Coming Soon

Sorry we've not posted anything for ages but we've been busy with new building works and scheming about new animal plans. When we have some news we'll post it here :)

five things ...

One of the things which I like about football is that the guardian usually does a report on important games/weekends with a summary of things which have been learnt from the event(s). So, in honour of that, I present the five things which I've recently learnt

1. Our lawnmover can and will go wrong. First it was the blades, then the tires (which are just holding on - A new set of four is ~£200) and now the ignition switch has died. I'm hotwiring the mower until our local mechanic sources a replacement ignition
2. The weather at 4:30 is cold but suitable for working in the garden and getting up early means I get to have a midday nap like a true old man
3. Crap in the garden - I've reclaimed another part of the garden by dismantling the old veg patch and removing the surrounding fence, In the process collected 5 more industrial size bags of rubbish. This just get me down as we've been living here for 3.5 years and there is still rubbish buried from the previous owner!!
4. Being married for 8 years is great
5. Riding a tandem is fun 

Andy

Eeepc lives

I've recently restored an original Eeepc  to working condition by install lubuntu. I can't believe what a difference an OS version makes to the running of the computer.
Lubuntu is a version of ubuntu (the most popular linux distrubution) with a really stripped down windows experience (LXDE for those interested). The total memory usage for the windows manager is about 50 MB! All the normal progams work on the system and it is good for old hardware

I use Lubuntu on all my computers, I just like my computer to feel responsive and snappy and i'm not really interested in my computer looking flashy and sparkling and taking 10 mins to search/open a file

ARRRGH - I've turned into a middle-aged Computer user!!

New toys

Our latest arrival to the farm arrived this week. We've finally managed to locally source a Lawn sweeper for our lawnmower. This simple device sits behind the lawn mower and picks up all the cut grass, twigs and assorted rubbish and lets us easily dump it in a place. I just need to learn how to reverse with a trailer. We also bought a Trailer with removal back plate and tipping function and a dethatcher which removes the dead trapped grass and moss from the ground. All this wasn't cheap but will hopefully make maintain our grassed areas better. This will also please Piggy as she gets all the clippings to chew and to make a bed from.

The Local shop were awesome. They assembled and delivered all the equipment for free and then gave us a discount as well! A big thumbs up from us

 

Extreme gardening

We've been trying to improve the quality of our farm. Our vegetable patch and orchard have been overrun with Sycamore tree and weeds particularly wild grape vines. We've tried to to do this by hand to no avail so we called in some locals to help. They recommended that we hire a JCB (with Driver) to dig out all the tree roots of dead trees, and to flatten the area which we want to be our new garden vegetable patch.
So, recently, The locals can and cut down all the weedy trees and mulched them and our local friendly JCB man came and uprooted all the trees. He also leveled our veg patch and used the remain sandy soil to level out our main garden bit. This means we have loads of fire wood, a larger area where we can mow without fear of breaking the lawnmower and we've a new flat level for growing veg. These photos show it all off

Two Steps forward, One back

I'm now at home on the farm trying to do some stuff and today has been a day of good and bad stuff.
The Good stuff

1. I fixed the lawn mower 
2. Successfully cut the lawn
3. Solar shower is now installed on a living tree with no chance of it being cut down
4. I can buy a snow plough directly from the company

Bad stuff

1. Hot tub has been chewed by mice - This needs a lot of care and love to repair
2. New car is back at the mechanic again 
3. Lawn sweeper and trailer for lawnmower will cost £240 in shipping - Have to find local alternatives

Some progress is better then no progress and still feeling the happiest I have for a long time

Dumbing of Ages

Dumbing of Ages is a webcomic which i am particularly fonder of. I mainly discovered it from reading shortpacked.com.
The current story is about the characters going to to church (in between a running plot) and their reactions to it.
What strikes me the most is the way that the Author seems to have experienced the conflict between church/God and the church not being the place where anyone can come Unfortunately, I would say that this

(http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/02-choosing-my-religion/avoid/) is the most common experience that the people have - But I'm trying to change this :)