20th October 2012

 This is the new second hole green that has just been started - a work in progress (isn't everything here!!!)

 This is the new pond that we have started today. Solar powered fountain - more work to follow tomorrow - watch this space!

The solar panel for the fountain.

Work has progressed well today despite the bad news - my father is ill and not expected to recover. The family are making arrangements but so far he is holding his own. Work helps keep your mind from other things - a good therapy.

Today we went a bought a tyne for the tractor - Tom has been madly tearing up the place ever since we brought it home - and I do mean that literally! He has been practicing with it on everything possible but was great to break up the ground for the pond. This afternoon late we were able to get in some of the plants around the pond, some mulch and some of the rocks and logs to give it that rustic look. It is a good start but still needs work doing on it. Rome, they tell me, was not built in a day.

We have planted some of the plants that we got from Landcare yesterday afternoon and will be planting the rest tomorrow. Hopefully by the end of the growing season this year we will have made leaps and bounds into the growth of a multitude of trees, bamboos and shrubs! We are now praying and hoping for some rain to help the process along.

We are hoping that we will have the bones of a good structure in planting in the next couple of months so that next year we will be able to start the underplanting of the ground cover and smaller shrubs which will make up the whole.

Tom spent some time today working on one of the greens - using the tyne (of course) ripping it up and then leveling it again ready for seeding and fertilising. For a couple who are untrained in farm work we think that we are not doing too badly at all.  It certainly has been a learning curve for us both.

Please multiply all values on this plan to get correct measurements - 

This is the revised plan for the course - some changes due to the slope being greater than expected once all of the grass was removed.