them were bare and our twig identification skills were poor.

November is our wedding anniversary month and tradition has it that instead of buying each other presents we tend to buy one present for us. This year it was our 11th anniversary which is steel and so we bought a steel weather vane which was positioned on the corner of the house. I just loved the fact that it looked like a black Labrador! 

 

Strangely we have lots of old bath tubs around the farm and so we made the most of the dry weather to clear them out and refill them with compost in preparation for the growing season. We even rescued a couple of trees growing in them but had no idea what they were and looked forward to finding out in the spring. The baths were not the prettiest things in the world but functionality takes precedence around here. While I was away at the show M was busy clearing drains and generally doing all the messy but essential jobs such as building compost bins. However, he did manage some time to begin sorting out his man shed!!