Easter - Good Friday and Easter Saturday 2024

As I type this, Steven is (frantically) looking for our wallpaper stripper.  You know the electric steamer types?  It's a rainy start to today, Easter Monday 2024 and we are getting some indoor jobs started.  Grace, our eldest is at work, our youngest still in bed (pick your battles) and we are at the beginning of our Easter annual leave.  The photo below left was early morning on Good Friday and the dry weather set the tone (for the weekend at least).  It's been dry and bright, bitterly cold in the wind and beautiful in the sun.

  

I'm taking the opportunity to enjoy some morning walks when the weather is like this.  The views on them are beautiful and I'm so proud to have them on our doorstep.

Friday, being our first day off, meant that was the annual opening of the outdoor area.  We have a bar and kitchen space with a store room created by Steven's (fair?) hands.  It's become a dumping ground over the Winter, for jars that have fed us and kept us nourished.  First job therefore was to get the store room tidied up and ready for action.

The other main job I wanted to get done (Steven was at work Good Friday), was to make a start on getting the potatoes it.  I quite like the idea of getting them in the ground on Good Friday as a tradition.  I got most of them in, there's a few more to do.

The day finished off with a well deserved glass of red from the year's ration (more on that in future posts)

However, the well deserved glass of red meant we had neighbours over and there was a bit of tidy up to do on Saturday morning following the thoughts of "leave it til tomorrow" after the drink started to flow.

So on Saturday morning, what better way to blow the cobwebs away than cracking on with jobs outside.  We are taking down the fencing area of the old pig pens and putting the land back to grass.  A big job but we are making hay whilst the sun shines.

 

We stopped for a coffee and I got a snap of Ste in the bar, he was told to smile !!

We brought the old fencing up in the wheelbarrows, it's hard work pushing them as the ground is so water logged still.  The brightness of the day was deceiving and you would be forgiven if you thought the ground would soon be dry.  Not a chance of that any time soon.

In between helping Steven, my job is to tend to the seedlings, which will be our food later in the year.  These are those I have started transplanting to bigger pots to get them to grown on before planting out.

We had the little dogs out with us all day, which apparently was quite tiring for them.

A beautiful start to our time off the paid job.

And Annie agreed.

The end of my week off - but I'm still smiling.

I can't believe Friday evening is here already!  Where has my week off gone?  Well truth be told, I know where and I have loved every minute of it.

Last night I made the largest bread that my new breadmaker will do - it's called XL and it is that for a reason!  I know you can buy some huge loaves in the shops but I personally have ever made one, until last night.

It doesn't look big in the picture but it is ginormous.

We've had another lovely day at the yard though the larger horse has had a cough for a few weeks on and off now.  She's not doing too well so we are going to have to get the vet out I think.  The question now is do we call her tomorrow or wait until Tuesday.  She's waited this long so I'm inclined to wait until Tuesday but is that wrong?  I will see how she is in the morning and if I need to, I will call them out.

The kids and I have been to a local free outdoor play area and place of natural beauty today with my Mam.  We really enjoyed it and it was a nice couple of hours out. 

I have a few midgie bites for my troubles though.

Farm life is now 1 year and 8 months before they can become real!

Doggy update (plus GH's woodwork starter pieces).

Can you see the size of my left ear? :(

Well Buddy has been to the vets and they said we're looking around £800 just for the draining of his ear.  That's not a fee we're prepared to pay for an operation that isn't guaranteed to return, nor is a life saver operation.  So back to home remedies and managing this ourselves with a little bit of help from daily steroids for him.  So today I have paid out £42 for steroids and a vet check up. 

In the mean time GH has bought himself a scroll saw and has been practicing on some items to keep the kids happy.  Hopefully we can end up making a few pounds on this once he manages well.  Not bad for a first attempt?

Happy April - Let the holidays commence!

Well at lunch time I finished work for 10.5 days now and I couldn't be happier!!! 

I have already spring cleaned the master bedroom and hoovered and steamed downstairs.  I pulled the bed out (no mean feat) along with the bedside tables, hoovered under the wardrobes, under the bed, did the skirting boards and washed the windows and sills.  Then I only put back on the bed side table what should be there and gave the other things a home.  I'm really impressed with the results and hopefully it will stay like that for a good while.

I also steamed the carpets though I am not entirely sure what that achieved.

Downstairs and the stairs got a really good hoovered and then the kitchen and hallway steamed.  I'll wash the steamer cloth and do it again when I get round to doing the kitchen and hallway's deep clean.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, how sad some would say!

The weather is lovely and sunny so we took the dog out for a lovely run over the local quarry and there was no one around so he had a good run and stretched out his old legs whilst the kids went on little adventures.  He's now flaked for the next hour no doubt and they are busy in the garden again.

Buddy thoroughly content

The kids having an adventure

GH is at the gym, tea is cooking and after that my daughter and I will head out to the farm to get the pony rode and the horse turned out for an hour.  I'm hoping the weather holds so that we can get out for another nice walk. 

What a fabulous first afternoon off.  Tonight when I'm back I shall be indulging in a wine or three. This truly is time to have farm life dreams :)