Can you teach an old pony new tricks?

.....and am I referring to an actual pony?
or maybe just me ;)

There's not much about myself I'm proud of,no really, there isn't *sigh*....
HOWEVER...
One thing I do think is something to pat myself on the back about is my willingness to try things another way, to not get buried under the tombstone that is "THIS IS HOW ITS BEEN DONE FOR YEARS AND HOW WE SHALL ALWAYS DO IT!!!!

So, maybe I should start at  the beginning.

I've been quietly getting back into riding regularly.
I lost some more weight, I'm feeling positive, I really wanted to get back to enjoying riding like I used to.    

You see, I lost my confidence quite badly after having children.
I went from a "sit on any wild beastie/ bomb around the x-country course" rider to one who was frightened to ride alone.

What happened?
Lots of little things really. My body changed after having Ollie and suddenly I didn't have the "stickability" to sit a nasty buck or sneaky whip round anymore.
Then we moved, I had two more kids, the riding where we live is awful. The road work is just dangerous and slowly I just ........ Stopped.

But anyway.
I started getting interested in western riding again.
Its something I've dabbled in from time to time over the last 15 years. I'm amazed at how the English style riding people consistently say how "cruel" the western style is, but I can only conclude that most of them have never actually watched any and think that western riding is synonymous with rodeo.... which it most certainly is not. Just because the riders in rodeo use western tack doesn't mean that's how you should ride/train a western horse.

I digress though.

Youtube is an amazing resource, so I decided to set up a list and find some instructional videos to save and use as home lesson plans.
While on there I came across Warwick Schiller and boy.... someone flipped the switch!

I watched him riding and handling horses, young horses, problem horses, horses people were days away from throwing in the towel with, and I saw everyone of them become a dream horse.
Happy and  confident.

And it was so simple.
Well it wasn't, you have to be on the ball and consistent and committed but it was simple.

Making the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy.          
..... and that's all it is.

Its all about taking the pressure away, of not harrying the horse, letting him work things out and then do the job without you fussing constantly.

Well I was impressed, more so than the whole Monty Roberts cult we all had in the 90's.

So I decided to put some of it to the test with Badger.

Now Badger isn't a horse anyone would say needed "fixing".

He's the horse you can put the kids on, he's fairly sensible, laid back, but..... if he was so good, why was I still worried about riding him alone?

As I worked through some minor niggles with him, I realised he wasn't quite as laid back as we always assume he is.
The joke has always been that he's "passive aggressive", but it wasn't really funny.

Over the last three days I've come to realise that my nervousness was about things like, not being sure I'd be able to get back on him if I had to get off (and because he wears hoof boots there's always the chance that will happen if one came off on a ride)... He's funny to get on sometimes, won't stand still, doesn't like bikes or motor bikes, pulls like a train...... and all these things I've nearly ironed out in THREE DAYS!!

I'm being clear, consistent, I'm making the right behavior easy for him.

He's listening to me rather than fighting me, he's learning to try.
We're having fun again.

So for the first time in a long time I'm getting my confidence back.
Fingers x'd!      

This video is very clever and shows the tiny things this girl (come on.. we've ALL done) does to make her situation worse. 

Chicken Videos

Always striving for a better way to do things, these videos have some great ideas  for permaculture and natural chicken management :)

The gardens. Picture update.

The Forest garden                 

                                     

The forest garden is really starting to take shape.

                                   

One of the tractor tyres, full of stable muck and compost, rotting down to plant in next year.   

Hazel

A potato experiment in an old compost bin (Bird cherry and blackthorn in the back)

Two bird cherry saplings, planted in tyres to protect from errant strimmers and make weeding easier.

Raspberry and gooseberry 

Compost tyre in use.

Jerusalem artichokes... You will have them FOREVER!!

The front garden

This garden will be made into a mostly non-edible garden next year, but this year we still have a little in it.

Garlic, planted in December and growing strong now. 

Rhubarb!

Vegetable garden

Trunk has early potato's in. The black tub, carrot and the green tub, late planted garlic. 

New rhubarb bed.

Lungwort. This bed will also have wild garlic in it so it will be my wild herb bed.

Strawberries in an old trough.

Small hedge planted. hawthorn, black thorn and goarse.

Chicken runs.

Bird cherry in the summer run.

Small tree in the winter run. Never even knew it was there before the chickens cleared the ground!!

View of the winter run, from the back fence.

And also............ 

I have a few shelf baskets in the house.You're meant to use them like this........

                                    

Owen obviously thought around that.... Obviously, looking at objects in another way is in the genes ;)

Creative cooking

I don't have an oven.
Well I do, but not really.

My kitchen used to be a living room and so it has no plumbing (YET!) and no cooker point.

For ages I had a toaster oven, but it finally died, so I decided to take stock of what I have...

• Microwave.
• Slow cooker. 
• Rice maker.
• Toaster.
• Log burner.

The Microwave is a combi so it has an oven feature on it, but its balls.... seriously, it only cooks around the edges and the bottom stays soggy. Its not bad for crumbles, but nothing with pastry.
I use it for browning veg to go in the >

Slow cooker damn it! Everyone needs one of these! Not just for soups and stews,you can make curries , chinese food, chili. You can steam puddings in it, stew fruit in it. Best thing is, you can prep your food and leave it cooking all day. Its also bang on for keeping food warm for a while if you need to.

Rice maker, not just for rice. I was always baffled by rice makers. Who eats so much rice that they need an actual appliance to cook it?! Oh how wrong I was. A rice maker is basically a bowl on a hot plate, I've cooked pasta, sauces, sausages AND rice in it so far and its a cracking little machine. And I have to say... perfect rice.

Toaster. I make toast in it..... that's it.

Log burner. Its no secret I love my log burner. I can fit like 3 big pots and a kettle on it in one go. It cooks food in a far superior manner to any conventional hot plate, and in the winter it costs nothing to cook on as I already have it going for heat and hot water.
I admit it though.... I lust after a rayburn or aga or ANY sort of range cooker.
Alas its not meant to be, so how do I MAKE one out of what I already have?

BEHOLD!!!! Two roasting tins!!

Ok, basic doesn't really cover it, but I thought, what the hell.... An oven is really only a metal box that gets hot right?

So I made cupcakes.

They didn't really brown on top, as the heat is coming from below, but as you can see they cooked through and tasted fine!

There is a stove top oven called the "Coleman Camping oven" which looked pretty good, sadly though, in American they're about $35 and in the UK you can't buy for less than £70 :(

Although its meant to go on the Coleman gas range, it seems lots of people use them on log burners.

                                       

So anyway, that's what I have at the moment. Kim's thinking about making a Coleman style box for us to use so watch this space! 

  

Harsh lessons.

Woke up this morning to carnage.

We've been very lucky with out chickens in the past, we've had them for around five years and never had any trouble with predators before.
But last night the fox saw an oppotunity and took it.

I thought we'd lost all four, Gatsby and the three hybrids we'd been given a few weeks ago, but as the sun got higher I found Gatsby wandering around, missing feathers, no tail anymore, a few scrapes, at least one nastier wound, but very much alive.

We've washed him off, cleaned up his wounds with salt water and purple spray.

Right now, he's in a box on the windowsill next to me, making the occasional sad noise.
All his wives are gone.
Can't help but feel desperately sorry for him.

Owen was upset and cursed the fox.
I pointed out that it was useless to blame the fox.
Chances are it was a vixen and some youngesters, the wounds Gatsby have could have been serious had an experienced fox caught him, they look to me though like a youngster grabbed him then let go as he started to fight back.
Foxes have to eat and the harsh winter probably depleted the usual abundance of rodents and rabbits down by the burn, what else can she do but look further afield.

The pen they were in was not fox proof.

Its my fault the fox got in, not the foxes fault for taking the oppotunity

Today will be spent mostly ramping up the security on the other chickens run and house, and hoping that Gatsby pulls though.

****************  Update!!  ******************

Sorry I didn't update this sooner but I was busy!

Not only did Gatsby survive , but one of the hens did as well!!

We found her late afternoon, very sore and scraped with a damaged wing, but very alive!

Over the last couple of days the pair of them have done really well, so fingers x'd for full recoveries for of them!