Bro Radio Interview and Pod

Elizabeth doing the stock duties morning and evening.

Update from the sick-bay. We are doing OK and definitely on the mend. This is Day 4 (of 7) on the amoxicillin course and I can now sleep though the night. This morning, for the first time, I was NOT sent back to bed by that fierce 'Nurse Elizabeth' at 0800 with the words "You look half dead!" ringing in my ears as a reason. I actually got dressed today and even did some easy out-door laundry jobs and strolled down to the gate to restock the egg honesty box.

I hope that this recovery continues and I can sign off on a new pair of healthy lungs, both capable of transferring oxygen from air to blood by Monday or Tuesday next week. I am, of course, taking the almost universal advice to take it easy and not rush straight back into heavy lifting till I'm good and ready. I hope you can cope with the temporary dearth of photo's in these posts.

That settlement cheque for the old 2CV arrives from Kent.

We are both delighted to report a solid up-side to the timing on this. If we were going to suddenly need to NOT do any jobs outdoors then we could not have chosen a better week, or better conditions. The whole site still glows with manicured parkland tidiness after our 3 weeks of French Help-X lass, Laura and the weather has been both benign (so no new damage to clear up) and dry, so the grass is growing really slowly and the sheep can keep up with the growth on it, plus way less mud/wet walked indoors than we might have had.

I do, though, seriously want to thank my Good Lady who has stepped so magnificently and heroically into the breach, mainly of the livestock rounds morning and evening. This despite not only having to keep up with her 'school' work (Horti-training course on Thursday) and also her volunteer day admin-ing at the Village Centre on Friday but also, this week, 3 days of a "Hard Landscaping" module which is  part of the course. Oh, and she also did a couple of shopping runs which I'd normally have done, including collecting 4 x 25 kg feed sacks plus my drugs and of course the 'offal' part of the lamb I had taken to slaughter just before my week went pear-shaped. So, massive, happy 'Thank You', Mrs C. This week would not be now where it is, without you.

Meanwhile, with some trepidation due to mistrust of my breathing ability and my chances of  not having a coughing fit live on air, I decided to go ahead with a pre-agreed, hour long radio interview. This was on a radio station called 'Bro Radio' based near Cardiff in the Vale of Glamorgan. Bro radio has nothing to do with  any 'gangsta' greetings between brothers (Yo Bro!), bro are the first three letters of the Welsh name for the Vale.

This interview was to be by good friend and Welsh smallholder, Helen Joy who I mainly know through the S/H Twitter group(s). I first 'met' her on a week years ago when I was having a first go at curating the Irish SH account (@smallholderIRL) and she a first go at the UK one (@smallholdersUK). We got chatting and got on really well and we have been good Internet friends since. We finally got to talk properly a couple of weeks back so that we could check we were compatible for a live interview, and we then booked up for Weds night, not knowing, of course that I might not have a voice by then.

In the event it went really well and we were both delighted with it as were plenty of our mutual friends despite a tech gremlin which lost us to loud music and sponsors chat for the first 7 minutes, so I did not actually get introduced. If you want to give it an air, then it is on

http://broradio.fm/bro-radio/country-view-06-20-2018

I did not have a coughing fit and we nattered happily for the whole hour about the joys of pigs, Guinea fowl, chickens and sheep. Great fun. I would definitely do it again.

Summer Solstice sunset

I think that is about enough for this one. I will report back, I hope from a much more healthy place, at the next one.