Smallholding – The Shepherds Adventure

Winter, winter, winter, winter…

And it is pouring down today! It is boggy and muddy and squelchy and windy and alright, not officially winter, but it is starting to feel like it. So, I’ve done the outdoor stuff this morning, i.e. hens, ducks, getting wood in, chopping kindling and I got the remaining onions in from the greenhouse and plaited them up… and now, I’m sat here whilst the kids do exercises off YouTube. They were getting a bit rowdy earlier left to their own devices, so that’s what we decided on. I took some photo’s while I was outside this morning:

I’ve had to do a makeshift enclosure within the tunnel, for the ducks. They just create mess everywhere. They’ve created stagnant ponds at two corners. So they’re enclosed within a run again. They seem happy with it, all three girls are laying almost daily. Also, with the run of the tunnel they were laying eggs all over the place, mainly in the mud, instead of their house, so all eggs were covered in a layer of mud. They’ve been using the house since I enclosed them, which is a massive bonus. You aren’t supposed to wash eggs unless you’re using them straight away or putting them straight into the fridge. I prefer keeping ours at room temperature, they last quite a while. So not being really muddy is a definite bonus.

I’d left some onions in the tunnel to dry and now it’s starting to get damp in there I thought it was time to bring them in. I’ve braided them together and they’re hung near the oil range, to help them dry out properly.

All the chickens are inside their shed, probably until the spring now. I’m doing what’s known as deep littering, which is just adding a layer of shavings regularly, rather than fully cleaning them out. And then, if it works out how I’m thinking, I’ll do a massive clean out in the spring. (if it works out). They got red mite this year, the first time I’ve ever had that problem, so when they were brought in, they were all powdered a couple of times and treated. Some are still looking a little pale though, so I’m wondering whether I need to do it again.

As you can see from the photo after the chickens, the ground really is wet. I’m glad the chickens are off it for a while. It’s quite slippy, I have to watch my step! 😀

So, in addition to all this, what have we done recently..? well, I’ve been in a lot with the kids, we haven’t had the car much, so we’ve mainly (not entirely) been at home, which is ok for a while but then I start to get a little stir crazy. There’s a lot to do and I very, very rarely, if ever, feel bored, but we will hopefully have the car a bit more soon. I’ve had a filling this week, when we first moved to Ireland, I had to have a root canal. The tooth on top had cracked and so I had to have it sorted and filled. I’m not used to having much dental stuff done, the dentist was lovely though. My emotions are all over the place sometimes, right in the middle when there was smoke coming out of my mouth and I was immobile in the chair I started thinking about how my mum always made sure we looked after our teeth and had milk regularly and all that, and to my surprise and horror and amusement (in a weird way), tears started rolling down my face. I recovered though fairly quickly. They didn’t have a bawling wreck on their hands anyway 🙂

Then, last night was apparently an Irish tradition, we did it for the first-time last year. The tradition is that you let your kids stay up to see the Late, Late, Toy Show on RTE dressed in pyjamas and give them copious amounts of sweets and anything else their little hearts desire whilst watching Ryan Tubridy interviewing children and singing and dancing and talking and promoting toys and all that. The kids lasted until 11 pm, then it was bed. It was really nice actually. Specially that they didn’t actually stay up until midnight or after. We also had a takeaway from a town near us, they call it ‘Asian Street Food’. So that was a real treat, it was gorgeous. The petrol stations and shops round here sell these big bags of mixed sweets, jellies, sour ones etc and so that’s what we got on the sweets front. I’m feeling it a bit today though, I ate a lot of junk food, I’m a light weight nowadays. Doesn’t stop me from eating junk though, I really need to get fit…! Looks like it’s YouTube exercises for me as well as the kids. They love them, mainly minecraft ones, zelda etc etc.

Church has been great, we haven’t been able to get for the last week or two, but in general it’s been lovely. I didn’t expect to like how it was originally, but I love it. I love the mass, I love the words, I love that God is there. I even loved that littlest has been playing up a bit and I’ve had to hang around the entrance sometimes for a while, waiting for him to be ready to go in. Because we’ve been at the entrance, it’s meant I’ve said hello to people coming in, which I wouldn’t have done, had I been sat inside. God is good.

On that note, I will say goodbye for now. Goodbye and God bless you. Oh, Oh, yes! One final thing, I’ve started reading a book called ‘All About Heaven’ by John Oliver. And I haven’t finished it yet, but I really do recommend it if anyone wants to know anything about ‘present heaven’, and where we go when we die now, rather than when Jesus returns. There’s some emotive stuff, mainly because the reason it was written was when his son died. But it’s also very reassuring and has a refreshing perspective about life in general.

See you!

Cathy.

Hello my lovelies.

Hello my lovelies! Do you know, my dad used to call me that. When I saw him, he’d say ‘hello my lovely’. At the risk of sounding repetitive, it’s a really lovely thing to say and mean to someone. I miss my dad a lot.

Life here has been ongoing as usual, home ed’ing, `starting to finish up the gardening and tidying up a bit, attempting to sort the house out, baking, cooking, Chris working and making things of use as always, he’s very good at it and of course I’ve been sorting out the ducks and chickens.

Life seems to have gone really quickly this year, summer has flown, the growing is almost over, as in planting. We’ve got a few things to over winter – purple sprouting broccoli, cabbages, leeks, spring onions, but most things are at an end. I’ve just got rid of the last tomato plants out of the tunnel. The ducks are now in there for their winter home and were making a mess of the mats I have down to stop weeds, so everything is coming up and it’s being cleared. Since the ducks have been in the tunnel we’ve actually been having some eggs! The magpies and crows can’t get at them any more, so we have them. The chickens have stopped laying for the winter and the ducks have started! it’s only a couple a day, but they are so good for baking.

Isn’t grief weird? Going back to the comment about my dad. It comes and then it backs off and then flattens you again and then retreats and then punches you in the gut again and then ebbs again. It’s very strange and it’s very hard. It makes you (or me anyway) also think about different things in relation to that grief, such as the past/history, the future, how quickly life goes, how different it is from one decade to the other, or even from one day to another, how nothing is actually predictable and also about how much we value stuff and ways of being that actually mean nothing. You know, things that meant so much 10/20 years ago, opinions, feelings, things, actually mean so little now. People really do matter, God and then people.

I’m extremely grateful for my dad. I might not have always said that. In my younger days I could be extremely arrogant and extremely self centred and self pitying and there are times where I felt extreme resentment against my family for no good reason really, just for the fact that they were fallible and human. Just like all of us. I’m glad he saw what God did with me, that I was restored and made into a decent human being, that he saw me out of debt and married and with a larger family. That he saw me happy and in a better relationship with him and the rest of my family. I’m very grateful for that, and I am absolutely certain that I need to thank God for that. He is the one who redeems, no one and nothing else does.

So, I’m not sharing to facebook this time, I’m off it (and instagram) for November. I needed a break from all the information overload and I kept going on it repeatedly and just doing the scrolling thing. I have to say, life has been a lot better without it in most ways. I actually felt like I was withdrawing for a short time too! How bizarre is that?? Now I don’t, I feel quite ecstatic!

So goodbye! for now.

Cathy.

Write until you can write!

I’ve just been looking and it’s been about two months since the last blog, so hi to everyone. The absolute last post I did also seems to have disappeared off the blog for some reason, but never mind, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve had a bit of a writer’s block again, so as the title says, I’m writing til I write.

So, since the last smallholding type jobbo – the ducks have been outside for ages now, they’re massive and all grown up looking, there’s one drake now and 3 girls, which will be fine for now. One of the girls got eaten by a predator so I’ve moved the rest to a more secure run now.

The growing has been going really well in general. The tomato plants are massive but are actually really late in producing tomatoes, they’ve come now, but aren’t red yet. There’s nothing wrong with them and they’re growing well, they’re just late. I can only put it down to the fact that it was really quite cold here right up to July time. Same with the cucumbers, they’re starting to grow, but only just starting. The gherkins are nearly ready for pickling.

We’ve had tons of celery, we had a good amount of new potatoes which have since been eaten and also put into celery soup which I’ve portioned and frozen. We’ve now got green beans, swedes, spring onions and lettuce growing in that bed. The maincrop potatoes should be ready soon and the sprouts and leeks will be ready in the winter/spring I would think. I’ve also got some purple sprouting broccoli to plant out and some more cabbage.

The runner beans are growing well in the greenhouse, I think I’m going to leave them on the plants and let them dry so I can use them as kidney beans. I do cook chilli quite a bit. The peas have not done brilliantly inside, if we do them next year, they’ll be outside. The kids have loved what we have produced though. I’ve also got haricot beans growing, which again I think I’m going to let them grow and dry. Could maybe make baked beans and add them to stews and all that in the future. I’m trying to store quite a bit for use over the winter. Not sure how effective it will be, but it will be more than we’ve previously managed! So that is good. Oh yeah, I cut the broad bean plants down to ground level because that’s apparently what you do (they put nitrogen into the soil as they rot off) and three have grown again and are flowering! Bonus!

Since the last post, we’ve also had visitors for a week. Chris’s parents came to see us. They stayed elsewhere but visited every day. It was great, It had been three years since we’d seen them in person. Three years is quite a while, especially when you have young children, they grow and change so fast. That’s one of the main things that bothers me about moving here. But strangely, it also didn’t feel as though it had been three years too, so that was good. I am hoping to nip across to see my family at some point, for a weekend or something, but I don’t know when yet.

Travelling is slightly more awkward than it used to be. We only have one car now and a motorbike (plus a normal bike with an engine). So if it is raining hard or if Chris needs the car for some reason, we don’t have it. So we won’t quite have the ease we used to with travelling. It doesn’t make it impossible though. We’ll probably fly in instead of going by boat and have to be collected or get the coach or something. Family, I will let you know I promise (not just turn up haha). I did actually have it really easy a couple of years ago, I just drove back. Home ed makes it really easy as well, we can come whenever we like and J’s passport was sorted very quickly, so that’s no longer a problem. Officially, when you read the rules, you’re not supposed to need a passport to travel between England and Ireland because of the common travel area, but you’re always asked for them at the airport. I suppose it’s probably the most reliable form of ID.

It’s been so hot over the last week, it’s been gorgeous. Thankyou God! It’s meant to be breaking tonight with torrential rain and a storm. Haven’t seen any sign yet, but it’s meant to be on it’s way. Then lower temps and more rain this week. It’s been lovely walking about in my crocs rather than wellies. It hasn’t been as hot as England though, I’m quite grateful for that. There’s been a stream of people driving past our house over the past week with trailer loads of cut turf for the winter fires. That’s something that’s very different about Ireland. We’ve been splitting wood whilst it’s been hot too and Chris is very busy making a log store out of steel. Pictures to come soon.

Anyway, I think that’s more than enough for now. I have plans to write more soon.

Cathy.

6 Month-Versary

Six months! Really! Another month has passed. I’ve actually found the last month pretty hard, for various reasons. One being, I think if you live somewhere that needs various things doing, for a while it’s ok, then you start (or I do) doing the I wish thing which means you can become a little unhappy with progress. Even though for the length of time we have been here, the transformation is remarkable already.

It’s also difficult sometimes, managing the kids and doing what I have to (or think I have to) do. My mind goes mad sometimes, with alsorts circling around with what I could be doing, what I need to do, what I should be doing….and that is not productive and is very tiring! God calms me. I LOVE the outside of the cottage, the garden, the wood and the field and so do the kids, working outside and planning them when I can is really good.

Chris is also working very hard at work and at home and life sort of just passes by really quickly. I’m sort of managing this a little better now and trying to relax a little, spending focused time with God really, really helps this and being realistic (we simply cannot do everything at once). We are planning on sorting the bathroom out next, but for now we actually have a big plastic plasterer’s tub that we can bath in! We can actually use it as a bath, instead of using a tub and strip washing. It is amazing what sort of difference something like that makes to your attitude! I found it on Amazon and people had put things like this in the comment: ‘if you haven’t got a bath this is amazing, get it’. So I got it..

From this….
To this!

Next time I put a photo up there will hopefully be a different bath picture to add to the collection. We’re looking at them on t’internet tonight.

So I thought I’d add to the before and after theme:

when we first moved in
when the original landscaping had first been done
Now, a bit weedy as it’s been so wet but definitely getting there..

Before!
Now…

Christmas
Now! Amazing difference that a radiator, new window and furniture actually makes to a room..alright so we haven’t got a ceiling up at the moment but meh..who cares 🙂

There are so, so many before and after shots I could do…

Before…
A soggy shot but you can sort of see the difference….

I think I’ll leave it at that, I could do pictures of us as a comedy thing..but to be honest we don’t look that different…Chris has lost weight with his job, but that’s it really. I have been ill and stressed recently but apparently look quite good??!!

Ha. Well hello and goodbye for another day. God is good, we are safe, nothing that we rely on is guaranteed, apart from Him, so trust Him.

Couldn’t leave without mentioning the field, its gone from a boggy, reedy, place where you were up to your waist in places in rushes, to a cut, lovely field in which the grass and some flowers are taking over again rather than the rushes. Chris has worked so hard on it and it is really paying off.

Good bye!

Cathy

Our story so far….June 2019…Hello!

Our story at the moment is that we moved from a terraced house in Derbyshire, England to a dormer style cottage in Southern Leitrim in the Republic of Ireland at the beginning of December 2018. The cottage is in a rural area and we have approximately 3 acres to play with as well as the cottage. We are in the process of doing the cottage up and although stressful at times, it is going well so far! You’ll have to read back over old posts for the details if you are interested. It’s changed a lot so far! It’s now dry for a start….

This is where we now live – a little bit different to a terraced house..

‘We’ consists of myself (Cathy), my husband Chris, and two of our children who are almost 2 and 4 (at the moment obviously). We have two other grown up children as well who are still in the UK.

We are Jesus followers who try to listen to Him and follow Him constantly. We feel that He did bring us here, but I get that a lot of people will think that’s not a real thing..(it is).

I do talk about God quite a bit and what we think He is doing in our lives and I will try and persuade you to seek Him for yourself and ask Him if He is there. The reason I do this is because as far as I’m concerned he is the cure for us all. He is who we all need and it would be very selfish of me to not to try and tell you about Him. Also, our lives are completely entwined with Him and it would be impossible to do a blog without talking about Him to be honest.

Jesus saved my life, He saved my husband’s life, He saved a lot of my friend’s lives and He can save your life…give Him a try.

I do also have a sense of humour and it is quite interesting stuff 😀

Welcome, please read, enjoy, ask questions or whatever, I love doing this blog and I do try to be very honest and open. There were various aims of doing it, to give a realistic view of relocating to a different place/country, specifically a small holding, to tell people about Jesus, to give me an outlet (I love writing) and to keep friends and family updated. I’m hoping some people may also just find it plain old interesting!

Toodle pip…

Goodness

So I’m going to briefly mention the last few weeks. As I’ve mentioned, I was ill, some sort of viral thing that started as a cold, worsened until I felt like I could hardly move with big temperatures, then as that part improved, moved to my throat and chest. I’m still not quite there yet, my voice is still a little hoarse and I’m still coughing but I feel waaaay better than I did. I can actually do stuff now. With two little ones at home too, it was difficult.

I’m fed up with getting ill, since being here we’ve all been much worse than normal. I’m looking at our diets now and I’m taking supplements too. Exercise is next, once the chest has cleared. And of course, following God closely and perhaps with a little more discipline. Not that this is guaranteed to avoid ill health but it’s something that’s on my mind.

Speaking of which, there’s a song by Bethel called the goodness of God and I listened to it and worshipped to it right up until my dad died. Then I couldn’t, I couldn’t bear to play it. I have been able to play it and sing it today for the first time since. It talks about singing of the goodness of God. He is so patient and kind, I’ve also had some pretty good Godly friends to talk to over the last few weeks/months. Who’ve also spoken God’s words to me and looked after me by pointing me to him. You know who you are, Thankyou.

God always meets you where you are. There’s no need to work anything up, be anything you’re not, just come to him and trust He’s with you and for you even when you can’t feel it or hear Him. Just trust. If you have friends who know Him, try them too.

(that’s my advice anyway)

Cathy

Rain!

It’s so wet today it’s unreal. I really want to garden as well. I haven’t really done anything for over two weeks as I’ve been ill (Still not quite right) and away for a short period so the garden is getting covered in weeds because it’s rained so much over the last week. It’s mainly horsetail on one side as well, which is a real pain, I just keep having to hoe it off and I’m aiming to get ground cover plants in to try and squish it. On the plus side, the plants we’ve grown are pretty strong and doing well. We have cosmos, larkspur, sweet peas, cornflowers (blue and black ball), cerinthe, corncockle, calendula and borage plants growing on the front so far. We’ve also got a load of Rudbeckia seedlings to plant as well and even more sweet peas. Chris also bought a lupin (which I really wanted, so it was a nice surprise) and some dahlias, we need to pick a site for them too. At least we now know the plants will grow here, which is brilliant.

On the veg side, the second early potatoes are growing well, I haven’t managed to get main crops in yet. The peas and the garlic are growing well, there’s some beetroot seedlings showing now and some parsnip seedlings. I have sweetcorn to plant out and need to plant the runner beans, it should be warm enough now. I planted them too early last year and they didn’t do well. Our strawberry plants are flowering but unfortunately it looks like the raspberry canes have died off, Chris thinks it’s because we had a dry spell and we didn’t water them enough. I’m praying they come back, but we may have to get some more. The cranberry and blueberry bushes are growing really well round the side. I’m still trying to decide what to do with my cucumber and tomato plants as we haven’t yet got a poly tunnel. I might have to pot them on and keep them indoors. I’m pretty sure it’s too windy here to have them outdoors. Oh yes! I have a couple of courgette plants to plant out too. It’s all go…exciting though, eventually I want to be able to grow veg just about all year round for our use. Not sure whether I’ll manage to get all that I want this year, but I’ll try.

Sweet corn plants (they’ve now gone outside)

Animals are currently on hold, I think chickens or ducks will be first, but as there’s pine martens, mink, foxes and badgers around here, we’re going to have to make sure they’re as secure as we can get them. Probably with electric fencing as well as an enclosure. I also feel like I currently have enough on, but it would be good to have chickens again.

Here lies the body of…

only joking! (As Chris would say).

It’s our outside fire that Chris has made for us. It’s great, the tombstone makes sure the smoke doesn’t go everywhere. Hoping to cook on it sometimes this summer.

New bed dug today, only a small one. J said he wanted to grow carrots, so I dug one and the seeds are in. I’m not sure whether they’ll work, the seeds are from last year and I’ve never had much success with carrots, but I guess we will soon see. The sticks mark the rows.

I gave J his own little bit of garden today (he chose it), mainly because he kept running on and digging in the bits I’ve planted. In the photo he is using my early birthday present. He’s really good with it too. It’s a Wolf Garten set, they have interchangeable heads and the ones I chose are a tiller and a weeder. J has also sown some sunflower seeds too today. He seems to really like gardening. Maybe we should start a family business 😆.

Project veg plot

I have a project! The area of raised ground behind the house is just about dry enough to sort out for our veg plot (with a few flowers thrown in for good measure). So I’ve started edging and digging the beds and planning it out. I love doing it. Especially planning and deciding where to put the paths and beds and what will go where.

A before (ish) photo, not quite the same view as the next:

and a current photo:

It is so satisfying, just doing a bit at a time. It has to be a bit really, I have to wait for littlest’s nap time, then I try to do the digging. The top bit in front of the shed is where I’m at at the moment:

still about half a bed to dig, there’s some big stones in there. When I can get them out they get thrown down the bank, there’s one so far that I can’t shift, so I think I’ll stick another on top and leave it there so I can see where it is and don’t do a clang a spade down on it thing and reverberate. I’m hoping to get potatoes in here over the next week but it’s still fairly claggy, so we’ll see.

This is the other side:

To the far left as you look at the raised area we are hoping to put up a poly tunnel. Either this year or next, we aren’t sure yet. There’s so many roots and branches to clear, but it’s good fun.

I’ve felt a bit low recently and being outside, being active and gardening are things I really enjoy and they charge me up. I asked God what to do about how I was feeling earlier in the week and amongst other things I felt he said to get outside. He also gave me this verse:

Matthew 6:25

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

I need to trust him.

also, we have pots everywhere! I love it! Seeds are germinating all over the house 😍

these are cornflowers, blackball and blue ball. Hopefully we’ll pick the right spot for them once they’re a bit bigger and they’ll flourish!

So, what have we been up to?

Where to start today? well, basically whilst I was away in England Chris was really busy doing stuff here so I think I’ll stick to that mainly, today. Whilst we were away he almost finished strimming our field:-

He also got a big delivery of plants to plant, even in the pouring rain:

This was the delivery:

So he planted all those up and they are actually doing really, really well. It’s a bit of an experiment this year, to see what thrives and what doesn’t. We’ve chosen most plants that don’t mind acidic soil and a wet climate but with others such as annual flowers that we will soon sow, we may just give them a try and see what happens. We’ve just ordered our seeds from Higgledy Garden, so we’re very excited to get those soon and hopefully start planting.

We came home, this was how I kept two small children occupied on the plane I’m afraid:

This is back at Knock Airport:

It was good to see Chris and drive home:

Since we got home we have also bought a topper and a box for Chris’s tractor and had them delivered:

Had stones cleared out of the field in order to be able to mow it quickly and without damaging the topper:

This was a large ditch in the field which has been filled with stones and they’ve been buried.

The windows came whilst I was away and have now been fitted over a period of 5 days. Before:

After:

They’ve done an amazing job, and it is so nice to have wind tight windows and door.

Finally, the littlest really enjoyed a trip we had to Smyths at Sligo retail park, we found it a little stressful, but the kids both loved it!

Just a quick word of advice too, if you hire a car, make sure you check it over when you get it, I didn’t and then realised there was a massive scuff. Thankfully, I told them I thought it was from before and they looked and agreed, but I gather not everybody has such a positive experience. I was really stressed when I got to England and didn’t think, but I will next time as it caused worry at a time when I really didn’t need it, but praise God it was fine.

Ta ra for now.

Cathy.

Post Script! – I forgot to put in that we’ve now applied and been approved to have Irish driving licences. So we’ve given in our UK licences! Apparently as residents, if there was a no deal Brexit our licences would be invalid.

That wasn’t the initial reason – the initial reason was that there seems to be no option to have a UK licence with the DVLA and an Irish address so it just seemed sensible to swap. Then when we went to the office with our application, the no deal thing was explained to us. If you’re just visiting from the UK, there will not be any problems, just if you’re resident.