Rain at last

New cacti garden

April 8 2015

The big news is that we have had rain. Not just a tiny sprinkling, but enough to turn the dust into mud and save me an hours work each day watering. We have also survived Easter. Plans got a bit disorganised because Bo’s second son got chicken pox, so all our planned holiday activities were off, but we did manage a get together at Bo’s house when Simon cooked us a fantastic meal last Sunday.

Last night a friend of Edd’s came to stay with four of his young grand children. Luckily they brought sleeping bags so we all fitted in for the night very comfortably with three kids in the snug and Trev and James in the small bedroom.  The kids were very good and had fun helping look after the animals this morning before they moved on. They all had labels so that if Trev lost any they could be returned easily but really I think he was coping very well considering how young they were.

Once they had left the farm seemed very quiet. It was still raining but my indoor job preparing the kitchen for tiling has come to a stop whilst I wait for Edd to change the tap for me. The taps we have been using leans back towards were the tiles should be and as well as being too close to the tiles, the taps are also far back. My hands are always wet when I turn them off so the area around them is always flooded. I have brought a new sort of tap to see if we can change this.

But, as I said I need male help before I do the next stage. I now have three jobs going with this same issue so I have reverted to knitting and am designing and making woollies for the new grandchild, who is due in a few weeks. I have decided to work through classic traditional styles and so far I have made an Icelandic yolk cardigan and a Norwegian style louse jacket. The one I am working on now is Arran.  This is rather fun.

The museum of fire relics that the school group made was in use the day after they left when a friend brought some one interested in fire and housing over to look round.  The new fence was put into action two days later because the goats got out from our top paddock into the neighbours. We had not been able to take hay up there because our loaned tractor had to go home so they decided to look after them selves.

The cacti that Josh left in the old poly house had been brought down into my sun room where they were causing trouble by grabbing passersby and spilling themselves over the floor. I have now rounded them up and wedged them in the Slovakian dough trough with scoria. I am not sure how they will like this but they are now on wheels and much more manageable. Josh deserted plants when he left home which was an improvement on some of the other kids who left big things like horses and old cars.