A 'weekend'

We've had our first weekend for a while- marked out with days at work before and the anticipation of the week to come.

My parents went on their travels, and hopefully they'll have a lovely few weeks away. DH and I have had time to talk, and have clearer ideas for our plans for the future, including how we'd like home ed to work for us.
We realise to make sure it happens, at least initially, we need time set aside to make sure we can follow where Big One leads. This week my parents have been upset about her learning to read (and HE in general), and I've realised that part of that (at least) is that this week Big One has decided to be interested in it, AND wants to do it with my mum (her favourite person, and knew she was going away). The arguements haven't been nice, but I (we) really hope things will be different when my parents return.

Not least because we've found the caravan we want to buy! DH is doing some tow training soon, so we've arranged to buy and collect it in a fortnight. Its just what we want, with a huge awning and sounds like lots of extras...but we forgot to take pics, so that'll have to wait until it really is ours.
In the meantime, I've been enjoying my bit of home ed. This morning we were in the kitchen so Big One made chocolate meringues with grandmas heavy handmixer (been to find ours in storage- it has a stand so little people can do it), then tuna fishcakes which went so fast I only got a pic of the last one, and the rest of this weeks bread. I hoped to get some cookies made for work, but that'll have to keep till next week.

Later we'll do some making with some pretty leaves from our walk in the woods today. I haven't been there for about 20 years, so it was lovely to share with my family somewhere I went to back when I helped out with Brownies! Scary how time flies...

Posted from my phone- please excuse the typos.

Scrumptious Sourdough

One of the luxuries of being in a house is an oven, and I absolutely love sourdough bread. This is probably 2 thirds of our weeks bread- and for some reason it rose even more in the oven! A good day already.

See the bouquet?

Its not every day I make a bouquet- I think this is the one and only. Lucky me, it features on the cover of a magazine! Mike and Petra were married at The Mother Magazine camp which we were at in the summer.

The last few weeks

We've been busy again, and haven't had chance to get some thoughts down.
We have had a wonderfully fabulous end to WWOOFing with 2 weeks at Lower Shaw Farm in Swindon. We all decided we wanted to return to our first host for the end of our trip, and I'm really glad we all agreed.
The girls loved the company, the playing but especially the animals, and we adults enjoyed, um, the same! We were only planning on being there 10 days, but Andrea said we could stay for her birthday celebrations, so we did.
While we were there, there was a Women's creativity weekend that I was a participant for, so DH and the girls had two days playing out, and generally keeping a low profile. I think that was a bit of a challenge at times, but I really appreciated the chance to try out new things.
I've been busy recommending LSF as a destination for families- we've had such a wonderful time and looking forward to planning a return visit next year.

We've returned to home base in Huddersfield, staying with my parents for a few months. We've started settling in, but that isn't going so well.
My parents have various holidays planned, so the idea was we'd be housesitting with a few weeks overlap. However, my parents are not supportive of home educating. In fact, they are anti-home educating and feel we are depriving Big One of a suitable education. She should be spending more time with children her own age (the slightly older home ed kids she chooses to play with are not suitable) and she should be made to sit down and read, write and do numbers.

That isn't what we want for her, and we don't want to have any conversation we're having about the girls turned into 'if she went to school/she should go to school' etc. Thankfully my parents feel it isn't going well- my mum especially is suffering seeing how 'deprived' Big One is. We are both quite firm on our opinions, but my mum isn't great at communicating around the issue and is feeling ill. My Dad quite agrees with her, but can talk to us about it.
This has helped us a bit, and DH and I realise that a lot of our issues with school education ( apart from starting too early) are about discipline, or the lack of it.

Anyway, to avoid a serious rift we've been asked to leave, and thinking about it DH and I are relieved. We thought it'd a be a struggle to share living space with these strong disagreements, and thought it'd be us saying we had to leave soon. This also means we haven't the choices we were trying to work through- I haven't the proof of income to rent anywhere, our tenants would need 8 weeks notice (and we don't want to live there) and that leaves buying a caravan as the way to go.

My parents go away for a few weeks in just over 1 weeks time, so fingers crossed we can manage this coming week.

More baking

Big One wanted to be busy in the kitchen too. can't wait until they're ready!

Home baking

First batch of 'andrea's' sourdough just out of the oven. It definately won't last long! Thanks andrea!

Crafty moment

I keep meaning to share what I've been up to- when I get 5 minutes! This is what I've been doing: a couple of scarves, a hat for me, a felted hat that is more doll size than anything else, a plaster and paper bowl, a slate and silver necklace. Andrea has the other scarf I made yesterday- its her birthday today. I'm making a picture with fabric, but that's going slowly. I only wish for more hours in the day!

On to our Final WWOOF

 We’ve been hiding.

No, actually we’ve been far too busy having a brilliant time to keep up with the blog!

We had a few days near home last week catching up with DH’s family. An older relative has been diagnosed with breast cancer- thankfully she has a ‘good’ type that is responding to drugs. Anyway, we wanted to spend some time with her, and we haven’t seen DH’s parents since March, so it was very good to see them as well.

We’re back to our starting WWOOF host, in Swindon. Lower Shaw Farm has been a favourite with us all for all sorts of different reasons- from the tyre swings, to not needing to camp, to fun work, etc. We planned to be here 10 days, but we’ve been asked to stay a little longer ( which took no thinking about at all on our part- um, yes please!) so we’re having 2 weeks of fun. Sorry, hard work! We’ve had a day off today.



Big One on the tyre swing





Maggie and Charlie at Lower Shaw Farm

 



So far while we’ve been here I’ve adopted the chickens- Matt is away so I’m trainee poultry keeper, keeping them fed, watered but with lots of help collecting the eggs. We’ve been harvesting in the garden,a bit of weeding and digging, and DH has been building a brash ‘hedge’, and helping getting the first cafe of the term off to a good start. The girls have loved helping, from filling salt cellars to cleaning a play house, to feeding and moving the sheep, and of course playing in the play barn, with the tyre swings and cargo net. I was meant to be helping with the knitting cafe, but instead I was able to learn a little about casting on and off, and stocking stitch. I just need to remember to get some knitting 'sticks' and get practicing- Big One is keen to knit and I don’t want to hold her back! At the weekend we had an afternoon out to Coleshill National Trust Open Day, so we could look around a veg box scheme garden, and able to buy some Huuuge icecreams- they were officially for the girls but we all got a good taste. The goats there were well petted by Big One, and we all enjoyed having a good look at the water mill- unfortunately not quite enough water that afternoon to grind flour, but they had been milling that morning.

Little One on the Rope Swing

I have only cooked one meal by myself for everyone so far . I’m much more comfortable helping, but can do it if pushed, and I enjoy it once I get started! Anyway, cooking for 8 or 10 isn’t too scary ( especially with a kitchen that has everything to hand- from spices to graters to anything you might need), and the courgette lasagne went down well as did the potato wedges and beans.

As I haven’t been blogging, I haven’t mentioned I’ve been getting into crochet again over the last couple of weeks. My mum has a little furry scarf that she likes, but would prefer in yarn. I’ve known this a while, but I only just got around to attempting to copy it in crochet. I managed to use a 10 mm hook ( souvenir from Isle of Skye wool shop) and some nice extra chunky yarn from Castle Douglas yarn shop and very quickly whipped up a scarf. The first one I did is for me( well, I made it for mum but when asked about colours she wanted something different) the second is lined up for a birthday present, and then Big One wanted one of her own and I’ve just finished mums today. I’ve also made myself a hat- but it was a little loose over my ears so felting was the plan, and now sized as a newborn gift!Luckily we know a new baby-  hope she'll get some wear out of it..... Photos would help, but I’ll save that for later with my phone.

Today has been our day off, so we’ve been busy exploring- not only a trip to a yarn shop, but also a mosy over to Avebury- which is amazing. We’ve been to Stonehenge and were stupended, amazed, etc despite not being able to touch the stones. Avebury has a village within it, so it is expected that you walk amongst the stones, touch the stones and feel the magic. Today was a glorious sunny day- and I get the feeling there’s some magic left there. We had a lovely day with new friends- it was a LSF WWOOFers trip as our French and German friends came with us. Handy having a van that seats 6!



Julie has kindly just given me some pictures she has taken, so all images (unless I get organised and will label suitably) are thanks to Julie- I'm trying hard to place these pictures in the post, and it just isn't working for me. Its the girls bedtime, and I simply cannot do this for longer. Apologies for the random pics....

The Rooms at LSF



The veg garden and re-covered polytunnel at LSF



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Avebury- WWOOFers trip out



DH and the girls at Avebury

Woodland Opportunity in Kent

Anyone want to work some overstood chestnut in Kent?
We've been sad to hear the couple who were living in the wood,starting to work it this summer are being pulled in different directions.
The wood has mains water installed this year, and there's a caravan, tree bog and several shelters, probably a shower - we haven't been there for a few month so don't know how far the plans got before things changed.
We WWOOFed there earlier in the year, and the owners would ideally like a couple to be there for a longer term. If we lived locally we'd definitely be up to going to help on a daily basis, but unfortunately we can't.
Its beautiful. There's a small area of conifers that need felling first, but its mostly chestnut IIRC. The access road in the wood is a bit of a challenge, but you can also walk in from a main road nearby.
Get in touch if you're interested, and I'll pass your details onto the owner.

Packing Up

Slowly packing up for the last time.

Final Camp

I'm quite sad, really to realise tonight is our last proper night living in our tent. Its kept the worst of the weather off us for the last months, and its been brilliant. Our stove has kept the temperature nice and hot when needed, and cheered us up in the cold and damp (and in the frost back when we started)- which fortunately hasn't been that often. I've been mulling over if we have one item that's been priceless, or something to really shout about - but I can't choose! Would it be our handy kitchen units? The hanging shelves ( thanks Sue!) our beds? our sleeping bags? The wellies that have lasted Big One more than a few weeks? The van that's taken us everywhere with hardly a grumble? I can't choose- I'll  mull it over and come up with reviews some other time.On other things.....

Our budget has gone completely to pot, and to put it bluntly, we've run out of money. We have money due in next week, but until then we're watching the pennies. I was wondering how we got in this situation- because it really has snuck up on us!
However, with a few hundred extra pounds for tires to pass the MOT, a few hundred pounds of lovely things like a kelly kettle, some interesting books and Austrian scythe(before these extra costs came to light!), another few hundred pounds for a replacement fan for the van, another £500 for extra storage for the stuff we didn't sell (our mistake-we forgot the 6 months would be up before we returned), and an extra 2 weeks campsite fees (yes, another £200) for not going back to a WWOOF host. With extra time not working we've done more driving around Scotland, which has been another four hundred pounds not included in our budget. I thought we had a pretty healthy contingency fund of about £1000 ( when our entire budget was only £4000)- but all our extras have got to nearer £2000. Oh well. Thankfully we've had tenants in the house and at the moment we'd be really stuck without that income.

Tomorrow we pack up and head to visit family for a few days- a relative has been diagnosed with breast cancer and gets some results this week, so we want to be around for them. We have our final WWOOFing 10 days at Lower Shaw Farm, our first ever hosts,after that, and we're really looking forward to it. They have somewhere for us all to stay, so that's how tonight is our last proper tent night. Sob!

Rainy day fun

We found a park in Castle Douglas- perfect for rolling UP hill,lol!

Holiday time

We've had a great extended holiday with N and J near Banff- DH's uncle and aunt. We had planned to be there a week, but with things not working out at Echo's, we stayed a little longer. We managed to fit in some carving- I made a spatula and a cooking spoon ( the best I've made so far, so we left that as a gift) and DH made a few eating spoons ( ditto- his best so far left for them). We were able to relax, do things at our own pace and not be obliged to work! We couldn't help it though, after a few days we were itching to help with their woodland. They have 30 acres, and had some thinning done last winter. They can thin without license, and although much of the thinnings is left for wildlife, some was being extracted by hand for firewood. With bad backs etc, this was getting a bit hard for N&J, so we were happy to help and have a go using timber tongs for a few hours some days. I really enjoyed that we could just do as much as we wanted- no obligations- and really enjoy what we were doing. We managed to find some carving wood- some sneaky sycamore was either felled and starting to put roots out, or still had a tiny bit of  bark to attach it to the stump, so was still growing and green. Dh said we couldn't bring it all, but he found some room for a bit of apple J asked him to prune while he had his chainsaw out.
N and J also very kindly let us use their caravan while we sorted out all our kit from the mud- giving us oppertunity to unpack the van and have a bit of a sort-through as well. We all happily squeezed into a 2-berth 40 (ish) year old caravan, and it has us really looking forward to a caravan of our own (with enough beds for us all!). We had about 3 nights in there, and especially enjoyed sitting at a table (without an audience for the girls to play up to/other people around for them to watch).
Moving back into our tent was like coming home though, and we appreciated the  nice short grass, level ground and generally fabulous camping place N & J have for us- even a couple of nicely spaced trees nearby so DH's hammock got an airing ( for the girls to play in, of course!).

I managed to finally fasten together some of the squares I've been crocheting. No plan or design, just squares Big One picked out of the book for me to crochet, in the yarn mother-in-law gave me ( along with book, hook and scissors!) for Christmas. One dolly size snuggle blanket. I've even adapted the design of a couple of squares to do what I want! I'm not too keen on the counting bit of following patterns- I still find it hard to figure out what constitutes a row, but squares seem a nice forgiving way to get on, and I like small things to do and complete, rather than a huge project that I forget where I'm at with- while we're travelling at least! Pic appeared in a previous post.
Previous posts have beach and McDuff aquarium pics, so I won't say much more, except we really had a great time.
Its taken me so long to finish this post, we've had another holiday, this time near Loch Ness. We stayed in Cannich, a lovely campsite but a bit midgy and very damp. The Loch Ness exhibition was really great, and the visit to the Isle of Skye was beautiful, though a long drive. A friend from back home made a 20 mile detour to visit us, and it was really, really lovely seeing them- just too short a visit!
We'll definately be holidaying up the west coast again. Ben Nevis on the drive down was shrouded in clouds, and Fort William looked worth another visit ( seeing as we just drove through). We almost met up with Wondering Wanderers, but they had to work so we'll manage that another time.
The Premier Inn that was our home last night is the newest we've been to- an even larger room than normal ( not that usual rooms are small), air conditioning, and smaller wardrobey shelves thing that's great for the girls to play in. We weren't sure about buying a meal, but when the pub had an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet, well, we did and it was a nice change.
Right, must get packed up so we can get to our next campsite for midday, and then enjoy grandparents visiting this afternoon.
We're realising our time on the road is coming to an end, but we've still got a bit more fun to have first!

Daytrip to Skye

We've not got there yet, but we found a lovely picnic spot by a sealoch and a view to the bridge. It's been a good drive across the country, but the best scenery is here at the coast.

Holiday day

Midges aren't too bad right now, and we found the Skin so Soft as repellant! All of us busy and happy.

Crochet

My mother in law got me started with crochet at Christmas. Here's a few of the squares Big One has had me learn to make, made into a dolly's blanket. Thanks mum-in-law!

McDuff Aquarium

This was last week- I didn't have phone reception properly until yesterday so these didn't send. Big One is enjoying the 'hands on' part- starfish, anenomes, hermit crabs, etc all to touch!

Phone pictures

Big One milking a goat on our last morning at Glasgow.

We got a couple of beach days in last week as well :-)

Mcduff aquarium

A teeny tiny jellyfish. Rubbish pic, but these are my favourite!

Soggy Glasgow

We’ve just had an interesting week near Glasgow.


We’ve been staying with a lovely lady called Echo ( really!) who has a lot to teach about market gardening. She’s run an organic veg box scheme for about 20 years(probably more actually), has gorgeous goats, delightful ducks and a couple of geese who weren’t actually scary. She also has a couple of dogs.

The goats are lovely- she has 11 of them. Apparently goats normally live to about 12 years, but she expects hers to live to 15 usually. Her goats are deep-littered (mucked out annually) so she can no longer sell the milk, and two of her milkers never had kids- they just decided they wanted to produce milk (I think that’s quite unusual!). Big One loves animals, and the goats were particularly interesting for her here. The goats have a regular feed (which Big One just about knew how to mix by the end of the week), alfalfa if they’ve been kept in ( they don’t like getting muddy wet feet) and daily ‘goat treats’ of perhaps willow cuttings,or rosebay willowherb, or currant bush cutting, but definitely not rhododendron- its poisonous to them. We tried to be around for at least some of the evening feeding and milking, and there were tears on our day off when we didn’t make it back in time. Packing up on our last day went slower as we girls got involved in the morning milking- Big One and I getting a final milking practice in. We’re quite sure we’ll have a couple of goats- Big One just has to learn to like the taste of the milk! Fresh goats milk doesn’t taste strongly- and is very different from supermarket goats milk. I’m looking forward to learning how to make feta cheese one day ( I’m remembering Pat’s cheese from Canon Frome!).

We were all welcome to teabreak and lunch, and the meals were really delicious. Echo has the smallest kitchen I’ve seen in a house- there isn’t a wall long enough for the sink and drainer to go along, they’re set at an angle into the windowsill! She and other volunteers made delicious soups, salads, we had our first duck egg omelette- fabulous. The times varied, so we generally had tea-break as lunch, and as lunch could be 4pm some days, that was an early tea! Little One’s nap often just nicely fit in between shared meals.

The work we were doing was all interesting, and Echo is very good at explaining things. She uses rock dust to improve her soil (and goats!) and I hope DH will blog about subsoiling so I can learn about it- the downside to one of us working is we both don’t learn everything. He also reckons he knows how to hoe properly, and wants to buy a good one ( not a dutch hoe). We did all work together one evening making a handmade ‘bale’. It was more a net or bag of hay, but it was really interesting to see what we could do without a baler. The girls did a great job tramping down the hay- less goat food to buy in!

Her place is on the edge of Hardgate, with a rough estate nearby. Unfortunately that means everything must be carefully locked up, and they’ve been vandalised in the past. The dogs aren’t vicious, but they are expected to look aggressive to strangers, and the younger dog hadn’t experienced young children staying there before. Nothing happened worse than growling, but for once the girls becoming more confident as the week went on made things more tense, rather than better.

We also had our wettest week so far. We may have had rain on a similar number of days in a week, but this rain was fairly constant, with heavier spells as well. Bits of Glasgow flooded! This has definitely been the muddiest week- Its one thing having muddy paths, but when under the tent is so squelchy the bed sinks, it really is rather wet. We were camped near the pond- thankfully the drain for that worked well, and we weren’t flooded any more than the rest of the field!

Echo has planning permission for some great communal spaces (still waiting for some official paperwork)- but this week the inside space was a bothy she cleared out, so there was just enough space for her and the volunteers to have teabreak and lunch together. Tables aren’t great for the girls to play on, and there wasn’t the floor space in there to play, though we were very welcome to use the bothy. We had the fire going ( this is the first time we’ve really needed the fire during the day, and its August in Scotland!) and the girls were happy playing in the tent. Not surprisingly, they weren’t always keen to get out in the rain! This really brought home to me how lovely our tent is, but also how important to us somewhere more sheltered from the weather is- a house, a caravan, a shed- somewhere relatively clean and dry for the kids to play about in. It was just bad luck our worst mud and rain happened in one of the few places we’ve been without child-friendly shelter. We were welcome in Echo’s living space- but she hardly has any indoor space and her younger dog really wasn’t happy when the girls came in (so neither was I).

This is the only place I’ve really been aware of business pressures. One of us was working, with the other expected to be with the girls and the girls not to distract them, or anyone else working. This was a little tricky, not least that Little One naps in the afternoon, and Big One doesn’t. Thankfully it wasn’t a problem that Big One had to be around DH working in the afternoons. At other places we’ve been able to be more flexible, with both of us working some of the time, and then sometimes needing us both for family things in ‘work’ time. That didn’t work for us here. Echo had specific instructions (we were there to learn!) on what needed doing, and tasks were completed so I didn’t feel I could go back to a job from earlier on my own, I’d need to check first. Echo is a very busy lady, instructing a team of volunteers who vary most days- a couple of longer term WWOOFers, a couple of employees, and a variety of weekly volunteers; but this sometimes meant a wait for the instructions or clarification of the instructions once you got started. We mulched the wrong currant bushes (Echo thought one guy had done some the week before and he hadn’t, so didn’t know where they were), we missed a patch of peas that needed picking (the person instructing us didn’t know about the other patch). I suppose a possible solution is Echo having a deputy, someone who is there full time and she trains up to be her assistant and let her be in two places at once! I don’t quite know how that’d work in real life though.....

The original plan was to stay for three weeks, but we and Echo agreed after 1 week, that was enough. The last day we had a day off and visited old friends in Edinburgh- lovely for us, great for the girls, and Echo said she realised just how aware she’d had to be of where the dogs were and what was happening. DH and I both loved the work and what we were learning, but the hours (evening milking wasn’t finished until 7 pm sometimes- and I forgot the WWOOF book said 9 hour work days), the dogs, the weather and the mud all together made this not right for us as a family. We definitely want to go back, but that’ll be in a few years when Little One is older (and the younger dog has grown up too). I think Echo’s a lovely person, a great host, very generous with her time and even sent us on our way with a delicious veg box. Her place is great for individual WWOOFers, and I think a family with older children would find it brilliant too.

Haymaking

Today we had a go at making bales without a baler- using two small girls jumping on organic hay in a builders bag lined with the net from an old bale. Then we carefully rolled it in the mesh, keeping it all together. Its good hay, more a bag than a bale but if more were needed we think girls jumping on a board would help. A family effort that worked rather well I think!

Scotland!

We had a wonderful time with Jo and Phillip at Colt Cottage, near Kirkcudbright last week. It started off quite well when we got to Kirkcudbright and found an Arts Festival, as well as a laundrette. We had a little wander around, and saw Rapunzel at the castle and artists sculpting by the quay, amongst many other things.

We were camping in their garden, and welcome in the house which was really lovely for us. We could see the sea a mile away from the house, with a lovely view of the weather coming in.

We spent our first morning sorting kindling and firewood, getting it chainsawed and started stacking, and using a hydraulic wood splitter. Its a bit slower than using a maul, but I felt alot safer using it. We stopped for elevenses, as they had a friend call round- so it was lovely homemade pancakes, and icecream from the farm just down the road,  for break. We lunched together as well.
 The evening had us heading to Taliesan Community Woodland, meeting Jem and others and having a shared meal cooked over the open fire that Big One lit ( first time for her, with matches). Someone had been doing pest control, so brought a few pigeons they’d shot \(Pigeon breast tastes lovely!). Lots of homegrown sausages- Big One was helping with all the cooking on 'her' fire. We had a little walk up to see if we could see the adder that’s been spotted before- but it wasn’t around when we looked. However, just after that we nearly trod on a slow worm, and then as Little One and I headed to the fabulous compost loo, we saw a snake curled up on a rock catching the evening sun. We didn’t go near, as we wanted to share our sighting, but by the time we fetched the others it had gone. I wonder if we saw our first adder? I’m not sure, but I think so. An amazing evening, and we still weren’t troubled by the midges.
They had built a cruck barn and a log cabin there- and of course we didn’t have a camera with us. Big One learned how to toast marshmallows properly- what a fab evening. Little One enjoyed herself as well, especially having a stick for the marshmallows. She didn’t go anywhere near heat, just standing by the bag and popping them on and off the stick before eating!

We had a couple of days doing ‘proper’ work, with a baby hedge to weed and DH finishing off the firewood stack. Hens to feed, eggs to collect, ‘looking the sheep’, feeding Gilbert (the ram, recovering from a touch of flystrike)- all jobs Big One was involved in and reminding us all that needed to happen.

Tuesday was market day at Castle Douglas, and we had a lucky escape. They had some wethers 'cutting grass' at a friends some distance away, and these were the ones for sale. Our help wasn’t expected to be needed, so we were heading straight to the mart to meet them there once they got the 7 of them in the trailer. I think they spent a couple of hours catching them, running around a field in pouring rain, really hard work. We on the other hand, had a very civilised look at the sheep auctions for about an hour (in the dry) and then sorted our lunch out. We were just finishing up when Philip and the other WWOOfer found us- they’d just got the sheep dropped off for auction. On our way to Castle Douglas we spotted a Police Tractor- it didn’t have its flashing light going, but there was an impressive queue of traffic behind it- no one daring to overtake? We’ve never seen one of them before!

The next task was heading to a World Peace Prayer Place ( I forget its name!) north of Dumfries. Another fair drive, but with the weather brightening up, we were set for an afternoon helping build a roundwood timber building. The wall uprights were up, but what they needed ( it was Jem from the woods) was round pegs shaping from dry oak. With shave horses ready to run, draw knives at the ready, DH and Hayley ( the other WWOOFer) spent the afternoon working. The girls and I were booked to play in the woods with a group organised by a Ranger called Tom- that week he was running a tracking session. It was really interesting seeing how some of the older children were really into it. We saw some track traps Tom had set (unfortunately mostly obliterated by the mornings rain), but the girls both had fun following a rope trail. Set up to be blindfolded, but they had fun both with and without blindfolds.  When I got talking to Tom, he’s also into green woodworking, setting up a woodland workshop there! Its a small world. Big One also learned a new knife cut there, for making shavings to start the fire, and we all helped to put up a shelter in case it did start raining again. Quite a good afternoon. I got to work on a bit of oak before we left, and we gained a bag full of dry oak shavings, which is proving excellent for the Kelly kettle and lighting the stove.

We managed to fit in another day on the hedge (its a long hedge), and finished the day with a picnic tea on Carrick beach. It was hot and sunny, not windy, and a lovely way to finish the day. We didn't quite get the hedge finished, but we haven't left them with much to do, honest.

We still had one more day, which started off wet. That meant an indoor job, so we were in the shed sorting through the fleeces from when Phillip sheared the sheep. We were mostly pulling off poo-ey bits (dags) but there wasn’t much so it was a nice job. Big One enjoyed assessing the bags of fleece to sort, guessing (usually correctly) how many were in. Not as easy as it might sound, as the black Hebrideans have much smaller fleeces than the white Romneys.

We ‘looked the sheep’, I managed to gather some meadowsweet (its drying so I can try to make infusions from it), and then fitting in a few hours at Stewartry show in Castle Douglas. It brightened up fabulously for us going to the show, so we enjoyed seeing the Best in Show being selected, and having a look at the sheep being collected up. The beer tent started off full ( when we arrived mid-afternoon) but was taking up a huge amount of the field by the time we left! The girls (Both of them!) had a ride on a roundabout, and finished off the afternoon with the final bounces on the bouncy castle. We managed to fit in an organic icecream (from the stall from the farm just down the road) and see the Police Tractor up close. I wonder if it had been heading to another local town a day early for their show when we spotted it on the Tuesday? It seemed a novelty to our hosts as well- I thought the police would use contractors if they needed a tractor.

This week had us really involved in what our hosts were doing, what was going on in the community. Its the first time we’ve spent so much time off the farm, yet generally still being helpful. I don’t know if that’s made the difference, but we both agree on Galloway being somewhere we could consider settling down. I loved being near to the sea, and I realise that’s important to me.

I'm still feeling a bit WWOOFed out, but Jo and Phillip made us feel so welcome, so part of their local community ( I didn't mention tea and cakes in the village hall for the Open Garden event, did I?) and the children were so welcome- Jo was wondeful at explaining things to Big One when she got in from work, and they really seemed to enjoy the company of all of us. We were all welcome to share all meals, which isn't always the case, and we really appreciated it. I'm trying to think of some downsides to our stay, but I'm really struggling. Too much good food? The cock crowing at 5 am occasionally? I suppose the biggest impact was the free range chickens. That's great for the birds, but means their poo ends up everywhere, so we had to be careful to remove shoes going inside (in dry weather I've not been so careful in the tent). I'lve learned that our chickend might have a big run, but won't be free range just for that reason. One place used an electric fence so the chicken run could easily be moved, but still contained them. I like that idea.

As we drove northwards, we saw the land change to the open moors, and valleys of forests, and then got up to Ayr. Ayr is where I was born, but I preferred the hills of a little further south. We fit in a quick visit with a friend of my parents, and then it was heading north up to our next hosts, NW of Glasgow.

The Mother Camp

We’ve had a relaxing four days at The Mother Camp at Lime Tree Farm, North Yorkshire.

Apparently there were about 200 people at the camp, but it didn’t feel busy as there was so much space. At the farm they’ve built a roundhouse and a stone circle, and the setting is really beautiful. Composting toilets of course, and as a touch of luxury Paul and Veronika had a gas-powered shower set up as well. We didn’t feel the need to try that out, but we really enjoyed the farm. DH and the girls went on a tour of the place, and that took an hour and a half- I only got the edited highlights! The next field had a pond, a magnificent fallen tree that was fabulous for everyone to climb, and the stone circle. I think the stones had more attraction for the adults- the children mostly headed to the tree and pond. There was a cob oven by the roundhouse, where delicious bread was baked almost daily. That looked really tricky- trying to get it cooked through, and keeping the oven at a good temperature without a thermometer. DH helped with that one day.

We had a shared evening meal daily, something hot and delicious salads as well. A fabulous team effort making and sharing good food. I shall remember crushing 50 cloves of garlic ( it was for soup and chilli) and breaking the garlic press I’ve had for about 15 years! I was glad to have it with me though, and it was finished off doing a heroic task.

The bowls I carved were put into use for the evening meals, and were admired ( yay!). The fruit bowl that’s a bit small is great for getting one adult hot portion and two adult salads in, or doing the pudding round it could get pudding for 4 in comfortably.

The girls had a lovely time. They made friends with ‘the girl in the bell tent next door’ -there were about 8 bell tents in the field (I’ve not seen that many private bell tents all together), as well as a few tent tipis, and another friendly little girl as well. They busily disappeared, and in between times found time for crafts, making jam jar lanterns, tie-dying, origami and I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. One day an empty barrel and loads of children meant fun was had rolling the barrel around the slope!

I was able to tag along to the knitters circle- not that I can knit, but I could help crochet some of the squares together that were for the wedding gift. I even got to some of a talk about astrology- I’ve not really considered that for years now.

While we were there, there was a wedding- a Handfasting ceremony. I think it’s pagan,and it was a wonderful experience and beautiful ceremony within the stone circle. We were able to sit on the grass and enjoy the ceremony, with the sun peeping out from the clouds and the children happily running about without it being a disruption. I found it quite emotional at the start, then Veronika’s voice wobbled and I knew I wasn’t the only one! It was very...well I’m struggling to find the words, Peaceful? Magical? I’m not sure, but it was a really special afternoon and I will treasure the memory. I’m grateful that the happy couple shared their wedding with us.

One evening there was a Men’s Circle. DH went to it reluctantly, expecting to leave early, only to tell us in the morning it was great, he was out till all hours and after the discussions there has a few different opinions on things. I’m not quite sure what went on, but I’m really impressed. We’ve discussed vaccination at different points, and DH wasn’t for not doing it completely, but now he sounds fine about not vaccinating. I obviously wasn’t getting the message across too well, but a bunch of blokes having a good talk seems to have done the trick.

The Mother Magazine is considered a bit on the extreme side of parenting, and I wondered what to expect at the camp. Reading the rules last year dissuaded us from going ( and the cost, and getting the right time off work, etc) but this year we decided we are pushing our boundaries and 4 days out of 6 months isn’t that long to try something different. I think, on the whole, I was a little surprised that it wasn’t more different! I’m used to seeing slings in use, mums breastfeeding and ECing or using cloth nappies. Home education is what we do. We usually eat vegetarian food, vegan food isn’t a big deal... soooo- the Pagan aspects of it were new to me. The Men’s Circle is pretty fabulous as well. It didn’t hit me as odd that this was a field full of people I could talk about all of the above with- but then we’ve just chosen to spend 6 months visiting smallholdings/farms where folk are farming organically, care about the land and are pretty open-minded anyway. I think I’m going to be in for a major culture shock when I return to work.....but I don’t need to think about that just yet.

The Mother Camp also had a serious set of rules, which started off as a deterrant, but ended up a real bonus once we’d got there. There’s rules like no phones, computers, computer games, plastic toys, junk food, alcohol, dead animals( i.e.meat!). We’ve already easily lived without all of that list, but when you focus on it, it suddenly is a little harder to say we’d not have any of it for the entire time. However, when there it means you’re not going to find your child whining they want a DS because they’ve spent hours watching someone else play theirs, be hyped up on additives from some sweets you’d never have but the kids found in a neighbouring tent, worry about the drunken antics or be kept awake by drunken snoring from a fellow camper, standing barefoot on some abandoned lego, etc. It suddenly made a lot more sense. Our contraband was locked up in the van and out of bounds until we left, and I’m not sure it was particularly missed.

Talking of the van, it has been poorly. The morning before we head off for camp it started making an odd noise, which DH narrowed down to the fan. It wasn’t too bad until we were 5 minutes from the farm, and it really sounded rough. DH managed to find a garage, get the part ordered, and Paul very kindly helped with getting the van to the garage for the day for them to fit it. Genuine Ford parts are expensive ( the garage couldn’t get hold of another one) so only £18 labour but over £200 for a new fan. Ouch! At least the van was all sorted and able to drive up to Dumfries without any problems- and we’ll just be grateful nothing worse has happened- touch wood.

Dumfries and the hotel were very hot and sunny when we arrived- so another poor nights sleep, but thankfully we got rain today, so its been much nicer. We don’t like Dumfries for parking- not specifically the van ( though we did find one multi-storey car park it wouldn’t fit in) but so much of the parking requires a disc, which we didn’t have. We were happy to pay for parking, but couldn’t find anywhere after driving around for nearly half an hour ( we’ve not had this problem anywhere else) but finally found spaces (and free) by the river.

I’m still feeling tired, but also trying to figure out what kind of tired it is- its not just physical, and I think after a few days of being around a lot of people ( who I wanted to get to know!) and realising I quite liked the peaceful space in the tent- I think I’m finding all the talking, getting to know people, and then moving on quite quickly really draining. I realise I’m looking forward to the end of our journey now, and we’re on our second to last new host tomorrow. Our last planned host is for a longer stay, though that might not work out now. DH has an uncle and aunt who live near Aberdeen, and we just heard today they can’t fit us in when we’re free. So, when we get to our last host we’ll just have to see if we can break our stay to go up to them for a week or so, and then return to finish our planned stint.

We’re also fairly hopeful we can go back to our first host in September. Asking Big One about where she’d like to go back to, she still says Andrea’s after all these months. She wants to see how big the lamb is ( a sheep by now I expect!) and we had an email saying there were rabbits as well, so she’d like to meet them. I feel this would really nicely finish off our journey, full circle so to speak. DH likes the idea as well, so it feels a good way to end.

We did have a few more hosts we wanted to go to- but we realise we’ve probably done enough. We’ve worked hard, travelled a lot and need to make sure we continue to enjoy ourselves, and don’t push ourselves to work when we only have a few weeks left to enjoy. We’ve been recommended a campsite in the Lake District which I hope will be another welcome break for a few days.

Before I return to work, we also have some sorting out to do. We have furniture and belongings stored in various places, and its becoming clear that a conventional house isn’t what we want in the near future. So, we can try to sell beds, fridge freezer, dining table and chairs, etc (if you’re interested in anything we have, email me and I’ll give you first refusal when we come up with prices!)- we’ll probably offer it on the local home ed list first, and then see what we need to do.

Off to our next host tomorrow, must sleep......

Further Musings

We're still in Wales, just moved along a bit further to Brithdir Mawr. This is a beautiful place, and as well as being a fabulous community (with a great family space vacant!) seems to be almost a community of communities, with other places nearby. We haven't seen the Roundhouse, but we've been having a lovely time just being here.
We've been a bit lax on the work front- the work days are short as only one meal is provided, and not every day ( with plenty of garden produce to self-cater from) . This has been perfect for us, me especially. Last week I was very tired and out of sorts near Llannelli, but when I got here I just couldn't find any energy at all. I spent most of the first day in bed, and the second day, once I tried to get moving I managed to slice my hand with an axe. A prime example of stupidity- which I think was more than partly due to still being exhausted. The damage done was minor ( much more wafer thin slice of meat rather than a bacon rasher) but I'm fairly awful when its my own blood, and  on top of that the bread I was trying to bake (chopping wood for wood-fired range to bake bread) didn't rise either. Not a great day.
 I wonder if some self- preservation was going on though, as I struggled to wear a gardening glove the following day, so I played with the girls instead of outside work, and got some onions plaited. We all had a good time, and giving myself a break from work really has helped me feel better. Sunday evening I realised I felt human again!
The gardens here are wonderful- different people have patches they are responsible for, and members of the community have to put in a certain number of hours each week. This community isn't a 'buy-in' one, and I realise that appeals to me much more than having to buy in.

I love the electricity is from the sun, the wind and the water here. The water is heated either directly by the sun, from excess other energy and by the woodburner that communal meals are cooked on ( chef gets first dibs on a bath!). This is how we hope to power our home one day- they already have it up and working.
They don't choose to run a fridge, which I'm really quite interested in. Currently we are running a fridge in the van, mainly for milk and cheese. The bottling - 120 jars of passata last year- sounds fascinating. I love preserving, but can also see how it could easily become a chore. Gardening and preserving as a community, the teamwork of it- is something I want to investigate further even if we find our perfect small holding. I had an electronic 'conversation' with my friend Gill about a communal hand-powered laundry, and its all these potential 'chores' that could be so pleasurable if shared.

When Little One was small  a friend started a group of us regularly meeting up- we called it 'Tribe' in the emails. The idea was we weren't to be 'guests' in each others houses, but be a group of friends keeping and eye on the hosts child/children so a few jobs could get done and a natter as well. Well, it was a lovely idea, but my house was too small (to fit the group in!), and anothers too far, and we soon ended up always going to the same friends house and she ended up hosting us, without us  really helping out. I think it was a great idea though, and wish we'd managed to make it work.

I really like  that there is personal space for everyone at this place, it might be in the house, across the courtyard,in the garden, but it can be more than just a room or two off a corridor, which is what I've seen elsewhere. A little living as well as sleeping space that is private is what seems to be important to me and our family.

This week we've been staying in the house, which has been a novelty. Its started off feeling such a luxury- four walls around us, possibly popping downstairs when the girls are asleep. However after a few days we've seen how easy it is to stay in, not get out enough and consequently all our tempers suffer. Big One especially can be reluctant to head outside, she'd rather find some craft or indoor playing, but at the same time gets really wound up to a degree much worse than wet days in the tent. I suppose part of it is space- technically they can run around inside the house (no bouncing in the tent is a firm rule that generally sticks) but the noise of it aggravates DH and I, and the girls get frustrated that they can't play outside games inside. Hmmm, I'll have to think about how 'the problem is the solution' for this issue.

I'm also realising I am a person of opinions. We've been WWOOFing at 10 hosts DH tells me ( I've lost count). That means we've seen about 10 different compost loos, been shown 10 different ways to manage garden compost, 10 different ways to manage kitchen compost, different schemes for scrap food for hens or (shhh, its not allowed) pigs. Apart from the places with dishwashers we've had a variety of instructions on how folk prefer their washing up done (from soaking all dishes before washing, to rinsing everything after washing, to not rinsing anything, etc). After seeing all these ways- and forgetting most of it- I can remember various bits that have made sense as I've gone along, forming some opinions along the way.

 Part of me is really looking forward to having My Own compost heap and (I suppose DH'll want to say something about it, but mostly mine) making My Own Rules for what goes in it! When we started I hadn't  firm opinions, but after seeing so many I realise the bits that don't make so much sense ( to me- they might make sense to others!) are harder to remember to follow, which is probably in addition to being muddled from following different instructions each week!

Brithdir Mawr is a magical place, I love the gardens, the goats, and the people are great. I can see why people who have been here before could tell us we'd love it here. I've actually seen very little of Wales, but I know we're going to be coming back to this part of the world- I really love it here- even in the rain.

Musings

I’ve been trying to think about this week, and why I’m not finding this week as much fun as other weeks. I think perhaps I’m ready for a break- with travelling days we have one day off a week, so its been a few weeks since we had a couple of days off in a row. I’m feeling a little under the weather- not ill, but getting motivated and not being snappy has been a challenge for the last couple of days. On the whole, I think its me- rather than the place that’s not quite right.

We’re at a smallholding with a family near Llanelli, and its a beautiful place. They have their house, a place that’s going to be a holiday let, several camping pitches ( lovely, level pitches with nice ground for tent pegs!)  an good size veg garden and a few acres of trees down towards the river at the bottom. Their place is on a hillside, so its good exercise up and down, and we haven’t been far into the trees, let alone down to the river yet.

The work we’re doing is clearing brambles, nettles and bracken from various places. DH has been concentrating on the orchard, where the chickens are, and I’ve been nearer the veg plot, and also turning the compost heap. 

Compost is a topic that I’m finding interesting- everywhere we go folk have different rules. Here brambles, cleavers and bindweed go elsewhere, but docks can go into compost. We’ve been places where everything goes in the compost, where coffee grounds don’t go in, where eggshells must be baked before going in, etc, etc. I’m looking forward to having our own compost heap and making up our own rules- not that I know what they’ll be! I’m also looking forward to having chickens to eat some of the waste. One place we’ve been gave the chickens meat waste ( not chicken) but cooked all their food ( including pellets) for an hour- I wonder how much nutrition is left after an hours cooking?

This family’s way of living, with one of them working in a hospital even, is the closest we’ve been to how we think we might be living in a few years time. Its really interesting to see it in action, even with their children at school.  Also lovely to have experience shared and things pointed out to us- so we can learn from others experience without having to do it all ourselves. Pointing out sneaky costs like how expensive oil and gas are in the country ( I was already aware rural people are discriminated against- you can’t get dual fuel discount if they don’t pipe gas near you), and we are factoring in extra travel costs into our planning. We hope not to be spending enough to be in stamp duty territory, but I wasn’t aware some places have discounted or no stamp duty to attract folk to move there. I know we know very little about the paperwork side of keeping animals, which I imagine has some sneaky costs with it.

 The girls have been enjoying the company of the children when they’re not at school. One is a boy, who’s taken a little longer for the girls to get around to having fun with ( far too many baby and parent games for him to want to be part of). The older girl has clear ideas of how she wants the others to play, which hasn’t always gone down well. I’ve enjoyed seeing how Big One likes having other children to be around. Little One generally just wants to know where her big sister is, and is upset if she’s blatantly ignored or excluded from bigger girls play. I’m impressed at how Big One does include Little One in the games, and seems to enjoy things just as much with her as without her. I am happy that Little One ( and I) still benefit from  an afternoon nap, so Big One can have some time without Little One if needed.

Bugs

Spiders were everywhere in the tent in April and into May, June and July we have black ground beetles. Their feet rustling on the groundsheet make much more noise than a mouse. One beetle nibbled our dishcloth, apart from that they just seem to be noisy neighbours.

Here we’ve not been too bothered by spiders, or beetles- at least with think the beetles we’ve noticed we probably brought with us from the last field. Garden type grass doesn’t seem to support the variety of bug life we’re used to in fields. The flying bugs here have been another matter- here there are some rather large biting flies. We’ve come across them at a few other places, but this place seems to have the most. Our hosts call them cleggs, and we think we’ve heard them called horseflies. Their bite hurts, and they seems to take a noticeable quantity of blood- judging from the injury I get when I splat them mid-bite. They’re easier to see than mosquitoes and midges!

Potential Land

We enjoyed looking at the plot of land on Monday. It looks lovely, and its had us thinking. I realise we need a village nearby for the children to walk to, but we also want to live outside a lot. Having neighbours talking distance ( i.e. talking over the wall, able to hear outside conversations) doesn’t feel right to me. I feel our lives would be too public. We hope that our eventual house will have a large veranda for us to spend time sitting out on, I imagine our utility room could well be a shed, or at least partially outdoors, and we’d definitely have an outdoor kitchen space. In a village I’d be aware of stream of people/traffic just by our place ( I know that if we want to sell produce we want some passing traffic) and worry about if I should be locking doors, keeping things out of sight. I suppose knowing about crime rates,and spending time in a village we’re interested in would all help with that.

What I have loved about our journey is so many places are off the beaten track, and doors and windows aren’t always locked and bolted. I was worried at the start of our journey about the value of certain pieces of equipment we have, and lack of insurance. Now I worry more about being in towns with a fully laden van, and some idiot taking a fancy to our van while its parked somewhere, but on the whole I worry less!

Seeing that plot, with outline planning permission, has also given me a bit of hope. I know that if we need to, we can buy a field and set up and run a business to gain permission to live on our field. However, without the planning battle we don’t need to set up the business to be profitable. I can see us doing farm gate sales, possibly the odd farmers market, but it being at a pace that suits us, and selling enough to cover some costs rather than a visibly profitable business. That feels like a lot of pressure of us, and a lot less compromises to happen.

So, regarding our dream I have more hope that it really can happen. Our plot does exist here so I can hope we’ll find something else in a better location for us.

The plot looks reasonably level,bit of grazing behind and can some lovely trees. THere's a bridge over the stream- all in all our dream plot, only the location is a problem. I can't believe the price, its just sounding too good to be true.

Our dream Does exist!

I had a quick browse on Rightmove, and saw this.
It looks the part, almost affordable, no detailed planning to want to change, pasture and woodland and road frontage- even neighbours!
Old Ambulance Station, Heol Morlais, Trimsaran, Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire
Building Plot with Outline Planning Permission for a dwelling. Application number S/24693. Also included wood land with some grazing land approximately 25 acres. Situated on the edge of the village of Trimsaran in the Gwendraeth Valley with easy access to the race track at Ffos Las and the coast road leading to Burry Port and Pembrey.

Sorry this map is poor quality, but I imagine I'll want to look at it once this place sells, just to remind me it existed!

It isn't where we want to live, but all the same I'm hoping we can ring up the agents tomorrow and have a look. I've not seen anywhere that looked even vaguely right without being at least £100 000 more than I want to pay, so this is really amazing for us.

They've even already demolished the ambulance station. Wow.

On a more routine note, we're enjoying being with hosts who have children, and our girls enjoy playing with their big girl. Their son isn't into playing the girly games, so he's not getting so much out of our visit, but DH and I are enjoying re-arranging the compost, clearing brambles and bracken, and some ordinary weeding as well. The rain isn't constant, and the sunshine is lovely. However, I'm putting off doing our washing up, so I'd better get on with it.

Guess what I found in the compost today?

A slow worm or 3! Also a frog.Its hot and sticky so can't wait for more rain :-)

Morning!

Morning!
What a nice way to start the day.
Yesterday was a pretty special day, as I got to spend a few hours with Jamie. He's a greenwood worker, who helps out at Clissett Wood (a famous place in the green wood working world). He needed a hand with something, and I was able to have a look at the workshop there. Wow. I had to apologise for saying wow so often, and Jamie seemed bemused at how amazing I found it!
Its a beautiful place, and I'm looking forward to returning at some point to do a course there. Jamie also offered to teach us some turning if we come back, so we're definitely planning to return (thoough Big One told us we were definately coming back anyway!).
The community here is lovely, but DH isn't ready for a community just yet, even if we did want to afford this place. I can see this as being a way to live a lot of our dream, but possibly only more likely if one of us wasn't fit and well enough to work on our own place.
Another opportunity has arisen unexpectedly for us- the cottage next door to my parents is going on the market. It doesn't fit into our long term plans, but could be interesting in the short term. My parents have added to the mix by offering to help us buy it, but I think that house (for us) would be ideal to rent rather than buy.
This has slowed us down on the caravan buying front, as we apparently would be house sitting rather than house sharing most of the time until after Christmas. That makes for a much shorter winter in a caravan....but we both still dislike packing up days.
So many ideas and opportunities, and that was just yesterday!
Today is packing up and moving on, so better get to it.

Half a sweet chestnut log converted to tent pegs we need. Not long ago I would have looked at that as firewood, so I'm really happy that half an hour with an axe can save us buying something. I think DH felled the tree as well. He certainly did the hard work with the handsaw this morning!
Result- 27 tent pegs
 (posted direct from my phone- wow it worked!!!)

An update over breakfast

I'm sat outside what was once a stately home, has been a school and is now home to a few families. I'm not sure exactly how many live in the house bit, as the stable block is lots of homes as well, with about 20 families here, about 50-60 people.My breakfast included soft fruit from the walled garden, which is wonderfully tidy and productive- that's a huge difference from here to Crabapple, which I was fighting a battle with the nettles taller than me. And, as usual, this place is completely different to all that we've been to already.
We're at Canon Frome Court, and the big difference here is everyone has bought their 'unit' to live in at market price, and then pays a monthly fee for maintenance, and then a seperate subscription fee for the 40 acre farm. My initial response is surprise- no matter how much or how little you work in the farm, the fee remains the same. My gut feeling right now is requiring cash isn't good- I would prefer some scheme where people who work more (e.g.full time hours),would pay very little if at all, and those who go out to earn but have little time for the farm, would pay more.
 We've only been here a couple of days and already I'm thinking how I'd change things-so much for being open minded!

I'm finding it all interesting, and an awful lot to think about and mull over. I didn't realise how many pre-concieved ideas I had about communities, and now we've been to two very different places ( though only two!) I definately need to reconsider.

Thursday was moving day for us, and very relaxed as we were only moving an hour down the road. We stopped quite a few times, mainly to look at caravans. We've had some interesting conversations with the retailers, so we've changed what we want to do. The latest idea is a 'van with twin bunks, NOT fitting the woodburner on the basis that at least initially we won't have a free source of wood- and buying firewood gets mighty expensive. Also, as caravans are not designed to cope with such fierce heat, everything would be damaged. I like the idea of some fitted things working for a while ( we're thinking of a new-ish 'van so we get reasonable insulation), so sounds like the woodburner in the 'van isn't a good idea.
We're considering getting a 'van quite soon, as we also reckon we're going to want to do this again sometime- this trip is seeming like a taster, we get so see so many places for a very short time, and making friends we'd like to visit again. We're also considering NOT renting a house as soon as we get back, and seeing how we manage in a caravan for winter.
So, we're at a beautiful place in cider country, so we were able to visit Weston's yesterday. They have pedal tractors in their 'farm' area, which the girls LOVED and  were so dissapointed that by the time we got there after the tour they had shut that area. We had an interesting tour, and tasted several ciders, one of which even I could drink ( I normally HATE cider).
Right, being harassed - I promised to make cordial- and can't think so must go. Apologies for typos, I can't face leaving this to edit later!