Cats come first

Those of a severely energy efficient bent - please look away now Actually, they'd probably best avoid this post altogether, as for some, what I'm showing is a terrible crime.

It is - a cat flap. Not too awful, some would think, but in a highly energy efficient home it is considered to be a big compromise - but one I wholeheartedly endorse - because I LOVE my cats and I like to be able to go away overnight, or even for a weekend, knowing that they can come and go as they please.

Here is the controversial cat flap in all its glory. (There are actually two flaps - an outer and an inner flap .. I just hope the cats figure it out easily).

I guess its very clear that animals rule the roost. Thats ok by me. They give me a lot of pleasure.

Sam has been busy getting ready for the animals to come back down - this means we can work on the house more often - as we're not popping back up north all the time to tend to the cats and ducks.

Here is the new and improved poultry pen - pretty swish .. and ALMOST finished. It will have electric fencing and an automatic pop hole (just like the original), meaning that we can easily go away overnight and know that the girls are ok.

Now we're animal friendly, I get to come down to site again - AT LAST.

I daren't take pictures of all the plants waiting to come with me - there are a lot.

Thankfully, we've just got our beloved Bongo van up and running again - this will be her first big run - complete with dog, cats, ducks and plants.

I'm very excited to be getting back to the build - and our land - and our garden. Sam's done a great job down there on his own over the past few weeks, now I can give him a hand .. and get some plants in the ground.

We certainly have the weather for it right now.

Lovely and sunny Leitrim - here I come :-)

(not sure we'll fit the laptop into the van with all else - so it might be a quiet week on the blog while we're down)