Day Out To Eastnor Castle

I think like most people we're guilty of not doing the attractions that are right on your doorstep. 

Excuse the bus in the photo...

So this week when it came to our 9 year wedding anniversary (9 years!!! can't believe how fast that time has gone!) we decided to go out for the day and in the end chose somewhere that is less than four miles away.

Packed Summer Already!

It's been a busy couple of weeks and a lot has been going on. Sometimes it's good to just take a minute look back at it. Especially in this mid day heat - great to have an excuse to be inside!

Helping me make elder flower champagne. My youngest daughter was so funny. She tried a bit and then said "OHHHH, it's LOVELY, can I take some in my water bottle to preschool?" Er no...

The children and I have been busy foraging lots of elder flowers for making champagne, wine, cordial and fritters! I plan to do a post on all of these soon but the kids have loved helping out!


My wife had a day off last week as a day in lieu of working a weekend on a school trip, it was lovely to spend the day with her, we even managed to get up the hills for a walk before it got too hot in the morning.

Not Wasted Time - Conversation Is Important!

I am guilty of being a very goal oriented person. 

I set myself a list of tasks that's far too long, never get them done and then feel guilty for not having done enough. 

This is at it's worst when the kids have gone to bed. Earlier in the day I think of all the things I'm going to get done that evening. Then when it comes to it my wife and I come down stairs feeling like we've fought a battle just to get them in their pyjamas and clean their teeth. 

We slump down in the sofa and look at each other, that's when my guilt starts. I feel I need to get myself up and moving, the temptation is to get my phone out and look at it like a zombie, learning nothing and doing nothing. 

This is wasting time and it happens more than I'd care to admit. 

One thing that isn't wasting time is to talk to my wife. 

Frequently we have a few evening where we sit and talk to each other for hours, sometimes about important things, sometimes about nothing at all. 

I think I sometimes underestimate how important this is. 

Sometimes I'm in danger of thinking that this is wasting time, no goals have been achieved that night, nothing ticked off the list, but I think in the grand scheme of things it's possibly the most important thing we could be doing. 

You see with three young children and my wife working full time, giving time to conversation between each other is often hard to come by.

One of the many reasons I fell in love with her in the first place is through my love of conversation with her (if that sounds weird I'm sorry). For years we had a long distance relationship where we'd speak to each other every other night on the phone for an hour. Being able to talk to someone who understands you, is willing to listen and has you're best interests at heart is key to a healthy relationship and when children come on the scene it's very easy to let that slip. 

People often ask how I get so much done here, but without my wife none of this would happen. 

Working on keeping your relationship strong is probably the most important job you could do on any homestead! 

Light Sleeper

I've always been quiet a light sleeper, I think it comes from nearly always living in the countryside away from main roads and noise.

I remember being in my early teens and hearing glass smashing at about 4 in the morning. I was out of bed like a shot, straight into mum and dad, to give them a mild heart attack, before going down stairs with dad. Him in front me behind (not sure what I would have done). 

"Sorry!" The milk man rather sheepishly said as he raised his hand. It took a while to go back to sleep after that!

Not much of a snow storm

I'm the same now, I have no problem falling a sleep and do so in a matter of minutes, but I'll wake up if a squirrel farts in the garden!

My wife is the polar opposite however.

Last night was a perfect example of that. 

I woke up around four as it was blowing a gale and I could here something bashing around outside. I popped down stairs to see what it was (the meter cupboard door for the electric had come open) and then decided to just go outside and check nothing was blowing around in the extension (wellies and boxer shorts is a good look for a night time prowl in the snow!). I then went back upstairs and to the loo where I rather clumsily knocked a pack of tissues into the bath, it made a terrible racket, woke up the boy who then cried for 5 minutes before settling back down. I got back into bed and my wife hadn't even stirred! 

Who else is a light sleeper? 

Or who could sleep through an earthquake? 

I think it's a good trait to have when you're looking after your little homestead though.

5 Years ago today

It's been a week since I've posted but it's been busy! I'll write about what I've been up to later though.

I was lay in bed this morning, with my wife asleep next to me and our three children in the other bedrooms, thinking about how five years ago on this day (23rd) was the first morning in this place and our first full day here. 

I don't need to write what's changed in our lives since then as I'm blessed to have made some lovely friends via this blog who get to share in all that we've done here and I'd like to thank you all for that. 

But I did want to write about one thing that hadn't changed in all that time and be a bit soppy for once. 

My love for my wife

She is an amazing, clever, thoughtful, determined, funny, beautiful woman. She is an incredible mother to our children and wife to me, I can honestly say that no one knows me better than her or how to bring out the best in me.

Early next year we'll have been together fifteen years, we met as late teenagers and grew and became adults together and have shared some truly amazing moments through our lives. 

I can't wait to wake up next to her on Christmas morning and enjoy what will be a magical day, but not without all the hard work that she has been putting into it each night for weeks.  

I know I have a lot to be thankful for in life but my wife truly is the heart of it. 

Love you my wife x

My Self Built Camper Van Gone

A few weeks ago the camper van I built 10 years ago was sold. 

I built it from a an old St John's Ambulance, it only had 8000 miles on the clock and had been stored in a hanger it's whole life. Dad and I went to pick it up and the idea was already forming in my mind as we drove down there. 

Before - St John Ambulance

 I got it back and gutted it and then set about converting it into a camper with the idea to take my wife (then girlfriend) around Europe in it the following summer. 

The inside of the van to be ripped out

If people are interested I have some pictures of the conversion as well, let just say that a lot of hours went into that conversion, I'd work all day then get home and start again on the van. I was living at my parents at the time and had a little workshop there which I could park outside to get the work done. My wife made all the curtains and cushion covers as well, which we fitted on a test run down to her place. The one and only time it broke down (although I managed to fix it on the Gloucester bypass!).

Nestled in between some much bigger campers

When we left I had tested very little, I pretty much downed tools, picked up my wife and set off for France. We had only booked a ferry in and a ferry out, everything else was left up to chance!

Pitched up in France the first night - everything worked! 

Everything in the van worked as it should though, with very few teething troubles, we had running water, electric, lights and a gas cooker and a good sized sofa that turned into a double bed at night. 

The van outside Colditz castle

Easy to set up camp

   

Prague

Big enough for my wife to cook in! 

For the next 6 weeks we travelled over 4000 miles, camped on 19 campsites and drove across 8 countries, a year later we drive all the way to Poland as well. Everywhere we went people would stop and ask about the camper and want to look inside, I remember crossing the boarder into Germany from Poland and all the boarder guards wanted to do was look around the van and ask questions about how it was made! 

It was a great way to travel and suited our life at that point in time. Fast forward ten years, we now have a life that is far harder to pack up, with three kids, a big veg garden and more stock than you can shake a stick at, the camper was something that wasn't really going to get used anymore, my sister was last to use it a few years ago.

Better to sell it and let someone else have some adventures in it. Hopefully it'll be driving round for a long time yet! 

What do you think to the van? 

Where would you drive to?

Seven Years Married

Seven years ago today I married the most amazing woman I've ever met. 

 Our wedding day was the most perfect day ever. We had a marque on my parents farm and had perfect weather even though it had been raining for weeks before hand ad were joined by all our friends and family. 

It seems mad that so much time has passed already, seven years seemed to have flown by, in fact the 14 we've been together seemed to have! 

Now it's mad to imagine our life then and how different it was before children, this place and how much free time we used to have.

I know I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. 

Thank you to my wife for putting up with me for all those years! I love her more everyday.

Changing A Tap & A Wet T-Shirt

The tap in the picture below has bugged me for the last four and a half years. 

This is because previously it was upside down, nothing would connect properly and hose pipes would kink. 

Of course it's easy to put a job like that off. I've had the washer on the shelf for three of those years but never got round to it. So Friday night I had a spare half hour and decided to tackle it. 

I lay down on the kitchen and contorted myself into a weird shape with an outstretched arm to get to the stop tap under the kitchen units. I then shouted my wife to come and put the tap on and tell me when the water was off.

I should be able to tell which way is on and off fairly easily (righty tighty - lefty loosy and all that) but whether it was the angle my body was at or something else I turned it the wrong way. This (although she denies it) coupled with my wife's dry sense of humour meant that as I turned the tap the wrong way, my wife also turned the kitchen tap off, making me think I'd turned the water off. 

She then said nothing as I went outside with some spanners and took the tap off the wall. 

I got blinking soaked and couldn't figure out why the water was still coming out! I thought it was just what was left in the pipes to start with. I then had to get back under the kitchen units to actually turn off the tap once I figured this out (the other way this time!). Before going back outside and changing the tap for a new one and adding a washer to turn it the right way round.

Good job it was a hot day! 

Something I should have done years ago as it only took about half an hour! 

Who else has a job they've put off for ages? 

Who else's partner has got them into trouble like that?

Whilst I Was Off On A Jolly...

My wife posted this picture on Facebook yesterday with a caption about being left to deal with the sheep whilst I was off on a jolly (more on that tomorrow but I had an amazing day learning about market gardening)! 

The ewe in the picture had had two lambs (luckily no assistance needed) and my wife dealt with them and checked the sheep for me throughout the day, as well as feeding them in the afternoon. All with three children in tow!

She even sprayed the lambs bellies whilst carrying Alistair! 

 She even goes on to beat that today when doing her checks (I'm still having to go to work at this time so she's doing a few checks in the day for me whilst we wait for the last ones to lamb) she notices that the new mother had only one lamb with her, she found the other by the brook, cold and shivering. So I came home (luckily I was only working in the next village) and got her into a bonding pen with both lambs (the ewe not my wife), this was after about half an hour running round a field swearing and wanting to throw my crook at it. 

She was not keen on her second lamb and promptly set to try and kill it, the lamb was in desperate need of a drink so rather than mess around I rolled the ewe over and let him have his fill before putting her in an adopter pen, where hopefully he'll pick up her sent and she'll accept him over time. 

I'm sure that if my wife hadn't been really observant and spotted it when she did then the lamb would have passed the point of no return shortly afterwards. It's amazing how much she's learning about sheep and the things that she tells me she's seen on her checks. 

I'm always very aware that I've pushed my wife into this lifestyle, but it makes me very happy to see how well she adapts to it (whether she wants to or not!). 

I'm a very lucky man!