Emergency rations

 

It looks cold, and it was cold.

 

....which is why Lester was having a bowl of porridge.

 



 

Now you might think it strange that he was standing out in the cold eating porridge,

and I would also think that if I were not his wife,

because I had taken the porridge to him,

so that the chill would keep out of his insides.

 

 

.......So what he was doing was keeping an eye on these:

 

 

..... our flock of sheep, who had been let out for an hour of grazing

on the back field, around where the veg plots are.

They can't stay there all day because they would eventually take themselves out on the lane.

They do like to roam.

But they do need some green grass to supplement the hay they are now on,

so this is the first day of the 'hour a day of back field grazing'.

 

This morning we had to bypass breakfast because unfortunately we were running late.

My fault.

I had gone back to bed instead of staying up,

which meant that 'tea and porridge' had not been handed out to Lester

before he went milking, and then on to his morning chores.

 

What to do to squash my guilt about going back to bed.....

aha.....I know, ..... take him out a bowl of porridge!

 

 

.... by which time the sheep had grazed their fill, and were headed back to Lester.

 

Job done.

Back to the main field they went,

and Lester came indoors to defrost.

 

A couple of hours later we were in bed for an afternoon snooze,

with the electric blanket on of course!

We can do that because we are hibernation mode!

Well it is winter,

and we are still getting over the flu.
(PS. How long can I use 'getting over the flu' as an excuse to be slothful?)

 

So, taking the opportunity of wishing you a happy and successful 2017,

bye for now,

 

Vx

Tiptoe-ing back to Blog Land!

So OK, I am soooo sorry for not posting up a blog for a while, but lots has been happening, some in my head, some to do with what we are planning for next year, and some to do with me and Lester having a jolly hefty dose of flu which very efficiently flattened both of us. Even now we are still quite weak, which is a good excuse for going to bed and having a lovely long sleep in the afternoons.

 

Anyway, I hope you had a good Christmas.

Ours was excellent.

Spent most of it in bed.

 

But I did manage to put together a Christmas dinner.

Fortunately I had seen a pair of cockerel legs sticking up from amongst the piles of frozen meat

when I was on the hunt for something else,

so he was cooked up.....boiled first, then roasted.

 

 

 

He doesn't look very elegant, but he was delish.

I felt a fondness for that lad,

and blessed him profusely as he was cooked and eaten.

 

The things that are going on in my head are mostly to do with writing a new website for my work,

which is taking me an age because I don't have a clue what to put on it.

Actually, that is not true, I do know what the website has to carry,

but it is the lay out, graphics, and topic content, which is scrambling my head.

Not to worry, I shall persevere.

 

It has not been helpful that the flu has robbed us of any energy to keep motivated with our plans to open a market garden shop next year.

The poly tunnel still has not been ordered, and the land it is supposed to go on has still not been cleared of hedging along one side. The three vegetable paddocks have been tilled by the now deceased pigs, ( will tell you about that another time), but will need some ploughing over which can't be done because the soil is too dry.

The raised beds in the courtyard have still not been started, although progress about clearing the space has at least been done.

The Chicken Hut has still not been done, so we still don't have any chickens, but we have finished the fencing of the chicken run, and the two gates have been made although not painted.

All in all, the Market Garden Project is likely to have a very slow moving start in 2017!

 

..... and back in October, here is the fig tree in all its glory...

 

 

(sorry about the photo not being very good, but the fig tree is the green lump in the middle)

However, very disappointingly, it has deemed it beneath itself to give us a harvest of figs for the last two years, and instead has converted its energy into growing bigger by the day.

 

This is not good, so......

 

....with chainsaw in hand, Lester has severely pruned the fig tree,

and would have dispatched it altogether if I had not said that we need the figs from it

so give it a chance.

 

The area around the fig tree is where the raised beds are going to be.

I also hope to have a bit of space to put a sunbed up so I can lie in the shade of the fig tree on hot summer days.

This has been a fantasy of mine for the last nine years.

 Preventing me from doing so thus far has been the fact that the chickens have been in residence in, on, and around, the tree, filling the area with chicken paraphernalia  such as feathers and poo,
making it not an area one would wish to spend any time in,
especially when temperatures are high.
Perhaps this year, then, I shall get to indulge myself.
I can only hope.
 

Anyway, nice to have a chat with you, and hope your Christmas is proceeding gaily along.

 

 

And our Christmas Day supper.

It was all DIY produced apart from the bread flour and yeast,

all the rest...the jam, cheese, butter, were DIY.

 

 

Not very festive, but blame the flu for that!

 

Bye for now

 

Vx

Oh, just a day in the life of us.....

Up early. Needed to get going with the day because we are off out to a small dairy nearby to see their milking operation, and we need to be there by 9am.

Everything going well. Cows out in field. Last one left in the barn was the little male calf. Lester went to fetch him. Put the rope on him to lead him out to the field, which he doesn't like. Resisted all the way, pulling backwards, sideways, and every ways, letting his upset about the rope be most thoroughly known. Nothing for it but to put a hand behind his rump to chivvy him along, something which Lester often does.....sort of pushing him in the direction he needs to be going in. So, hand behind rump, Lester still clean and tidy, calf does a squirt of milky poo from his rear end, Lester's hand deflects poo, ends up getting covered in a spray of poo, Lester now not clean and tidy. Not to worry, a quick change and off out to the dairy we went.

24 hours later:

So there I was, in the old Mercedes, driving up the lane from Sarah's animal park, following Lester on the big tractor which was towing the trailer carrying the blue wheelbarrow and spade. And I found myself marvelling at the experience of following my husband home along a very long lane in France, and felt a rush of gratitude towards the Universe for presenting the opportunity ten years ago to make the lifestyle change needed to release us from our old UK lifestyle. I also had a moment of feeling in awe at the courage it took for us to take up that opportunity. I remembered Lester going off to work in the time before we came here, smart shirt, tie, polished shoes, and suit, looking very pristine and shiny. I looked at him now on the tractor in front of me, and know that he is covered in manure, has yesterday's work clothes on because he had to get dressed in a rush, and that he is fretting about getting the tractor back home, because............

........ we are tired. We had a broken night's sleep having been woken up in the early hours by the rottweiller girls barking.  Heard another bark from outside, quite close to the house, sounded like it was coming from the sheep pen. "There's a dog in with the sheep" Lester shouts as he hurtles out of bed. I follow on, but much slower. Outside now. Very dark. Very cold. I am glad that I thought to put my dressing gown although my feet are slowly freezing because they have my indoor sandals on. "Here, hold this|" Lester says as he hands me the rifle. I do as I am told. I am, after all, his right hand man woman. Then he is off with the torch, after saying that the dog is chasing the sheep. I can hear the dog barking. I feel of rush of affection for our sheep. I hold the gun carefully.

Lester returns after a while. Says that a chunk of the perimeter fencing has been damaged. Looks like the sheep barged into it as they were being chased. Said he could only count six pairs of eyes. We have eight sheep, so there should be eight pairs of eyes. The dog keeps barking  but seems to be further away.

The rifle was not used. But if had needed to be then it would have been.

Previous to that.....

Back at the dairy yesterday....seeing four cows being milked by a portable milking machine, each milking taking all of five minutes individually which is so different to the thirty minutes (at least) that it takes Lester to milk one of our cows. Plus the milk went straight from udder to milk churn, whereas  the bucket placed under the udders of one of our cows being milked risks having a mucky cow hoof put in it, or being knocked over as the cow fidgets. We were also impressed by the serene and patient look the cows in the dairy had during milking. Ours often have a 'oh do get on with it' look when they are being milked, which is why they can get fidgety.

Lester is enthused about getting milking machine, but is not so impressed with the price of them, so he is thinking about building one out of the spare parts you can get online. This project, therefore, will be put on hold for the time being.

And then it was on to see where the cheese is made. I was very impressed, but not enough to want to invest in the equipment they had. I am perfectly happy using a two gallon stainless steel pot to make the cheese in, and have no inclination towards having a seventy gallon container, nor a curd table, nor huge great fridges. I shall potter along with my cottage industry style of cheese making because it is a more interesting thing to do.

A good visit though, and it was nice to see Lissie's mum again. (Our first cow came from this farm)

Back home, a quick coffee, and then off down the lane to Sarah's place, together with the tractor towing the trailer carrying the blue wheelbarrow, and spade. I followed on in the Mercedes..... it is due to be scrapped any day soon but still has half a tank of petrol on board so it is sensible to use it for short drives to use the petrol up.

What were we doing going off down the lane? Sarah's camel barn is full of the most scrumptious and
 crumbly camel poo, which is of such a good quality that it can be used immediately to grow things in. The barn needed to be cleared so that the winter bedding could be put down, and we shall be needing to fill the raised beds in the courtyard when they are made. So the task of the day was to use the tractor to dig out the poo in the barn, dump that in the trailer, and then bring the trailer back up the lane to our place, unload the poo in the courtyard, and then make a return to Sarah's place to reload.

I, meanwhile, sat and chatted in the glorious sunshine with Sarah, leaving our two husbands to get on with the work. Time to get the animals in for the night, and still three quarters of the barn still left to do. Tractor and trailer and blue wheelbarrow and spade all left down at Sarah's so work on the poo shifting could carry on tomorrow. Nice pile of poo up at our place though. Very satisfied.

And then the dog came to harass our sheep. If  it came once, then it will come again. It is worrying to think that this might happen when the ewes have their lambs, which is around the middle of December. So all plans changed. Need to have the tractor and trailer back here so the fence can be repaired, which is why I was driving back up the lane with Lester in front on the tractor. The perimeter fencing needs to be sorted out, that is now the urgent task of the day. The poo collecting will now have to wait for a while.

This type of lifestyle certainly requires us to be adaptive, that is another thought I had as we drove up the lane this morning, and 'hooray' for that!  Meanwhile, sending out thoughts to the owners of the dog to keep it under control. Meanwhile enjoying this lovely weather while we still have it.

Bye for now,
Vx