glamping Archives - Holly Water Holidays

Is There a Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Posted on March 5, 2021 by holly

I think it is fair to say that the last 12 months have been beyond anything we could possibly have expected. Covid has certainly been a very real test for all of us in so many ways. After re-opening in July 2020 and a few totally crazy months restrictions began to come back in and once more we were in the unfortunate position of having to cancel our lovely guests and postpone their much needed breaks. We are very grateful that people were so understanding and patient – we now have some guest rescheduled for the 3^rd time after yet more lockdowns.

However, with the vaccine roll out, the dreadful figures dropping and a planned date for re-opening on 12^th April we are hopeful that there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you have been following us on social media you will know that the lockdowns, although delaying us, did not stop our plans or the build of our fantastic new treehouse cabin, The Beehive. We are absolutely delighted with the finished result and although (due to restrictions and lockdowns!) we have only had one lot of guests in it so far we are sure that you are going to love it just as much as we do. It is an absolute one off and really feels like you could just be anywhere.

As you would expect from us, we have tried hard to ensure that both the build and the running of The Beehive is as eco friendly as possible. From the avoidance of concrete for footings right up to the solar pane

ls on the roof powering our off-grid systems in the same way as our Shepherd huts.

The giant ground screws that literally pin the sub frame to the floor are

amazing and were put in by www.stop-diggi ng.co.uk south

west, a business just down the road. The local larch wall, floor and

roof panels are all well insulated with UK sheep’s wool and all of our Green tourism criteria have been continued for the running of The Beehive. We looking forward to our guests’ feedback and can’t wait to share it with you as we head toward summer now.

The other little plan we have up our sleeves is an additional space to chill and hopefully watch some of the wildlife that shares our space. Watch this space for updates!

Full Steam Ahead Post Covid-19 Lockdown.

Posted on July 18, 2020October 3, 2020 by holly

Staycations in Devon are certainly in demand! Since getting the announcement that we could re-open on the 4^th July things have been a little hectic around here! July 2020 is going to go down as one to be remembered (and 2020 all round to be honest). As soon as it became clear that certain hospitality sectors (including us) would be allowed to re-open their doors enquiries and bookings began to come in. We were busy making sure that we were fully up to speed on the (ever changing) Covid-19 guidelines, purchasing the approved cleaners and anti-viral products and making sure we had our Visit Britain ‘Good To Go’ certificate

. Being ‘green’ it felt important to make sure whatever we used not only met the requirements but would also neutralise quickly and be friendly to our environment. This in itself took quite a lot of homework! Anyway, we are now fully back into swing of things and delighted to have guests back with us enjoying some much-needed respite after the last few months.

July is National picnic month, so I am told. We are lucky to have a few corners and spots our guests can wander to if they feel inclined to take the meals a little further to enjoy a picnic here. Even more though, Devon as a whole has an abundance of wonderful places to visit and enjoy a picnic with a view. You can choose from beach, moors or rivers, National Trust gardens and any number of other locations for the perfect spot. Maybe you’ll fancy one of the local national trust properties for a picnic. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionsouthwest/devon

Highland lady. — Arrival of our Highland cows.

We have also just passed cow appreciation day last week. It happened to coincide with our long held plan for a couple of hairy bovine friends finally coming together. We have found a pair of little Highland cows who have today become residents of the sheep fields. They are unlikely to interact with guests much as they are 7 year old ladies who are not used to being petted but they are rather lovely and their woolly calves are also fun to watch. We hope that our lovely guests will enjoy this latest addition when they have settled in. Before they were able to move home it is compulsory to have them ‘pre-movement tested’ to make sure the are clear of bovine Tuberculosis (TB) so we had a lull waiting for the all clear from the vets before we could get them. See when you can visit them on the booking calendars at https://www.hollywaterholidays.co.uk/availability-booking/

In other business, we are weather watching this week as the plan is to cut the far meadow for hay imminently. This will all change if it does not look like we will have a good dry spell to allow it to dry out properly before baling. It is important to us to get a cut at some point in order to have winter hay for the sheep. They will get through a lot of it while they are housed for lambing in October and November. It is also important to know that in the event of a bad winter and heavy snow we have plenty to take to them in the fields. It doesn’t happen every year here but the risk of having no hay ready is not worth taking so fingers are crossed for some lovely sunshine this week. We usually do our hay in June but it was not a very settled month this year and we didn’t want to chance it.

Buzzing With Activity!

Posted on June 25, 2020October 3, 2020 by holly

Shepherd hut holidays in Devon can re-open! This week has so far been a very busy one! I can’t tell you how happy I am that we are finally allowed to re-open to guests on July 4^th. After some time of speculation around when it might be we have this week had the government announcement to say that this is the date and I am so excited about welcoming people back to our little slice of Shepherd hut Heaven in Devon. It is now all systems go to be ready and up to speed with guidelines for post-Covid protocols. There has been so long to think about it I’m pleased to say that I seem to be pretty much there already.

Damelfly showing off its beautiful colours in the sunshine.

The other thing I wanted to mention this week is the fact that it is National Insect Week! Being keen, as we are, on our green credentials and protecting and improving our environment for all pollinators, insect and wildlife I have a whole hoard of pictures I could use here so I am trying to reign myself in a bit!

With the river and the small (rather overgown) wildlife pond we have on site we are very lucky to watch a lot of activity with Damselflies and Dragonflies and Mayflies when conditions suit them. They are sometimes tricky to take a snap of but at other times they bask in the sun just long enough to oblige! I love their colours of their wings and the magic of finding an empty dragonfly nymph case on the pond plants after one has crawled up and emerged as an adult!

Another one of our own little rituals is to ‘grow’ caterpillars. Each year we like to order some tiny caterpillars to grow safely in a net at home and watch them transform into chrysalises and finally hatch as butterflies. We tend to choose

Peacock butterflies — Peacock Butterflies ready for release.

Tortoiseshells or Peacock caterpillars as their preferred food source of nettles is always readily available! We like to think that by releasing these beautiful native butterflies on our little patch we are doing our bit to support the species. You can also do this at home. Visit https://www.wwb.co.uk/ to find out more and get your own tiny native caterpillars.

We are also lucky enough to have an, increasingly unusual, wild honey bee colony living in one of our old oak trees. They are fascinating little creatures and hopefully our wild flowers and low input methods in our sheep fields will support them for many years to come. I’ve been told they could have been in residence for up to 200 years!!

It’s always nice to stumble across any of the wildlife or when it inadvertently puts itself in our path but this week is all about the insects!

Silly Season on the Farm.

Posted on June 16, 2020October 3, 2020 by holly

Shepherd huts on the farm are sadly still closed due to Covid but we are just at the end of Silly Season on the farm. This is also sometimes known as May Madness or Silaging! Farm life is generally fairly chaotic at the best of times with rarely a dull or quiet moment but in May things tend to go to another level. This is when we aim to get the biggest part of our winter grass-based feed cut, preserved and stored. For the milking cows silage forms a large part of their winter feed rations so is really important to us but the process of getting it from field to store is always somewhat fraught and I spend a lot of time with my fingers crossed and holding my breath!

Loading the trailer with silage from the forager. — Foraging.

This year, after a seriously wet winter, we have had a ridiculously dry Spring so the grass growth was not as good as it could have been but the weather was kind while the work was done which was a positive. The grass needs to be cut and to begin to dry out before being raked up into lines ready for the forager to pick it all up and spit it into trailers. These trailers are then brought back from the fields and are tipped into a big pit. We get a great big heap which is rolled down as far as possible to squeeze all of the air out and make it keep better. After it has been rolled it is sealed with huge sheets to keep the air and rain out. This is how it is left until we need to feed it to the livestock by which time it is partially fermented and sweet smelling and they love it! The pit we use is called a clamp but lots of people have silage baled and each individual bale wrapped – these are the big bales you see dotted all around the countryside at this time of years before they get moved to wherever they are to be stored.

During the process there are invariably breakdowns of one sort or another and it isn’t always the idylic country event it can sometimes appear to be – particularly if rain is forecast and we are working against the clock, so it always something of a relief to see the clamp full, covered and know that this job can be ticked off!

This year we looked rather like a desert after silaging as the weather had been so dry but things are now greening up again having had a week or so of wetter weather now – thankfully.

Most years a little later we try to cut some hay too. For the sheep we aim to cut the meadows below the huts to keep us going through lambing time whilst they are housed and if necessary, through any snow or hard winter weather. This will hopefully be done during the next settled dry spell we have as this needs a nice hot few days to be properly dried out before baling – make hay while the sun shines and all that. There is nothing like cutting open a new bale of hay on a cold, wet winters day and getting that wonderful smell of summer meadows! Looking forward to more sunshine, maybe the Summer solstice which is nearly here will bring it for us. We spend a lot of time looking at the local weather at this time of year! https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2652034

There will be other ‘harvest’ news later in the year for other feed crops but for now grass is the thing and we’re all on track so soon to start holding our breath for the hay.

Another year, another lambing cycle.

Posted on June 8, 2020October 4, 2020 by holly

Lambing time is on our minds. As we are quite focused on our sheep at the moment, I thought I’d tell you a little about their year.

We are not typical sheep farmers. The family farm is actually predominantly a diary farm but Iain and I have a flock of 150 pedigree Dorset breeding ewes. We have some Polled Dorsets and also some Dorset Horns. Unlike most sheep farmers we don’t have our main lambing time in the Spring but we lamb our main flock in October and November. This works well for us as it fits in nicely with the cows for winter grazing when the milking ladies are housed. We sometimes also lamb a few youngsters that we have kept on to join our breeding flock in January. Least said about the ‘inadvertent’ summer lambing the better but suffice to say that the ram/s do manage to get out for a day visit occasionally, hence having 15 just lambed now with beautiful summer babies!

To lamb in October, we are already starting our breeding year now. We try to condense our lambing period into about 4 weeks so we want to know that our ewes are ready for breeding when the rams arrive. To do this we send in some harmless testosterone for at least a fortnight before introducing the rams as this helps them to begin ‘cycling’. Obviously, we don’t actually want them to get in lamb at this stage so the visiting testosterone is in the form of our Lucky ram who has had a vasectomy, commonly know as a ‘Teaser’ ram. A ewe’s gestation period is approximately 145 days which I tend to think of it as 5 months less 1 week. This year our rams went in on 19^th May so we will be expecting lambs from the 12^th October (although you often get one or two a little early).

When the rams go in with the ewes we put a special harness on them which carries a coloured crayon (you can also use a paste painted directly on to the rams chest). This is called raddle and when the ram serves a ewe the crayon will mark her back so when we check the sheep we can see which ewes have been mated. We change the colour part way through so we then know whether the ewe was mated early or late and have a rough idea when she should lamb. On arrival in the field the rams quickly have a swarm of ewes checking them out!

After their month with the rams the ladies will have a quiet time when we will only do essential management and we’ll keep our fingers crossed. After the rams have been out for at least 6 weeks we will have the scanner come to visit. He will see how many lambs each ewe is carrying so we can make sure they get the right feeding rations to stay fit and healthy in the run up to lambing when the fun really starts! I’ll tell you all about that another day. 😊

Having a Wild Time!

Posted on June 1, 2020October 3, 2020 by holly

Wildlife on the farm is bathed in sunshine here in Devon. The Sun continues to shine this week and although the farm could really do with some rain, I do love the sunshine.

In recognition of World Environment Day which is on Friday 5^th June, so just a few days away, I thought I’d tell you about some of the local wildlife we are lucky enough to have seen just recently.

A curious cub examining the camera. — Curious fox cub examining the camera.

Shortly after the start of lockdown Iain stumbled across a family of fox cubs and after some time sitting and also deploying my basic motion sensitive camera, we managed to get some video footage and a few nice stills of these little characters which I have shared on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/hollywaterholidays. They are now virtually impossible to get a glimpse of.

Silage season is always a good time to spot some of our wild inhabitants and as well as the unusual visits from the red kites I mentioned before we usually get a sighting or two of hares. I love hares and as we are a livestock farm and they prefer crops we don’t have a lot of them. Unfortunately, I never caught the one we saw late one evening on camera but it always makes me happy to know there are still a few about. Rabbits, on the other hand are plentiful on the farm and seeing them is very common indeed. At the moment there are many about of assorted sizes as breeding will have started some time ago now and subsequent litters are also out and about.

Our bird feeders outside the huts are emptied at super speed by their visitors. Having set my camera there on day last week I had confirmation of what we already thought that the squirrels probably consume most of the contents but it was also nice to see both the male and female Greater Spotted Woodpecker paying a visit. We know they raise at least 2 young last year. Also an assortment of small birds.

Grey Heron on the river bank. — Grey Heron

Holly Water river, at the bottom of the field is a lovely spot and a couple of years ago Iain caught a glimpse of a kingfisher on it. I set the camera and (amongst hundreds of shots when the camera was set off by moving leaves!) I managed to get a snippet of electric blue and orange diving! We also have a pair of grey herons who live by the river and have obliged with a photo now and again. Guests have also spotted their nest high in a tree on the river bank below the huts.

We are really so lucky to live here and have the opportunity to watch, enjoy and learn from all of these other residents. Wildlife on the farm offers us and our guests a real opportunity to connect with nature and for this I am truly grateful.

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