Blog for Saturday 13th December 2025

I could hardly believe my ears when my alarm began her irritating little early morning ditty in the wee dark hours of today! Somehow the night had flown by at the speed of light and my body was trying hard to convince me that I really needed to remain horizontal for a lot longer.

I did not listen. I got up!

I made myself a strong coffee and went up to my studio to have my Quiet Time and work out what I needed to do today.

At about six o'clock Ken shouted up to me that Paddy and Matt' would be arriving at about eight o'clock this morning! That got me moving!

I went downstairs and put my Busy Lizzie robot on to clean the floor in the main shed area where Paddy and Matt' would be sleeping.

Then at about ten o'clock Peter - our friend from down the road arrived, bringing his bale grabbers so the guys or Ken could cart the silage over the river more easily. Very kind of him.

Peter came in for a coffee and biscuits with Ken and mwah, and then he worked on the tractor greasing it, after which he carted the wood that he brought around yesterday up to Tamryn's container for the decking up there, I think.

Then Paddy and Matt' arrived a lot later than they had hoped to, but they had a business Zoom meeting on the way up to the farm and had to stop for an hour as the internet or phone comms' kept dropping in and out.

While Peter was working on the tractor, Paddy went down to do more fencing in the Large River Camp and Matt' worked in the bottom shed trying to fix the generator. He did not win that battle.

Paddy found a little calf stuck in the fence line and the poor little thing had been there a while as it was thin, with sunken in eyes and was so desperately thirsty that once Paddy had released it from the fence, it lay down lapping the dirty, muddy water on the ground near the water trough. Its mum came running up with her udder huge to bursting and gave the little animal a good drink. Thankfully, it looks as if the little one will survive that horrible ordeal.

I washed my white canvas shoes and put them out in the sunshine to dry as I will need to wear them tomorrow.

I also worked on the script for the Christmas Puppet Show in church tomorrow. I had already written out a script but as Karen had altered it (unknowingly.) So, I had to re-write it again. All good for my patience development!

I decided that tonight we will have steaks, and I made a new recipe called 'Tumbledethump' - a Scottish dish made of a mix of potatoes, cabbage, onions and cheese to go with the steaks. A simple but hearty meal that I am hoping will be tasty.

In the late afternoon Matt' came up to the top shed and had shower and lay down for a bit for a quick forty winks. Paddy continued to work outside this time spraying against the weed nasties out in the camps.

I worked on my recipes for the Christmas week and printed them out. I also chopped, sliced and prepared most of the salad ingredients for our lunch in Wauchope tomorrow at Hester and Ernest's home. I will put the salad together there or else it will spoil while we are in church.

In the late afternoon - after five o'clock I saw Paddy carting the silage bales over the river. He carted each and every one of them - there had been twenty-four bales, nog al. "Well done, Paddy!"

Ken has to go to the hospital again tomorrow to have his hand redressed. He was saying that it is not looking that crash hot as only small sections of it have 'taken' but that other sections are looking not so good.

After five o'clock I put out some chips and a dip so that when everyone was up at the top shed, we could relax and enjoy one another's company after another really hot day. That did not work out today as we were all doing different things at different times. Perhaps tomorrow?

I watered Paddy's trees as it had been such a hot day for them again just to keep them moist.

What lesson did I learn today? To always find patience even when it seems to have disappeared!

What am I grateful for today? That Paddy and Matt' are up here on the farm again.

My saying for today is ...