It works!

The door between the back kitchen and middle barn is finished, and has been for the last week or so, but the weather has been super duper warm and sunny so the door has not been used. But now it has rained. And it has been used. And by crikey, but wasn't it worth the money it has cost us because to go through the door......into the middle barn....

...... along the passageway beside the two animal pens / storage areas.....

....and to arrive right by Lissie and Bonnie (our 2 cows) in the tall barn.....

...it is a grand experience...

...means we can go to and fro with mucky shoes and feet,

and by the time we reach the kitchen all muckiness has been removed by the straw underfoot.

While the floor of my front kitchen was not, and will probably never be, spotless, it sure was a whole lot cleaner than if we had been trampling in and out of the front door. Of course the use of the back door only applies when Builder Jim is not here, because when he is here then the front door, and indeed all doors except the back door, are open, which means that the dogs have been in and out all this week, and it has been raining, and my floors are back to their usual state of muckiness. Not to worry, at the weekend we stayed snugly indoors, used the back door, and so everywhere stayed mud free. For the first time since we have been here (nearly seven years) we felt like we had a proper home. It was a lovely feeling. We don't mind mud, but it is nice for it to be a  bit of a distance away from where we are living.

And the holes in the wall have been patched up, both inside and out. 

We shall have to replace the render on the outside wall at some point,

but at least it is hole-free for the time being.

Well, we are getting through this winter at quite a pace.

It has been very cold, but now it has warmed up, which is a relief.

It is nice to see everyone sunning themselves out in the fields.

I, myself, would most surely have stretched out on my sunbed, if I had one,

and even Lester mentioned that he would have done the same,

Oh to feel that sun seeping into the bones.

Sheep, lambs, pigs, piglets, cows, dogs, hens, geese, Lester and Vera,

all of us drinking that warmth in. 

But we are in the wet season now, so the sun is sparodic,

not to worry, at least it is warmer, and spring is just starting to tiptoe in.

Feeling quite content with life,

and hope you are feeling the same.

Vx