Grow little plants, grow

It doesn’t look much, and we still have to finish the trimming/fencing - but this reed bed drainage system represents 130 tonne of stone (down a very steep hill), 500 reeds and a whole heap of money! It certainly isn’t easy or cheap being sustainable………..but from now on the plants will live on the ‘nutrients’ – courtesy of the yurt guests.

On which subject we are getting lots of enquiries about our campsite….Hidden Valley Yurts should be up and running for the summer – but because of the filming we had to put a hold on the building of the amenities block…..so it’s low key camping this year…..just 3 yurts and the camp kitchen (featured 2 posts ago) – more info will be posted on the website soon but we aren’t taking bookings until we have finished furnishing the yurts and installing the loo.

The film crew left after filming the 4th episode – they seem very pleased and the latest news on the programme is that it is scheduled for viewing in September – which is good because we haven’t got time to watch any TV at the moment! We'll post the time and title when we get the go ahead.

Mongolian Welcome

Peter just back from a very successful trip to Mongolia – where he was presented with a racehorse foal by our supplier Sukhee. Given the value Mongolians place on their horses this was a huge honour. The foal will be raced under our name in the Nadaam Festival when he is old enough – his sire came 2nd out of 500 last year and his brother 5th. The man on the right is Sukhee and the man in traditional costume is the jockey! No prizes for guessing which is Peter.

We'd also like to extend a big welcome to our newest employee - Chinzo lives in UB and is our new checking agent. Our previous agent, Tugso has moved to Korea - we wish him every success in his new job. Chinzo made Peter's trip so interesting - this time he had time to go into the Gobi desert and slept the night in a ger.

When we get time to hit the website we will put a full report about the latest trip…..but the most important news is that the quality of the latest shipment is superb. Sukhee is totally dedicated to improving the quality – he has taken on board all our comments – and added in improvements of his own. The yurts are on their way……just in time as we are almost sold out – it’s very hard to get stock control right especially with such a seasonal item with such a long lead in time – but we seemed to guess right and so far haven’t disappointed anyone although the barn is looking a lot emptier.