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Hi just read your posts which i found interesting, i bet your pleased your on the land now now the real work starts ! Todsy i have just recieved my quote for electric a whopping £55,000 plus VAT i canot believe it they are saying they need to put a new transformer in was wondering if you dont mind how much yours was. ThankyouSuch a long time since my last entry and such a lot has happened!
Firstly, lambing went well although we had fewer twins than we would have liked. That is something we plan to remedy with our selective breeding plan over the next few years. We also had a couple of lambs born with deformities. We are going to keep an eye on this next year. The vet thinks it may have been a bit of a mineral deficiency in the early stages of pregnancy before we got them. This year we have had forage analysis done and have supplement blocks in the defficient minerals. Last years 23 ladies have been joined by another 25 bought in and also seven of our home bred ewe lambs who were all well grown enough to go to the ram this year. The ram went in on 1st November and the poor chap is looking ever so tired with 55 ladies to keep him busy! We are hoping to be up to 100 breeding ewes next year, so will have to get another ram and start running two flocks.
I am taking the first lambs to slaughter on Sunday morning and have orders for all except one which we are going to have for ourselves. People keep asking me if I will be upset to see them go. It is genuinely not a problem. They have a fabulous life, the best I can give them, but they wouldnt have been born if they wernt going to be slaughtered and I have enough of them that I havent got personally attached to an individual except for Larry the bottle lamb who has a stay of execution as he is still too small to get a decent carcass from.
On the planning front, we ended up putting in a full application for a temporary agricultural dwelling, barn, track and portakabins all in one. We agreed a location with the planning officer and then submitted our application only to be told that Highways had a problem with it due to visibility splays. This is something I would strongly advise people to look out for when buying a piece of land. You need to be able to see approximately 90 metres in either direction to get a residential access, even though it was an existing farm access. We eventually managed to negotiate an agreement with the help of some photographs and maps.
With planning permission granted and us paying a hefty mortgage as well as our rent on the house we were living in, the race was on to get the place habitable as soon as possible and we moved in on the 10th October. We now have mains electricity, mains water and flushing toilets. We are getting central heating installed in the next few weeks along with a wood burning stove so we have done things a little differently from most on here as roughing it was not an option for my other half!
The biggest hurdle we had to cross was that of mains electricity. We are a very long way fvrom the nearest transformer and so in order to reduce the voltage drop we needed a huge 95mm copper cable. This was fearsomely expensive and we spent a worrying time until it was burried and connected as theft of copper cable is rife around here and the guys from the electricity board were followed out from the depot. Fortunately I have a very large scary German Shepherd who took care of things for us.
Most of the building works are now complete and we are looking forward to Christmas. We opted to use a planning consultant as we worked out that all it would take was a two month delay from us getting a form wrong and that would have paid the planning consultant and he was worth his weight in gold. I firmly believe that we would still be arguing with planning now if it hadnt been for him. The hard work now begins with trying to meet our business plan over the next three years.
If anyone wants the name of the planning consultant we used or wants a link to the application details drop me a PM.
Katie
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