Taking stock

The summer is almost half-way through… The swifts, and their summer soundtrack, will be leaving us soon I expect, the melancholic calling of cranes has become a familiar sound again.

I had been warned when we started; in about two years’ time we should be able to assess where we’re at and how we want to continue – basically, to take stock. Nothing dramatic, but it feels like it’s time for choices again: which activities to prioritise, which way to go, how to take the time to enjoy all we’ve done and have. (Some say it takes a lifetime to work it out… ) We realise that we have heaped up many exciting projects but are running around hectically a lot as well. A bit of refocusing on the essentials will make us stronger in the long run too.

These observations are in part due to the fact that we have had the chance of receiving help from a couple of Wwoofers during the past months; this has proven to be a double edged sword: the fact of having more helping hands around pushes you to keep-on going, which is motivating but sometimes it would be just as nice to take a break. Integrating new voluntary workers in our daily (and private) lives almost every 3 weeks, has been challenging. Obviously you are dealing with real people, with real stories, personalities and expectations. Sometimes you clash, sometimes it works out beautifully and you would want them to move in permanently

And now, our newest arrivals: Elvis, our still tiny billy goat (hopefully the future father of many kids in 2016), Josette, a sweet doe-eyed goat (to replace the one we lost this winter), and Lucifer, our coal-black kitten. Lucifer and Azrael have become BFF after only a week, and are prowling the garden for mice and voles (Wühlmaus, Campagnol) and unfortunately also harmless shrews (Spitzmaus, Musaraigne). Luckily we’ve managed to save a mole and an occasional sparrow fledgling from their greedy paws. In October we are planning to finally get some Indian Runner Ducks to deal with the slug plague in the vegetable patch.

Hannes finished the outside summer shower next to the barn. For the moment the water is only warm on sunny days and around midday… Together with our current Wwoofer, Nadine, we are working on a bridge over our garden creek and a sheep trail through the alder wood on the other side of the creek, so that we don’t need to lead the animals to pasture through the garden (and tasty flowers and berry bushes) anymore! Visiting friends were put to good use and helped us in our effort to build a hay tripod (to dry and store the hay in summer) for the little hay that was made in the orchard where the animals graze. Well, Hannes built a tripod that looked like a house, then I convinced him to make it smaller, but somehow the hay inside it still got wet. So something must have been wrong with the way the hay was stacked on the structure. Then the goats came and transformed the whole thing in a goat summer lounge, leaving only the roof and tearing down and eating the walls…