Time goes slowly

Marking Time

June 22, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Edit

We are now on our final countdown before our return to Ireland, it is quite strange still living in our old house seeing most of our hard work in the garden being neglected. We had been offered a flat to rent for the last five months of our time in Spain but turned it down as we hadn’t wanted to disrupt the cats and dogs and when the new owners offered to rent us the apartment that we had created we said yes. On reflection we should have left. It gets very upsetting when animals die due to lack of care, so far two goats have met untimely deaths, and soft fruit for the large part remains unpicked.

Many people dream of a self sufficient life style, but any one who thinks it’s easy, is living in a dream world.

So we sit here, planing all the things we need to do when we get back to Ireland. We have already made a start on the veg garden and hope that blight does not strike the potatoes before we return. One of the first jobs will be planting more veg. Onions, french beans and cabbages will still have time to grow before the autumn sets in, then it will be tree planting time. We are planing to grow a small woodland area , just over one acre for coppicing in time, my husband plans to incorporate a maize into this area, which should be fun.

Other immediate jobs are clearing out the old Dutch barn for two years supply of winter fuel, in the form of turf and wood. We are hoping to divided this barn into three areas, one as a garage, one for a work shop and the final one for winter fuel.

We are hoping that within the first couple of weeks of our return to get some stock, this will be hens for eggs and the table and rabbits, again for the table. It is very doubtful if we will go back to keeping either goats of sheep. We hope to be able to make time to explore the wonderful island of Ireland, something we never had time to do properly before. Also to make time for some craft work and archaeology.