The Pig Yard

January 2013

A New Year and not much has changed from the old year. Jane's knee is making slow progress and in her final visit to the consultant he effectively said "Your knee is f**ked; get over it". What he actually said was that it was already arthritic before the accident and the damage done has just pushed it over the edge and is in a very poor state. She needs to continue with her physiotherapy and she has been given the green light to use the exercise bike and get back into the swimming pool.

Jane's mother continues to require a lot of time and attention. Her house is deteriorating with the heating malfunctioning so that we thought we might move her into temporary residence in a care home in the hope she would like it and decide to stay however the service engineer said that although the heating would be off for the day they would supply electric heaters and there would be minimum disruption. She stubbornly remains at home despite carers sometimes not arriving or not giving a reasonable service or the fact that without Jane's constant monitoring of the situation her care service would fall apart. Unfortunately Steve's patience has run out.

Our house project is moving forward. The tree report has been completed, we've ordered the timber frame and information is being compiled to appoint a main contractor.

Snow and more snow

Two weeks into the New Year and we had snow. Of course it looks lovely but we’re not that good at driving on snow in this country because it comes intermittently and rarely lasts very long. On this occasion it hung around for about a week with temperatures remaining freezing cold for many days. We used the Skoda Yeti because it is a 4x4 and the Smart Car is so low with a short wheel base that it tends to spin very easily. The Yeti was very sure footed however like all cars it has the same problem when it comes to stopping.

Jane worried about the icy conditions because her knee was not recovering as quickly as she would like. The most terrifying time was when we walked into Northampton on the icy pavements, often resorting to single file for safety.

House Project Tree Report

Before Christmas we spent a pleasant afternoon hugging trees, helping a tree person to measure their girth and assessing their health. In total there are 39 trees with preservation orders and we want to retain as many as possible. There are two horse chestnuts, a beech and possibly a lime tree that might be felled but we need to get permission from the Tree Officer to do this.

Another significant issue is the drive. It crosses over the tree roots and so we have to look at some cushioning material to lay on top of the ground over the roots. This raises the land profile by 290mm which gives us a problem about the levels on the site. The architect and arborist continue to research the best way forward.

We have also had site level and ground surveys undertaken in readiness for preparing the engineering drawings of the foundation type and levels.