Some photos of what we have been up to April- July 2012

One of our completed rooms

One of the en suite bathrooms

The second B & B room, i wish my room looked like this

Waterfall in the Brecon Beacons.. beautiful, you could actually walk behind the watre

Another waterfall on the same walk.. you could actually see 4 waterfalls on one wlak of about 6 miles ... I only made it to 3, before I started to complain, so still have to get to the last one

Our new fruit trees , looking a bit like the KKK in their fleece covers. We had some trick weather, beautiful warm sunshine in March, followed by 5 days of below zero temperatures, so we were trying to preserve the blossom. I think we have been unsucessful, not much fruit has set, but this might be good for the actual trees as they are very young.

Chicken in the basket takes on a new meaning. Dorothy has found some where comfy for her afternoon nap.

Every inch in the poly runnel is being utilised. The container in the top left hand corner is our 1000litre water butt, and is proving a good place to hang my strawberry baskets from.

The sheep before shearing

And afterwards, before David has given them a tidy up

This is Mwnt Church, on the edge of Cardigan Bay, so simple, so peaceful.

Cardigan Bay, just off Mwnt. I look forward to exploring the area again. Apparently this is a good place to view dolphins and seals off shore

James pond before the miricle dust has been added, looking decidely murky

David with his new toy, Buzz. Now we just need some practise using Buzz

Modern shepherding, aka the good life

Raised beds in the veggie garden, waiting for a bit of warmth so that things can get going

Oak tree in our field.... waiting to burst into leaf

Our B and B logo, complete with chicky

Bizzy bizzy buzz

Long time no chat... basically no time !
We are still really busy, but loving every moment . The weather so far this year has been rubbish, and growing anything has been a challenge, but thank goodness for the poly tunnel.At least the plants are growing well there. We have managed to squeeze in a couple of extra beds  and a 1000litre water butt, and still we could do with just a little more room. Maybe the solution is for me to be a more tidy gardener... not much chance of that I'm afraid.
Our 20 new fruit trees have survived the odd weather, but there is little sign of any fruit setting, whether this is because of the strange weather or because the trees are young, who knows. We have also started planting a small wooded area in one of our fields. We seem to be collecting trees from our friends, and have found potted trees on the doorstep on more than one occasion. It seems like we are becoming a tree rescue centre. Its great to have the space to be able to do this, and we might just have added to the beauty of the property.
So far our collection of stray trees numbers about 18, including several alders, an oak tree and some sort of maple that a friend dug out of the side of a local road, in case it got run over.I am hoping to plant a lot of willow cuttings in the autumn, hoping to grow them into a growing field shelter.... we shall see how that goes.
James Pond has been giving David a few headaches. The water seemed to be quite murky,and despite us adding a large bucket of oxygenating weed, was not improving. David saw an advert in the newspaper for some magic solution to pond problems. He duly sent off his £10, and a very small sachet of a rather unassuming powder arrived in the post. He followed the instructions, and added the magic solution to the pond ( while I watched, snickering in the background ) and within 2 weeks, the water is so much clearer and the plants even look a little more healthy. Well that will teach me for being such a cynic.
Our six Badger faced sheep have been hand clipped to remove their fleeces. A friend did this for us, it looked like real hard work, and took ages, but at least the sheep were not stressed by rough handling or loud noises. They looked a little moth eaten once they had been sheared and David thought that they might feel a little embarrassed, so he went off to the farm shop, bought his own pair of hand shears and spent another 5 hours, tidying them up and giving them a brush with the dog brush. Never mind the sheep feeling embarrassed, I would have felt a right fool if the local farmers could have seen the two of us running a poofs parlour for the sheep. I did suggest painting each sheep's hooves a different colour to help with  identification, but David did not feel that was necessary. Spoil sport.. They are no longer wild and we can move them around the fields with a bit of bribery, in the form of sheep pellets.This certainly takes a lot less bother than me trying to round them up like Lassie while David issues instructions from the side lines. Once the sheep were sheared, we had to find something to do with the fleeces, which are a bit smelly to say the least. My skin itches just at the thought of wool, so I definitely did not want anything to do with the fleeces. We managed to pass the fleeces on to someone who was looking to use them for insulation for their house ( very efficient, Eco friendly etc, but I still don't fancy it my self ), and the loose, really smelly bits from around their bottoms was used as a mulch around the base of some of the new fruit trees. Every time I walk past the trees with these furry bits at their base, I think that the trees look like they have pubes.... yuk.
Our two en suite bed and breakfast rooms are now finished, the are really lovely, and I quite fancy the idea of staying as  my own guest. I have just about learnt to get the cooked breakfast items all ready and on the plate at the same time, and  I'm now looking at advertising options. Its difficult to decide on how much money to spend on advertising when you have a small range of products/ services to sell. In case you would like to have a look, our web site, which was designed by our very own Mar3k is www.llaingof.co.uk. We also have a really catchy logo, designed by a friend Chris , from Wild Eyebrow Designs. I am lucky to have the help of two clever men ( and David of course, who is the most clever of all  and has done a wonderful job all round )
I shall post some recent photos and endeavour to give you more news, in between dealing with the flood of gooseberries we have. So far I have picked and processed about 10kg, and I think there must be just as many waiting to be picked. My poor fingers each have at least one thorn in them, goose berry bushes don't make it easy for you to get to their fruit.

Sheep steep learing curve

We also now have our own sheep, all six of them. They are called Welsh Mountain Badger Faced Sheep, and are now a year old. They were very wild when we first got them, but have got a little more friendly over the winter, mainly assisted by bribes of sheep feed.Learning to handle the sheep has been great fun most of the time,and a little frustrating some of the time. It is a bit better now they will follow a food bucket. We usually catch them all, and put them through a foot bath ( with formalin in it ) once a fortnight. They seem to be prone to foot rot so need their feet looked at often, and trimmed. Luckily the vet is happy to give me any medication they need to be injected, so I can do it myself. I have had to learn a bit about withdrawal periods (when they first mentioned this i though the vet was talking about family planning for the sheep, and I was busy trying to explain that we have no ram ..... but have since learnt that this is the time period that you cannot send the sheep for slaughter after you have administered any medication. Each medication has its specific withdrawal period. ) Well at least I gave the vet practise a good laugh.

I found it quite amazing that I can buy a 25litre canister of formalin over the counter at the local farmers co op, no questions asked,and yet, when I wanted to buy tick and flea drops to put on the cats, I all but had to produce my passport. Oh well , guess we just have to do what Defra says

Fresh local porduce (we hope )

I have managed to get permission to sell excess fruit, veg and eggs from the farm gate, now I just need to get the stuff to grow. I have loads of seeds in the conservatory already, including runner and broad beans, tomatoes, leeks, lettuce, peppers, rocket, radishes, and some other stuff as well. The polytunnel  is cleaned, manured, and turned and we are ready to go, as soon as the weather gets a little warmer. Hope to have some stuff in there by the end of March. The other problem we will have is keeping the chickens out, as they are very keen to assist with any gardening being done.

The chickens have been wonderful fun, and have hardly slowed down egg production over the winter. We are getting  between 18 and 20 eggs a week, which I am currently selling at £1/ ½ dozen. It was rather embarrassing the other day, David wanted something small from the hardware store, and they are not keen to take a card for anything under £5. We didn’t have any cash between us, so he had to borrow  £5 from the chickens money box. They are saving their money for a new sister or two.Idid make David write them an IOU . I did not tell David they can’t read yet. We moved the chicken arc under the cover of the open barn, so they are dry, and they are still free range, roaming around the garden, part of the fields and the neighbours garden. Typical, they have 5 acres to roam around in, but they have to go next door. So far we haven’t seen the fox, though we do know there is at least one that roams around the fields at night.

Can He Build it ? Yes he can

David has been renovating the cottage inside, a huge job, as this part of the house was built in 1850, has 2 foot thick walls, has sloping ceilings, nothing square ( walls or floorboards or ceiling) and had no concealed  electrics, all the cables ran along  the wall. He has been working in the upstairs area, which was 2 bedrooms with a pretty awful bathroom. The plan was to turn the rooms into two bedrooms en suite, with proper electrics and plumbing. Rather stupidly I thought that we could do one room then the other, but in reality they both had to be done together, as all the internal walls needed to be removed so the rooms could be reshaped from 3 rooms into 2.

This meant that all the furniture that was upstairs had to be stored in the dining room down stairs and apart from the linen cupboard in the bathroom we had no cupboards at all. Any way, we are now four months into the project, have been covered in dust for the whole of this time. A s always David has done a superb job, with very little help from local workmen. All the walls were ripped out, we had new stud work built for the new walls, the whole of the top floor was rewired, replastered, and David has built two super bathrooms en suite, each with a huge walk in shower, and heated towel rails. He has also had to re route ( or actually implement proper plumbing, drilling 4inch holes through the 2 foot thick walls to put all the pipes through. The previous bathroom had one of those macerator sort toilet thingies, that make a huge noise, get blocked easily and are generally a smelly nightmare. We have also had to put in soundproofing, as the floorboard upstairs is the ceiling downstairs and you could hear each and every sound, wither you wanted to or not. So some very heavy rubber matting was put down and then an acoustic  underlay before having the carpet fitted. This has all made a huge difference , thank heavens. W e are now on the home run, have had  a couple of small wardrobes built in,and are just waiting for another bed to be delivered. Next job for me is to work out what I am going to do about the covering for the windows, think they might have to have blinds set into the recesses. Also looking for some art work for the walls, would like to use a local artist who does some beautiful  pastels of local scenes. W e were looking at some of her prints at a local fair the other day, and also saw that she had done a lovely one of a blacksmith at work, which we might get for the dining room. The name of the house Llaingof, roughly translates to the blacksmith along the side of the road.

We are trying to get permission to use these two bedrooms as bed and breakfast accommodation, but the council seems to be unwilling/ unable to provide us with exactly what standards we need to meet. They have come up with such ideas like submit your plan and and then we will let you know what you might need to do. Hope to get the plans in this week, don’t like to ask David to do those drawings as well along with all the other stuff he is busy with.

Whats up with winter

. I just do not know where the days and the winter have gone. I hope you have had reasonable mild weather like we have. We have only had a couple of days of snow, and maybe 10 occasional days with temperatures below zero, so really nothing to complain about. The winter has also not been very wet so guess we have been lucky.

Christmas was rather quiet. W e knew we would not be able to be with all the family ( we usually have a full house on Christmas day ), so it was a very different day for us. Mark and his girlfriend Anna came to stay on Xmas Eve, had breakfast with us and then went on to her family in Birmingham. It was lovely to see them, and we managed to have a walk around the fields in our silly Santa hats.

So Christmas day was rather quiet, but on the positive side we just ate leftovers and had Christmas pudding.

Michelle and her boyfriend ( confusingly also called Mark ) had Christmas with his family, and then came and had a few days  with us in January.

Then I went off to visit Mum and Dad and had Christmas number 3, so that’s enough Xmas for now.

New Year in Wales was rather different as well. When we lived in Southampton  we could watch the fireworks over the docks, from the decking outside the lounge.