Dear members and friends of the Boot
A quick update to keep everybody up to speed on developments. Progress on the roof has gone particularly well, helped by the exceptionally good weather, and we hope that this work will be completed this week and we will once again be fully watertight.
We have also had the wood burner chimney inspected and swept and a fire has been lit most days, using the old roof battens, to get a slow background heat back into the place.
We are presently getting quotes for the electrical work and the kitchen where unfortunately we have discovered that the old hood is no longer compliant with regulations and we will have to replace it. This will require listed building and planning consent, due to ducting changes at the rear, and these along with incorporating a way to make a more disabled friendly entrance are being planned for and we hope to have plans ready to submit in the next week or so. More details to follow.
In the garden we have had a tree survey done by Phil Argyle and we will again shortly be putting in for the consents to carry out the trims recommend. One of the things proposed at the 'tidy up' day was the addition of fruit trees along the edges of the car park, adding blossom in the spring and potentially fruit for the kitchen in the autumn.
Consequently fruit tree planting has been undertaken by Terry Tandler and David Flory with donations of damsons from Paul Smith, cookers and cider apples from Waterloo farm and some other apples from around the village. Meanwhile Tony Haigh has done a sterling job on repairing the garden benches (broken bits adding to the wood burner fuel) and a water jet clean and coat of preservative to come. If anyone has any spare preservative this would be most welcome. Tony has also cut the lawn again but asks if anyone has a scarifier as this would be a great help to remove all the dead and long bits and help get it ready for the long hot summer days when we hope to be making much use of the garden and benches again.
On the admin side we will be shortly distributing share certificates (the legal register will be securely kept electronically) and our new mailing lists for information distribution will go live.
Thanks again for all the offers of help and encouragement and we will call upon some of the offers of help in the coming months and a general call to arms when jobs and weather offer a window.
That's all for now and we will hopefully do another update in next few weeks.
Cheers
John Alderman
Chair. The community Boot Inn (Orleton) Ltd