It’s a sad fact of life that holidays are not always sunny and dry, particularly in the UK. And in recent weeks, here at Press Mains, we have had a lot of rain. From a farm perspective we have to admit that this rain is very welcome indeed after a dry spell and, compared to the rest of the country, our rainfall is actually fairly low, at about 28 inches a year. This compares to 100 inches on some parts of the West Coast. In November we had some sunny dry days but these were interspersed with days of heavy rain. So, how can you still enjoy your holiday with us when the weather just doesn’t play ball?

Well, for a start, our cottages are warm and dry. With all heating provided by an on-farm biomass boiler, using our own wood which has been chipped on the farm, there is unlimited heating and hot water. Electricity is generated on farm too, using solar panels on the grain shed roof and a small micro turbine. These all combine to give generous quantities of renewable electricity, power and heat.

We have a Games Room for wet day entertainment. Although it is pretty basic it has table football, table tennis, a pool table and a darts board. There are also plenty of places in the area which can be explored out of the rain: country houses and museums, towns and villages. For those who are intrepid, short walks in the rain are always an option and it easy to dry coats and boots by the wood-burning stoves in the cottages. There are also wellie boxes and cold water hoses at each cottage door so visitors can store muddy boots and wash off dogs’ paws.

Visitors will see that the sheep are still outside, protected by layers of warm and (relatively) waterproof fleece. They are currently grazing the stubble field behind the cottages because this has been fairly dry until recently. They are being supplemented with haylage to ensure they are well fed. Most of the ewes are now pregnant, due to lamb in mid March, and they will all come into the shed in January to ensure they get the best additional nutrition and shelter prior to lambing.

Sadly, not helped by the weather, but mainly because of a visiting predator, our hen flock has taken a major hit. For the moment we are unable to provide complementary eggs in the cottages but we will soon be bringing in some new hens to get egg production back on track.

In other news, after nearly a year since our wind turbine was badly damaged in a storm, a replacement wind turbine has been installed by a resilient team who pushed on through wind, mud, rain and even sleet. The turbine itself has been provided by a Dutch company which specialises in refurbished turbines from the continent, so this turbine is having a second lease of life in the Scottish Borders.