The HEAVIEST STONES We Have Ever Moved: Our Farmhouse Renovation In Ireland 

Thanks Carol :-) I think for now we are going to keep it as one big pile by the trees. We need to have a look at drainage for the bottom of the land as it turns to mud as soon as there is a drop of rain and we walk on it. Even after a week of sun and it was nice and dry, this morning it was already soft to walk on. We will see if we can get the cuckoos, sometimes they are close, of course when we don't have the cameras or phones and when we do they are in the distance. We did learn last night that we have grasshopper warblers though. Thanks Carol :-) xx

@@thecornerhouseproject I was thinking that it might not be a good idea to spread the dirt down on your property because you don’t know what’s in it. The previous farmer might have used all kinds of chemicals and stuff, and then it would be next to impossible to get it out of your land if you ever wanted to. But I hadn’t thought about it being muddy so that’s probably the best reason not to do it. Great progress today so important to get the drainage taken care of, and this was a good first step. 👏👏👏

Aww Hello! ❤️ Thank you! We’re chuffed to bits with it all…plenty still to do but it’s looking so much better now. We wonder if the stones that are still beneath the soil are the ones that may have been there originally for that very reason but we will see when we get to the ‘bottom’ wherever that may be. We’ve had break from that for a little while to let Ben recover 😂 Good to ‘see’ you too. 💚

It’s been one of the best things that we’ve had done to be honest. It was getting miserable walking through the mud and not being able to park anywhere. We will need to top it up in places but it’s holding up really well

Good afternoon to you over there, how are you? We could but that would be naughty as fires are not legal anymore in Ireland ;-) There is a bonfire night in June though and we are going to celebrate that :-) Thank you as always for watching and commenting :-)

@thecornerhouseproject I'm doing well but it's already scorching hot here and will be until October. 😭 I hate it.

Thanks Auntie Gwen, yeah they were blooming heavy, not that I lifted any of those ones 😂

Oh no Maureen, none at all, he was just checking they were all OK and still singing hahaha. Hope you are well and thank you for watching and commenting :-)

Hi Diane We may need to invest in a sack truck at some point, we just don't have one at the moment. So for now, the really heavy stones can stay where they are haha. Thank you for watching, commenting and being a channel member. :-)

Hi Joanna We are hoping we will be able to leave it exposed somehow as we do like to see how much water is no longer running into the side of the house, as daft as that sounds. Once we have raked it all out we can see how low it is and decide the best way forward with it. A pond would be nice and something we have discussed over time, no solid plans for one yet though. Luka loves growing stuff, he seems to have green fingers, must get it from Dawn's Dad and my Mum. He may become head gardener lol. Thank you so much for watching and commenting :-)

Thank you Cass. We are getting there slowly :-)

Hi Josefina, ooh I felt it too when I watched it back on the video as I hadn’t seen him doing it otherwise I’d have been telling him to roll them! It’s amazing how green it is here! When I go upstairs and look out of the landing window out over the land I’m in awe at how green it all is…everywhere you look it’s green, it’s stunning! 😍 Ooh you’re absolutely right with the wall area, it gets the sun pretty much all day long too, proper little sun trap! Aww we’re soo glad you liked the video! See ya next week! ❤️

Oh we are always checking the state of stones when we are doing things like this as they are just killers. I think it may have been the camera as it actually leans slightly away from the alley space. BUT, we still check often when we are doing stuff. Thanks again for watching and commenting :-)

Oh they really are gorgeous, I love just looking at them and the different stones that were used and how they were used. The sandstone is stunning contrasted against the limestone. You’re right they would cost an absolute fortune at a garden centre, it’s nuts really when you see how many are dotted around the land. That’s nice to hear with the bitty videos, we’re always a little concerned when we don’t have “big” jobs going on that you all won’t find it very interesting to watch, but it’s also difficult to just do big jobs as we do so many little bits here and there too…Ben said the other day maybe we should change our name to “Life at The Corner House” lol That’s handy to know with not being too late for planting but yeah at the moment it’s not a priority but would be lovely to at least grow some little bits and pieces like the cucumbers and tomatoes that Lukas has planted. Luckily Bens back seems to be ok, but I do wonder if rolling from now on is the way to go rather than lifting them lol

I​@@thecornerhouseproject

Thanks Dish, it does make it a bit more of a wow moment not seeing the bits in between. That wall Dawn has worked on will look great when we get rid of the green bags (which we can't lift, only drag) to show the whole of the wall. You have a nice week too and thank you so much for being a channel member :-)

Haha well, that’s because in a previous life he was the manual handler for the company, so for the person who taught you how to lift properly it would be poor show of him to not lol. It’s been a good week with lots of stuff done and it’s been lovely to be catching up with all the things we’ve needed to get done but haven’t had the time 😊

Oh we have had some amount of ivy to remove but that one could well be the oldest and largest one we have to tackle.

Thank you! It feels odd only doing one a week but it has meant we can get a lot more done around here, which is a good thing 😊

I am sure we will find a use for them at some stage, there are some lovely ones and all faced from where they used to be part of the building. We don't rush in to using them though in case we decide to put them back on top of the walls they came from. We haven't thought that far ahead with this building as it only has the two sides. Thank you Margaret for watching and commenting :-)

Thanks Kate. He was determined to lift them, I did offer but we decided two people in a confined space trying to pick them up in time probably wouldn’t have worked lol. Dropping down to one video a week has made it a lot easier to get on with more little jobs that have needed doing for a while and it also allows for some slow it down days too which is lovely. 🥰

🤣 They’re the kind of weight that you don’t appreciate until you try lifting them aren’t they?! Did the neighbour help though? 😂

Thank you for this because it will come in very handy for anymore that we can’t move, I am sure there’s going to be some more in there that are too big for us!

@@thecornerhouseproject I relocated a 2.5 Tonne granite boulder using this method. Not easy, but otherwise, I would have had to cut it into manageable chunks, and that takes a lot of time...

Hello Dory, sorry to hear that you have missed your planting time but you are right, it is ready for next year. A commenter said we are OK to still plant so we will see what we can do. Not being green fingered though it isn't high on our list of things to do. Those few stones were certainly heavy and can stay where they are for now haha. We won't be moving them on a whim I don't think. Pleased you liked the editing, a do like a bit of fancy stuff from time to time and it lets you see the same stuff happening but from a different angle. Not sure Luka will take over the garden kitchen but he does like the grow things. It is only a tiny thing really, not sure what we will do if the cucumbers do well. He does seem to have growing stuff sorted. Have a nice week and we will see you Saturday :-) Thank you as always Dory.

Thank you Stan, that means a lot! And also very much appreciated and good luck with binging them. 😊

Thank you Judy. It will be lovely when it is finished, whenever that will be haha. Thank you so much for watching and commenting :-)

Oh we certainly have some amount of stones. First will be the left hand outbuilding being repaired as this will be the most use to us once we get a roof back on it. Once done we will be free to use any stones for various uses. There are only the two walls on the third building so preserving what is there will do for the future. We may just lime it for now for stability. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)

Yes, that’s something we’ve been toying with the idea of, we will need to scrape some of that soil back first though as it’s quite deep. It might have to be a digger for that side though as we can’t face anymore big scale digging! 🫣

Thank you Shae :-)

Hi Colette, it’s been a really good week for work this one, lots of bits ticked off the list of things that get sidelined because other things need doing lol. We promise to be a bit more careful with our backs, we are looking forward to the day where the heavy stuff is just a distant memory! You take care too and “see” you soon. Xx

Thank you! ❤️

They are beautiful and I don’t think we have a weeping one…we have a lot of goat willow, grey willow and one white willow as far as we can tell. We will probably get some new ones put in as most of the ones that look like they are on our land actually come from the farmers land, but as they are leaning over the ditch so much it looks like they’re on our land 😂

Haha oh we have many stones to be building with, they seem to be multiplying by the day! 🫣

Thank you Terry. One day we will get that tree out lol, it’s sooo massive we haven’t even attempted touching. We are toying with the idea of a mini digger for various things that need doing so maybe that might be the time when it finally gets moved lol and yes, the ditches will be in the agenda too. Watch this space 🍀🥰

Strangely we watched a video today of a stonemason breaking a huge piece of sandstone, with a pick axe and some wedges. We’re reluctant to break any at the moment just because we have some big holes to repair in the outbuilding without the roof so they may come in handy for that. We will look at getting a longer crowbar though because at some point we have to move them again 😂 so thank you for the tip 😊

Wow, great work! There is the recent video from Project Portugal where he made steps from massive stones. He used a fulcrum and smaller stones for leverage. Hard graft, but still effective - might save your back! Looking wonderful with the walls exposed. Don’t worry about making the raised beds, ( though maybe just one for your strawberries & cucumbers, It just gives a solution to the issue of excess soil. Like a placeholder. Cheers to you both! 😊

Thank you! We will take a look at the project portugal video and see if we can make our lives a bit easier lol thank you for that. Ooh yes definitely need at least one raised bed for tomatoes and cucumbers. 🥒 🍅 last year one of the neighbours bought us cucumbers a few times, so it will be lovely if we can return the favour this year!

Oh they were really heavy, I wouldn’t have been able to lift them and I think Ben wished he hadn’t started! Aww yes we love the stone sheds too they just stand there looking so beautiful don’t they? Greenhouse bits are doing really well too 😊

Duh, I've just read the comment below suggesting something similar....

Hi and thanks for watching, commenting and reading comments :-) At the moment we think we will live with a large single pile of soil so we don't end up using it up and needing to buy some in in the future when we do finally get around to sorting planting etc as that would be soul destroying wouldn't it. We managed to put some down on the edges of the land and in between some trees but now amassed another big pile just from Dawn clearing the bottom of the wall. Hopefully with the nicer weather finally here, things should move a little bit quicker, we will see though. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)

That’s a good suggestion but it’s not going to be easy to remove that tree without the wall falling down, the tree is resting on the top and all the way to the other side too. We have asked the farmer next door if we can come via his land to clear all the brambles before they take over so will do the Ivy at the same time. We cleared a fair bit of it last year but it was a bit awkward to get to it all from our side.

Thanks David. A little bit at a time and we will get there. Rome wasn't build in a day and all that haha. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)

Oh not the D-word hahahahaha. Once we know what it was we can look at putting in drainage of some sort. We think we may need a couple of channels, maybe just a gravel one to start but we do like the suggestion to make another gully style thing. Thank you Martin :-)

Thank you Ed, really nice of you to say that. There is lots to do and sadly not all of it is Wow, or striking, sometimes there is the Meh stuff to do too. Thanks again and have a nice week ahead :-)

Sometimes it is easy to make a 30 minute video and it just works other times we would have to cut too much footage out but we know what you mean. You can speed them up a little bit with the tool bar at the bottom of the video if they are too long though :-) It would be a shame to let it fall down just for the sake of some lime mortar and time. It has been there a long time like it, so if we can help it we will. Thank you so much for watching and commenting :-)

Yeah you’re probably right, I just wish we had somewhere to “hide” it though whilst it composts down 😂

Progress is always good and a weekly video will hopefully show more of what we achieve than 3 a week showing just little bits of nothing much happening. Thank you so much for watching and commenting :-)

Thank you Terry. A bit at a time. Lots of little jobs gets a lot done and tie it all together. Then we get to move on to the bigger stuff again. We will get there in time. Thanks again :-)

Ooh love fresh runner beans! I always remember them from dad growing them when we were little. Nothing quite like home grown ones! A digger would be nice and we have been thinking about it for a few things now the land is drying out a bit, so fingers crossed we can get a few jobs sorted with that. ❤️xxx

Oh we have / had so much of it. One day we will have it all removed from the buildings and trees and then it will be a case of staying on top of it. The apple tree certainly appreciated it being removed. The roots are the biggest pain as they take so long to get out and like you say, back breaking. Thank you for watching and commenting :-)

I would love to come over to give a helping hand in the summer! Is this something you may entertain? I am self sufficient as I have a small motorhome, let me know 🤗

Hi Chris, I’m hoping to start the outbuildings in the next couple of weeks, but I am going to be slow I would think but fingers crossed I am quick enough to not be encroaching into Autumn before we can get the roof back on. It’ll be great to get it fixed up to finally be able to use it properly. It’ll be a massive help to being able to do things in the house more easily with somewhere to store stuff. Wow what a really kind offer and very much appreciated, we think we should be alright for this year with getting things under control but as things to do have a habit of going not quite as we planned if you send us an email thecornerhouseproject23@gmail.com and then we’ve at least got some way of getting in contact with you, if you’re still available then. Thank you again for such a lovely offer ❤️

It’s beautiful isn’t it, it’ll be amazing once we get the larger building repaired and a roof back on it, with the added bonus of being able to use it as storage too! Yay!🎉

Oh the pressure was rising. I am pleased to say that those stones can stay where they ended up for a while haha. Thanks Terry

Thank you Bobbie. We are getting there and the warmer, dryer weather is now here, so hopefully things will move a little faster. Thanks for watching and commenting as always :-)

Hahaha, thank you Shannon :-)

It really has begun! We’ve been looking forward to getting that cleared for months and the day has finally arrived! Yeah I think rolling them is going to be the best way forward for some of those big ones. We’re so pleased with how it’s looking out the back, still muddy but to have it all flat is blooming lovely, it has felt like we’d never get there but it’s finally getting there!

Well a little bit caught fire the other day by accident and luckily it was the quantity of smoke which filled the sky that made me realise it was burning so we put it out because as you know, fires are not permitted here anymore ;-) Ah that wasn't digging, that was moving the little bit of dirt from the alley, the only thing we could find was that shovel thing, we don't know where it came from as we have never seen it before :-) Hopefully the alley will be clear "soon" and we can start getting rid of that soil and grass from around the house. Just in time for the summer sun to dry out the base of the walls. Thank you as always Janie and hope you are both well :-)

@@thecornerhouseproject I sent you an email on the back yard round pit thingy - there is a short video and I think you have a laugh at it too. Do you know the cause of the fire? I had a compost pile catch fire once. The fire dept told me I was supposed to be airing it and turning it as they heat up in the middle when decay starts. I noticed after that, that compost bins have holes in the sides for poking sticks in to air the compost. Doesn't matter if they are open piles or in bins the compost has to be turned over/mixed. The moss in your compost could be causing a peat fire?

Just the other day actually I watched some of the early ones, especially the first walk around of the house after completing the sale and I was amazed at how different everything looked back then. The land is the biggest transformation so far, looking back at what that looked like in the beginning is an eye opener for sure! Wow June for a frost! That’s crazy! We should think ourselves lucky here then lol ahh yes, sunflowers would look great over by the wall, it’s a great spot for them too as it gets so much☀️there ❤️

Sadly bonfires are against the law in Ireland now, from Jan 2023, even for farmers. But there is a bonfire night in June we will be celebrating :-)

Thank you for the tip I will have a look at that. 😊 just found the video to have a proper watch later. Liking the idea though, so thank you. 😊

Yes that would have been very helpful because they were heavy!

Hi Jackie, how are you this week? Oh yes, they are some weight, I couldn't even guess to tell you how heavy. Have a lovely week ahead :-)

Haha it does look like that right now with the water and sludge in it! I had to Google what one was first lol

We do our best hahahaha

Hi Penny It is called Exhale by Jeremy Blake. It can be found on the RU-vid audio library, but a Google will find it for you but the link is below. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UjTx-4r1p3w.html

Hi Linda, thank you for watching and commenting. Sadly I was a manual handling trainer in a previous life so always try to lift with my legs and not my back when at all possible. Even then, I still felt the weight of the stones as I lifted them. For now, they can stay there out of the way haha. Thank you again :-)

Hi Claude. Depending on what we find and how deep it goes will determine if we just have a channel or maybe even a square gutter. We won't be going below the foundations like the other buildings. There is so much bedrock around though we wouldn't be surprised if that shows up too. Cobbles would be nice, we will see. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)

Well we are waiting for you to message me and say "Is it OK if I pop over one day next week and give you a hand, I will bring the Snickers, Mars bars and Red Bull" hahaha. Sadly I was a manual handing trainer in a former life so bent legs and straight back is always on my mind. Not always possible but I do my best. Dawn has some toecap Dr Martins and I just try and keep my toes out of the way. Mine are a good quality boot though, but they won't win against these stones. Yeah I really do need to find my other shave. Cheers Simon, as always :-)

@@thecornerhouseproject I have done in my back 40 years ago and never over it . Keep safe and no funny business now.

Yeah it’s quite possible, we’ve taken a break from for a bit but will get back to it and fingers crossed we will find out. 😘

Hi gummy Babs, how are you doing now? That doesn't sound great, hopefully you are all better now. Hopefully progress with things will move along a little faster now that the digging (or D-Word as another commenter called it) is done with for now. Time to start some drainage, plumbing (again) and some lime work. Thank you so much for joining us and being a channel member :-)

@@thecornerhouseproject I'm still in a bit pain but nothing I can't handle lol I can't wait for the next stage and thank you for sharing your journey, love and blessings from gummy babs in Scotland xx

He did really well with moving those because they are sooo heavy. The bar made it a lot easier though lol Aww thank you, we’re quite pleased with it all so far.

Hi Jennifer. We are keeping an open mind with the stones at the moment but they would certainly make a nice flat area somewhere. It is a great idea so thank you :-) Have a nice week ahead :-)

Hi Rosanne, thanks for watching and commenting :-) It is more the while we do it it is hard work but we do tend to sleep well haha. Bonfire night for the big ivy pile, (which is of course why we have saved it) as you can no longer have bonfires in Ireland, not even the farmers. Well that Oak tree which I said I think it is may actually be a really old Ash, but the colour of the wood we have cut through does look like Oak to me. We will have to see if the plant app can identify it. You have a nice week too Rosanne, thank you :-)

They are always into everything! They absolutely love it out there tearing around at break neck speeds and then launching at a tree! It’s nice doing bitsas’ we’re getting lots of things done that we haven’t been able to up until now it’s great and the bonus is you still find it interesting too win win 🎉

Well Sylvanaire, we like your 2¢ very much, thank you for a great comment. It seems you have pictured the layout of our house, land and outbuildings and where we could have gravel dropped before the long task of one barrow at a time. Each time the top layer of soil dries out, I plan on raking it down to get it lower, and then rinse and repeat each time it is easier to rake and move. Doing this will get it low enough to see the bedrock pool which just sits constantly wet. Once this is empty of soil we can look at making it drain away (breaker, big drill, who knows) You are right though, it will be lovely once done. A big ongoing area we think. Dawn did offer her help but they are so heavy and compact, I think we could have done each other more damage than good trying to move them together so I thought it better to do it on my own. Thank you so much again for your 2¢ :-)

Thanks Mitch. It was a fair bit of grunting and huffing but hopefully that is the heavy ones out of the way now, we will see. It isn't even the size of them, the weight of the small ones is bad enough, the larger ones are a killer. (As you will know). Oooh, speaking of cream.... I bought us a Feast ice-cream each today, sadly there was only three in the shop, so we couldn't get you one, sorry :-( See you soon :-)

@@thecornerhouseproject they the ones that were recalled by SuperValu and Dunnes for having bits of metal in em ?

Its okay they were Magnum's...im too tight to buy them . Who'd have thought being miserable could save yer life 😋😋

Good afternoon John, how are you doing? There were a few which made me pant a little bit and how I listed a couple I will never know. It is really important that we get the soil and grass from all around the house for the, as you say, dry and cosy, but with the water even from the temporary channels Dawn did months ago, it just sits in the gap we are clearing and takes days before it stops tricking out. So we though it best to give the water a clear escape route before adding more to it. Professional, said with tongue in cheek haha. I don't think we could ever be professional if we tried. It is what makes us, us :-) Thank you as always John and hopefully soon you won't feel too much more straining from 5000 miles away :-)

Hi Artistik World (Sorry, we don't know your name) It does come across the lane and down to the front and side of our house, but with that said, even before this farmhouse was built, the lane has always been higher due to the bedrock at the front, so even as a dirt track it will have been a lot higher than the outbuildings. We are guessing, but if we were to call in the local council, there are no drains or ditches in the immediate area so don't think they could really do much about it as there is no where for the water to actually be directed to. What we have planned for the drainage will hopefully work and we can work with it once we have the alley cleared and the grass and soil from around the house. Keep your fingers crossed for us that it all works out :-) Thank you for watching and commenting :-)

I felt a couple of them too but can't feel anything today, which is nice. We will have to have a look at sac trucks but ideally with larger wheels from this stony ground. I know, I had a plan and what is more... it actually worked hahaha. Most of the wall is leaning away from us and to be honest, I think if we put any force, even a small bit, it may push the wall over. What you don't see on the videos is when we check for any new movement in the wall or the stones on the top, it would make a bit of a mess of me if one was to fall. In the past and funnily enough just today, when we were out the front today, we were talking about the best way to move the water which runs towards the front of the house and although I call it driveway drainage, that is the best solution we can come up with if we can't dig down to make a French drain. It may also be in out interest to just move the water there and then instead of it having to sink through gravel and then a perforated pipe before flowing around the house. I never though about forming one ourselves though and may be a perfect solution. Hopefully we will know our options when we have the soil and grass removed from the front, sides and back (the back being harder as we have 3 IBC's sat there. Anyway, then running along the house side of the outbuildings would be a perforated pipe to catch water from the now gravelled drive area. It is all a step by step process as because it is us, we can't just be on hard ground you can dig, it had to be a huge rock formation 6" down lol. Yep, Luka got the camera and later said... Oh, I filmed the new greenhouse thing, you can use it if you want to, so of course it was used. The tomatoes are coming on well, the strawberries need planting and hopefully the cucumbers will come to something. Hopefully we can get some more stuff growing, even just to be able to grow it more than keeping us fed over the winter. We may need a bigger greenhouse haha. Never ending dirt is right. It would have been such a shame for Dawn to have cleared all of that wall and be left with a huge pile of soil again. It now means we can work on that area bit by bit and when the weather allows. We learned of a new bird yesterday(Friday) which is the Grasshopper Warbler - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pkXGOTD4kTE.html not hard to see why it has it's name. Arrived not long ago with the Cuckoo and Swallows. Hopefully we will finish the smaller jobs quite quickly and can get on to the larger stuff like the outbuilding and drainage. Thank you as always for watching and commenting :-)

A small digger would be nice for the stones but as for digging a French drain it wouldn't help. The house is built on Bedrock which is about 12" below the soil, that is when it isn't sticking out the top of the ground already. Have a look at this video where they were installing the electric pole. The cost of that digger for a day may be a little high for us. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Yv6Zywc_wLk.htmlsi=Dn8i896ldKCB46aE&t=369 Thank you for watching and commenting and thinking about our backs :-)

@@thecornerhouseproject so does that mean you have to use a jack hammer to dig the drain

Hi Mario and thank you 😊 Yes, one day we will not have too much hard and heavy work to do but that day has not arrived just yet! 😂 Where abouts are you for it to cold?

Yeah so many and even more in the large outbuilding from when the small outbuilding was all cleared out. Anyone would think we just like to move really heavy stones lol Thank you for watching and commenting :-)

Thank you! He did a good job with moving a lot of those stones. Had a day off today from the lifting though, which was well earned I think 😂

Yeah they are some monsters Pa! Still quite a few in there too. It amazes you how these building were constructed all those years ago with how heavy they are. I think the rest may just be crowbarred and rolled out lol and left where they lay! 🤣 xxx

@@thecornerhouseproject ❤️❤️❤️

He doesn’t give up easily does he?! Sooo much more work to do, we are keeping an eye on Ivy too though. We have managed to keep most of it under control on the outbuildings but still quite a lot in the trees, but rest assured we will get rid of as much as we can.

Hello in Australia! Aww thank you we’re very happy to hear that you like watching 😊 I think once we’ve finished the messing around in that area, a stone edging would look lovely. So I think that will definitely be on the cards, thank you for suggesting it 😊🤝

Thanks Maura, sometimes it is hard to be doing things which are a large project, so the smaller things need doing. Dawn getting to the bottom of the soil on that building was a brilliant job done and lovely result, it just needed to be finished (for now). Clearing the alley means we can get on to the house side of things by clearing the soil and grass that remains around the house holding the rain. With that gone it will help the house stay dry and hopefully the water will run around the house. How funny, we have spoken about wetland plants in the rockpool area but it gets full sun all day as it is south facing. We are open the plants which like this type of sun though if you have any? :-) There is a nice patch along the ditch under the conifer and is in shade all day long, we though this would make a nice bog garden. Thank you for watching and commenting and enjoying the little bit of work :-)

@@thecornerhouseproject I'm in the western US, where too much water is the opposite of my problems. Some plants that come to mind (because they're hard for me to grow!) are iris, joe pye weed, sedges, astilbe, dogwood, and swamp mallow.

Ooh I love irises! Thank you for all those names I will have a Google of them. 😊

There’s some beautiful stones dotted around the place, well actually tonnes and tonnes of them 😂 once the outbuildings are all nicely fixed up I’m sure we will get to use some of them around the land. It is looking and feeling so much drier, still muddy but at least we aren’t sinking in it quite so much! Lol

For such a small lump they are so heavy. How they lugged them around to build houses all day is beyond us. Thanks Jim :-)

Good evening Alan, how are you today?

Good evening Ron, how are you? Although I am sure there is a corner of a field or something, all of the farmers we know are animal farmers and have grass fields for the cows and sheep and not crop fields. If there were crop fields I would be taking the barrow down in the dark of night and getting rid of it all one barrow at a time where it may not be noticed. Being animals, it may get noticed when a cow is stood on top of the pile 4ft higher than the hedgerow hahahaha. Thank you Ron for always commenting :-)

@@thecornerhouseproject thank you for asking I’m very well thank you, I hope you’re okay after moving those very heavy stones

It does look like it could have been but we think probably not because the gulley is so close from the building….but anything is possible I suppose as we are talking 200 odd years ago and maybe it was a dwelling back then. Bens just read me your message on Facebook and if it wasn’t for the bedrock everywhere probably creating the water issues rather than anything else. But I really like your theory of why it could be like it is though as it would make sense. 😊

Good evening Ellen. My boots are a good brand but no toecaps in them, so extra care is being taken as I don't want my tootsies in pain hahaha. Dawn took on another job which turned into a mission, it really didn't look like it would have been that much soil, it was so much. But now the bedrock is exposed and it is fairly flat. That area is going to be an ongoing project we think. We need sun to dry the top layers to rake and sweep, before letting that dry and repeating. Eventually we will get it so it isn't a quagmire when it rains, we are getting there. Depending what we find in the alley under the stone and soil, we may concrete the base, we may run a pipe, a half pipe or other, but although it is just a drain, we do enjoy seeing the water running past the back door, so we think we will leave it exposed in one way or another. But you know us Ellen, anything could happen lol. Thank you so much for always watching and commenting :-)

@@thecornerhouseproject Yes, the place will 'talk' to you and tell you what is right as you go along. So far, so good :)

Aww thank you 😘 I’ve been googling this week to see if there’s a way of getting rid of it because it just looks an eyesore right now! 😂 I wondered if there was a company that might be a garden clearance place that might take that sort of waste away, need to keep reading a bit more. It really would be nice to get rid of it. It is finally starting to look tidy around and out the back of the outbuildings and really pleased with how it’s all looking. Thank you ❤️

@@thecornerhouseproject I think you're doing a great job. It looks so nice and the back garden is beautiful. You may want to ask the farmer next door if he knows anyone. Also at the local pub/hangout where people go after a long days work. Someone may know someone. Just a thought. Truly enjoy seeing you both and your videos. Have a nice evening/day.

Awww thank you! 😘 We’re too love having you here 😊 ooh yes you and me both with the outbuilding…..must admit I’m a little scared that I’ll mess it up but fingers crossed it’ll go alright and it’ll be nice when it’s done! 😂😉

@@thecornerhouseproject I love watching you two ,,,,,, Also Ben be carful lifting them rocks ,there bloody heavy .yeah it will be amaziing, yeah tomroow on sunday mornings i watch irish homestead ,their doing their build at mo ,so cant wait see what sam n rebeccas done Hes buildin up sides of their bedroom n he put new lentils in lastweek , ohh and they got a donkey called toby ,hes adorablexxx

We’re not sure but so far we have found 2 or three of these shaped stones, I would hazard a guess from looking at the other 2 gables that these aren’t for the top of the gable but maybe were used as through stones (may have the correct term wrong lol) to tie one side of the wall to the other.

🌟🍀🤝😘😊

Its Ireland the way land has been divided ,handed down, used by family that then became permanent. Its a minefield. Great case is my old house in Portadown next door neighbour owns what was, my front bedroom .ive a brick wall where door should be. Hes a extra door from his side leading into it . When you learn the history it makes sense .but just looking at it its kinda "what the...."

A bit like Mitch says the land got divided up strangely and then when the previous family sold off all the land they owned but the main house and this bit of land, the outbuilding that isn’t ours went with a different parcel of land that someone else now owns. After reading Mitch’s odd configuration ours doesn’t seem quite so strange anymore! 😂

Good idea with stones along the outbuilding area. We ‘might’ have a few knocking around that we could use! Yeah rolling them was a much better idea. We can always bank on Steve to do something on camera lol he loves being outside more than the other two, he likes going on adventures! I’ve been looking at skips this week actually because that pile is a pain in the backside sitting there 🫣😂 it’d be lovely to be rid of it.

They were some heavy stones and still some more to go, the bigger ones did get rolled in the end. Not sure how we are moving them from where they are sitting right now but I’m sure we will sort something out lol. It does look a lot better now. Fingers crossed there’s more stones than soil in there….although having said that soil might be better to move than more of those stones 😂

Hi Jane The original plan was to put it at the base up against the sheets of metal but we changed our mind and piled it about 4ft away. The Alder tree, like the one apple tree already has holes in it we I found when I was cutting the ivy off it. Where the soil is now is quite well drained. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)

We are certainly a lot fitter and stronger than 12 months ago that is for certain. I think if we had tried doing what we do now we would have had to give up from exhaustion haha. Thank you for watching and commenting today :-)

Ok.