What's Happening During Summer 2024

Hut 1 at Frugaldom

 So far, summer has eluded us here at Frugaldom. Yes, we have had several dry, warm, sunny days with time in between for some fabulous exploring and for our wildlife watchers, the overnight antics of our ever-growing badger clan have kept everyone entertained. The youngsters are all growing fast - badgers and fox cubs. Right now, it is pouring rain again but there is a badger cub sitting eating peanuts at the end of the decking of hut 1, several more cavorting around beneath the decking and 2 fox cubs mooching around the paddock. A pinr marten arrived to collect an egg from the bowl on the decking and at hut 3, our newest pine marten arrived at 6pm for peanut snacks. No doubt, our wildlife gang would also have visited hut 2. We are still inviting up to 10 individuals to join us as Happy Hutters and Wildlife Watchers here at Frugaldom.

IT IS EXPENSIVE RUNNING A WILDLIFE & NATURE PROJECT

Peanuts, of which we get through at least 25kg each month, are fast approaching £50 per bulk bag so we need more financial help. Inviting in campervans and motorhomes at £5 per night isn't even covering the cost of providing safe space for them to park, so things are going to be changing once our current licence expires. No more being open to the public 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. Our yard will revert to parking, turning and working space for Friends of Frugaldom who are actively supporting the project.

SANCTUARY PONIES

3 of the 4 rescued foals here since 2019

The four rescued foals are now five years old. After a rather shaky start, during which time BB Dobin was gone for 4 weeks without us knowing where he had been taken, he was finally delivered to Darcy's Equine Assisted Therapy Centre in Chapelton, which is near Strathaven in Lanarkshire. 

BB Dobin and his new friend, Carlos

Having done his preliminary training here at Frugaldom, BBD will now be schooled within a busy yard setting alongside working therapy ponies and the centre's other animals. Susan K. and Susan P. attended Darcy's to await the arrival of baby Dobbin and see him settled into his new quarters earlier this week.

Pine martens: 3 Spot, Comma and Jigsaw

Our wildlife surveillance project has been paying dividends with possibly 3 separate pine martens being recorded. We are absolutely delighted to have finally caught another pine marten on camera. 2 badgers have cubs and the fox vixen we though had only 1 cub has returned with 2, which is great news.  To share in all the news, updates, photos and videos, please join us via our funding page at www.ko-fi.com/Frugaldom We offer various options for Friends of Frugaldom, including Pony Partners, Wildlife Watchers and Happy Hutters with all funds raised contributing towards the feeding of the sanctuary animals and wildlife. 

PROJECT PROGRESS

• The pond has been receiving plenty of attention to recover it from the proliferation of duckweed.
• The new sand pit has been completed in the paddock
• New fence posts have been installed ready for replacing electric fencing in the corner field
• A length of post and rail fence has been built along the edge of the pond bog garden
• Wooden boards have been purchased for completing more fencing
• More nest boxes have been hung outside the barn
• An owl nest box has been donated and hung inside the barn
• A grand total of 35 campervans have visited and stayed overnight, year to date (Rethinking this one as it's not really financially feasible)
• Sage Cottage (one-bedroom cottage with separate storeroom and garden in Glenluce) has become vacant. On completion of work, it will be available for residential tenancy at around £400 per calendar month. Interested parties should contact Frugaldom @ gmail .com

August - the Story so Far.

Year to date, we have had 35 campervans and motorhomes visit Frugaldom for overnight stops, each leaving their £5 in the box or paying via our PayPal QR code at a cost of 15p per transaction to ourselves. Several of our lovely visitors stayed for a couple of nights or else left a small donation in the honesty boxes, which is always a huge help when animal feed costs so much.

Willowby, Lemony and Blue

Towards the end of July, the first of the rescued foals, who are now 5-year-olds, went off in a hired horsebox after a 2-hour training session, initially heading for Darcy's Equine Assisted Therapy Centre in Strathaven. However, there was a slught deviation to that plan in that Blue shoud have gone with him but got left behind as he was too upset about being shut in the horsebox. 

BB Dobin in the horsebox

The driver then decided he wanted to take baby Dobbin home with him, as he had really 'fallen for the little fellow', or words to that effect. So now we have 3 youngsters left at Frugaldom and none has made it to Darcy's so far. However, baby Dobbin WILL still be goung to Darcy;s, hopefully this week. More on that soon - we now need to find an extra £315 to cover the costs of services provided by Nutmeg Equine Transport so I have launched a flash fundraiser to help cover these extra costs. 

If you can help out at all, you can find the Frugaldom fundraising page here.

The wildlife visits have been frequent and eventful, with what we think is now 9 badgers in Clan MacBrock. The youngest cub is a real cheeky character, always making a mess and causing chaos on te deckings by tipping up bowls and overturning the feeder boxes.

Badgers by the gate

The fox cub has now met the badgers after a brief altercation that was, luckily, caught on camera. You can see this and many more brief video clips on the Frugaldom YouTube channel.

Vincent Van Goat remains alone since the sad demise of his friend, Goatis Redding. We are open to rehoming a goaty companion for him, nanny or wether, but we need the goat to be tagged and registered accordngly with an approporiate movement licence issued.

The Sand Pit

Our August targets included moving ponies to Darcy's, making a sandpit suitable for Vincemt Van Goat and Ginger rolling in and getting the pond area improved. All of the above are underway, with the sand pit now completed, at a total cost of £115, and one side of the feeder pond partially fenced at a cost, so far, of around £40. The pond, itself, is being gradually cleared of duckweed, thanks to willing members donning waders and playing in the mud. The pond is alive with newts and frogs so great care is being taken while working painstakingly around these. 

We are currently awaiting the delivery of wooden boards for completing windbreak fencing around Vincent's house and finishing a bit more fencing. We were lucky enugh to source several loads of wood/tree chippings, which have been laid out around the orchard wildlife garden as temporary paths, The raised beds finally got refilled with top soil for planting some vegetables and this week will see the arrival of Harvey's next Ecoarts creation - The Four Horses of Frugaldom: Truth, Honesty, Integrity and Respect. All going well, these should be installed in a corner between the pony track nearest Vincent Van Goat's run.

More news soon - it takes sunshine to recharge the batteries for laptop and mobiles,

Hut 3

 

Pine marten

Some of our badger clan

Mrs Fox

Badger at hut 2

The newest feeding station

Hutting - what is it?

Hut 3

Hutting is literally about living off-grid in a hut. It is camping out in a sustainably built, wooden hut but with the addition of a few home comforts like a comfy armchair, a log burner for the colder nights and space to cook, wash and live a little while enjoying your recreational time. It's like time spent in a cabin in the woods. You are surrounded by nature and the wildlife that inhabits the area. Frugaldom has three recreational huts and countless opportunities for Friends of Frugaldom who help support the project by sharing the running costs. Frugaldom is not for profit, it is run entirely voluntarily. We are always looking for like-minded individuals to come along and join our mini community for a few days or weeks, to make the most of holidays and weekends, either in campervans/motorhomes of by staying in the huts. To support this fantastic project, check out our 'Happy Hutters' option in the membership tiers at our www.ko-fi.com/Frugaldom site and sign up from as little as £5 per month. Or, simply send us a donation and we will spend it on food for the sanctuary anumals and wildlife. :)

For our Bay 1 Visitors of 11 July 2024

 

Pine Marten

Pine marten

Fox cub

Fox cub

Badger

Badger

Badger cub

Badger cub

Fox cub

Socks, one of the feral cats

After a bit of a late start, the wildlife visitors began arriving around 11.30pm with visits to Bay 1 feeding station from the pine marten, badger, badger cub, fox and fox cub. Visitors staying at the campervan /motorhome aire are welcome to bring along their own trail cameras, eggs, cat or dog food, peanuts, wild bird food to put out for our day and night wildlife but please do not feed any of the sanctuary ponies of goat as all are on monitored diets for various health reasons.

To join our support group, which costs from as little as £5 per month and contributes towards the feed costs here, you can sign up via our page at www.ko-fi.com/Frugaldom

Once again, many thanks for following our blog and supporting our voluntary project. You can find Frugaldom on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, YouTube and Google.

To book a wildlife watch parking spot at Frugaldom in your campervan or motorhome, email frugaldom@gmail.com or text / WhatsApp 07795870688 or via any of the messaging options on the various pages. We cannot guarantee mobile signal so can't always respond to calls or immediately to messages.

Badger Haven at Frugaldom

Our badger clan is growing

 

Frugaldom did not set out to become a haven for the local badger clan, it happened quite by mistake. Our barren land was purchased 10 years ago and from them until now, we have been planting rees, hedges, wildflowers, herbs, grasses, fruit, berries and vegetables. The badger clan found us just last year, when we first completed the hutting project and began monitoring wildlife.

Badger in daylight

We did some fundraising for Frugaldom to help cover the cost of some trail cameras, which we managed to source for around £25 each. These were initially purchased to monitor the movements of a pine marten that was spotted.

Pine marten

By setting up the various cameras we were able to establish regular surveillance and have now amassed housands of photos and video clips showing weasels, stoats, pine marten, badger, deer, fox, adders and to our surprise, 5 feral cats who visit through the night. 

Over the winter of 2023/24 we began offering wildlife watch weekends for Friends of Frugaldom, staying either in the huts or in campervans or motorhomes in the yard. As a Certificated (or Certified) Location, we are licensed for up to 5 fully-contained campervans but we aim to keep this to a maximum of 3 owing to quiet hours and lack of services. We do have a waste tank for emptying portable toilet cassettes and a soakaway for water but we are fully off-grid here, so no electricity, sewers or running water. It is very much a case of bring absolutely everything you need, take nothing but photographs and leave no trace. We charge £5 for using the basic facilities and overnight parking is by donation. You must like animals and wildlife and you must adhere to our fairly lengthy list of rules as we are a sanctuary and wildlife conservation project carrying out wildlife surveillance seven night per week. Although we don't object to people bringing their pets in motorhomes or campervans, the pets MUST be kept on short leads and all mess cleaned up. Badgers, pine martens and adders don't mix well with domestic pets if they inadvertently get cornered. Ordinarily, though, the wildlife is out after dark and happily wandering around when left to do their own thing.

Pair of badgers in the paddock by hut 1

Our various feeding stations are topped up each evening before dark. We don't expect our visitors to be out wandering around after dark as we are simply a stopover, not a campsite or holiday park. Here at Frugaldom, the animals come first and our primary function is as a nature and wildlife conservatin project with an animal sanctuary. We currently have 8 ponies and a goat - Vincent Van Goat - to look after. All funds raised from our visitors contribute towards the care of the animals and wildlife.

Badger cubs

We have at least 2 female badgers in the clan who currently have cubs. (Our visiting fox seems to have just a single cub.) The cubs have just begun to come out at nights, often seen in the paddock or creating merry mayhem on the deckings of huts 2 or 3, where we have badger box feeders. These have been a great addition to the project, allowing our happy hutters the opportunity to sit watching the badgers feeding outside the hut windows.

Some of the badger clan

If you are planning a stopover at Frugaldom, we recommend you bring along some peanuts. Everything here seems to love peanuts, even the goat and old Ginger, our thirty-something year old retired pony. We may not be posh or fancy, we may not have modern conveniences and we may not be to everyone's taste as an overnight location but we do this out of a love for nature and justice for abandoned and abused ponies. If we can raise a few pounds to help provide them all with a little safe haven then you are all welcome to join us in our quest to achieve this on a frugal budget. The following are some helpful links:

CONTACT DETAILS, LISTS AND LINKS

Contact details and other information, including social media, Amazon Wish List, Ko-fi break updates, website and fundraising links.

Address: Frugaldom, Kirkcowan, Newton Stewart, Dumfries & Galloway, DG8 0ET

Tel/WhatsApp: 07795 870688

What3Words///Photo.Regal.Fencing

Social media, most places, username is @Frugaldom

www.instagram.com/frugaldom

www.twitter.com/frugaldom

www.youtube.com/@frugaldom

Become Friends of Frugaldom: www.ko-fi.com/Frugaldom

GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/b56f6009

PayPal.me/frugaldom or email frugaldom@gmail.com

Amazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/29CPYAW8MPZ3F

Web address: www.frugaldom.com leads to this blog, which is http://frugaldom.blogspot.com/

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SUPPORT OUR PROJECT