All Quiet

All quiet now that the pigs are gone.

We are enjoying a quiet few days between the departure of The Dans and the arrival of the next Help-X volunteers. It is extra quiet here at the moment because we have now finished the pigs - a euphemism for taking them on their final journey (which is , itself, a euphemism for taking them to slaughter). It is not that they are especially noisy with squealing for food or craving attention. It is the very bass-y grunts they chunter out as they move about. The noise carries right across the garden so, no matter where you are, you'd know there were pigs close by.

The ark. Redundant now till next year?

The pigs were booked in for early Wednesday. We knew we could load the pigs into the trailer with no problem - these pigs were trained and would sprint up the race for their breakfast. We could snick the door shut on them before they'd hoovered up the tempting fruit.

However, in my current, weakened state, I was not at all sure we could push the loaded trailer, with its 180 kg piggy payload across the dippy grass to the hard standing where stood the car. Step forward our good friends Suzy and Rob who volunteered to donate their early morning muscle; they are easily our closest 'barter' partners when it comes to man hours of help. They were headed on to Castlerea afterwards, so they also opted to come to the butcher's and help us unload the animals, after which we'd adjourn to Benny's Deli for a coffee and croissant breakfast.

Blue among the hops.

That was the pigs "finished". The carcasses now sit in the butcher's cold store round to Monday while the meat sets. We collect them around mid-day Monday and have an afternoon armed with the bone-saw, knives and cleaver, breaking them down into kitchen-friendly chunks. By then, we should have the new Help-X volunteers with us (Sonja and Asbjörn), both chefs of a sort, so I am fascinated to see if they want to get involved or whether butchery is too far "up stream".

Work boots.

For the next few weeks, Elizabeth is calling Thursday her 'busy day'. Regular readers will know that she is currently on a once-a-week, year+ long Horticultural course which absorbs every Thursday.

Red Admiral.

For these few weeks, this has become a Thursday AND Friday outdoor module on Hard Landscaping. A gang of them are out by the church at Ballinlough finding out all about digging foundations, creating hard paths, building planters, erecting an arbour, doing stone-work and even learning about re-pointing walls with lime mortar.

Hollyhock.

On with the work-boots then, tough gloves and at least have your wet weather gear in the car. Elizabeth also needed a hi-viz jacket, so she grabbed one that had been hanging in the shed for who knows how long. She did not pay too much attention, but this one had my name and the name of "Exel" (logistics) on the front panel but "PROJECT MANAGER" writ large across the shoulders. This drew a fair amount of friendly flak and banter from the rest of the 'students' - "Come on then, YOU're the Project Manager...how do we do this?"

Lupins doing well in the nursery.

Then, as if she'd not done enough physical stuff for that day, she signed up for evening classes on furniture restoration starting last night. I couldn't go to this one as she had to be there early to help set up and the birds here would not yet have gone to bed yet, but from the report back it sounds a fascinating course. Elizabeth had taken 3 pages of notes on tools and techniques and is now looking hungrily at a pair of old favourite blue chairs we have in the Sitting Room. Watch this space.... I sense a 'project' in the making.

Very slow cropping but tasty.

That's about it for this one.. I will just do a quick meander through a few other pictures. By the time I next post, we should have the Help-X couple on board and the pork in the freezer.

The 'Summer' 'Parma-style ham is only fit for the stock pot now.

Blackberries were a bit variable this year due to the drought.
We have not (yet) been out picking.

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.