Skip to main content

They called it a water feature


Part of the old farm topography is an impossible challenge to a farmer.  It happens all over the world.  In fact, most soil is unstable for agriculture.  On our farm, we have an area of about 7 acres that is simply too wet and where nothing ever grows because of constant flooding.  The soil composition is such that trees don't grow.  

Our ecologist sought permission from the local authorities to transform the area into a green preserve, where we would build a pond and surround it with grasses and small trees to encourage animals and birds.  The pond level (about 10 feet) would then allow proper drainage of the area and would be an excellent use of the area.  

On Friday, the local council decided that this was a "water feature for the Great House", and as such we needed approval from Historic England!  

Approaching the local council was a low-cost endeavour, plans and audits cost about £ 500.00 in all. Developing the pond would cost between £30,000-50,000 at worst.   Going to Historic England will cost several thousand will take months and be a total headache.  

The worst part is that this proposed wetland is at the other end of our farm.  About as far as you can be from the great house, and remain on the farm (600 acres).  

I got the message over the weekend from our ecologist.  He was very disappointed, it was a great project and would have been a nice feature for ramblers.  My wife and I have taken the decision to shelve the project.  We really don't want to have anything to do with Historic England.  You never know what kind of bullshit they will pull.  We have heard too many horror stories -- they could suddenly interfere with the house renovations, or at the very least delay the process by a year or more.  Our ecologist contacted Historic England and was told that their backlog was at least 18 months.  

Disappointment but so is life!  In the end, it doesn't matter whenever it gets very dry we cut the area (once a year), otherwise, the space is unused, and it seems that it will remain that way.  It's been disused for a 1,000 years what's another 1,000!

Aside from that today is our last day of skiing.  I am up at the crack of dawn because I had a two-hour conference call with our accountants so that we can file our 2023 results.  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The end of Tesla?

 it takes a special kind of idiot, to think that he can antagonize his entire customer base, and think that it will not impact his business. When Elon Musk went to work for Donald Trump, and created the doge department, he antagonized every liberal, and these people represent 90% of his client base.That’s not a brilliant move. Now Elon Musk is worth hundreds of billions of dollar, so he shouldn’t care a great deal, however, he needs to care because of several other issues. The cyber truck has been a disaster, most have had to be recalled because of defective glue, it’s not a truck, it’s not a car, it’s noisy, relatively uncomfortable, but great as a development platform. What Tesla has learned in making car manufacturing more seamless is truly amazing. The problem was that Elon Musk was so pissed with the Democrats, and with Joe Biden, in particular because of some slight, which were just plain stupid too. By the way, that he decided to support with hundreds of millions of dollar, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Donald Trump‘s bad bargain

 The entire of 2023 and 2024 when Donald Trump was running for the White House, his mantra was no war, that the Ukraine conflict would be resolved in a day, and that he would do everything not to involve America and war. How the world has changed! He finds himself facing three conflicts; Ukraine, still going on almost 5 months after he became president. Gaza, an unspeakable crime against humanity, is obviously going to go all the way to its bitter end. And finally, Israel’s attack against Iran. It’s important to note, that Benjamin Netanyahu first indicated at the United nation that the Iranian were 3 to 5 years away from having the nuclear bomb. He made that statement in 1995. Therefore, no one is surprised that he uses the same two lines every so often. It’s entirely possible, that 30 years after he first announced it, that Iran has finally developed the bomb. It’s also remarkable that Iran, local power has been destroyed, from Yemen, to Syria, via Lebanon and Gaza to small exten...
Post a Comment
Read more

TACO again, but worst!

 Donald Trump got the rare earth metals that he had thrown away on April 2, liberation day as he called it. What did the Chinese get in exchange? The whole deal, is on the wrap right now. But let’s be clear. It’s the Chinese that have the upper hand.Some of the materials made by the Chinese, are simply unavailable anywhere else. suspicions are that the Chinese got the high-end chips that they lost under Biden. Tariffs will probably return to the level of April 1, and in the end Donald and his friends got nothing for it. It gets worse, Chinese exports to United States are down 40%. The Chinese have found new markets, I probably never gonna buy American grain again. Once again, Donald Trump proved he’s a great negotiator. He got absolutely nothing for his Showmanship. He told the world, that everyone would come and kiss his ass, instead they’re laughing At him. There’s no joke about Donald Trump, a 25 and inherited a huge fortune and proceeded to make it a small one. Bottom line, the...
Post a Comment
Read more