Thursday 5 September 2024

Girding my loins


 Preparing for a big Fair, when it's just a couple of times a year and so everything gets Put Away and Forgotten About, is a challenge.  When we did Fairs every 2or 4 weeks we knew where everything was. I have been getting extra stuff from the stables, as I really must make a bit of space out there.  I need to ask our carpenter round and get him to go through and see if there is anything he can use.  We have most of a Yew tree, planked, which came with us from Dorset (so has to be felled nearly 40 years ago now!) which needs to be made into something.  Keith was going to make Tam a table, but she's only just in her first house and she has no room. Their kitchen has a small pine kitchen table, which already has a replacement sat beside it and the old one Needs To Go.  Anyway, there's plenty of Yew for the Future.  It's the barrels of bits of chair, dowelling, and useful oddments which I am loathe to take to the Tip so I hope that the carpenter will find a use for it, along with 200 year old wide planks of Elm from a barn at Ynyswen.

I looked in the small freezer and found I had a big glass storage dish with Beef Goulash in, so that will be tea tomorrow night or Saturday for Tam and I.   There's Spag. Bol. in the other freezer and we will probably just have a Chippy meal on the Sunday, when exhaustion has set in!

Today I will bake an apple cake of some description to see us through the weekend, and perhaps make some Ginger Biscuits too.  I have just got the Gorilla Glue (how DID I survive without it?) so I can fettle 7 broken curtain rings.  I glue, wipe and then fasten tightly together with a Zip Tie.  This is a tried and tested repair of mine.

Well, this won't do.   At least I won't be wasting time on the phone today so should be able to get the last organisation and perhaps the first loading done.  Tea is already cooked - the other half of last night's stir fry.  I made a double-portion of rice too so it's all ready to be re-heated in the microwave.   Onwards and upwards.  I shall probably be quietish on here over the weekend from sheer exhaustion as well as lack of time.  Next week I will try and dig out some photos of the work we did at Ynyswen when we finally had some money and employed our dear friend Steve Medland, lime expert and builder, to work miracles.



Danny as a toddler - the holes in the wall prove that we did go ahead and have it - pointlessly - treated with a damp proof course!  As if that would work with walls 3 feet thick with a rubble interior . . .  Work in progress on the bricked up kitchen fireplace, and with the new Hergom stove installed.  THAT was a lift and a half . . .

14 comments:

  1. I hope all goes well at the Fair and you can rest up for a while afterwards.

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    1. Well, it will be a sort of a rest as everything has to go away again, the garden desperately needs LOTS more TLC and tidying and then there are quilts to be finished. . .

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  2. I hope the fair goes well for you, it sounds like it's going to be a lot of work. I hope you have plenty of willing helpers. xx

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    1. Gosh, so do I. Single handed it is very difficult. Keith and I were a great team together - he was brilliant at tidy packing and got lots more in the back of the Nissan than I can, but I'm learning fast. I have Tam and Rosie only as Danny busy and Gabby in Greece.

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  3. Like you, when I did craft fairs regularly it was a breeze, but when few and far between it was quite a worry getting it all together. I am sure it will go well for you, and I hope you clear a goodly amount of stock.

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    1. Well, I am more or less sorted now. A couple of things to put labels on but that's a five minute job. I hope I can get rid of some big chunks.

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  4. Best of luck at the fair....I hope it's smooth sailing and lots of good sales!~Melanie xo

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    1. I just hope it keeps dry but the forecast says showers and lightning for Sunday!

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  5. The old part of our farmhouse had stone walls probably of a similar construction to yours only feet from a stream. If the Rayburn hadn't been on all the time I expect we would have had a damp problem too. Good luck at the fair.

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    1. I really miss both the Hergom which was the heart of the house, and the wood burning stove. If I have a power cut here, it will be the camping stove and a layer of quilts!

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  6. Wishing you the very best of luck with selling at 'The Fair', do hope you return home with an empty car. Its been cold and damp here today and I had to put the fire on and dig out a pair of socks, my tootsies were freezing. Its also been very blowy, so Miss Sheva has been dashing round the garden, up and down trees, in and out of windows and has now collapsed on the spare room bed under the spare duvet. Good luck. Hugs Xx

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  7. Like others am loving going down memory lane with you X I hope the fair goes well, if the price is right I buy something if I love it so I hope you have lots of people like me there x Little Rosie will be learning at the knee so to speak and I’m sure Tam loves being part of it with you. Have a lovely time Danette x

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  8. I am hoping you have great sales at the fair. You have a wonderful time there with Tam and Rosie.

    God bless.

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  9. Best of luck at the fair. I hope all goes well. And don't forget to rest when you can!

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