Hardcore progress

The first step forward from a messy situation was to move Easter away from the torment at the yard to the land, however the fencing was not yet done because of the trees/ground conditions so we moved her to a little farm not far from the land.  She was pretty pleased about this!

The move opened up a whole new network of contacts, neighbours, friends and a very importantly a good pub!  Woody and the local farmer organised a date for putting in a driveway into the top triangle and a local tree surgeon and fencing company were all booked to come in as soon as it was laid.

Before the digger arrived we had a visit from Woodys dad, David and uncle Eric both experienced in building and construction to give the land the once over.  They checked the depth that needed to be dug down to give solid footings to the drive and capped off the water supply.

The day day the digger and hardcore arrived couldn't have been much wetter, but over the next couple of days it dried off enough for them to dig down and lay the 60+ tonnes of road scalpings.

July

October

When I arrived later that day it was a bit of a shock to see that the top triangle had been sort of ploughed in and leveled by the digger, I guess that's one way off getting rid of the brambles.  

It made Woody and I rethink how we approached the work required.  We fully understand that things usually look a little worse before they get better but we wanted some sensitivity and thought into the work in future.  At least it was progress and we had somewhere to park and unload kit. 

The next step was the fencing.  Woody had spoken to various people but by far the best recomendations came from people who had used Ian at www.countreecare.co.uk Ian is a quallified tree surgon plus he does fencing, pest control, hedge laying you name it, he sounded like the man we needed.

The weekend Ian started work was the same weekend we had our two nephews Morgan and Jack over visiting, we were very glad of the extra helpers!  Woody cooked a stew the night before and we all headed off.  Before Ian could attempt to start fencing he had to tackle all the low branches and silver and paper birch trees that had self seeded all over the place.  

Before, July 2014

November:  Work begins....it looks pretty dramatic.

Ian started with the boundary between lot 3 and ours taking out anything dead or too low.  There was a lot that needed taking out and it was quite a shock but it needed doing as there were several unsafe trees.  It will be good to see it all back in leaf again in the spring!  There were some huge logs to deal with, so Morgan and I set about clearing and stacking while Ian and Woody worked ahead of us.  We continued to stack logs and brash and Jack tried to get the fire going while Woody and Ian started knocking the fence posts in.

That's one hell of a post basher!

Looking a bit bare, but we can now access the boundary, sort the fencing and attempt to restore the stone wall (a long term project!)

Jack having a driving lesson

Happy Days!

We didn't manage to finish the fencing due to a turn in the weather but overall a productive couple of months in the run up to December and a well earned holiday!

Motivation from a mangled mess

Due to our work commitments we can be move around a lot, so it was a great feeling in August to reach our one year milestone of living in the same house and even better when we bought our patch of mud.  It felt like we had started to put down roots.

Because of the past years events it was a bonus when we found a busy and social livery yard for my horse Easter only a couple of miles from home.  We made an instant group of friends, useful contacts and had an active social life, something you can be in danger of giving up on when you keep moving and leaving friends. We thought we found a good bunch of like minded people but it was a real tragedy when it all fell apart at the end of the summer due to some silly decisions made by a few of our friends, people we trusted.  

September was a tough time and going up to the land most nights and weekends gave us some space to get away from it all.  Clearing paths, chopping and burning gorse took our minds off the feeling of being cheated.  Needless to say we got alot done out of shear bloody mindedness that autumn.  "Never let the f**kers get you down!".

Woody (mostly) and I hand cleared this path through 5ft high gorse

Another bundle of brambles for the pile

Woody making short work of the top triangle brambles.

The first of many bonfires

40 winks?

Remember the cow shed?

July 2014

September

July 2014, there's a shed and yard in there somewhere...

There is it! 

As you can see we had been busy but we were only just scratching the surface. We were loosing the light in the evenings and the ground was becoming difficult to cross in a normal vehicle.  We needed to get some hard standing in to allow us to drive in and work on through the winter and so far we had been doing everything by hand (except for the brief stint with the brush cutter that was useless!) we needed help!

Summer Treasures

Fox Moth Caterpillar

The pond and natural spring

Five Spot Burnet Moth

Brick cow shed

Meadow Brown Butterfly

Treasure haul from the brambles

Late flowering Eastern Gorse

Bedstraw

Common Lizard

We have alot!

"Are we mad?  We ARE mad!"  was the general consensus as we sat in the dining room of the hotel where the auction had just taken place, surrounded by a wedding reception!  Neither of us felt safe to drive, dizzy with adrenalin, so we decided to get something to eat before we made our way home.

We had somehow bought Lot 2, sadly missing out on the more wooded, but smaller, Lot 3. Where to start?  On purchasing the land we had the legal obligation of repairing some of the boundary fencing, easier said than done, it had been left for years and was a jungle with low overhanging branches and thistles 8ft high!  Our first job was to start to clear a path in to the center of the meadow and start the slow process of clearing; dead trees, wood, brambles, gorse, old metal gates and other junk.  Sounds simple...

Field names always have a way of naming themselves; top or bottom field, road field, big oak, cherry tree, hill field etc.  The same logical naming started to happen with our land too.  So far it's Top triangle; the half acre triangle where the main entrance is, full of brambles, and Pony paddock; two acres of flat pasture with a pretty little oak halfway down.  It gets a bit "wooly" after that, the further you walk in the more you realise the old hedges have blurred into a mass of gorse.  There are other landmarks dotted about; a wet bottom corner, a pond, snake rockery, blue box, brick shed....etc... I am sure these will evolve as we clear, excavate and replant.

We started work on the Friday we completed and signed the last contract.  Woody hired the biggest brush cutter we could get in the car wedged in with saws, cutters and a kettle we left work early setting off for the land on a muggy afternoon in August.  Arriving at the land and unlocking the main gates we drove down the long driveway and finally bumped over the the grassy threshold (feeling a bit like trespassers!) into the first field where we negotiated a few rocks and anthills and made our way through the sea of meadow grasses.

We unpacked the car and woody got straight on with clearing an area where we could set out tools, have a fire and put the kettle on to start our obsession with making a good "cupatea" on the land.

I spied Woody after a few hours taking it all in, I think his face says it all....what have we done!?

 

The first few weeks were spent figuring out what we had.  We spend a lot of time walking round and round, finding something new each time.  The top fence was knackered and the driveway fence was pretty much rust and sticks so that needed sorting but to even get to them we had low hanging Oak branches and Birch saplings everywhere that needed to be cut back....we had a lot of sawing ahead of us...

Heavenly, but we've somehow got to get a tractor and post basher down there.....

Share and share alike...

Owning our own patch of mud has been a shared dream for Woody and I.  Being around horses has always afforded me that outdoor space that I have now become use to and sadly have taken for granted that I will always be in "the countryside".  For Woody, growing up in Pembrokeshire ment happy days on farms and following hunts on foot, so we both have mud and fresh air in our souls.

Working with horses and owning my own animals meant owning my own patch of land was the financially sensible and long term solution, far safer and far less stressful than renting or being in livery.  I had loved having my own rented yard and land in the past, but I was always on the look out.

Fast forward a few years.  Big changes, marriage and a total move from where I grew up in Sussex to Lincolnshire, dragging the horse and dog along with us.  We liked the area, the soil was well draining and sandy, the county vast and the people old fashioned where local hardware stores still thrived as halfords and homebase would not venture so far into the Wolds!  We started looking for land and put in an offer on 12 acres of newly planted woodland with the hope of grazing and coppicing it....

Gills Wood Plantation, Lincolnshire

With a twist of fate the our offer was rejected just as we found out we would have to move, so without a fight and after only eight months of living in Lincolnshire, we packed up said goodbye to all our new friends and headed off to the South West to start all over again.

(Meanwhile some hard earnt company shares had been bubbling away, up and down they went, forever searching that £1+ price!)

* * * * *

Our move to the South West started with the heartbreaking loss of Woodys mum Shirley. A keen gardener we were thankful to be able to spend the summer with her on the allotment before the evil that is pancreatic cancer finally took her. A sad time followed but it made both Woody and I more determined to find our own patch of green somewhere to continue working on the land. Growing veg was one thing but we also wanted woodland to coppice and for Woody to make furniture from and I wanted meadows for horses, of course!  

We firmly believe that things happen for a reason, however awful something good must come of bad and timings are often right or wrong for the same thing. Fate only gives you choices though...it is up to you to be bold, brave and sometimes a little crazy to take up these opportunities that come along.

* * * * *

The stars aligned one day.  In fact about 10 days before a local land auction.  Two lots were found.  For the right money.  In a fabulous location.  My shares had peaked (although no where near the £1 a share we wanted!).  

We viewed the lots on a warm and hazy June afternoon.  They were part of a farm that was being divided to cover death duties.  The meadow grasses were pink in bloom, the woodland offered shade, there were orchids, butterflies, birds......and rather a lot of gorse!  We loved it all the same.  There was a tranquility and peace, the 12 acres offered us everything we wanted with the added bonus of being at the highest point, over looking the river and town in the far distance.  There was also a brick building and timber sheds but it all needed masses of work after being left for the last 10 years to go wild.

The next week and a half was a whirlwind of phone calls, meetings with solicitors, estate agents, huge cheques being sent out, googling every lead that might take us to a reason why not to buy it.  My shares were transferred into holding accounts, we were ready.  Then, the morning of the auction the long awaited legal pack came through answering many questions but also making us ask several new ones over access and rights that sent everything into a spin.

I can only explain what happened at the auction that evening as some kind of miracle, I am sure Shirley had a lot to do with it.  Despite my brain having a meltdown and turning to mush Woody calmly put his hand up, just the once, at the second "going" to which no one bid any higher... the meadow, lot 2,  was ours.  

Unfortunately we were outbid on lot 3, the woodland, which was very disappointing but the acreage price paid was phenomenal and did not make any sense.  I can say we paid the right money for our eight acres, we got a bargain.

A nail biting month ensued; sorting out access rights, paperwork, money and then the deads finally had our names on them.  The adventure could finally begin!