I am starting this for the second time!  We have a new reconditioned laptop, and I have not quite learned that not all of the buttons are in quite the same place!

I hope that you all have had a lovely Christmas and New Year - it already seems like it was a lifetime ago - a lot of hustle and bustle to be forgotten so quickly :-S

We have had a warmer start to the New Year than previously, which has made looking after the animals on the smallholding much easier, no ice rink for a yard, no need to de-ice the waters, and there are even greens growing in the hedge to feed the tortoise so he does not have to rely on what vegetables I have in the fridge!  Nobody seems to have told the strawberry flowers that are growing down our lane that it is only January!

We have had movement on the smallholding, the piglets (or should that be pigs now they are 18 months old) have been sold via market, and so we are now left with the original 3.  Egg production is down now due to shortened nights, so apologies go out to neighbours who have been buying regularly throughout the winter season.  With plans to purchase more chickens in the next 8 weeks, hopefully we will not have a similar situation during the summer.  Nothing else has changed despite ourlong term plans, but we are waiting for the arrival of the growing 'bump' due in just 3 weeks time.  Then it will be all systems go, not just with the new baby, but with the smallholding acquisitions, and the yurt maintenance kicking back into gear.

I cannot get over how many bookings we have taken again during the winter for this year for throughout the season not just April, and now there are only a couple of breaks left for during the Easter holidays, so please get in touch with us sooner rather than later if you are interested in booking to come and stay with us during that time. 

I do not know when I will be blogging again, but promise to give you all news of when baby arrives.

Speak soon,

Annabelle    

Hello all,

It is blustering a gale outside, we have been given a severe weather warning for tonight for strong winds, although I doubt it will be anything like that that hit the Scottish Highlands last week.

Christmas is coming ever closer, it seems to be galloping towards us this year, although touch wood, we all seem to be fairly well organised this year.  I wish I could say the same for organising baby items, nursery, the list goes on!

The smallholding is fairly quiet at the moment, George has gone (or have I already mentioned that last time) and the pigs will be off at the end of January leaving us with just the 3 pets.  The resident fox has eaten 1 of my best laying ducks, and he ate my mother's pet duck which we were supposed to be 'duck-sitting' a couple of weeks ago, instead of feasting on my two useless drakes!!  But the chickens are finally coming back into lay, so hope that the weather does not draw too cold too quickly and put them off again.  We have had some bacon back form the pigs that were slaughtered earlier in the autumn, and so am looking forward to comparing these to Lady, our original.

Bookings are on the up for 2012, we only have one weekend left for the Easter holidays, and are already filling up for Hay Festival so if you were thinking of coming to stay with us, get in touch quick!

It leaves me to say, hope you all have a lovely Christmas, a prosperous New Year, and we hope to welcome you either for the first time or as a returning visitor in 2012 to Black Mountains Yurts.

x

The end of the season is already here.  The field is looking very bare now that the yurts are down, and we are missing the sounds of laughter and singing drifting down the field.  It has been a successful season, thanks to all of you who have visited and enjoyed yourselves, and I cannot believe just how many bookings we have already got for next year.  There are some things we will improve upon over the winter which we will keep you updated with, and we are pleased to formally announce that we will be adding to our field with a bell tent suitable for couples situated in the yurt field (in the pig paddock, however we promise it will not feel like you are tucked up with the pigs!!).  We have set the dates, prices etc for next year, but they will not go live on the website until we have returned from holiday.  Look for them from end of October.  The house however will continue with bookings for the winter period, please get in touch if you wish to stay with us.  For those of you interested in dates for next year, the yurts open from 06 April 2012, the campsite from 20 April 2012, and the bell tent from 04 May 2012.  All will be shutting at various stages throughout September 2012.

We have spent last weekend in London at a show in Earl's Court for Gwilym's business.  Whilst I enjoyed being away for the weekend, Gwilym finds London very hard going, and so have come back extremely tired, and grateful of where it is we live.  The sound of trains going underneath your bed is something I am glad I do not have to live with!

With the animals, the ducks have now discovered that they can get in the pond by themselves.  They love swimming, and happy ducks give us lots of happy eggs (hopefully!).  George is still with us, and is due to be 'chopped' by the middle of the month, maybe that will make the cantankerous git a bit more sociable!!  We have lost one of our beautiful game chickens, and also have 6 very battered looking battery hens, that are taking their time to recover.  We are getting quail (Gwilym's birthday present) later this month, and so are gathering a wealth of eggs to sell to our customers, both local and visitng!  We have decided however that the plans for sheep and possibly even a house cow are far too stretching for us, and we are also reducing our pig population, hoping to just keep the 3 in the paddock, Little Pig, Rita and Onion.

Some of you will know that we are expecting a new addition to the family in February, not in the form of animals this time, but a real live baby!  I will make an early apology if some of you get emails that do not make much sense!

Don't forget we are on holiday from Friday (we can't wait!) until middle of October, so please bear with us if you do not get an immediate response.  We will get back to you as soon as we are able to.

Enjoy the autumn days, wrap up warm, and get crunching through the fallen leaves  :-)

It has been some time since I last updated this blog, and at a wedding that we attended on Saturday just gone I was told off by our local vicar for this omission (he claims it is the only way he can keep up with the ongoings!).  I will apologise to you all, it has been such a busy time for us here with a far better summer than we ever expected.  Indeed, to all of you enquiring after the bank holiday weekend, I am very sorry but we are completely chock a block with people staying - no room even on the campsite.  We have decided to shut the campsite from September 05 so that we can dismantle all of the facilities before the yurts come down on September 26, and with Dragon Furntiure at a show in Earl's Court the following weekend we are really cutting it fine!  Determined to do it we are though, as our holiday commences on 06 October and there is no way I am coming back to lots of yurt dismantling!

On the 'farm' we have had a decline in pig numbers.  Our 2 giant kune kune's and Lady's offspirng have now gone to the abbatoir and have been made into 410 lbs of sausage!  Unfortunately the butcher said they were too fat for anything else.  Our chicken numbers are slowly declining as well, due to illnesses in the chucks, but thankfully the egg production has finally increased from 1-2 eggs per day to 4-5.  We also have grumpy George still, Isobel although has made headway with him, is still not broken in, and so still liable to a bite and a kick if unhappy!  Don't tell Gwilym (I know he won't read this!) but I am going to get him some quail for his birthday, a new venture he is determined to start off, supplying quail eggs to the local Griffin Inn, I am sure he thinks he will be able to retire from Dragon Furniture with it!  Our 7 ducklings are now looking like fully fledged ducks, running around like the 'quack pack' it will be interesting to see how many egggs we get, and how many drakes we have.  Our cockerels are getting bigger, and one has found his voice (although not a complete crow!) and are destined for the freezer when big enough.

The estate is still for sale, with no news but a lot of rumour and hearsay about what is going on.  We have now decided that we are going to take bookings for next year regardless, and are very excited about hosting our first confirmed wedding!  Following several queries from you, (not necessarily for weddings) I have produced a 'whole site guide' which will be on line before long in the Prices section.  I am hoping to upgrade the website over the winter period, so if any of you have any photos that you would not object to us using, please forward them on (many thanks to those of you who have done this already).

We have already started planning improvements for next year, as well as toying with the idea of providing some bell tents in the camping field in varying degrees of furnishing, if you have any ideas or strong feelings about how we can improve please get in touch.

I had best go, I should have started pig feeding about 10 minutes ago, please get in touch - we love to hear from you.

Annabelle

The last time I blogged, I talked about getting our campsite ready.  It is now finished, and am planning to take some pictures tomorrow to upload on the website.  I am hoping that people will like staying with us, it is not like the yurts field, for starters it is off-grid, so there is no electric point for your i-pod or hairdryer!  The showers are quirky, you collect your own water for them, but they are lovely and warm, and plenty of room in there for 2!  The toilets are based on our tree bog idea that we have used in the yurt field, they have been hugely popular there so are hoping that the modified design will still work so well.  We also have a campfire in the middle, with wood available to either collect from the wood, or buy from the shop.

The shop is growing slowly, we have added new lines this weekend, including a new recipe of one of my homemade jams, rhubarb and vanilla.  Gwilym is gutted that I only kept half of a small jar for him, gave his mother one, and put the rest in the shop! 

Our ducklings and chicks are growing fast.  We have let the ducklings out for the first time this weekend, they seem to be enjoying wandering around the yard, although they are not very sure of Fearne!  No other animals to talk about this time, we have no new arrivals :-(

The veg garden is growing wonderfully after our rain this week, I now need to find some sticks for our runner beans, and plant out our cauliflower, sprouts (all 240 of them!!), broccoli, and whatever else has started shooting up in the last few days!

Bookings are going well for the summer already, only one weekend left in August for the yurts!  The last minute page is also working well, please do not be afraid to use it if you are after a bargain!

Hello all.

Just a quick blog this time (I am on lunch in work!) to say that our campsite is well on its way now - the tree bog and showering facilities are coming on a treat and all being well will start to be put in situ from this weekend. 

After threatening for many months, we are now on Twitter, although tweets are slow at the moment.  Now that I know I can access Twitter from my phone that is set to change!  Please follow us and get real live updates on what is going on on the smallholding as it happens!  We can be found at:  #Bmyurts

Depsite all of the thunderstorms and heavy rain of the last couple of weeks we have been getting, our customers are still having a fab time!  I am now looking out of the window at the beautiful sunshine (we had hail about an hour ago!), don't let anyone tell you it only rains in Wales!

Speak soon,

Annabelle

I see it is a month since I last 'blogged' and boy, what a lot has happened since then!  We have opened our doors on the yurt site for the new 2011 season, along with some changes (for the better we hope!) to the site and yurts.  We had quite a to-do with the yurts before opening, with leaks adn wind damage galore, but thankfully they are now completely restored and we have picked up some new tasks to do each winter to make sure they last!   So, I hear you ask!  What changes have you made?  Well, to the facilities we now have a shelter next to the kitchen (which is not made out of scaffolding poles!) as well as a long table, benches and solar lights.  The kitchen has had some items removed (why did I think any of you would want to bake cakes?!) and some items included (we now supply a roll of kitchen foil, cling film and kitchen towel).  The tree bog has been changed slightly to make it easier for me to clean, and we should have by Easter a powerful solar light in there for those night time strolls!

We now have a specific room for breakfasts, which is out of the wind in the big barn, a cloak room for dirty wellies/coats etc when you leave the site, and a small honesty shop that stocks the basics that you will need.  We have come to an arrangement with local traders and producers, and so amongst other things you will find locally baked bread and rolls, locally baked cakes specific to Wales, home made jams and marmalades, milk, cream, fruit, baking potatoes (for the campfire), salad items, locally produced charcoal, butter and a miscellany of sweets and drinks and lets not forget the ever popular free range eggs.  It is hoped that during the summer season as much of this produce will be as local (or as Welsh) as possible.  We will also supplement it with our own homegrown produce as and when it becomes available.  I have also set up an online shop for last minute availability - if you are up for a last minute deal, keep an eye on this page.  You will (if it works) be able to buy your break online, hopefully cutting out the frustration of trying to get hold of me during the day when I am not around :-(

The yurts themselves have not changed very much, however we now have a washing line outside the yurts for those pesky towels to dry out, and we also have an indoor clothes airer, jsut in case the weather lets us down!

The farmhouse accommodation has now been completely redecorated, and new photos will be up on the website very soon.  We have a spangly new cooker and fridge that I am very jealous not to have in my pokey little kitchen area!  The garden is being planted throughout the summer with new beds being made on the lawn area.

Our piglets are growing, and have just been readvertised for sale again, and this horse of my sisters has still not yet arrived.  It was due to come at the end of March, however after it dragged my sister about a quarter of a mile along a tarmac road, she was unable to finish its journey to us, due to an impromptu trip to A&E.  (She is fine!)  We do not have any new animals on the farm, however we are hoping to get some new lambs from our neighbour when they have some going spare.  We have started our vegetable patch, (well, Gwilym's dad came along with his digger, the ground was far too hard for us to manage with a spade!) and I am looking forward to getting planting.

As for new plans hatching, we will be starting to work on our campsite before long in the field next to the yurts, I am hoping to get an orchard started, and we have a treasure trail for children that will be going up in the next month or so. 

Busy, busy, busy, I don't know how I fit in a full time job as well!!  Please do get in touch to see if we have availability for dates for you to come and stay, but don't leave it too late as we are quickly filling up for the Summer holidays already!

Keep enjoying the sunshine, from Annabelle.

So, I have just come in from being outside all day, it has been a glorious spring day, very sunny, warm and pleasant.  We are doing well with the yurt site, a very different experience to last year when it was a manic panic to get everything finished, this year we have been tootling along very calmly and look set to finish all improvements and maintenance in plenty of time for our opening weekend.   We are making subtle improvements to the facilities, and adapting the yurts to suit our wetter climate, and have just started putting the furniture pieces back in them ready to start putting together tomorrow.

On the farm the piglets are all still with us, and are growing very fat.  They have been moved into the paddocks that were going to be my veg patch, so I am now nagging Gwilym to sort me out a new one!  The goats have finally gone 'free to a good home'.  I miss their characters around the place, during the winter I had let them roam free but that would have been toally impractical when we had people staying with us in the yurts or house.  I think that they may have gone in time to give most of the garden some time to recover for the summer.  My sister was supposed to be bringing her horse here this weekend but thankfully she has not materialised - I (or should that be Gwilym and his dad!) have not sorted out a paddock for it yet!  We have 1 new bantam hen and 2 bantam cockerels added to our chicken collection, a total of 15 now, more eggs than I know what to do with.

Well, the rugby is on, we are going to see if Wales do well out of this Six nations Tournament, and I am going to put my feet up after an 11 hour working day!   Ready to start all over again tomorrow...fingers crossed, in the sunshine again - I cannot believe what a fantastic March we are having.

Speak to you all again before we open,

Annabelle

Hello all, and welcome to 2011!

Christmas is now out of the way for another year, and as beautiful as the snow looked over December it has now thankfully cleared and we can now resume our normal lives!  We took only one casualty during the bad weather, my car struggled to make it home over the snow drifts and is currently in a garage awaiting its fate!

On the farm, the animals are relieved not to be walking on sheets of ice, and the 2 new pigs that we acquired just before the Christmas break are really settling in and loving their new found space.  This now brings the pig total to 15, which includes 8 of the very cutest piglets, just about ready for sale.  The 2 goats have been terrors over the cole period, constantly jumping out over the fences from their paddock, and living on the wall outside the house.  I wish we could just let them roam freely around the place like the chickens do, but their raisin-like droppings are all over the ground by the 1000!  The dog, cats and tortoise are all keeping well, and we will have some more chickens arriving in the New Year, maybe then we can keep up with the egg demand!  I am still hankering after reindeer, although Gwilym is holding firm that we do not need them (!), and it looks like my sister will be bringing her pony to live with us, although no dates yet set for that. 

The yurt season is not yet running for us yet, we will reopen our doors on 01 April, in plenty of time for the Easter break, but the hard work will start as of 01 February where we reset the yurts and make improvements and generally get the site ready and up and running again.  It will be fab to have people around the place again, it has been just a little too quiet really!  As for new features for 2011, we have not yet finalised plans, so will update you in a couple of months.  I am still trying to charm Gwilym to allow me to do lots of wonderful ideas, however he knows that he will be doing the bulk of the hard work, and is being cautiously sensible about it all!  We decided not to invest in a further 'unit', we had, some of you will know, toyed with the idea of getting either a smaller 4th yurt, or a shepherd's hut, something that would be perfect for couples, but because we both still work full time, we felt it might just tip us over the edge!! 

Over the Christmas period we redecorated the farmhouse so that is now ready for renting during the year, I will get some photos of the house up shortly, and it looks really cosy now.  It is surprising what a difference a splash of paint makes!

Any comments or suggestions of what you would like to see around this year, please feel free to drop us a line, and will hopefully see you again sometime this year.

Annabelle 

The end of the season is finally here, with our last group of 2010 leaving on the nicest day of the weekend!  I am sitting here at the computer waiting for Onion to gve birth to piglets, although she is obstinately crossing her legs! 

On the smallholding our only difference (so far) is the addition of a new puppy, an English Springer Spaniel who is called Fearne.  She has been with us now for 3 weeks, and is 12 weeks old.  We are currently house training, which has put me off children and potty training for life! 

I have been doing some maths to see how the year has gone, and am amazed to find that we hit over 50% occupancy for the whole season without advertising.  Of course, a huge thanks must go to the gang at Hidden Valley who passed a lot of custom to us whenever they were full.  So, how do we think it went overall?  It was a race to get finished on time, which we didn't, but we all had good fun trying even in the snow!  It has been very tough at times as we are both still working full time, and we are now shattered but thankfully we have had the help of mother-in-law Sue (who many of you met cooking breakfasts!) who stepped in to help on many occasions, from cleaning to cooking breakfasts and doing the welcoming tour, and my mum who took to ironing the huge amount of bedding that we were going through.  The field has not got too wet, even in the torrential downpours that we have had in the last month, and the yurts are still sat on the decks after winds of more than 70 mph.  But despite many people asking if we are going to be open later in the year, and wanting to come and stay over Christmas and New Year, we have decided that the beginning of October is a good time for us to have a break and to put the yurts to bed for the winter.  We have had some lovely guests, have been entertained around the campfire with prose, plays and sing songs, with everybody having a good time whilst staying.  The pigs have never been so fat, and the goats have never escaped so much!  We have already started taking bookings for next year, mostly from those who have already stayed, and so 2011 is gearing up to be another good year.

We have been making plans for improvements to both the house and the yurt site for 2011, however some of the ideas that we had at the beginning of the year have had to be shelved, including our plans for the vegetable plot and orchard, which after the recent weather now looks like a quagmire, and would be unsuitable for such a use.  We will keep you updated during the winter months, along with pictures, and if any of you have any suggestions we would love to hear them.

We will not have access to the computer and telephone between 15 - 25 October, so if you do not have any response when contacting during this time, please do not panic, we will contact you when things are up and running again following 25 October.

Enjoy the autumn sunshine!

Annabelle and Gwilym

WOW!  I can't believe we are already halfway through August - the time (and Summer) just seems to be flying by so quickly.  After all that beautiful weather we had at the beginning of the season, there has been 3 weeks now of unsettled typical Welsh weather, which looks like it is set to continue.  If you are coming to stay, I suggest you pack your waterproofs and lots of thin layers - one minute it is windy and rainy, the next sunny blue skies and sweat!  Despite this mix, we have lots of bookings for the summer, keeping the both of us out of trouble!

We have managed to erect a permanent shelter now, no longer putting the marquee up, and waiting for it to escape in the wind!  It is not the most attractive thing at the moment I'm afraid, we had to cobble it together using what we could find lying around about, but it has plenty of space underneath to fit large groups and keep them all dry!  I am hoping that by next season, this will look a little more 'in keeping' with the rest of the site, along with all of the other planned preparations for next season!

The pig Onion is back from being with Brad Pig, and we are expecting piglets on 09 October 2010.  Keep checking back for pictures.  Our 9 chickens are back down to 6, 2 fed Mr Fox because they did not go into the barn with the others, and the other unfortunately passed away.  So back to our original set, who are laying eggs in fine form!  We do not have many other changes to the animal front, except the 3 little pigs have now moved away from the goats who kept headbutting them, and the goats have found 3 new ways of escaping from the field!  We now have the promised barn doors within our midst,  hopefully arriving by September, which means that Gwilym will be able to move his workshop and showroom over, and you will be able to see him in action, that also means that he can get me making coat hooks in the evenings when we have finished the animals.  Oh oh!!

We have extended the season slightly, from the end of September to the middle of October due to many requests, however we will be shutting on 11October so that we can pack away the yurts before our holiday.  We decided not to keep the site open because if the weather is particularly stormy, the facilities may get damaged, and if it is cold and frosty the pipes are likely to explode!  It is a shame, because when we get the lovely crisp, winter weather, I could think of no better way to spend a weekend than walking, and coming back to snuggle up in front of a real fire, on a comfortable bed, in a yurt!

I have worked out the prices for next season 2011, and will be putting these up on the website during the next few weeks, and have already started taking bookings for next year, so please, if you are interested in visiting us in 2011, do not hesitate to get in touch!

The first of July, what should usually be well into the Summer season and we have downpours!  And the night before we have a big youth group in, who are doing most of their activities outdoors!

I had intended getting on to the blog sooner than this, however the local exchange is being upgraded and this has resulted in poor internet connection.  This does mean that papework has been slow going out, but I have now caught up and will undoubtedly be inundated with emails for the next few days!  You would think that I would be better organised by now!

Anyway, instead of waffling I should really be giving you all the latest on what is happening here...the pigs are up in the field - well, 4 of them are anyway- Onion is still with Brad Pig in Hereford, all loved up, and we do still have Lady's 2 piglets, although these will be joinng Mum in piggy-heaven before the month is out.  We also have 2 billy goats who have been with us now for about 3 weeks.  The little beggars kept getting out of their shed and the field, but we have now stopped that with some super high fencing by the water trough.  They like being in with the pigs, they now have lots of friends to play with and butt with their horns (that hurts!) but they don't like being snouted out of the way by the bigger pigs!  We have also acquired 3 new chickens from a neighbour, they needed a good home and have proven to be great egg layers.  The only problem is they used to be allowed in their pevious house, and have now encouraged the others to wander in and out of our hallway at their own leisure!  The cats particularly object to this as the chickens really enjoy the cat biscuits!  The horse and foal have now gone but Scarlet her friend has been left behind for the horse-mad guests out there to see! 

Our orchard and mega-sized vegetable patch has been put on hold for the time being, the estate (consisting of 13 properties) on which we live is currently on the market and we are waiting to see who buys before we commence with planting, or any major changes to the land.  That said, we are thinking of ways of covering a communal seating area for outside (so that there is shade) and to also plant a 'kitchen garden' type of area so that guests can help themselves to herbs, salads and whatever else I can grow!  There is also now an honesty egg shop where you can buy organic, large fresh eggs for £1 per box!  We will be introducing breakfast and barbecue hampers soon - please ask when ordering.

Gwilym has just come in to tell me that he has just witnessed a chicken laying an egg - he actually saw it plop out on to the floor!!  

We have got a busy couple of months coming up, if any of you are going to the Royal Welsh Show in a couple of weeks keep an eye out for us on the Dragon Furniture stand in the forestry section - that is what Gwilym does when he is not feeding animals!

Speak soon,  Annabelle 

I have tonight uploaded some more pictures for you all to look at.  Check out some more photos of the farmouse accommodation, as well as a description of the house (how could I have not put that on there!!), some more pictures on the smallholding and the faciltes pages.  Also check out my artistic creativity on the first photo of yurt 3, where I found the 'macro' button on my camera!

It has been a little over 5 weeks since I last updated our blog, and already it seems that so much has happened.

Firstly let's take a look at changes in the smallholding...we acquired 3 new Kune Kune pigs about 3 weeks ago, from a lady in Worestershire and Onion has already been sent off to "Brad Pig", a superstar in the Kune Kune pig world.  When she arrived, Wendy (who is a lady in the know in the Kune Kune world) said that Onion was one of the nicest sows she had come across - this has given us high hopes for breeding from her.  We are due to have her back in about 2 months hopefully expecting little piglets of her own.  Her 2 sisters, Rita and LittlePig have been moved up in to the field with the yurts in - we have fenced off from the gate to the top hedge just the other side of the tree bog.  This means that they can have as much fuss as any of the guests wish to give them - they are very friendly and Rita, if you scratch her belly, rolls over onto the floor with her legs in the air!  They will be going to a boar in about 2 months time.  We have received some bad news with the 3 other pigs -  we took Lady along to the boar with Onion and unfortunately Wendy would not let her mate with her boars as she is far too big.  It was also found out that she is not a breed "standard" and at some point in her ancestry was bred with something other than Kune Kune to make her more valuable for meat.    After some discussion and tears it was decided that Lady would end up as she was destined and we got in touch with Brian George, the local butchers.  She went to Pig Heaven on Thursday, and will be in our freezer by next Tuesday as bacon, ham and gammons.  I will let you know what Kune Kune pork tastes like!  That just leaves us the fate of her 2 piglets, now at 10 months old, and towering over the 2 new pigs on the farm.  Unless we can find a home for them as pets within the next couple of weeks, they are destined to join Lady, this time as pork chops and joints!  We will have 2 castrated billy goats joining us soon,  being re-housed becase they are escape artists!  They originally came from the local Adventure Farm 'Cantref' where every time they saw children would jump the fence to play with them!  We are making higher than usual fences and hoping this will keep them in.  Our chickens are still laying well, and we will before long be selling their eggs to our yurt guests.  You can't beat proper free range, organic eggs - their yolks are as yellow as buttercups!  A couple of weeks ago the estate horse had a foal right outside our house, as she is being kept paddocked opposite our ponds - she is very pretty and growing very quickly, but soon to be re-housed.  Work has started on making paddocks for our orchard, to be planted in the autumn, and for our vegetable patch.  I am running out of tubs and greenhouse room, and so am looking forward to this in time for next year.

The yurt site has not changed that much, we are stll planting trees around the showering facilities, although the wild flowers in the fields are really growing now, and we will need to start cutting paths through the grass.  We have a hen party in this weekend, and I can hear them laughing and blowing a whistle, having a great time with the campfire going.  Bookings are going really well, we have quite a quiet June, but July is really busy for us, and we are getting lots of enquiries for the Summer holidays.  It is Hay Festival this and next week in the area, and so have around 100,000 tourists descending over the next 10 days in Breconshire!     

The farmhouse accommodation is just about ready now as well, with pictures being taken earlier today.  These should be on the website soon.  We are looking into being graded by the Welsh Tourist Board for the house, although will wait until we are able to change the carpets.  The rest of the house feels very empty and unloved, as all of Gwilyms handmade items have been moved over in to the old part of the house for guests to enjoy!  

Gwilym's workshop and showoom have still not been moved over to the yard - this is being held up by the landlord still not fitting the doors on the barn.  We are hoping that this will be completed before the onslaught of the show season so that I can assist Gwilym in oiling his work.  He says I have not passed my test yet for even using a screwdriver!

So, I wonder what the next month has in store for us.  Hopefully some more glorious weather, and even more happy customers! 

Easter has come and gone, along with it's snow on April Fool's Day!  We have, in the main, finished the facilities and yurts for the time being, the work being undertaken now is improvements and planting.  We have had in couples, families and big groups, all of whom seem to have really enjoyed themselves, and we have really enjoyed having people around again.  The campfire was christened this weekend, with some hardy fools even staying up throughout the night to witness the sun rise!  Although to be fair the sunrises are pretty stunning over the mountains.

The ground has dried up remarkably, it was quite boggy when we were trying to finish everything off, and the grass is coming up nicely really greening the place up.

I have tried uploading some more photos recently, although I am half ashamed to say that I broke the laptop 2 nights ago in a spat with the internet crashing on me (after 2 hours work!).  I am since checking my emails at work so please bear with me if I do not get back to you for a couple of days.

On the animal front, there has still been no change, the pigs are still in their old home, although hopefully will be moving up to the field by the May Bank Holiday.  The little ones are still growing, still being far too talkative, alhtough they loved the attention from the children two weekends ago!

The house is still being sorted out, although we are almost there and have just got 2 of the bedrooms to finish off, I will upload more pictures as and when they become available.

I will also be updating the website with what the yurts and the facilities have in them, along with more pictures, now that we have finished.   Whilst we were still completing the site it was difficult to know what was going into the facilities, as we had not bought the items!

I should go now, I am supposed to be working!

March has seen a number of lambs being put into the field next to the yurts, and this warmer weather has meant that they have been enoying themselves frolicking in the sunshine.  The last couple of days has seen some heavy rain showers but this does not seem to have dampened their spirits.  We have also noticed that some hedgerow bushes have started to come into leaf, and our daffodils are looking like they will be open in time for Easter.

On the smallholding front, there has been no change since the last blog.  All of our spare time has gone on putting the yurt site together that I have not even had time to go lookng for bees for sale, or getting Lady to the boar in time for summer piglets.  Once Easter has passed, hopefully this will free up some more time to put into the livestock side of the project!  

Easter is racing towards us at a rate of knots, and the poor weather that we have had the last few days has really slowed some of our work on the yurt site, but don't worry if you are coming to stay at Easter we will be finished by then!  We were hoping to be just doing the finishing touches this weekend, but we still have the rest of the green yurt and the larger blue one to go yet.   The kitchen and showering facilities are up in the field and almost completed - all plumbed in and just finishing off the electric works.  Then I get to pretty the place up!

The tree bog is finished and waiting to go up in to the field, and then the decking around the facilities can be finished, and the planting of trees, bushes and flowers can commence, in time for a growth spurt when the weather continues to warm up, altough some wise sage told me the other day that we are due to get more snow after Easter!

The observant amongst you will note that we have taken down the B&B pages of the website, this is due to a slight change of heart about the use of our home.  If you have booked B&B please do not panic as this will still be honoured.  Instead, part of the farmhouse will be offered as accommodation on either a self catering or half board (breakfast) basis, to come into effect by the May bank holiday, for week long, weekend and mid week breaks.  Please contact us for further information regarding this.

Check out the pictures in the photos section! 

Well, March has started in a very Spring like manner, and we have foud that in our new garden we have got snowdrops as well as more daffodil than we planted coming up which is lovely!  This also means that work on the yurt facilities and field has been almost unstoppable, and we have completed a lot more than we expected to already.   Take a look at the gallery of some pictures. 

There is no change on the animal front, we still have our 2 piglets despite my half hearted attempt a advertising them once on my work 'Classifieds'!  Gwilym did announce this evening that he is getting some more chickens and an incubator before Easter,  little does he know I already have plans for bees! 

With the yurts, we were able to put the decks up in the field, although the sheer size and weight of them proved some problems moving the first, but once we had a plan we were able to get them in place in half the time! 

Over the weekend we also had an apprentice - local lad Lloyd (lock up your teenage daughters!) who is helping us out for his pocket money.  Don't be surprised if you see him helping Gwilym with maintenance whilst you are staying here. 

We also have the shell of the kitchen facilities in the field, and the shower and bath facilities have been painted up and are waiting to be placed in situ.  Gwilym has been working on the platforms for them to stand on over the last couple of nights.

Next job up is my favourite - shopping for home-y bits, to make the facilities and yurts comfortable - or, as Gwilym says, the expensive bit!  And what to do about those toilets...we have yet to start building them but at the last mention we are considering going with tree-bogs (very green!), although there is a toilet downstairs in the house for the very faint-hearted of you!

We are getting lots of queries for breaks during April, May and June, so if you have povisionally booked and not got your deposit in yet, hurry up, or you may find your break gone to somebody else!   

Enjoy the sunshine, and any queries , just get in touch!

Many thanks to those of you who got in touch about our missing gallery, this has now been rectified and pictures can once again be viewed!  

So, what have we been getting up to since the last blog?

Well, during the crisp dry weather we made strides in making the bases in the fields for the decks to stand on, and the decks are ready in the barn to be put on when we can borrow father-in-laws massey tractor!

The facilities are under way, although they are still shell-like.  Looking at them you could never tell what they were supposed to be!  Shortly will be the fun (and expensive) bit of kitting out all of the yurts and facilities!  Take a look at the pictures in the gallery.

We still have not sold our piglets.  I am very attached to them which is probably why I am dragging my heels.  We will need to get Lady to the boar soon as well, which will be very exciting preparing for the babies!  We let them all loose in the paddock about a month ago, and they have created a real mess - Noodle is permanently covered in our clay dirt!  

As to new animal additions, we have none yet, although am working very hard on being allowed a donkey!   

We are also trying to get our vegetable patch under way although we keep arguing about where that is going to go!  Who said married life was dull!  For the time being, I am just propogating seeds in our lovely warm utility room, mind you with today's snow and 8" predicted for Thursday I think that is the best place for them! 

Roll on spring...

Welcome to our blog where we are going to record the trials and tribulations of taking on and running a smallholding, as well as preparing our B&B and yurts site for the holidaying season next April 2010.  It would be prudent here to give a big thanks to Amanda at Hidden Valley Yurts who has filled us with inspiration, gave us confidence, and was free with her advice regarding our ideas.  Thank you!

We are due to move in on 10 September so we are getting ready by packing and getting our current house rented out.  We are both very excited and cannot wait :-)