HiveComb

We live in a very different environment to what we’ve been used to. We lived semi-rurally, in a suburban type of setting. Lots of space, large gardens, nice houses (horrible neighbours sometimes). I had access to fields for my ponies, but they were a drive away, rather than a short walk (or even a long walk).

Then we packed up our whole lives, lifestyle, kit and caboodle and moved to another country.

What we believed to be semi-rural where we were before, would be considered almost city-living here! The difference is vast!

The short walk to my ponies is even shorter than going to the bottom of my garden at the old house. I could hop to the stables if I needed to.

The neighbours are pleasant and keep themselves to themselves mostly. They all wave and say ‘Bonjour!’ but that is it. There are no curtain-twitchers to be found – well, even if there were, the neighbours are so far away, they can’t see my house through their windows.

The garden is a huge contrast to what we had before. We were lucky, our house was an older-style, and the garden space was generous. It’s a handkerchief compared to the garden we have now! I have a third of an acre just for growing vegetables.

The house was a holiday-home, and it was kept so well, we were really fortunate to find this property. We’ve slowly started to arrange things how we like them – it’s taken 2 years so far and we’re nowhere near to completion on the decorating.

We’re trying to become self-sufficient as much as possible, hence the third of an acre of veg plot.

We also have to source our own wood for the winter and that is a year-round job. We have grassland for the horses, and also woodlands so we really can be quite self-sufficient.

Over the winter, we use quite a lot of wood on the log-burning stove, so cutting down (dead) trees, logging, splitting the logs and storing them takes a lot of space, time, energy etc.

That’s where this post takes us.

Today’s jobs that I set for myself were to move the remaining split logs into the shed, stack them neatly and use them first. Then I wanted to clear the cut logs from the side of the drive and tidy the space up a bit.

Here goes:

How it started:

Job 1 - to take the split logs inside and store them neatly.

*Tora, my Belgian Malinois is looking for mice and the chickens came to have a look too* *There doesn't seem so much wood when it's stacked like this!*

Job 2 to clear the cut logs, stack them and tidy the space.

*Doesn't that look better!*

Stacked the logs and raked the front of the log stacks. All I have to do is let them settle for a bit and cover the stacks before it rains again.

Smug-mode engaged!