Day 65 - Three good things, two parcels and one really bad thing (or the day Foxie started planning more fundraising)

They say bad things come in threes.  We'll start with the one really bad thing today, which is actually a bit more like three things, so hopefully that's our three done for a while.  This morning, we had our gas servicing engineer arrive to service the calor gas cookers in The Barn and The Lodge for us ready for commissioning and that was nothing but three bits of bad news really, or perhaps more like two and a half as he shared with us that the downstairs kitchen cooker in The Lodge needs some parts (that's the half bad news) so we've booked that repair in for next week - annoying but resolvable and hopefully not too expensive - unfortunately, the other two really bad news bits of the bad news is that in addition to the cooker in The Coach House (which we knew about), we also now need to replace both the upstairs cooker in The Lodge and also the cooker in The Barn as, although functional, they are non-compliant for use in a commercial setting and so cannot be certified for us.  This means that we're now needing to fund two and a half additional cookers compared to what we were expecting since acquisition, in a very short space of time before our first bookings.  We can do that, and will, but it will mean using money that was destined for something different and we really do need to fundraise for them as unplanned expenditure is to be avoided at all costs.

But as wallowing gets us nowhere, on to the good news - firstly, our insurance inspection is complete.  The inspector loved the site (but, come on, who doesn't love Foxlease Park and its magic??).  We'll have to wait for his report and the insurers' response to that but it's good news for us that we've done all we can do and now have to wait and see whether we receive any queries or challenges.  Secondly, we've be informed that one of our wonderful supporters who has been doing a sponsored mile-a-day walk in January following a knee operation has raised nearly enough for the new cooker for The Coach House (so the above set back isn't ideal, but that's definitely something to celebrate!) and, thirdly, the bookings are still rolling in and the hot water works in The Barn are nearly complete and the showers in The Lodge have been reinstalled! Woohoo! That might be more than three but you can never have too many good things!

And as to the two parcels, exciting things arrived (as pictured), our new PAT Testing Kit, funded by a donation from a wonderful supporter, has arrived and we shall call it PAT-rick.  We'll be putting it to work very soon! The second parcel was our new pull up banner ready for the New Forest Volunteering Fair in Brockenhurst on Sunday. 

In terms of on site doing, our unending thanks to our small number of volunteers doing important finishing tasks in The Lodge today and insurance preparations ahead of this afternoon's meeting and site tour.  They lifted, shifted and fixed things despite the rain this afternoon and we wouldn't have been ready without them.  We don't have any photos from today's work as we were a bit too busy but we did enjoy the stars coming out this evening - if you look closely in the photo, it looks a bit like Orion's celebrating over The Coach House - our dark skies on site really are something rather special to enjoy and we can't wait to have our winter campers back on site for some stargazing.

More finishing works in The Lodge tomorrow and sourcing appropriate new cookers to purchase, Love Foxie x