Verandas, Robbie the new cockerel, towels, hedging and more snow!!!!

Last Thursday, Pete started to put the decking and verandas on the first lodge. It has made the whole area, look so much bigger. The balustrade finishes it off well, we just need some dry weather to give it all a coat of preservative. It has already had one coat at the factory in Finland, but needs top coating here.

While Pete was busy doing the" building bit", Mary and I were in York doing the fun shopping bit. I managed to find some gorgeous turquoise/greeny towels. We thought it would be a good contrast for the wetrooms, being as they are going to be mainly white and cream.

Inside the lodges, insulation is being put in, with holes cut out where wires for lighting will be fitted.

On Saturday, a new addition arrived. Robbie our new cockerel, named after Robert who very kindly found him for me, and my latest heart throb ( apart from John, of course ) Rob Pattinson.

He seems to be settling in well, but is a bit shy of my girls and as yet no cockadoodling has been heard!!! Maybe he is just finding his place in the pecking order, although I would have thought it fairly obvious, as he is the only man in the house.

Hopalong ( or roast chicken, as Mary has christened her!) has made a wonderful recovery, after her run in with an overly friendly dog. I have been giving her TLC in a box in the house, as her back end looked a bit sore and could only bear weight on one leg, for short periods of time. Anyway yesterday afternoon I put her with her mates and she is doing great. Still limping a bit, but seems to be getting stronger all the time, and eating and drinking fine.

Saturday also saw John and I putting hedging in, good job we did it then, as Sunday morning it snowed. Our hope of putting in the raspberry canes was put to one side, more work on the lodges, inside.

A bit more exciting news, Pete and the band went over to Harrogate and recorded 2 tracks, check out Take the Lead, at www.myspace.com/taketheleadonline they are awesome, although I am rather biased!!!

Well, here we are again, a little bit more snow and ice. John "iced " off work, so I am really pleased as that means more work on the lodges! Today he and Steve started putting in the insulation, above the wetrooms, a bit of an itchy job.

Then concreting the shower area and log burner areas came next. The concrete floor is drying out really well, with the help of 2 humidifiers.

Back in the house our twin bedroom has had a facelift. Patrick has decorated it in a lovely cream to match the feature wall and along with some new cream curtains it is all ready for the new season. Pete has even made me a pine tea tray table, which sits very well in the bay window.

Big day- scaffolding comes down from the 2nd lodge!

Exciting day- the concrete was poured on top of the underfloor heating pipes, self leveling, how clever is that? We should be able to walk on it in 3 days, but will need approx 70 days to dry out completely. John, Steve and Pete took down the scaffolding, so now we get a better look at the lodges. Sally, our yellow lab, decided to take a walk over the concrete on the veranda, so we have a lovely paw print design!! Maybe, when we wake tomorrow morning, there could be a hen or 2 stuck in there. Talking of my lovely chucks, Nancy was very reluctant to make an appearance this morning. It could have been the fact that I let them out at 8am and I think she would rather have had a lie in! We are getting 1 egg a day, at the moment from our 22 girls, so i think they must be in the moult. They do look very well, though, compared with how they looked when we got them last June. 17 of them are ex- batts and they had very few feathers when they arrived and were very scared of the big, wide open world. Now they love it and are so friendly. My other 5 I bought from the Malton livestock sale in November; hence they all have names beginning with 'N'. Nancy, Natalie, Naomi, Nora and Nelly!! They are rather spoilt, when we had the snow on the ground they were getting warm porridge with sultanas. Pete and Meg say they are better fed than they are and they could be right.

We have snowdrops out..............

Our first ever blog post!

Hurray, I have finally got around to posting my first blog!!

Being a virgin blogger, I am relying on some feedback to let me know if I am doing it right.

Happy New Year to all my valued customers and, to all my new ones, where have you been all this time?

The snow is rapidly disappearing, it was very beautiful, as you can see from the pictures, as long as you didnt have to venture too far, on the dodgy roads.

We have our first sign of Spring, a daffodil almost out, can you believe that! I would imagine the snowdrops will not be far behind.

We have just had the wonderful Patrick in doing a spot of decorating, ready for the new season. As always he makes a fabulous job, the bedrooms look sparkling.

John and Pete are working hard on getting our 2 log cabins ready for later in the year. An Easter opening would be great, watch this space. We are at the" water- tight- and- doing- all- the- internal -work- stage", there seem to wires going everywhere. Decision making is not strong point, at the best of times, so I am really having to concentrate hard. Thank goodness for lots of support from all involved.