Longhope Diary August 2016

The view from the caravan for our workaway, Jorge, just gets better and better!  Imagine waking up to this?  I think our apprentice Will hadn’t thought about where to leave a trailer of muck.  We’ve all been doing long hours and working solidly without a break for so long it’s all we can do to think straight.  During our farm inspection I literally couldn’t stifle a yawn.

Not the best time of year for most farms that make hay and harvest.  I had deferred it once and didn’t dare a second time.  It was every bit as horrible as I had imagined it would be.

---

It must be the school holidays as tents have popped up under the oak tree and Bud our collie disappeared on the promise of a ‘burnt on outside/raw inside’ sausage. 

​Ah well, we all did it once and survived.

---

Jorge our workaway has been fabulous and has helped us on the farm as well as renovating my little caravan.  He is training to be an architect and is definitely not into ‘bodge it yourself’.  Each side is completely coming off being fixed and repaired.  I feel so happy that at last this is being finished….well started anyway.  Is it illegal to hide his return ticket?  We have been incredibly lucky with our workaways, firstly Peppe and now Jorge.  It’s like having another son (who isn’t rude to me).  I miss Peppe so much and know I will miss Jorge when he moves on.​ 

​Will seems to have taken it upon himself to ensure Jorge has the benefit of all the English language including words that would not appear in the Standard English dictionary.  This is possible with the use of google translate on the mobiles and seems to keep them amused for ages (I am getting old!!). 

---

We have lots and lots and lots of very good quality hay and haylage for sale.  We even have pink ones this year.  It is in support of breast cancer research…..and it makes the yard look jolly! 

The plentiful supply of slugs/worm around our compost converter seems to attract hedgehogs.  This one was in the conservatory so we got it out and gave it some water before sending it on its way.  They are really cute even though covered in fleas.

---

At time of writing this I should be doing farm jobs but we have got to the end of hay/harvest and all feel utterly exhausted so decided a combination of office work and watching the Olympics were in order.

​We have two of our livery ladies moving onto pastures new.  We wish Beth and Emma the best of luck.  Keep in touch. 
​
We are looking forward to Jen joining us soon. 

---

All is well with the holiday cottage except for our ‘musical shower’.  It sounds like an orchestra tuning up as loudly and as badly as possible.  I have had the plumber look at it, tried running water through with shower head lowered, taken it all apart but all to no avail.  Does anybody have any good ideas?  I may change the shower head and see if that helps, then there is always my good friend Google and YouTube.  Anybody over 50 will remember the reference library; anybody under 50 will laugh in disbelief at the very idea of walking into town to gather facts, figures or information.  Not that the reference library would have the answer to a musical shower, in fact there were no showers, plus baths were once a week, usually on a Sunday night.  Those were the (smelly) days.