Diary of a Smallholder - aged 54 & 3/4

7am Woken up by birdsong - I really should change that alarm on the iPad (other tablet devices are available), as when I snooze the alarm, all I hear is birdsong outside.

7:09 - see above. Move one leg out from under the duvet.

7:18 - cancel alarm and sit up. It's ... not raining! Classes as a beautiful day in recent weeks, as we have seen rather a lot of the wet stuff.

7:20 Release the Hounds - Tallie (big, grey, slightly wolf hound like), Dexter (Collie), Fred (German Shepherd) & Reggie (Miniature Schnauzer - not entirely sure how that happened) set off on security patrol. Tell Dexter (the clever one) to let me know if there are any animals loose out there.

7:21 Sky looking lot more grey than it did 3 minutes ago. Make a cup of tea! Let the Chickens out, and have some breakfast.

8:00 To Do list :

1. Chase Barn Door Workies

2. Erect Chicken Fences

3. Purchase some goat meat

4. Prepare list of questions to ask goat owners on Sunday (potentially our first goats!)

8:20 Workies chased (no answer yet) - we are getting desperate now to have the doors back on the barn before we come home on Sunday with a trailer full of goats (assuming they pass our novice inspection)

8:25 Coffee - it's been a busy morning!

8:45 Message from barn door workies - will be with us at 8:30 - doesn't say which day!

9:00 Loaded Quad trailer with chicken fencing, posts, tools, etc, and took everything to The Uplands

9:30 After a quick planning meeting started to attach the new netting to the existing stock fencing.

9:35 The heavens opened! Coffee!

10:00 Where the .... are the workies? Sun is out again - back to work.

12:00 First two runs of netting in place. Time for a quick lunch followed by a trip out to Moat Goats to pick up some kid and goat meat. Will be reporting soon on the meat, once we decide what to do with it.

15:00 (that's 3pm my American friends!) - Back at Fronrhydd the fencing men have finished the perimeter of the Badlands - hurrah - and now just have two field gates to put in. Still no sign of the Barn Door workies - well, as I said they only promised 8:30 - did not say AM, PM, or which day!

New waterproofs arrived. Kept bib & braces bits on for the next bit of netting installation.

5pm We have finished the perimeter of the chicken pens, and tomorrow will move on to putting the post in to divide the paddock into three.

5:15 Debbi cooking a Shepherds Pie (ish) with the remains of last nights chilli - shame there is no smelly-blog!

5:20 Time for a snifter

6:20 Nom! Dinner consumed.

7pm - Time to relax for the evening.

Hoping tomorrow will see the fence work completed, barn doors in place, and the chicken pens progressed - though the forecast is not looking so good. We also have to bed-out the barn in case we bring Boer does back on Sunday.

Before I go, how did we do with the to do list:

1. Chase workies - check - though didn't get us far

2. Erect chicken fences - in progress

3. Purchase meat - check (we have our priorities right)

4. List of questions - erm, will work on this in the bath.

Not bad by our standards!