Goats and horses (part 2)

I’m glad I split this post up as it gave me a chance to download pictures from Gosias phone and it has to be said she takes a far better picture than me, and of more relevant things 🙂 Hopefully some of them will fit with the narrative that I have already written.

All of this new planned work is possible as I managed to secure a grant to develop the farm. So the lavender, along with an increase in goat numbers, forms the basis of the business plan that we put forward. We will use the grant to purchase new equipment for the tractor for cultivation and care of the new crops, a milking machine to stop my hands from cramping up during milking, and a good few hundred plants to supplement the ones we have already planted. Welcome to Winkos Lavender Farm! 

We have already converted more of our house cellar into a shop and second kitchen for processing cheese, so with all the extra products that will be coming out of the farm and products from other local artisans, we should truly become a cottage industry, with horse riding?

A shop of sorts, with lots of products from other local artisans

It has given Malina something to do as she fills bags with dried lavender for the shop, and she is saving the money for that pony 🙂

One thing that we did notice during the last year and a half of Covid is that people really wanted to get out of the cities and whilst we remained cautious about guests at first, as the vaccines rolled out we experienced a steady increase in customers visiting the house, a trend we hope continues. The visitors, not the Covid.

This more than made up for the lack of markets throughout the year and has now reached the point that, with the exception of a few long term commitments, we no longer need to pack up the van, set out and set up our market stall. Of course we are ready to go back to this if required, but if the customers keep on visiting then it fits our life better.

Mentioning Covid reminded me that I took Malina on a road trip to Austria to see family back in October, it was a nice easy drive of about 9 hours down to the south by Gratz. We were spoilt rotten whilst we were there and taken to various restaurants on our short stay. As someone who was happy to get the jab I had my Covid pass on me and the process of showing it to gain entry was smooth as silk. I only mention this as I’m surprised to hear about the resistance that there is in the UK and some other countries. If you don’t want to get jabbed that’s fine by me, I’m more of a risk to you than you are to me, but having a pass to enter places where crowds gather seems like a good idea to me and we didn’t experience any of the downsides that I have read about in the UK press.

By the way Pete…The composting toilets are still going strong, the operation, not the smell, and you would be surprised at the interest they generate by casual visitors. The guided tour of the process can take a good ten minutes and it’s only a matter of time before I do a YouTube video for the one or two people who are truly interested 🙂 Of course this is just one of the things that we do to try and minimise the impact we have on the planet. Solar panels for heating water, solar PV for generating some of our own electricity, growing as much of our own food as possible…I won’t go on, but if I was going to start blogging on a regular basis again I think I would have to start offering tips on how we can all make a difference. The problem is it would be one of many, so would it really be worth it if it didn’t have an audience?

Almost 700 hundred words again, my fault for getting onto Covid, so time to break it down to a third part, I hope you don’t mind? More tomorrow….