Chilly

While the rest of the UK and most of Ireland (apart from County Clare !!!) is submerged under massive amounts of snow (and we are a teeny bit jealous... I know...) we're experiencing Baltic temperatures too.
Lowest of the season yet was -12.6C last night - luckily Stanley keeps going through the night and with a quick rake-out first thing he's up and running within 10 minutes.

Unluckily it's a real marathon to keep outside water unfrozen for the animals - the hens drinker has to be brought inside the house at night, the ponies water bucket smashed with a stout stick every couple of hours, then this morning, despite our best efforts of heavily lagging absolutely every exposed inch of pipework after it happened in January - the water supply into the house froze.

Fortunately we'd some stored water for immediate use but now starts the twice daily trip to the river with buckets and ropes - dropping the watering-can off the bridge, filling it and pouring it into the bucket which we then wheelbarrow back home. All good fun (and good for keeping warm)
Hopefully it'll come back soon.

Keeping warm

Meet our best investment of 2010. We originally had a solid fuel boiler but it was on the small side and wouldn't stay lit overnight - Never underestimate how nice it is to get up to a warm kitchen, so after alot of research and deliberation we decided to look for a second hand range.

Meet Stanley...


OK, not the most streamlined or up to date model, bless him, but heats all the radiators, provides us with gallons of piping hot water now that the solar water season's over, and as an added bonus heats the oven and hotplates so we can save money on gas for cooking.
Stays lit overnight as well so within 10 minutes of getting up and us feeding him an armful of wood the house is warm...ah bliss....

Brass Monkeys

Well we haven't had the massive amounts of snow that Sky News is reporting the UK is buried under but it's been pretty damn chilly - night-time lows of -6C and daytime highs just above freezing point.
Gave Ellie the chance for some photos though





stay safe readers !!!

Flying shed

...to add to yesterday's epic day, as soon as it was dark, the wind picked up quite severely. Strong South Easterly which is unusual for us as we normally get prevailing winds from the West.

Anyway - long story short.... Steve came home and told me we had one shed less than we'd had when he went out. The little shed for containing the pony's bedding had lifted off and blown into the field, whereupon it'd smashed itself into bits.

Not small or flat enough bits to lie flat so we'd to don head torches and flatten it, THEN throw a tarp over the pony-bedding so that didn't blow around.

To add insult to injury, at around 2130 the power went off and I missed the end of Turn Back Time which was just getting interesting. Can't even catch up on BBC iPlayer as they won't let foreigners watch it !!!

Disclaimer-thing...can't think of a proper title...

Just in case anyone thinks I'm complaining, or trying to make out how hard-done-by I am, remember, I CHOSE this.

I could still be in Durham with a 9-5 paid job and gas central heating and a manageable garden, but the truth is... I love it here. It might seem weird to some, or that we're making work for ourselves. Yes, on some days solid fuel is a real pain - when you're a bit ill the last thing you want to do is go and fetch fuel in, or go and sort out animals, but you just "man-up" and do it.

What doesn't kill you makes you wetter. At the moment anyway ;-)

Blogging...

...or should that be entitled "Why I'm rubbish at blogging" ?

This is why I've not done much blogging for WAY too long. Apologies to the couple of people who actually noticed (and thanks to the one that emailed me to ask if (a) we were still alive and (b) if the blog was broken)

A day in the life.... starting with today.
Get up about 7.45am
Put the kettle on
Go out and let the hens out, break the ice on their drinking water, top up their feed
Feed the cat
Give the pony his hay-net (filled the day before.. I AM organised)
by which time the kettle has boiled - make tea
Rattle the ash out of Stanley (our solid fuel stove/boiler/cooker) and throw in some wood to get him going (I like a man who's as easily satisfied as Stanley)
Attempt #1 to get Ellie out of bed
get washed and dressed (yeah.. I did feed the animals in pyjamas/coat/wellies combo...they don't seem to mind, but I wouldn't go to the supermarket dressed like that)
Attempt #2 to get Ellie out of bed
Make Ellie's packed lunch
Warm cup of tea up in microwave
Eat some toast and drink tea (yay)
Decide on leek & potato soup for lunch based on how cold it was when I went outside
Nip out and dig up some leeks
Wash and slice leeks and start sauteeing in some butter (Stanley's warmed up to cooking temperature at this point)
Not enough leeks - nip out and dig a few more
Get foot tangled in netting that's blown off the cabbages. The caterpillars have seized on this opportunity and decimated them now. They look like someone's machine-gunned them !!!
Roll up netting and put it away so I don't fall over it again.
Come back inside - leeks on stove are now starting to burn.
Pick out worst burnt bits - wash, slice and add other leeks. Then potatoes and stock - dump into oven. Hurrah.
Meanwhile Ellie has surfaced - get her to fetch music for piano lesson, sports helmet for sports lesson and packed lunch (lunchbox still in bag from day before)
Get Ellie to school
Turn pony out into his field
Muck out stable and change his water
Fill 2 haynets
Empty wheelbarrow of muck into the forest
Come in - put kettle on for coffee
Go out again - fill log basket and turf bucket up
Check soup
Have coffee and check emails - pay some bills online
Write blog... it's 11.10am

I'll add more later ;-)

Update - it's now 12.45pm...
So far
Been out into the garden - cleared half a bed of weeds/dead runner beans/collapsed cane wigwams (4/10 for effort, must try a better and more wind-proof construction next year)
Been attacked by garden tools in the garage. I'd like to point out that we have a series of screws and hooks upon which to hang said tools, but these are obscured now by a steady accumulation of mysteriously other "non-garden tool" objects
Like the 2 Roman spears from Jesus Christ Superstar last Christmas (well... you never know - they may come in handy for something....or perhaps I could train the runner beans up THEM next year ??)
Anyway - 2 forks and a rake fell on me. Gits.
Resolved to paint the handles of all my hand-tools a vivid colour in gloss paint before Spring as they're all a uniform "mud" hue which makes them difficult to find in the soil/gravel/compost heap. I've been resolving this for years.
Discovered just how much my hens fight with each other. Compounded this by throwing them a bolted cabbage to scrap over. When they're not fighting they're doing renditions of "The Laughing Policeman" (guess you have to be there for that one...)

I ran out of steam and came in for soup (not bad, you couldn't taste the burnt bits anyway)
Came back on here to blog and noticed the state of the keyboard - some of the keys were illegible due to encrusted dirt so in a "Kim & Aggie" moment decided to take it off and clean it. Prised off the "space" bar as it's been sticking for ages.... couldn't get it back on.... stupid spring.
However I now have a squeaky clean keyboard and am just waiting for the kettle to boil for a coffee. Not planned the afternoon yet. It's now 12.54

Further update. Lunch, then decided seeing as it was raining to sort out my feet (yeah, sorry...graphic and apologies if you're eating....in fact no. Stop eating at your computer and don't be so scummy !!!)
The daily routine of wellies and steel toecapped boots means my feet aren't as lovely or as well cared for as they could be so had a session with the JML Ped Egg (don't bother)
Made the shopping list
Picked Ellie up from piano lesson and went straight into town to do the shopping. The layout of Gort and its shops mean that you have to visit at least 2 shops to complete your grocery shop. Got home around 5 in the dark and rain.
Unpack all the shopping.
Decide what to cook for dinner - pumpkin risotto with some frozen pumpkin. Also get tomatoes out of the freezer for next day's dinner (veg casserole)
Promised Ellie pancakes for pudding so make those at the same time as helping Ellie with addition and subtraction of fractions - attempt to explain "Lowest Common Denominator" using kitchen utensils.

Post some photos on Facebook and reply to a couple of emails while Steve's washing up.

Put the hens to bed, collect the egg (!) Feed the cat, bring in the pony but don't feed him till about 9-10pm which'll keep him going till the morning. Haven't ridden him today but he doesn't look that bothered.

8.20pm

The couch is calling me !!!

hmmmmm

yes - I know, I'm not very good at blogging am I, seeing as the last post was February and now it's November.
However now the rainy season has started I shall attempt to fill in a few bits of info on what has actually been happening during our year.

Big 4-0...

Yep - finally hit my 40th birthday and thanks to a massively well-organised surprise from several of my lovely friends and Steve, I was given the best present EVER.

(note the fact that we STILL have snow.....c'mon Spring...)

Bringing on Bracken...

I won't go into masses of detail on bringing on young horses - there are plenty of websites for that ;-)
But some of the photos of the work we've done with him (massive thanks to Kayt for the expertise, advice and the loan of all the gear, and answering my neurotic texts)

Wearing a headpiece and bit for the first time..... note the distinctly unimpressed look.


Walking out in the headpiece and saddle pad. Looking remarkably clean too, rather than his usual muddy self.


Graduating to a roller (big strap around the belly) fitted with side-reins to get him used to feeling the tension of reins on the bit in his mouth. Also changed from the metal "breaking-bit" to a toughened plastic "Happy Mouth" bit as he's still young at rising 4 and his mouth is still pretty soft.
He's fitted with this lot every day and walked out for about 15-20 minutes. Getting happier with it now, but still a way to go.
He had Ellie on his back for the first time last week - just lying across him to start getting him used to feeling weight on him - there are no photos of this as I was holding onto his head at the time.

Manchester Talented Climbers Day

Ellie was invited to attend a "Talented Climbers Training Day" in Manchester run by the British Mountaineering Council. Along with 4 of the other Mountaineering Ireland Youth Team members they spent a very productive day learning lots of useful skills. Slept well afterwards too.

Jamie and Ellie in action on the boulder wall

Still cold

Overnight snow so Ellie builds a "Health & Safety Snow Angel"
(dunno where she gets her ideas from ?!?!)

The Big Freeze !!!

Well since Christmas Eve, we've been in the grip of the coldest spell of weather I can remember. Overnight temperatures as low as -12C, 4 days with no water as despite copious lagging, the supply line under the field froze solid - even the Calor gas froze and had to be covered with blankets.
Luckily the forgotten bag of coal in the shed came in handy.

Pretty pictures though... view of the village from the mountain road

one of Ellie's artistic shots