This week we have decided to split Davies and Scarlett up to spend time with one or other of us. Partially because we feel they have not got the most out of this hosting (not their faults) so want them to learn as much as they can in the final week and think the best way of making that happen is to have one to one time with one or other of us, partially because I miss the kids as I know I’m not having as much quality time chatting with them as I usually get and Ady has identified that as one of his key objectives for the year was more time with the kids yet he doesn’t feel he’s managing it and partially because they have been spending literally every waking moment with each other and although they are doing just fine with that I thought the opportunity to actually miss each other for a few hours would be a nice change.
So today Scarlett was with me and Davies was with Ady, tomorrow we swap over, Thursday we swap back and Friday we swap over again. We talked to Pete and Emma about it and explained what we were doing and why and they are quite happy with the idea. So today Scarlett and I went off to market with Pete, while Davies stayed here at the farm with Ady. Their day consisted of tidying the yard, more turd polishing 😉 but they both enjoyed each others company and Davies was very enthusiastic about the conversations they’d had, apparently they’d talked about things like how Ady was feeling when he and I got married, things that embarrass him, things that have made him scared and so on. The sorts of conversations that have cropped up naturally between the kids and I over the years – a lot of my parenting is giving them examples of how I felt / dealt with / messed up / got right a certain situation so they have heard many of my failings and triumphs 🙂 but that haven’t necessarily come up with Ady and the kids, and the sort of conversation that Davies really enjoys.
Scarlett and I had to be up at 630am, which hurt both of us lots. I had to really struggle to get her out of bed and Ady would definitely have given up at her plaintive pleading not to make her get up, pleeeeeeeease Mumma, I caaaaan’t, don’t maaaaaake me. I was firm, insisted, gave her biscuits for breakfast and explained that getting up early for market is currently quite a big part of our eventual plans, as would be getting up to feed animals, deal with lambing, calving, milking, whatever and that if it is too hard for her then that is fine, we need to scrub it off our list but she had to try it at least once and then decide at the end of today whether it had been worth the sacrifice of an early start. I said if she could say this evening that she regretted having gotten up and it was something she never wanted to do again then she never would have to, but if at the end of today she could say it had been tough to get up but worth it then she would know that and be reminded of it next time she struggled to get up early for something. This evening I asked her and she said it had been worth it 🙂
The market today was in Hatherleigh, a small market town (there seem to be little else in Devon ;)) a fairly short drive away. We parked up, set up the stall (two marquees, a table, a chiller, all the meat and sausages, pies and pasties), donned our pinnies, wrote our whiteboards and smiled 🙂
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Scarlett totally perked up and was a joy to have around, chatting to me, helping to work out change for customers, asking questions and being the perfect poster for child for Home Ed the twice I answered the ‘no school today then?’ question with more than a cursory shake of the head. She went off round the market several times on her own, finding her way back and even locating the toilets, stopping to watch which one a woman came out of because she can’t read the signs to say Ladies or Gents and spent ages and ages in the poultry auction rooms where they were selling various chickens and bantams, ducks, geese, pigeons, peacocks and other birds. At one point she came back and very seriously told me she’d bid on and won a lot of ducklings – she really had me believing her! 😆
Pete and I didn’t spent much time together on the stall as he was watching the chicken auction (and bought three hens for a quid each, laying one year olds that will pay for themselves in a weeks worth of eggs!) and the house clearance auction (and bought a double drainer sink for the campsite shower and toilet for four quid) and doing some networking with other stall holders and market traders and I was off with Scarlett around the market a couple of times too.
We were done by 2pm so packed up – I was pleased to as although it had been nice to spend the time with Tarly, Pete and I had some interesting chats and it was good to have another visit to a market, it was bloody freezing this morning and very, very windy. I was definitely not wearing enough clothes to stand around despite having three layers and an apron!
We had fun catching the three chickens which had escaped from their cardboard box and were sitting in the van cab having pooed all over the seats so I had to keep them contained on the drive home. We caught up with Ady and Davies and then went in for a late lunch.
This afternoons task was heading to the field of sheep nearby to collect ten doubles and five singles (a double is a ewe with two lambs, a single a lamb with just one) which is way less straightforward than it sounds with two children, sheep and lambs who were not sprayed to id them as they lambed out in the field and of course the fact we are dealing with sheep!
We rounded them up and into the lane, then spent about 90 minutes trying to watch them to see which lambs went to which ewes, then catch them as pairs or trios and get them in the trailer. Oh and the ewes had to be a certain age (four teeth). Cue much hilarity with Ady doing two full body slam dives to catch lambs, one of which was pointless as when Pete checked the ewe’s teeth she was too old anyway, the other was a true comedy gold moment as I then tripped over Ady, landed on top of him and neither of us could get up! So, all covered in sheep poo but still quite gooey eyed over how cute lambs are we finally had our full quota in the trailer and were able to herd the rest back into the field and return to the farm. A local farmer came to look at them this evening and has bought them all for very good prices so it was worth the chaos!
By then it was pretty much dinner time so we went in, ate with Pete and Emma and their younger son Luke, watched some crap TV, had baths and returned to Willow for stories and an earlyish night.
I hate early mornings too! I’ve been wondering how an LA might feel about your adventure as a full-time education, especially if it constitutes things that might be defined as work. (Of course, I can see that it ceratinly is, BTW!) I don’t imagine any LA will bother you so it’s purely academic wondering. But I guess they do sometimes chase up children who are actually working in family businesses and so on.
Comment by Allie — 04 May 2011 @ 1:14 pm
It is something that has occurred to me, particularly when we are public about it like taking them to market. I did wonder briefly about how I’d deal with a truancy patrol for example. That said I know in farming communities is almost seems to be an accepted practise for kids to be away from school at certain times with fairly lame excuses because they are needed at market / for haymaking / harvesting / lambing etc.
I’m not really sure how they would catch up with us tbh as we are just not around for long enough anywhere, so I guess it would be if one of the kids needed medical attention at hospital or something that we might get tracked down and maybe written to (post forwarded to my parents). I sort of assume we could fob them off for the year with an account of what we plan to cover learning-wise and a promise to update at the end of it.
I don’t think there would be a ‘work’ issue as they are always alongside either Ady or I and probably don’t do any more than a child who lives on a farm would do. It is interesting though, not interesting enough to want to get ‘caught’ though! 😉
Comment by Nic — 04 May 2011 @ 9:28 pm