quick roundup

There have been no dramatic developments recently, but a steady trickle of stuff happening that I thought I would just precis, in case there was anything of interest to anybody!

We went cross-country skiing for the first time last week. The kids were off school because of the snow, but we managed to get out to some folk locally who rented us all skis and boots for the afternoon. It was good fun, in a kind of falling down sort of way, and bizarrely enough, everyone wants to give it another go before the snow disappears.

The weather has been very variable. There was a big dump of snow a couple of days ago and then a day where it started at at -12 went up to +10 and rained. That got rid of most of the ice and snow on the drive thankfully, as it is back to sub-zero again.

Jane and Breagh have started training with the horses. Slowly introducing lunge rope work. It's going reasonably well, as far as I can see.

Our big seed order went in this week. If we manage to turn over enough ground to plant all the seed, then we are going to be pretty busy. Before we get livestock, we are going to have to address the poor state of our boundary fences, but we're thinking we might get away using electric fence for now, and tackle the fixed fence bit at a time. Jane is at a workshop on organic crop rotation today, and I have a chainsaw safety course tomorrow. She was at a spinning workshop a couple of weeks ago, and I passed my firearms safety training and am waiting for a firearm posession and acquisition licence.

We have managed a few days work in the woods, but nowhere near enough. The plan is to thin the areas of woodland edging the fields first. That should give us enough small log wood for fuel, but we need to be accumulating 6+ cords for next year. A cord of wood, for those who don't know, measures 8' x 4' x 4'. We still haven't decided which route to take for heating the house and water, and that will affect the amount of wood we need to store dramatically.

The house renovation started, but is taking a long time to get moving properly. I have worked on new wiring plans with an electrician for the upstairs and the room that will be Breagh's bedroom is completely gutted. I'm waiting for electrical supplies to come to get on with the next bit.

We have been getting fresh milk from friends who have a small herd of dairy cattle locally, so urged on by another friend, we have added cheese-making to the usual yoghurt production. Jane has made cream cheese, cottage cheese and mozzarella with great success.

We had a chem-free filter and uv treatment added to our well water system. The water was very iron-rich and smelled sulphurous, but now is drinkable straight from the tap, and no longer do we emerge from a shower dirtier than we went in. It tastes great now - I always wanted a private water supply, and it had been a bit of a disappointment. Mind you, it made me examine the plumbing in the basement - yikes, add re-plumbing to the todo list.

I still don't have a good name for my internet business, despite the best efforts of friends and family! I've had a busy spell recently doing several new website builds and a couple of voluntary projects. One, possibly of the latter type will be looking at a community website for this area - badly needed. I was at a local Board of Trade meeting the other night, at which speakers were outlining the opportunities for business startup and expansion in North Queens. Apparently, we are also in a biosphere designation. Need to look into this stuff more.

Cam has a girlfriend, Breagh has a cold - we trundle on...