Spring cleaning inside had to take a bit of a back seat over the last week because the UK has actually had some good weather!
We are about a month behind in the garden and I had all but given up on the chance of getting anything done out there until I took some annual leave in the summer. Then suddenly it was lovely, hot even, and I realised come hell or high water I needed to be outside, not inside. I took a day's annual leave and managed to work the rest of my schedule so I started and finished early for a few days, snatching some extra time.
The biggest job outstanding on the holding is the woodwork - it's all starting to look shabby round the edges; the main gates, the paddock gate, the barn doors and window frames, the front and back pergola, the porch door, and the summer house. Replacing wood structures is surprisingly expensive and there is no money in our budget to replace them for some years to come so looking after them and extending their lifespan is one of my priorities. Luckily, it is not a major expense, just the odd can of wood preservative and paint.
There was no way I could do all of the woodwork in the small amount of time I had so I chose to do something that would immediately make the property look well-cared for and give it 'kerb appeal': the main gates and paddock gate. The main gates are the first thing you see from the road and every time someone opened them they got dirt and slime on their hands. The paddock gates were heading that way, and a few times I've ended up with a green slime trail on my jacket.
We're very lucky that the previous owner chose to spend the money on proper pressure-treated wood, as that has added to the longevity of everything considerably and helped save us cash. However, I was a little apprehensive at first; the top of the gates are starting to disintegrate, despite being pressure-treated, probably due to all the algae and moss invading the grain, but I made sure not to direct too strong a jet of water and do more damage than good. Slowly, some rather nice looking gates emerged from underneath the dirt and slime.
After a couple of hours drying in the hot sun, I could then get to work painting them with my secret weapon - a fence paint brush. A few years ago I invested in a good one of these for about £8 and it is by far the best brush I have ever owned. Instead of one line of real bristles, it has four so it holds more paint/preservative and gets the job done exceptionally quickly. I think each gate took me 35 minutes for both front and back.
Seeing the clean painted gates galvanised Martin into action and he immediately set to work restoring the vintage railway sign. This had been attached to the gate by the former owner and left to rust but fortunately these things were thickly forged to a high standard back in the day so all they needed was a good wire brushing to prepare them for painting. Martin patiently applied two coats of white base and picked out the lettering with black Hammerite. He's soooooo much better at this detail stuff than me.
The paddock gate was also cleaned and painted, not an easy task when two sheep are intent on investigating it before it dries. They both ended up wearing Harvest Brown wood preservative on their faces but as it is water soluble a little rain overnight washed them clean.
Next job on the list? As the weather has disintegrated again I am back to spring cleaning inside.This week is the bathrooms, which involves evicting some grotty unhygienic carpet with ominous stains. Bleurch! I did finish the porch and utility room and pictures will follow in the next post.
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