New Corral on Tubney

In preparation for a work party last Friday, Stu, Lois and I moved some very large reels of old stock netting. We had to use the big tractor as the reels were so heavy and Stu managed to achieve the ultimate goal and get a reel onto each prong of the pallet forks. 

Stu with his "double pronging"!

So with the fencing out the way UK power networks were free to come in and help build a corral as part of their Helping Hands project. They've done a fantastic job and three quarters of the corral is fully built. The clay was so hard that even their massive auger was struggling to dig down to six foot deep, which is why we didn't quite get it finished on the day. They did do a great job though and we are very grateful for all their hard work.

Team photo at the end of the day, with the new corral in the background

A close up of the corral

Once finished the corral will help our tenant farmers get their cattle on and off the site. It will hopefully make things a lot easier as once penned up you can push the cows into a trailer. We're also putting a fancy gate system in the middle so that the herd can be split once in the corral.

I had a couple of training session at Anglesey Abbey last week so ended up filling an hour in the evening between courses by wondering around the gardens. It was very atmospheric with the mist coming in and the sun setting behind the trees. I also got a sneak preview of some of the Winter Lights things that the Gardeners were putting up and testing. It looks like it will be another fantastic event and I hear the first weekend has already gone down a storm.

Sunset over the Anglesey Abbey gardens