Phew!

Goodness me, what a hectic time it has been since we got the keys for our wonderful new home! The week after we got the keys on the 27 June was spent cleaning over a year's worth of dust, dirt and cobwebs from the house, not to mention the many more years of accumulated grime from the kitchen which really was grim! We then moved in all of our worldly goods over the course of a few days before having our first night here on the 4 July. And we love it! The peace and quiet is the most noticeable thing, plus the space and openness of the situation.

The most exciting thing about exploring our new abode has been the discovery of so many items that belonged to farming life many years ago. Here are just some of our discoveries;

Madame was a great hoarder of jams and preserves and clearly didn't like to throw anything way. So it has been up to me to dispose of the hundreds of jars of jams and preserves, some dating back to 1992, in order to clear the shelves for our 'stuff'. We also discovered jar upon jar of beans in two old chest freezers in the barn!

We have had certain urgent works to do since we moved in, the most pressing matter being that of waste disposal. In common with the vast majority of properties in this area, the original arrangement was an outdoor privy....

... which had fortunately not seen any action for a good many years. But it had to go....

... the wood providing fuel for our quatorze juillet bonfire, more of which later! The current waste disposal arrangement is a concrete pipe from the house which takes waste down into the field. It is however broken in a couple of places and was also blocked with mud and scale when we moved in, which meant toilet waste appearing in the field - not pleasant! So Andy valiantly set to and eventually set up a system which works in the short term.

We will however have a proper new sanitation system in place by the end of August if all goes according to plan - the property is slowly being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century!

Our next job was to tidy and clear to the rear of the house where our outdoor living and entertaining area is going to be. We had set ourselves a bit of a deadline by inviting friends over for a 14th July bonfire and barbecue, so the pressure was on. The grass had grown long and tussocky which made mowing hard work but Andy soon got it down to a manageable level. Then a small pine tree that was crowding a fruit tree had to be brought down. It was soon looking tidier

We cleared out the space underneath the hangar structure 

 create a rustic outdoor eating area for our 14th July bash and used all the old, rotten pieces of timber and bushels of kindling that were piled up everywhere to construct a rather large bonfire. We discovered two lovely long benches up in the grenier that we set up around some tables and voila, we were ready

We laid down some of the straw that we found in the barn to cover the bare earth which finished it off nicely. The weather stayed dry on Saturday night, the bonfire and BBQ were a huge success and our new outdoor entertaining area was christened! Good times.

Our first visitor is due on Monday. Really looking forward to seeing Trudi who has been through a hard time recently. This place is sure to recharge her batteries. Have I mentioned how much I love it here?!