One word? When seven would do…

One of the other market traders that Emma and Pete regularly have a pitch next to at several of their markets is Dan the Fishman a rather colourful personality, well known at such events. He has gotten so busy and to coin a rather crazy phrase become a victim of his own success and is losing trade by being so busy serving one customer that the three waiting behind them get bored and wander off so Pete offered the services of Gemma, Amanda’s teenage daughter to help him out at Bideford Market in exchange for £6 per hour plus fish. Gemma however had other ideas once she’d met Dan the Fish man and flatly refused to do it, so Ady was asked if he’d step in. The £40 he earnt was handy as it can cancelled out the cost of having the mechanic out to look at Willow last week (£32), the fish fed us all (9 of us!) tonight for dinner and made a lovely change from sausages and Ady got to add yet another thing to his very long list of new experiences and things he has tried and done.
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So this morning we were all up and ready to go before 7am (urgh!), drove to Bideford, helped set up Dan the Fishman’s stall and Pete & Emma’s stall and then Davies, Scarlett and I left them all to it and had a couple of hours wandering around the town. We had a short list of things we wanted to get (clothes pegs, toaster bags, two camping chairs which having decided against bringing we have now decided we do want after all for sitting outside Willow when the sun shines) so we ticked everything off that, got some paper as the kids want to do some letters to various people and I treated the kids to a small present each – Davies found a Pirates of the Carribean dvd he’d been after for ages and Scarlett chose an activity book about animals – adventure for a year or not, they don’t change much :).

We went back to the quayside where the market was and I offered to help on Pete & Emma’s stall which was pretty busy, so Davies and Scarlett sat on the wall facing us and looked at the animal book while I sold pasties and sausages and Ady sold fish. We all had a good day sales-wise and really enjoyed the banter with customers and between the stalls :).

Back at the farm we tested out the chairs by sitting in the sunshine listening to the thunder rolling around while the kids sat in the van watching the DVD and drawing. We’ve had a nice evening in the house eating fish, drinking wine and watching TV with everyone. Amanda and Zoe go home tomorrow which will no doubt change the dynamic here for our final few days but there are less markets next week and of course no bank holidays so I think we’ll be more involved in animal stuff and D&S won’t need to put up with Zoe.

We now have two days off though – very precious as although we had time off last weekend it was with my parents and so slightly stressy. We’re planning lots of walking and sitting in the woods opposite the farm and some writing letters to various places – promised to Badgers, Wildlife Explorers, the neighbours in our street etc. and not waking up very early :).

We have filled our next two weeks after that too – one with a farm we were supposed to go to but cancelled on us before and after thinking we had a week with a community they have emailed to say one of the members is terminally ill and so they need privacy and time and can’t host any WWOOFers so we have arranged to go back to Jill’s for a week as she is only 10 miles away from the place we go to after that. It means Ady gets to spend his birthday at Jill’s in some luxury and we don’t need to try and find an emergency one week somewhere. Pete & Emma would more than happily have us for an extra week (or 100 extra weeks!) but we feel ready to move on again and we’ll get to spend some time at Paddington Farm that way too, so ticking lots of boxes for us all.

I didn’t blog yesterday because I had a bad day 🙁 Nothing major or serious, just one of those walls all four of us hit every so often, coupled with some PMT and a day of crappy jobs.

Ady was off to market, where he had a good day selling meat and pasties. When the kids and I got up and went in for breakfast there was a note on the side to say ‘gone to collect the car, carry on with the shed if we’re not back’ from Emma. ‘The Shed’ is one of those polishing a turd type jobs, which I bloody loathe. It’s the huge barn which houses four stables, two of which have piglets in, the cutting room, various little side rooms and a huge area of tools, workbenches and various garage-type stuff. Ady and I had already done a fair bit of work on clearing areas and to be honest I’d hoped we’d finished with it really.

Emma and Pete arrived back and I thought I was just doing some time filling until Pete had fed the animals and was ready for my help in the cutting room but I ended up shed tidying until about 3pm. Davies and Scarlett spent some time watching TV – the telly is on *constantly* here, even if no one is watching it, which does my head in. Then they came to play outside for a bit, but I felt for them as I wasn’t doing anything they could really help with, although Davies did sweep up for me.

I went in for a cup of tea and then came back out and decided I’d had enough. I am prepared to do the crappy work that is relevant to farming or the type of host we are staying with – I’ll muck out animals quite happily for example and I am also happy to do our share of cooking or other housekeeping related stuff but this was one of those tasks I was learning nothing from, getting filthy dirty and pissed off with the promise of no more than a cheese sandwich for lunch while Davies & Scarlett bumbled around looking for something to entertain themselves. So I went in and spoke to Emma and said I was prepared to blitz it all into one place and sweep up but sorting through tools I have no ideas of the purpose for or trying to clear up stuff that may or may not be destined for the tip was beyond me (or beneath me ;)). I got free rein to do what I wanted with it all, a corner pointed out that I could shove everything into and then spent about 2 hours doing that with a vengence and had the whole thing cleared.

I sat in the sunshine with the kids for a while chatting which was nice before going to find out what they wanted me to do next and was asked to muck out the piglets! Which is where Ady found me, ankle deep in piglets and pig poo in a really bad mood!

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I ranted at him for a while and he came and helped me finish up, we packed up some bacon ready for markets and then were done for the day so we walked across the road into the woods with the kids. Emma and Pete are really desperate for us to stay and I know we are helping them enormously, we are learning huge amounts and from a helping us decide what we want to do next, getting a really good grounding in all sorts of skills and really feeding our imagination with ideas this is a fantastic place to spend time. But, it is incredibly frustrating as they are so very disorganised, totally broke (they have 4 cars and only ever fill them up with petrol cans because they have run out, they live from week to week off the market proceeds and are constantly running out of animal feed, people food (hence cheese sandwiches) )and work crazy 14 hour days. The kids are not getting enough from this host and are losing Ady and I for too much of each day as we are busy learning or helping so although we are pleased to still have another week here we are also pleased to have got to two thirds of the way through. Amanda and Zoe leave on Monday which the kids are really pleased about as they are not at all keen on Zoe (neither am I) and she spends a lot of her time giving them grief about Home Ed and other such nonsense.

Anyway, we talked it all through, I got all my moaning off my chest and everyone felt much better – hard not to in such a gorgeous location. We came back for dinner, which was home made lasagne and everyone was so nice to us about all we have done that they were either aware I was pissed off or had realised how rubbish the shed tidying job had been so all was well again. At bedtime I managed to kneel on a corner or the bed and broke a hinge so in one of those so bloody mad it’s funny moments Ady and I were crammed into one corner of Willow with the tiny screwdriver from our toolset and a torch trying to screw it back together having a whispered hissing rant at each other so as not to wake the kids at about 1am.

What larks!

Today has been much better all round – Ady has been with Pete, doing various bits around the farm and campsite – we have camping neighbours again this weekend, the kids have had a Zoe-free day as she has been with me and Amanda while we were at a local Royal Wedding Day event selling burgers, sausages, bacon rolls, meat, pasties and sausage rolls.

We had a good day and took nearly £300 which is a lot of burgers and sausages! At one point Amanda had to run to the nearest supermarket for more rolls and we split open some sausages to hand shape some burgers when we ran out of those too.

Back at the farm we had an hour in the van chatting and catching up on each others days before dinner, followed by a story at bedtime and an early night all round as we’re off to another market tomorrow bright and early.

This morning we went to Holdsworthy Cattle market to sell some ewes and lambs. This meant getting them in the trailer, tagging the lambs ears – theoretically they should be tagged, one in each ear, shortly after birth but as sheep are notoriously bad for losing their ear tags most farmers only actually tag them if they are moving them off their land, and filling out the paperwork to move them. Since foot and mouth paperwork on transporting animals has been tightened up hugely, apparently the watch word is ‘bio security’ which means you should be able to trace meat back to birth and every step in between.

I’ve never been to a livestock auction so that was really interesting. We unloaded our sheep into two pens – one ewe and two lambs, two ewes and two lambs and then walked round to see what else was for sale. In the sheep area there were various lots; ewes and lambs sold for stock, ‘fat lambs’ which are sold for ‘spring lamb’ meat, born back in August time last year, fattened up to make early lamb which goes for a premium price but costs more to rear so is all relative and ‘killing ewes’ which are still sold as lamb up to about 2 years old although technically they are hoggit and then mutton.

We had a look at the cattle up for auction too; a variety from week old calves (you can’t sell them any earlier than that), which would have just come off their mother this morning and will need formula feeding for a few weeks to come to 18 month old cattle. I learnt from Pete about meat and dairy breeds, which he prefers for veal and how he decides which to go for in terms of cost to rear versus cost of eventual sale.

We then nipped between the cattle and sheep auctions keeping an eye on both; the cattle were selling for very high prices so Pete didn’t bid on anything and actually his sheep reached a few quid more than he was expecting too, so it was a good auction. The auctioneers talk so fast, all with their own little catch phrases and sing song styles of talking – a really exciting atmosphere. Most of the animals went to dealers or slaughterhouses. The big slaughterhouses will buy animals to kill and butcher then sell the meat on, the dealers will travel all around the country buying and selling to make even just a few pounds per head on animals, moving them around the place depending on where supply and demand are.

Davies and Scarlett were not quite so interested in the finer points of the whole auction process so after about 90 minutes I walked across the road with them to the supermarket to get a cake each and give them a pep talk about letting Ady and I listen to Pete when he was talking to us about stuff even if it was not something they were interested in listening to as they both have a habit of deciding to talk to either Ady or I which is frustrating if we are both trying to listen. We are getting a great amount of knowledge and training here but some of it does go over their heads or is just discussed at a level they can’t quite grasp all of and we are not able to explain it to them there and then. A restorative gingerbread man each and a bit of a chat had everything rebalanced nicely though :).

Back at the market it was time to move on back to the farm via Pete’s parents and then lunchtime.

This afternoon I was in the cutting room, initially by myself, then with Pete and then with Ady and Pete, packing cuts of meat, labelling and mixing up sausage and burger mix. We made a huge stack of sausages and burgers from the veal the butcher had come and cut up yesterday including some experimental veal and stilton sausages which were very nice but need extra stilton in next time, as we cooked some up straight away for a taste test. I learnt about escalopes, ossa bucco (veal shin) and some other cuts and how they make their burgers here. I am itching to have a go with the sausage machine and hoping I might get a chance before the time here is up.

It is Pete & Emma’s wedding anniversary today so they were off out for a meal tonight and we offered to feed the animals this evening, which after cleaning down the cutting room and getting sorted meant it was a late night of nearly 8pm before we had finished, but it had been a pretty easy morning. Dinner for us was turkey curry and jacket potatoes which was in the oven ready for us and we got to eat and relax in the house with no one around for an hour or so before bed.

Tomorrow Ady is selling at market and I am in the cutting room packing and labelling. Depending on what cars are going where there might be room for a child to go to market with Ady so Davies will go as he is missing friends and I think could do with some one to one time with Ady.

This morning first thing we were herding sheep. Off to the field we took them to last week to drive them down the lane, select 3 to take to slaughter and then drive them back up the lane into the field again. I did running 🙂

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Back to the farm we had to shear their bellys and bums ready for slaughter, tag their ears and do the paperwork. We put a divider in the trailer and put a couple of pigs in the back to the go to the abbatoir too.

The rest of today wasn’t quite so interesting – the shed which has stables, the cutting room and various other areas in it is a complete tip and makes it hard for stuff to be stored between markets so the plan is to clear out and rearrange stuff to make the cutting room bigger, create a storage space with fridges and freezers for meat, shelves for all the market stuff and build a large commercial kitchen for the pie and pasty baking long term. Ady and I were tasked with clearing out what had been a tack room and a general crap room and now has chicks of various ages in brooders along with all sorts of other stuff, making as many good marquees out of various old and busted marquees and cleaning them down, clearing out a stable to create a storage space and generally moving things about.

One of those ‘I understand why it needs to be done but it’s frustrating because we’re not learning anything and it is hard work in exchange for just food’ type days. We seem to have at least one or two at every host and it is an understandable use of WWOOFers, but the sort of day that has you muttering under your breath 😆

So we shovelled poo from the stable, moved things around in wheelbarrows, battled with the marquees and power washer and probably achieved a far bit even if it felt rather like we’d just moved stuff around like a giant chessboard.

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In the evening I had a bath which was lovely – daily showers just aren’t the same to a bath addict 😉 and tomorrow we’re back doing more interesting stuff including a trip to a cattle market, more cutting room stuff and possibly some baking too.

The kids have mostly played today. They are a bit twitchy here really as they don’t feel they have much left to learn and I can see their point but having talked it all over they are happy to see the 3 weeks out here. Our next host was due to be a community which sounded interesting from the WWOOF listing but has contacted me to say we are welcome to go but they were worried that as they don’t have livestock, are not self sufficient and don’t use alternative energy they may not have much to teach us. As it was a two week hosting and they were basically offering gardening and weeding work we decided to rearrange so I have contacted two other hosts to ask for a week each instead. The second week has already come back with a yes – the host we were supposed to be at in Glastonbury but she was ill, so at least if that falls through we can go to Paddington Farm or Middlewick. The first week is a community which has not replied yet but again we could go straight to Glastonbury and do Paddington or Middlewick, or we are close enough here to Steward Wood to do a week there if needs be. The week after that we are doing the turn round between bookings at a friend’s holiday cottage in Wales before heading up to Jan & Jonathan’s, where all four of us are ridiculously excited at the prospect of seeing friends – we are all really craving hanging out with people we know well.

Friday Market Day for me 🙂

Up super early and then a fair bit of hanging around waiting for Amanda to be ready. I hate that. I loathe hanging around waiting for people, particularly if I have gotten up earlier than I want to or have rushed myself. We brought her younger daughter Z with us too (I’m not super keen on her), drove to Tavistock and unloaded the car. I set the stall up while Amanda and Zoe moved the car as you have to park away from the market as the roads are pedestrian only after 9am. I enjoyed that bit of it, I like playing shop :).

The other stall holders were quite friendly, introducing themselves and chatting. The market is quite a small one, a pannier market with a variety of stalls. We had two tables and so set one out with meat joints, sausages and burgers and the other with pies and pasties.

Unfortunately it was a very slow day indeed with us only taking £100, which once stall fees, travel and the fact two of us had sat there from 8am til 4pm made it really not worth doing. We took it in turns to go and wander round the market, pop into the town for a walk round etc. and chatted but it still went very slowly indeed.

I offered to drive home as I’ve not driven since we left home so I enjoyed driving the 4×4 along the country roads – quite a nice drive :).

When we got back to the farm Mum & Dad had arrived so we all went in the house for a cup of tea and to introduce Mum & Dad to everyone. Pete & Emma recommended a local-ish pub for a meal so we went to Mum & Dad’s B&B to check in and then back to the pub for a meal. It was very lovely food and a really nice atmosphere plus fab to catch up with Mum & Dad and bring each other up to date on everything.

Even better was that when we came back to the van there was a note from Pete & Emma taped to the door to say they had decided to only do one market rather than two the following day and therefore as we’d worked so many hours already that week we could take Saturday, Sunday and Monday off 🙂 🙂

Saturday We decided to head for Bideford where Pete and Emma would be doing the market so we could go and see the set up and have a look round. There had been a rumour that a TV chef would be there on Saturday doing something for TV cameras and it sounded like it might be the bloke off One Man & His Campervan who we’d have been really pleased to meet and talk to so that was also a bit of a draw.

Mum & Dad got lost trying to get back from the B&B to us at the farm though so it was long past 11am when they arrived, by the time we’d had a cup of tea with them and walked around the farm a bit to show them round it was late and we didn’t get to Bideford until gone 2pm. We didn’t find the markets or the TV chef but we had a nice wander round, bought ourselves a length of washing line so we can set up a washing line now and some food in Morrisons for dinner.

We came back to the van and had a nice evening hanging out here sitting in the sunshine outside the van and having a picnic style dinner before Mum & Dad headed off to the B&B again.

Sunday We’d hidden mini eggs around the van before we went to sleep so the kids spent a riotous few minutes finding them – not many places to hide them really 😆 Mum & Dad arrived and we headed off to Okehampton for a few hours. We parked in the town and walked round, everything closed of course being Easter Sunday. We walked up the hill to the youth hostel and looked at the station and shop which was all open before walking back down the hill to try and find somewhere to get a sandwich. The two pubs were only selling roast dinners but we did find a little tearoom cafe which had sandwiches so we had lunch in there.

Back to farm for a couple more hours sitting in the sunshine and chatting before driving to the Village Inn again for dinner. Another nice evening and delicious food there, then Mum & Dad dropped us back, had a coffee with us and then said goodbye having decided to head straight for home on Monday morning rather than coming to see us as they were worried the journey would be long and trafficky.

It was really good to see them but hard to be hospitable when we live in a van. I was really aware it was a very expensive weekend for them, paying for their B&B and then taking us out for all those meals but we did offer to put the tent up and let them sleep in the van and to cook basic food in the van (although we don’t really have enough crockery and cutlery let alone oven space) – I think next time they visit we will have to plan better for mealtimes and of course they will have a better idea of what to expect.

I suddenly felt not very well but attributed it to having eaten far too much when I have not been used to big meals for weeks so went to bed but I woke a couple of hours later and was very sick 🙁 I just about managed to get outside of the van and was ill into the hedgerow, staggered over to the loo to clean my teeth and have a wash with very compromised vision in the dark without contact lenses. I did fall straight to sleep and slept through til morning.

Monday started far earlier than I’d have liked with both kids sitting on the bed playing DS – they are into some Farm World game which is hugely inaccurate, which they keep pointing out at length with their new status as farming experts ;). I felt pretty washed out and feeble but no longer sick. We had a quiet morning, I managed to eat some lunch and still feel okay so we had a walk in the woodland oppposite the farm this afternoon. It was very lovely, we spent some time just sitting still and quiet in the woods to see what we could see and hear and Davies spotted a deer quite close to us that we all watched for a while until it got spooked by us and ran off.

Scarlett found a geocache! We paused at two tree trunks to look at butterflies and she noticed a bag shoved between the two and pulled it out to find a box. That amused us all lots 🙂 we’ve been on plenty of geocache hunts with friends where the cache is never found despite fancy GPS machines, detailed clues and lots of people looking!

Back at the van the kids played with Zoe on the farm, I blogged and had some time online and Ady hung out with me in the van. We went in to have dinner – roast turkey, one of the ones we helped prepare last week – with everyone and chat about the coming week.

I have photos to add but poor Ady is falling asleep at the table so I need to help him turn the van into a bedroom and let him go to bed!

Ady was off to market early this morning and had a really good day there with Amanda. They didn’t sell loads but Ady really enjoyed playing Market Trader and bantering with other stall holders and customers and loved the whole bartering and swapping of produce that goes on there. They came back having sold a bit and had fun along with getting a load of fancy filo pastry pies for everyone’s dinner tonight.

I spent some time first thing with Pete helping unhitch and attach bits to the tractor to move some silage over for the calves to eat and then had half an hour sitting in the sunshine with the kids listening to the animals around the farmyard make their various noises and free range about doing their thing while we sat on a wall chatting. There is so much about this lifestyle that makes all four of us so very happy. We’re seeing the really tough side to this life here with money worries, incredibly long hours, dirty, dusty, smelly hard work and various other challenges but we all feel really at home, are enjoying everything and seeing how it could really suit us and our skills and ideas. It was one of those lovely snapshots this morning 🙂

My next job was to wash down some plastic crates ready to stack meat into so the kids and I got busy with hosepipe and brushes and cleaned them all up then it was time to go into the cutting room. Our first job was to put loads of pork through the mincing machine so we did that while Pete cut up another pig. The kids were then tasked with weighing out the mince into batches ready for sausage making while I got shown how to use the vaccuum packer and label printing scales and packed up all the cuts and joints. I did some marinating to make some barbecue packs of ribs and chops and we all watched Pete do various cuts and tieing of joints. As the weather is so nice Pete cubed a load of pork and gave it to Scarlett with some bamboo skewers and tasked her with making kebabs so she did about 25 of those and we packed them in various numbers for barbecues.

That took us to lunchtime so we went in for a sandwich and then sausage making commenced in earnest. Pete showed us how to make up batches of sausage mix, using the bought in packs of flavouring and preservative. They have made their own 100% fresh meat sausages before but as you can’t vaccuum pack sausages (they squash flat!) the dates on them are simply too short without preservatives so they stick with these. We washed off the salt preserved sausage skins and put them to soak in water then put the sausages mix through the finer mincer setting to get sausage meat.

Pete then showed us how sausages are made through the machine, fed into the skins and then twisted into linked strings of sausages. Today was a very busy day with a massive workload so we didn’t get a go at actually making them but hope to next week some time. I suspect there is far more of a knack to it than Pete made it look like ;).

The kids went off to play then, having spent hours in the cutting room and I did the cutting into individual sausages, putting into trays, wrapping, weighing, labelling and packing which I quickly got the hang of, along with making up various other mixes of sausage meat including; cumberland, pork & apple, hickory smoked, sweet chilli and traditional. We made both chipolatas and sausages in the thousands. Trays and trays and trays of them.

I really enjoyed it; I like the rhythym of work like that and the big trays of perfectly packed and labelled sausages ready for market tomorrow at the end of it really appealed to me. Ady arrived back and cleaned out the 4X4 car ready for market tomorrow and Scarlett came back in to have a go at the wrapping, weighing and labelling for a while. She was pretty good at it – definitely able to do that to saleable quality within a few days I reckon!

Dinner time was noisy with everyone catching up on each others days and working out who will be where over the next couple of days – can’t quite believe we’ve only done 3 working days so far… I had a shower to wash all the little bits of meat off that were stuck to me and then we retired to the van for hairbrushing and ear cleaning out as Mum & Dad are arriving tomorrow and will no doubt be checking kids for neglect levels ;).

Pics are slowly uploading to flickr, will drop them in when done but right now I need to get the van turned into a bedroom – I’m off to market in the morning!

This morning our first job was to work with Pete to move sheep. About 50 in the barn (that we had moved from a field into the barn yesterday) needed to go to another field 4 miles away as they have all now lambed. Pete did say ideally they would be walked to the field both because it can be done in one go and would take 90 minutes or so to walk the four miles and then keeps all ewes and lambs together the whole time rather than several runs (four in the end) with a trailer with an element of splitting up ewes and lambs for a while if they end up captured in different runs but the lambs are still too little to walk that far really so we did it the trailer way. This meant chasing a trailer load into the trailer, driving to the field, releasing them and then driving back for more. They are pretty stubborn sheep ;).We did the lot in about 90 minutes and four runs though and all the lambs got reunited with ewes.

Next we dropped Pete off to collect his tractor and Ady drove the 4×4 and trailer back. That got us to coffee o’clock.

The rest of the day was more bitty really – there was pasty and pie making happening inside but it was a lovely day and the kitchen is pretty cramped so I stayed outside with Ady. We did some hosing down a very dusty and dirty (although brand new) toilet and sink ready to go in the camping field toilet which is being built, cleared various rubbish, rubble, weeds out of the way to make the area look nice, took down some fencing and dug out some rubble to make a place to lay waste pipes.

Lunch was pasties 🙂 fresh from the oven – veal or pork and apple. Dinner was omelettes using the fresh eggs the kids had collected during the day.

The rest of the week is shaping up to look interesting. Tomorrow Ady is off to a market while I do some sausage making and meat packing; Friday I am off to market while Ady helps get the camping field totally finished and Saturday we are going to different markets as they do two, then it’s Sunday and Monday off.

because this seems to be a rather perfect place for us!

Up this morning and in the house for breakfast at 8am. A bit of background on the people here: Emma and Pete, married couple, together for 11 years. This is Pete’s in-the-family-for-four-generations farm land, but the original farmhouse went to his older brother who is not a farmer, so Pete has the land and has just got planning permission after about 6 years of farming here for a farmhouse to be built. Currently they live in a collection of portakabins, statics and farm buildings. Pete did leave farming and is a builder, but came back to it when he married Emma. Emma is a hairdresser by trade, very horsey family and is now a farmers wife / baker. Emma’s 3 kids all also live here – son aged 21 lives in a static with his girlfriend – he breeds ducks and rare breed chickens and is a carpenter. Other son aged 20 lives here and is a trainee brickie, daughter aged 19 usually lives here but is currently in Ireland working in horse racing with family. Very close family. Also here at the moment is a friend, Amanda, with her two daughters; Gemma aged 17 and Zoe aged 8. They are planning on moving down here from East Sussex and are having a working holiday helping out with various stuff here with a long term aim of selling up in Sussex and moving here to work for Emma and Pete. They are here til the weekend.

This morning Emma took one of her sons to the doctors as he has bad toothache. Ady, Davies, Scarlett and I helped Pete (and Zoe and Jess the sheepdog) move sheep and lambs from the field into a shed. This was harder than it sounds and we lost two down the road. Once all the others were in we had to track them down and the kids had to stop traffic while we chased them. I commented to Pete that I now knew why you don’t see fat sheep farmers! Me, running, before 9am!!!

We then followed Pete in his tractor delivering it to a nearby farm which meant driving a farm truck for Ady and riding in the back of it for the rest of us.

Next we chose 2 sheep and a calf for the abbatoir. This involved chasing various sheep, catching and turning them over to see if they were still feeding lambs by squeezing them to see if they gave milk. By 930am I had been dragged over by a ram and squirted with ewes milk so I had sheep shit and milk all over my top. Sheep and calf in the trailer we went for a cup of tea and learnt how to fill out the Defra paperwork for moving lifestock before heading off to the abbatoir.

It’s a really small abbatoir, based in a farm where one of the sons worked at an abbatoir and another at a butchers before bringing it home and setting up at the farm small scale. So they rear their own meat to slaughter and sell direct to the public from a small farm shop, take in animals to kill for local farmers and will either slaughter and store ready to be collected or do butchering for people too. They do pigs, cattle and sheep. The skins of the cows and the fleeces of the sheep are all kept and salted to be used for leather / sheepskin rugs and sold on.

We hung around for quite a while because the vet who is always on site at an abbatoir had been in an accident earlier in the day (car, nothing to do with animal killing!) and so all of the work had been delayed waiting for him. While we waited we looked round at the butchering area, the cold meat storage where animals are hung, the skins drying in the sun and then helped catch some runaway sheep making a last bid for freedom. We then watched some pigs being slaughtered – stunned, hung up and throats slit and helped move some more livestock about before leaving the lambs and calf there and collecting two pigs which had been dropped off last week and were now hung and ready to bring back for butchering.

It was really interesting. Pigs are squealy anyway but there was no feeling or atmosphere of fear like I was expecting there. Dispatch was calm, kind, very speedy and I personally was most reassured by it. Davies and Scarlett were really interested, dealt very well with it all, asked loads of relevant questions and had the perfect mix of compassion for animals while still being meat eaters. I was proud of them.

Then it was back for (a very late) lunch.

The kids went off to play, they have been looking after some of the lambs including one which is suffering from ill-joint, an affliction a bit like arthritis with sore and swollen joints which happens due to a naval infection at birth. The afflicted sheep has had an injection which should perk it up.

Ady worked with Pete all afternoon, labouring for him really. They are opening a field for camping so have been putting in hook up and water taps and today built a very rustic shower and toilet block which a plumber is coming to plumb in tomorrow. Ady has been doing all sorts of stuff including chainsawing, cementing, humping stuff about etc.

Meanwhile I helped out in the kitchen. Emma and Pete sell meat and produce at various different markets and farmers markets in the area with fresh cuts of meat and sausages going first and any unsold coming back to be cooked up into pies and pasties and sold at the next market. They try to barter for all the rest of their produce at markets – so the fruit, veg, bread, dairy produce, cheese etc is mostly swapped with other farmers for meat. Today we were making pie and pasty mix with pork, lamb and veal which meant chopping up and cooking veg, frying meat, making up enormous volumes of pastry and pre cooking pie filling ready for assembling and baking tomorrow for market on Thursday. I made 9kg of flour worth of pastry, peeled and chopped many, many veg and stirred lots and lots of frying meat. It felt like Christmas camp! Flour, splashes of cooking fat etc. all added to my grubby t shirt.

Then we all went out to catch cockerels which will be made into chicken pies tomorrow. There were 7 around the farm and they took some catching with involved further running, grabbing and chasing and a full body slam dive for Ady to the ground which unfortunately missed the chicken but did entertain and amuse all of us! 😉

Then it was dinner – cottage pie 🙂 and sausages :). Food is bloody good here, meat-tastic again!

After dinner we went back out to help kill and pluck chickens and turkeys. The 7 cocks we’d caught and 5 turkeys which had already been enclosed since yesterday. They have a licence to kill poultry and fowl here so we washed down the killing room and set up our assembly line. Chicken or turkey goes upside down in a cone with head hanging out the bottom and is stunned with electric prod then throat slit and hung to bleed. Once done it goes into a hot water bath to open pores and then onto a plucking machine which removes about 95% of the feathers. It is then hand plucked to remove the rest along with the head and feet.

Pete did all the actual killing, Ady did some hanging and passing live and dead birds, the kids did some plucking and passing and checking the water temperature was right for the bath and I did some hand plucking and finishing with Emma.

Scarlett did cry at one point as she struggled with the alive and then dead bit and the flapping as muscles twitched as she is understandably attached to chickens more than most other livestock (except perhaps ducks) but we all talked it through and she was fine afterwards and carried on helping. I am pleased that neither of the kids has a blase attitude to the slaughtering and that they are showing compassion and caring but at the same time I don’t want to end this year with vegetarian offspring so I am glad they are able to work it through.

I’m sure I have more to say on the subject and I know I have stuff to talk about my own feelings on it too, but that will have to wait. For now I wanted to get down what we did today as it was so full on, so filled with new stuff and so very much what we left the house to do I want to make sure I record it all while still fresh in my mind as I suspect every day will be like this here.

Back in for showers – final splattering on my t shirt was chicken and turkey blood along with lots of tiny feathers – and a glass of wine with everyone before heading back to the van for the night. Today has felt like all of our WWOOFing objectives in one day and although there is plenty here which is not what we are wanting to do and this is not our own personal goal we are going to learn and see so much here I think it will be one of our most valuable places despite not actually being an offical or even planned host!

So, a 15 hour day, bloody hard work and every chance we will be having 3 weeks worth of long days, early starts, late finishes and learning on our feet but I think it might well be the equivalent to cramming a 4 year degree into 3 weeks.

what a day today has been!

This morning we got up, breakfasted, packed the van up and headed over for a cup of tea and a goodbye with Denise & Glyn. Davies and Scarlett had drawn pictures and written thank you notes for them – featuring Kim the dog and Billy the bull to take over. They trumped us with a photo of the farm & view, a very touching thank you card for all we had done and wishing us well on our adventures and making us promise to stay in touch and come back to visit – oh and £3 each ‘pocket money’ for the kids! Such lovely people 🙂 All that gardening is forgiven!

We finally left with hugs and well wishes and waving and were off. We wanted to stop at Trago Mills as it was on the way and we had a shopping list of things to get including shoes for Davies (his fell apart at Paddington Farm so he’s been using crocs or wellies but that doesn’t really cut it for being out in weather that isn’t extremes), jeans for both kids who have both had a growth spurt – Scarlett’s were all too tight round the waist, Davies’ all too short, and neither of them had a pair which didn’t have holes in the knees or ingrained mud. We originally came away with china and glass plates and bowls from home but they are heavy in the back of the van, a nusiance to move about and just too big and bulky so we are sending them home with my parents at the weekend and wanted to get melamine versions. We also needed some motoring bits – antifreeze, lead replacement treatment and automatic transmission fluid. Trago Mills is horrid, a big discount style store selling absolutely *everything* and full of people but it does have very easy parking and everything we needed and was along our route so we spent nearly 2 hours there crossing everything off our list and despite spending all of this weeks’ budget in one go we did only get what we had set out to buy :). We got lunch from the bakery and sat in the sunshine eating and watching the peacocks there.

The route should have been straightforward but satnav took us over a very steep single track hill and back down again and at the point when the temperature gauge had hit red we saw a sign for 16% incline steepness of hill. I’m not sure who was hotter – Ady or Willow! 😆 She was fine though and she definitely cooled down again quicker than he did ;).

We hit the small town the host is in but drove up and down the road three times failing to find the farm so I rang to ask directions and got an answerphone with a message to say it was full and no more calls could be taken. Gulp. This is the host who had forgotten she’d booked us when I rang to confirm the other week because my email bounced back, so I was starting to question whether she even existed, let alone had a farm we could WWOOF at! Eventually we pulled over and walked up and down, stopping to knock on a door and ask in the end. We were directed to it, drove in, I got snarled at by a neighbour and a builder told us she had ‘popped out for an hour’. We parked up and looked round – pigs, ducks, chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits etc. a caravan with hook up and a nice, if very tatty set up. Karen then arrived, huddled us off down the field with her to say she was having dreadful trouble with her neighbour (it sounds like all out war!), was going on holiday on Saturday and had decided it wasn’t fair to have us there without her to show us anything so she had arranged for us to go to her friends up the road instead – the ones who could teach us some butchery. She would however like us to come back each night and stay there so the neighbour doesn’t do anything to her pigs. She then jumped in her car and told us to follow her, barely waiting for us on all the sharp bends and twisty roads and hills and took us up to said friends. Introduced us, bitched a bit more about the neighbour and then left!

Once we had got over all that we introduced ourselves properly to Pete and Emma, the farmers here – Evergreen Farm and had easily the best host tour we’ve had. We met the chickens, ducks, turkeys, horses, pigs, calves, sheep, dogs. Were shown the fields, barns, sheds, brooders for chicks and ducklings, round the house – which is 3 old portakabins / ex classrooms hitched together to form a rather sprawling house, told where we could do washing, have baths, find everything in the kitchen, watch TV, play pool, help ourselves to everything. Shown where to park the van on a spot with hook up and water and checked we are definitely ok to sleep in the van and promised a bed in the house if we want it.

They sell meat and eggs, at farmers markets and to order, the unsold meat then comes back and is made into pies and pasties which are also sold at farmers markets. They do slaughter of poultry here and take other livestock to the abbatoir weekly, collecting the hung meat a week later to bring back and butcher here, pack up and sell.

We will be doing any or all of the following apparently: killing, butchering, making sausages, packing up, baking pies and pasties, driving to markets and helping to sell, feeding and looking after livestock, moving animals about the farm.

Ady and I went to sort the van out, the kids went to find some treehouses they’d been told about and went so far they had to be brought back on the back of the quad bike for dinner, we had a lovely chaotic meal with them, met their sons who both live there – one in the house and one in a static with his girlfriend. One is a carpenter and one a bricklayer. There is a daughter but she is away in Ireland at the moment. They also have a friend and her two daughters – aged 8 and 17 staying who live fairly close to us in Sussex but are planning to move down so are staying to see how they get on and are also helping out.

After dinner the kids went out to play on the quad bike with the two daughters while we helped clear up dinner and chat before all having baths (hurrah for baths!) and I even had a glass of wine with the friend. I suspect this will be hard work – we’re working Tuesday to Saturday and then having Sunday & Monday off this week, with some early starts and late evenings but they seem really nice people and this is just the sort of set up we hoped we’d find with all the relevant skills we want to learn and experiences we want to have in one place.

I’ve no idea quite what will happen with the actual host we are supposed to be with – she is more of a loose acquaintance with Emma & Pete who we are now with, than the ‘friend’ she made herself out to be. We are hoping to be left alone here and I guess we owe her nothing so are quite able to say sorry, but we’re staying here!

This morning we went down to the big farmhouse as Ady had offered to have a look at a bit of leaky outside pipe from the kitchen sink to the drain. Denise gave us a lift down in the pick up and she went off for a walk round with the dog and the kids while Ady and I did that. To be fair it was mostly Ady who did that, I stood watching and wrinkling my nose at the smell of a blocked drain pipe 😉

We then had a guided tour of the house, which we’d only been in a couple of downstairs rooms of previously. It’s three floors with grand sweeping staircases, nine bedrooms, pantry, kitchens, parlours and so on and despite being in a very bad state of repair is simply stunning. The views from the top floor are something else.

Back up to the farm and Ady and I did an hour or so of mowing, him following me as I had the mulcher and he the mower. The kids played with the dog and Scarlett spent time with the cows and calves. Denise then dashed down with some eggs to her mum who had started baking and realised she’d run out so I finished laying out lunch and we all ate. Denise made me go and get the last of our dirty washing which she got washed and dried for us – she has been fantastic to us :). I checked it was okay to have Steve & Sarah to come and visit and she sent us round to the campsite with their chairs and instructions to move benches, along with talking Sarah in over the phone when they rang to say they couldn’t find us.

A lovely couple of hours sitting chatting to Steve and Sarah in the sunshine. It felt most odd to be playing host in a field that isn’t ours but has been our home for the week. I know Ady enjoyed being able to make people cups of tea after so long being a guest to other people! 😉 Davies and Scarlett showed Josiah around and then they sat in the van with consoles :rolls:

We wandered back over for feeding time and helped fill up sacks of feed ready for the morning, the kids had a last ride in the quad bike trailer and a last game of football with Kim the dog aswell as a quick self timer or three in the cow shed 😉
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Then it was dinner time – beef (naturally 😉 ) burgers and chips followed by the most spectacular take on baked Alaska ever – flan case crammed with strawberries, loaded with ice cream then topped with home made meringue baked in the oven. Divine :). The kids, who have eaten like horses all week were finally beaten on this one and didn’t manage to finish their seconds!

We were presented with a lemon drizzle cake baked just for us by Joan, Denise’s mum as the kids have raved about it all week, so that’s cake rations for the rest of next week :).

It’s been a fab stay here after a rather shaky start, which Denise is still beating herself up over. I confess to not having loved all the gardening but the highs have more than made up for the lows and we could have happily stayed here another week. Another place with offers to come back another time and stay in touch, more ideas to add to our list and more new skills and experiences had here.

Tomorrow we move on to our longest planned host of 3 weeks. Fingers crossed for another good one.

Ady went down to the farmhouse this morning to finish the garden, while I went across to get the mower. Denise asked me to do some clearing out in the cow shed first though as the grass was still quite wet with dew, so I spent half an hour or so sweeping, wiping and mopping the corner of the shed where the calves formula feed is made up. The calves were really funny, edging away from me while I was looking at them but then creeping up behind me while I was working and nibbling and sucking at my clothes. They are like toddlers – weaned but still like chewing and sucking for comfort so will suckle away at your fingers or a corner of your clothing.

When I’d finished that I went into the kitchen and had a cup of tea with Glyn then we took the mowers round to the camping field and I went up and down with the mulcher while Glyn followed me with the mower cutting slightly lower and picking up the clippings. We paused for another cup of tea when Denise came home (she’d been into town) and brought out drinks for us, which we sat on the bench in the camping field with chatting to a couple who had just arrived – we have neighbours both sides of us now having had the field to ourselves all week. Both couples in caravans, both local and just here for the weekend.

I carried on mowing til lunchtime and Davies appeared having walked up to join me – he and Scarlett had spent the morning down with Ady playing with the dog at the farmhouse. Lunch was once again a luncheon 😉 leftover beef, pizza, salad, home made coleslaw and potatoe salad and bread.

We met Sam, the hosts son over lunch which was nice, he’s an interesting bloke – a lorry driver for Riverford. Several friends arrived after lunch so we left them to it and came and chilled out in the van for an hour or so. Then we walked down to the farm next door – about 15 minutes away where Glyn was doing the afternoon milking shift to watch. 120 cows, all milked by machine, 6 at a time. After learning how that all worked I asked how easy milking by hand was and Glyn showed me so the kids and I all had a go including squirting into our hands so we could try it ‘straight from the cow’. Glyn said afterwards we should have brought a bottle down to milk into and bring back – wish we’d thought of that.
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We stayed for about 90 minutes watching it all happening and having a couple of goes before walking back up the hill again for dinnertime. Glyn was there for another couple of hours finishing up and waiting for the milk van to collect.

Dinner was chicken – first time we’ve been here and not had beef! Very lovely again though, chicken and leeks in cream sauce, bacon and potato gratin, carrots cooked in honey glaze and more home made bread, followed by waffles and maple syrup and served with a bottle of rose wine! Definitely, definitely the best food hosts so far 🙂

We all had showers, caught up with Glyn when he got home, had interesting chats with Denise and Sam about organic vs local vs seasonal vs welfare food vs fair trade and what hierarchy you choose, what ethical really means and whether Riverford is really any better than Tescos. Fascinating stuff :).

Face is very nearly on the mend. It is still puffy first thing in the morning and I have various dry and sore patches around my eyes along with lots of flaky bits and several spots but at least I now just look like a rather older and more tired version of myself instead of someone else entirely. We’re doing a couple of tasks in the morning and then looking forward to an afternoon catching up with Sarah & co 🙂

A *much* better day today 🙂

This morning we were back to the big house for gardening but the kids and I had a wander along to the village to the post office as Ady had managed to bring a key from Jill’s along with us in his jeans pocket so we posted that back. It was really nice to have that half an hour with Davies and Scarlett and we chatted about all sorts of things including which host has been their favourite so far. They are both still missing Steward Wood and would go back there (and live!) in a flash. I’m really chuffed about that for all sorts of reasons, not least because they have so not been seduced by the delights of the holiday cottages and were able to tell me all sorts of reasons why they loved SWC (all of which were very in line with Ady and I and our chats).

Back at the house I tackled a pampass grass and some cutting back of roses and brambles – all the prickliest jobs! I’ve never really believed when people say pampass grass is sharp but it bloody is, it was like sandpaper on my arms and drew blood in a couple of places. Still preferable to weeding mind you ;). We had a cup of tea / coffee / slice of cake with June who is a fascinating woman – farmers wife, mother of 3, ran a B&B, foster mother, now carer to her husband and worked since she was 14 at all sorts of manner of jobs. She’s well into her 80s now but very sprightly, still busy all the time and was telling us today how she can ‘do the email’ :).

At 1pm we headed up the hill for lunch with Denise and Glynn, home made (every single bit from scratch) pizza which was delicious. This afternoon we’d said we were up for a change of task and were given making up some sheds to do. They had got them second hand and dismantled from someone previously using them as kennels although they are going to use them as chicken coops. They were in about 8 pieces each, excellent quality and really heavy so we dragged them all out and worked out how they went together then Denise went off in her pick up, taking Davies and Scarlett with her along for the ride to get some nuts and bolts as the fixings were missing.

When they got back Ady and I put them together and then Glynn took one of them round on the tractor to put in the camping field. It’s to be used as an information shed with eggs and other stuff for sale with an honesty box, leaflets about the local area and information about the site. The second will be the chicken shed. The kids learnt how to hammer nails straight again to re-use.

With time built in for a tea break sitting in the garden chatting about how Denise and Glynn met – he was 18, she was 13, she said she knew she’d marry him the day she first met him 🙂 that was the afternoon gone.

They have various little sayings here, both of them say ‘arp’ lots, just like one of the characters on Hot Fuzz, they also say ‘ideal’ a bit like Ness on Gavin & Stacey says ‘tidy’ and they both call objects ‘he’ or ‘him’ – things like plates, spoons, sheds etc. Ady and I are enjoying joining in with that ;).

Dinner was roast beef and all the trimmings – we’ve never been so well fed! Every lunch is proper sit down fayre and every single dinner has been beef from their cattle; stew, bolognaise or roast. Home made desserts and cake twice a day. I am being very sensible with portions and not drinking wine as I really don’t want to undo all the healthy eating although I am still keeping my salad, fruit and veg portions up too :).

After dinner the kids went back to play outside til it got dark – about 9pm and we sat chatting. We have clicked with them now and get on well, I came clean about not really loving the gardening and it was agreed I would do some mowing in the morning while Ady goes and just finishes off the gardening. We are supposed to be ‘off’ tomorrow afternoon and were thinking of going into Plymouth but the offer came up to go along with Glynn who does milking for the neighbouring farmer tomorrow afternoon so we’ve jumped at that instead. Hopefully we can also do something livestock-wise on Sunday too before moving on on Monday.

D & G love Davies and Scarlett, they think they are fab. They seem to really like the Home Ed idea and both coming from farming families where kids were always missing market day and haymaking times off school to help out at the farm and learnt far more there they are very supportive of what we’re doing this year. They have 2 children my age; one lives here part time but does HGV driving for Riverford, the other lives in Australia and have foster parented for years. Denise said today she loves spending time with children like Davies and Scarlett after so many years dealing with damaged children and they are both endlessly tolerant and indulgent of their noise, muddy feet, grubby hands and huge appetite for the meat at the dinner table!

It’s taken a bit of warming up here, the start wasn’t great with Denise being away and there has been excessive amounts of gardening but once again the people make up for it and we’re getting in plenty of the sort of stuff I am interested in in these last couple of days. I think one week is probably too short for here and I would consider coming back for 2 weeks with a clearly set out ‘project’ to while here as I think they value people who come with an aim – previous WWOOFers have done stuff like dry stone walling, building kennels from scratch, helping install stuff in the campsite etc. But the food is supreme, the conversation interesting and the support and interest in us and our lives and plans is really lovely :).

But made my peace with it – I can tolerate almost anything for four days 😉

This morning we walked down to the farmhouse and spent the whole day in the garden there. The kids had a great day, playing with the dog, drawing and just adventuring around the place. Ady and I did weeding but we had a laugh and lots of chatting so not so bad. I still hate gardening though…

Lunch almost made up for it, another ‘proper spread’ of quiche, salad and home made jelly and ice cream. The kids had set the table and made us tea and coffee too which was nice. It feels a bit like we’ve slipped into one of Enid Blyton’s books somehow.

I had a phonecall from Jill this morning who said she is missing us and pizza night was very quiet without us last night. I had another phonecall this evening from Julie and we’ve got a visit from Mum & Dad next weekend so it’s been good to have contact and we’re looking forward to some real life catching up with people soon.

This evening we went in for dinner and I got to stick a load of washing in the machine which is good, we had already racked up a full bag of muddy and wet stuff. It’s interesting to see the wear and tear on clothes, I have a pair of jeans I guess I’ll be chucking out rather than washing again, they are through at the knees and leg and I must have lost weight as they keep falling down too. I can see why Barbara Good wore dungarees! Scarlett must have grown too as she’s complaining all her jeans are too tight. At least we’re getting plenty of wearings out of clothes though, no point in putting clean stuff on to get it filthy again within half an hour of wearing it. I do worry we’ll all be like Bod in the photos of the year – wearing the same outfits in every single location! 😆

Tomorrow we’re finishing off the garden in the morning then doing some chicken house making up in the afternoon, which Ady is dreading but I’m looking forward to – something practical and useful, hurrah! Not sure what we’re expected to work Saturday and Sunday with regard to days off etc. I’m hoping at least one of the days we’ll have a chance to head off for a walk around the area. I think one week hostings are great for places you are struggling to cope with but I suspect you don’t get a really good feel for the place as it’s just not long enough. It will be interesting to see how our next host pans out as that is for 3 weeks.

My face is sore and tight and feels chapped and my eyes are really puffy in the mornings still. I need to read back last years posts and see what it was doing then – I’m a bit worried that I’m supposed to be reducing my steroids dose from tomorrow but I don’t feel it’s properly stopped yet.

Yet another ‘oh my god, what have we walked into here’ start has turned around again :).

When we arrived here on Monday it was to a rather odd welcome of a typical farmer mumbling and not making eye contact looking at his feet and saying his wife wasn’t here and could we park in the camping field next door. We decided that would be fine, found a spot, loved the view, enjoyed the hook up and ate from our tinned goods stash.

Yesterday morning we wandered over to the farmhouse just after 9am but there was noone to be seen so after some debate we decided if we hadn’t worked the morning we were unlikely to be getting any lunch and should therefore go and buy something for lunch. I also wanted to get a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun off my face and Davies has either lost, eaten or worn out sock supplies in the weeks since we left home when I’m sure he had a full week supply but when we did some clothes crate rearranging on Monday he was sadly lacking so we added socks to our shopping list too. We popped a note through the door to say we’d gone off for food supplies, would be back around lunchtime and to ring if they needed us along with my phone number and headed off into the nearest town.

Willow baulked at the hills and flatly refused to climb one of them which meant we had to do a rather scary reverse down a single track round around a corner and back into someone’s narrow drive for a 7 point turn with me standing to stop any traffic and shout helpful things like ‘keep her coming, whoa, STOP!’ etc. We found an alternative route and once she was warmed up she chugged up and down hills okay. We’re learning she needs careful treatment and lots of cosseting!

Ivybridge is a funny old place; a real mix of local shops selling local produce (probaby only to local people ;)), random high street chains such as Peacocks (good for wide brimmed hats and boys socks) and very expensive charity shops. We got lunch and something for dinner incase we needed it then headed back. We had lunch in the van and then went and knocked on the door again. This time Glyn was there and said ‘d’you want a job?’ to which we said yes so we spent a happy couple of hours mowing the grass in our camping field. I’ve never used a mower before so very happily learnt all about what levers did what, how to start it (petrol), empty the grass box and so on and then ploughed up and down in fairly straight lines while Ady did raking up the grass. We had a few chats with Glyn and he gave us a box of eggs, then at 5pm showed us all the cows and said it was time for tea.

We headed back to Willow and I sat inside in the sunshine blogging, the kids ran around playing and Ady sat chatting on his phone to a friend, then taking arty pictures of the hot air balloon that drifted across as the sun set. All very beautiful :). Denise arrived home and came over to introduce herself and apologise for not having been here before, check we were okay and arrange to see us at 9am down at the farmhouse this morning for work.

So today has been far more what it’s supposed to be about. We spent nearly an hour drinking tea and chatting with Denise and her mum, hearing what WWOOF host experiences they have had and telling what WWOOFer experiences we have had, expectations and so on. We were then given some gardening work to do, shown tools and brought out tea, coffee and home made cake at 11am. The kids were off walking the dog and playing and adventuring around the farmyard.

I was fairly grumpy first thing as I really don’t like gardening at all. I find it pointless and boring. I don’t mind planting or tending or weeding fruit or vegetables but I am just not interested in flowers and shrubs and I never know what is and isn’t a weed. I don’t feel like I’m achieving my aims of learning new skills. Plus at this place, a very gorgeous 9 bedroom farmhouse that is in a state of utter disrepair with windows falling out, slates off the roof, barns falling down it felt like trying to polish a turd. I said this to Ady who told me I sounded just like my Dad – not one of his phrases (I think I heard it from Layla actually) but I’m sure he’d love it and use it if I told him it. I cheered up when Ady came to work alongside me though and we could chat while we worked.

I cheered up even more at lunchtime when we were called in at 1pm for a real Famous Five feast – ham, jacket potatoes, salad, home made coleslaw, boiled eggs, followed with tea and coffee and bread & butter pudding. All that was missing was lashings of ginger beer!

We went in to the front room after lunch to be introduced to Denise’s Dad who had a stroke 4 years ago and is bedridden in there with carers coming in round the clock. Hard to see who was once clearly a hardworking, strong man running a huge farm in it’s day laid out like that 🙁

Back out to the garden to carry on round the front this time. We made a good start but it was raining and although we kept thinking it would pass over it got heavier and heavier until we were starting to get pretty wet. The kids were in the kitchen playing and chatting to Denise’s mum so we finished up the bit we were doing and decided to call it a day on that. We’d been told there was other stuff to do up at Glyn & Denise’s (they are in a bungalow next to the camping field, two fields up from the farmhouse) under cover if it rained so decided to go and do that instead, promising to return to finish the gardening later in the week if the weather picks up.

We walked back up the fields, quite steep, put me in mind of Steward Wood 😉 and found Glyn and Denise in the bungalow so joined them for a cup of tea, and more cake (lemon drizzle this time, Davies fell in love with it and wants the recipe so we can make it in the van, never had so much home baking away from home ed camps!) and sat chatting to them for about an hour. We then went out to help Glyn with the evening cattle feed. The young calves have calf formula which smells just like ice cream and is made like baby milk formula. They drink it from a long trough with teats. The rest of the young cattle have feed and a constant supply of hay. They have had a variety of ages and breeds here but all beef cattle, alongside the camping field but in years gone by have done dairy farming too and had pigs, sheep and were once self sufficient in fruit & vegetables (and I guess meat, eggs, dairy etc too) for two families along with running a B&B in the farmhouse, showing it can be done but on a bloody big scale – they have 145 acres here.

Once again I suspect we won’t learn much practical hands on skills here as livestock contact is limited to two half hour feeds a day (although Glyn does do milking at the farm down the road a couple of times a week and I am angling to get invited along when he’s on a shift on Saturday afternoon) but there is a wealth of experience and historical having tried these things here spanning three generations so plenty of time to chat and learn hypthetically from them.

Dinner was beef stew – from their own cattle, followed by home made pineapple upside down cake. Definitely the best fed we’ve been anywhere 🙂 Will need to do lots of strenuous gardening tomorrow to work it all off ;). We all had showers and chatted with Glyn & Denise for an hour or so after dinner before wandering back to Willow in the field next door.

I downloadede a few Morpurgo books for the kindle yesterday and read the kids ‘Cool’ last night and the first chapter of ‘Kaspar’ tonight which was nice. We’ve let bedtime stories slip so it’s good to get back to that again :). Had a phonecall tonight from Mum & Dad who are coming to stay near us next weekend (Easter) which will be good.

My face has stopped being itchy and swollen but the skin is now all flaking off and I’m not wearing make up because it just looks silly. I’m hugely relieved to have stopped it in it’s tracks this time though and fingers crossed it won’t come back – I think I’ll stay on the daily antiH for the summer.

Face: not so itchy, has stopped swelling, is very red and bumpy and skin in crap condition. Suspect it will flake and scab etc. like last time but at least I avoided the swelling like a melon and then sagging afterwards stage. Small mercies eh?!

Leaving Middlewick: quite teary actually. Big hugs with Jill, Jonathan, Shirley, Kathleen and Norman (Jonathan’s Mum & Dad). Offers to go back any time, no need to be working guests, could come as friends etc. Wonder if this will happen at every host, so far it’s been a 3 out of 3 occurance…

Journey to next host: 90 miles, mostly along the M5. Willow started each time, ran really well and despite Ady getting all stressy when we hit the red line on the petrol gauge and pulled off into Exeter to find a petrol station (cue me looking at ‘nearest’ on satnav and being convinced it was Steve & Sarah’s place – do you sell fuel?) all was well. We did then pay super high services prices per litre and as Ady was so relieved to have found somewhere he rather giddily filled it up – 63 quid eek! and then we were all starving so got lunch from M&S services – another 9 quid further eek.

Arrival at next hosts: I’ve rather messed this woman about, asking if we could arrive early, emailing to say we didn’t need to arrive early after all, ringing to say actually could we now arrive late, but she wreaked her revenge today by not actually being here to meet us! We found the place, knocked on the door to no reply and then her husband appeared on his tractor to say ‘the missus ain’t here right now, I don’t really deal with all this. Can you sleep in your van, I can’t do no cooking like’. He directed us to the field next door where they have 5 hook up and water pitches for caravans and chemical loo disposal but no other facilities and told us to take our pick of pitches. We did and the views are stunning, we can even see the sea through a gap in the hills. He then reappeared to offer us a cup of tea, looking very hopeful we’d say no and said his wife will be back tomorrow, he thinks we’ll be staying in the big farmhouse with his inlaws and did we need anything. Ady assured him we’d be fine for tonight and would wait to meet his wife tomorrow. So we’ve caught up online, had food from our emergency tinned supply, watched a gorgeous sunset, read a couple of stories from the kindle to the kids and enjoyed being back in the van and on track for our adventures.

Reconnecting as a four: interesting chats, some of which made it onto WW blog posts. Davies wanted to know about plants and people and oxygen and carbon dioxide further to a conversation we started but didn’t properly finish the other day so I googled and came up with this little gem. Yay, still feel like I do Home Educate after all ;).

On being Inspirational: Thanks to reading Merry’s blog I’ve discovered the WW blog is nominated for something on some blogging award thing, highly entertained it has ‘inspirational’ in the title – which one of you did that as a joke then?! 😉

Saturday I was awake in the night with facial itching and sure enough I woke to a face that was red and bumpy and very itchy 🙁 I took piriton which did ease the itching and stayed out of the sun and hoped it might go away on it’s own (the itching, not my face).

We worked on clearing out the pumphouse, a room within the swimming pool building which houses the pool pump and various other pool related stuff but also a whole heap of other junk and lots and lots of dust! Ady and I worked together for most of the morning dragging stuff out, deciding whether it was rubbish, charity-shop-donate-able or for keeping and dealing with it accordingly. The stuff to keep (mostly crockery, cutlery and other kitchen stuff for cottages) was all in need of a good clean so I was running it through dishwashers in unoccupied cottages while Ady put stuff in the skip / recycling or pile for the charity shop. A delivery of a sofa from the charity shop arrived, we loaded them back up to take the stuff for them we’d already gathered and then Jonathan came back from some errands in town with a huge platter of sandwiches from Subway, drinks and cakes so we broke for a big communal lunch in the sunshine :).

After lunch Jill & Shirley (resident manager, masseur and all round lovely person) went to the campsite next door to introduce themselves, make an offer of discounts for coming and using the pool & steam room here when booking massages for their guests and arrange to have a couple of the farmers sheep to graze on the field here. I was left in charge of the office while they went on alert for some arriving guests, who very conveniently arrived just moments after Jill and Shirely came back so I didn’t need to check them in after all. Meanwhile Jonathan took over helping Ady in the pump room.

At 5pm I had another massage with Shirley as she wanted to practise a different type, so my payment was feedback and comparing the two. Seemed like a good deal to me :). After a quick bath to get the oil out of my hair we were all off (10 of us in all; us, Jill, Jonathan & Thomas, Norman & Kathleen – Jonathan’s parents, and Shirley) for a meal out, to celebrate the inspector’s visit, say thankyou to us and generally enjoy being with each other away from the cottages. It was J&J’s treat and a really nice evening at a local restuarant :). We went back to theirs for coffees afterwards so it ended up another quite late night.

Sunday after another fairly bad nights sleep with itchy face I woke to find it hard to get my contact lenses in as my eyes had swollen up and started to close. At that point (I think it was day three before I went to the GP last time) I decided I needed to do something so went to find Jill to say I’d walk down to the hospital at the end of the road which is tiny but does have an A&E unit. It’s only about a mile or so but Jill very kindly ran me down there and told me to ring when I’d been seen and she would come and get me and take me to a chemist. I was seen really quickly and the nurse was very sympathetic and interested in what we are doing this year but said she didn’t think they’d be able to help as I was not an accident or an emergency 🙁 Sure enough after about 15 minutes another nurse came along to say they couldn’t give me anything other than more anti histimines. I knew I needed steroids to stop the reaction having tried various antiH’s last time. When I tried to justify it as an emergency as in time sensitive and with me about to head to another county tomorrow I was told I’d need to register with a GP either here or in Devon tomorrow :(.

I was torn between appreciating that’s how it works, feeling really pissed off about not being helped and really upset at the prospect of a fight and a long drawn out pathway to getting steroids so walked back to the cottages to stamp out some of my frustration. I had been given the number of the out of hours emergency GP and told I could try them but the nurse suspected they would not help as it was not a health threatenining proper emergency so I almost didn’t ring but I did, explained to a very nice woman what the problem was and she promised to get a GP to ring me back. Once I’d stomped back up the hill (all the time thinking it was cheeky even calling itself a hill after the hill I encountered at Steward Wood!) and ranted at Ady and made a cup of tea the GP had rung back, totally got my angst and wish to get some steroids quick, and why I needed to be seen asap before I moved on and made me an appointment at Shepton Mallet A&E with the resident GP there for an hour later, giving me a postcode and directions to the hospital.

Jill kindly offered to take me there too so we drove along there, sat chatting in the waiting room for half an hour and I was then seen by a very lovely GP (who reminded me lots of Jan, both generally in being very peaceful an easy to talk to and specifically in what I suspect Jan’s doctorly manner is) who empathised, listened to all I had to say, agreed a 10 day steroid course was the best solution in view of previous experiences but said to stop at 5 days if it has completely gone, advised taking one a day non drowsy antiH from mid-March through til the end of summer as a precautionary measure to avoid repeats and wrote down the specific active ingredient and told me to get the cheapest ‘Boots own’ version and then gave me directions to the nearest chemist. Faith in the system 100% restored 🙂

We went into Shepton Mallet, via a fancy farm shop where Jill bought us a sandwich each and parked up, realised SM is indeed a dead high street that the TV show failed to revitalise with probably only a quarter of the shops trading while the rest are all boarded up :(. The reason became clear when we asked someone where the nearest chemist was and were directed to the big retail park at the edge of town boasting Boots, Tesco, New Look, Next et al which was heaving 🙁 I did get my drugs and Boots had their own brand on BOGOF too though.

Back at the cottage I made lunch for the others, took steroids and had a quiet afternoon inside out of the sun, getting a roast dinner on as Ady was doing gardening work and the kids were off watering plants. I rang our next but one hosts to confirm and after a brief scare when she didn’t know who I was or what I was on about that all sounds nicely in hand. We all had a last swim before dinner, sat down together and ate while having a debrief chat about being here, how we’ve found it and what happens next.

After dinner we’d been invited over to J&J’s for a last night beer so we had an hour or so with them chatting and then back to our cottage for bed. I’ll do a proper round up tomorrow as I have lots to say but it’s been another amazing, utterly unexpected and very enjoyable time here. We have an unconditional offer to return at any time when there is an empty cottage, several possible job opportunities with J&J, an invitation to go and stay with Jude, the previous owner who is still here doing a handover for a month, back in her home in Canada any time we like and various people all following our blog with interest to see what becomes of us.

Tomorrow we start all over again, arriving at the next place and telling our story a-new, making new friends and working out how it will all pan out there.

bugger!

Thursday A photographer came to take pictures of the place so we had done pre prep stuff for that and were also doing pre prep stuff for the hotel inspector coming on Friday which was still going on. Jill started the day going round with the photographer moving stuff around to get the best shots but quickly got bored so deputised me to that task. I stuck it for a while before also getting bored and leaving him to it to gradually move things next door from Orchard View where we have been staying to Russet where we are now as guests arrive on Friday for Orchard View. The moving out and the ensuring it was ‘guest ready’ took ever longer as we scratched the surface of what needed doing and started moving pictures about, checking inventory and deep cleaning the cottage.

We popped to Morrisons in the evening to get food supplies for the final few days and then came back to settle in properly to Russet. It’s loads bigger than Orchard View, over two floors, with an extra bedroom (although D&S have chosen to stay in a twin room anyway depsite the option of a room each), far bigger kitchen and lounge and a bath! 🙂 I had a very unsucessful bath eventually having worked out that the immersion heater needed to be put on and needed a shower to warm back up again afterwards but have since had two baths to make up for it!

Friday today was all about the hotel inspector coming. I spent the whole day resisting the urge to act out great swathes of the Fawlty Towers episode 😆 which involved lots of dashing about infront of him with bedding, teapots, salt cellars to refill etc. The visit went well aparently although with Jill only having been here 3 weeks as I had already said to her this was her starting benchmark to work from and improve on rather than any judgement on her anyway. There was a real comedy moment when having inspected our cottage while we were eating our lunch and wishing us a ‘nice rest of your holiday’ I then showed some potential guests round about half an hour later, crossing paths with Jill and the inspector who said to Jill ‘I thought she was one of your guests?!?’ 😆 😆

The weather has been glorious again today and at 6pm we declared it wine o’clock and congregated on the front lawn for nibbles and champagne. This has been an amazing place to spend time and fab people to spend time with – we’re ready to move on and re-commence our adventure proper but it’s been a great interlude and sitting with iconic views of Wells catherdral and Glastonbury Tor, as the sun shone, sipping champagne and chatting with our hosts definitely goes down in our list of memorable moments of the year :).

We moved from sitting chatting and drinking to deciding we should all eat together so we gathered food and moved across to Jill & Jonathan’s for a barbecue 🙂

Back to Russet to the kids to go to bed, us to have another bath and as we have more to do tomorrow it really should be bedtime o’clock. I am very worried that for the last two days my face has been very itchy and we are heading towards the anniversary of my face flaring up last year which suggests it is either sun related or something with flowers / pollen at this time of year causing the allergic reaction. So far it is itching alone but no swelling but I am very alert for indications of it going further and keeping fingers firmly crossed that no more comes of it.

Tuesday: I think I spent most of the day in the shepherds hut, I did the second coat on the paintwork, painted the ceiling, hoovered and then mopped the floor and listened to the radio. In the late afternoon the laundry delivered new bedding so I got involved in helping make up beds in all the cottages, which took way longer than expected and it was gone 7pm before we finished. Ady was cooking the kids tea so I joined them in the pool for a while and then stayed in to do a few lengths by myself after they’d got out. I was wiped out after that and ended up falling asleep on the sofa before staggering to bed, hence no blogpost last night 😳

Today: With all the paintwork dry I was able to bleach all the windows as there were loads of fly eggs in the window frames, I then cleaned the smudgey windows, made up the bed and found a rug and some cushions to dress the room as a photographer is coming along tomorrow to take pictures of everywhere.

I helped move some furniture around, put the rest of the loose covers back on sofas and chatted to Ady who was gardening and staining woodwork. The kids were cleaning the inside and out of a red phone box which is here and helping with some weeding. After lunch I did some staining paintwork and some hedge clipping and then lit the pizza oven ready for pizza night. I’ve done something to my neck / shoulder which I suspect is just from so much repetitive painting motion and was eased a bit by an impromptu massage from Shirley – she’s promised me a full massage on Friday again, so hopefully it eases off and is cured by that.

Pizza night was good fun, a large group of us with the family (their youngest is getting on really well with D&S so there is the older posse of the twins and Tom, then the younger trio which seems to be working well), Jill & Jonathan (who we have now met and is very nice), Johnathan’s parents, Shirely, us and a variety of neighbours. We came in at about 10pm having sat gazing at the stars and drinking local cider for a while. Ady used up the last of my Mothers Day baileys in hot chocolates which were delicious. I spent ages on the phone tonight first to my parents and then to Julie which was lovely, so nice to have a proper catch up :). We’re now staying here til Monday, we’re moving into a different (bigger) cottage tomorrow for the last few nights which is great as we’ll save loads of money on not needing a campsite or food for the weekend but does mean no days off which is a bit tough. What’s keeping me going is the new cottage has a bath! 🙂

Today was our day off 🙂

Ady’s gotten into The Darling Buds of May which is being repeated on one of the freeview channels we get on the TV at 8am, so he watched that and the rest of us had a lie in 🙂

Jill & Thomas called by just after 9am to bring us food money for the week and some cushions and throws which had arrived in the post and Jill wanted my opinion of for the cottages, apparently I can now add ‘interior design consultant’ to my CV – I am so getting Jill to give me a reference if I ever have to apply for a proper job again! 😉 Their timing was rubbish though as I had just gone into the loo and discovered there was no loo roll and had not got fully dressed yet so my jeans were still in the lounge. So I sat in the loo listening to them chatting to Ady for a while trying to work out how to deal with that…

Jill invited us to a barbecue tonight as some real guests arrived for the week today – twin 12 year old boys and their 8 year old brother, all school friends of Thomas from London and their parents who have rented out one of the biggest cottages for the week, so she was doing a barbecue and wanted us to come along.

We had a second cup of tea and then listened to Popmaster before galvanising ourselves into getting out. We had to do our food shop for the week and also wanted to have a walk so we debated which to do first with me putting forward a suggestion and everyone agreeing it would make sense to get the food shopping out of the way. So we headed into town to do that, then came back to put the shopping away and have lunch (chicken soup made from yesterdays roast dinner) before heading off on our walk.

We’d heard about the two ancient oak trees just a couple of fields away, Gog and Magog so we set off to find them, going via Paddington next door to meet Rupert, a new heavy horse that they have had arrive to live with them. The oaks are huge, gnarled and all the many holes and cavities are stuffed with money, crystals, notes, ribbons and other assorted treasures that people have placed there. We took some pictures and then walked back to Middlewick by a different path to give a circuitous walk.


Back at the cottage we had a cup of tea made by Tarly and Ady cooked up some onions to take along to the barbecue. We had a really nice evening, the kids all had a late evening swim and then Ady, Jill, Shirley & I sat up after the others had gone to their cottages being rowdy and drinking my mothers day baileys 🙂 We fit in very well here 😉

Friday – seems such a long time ago now, let me think… ah yes. Ady and I worked together for most of the day clearing a huge heap of wood which the builders had chucked into a pile when building a house a year or so ago. We made a platforn and some stakes to keep the decent stuff tidy and off the ground and restacked it, then put all the smaller stuff into big sacks for kindling wood for the pizza oven or to sell to the guests with wood burners in their cottages.

It’s lovely working alongside Ady, I’m really enjoying all this time together 🙂 We listen to the radio, talk about all sorts of things and laugh so much. We have worked together in the past several times and it’s always been good, we make a good partnership and are reminded of each others strengths and positives :).

I was booked in for a massage in the afternoon after work so Ady sorted out dinner while I went off for that and then he and the kids went swimming. It was lovely, really relaxing and theraputic :). I was most blissed out after that and slept really well that night.

Saturday – Ady and I finished off the last of the wood moving and then he did some gardening and I started painting a shepherds hut which is used as an annex to one of the cottages and had been really badly repainted inside with one very streaky coat of a really unpleasant colour combination. I got some nice neutral shades from the garage which has a vast array of paints stashed inside. I started with a bucket of sugar soapy water and gave the whole hut a really good clean, then turned the radio up and got busy splashing paint around :). I really like painting and always think of my Dad who is a decorator so the smell of paint reminds me of spending school holidays alongside Dad while he worked, I find myself pulling the same faces as I watched him pull and I hear his voice telling me to wash the brushes out properly, no properly Nicola at the end :).

Davies and Scarlett were called in to bath and groom Maggie in preparation for Jill’s son, Thomas (12) arriving with her in-laws later in the afternoon so they really enjoyed that, another new experience for them. After lunch Thomas arrived and the kids went off to play with him, enjoying the trampoline and the swimming pool, he seems like a really nice lad, if rather city-fied – I overheard Jill explaining the difference between bees and wasps, showing him what a nettle was when he got stung picking some rhubarb and the kids said he declined their offer of walking across to Paddington later in the day as he is a bit scared of animals. They both like him though, he seems very kind and friendly and happy to share and play.

Ady went off into town in the late afternoon, I had a swim and then did some tea for the kids and got our dinner on. Ady returned, we had a lovely curry for dinner – totally making the most of having a kitchen 🙂

Sunday – Mothers Day 🙂 We were working – we have tomorrow off and then finish here on Thursday, leaving the cottage on Friday. Ady and the kids brought me cups of tea and offered breakfast in bed but I got up. We had bacon rolls and then I carried on painting the hut and Ady did some work on an archway he’d chopped ivy from earlier in the week. We finished quite early today and had a swim, dog sat Maggie for a while when the others all went out and the kids played with Thomas, then we had a lovely roast dinner.

We rang home and all talked to everyone there; Mum, Dad, Frazer and my Granny was there for the afternoon too. Mum & Dad are coming to stay near where we’re WWOOFing at Easter so we’ll see them in 3 weeks which we’re looking forward to.

Today Jill asked Ady if we’d be interested in coming back here to run the place if her and her husband (who we’ll meet this week, I think he arrives on Tuesday) go on holiday. Ady said we’d certainly consider it, funny what potential opportunities this place we were never supposed to be at in the first place is chucking at us!