The wind kept me up last night. It whistles loudly through the needles and branches. I trust the strong trees though to stay upright around us. At times it seems a giant jet liner is landing just outside the estate.
This morning we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast. We have tea with every meal here. While Jan finished his chores around the property we walked around a snapped a few photos. The chickens love me; and I them. Soon I will be caring for them myself; collecting their eggs every other morning and cleaning out their pen and feeding them. Also we have decided that Thursdays will be the day we help Jan and Andrew in the woodland. We will be paid for our efforts. Since there is no gym around here, this will be an excellent way for my muscles to remain in good health. And I know I’ll always be warm lugging trees through the mud.
Our first stop today was the woodland. We needed to load up Jan’s trailer with fire wood to sell to a local vendor. We then stopped and shopped at the local Crediton Farmer’s Market where we bought two kinds of fresh homemade goat cheese and one kind of cow cheese. This cheese is not pasteurized and it’s bloody delicious! We also bought some cheese and onion bread rolls, and a single leek. We delivered the fire wood and we were off again. This time to the local recycling yard where the folks who own it call themselves gypsies. Jan wants us to have bowls in our kitchen even though we feel we don’t need them so we looked around for some. There were none. They did however have some wine glasses and we picked out two small simple stems. The object is to haggle, and I have to say this has never been a talent of Daniel’s. He paid one pound for two glasses. I was prepared to pay twenty pence! Jan says to let me do the talking next time. Daniel said, “But she said she had to pay her workers and…” I said, “And you’re a poor American student who’s paying surgery bills.” Daniel replied, “I should have shown her my scar!” To which Jan laughed, “That would have worked, actually.” Oh well, lesson learned. We dropped off the trailer at the woodland and met Mike “The Druid” and had a cup of tea with him. He told us about how the sweat lodge is going to work at the spring solstice. This will be my first sweat lodge; I’m excited and nervous. I feel it will be an intense happening. Almost home our last outing was to the co-op which is the small store here in Bow. We bought whole wheat bread, juice, yogurt, chips [so excited] and whole milk. The whole milk will be for dinner tomorrow. It is my first time producing a meal at The Grange so I have to impress. Of course I shall make my famous Potato Dish. Seems like it could have a fancier name, but Potato Dish is all anyone has ever called it.
In three hours we shall walk to Tom Cobely’s Pub! They are known for famous food here in Devon and plenty of choices in brews. So I will blog about that tomorrow, or this night if I’m not too tired when we return. It’s an hour walk both ways. You can only have one beer here if you’re going to drive and since I haven’t yet mastered the gear shift with my left hand we’re hoofing it.
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