Big Girl

Didn't take a photo :(

Boo has  been offered the ride on the most awesome pony.
We got the call today - the people who sold us Cracker have a 14hh jumping pony who needs a rider. They are so impressed with what she did with Cracks, they have offered her the ride on the pony, tack, rugs, the whole kit and caboodle. She went over to ride him today and did such a good job, I was SO proud.
She was jumping him in a field which is (past) ready for cutting for hay, and he was bounding thistles on his approaches and landings, and he still jumped like a dream - she was all lit up - and it never hurts to be told you did SUCH a good job, and someone is SO impressed, they want you to ride another one for them.
Jack will probably arrive with us some time next week. En route to the stars ;)

Walking in faith and victory

So we're there. Breakfast table. I'm buttering bread for sandwiches - home made sourdough rye, pastrami and salad, since you ask. Neil's reading. Murray M'Cheyne calendar, we use. Deuteronomy 20. Instructions Concerning Warfare.
And aside from this, yesterday, because that's how it happened, he cultivated a half acre of field. Like this.

Does that not look good to plant? Although some earthly little suit is refusing to give us an answer? Would you resist the urge to plant?
So, it's done. A bulk order of seeds, amazingly late in the season (but hey, so far the season's been a wash out. How far behind can I be?) has been placed.

And Deut 20?

Going to War

1When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3He shall say: “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. 4For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”

I am not afraid (as the children's chorus says!) cos I'm walking in faith and victory. I have to find a way to fence the plot, to plant the plot, to keep it weedfree and fed ... but I can do that. It's what I do.

Right now, we have to fight.

Parties and Pipe Dreams

You may have noticed the Jubilee? We had a fabulous time. Here you see my two daughters, making their way to our village's 'street party'-

OK, so no street. But it was a great party!

And then the great rains began.

So, with other challenges coming thick and fast, like the wind and rain currently lashing the window by which I am typing, and making me wish I had actually called the tree surgeon about that rather wobbly, rather dead pine tree, with regret, we have had to put on hold my venture into horse power.

It's ultimately so annoying - we had been offered a tremendously good set up for a mere £250 - which is very mere indeed if you've got it, and not so mere when you have a tyre that needs replacing, and fencing needing doing, and still have an open question hanging over your tenancy agreement.

Tragically, that means we'll have to sell Cracker - our animals have to earn their living, and Boo has outgrown the little fella several times over. I'd hoped we'd keep him as a fine source of motive power, and a way to offer lessons in horse care and use on the holding.

I've been fortunate and picked up more writing work, and I'm still committed to doing some workshops - soap making, and cheesemaking, for example, so please do let me know if you're interested. I've got diploma work to catch up on too, so I'm not at a loose end in this storm bound house, with the wind raging and the rain slapping the windows and doors.

I am at a standstill in the gardens, I've given up and re-covered most of the house garden with sheets of black plastic as a sheet mulch - as if it were winter - which it may as well be! I peel it back when the weather allows me to plant another small clutch of plants. Getting nowhere, fast this year.

Some days, the weather, the economic climate, the dead ends, the straits of tenancy - all combine to mock: 'Give it up! Go on, give up and forget the lure of the farm! Play it safe'.

Some days, it takes the silence (or not, in this case) of the darkest night to whisper 'Never. Never while I breathe.'

There'll be other driving rigs. There'll be a day I can show you all how to use a cute welsh pony on the smallholding!