Starting our glamping site
I’m amazed, when I look back over the past year, to see how far we’ve come.
July 2021, I worked my last day as a Practice Nurse at a local GP surgery – a job that had filled my life (along with bringing up our 3 children and working on the farm) for the past 25 years. Many of my friends, family and colleagues ask if I miss Nursing, but I can honestly say I don’t – perhaps because I’ve just been too busy to think about it! Whilst working my last day, I looked forward to my new adventure, working from home, being my own boss, something I had been dreaming of for a while but never seemed to be a possibility.
Little did I know, what hard work it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t for one second regret my decision and I am used to working long hours and being busy, but I didn’t quite appreciate how much would be involved in the day to day running of our small glamping site. Yes, I knew I would have to do cleaning, do the laundry, make the beds, and greet the guests, but it’s so much more.
I seem to have got myself into baking every guest a homemade cake or sweet treat. This wasn’t the original plan, but when the comments start flooding in, such as “the best carrot cake I’ve ever eaten” or Paula made me a birthday cake and it was so special, it’s hard not to resist. Then there’s the hand- picked flowers. Initially, to save a bit of money on buying flowers, I would venture into the garden to see what I could find – who knew weeds could look so pretty in a jar! Luckily, my mother-in law loves gardening and has started growing flowers especially for our guests, keeping Mick our neighbour in business buying his plants.
On the plus side, I don’t need to worry about exercise as on an average changeover day I walk around 16,000 steps to and from the huts clearing things out, putting things back, forgetting half of the things I need, and keeping the hot tub fire burning. My muscles have doubled in size with chopping wheelbarrow loads of logs for the log burner and hot tub. Unfortunately, though, I seem to have put on weight, most likely due to feeling constantly hungry and snacking on chocolate bars to keep up my energy levels.
Anyway, all the work is so worthwhile when our guests tell me how they have had a wonderful time staying with us. I often feel nervous when guests leave, sneaking a quick look in our guest book to see if they’ve written a nice comment, or wanting to, but not wanting to read a review in case they’ve written something bad. Luckily, so far, the reviews have been amazing and makes me feel so proud of what we’ve achieved. Now I’ve just got to keep it up!