The whole process of finding our farm has stangely coincided with key dates , and so moving in had to be on Independance day of course . This is Lauren independently making toast for Ali ( rare in a teenager I know).

The 4th of july dawned and I was walking around an empty farmhouse working out in my mind where all our belongings were going to fit in .. Then ABCO arrived our removal company ! a force to be reckoned with no less ..

Oh, but then my sister Amy arrived,  and actually she’s way more in charge , her incredible interior design skills and energy came in very handy here .

As I directed boxes and furniture to rooms (lots of pointing and insisting it would fit) she started unpacking and putting rooms to work.. So by the time that all the trucks had been emptied ,Amelia wilson interiors  had unpacked organised and styled the kitchen,both living rooms a conservatory and was working her way upstairs !

The next few weeks were about settling in and finding our way around our new life , it was very invigorating having finally got where we had planned for so long.

within a couple of days Lauren and me set off on a trip to the highlands to pick up our first member of the farming animal team.. meet Teal a scottish born wire haired german pointer a real character ( I love her defiance , Andy is still not converted )..and we love her , she’s my best friend through the week when lauren is off to college.

My best friends in the world Steph and Alex, were next ,arriving within the first week bringing giggles, gin and gifts .. thats why we are best friends ..oh and chocolate, they don’t travel without the purple wrapper in tow.

The gifts were gorgeous paintings by Chris Cyprus  a Mossley artist capturing the local people and architecture, so a lovely reminder of our home and friends in manchester.

 

 

 

 

 

In the meantime work started on the pond, the flora was taking over consequently the wildlife was getting very pushed out ! Water hyacinth was our enemy and it needed taking in hand.

                     

The man of the house took charge and after various exhausting weekends man handling the plant out ,raking tit out,cutting it back ( I know he wouldn’t listen to the horticulturist in the family) a final plan to cover part of the water with black polythene to erradicate light , weaken and hopefully reduce it considerably without harming the ecology, was put in place…

watch this space to see how it works out .

Whilst all this and more was going on, Lauren and me were exploring ,and making new friends, we had, as hoped, stayed in touch with the lovely Naomi and John (otherwise referred to as JC) that we’d bought from and so they were very helpful in putting us in touch with our neighbours ( a very loose term there as the nearest is a 3mile hike) .

 

The garden was producing masses of fruit at this point so armed with fresh fruit or jars of jam and chutney we set off to introduce ourselves .We have been very lucky to meet some lovely people here and glad to be able to call lots of them friends already.

Living on a farm, we felt a bit fraudulent since the only animals were some inherited chickens and our new pup, however the hens came good and within a few weeks we had two broody ladies “broody brenda” and “moody margaret”, Google informed us on how to encourage and aid the said mothers to be in their quest and so within 3 weeks we had our first chicks !!

                   Farm life had begun !