It all arrives through the snow..

We woke up to this morning to Radio 4 spreading doom and gloom about the weather while we got ready for our stables to be delivered from Cornwall. We arrived on the yard to read that the temperature was -10deg C and all the thaw from yesterday had turned to thick ice. Just behind us the builder's merchant turned up to deliver 7 tonnes of concrete blocks and sand with more to come later.

I was expecting a phone call from the stable delivery saying it was a no go. But Hendrik Wiegersma (Lucy's dad), called to say that he had a slightly over size wagon only 30min away, and that he had made it through the weather, what a star! With a lot of pushing and shoving with the fork lift we managed to get the wagon in and the stables off loaded. A real effort, way beyond the call of duty, I cannot thank West of England Stables enough for their service.

Just as Hendrik was leaving the temperature started to rise and the ice started to thaw turning everything into a skid pan. And here comes another delivery of concrete blocks, onto the ice and going no-where. We tried everything under the tyres but to no avail. Land Rover to the rescue (thank you Ciara), A Defender 90 and a webbing strop can pull a 40t wagon off the ice, way to go!!

After that is was plain sailing and a lot of grunt by Paul, Brian, Ciara and Ruthie, but we now have the stable partitions in place and ready to be bolted up. HUGE thanks only partially shown by the roast legs of wonderful Cornish lamb enjoyed by all. Off to bed and a well deserved rest.

Concrete, just in time

As the forecast for the weather deteriorated, the concrete started rolling through the gate for the new barn floor. It seems so long age that I originally designed the barn layout and today is a real milestone.

We finished the slab just as the weather finally set in and the groundworkersrushed off in front of the snow. fhew just in time. We now have a good 6 inches on the ground and have to make the dash home, but first we'll need to remove the Labradors from in front of the stove!

Still the North wind doth blow

With that north wind blowing, we still have a good three inches of snow on the ground, now that's a lot for Hampshire! The horses seem to be taking it in their stride and are thankfull the the Manege has not been built yet meaning that they are all good and shaggy.

The barn is all preped for the concrete on Monday, Boo and Diane started painting the internal walls ready for the internal metalwork on Wednesday. It's all rather exiting...

Snow and Helicopters

We woke this morning to a good smattering of snow, thankfully not stopping the stable construction or the the boys getting ready to leave for Afganistan! More grass lollies for the horses.

Construction has started

At 0800 this morning the excavators rolled through the gate. 3 hours later, and things are really taking shape.



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At Last.... photos

http://gallery.me.com/gavinb/100204

We have our Planning Permission!!

As last we have our planning permission to convert the farm from agricultural to a livery yard. Having applied for the permission back in August, our application was referred to the district planning committee for approval in October. Since then we have been to the committee hearing, and subsequently further meetings and finally today received the signed consent granting us our permissions. Wow what a long and tortuous road!

So now the really hard work starts, not that we have been sitting around for the intervening months. My recuperation program has been to bite off small lumps from the endless list of jobs the the farm throws up, and not over-do it, sometimes a bit hard. With a lot of help from many friends we have upgraded all the fencing, hacked back eons of hedge growth, constructed the temporary stables and generally cleared everything that could be cleared.

As the winter set in, the wonderful cabin, although well insulated, proved no match for the miserable British climate. The solution was to install a funky antique Norweagen log burning stove. We may have slightly overdone this one as we now seem to have the windows and door open to keep cool, at least we a plentiful supply of recycled horse muck logs to keep us going. It's just so nice to look out from the kitchen window and see the horses ploughing their way through the acres of grass.

Construction of the new stables will forge ahead this week and the new Manège is due to be installed straight after the new year. Anyone who fancies a bit of giant Meccano is welcome to turn their hand to stable erection over the Christmas break!

So although we haven't wanted to tempt fate by posting blog entries about the farm, we have got there end. There will be updates a-plenty on the way, oh and I've been given the 6 month all clear!! Wow what a year. Thanks you to everyone who has helped Boo and I along the way