BBQ Lodges

We had a great time at The Royal Cornwall Show in the lovely sunshine. It is a great show and lots of people visit for all three days to make sure they can meet all their friends and see everything. We had a visit on our stand from a lovely American man who was very interested in our Norwegian reindeer skins. He admired them and we discussed them and he went away to explore the rest of the show. Three days later – a phone call – he was kicking himself for not buying one and had now returned to South Carolina. So we are now exporting – a lovely skin has been packaged up and is on its way to the USA. Nothing is too much trouble for us at Barbecue Lodges.

We held open lodge last weekend entertaining people from all over the South West with a glass of wine whilst they look at the ins and outs of our lovely barbecue lodges. We often do a site visit to peoples gardens to see where a lodge would look best in their space so it is good to meet people several times, often initially at a show then maybe at an open day and then when we go and install the lodge for them.

Off to a lovely show at Axminster, Devon this weekend, not sure how the England game of football at the weekend will effect attendance on Sunday afternoon though. We shall see…….

Barbecue Lodges at Chettle House in Dorset

We are having a busy few weeks exhibiting at the biggest shows of the year which unfortunately for us all come together over the space of three weeks.

We have had such a great run of weather which makes everything so much easier and certainly brought out the crowds at the Bath and West show this year. We had three days near Exeter for the Devon County Show, then off to Dorset to do a lovely Craft and Garden show at Chettle House Near Blandford over the bank holiday weekend. The first day I shivered in the lodge wearing two jumpers and a couple of coats but the weather warmed up and we had a lovely Sunday and Monday. We packed up om the Monday evening all ready to move on to the Bath and West that night only to find a van had broken down in the only accessible gateway into the garden. Rather a delay on an already very long day but eventually we managed to move on and after setting up in the dark managed to return home some time in the early hours of the morning.

The Bath and West is our only four day show (thankfully) and is always full on. It was great to be visited on the stand by lots of happy barbecue lodge owners who called in to let us know how much they enjoyed their lodges and to share recipes and experiences.

After packing up on the Saturday evening - the lodge took the journey down to Wadebridge in Cornwall to be set up ready for the opening of the show this Thursday the 10th June. I am looking forward to this one as we stay nice and close, the Cornish people are so friendly and I am sure the sun will shine on us again.

After that we are back home  for a couple of weeks to do some work!!

I can’t believe that we are now nearly into May and we are very busy fitting our lodges for excited customers some of which were ordered last year but we were waiting for landscaping to be finished or builders to turn up and lay bases. Now the ground has dried up and no one has any excuses any more.

We decided to grab a week away before life got too hectic and took the opportunity of a weeks skiing in France. We were having a fantastic time with brillient conditions and fresh powder snow most mornings when our week was slightly marred by the news of  The Ash Cloud. We tried not to panic (it was only customers who would be dissapointed by not having their lodges fitted!) and wondered about another week on the slopes enjoying the traditional cuisine and sunshine.

In the event we were very lucky and managed to book a train to Paris (train drivers were on strike over that weekend) a romantic 7 hours all sharing a family room in a grotty hotel in Paris, I had never been there before and managed to arrive and leave only seeing the inside of the stations and hotel. Two more very scenic train journeys west to Roscoff and a ferry back to Plymouth. Thankfully a lift with a very kind friend to arrive home only 26 hours later than planned. When I collected the car from the airport the next day I was greeted with a rather surprised ‘Wow – one of the first back’

The holiday is now a distant memory as we keep busy in this lovely sunshine and look forward to this bank holiday weekend where we are exhibiting at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne in Dorset.

Now that we are into March we start our seasonal shows. We start off with the West Country Game Fair which is held at the Bath and West Showground this weekend. There is always a good turnout at this interesting show and the weather is traditionally freezing. I will wear my thermals and hope that the sun shines.

After hibernating over the winter I am looking forward to getting out and meeting people, showing them our new log cabins and meeting up with some of the regulars who always come on the stand to see us.

Our new show lodge is mounted on the trailer, well half of it is – the other half collapses down for transportation, it has been well reinforced to prevent it collapsing (half a building with walls that slope outwards is not an easy shape to work with) We are stall awaiting the arrival of one half of the roof but I am assured it will be with us tomorrow (although they did tell me it would be ready last week!)

Looking forward to getting out and about, hopefully see you there

Sue

Having driven down from the North, our Log Cabin fitters were somewhat surprised to find a layer of snow covering the ground. This turned out to be only a sprinkle compared to today when they they made a return trip to finish off to find 6 inches and a need for a tow with the tractor to get them the last half a mile. The best thing about the snow  (apart from looking pretty) is that it covers up the huge quantities of mud that have appeared with having diggers and tractors preparing a suitable site for the cabin. I can empathize with our customers now when they phone to say that they aren’t ready for their lodge yet because the weather  has let them down again. We ignored the weather and  just made a huge mud pit which has to be cleared by next weekend as we have a lodge open day and visitors arriving to see our new Log Cabin. Maybe all next week will be bright and sunny!

Anyway the log cabin looks fantastic, beautifully made with that that lovely smell of fresh new wood. We are really looking forward to showing people the range of Garden Offices, Workshops and Garages

There are lots of things going on behind the scenes here at Barbecue Lodges. The new lodge is now installed on the trailer and is waiting for the welder to arrive to fix the metal frame to the shape of the roof. Due to the size and design of the lodge it makes a bulky item for towing. I am waiting to see if it will emerge from the building intact as a new weather strip has today been installed on the front of the building – it was touch and go on the height before!!

We are going to be supplying fantastic Garden Log Cabins soon; suitable to use as garden offices, gyms, extra bedrooms etc. We are having one set up on our site here and now that the ground has dried up we await the mini digger to prepare the site. Unfortunately a grave has taken priority over us this week so hopefully next week there will be some action and the log cabin will be installed by the middle of February.

January is the quietest time of year for us at Barbecue Lodges. The rush of pre Christmas fitting lodges for people in time for the festive season is behind us and wern’ t we so lucky with the weather. (Although we complained about the mud at the time at least it wasn’t snow) The last lodge; fitted on the 23rd December was a difficult day travelling through thick fog on the M5 and then 2” of snow in the Cotswolds but having arrived all in one piece it fitted together beautifully in a lovely position and our customer had this to say:

Dear Sue & Graham

Now that the festivities are over I am writing to say how impressed we are with erection of the BBQ Lodge and all correspondence with yourselves, the installation was painless and I was very impressed with Graham & Tom.

We lit the BBQ to try it and I must admit I was expecting the lodge to be filled with smoke but everything worked perfectly. I have had my first visitor to make a special trip to ask about my house in the garden and when she sat inside is very impressed, wants one and says it will be cheaper than an extension, she’s going to bring hubby along so I said I would invite them to a barbie to see how well it works.

The family love it and its been noticed by neighbours in the village so I would imagine word will get around.

Getting excited now can’t wait until my first barbie.

Best regards

Sue & Andy

We are replacing our show lodge which is mounted on a trailer for easier building and dismantling at all the shows we attend. So now that all the snow has at last disappeared and Graham has caught up on some sleep he lost during November and December with the 4am starts, we can get on with organising ourselves for the busy year ahead.
Looking forward to it