December 2024 Monthly Update
Pre-warning that everything is going to seem quite chaotic and you'll maybe have to learn what we call everything on the site, because our "pet names" for buildings, rooms and spaces can be tricky to figure out.
There are two sides to the normal written updates. Both are happening concurrently all the time, and relate to my (Jess) personal goals plus the farm project too! For this month, my personal goals focuss on Velia, one of our newbie horses, and Ren, our puppy, alongside the farm project.
The Farm
December Week 1:
The last week of last month was a disaster from top to bottom, so this week was full steam ahead recovery mode. The farmhouse sneaky leaks were fixed on Monday and the boiler had a new pellet feed pipe put on after it burnt through the old one, it is currently on and working (see Jan update for how that held up!).
The farmhouse now has gutters on all around, another major milestone achieved, with none going over the top of windows. The cottage bathroom has been delivered - my budget haul is looking good I think!
December Week 2:
Dan has successfully ripped out the cottage bathroom so we're loo-less in here for a little bit (not fun in this wind to go hike to the farmhouse to use the bathroom!). The plumber and electrician are all ready to get this turned around ASAP. This will be a HUGE milestone for us because we've been living with a fairly poor bathroom for months, with a shower held up with tape (literally), and plumbing that really needed to be switched out.
We also had another milestone moment, though it didn't involve any progress, because we think we've found a builder who won't disappear/ghost/run away. He came to do a site visit in the pouring rain and he's got teams of guys who do all sorts, so we're hoping to rely on them/him a lot to get us to where we need to be.
The farmhouse is back up to its pre-boiler breakdown temperature and the builder has actions to complete to help get that further along.
General Status: We're currently one full month behind (don't worry, I have contingency!). My focus on our Advent project for students hasn't impacted us too much, despite what one may think, but it likely has caused around 1 weeks delay all added up, because Dan can't be noisy if I'm filming/voicing-over anything indoors too. This is why I've been completing work in the farmhouse (as those who watch them will know!), as it gives him more windows to be a noisy bear.
December Week 3:
Progress in the cottage again with Bedroom 2, fully plastered with a mist coat on all walls with skirting painted ready to go on and the remaining woodwork sanded. The hall, landing and stairs are stripped of wallpaper and the stairs are fully sanded. Both of these were solely down to Dan and our guest–I have done nothing of any use to help the project here!
The hallway cupboard that we blocked up from the living room now has an opening in it, Dan is well on the way to skimming this section now. The bathroom is delayed due to a decision to re-route pipework but the bath is in, tiling is underway and the plastering is complete in there too.
The plan is to have carpets laid from the stairs up between Christmas and New Year, which will be super tight but we're ploughing towards it at speed 🥳
December Week 4:
The plumber made an error in the bathroom and we're behind on that sadly. Still crossing everything that'll it'll be done for Christmas but it's been disappointing and demoralising in general for me as the schedule keeps moving. The bath is fully plumbed in, tiling complete, loo partially plumbed, floor complete etc, so it's nearly there, but it isn't all done. Remaining hopeful!
Upstairs the middle bedroom is painted with skirting board on ready for carpets on the 27th.
The last bedroom was mine and Dan's, so this week we moved our bed over to the farmhouse where we've been camping for a few nights with Ren.
Photo shows the bedroom we're in there, complete with holes in the ceiling.
Saturday night the pellets backed up in the boiler there (we think this brand of pellets is poop) so I whipped out a hot water bottle and a space heater. 9C, it's ok, it's not ideal, but it's ok.
Being in such a ginormous room is very, very odd. That bed frame is a chunky super king size (1.8m x 2m / 6' x 6'6") and it's like it's a teeny cot in a cave. Oddly, the house is incredibly quiet, calming and I don't think I've slept so well in YEARS. Ren too, she keeps forgetting to wake us up, so I'm the first one up at 7am 😱 Need to actually set an alarm - what is this?!
The bedroom in the cottage could then begin its strip - we've camped in there for 7/8 months now but haven't done anything to it.
We uncovered a matching original fireplace and dismantled one of the DIY storage areas (see photo). Dan's almost prepped to skim. This room will be ready for carpets on the 27th too so that'll be the last of the rooms upstairs. The landing and stairs won't be carpeted until January (fitters choice, not ours), so Dan has a bit of time to skim that and then upstairs in the cottage will be complete 🥳 Just the kitchen left in there at that point and then we can finally move on to the terrifyingly big project of the Farmhouse!
Some of you also know about the Starlink situation. The new one is in, but we lost a day trying to solve that problem and fit the new one. Dan also lost a day with the bedroom move. Collectively we're an extra week behind, despite everyone's best efforts. The fact I'm super tired doesn't help maintain enthusiasm, but at least we have a partial plan to get back on track. Musical bedrooms and late nights will see us through 🤓
The shoot the other week at the farm did bring gifts though. Allan dropped us in 4 pheasants for the inconvenience of keeping animals in - the food miles on these will be less than 0.5, with almost zero carbon footprint as they're reared just on the side of the hill inside the old farm boundary. They've been prepared in the kitchen for a big Pheasant Pie on Christmas Day.
December Week 5:
Oddly loads happened on Christmas week but it didn't get fully complete. The cottage bathroom looks like the image here - kinda finished but also not quite (extractor cable hanging up there). The electrician and plumber were here again on Monday but it didn't get finished. I did sneak a bath in, but that also proved that the extractor fan needs to work before any other use. Progress nonetheless.
Then on Boxing Day whilst my Dad was still here for his 24-hour visit, he planed some doors so they closed in both the farmhouse and the cottage, and we all congregated in the farmhouse kitchen to do a Time Team special and excavate a test trench (a 4" square) of the kitchen floor. We wanted to see, in this 300-400-year-old part of the building, if there was a flooring layer below the concrete. We found Dumfries Sandstone tiles/blocks but they're not in great condition (in the 4" test hole anyway), but it was fun regardless.
Then the day after boxing day we had a BIG day in the cottage because the carpets arrived! I'd rung on Monday after Dan had a wobble and cancelled one of the rooms to give him a bit of breathing space, so two bedrooms only were carpeted, with the rest booked in for the 23rd Jan. This was the right thing to do, because Dan has been at breaking point (I think we all have to be honest, December has been tough). The image below is the "green room" which has its carpet in, and our guest and I moved all the furniture/beds/bits in and out for the carpet people to do their thing. Still touch-ups to do in here, and art for the walls to go up, but she looks like a cosy space, and feels like it too!
Whilst the carpet people were in the cottage, Dan switched to the dairy to continue clearing the log wall. It's now dangerous to walk up the hill next to the cottage because months of rain and hooves have turned this access route into a giant slip-and-slide. I've gone over, tradies have fallen too, and it's simply no longer safe.
This log wall needed sorting so the horses can get from stable to field on hard tracks instead of grass ones, and with the weather turning next week to hit less than -15C, we need a no-concrete access path too to avoid the ice rink on the lower concrete yard. Dan has been chipping away at this sheds blockage for weeks, but on the 27th he finally got through the last section to give us a direct access path up and out to the field 🥳
In other news, I've also made the first move on getting a valuer/surveyor to come check our progress, so hopefully by the end of January I can give a more serious "we can get a mortgage now" or "we're never going to be able to do it" verdict.
Technically Dan and I are living in the farmhouse (camping style once again), so there is a working kitchen (Christmas dinner happened here) and bathroom. Although it REALLY isn't pretty, many people are convinced it's already there. We'll see.
Dogs:
This goal was a personal one to train Ren how to find things with her nose, a safe form of enrichment whilst she's been on crate rest and highly restricted exercise for months.
Ren has had her second stem cell implantation this week which was also the moment of truth, so I've been getting increasingly anxious. If the first implantation didn't work, we'd essentially be back at where we were in the summer, in which case the outcome was not something anyone would want.
Alas, she had a full re-scan and x-rays, along with diagnostics, before her implantation this time and I can confirm that she is... FIXED 🥳
The fracture has heeled up, the tendons have calmed down, the joints are showing actual improvement rather than just freezing arthritic progress in place and she's physically 100% level, 100% sound and miles better than she was at the start. This news is crazy good, as I'm sure you'll understand, so I did cry - a lot.
She has a week or two of rest then back at it, and she can now go off lead, do sports (not agility or flyball, but she can canicross, obedience, etc), all sorts! A world away from where we were in July/August time - still hasn't sunk in - but we're over the moon.
After Ren's full rest ended, she had her first off-lead walk since June/July time and, despite the foul weather, she loved it! She's just been a happy dog this week and that too is ok, as we've battened down the hatches to keep everything running. We are making plans to set up her little "test" to meet this scentwork goal though, and I'm confident she'll ace it. Perhaps -2.5 points for box squishing... we'll see!
She's not actually going to do a legitimate test - we knew we would never be able to get to one as they're all in the South of England, so we're recreating the searches instead, here on the farm.
In week 3 of December, Ren's test for this goal happened. I left the set-up and judging solely to our guest who took the entire thing extremely seriously and literally poured over the rules and trial videos to create the perfect test, raiding the farmhouse for materials and furniture, and thus, here we are.
The test began at 9am and consisted of the required 4 blind searches (neither the handler nor the dog knew where the articles were). Search 1 is indoor tables and chairs, Search 2 is indoor boxes, bags and containers, Search 3 is outdoor objects search and Search 4 is an outdoor vehicle (we used the horsebox because Dan is FAR too protective over actual cars). Each test is timed with a limit, has specific points for specific things, and deductions for errors, issues or behaviour of the human or dog whilst under test.
The first test we did was in the farmhouse kitchen because Ren had never been in this building before. She did a great search and we scored full points. In the second test, we did "indoor" in Granary B because it was the only space large enough, and after the first of the two specified finds in this test, the kittens wanted to join in which caused a potential disaster.
Ren lost concentration and we had a point deduction for me repeating a search command excessively, and her wandering to try to see Wallis & Gromit, but she did complete the second find and we completed the test within the time allowed.
On the third test she did really well, though there was a deduction for pawing at the hide which caused the article to be ejected out the side, however, she didn't pick it up etc, and marked it correctly to pass. The fourth test was around the horsebox, which she found in 25 seconds like a boss queen.
Our total score was 97.5/100 which in our unofficial DIY version of this test, was a great result 🥳 There were absolutely NO squished boxes, not even one! As you can see, Ren was very pleased with the result and therefore, our impromptu Ren Goal 2.0 is now complete 💪
Horses:
This goal for me relates to Velia, our rising 4-year-old Knabstrupper mare and the aim is to back her over winter before deciding on what to do next. Pop in foal for 2026, ride away, or let her find a new home with a human who just wants a best friend? We're not 100% sure yet, but she's developing nicely and enjoying having something to do!
Long reining in the big part of the field, with the other girls turned out for Velia this time. Not without sticky bits but she tried exceptionally hard and we progressed onwards. Working on steering and brakes for now, but going away nicely. The ground is getting very mixed here so we might need those extra months I plugged into this goal!
Zero progress thereafter, partly because I had a bump to the head and a subsequent concussion, so I didn't want to risk another bump with potential baby horse antics, but also because the weather has been disastrous. The ground is completely saturated, everywhere is very slippery mud, and it's just one of those weeks to leave it alone and come back another time. We worked instead on her anxiety with other horses moving (A star for that) and just on keeping the horses dry and warm where possible. Driving rain and wind are not a good combination with zero chance for anything to dry!
The following week, the weather wasn't on our side again, but this time for different reasons (frosty once more), though the ground had dried a touch. So much so that I really wanted to actually ride so I took Tuna out for the first time since moving to the farm, which was great for Tuna, and for me, and also for V as she had to cope without her bestie in the stable.
The vet gave us the go-ahead the next week for 24/7 turnout, so they all spent a 36-hour stint outside - once they got over the fact they weren't coming in for dinner, they chilled out and were a happy herd through the night.
Towards the end of the month, I came to terms with the delays from weather/ground here in this window. The ground by the end of December was just not safe enough for even an experienced ridden horse like Tuna to do 3 paces on the grass. I didn't canter T when I rode her, and I'd be hesitant to trot or canter with how wet, uneven and slippery random sections are, so an unbalanced, green and wiggly 3.5-year-old is a bit silly to attempt safety-wise. It may dry up in March, or we might try to trailer her to an arena to just do that first 3-pace ride, but it won't be soon on the farm. We could put a surface into one of the silage bays for a temp schooling arena to make this goal work too, but we have so much to do in the houses here that it's not a priority and would side-track the project too much.
That's December!