pastie day

 3.1.2022

 

At last spring is more spring like and we have enjoyed the first sunny warm weekend we have longed for.  To celebrate the equinox, that conveniently occurs about the same time as the football finals, we had our usual pasty day.  The football match was not very interesting but we did not mind as most of the family was busy making pasties.  This year Indi took over their assembly, which she achieved with her usual neatness and skill. 

 

I do not make the pasties, but I grow the swedes, prepare the pastry and buy the onions and carrots.  All this takes long term effort so I feel OK about just sticking to the farm work on the day of the party.  This year Thursday was declared a bank holiday for the queen, so Alvyn arrived with some friends on Thursday afternoon and they all camped on the farm for the weekend.  During their stay a goat gave birth to twins and so did the second sheep. The young twin girls who were part of the camping group were thrilled to witness a birth but they also became very good helpers doing the farm work.

 

The rest of the family came on Saturday so we expanded to a group of 23. Wayne’s daughters made friends with the twins very quickly and every one had lots of exercise outdoors for once.  We were all exhausted by Sunday but had thoroughly enjoyed all getting together again.

 

From then on, the weather has continued to improve. We have wormed the sheep and checked their feet before moving them to new pasture. The goats have also been moved so that they can go down the gullies and eat out the new blackberry leaves as they emerge.

 

I have begun working on spring vegetables. We have lots of lettuce and purple sprouting broccoli but it will be so good when we can have zucchinis again. We usually get too many and quickly get sick of them but last year Bo found a great recipe for zucchini pickle that goes very well with our goat’s cheese. We definitely need more of it this year. The snow peas are slow to get going but I keep trying.

 

I also tried treated myself to a shopping day at the huge Knox shopping centre with a plan to get all the little things I have done without over covid. I was horrified to find all the shops I used 3 years ago have gone missing and even the floor tiles had been taken up so that walking between the shops that did exist was quite hazardous. I gave up and came home empty handed.