I know that heading (above) makes no sense but I have a challenge that once I have written my title I must keep it. Sometimes the weirdest phrases and re-spellings get stuck in my head. I am very grateful that you are all the kind of kind people who bear with the slight eccentricities that you discover on the Blogosphere. 
To stay awake I worked hard all day yesterday, mucking out pens, tidying the barn, counting hay (not enough), conferring with the kiwi builder.. (the best way to get a fast decision is to ask a sleep deprived woman)… and getting back into the rhythm of farm life.
I took the Shush Sisters for a walk, they behaved perfectly, remembering all their commands. They are definitely taller than when I left. Our next task is to prepare Charlotte for her assignation with the Boar in January. 
Minty and Meadow have been banished for a while from the barn, for gate jumping! Having those two galloping about the middle of the barn, sticking their heads in all the bins, and putting Hairy MacLairy the ram on high alert is not going to happen any more. It is still warm enough outside for the sheep. Miss c is home, no more naughtiness.
Mama the policeman made me do it. She has some tales to tell about mice playing while the cat was away.
I brushed Daisy and we talked about appropriate milking behaviour. She agreed with me that she could do better then promptly forgot all her promises, being a cow after all. To begin her retraining I have taken her right back to her initial ‘introduction to the milking parlour’ routine of brushing her before and after the milking. 
Maybe she will relax a bit again and let the milk flow without all the kicking and carrying on. Half the problem is that one of her quarters is taking so much longer to milk out than the other three. I need to find out why. 
Kupa spent a lot of time showing me his girls. He is still very tame. He most certainly remembers me which is lovely. He and Pania and Tui seem to have come to some kind of arrangement and are spending a lot more time together now. Maybe I should start thinking about building nests up in the top of the barn. Evidently they like big old tires filled with straw… well I can certainly do that! 
I have it in mind to sell the progeny to locals. When they are a year old they are worth a hundred dollars each. But let’s not count our eggs before they are even laid.
Good morning. I slept well last night. Thank goodness. My prairie muscles are flexing and starting to work again. While I was away it caught me by surprise to feel my hill muscles (walking around Wellington and Auckland). They were blasted out of hiding. Especially my shins and the arches of my feet. I was reminded, by my body, that I have spent too much time on the Flats. My New Zealand family and I have always preferred to walk places rather than drive and they all live on hills. Walking up steep hills and down dales and through valleys in the cities, with their hidden paths and old steps, laden with packages, woke up my hill muscles thoroughly and sometimes painfully! Not to mention all the beach walking! What a lovely problem that was.
Luckily, Deb, my friend with the garden, is a netball coach and gave me the exercises necessary to loosen the knots.
Today I will muck out another pen – the flerd pen where Mama’s flock and Bobby Blanc hang out together. A flerd is when I have sheep and cows together. This one has old hay mixed with the straw so it does not go into the compost heap, (grass weed seeds are hard to kill) so it will be spread on the fields straight away. Also I need to prune the grapes, the pear trees and mow the asparagus. I had better get busy.
By the way, while I was gone, the ice wine was racked again (decanted from one huge demi-john to another – leaving behind the grime that has settled to the bottom) and is a very beautiful colour. I look forward to seeing how it tastes. But NO drinking for a year. I promise to be good this time.
OK, off to work for me, it is still dark out there and below freezing too. I need to start checking the weather. So much to catch up on. Have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
52 responses to “Getting Re-Antiquated”
I hope Daisy behaves for you!
This morning she was perfect.. cross fingers! c
Amazing how instantly things fall back into place C. So pleased you got a good nights rest. Good to know I still have a year to save up for my air ticket to come and visit and taste your wine. 😀
Have a beautiful day and stay warm.
🙂 Mandy xo
I have high hopes for this vintage, we left it longer on the vine .. it is snowing, so now i cannot bear to be inside and warm!! yay.. c
Glad you are home and so glad you had a great trip. We all enjoyed it :-).
It was such vicarious fun to enjoy your trip from my armchair, but it’s also great to see you back home and getting back into your routines. I am excited about the progress on the addition and look forward to watching it take shape. Enjoy your good life out there. Now that the holidays are past, it is time to hunker down into our winter pursuits. I welcome the brief respite even though it means planning and taxes (ugh!). Spring is just around the corner, and this respite time seems to get shorter every year!
Already john has the seed catalogues out, we are hoping for a glasshouse to go with the new addition which will extend our season fantastically, i am still unable to talk him into a hoop house.. even after a cyclone did not blow yours away! c
It survived two hurricanes, and then one end wall got blown off in a freak windstorm from an unusual direction a couple weeks ago. Bolts got sheared off, a hoop and purlins got bent, and the plastic was punctured. Ouch! Fortunately, our CSA had just ended We are repairing it, an unexpected expense, so that it will be ready for planting our first crop of carrots in early February. Life goes on…
Life does indeed.. go on.. thankfully! Now i am off to read this to the DISbeliever! c
It made it through two seasons including two hurricanes, and several windstorms, and then got damaged by a storm with winds from an unusual direction a couple weeks ago. The wind pried off three bolts and got under the plastic and popped off the endwall. One bent hoop, three bent purlins, punctured plastic and three sheared bolts later, we are repairing it in time to plant our first crop of carrots in early February. Life goes on!
Stay warm out there, C!
It is not too cold yet luckily, i am popping over to see you right now to check out your place.. pop the kettle on! c
It seems like a difficult adjustment; is this the first time you have spent time away and came home to mucking stalls and other tasks of farm life?
Nope, I go away every few years, this is the first time I have left a milking cow though.. and I actually enjoy mucking out the stalls, getting back into the thick of it!! literally! (laughter) c
hi celi! welcome home. i so enjoyed your trip. my computer is broken. i am boring my daughter’s right now and hopefully will have mine back today or tomorrow. we fianlly got lots of snow so i am very happy! joyce
I am glad you got some snow and aren’t computers a bore! have a lovely day joyce! c
Hill muscles are part of my life – much more so than work muscles! It is lovely to catch up on all the farmy inhabitants. Have a great day.
Morning Viv.. I thought I was so fit until i hit the hills! c
What a contrast in colors, from the blue sea to the grey of the prairie. But then you throw in that blue fence and colorful Kupa and remind us that our eyes need only wander to find patches of brightness. Welcome back to the farmy. Sounds like much catching up of chores and animal retraining to be done.
I find myself looking for colour now, Johns new gates are going to splash across our winter canvas often i think! c
Glad to hear that you are over your jet lag and am glad to see the Duke of Kupa again — it will be fun to see any hatchlings, too.
won’t that be amazing.. fingers crossed! c
I know just what you mean about muscles! You can be active all day long with regular chores and feel pleased that although ‘getting on a bit’, muscles run smoothly and painlessly – until you take part in a non-regular activity! A painful reminder indeed that not ALL muscles are in such tip-top condition after all!
Christine
exactly, but now i am back on the flat and all is well.. if i walked on my arms we would have been fine!! c
Welcome Home!!
If all goes well, I was going to try and sneak out there Saturday. I will give a call if I get to head that way!!
What an excellent idea.. hopefully see you then!
I am glad you had a good night sleep C. It is really hard to function without a good night sleep.
I know what you mean about the muscles part. I feel that when we travel, changing the regular groups of muscles and activities you use can be a little painful sometimes
flerd is a great word !! I have never seen baby peacocks..that would be fun…piglets
are fun…such wonderful things to look forward too….(if and when !!)
I bet you feel a sense of comfort warming back into your routine. Rituals
and routines are great to get away from and even better to return to. !!
Have a lovely day c..
Your title makes perfect sense to me…not sure what that says about me. 😉 It’s wonderful to see all the animals again and glad you got some sleep. Stay warm!