Renovating an old farmhouse and living on the Pennines
Discussion
I'd just like to say thanks Evoluzione for the detailed updates, it makes fascinating and interesting reading.
Re your internet situation, my house suffered for ages from intermittent wifi issues, lack of coverage, etc, so just this week I bought a 3-pack of TP-Link Deco M4 from Currys, cost around £98. This is a mesh system as mentioned above. They were (as long as you have a smartphone for the app) simplicity itself to set up, they worked first time, they have improved the wifi speeds in the house by a factor of almost 3 and they now provide coverage outside in the man cave as well. Definitely recommended.
Re your internet situation, my house suffered for ages from intermittent wifi issues, lack of coverage, etc, so just this week I bought a 3-pack of TP-Link Deco M4 from Currys, cost around £98. This is a mesh system as mentioned above. They were (as long as you have a smartphone for the app) simplicity itself to set up, they worked first time, they have improved the wifi speeds in the house by a factor of almost 3 and they now provide coverage outside in the man cave as well. Definitely recommended.
Just binged this through this morning. Great stuff OP..!
Oh and it’s doing nothing to quell my desire to buy a house with more land (I grew up with several acres but have only lived in “regular” houses as an adult). At 45 I ought to sit tight and get the mortgage paid and focus on saving, but something like this remains a strong dream.
Good on you..!
Oh and it’s doing nothing to quell my desire to buy a house with more land (I grew up with several acres but have only lived in “regular” houses as an adult). At 45 I ought to sit tight and get the mortgage paid and focus on saving, but something like this remains a strong dream.
Good on you..!
Evoluzione said:
Last nights hard frost is certainly bringing the birds to the table, a woodpecker and what looks like a Finch with a red breast visited this morning amongst the other regulars. Had a little white flash on either wing and the red colour went from it's beak down to it's legs. Not a Bullfinch, Chaffinch perhaps?
Or possibly a redwing. You can get flocks of them scarfing rowan berries at this time of year. 
Chaffinch is sort of pinkish all over.
silentbrown said:
Evoluzione said:
Last nights hard frost is certainly bringing the birds to the table, a woodpecker and what looks like a Finch with a red breast visited this morning amongst the other regulars. Had a little white flash on either wing and the red colour went from it's beak down to it's legs. Not a Bullfinch, Chaffinch perhaps?
Or possibly a redwing. You can get flocks of them scarfing rowan berries at this time of year. Chaffinch is sort of pinkish all over.
Evoluzione said:
Hmmm, neither of those then. It was too small for a Redwing and I think i'd recognise it as they're very much like Thrushes and like the Fieldfares we do have a lot of. As you say they have been in the Hawthorn bushes getting the berries, but they won't come near the house. A Brambling perhaps? Will keep an eye out for it.
Linnet is another possibility.Well, that certainly killed a good hour or so of my first night shift for the week! Read from start to finish and really enjoyed that. Envious of what you have and get to enjoy out there but completely understand your sentiments a few pages back about how this lifestyle isn't really for everyone in the long term. I look forward to more posts.
Evoluzione said:
Here is your plane:
It does this:
Off we go:
Take the controls : (we're in a straight line now). This is York, where would you like to go? Well over our houses obvs! So he requested clearance from LBA which was surprisingly granted and off we went. I'd already primed my parents and they were waving in the garden. How cool is that for so little money?
My friend bought a share in a small plane and took me up for a spin a couple of years ago. I had never been in anything other than a modern commercial jet, a modern commercial turbo-prop and (once) a Viscount.It does this:
Off we go:
Take the controls : (we're in a straight line now). This is York, where would you like to go? Well over our houses obvs! So he requested clearance from LBA which was surprisingly granted and off we went. I'd already primed my parents and they were waving in the garden. How cool is that for so little money?
It was amazing and disappointing in one go. Amazing for all the reasons you just "know" but the disappointment was my own travel sickness. Well, I wasn't actually sick but I was totally disoriented and developed a headache. I tried to focus on the horizon but after an hour I just needed to get out (obvs I didn't even though we were only a few hundred feet up).
Anyway, he asked me where we should go and we flew over my house, did circles around it so I could get photos, and then up towards Birmingham Airport where my mother lives, and although we didn't encroach on their airspace, we were close enough that required us to seek permission which they granted (surprisingly - a few mins later someone else came up on the radio asking for the same permission from a different direction and were denied).
We flew over Silverstone and then we even gained permission to fly over Brize Norton on the way back - I don't know whether that's a usual thing or not but I was impressed looking down at 4 Hercules.
Anyway, as you noted, it's a brilliant experience despite my inability to fully cope with it, and I'd recommend it heartily to everyone.
P.S. I'm hugely jealous of your hugely-huge log store.
Edited by Mars on Friday 26th November 10:53
'You need to live it a year lad before you make any decisions'.
It's a bit of a shame we don't see much of the trees turning into their Autumnal colours up here, they just get blown off before having much chance to turn. We don't have a lot of trees, next door has an unruly walled copse (which I have to admit i'm a bit envious of) and a few others dotted around. Because of this the deer don't come up here.
On our land are quite a few gnarly old Hawthorn and other various weather beaten old specimens. Some have been blown over onto their sides, but keep on growing providing food for the wildlife.
In ancient times the whole lot was forest, but as mankind discovered the value of wood for building and heat they came down. In their place was open land to grow crops, to graze sheep and cattle on.
This means a lot of historical artefacts have been lost, In the Neolithic period the evidence of those was left behind, the forests removed and moorland has replaced them so all of the evidence is now buried under thousands of Sqm of deep peat, soil and heather etc so is nigh on impossible to find. It's very rare, but some does resurface, mainly if the water has eroded the topsoil over where the evidence is contained.
I'd (wrongly) thought that we would only truly use or need a 4x4 on the odd occasion when it snowed, but I think we're going to need one in the future full time - just to cope with the terrain. Her car has another split in the sidewall of a low profile tyre, the van has two blown rear dampers, a spring and the trailer many a buckled wheel. In the main all caused by the state of the roads around here. I can't pull the trailer out when it's fully loaded if the rain has loosened the track (although haven't even tried in the dry yet).
The irony was strong here when I got stuck, the only thing which could have pulled me out was on the trailer! It was on there as I was taking it to my old workshop to give it a once over underneath and a service before Winter.
That was about an hour wasted. I was on my own, so in the end I took Terry off the trailer and coupled it up, dragged the trailer up to a layby. Walked back, drove the van up and swapped it all over again before setting off
Well we weren't going to be eased in with a mild Winter were we? Straight in at the deep end and like many we had a bit of snow recently and it's cold, 4" fell overnight on Friday so not much really given where we are, but enough to make things a little difficult. It's around zero during the day, dropping to -4 at night.
The OH sells her wares at a church Christmas craft stall, it was cancelled last year and muchly reduced this year, but she was ready to go. Sadly she'd loaded up her car the day before and then couldn't get out. The phone and internet signal has vanished in the night too so couldn't contact anyone to tell them what was going on, nor did we know what was happening elsewhere in the World. Hopefully someone had seen her snow pics on FB the night before and realised.
I'm currently loading this page up sat in my van at the edge of the yard as it's the only place I can get a signal, the mast has been effected by the snow and/or wind.
I was unloading the van in the yard and the wind was whirling around, I kept hearing voices now and again on the wind, but because of the varying directions* couldn't tell where they were coming from. I finally guessed they must be from the road high above us, given the conditions It was probably best I take a look, so I fired up Terry and powered through the freshly fallen snow up the track. This was the scene:
They knew what they were doing building our house facing South halfway down a hill. Whilst it was just a bit breezy down there it was blowing an almighty gale up at the top. I could barely open the car door and my face was burning from the cold North wind in no time (Balaclava on the wanted list).
The chap on the left was stuck and the pickup was a neighbours. I got the rope out and dragged the guy free, but the cars carried on coming, then stopping, then they were holding up the snow plough. Eventually they were all sorted out and the plough went back and forth over the moors.
The problems were it was relatively clear in the bottoms so people set off, not giving much thought to what it would be like up here on the tops. The road was down to one pair of tracks so when they met someone coming the other way this happened:
More various snow pics below, but * this discovery that the wind direction is all over the place even at one time is worthy of note. I was pondering over some kind wind turbine, but would have to think really carefully where it was sited. On the other hand, it's probably rare it comes from the North, it does usually whistle up the valley from West to East, the way all the trees are bent over proves this, hmmmm
Oh and mice eat soap, what the heck is that all about? No halitosis in this house, no sir.
The queue for the toilets at these festivals is always ridiculous:
Sorry for crap pic here, the background is wrong and it's taken at distance through dirty glass, but you can just about see the Woodpecker on the nuts:
It's a bit of a shame we don't see much of the trees turning into their Autumnal colours up here, they just get blown off before having much chance to turn. We don't have a lot of trees, next door has an unruly walled copse (which I have to admit i'm a bit envious of) and a few others dotted around. Because of this the deer don't come up here.
On our land are quite a few gnarly old Hawthorn and other various weather beaten old specimens. Some have been blown over onto their sides, but keep on growing providing food for the wildlife.
In ancient times the whole lot was forest, but as mankind discovered the value of wood for building and heat they came down. In their place was open land to grow crops, to graze sheep and cattle on.
This means a lot of historical artefacts have been lost, In the Neolithic period the evidence of those was left behind, the forests removed and moorland has replaced them so all of the evidence is now buried under thousands of Sqm of deep peat, soil and heather etc so is nigh on impossible to find. It's very rare, but some does resurface, mainly if the water has eroded the topsoil over where the evidence is contained.
I'd (wrongly) thought that we would only truly use or need a 4x4 on the odd occasion when it snowed, but I think we're going to need one in the future full time - just to cope with the terrain. Her car has another split in the sidewall of a low profile tyre, the van has two blown rear dampers, a spring and the trailer many a buckled wheel. In the main all caused by the state of the roads around here. I can't pull the trailer out when it's fully loaded if the rain has loosened the track (although haven't even tried in the dry yet).
The irony was strong here when I got stuck, the only thing which could have pulled me out was on the trailer! It was on there as I was taking it to my old workshop to give it a once over underneath and a service before Winter.
That was about an hour wasted. I was on my own, so in the end I took Terry off the trailer and coupled it up, dragged the trailer up to a layby. Walked back, drove the van up and swapped it all over again before setting off
Well we weren't going to be eased in with a mild Winter were we? Straight in at the deep end and like many we had a bit of snow recently and it's cold, 4" fell overnight on Friday so not much really given where we are, but enough to make things a little difficult. It's around zero during the day, dropping to -4 at night.
The OH sells her wares at a church Christmas craft stall, it was cancelled last year and muchly reduced this year, but she was ready to go. Sadly she'd loaded up her car the day before and then couldn't get out. The phone and internet signal has vanished in the night too so couldn't contact anyone to tell them what was going on, nor did we know what was happening elsewhere in the World. Hopefully someone had seen her snow pics on FB the night before and realised.
I'm currently loading this page up sat in my van at the edge of the yard as it's the only place I can get a signal, the mast has been effected by the snow and/or wind.
I was unloading the van in the yard and the wind was whirling around, I kept hearing voices now and again on the wind, but because of the varying directions* couldn't tell where they were coming from. I finally guessed they must be from the road high above us, given the conditions It was probably best I take a look, so I fired up Terry and powered through the freshly fallen snow up the track. This was the scene:
They knew what they were doing building our house facing South halfway down a hill. Whilst it was just a bit breezy down there it was blowing an almighty gale up at the top. I could barely open the car door and my face was burning from the cold North wind in no time (Balaclava on the wanted list).
The chap on the left was stuck and the pickup was a neighbours. I got the rope out and dragged the guy free, but the cars carried on coming, then stopping, then they were holding up the snow plough. Eventually they were all sorted out and the plough went back and forth over the moors.
The problems were it was relatively clear in the bottoms so people set off, not giving much thought to what it would be like up here on the tops. The road was down to one pair of tracks so when they met someone coming the other way this happened:
More various snow pics below, but * this discovery that the wind direction is all over the place even at one time is worthy of note. I was pondering over some kind wind turbine, but would have to think really carefully where it was sited. On the other hand, it's probably rare it comes from the North, it does usually whistle up the valley from West to East, the way all the trees are bent over proves this, hmmmm
Oh and mice eat soap, what the heck is that all about? No halitosis in this house, no sir.
The queue for the toilets at these festivals is always ridiculous:
Sorry for crap pic here, the background is wrong and it's taken at distance through dirty glass, but you can just about see the Woodpecker on the nuts:
Edited by Evoluzione on Tuesday 18th January 20:00
Thanks for the replies as ever 
The changing of the seasons reveals more wildlife, the snow and freeze has certainly accelerated that and this came into view yesterday:
The stoat has partially killed a rabbit (maybe it had myxomatosis) and is trying to drag it back to its hole in the wall without much success due to it's size and the snow. I went over and put the rabbit out of its misery and pushed it against the hole. The Stoat carried on for quite sometime trying to get it in, but it was far too big.
I've mentioned before that we have a small spring part way up the banking above the house, it was the old water supply and is still running into some broken tanks up there. In order to stop it from cascading down the hill, making a mess and then flooding parts of the paddock I keep the tap in the yard permanently open so it runs into a drain. The tap recently stopped running and appeared to be blocked, now you wouldn't have guessed at that being the blockage would you?
Not the most beautiful of repairs, but it has cured a leak on the living room ceiling where others had failed.
Before:
After:
I chiselled and cut everything out so I could tuck it under all round, cut it to size and sealed it in.
It should have been done with a piece of lead, but:
I didn't have any and was not going to buy a full roll for that.
It would have taken ages to fit.
I had an offcut of roofing rubber
Whilst it'll last a long time, it doesn't really have to as we're hoping to put an extension on there.
I could trim it off a bit to tidy it up, It's just stuck down with sealant as I was finishing it off in the dark and lots of rain and snow was forecast. In the event it did snow heavily 24hrs later, has plenty sat on it and no leaks.
It reminded me of a tale my Dad once told me. He ran his own joinery business and set a rough looking bloke on once. He sent him off to fit someone a new front door as a test. The woman rang up complaining that the guy had nailed a piece of leather over the back of the letterbox hole to finish it off.
On asking the man why he'd done this he said he thought it was perfectly ok as his was like that at home and it worked fine.
The changing of the seasons reveals more wildlife, the snow and freeze has certainly accelerated that and this came into view yesterday:
The stoat has partially killed a rabbit (maybe it had myxomatosis) and is trying to drag it back to its hole in the wall without much success due to it's size and the snow. I went over and put the rabbit out of its misery and pushed it against the hole. The Stoat carried on for quite sometime trying to get it in, but it was far too big.
I've mentioned before that we have a small spring part way up the banking above the house, it was the old water supply and is still running into some broken tanks up there. In order to stop it from cascading down the hill, making a mess and then flooding parts of the paddock I keep the tap in the yard permanently open so it runs into a drain. The tap recently stopped running and appeared to be blocked, now you wouldn't have guessed at that being the blockage would you?
Not the most beautiful of repairs, but it has cured a leak on the living room ceiling where others had failed.
Before:
After:
I chiselled and cut everything out so I could tuck it under all round, cut it to size and sealed it in.
It should have been done with a piece of lead, but:
I didn't have any and was not going to buy a full roll for that.
It would have taken ages to fit.
I had an offcut of roofing rubber
Whilst it'll last a long time, it doesn't really have to as we're hoping to put an extension on there.
I could trim it off a bit to tidy it up, It's just stuck down with sealant as I was finishing it off in the dark and lots of rain and snow was forecast. In the event it did snow heavily 24hrs later, has plenty sat on it and no leaks.
It reminded me of a tale my Dad once told me. He ran his own joinery business and set a rough looking bloke on once. He sent him off to fit someone a new front door as a test. The woman rang up complaining that the guy had nailed a piece of leather over the back of the letterbox hole to finish it off.
On asking the man why he'd done this he said he thought it was perfectly ok as his was like that at home and it worked fine.
Edited by Evoluzione on Tuesday 18th January 20:28
There is lesser point to all of this if you can't share it, or use it to make other people's lives better in some way or another.
A few weeks ago some of the OHs family came to stay, the kids had lost their dad a year ago in a tragic accident so thought i'd better do some hands on bloke stuff. Actually, I would have done that anyhow regardless
The girl had recently gone all teenager. Her eyes lit up though when I said she could have her first driving lesson, so we took Terry around the fields and learned the basics. It's a good car to learn in, having a sizeable, very torquey lump and a low ratio box means you can set off quite easily without needing the accelerator.
Her younger bro' came along for the ride, he's quite a cautious young chap and happy to watch and weigh up a situation before joining in so was content enough in the back. To engage him a bit and bring some reality to the situation we took the chainsaw, I cut down some dead trees to keep the place tidy and we dragged them back to the house behind Terry for firewood.
Typically as we had visitors the power went off at around 7 and didn't come back on until after bedtime, so it was an evening in front of the wood burner by candlelight. The head mounted torch I have and another super bright handheld one (thanks to the PH torch thread) were put to good use.
Also a few weeks back now was our falconry day. The Yorkshire Falconry club brought 5 birds and a couple of ferrets up to hunt the land. There were Goshawks, Harrishawks and a Red tailed Hawk.
The weather was perfect, birds and ferrets well behaved and all the guys very polite and interesting to talk to. O/H as hospitable as ever treated them all to bacon sarnies and mugs of hot tea n coffee whilst we sat in the sun and chatted.
I'd seen a local wildlife enthusiast and photographer on FB so invited him and his mate up too, most of the shots are theirs and as you can see they've certainly got an eye for a good pic, they aren't just pictures, they convey the love, respect and passion.
I posted this up earlier and those who know birds will have noticed how clever it is, for those who don't it is of course two robins.
The biggest problem of the day was lack of rabbits, we hardly saw any and caught none. I'm pretty sure the recent outbreak of myxomatosis has almost wiped them all out. Hopefully a few will survive and they'll be back in strong numbers once again.
Enjoy some (mainly) professional pictures for a change!
Dinner, but for who?
A few weeks ago some of the OHs family came to stay, the kids had lost their dad a year ago in a tragic accident so thought i'd better do some hands on bloke stuff. Actually, I would have done that anyhow regardless
The girl had recently gone all teenager. Her eyes lit up though when I said she could have her first driving lesson, so we took Terry around the fields and learned the basics. It's a good car to learn in, having a sizeable, very torquey lump and a low ratio box means you can set off quite easily without needing the accelerator.
Her younger bro' came along for the ride, he's quite a cautious young chap and happy to watch and weigh up a situation before joining in so was content enough in the back. To engage him a bit and bring some reality to the situation we took the chainsaw, I cut down some dead trees to keep the place tidy and we dragged them back to the house behind Terry for firewood.
Typically as we had visitors the power went off at around 7 and didn't come back on until after bedtime, so it was an evening in front of the wood burner by candlelight. The head mounted torch I have and another super bright handheld one (thanks to the PH torch thread) were put to good use.
Also a few weeks back now was our falconry day. The Yorkshire Falconry club brought 5 birds and a couple of ferrets up to hunt the land. There were Goshawks, Harrishawks and a Red tailed Hawk.
The weather was perfect, birds and ferrets well behaved and all the guys very polite and interesting to talk to. O/H as hospitable as ever treated them all to bacon sarnies and mugs of hot tea n coffee whilst we sat in the sun and chatted.
I'd seen a local wildlife enthusiast and photographer on FB so invited him and his mate up too, most of the shots are theirs and as you can see they've certainly got an eye for a good pic, they aren't just pictures, they convey the love, respect and passion.
I posted this up earlier and those who know birds will have noticed how clever it is, for those who don't it is of course two robins.
The biggest problem of the day was lack of rabbits, we hardly saw any and caught none. I'm pretty sure the recent outbreak of myxomatosis has almost wiped them all out. Hopefully a few will survive and they'll be back in strong numbers once again.
Enjoy some (mainly) professional pictures for a change!
Dinner, but for who?
Great update and pictures as always.
About the 4x4 - yep, a typical 2wd van or car quickly becomes a bit of a liability in the winter especially if you hitch a trailer to it.
Even putting one wheel onto the verge with a heavy trailer on means you're going nowhere, and low slung plastic bodywork will always come off badly if you need to tackle drifts or put it into a ditch. Sooner or later you'll get caught out and need to get home through a flood or a blizzard and the 2wd will let you down even with winter tyres.
A decent pickup is probably the answer - about the cheapest reliable way into a proper 4x4 and the lower spec models are typically well specced for general rural use. Look for an active Hilux or a 4Work L200 and you shouldn't go too far wrong. You will still get it stuck but long, long after the van would have given up.
About the 4x4 - yep, a typical 2wd van or car quickly becomes a bit of a liability in the winter especially if you hitch a trailer to it.
Even putting one wheel onto the verge with a heavy trailer on means you're going nowhere, and low slung plastic bodywork will always come off badly if you need to tackle drifts or put it into a ditch. Sooner or later you'll get caught out and need to get home through a flood or a blizzard and the 2wd will let you down even with winter tyres.
A decent pickup is probably the answer - about the cheapest reliable way into a proper 4x4 and the lower spec models are typically well specced for general rural use. Look for an active Hilux or a 4Work L200 and you shouldn't go too far wrong. You will still get it stuck but long, long after the van would have given up.
snowandrocks said:
Great update and pictures as always.
About the 4x4 - yep, a typical 2wd van or car quickly becomes a bit of a liability in the winter especially if you hitch a trailer to it.
Even putting one wheel onto the verge with a heavy trailer on means you're going nowhere, and low slung plastic bodywork will always come off badly if you need to tackle drifts or put it into a ditch. Sooner or later you'll get caught out and need to get home through a flood or a blizzard and the 2wd will let you down even with winter tyres.
A decent pickup is probably the answer - about the cheapest reliable way into a proper 4x4 and the lower spec models are typically well specced for general rural use. Look for an active Hilux or a 4Work L200 and you shouldn't go too far wrong. You will still get it stuck but long, long after the van would have given up.
The van has taken a hammering because it's shifted maybe 50 tons of stuff just lately. I can forgive it blowing 2 dampers (at 80k) and getting stuck here a few times. Now I know it's limitations I just don't ask too much of it here and use the Terrano to pull the trailer around. Once i'm fully installed and all ties cut (in the next week or two) it won't move much, but still be invaluable. Because it has high profile tyres and good ground clearance it doesn't suffer like a car.About the 4x4 - yep, a typical 2wd van or car quickly becomes a bit of a liability in the winter especially if you hitch a trailer to it.
Even putting one wheel onto the verge with a heavy trailer on means you're going nowhere, and low slung plastic bodywork will always come off badly if you need to tackle drifts or put it into a ditch. Sooner or later you'll get caught out and need to get home through a flood or a blizzard and the 2wd will let you down even with winter tyres.
A decent pickup is probably the answer - about the cheapest reliable way into a proper 4x4 and the lower spec models are typically well specced for general rural use. Look for an active Hilux or a 4Work L200 and you shouldn't go too far wrong. You will still get it stuck but long, long after the van would have given up.
What will happen is her car will go. It's a 2 seater Peugeot convertible and despite being fairly reliable over the years it has nothing going for it in my eyes and she doesn't have much love for it.
Therefore we'll buy a 4x4 car she can use, i'll use Terry and the van.
What we'll get I have no idea. She'll want some comfort, we'll need something fairly rugged, selectable low ratio 4wd and LSDs, at least at the rear. It'll need a sizeable engine for torque, whether diesel or not I don't know, there isn't much between them these days, well, pros and cons. I suspect it'll only do 5 - 10k miles a year as we both WFH, she only does a few thousand work miles a year now, but when she does they can be long journeys.
One to avoid apparently is the Range Rover 3L diesel, someone was telling me they're dropping like flies due to some serious engine problem.
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