March 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.
Ah, March. The month that includes my birthday (hi, it's Jess!) and, usually, a boat-load of chaos for us work-wise. March usually includes The Photography & Video Show, where we all, including the dogs, head to the NEC to work for 4 days straight with our brand partners and students alike. This year, the show moved back a week to clash with Crufts, and it also moved to London, so we took a gap year and that meant we had a free week to do something crazy. We decided to host a photography retreat here in Scotland, and we welcomed 20 students from both the UK and overseas (USA x 8, Norway x 2, Canada x 1, New Zealand x 1) to the area to capture some stunning photographs of dogs and horses.
The reason I'm mentioning this now is that the Retreat was 6 days long, and we had a mountain of prep and catch-up to do, so in theory we lost around 1.5-2 weeks of working time on site. This will be reflected in this month's update, obviously!
Obligatory weather update: March was weird. 17C to -6C was our temperature range, with an average of 6.2C. We got 44.8mm of rain throughout the month (the driest on this station's record, which is insane), with 11 days of rain, 19 ground frosts and just 4 days of no sun whatsoever. February had a grand total of 46 hours of sunshine. March had 143.2 hours, and it was noticed. Many of our photography students ended up getting sunburn on the beach. In March. In Scotland.
The Farm:
March Week 1:
I'll start from the top but as we knew Week 1 was our main working week in March, the list is expansive!
After I shared my update last month, Dan filled and primed, then painted, the panelling in the last two upstairs rooms in the cottage. The last of the carpets arrived the following day and were fitted, which meant that when the beds arrived on Wednesday, they could go straight into the bedrooms instead of sitting in a manky cold shed 🥳 See images of all of that, here:
Also on Monday was the start of storm repairs to roofs and the cottage was the first stop on the repair tour because the storm damage had left water coming into the upstairs bedroom. However, we also found some other niggly little leaks that had likely been brewing for some time, so in the end the roofers stripped both sides of the gable end and re-felted, sarked and slated with a dry verge to prevent water coming in with the driving south-west rain. They also installed the elephants' feet/pepper pots into the now-retired chimneys, repointed some damaged cement up there, and replaced all the slipped slates that had gone on adventures in the storm.
They then moved onto Granary A's ridge repair, the big-6 sheet in Granary B, and then circled back up to the farmhouse, where they didn't quite get the repairs completed this week, but they'll pick back up next week there.
We then had two very unplanned days of sampling all NHS Scotland has to offer, starting with me in the wee hours of one night, followed by Dan the next day. I'm all good, Dan has a referral, and we continue onwards. By now, if you're still with me, we're about to roll into Saturday of Week 1, which is super special because...
IT'S PAINT REMOVAL WEEK 🥳
The sandblaster guys arrived at about 7:15am and got stuck in immediately, commencing with the northernmost gable end.
For those who watched our previous video ages ago about paint removal, this part will by a bit like, "wait... what?!". Shotblasting/sandblasting was never the go to plan, but after testing so many areas of the building, a mixed approach was decided so the blasters will take the solid walls to get through the bitumen underneath, and Dan with the DOFF will take the delicates - softer stone, close areas to windows or doors, and anywhere on brick that could be damaged by blasting.
I'd rescheduled the Friday one-to-ones that our new social life (with medical professionals) had cancelled, so between Saturday Zoom calls with the legendary students, I headed out to catch progress where I could. My records are patchy, but we have a pretty cool timelapse that I could leave abandoned. One day, we'll share that, but for now a photo will have to do:
Context is important here: Behind the paint we knew there would be some layers, but we didn't know what they would consist of, or how bad the lime pointing would be behind. With solid stone walls, you can't use cement or concrete to point, and you can't seal the wall with anything "waterproof". Why? Because this house happens.
Removing the paint revealed a patchwork of lime mortar that's not in the world's worst condition and sections of really shoddy cement/concrete pointing. Around the concrete pointing, on the inside of the wall, is damp and mould. Behind the paint on the outside, all the stone was soaking wet despite the outer layer of paint being completely dry - waterproof paint holds water in, not out.
Around the lime pointing with the paint off, the walls immediately started to dry out, which is super, but it needs raking out and repointing with lime everywhere, and all the cement/concrete ripped off, which is as expected really. It could be better, could have been worse, about where we thought we'd be. But the stones are LOVELY and I'm very happy with the walls 🤓
In one day, the guys had done the gable end, under the big bedroom window (where the steps to the porch are), the porch walls and Dan had removed the paint on some of the window surrounds too with the DOFF machine (that was his job in all of this). Sadly, the window surrounds are not anything traditional or locally sourced like Dumfries sandstone or Dalbeattie granite (yet, that we've seen), they're faux cement surrounds on the sides and top, and then just cement sills below. Such a shame, but it's ok, we can make do.
Overall, a mega week that needed to happen!
March Week 2:
Dan went ahead of the blaster, working around all the windows to remove the paint with the DOFF.
The farmhouse became naked in full this week, and seeing what's there underneath, we can now really prepare the rest of the project. What was under years of limewash, paint, and cement is (in my opinion) truly beautiful. Mostly.
I know we talked about this a bit up there in the other week, but now we have a full picture, we can dive in.
Solid stone walls should only ever be pointed up with lime mortar. It's softer than cement and lets the wall carry water in a way that keeps it healthy, and it also allows some movement whilst retaining integrity. Our walls are a mixture of well-kept and very, very, bad. The north and east sides are full of concrete and cement that needs to be ripped out, but the south and west sides (the ones that get most of the weather), are very, very good.
Window-surround-wise we have a total mish-mash of none at all, stone, concrete, sandstone and sandstone full surrounds. Absolutely nothing matches 😂
There are now gaping craters where older window and door frames meet the stone, so we're certainly no longer weatherproof, but the house immediately started to dry, and it's much better now.
This is positive news, because it could have been worse!
It was also Retreat Prep Week though, which was basically a giant "tidy up time" plus converting the store into an equine studio. You know, things normal people do! One of our brand partners for the photography work is Click Backdrops, the guys there did me an absolute solid and helped to print a gigantic 6m x 3m vinyl backdrop to go on the back wall of the shed.
This is hung with their mega magnets that genuinely do not budge an inch even with so much weight hanging off them. A student who was attending the retreat came up early and was instrumental in this part getting complete on time, helping to clear the shed, do the DIY to get the upper support plates on, and then helped hang the beast too.
The actual image on the backdrop is a photograph I took the week before. It's the back wall on the gable end up in the loft, above the arches. It makes a great grunge farm vibe, and I thought it would be cool with Connie's spots.
In case anyone was wondering how it photographs, here's Connie working the lights in front of the students that weekend:
March Week 3:
Retreat week, so zero farm progress as we literally weren't there, but it's important to share something else that happened the day it began, on the Sunday morning when that ^^^ photo was taken. This is the exact update I shared with all our members, and it's too painful right now to rewrite, so I hope it is appropriate to put here too. It is about one of our dogs, Piper, our 7-year-old Border Collie, who works with us every single day. She was also supposed to be working the retreat with the rest of the pack, starting on Day 1.
Retreat day 1 started on Sunday at 10am. On Sunday at 7:45am, Pippi went into the vets as an emergency case and she had life-saving surgery all morning. When the Retreat started, Pippi was still under the knife - how we carried on I'm not quite sure, but it certainly put a gigantic spanner into our Retreat week.
Her preliminary scans and bloods showed severe anaemia and extensive internal bleeding. Dan was supposed to be at the hotel collecting students to come to the farm, but of course, Pippi came first so he was there, losing his mind as the vets said there was a fair chance she wouldn't make it through surgery.
Alas, she went in and under, so Dan continued with his job of collecting students and making sure the Retreat started as planned, on schedule, here at the farm. In the interim, I was calling family to see if anyone could drop everything and come be 24-hour care for Pippi all week if she did, in fact, make it home. Dan's Dad is Pips favourite and luckily he said he would come whenever needed, so at least we had someone to watch her if she made it.
Surgery found the source of the bleeding - a tumour on her spleen that had been leaking progressively and was now at a critical level. The tumour (and her spleen) was removed and the bleeding stopped, but she lost A LOT of blood and a transfusion was scheduled. She came round from surgery brighter than she went in, so the vets held off on the bloods to see how she held up. Her platelets were the next issue, as she had very few left. The bruising is still extensive but hurdle by hurdle she defied the vets expectations. By the following morning we had the all-clear that she could go home to recover, so Dan's dad drove up to the farm and he met Dan and pip whilst the Retreat was in an Image Review session.
The following days saw Pip return to her normal feral self a little bit more each day. Whilst we were in a forest shooting session Pip had her re-check and bloods, and the vets were amazed - they said it was like a completely different dog and her fitness was instrumental to her recovery. By the time I got home to see her for the first time since she went into surgery, she was back to her normal toy-loving, adventure-hunting, insanely intelligent self. Trotting about, playing and eating well ❤️
Although she's out of the woods now, we still don't have results on the mass yet, so it may be malignant. If it is, it is likely that the cancer has spread. If it isn't, we might be in the clear. She goes back to the vet next Wednesday for a blood check and her stitches out, so we'll know more then 🤞
March Week 4:
Again, I've copied this week word for word, there's zero chance I can rewrite anything today:
Last week I added a Pippi update where she was doing really well, but we didn't know that her positive progress would soon turn downhill. She woke up badly on Wednesday, just around the time we got the mass results back that the original bleed had been caused by a hemangiosarcoma, so off to the vets we went where they checked her bloods and gave her a jab. She perked up really well and Thursday was awesome - she was all there and game for anything.
Hemangiosarcoma has a life expectancy, after the initial tumour is removed, of between 19 and 65 days, another study puts it at 9 to 84 days. It's so aggressive and is a cancer of the blood vessels, so its ability to move is unmatched, and then when moved, the growth rate is insane. 10% of dogs make it to 1 year, but really they're the outliers.
I hoped we'd be an outlier, an anomaly, a perfect recovery, but deep down I had doubts and I'm pretty good at assessing when a dog isn't right.
So on Friday morning, before online one-to-ones, when Pip wouldn't eat, move, or play, I knew we should expect the worst. She went in for a check with Dan at 9:15am and she was given another jab. This time she didn't perk up, her gums where white, and there were some feint hind limb tremors, along with zero proprioceptive response on her back right leg, so at 11am I asked to speak to Bruce, our equine vet (also SA), who just says it like it is and knows me really well, to see if they could do more.
Pip went in shortly after, and it wasn't long before Bruce called me in to look at everything. He knows I'm a science geek, so he said it as facts without the dressings you might have from another vet (they tend to be gentler, on the whole). Her bloods were on the screen and since Wednesday, she'd gone lower into critical anaemia levels, despite her blood cells regenerating at 300%. The blood had to be going somewhere, and it wasn't in her digestive tract. By the following Monday, she'd have needed a transfusion if she made it that far. Ultrasound scanning showed changes, lumps and bumps, on and in her liver, right kidney and heart. There was a large chance she had something spinal also making an appearance. She had till next Wednesday at best, unless something catastrophic happened first, and surgery would be futile.
With animals, both large and small, there's a saying that holds true but is hard to remember, and even more difficult to apply as an owner. The saying is: "Better a week too early than a day too late."
Pippi got a mega painkiller and some appetite medication to come back home to the farm to have the best afternoon ever, playing and working on the hill for the hardest end of life photoshoot I've ever done (see her photograph below). She passed calm, comfortable and happy, surrounded by love, at the entrance to the farm in the sunset. She'll be there at the gates to see us again I'm sure, but for now we hurt - badly - as I know many of you (our members, who know our dogs as if they were their own) do too.
This week has been fully about Piper. We haven't had much time do anything else and I've been with her every day indoors to make sure she's being watched. There is some goal progress, but it isn't what was needed, so we're behind on all accounts.
Here's this week on the farm front, before it went downhill on the Wednesday:
The cottage kitchen has been fully ripped out, the electrician has been for his first checks and to assess what he needs to do next week, and Dan is almost ready to commence skimming. Whilst I taught a rescheduled one-to-one on Saturday, Dan treated the windowsills so that they can be popped on ASAP around the cottage.
Externally, the ground was dry enough to get the digger back into the field, so the quarry holes were filled in, the gateways dressed, the ground smoothed and ready for seeding, and the driveway also got a top up with some rock going spare.
We needed to do much more this week, but we couldn't, so this is all we have to add on the progress chart. Still, at least there is something.
This month's post is in memory of Dreamorox Made with Dreams: Piper.
2018-2025, the best working partner ever:
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. The goal was to have her backed to three ridden paces by 1st April, so March is the final month of this goal.
Last month, we got on board for the first time and had a little walk in the "big" field, which were huge step's for baby Velia. This month, time was against us. That is both because of how much was happening, but also because this goal had to be met by March 31st if it was to be marked as truly complete. Honestly, I was incredibly sceptical about whether it was doable, but let's walk through the grand total of 2 rides Velia had in March:
On the 1st March, we continued our February progress by trotting away, still on the lunge, and happy to pootle further around the perimeter and back down into the yard, even with the others throwing shapes alongside. Only one ride that week because last weekends rain completely waterlogged the fields.
In the big part (14 acres: quarry field), there are much drier sections, and some very wet sections, so we have to take care to be on the right parts throughout.
Technically, this goal is to back Velia to 3 ridden paces (walk, trot and canter) by April 2025, but there's no safe way to canter here at the moment. Still, we have one part of this left, and I'll only do it if it is safe.
That being said, we're still on the lunge, and I'd rather not be to feel really happy with this goal, so we'll see how we get on over the next few weeks. Walk and trot off the lunge I'm confident with now, but canter is something I'd ideally like to have tackled before going free range! I am, however, happy to settle for on the lunge and only a few steps if that is what the ground will allow.
As you can see, mixed feelings here, I was very conflicted writing that up at the beginning of March. And that's ok! Skip forward 3 weeks to the last weekend of March and we end up here:
On Saturday, after weeks of little rain and bright sunshine, Dan and I couldn't really do anything useful mentally as we were overwhelmed with grief, so we both headed up the field with some electric fence posts, fence rope, Alf and Bryt, to find the best ground for Velia's feet.
We marked out a 35m x 25m rectangle to help meet this goal this coming week. It'll be enough to give her a crutch and a boundary, and for me to not feel like I need to hold onto her too tightly (which isn't nice for them). It's definitely not substantial, but it doesn't need to be. She respects the line so I'm confident we won't have any major oopsies.
The following day, again I realised my head wasn't in the right place for work just yet so in the sunshine we went out, got V from the field, tacked up and headed out.
I long-lined in our rectangle, then just got on from the floor, before Dan set us free and we did walk, trot and a weak, unbalanced canter on both reins. Considering she hadn't had a ride in over 20 days, she was a total gem. Couldn't be happier with her brain and how much she tries for me, and yes, that does technically mean this goal is complete ❤️
Velia's first ever canter under saddle.
Because she won't be featured in these posts anymore (the goal is complete!), I thought it would be good to share a little about our plans for her. We didn't know whether we would pop her in foal or not this year, and to be honest, the door on that isn't completely shut (yet), but I also have to admit that without any ground or clear hacking options here, progressing her as a baby-baby isn't going to be easy, and the best thing for her mentally and physically in terms of ridden work is to get some rides on her in a safe space.
Therefore, at the end of April, she's going to school for a month or two to learn more from some very experienced friends who have epic facilities. They'll get her going in the school and out hacking in a safe area. This will be very good for her physically to improve her strength and balance, as she is very weak and needs some correct "work" to build good muscle in the right places.
Hopefully one day I'll have an arena to work in at home, but it's simply not a priority right now (although obviously I know exactly where it will go, the surface, the dimensions and so on already!), and the farm project comes first.
That means that Tuna and Connie will be solo at the farm for a while, which means neither of them will be split or parted at any point - because horses need friends, and that's what we do here.
March was a lot. It was painful, it hurt, it was sad. It also saw a lot of progress, but it's hard to see the positives that happened inside when we had such an unexpected loss. A loss that not only hits our home, but also our work. For those who work with their dogs every day, you'll understand the loss isn't just of a best friend or family member, but also of a teammate, a legendary worker that gives 100% and gets you out of a sticky situation when you need it most. She's irreplaceable, and she'll always be with us in her own sharp-as-a-knifes-edge, quirky and drive-ey way.