The Pig Yard

September 2012

It's been a difficult month and we were starting to believe that everything was destined to go wrong. Jane's injury (more on this below) from her cycle accident has dominated the month and there have been innumerable consequences. Firstly we had to cancel our holiday in Copenhagen with our friends Tony & Jude; then we had to go through the hoops to reclaim some of the lost costs through our travel insurance and we still haven't heard as to whether we will be compensated; and finally Steve managed to drop Jane's new Samsung Galaxy S3 on the gravel drive, cracking the front screen. Again getting this repaired took most of the month and Jane had to revert back to an old iPhone for two long weeks.

Jane has also been running Speed Watch in the village and we have done more sessions than anyone else. We are a good team and manage to get a good hit rate on anyone coming through the village whilst we have the speed gun. Our community involvement is very high with Jane organising Speed Watch, editing and producing the monthly village newsletter, sitting on the village hall committee whilst Steve is on the Parish Council, developed the village plan and edits the village web site. We're not sure who will undertake these activities when we leave the village at the end of 2013.

Jane's Knee Damage

Two weeks after her accident Jane returned to Accident and Emergency to see a consultant. The information she was given by A&E  immediately after the accident was complete nonsense. Jane would not be walking within five days and she was told that she  had torn her medial collateral ligament and there may be other ligament or knee damage. She was supplied with a brace that immobilised the leg so she couldn't bend it at all. She was referred to the fracture clinic for further investigation and possible physiotherapy once the swelling had gone completely.

She remained cheerful despite not being able to get any exercise and she has been advised that she is unlikely to be able to exercise for several months. In the meantime she becomes more proficient on her crutches and Steve runs around helping wherever and whenever he can. It’s amazing how tiring this is and he has been found asleep half way through the evening. Of course this means Steve would undertake the Cycle4Cynthia fifty miles on his own.

Northants Web Forum

After over twelve months of trying to get funding to set up a community web forum Steve has eventually got this off the ground and the project was launched this month with 30 people attending from various community groups. Jane managed to attend with her leg out straight under the chair in front. She thoroughly enjoyed the event. Steve has not lost any of his presentation skills, making it a humorous and light hearted event. Jane was not the only fan,  he received some very flattering comments from some of the other attendees.

It's too early to say whether the project will be successful as it has funding for twelve months and it is hoped that during that period with advertising and word of mouth the group will grow to see at least 50 new community web sites evolve and a small group of experts share their knowledge to help others.

For more information click here...

House Project Update

Due to the tree officer’s intransigence it has forced us to move the garage one metre to the left as seen from the front elevation. The roots from a very large Lime tree may have been damaged if we had been allowed to build the garage in its original position. To avoid us losing more garden we decided to take one metre off the left hand side of the house – our living area is now 5250 mm x 6000 mm but that should be large enough in an open plan house.

The land purchase is moving forward and we believe we may be able to complete in the latter part of October. This will mean we can start tidying up under the trees during November, weather permitting, and make an application to the tree officer to clean up some of the trees; possibly remove a diseased Ash and Horse Chestnut. We still have a lot to do: select a timber frame company; submit engineering drawings for Building Regulations; select a Groundworks company and a builder. We probably won’t see any holes in the ground until Spring 2013.