At last Truffle has had her piglets! Shes a first time mum so a small litter of just four, two boys and 2 girls. The first two arrived at 10pm last night, one more at 3am and the last one at around 7am.
Mother and babies doing well – I will take some photos soon and post them on the website.
We have been incredibly busy with bookings recently, the phone calls and emails started flooding in from January 2nd. In less than 6 weeks we have booked out nearly a quarter of our avavailability for the year and we already have some dates where we are fully booked across all 4 cottages.
So if you are looking at joining us here at Broadgate Farm for a break don’t delay too long!
The two new cottages are coming on well – all going to plan. The plastering is almost complete and next week the plumbing first fix will take place. we hope to commission the heat source pump and fire up the underfloor heating soon. I am in buying frenzy, the list is coming down in size! I am searching for some dining tables and chairs at the moment!
The term new arrivals usually means new visitors to our holiday cottages but not this time. Truffle our Gloucester Old Spot is expecting and the piglets are due shortly.
We are all ready – the electricity supply to her house is in place – a lamp to keep them warm has been purchased we now just have to wait for the happy event.
I will post photos on the site just as soon as we have them – keep checking back!
The bathroom planning is coming on really well – I have some lovely fittings sourced with the help of our local suppliers Halmshaws. The bathrooms are going to look fantastic!
Just trying to decide between two different styles of WHB and then it is all sorted!
Next on the list? – planning the kitchen for the Granary. I have already planned and ordered the Barn House kitchen so just one to go!
We were amazed to come downstairs yesterday to find an Owl in the sitting room! We can only think that it came down the chimney but there was no sign of soot everywhere.
Steve caught the owl in a fishing net and he was released with no harm done! He was quite a big owl and thankfully had not made much of a mess.
Whatever next….
Its always nice to plan a new kitchen or a bathroom but imagine planning 5 bathrooms at the same time! They are all different in shape & size because we are working with old buildings so there is not a lot I can just repeat.
We are shortly to start the first fix plumbing on the Barn House and the Granary so the plumbers need to know exactly what we are having where. I am just waiting for the prices to come through from our local supplier so that I can finalise each bathroom. They will all look fab!
The Barn House has a ground floor wetroom, a spacious bathroom upstairs and an ensuite shower room to the master bedroom. The Granary also has an ensuite shower room to the master bedroom, a lovely big family bathroom and a downstairs cloakroom. They will all be finished with the travertine tiles that look so good in our existing cottages.
It was a lovely surprise having a white Christmas but it just seems to go on and on1 We have had 6″ of snow in the last couple of days, the roads are passable but the farm is covered! The cottages are nice and cosy, the geo thermal heating is supposed to be more effective in cold weather and it certainly seems to be doing the job. I’m pleased that we chose to install wood burning stoves, the cottages don’t need them to keep warm but is is so nice to sit in front of a fire when it is cold and snowy outdoors.
Our Christmas and New Year guests built a small family of snowmen in the paddock by the entrance and Lauren is out now building a snow fort! – I’m not quite sure what that is either!
Broadgate Farm Cottages wish everyone a happy & prosperous New Year!
We have a very busy year ahead of us with two larger cottages due to open in April. The structural work is all complete and the underfloor heating was installed before Christmas. Lots still to do! My first tasks in the New Year are to sort out the bathrooms and I have one of the kitchens left to plan.
I’m not sure how I am finding the energy to tell you about this – what a day!
I have mentioned on the website that our pig Truffle has a visiting boyfriend, all has been well for the last week but today he decided that he fancied exploring further afield. This obvoiusly wasn’t a good idea so we tempted him back to the fenced area we have for the pigs and Steves nephew came over to put up an electric fence to keep them in.
Well Giovanni (the boars name) didn’t like the fence one little bit – don’t suppose I would either – and after 10 minutes or so he trotted up to the fence and then took off just like a champion show jumper and cleared the fence completely!
He was a bit wound up by this time and could not be tempted back – he then ran off across the fields. We headed him off at the road and managed to keep him in a little wooded area. Reinforcements were called in with a trailer and boards for directing him and eventually some 3 hours later we have him back in his pen with Truffle.
If she doesn’t have piglets after all this going on!!!!!
To make matters worse after all that trouble with pigs guess what we had out for tea – SAUSAGES!!