On 3rd October we posted our first video on YouTube.
We called our YouTube channel bramblecottageuk
One month before I had just completed my last chemotherapy session at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota and my wife Gill and I had no idea what lay ahead.
What we did know was that there was an empty rundown cottage waiting for us back in the UK.
At the beginning of October 2023 we stepped foot in the UK and immediately started work.
My body was broken. The side effects of chemotherapy were taking their toll but work needed to be done and we weren’t afraid to work.
Progress was slow – very slow, but there was progress.
We did our very best to publish one video each week. Our videos were unpolished and honest. Our YouTube viewers were kind to us. We received positivity and encouragement from around the world – this positivity and kindness helped us through some very dark times.
As we published more videos our subscriber count steadily grew.
People appreciated what we were doing – it made us feel good.
Our children found it hard to comprehend that at our age we were becoming YouTubers.
Our motivation continues to grow from week to week. After almost one year Bramble Cottage is starting to take shape. We have achieved so many small steps forward that we don’t really recognise the progress without looking back at the videos we have posted. We created a playlist that includes all our videos in sequence and we regularly watch that playlist when our morale is flagging.
Renovating a cottage with limited funds and limited energy isn’t easy, but who says life should be easy?
We have good days and we have bad days. We laugh and we cry, but we know that with every week that passes we are making progress towards reviving a small piece of history that has been neglected for far too long.
Our YouTube subscriber count is currently 985, so hopefully by the time we reach our birthday we will have broken the 1000 subscriber barrier…
Best wishes,
Rich