Well, despite last night’s winds and rains not being given an official ‘storm’ name by the Met Office, the conditions were the most vile we have had this winter and the winds particularly strong and as such, we awoke this morning to discover that a good third of the roofing sheets over the lean-to have been dislodged. And, we might add, dislodged beyond repair such that we now have a very unsafe building. We used scaffolding and wood to hold up the corrugated as best we could in order to make things as safe and as protected as possible, but in actual fact it is not that safe and protected at all. The worst of the damage is at the back end where most of what is stored there won’t suffer if it gets too wet but we do now have gaps over the hay, not ideal. We also no longer have access from the lean-to into the back of the barn to where our straw is, meaning we will have to go through the goat stalls every time we want a bale of straw for the other animal shelters.
AND of course, we are only January, meaning it is going to be at least three months before the land is dry enough and firm enough to start demolishing the whole thing and then building a new one! We are viewing this however as an opportunity to get a building that is a lot more fit for purpose and hope therefore to design one that can be used for animals as well as machinery, wood etc!
In the meantime, we just have to hope that we don’t get any more damage!
The view in the photo is of the calm AFTER the storm this morning but unfortunately as we type this, we can hear yet more rain battering the windows, although it is far less windy tonight, thankfully!!!