Belated December 2009

First of all a belated merry Christmas to all of you. I hope you all had a good one and I hope you all have a great 2010.

So it’s been almost two months since you last heard from us and we’ve had a few highlights. There were of course the birthday celebrations for baby D. we had a lovely party but I think it might all have gone over the wee girls head. Nonetheless the cake was tasty so I enjoyed it even if D was a bit baffled by all the fuss. Naturally to mark such a momentous occasion and as a symbol of her new found ability to walk she had to get shoes. I think D was a bit confused by the whole concept of shoes to start with. Why does one need shoes after all? But when she saw the flashy lights and shinny toes she was won over and now acts like she can’t be seen in public without them. Why shoes should have flashy lights remains a mystery. Thanks to D’s auntie N for buying the shoes.

On the farm I’ve been doing all ot of indoor work so progress has been a bit slow. We’ve managed to cover about a third of one vegetable plot (this is in order to suppress weeds etc) and have created 4 raised beds (also now covered, thanks for the help Pat). I’ve also finally finished the greenhouse frame and now it just needs some glazing, which hopefully we’ll get done over the holidays. A greenhouse will be a real boon and I’m really looking forward to a decent crop of tomatoes.

There’s a lot of life and death goes on on our wee farm. We’ve got ourselves an incubator and I’m really looking forward to hatching our own chicks in the New Year. Our poor turkeys have however gone from free range to oven ready; a process that involved killing, plucking gutting and hanging. Not for the squeamish and yes it would definitely be easier to buy them in Tescos’ but that would be cheating.

Thanks are due again to P&P for their help. Some other new life arrived last night in the form of a stray kitten. He showed up demanding food and shelter, Well I couldn’t turn him away, ‘tis the season of good will and all that, a fact I’m reflecting on now as I nurse the finger the little feral monster has just sunk his teeth into.

Speaking of reflection, We’ll be doing some of that ourselves in the coming weeks. We started off the year with a new house and a new baby and the goals of trying out a little of everything on the farm and trying not to be disastrous parents. I think we’ve done ok on the former but I’ll hold judgement on the latter until I see if D needs therapy for chicken phobia in later life. Mercifully we haven't yet been flooded, frozen, bankrupt or repossessed and it has been a really glorious year for us. Here are two pretty shots of the recent chill, one from Carcassonne and one of an feirm beag.

Thanks for looking in and I hope 2010 is as good a year for all of you as 2009 has been for us!