Windmill Disaster

Our windmill fell down. It wasn't even particularly windy that day....The wooden fence must have ever so slightly broken it's fall because there is no damage other than a slight limp! We looked at the bolts at the base plate and some had sheared off. Rod was able to replace 3 bolts but one is still in the concrete! Just to be on the safe side he's attached a metal anchor arm from the tower to the ground--another Rod Invention!

         

Anchor bolts

It's up and behind are trampoline jumpers!

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Wood Wasp below  Bumble Bee above

Blizzards cut the house and farm off

                                         

Frozen waterfall down the farm track

The stable covered in snow drift

                                   

The bracken on our farm is a real nuisance. It suppresses wild flowers and grasses. We've found a novel way of bashing it, which is the most efficient way of weakening it. A quad, pulling tractor tyres joined with chains, emulates a herd of oxen crushing the stalks.Supposedly in olden times, everyone would have collected the bracken for bedding and animals would have helped to trample it. On our farm the steep slopes pose a problem so not everywhere is accessible. Here you can see green coming through where it has been successful and brown on steeper parts which can't be got at other than heavy tramping! ,