Comet's bat!

Whilst in the middle of the kitchen refurb Comet decided to do some decorating of her own and brought us a live bat! It was fun and games getting that out.

Kitchen Refurb

Our next project was to get the kitchen fixed up in time for our new arrival. We didn't want to go for the usual run of the mill fitted kitchen and we also didn't have the money for it ;0)

So sticking with the farmhouse look and feel we decided to retain the original 50's storage cupboards and furniture and then salvaged as much as we could from the barns around us as we did with the bathroom.

Scaffold boards/scrap wood and hooks became shelves and coat racks. Old roof slates became a windowsill. We found a Belfast sink which along with bricks from the demolished barn and a huge piece of slate we found under the house in the cellar, created a sink unit under the window. We also found the matching hob for the oven and they were moved to the back wall where the sink used to be next to the Aga.

Before...

1m long drill bit to get through the solid stone walls

Old leaking plumbing removed

Temporary kitchen made in the utility room

Old tiles removed and shelves demolished

Getting rid of the mouldy wallpaper

First attempt at cement!

Laying the sink unit foundations

Re-plastering/patching the walls

The dishwasher is finally plumbed in after a year!

Painting the walls cream to warm up the space but still keep it light

Tiling

 

The finished kitchen

Treehouse clearing

My cousin David has been helping us clear the final two treehouse plots that still needed to be surveyed but they were so over grown they weren't accessible.

...and one more duck

Now we have a nice family of chickens we wanted to round up our ducks to four so they could pair off if needed. We always thought Peia was a bit of a third wheel and we are hoping that our new duck will be a friend for her.

Meet Luna, a Welsh Harlequin

Babs, Cassio, Peia & Luna

Finally we get chickens!

A massive thanks for their joint effort, Steve's Dad Spencer, my cousin David, brother in law Macca and Steve in turning an overgrown set of pigsties into a chicken haven.

We now have 6 chickens who are happily settled in.

4 chickens came from Stuart & Angela of Brynheulog http://www.brynheulog.com who specialise in rare breeds (we also got Babs and Peia the duck from them).

They have all settled in nicely, but unfortunately I don't think we will have eggs until spring next year now that winter is drawing near.

The ducks check out the new chicken enclosure and try and take it for them selves!

Meet the chickens!

Solar a Golden Laced Orpington

Red a Cuckoo Maran & Dwarf a bluebell

Orbit a Plymouth Black Rock

Super a Frizzel Pekin Bantam

Nova a Frizzel Pekin Bantam

Cheeky ponies

The ponies have been keeping us on our toes, they are always looking for their next escape route! They are much more intelligent and cheeky than we anticipated.

We have had to take action erecting more fences and gates but we ended up being completely fenced in, so Steve built us a stile so we can get out and about.