The Man Cave
Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband. He who puts up with my obscure thoughts, off beat view of life in general and general crankiness. As in the wonderfully funny film Bridget Jones.. hes loves me 'just the way I am' which is rather good really.
The old fella turned 50 last week and for his birthday he got a man cave from me. A rather fabulous man cave I hasten to add. Not just some wooden B&Q shed that any man could have. A real proper converted barn.built to my own special design sketched on the back of an envelope and passed to the builders to transform into a fully waterproof, live-able barn. Complete with a delabole slate roof, large wooden double doors to enable him drive the ride on lawn mower in, re wired for electrics with overhead lighting and 2 windows over looking the garden. A great little man cave. My grandad had one, built from an old Anderson air raid shelter. Apparently he had a work bench in it that doubled up as a snoozing bench my granny said. With his portable radio and baccy in a tin he would potter for hours out there making stuff. I'm thinking his Nibs in his wilderness years will become a potterer in his man cave. Anyway, the builders did a fabulous job of the conversion, finishing it off just in time for when Stevie flew back home on his regular commute last Friday. I even had a name plate made with 'The Man Cave' embossed on it and fixed to the wooden door. By the time he got off the plane and drove back home to Cornwall the barn was festooned with colourful bunting and sparkly Happy Birthday banners which made him smile when he jumped out of the car.
I have burned about 27,000 calories this weekend. Better exercise than any expensive gym membership I will tell you ! .. Here is an invite for all you keep fit fans, park joggers and would be athletes...just come to Lanoy for a weekend and labour until the sweat behind your ears runs down your neck your muscles in your legs are burning and your lower back feels like its broken. We call it the BTC beech tree challenge.
The large beech tree at the drive entrance was huge until a week ago...now it is stacked in twenty thousand chopped pieces and neatly stacked criss crossed in the big barn where it will remain for about 18 months until it is suitable for burning. The area at the drive entrance was rather over grown.Huge rhododendrons had spread from the Cornish bank across the lawn down to the driveway. Holly tree saplings had sprung up and over the years of no maintenance this area had become a thick copse of mangled shrubs and trees. A few weeks ago we cleared this area cutting everything back to ground level and as far back as the big beech tree. After doing this we were able to see the main trunk of the tree and discovered that alarmingly it appeared to have a massive tear in the main trunk about 10ft from ground level up the trunk , and huge saucer like fungus growing out of the tear. Stevie found a tree surgeon based in Launceston and I phoned him to make an appointment for him to come and take a look.
My conversation went a bit like this. Oh Hi...Ive got a big beech tree...with a bit of damage and fungus. Can you come and survey it please.
When he arrived he was absolutely astounded at the poor condition of the tree and the massive fungal problem we had. 'Ive never seen such huge ganoderma' he told me. 'When you said fungus I thought a few mushroom types fungi growing on it... nothing as excessive as this' ! he even took photos of the thick brown crusty dinner plate size bracts and displayed them on a tree specialst web site. 'That tree is dangerous. it needs to be felled asap' and...it cant be climbed he added, its too dangerous to send a man up it , we need to bring in an extending lift to reach to the top.
A fortnight later. We had delivered into our garden. a tractor, 2 vans with trailers. a huge pro lift cherry picker ( the big blue thing in the photo above) a shredder. a small bob cat type vehicle for picking up logs and a log splitter. It took them 3 days to fell the tree it was that large. I left my mum here to over see it. make cups of tea for the work men, and generally look after the place. I drove off late one evening and spent a fabulous day at Royal Ascot the following day .
The BTC beech tree challenge commenced this weekend just gone. It was like an endurance task. No rushing around involved. just plod plod plod all day Saturday..only to re convene again on Sunday morning and kept going until 5pm, whence I collapsed on the grass, drank a pint of ribena and promptly fell asleep in the sun ! . Me and his Nibs alone in our work. plod plod plod. each piece measures approx 12 inches long and 6 inches thick. So the aim is to carry as many pieces as one can, stack them up in your arms and walk from the log pile across the garden into the barn, drop them and stack them neatly so as the monumental stack that we are building is solid and stable and not likely to collapse.
Mums highlight of the week was going up in the cherry picker to 60ft in the air and holding on for dear life to the rather handsome young man operating the pro lift !!
The old fella turned 50 last week and for his birthday he got a man cave from me. A rather fabulous man cave I hasten to add. Not just some wooden B&Q shed that any man could have. A real proper converted barn.built to my own special design sketched on the back of an envelope and passed to the builders to transform into a fully waterproof, live-able barn. Complete with a delabole slate roof, large wooden double doors to enable him drive the ride on lawn mower in, re wired for electrics with overhead lighting and 2 windows over looking the garden. A great little man cave. My grandad had one, built from an old Anderson air raid shelter. Apparently he had a work bench in it that doubled up as a snoozing bench my granny said. With his portable radio and baccy in a tin he would potter for hours out there making stuff. I'm thinking his Nibs in his wilderness years will become a potterer in his man cave. Anyway, the builders did a fabulous job of the conversion, finishing it off just in time for when Stevie flew back home on his regular commute last Friday. I even had a name plate made with 'The Man Cave' embossed on it and fixed to the wooden door. By the time he got off the plane and drove back home to Cornwall the barn was festooned with colourful bunting and sparkly Happy Birthday banners which made him smile when he jumped out of the car.
I have burned about 27,000 calories this weekend. Better exercise than any expensive gym membership I will tell you ! .. Here is an invite for all you keep fit fans, park joggers and would be athletes...just come to Lanoy for a weekend and labour until the sweat behind your ears runs down your neck your muscles in your legs are burning and your lower back feels like its broken. We call it the BTC beech tree challenge.
The large beech tree at the drive entrance was huge until a week ago...now it is stacked in twenty thousand chopped pieces and neatly stacked criss crossed in the big barn where it will remain for about 18 months until it is suitable for burning. The area at the drive entrance was rather over grown.Huge rhododendrons had spread from the Cornish bank across the lawn down to the driveway. Holly tree saplings had sprung up and over the years of no maintenance this area had become a thick copse of mangled shrubs and trees. A few weeks ago we cleared this area cutting everything back to ground level and as far back as the big beech tree. After doing this we were able to see the main trunk of the tree and discovered that alarmingly it appeared to have a massive tear in the main trunk about 10ft from ground level up the trunk , and huge saucer like fungus growing out of the tear. Stevie found a tree surgeon based in Launceston and I phoned him to make an appointment for him to come and take a look.
My conversation went a bit like this. Oh Hi...Ive got a big beech tree...with a bit of damage and fungus. Can you come and survey it please.
When he arrived he was absolutely astounded at the poor condition of the tree and the massive fungal problem we had. 'Ive never seen such huge ganoderma' he told me. 'When you said fungus I thought a few mushroom types fungi growing on it... nothing as excessive as this' ! he even took photos of the thick brown crusty dinner plate size bracts and displayed them on a tree specialst web site. 'That tree is dangerous. it needs to be felled asap' and...it cant be climbed he added, its too dangerous to send a man up it , we need to bring in an extending lift to reach to the top.
The BTC beech tree challenge commenced this weekend just gone. It was like an endurance task. No rushing around involved. just plod plod plod all day Saturday..only to re convene again on Sunday morning and kept going until 5pm, whence I collapsed on the grass, drank a pint of ribena and promptly fell asleep in the sun ! . Me and his Nibs alone in our work. plod plod plod. each piece measures approx 12 inches long and 6 inches thick. So the aim is to carry as many pieces as one can, stack them up in your arms and walk from the log pile across the garden into the barn, drop them and stack them neatly so as the monumental stack that we are building is solid and stable and not likely to collapse.
Mums highlight of the week was going up in the cherry picker to 60ft in the air and holding on for dear life to the rather handsome young man operating the pro lift !!
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