Blog Posts

45 days to go....ho ho ho

11/9/2019

One of my most devoted clients <3

Hello Lovely People
It is very wet. It has been very wet for a few days now. This is not a complaint.....more, an observation. In our area there was 80mm after the big rain last weekend. And that was not a lot. One of my market trading colleagues lost the roof from his tunnel last weekend. He had just replaced it, and now will have to do it again. Not part of his winter plan of action.
There is an interesting climate in the Dordogne where in the space of a few days you can go from a balmy 24 degrees to having ice on the windscreen and lighting both fires in the house. I admit that I was not quite prepared for that when we moved here 15 years ago, however one does become used to it.
The grass is growing, or at least it was until this morning, and other than moving all the young stock into the fields with a choice of warm and dry barn, or some brisk fresh air in the field, things continue as normal. The rams are in with the old girls and appear to be doing what it is they do at this time of year to provide us with next years harvest.

The waterlogged field next to our sheep grazed grassy field which is not waterlogged. Organic matter in action.

I am also doing what I usually do at this time of year....Christmas shopping! I spent a very productive day in Perigueux making in-roads into my lists which this year included stocking up with butchery supplies and the more conventional present hunt. My friend and I decided to try Perigueux this year, after the girls at my french conversation group said it was one of their favourite places to shop. They were not wrong. As a departmental capital it has all the main shop brands available in France and boutique style shops as well, with all the convenience that comes with a smaller town including not having to drive for hours to A:get there, and B:cross from one side of town to the other, and also not too many people. I am such a country bumpkin these days crowds make me anxious, or am I misinterpreting that for irritated ;)
It was such a good day I am toying with the idea of returning to complete my list of things to get.

Perigueux Cathedral

The new market in Chalais seems to be going quite well. I have rediscovered a few faces I have not seen for some time and met some people who did not even know we existed. Interestingly the Berkshire pork seems to be going down very well with the locals in Chalais. Patrick is going to be investigating saucisson production very soon. If we are very lucky there may be some for Christmas.
See you all very soon
Helen

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64 Days till christmas ho ho ho

10/21/2019

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The Christmas Tree is very small so you can zoom past quickly if it makes you anxious

Hello Everyone
It has been a busy month introducing a new market location into the schedule. I have discovered how easy it is to fall into predictable, safe working patterns and become lazy about how to organise my days. With the children growing up and doing other things and the youngest growing up and becoming more indpendent there is actually more usable time in a day than there used to be. Not that you would know it from the irregularity of my blog ;). So, the new market in Chalais is ticking along and I have seen a few people from Riberac market who live closer to Chalais anyway and prefer it for their weekly shop. It is quieter, everyone knows everyone, and I have a very chatty neighbour so I am learning Charentaise french. All good fun.

Patrick has returned from a successful and enjoyable internship in UK and is trying to find somewhere in France for his next one. Emily seems to be storming through her exams in The Netherlands this term and Alice is willingly, no prompting, reading a book this holiday. So something must have gone right this end of the year.

I have started some thought about Christmas gifts and I am busy making hams in the butchery. So if you are looking to order ham for Christmas now would be a good time to start acting upon your thought processes. Last orders for ham will be on Wednesday 20th November.

Ham and salad for a day during Christmas

Pork Roast with crackling if you would like that too

The Christmas Market at Manoir de Longeveau is Sunday 1st December. We will be there to support the event with our usual Christmas treats. If you like you can place orders to be collected from this market as well.

The weather has changed dramatically and quickly in the last couple of weeks and so we have lit the fire. I am not sure if the fire has only been lit for my pleasure as the boys seem to wander around in shorts and t-shirts even now. I think I should blame the chilly mornings at the market and the wrong socks on the days in question. Happily the grass has greened up, though I am not sure how much bulk there will be for the winter as the cold will slow grass growth dramatically. The lambs are putting on some condition now with the fresh green growth and Gavin is looking slightly less frazzled than usual.
He celebrated another birthday on Sunday and we ate homemade lomo some fizzy (spanish, it went with the lomo theme ;)) for aperos, then slow-roasted lamb shoulder with roast potatoes, spicey cauliflower, onions and purple carrots and cabbage, some rather good Blaye wine. Apple crumble and Glace à la Ferme ice cream for dessert. Food carbon footprint......pretty darned small:) and I shall polish my halo later ;) It was a satisfied group who left the table after lunch.

Looking forward to hearing from you soonish
Helenxx

Lomo

Gavins Birthday

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Finance and Farming

9/23/2019

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Resting after a long day looking at chickens.

I am not obsessed with money it is not something that drives me. It never has been. Keeping up with the neighbours is not something I aspire to. However, money can smooth ones way through life.

Farming is a weird one because as many of you know farming is subsidised by the government and ultimately the tax payer in Europe. Everybody will have their own view on this issue but let us say that the money received in subsidy allows the general public access to cheap food. Subsidies also allow farmers to develop their farms in the style to which the political mood of the time dictates. Not all decisions made by farmers are completely in their own control, sometimes permission has to be obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Pasture with trees. Not very valuable....?...

So here is a funny thing. We are paid an amount of money per hectare. Pasture farming currently is not deemed as being as valuable as maize farming, so pasture farming gets one of the lowest payments per hectare. The government removes from every pasture that we have the area covered by a tree or a copse or a patch of brambles. So if we have 10 hectares of ground with alot of tees to provide shelter or extra forage when grass has died off, then they may count as a hectare of trees or undergrowth, so we will only be paid for 9 hectares of pasture. Fonciers will be charged on the full 10 hectares of ground, trees, or no trees.
As you can see from this example it is more profitable , with regard to subsidies, for a farmer to have clear ground. Which if you think about it again is encouraging farmers to not be environmentally friendly.
I hope that with the new drives for regenerative farming techniques that this rather achaic way of looking at farm subsidies will be revised. Administration moves slowly so I am not holding my breath for a windfall or a global revelation. Balancing money, land and activity on said land is a constant dbate on farms.
In drought situations you have to ask for permission from the agricultural department to use land that a neighbour might want to loan you in a crisis, which of course means administrative delays. Meaning that as a farmer you have to look to yourself always to risk proof your business. Which naturally means investment to some degree or another. Sometimes subsidised, not always if it is something the administration thinks is not important. As I have already mentioned Administative thinking moves slowly so what is thought to be important by a farmer today, will be thought of as being important by administration in 10 years.

A borrowed picture from Zim to demonstrate valuable land

Which is great until it looks like this... still valuable...?....

When we have a large purchase to do, I get a headache, procrastinate, talk myself out of it, around in circles and then back into it again. It is quite honestly the worst part of running a small business for me. Unfortunately Gavin always gives me the last say, either that or he just waits knowing that I will get their eventually I just need some time to flap for a bit. Debt makes me anxious, even when I know we can repay the debt. I know that if you have a small business your money needs to work all the time. So money goes in and out of the bank rapidly. With a farm that only has crops the money may only go in once a year after harvest, and then out all the time through the rest of the year. Or a wood farmer with income that arrives every 5/10 years.

There are many suicides amongst farmers in France, one every other day, currently. It does not surprise me. Farmers are often isolated, working on their own, balancing money, running a business, caring for animals and crops to enable them to have a good harvest. And quite frankly what support do they get. Criticisms about noise, smell, complaints about not having sprayed there, but "no" you shouldn't have sprayed over there. There is an awful lot of finger pointing and very little help, support or advise offered.
I am not an advocate of spraying with chemicals, never have been, but putting boot on the other foot, if you are a conventional farmer who has a debt to pay, and is relying on a successful harvest and has never known any other way of farming, and is halfway through the year, and is about to lose the entire crop to mildew unless it is sprayed then what would you do?
People cannot be expected to change on a whim when lives and livelihoods are at stake. Planning needs to come first. Investments may need too be made, help may need to be offered. The general public needs to recognise this and be a little less critical and a little more empathetic.

Putting the boot back on the other foot. There are an awful lot of very large, industrial, multi national farms these days that could really do a little more in the way of leading the way seeing as they do have rather a lot of money, rather than using the same old techniques. Oh no that would mean the likes of Monsanto/Bayer in effect putting themselves out of business. Hmmm interesting.
See you all soon
Helen

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the small print

9/1/2019

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Released from the barn

Fast learning four legged mowers

I have decided I am a slow learner......
After 17 years of being told by my parents to read the questions properly at school, followed by 3 years being told by the lecturers at university to read the questions, there was a short interval when no-one told me very much of anything. Now, I am 24 years into telling my own children to read everything properly. So how is it possible that I missed the important information about the new bins we are having in our commune which require a card and a yearly payment. Quelle horreur!

So I was sitting outside this morning, Sunday, eating my breakfast listening to the merry trickle of cars stopping at our commual bins from all over the commune to fill them up with their own household rubbish. And I was struck by the quandry of moaning about bin abuse to the powers that be, and then being told that it would be so much better with bins that we pay for, as then there can be no bin abuse. What to do???? I am resigned to their bad system where everyone has to get into cars to drive with their rubbish to the 4 points that we have allotted to us in our nearly 36 square kilometre surface area. I shake my head and sigh in vain, not sure which planet they are trying to save with this thought process.

Leftovers Franklin Farm style ;)

To amuse ourselves once a month, Alice and I go to the supermarket to buy those things that are more difficult to find at the market, where we do the bulk of our shopping. Sauntering down the "Bio" or "organic" aisle which has been getting larger and larger over the years we reflected on the amout of packaging and where all these things had come from on the planet.... quite a lot of air miles were there, not that the rest of the aisles were much better.
It is ironic to think that in an effort by people to reduce the weight of their rubbish per bin collection they are more likely to purchase plastic wrappers as both tins and cardboard weigh more.
See you all soon
Helenx

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rubbish and streamlining

8/12/2019

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CAKE?

OR SOAP?

After receiving our latest electricity bill to discover that some more streamlining would be needed to save a significantly larger amount of money, we had an historic moment in our family. Probably something worthy of a celebratory bottle of champagne as during Gavins and my life together, spanning some 30 years now, this would be the first time we have ever purchased....... a brand new fridge! My reasoning behind the decision was it would be a more efficient fridge which would mean we could turn off 2 older fridges and a small freezer. Wow, it is all shiny inside with a really fabulous layout which means I can stand up bottles, and best of all it has an internal wine rack and a cheese drawer. All the essentials for a happy life in France.

Unfortunately some people obviously do not appreciate their lives in France quite as much. The other day when Gavin was out at one of the fields we use for the sheep down by the river he came across the place where a group of people had been having a party during the previous week. As you can see they were a tidy minded group leaving the area as they found it (heavy sarcasm). So "leave only footprints" was not a motto by which they lived.

Which brings me neatly round to the bin issue and the increase in popularity of charging for bin rubbish. I am not a fan as we already live in an area where quite frankly there is very little rubbish produced by the locals, and all our communal bins are filled by fly tippers. So with a charge on rubbish I imagine the fly tippers are just going to dump in the forest or in the fields and hedgerows next to the roads, which the residents of the commune will end up having to pay for in their taxes as it will become the communes responsiblity to clear it up. So in the long run all the isolated folk in the countryside will end up having to pay twice for rubbish clearing.
If you want people to do things keep it simple and either cheap or free, and the thing will be done. Make it complicated and charge, then people will find a quick free alternative at the expense of someone else.

The first tomatoes

Lavender wands

courgettes

In our other efforts to economise on plastic waste this year we have bought a sodastream for fizzy water rather than buy it in plastic bottles. What a difference that has made to the amount of trips to the bin every week during the summer. However our commune has stopped handing out recycling bags for the bins and we are now supposed to put our rubbish loose into the large communal bins. Great! One would have thought........but........our large bins have holes in the bottom for drainage so all the small pieces of plastic fall out of the bottom, and on a windy day when the bin lorry picks up the bins to empty them into the back of the lorry all the light weight recycling rubbish blows over the road. So after all the bin mornings we have to pick up all the rubbish that lands in the little stream next to the bin, put the rubbish back in the bin, and hope for a non windy day next bin day.
I often wonder who makes up all this legislation, whether they live in a vacuum sealed cube, do they actually eat, have they ever been shopping, do they know what a bin looks like?
So many thoughts, so much blog material.
See you all soon
Helenx

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canicule week

7/28/2019

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It has been a busy July full of new arrivals, (and no I don't mean babies) interesting weather and learning curves on grass management and sheep.

In the above picture is our new friend. Turns out she is quite keen to herd sheep and chickens and is currently learning to fit in with her new routine and her new housemates. I don't think that our Border Collies are too uncomfortble with the new dog in the house. There have been a few squabbles about whose bone is whose and also who gets to sleep on whose feet in the living room, other than that they are currently having an afternoon snooze in the calm, coolness of a Sunday afternoon in July.

The new method of rapid, rotational grazing in smaller area of ground using more sheep has worked amazingly well during the dry, hot weather. An area of land where we had been able to keep 100 sheep for 120 days last year, we have had 220 sheep on grass for 100 days. So almost double the production from the same grass no assistance from anything other than sheep eating grass. This year also included 2 exceptionally warm periods in our grazing time when grass growth rates are halted. Not even any supplements from grain or hay required to keep the sheep in condition.

Grazing Sheep

24 hours later

The increase in insect life digesting all the manure left behind by the sheep has been phenomenal so after about 2 weeks there is no manure left on the surface. This means that improvement of soil through grazing leads to more insect life, therefore more soil life which brings more bird life and other wildlife onto a property. An increase in organic matter in soil from manure also slows down water run-off into the river system as soil with high organic matter is more absorbent.
Where poor soil is found on the farm then the manure takes longer to degrade and in fact in some places is still visible even now that we have taken the sheep away. Fortunately this is not found in many places on this farm and with some hard work and good management it should improve year on year.

To the left where they are grazing. To the right back to an area that has already been grazed.

The photo above shows that even with no rainfall the grass will regrow if the soil has good capacity to hold moisture from higher organic matter.

Crayfish wandering back to the river having a go at Patrick on the way past

At the market the other day in Riberac I was joined on my box by a dragonfly. I felt very honored that it had chosen me to sit with. The lavender in our garden has provided a much needed source of food for many insects. And I am happy to say that our Campsis Grandiflora hosts quite a swarm of bees. I have noticed an increase in bird life around our house this year, and saw a Hoopoe for the first time in our garden. As they say every little thing you can do can create a little magic in your garden and local environment.
Have a lovely cooler week see you soon
Helenx

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lazy summer days... x) lol

6/30/2019

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Hello there lovely people
Today we dug up our first tiny batch of potatoes that we have ever grown in France. So easy to grow and the most beautiful soil has been left afterwards full of wriggly worms and burrowing beetles. There should be enough to do a couple of meals. For us it was more about the fun of growing than the ability to plant for a years worth of food, which would take a significant amount of effort and thus suck the fun out of the exercise. I have also managed to do a small batch of cherry chutney and some cherry jam to fill the preserves cupboard. I was the lucky recipient of a jar of apricot jam and a jar of marmalade this weekend as well. The delights of being a market trader are plentiful.

The weather has been a little warm over the last few days so Gavin and Patrick have been madly running around with water to keep all the animals happy. Even having most of the flock down by the river with a natural air conditioning system did not help very much when they drank a record amount of 1500 litres of water in one day more than triple their usual amount. There had been no dew that morning. Just so that the boys did not feel they had nothing to do during the "canicule" we had a load of stone delivered for the driveway which has transformed the look of the farm yard but also provided some rugged terrain for some of our smaller animal life.

In my attempts to control the rampant population of mosquitos taking over our house I am rescuing spiders from the shower and bath to work their magic up in the ceiling crevices and will be planting dragonfly attracting flowers as I have read they are also large consumers of the little beasties. At least this year I know I am not the only flesh being devoured by them as the quantity and voracity of the mosquito was a point of discusion whilst setting up at Saturdays market.

The mornings even at 5o'clock have been extremely warm but the marigolds and the lavender are looking fabulous. I have had to assist the lavender a little as after the chicken sat on it and then the tempete blew on it it has rather fallen over. No matter, I still have my bees of various varieties and also the hummingbird hawkmoths visiting. We have noticed this year an increase in bird noise around the front of the house. The reason for that I am not sure it could be the fact that the soil has more insect activity, or maybe the birds like to eat mosquitos too and are trying to lend a hand with insect population control.
Below is the local farmer making hay in the weird sea mist we have had over the last couple of days during the morning quite a relief from the intense heat of the afternoon.
See you all soon
Helenx

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regenerative agriculture and gardening

5/21/2019

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Gavin went on holiday into the mountains by Carcassone a couple of weeks ago to have a Masterclass with Joel Salatin. To put that in a context that you lovely folks would understand. Its like you going to see your most favourite rock band/classical pianist in the whole wide world. Communication in the french farming community is worse than useless, so he was lucky enough to be there with only 17 other people. Thus, it was a bit like you listening to your favourite music, live in your back garden and then having a beer with them afterwards. Suffice it to say he was very happy, inspired to do more and fully refreshed on his return.
I don't think I would be that far from the truth if I said that Joel Salatin is probably one of the most famous farmers in the world at this moment.

Gavin solidified his knowledge about building soil through regenerative farming practices using, intensive, rotational, grazing techniques. Things he has been studying through the internet for the past 4 years and dabbling in for the last 15 in France. And pottering about on the edges of for his years in Zimbabwe before that.
I read Joels blog after he had visited France and was sad. Although I know that soil erosion is a massive problem, and I know that land management and farming practices are not always good, there is nothing like hearing it from the horses mouth to make you reflect again on the world around you. He commented on the bare soil in the vineyards and how on much of the steep slopes the soil has been washed away and we are down to subsoils (the bit below topsoil). Joel said he was told by his host that France was "not the same all over", and that is possibly true..... But, I do a lot of driving and I know that Joel is right. I have passed more bare fields washing and blowing away in the wind that I care to mention. There are more rocks on the top of some fields than there is soil. Cultivations are done running up and down the slope assisting with water erosion. I have not seen a no-till field (a field that is planted directly with no cultivation or soil disturbance) I have never seen in this area a field with a cover crop (a crop grown for the protection and enrichment of the soil) which is then directly planted with the new crop.
On the up side, I have recently seen cover crops with a couple of farmers though they have then been ploughed in. Better than nothing, though not the best.

Considering all these farming techniques have been taught since the 80's it amazes me that so few people follow them....... Gavin has just explained why..... Apparently, I am from the hippy crackpot course at The Royal Agricultural College and none of the above was taken very seriously by the other "proper" farming courses. Ah well 30 years on, I now know.

Before

After 24 hours. Then moved.

What some of you may not know is that soil is the best way to store carbon from the atmosphere and thus help slow/change/prevent climate change.
How to change behaviour in a community of aging, conservative, often single people, who have little or no help, work long hours and have a lot of debt and instability in their lives, I don't know. I do know that criticising, hounding and abusing them is not the way forward.
I always wanted to change the world, maybe thats why I did the "hippy, crackpot course". Is it time for some baby steps?

So you lovely people don't tarmac your driveway, plant some chrysanthemums and marigolds in your vegetable garden, pull out fewer weeds, otherwise known as plants growing in the wrong place, interplant your veggie garden with other plants that grow at different rates and heights and strive for protection rather than neatness in your own space. If you have a gite or a guest house tell your guests that they are living in an environmentally healthy place where you protect the wild flora and fauna to help save the planet.
See you all soon
Helenx

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My name is Helen and I am an omnivore

4/23/2019

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Control

Weird sounding title I know but since when did we start defining ourselves by our food choices? Peer pressure? Instagram? Advertising? False news? Bad information? Health reasons? Moral reasons?

I have decided I am addicted to reading articles about food and diet and lifestyle choices. I do not read them for enjoyment I think mainly I read them to see how irritated they are going to make me. And without fail they do.

Happy omnivores

The other day I read "A long read" in "The Guardian" about some food guru with no nutritional training who had discovered that everything she had been eulogising about and had sold masses of books to her fans about, was in fact making her quite ill to the point at which she had to change her diet. The poor women then suffered abuse from her followers because she had sold them a lie blah, blah etc. Irritating because she was not trained and had no understanding of a balanced diet. Irritating also because the abusers had no idea about the aforementioned things either. Irritating also that instead of support and love from her followers she was turned on, chewed up and spat out by them.

Is it the world we live in at the moment where we just leap from one extreme to the other trying to almost avoid the middle ground, where solutions can be fashioned. Looking always for the extremist view. The place where we are led by people and companies with too much power and influence. Are we really as sheep like as I had thought. And if that is the case, why?......
I turn on the terrestrial telly and struggle to find anything interesting to watch. There appears to be a sea of reality TV shows with fake people or extreme people peddling their lifestyles be it from super poverty or super rich. Or programmes about dead people, or people who are about to be dead, or people finding out about why people became dead. Or competitive shows about who can cook, paint, dance or sew the best. Or quiz shows which I never watch as I am now so detached from British culture I never know the answers to the questions anyway. Watch French telly I hear you say. Yes I could, and occassionally do, but there are equally bad programmes on French telly, and I now know many French people who do not even have a telly in their houses. The problems in society are not just in the English speaking world they are everywhere.

Udder blanket ;)

All those vegan/vegetarians I know are probably thinking "Ignore her she is just trying to improve her meat sales". So yes maybe I am. Or maybe I am fed up with hearing from my farming neighbours who try to rear their livestock in ethically conscious conditions, about how the price of their produce is falling because it is no longer popular to eat meat, and they are having to think about shutting shop after generations of farming and selling locally.
Maybe it irritates me that the same people who tell me that eating meat is bad for the planet don't know enough about the cycles that are present in the environment and to keep a fully functioning ecosystem you have to maintain every part of it, from the meat bit, to the plant bit, to the soil bit, to the air bit, to the sunlight bit and the water bit.

Rotational grazing

Simply put soil is made from broken down animal and vegetable matter. You cannot have one without the other. To rebuild the soil which is being rapidly eroded worldwide you must have the two things working together to have the correct mineral balances to sustain life.

Somehow the education system is failing the planet by missing out teaching the basics in life, which should be taught at an early age while all these young supple minds are ready to absorb and understand and not be influenced by buzz words, soundbites and instagram. When big school age children are saying on national radio that the only way to save the planet is through veganism, we have a problem folks. If that argument can be backed by buying nutritionally balanced food, year round from producers within walking distance, who have grown everything in a sustainable fashion, then great I will applaud them, but will still not stop being an omnivore and will not stop rearing ethically produced meat.

Does anybody watch Ben Fogle and his people in the wild programme? I remember one episode that has stuck with me when he visited a woman in the US who taught people about how to live a stone age lifestyle. The food stuff that she was able to store during the winter to sustain her energy levels was animal fat that she had hunted and processed. What did she use to keep warm, animal skin, as do so many nomadic tribesfolk worldwide.

I hang on to the fact that at the markets in sleepyville where I hope to live out the rest of my days, I am surrounded by people who have not lost touch with the reality of life. How conected they are to the seaons and the earth around them. How many of them eat what is in seaon all year round. Food is the one of the fudimental requirements of life it is not something that should be used to define you, should not be something that should be used to control and psyche up the masses.

Harmony

Don't misunderstand me. I am an advocate for sustainably grown local produce. Wherever and whenever possible it is our earth wide duty to stop looking for the cheapest or the most followed. Use less, eat less, make less waste. It is the way forward. But through using everything we have available to us harmoniously.
Isolating, isolation and extremism does not happiness, a circle or a cycle make.

See you all soon.
Helenx

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Springtime

3/31/2019

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Menesplet- fishing cows

It is the last day of March the clocks have gone forward an hour so everyone is grumpy, and the sun thankfully, is shinning to endeavour to conteract the disturbed sleep pattern. I am looking forward to tomorrow morning when I have to persuade Number 3 to get out of bed at what would have been 5.30am last week. I very much dislike this change of hour and am extremely happy that the European parliament has voted to stop this during 2021. I also sincerely hope that we get to stay with the winter time clock as it seems a better fit for my own body clock.

We will soon be starting our big lambing session so I guess I had better cut Gavins hair. Usually by the end of lambing he looks like a mad professor but on observation he is already at that stage so by the end of April it will be more like the wild man of Borneo! Seeing as a hat his favourite accessory I doubt anyone else has noticed though.

An afternoon in the butchery

The month ahead is looking to be fairly crammed with activity as the orders are already coming in for Easter lamb. Patrick will be winging his way home at the begining of May and I have discovered that communicating over a 9 hour time zone does not allow for fluidity in keeping up with gossip so on his return home there will be a talking fest at our house I imagine. It looks like my big girl will not be able to come home until the summer holidays as she has too many exams to work for. On the up side of having so few children at home for the up and coming Easter holidays is that I will be able to eat a lot more chocolate eggs myself.

Ghost

We finally got our 2 kittens sterilised at the vet and we now have a stable population of 8 cats. The 2 little ones, Ghost and Spectre, have settled back into shed life after their traumatic trip to the vet and are back to their safe no touchy distance of 2 meters. Between all 8 cats they manage to consume 3 lamb and 1 large pig fifth quarter every week. It is a good job we are butcher-farmers otherwise we could never afford to sustain them all.

Low carb meal-pork chops and veggies

The markets are busying up with the sunshine and people I have not seen for a couple of months are returning from sunnier climes in Spain, and I note bringing the Swallows with them. It was a very happy smiley market weekend. In fact on the whole the beginning of this year has been fairly up beat despite worldwide politics. I put it down to good food, good company, making the effort to get out and about and meet some new people and positive thinking.
See you all very soon
Helen