Woolly says – It’s been a very busy couple of weeks as we started to find our way round in a new area and set up for the summer season, I’ve really enjoyed watching the humans’ carrying bags of bedding, humping wooden pallets for beds whilst tucking into the free marshmallows that the site offers to all of the guests.
This summer sees us in the picturesque area of the Wye valley running a glamping site nestled alongside the river Wye, with Jo as manager, myself as director of operations and Alfie the Dog adding to the guest experience in having his belly rubbed at every opportunity, we have a winning team supported by the lovely owners Rich and Claudia and their dog Teddy, who has become besties with our mutt, meaning that they head off on muddy adventures together returning as and when they like usually looking very pleased with themselves.
https://whitehouseonwye.co.uk/ is based on the White House dairy farm which has been in the family for nearly 100 years, that’s an awful lot of milking in that time and an immense amount of dung. With around 200 cows including calves our accommodation is right next to the path that the cows take each day on the way to the milking parlour. It’s a grand site as they pass by with lots of mooing and the occasional toileting needs for us to view in close proximity as they take their full udders down to be emptied.
We had spent the first few days settling in and finding our way around, it took no time at all for Alfie the Dog to find the beach area on the river and add a daily paddle to his exercise.
The River Wye is the fourth longest river in the UK, stretching some 250 kilometres (155 miles) from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary, for much of its length the river forms part of the border between England and Wales. It’s a beautiful stretch of water to walk along and if your legs are willing you could walk along the bank towards nearby Ross on Wye. It’s ideal for paddle boarding, canoeing or a chilly swim if you’re really insane.
With the dry weather conveniently arriving we started the setup of the site.
Set in the orchard we had arrived to an empty field and I have to admit to excitement as the wooden bases and carpets for the tipi’s started to appear next to the apple trees.
A team of Tipi erectors joined us and set to raising the cream canvas from the ground to great heights, ensuring that all were well secured and safe for use, the orchard started to take on a new life.
Each Tipi has a name based on a variety of apple, Bramley, Russet, Rosie, Porter, Pippen and Melrose, so of course Jo spends her days forgetting which is which and confusing Russet and Rosie not to mention Melrose and the other one as she calls it, once all six had been erected the work on the inside began.
Pallett beds and apple box furniture were put into place along with fridges, fires and the movie night box which allows the customers to set up their own open air cinema at night, I’m just hoping I get invited along for the popcorn.
The arrival of the duvets, pillows and blankets meant some seriously hard work for myself as I spent days ensuring that my human was working fast enough to get all of the beds made and the interior finished, she is known to slack off and it was exhausting chasing her round to ensure everything would be ready, it also cut into my marshmallow munching time.
As the bathrooms and shower blocks were cleaned to the standard I expect, I concentrated on the kitchen area and the most important task of marshmallow testing.
He will look like a marshmallow at his rate of consumption!
Woolly says – As the final items were put into place and the orchard was mowed once more, I was delighted with all of my hard work and just hoped that the guests would be as well, although Jo might need to buy some more marshmallows before they start to arrive, as strangely, they all seem to have disappeared.
In celebration of everyone’s achievements, well mine mainly, it seemed like an excellent plan to fire up the new pizza oven to test it out, with homemade dough provided by Rich we tucked into a feast of pizza delight, as daylight fell on the completed site I was looking forward to welcoming our guests and showing them the delights of glamping and marshmallows.