Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

I know it's not quite the end of the year, but I thought I would do one last blog of the year.
We were quite busy on the run up to Christmas, I'd ordered 37kg of fibre from one of my suppliers thinking that it would not arrive until after Christmas, well that is what their web site said. But it all arrived the Friday before Christmas, along with the 12kgs of sock wool I'd also ordered from another supplier, who's website also informed me that they couldn't guarantee delivery before Christmas!which to be honest didn't bother me. But it arrived and now 30kgs of the fibre is already bagged up just waiting to be labelled, priced and photographed to be put onto my Folksy shopto sell. The rest of the fibre needs to be dyed before I can put it up for sale. The same goes for the knitting wool, that too needs to be dyed etc before going onto Folksy for sale.
I've been a bit slow in using Folksy so in 2013 I'm determined to get a lot more of my fibre into the shop for sale.
We had a quiet Christmas Day, we always do, watched a few DVDs and just chilled out. On Boxing Day we started on making modifications to the lounge! The 4 "fake" beams in the ceiling have been removed, a stone shelf, for which we could see no use for, has been removed, making one of the supports for the RSJ (which supports the upper floors when the 2 downstairs rooms were knocked through into one) easier to box it, as at the moment it is a "lovely" 70's stone pillar!!!! Tim then started on filling in the holes in the walls the electrician has made when we had the house rewired, so that I can start and give, at least, the lounge a coat of neutral paint so we can then decide what to do with the very large, again "70's", fake stone fireplace.
This fireplace has split our friends who have seen it, they either like it or hate it, there are no "well it's O.K" comments about it. Tim and I are undecided, because to remove it, will involve a lot of work, mainly how do we support the other end of the RSJ!!!! Time will no doubt tell.
The more we start looking deeper into the fabric of our house we realise that there has been no real substantial work done in the last 20 years, and that includes decorating!!!!
The next big job is replacing the Central Heating, which is between 20 to 25 years old. So the whole lot has to come out and be replaced with new. The plumber is booked to be here for a least a week from the 18th March 2013, and for a few of those days we will be without hot water or heating. Let's hope the weather is starting to warm up by then
Usually over the Christmas and New Year break I plan to spend some time in the veg garden, doing a spot of digging and just having a good tidy up of the weeds and leaves etc, but this year the soil is extremely wet. We could do with at least a month of no rain to dry everything out.
I'm already booked into 2 fibre events for 2013, Wonderwool in Wales (April) and the British Wool Weekend in Harrogate (September). By the end of January I should know if I've been successful in getting a stall at Woolfest and Fibre East. I will, of course, be attending Saltburn Farmer's Market from March through to December.
It has been strange over the last 6 months not having the sheep and alpacas to worry about, especially as the weather has been so wet, the fields would have been by now, mud and feed prices this year are going to be very expensive. I've just had to give my availability for Tribunal work for Feb - April 2013 and this time there is no big block of weeks I can't work due to lambing, though a friend in the next village has said we can help her lamb if we feel the need!!!!!
Well all there is now it for me to wish you all a Happy New Year and let's hope that 2013 is a bit drier than 2012 has been.