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!

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.....