Chickens, potties, refflections.

Well it has been a touch on the wet side of late. Monsoon time, no less. We are all soggy of foot, but not in spirit.

And our Chicken Mum continues to cluck about, maintaining a high profile so that all can see what a grand chicken she is. Top of the pecking order now, she can claim pole position when food is around, and also chooses her own nest site at night. Her babes are doing well, and learnt today that I represent food, so every time I appear they launch themselves at my feet. Little hooligans.

And off they all go for a walk, heading towards the junky environment of the ex-kitchen caravan, the one that is wearing it's awning as a hat. 'Twas the wind that did it!

Turning your eyes towards the left, and that is where we are sleeping. Love caravan life. Would prefer it to be history now though!  And see that little white boxy looking object? That is our retired porta potti, still sort of in situ just in case it is needed in a desperate moment during the night. But a trot across the Courtyard to the house, even in the nuddy, and even when it is freezing, is preferable to wrestling with that appliance.

Et voila:



The reason why the porta potti is going into retirement: the proper potty! Delivered unto us by friends Val and Ron, when they visited a few weeks ago.

But it did not remain in its resting state. Because Ron twiddled about, and hey presto! Uno toiletto!

Proudly the new potty stands upon its own plinth, making it very comfy to sit on. And it is a joined up potty, so one that does not need emptying by Hubs. What I mean is, that it is connected to the fosse, so everything that our bods don't need, and which then gets deposited in the loo, goes into our very own waste disposal system. Our deposits stay here, to fertilize our own land. Cool heh!

Have a bit of prob with the seat of the potty, though. It came with a fragile plastic seat which kept coming apart such that one was in danger of being launched sideways at an inopportune moment if one did not concentrate on staying in the right sitting position. So a nice firm wooden one was purchased. Didn't quite fit the toilet itself, but not to worry, it cushions one's buttocks wonderfully well, and makes the loo experience totally satisfying. For me. Unfortunately the new loo seat does not allow for the abundance of the masculine nether regions. Apparently it is too squashy. Not to worry, though. If care is taken, then all is well. Apparently.

The loud roar of a truck shattered the calmness of Labartere yesterday:

And these beams were deposited. Today they were lifted up onto the Tall Barn roof. Progress!

The temperatures are starting to take a dive, now around freezing, but it is the end of November, so we can't complain about the cold, because we haven't had any really. Just rain. And lots of it. Making us ever so pleased that we can stay under one roof for the hours of our days. A quick trot across to the bedroom caravan at night, and then back again in the morning. Not too far.

And we have a Half-Loo. Why 'Half'? Because it has to be 'flushed' by hand, which means going to and fro the cold water tap out by the main gates to fill the watering cans with which to do the 'flush'. But at least we don't have to scramble about with the porta-potti now. Sometimes things got quite risky. Fumbling about with one's clothing, plus stooping over to get the porta potti sorted out, did take precious minutes. Difficult, if one had an urgency upon one.

So the days are shortening. We are in better shelter than what we were last year, so better prepared for the winter ahead. As my daughter Karen said in an email today: 'Amazing how you deal with stuff when you have to. And when you look back, you think 'My god, how did I do it'..... Human nature - very strong!!! Good to test it.' On looking back to the last two winters, when the house was still unliveable, I would agree. How did we manage! But we did. And still could if we had to. Stirling stuff, the human spirit!