Settling in to Auchenstroan

It has been 3 weeks since we moved here and we are finally beginning to feel more settled.  Of course, there’s loads of work to do and on top of that, lambing is about to begin and we are also expecting our first pigs.  But first, s picture tour of our new place.

Our house is gently nestled into the hillside.  We have great views in all directions.  We can see our hens and pigs and sometimes the sheep from our kitchen.

We have a garden front and back and are busy sorting out and enlarging our veggie patch.  Nicole, as I write this, is in the greenhouse starting this year’s planting.

We have plenty to do, the house came with some unwelcome residents, woodworm and some damp.  That is being sorted this week.  And we also are planning to put in a guest bathroom and an en-suite for us a second “utility” room with fridges and freezers (for all our produce).

Our animals love it.  The hens have a large area to patrol along with a new hen house and automatic door opening/closing device which is great.  The sheep have so much space now that they can fulfill their natural desire to roam.

Plus the dogs have settled in.  They spend much of the day outside now.  They have befriended Maga, our neighbour’s collie and roam our patch doing their thing, a bit of guard duty, a bit of exploring and also a bit of trying to get the humans to play ball.

And also, a bit of playing together which is great to watch.

And we have plenty of wildlife.  The ponds were overflowing with frogs only a few days ago.  Sadly, this attracts the herons, but nature is like that.  Harsh!

As well as the house and fields, we have two newly planted woodlands and two rivers, a small loch and numerous burns.

We are especially pleased about one of the woodlands as we had planted something of the region of 1,000 trees in our last place in Somerset.  This is one job we won’t have to do again.  The other woodland is an area where most trees were recently felled and it has been replanted.

Nevertheless, we added another 50 or so trees, some oaks we had brought up with us plus other various trees we found lying about.

And we are looking forward to picnics by the river in the summer.

So, all in all, we are really happy with our new home.  And once all the work is done, we might get all the boxes emptied.  But then, lambing is about to begin….