It’s almost the end of August and I thought I’d do an update on things we’ve been doing over the last week or so. Progress hasn’t been quite so fast since Nigel went back to work after the Bank Holiday (August 26th) as we have had limited time to get anything done, but we’re still making what we consider to be good progress, so that’s encouraging!
Here’s a summary of what we’ve been up to lately:
- Bank Holiday Monday saw us ripping out the built-in cupboards in the Snug. This was made harder than maybe it should have been by the fact that they had been secured to the walls using 4-inch nails – yikes! A little overkill for a few books one could argue, but fortunately we didn’t do massive damage to the walls getting them out. There were more signs of damp on the outside wall where one of the cupboards had been – the skirting board was very much an ex-skirting board as it had just totally rotted and crumbled away!
Before
After
- Started digging over the ‘triangular’ bed outside which is totally over-run with nettles, ground elder and bindweed, a terrible combination! It has been really time-consuming, labour-intensive work but it’s great to see the soil looking ‘clean’ and fresh. There are masses of huge worms which is a good sign that the soil is in good condition. We’ve found loads of daffodil bulbs in the course of our digging which we will plant back in the Autumn. We may resort to using Glyphosate on the afore-mentioned weeds, but I’m quite keen to be as organic as possible about things. If this proves to be a stupid idea, then maybe we’ll just nuke the little bu**ers and then go organic once they’re gone
The tiny bit we’ve dug!
The sort of ground we’re up against!
- We ‘trimmed’ the weeping Silver Birch Tree which is smack-bang in the middle of the view down the paddock. We will pull the trunk out later (with the aid of Mr P’s digger!), but in the meantime are stripping the branches as some of them will make perfect kindling, whilst the rest can be shredded. [See Nigel's separate post with pics on this]
- We have received the measured drawings (very quickly in the end) so that’s really exciting. We will be meeting Peter (the architect) again next week to discuss next steps so hopefully things will really start moving!
- We were at The Farm during what can only be described as torrential rain and it was very ‘interesting’ to see how badly the gutters were coping with the amount of water! It was extreme weather conditions, but basically the water was coming in round many of the window frames (several window sills had their own little puddles!), the patio was 2 inches deep in water, and the water was literally pouring off the roof onto the ground. I don’t think much made it into the gutters and the drains at all! We will definitely have to get all that side of things reviewed and improved or the house might start sinking as the ground gets softer and softer!
Anyway, that’s a brief summary of the last week or so. Lots of exciting things going on next week, but I will let you read about them in a separate post!
Tags: Norfolk, Waterloo Farm
Categories: Garden Improvements, Home Improvements, Living the Country Life, Posts with Photos