Twas a pretty chilly day this morning when I woke up. Out of the window all I could see was fog. The temperature had dropped low enough to make an amazing hoar frost, very pretty but very cold. The horses had frosty ear hair and whiskers, which makes tham look like they have all aged over night. The muddy part of the track down to the field was masquerading as solid until I put my foot on it and sank down 8 inches and across 6. Luckily im used to this mud skating, wading and leaping routine and I can negotiate the path fairly uneventfully most days. This was not one of those days and a misjudged step took me down another 4inches to almost top of welly height. I live to see another day.
Back at the house George the goat has managed to push under the fence into the next paddock where there is grass. I refuse to move him back again, he went one way, he can find his own way back, probably. He has a frozen beard and looks like an ugly gnome. George is stupid, Fred is bleating because his friend is stuck on the other side of the fence. Ill probably move him back tomorrow if he hasnt found his own way.
Its been an exciting week with the arrival of my new sewing machine. Its a very fancy piece of kit, although, its on the slowest speed setting but it could still take your arm off if you took your eye off the ball. In true chinese fashion it came with rubbish instructions for installation and a parts list that IDs every single nut, joint, cog and screw in the whole machine. Through process of elimination we pieced it all together and amazingly it worked! well of course it did, it wasnt really that complicated in the end and I found a rough guide on the internet. All i need now is for some new thread to arrive and we will be ready to roll. I hope it will enhance productivity and quality, it will certainly be fun trying.
Up until now ive been using a 1970s singer machine, well I started off with a 2004 Brother but that coughed and spluttered when asked to sew more than 2 layers of cotton, looked at me shocked and told me it 'wasnt in its job description'. It is now relegated to very light duties and it even mucks that up sometimes.
The Singer, which Rich lent me has a 1970s work ethic, its powers its way through most things yelling 'coming through!' but down to its age and I suspect senility, it occasionally forgets what its there for, gets wound up, ties itself in knots and conks out. It is now been semi retired and will enjoy a quieter life sewing in my zips and the occasional zigzag.
The new machine is a Jack A2. It came from Poland. The machine went to Rennes and arrived on the Thursday, the table went all the way to Le Havre and arrived on the Friday. Well I found that amusing anyway. I might do a proper review on it when ive finally begun to use it.
We spent a day down at Richs other house (yes, we have another one) at the beginning of the week. its partially renovated but has taken a back seat since forever. But, at the end of July we have some lovely friends staying there, so we are now on a mission to get it finished. While we were there we decided to bring a few things back, furniture, lamps etc that we want in our own house. we also bought back an antique french babys cot bed and mattreess which I thought would be a cute addition to the dogs bedroom and keep them off the floor. Wet, muddy dogs, a stinking, mouldy mattress make. Anyway, as you can see a certain GSD has decided he really likes it...
The other dogs were not impressed, Rich found them all barking at him because he was in their bedroom on their bed, like some sort of fluffy, big eared Goldilocks.
In other news, we got 18 eggs today, we have 17 chickens and 4 of them are Cockerels. Work that one out? Im drowning in eggs here, the bantams are on overdrive, there is an eggy mountain in the kitchen threatening to avalanche into the washing up bowl.
Egg recipes most welcome, theres only so many 4 egg omlettes and scrambled eggs we can eat.
I went to shut the chickens up tonight, there should be 13 in one pen, 4 in the other, so I was most put out to find there was only 12 in the big shed. Through careful counting and a process of elimination I deduced that it was the Dodo that was missing, so called because he looks like a cross between a dodo and a black parrot caught in an electric socket. A quick triple check and I decided he was definitly not being sat on by one of the bigger chickens in the big shed and shut them up. I was slightly worried because he is so scrawny that a rat could easily have dragged him down a hole and the other Coqs do pick on him. (Come to think of it, everyone picks on him) I had a good scout round with my torch. Luckily, I found him nestled snuggly between his bantam mums and auntie in the little chicken shed. Not so silly little Dodo. He can stay in that pen with them now.
Turns out hes not so stupid as he looks, not like the goat. The goat IS stupid.