We’re done here and have learnt tonight that it is our last night in the yurt as my Mum has finally booked a holiday cottage (that I found in the end) from tomorrow. They have two nights booked at a hotel in Newcastle so are heading for there for the weekend and will meet up with Dad’s cousin who lives in Newcastle, while we head in the opposite direction to enjoy two nights in the cottage just the four of us before they join us on Monday.
Today we have been in the garden all day. We spent the morning working with Wilf on carrots. Some evidence of rat damage was discovered in the carrots yesterday so we swung into action. The first bed of carrots was all pulled up as they are grown, although they could potentially grow to double their current size the risk of leaving them with rats around is too great now they have started munching on them so a full crop of half size carrots is better than a total wipe out of any crop at all. We pulled them, cut the leaves off and any undamaged carrots are now stored in the dark until next week ready for the customers veg boxes, while any nibbled ones have been cut and put ready for carrot soup for everyone here next week. The second bed (later sowing) needed thinning and the skinny but supersweet carrots from that will be used here for eating or as salad for next weeks veg boxes and the third bed which had only just germinated was weeded and covered with netting. All of the beds were then watered with a comfrey feed which is reputed to disguise the smell to foil the carrot flies. We also set some rat traps and laid out instant mash potatoes and coke which is Chris (Ady’s brother)’s method for rat disposal which we have shared with various people this year.
That took us to lunchtime so we came down to collect lunch supplies including fresh from the oven bread and then Ady and I sat in the garden eating lunch together and reflecting on this host as Wilf went off to do some paperwork leaving us to it.
After lunch we did some moving tyres – they have them delivered here for free to use as building materials on the new build house, weights for the netting, pots for growing potatoes and so on and dropped off at the gate so we moved a huge heap into the land properly. We counted 60 moved which we thought probably qualified us to work in Kwik fit should the need ever take us 😆
Jo arrived back then and we had a lovely couple of hours working alongside her planting out various brassicas and salad leaves and chatting. We have not spent as much time working with Jo but she is lovely, very peaceful and kind and it was really nice to chat to her, get to know her a bit and hear her perspective on the community. We finished our working day by gathering some empty egg boxes and taking them down to the chicken house ready for next weeks egg collecting.
Ady went off with Matt to do some shooting practise as Matt has recently acquired a gun but didn’t know much about it so Ady showed him some safe use ideas, some hints and tips and also got a look around the new build house inside. Matt is the person here we have had the least time with, which is frustrating as he has so many skills, many of which I’d have loved to have learnt more about.
Beth and Wilf headed off on holiday for a week so there were teary goodbyes and cuddles and promises to stay in touch and invites to come back any time. We’ll see Matt and Jo tomorrow to say goodbye but we’ve been presented with wine and chocolates from them all and lots of lovely exchanges of thanks going both ways for a fab two weeks WWOOfing experience.
This time tomorrow we will be back in the real world, the right side of a bath, a dinner containing loads of meat and things like plug sockets, sofas, TV and so on. Personally I am in no rush to return to that at all and will be mourning what we leave behind here for some time to come.
This place has sounded so lovely – am glad you got a brilliant place after the last one!
How does the mash and coke work then?
Comment by Alison — 30 July 2011 @ 6:38 am
Sounds like one to spend a longer time at in the future. 🙂
Comment by Jan — 30 July 2011 @ 8:31 pm
Aw. Sounds great all round. See you in 6 weeks, counting down. 🙂
Comment by Michelle — 31 July 2011 @ 9:53 am
It’s been just fab 🙂 Sort of textbook what I expected from a WWOOF host really, but have so infrequently found!
The mash and coke is horrid really – the rats wolf down the instant mash, then it starts to swell up inside them, the coke is left nearby so they thirstily drink that which bloats them even more then as they cannot belch to get rid of the excess gasses they just swell up and up and up. No idea if it actually works or whether the belching is true actually, should probably look more online but Jo said she’d found rat killer for £50 to treat 10 rats which seemed to work on a similar swelling up inside them principle to instant mash, which she got at Lidl for a quid! So if it works then it’s definitely the way forward.
Jan, I’d love to spend more time there and I think the other 3 left agreeing with me although they had been slower to love it there as much as I did. It definitely cemented various things for all of us :).
Comment by Nic — 31 July 2011 @ 1:48 pm