The early spring 2013 at Grove Farm, can be neatly summed up by this photo...
Occasionally it dried up enough to progress the treehouse , but it was slow, sporadic going. I will write a separate 'treehouse' blogpost when its all done (its not quite done yet!) so will keep details in this post brief.
In March it stopped raining and snowed instead! A year earlier it had been 24 degrees Celcius and local kids had been swimming in the river ! The digger stopped digging and started snow-ploughing instead, much to the childrens amusment on the way to school !
 |
| Towing the car up the hill on school run. |
It all looked very scenic...
 |
| Looking towards the ruin in lower field |
...but made outside work almost impossible at times
 |
| Well I may have done a bit today, it looks so lovely ! |
When the spring warmth arrived the treehouse responded by shooting up rapidly- somewhat larger than I'd initially expected, like some unknown plant from a garden centre sale !
The main reason for this was the high calibre plans I was using (or was I drawing them as I built it, I cant quite remember !). Spot the deliberate mistake on these, the only, 'plans'....
 |
| I never could be that bothered with accurate plans. |
Correct - they dont have any measurements on them ! Since most of the materials are reclaimed I just used everything I had available - which turned out to be quite a bit ! I'm quite pleased with how it looks - more a tree 'mansion' than tree 'house' !
Or, as a friend on the
Grove Farm Facebook page put it, "Make Awesome as they say!""
 |
| "Make Awesome!" |
The treehouse has progressed considerably from there - but more in next post.
Other things that have been happening - regular archery by local students - shooting accurately at up to 100 yards !
 |
| THUD ! Bullseye ! |
Possible ideas for future eco-grass management were looked into. aaaaaah !
 |
| "Alpaca my warm clothes" |
A different perspective on the farm was gained from the view of a remote controlled
R10 Quadrotor courtesy of cousin Henry Fletcher. The ongoing turning area and treehouse can be seen on the left. There is a
video of the flight on YouTube . The lane I have dug out runs along behind the wall behind the two static caravans in yard.
 |
| The farm viewed towards Lothianbridge viaduct/ Newtongrange |
By Easter the sun had just about returned, at least long enough for family visits and Easter egg hunting in the woods. Such a difference from two years ago where the woods were almost inaccessible due to rhododendron.
 |
| If you go down to the woods today.... |
 |
| The Easter bunny is GOLD ! |
Vistors even got to enjoy 'hands-on' digger experience.
Henry - "Any digger jobs?"
Me - "How about digging a hundred meters of trench ?"
Henry - "Great !"
More visitors like that please.
The digger novelty has rather worn off for me after several hundred hours at the controls !
 |
| Henry, flying the digger |
Ah, the excitement of all that power !
 |
| Are women allowed in diggers? Sammi proving otherwise ! :) |
I had my own 'holiday travels'. All the way from the yard to the walled field via the newly cleared track. It took about five hours and was one of the more stressful holiday travels I've had , although I do seem to be whistling a happy tune in this photo...
 |
| Maybe I have Romany blood? ;) |
|
The old metal and timber wall was opened up to gain access to the field. Originally this was a heated brick wall with multiple horizontal flues which is why it had long since collapsed. Luckily most of the remaining walls are in better condition and are solid construction.
 |
| Right tool for the job ! |
Eventually the static caravan got to its 'holiday destination'.
 |
| The pleasure of having lots of space ! |
About a week later the strong winds finished off the remainder of the old collapsed wall and the metal wall that stood on it. Only the small trees stopped it being blown completely flat.
More work....
 |
| Rotten wood, rotten stone, rotten weather! |
In the blink of an eye (or two weeks real time) the majority of the fallen wall was cleared up and a new 'palisade' clad with the original metal roofing sheets was hastily erected to keep out invading hordes (and members of public on the churned up footpath).
This photo is viewed from near the bottom end of Grove farm looking towards the river.
 |
| Keep out ! |
Its all looking a bit ravaged as a combination of dreary weather, delayed Spring time and lots of clearance work with the digger and chainsaw but I'm sure that Nature will return as soon as we are on to another job.
Incredible as it might seem, two years earlier the area (above)... looked like this (below)...
 |
| The view to 'broom corner' at base of Grove Farm |
Looking the opposite way (from a slightly different spot) can be seen all the bricks that we have reclaimed
Several thousand !
Most are cleaned ready for re-use in future rebuilding work., although most of the large, coursed wall stones are rotten from lying in the mud for decades. There is still a big pile of mixed stone and brick to sort as well (any volunteers ?!). I'm keen to keep every brick thats re-usable, the handmade ones in particular would be nearly impossible to recreate- each one a little piece of history !
 |
| A mix of 'Arniston' machine made and unknown but beautiful ,handmade bricks |
The nearest ,more 'modern', bricks came from the shed that used to be where the red patch is in this next photo.
 |
| The back of the yard |
This area has changed quite a bit in the last two years , slowly returning to what it would probably have originally looked like. Most of it is North/ East facing so its not an ideal growing spot although there were some patches of exquisite soil buried under the new big piles of soil. These will be returned to the yard in due course when all the concrete has been lifted.
Two years ago it looked like this...
 |
| That really is the same place ! |
To help finish off the track and restore the footpath the local Council saw the wisdom in providing some lorry loads of tarmac road 'planings' . Now the public could once more promenade on a Sunday through the countryside without sinking into the mud (in their un-sensible shoes.)
 |
| Thank you Midlothian Council |
You get all sorts of people going along that track - and not all of them are fully prepared for the great outdoors !
 |
| Lundy learning to ride (and crash) |
Elsewhere the enormous parking area has at last been (almost) finished .
 |
| About 400 square meters of parking. Ooops! |
|
I'm not quite sure why it ended up that size either, might have had something to do with not measuring it or drawing a plan first. You would have thought I would have learned by now !
The hill made from the spoil from the track clearance has been finished with topsoil on one side, awaiting some trees and grass.
 |
| Although I was tempted just to keep building it higher and higher ! |
It will be good to draw a few of these mini-projects to a close. They seem to have taken up six months of my life in the blink of an eye. However its not every year of your life you get to build a tree 'mansion', a car park, a road, dig up a small hill and build it again somewhere else !
The summer may yet arrive , we've already had one really nice day this year (OK, it was half a day!)
 |
| Midlothian seems to be covered in dandelions this year ! |
Plans for the summer include . Finishing touches to treehouse over next few weeks; Ripping out most of the concrete in yard; Importing lots of soil into yard for a garden.
After that I will rip out our bedroom so that next year, when its freezing and wet outside again I could just stay in bed in the warm !
Although I doubt that will happen !
reuben
