After a long period without updates I thought I’d let everyone know how we are getting along in what is our 6th year here at Casa del Sole…
PERSONAL:
We would like to announce the birth of our 4th son! Leo Fraser Turnbull was born on the 3rd January after a very fast labour and a very worried Daddy thought I was going to have him in the car – which I nearly did! We’re both fine and Leo is growing fast and not keeping me up the whole night (just part of it!).
Everyone else on the farm is pleased to have Leo here, especially his brothers.
Richard is busy this summer doing wedding disco’s and building work…it pay’s the bills!
BUILDING WORK:
Just when Richard thought he’d have a bit of a rest after finishing most of the work on our house we get planning permission through to renovate the barn into a workshop and office for our expanding e-shop (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Casa-del-Sole-Tuscan-Shop-Italy) which now sells our own honey, oils, and all sorts of other interesting things.
GUESTS:
This year we are restricted on the bookings we can take because of the building work. I daren’t take many bookings until I have nailed Richard down to a ‘positive it will be done by’ date – you can imagine how difficult that is!
ANIMALS:
All our animals are doing superbly well. I imported another couple of Morgan horses from the UK late last year. We will be breeding them eventually but this year we are only expecting the one foal (in August).
Dogs, cats, chickens, rabbit are all well. Mr Fox has been eliminated from our vicinity so we haven’t had a chicken genocide recently thank goodness. The opposite in fact as one of our chucks has gone all maternal and is sat on some eggs. She failed her biology GCSE apparently – she doesn’t realise that you need a cockerel to get your eggs to hatch. Fortunately I know where I can buy some baby chicks so I’ll niftily pop them under her and she’ll be none the wiser.
FINALLY:
I’d like to share with you a couple of farming developments here on the farm. I (Sarah) have finally got my proper ‘small farmer’ status which means that I am now a registered and professional farmer. It also means that I can apply for grants from the EU to help Casa del Sole become as ecologically friendly as possible. We are already strictly organic here but I was unable to apply for the organic produce label until I was a registered small farmer – which I have now done. Not only this but, more excitingly, there will be real changes in the way our farm is run. We are planning to eliminate our carbon footprint totally over the next few years, making all our products 100% environmentally sound. The first step is to introduce photo-electric panels which means that we will not be draining energy resources. In the long term we aim to run all our machinery and cars electrically. In the mean time, the horses are our main ecological form of transport! Everything here at the farm is recycled already and, apart from petrol, we now use renewable energy and recyclable materials at home and in our on-line shop (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Casa-del-Sole-Tuscan-Shop-Italy).