Hill House Farm

What a year we have had. 

At the end of May we learnt that Lucy had a rare heart condition that required Open Heart Surgery which she had on 18 June.  We were told to prepare for between 2 -4 weeks in Alder Hey, but she amazed us all by coming out a week after surgery, so we were only in for nine days in the end.  She continues to do well and remains under the expert care of the Cardiac team.  The doctors, surgeons, nurses and all the staff at Alder Hey were fantastic and helped us come through the whole ordeal. 

We have decided to raise some money for Ronald MacDonald House, which is where we were lucky to be allocated a room for the duration of Lucys stay in hospital.  This is run by a charity, so we have got some money raising ideas but at the moment we have a charity collecton box on the hall table for anybody wishing to make a donation. 

Before Lucy was diagnosed we had been busy getting planning permission to replace the three old white stables on the yard with four new ones and to extend our outdoor school to 20m by 60m.  We had the stables ordered to come at the beginning of July so when we were then given the date for Lucys operation on 8th June we were already in the middle of the groundwork, preparing for the arrival of the stables and the concrete base was laid while Lucy was in hospital. 

We had also just ordered some solar panels for the house as we had decided to reduce our CO2 emissions and help the environment as well as hopefully reduce our fuel and electric bill.

The new stables arrived in July and look AMAZING!  We bought them from Scotts of Thrapston and they are extremely well made with top quality timber.  We are really pleased with the completed project. 

Meanwhile the solar panels were put in place on the roof, we have had solar thermal panels to give us hot water and solar pv panels to generate some electricity, and Nick likes nothing better than to watch the electricty meter when it says 'reverse run' as this means we are feeding electricity back into the national grid!!

Then in August we gave the go ahead for the construction of the new outdoor arena to start.  We had to make a decision on which surface to go for, and (as usual) we chose the most expensive surface (semi waxed sand & rubber) which has given a superb finish and is great to ride on.  We are hoping to run some clinics here and guest that bring their horses can have lessons with me if they want while they are staying.

Happy New Year to all our past guests, we hope to see many of you again in 2010. 

2009 was an eventful year for us in many ways. 

The best thing that happened was the arrival of our baby daughter, Lucy Rachel, on 18th October.  She was a month early, my waters broke when we were staying Bed and Breakfast in Oxfordshire on our way to a christening in Sussex!  We went to The John Radcliffe Hospital where Lucy was delivered by emergency Caesarian Section.  We stayed in for 5 days as thankfully she was well enough to come home with me.

We weren't ready for her arrival as we were still busy with guests until the end of October, but Nick coped amazingly well - as usual!  We hadn't moved William into his new bedroom, so we had not been able to get Lucy's room ready.  So everything was a bit chaotic!  We managed to get the house straight before Christmas and Lucy has fitted into a good routine already - lets hope it lasts!!

Every year we continue to make improvements to our home to (hopefully!) improve the experience our guests have when they stay, before the Summer of last year we refurbished two of the guest bathrooms, Beeston and Peckforton.  Replacing the shower cubicles with larger ones, retiling and generally giving them a make over.  New flat screen televisions with DVD players and freeview have been put in the rooms to enable our guest to have more choice of viewing.

We have reduced our guest rooms down to two bedrooms in the main house and the cottage with one large bedroom - this is obviously due to the arrival of Lucy!

We are still fighting the proposal of wind turbines, we have got tremendous support for our cause from a vast array of people, and the momentum seems to be growing.  So the dark clouds are still overhead, but we try to keep a positive attitude about the situation.  Another similar project in the area has been abandoned by the developers due to lack of wind, so we are hoping sense will prevail.  As I have said before, we strongly support renewable energy, as long as it is economically viable.

We had our annual Easter Egg Hunt for William's friends on Good Friday which is always a lovely event, to see the children looking in all last years hiding places - as if the Easter Bunny would go back to the same place each year!!

I have also decided to go back on the BHS (British Horse Society)Register of Instructors. I am a BHSII but 'retired' from teaching a few years ago, but have always enjoyed teaching and helping others so by going back on the register I will be insured to teach again. I will be able to offer lessons to guests staying with their own horses, which we are getting quite a few of now.

On a less positive note we had some bad news last week when a letter arrived from Cornwall Light & Power informing us of their plans to put FIVE Wind Turbines at the farm next door to us, higher than Beeston Castle!  They have to be this high as it isn't windy enough lower down.  There is a local opposition group called ChART - Cheshire Against Rural Turbines - of which I am treasuer, which plan to fight this development.

I am a strong supporter of renewal energy, but believe offshore wind turbines, biomass crops, solar power and tidal energy are the way forward and the evidence against the viability of onshore wind turbines is well documented.  This news has cast a huge shadow over all our lives lets hope common sense will prevail.

We had a lovely holiday, it was William's first sunshine holiday abroad and he spent most of the time in the sea or the swimming pool!  The last few years we have taken him ski-ing but this year we fancied a change, and we all had a great time.

Nick planned to get his two spaniels spayed on our return, only to find both of them having a phantom pregnancy and running milk.  The vet put them on some medication to solve this problem before they could have their operation.  Three weeks after the original operation was planned they were both successfully spayed, the vet said it was just as well as Ruby in particular was showing signs of problems starting.

March is very busy with the riding holidays and Oulton Park fixtures have started too and it has been lovely to see some returning faces again.

Nick won the annual 'Spot a Swallow' competition he has with his brother, I think poor Tim has only beaten him once in his lifetime!! Maybe next year Tim!

We are having a busy February, so far, with the current economic climate we are surprised to find our bookings for the year ahead are up on previous years.  It is thought that more people will be looking to spend their holidays in England this year.  The riding holiday package is proving very popular, as is the short break package in our cottage, enjoying the beautiful views of Cheshire countryside and the peace and tranquility that comes with it.

Half Term is aproaching next week, then the following week we are off on holiday to the Canary Islands to soak up some sunshine (hopefully) and recharge our batteries -  to a degree, as we are taking William as well so I don't think there will be much lying around for too long!