Check out our new website and blog

We now have a new website up and running, http://www.ivygrangefarm.co.uk/ which hosts all the existing blog content as well as lots of new stuff.  Please follow our progress through the website, and sign up for our regular newsletter.  We've uploaded lots of pictures of the landscaping we've been doing and the work on the barn and out-buildings and we hope you'll think about coming to check out what we've been doing for yourselves.  We're planning to open for a couple of months in July and August with two yurts - a Mongolian and our Cornish yurt.  We'd love to see you in Suffolk.

Winter

We had a great time at the RSPB Reserve at Minsmere - beautiful December light and marsh and hen harriers  Plenty of people had spotted the waxwings on the berries, but we not us, sadly, though we did see a water rail, creeping out from behind the reeds, which was fun.  The resident ponies blend beautifully with the winter colours.

And from there, we wandered down to the beach which is glorious in winter.  The dead tree trunk was a similar bleached colour to the ponies and reeds, and looked sculptural just lying on the shingle. 

But back to work, and this is the completed trench arch which will take away the "grey" water from the showers and washing-up.  We're now in the process of back-filling the trench with soil and will cover it over with woodchip to create a pathway through the wooded area.  The arch is in a "U" shape - it doubles back on itself and is a good 40m long, so it required some fairly hefty digging and clearing of shrubs to get it in.  It's great to have - it feels like our first solid piece of infrastructure for the yurts and we're looking forward to following up with the "jungle" showers and the loo in this wooded area. 

The builders are getting on well inside the barn, despite many freezing days which disrupted the schedule for laying the concrete floor.  But it's now all in place, and they start on the roof soon - a new plywood ceiling with masses of insulation behind it, with the tiles going back on top. 

And this is the big piece of machinery that has been working outside to uproot the ancient, broken, concrete slabs from around the barn!  We're planning to replace the concrete with a membrane covered by a thick layer of woodchip, courtesy of some of our own trees, as well as a plentiful supply from our neighbours. 

Since the snow has melted, we've been seeing the barn owl hunting over the field most days.  It's a beautiful bird, and we're lucky that our part of North East Suffolk is one of the places where the numbers are beginning to improve. 

Nick is doing his bit to encourage the barn owl to nest in the small copse at the end of the field, which is where he/she likes to sit and survey the food possibilities.  It would be great to have the box occupied.  We've been clearing out all the smaller nesting boxes and putting them up again, and already the birds are beginning to check them out.