Beating the Clay

It's been a while since we posted anything.  This is mainly because it's been a while since something significant was achieved at Willowbank.  Over the last week though things have changed outside.
At the end of last year, we planted a hedge between the house and the lane, and it is now growing.  We also got the professionals in to advise which plants would do well on our clay/soil and got the experts to plant them.  They were also tasked with giving us a lawn but that did not go quite to plan.  Firstly, it was decided that the ground was too wet to take a lawn and we would need to wait for it to dry out.  But then, it was decreed that the drainage in the lawn was inadequate and improvements must be made.

Ready to start

So Monday morning dawned and three men and a little digger duly set about tearing up the ground to find the original single drain installed by the builders at our request.  It seems that this drain would only drain the centre of the lawn and it was too deep to do any good anyway.  The plan was to introduce some shallower drains properly seated in a bed of gravel, wrapped in a porous liner, and located 8 inches down (the recommended depth apparently), all arranged in a herring-bone pattern.  These new drains would be routed to the deeper drain and all would be well.
Indeed, all did seem to go well and before the day was out, we had a fully drained patch of dirt!

Mini-digger at work

New drainage going in

Tuesday was all about levelling and conditioning the 'clay' and although it started well, by 10am, rain had stopped play and with the forecast suggesting a soggy day, time was called and our gardeners left for home.

Nearly level

On Wednesday the levelling and conditioning was completed during the morning.  This year it seems that decent lawn turf is a surprisingly hard to find due to the hot and dry summer of 2018, but our gardener managed to get some decent turf (he says!) and that was laid in only a couple of hours.  They returned on Thursday morning just to finish tamping it down.

Turf laid

Lawn and Willow

So that is the progress outside, but what about progress inside and the snagging list?  Well, there isn't really a lot to report.  The builders have not been near for several weeks now and there was still no sign of the front door which they proudly announced was 'in the country' some weeks ago.  Several emails have sent, with follow-up phone-calls, all to no avail until today when we eventually got to speak to someone.  The front door is 'scheduled' to be fitted next week, so watch this space.  There are many other items which we have reminded the builder's remain outstanding.  Fortunately, none are too series and at least we still have outstanding payments to make to them, but only when they complete the work!

Having just re-read the previous blog entry, I realise that I haven't quite finished off the saga of the ebay sale of the left-over slates.  You will be pleased to hear that it did eventually have a happy ending.  It involved us acquiring a spare 'standard-sized' palette that the Oxfordshire Library Service deemed surplus to requirements (thanks Nikkie!).  The neatly packaged slates were then again unpacked from the non-standard palette.  The non-standard palette was then fixed to the standard palette and refilled with slates for the fourth time!  The collection company turned up and decreed that although the palette was now acceptable, it was probably too heavy!  However, the driver seemed a little more pro-active than previous drivers and he had a go.  We got the palette on to the palette truck but with the two of us pushing, we could not get the palette truck on to the tail-lift.  Eventually, with the lane blocked by the lorry, a van driver wanting to pass came and gave us a hand.  The driver was concerned about all the weight on the tail-lift, but it managed to lift the load (very slowly).  They were secured and driven away - at last!

The 4th packing attempt!