After much anticipation, another baby.

After waiting just over 2 weeks, another baby goat arrived this morning. This time it was a boy and he's up on his feet already.

Work is pushing on both in the house and the gite. We trialled the plasterers yesterday by letting them plaster the ceiling in the cinema. It only took them a day to do the lot, 3 coats. As the ceiling is 6m x 12m this is a pretty impressive feat. Unfortunately with the plastering came mess and it took me an hour and a half this morning to wire brush and polish the stairs back to how they were.

The next job is to revive the cinema floor so that I can put all the beds and furniture back in. In the gite, soil pipes have been installed to one end, most of the studwork is done on the main structure. Just the walls of the 2 ensuites and shower room to stud out now.

I'm hoping with the arrival of my mother in law and Tom today, this should free up my time to get the first fix electrics and first fix plumbing complete this week along with all the plasterboarding. Fingers crossed as the plasterers will be back on 6th April to drive on with some more works.

Anyhow, time to get cleaning!!!!!!!!

Losing weight but getting the work done.

Well, with all my recent physical activity, I'm waisting away. This morning saw a new hole in the belt to avoid my trousers falling any further down.

We spent a fair few hours today working uncle Tonys Range Rover and Ians trailer incredibly hard. We moved nearly 2 tonnes of logs from where we have been felling the trees to the log shed.

Whilst Peter was having his afternoon snooze ( not ), I got on with the soil pipes going into the gite.

The pending arrival of Grandma Nett on Friday should see a few weeks of intense work in the gite, getting the stud walls finished, ceilings plasterboarded and first fix plumbing and electrics done.

Anyhow, three piccies for you. Peter on the log pile. Peter next to Zorros new kennel and also some soil pipes.

Still waiting for the second baby!!

Well, life still continues while we are waiting for the second baby goat. We are sure it is coming but obviously it is taking its time!!!!! Maybe this week we will be announcing its arrival.

The children have been profiting this week from lots of lovely sunshine and an extra day off school because the teachers are on strike again!! It is only the second time this year that they have been on strike!! I am not convinced they are going to achieve anything but those of you who know me well will know my views on poxy unions!!!! However, I do admit to being a member once in my life for a very short period.

Anyway, enough of the political speak, I am beginning to sound like my favourite person........

Peter decided that summer had definitely arrived this week with the sunshine. After a couple of hours of playing in the lovely warm water (notice the sarcasm) he now has a runny nose!!! Typical!! Josh and Kirsty actually loved each other for a short period of time and constructed something too, not sure what, but at least they were playing and not fighting for once!!! It makes you glad to be an only child sometimes!!!

Guess what we had for breakfast.

At approximately 7:45am local time this morning. We delivered a little package into the stable weighing in at around a bag of sugar. Well done to mum who seems to be doing her job well. Fingers crossed we may have another delivery imminently.

Time to eat something fresh from the garden

With this whole cleaner and greener lifestyle. I thought it was time to try some of our home produce.

Becuse I haven't yet got round to planting any veg, and I don't have a recipe for goat curry, I opted for roast cockerel.

Mrs Beaton would be proud of me. Apart from my timings. Twenty minutes to pluck a bird if it's still warm. One hour later and I was still plucking. Sod the wings, they're more effort than they're worth.

When it came to removing the innards, once again i struggled because my hands were too big for the carcase.

Anyway, ask us tomorrow how it turned out. Probably tastes like chicken :-)

Posts, posts and more posts

Saturday saw a huge effort on the hedging front with both Josh and Kirsty pulling their weight. We managed to cut and install over 100 posts in preparation for the next bit of laying. Sunday we got another 30 done but then we were all very tired by this point.

The Range Rover worked well, transporting posts, equipment, children and dogs back and forth from the hedge. Now with the 2 main sections of hedging joined, all that is left to do is the laying and withying across the top. Fingers crossed I'll get it done this week so i can focus on the gite works.

Anna and Ollie joined us for dinner last night and a good time was had by all. Josh played with Charlie and Kirsty kept Emily amused with dressing up dolls.(or was it Emily that kept Kirsty amused)

The sun is shining here this morning so, once 2 monsters are at school, Peter and I can get to work tidying the back garden.

Has anyone seen this man?

Peter has been looking for someone matching the police photo-fit image featured here. If you happen to see this man, approach with caution, especially if he answers to the name "Gwan dan"

If you do find him, please package him up and ship him to France at your earliest opportunity.

Another weekend rapidly approaches

Time just seems to be racing by at the moment. Once again another weekend is just around the corner and I feel I have achieved so little.

The time has come to jump start works on the gite in an attempt to get it habitable by our May party. I spent a few hours measuring everything up before putting together a little plan to aid my thinking. Then I lost the plan, then redid the plan, then I lost it again and redid it again. Then I spent 2 hours trawling the net to discover what the problem was. Having now changed one setting, I managed to recover all the plans to date, DOH, DOH, DOH.

Hopefully this image will give you an idea of how things are starting to look. I love 3D modelling.

Weather wise, we once again endured 4 seasons in one day yesterday. Daffodils, snowdrops and pansies poking there heads out everywhere, only to be covered in snow and sleat, before being dried out by some amazingly warm sunshine.

One week on, 5 arrive and 5 have gone.

Those who have been here will know that it's an eternal madhouse with people coming and going continuously. This week has been no different with the arrival of 5 of Janes ex-work colleagues all the way from Wraysbury.

Once again, plenty was eaten and drunk and everyone appeared to have a great weekend.

Unfortunately all 5 of us are suffering from really bad coughs and sore throats which has meant that not a lot has gone on over the last few days.

Josh and Kirsty are off to the cinema again on Friday with the school so fingers crossed they won't be coughing there way through the matinee.

The hedge laying has continued however I'm now running out of time. I need to finish everything I can before next weekend is over. After that we are into the main growth period for the Hazel, Willow and Hawthorn. Work will then have to stop until next January.

I will be shortly starting work on a proper toilet, accessible from outside, in preparation for May when once again we will be hosting our annual long weekend party.

If you fancy coming, get in touch and let us know so that we can make sure we have space and food prepared for you. There will be far more camping this year as the popularity of this event has grown.