I watched myself crop an image to extract an empty feed bag that had blown into a corner of the barn and felt dishonest. I tidy with the crop tool!. I just did not have the energy to pick up and dispose of the feed bag. I will soon – maybe today but there is a pile of them in the shed and if I pick up one I will have to pick up them all and now there are so many – what do you do. It is funny the things that can overwhelm a person. The ugly bits get to me.
I like things to be tidy so at any given time I can put my hand on what I need. And I can show anyone around at any time without warning and know it shows how much we care for our animals.
On Instagram yesterday I posted a picture of the fly paper in the milking shed – it is about a foot wide, bright yellow like a banana, you pull a little down from the roll each day to reveal a new sticky surface and within minutes it is full of murdered flies. Buzzing. It is so ugly – I cannot tell you how ugly. But being hit in the face with flies when you enter the barn is uglier. But I wish I could hide it.
It is hot and wet, everything is wet. Even the washing on the line will not dry now.
And these cows want to stand under the trees and quietly shit and piss and stomp about in it to cool their heels, everywhere under the trees is a mire. The mud is terrible. At night when it is cooler I lock them out into the fields. One of the Frenchboy’s last jobs is to give this area its weekly clean with the tractor but it will be hot hard heavy work and they are tired now. Ready to go home. And the cows will not appreciate it.
Look at Alex and her baby lying in the mud – happy.
I took these shots of the inside of the barn before I cleaned after the milking and before the cleaning. Usually I take images that show it clean and dry but today we are seeing the ugly bits before they are all tidied up. And nothing dries at the moment – especially not the waiting room and the milking area and the corridors that are cleaned twice daily.
The cleaning does not take long but the drying of the floors can take the whole day on a good day. I want to buy one of those scraping tools for the floors. It is on the list.
Every door and window is open too try and catch a small breeze both for drying the floors and keeping the barn ventilated for the pigs and the peacocks up in the rafters. The pigs have outside areas too but prefer to lay about inside – too hot outside.
And finally my pregnant pigs have succumbed and are lying in front of their fans. Not so stoic now that the heat has rolled in.
Today is the last work day of The Frenchmen. Although they are not asked to work in the heat of the day – we work until 9.00am on the hard outside jobs then have breakfast and the work from then on is in the barn or in the shade, then at lunch time they go to siesta until late afternoon. But I feel they are looking forward to finishing. They want to be sitting inside too – playing with the baby – or just turning up for meals. Being a visitor on the farm is great actually. It extends the farm family. But the last few weeks there has only been us three working and they are tired now. Wearing down. But they have worked so hard for weeks and now it really is time to relax for them.
And the dinner visitors leave the day after the woofers so it will be very quiet for a few days. Then in the middle of next week even more visitors come – with another, even younger, baby. These visitors are from my own family – flying in from New Zealand. It will be lovely. And they are more farm oriented.
My next wave of workers starts in early August – the 10th I think. I need to check the book.
The tomatoes are just beginning and if my luck holds I will be picking and preserving tomatoes for the next few months.
Enough chatting – time for work!
I hope you have a lovely day,
Love celi
My instagram handle is cecilia_bwg. It is a perfect complement to the daily blog. I am loving it. This is where all the breaking news goes. And sometimes even video. It is becoming an extension of the blog, though I have allowed myself to take images of the surrounding area as I puddle to and fro. Instagram is not just for the farm. I have the settings arranged so that every time you ‘like’ an Instagram photo it lights up my phone with your name. (No buzz or ding just the light) So your contact follows me out into the barns. The blog for me is computer based so reading and answering your wonderful comments is for siesta time curled up in my chair for an hour after lunch – just you and me. Instagram is different and just for fun.
And thank you for your comments here at the farmy – you are my constant companions. I still miss ViV, don’t you?
The Kitchen's Garden 
61 responses to “Ugly Bits”
It looks like a normal farm to me, albeit a special one!
The temperature went down here last night – I hope you have similar luck 🙂
Yes, it is strange no seeing Viv’s comments. I am sure she is still here watching though.
It is good to acknowledge the ugly bits. Its life, warts and all…Honest. I love this line by Elizabeth Gilbert: “The world is like a dropped pie most of the time. Don’t kill yourself trying to put it back together. Just grab a fork and eat some of it off the floor. Then carry on.” Of course, you wouldn’t be eating pie off those floors, but…
I love that quote… 30 second rule applied to real life 🍰
I have been feeling quite lonely today. It happens sometimes. Especially in the summer. I know what it means to find “constant companions” here. Despite timezone. Despite most anything. I love your instagram pics and videos. I am italifrance in case you didn’t know who that was. My hair is a mess in the profile pic. I’d been vacuuming. Ha! So much for protecting one’s glamorous image on the internet! Very funny thought about the pic of the cows all lined up. They almost look like they’re hanging on a line to dry off. Take care. Au revoir et bon voyage to the Frenchmen. Tell them I’ll be saying hi to France tomorrow! x
Hi Charlotte , I sent you a request for your Instagram account. My name is sunnycovechef
Viv lives on in all sorts of places. She’s being remembered and talked about and her loss regretted. She’s real and alive here on the Farmy still, and in other parts of the blogosphere, and as long as we talk about her, she isn’t gone. She’ll get a page to commemorate her in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Sketchbook (https://sisterhoodofthetravellingsketchbook.wordpress.com); she didn’t live long enough to create her own page, but she’s definitely with us in spirit.
I sympathise with the whole hot/wet situation; drying laundry in the 80% humidity of high summer here is bad news.
Trust Lady A 🙂 Even Naomi looks quite a step up for Carlos the Tiny. I think Viv would have had a verse for that picture. Good for us all to see the ugly bits too. Our temp is dropping to a max of 9C/49F from tomorrow brrr. Laura
Instagram has been my connection with constant companions while travelling, so much new which is good but so nice to have their likes and comments on the pics we post each day… And I know when I’m the one at home how much I enjoy vicarious travel & other lives. I crop too… not everything needs to be shared.
Yes, your Instagram is good
Did you know that you can set your Instagram to automatically post to Facebook and Twitter? I recommend it because that way you increase your traffic on all venues.
really? I will try.. thank you! c
If you have trouble, let me know. I can send you the steps.
Your barn looks very neat and tidy. I know it won’t last. But, it is good to see once in a while. Sort of like cleaning and tidying a kids room.
Yes. In the summer it does stay cleaner longer as everyone goes outside to play! c
Yes, I do miss Viv’s comments. Funny how you can miss someone you never met.
Your feed bags can be a terrific resource. People make lovely shopping (aka tote) bags from them – sew them up and they last a long time. Might be something you could sell to non-farm people who love the homestead thing. http://www.instructables.com/id/Feed-Bag-Tote-Bag/step3/Yay/ A friend in my Ladies Homestead Gathering (btw now a national group – google it) with a farm gave me a big stack of them with all kinds of great logos on them which will make really cute totes when I can spare the time to make them up.
Also, as for the cow critters and their footie wallows keeping them cool, other than neatness, is there a reason you feel the need to scrape it up? I’m thinking since it gives them comfort, it might be a blessing in disguise. Just thinking that, not sure if there is something I don’t know about this. They looked so content standing hoof deep in mud. 😉
Having young people to help around the farm (or in my case my internship program here in NE Georgia with my huge garden), is such a blessing. They learn so much, get an entirely different prospective about life (yes, food does not come from stores, it comes from the earth), and we get so much help and fellowship. My program isn’t live-in, it’s 3 to 8 hours a week in 3 to 4 hour sessions, but we still get a tremendous amount done and learned. So, out there, if you know how to do something that is basic survival like growing food, share it with young people, and get their help as well. It’s such a win-win. Just sayin.
Um no we can’t make pretty hand bags out of these feed bags – These are real feed bags either paper or plastic, not pretty, the paper ones go in the conpost though. That is not only mud they are standing in, flies and stink and disease are the reason I clean the concrete, if nothing else these flies bite and having animals with bloody bites on their legs and udders is one of many good reasons to get rid of the stinky manure and keep the barn clean. And I would rather work in a clean space. c
Yes, I miss Viv…. I hope she and Mom have found each other on that other dimension that is after life. I prayed to her to find her after we got the news. Maybe she has found your Mum also….
Uh – heat and humidity – makes everything feel twice as heavy….. we have that going on here now.
Adieu to the French….. May they have safe travels…. I know they have enjoyed the stay and will be going with huge stories to tell! Pet PIGS, Babies and Storms of the WILD WILD WEST…. along with this CRAZY WOMAN who chases them. …. the storms – not the french men 😉
Great blog. Wonderful photos. But guilt about cropping is simply wrong. Pros crop and have always done so.
Its not the cropping as much as the HIDING .. you know? c
I had to read this post when it appeared in my inbox, because I, too, am guilty of cropping and editing the mess! I don’t live in a barn (although sometimes it feels that way!), but I can sympathize with the clutter, and not wanting to pick up ONE thing because you’ll be forced to pick up ALL the things! Your farm still looks clean to me. Mud and poop on the floor, eh…. it’s a farm! 😉
I will go check out your Instagram feed now.