New Life Old Farmers

I love to read. As a child, Betty could be heard to say, “Put that book down and go outside”, sometimes I just went outside, with the book. All this to say, that when I say I love Dick Francis, I mean that I love his books and have read all 40 of his novels.

Dick Francis had a rich life, first as a Steeple Chase jockey, who rode for the Queen Mum, became Champion Jockey, turned novelist, with a collection of suspense novels almost all set around English horse racing. Not all, but most of Francis’ novels often mention the town of Newmarket in Sulfolk.

Newmarket is situated just between My Loving Spouse’s brother and sister’s homes in England. Every time I would see “Newmarket” on the highway marker, my head would literally spin around.

‘Can we go there? Can we go and watch the races?”

Unfortunately, we always visited when the Steeplechase races were not running….but this time…I got My Loving Spouse to stop… I was enthralled as we passed by Tattersalls, the auctioneers, drove up to Rowley Mile Racecourse and noticed all the very small men in town, who I assumed were all jockeys. My Loving Spouse was happy, because I was happy and because he found a really good hand raised pork pie for lunch.

The Palace stables have been turned into a British Racing museum…what a treat it was to see how the stable square had really previously functioned.

Individual stables turned into display areas.

Owners silks….colors and hats that are unique for every owner.

One area held the Queen Mum’s colors and a co-operative boy puts them on so his Grannie can take a photo.

Also in the background, a racehorse simulator, that one could try…all for free…

It was such a fabulous experience for me to see and walk about an area, that was part of so many books, I have enjoyed. The week after we left England, I read ‘Crisis’ by Felix Francis…all of it set in Newmarket. I enjoyed it from the first page to the last.

It is rare to enjoy an author so much and then get to see and experience the heart of so many stories…believe me,

I am grateful and blessed.

PS: Read Dick Francis…go to England.

Weddings bring another chapter into our lives with joy and celebration. We were filled with gratitude and joy, to be able to celebrate with those we call our family.

Over Labor Day, we were in San Diego, as dear friends wed with an exceptional life story. It was a joyful, fun, one of a kind wedding.

Then we zipped home for the start of the school year and to pull a few more weeds before ‘our‘ wedding here at Glory Farm.

Number One Wife took this beautiful photo on the morning of the wedding and sent it to her brother The Groom/Number Four Son.

Another chapter in his life was about to begin and wonderful memories in ours of a special wedding and weekend filled with joy.

Just before the wedding, THE Granddaughter (one of the ring bearers) smashed her lip on the edge of the table, the horse of honor sneezed horse buggers on the bride and Number One’s dog threw up in the kitchen. Real life was in session.

I had a new bracelet to wear, especially made for me by THE Grandson. I wore it proudly and with joy.

The wedding was sweet and short, which was their desire.

The bride is beautiful, inside and out.

I have few pictures of this chapter, because it is really not my story to tell. I purposely left my phone in the house, leaving me free to experience and enjoy. It wasn’t our production, it was only our stage.

I had brought home for the weekend, one of my favorite books, “My Father’s Dragon”. It is a wonderful read aloud and perfect first chapter book, I hoped to start it with THE Grandson.

Both Grandchildren were enthralled by this delightful book, ‘another chapter’ became their plea. We finished the book in two days with a wedding in between….

and we are blessed.

Gin, clearly gin has taken over the UK and tea is drunk, mostly as a break from gin. Gin in all flavors and colors and makers. I even brought a very small bottle of Rhubarb Gin home for a friend.

The biggest mistake we made when across the pond was not buying Seville Orange Gin. We had some…we loved it…we can’t get it now. Oh, it was so good…with a bit of orange in it….we thought we’d find it here…not so.

We’d done so well on much of our other shopping…

How could we have known, that the best gin ever would be so hard to procure? Ah…such is our luck, which brings me back to the saga of traveling by narrow boat...

We motored past Holywell, toward another lock, which would lead us into St. Ives. Three expensive cabin cruisers motor past us. We wave, because that is what ‘one’ does. They were 3 couples in 3 boats, friends traveling together. The wives all sort of looked alike and the guys had fancy radio watches to talk to one another as they cruised. Their lead boat got through the lock and sped away to St. Ives to look for moorings for the group. The other two cruisers were in the lock with us. The ‘word’ from the lead boat was, that moorings were slim, but there were 2, that the 3 of them could share. Bad British Word, it was not looking good for us. We were very discouraged.

You can just barely see the three white cabin cruisers in the photo. We follow them into St. Ives, dejected and not sure what to do, but keep on full steam (4 mph) ahead.

We see a lot more boats moored up outside the town. Some of these moorings seem far from town and we’re not sure what to do. We motor on for another hour, until we get to another lock. It is small, there is a line for it and beyond this we’re told are many more locks. We’re a big old boat on a small river. The weather is beautiful and we’ve not many choices. We decide to turn around, while My Loving Spouse can still get Sun around in the river.

We have an unrealistic hope, that we’ll find something in St. Ives, as we pass through again. We pass the moorings outside the town, planning to take the only one we see. It is big enough for Sun, but right in the middle of the mooring is a couple with a ‘blow up’ kayak and an eight inch grill bar-be-queuing hot dogs, taking ‘our’ mooring. We motor on to the town and I hope that this ridiculous loss means that there will be a miracle mooring site for us in St. Ives. As we pass under the bridge, we see a mooring!

“Will we fit?”, My Loving Spouse hollers to me.

‘Yes, pull into it and pull the back end out.’

The truth is, we were creatively trying to fit a 72 foot long boat into a 66 foot mooring. Can you say ‘determined’? We were going to stay in St. Ives, even if the back part of the boat stuck out a bit. Out of nowhere, our three Cabin Cruiser ‘friends’ appeared, grabbing lines and helping to pull the long, narrow boat into a mooring, that might not have been pretty, but it worked. The Cabin Cruiser guys are now my favorite, as they tie Sun up to the wall.

We are beyond grateful to be in St. Ives. Happy to be able to explore the town and to have a mooring, even if it does mean clamoring up and over the wall every time I get on or off of the boat.

We head straight over to the Riverside Cafe.

I think we ordered some lunch…

I wish I could say, that all the time on the river was fun and frolic. However, it was quite hard on My Loving Spouse, so although we did have a good time together, it was not what we had hoped…however, we made the best of it for sure. Getting into St. Ives saved the adventure indeed. We enjoy sitting along the quay watching the odd duck go by.

St. Ives is a lovely town, just what I was hoping for. Sunday morning we put on our best travel clothes and went to church. I love going to church when we travel, worshiping our God wherever we are with whomever we’re with is priceless.

…and we are grateful and indeed blessed.

We boarded Sun boat with eager anticipation. The narrow boat is moored in a cut on the “River Great Ouse“, just outside Ely, Cambridgeshire. The Ely Cathedral is known as ‘The Ship of The Fens‘. We planned to get to know the boat better, with this small excursion, having plenty of time for shopping and wandering through the wonderful streets of Ely, as well as a pint or two.

The weather was beautiful, which was both a good and bad thing. Good because it was beautiful. Bad, because it meant anyone with a boat was out enjoying the last days of summer, this made finding a mooring for Sun difficult. We pass through Ely, looking for a mooring (a parking spot for the 72 foot long boat).

As we made our first pass through Ely, (notice the word ‘first’), we were greeted by other boaters who know whose boat we were on, and know that we’re not him. They look out for one another, and are reassured when they realize, that we are on the boat legitimately.

Sun runs at 4 mph, as the boats owner says, “She doesn’t do anything fast”. The speed limit on the river is almost always 4 mph, so one would think this is a perfect fit. Unless, however, you are the one trying to turn the boat around…all 72 slow feet of her on a river that is about 100 feet wide. My Loving Spouse, who really is quite the sailor, was extremely stressed trying to get Sun turned around and not run aground. A few shunts later and the boat is headed back into Ely, and once again, we’re looking for a mooring. We did this three times, which took approximately 3 hours. We eventually ‘made’ a mooring and tied up to a tree.

We’re off the boat and in a pub with a beer and a cider and happy to be so. Ely is a beautiful historical town…

…a wonderful place to shop…

Shopping was never as fun in England, as it was on this trip, and not just on gin. The first time I was ever in England, 10 dollars equaled 4 pounds. Now, 5 dollars equals 4 pounds. England (in my opinion) has not had nearly the inflation, that we have had to endure, for example, beautiful artisan loafs of bread were only 79p or roughly $1.00. Our money went farther than ever, and we actually came home under budget.

After two days in Ely, we’re ready to set off for St. Ives. We’ve been told, that we will love it. We imagine a two hour trip or so to get there…here is where our expectations and our reality collide.

We make the proper turn onto the ‘Old West River’. ‘River’ is a bit grand when describing the ‘Old West’, a ‘narrow creek’ might be better and remember, we’re in a 72 foot long boat. We’re also traveling upstream, so our 4 mph, is reduced to about 2 mph. My Loving Spouse gets even more anxious at the helm of Sun at this point, yes we do run aground a few times, but he cleverly gets it unstuck without asking me to jump into the river and push.

When the river widened, we searched for a pub….nothing, but some of my favorite animals.

It took us awhile to realize, that each page of the map was at least an hour’s travel time. It was 5pm with about 4-5 pages of the map left to St. Ives. After traveling through our first lock, we note that the map claims ‘The Crown’ has a mooring.

Sun takes up the entire mooring. We tie off quickly and go into the days favorite pub, The Crown.

We order take away and have a few pints. Everyone comes outside to join us, because they either like us, or they want to smoke…it is one of those for sure.

A bit of Irish music floats out of the jukebox and we were so grateful to have a place to moor up for the night and to stop!

We’d pictured our time on Sun, as cruising for an hour or so between stops at villages. Clearly a lack of information on our part. We were in the Fen, the very flat English countryside, with villages few and far between, at least at 2 mph. We set off from Earith in the morning and soon reach our first unmanned (do it yourself) lock.

We have to open the guillotine gate to bring the water up to Sun’s level. Then My Loving Spouse cruises in.

I am the ‘Lock master’. I have a special set of keys and shut the one gate, then open the second gate. It is not rocket science, but I feel a smug satisfaction all the same.

We cruise on toward Holywell. The map book describes the village as lovely. I am excited to stop there for lunch, roam the village and get our trip back on track.

I surprise myself by being a fairly good Narrow boat driver. I am sure it has to do with all my time driving our tractor with a load out front.

Boats steer the opposite way and every once in awhile I panic and quickly hand the tiller back to My Loving Spouse.

We reach Holywell and sort of slow down, but when you’re going as slow as we are, one cannot go much slower. Holywell does look charming, just what I wanted to explore…except…do you see anywhere to moor/park a 72 foot boat? Nope, neither did we. Disappointed, we had no choice but to just keep going, our spirits flagging a bit. We push on toward St. Ives, hopeful for a mooring.

Comforted (kind of) by more cows.

Grateful to be together, we are blessed.

Do we make it to St. Ives?

Stay tuned…..

We’ve returned from England with a condition few have ever experienced. We’re tan. The sun shone and shone and shone.

I am a bit at a loss to describe an adventure with so many parts to it. For a start, if you want to eat good English food, you must know people.

Sunday lunch is just a downright experience. If you’re not related to someone in England, then start making friends, because you want to be invited to Sunday lunch.

It is also helpful, if one of you was apprenticed as a chef (aged 15) in England. (In fact My Loving Spouse spent the Christmas he was 15, plucking pheasants all day for the Christmas dinner.) Apprenticed with another lad and that ‘lad’ went on to be something of a ‘legend’ at the Colchester Culinary Instituted.

If that Lad and partner now owns a restaurant where you can get Sticky Toffee pudding, (oh be still my heart)…

…as well as fish & chips…

It is not a good idea to have Fish & Chips from the local ‘chippy’ (Fish & Chips shop), even the photo doesn’t process it. We did this twice, before our stomachs won the day and we swore off them for the rest of the trip.

THE ‘Lads’ had been apprenticed at le Talbooth, which has always been a world class Michelin guide restaurant.

THE Lads lived across the river with other male employees of the restaurant. They might have reminisced about leaving work late at night, waving to their boss as they passed his window. They then ducked back and climbed up the outside of the restaurant to where the waitresses lived for after work parties.

Our ‘surprise’, planned by THE Lad, was a tour of the current Le Talbooth’s kitchens, dinner at Le Talbooth with a jazz band and spending the night in their ‘old’ cottage, which has recently been turned into an elegant two bedroom cottage.

Being such a fancy place, I was on my very best behavior. This shot was only for My Loving Spouse.

It was an amazing treat to experience all around!

Besides ‘good’ beer or bitter, My Loving Spouse was looking forward to full English breakfasts…

I will say he enjoyed quite a few, complete with broiled tomato and black pudding, no I didn’t try it.

‘Good Indian’ food was also on the list of ‘wants’. I liked all of the Indian food I had, but the ‘take away’ was not quite as good as the restaurant where we ‘sat down’.

Garlic free and delicious can often be a hard combination, but this was so good.

The relish tray was unique to each restaurant, which was sort of disappointing as the beet relish was so flavorful! I would have loved to have it again.

There is so much more to our adventure, but I will save it for another day.

We are home…grateful and indeed we are blessed.

Expedia keeps telling me that our trip, “Sun here we come” is around the corner. I keep laughing, because we are going to England, where it is currently not sunny, not at all.

THAT Window finally got delivered. Our contractor came right over and installed it and we are delighted! We finished siding the extension….even added a bit of the trim that goes along with it.

Fed the animals, ran the water and commented not for the first time, that we need a vacation.

We’ve made THE List for Number Two Son, who will be in staying at the farm and will be completely in ‘charge’ while we are away. We packed the requested items, that cannot be found in the UK.

Even the 9 hour plus flight sounds relaxing…. We’re packed and ready for a bit of family time, a bit of old friend time and an adventure on Sun. Sun is a narrow boat, that the Wonderful A is letting us borrow.

We’ll journey on some of England’s canals stopping at villages along the way for a pint and a pub lunch. We’re packed and ready for some time away together…across the pond.

Sun here we come!

Grateful and blessed indeed…

We hit the wall this week. Crabby and exhausted pretty much described both of us. One of us had a ‘come a part‘ (this is a wonderful British saying for ‘tantrum’), when the chicken would not scan at the self-checkout at Fred Myer. Another of us had their ‘come a part’, when we learned that, THAT Window’s date for delivery was being changed again!

I took a two hour nap and I don’t nap. My Loving Spouse declared the following day a ‘day off’. No work on the house or farm other than feeding the animals.

The clouds made the sky beautiful, friends came to play croquet, and they brought cold adult beverages.

We know that remodeling a home is a luxury, a very ‘first world situation’. So, we will not lament the frustrations of not receiving THAT Window, when we should have had it six weeks ago, or that when it was finally delivered to the store, an employee stole it. It is doubtful, that I will shop at Home Depot again. The window (ordered again elsewhere) will get here…eventually…I hope…BTW!

What I did do on the ‘day off’ was the perfect antidote for a hot summer’s day and the epitome of ‘for fun and for free’! My BGF and I floated the canal. We are careful to attach the ‘liquid supplies’ to the inner tube.

There are two hard parts when you float the canal, getting in and getting out. Getting in is colder!

…and we are off….cooled off…our very own lazy river…my very own lazy day…

To have this friend…believe me,

I am blessed!

I have a complete double gloved golfer’s tan, even though I haven’t played golf in years. I wear work gloves almost all the time. The exception this week, would be when My Loving Spouse and I had to rub Bag Balm on Agnes’ udder, milk her and unblock her teats. It was greasy, hot and messy. Agnes was not happy about being in the head catch & squeeze. My Loving Spouse was not happy about being on his knees in the floor of the barn with a cow’s teat in his hand. She did try to kick us and peed and pooped and swished her tail making everything even more messy. We finally got her unblocked and milk flowing freely for little Ike.

It would not have been so bad, but Ike spent day two of his life eating from only one ‘faucet’….so, we had to do it again. Agnes was not the only frustrated, irritated animal in the barn! Day three, My Loving Spouse declared them ‘on their own…I’m not milking that beef cow again’! Luckily, for us all, Ike seems to have figured it out.

This has allowed us to view our happy herd from the side of the house, where we have been installing cedar siding. In theory, this is not too hard. If the boards were not a tad warped, it would have made the job much easier.

My Loving Spouse was in charge of whacking one piece of siding into the ridge of the lower piece of siding for a necessary snug fit. My job was to use the very heavy nailing gun to nail it all in place. No one got ‘nailed’ or fell off of a ladder, so it is all good, very good.

We run the nail gun off of the compressor we call “Puffin’ Billy”, because it has a steady quiet popping rumble to it. We snagged this great little compressor at a garage sale for $20.

My Loving Spouse was in charge of figuring out how much cedar we needed. He tried to explain board feet, which is different than linear feet….(not to mention tired feet), but honestly, I just was too exhausted to care. He makes a few careful notations.

The electricians did the same thing making notes in handy spots.

We are at a sweet spot in our remodel progress, where each step really feels like a large accomplishment.

The porch gets laid out….and voila!

Our days have often started with My Loving Spouse in the morning telling me how nice and easy today’s job is and how quickly it is going to go. The end of the evening he is usually telling me, “I’m too old for this.”

The Dry Wall team was dropping off the heavy sheet rock. (They are our favorite, because 1. They do dry wall. 2. They showed up 3. They keep saying “No big deal, don’t worry”) My Loving Spouse told the head guy, “I’m too old to be hauling dry wall around”.

‘You’re not old!‘

“I just turned 70!” My Loving Spouse explained.

‘Sh&$ You are old!’

We might be old, but we are a formidable team…and we indeed are blessed.

Ike arrived without any of our usual drama. We had been checking my cow, Agnes around the clock for signs of calving. At 5:45am My Loving Spouse got up to do the morning ‘calf check’. He returned to say, we had a new born black calf. I donned my fluffy pink robe, shoved my feet into my sneakers and took off for the pasture to check out for myself our new addition.

I declared the tiny calf, adorable.

Mama Agnes, Ike and brother Hal….I call this their ‘Christmas card photo’. You know those photos, where everyone has been fighting and arguing, not happy to be together, but smiling for the camera as soon as someone says, “Say, Cheese!” The second the photo was finished, Hal started acting like a teenage brat, head butting the little calf and knocking Ike down.

I called My Loving Spouse on the phone,

“You need to come out here! We need to get Hal out of the field before he hurts the calf”.

‘Okay, I’ll get dressed’.

“You don’t have time to get dressed! Put on your robe and come quickly !!”

‘Oh, my, bloody hell!’

Moments later, we two old folk/farmers adorned in our bathrobes, ran around the field chasing one large teenage steer out of the field, keeping Agnes and baby Ike in the field and letting the two horses go where ever they wanted. By the time we were finally having our morning coffee, we had everyone in the cows’ field, except the annoying teenage steer, Hal, who was serving detention in the horses field and pouting.

Baby Ike is a small calf, as his father Danny the bull was a Galloway, which is a smaller breed. Ike is just about as cute as they come and we are so glad he is here safe and sound.

I like Ike.

I am grateful indeed and very blessed.