Day 100 - When Foxie got camping-ready (or when there was 100 day cake!)

Happy Day 100!!

As Day 100 of our ownership of Foxlease Park draws to a close, it feels like a big milestone and it is, and at the same time, it also isn't as we intend for it to continue for many many thousands of days yet to come!  Our lovely Volunteer Eleanor brought us a cake into the office to celebrate and Foxie and friends, along with those on site today, cut it to celebrate yet another big milestone.  We've achieved lots in the first 100 days and we're so grateful for the amazing and continuing support of our supporters and especially those who have been able to attend site to assist us with preparing for opening in some way.  We'll reflect on some metrics over the weekend as to where we're at but for now we'll just enjoy celebrating the milestone.

In practical terms, on site our volunteer team worked as hard as ever.  With some more sewing in The Barn and further installation of Carol and the majority of the team venturing outside to prepare our first couple of campsite huts for their first bookings coming up soon.  Work involved cutting back the overgrown concrete and hard standing - thanks to Volunteers Su and Gill who got through three sites-worth of that and some sorting at the back of The Lodge in what was formerly the rented out area.  Volunteers Carol and Sandy worked hard to remove old birds' nests (and associated ick) and many many cobwebs from the inside and out of the Nightingale campsite hut.

Volunteers Gordon and Pete Pete (whose plastering in The Coach House yesterday we are pleased to report was a grand success) worked round the hut, fixing, realigning, replacing wood panels, hinges and similar to get it ready for repainting next week and its looking both safer, cleaner and more loved already, with more to come!  They were joned by Volunteer plumber Pete who was reassembling the pipework after the winter drain down and also adding in lots of drain points so that next winter is easier for us.  It's a great new system but we'll definitely need to fund a large number of bits from Screwfix (other sources are available) to complete all of the campsite huts to the same standard and unfortunately they aren't things we can source through the Amazon Mountain.  We've got the boiler servicing for the campsites scheduled in and we're on track to be ready for the first bookings soon, with more hard work planned in so we'll cross our fingers for drier days coming up soon to make sure we get there. 

A fantastic effort today by the whole team to end our first 100 days.  Now, onto the question you've all been asking....is that the end of Foxie's blog???  We officially said we'd blog to mark the first 100 days and on day one Emma really wasn't sure if it we'd get that far or not but it seems to have proven popular and is a nice way for us to acknowledge the day-to-day hard work of our volunteers and the progress we're making on site and to keep people updated with what is happening and how to support us.  We've had a kind offer from one of our volunteers to assist us with publishing the first 100 days into a little book and we'll be exploring that further soon.  In terms of the blog itself, we don't want it to become too repetitive and we are nearing a stage where to keep it going daily that might become the case, equally, we have lots to share and lots of progress still to make.  So, the answer is...the blog will continue, but it might become slightly less frequent (i.e. every couple of days rather than daily) to make sure we still have something to share with you worth reading! 

So, here's to the next 100 days of Foxlease Park and far beyond! Thank you for your ongoing support and readership.  We hope you'll keep following our adventures, Love Foxie (and Carol, the Amazon Mountain Range, the Singing Washing Machine, PAT-rick, James and aaaaaaallll the others) x