It has been a very mixed summer so far! Most days are pretty cloudy, we have had a lot of rain and blue sky is a bit of a rare treat. There are the odd days though where summer sneaks in a few hours and we risk going down to just one layer and then dare ourselves to eat our lunch outside! It is a massive contrast to last year where we have memories of endless days of warm sunshine and animals outside 24/7. The dairy goats (Curds, Pickle, Cheddar and Gorge) used to sleep just outside the barn curled up together as a group of four! We didn’t have the field shelters then and we certainly didn’t need them. We are already starting to think about our winter-proofing: it feels frighteningly close, probably due to the fact some days it feels like autumn and we already have a fair few soggy patches on the land. One big job that still needs doing is getting all our large water containers (IBC tanks) in place with taps to fill buckets and troughs and overflow pipes to take away the excess! We also need to finish the drainage channel by the stables that is taking water from the garden into the ditch alongside the poultry paddock. Lots to do, as always, but we can still find time to take in the views, such as this one – which today includes some of that rare blue sky!!