August 2024
Letting the light in
The thick conifers that lined the driveway have gone! Their absence led to our neighbour making the very accurate observation that the light had been let in. It has made a big difference, it feels like the place has had a haircut. Our very first job at the property was to hack back some of the branches to even get down the drive and ever since it’s been an aim to remove them completely. Here they are with the last few remaining, now all that is remaining is bags of woodchips and logs.
The Workshop
The big move of the month was finishing the workshop to have a watertight space to store our belongings while the work happens on the house. After several months of planning, ordering the materials and watching A LOT of YouTube videos everything came together just in time for the builders to start.
What we started with, including the pit in the middle of the floor.
Work in progress. We obviously missed the amount of cement bags needed to make the steps by 2. A last-minute B&Q dash saved the day.
The finished outside. They sent us 2 left-hand doors! Which we only noticed when they went to be hung. A bit of sawing worked it out, they were already painted and we weren’t waiting for a replacement.
The finished inside. Bye bye pit.
Invasion
The Brussels Sprouts were invaded. In a very short space of time, these cabbage white butterflies appeared in droves, munching their way through all the outer leaves of the plants. After removing the leaves and leaving them with the chickens, for a little morning snack, the bed were covered in netting and seemed to have made a good recovery.
My mum and I went to a local basket-making workshop and made these berry baskets. Pretty useful as there is a big Blackberry harvest this year. Also very cool to see what can be made with only items that can be grown. We planted a few Black Maul willow cuttings last year so it will be interesting to see if we can get any growth to make something.
This next month we are going to be making BIG progress on the house which is very exciting to finally make progress on having a path out of the caravan.
Thanks for reading, love from Hillside Farm x
PS Avvy would like you to know she and her cousin Wilfred are the goodest dogs.
