A Very Small Holding

The Elliffs journey into the good life

Dec
30

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A very merry christmas

Category: The Allotment, The House, The Village Leave a Comment

To avoid all the work involved in preparing a Christmas Day meal we opted to have our family lunch at the local public house.

At the end of the week we attended the funeral for Katie’s step-grandfather, while my parents shielded our children from this somber event.

We received the updated plans for our proposed extension. They were now ready to be submitted to pre-planning where they would be reviewed by the council for their acceptability.

My father helped me add a gutter to the shed to collect rainwater in a water butt. He also helped move the remaining storage boxes from the garage to the workshop.

Dec
23

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A very tidy workshop

Category: Chickens, Compost, The House, The Workshop Leave a Comment

It was the week before Christmas and we were preparing for our first winter in the village. We had the chimney swept to clear a birds nest, thoroughly cleaned out the chicken run and topped up the compost heap before sealing it for the winter.

My parents made another visit to our home in time for our scheduled Christmas Day lunch at the pub. My father immediately found more work to do, adding an extra plug socket to the workshop and moving the strip lights away from our new shelving units. I had the shelving installed so that we could empty the garage of the remaining unopened storage boxes.

Dec
9

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A very working week

Category: The House Leave a Comment

The first frost colours the landscape

The first frost colours the landscape

Following our short vacation I went back to work, attempting to make up for the previous month’s parental leave.

The first frosts of winter had arrived and the warmth of the house was very appealing. My temporary office was on the first floor and provided a panoramic view of the whitened landscape.

Nov
25

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A very strong wind

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The weeks following Sophia’s birth had not been kind.

Our dependence on our car was becoming apparent now that it was showing signs of unreliability. Our quiet rural location had many benefits, but the lack of facilities was telling for a young fragile family. Although the car had only developed one major fault and ingested a bad batch of diesel our trust had taken a knock.

The dent in our bank balance took another pounding when a freak gust of wind managed to blow open the metal coal bunker situated on the driveway. The concrete block holding down the broken lid down was thrown back into our neighbour’s driveway. It made a neat dent on the wing of their car. We had never used the coal bunker, it had been inherited from the previous occupants.

The saying that bad luck arrives in threes was proved accurate when our washing machine developed a terminal fault. For a toddler, two adults and a new born this was one of the most important appliances in the house. Therefore a third hefty chunk of money was handed over to acquire a new washing machine and a tumble dryer.

The front elevation of our house and the proposed side extension

The front elevation of our house and the proposed side extension

In contrast to these adverse events our architect delivered draft plans for our proposed home extension. She had provided drawings for three alternate arrangements and many improvements on our original brief. We were excited by the prospect of realising our dream home and both agreed on the grand design that would be developed in full.

Nov
18

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A very tied tongue

Category: The House Leave a Comment

Sophia asleep in her Moses basket

Sophia asleep in her Moses basket

The first week with our new arrival had its challenges.

With impeccable timing our car developed its first faults after two trouble free years motoring. Notorious for poorly designed electric circuits the computer packed up when it was invaded by a little rainwater.

We realised the chimney was in need of repair with the smell of smoke seeping into the bedroom. Christmas huddled around a natural log fire would have to wait another year.

And Baby Sophia needed a little maintenance too. A quick trip to a specialist to cut her tongue tie allowed her to feed naturally, a resource not available to her older sister. This was one of the fringe benefits of moving near to a city.

Nov
11

By

A very baby girl

Category: Ducks, Maintenance, The Allotment, The House, The Workshop Leave a Comment

Katie was due to have a caesarean section on the 8th of November, but only if the baby failed to make an appearance before that date. In preparation we had booked my parents to stay with us this week to look after Matilda while we were at the hospital.

The log store at the bottom of the garden complete with drying logs.

The log store at the bottom of the garden complete with drying logs.

To pass the time before the big day my father and I made ourselves busy outside. We used the corrugated sheets I had acquired the previous week to make a roof for our new log store at the side of the workshop. The sides were open to the elements allowing the wind to help dry out the logs we were to store there. We also constructed an extension to the short allotment bed, doubling its size, and removed the old duck house fence to open up the bottom of the garden.

We had an early start on our second daughter’s birth day. She had failed to find an exit, and seemed content inside her mother’s womb. We arrived at the hospital before most people had left for work. Due to Katie’s body’s aversion to pregnancy we were lucky enough to be first on the appointment list and there were no emergency caesareans blocking our way.

It was an unusual situation compared to a regular birth. We walked in to the operating theatre and an hour later we were presented with our new baby girl. There were no dramas during the operation, unlike at Matilda’s birth, which was premature, required an emergency caesarean section and a week in hospital. Sophia was born at 10:20am and weighted a healthy 7lb 3oz.

Sophia was born four months after we moved on 8th November 2012 weighting 7lb and 3oz

Sophia was born four months after we moved on 8th November 2012 weighting 7lb and 3oz

It was unfortunate that Katie’s birthday fell on the day after Sophia’s birth. She was forced to spend her 30th birthday in a hospital bed convalescing and was discharged the following day.

Sophia’s first day at home was not one we would wish to relive. Matilda had been small and weak when she was born, unable to regulate her body temperature, but after a week in hospital she was fighting fit. Her early days were relatively calm. Our found confidence was shattered when Sophia stopped breathing just a few hours after her discharge from hospital.

She had just fed in the early evening and was laid down to sleep. As her head touched the blanket she was quite sick and her little body could not cope. We were later to learn that her involuntary sickness was caused by reflux, which is a common problem in the first few months of life, especially for weaker babies. I picked Sophia up and she quickly began to turn blue. Katie immediately called for an ambulance and took Sophia from me.

The emergency call handler talked Katie through an assessment process while the ambulance made its way to our home. Sophia started to gasp for breath in fits and starts, slowly turning from blue to a healthier colour.

My mother waved down the ambulance, which she had timed at seven minutes, and escorted the paramedic into the house. He took over treating Sophia, who by this time had recovered her breath.

The paramedic completed his examination and explained that Sophia’s body reacted automatically to shut her airways to prevent vomit from entering her lungs. She was perfectly fit and healthy. The incident, although traumatic for us, was within the realms of normal.

The shock of this unexpected event made Katie and I very nervous, shattering the confidence we had gained during Matilda’s early days. We decided that we would take turns to sleep that night, each of us having a four hour shift to watch Sophia while she slept.

It would take several days for our anxiety levels to recede to a point where we were both happy to sleep while Sophia slept.

Oct
14

By

A very productive dad

Category: The Allotment, The Garden, The House, The Workshop, Trees Leave a Comment

My parents made another visit to our home while I was away on my bi-annual golf weekend. We had invited them to stay to provide transport for Katie should her pregnancy end prematurely. Her due date was only a month away and she was unable to drive due to the size of her bump.

My father enjoying himself with a large axe making firewood for our log burner

My father enjoying himself with a large axe making firewood for our log burner

During my weekend vacation to Cheshire my father made productive use of his time without me. He began by constructing a workbench in the workshop, using wood we had acquired at a farm auction and four metres of new hardboard from a DIY store.

We had also purchased an axe, and so my father began chopping the numerous logs we had inherited into firewood. There were several small DIY tasks around the house that I had neglected and my wife made good use of his services while I was away.

We hired the services of local man with a stump grinder to remove the remains of two trees that were felled the previous week. We had been given his details by the tree surgeons after they had completed their work. The large grinding machine pummelled the tree stumps into small pieces of soft bark. We wanted the large tree stumps removed to make way for a new garden fence and a new bed in the allotment.

While we were at the allotment digging out the mound of bark one of our neighbours asked if I would be interested in possessing a few dozen paving slabs. She had replaced her small patio with a parking space for her car and had no need for them. My father and I happily collected the heavy concrete slabs from her front yard, aware that any free materials or equipment may be of use in the future. In the spirit of goodwill I exchanged the paving with a number of freshly cut logs we had accumulated awaiting storage.

Sep
30

By

A very traumatic event

Category: Chickens, Maintenance, The Allotment, The Field, The House, Trees Leave a Comment

There were numerous farms in the area offering food and other products from the farm gate. We wanted to purchase some dry logs and kindling to use in our log burners. One entrance in the nearby village of Tean appeared to be the most welcoming and so we decided to investigate.

The visit proved to be enlightening. The farm gate belonged to a smallholding hidden beyond the houses lining the main road through Tean. The owner had a small nursery, a variety of poultry and many other animals on his twenty acre holding. We bought our wood and then began a conversation that ended with us asking him to provide a quotation for building a large allotment shed. One of his many money-making enterprises was designing and building chicken coops. A shed was an extension of this occupation.

We had originally thought that we would dismantle and reconstruct the cattery to become our shed. However, following David’s visit to the allotment he suggested that we keep the cattery intact as it was ideal for housing chickens. We intended to expand our flock of hens and to try our hand at breeding, the advice made perfect sense. He suggested that we build the shed the other side of the entrance on the paved area that I had recently cleared. It had no other purpose and was sheltered from the sun. A few days later we had ordered a twenty-four by eight foot shed, to be delivered and constructed a month later.

It was our daughter’s second birthday this week which restricted the time available to maintain the croft. I did manage to spend one dry afternoon clearing debris from the old cattery roof and cutting back branches of the invading trees.

Tabitha, our twenty-one year old cat enjoying the sunshine in the safety of our lounge

Tabitha, our twenty-one year old cat enjoying the sunshine in the safety of our lounge

The birthday itself did not go according the plan. Unfortunately we had to take our last cat, Tabitha, to the vets that Friday morning. She had been acting oddly; subdued, not eating her food and drinking water from puddles in the garden. The vet confirmed our fears; Tabitha’s stomach was tender and her heart was beating erratically. At the grand old age of twenty-one we did not wish to put her through the trauma of an operation that was unlikely to resolve her condition. We had to make the unenviable decision to put Tabitha to sleep and ease her pain forever.

We were too upset to watch the fateful event take place and wished our last memories of Tabitha to be a fond farewell. We left her in the vet’s capable hands and returned home to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of our daughter.

Sep
16

By

A very bad use of space

Category: Maintenance, The Allotment, The Field, The House, Trees Leave a Comment

Since the move to our new home I had focused my spare time maintaining the croft and preparing the land for the following year. I had neglected the house itself, which fortunately for us was reasonably well decorated. We had hung several pictures, mirrors, shelves and curtain poles, but the house was largely as it was on the day that we moved in.

A few days trapped in the house by the rain turned our attention to our homestead. We had moved in with the intention of converting the garage into an office. I was occupying one of the bedrooms, sharing it with the nursery. As a location for my small business it was far from perfect.

We invited two local builders to the house to discuss extending the building and converting the garage. We wanted a rough idea of the budget we required to build an office and also to extend the rear of the house, adding a fourth bedroom and a dining room. Both builders provided an equivalent ballpark cost that sounded reasonable and within our reach via a remortgage. The builders were equally successful in failing to follow up their verbal quotes with a concrete proposal. However, we had an idea of the cost and therefore our architect, whom was already drawing up plans for the extension, would not be wasting their time.

While we waited in hope that the house would grow in size we tried several ways to improve the space upstairs. One simple measure was to remove the fitted wardrobe that had been left in the master bedroom. This had reduced the room’s capacity by a fifth and meant that we could only get into our king-size bed from one side. The room had already been reduced in size at some point in the past to double the width of the adjacent bathroom.

I dismantled the huge wardrobe units and transported the heavy panels to the workshop. We repositioned our bed in the centre of the room facing the window, overlooking the front garden and the croft opposite. We left the bedroom wall with screw-holes exposed in the expectation that we will be decorating the house following the much anticipated extension.

The incinerator on the base of the old greenhouse filled with branches

The incinerator on the base of the old greenhouse filled to the brim with branches

During intervals in the rain showers I continued use of our new incinerator burning the branches, shrubs and vines that had previously been removed from areas of the croft. I also dismantled a bench that had been constructed under the chestnut tree. It had an ornamental rose growing up either end of the bench, wrapped around thick posts that held up a small canopy. The plant had grown like a beanstalk into the chestnut tree. The main trunk several inches thick and extending a dozen metres into the tree. I pulled the bench posts out of the ground and severed the rose plant at its root. The large thorns proved tricky to avoid as I pulled the thick stems from the boughs of the tree. I chopped up the woody plant and added the sticks to the bonfire.

Sep
2

By

A very safe garden

Category: Ducks, The Garden, The House Leave a Comment

An important characteristic of the house that we had chosen to make our home were the generous front and rear gardens. We are settling down with our family and wanted the children to have plenty of outside space to play in. Our playground would be the land across the road and they would have the gardens. We had also been lucky that the previous owners had abandoned a large playhouse and a climbing frame in the back garden. Both structures were sound and reasonable new. The play area would need to be cleared and the surrounding garden made safe for toddlers.

One important feature that was missing from the gardens were secure gates to prevent young children from running out into the road. The passage beside the house was only half a metre wide, but would allow an unsupervised child to leave the back garden and access the driveway. The driveway gates were broken and provided an easy means of escape, especially for our mischievous daughter.

Beside the playhouse a small enclosure had been built to contain pet ducks. A small duck house was located behind the playhouse wedged between the playhouse and the perimeter fence. A two bar fence began at the boundary fence and ran to the central pathway separating the poultry from the main garden. The duck enclosure was entered through a small gate from the pathway.

It occurred to me that the gate would make a suitable side entrance. We had already made the decision that all livestock would be housed on the croft, the duck enclosure was threfore surplus to requirements. It did not take long to remove the gate, retaining the post it was anchored to and unscrew the latch from the opposite fence post.

The side gate and fence constructed to prevent the children from escaping

An ivy covered fence divided our driveway from our neighbours, but it stopped short, a foot before our garage wall. Our neighbours had a car port and still had the original outbuilding at the side of their house. The outbuilding was three metres further back from the end of the fence and started on the boundary to our properties. This created a three metre gap that a child could easily toddle through, escaping via the neighbour’s car port.

I used several wooden beams I had won at an auction the previous week to construct a frame that would span the gap. I painted the wood dark brown using a small paint pot I found in the garage. A section of dark green chicken wire was nailed to the frame to complete my improvised fence.

I managed to secure the gate post to an original concrete post, hidden under the ivy, installed by the council when the properties were constructed in nineteen forty-eight. The new fence was screwed to the wooden gate post and to the corner of our neighbour’s outbuilding. The gate closed against the corner of the garage wall at a thirty degree angle. Our back garden was now secure.

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