Winter left without saying goodbye.. no manners

I am back.  And so relieved. Not having you to talk to at the beginning of each day was just plain lonely. I would see a picture and have no-one to share it with.  The animals would do something silly but no-one to tell. I am so sorry that took so long. But quite delightfully, the wee geek fellow said there was nothing whatsoever wrong with my laptop except that it IS a laptop and one should not load so much, um stuff on it.  Oops.  Miss C Got a Geek Growling! So I am to get an external hard drive thingy and download all the extraneous material onto it.  And hopefully that will do the trick. 

Mad Dog you were absolutely right. Oh me of little faith!!

While we were apart, Mama has been doing a lot of this. Lying down. Flat out. On Wednesday I decided to leave her outside full time as she was literally too wide to fit easily through her barn door anymore. There was a collection of wool being left in the doorways. They are happier outside anyway. Plus it is cleaner for lambing.   I taught TonTon to find Mama. 

So on command he will run out to the Salad Bar Paddock and stare at Mama and bark if there are any wild dogs about.   Maybe I should put a camera on his collar! Ton has been spending an unusual amount of time voluntarily  in the little field with them too. He is a better guard dog than he is a herding dog but to be fair, these sheep are not afraid of him, as he grew up with them from a wee pup.  As you can see Mia is back on form being the clown in any photo.

St Joseph’s Day was celebrated early over atThe Bartolini  pages this week with my favourite Italian Dish. John’s story explains St Joseph  beautifully.  So I thought I would show you my little statuette of St Joseph. He has stood on the window sill of every kitchen I have worked in in the many many years since my Mother died. Mum always stood him above her kitchen sink.  Now so do I. He has travelled the world and listened to food being cooked in many different countries and languages.  

Speaking of food, while I was offline John had a day off so we zoomed down the country roads to the local seed place and bought grass seed.  Then John and the chickens planted the new three acres that we have rented from his Uncle.  Two acres are an alfalfa blend for Hay and one acre is to be fenced for grazing.  This is a lovely high protein blend for milking cows and finishing grass fed beef.  

Senior Son this shot is for you. The Mia Look!

The little John Deere had the task of dragging this borrowed seeder up and down the field for the day. Poor wee tractor was at the limit of its strength.  But this shot once again gives you a visual of the mammoth task of reclaiming this inert and discouraged land.  Now all we need is rain.

Good morning. Since Monday I have had all the windows and doors open. The screens have gone back up, the swing chairs are hung, the verandah has been washed down, we are eating outside again, the fly swats have been located, the vegetables are being planted, the flower gardens opened up and my days are full of birdsong.  My big work this week is clearing all the flower gardens of debris and covering them with a thick bed of mulch. With a dry summer ahead all the soil must be covered.  No bare soil allowed.

But I have lost my summer fitness and so my body is aching from the extra heavy work.  And I got sunburnt yesterday! Bad I know, I promise to cover up my Irish skin today but Oh it felt So Good! And a good shot of real Sunlight Vitamin D is so enlivening!

Today it is Friday so it is Old Codger visiting day for TonTon.  It is quite a drive there and back so the lady down the road is going to check in on Mama while I am gone.  If she does have four lambs and I cannot imagine we will get less now, we will have to be on hand to help out.  I cannot bear to lose anymore lambs.

The good news is that the Printer Man has promised me that the Postcards will finally be here by the 16th which is today. I will not bore you with that saga as it was just annoying really, not life threatening, just boring having to drag this company through the process, but it will be great to get our farmy cards at last.

And so to work for me. The grass is growing very fast now, so in a month I hope that I will have the animals back on grass and after a few weeks of additional hay they will be left to graze for the summer.  Then My Work will consist of opening and shutting gates! What a joy that will be!

Good morning. Welcome back! I missed you.

celi