Over the last few months we have been trying to ignore the fact that we are ‘bursting at the seams’ in our workshop, mainly because we love everything about the farm that we are located on.
We started Sparrow & Finch working out of a very small workshop which quickly became two very small workshops, and dreamt of the day that we could have everything in one place and have some space.
I clearly remember two years ago when we looked at this workshop for the first time, we thought it was huge and that we would never fill it. There was excitement and trepidation, should we sign a lease for that long, can we afford it, what will we put in there to fill up all that empty space.
Well in two short years here we go again, we can’t move for equipment and stock, what we thought was a huge space now seems tiny and unworkable.
So the questions began, take on another workshop of a similar size and have two locations, move to something bigger but how big, plan for the future, but who knows what size we will need in another two years time, separate the offices and have workshops and offices in more than one location, the list it seems is endless.
One constant throughout all of this though has been our desire to remain rural, none of us wanted to end up on an industrial estate, we love our rural location, yes it has it’s challenges especially in the snow, but it’s worth it just to look out the door at that view.
It’s also fun to be part of a working farm, watching the seasons change from a farming perspective, it does sometimes feels like we are characters in the Archers though. Some of farm life needs a strong stomach, like at the moment when every evening the Game Keeper is shooting pigeons to keep the vermin down! But mostly it’s amazing, from ploughing to harvest, from baby calves to full grown bullocks, from arguments amongst the wild birds for the best nesting site to the fluffy golf ball sized chicks bobbing up and down on the pond. To the antics of Bertie the farm Border Collie, who has more personality than any dog we know (except for Libby & Luna of course!), he even followed us out into the road yesterday, so keen was he to tell us we had not finished his game.
Can we leave all this behind? The answer is a great big yes, we know we can’t standstill for sentiment, we know you create your own environment and we are all really excited to discover the things that will make us love being somewhere new.
So what have we found? A huge barn about five minutes from where we are now, still on a farm, but twice the size and better insulated. One thing I won’t be sorry to say goodbye to is Michelin woman in the winter; I have to wear so many layers in our current barn that I can't actually move my arms.
Before you ask, yes the same questions have been running through our mind; it’s huge we will never fill it, should we sign a lease for that long, can we afford it, what will we put in there to fill up all that empty space ...
Samantha x
