This week, the cottage saw the arrival of some new tenants. The tenants in question will not be paying any rent. Nor will they be helping with the cleaning. By the look of them, all they’re currently capable of is eating and snoozing. Their eyes are still closed, and they don’t have any feathers yet. They are quite ugly, but we don’t tell their mum that.

These are blackbird babies, and they arrive at this time every year. I’m happy to see they’ve continued their tradition of nesting in the briar rose, which grows next to the outhouse door.

The mother sits, eyeballing me through the leaves as I enter and leave the outhouse. She always has a slightly grumpy look, as if my very presence is rude and uncalled for.

Disaster struck a few days ago when the heavy rains came and almost tipped the bush over. This happens quite often as the birds have usually built their nest before I’ve had time to give the bush its summer trim.
The bush was leaning so far away from the wall that the nest was fully exposed. The mother stared at me. Please do something.
So out came the trusty secateurs, and off came the top half of the bush, which is now leaning nicely against the wall again, ensuring that the ugly bird babies are snug and dry.

Is the mother thankful? Hard to tell. She still looks very angry with me. As if it’s my fault that she chose to build her nest on unstable ground.

A few years ago, her one very fat baby threw itself out of the nest. Using gardening gloves very carefully, I untangled it from the thorny bottom of the bush and gently placed it back into the nest. Only for it to jump out again a few hours later.
In the end, I had to just leave it in the flowerbed.
Luckily, the flower bed was relatively safe because I’d added a wire mesh fence to stop the rabbits from digging up the plants.
The fat baby bird had to live in the meshed-off flower bed for weeks until it was finally ready to fly.
The mother, looking jaded, sat on top of the rosemary bush, waiting for the day when the baby could jump out and begin its adult life and she could finally go back to living in a nest and not getting rained on.
Such is life.
Hopefully, the four babies will stay in the nest this year until they’re fully baked, and she’ll have an easier time.

In other news, an accident happened on Saturday when I went to drive through the big gates at the end of the dirt track which leads to the cottage.
A big gust of wind grabbed the gate and swung it closed as I drove through. The angle was just right, so the gate got stuck on the front wing of my van, disintegrating the gate and causing a big dint in the front panel. The driver-side door now doesn’t open fully as the bent panel is in the way, and no amount of banging or bending has resulted in this being any better.

Ouch, poor Noah!

I’ve sourced a new panel (£90) and will pick it up on Friday.
Unfortunately, they don’t come ready painted, so I’ll also have to buy the correct paint and spray it white before I can put it on the van.
I’ll also lose part of the decorative blue van stickers, which I’m not entirely sad about.
I’ve never been keen on the blue stripes, which were badly applied to my van by the previous owner, so this gives me a good excuse to remove them entirely and pick a different type of campervan decor.
Another job on the list.

Driving out of the cottage yesterday, I was surprised to see that the gate had already been replaced by a new, second-hand one. There’s also a nice big chain on it, which I can use to loop over the bush when it’s open, ensuring that the wind can’t blow it closed in future. That was fast work by my landlord!

The end of a good old gate

On Tuesday, I checked the level of my new leisure battery and saw that it hadn’t been charged for four days!
The problem was a loose connection on the negative wire coming from the solar panel.
Credit to the new battery, I hadn’t noticed for four days that my solar wasn’t working. If that had been my old battery, the fridge would have screamed at the end of the first day.

I took the van to my dad, who helped me diagnose the issue.
In the pouring rain, of course.
I had to stand with my purple umbrella propped on top of the open rear door while Dad rooted in the cupboard, trying to access the wires to test them with his meter. Why do these things never go wrong in good weather?

The problem turned out to be with the connector plug. I accidentally pulled on it when grabbing something from the cupboard, and the wire inside the plug is now loose. It works as long as you wiggle it in the right way, but sometimes it stops working again, so I’ll need to order some more plugs.
More money.
Whoever said vanlife was a cheaper living alternative?

In the last few months, I’ve spent a lot of money on van repairs and improvements, and I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to put much more into it.
I’m considering selling this van next year and replacing it with something bigger with more living space. I want to claw back some of the money I’ve spent when I sell Noah, but it’s reaching the point where if I spend any more on him, I won’t be able to.
It’s a tricky balance between being comfortable (he is my house, after all) and being sensible with my money to not lose too much when I come to let go.

My dream is to own a Luton box van. They have the perfect living space, and everything is square, making it much easier to convert.
I’m intimidated by the size, though, and the thought of driving something that huge does cause me some concern. Will I fit into car parks? How much will one of those cost to insure? Will campsites still accept me? Will repair costs be horrific?

I plan to do some research over the next couple of months and then decide between buying a larger panel van or jumping to a Luton. The Luton conversions look so homely, and I’d have all the space I need, so I hope to make it work.

It does mean that I’d be converting the van myself, though, as there are very few ready-made Luton campervans out there, and the ones that do exist are usually over 3.5 tons.
I don’t want to do an HGV licence, so I’ll need to find a 3.5-ton Luton and ensure the conversion doesn’t add too much weight.

It’ll be an exciting project if I go ahead with it, though. I converted my first campervan years ago. It was a lot of fun, and it helped me learn what is necessary and what is overkill when building a conversion.

All of this needs to be put on the back burner for now until I’ve repaired the issues with my current van. The front panel is the first job on the list. But there are other jobs that I need to complete before I can sell.
It will probably take up the rest of the summer, so I see myself spending another winter in Noah.
Spring is the best time to sell a campervan, so it will line up nicely.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to find innovative storage solutions for all of my things and enjoy the space at the cottage while the weather is warm.

Fox
xx