There's a Hole in My Bucket, Sorry Roof ...

Anyone missed us while we've been busy? Probably not as there's been no clamouring to have some more posts, at least not that we've heard.

We thought we tell you about one of our recent projects. We've told you already how much we love having Ribby, the Eriba caravan, in our extended family.

When Ribby (Ribs) came to live with us, she was a fine caravan in every respect bar one. She had a patch of rot in her roof which had had a quick patch up job, but needed some skilled craftsmanship for a more permanent repair.

Who better to put on the project than Jimmy and Blue Bear, both of whom are skilled engineers and have very skilled and dextrous paws.

The first job was to back Ribs into the right hand side of the garage so she wouldn't be exposed to the elements when her roof came off. It was a good job we had the caravan mover so we could inch her in. It was a tight squeeze as you can see, with lots of calls of 'breathe in Ribs' especially on the freezer side.

The roof came off and was carried carefully into our makeshift workshop - the dining room. Carpenter apprentice Oscar, sitting by the hammer, shows you the piece of wood we had to cut out, with the rotten section in the middle.

In the foreground you can see the beautifully crafted and ultra smooth replacement section. We had to  take a cross cut saw to it to cut some strips in the back, so it would bend into shape, then it was glued in and weighted down. Once the glue was set, we did some fibreglass filling and skimming then, in best Blue Peter style, we finished off with a sticky back plastic covering.

The roof was now fixed but the tricky bit was still to come, getting the roof back onto Ribs and attaching it to the cantilever springs. It took a big work party of bears most of the afternoon, but we're very pleased with the finished job.

Aunty and Uncle G were the first to use Ribs after her repair when they came down for a Norfolk holiday and we think they were quite impressed. We'll be out in Ribs ourselves shortly to check the repair out for ourselves.

Love from the caravan repair crew xxx

Meet Our Friend Piggy

The great thing about Wild Slack Farm is that is a working farm as well as being a caravan and camping site. We thoroughly approved of this and wasted no time in making new friends. 

It took just a few steps to encounter the farm residents. Both the ducks and chickens had fairly young offspring with them and they were predictably cute ...

... but the real star of the show and our definite favourite, was Piggy, who you meet below ...

Who wouldn't fall in love with such a gorgeous pig? and she wasn't just gorgeous, she had a lovely friendly temperament as well. There was a sign in the toilet block encouraging us to feed Piggy our food leftovers, including fruit, veg and cake, and the fact that we frequently appeared with food offerings, quickly established a strong rapport between us and our porcine friend. Wherever she was in the field, as soon as we appeared, she would come running over to see us. As a result she got rather more than leftovers (we just couldn't let her down!) She enjoyed a taste of Aunty G's fruit cake and we even went carrot shopping for her. 

Towards the end of the week, Farmer Martin, told us Piggy was going to be joined, out in the field, by her sister and mother. We viewed this imminent event with rose tinted spectacles and thought it would be lovely for Piggy to have company of her own kind. 

However, on returning to the site that afternoon, we found Mum, and sister, but no Piggy. At first we thought she might have gone off to make b****n and we were quite worried for her. When we met Farmer Martin, he told us a sad tale. Piggy had been attacked by her relatives and he'd had to move her indoors for her safety.  

He told us where to find Piggy, so we went straight to visit with some treats (it's a radish in our picture). It was sad to see Piggy behind bars, after being used to seeing her outdoors, but at least the front barrier was low, and her barn was open to the elements so she could see out. She did seem rather dispirited though, and it was far from the happy re-union we had hoped for.

It's certainly true what they say, that nature is red in tooth and claw. We just can't understand why everyone can't live in harmony, just like us bears.

Lots of love, Chelmer and the B.U. caravanning gang xxx

Ribs Travels to God's Own Country

As we said last time, we're working backwards, so you had our most recent caravan adventure first. Our trip before that wasn't too long ago though, so it's still fresh in our memories.

We indulged Yorkshire bear/reindeer, Yorkie and Randolph, with a visit to that fine county of Yorkshire. While some of us were being patriotic in this choice, others were being more practical. We chose Yorkshire's east coast as we couldn't set off from Norfolk until well after lunch on the Sunday of our departure, so we needed a destination we could reach in a long afternoon's driving. Yorkshire was also somewhere we positively wanted to go to.

While it wasn't supposed to be that far, it wasn't that close either, so we didn't arrive until nearly 8.30 p.m. This was partly because we encountered some rather steep hills as we got closer to journey's end.  It didn't make for easy towing, but it made us happy, as we love upland scenery.

On arrival we instantly fell in love with Wild Slack Farm. It has a simply fabulous location, just outside Lealholm, on the edge of the North York Moors.

And, the icing on the cake is that farmer Martin, and his wife Andrea, are lovely, helpful people and gave a warm welcome. We couldn't believe our luck in choosing such a wonderful spot, and as it was a lovely mild evening, we set to, and got the awning up, before a very late supper. Many paws made light work.

The next morning we took in our surroundings properly and started plan our week.

Being on the edge of the moors, we knew we'd want to explore them on foot, but we also wanted to get to the coast, as Whitby and Robin Hoods Bay were not far away. We were also in the heart of horse racing country,  a fact that keen racing bears, Patrick and Curly wouldn't allow us to overlook! 

Look to the back right of our next photo and you'll see the farm buildings on the right, with the site to the left of them, and you'll appreciate what a quiet and relaxing spot we had found.  

And to cap it all there was a good pub just a mile away, which we could easily walk to.

Find out how we spent our week, next time and who we met.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx