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.