WHY must it be raining AGAIN.
Am forced to sit here watching the birds at the feeder. I'm sure each of the feathery little fuckers is eating their own bodyweight or more in grain on a daily basis. There are three feeders out there and after two or three days they're all empty!
On the subject of birds, one of the best things ever is getting off the train in the evening to be greeted by blackbird song. It is exquisite. I hope we will have a blackbird or three based at home soon to sing us into twilight every evening as there was where we liveried. There's a load of trees to put in so hopefully that will help. It is a moment of pure pleasure to lose oneself in the song, and should be remarked upon as such.
Wednesday 31 March 2010
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Beginning of hols
Sunday
We celebrated the anniversary of our first week at home alone by scraping a truly skanky mix of old hay, mud and horse shit off the yard and out of two of the stables, which stank stank stank of rancid sewage. Christ almighty. We weren't at our radiant best to begin with but got half the yard done and the two stables by a combination of sheer grit, determination and a Gallic refusal to be beaten. Chucked all the pallets away as they were good for nothing - a bit like us after we'd finished.
Monday
First day off - marvellous. A day of mixed fortunes really in that we discovered that the muck heap (or dung clamp, as I now know the correct term to be) was going to cost roughly twice what had been estimated. Some soothing of French brows was necessary as a result of this news. Took delivery of a number of RSJs and got Mr T worked while workmen were repairing the road outside - he didn't turn a hair, bless his heart. Loff that boy. One of the guys came to ask me about him and we had a conversation about horses - it's like the Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation thing around here, only with horses instead of Hollywood actors.
Also - took delivery of new car (by which I mean I cajoled the owners into dropping it off, after a long and involved negotiation process), an unplanned but serendipitous purchase that turned up in such a way that it would have been difficult to ignore. And bugger me if it wasn't the same people we bought the littlun from :O So to cut out the middle man, we agreed that they just call us up next time they have one for sale, to save the irritation of having to advertise it.
I'm not going to say what sort of car it is but I will say this: it's one quite suited to our new lifestyle, and a thing of the supremest irony. Arrr. Flat cap and shotgun to follow.
Tuesday
Christ, another busy day. Cleaning and general shit, the blagging of several replacement pallets (cheers Keith) and the delivery of some railway sleepers, again for the dung clamp.
Said dung clamp is taking on epic proportions and as a result am considering an official opening ceremony with a bottle of champagne. Or I would do if I thought we could afford a bottle of champagne once we've finished paying for it.
We celebrated the anniversary of our first week at home alone by scraping a truly skanky mix of old hay, mud and horse shit off the yard and out of two of the stables, which stank stank stank of rancid sewage. Christ almighty. We weren't at our radiant best to begin with but got half the yard done and the two stables by a combination of sheer grit, determination and a Gallic refusal to be beaten. Chucked all the pallets away as they were good for nothing - a bit like us after we'd finished.
Monday
First day off - marvellous. A day of mixed fortunes really in that we discovered that the muck heap (or dung clamp, as I now know the correct term to be) was going to cost roughly twice what had been estimated. Some soothing of French brows was necessary as a result of this news. Took delivery of a number of RSJs and got Mr T worked while workmen were repairing the road outside - he didn't turn a hair, bless his heart. Loff that boy. One of the guys came to ask me about him and we had a conversation about horses - it's like the Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation thing around here, only with horses instead of Hollywood actors.
Also - took delivery of new car (by which I mean I cajoled the owners into dropping it off, after a long and involved negotiation process), an unplanned but serendipitous purchase that turned up in such a way that it would have been difficult to ignore. And bugger me if it wasn't the same people we bought the littlun from :O So to cut out the middle man, we agreed that they just call us up next time they have one for sale, to save the irritation of having to advertise it.
I'm not going to say what sort of car it is but I will say this: it's one quite suited to our new lifestyle, and a thing of the supremest irony. Arrr. Flat cap and shotgun to follow.
Tuesday
Christ, another busy day. Cleaning and general shit, the blagging of several replacement pallets (cheers Keith) and the delivery of some railway sleepers, again for the dung clamp.
Said dung clamp is taking on epic proportions and as a result am considering an official opening ceremony with a bottle of champagne. Or I would do if I thought we could afford a bottle of champagne once we've finished paying for it.
Sunday 28 March 2010
The week that was
Well, Jesus. It's been quite a week.
Sunday: the parting of the Red Sea. Or, the parting of company between us and our erstwhile guests, previous owners of the house who had been camping at our place since we moved in, keeping some of their horses (about 9 to be precise) with us in exchange for doing the boys. The experience has taught me that one should not underestimate the perils involved in sharing one's space with someone who once used to own it and who has tendencies towards the ... oh never mind. Suffice it to say it was an awkward and surprisingly emotional day and by and large we stayed out of the way and let them get on with it.
Monday: up at the crack of dawn to drive to Cambridge for the final day of the leaders' course. It might sound crap and twee to go on about what an affirming day it was, but it really was and it has been quite a journey to take with people I have come to know well and become fond of. I'll miss seeing them but we've resolved to keep our learning set going. It's been amazing to see how much some people have grown and changed as a result of the experience and I certainly consider myself one of those fortunate to get a great deal from it.
The experience was only slightly marred by my breaking down on the M25 during rush hour on the way home, just after the junction with the M11 where traditionally there are lots of road works and not much in the way of a hard shoulder. Took one of the few options available to me which was to pull into a works access area and wait for the radiator to cool off sufficiently to be ministered to with coolant. While I was waiting, a bloke pulled over and said helpfully "you can't stay there love, you'll die". Well thanks. Just as I was admiring the view, too. Just as soon as the car was in a state to accept my offering of coolant, off we toddled/limped to the nearest service station, during which time I was able to reflect upon the inverse relationship between reliability of car and tightness of various involuntary sphincters. Made it to Thurrock services to top up and get back to poor Sid who'd last heard from me in a state of need on the M25 and was imagining all sorts of unpleasant and blood-soaked scenarios. Topped up the radiator fully (who knew it took about 6 litres) and limped home without further incident.
Tuesday: Arrgghhhhh dentist. Because of olympic levels of crapness on my part I had neglected to visit the dentist as a result of my ailing tooth for so long that there was nothing for it but for the thing to be removed - in two pieces. Plus a filling. There is a reason I don't go to the dentist. Well actually there are two reasons. 1) It hurts and is unpleasant; and 2) It costs shitloads of money, which IMO is far better spent on almost anything else. And so it is that I leave it and leave it, and then have to face up to worse horrors than if I'd just pulled on my big girl pants and gone on a regular basis like most right-thinking adults do.
Anyway, the day looms and I'm starting to flap in a more visible way, no longer able to keep the rising tide of panic at bay. Clearly, something had to be done. The application of half a bottle of rescue remedy and a spot of meditation seemed to do the trick, and off I went. The experience itself wasn't as bad as I thought, partly because I kept my eyes squeezed shut throughout and because I insisted on plenty of injections. The filling was ok and the extraction - well, horrid but pain-free at the time, although it's never a pleasant thing to have a fully grown man hanging off your face with a pair of pliers or whatever the hell it was he used. Eventually it came out and it was only afterwards he told me how lower jaw extractions are fraught with difficulty and that I had a 50-50 chance of infection. Thanks chuck. And with that, off I went, numb of face and unable to speak. It wasn't long before the pain kicked in and I spent the rest of the afternoon in a state of Pure Blokeishness.
Wednesday: First day leaving the boys unattended at home, but happy that the contractor doing the hardstanding was on site and keeping an eye on them for me. Managed to get morning stables done in 18 minutes. This is some sort of record and deserves a round of applause. Especially after a bad night's sleep an a 3am foray downstairs in search of cocodamol. Boys seem very chilled in fact and spent most of the day out grazing.
Thursday: After another restless night due to throbbing jaw, a trip to Canterbury for a conference on technology and learning spaces. Caught myself nodding off a few times and rued the bit where I misjudged painkiller timings and drove home to the accompaniment of further throbbing. Am really not good with pain, or sleep deprivation. Both = serious shit.
Friday: demob happy; two weeks off - yay!
Saturday: busy busy busy day. It doesn't matter what I do, I am now seemingly programmed to wake at 6.30 to do the boys. I tell myself this constitutes a lie-in when school day wake up is an hour earlier. Morning stables, shopping done and pooch walked all by 10am, which is not bad going.
There is So Much Cleaning to do on the yard it's difficult to know where to start. But it's good because now we can get on with it and it is starting to feel like our place. Dug out the hay barn and what was the feed room, which turned out to be ankle deep in the skankiest slurry shite known to man. Dug out the worst of that and Sid went in with the power hose. He loves his power hose :)
Meanwhile the hardstanding is almost finished and we now have parking for a number of cars, and a mud-free zone between house and yard in preparation for the arena installation. I noticed a link between the application of coffee, tea, bacon and cake in getting the work done which I will keep in mind for future reference. Especially when the bacon is the superlative stuff from the farm shop up the road.
We now have external lights on the yard, which are fab. It's all coming together and the next challenge will be to finance the arena itself. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to two weeks off, the fact that the clocks ave gone forward and we have the place to ourselves. Bliss.
Sunday: the parting of the Red Sea. Or, the parting of company between us and our erstwhile guests, previous owners of the house who had been camping at our place since we moved in, keeping some of their horses (about 9 to be precise) with us in exchange for doing the boys. The experience has taught me that one should not underestimate the perils involved in sharing one's space with someone who once used to own it and who has tendencies towards the ... oh never mind. Suffice it to say it was an awkward and surprisingly emotional day and by and large we stayed out of the way and let them get on with it.
Monday: up at the crack of dawn to drive to Cambridge for the final day of the leaders' course. It might sound crap and twee to go on about what an affirming day it was, but it really was and it has been quite a journey to take with people I have come to know well and become fond of. I'll miss seeing them but we've resolved to keep our learning set going. It's been amazing to see how much some people have grown and changed as a result of the experience and I certainly consider myself one of those fortunate to get a great deal from it.
The experience was only slightly marred by my breaking down on the M25 during rush hour on the way home, just after the junction with the M11 where traditionally there are lots of road works and not much in the way of a hard shoulder. Took one of the few options available to me which was to pull into a works access area and wait for the radiator to cool off sufficiently to be ministered to with coolant. While I was waiting, a bloke pulled over and said helpfully "you can't stay there love, you'll die". Well thanks. Just as I was admiring the view, too. Just as soon as the car was in a state to accept my offering of coolant, off we toddled/limped to the nearest service station, during which time I was able to reflect upon the inverse relationship between reliability of car and tightness of various involuntary sphincters. Made it to Thurrock services to top up and get back to poor Sid who'd last heard from me in a state of need on the M25 and was imagining all sorts of unpleasant and blood-soaked scenarios. Topped up the radiator fully (who knew it took about 6 litres) and limped home without further incident.
Tuesday: Arrgghhhhh dentist. Because of olympic levels of crapness on my part I had neglected to visit the dentist as a result of my ailing tooth for so long that there was nothing for it but for the thing to be removed - in two pieces. Plus a filling. There is a reason I don't go to the dentist. Well actually there are two reasons. 1) It hurts and is unpleasant; and 2) It costs shitloads of money, which IMO is far better spent on almost anything else. And so it is that I leave it and leave it, and then have to face up to worse horrors than if I'd just pulled on my big girl pants and gone on a regular basis like most right-thinking adults do.
Anyway, the day looms and I'm starting to flap in a more visible way, no longer able to keep the rising tide of panic at bay. Clearly, something had to be done. The application of half a bottle of rescue remedy and a spot of meditation seemed to do the trick, and off I went. The experience itself wasn't as bad as I thought, partly because I kept my eyes squeezed shut throughout and because I insisted on plenty of injections. The filling was ok and the extraction - well, horrid but pain-free at the time, although it's never a pleasant thing to have a fully grown man hanging off your face with a pair of pliers or whatever the hell it was he used. Eventually it came out and it was only afterwards he told me how lower jaw extractions are fraught with difficulty and that I had a 50-50 chance of infection. Thanks chuck. And with that, off I went, numb of face and unable to speak. It wasn't long before the pain kicked in and I spent the rest of the afternoon in a state of Pure Blokeishness.
Wednesday: First day leaving the boys unattended at home, but happy that the contractor doing the hardstanding was on site and keeping an eye on them for me. Managed to get morning stables done in 18 minutes. This is some sort of record and deserves a round of applause. Especially after a bad night's sleep an a 3am foray downstairs in search of cocodamol. Boys seem very chilled in fact and spent most of the day out grazing.
Thursday: After another restless night due to throbbing jaw, a trip to Canterbury for a conference on technology and learning spaces. Caught myself nodding off a few times and rued the bit where I misjudged painkiller timings and drove home to the accompaniment of further throbbing. Am really not good with pain, or sleep deprivation. Both = serious shit.
Friday: demob happy; two weeks off - yay!
Saturday: busy busy busy day. It doesn't matter what I do, I am now seemingly programmed to wake at 6.30 to do the boys. I tell myself this constitutes a lie-in when school day wake up is an hour earlier. Morning stables, shopping done and pooch walked all by 10am, which is not bad going.
There is So Much Cleaning to do on the yard it's difficult to know where to start. But it's good because now we can get on with it and it is starting to feel like our place. Dug out the hay barn and what was the feed room, which turned out to be ankle deep in the skankiest slurry shite known to man. Dug out the worst of that and Sid went in with the power hose. He loves his power hose :)
Meanwhile the hardstanding is almost finished and we now have parking for a number of cars, and a mud-free zone between house and yard in preparation for the arena installation. I noticed a link between the application of coffee, tea, bacon and cake in getting the work done which I will keep in mind for future reference. Especially when the bacon is the superlative stuff from the farm shop up the road.
We now have external lights on the yard, which are fab. It's all coming together and the next challenge will be to finance the arena itself. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to two weeks off, the fact that the clocks ave gone forward and we have the place to ourselves. Bliss.
Sunday 14 March 2010
Action packed weekend
Had a call from our good friend Phil the farmer on Friday, asking if we were able to get over to his wood yard for 8.30am on Saturday to collect some of the wood chips I've been harassing him about for a couple of weeks. The only tricky bit was that it would require me to prise Sid out of bed too, but I was hopeful. As it was, I was up at 7.30 to do the boys and Sid made it out of his pit with surprisingly little reluctance. Hitched up and off we went.
There was a surprising amount of wood chips to be had, all bagged up in those big builders' bags, which meant for a surprising number of trips back and forth as we could get max four bags at a time in the trailer. Get back home, reverse trailer into picadeiro, unload said bags and return for the next batch. Ended up making SIX TRIPS and each time it was getting harder for us to haul the sodding bags out of the trailer, until at the last we had no strength left at all, my trailer reversing skills which are ordinarily pretty good were completely shot to shit and we collapsed in a fit of giggles on top of the last bag, utterly helpless :) Got it done eventually and off for a quick cup of coffee and a sit down.
Next thing, Saturday chores and a nice long walk for the pooch, who amusingly tried to keep up with a random whippet she met - but not for long. Built for comfort rather than speed - that's Dorable. After that, did the boys and spent time raking the picadeiro, before collapsing in a big heap with a nice bottle of Rioja, a fillet steak and a nice Kentish salad. Lush.
This morning, up again at the crack of dawn to do the boys (somehow it's become a habit) and finish off raking the picadeiro before remembering I hadn't even had a coffee yet, and went indoors to make reparations..
There followed what can only be described as a frank exchange of views between myself and the previous owners, in which many interesting ideas were expressed: I shall leave it at that. I think we understand one another.
Spent a while cooking for the week before heading outside to do what turned out to be an absolute shitload of great stuff. Well, great stuff for us, deathly dull to anyone else I'm sure, and mostly involving stockpiling fencing materials, lots of yard cleaning and the making of a giant bonfire, until we couldn't really move any more.
Finished off the weekend with a lentil curry and a beer. Even though I'm not much of a drinker, it seems right to have one after such a busy day.
So in summary: knackered but very pleased.
There was a surprising amount of wood chips to be had, all bagged up in those big builders' bags, which meant for a surprising number of trips back and forth as we could get max four bags at a time in the trailer. Get back home, reverse trailer into picadeiro, unload said bags and return for the next batch. Ended up making SIX TRIPS and each time it was getting harder for us to haul the sodding bags out of the trailer, until at the last we had no strength left at all, my trailer reversing skills which are ordinarily pretty good were completely shot to shit and we collapsed in a fit of giggles on top of the last bag, utterly helpless :) Got it done eventually and off for a quick cup of coffee and a sit down.
Next thing, Saturday chores and a nice long walk for the pooch, who amusingly tried to keep up with a random whippet she met - but not for long. Built for comfort rather than speed - that's Dorable. After that, did the boys and spent time raking the picadeiro, before collapsing in a big heap with a nice bottle of Rioja, a fillet steak and a nice Kentish salad. Lush.
This morning, up again at the crack of dawn to do the boys (somehow it's become a habit) and finish off raking the picadeiro before remembering I hadn't even had a coffee yet, and went indoors to make reparations..
There followed what can only be described as a frank exchange of views between myself and the previous owners, in which many interesting ideas were expressed: I shall leave it at that. I think we understand one another.
Spent a while cooking for the week before heading outside to do what turned out to be an absolute shitload of great stuff. Well, great stuff for us, deathly dull to anyone else I'm sure, and mostly involving stockpiling fencing materials, lots of yard cleaning and the making of a giant bonfire, until we couldn't really move any more.
Finished off the weekend with a lentil curry and a beer. Even though I'm not much of a drinker, it seems right to have one after such a busy day.
So in summary: knackered but very pleased.
Saturday 13 March 2010
All change
Things are in flux atm with a number of changes on the horizon, just as spring is tickling our cheeks with its first delicate tendrils of the promise of a little warmth after a long, long winter. Everyone I speak to seems to feel that the winter has been particularly arduous; perhaps not surprising after all that sodding snow and unpleasantness.
Things of note:
* The people we're currently sharing the yard with are preparing for taking their leave next weekend. It's a vast swath of emotions for all concerned really but I think we have all reached a place where we just want a collaborative way forward, which is good.
* Electrical work on the yard under way, expecting to finish next weekend.
* After the folks leave, work can start on the yard for the arena preparations; first of all, remaining hard standing and a proper muck heap. Removal of earth mound and burial of armoured cable for new yard electrics, filling in of pond and onset of raised beds for veggie growing. Then, installation of drainage and possibly fencing for the arena. We can't get it all done in one go unfortunately but things are cracking on at a good pace and we are really pleased with what we can do rather than being frustrated by what we can't, which would be crap and wrong.
* The girls have been in season and Alfama has hopefully been covered by Soberano in preparation for coming home in the spring. Xacra will be put to one of the boys, though probably by AI in view of the fact that she is nervous and a maiden, and the boys haven't covering experience. At least then we can get semen samples for them laid in and frozen.
* We are investigating options to rent some land nearby which will be a godsend for all sorts of reasons. We hope to do a deal with local farmer chum so we can co-rent and use for hay and grazing year-round, which will mean all sorts of benefits. Fingers firmly crossed on that one.
* New creatures; cats are appearing on the yard at a rate of knots. There's Ted, gorgeous ginger tom (orange orbs included and must go) who is sweet and affectionate and probably once had a home, a little black tom whose name is yet to appear who is at least semi-feral and is slowly getting used to me (chicken appears to be instrumental in this process) , and a black and white tom who comes in now and then for some grub. Sid is warming to Ted aso at a rate of knots, which is very sweet. He's a lovely young boy, full of charms. There are also rumours of a tabby and a black kitten, but I've yet to see either.
Things of note:
* The people we're currently sharing the yard with are preparing for taking their leave next weekend. It's a vast swath of emotions for all concerned really but I think we have all reached a place where we just want a collaborative way forward, which is good.
* Electrical work on the yard under way, expecting to finish next weekend.
* After the folks leave, work can start on the yard for the arena preparations; first of all, remaining hard standing and a proper muck heap. Removal of earth mound and burial of armoured cable for new yard electrics, filling in of pond and onset of raised beds for veggie growing. Then, installation of drainage and possibly fencing for the arena. We can't get it all done in one go unfortunately but things are cracking on at a good pace and we are really pleased with what we can do rather than being frustrated by what we can't, which would be crap and wrong.
* The girls have been in season and Alfama has hopefully been covered by Soberano in preparation for coming home in the spring. Xacra will be put to one of the boys, though probably by AI in view of the fact that she is nervous and a maiden, and the boys haven't covering experience. At least then we can get semen samples for them laid in and frozen.
* We are investigating options to rent some land nearby which will be a godsend for all sorts of reasons. We hope to do a deal with local farmer chum so we can co-rent and use for hay and grazing year-round, which will mean all sorts of benefits. Fingers firmly crossed on that one.
* New creatures; cats are appearing on the yard at a rate of knots. There's Ted, gorgeous ginger tom (orange orbs included and must go) who is sweet and affectionate and probably once had a home, a little black tom whose name is yet to appear who is at least semi-feral and is slowly getting used to me (chicken appears to be instrumental in this process) , and a black and white tom who comes in now and then for some grub. Sid is warming to Ted aso at a rate of knots, which is very sweet. He's a lovely young boy, full of charms. There are also rumours of a tabby and a black kitten, but I've yet to see either.
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