February 2025 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 goal focusses on Velia, one of our newbie horses, alongside the farm project.
February was quite the month! The local weather station stats are updated for the previous month on the first working day of the next, and I really like to include them, so I'll add them here. 11C to -10C was our temperature range, with an average of 4C. We got 126mm of rain throughout the month, with 17 days of rain, 19 ground frosts and 10 days of no sun whatsoever. 46 hours of sunshine though, so we can't complain!
The Farm:
February Week 1:
Dan's been busy this week with business admin bits, which has meant some progress gaps on the farm. A fair amount of planning and phone calls for the coming weeks are done, but the major visible thing was probably that the laurel hedge has FINALLY been pulled out 🎉
This was necessary because the hedge was so wide it was causing vans to drive up against the entrance steps, which have partly collapsed, and also because I heavily dislike laurel, and it's toxic to grazing animals too. The digger was on site for Wednesday and by the end of the day, the laurel was out and cleared from the side of the farmhouse. The access is now wider, and the bonus is that the kitchen sink in the farmhouse now has a direct eye-line to ponies.
The cattle grid is fully complete with fencing in situ and it's like a whole new level of comfort to enter the driveway. It's insane how something so (relatively) small can make such a difference, but everyone who drove the before and now the after is swooning over the grid. The new sign was ordered later in February so hopefully this will be in place by the second week of March. Understandably, we won't be sharing a photo of the sign, because that would be silly for security and safety, but I promise it looks great.
Cottage progress beginning again, steady away as always. On the 1st February, the hallway looked like this image here, with the coat nook stripped and the floor screeded.
February Week 2:
It feels like nothing happened this week but SO MUCH happened this week, just not literally. I don't even know where to begin so we'll start with the bit you've been following in the Cottage: The downstairs hallway coat nook area.
This is now fully plastered and the floor has been screeded ready for decorating and finishes. The plaster will need to dry a little more but she's well on her way:
We then learnt that the cottage would be inhabitant-less for longer than we'd planned, which means that we decided on what to do with the kitchen there this week too. We'd been planning to re-use cabinets where we could, change doors, change the worktop and some appliances that are end-of-life too. However, with the amount of wall damage from bits being added and taken away over the years, the extra time means that we can replaster and replace the kitchen in full with something much simpler and stronger, and it'll probably work out similar in price in the end but with a better finish.
For this, I gathered samples to keep on Dan's budget but still in keeping with the rest of the decor, and after a week of waiting for these to come so that we could make decisions, we ordered the kitchen. Units only, as we'll source everything else separately, but we'll discuss this room in more detail when we get closer to installation (it's not due until April).
I've worked the last 3 weekends, including this one, to free up time to help and do farm project planning work in the week, which seems to be working ok. I don't mind the lack of a day off, and I'm quite content with progress all around so far 🤓
February Week 3:
The cottage bedroom doors have been stripped fully and sanded ready for repainting, but other than that, everything this week has been non-site work, towards the site.
The surveyor came after having to reschedule on "Storm Day" in January. He said nothing we didn't already know, but he confirmed my own thoughts that the main house needs to look like a house (not stone walls inside), to secure finance. For that reason, we've spent the rest of the week making a plan to make that happen, and we're happy with these tasks for the year (we at least have a plan, wahoooo!). He didn't say anything terrible, and he allayed fears on the rest of the site and buildings, which is good.
He did give us an updated valuation, and everything is moving in the right direction. Thankfully, despite it looking a bit worse in places, the value hasn't got any worse than it was before!
Overall, we're probably in the best place we can be and we're making plans for the future, whereas we weren't beforehand, so at least there's that.
February Week 4:
A busy week in the cottage as we race to get the decorating work complete before the last of the carpets get fitted at the start of March. As every single wall and ceiling has been reskimmed, with new skirting board everywhere but the stairs, and even then the woodwork has been sanded right back to re-start, there wasn't an insignificant amount to get done. But with the plaster finally ready in the coat nook area downstairs, it was time.
Arguably, this is the worst photo I think I’ve ever taken.
Misting first, followed by emulsion. I was present only for the very first paint strokes of the latter. Sadly, I also realised at that very moment that the plan to go with the darker emulsion was a bad one, so Dan had to do a quick step change to switch the lighter paint into play.
With everything coated with the right colour, it was then time for glossing the woodwork (but not with a gloss finish), which is tediously slow in comparison, so Dan prioritised the upstairs woodwork as it is vital that this is complete prior to the carpets coming in.
On the last day of the month, the first anniversary of us getting the keys to the farm, we panelled the walls. The "green room" is already complete and looks awesome, so it was important to me to have the other two rooms kitted out in the same, and it made sense to do this before the carpet went into the last room.
I work Friday mornings till mid-afternoon every week on fixed, non-negotiable online calls. But when I'd finished, Dan started cutting, and then after tea (dinner for non-northerners) we began.
Spending an entire Friday night panelling two walls wasn't on my 2025 bingo card but I probably should have expected it. And therefore we cracked on. Around 10pm I hit a wall but with music blasting and copious doses of banter, we completed what we needed to complete at exactly 9 minutes to midnight.
It doesn't look like much right now, but I promise that if you just trust the process, it'll come together like a dream in no time at all.
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.
We've were BLESSED by the weather at the start of the month (apart from a downpour day, but I'm ignoring that!) and the nights are noticeably drawing out too so I can work with the animals after 4pm again - it's still very much daylight 🥳 Therefore, V came back to school, but only outside. Whilst in the field with the herd we worked on some confidence bits (because she's scared of her shadow half the time), and with the help of Connie, who consistently tried to eat/stand on/wear anything "scary" that I brought out, V came on leaps and bounds.
We also did some work away from the other horses in the quarry field. Nothing major and no tack, just some work on the aids for shoulder and hind quarter movements, double rein pressure (no bit) with me leaning on her side to desensitise her a bit more to pressure and movement where my legs will be and so on. She's looking so much better than she did when she first arrived, nowhere near as angular and poor.
No massive gains really, but absolutely valuable for her and that's the main thing! (I also got a bazillion steps in, so that's a bonus)
The following week, we got a major step complete, I got on board.
I usually would back a baby horse in a round pen because that's how I was taught, but we do not have a pen, arena or small field, so stable it would be. I roped Dan in because I didn't fancy being scraped off the floor, or the rafters, if Velia reacted negatively to this, but Dan ended up just being there to feed snacks and not much else, which is super!
Velia would have crumbled in a puddle of fear if this had been attempted in November, so to see her here now fills me with pride. We could've got here a month ago, but to be honest, I think the time has done her good! I got on and off from the ground, then with a leg up, and then squeezed to go (with voice aid too) and halted with my seat to stop, and she read each one like an old pro. Full disclosure, when I put my foot in the stirrup the first time, I did have a brief thought of "I'm too old for this sh*t" at the riskiness of starting babies again at 30+, but I'm glad the groundwork paid off 😅
Next we went for a pootle in the giant field with the safety net of the lunge line. Technically, not needed but mentally, needed. It's the biggest space I've ever walked a baby into for the second time they've ever been sat on, and mentally, I needed the help, especially as it was a bit blustery out 😅
Just walk whilst she found her balance, held the leg (really well!) and figured out whoah and go with a human directing from up top. Dan was there to mediate any drama and provide confidence from the ground. She did super, a very level head. One whoosh moment with a weight shift and balance change on a turn, but once she realised we were all good, she settled back nicely. Aside from this saddle (my old GP-adjustable that fits her well) putting me into the worlds worst chair seat that I don't really need right now, it's a nice enough picture.
The weather changed quickly, so the herd came indoors for safety and V had a bath to clean that horrendous tail (it's supposed to be pure white). From then to the end of the month the land was sodden, warterlogged and incredibly slippy, so the girls went back out when it was safe to do so, but riding was off the cards until we dried up, which took us right to March 1st.
Doing this without any facilities or good hacking is incredibly tough, and whilst I long for a space to be able to work and train, I know it really isn't a priority right now for us and our family, so I'll just keep on keeping on whenever I can.
That's February!