We get a lot of wild and windy weather coming in towards the extension roof, and coupled with the relatively low pitch this had caused the bottom line of underfelt to deteriorate badly. Replacing it has been on the "to do" list for quite a while, but this week we had a promising weather forecast so Brian went ahead and ripped off the bottom four courses of slates. It didn't manage to stay completely dry, but we did get a good four days of mostly dry weather with no big downpours and now its all finished.
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Freya started school this Thursday. She has been very excited about going to school ever since she spent a morning there before the summer holidays, and was also looking forward to getting to wear her new school uniform. She ran off into the classroom happily on her first morning and didn't show any signs of nerves, I think I was more nervous than she was. I mentioned in an earlier post that Freya is attending Gort Jordan school. After visiting a couple of open days and chatting to the teachers, we decided to go with the most local which was about in the middle size-wise of the ones we looked at. They are all tiny though! Gort Jordan has less than 50 pupils split into two classes with a range of ages in each class.
The school enrolment process here in Mayo is very different from that back in Somerset. We actually had a choice of at least four schools. None of the primary schools here are over-subscribed, in fact they are all very keen on getting extra pupils as their funding level is dependant on the number of pupils enrolled. Once you've selected your school you fill in a brief enrolment form and that's the process completed. After 4-5 weeks of work and about £1500 of parts and paint, the tractor is finished and ready to go. Its looking great and now runs without leaking, steers and (most importantly) brakes. Brian took it for a test drive down the field with no problems, other than attracting a couple of curious ponies who thought he might be delivering food. The next job is to put it to work, starting with fixing up the transport box so we can move stuff about and then progressing to harrowing and topping.
Field maintenance has been taking up quite a bit of time recently, in particular Brian has sprayed large area's of thistles. It would have been very helpful to have been able to harrow the fields that were used over winter, so we decided it was time to take another look at the tractor. The aim is to get it to a functional state so we can use it, so Brian has been cleaning it up so we can see what we actually have. We already knew the brakes didn't work at all, so he's also taken them apart and identified the seized component responsible - we're just waiting for the new shoes etc to arrive. The list of new parts required is ever-increasing, so it will definitely be a phased refurbishment. We had suspected one of our chickens of developing an egg eating habit, but they have now been absolved and the culprit identified as a magpie. Also a lot of the local jackdaws have got wise to the chicken feed and have been nicking any leftovers. Finally, we needed to separate them more effectively from the ponies who have also been a bit too interested in their feed (particularly Sully who finds chicken feed delicious). So they have now been moved into a completely enclosed dog run. Hopefully this will keep the thieves out! Brian has constructed a nifty little tunnel so they can be given access to the main enclosure whenever we want. We have a kitchen! Okay, its not quite finished yet. It doesn't have a sink, the plumbing is in but we decided the sink we brought with us didn't quite look right and looked better in the utility room so we still need to go get a new one. The hob isn't yet connected to the gas, so the worktop isn't fixed (you can see the edging cover strip is still on it) and the oven isn't connected as the gas fitter will need to move them for access. There's also a door missing due to a change of plans with the tall cupboard.
Even in its unfinished state though, its nice to have the whole room looking like a room. We've also been able to move the kitchen wares and food out of the bedroom and into the cupboards, so the bedroom is now a bedroom rather than a bedsit. Its still such a luxury to have a consistently warm house and hot water whenever we want. We've had a series of storms sweep past which have upset the open fire so much we have had to put it out a few times, but the stove has burned perfectly all the way through.
Looking at it now its hard to remember what an unstable, tarry mess the fireplace was when we first uncovered it behind the rusted out range, so I've put together a sequence showing the transformation. This is the view from our garden, looking out over the lake. We knew when we bought the house that we were quite close to a turlough (a lake that dries out in summer), but this winter it has come even closer than normal. The common is now part of the lake, including a few of our smaller and unfenced fields around its edge. The lake attracts a lot of birds, geese and swans particularly.
Meanwhile the plumbing is now complete on the stove meaning we have central heating and a constant supply of hot water, and a much lower electricity bill! We have a wood store (a converted old animal trailer) full of sycamore that Brian cut down when we first moved in so its practically free. Just a quick message to say Happy Christmas to everyone whose still keeping track of us! I've just come back from Freya's nativity play, where as you can see above she was the angel and had a great time including meeting Santa. I was once again reminded how small a world it is around here when I met the mother of one of Freya's favourite classmates and discovered she is another who calls our house the family home, she still remembers spending Christmas here as a small child.
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Laura Nash and Brian Brett's blog about our move to Ireland. Archives
December 2020
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