The Donkeys arrive

This weekend Amy and Enzo arrived from Farnham, Surrey after being weaned from their mothers.
Both of the donkeys have settled in well and the sheep find them very interesting.
However the horses think they are 'aliens' and have been snorting and galloping up and down the field whenever they see the donkeys, so it may take a few days before they settle down.

Our own 'Tarr' Steps

We decided that as the lawn in the garden of the holiday cottage was getting rather worn we would put in some stepping stones. We found the stones on the farm when Derek was digging the new road so Rob spent today laying the stones. We hope to find some more and then lay another path which will link to the bridge which is going to be built over the small steam into the orchard. Bridge yet to be built and orchard looks like a field at the moment, but we have been given two pear trees from our neighbours back in Surrey, Helen and Frederick Polhill.

(Tarr Steps - Prehistoric bridge over the river Barle near Winsford. Dating from 1000 BC, some of the stones weigh 5 tons and were said to have been placed there by the Devil to win a bet.)

The roof and the start of the road

After two days of terrible wet weather at the beginning of October the roof decided to leak! This was not a new leak and had obviously happened before, but the previous owners did not tell us. The first I knew about it was when water started dripping through a bedroom ceiling. Terry Griffiths a Master Thatcher from Bishops Lydeard near Taunton quickly came to our rescue and patched up the offending hole around the chimney. We decided to have both sides of the chimney rethatched.

The weather this week has been glorious and now that the JCB has arrived Derek has been able to start on the new road across the field so we will be able to gain access to the future new barn which will be going up at the end of November.

We have so far had 5 loads of scalpings with more to come next week. A new pipe has been laid to divert the stream and then this has been covered with more road scalpings and earth so vehicles can drive over and through the gateway. The area for the future horsewalker (subject to planning consent) has been scrapped over and flattened, more scalpings to be added.