The Camper van

On Thursday we did a 600 mile round trip to Wokingham, via the M1 and M25, to visit 321 Away, who import Mazda Bongos and convert them to camper vans. Well after a good look round and a test drive, we've bought this Mazda Bongo....

It has to be registered with the DVLA and once that happens we will have a registrations number so we can sort out some insurance

Inside the front of the Bongo

We are having a side kitchen fitted, with extra seats to that we can carry 6 people.

These are the extra seats at the rear, and you can also see the wardrobe/storage space at the side of the fridge

Once the back seat is removed and the middle seat turned round, this is the space it creates, bearing in mind the side kitchen still needs to be fitted. But I think I will have plenty of room to pack all my fibre in to.
It's going to take 321 Away a couple of weeks to refit the Bongo out and get the registration details from DVLA. Once that's all done we will take the train to Wokingham to pick up our Mazda Bongo Friendee Camper van, and drive it all the way home. I can't wait.....

Keeping New Year Resolutions

I don't normally make New Year Resolutions, but this year I've decided to list one or two things that I wanted to achieve at the start of this year. One of those things to do is to list all of the fibre that I have for sale on my Folksy and Etsy sites. Well I'm half way there to getting this achieved. All the photos are taken and all the Alpaca, Plant Fibre and some of the Merino Blended fibres are listed on both sites. So it may be worth taking a look. www.folksy.com/shops/willofibre
My other resolution is to find more Farmer's Markets to attend and so far things are looking promising, though I won't know for certain for another couple of months, so fingers crossed that it all works out.
On the smallholding things are just ticking over, the hens are starting to lay and one of the young cockerels that I hatched is starting to get aggressive, so he will have to go. The sheep are looking well and we start lambing (Missy) on the 14th March, which isn't too far away and in another couple of weeks we will have to start upping the amount of feed concentrate we give them, which seems strange when there is so much grass around, but it's not very nutritious for a pregnant ewe.
We've also had a couple of house viewings this week, but not heard anything back. We know that if the couple who came in July can sell their house, then we are on the move, but until then we will keep showing people round. It's tiring as we like to keep everything neat and tidy, just in case we have a viewing. So if we start a job we have to get if finished as quickly as possible.

What a difference a year makes

We've been out delivering Yellow Pages again this year, and how different the weather is this year compare to last. High winds and mild days, where as last year we were battling through the snow. The high winds made for some interesting waves at Sandsend at high tide on Thursday as we sat in the truck having lunch, and some difficult walking conditions the rest of the week. But today was calm and warm and after we had finished delivering the last of the Yellow Pages this morning, I spent the afternoon in the garden replanting some strawberry plants and rescuing a gooseberry bush that we found when our next door neighbour demolished their shed in readiness to build a new one. I had Holly and Deefa with me, so they had a great time running around and just getting rid of some pent up energy.
I had one piece of good news this week, My application for a stall at Wonder Wool in Wales has been accepted, so along with my stall at Fiber East in July, I'm now just waiting to see if I get a stall at Woolfest in June to make it a hat trick of fibre events for me this year. Looks like I'm going to have a busy summer.

The start of 2012

And on the 1st day of the New Year one of my Maran Chickens has started to lay, and today when I checked the nest boxes, there were 2 more eggs, one from the Marans and one from the Cream Legbars, now I know the days are getting longer.
So far this winter has, for us, has been very mild but with some very strong winds and the occasional days of rain. We could do with the rain and we've not know a winter without being at least ankle deep in mud. The sheep have hardly touched any of the winter straw or spent much time in the barn, though with lambing only 10 weeks away, we are feeding the sheep in the barn as it will be easier to catch any of them should we need to and they get used to the barn for when they are penned up for the 24 to 48 hours before they are due to lamb.
For us Christmas and New Year has, as usual, been a quiet affair. Though we went to the village barn dance between Christmas and New Year. A good time was had by all.
So what are our plans for 2012.... Well hopefully we will move, though not before we lamb, so until we know what is happening with our smallholding we will just continue to maintain the land, hedges, fences and house until we hand it all over. On the fibre front, I'm hoping to increase the markets I attend as well as be more proactive with selling on line via Folksy etc. But what ever this new year brings, I hope it brings good things. A Happy New Year to you all.