Letters To Father Christmas

I've loved the children's letters to father Christmas every time they've sent them, and this year is no exception. 

Our eldest has asked for a sewing machine, she is sewing obsessed at the moment.

Our middle child has asked for a toy robot and a pirate map.

And the youngest has asked for two toy whales (to go with the one he has) and a bubble gum dinosaur (a weird toy for about a pound he saw in a shop a while ago).

To have such simple wants in life is lovely.

Dutch Oven Cooking

I managed to do another Bushcraft lesson with the school today. 

This was with Year 1, my younger daughters class. I did a similar lesson in the summer with my eldest.

Wet Muddy Chicken

The rains lat week have certainly made everything pretty muddy around here. Looking at the news it's pretty obvious that we got off lightly.

Floods down the lane we live down. And people ask why I drive a 4x4...

 The worst that happened around here was that some roads were blocked by floods and the school got shut for half a day, more because I think the teachers were worried about how they'd get home than any risk to the children. It gave them a cosy afternoon watching a film - until a friend rang to say he'd run out of fuel!

On the Friday morning I went to move my 25 meat chickens and I could see instantly that I had 24 white chickens and one that was brown and crusty...

Restoring My Dutch Oven

After moaning that the school my two daughters go to doesn't do enough outdoor stuff, I ended up volunteering my services to go in and do a session with them one afternoon. 

The teacher who I'm going in to assist wanted to cook up the huge pumpkin that she had got in for halloween a few weeks ago.

Planning What To Make The Kids For Christmas

IT's been a couple of years since I made the kids a Christmas Present. This year I'm really keen to get back into the habit.

Last year I put up a new play area for them which their grandparents got them. I can't understate how much they've used this. there wasn't a day in the summer where they didn't spend at least a few hours on there and every snack they had was eaten on the swing or den.