Since the last newsletter much has happened in all of our lives.
We are very lucky as a family to have the farms, which give us so much more freedom than many people.
Daily life on the farm has not changed much, it has been a very busy period - calving, shearing and haymaking for our winter forage.
Grass has been a real challenge this year and we have had to supplement the cattle with additional hay, which has meant we have had to find more hay for winter.
All of the farms' hospitality activities have been suspended for now. We had a number of weddings booked for this year, an annual beer and gin festival all of which have been cancelled. Most of the weddings have transferred to next year so we have not lost the business completely.
Last year we made the difficult decision to stop doing the glamping tents, this, it turns out was agood idea in the light of what has happened.
Obviously initially at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, we had to lockdown like everyone. As the situation developed, we were very lucky in securing some contracts to house key workers in the electrical industry. They bring and live in their own caravans, and ths has helped with the loss of tourism .
More recently, we have taken the step re-open our CL and camping pitches at Round Oak and have of off grid, isolated pitches with electric hook up available for guests. Our communal areas remain closed i.e. WCs and showers and we are therefore restricted to welcoming those with on board facilities. Water and waste facilities are available.
Kings Oak is currently home to several keyworkers and has new approval for six electric hook ups, which we hope will be open to tourists in the future.
We are also really pleased to have also finally started work on the temporary accomodation at Kings Oak, which will mean that we hope to have the Farm Manager in situ by the Winter enabling us to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the stock there.
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