Category Archives: snow

Being grateful…

I aim to find something to be grateful for every single day…

Today I am grateful for sunshine, especially as at 7 am this morning we had snow!

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I am grateful for healthy, happy, lively, ever so bouncy goat kids. They make me smile with their prancing and leaping.

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I am so grateful for all the times that I see our local barn owl, hunting the paddocks, my garden and along the river here, and I am especially grateful that today I managed to get a few photos of him/her, albeit fuzzy ones.  Sorry for the poor quality but I do not have a telescopic lens.

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I am grateful that my fabulous Mum has lent me her camera, after my one decided to die two days ago. Thanks Mum!

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I am grateful to share my life with my lovely dogs, cats and other animals and to be able to live so close to a nature reserve, where I get to see all manner of wildlife..

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I am grateful for my amazing family, my three wonderful children and for my kind and compassionate friends.

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SO MUCH to be grateful for!

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Can you spot the barn owl?

What are you grateful for today?

Bubble-wrap bonanza

Today we have snow and gale force winds. Temperatures feel colder than they are, with the wind chill factor.

After doing all my usual chores with the animals this morning and carrying hay to the pony paddock in the next village, I set about trying to insulate my tiny lean-to greenhouse. Luckily I had been given a large roll of bubble-wrap by my parents last year, so I had the necessary resources available. So staple gun in hand I set about  lining the interior of my little growing space. It feels much warmer already and doesn’t make too much difference to the amount of light getting through. I didn’t cover the two largest windows as they are made from old double glazed patio doors, so they had no wooden frame to staple the bubble-wrap to (old aluminium frames) and they are insulated anyway.

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I have also laid a layer of bubble-wrap over the trays on the hot bed instead of the single layer of clear plastic and used a few rectangles of it on top of a few trays of seeds too.

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I have also baked two spelt loaves today and made two batches of Kombucha tea.

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Fresh from the oven

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Bottling this week’s Kombucha tea.. Made with green tea and ginger.

I also managed to sow a few more seeds.  I shall germinate these indoors by a window.

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The ponies stayed inside and ate yet MORE hay.

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Springtime. March 2013

…and to end today, a cute photo of my daughter with the goat kids. They are growing fast!

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Hope you have all had a good start to the weekend.

Tomorrow is day 1 of milking Tansy. I have sterilised the milking pail, got the udder wipes and  milk filters ready and a lidded jug to store it in the fridge.

I don’t take away her babies completely and bottle feed them. Instead her goats kids are only separated overnight, within sight of her but in a separate area. I do an early morning milking and then they are put back with her all day, until late the following evening….and so on.

I have yet more hay to collect tomorrow and of course there are always logs to saw and split.

This self sufficiency malarky is not for the faint hearted 😉  But I wouldn’t have it any other way x