April 2025 Monthly Update
Where were the April showers?!
Seeding, harrowing and rolling were attempted by the pros, but with the ground like a sheet of literal rock, our grassland management mission will have to wait for yet another month to see if we get any softening in the ground. Fingers crossed for May to have some rain - the ground really does need it! We did manage to get a load of slurry onto the rested lower section of the field though, timed well by Farmer Ryan and helped out by Contractor Jack's team, it remains to be seen if it'll wash in before the first few days of May run out.
Obligatory weather update: We thought March was a scorcher with 134.2 hours of sunshine vs February's 46 hours, but April smashed it out of the park with 228 hours of golden rays and just 3 cloudy days. Temperatures got up to a balmy 21.9C, but there were still a couple of frosts, leading to the low of -2.8C on the 8th (-6.4C grass temp). The average lifted from March's 6.2C up to 8.6C, which is +1.3C compared to normal for April here.
Rain-wise, March's historic and record low of 44.8mm was only just beaten with 47.3mm, 55% below normal levels. We can tell! Compared to April last year, which had 174mm of rain and was the wettest April on record, we're having quite the rollercoaster.
It's ok though, because there is A LOT to discuss. As a side note, yes, you are correct. We did indeed have another chunk of days this month out of the office/off the farm. This time, we were teaching a photography retreat in the Lake District, which was amazing, but that took a week out of the schedule. I've (it's me, Jess) have been backed up against a wall with the sheer volume of work, but I've tried to at least capture some photos of things going on. Let's start at the beginning, in the first week of April:
The Farm:
April Week 1:
At the end of March, the cottage kitchen looked like this. The remnants of the mouldy, failing and broken existing kitchen units were out, and Dan was beginning to strip the uneven and blown plaster from the walls.
For those concerned about single-skin houses and what we did next, please don't worry. This specific house isn't old. It's got an early insulation-filled cavity and doesn't suffer from any rising damp or issues with mould from water ingress. It is the opposite of the farmhouse, which is up to 400 years old in places, has zero cavity, and does/did suffer from all types of damp. They're are not the same dwellings, we're focusing on the cottage today.
Still reeling from the unexpected loss of Piper at the end of March, week 1 of April was weird for us.
With the Lakes Retreat starting literally in a few days, we were trying to prioritise jobs to do before we went, both to make the farm ready for our housesitters and animal caretakers, but also to make sure we were ready for everything that will happen in the fortnight after the Retreat. There will be A LOT happening (trust me).
The main focus has been in the cottage kitchen (above), which was finally stripped out fully from end to end. Kenny, our electrician, came later in the week to prepare all the wiring for the new kitchen. I had tried to help him out as much as possible by not really moving anything (appliances all in the same location etc), but we also made some tweaks as a team and added a couple of extra sockets too.
We paused on Thursday to fence the gigantic upper paddock that I have invented in the field. The logic here is that if it were wet, the hill would be the driest part of this field, and the quarry sections (although flattened and re-dressed) still need seeding and rolling, so fencing the upper section lets the tractors work without needing to move stock.
Fencing this field was tough, you can't see the fence's other end from each side, and I was flying solo for a few hours until Dan could come and help. I started at about 2pm, and we both finished after moving the horses in at 8:30pm. They love their new field, but it does need manual water trough work. Every day we go and fill the water trough, and it goes down fast thanks to 40 ewes, who are rearing lambs, preferring this trough to the larger automatic one in the winter paddock.
The fencing is set to allow sheepsies to go under it, so they have the whole field (literally, all 20 acres of it), and the horses have just over 4 acres sectioned off for them. The winter paddock desperately needed resting - it needs harrowing, spraying, rolling and seeding but the weather is SO dry here, the ground is just rock solid and cracking, that it can't be yet. The new grass is slow to come through with the lack of rain, so moving them this week was the right thing to do for their welfare.
I did accidentally test the fence, twice.
I can confirm it gives decent zaps 👌🏼
Then it was time to board the kitchen in the cottage. Because the external walls in here have an insulation-filled cavity, we opted for dot and dab application, which meant that I needed to be free to come help put wedges under boards as they were fixed. 1.5 days and the room is ready for plaster prep, then plaster.
At this stage, we needed to be plastered - it isn't going to happen. We just have to hope we can turn everything around in time and keep on pushing 🤞
April Week 2:
I'm still emerging from the post-retreat haze at this stage, and it's been an insanely wonderful week, but that means Dan and I weren't at the farm. The horses and cats were left in the trusted hands of my dad and step-mum, who were supposed to be coming for a "holiday" whilst also working from the farm, but both Dan and I knew that that was unlikely to happen. These two are where I get my never-ending obsession with "doing things" from. If we sat down for too long as kids, we'd be given something else to do, chores, work, or learning something.
Instead, their planned holiday of tourist activities, like going to the beach and walking the hills, were sidelined to fix a recently identified damaged poop pipe (see image).
This sewerage pipe comes from the downstairs toilet in the farmhouse and somewhere in the course of the groundworks for the guttering, this pipe had a bend cracked off. That meant that literal poop was just casually flowing out into the garden 😱🤢 They spent a full day unblocking the pipe below (full of groundworks rock), then unblocking backed up bowel movements, and then repaired the pipe fully.
In the course of this excavation and exploratory works, they also found a problem with this entire waste pipe. It leaves the farmhouse (which, as we all know by now, sits on a hill), at the back of the downstairs bathroom. It then turns and, trust me, goes uphill about a foot, before going around a 90 degree, moving along the top of the slope, then turning 90 degrees, to run downhill again to this cracked corner. That was the main cause of the blocked part of the poop pipe, because poop doesn't like going uphill. Another thing to add to the urgent list of things to correct has been added here.
Next, they assessed our corvid problem. Not covid, corvid. We saw from all the dead birds manually hung up when we arrived that this wasn't a new issue, and the jackdaws have damaged the inside of the dairy building for probably decades. However, they're now pecking at structural trusses, their faeces is corroding items inside and they're ransacking nests of smaller birds, including protected swallows. The "flock(?)" is huge, probably up to 50 birds at their peak and they all take what they want and kill off other wildlife in the process. We'd rather not resort to pellets and an air rifle, so the parents proceeded to fortify the dairy building with chicken mesh, gate extensions, bale wrap and whatever else was handy, in an attempt to block their access and force them to find a new home before they nest this year.
I can confirm that these birds are insanely smart. They figure every single block out, and make new holes in masonry, mesh and more if they want to be in - it's kind of terrifying. Very angry that their home was being fortified, the swarm of 40+ jackdaws attacked the shed roof, and flew full pelt repeatedly into mesh in an attempt to get the fixings to break.
One fixing did, so they knew it worked. They can squeeze through tiny gaps, fly UNDER gates with just a 5-inch gap, and with logs, wood, spare guttering and more now covering every entrance to the building, they've just worked out this morning that they can squeeze through the gate handle hole if they really try. So yep, still no luck here, but Wallis and Gromit have enjoyed watching the shenanigans all week, including me when I took over the mission on Friday.
In all their free time (basically just about my version of free time), they helped us in the cottage by finishing off the caulking and then putting up the blinds, poles, voiles and tie-backs.
Yesterday, the seeder came to seed the big fields now-covered-over quarry holes with new grass. The ground is rock solid, we're in near-drought conditions and there is still no way to harrow effectively, though we did try. We aborted the mission soon thereafter, and we'll wait for rain before chain-harrowing and rolling instead. All vital grassland management, but we're heavily governed by the weather.
Fires continue to burn across our county, and country to be honest. One of mine and Dan's favourite locations went up in flames last week and decimated the landscape. Hopefully the rain due this coming week will help us out 🤞
April Week 3:
It's a very very busy week here with lots of changes happening all at the same time, so we're just about keeping our heads above water. The new kitchen arrived on Wednesday and is filed into the kitchen itself, even though the room is nowhere near ready (it will be soon I promise!).
Dan is plastering as I type and should have the whole room done by morning tomorrow, which keeps us onto our fixed deadline of April 30th.
I've had to do an urgent loading Bootcamp with Velia as she travels tomorrow for a 2 month holiday elsewhere, but our truck (dogmobile) broke and she is no longer with us, as she's too unreliable, so we have new wheels - the gap meant I had 4 days to get V happy to load so I've been eslewhere too!
The bedside tables have been identified, mats selected for the floors near doors, and it's just a sprint to the end of the major bits of work now in the cottage. As you know, we're VERY behind, but glad we're doing things right and not rushed.
April Week 4:
On Monday the kitchen plastering was complete 1.5 hours ahead of schedule (go Dan!), but plaster needs to dry, and the timing worked perfectly to allow for that drying to happen whilst a student was here for a 2-day one to one.
Dan got caught up on a lot of urgent admin, bills, boring adulting things, and he also got the DOFF on the doors that were left to strip. We didn't think of this before, but we will do it in the future for sure.
He also made all the remaining wooden window sills for the rest of the cottage, and sured up the worktop fitter man and the electrician to check they'd be coming to do their bits on time.
Next, we had to RUN to get the kitchen in place for those people to do their jobs. So with the plaster dried carefully via heating and dehumidifiers, the painting blast began. Every wall and ceiling had a fresh skim on, so mist coats, then emulsion, all had to be done before we could fit the kitchen.
Sunday rolled around after that night finished and with one coat of paint left to do, Dan started early doors then headed out to the shops. At 11am the walls were dry and that left me alone with the below set of boxes from DIY Kitchens.
I'd given planning this kitchen on a budget everything I had, and as a non-culinary expert (I literally do not cook, at all, ever), I put all my learnings into practice and had it signed off by Dan. The only thing I was told to move was the bin cupboard over one unit - fine by me! Being part of putting it together was extremely satisfying, so I'd cleared a couple of days in my diary to make sure I was here.
Therefore, with a mission to complete, I moved as much as my little body could handle into the rough position using my map, but there were a few things I couldn't move far: the tall fridge-freezer unit and a base unit with drawers that was impossible to upend alone onto its legs without breaking them. That left me here waiting for Dan to return.
Together again, we got everything to roughly where it needed to be and then proceeded to do kitchen fitting as absolute newbies (I've "helped" with one before, Dan has never done this). We started with a corner unit (just out of sight in these photos on the back left side), which needed some surgery for the central heating expansion vessel and some pipework, along with the fridge freezer electrical connection. We got her in and levelled, keeping in mind the lowest units' height restrictions (the oven/hob unit on the middle right) and the plinth height too.
From here, we proceeded and worked to add each unit to the last, levelling on all 3 axis as we went, fixing them safely to one-another and doing surgery as we went.
As night fell we were not finished, so we carried on. At 1:30 am (technically into Week 5 of April), we were here (below), ready for worktops which were being fitted the following morning, and final fix electrics which were happening the following day too.
This cottage won't be finished finished by Wednesday, when a student arrives to crash in this house, but it never was going to be. It will be finished enough, though, and that's what counts!
#trusttheprocess is still happening, for now. Time is very much ticking...
April Week 5:
Only a few days squished into this week, but holy smokes the amount of things we had squished in was crazy. As we've discussed, the Worktop Crew from Lewis Murray's team and Electrician Kenny were due to do their bits, and the day was kinda nice to just be an observer rather than a do-er. We tried to stay out of their way wherever possible, and off they went! Thankfully, both sets of experts said we'd done a good job, which was nice to hear. We did try!
Worktops are a contentious topic.
Would I have preferred quartz? Yes. It wasn't in the budget this time though.
Would I have preferred wood? Yes. But it wasn't wise for a potential rental.
Did I LOVE the compact laminate samples we got? YES, but they too were out of budget.
There was only one other option:
We settled on a very simple but classy standard laminate. It's a just off matte finish, an off white that matches the walls and general vibe in this cottage, and it has a square edge, which was one of my non-negotiables. The worktop guys did a super job, and we also got to see the sink I'd picked out go into place. So much fun!
We cracked on with plumbing as a two-person team and managed to get the dishwasher, washing machine, sink waste and overflow, along with the tap, all installed with only minor surgery to the carcass and no squabbles as we went.
I really feel a good sink and tap, along with a good extractor/cooker hood, really "makes" a kitchen. I'm very happy with the twists of traditional and modern that run through this space.
Final fix electrics wrapped up too, so now, with sockets and switches, a working oven, hob, extractor, washing machine, dishwasher and fridge-freezer, we were on the home straight:
The last day of April rolled around and, technically, the kitchen looked like this ^^^. The student was arriving with her partner from the US that afternoon and obviously she needed a kitchen she could use.
In the final 8 hours, we still needed to:
Drill and put the handles on the cupboards (which came with screws that weren't long enough to get through the cabinet fronts)
Put the windowsills on in here (of which there were 4)
Add the cooker hood cover
Fully clean everywhere, brush, hoover & mop
Stock the brand new cupboards with utensils
Add appliances to the worktops (kettle, toaster, microwave)
Dress the kitchen with cloths, towels and cleaning supplies
Just, you know, a short list.
That was on top of a full clearout of everything else in this house, a full clean, laundry change, putting all the internal doors back on, and more. Dan absolutely nailed his final shopping trip, so fuelled solely with Coke cans and good music, we smashed out the last of our tasks.
That left us here:
Thankfully, our student knows everything about this project and were happy for, and prepared to do, camping with snacks. Hopefully, the stage we ended April at made their stay a little bit better than that ❤️
Here's a before and after for April (from Week 2 to 5):
As we look forward to May, aside from laying the final stretch of flooring in the kitchen and hallway, we have just the little itty bits in this property left. Things like adding curtain rails to wardrobes and adding artwork to walls. They can wait, because for now we're moving back into the farmhouse as we prepare for Stage 6 of the farmhouse renovation.
Dogs:
No official goals or anything here, but we have two new faces. I know, it's a lot to take in. These two were already in motion before we lost Piper, and we weren't about to u-turn on getting them into a safe home. It was tough though, really tough, to put aside the grief and focus on these two souls. I suppose I didn't set it aside, I may have used it as fuel?
Either way, they've been here for a few weeks, so I'll do brief intros here:
Lemon 🍋
Lemmy is a 4 year old working labrador bitch who is a super sweet rescue dog. She's historically been really tricky to live with in a house, but she has THE most amazing brain.
She learns like lightning (genuinely, FAR faster than Ren or the collies did!) and will never, ever be a couch potato.
Lemon isn't a bad dog, she's just a dog that needs a job, and whether that is finding things I've misplaced or working with me as I do my job, she's up for it anytime, anywhere.
We knew Lemon and have worked with her before, and we're really happy she's safe in our home forevermore (where, FYI, she's not a problem at all!).
Zest 🍊
Zee is a 1 year old Australian Shepherd bitch who was a specialist rehome situation for Valgrays Border Collie Rescue (Finn's rescue ❤️🩹). She hasn't had the bestest start and is currently very thin, but she's bold, bouncy and a real people person, so she's getting on well!
Zest hasn't lived in a house before, and we won't know for sure if she's going to enjoy our lifestyle until she comes right out of her shell.
She's had a lot of mats removed from her back end so she looks a bit funky right now, but she's basically a giant puppy, and she is oh so much fun!
And that's April. I need a nap.