storm damage
1 March 2008 by colouritgreen
There was a storm here last night. We could hear things crashing to the ground, and realised next door were losing part of their roof again. Fortunately this time it missed our car. Checked the sheep were still upright, the hen house still where we left it and went to bed getting very little sleep.
In the morning we found:
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two trees down - some of next door’s massive leylandii, fallen onto our land of course.. one, miraculously through the only gap and missing everything, and the other caught by another tree and suspended threateningly over the meal shed.. which had it’s roof stoved in last year by a different tree!
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glass broken in new greenhouse
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roof broken in old greenhouse
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felt ripped off wooden garage
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a few slates lost from the hung slates on the side of the house
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Shattered bits of part of next door’s roof all over the village!
The main thing is that no one was hurt and the animals were all fine.
As usual, we made a list of things to get on with over the weekend. We planned to get the trailer out and go and buy a gate for our new bit of fencing. Or failing that, as the weather was bad, continue with our quest to ‘make living room pleasant’ or install cooker.. both items on my not resolutions list. And as always, plans are thwarted by life. We couldn’t even get the trailer out!
So instead, we helped clear up the fallen tree with the tree surgeon sent round by the neighbours (we now have a lot of leylandii logs. Not the best firewood, but if seasoned long enough, it will do)
He then tackled the suspended leylandii, climbing very high to cut the tree down in sections, to avoid damage to the outbuildings.
Meanwhile we bought a sheet of corrugated plastic and found all the greenhouse glass had already been bought from the local hardware store… seems there had been a rush this morning!. So its held together with tape…
The difficulty over the old greenhouse is that the rafters are all rotten and falling down.. It’s on our to-do list.. but it will be a big job to repair it, so in the meantime, yet another patch job.
Himself suspended the ladders across the roof, and carefully made a repair. At the same time the neighbours were on their roof, doing much the same, on a grander scale.
So all we had left was to repair the garage roof.
A very productive day.. apart from none of these things needed doing yesterday!
wow - nothing like that happened here and we can’t be to far away.
An aside - I was interested to see you chose Closewools and not Whiteface Dartmoors. I’m biased, I know!
yes - local news said it was pretty localised - some 60 trees down (62 as they cannot have counted ours!!)
Yes Devon Closewools. we liked the look of them, and a breeder was not far. I wanted a local breed, figuring it was bred for the area, and would be suited.. but also liked the notion of sticking to tradition. It seems that farmers and smallholders that go for ‘local rare breeds’ usually plump for Dartmoor greyface, and we did nto care for them., I had not encountered DWF - but might have choosen them, particularly if they are in decline.. I searched for Devon Breeds. Given that we are on the edge of Dartmoor, perhaps should have looked more in that direction but I also had been told that the Dartmoor breeds were more inclined to escape.. is this true?
Devon closewools are a large sheep, which makes for a struggle when handling them, just due to their weight, but are fairly docile, which I like. They have lovely fleece too. Guess I’m biased now!
Whitefaces are one of the oldest domesticated breeds and are not found outside Dartmoor, their stronghold is the middle of the moor, they are also known as Widicombes. They are medium sized, clean legged and ‘do’ well in demanding situation. Easy lambing, motherly, lustre wool fleeces and lamb that’s locally known as Angel Meat! No they stay put; and believe me they would get off this farm if they could as they spend most of the time under water - not ideal, but I need the mixed grazing. Glad you weren’t tempted by the Grayfaces - they are very ’silly’ sheep!
Sorry! Here endeth the lecture…
I help a friend with her Closewools so know them quite well. They are large, but their lambs look like something out of a story book.
easy lambing, I like the sound of. we shall have to see what our experience is like.. this will be our three girls’ first time.
They were tupped by a Poll Dorset ram, so not sure how the lambs will look.