Days 112 to 116 - The highs and lows of camping (or when Foxie did the do-si-do).

As ever, lots going on this week on site...lots of it good and some of it bad, or at least unexpected - we'll start with the good, then update on the surprises and then move on to the best news.

Lots more firsts this week at Foxlease Park.  We had our first craft workshop on site on Tuesday morning in the Main Hall of the Lodge and our second on Thursday and both went very well with our attendees leaving with finished (or in some cases part-finished) projects, which all looked lovely.  We had a hugely busy day on Wednesday with lots of contractors on site and also our friends at the New Forest National Park Service and Flourish in Nature, who were on site to help us by cutting back lots of the invasive rhodedendron in the woodland areas, which has the added effect for us of making some of areas a little less crowded and a little more accessible.  We also gave the wisteria at the back of Foxlease House some attention and cutting back and have some lovely wreaths to decorate and sell, courtesy of Volunteer Hilary.

We've had contractors in doing some amazingly tidy groundworks for us, working with our electricians to upgrade the electricity supply to The Barn to make sure that Carol is able to work hard in the kitchen there.  The cooker in the Upstairs of The Lodge has been wired in  too (name awaited). They've had to dig up a big path from The Barn over past the Walled Garden to connect up to the Main House and they've done such a smashing job for us that you'd barely know they'd been there.  We've got more works happening to improve drainage in front of The Barn next week but all is currently running to plan on that.  We had SSE visit to scope out tree works needed to protect their network and they'll be back for more works next week and we had our friends at Normans back to help us service the boilers on our first few campsite huts and that was where the bad news struck....with our first two camping bookings happening this weekend, the pressure was on to complete the renovations with the small skilled team of volunteers helping on those works.  Lots of bits of wood to make safe, steps to replace and innovative shower re-tiling solutions being implemented in order to get us to the finish line.  We had Nightingale and Apple Trees ready to go save for boiler sign-off, an Normans were due to sign off our first five at the same time.  Unfortunately, boiler man Neil was the bearer of really bad news for us and despite his best efforts the boiler on Nightingale couldn't be saved....the worse news was neither could a number of the others.  Unfortunately the latest round of roofing repairs prior to our ownership seems to have invovled incorrect fitting of the boiler flues meaning that the boilers on huts with a straight flue are waterlogged and unable to be saved.  Thankfully Apple Trees was able to be passed with some work from Neil and a few replacement parts, which was a bit of a relief in the context of the others...The Bothy and Orchards were not so lucky.

We commissioned a new boiler for Nightingale but couldn't guarantee it would be in before our school group arriving mid-morning on Friday reached us and so the Team had to abandon Nightingale and think of other options and what could be achieved.  Neil then pointed out that Oaks he had looked at had a side-flue and so was in much better shape and could be updated and signed off with only a small amount more work.  The Team criticially assessed the hut and we decided to ask our booking to move, provided that we got the work done as we were determined that after all the hard work elsewhere we wanted the hut to be lovely.  That meant lots of work for the team on site and late evenings this week to get things done. 

Some volunteers scrubbed and then others painted Apple Trees, repairs were done, new rails installed and we were making good progress, although with some things still to go.  Oaks needed lots of work as we hadn't really started there yet, save for a previous weekend of volunteers completing a first clean some weeks ago and boy were we glad they did.  It was all hands on deck and the Team achieved the impossible in just a day and a half with two sides of the hut repainted, the toilets and showers cleaned and descaled, new shower curtains, rails, towel rails, mats and flooring installed in the showers (as always, a big thank you to Foxie's Fairy Godparents) and all the usual fittings installed in the campsite hut.  the wood was repaired on Thursday, with painting and cleaning and everything else happening late afternoon and into Thursday evening.  Paul came on site early to get the grass cut back and the last three shower flooring tiles were installed as the school walked up the drive (we had the office stall for a moment to allow us time to remove the tools etc) and then they were in and we breathed a sigh of relief, or rather achievement, that our first camping booking had arrived and were in.  Entertainingly, no one actually camped where Paul had carefully mown the campsite, but it was still worth the cut to make it look alot more ready for them.

Our Lodge group checked in on Friday and we were preparing for our Barn Dance Fundraiser in the evening and it went well, Foxie was having a bit of a rest after the pressure of getting Oaks ready in time but everyone else seemed to have a great time.  We started our Community Mosaic at The Barn Dance and we've asked more groups on site to add to it since and it looks great so far, with more to be added with each new group that attends the site.

Normans moved everything for us to get a new boiler on Nightingale as well as fixing up Apple Trees and finished a bit later in the day, so that one has been fitted and we can finish that hut off next week (just a little bit left to go) and we're grateful but new boilers are an expensive business (about £1,200 each for these) and we're expecting to find more problems with them as we continue assessing the sites not yet contemplated.  That's the worse news (as the price usually is!).  Having recovered and cleared up from The Barn Dance we refocussed our efforts on the last bits of Apple Trees - last minute removal of some extra screws, installation of rails, shower matting and the nice new curtains and a final clean of the hut and we were done with two hours to spare, give or take 5 minutes or so.

We gave Sam the Singing Washing Machine a whirl (Sam Sung.... thanks to Volunteer Liz for that suggestion) and had a general tidy up and did more preparations and repairs in The Coach House today to keep that moving forwards and that's creeping towards readiness too, along with painting the front of Orchards to move that along as well.  We had lots going on in the office and we're busy, busy, busy!

And the best news really is that tonight is a beautiful clear starry night at Foxlease Park, the site has two full campsites of happy (if not chilly) campers and a Lodge full of brownies.  What a great week of firsts and we'll get back to planning more tomorrow, Love Foxie x