Pizza Party

2009 season is over – our final tally was a staggering 77% occupancy, far higher than we expected and we were, of course, delighted – but it did mean we did 193 yurt changeovers in a 6 month season – hence feeling just a little bit tired! It’s a funny thing to be closed – a relief to be able to catch our breath but oddly quiet – and Tilly is in despair with no guest children to play with. I’ve had a lovely hour reading all the visitors books and making a note of any suggestions – I’m pleased to say that some, such as the covered eating area have already been done and we will make sure that we action the others over the winter. I have lots of ideas too but I've learned my lesson and I'm not announcing them until they are done -

Today is the first day’s rain in over a month – I was praying it would hold off for just a few more days so that we could get the yurts down – but that was clearly just being greedy and it did hold off for our end of season party when we cooked Pizzas in the woodburning oven – we managed 15 before it cooled down too much. There are definite skills to using the oven and we are on a steep learning curve. It’s great fun though and Lewis did a magnificent job building it – I’m determined to practice this winter ready for next season so all entertaining at Lower Glyn Farm will be undertaken in wellies and fleeces.

The courses on Setting up and Running a Yurt Campsite proved so popular we ended up running two in September – and last week we had another 6 enquiries. It’s great to think that there will be new yurt enterprises setting up around the country because there is no way we can keep up with demand during the peak season. As always seems to happen, yurt sales go mad in the Autumn – I still can’t quite work out why – our latest shipment arrived in September so we are currently fully stocked with all 4 sizes and there is no doubt the quality is improving all the time – particularly the paintwork and despite the horrendous rain in the early summer (one guest described it as biblical) the canvas didn’t let in a drop and the rain gave guests a great excuse to snuggle down by the woodburning stoves.

Unpacking

No, we haven't moved house - and I'm not talking about the Autumn delivery of yurts - this is the official term for Alpaca birthings. September proved a busy month with 4 new baby crias - Lenny, pictured here with his best friend Oscar, was named after one of our guests, Len as it was his birthday. We've had a good year with 6 lovely babies - but for the first time, no greys - lots of lovely rich browns and hopefully next year our new rose grey stud male, Horizon Bendido will pass on his gorgeous colouring.

The big Pizza Oven Con

Oh dear - I thought I was such a canny ebay purchaser but I've been conned - £500 for 5 badly moulded oven sections , a cheap bit of flue, a flimsy oven door and a few fire bricks. But at least it motivated us to get going - if you are thinking of building a woodburning pizza oven, beware - the builders merchant we approached to get more fire bricks (to make up the missing numbers) said - "Oh, not another one conned". The good news is that we will have a pizza oven - we've just paid about £450 more than we should have. Good job my lovely Dad contributed his time (and building expertise) for free. Just one more layer and the chimney and we can start lighting some gentle fires.

Running a campsite makes me really appreciate the great British spirit -we've had rain that some of our guests described as biblical - but instead of moaning they all just say it's a great excuse to snuggle down in front of the stove. The really good news is that our yurts are still dry as a bone - thank goodness for the raised decks - at least you can get away from the mud. And it's all over now (this is my attempt at positive thinking) - the sun has just come out (Ok, it's a bit watery) but summer is here.

Starry starry sky

We've been sent some fantastic photos from two of our guests - thanks to Adam Preece for this gorgeous night sky and to Paul Ridout for the most amazing photo of the milky way from the campsite. I know I'm always droning on about how incredible our night sky is but apparantly it's official - we are one of the least light polluted areas in the UK.

We decided that 60% occupancy for the season would be a very acceptable figure – yesterday we hit 70% which is astounding. A feature in Closer magazine brought loads of enquiries but the thing that pleases us the most is the number of people coming back for a second and third visit. It all bodes well for the people booking our campsite courses as it seems that everyone wants to holiday in a yurt - so the more yurt campsites we can help set up, the better.

As promised last blog, the woodburning pizza oven was ordered - it arrived this morning in bits with 6 pages of very daunting instructions – we have to make a re-enforced concrete base, build a plinth, then another fire proof base, fit the oven together, cover it with mortar, vermiculite, more mortar ………aaargh – if I’d known it was going to be this hard, I’d have just bought some vouchers for Pizza Express. Anyway, the foundations are in but rain has stopped play for a day or so. We’ll put a banner on the front page when it's built.

Peter has just come back from Mongolia where he had a wonderful time watching his horse (Spitfire) race. It didn’t win unfortunately but was 17th out of over a 100 so honour was satisfied. His main reason for the visit was to inspect the next order. The quality is definitely improving each time. The yurts have been flying off the shelves and we have already sold quite a lot of them. It’s hard to keep up!

Should anyone be visiting Dartington Hall in Devon, one of our yurts is on display there Sawdays (publishers of travel guides) are running a pilot project to assess whether people would prefer to stay in a real Mongolian yurt, an English yurt or a camping pod – should be interesting to see the results of the survey.

An apology

Way back last year I made mention of a planned woodburning pizza oven - at the time I envisiged months of quiet times over the winter when I would have time to undertake exciting new projects - hmm, didn't quite work out like that and I am amazed at the number of guests who ask if it is in - one group turned up with a crate of pizza mixes - I felt really awful when I had to confess that the pile of bricks in the car park was as far as it had got. So this is to clarify that although it isn't in yet, I am now getting it organised - but I'm cheating and I'm going to buy the oven itself ready made and just concentrate on cladding it and building the base - otherwise it's going to be 2010 before anyone can use it.

Oak Before Ash

Oak Before Ash, you're in for a splash

Ash before Oak, you're in for a Soak

Delighted to see that the Oak was amazingly early this year and the Ash is so late that we can still see the yurts from the house - though normally by now they are well hidden. We really are long overdue a long, hot summer - would be nice to see the felt linings insulating the heat out instead of holding the heat in.

The valley is a gorgeous mix of every green you can imagine - the animals are loving the sun and lush grass and the only glum faces in the place are Tilly and Spot who are now being penned in to stop them endlessly running down to the campsite for guest attention! They are convinced everyone loves them - muddy paws and stolen breakfasts included.

The new chickens are happy though - with Tilly (the chicken killer) safely behind bars they can have the full run of the place. We bought the latest as ex free range - I was very surprised at how tatty they looked - and also a bit puzzled about why they were being sold off at 49 weeks - until someone explained that they were going into their first moult which would make them stop laying - but so far 10 hens and 9 or 10 eggs every day. At first glance they all look the same but already personalities are emerging - we have Squeak ('cos she does) and Sleek - the only one with all her feathers intact. It will be interesting to see if they do go off lay as my previous Warrens laid virtually every day for many years.

We are almost full for the summer now - just a few breaks left for the main school holidays and sales are booming with more and more enquiries about our 'running a campsite course' - it seems that yurts are still all the rage. Peter glad too as this means he gets another trip to Mongolia very soon so can see how his little horse is getting on - he may even get to see it race in the Naadam Festival this year.

April Showers us with Guests

Wow - what a start. April was 80% full and with 32 changeovers and then our first residential 'How to Run a Campsite' Course we were slightly reeling by the end.

The first guests included 8 Woodcraft leaders for Bushcraft training. Having sat in on some of the sessions I'm completely hooked. The Bushcraft trainer Lucy was brilliant - so much knowledge....and so skilled at sharing it. I am now busy making fabric charcoal for lighting the stoves.

We loved running the course - we've done one to one training courses for several people before but this was the first residential group course and having 7 participants, all with enthusiasm and new ideas left us feeling really motivated.

April also saw our yurts (and us this time) back on the telly - BBC2's Escape the the Country featured one of our yurts as an alternative option for living in the country. All the links were filmed here - Peter was especially excited about his tractor being on the telly!