October 2024
Change in Light
Two significant changes in the light this month. Firstly we were lucky enough to see the Northern lights, which made a particularly fun backdrop to the roof-less house. The intensity was definitely heightened by the phone camera but there was a distinct hue even with the naked eye.
The second change was, of course, the clocks going back. This significantly shortens the opportunity for doing tasks in the evening and, with no lights outside of the van/caravan, makes everything more space-constrained for longer periods of time. I have been wheelbarrowing cobblestones to the garden with a head torch though! It’s good to reuse material thrown up by the build. I’m planning a wormery for my next refuse trick, recycling some of the old floor joists.
Sad chicken news
We unfortunately lost one of the chickens, poor Jane from Maverick’s flock. We found her in her nest box, and according to the internet, this generally means they had a heart attack from some egg-laying complications. Either because she was egg-bound or possibly if they attempt to lay two eggs in succession, they can become dangerously calcium deficient. She had been wearing this little coat because she had lost feathers due to Maverick’s over zealous Cockerill-ing and they had been growing back well. Rest easy little chicken.
Jane in her protective coat
In other chicken news, Maverick had lost his tail feathers earlier in the month, which is common in Autumn when they moult. He looked very comical minus them. He has grown them back since, well done Mav.
Building Progress
Work is coming along on the house, with the rooms starting to emerge. We look forward to moving out of the “brick phase” and seeing other activities and materials come into play. The ambition is to get the roof on by Christmas, which would be awesome.
Walls are emerging and the concrete base inside the walls is done.
The builder recommended hiring this absolute beast to crush up all the boulders and stones that we dug out to make the foundations. Here is it getting loaded onto the truck after the crushing was completed. We now have an enormous mountain of small stones that we can use for grading and surfacing various areas. It was quite the machine to see in action, making pretty light work of what it was fed and using £277 worth of fuel in a few hours.
No rocks too big for this guy.
There are some very exciting plans for this month, we might have actual electricity before Santa is with us. Fingers crossed all goes well with the installation of the transformer, stay tuned for updates.
Thanks for reading, love from Hillside Farm x
PS Avvy would like to say she’s very happy with the work quality during her evening inspection.
