Smallholding Renovation - The Messy Truth! Turning a Derelict Property into a Dream Home (ep.13)
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- Опубліковано 12 січ 2025
- Welcome back to our smallholding renovation journey! This week, we’re tackling the not-so-glamorous reality of transforming a derelict property into a home. From essential groundwork to unexpected challenges, it’s another step in the unpredictable process of bringing this smallholding back to life.
Life off the beaten path isn’t all idyllic sunsets-it’s messy, hard work, and full of surprises. In this episode, we’re balancing practical upgrades with some much-needed land improvements.
Thank you so much for watching! If you’re enjoying this series, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to follow along with our progress. See you next week!
#SmallholdingRenovation #FarmLife #HomesteadJourney #DIYFarm #DerelictProperty #OffGridLiving #RenovationJourney #RuralLiving #LandManagement #FarmProjects
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OUR STORY:
We're Gav and Nicole and we decided to risk everything by swapping our comfortable lives in the city to buy an abandoned homestead/smallholding in the West of Wales.
We have a huge challenge on our hands as the property and the land all need a full renovation after lying empty for 6 years but as we spent everything we had on the move, we will be doing all the work ourselves. This is a life time project though, so we have time to figure it all out!
We would love if you would like and subscribe and follow our journey!
The best investment you will make on any smallholding is to buy your own mini digger. I have had my digger for 18 years now. Looked after it carefully and never left it out in the rain. It's done no end of work for me and paid for itself over and over. Machinery is the key otherwise you will struggle and be knackered all the time.
Hi, I cannot wait for the Dude, the Dog and the Digger to hit cinemas.
Another great episode. I’ve never seen so much mud shifted with determination and style! Those moments with Seren in the cab will live with you both forever. Just special little snippets of time which go to embody everything that is great with this channel. Thanks again for sharing. Wayne.
Awesome progress. Best bit of kit I’ve ever bought is the Stihl Kombi system and the Oregon mulching blade it turns brambles to dust.
Kombi system is awesome and if you feeling the need for an upper body workout add the pole extension for hedge trimming, pole saw work at height.
The excavator helped you a lot, it's a huge area so the equipment is worth its weight in gold. The dog is wonderful, you can see that he loves you very much. See you soon
It's really unusual to see how much she likes being in there, but she is with Gav lol. It's so funny and adorable. It's also much safer than being out around it.❤
"Please, lets just ignore the Crocs and sox".... best line....thanks for the video
Well done guts 👏👏👏👏👏👏💕💙
Keep the videos and the smiles coming, lots of people are urging you on.
Great video, you can’t beat real life!
You should do a course on hedge-laying!
I’m enjoying watching your progress. ❤🇦🇺
It's good to see you guys have a laugh. Having the digger is making a huge difference fast, you never know what you are doing to find in all of those brambles. It will be good to see how it looks if it ever gets a chance to dry out. Hopefully you'll be getting an all clear for the new sewage system soon. ❤
It has to be said that if this was Gav's first early attempts at digger driving/excavation, he's a natural! Not easy to master so quickly! And.... When that tree finally succumbed you're shout out of "Well done!" definitely resounded with a local Welsh accent! 🏴 Da iawn! 🏴🏴👌 Seren certainly living up to her name too! (In Welsh... A Star ⭐!"
Blwyddyn newydd dda! Nice depth of topsoil there, and good to see it draining relatively fast. Mine, on clay, would still be there next year! With brambles, bounce a strimmer up and down, it cuts the brambles without them twirling round the head of the strimmer, and chops them all up into little bits that can be raked easily - years of experience talking.
Keep going - I envy your energy!
You have quite a bit of land to maintain, looks like you could do with a brush cutter for the brambles. I have one for my surburban garden which is bordered by bushes. Would make light work of those brambles xx
Thoroughly enjoying your adventure. It's a breath of fresh air to watch a documentary like this, unlike most documentaries that just fill time with fat. So looking forward to the end result. Keep keeping it real
That track is huge 😮😮😮 and the most expensive and valuable thing you can do is your septic tank updating. Adulting I'm afraid 😢 great work 👍
Hahaha...I'll come back for the clean stuff! 😆
Ahhh septic tank content - the real gold! 😂
It’s amazing how you folks deal with all that rain!
Oregon Mulching blade for your strimmer.
" day off work to play with a digfer 😄 boys and their toys ❤️
Great to see another update on the farm, looks like a well spent day with the digger.
Good work and belated happy New Year to you all.
Awesome work amazing to see the width of the lane once it was cleared , fantastic to see how your dog has settled so well with you...she really enjoys the outdoor work & is certainly loving her new home with you both..she's such a lovely dog...a perfect match for you both...looking forward to your next video already...
You two are so hardworking and cute! Things are taking shape!
That is a great piece of land clearance well done with the cess pits and good luck with the regs
Little by little, better n better. Good onyuh guys...
Oh the joy of percolation tests! Our clay was not as good as your soil…but fortunately we were investigating for a soakaway not a septic tank!
get in touch with the local hedge layers group (if there is one and offer your track as somewhere that they could use for a training day or the likes... you might get half of it done and a bit of free tuition and then you can tackle the other half yourself🙃
Hope the septic system is viable, well worth the investment. Great job clearing the lane, all that debris would make great compost. Hope you can store it. While it is winter you should see if a friendly farmer with a hedge cutting attachment on a tractor could get your hedges trimmed back. It would take them half an hour. The scale of these tasks is too much to achieve anything by hand or small machine. The more maintenance that can be done swiftly by machine the better. Prioritise your time for the important stuff, both now and in the future.
💕I think you need a garden shredder to help you get rid of everything then you can use it around your property💕
Great video, thoroughly enjoyed it and what great progress. The track will be amazing when you finish it. Well done all three of you!
HNY to you both, looking forward to more updates of the farm upgrades.
Much progress made! Keep on keeping on! ❤ XXX
Septic tanks, diggers and mud. What more could we ask for on a Sunday, eh?
Gavin so serious until you get rid of the camera and start talking it’s laughing at you about your bramble injury.😂 This was a major eye-opener to waste disposal! This should never be taken for granted. Thank you for sharing❤
Hope you guys are fans of Justin Rhodes channel as I can see you two being British version. He is full of information about small homesteading and raising his family on the land. I love watching him and his family and I love watching you guys fulfilling your dream.
Your dog is just like my Sam, (Sambuka) I miss him.
I would PAY to come there and work!! Lol
Hello! I am watching and following your channel from Edmond, OK USA. I just finished up all of the first videos and was so hoping a new one would be up today, and what just popped up?! A new video. I really love your channel.
If you can't get your hands on larger machinery to take down the rest of the brush, at the very least, you ought to get a smaller chainsaw (smaller than the one used to take down the tree). I can't imagine trying to cut all that down with hedge clippers. I'm new to the channel since your last episode, really enjoying it. I love your dog!
Should get an mot failure pickup to use just on the farm to move things about. Snother channel i watch bought one. The restoration couple.
Love your vlogs, and keep the Crocs and Socks!
Out of interest would it not be cheaper to put a pump out tank in? that way you could install it closer to the cottage and not having to install a hugely long drain out to the new location.
Love you're videos cheers from cheshire
Looking at the grass and reeds growing I'm sure your finding it very soggy, I would be looking at putting some drain tiles around the buildings and field tiles down to the two streams
Don't worry about Crocs & socks, a bruised/broken toe is not long term damage whereas demolition without a mask could be. Great to see you getting full value from the digger hire cost. What you need now is a tractor with a hedge cutter to beat back the sides and top, do you have a friendly neighbouring farmer with one ? or the funds to hire one in ? They can get such a lot done in such a short space. Rember, hedge cutting season finishes soon Mid Feb I think ??
Well done. Ddiolch 🎉. Love Seren (Star) ❤️
Happy new year guys 🏴🏴🏴❤️
Episode about waste disposal, opens with the line 'Time to take a log'. Ok then 😆
Great work.
You should find out who the local farm contractors are and they'll be able to cut back and maintain the overgrowth and move all that mud.
Seren was adorable in the digger with her dad. Great job done by all.
Every local authorities are different in Wales I put loads of them in and every one differs the manufacturers say you can drink the water that comes out of it 🤷🏻🤷🏻
You need a cordless hedge trimmer
Love watching you guys, however it makes me nervous seeing Seren running loose around the diggers etc 😅😊
One man and his dog
One girl and a thorn
You’re on a farm, Crocks and socks are part of the uniform 😸
No hedge cutter? That would make small work of that lane!
Must have changed recently mine empties into a stream lol
Wholesome + Septic Tank = Huh?
Oh, I don't know. I have a pair of lipstick red crocks that I wear with my rainbow knee socks! I look like an escapee from a looney bin, but I'm comfy! They go perfectly with my lime green hoodie and my navy yoga pants. LMAO! I am the perfect picture of eccentricity!
40 metres from a watercourse makes sense but that's really bad luck. I was on septic tanks for 35 years . If done right you never have to worry and it's money well spent. Living on mains water and sewerage for the past year and the quarterly cost is huge for a single person.
Definitely nothing wrong with crocks & socks!
in the States we call this a 'perk test'
Hi, another great video, Gavin , assuming that you have a petrol strimmer, please invest in a Brush Cutter Strimmer Mulching Blade, about £14 off ebay, it will save you hours of work and last a hundred times longer than strimmer cord, .... if it it doesnt do the job . I, will give you your money back 🙂
Who’d have guessed the dog loves the digger. Or maybe she just wants to be with dad! Great video, your ground is certainly very muddy!❤
I think you need to get a tractor with an hedge cutter attached would be able to cut the track down in no time
any time you see wild tomatoes growing in a field you'll know that someone had their septic tank cleared and pumped it onto their fields
We had those once in Malaysia. Our maid had the giggles every time she served them. You can't grow melons though as they don't filter out the bad stuff.
How cool, diggers are fun. Might be time to hire goats to eat you brambles! Schedule them in every quarter
Is it going to be a s**t cruncher , sorry effluent masticator ? or a bio treatment plant . Also with the amount of people it serves , depending on how many guests you may have it might be advisable not to go for a 2-3 person one
Youll be in by christmas
You need some leather gloves for bramble work
Annoying to see the efforts a private household needs to go through to ensure untreated water doesn't go into the waterways, yet water companies dump millions of tons into our water system regularly without any fear
Seren needs doggie earmuffs for digger days .
Hire a brush cutter
Love watching you guys, however it makes me nervous seeing Seren running loose around the diggers etc 😅😊