Crikey time is flying again! Well the sheep are getting sheared on Thursday and my daughter getting married on Saturday.....so we are incredibly busy!
I have had 2 fantastic volunteers working for me for the last 2 weeks Davy from France and Jan from Hong Kong. They have cleared lots of head high brambles from the boundary of a new 3 acre field I have so that some new fencing could be put in and chopped and stacked huge amounts of wood, pulled thistles and nettles and......been attacked countless times by our cockerel who seems to wait just for them.....he is pretty cowardly with the rest of us!
I have planted 7 types of bean with 2 types not coming up! Also taking part in a trial for the permaculture association growing veg in mixed groups...kale, beans peas and sweetcorn interspersed with onions, spinach, marigolds, beetroot and salads. Another plot is prepared with 3 straight rows of veg and careful and detailed results are being plotted....its very interesting!
The Woolly Shepherd is now under new ownership and has a new website and logo and my new website which will be www.valgrainger.co.uk will be up and running soon!
We will be putting on lots of courses from hedgelaying and peg looming to bread, jam and chutney making.
We are also going to be developing eco b&b for later in the year so watch this space.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Just a quickie to tell you all that The Woolly Shepherd has been sold.....but will still be producing fantastic insulation from local sheep and woolly packaging just up the road from where it was before.....to the same high ethical standards! I will still be involved in a small way whilst developing lots of other woolly ideas, running courses, giving talks, growing my veg, Chairing the local Parish Plan committee and vice chairing the Blackdown Hills transition group....Oh and of course breeding pedigree sheep!
We have 13 lambs from 11 mums at the moment 9 rams and 4 ewes....typical when tryong to expand! One more left to lamb now. We have had 2 sets of twins which is very unusual as Ouessants tend to have single lambs....and one is one of my smallest ewes!
The lambs are great time wasters to watch!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Budget day today....
Got me thinking about something I have thought for a long time....economic growth. Success in an economy is measured in terms of growth...ie how much more we spend on consumer goods, how many houses we have built, how rich we become and therefore how much more we may spend yet!
This is quite frankly barking mad....how on earth (and yes literally 'how on earth') are we to keep up this never ending expansion and growth?.....surely something is going to snap if we keep stretching for more and more yet success seems these days to be measured by growth and failure by decline and stagnation.
However perhaps if we look at the words used and looked at them in a different way and not in such negative terms and made stagnation into consolidation, made decline into good housekeeping and growth into greed we would actually be able to work out 'how on earth' we might have enough resources left in the world....!
Got me thinking about something I have thought for a long time....economic growth. Success in an economy is measured in terms of growth...ie how much more we spend on consumer goods, how many houses we have built, how rich we become and therefore how much more we may spend yet!
This is quite frankly barking mad....how on earth (and yes literally 'how on earth') are we to keep up this never ending expansion and growth?.....surely something is going to snap if we keep stretching for more and more yet success seems these days to be measured by growth and failure by decline and stagnation.
However perhaps if we look at the words used and looked at them in a different way and not in such negative terms and made stagnation into consolidation, made decline into good housekeeping and growth into greed we would actually be able to work out 'how on earth' we might have enough resources left in the world....!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Well its been a long time since I blogged....why? well to be honest because I have been that busy I just have not had time!......
I am going to therefore tackle some issues head on....haha...head on is very apt!!
The past year has been a trifle traumatic but has bought more positives than negatives, yes that does sound barking mad when you have had your daughter and yourself diagnosed with agressive breast cancer, both been through surgery,chemotherapy, radiotherapy, herceptin therapy and heaven only knows what else and have anothe 5 years worth of treatment to go (hormone therapy)!!!! However lifes experiences can be looked upon as negative or positive and this has most definitely been the latter. I have met some amazing people, laughed until i was helpless with the humour I have found from people, experienced first hand what its like to be 'on the other side of the fence' i.e. the patient experience! found out exactly who my friends really are...with some surprises, and audited my life and planned an exciting future....so to be honest, although this seems a strange thing to say, I wouldn't have missed it for the world......
So I thought I would share some observations before blogging regularly about my sheepy and other activities!
Chemotherapy....nasty stuff, lots of different versions, some make you feel sick, some make you ache all over, some make you muzzy headed, most make your hair fall out...and not just the hair on your head!!!
However the most visible bit is the head hair thing!.....So you have a choice, wear a v posh bit rather hot wig....which to be honest I tried but looked too tidy, after all they just dont 'do' wigs for scruffy outside types! And so I tried a variety of hats....which being over a very cold winter were ok...until you went inside the pub/shop/train/house etc when they got really warm and you take em off and people look at you with horror....now just a comment aside here...WHY is it that the England rugby captain and half his team with shaven heads are seen as ok and quite sexy but a bald women is seen and regarded with total horror???
Scarves....I look daft in a scarf....ohh that nearly rhymes! and scarves shout CANCER and everyone averts their eyes and gives pitying looks....especially so once your eyebrows and eyelashes fall out coz, well, you must be 'near the end'!!!
So I have chosen to mostly go 'commando' and scare them half to death!.....whilst explaining that chemotherapy is not being given as 'a last resort' as one person commented.....!!!.....but as a first line of treatment to stop the bluddy cells in their tracks just in case any escaped being removed by the surgery!!!.....and make you well! The same goes for the radiotherapy....I am in the middle of that treatment at the moment and attend the clinic for a 5 minute daily microwaving for 4 weeks...very easy and not at all scary. As for the other targeted treatments....the herceptin which was fought for to be licenced for use by some very brave women about 6 years ago targets any cells that might be thinking about going mad and dividing in a specific way....20% of breast cancers have this problem which makes them more likely to recuur....this is given IV every 3 weeks for a year and has mild side effects as does the tamoxifen that I have to take for 5 years because my type of breast cancer is also driven by oestrogen and the tamoxifen interferes with that....
So to conclude I am fit, well, very healthy, not dead, not sad, very active, very short haired (and I like it!)with sheep about to start lambing, with exciting things planned and ready for the next adventure.....
I am going to therefore tackle some issues head on....haha...head on is very apt!!
The past year has been a trifle traumatic but has bought more positives than negatives, yes that does sound barking mad when you have had your daughter and yourself diagnosed with agressive breast cancer, both been through surgery,chemotherapy, radiotherapy, herceptin therapy and heaven only knows what else and have anothe 5 years worth of treatment to go (hormone therapy)!!!! However lifes experiences can be looked upon as negative or positive and this has most definitely been the latter. I have met some amazing people, laughed until i was helpless with the humour I have found from people, experienced first hand what its like to be 'on the other side of the fence' i.e. the patient experience! found out exactly who my friends really are...with some surprises, and audited my life and planned an exciting future....so to be honest, although this seems a strange thing to say, I wouldn't have missed it for the world......
So I thought I would share some observations before blogging regularly about my sheepy and other activities!
Chemotherapy....nasty stuff, lots of different versions, some make you feel sick, some make you ache all over, some make you muzzy headed, most make your hair fall out...and not just the hair on your head!!!
However the most visible bit is the head hair thing!.....So you have a choice, wear a v posh bit rather hot wig....which to be honest I tried but looked too tidy, after all they just dont 'do' wigs for scruffy outside types! And so I tried a variety of hats....which being over a very cold winter were ok...until you went inside the pub/shop/train/house etc when they got really warm and you take em off and people look at you with horror....now just a comment aside here...WHY is it that the England rugby captain and half his team with shaven heads are seen as ok and quite sexy but a bald women is seen and regarded with total horror???
Scarves....I look daft in a scarf....ohh that nearly rhymes! and scarves shout CANCER and everyone averts their eyes and gives pitying looks....especially so once your eyebrows and eyelashes fall out coz, well, you must be 'near the end'!!!
So I have chosen to mostly go 'commando' and scare them half to death!.....whilst explaining that chemotherapy is not being given as 'a last resort' as one person commented.....!!!.....but as a first line of treatment to stop the bluddy cells in their tracks just in case any escaped being removed by the surgery!!!.....and make you well! The same goes for the radiotherapy....I am in the middle of that treatment at the moment and attend the clinic for a 5 minute daily microwaving for 4 weeks...very easy and not at all scary. As for the other targeted treatments....the herceptin which was fought for to be licenced for use by some very brave women about 6 years ago targets any cells that might be thinking about going mad and dividing in a specific way....20% of breast cancers have this problem which makes them more likely to recuur....this is given IV every 3 weeks for a year and has mild side effects as does the tamoxifen that I have to take for 5 years because my type of breast cancer is also driven by oestrogen and the tamoxifen interferes with that....
So to conclude I am fit, well, very healthy, not dead, not sad, very active, very short haired (and I like it!)with sheep about to start lambing, with exciting things planned and ready for the next adventure.....
Monday, January 24, 2011
Right everybody!!
You know how sometimes you want to do something that makes a difference? Well my lovely daughter Rosanna s fiance.....is cycling from Lands end in Cornwall to Frome in Somerset in 24 hours next Saturday.....to raise £2000 for Cancer Research
For a keen cyclist that would be a doddle...well maybe not a doddle but a good leg stretch...
For Philip on his mountain bike its the equivelent of me climbing Mt Everest!
He has been training by cycling to work in Bristol every day and will make it if he has to pick up the bike and carry it!
so can you sponsor him? If so visit his just giving page http://www.justgiving.com/Phillip-Morris
None of us know when we may be very grateful for the work done by Cancer Research.....we toddle on through life putting a penny or two in collecting boxes but its only when it hits us that we are grateful...so dig deep chaps and you will be rewarded with pictures of the event!!!
You know how sometimes you want to do something that makes a difference? Well my lovely daughter Rosanna s fiance.....is cycling from Lands end in Cornwall to Frome in Somerset in 24 hours next Saturday.....to raise £2000 for Cancer Research
For a keen cyclist that would be a doddle...well maybe not a doddle but a good leg stretch...
For Philip on his mountain bike its the equivelent of me climbing Mt Everest!
He has been training by cycling to work in Bristol every day and will make it if he has to pick up the bike and carry it!
so can you sponsor him? If so visit his just giving page http://www.justgiving.com/Phillip-Morris
None of us know when we may be very grateful for the work done by Cancer Research.....we toddle on through life putting a penny or two in collecting boxes but its only when it hits us that we are grateful...so dig deep chaps and you will be rewarded with pictures of the event!!!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Life has a habit of making one make decisions! So what do I mean...? Well we have to decide what to wear, when to eat, where to go etc we are making decisions each and every day which makes our life path the way it is....confused?
Well each day we make decisions that may affect the rest of our lives without even realising it....for example we decide to go out and down to the supermarket at 2pm, we bump into a friend there who imparts some information that impacts on our thoughts and future decisions, its interesting is it not?
I have led a sustainable lifestyle all of my life..some have thought I was just a skinflint and my father bless him kept reminding me that rationing ended in the fifties and there was really no need to reuse and recycle old stuff...he had done that as a lad in the war and 'things were different now'....Oh but how that attitude and the desisions made by the 'modern' post war generation have affected the world and our future! When China finally gets a standard of living deemed modern for all its inhabitants we will need several worlds to supply it...yet we only have one!
Blimy...I am getting philosophical....or cynical!
When it comes to decisions I have made a big one....
I am going to downsize the 'Woolly Shepherd' no not me on a slimming fad...but me being sensible. Green business is big business and usually not at all ethical! I have built up a small, award winning, permaculture based sustainable ethical business but to compete I must forever be striving, fighting, working silly hours, stressing and so on because business is business. It has interested me a lot that often folks who consider themselves ethical in their private lives consider business to be neither ethical nor unethical and are quite happy to metaphorically speaking stamp on the head of their competitor at work whilst at home raising a pig or two for their freezer and keeping a few rescued ex battery hens because they do not want their families to eat battery produced eggs and pork....mmmm!
so I am going to take my little business back to its roots and work at the grassroots level supporting the way of life I have practised for ever and leave those who cannot equate ethics to do their thing.
I am going to stop and 'smell the roses' financially it will be ten steps back but personally I am going to be a richer person for it too!....I wonder exsctly where the head stampers riches really lie?
Monday, January 10, 2011
Happy New Year to all!
Crikey have we had a month or two....what with no hair from chemotherapy making it extra cold around the head it then decides to be the coldest December on record brrrrrr! The sheep have looked very bemused as their world kept disappearing under tons of snow. They usually dig to find some grass but just gave up, looked depressed and ate haylage sugar beet and barley. After 10 days of it they had obviously decided they had woken up in the north pole and perked up a bit. Once it had disappeared the relief on their little faces was quite apparent! Now we have rain instead...urmm not sure which I prefer!
I am now 3/4 through the good old chemo...blasted stuff...it kills all the good cells too hence the hair loss so also kills your white blood cells and leaves you open to all sorts of bugs and I endured a short break over the new year in isolation at my local hospital with septicemia....just the start to the year I wanted. Now back in the thick of it and having taken delivery of 3 new sheep this week plus a spanking new hen house I am sure things can only get better.
Very interesting world this year and will get even more interesting as climate seems to have gone haywire all over the world this last year...global warming methinks and they now admit world food stocks are dangerously low with oil prices climbing to record highs. Cotton prices and man made fibre prices are rocketing making wool look even more attractive....things are changing folks and I cannot forsee a time when anything is going back to the so called easy life....the future? Well lets not look back and shake our heads at our age of stupid eh?
Crikey have we had a month or two....what with no hair from chemotherapy making it extra cold around the head it then decides to be the coldest December on record brrrrrr! The sheep have looked very bemused as their world kept disappearing under tons of snow. They usually dig to find some grass but just gave up, looked depressed and ate haylage sugar beet and barley. After 10 days of it they had obviously decided they had woken up in the north pole and perked up a bit. Once it had disappeared the relief on their little faces was quite apparent! Now we have rain instead...urmm not sure which I prefer!
I am now 3/4 through the good old chemo...blasted stuff...it kills all the good cells too hence the hair loss so also kills your white blood cells and leaves you open to all sorts of bugs and I endured a short break over the new year in isolation at my local hospital with septicemia....just the start to the year I wanted. Now back in the thick of it and having taken delivery of 3 new sheep this week plus a spanking new hen house I am sure things can only get better.
Very interesting world this year and will get even more interesting as climate seems to have gone haywire all over the world this last year...global warming methinks and they now admit world food stocks are dangerously low with oil prices climbing to record highs. Cotton prices and man made fibre prices are rocketing making wool look even more attractive....things are changing folks and I cannot forsee a time when anything is going back to the so called easy life....the future? Well lets not look back and shake our heads at our age of stupid eh?
Friday, November 12, 2010
Well...time does fly eh?
The sheep have all been wormed foot checked and sorted out. A ram lamb has departed for a new flock and the rest of the lads relocated to a clean field of 2 acres down in the village 6 Ouessants....so lots of grass! The 8 older girls and 4 ewe lambs have Merinos for company and I'm breeding him back to his daughters by design as I want to fix some of his small size in the flock. This has to be done with care as line breeding for certain charecteristics can be risky. We have a lovely 3 acre field that has not had any livestock in it in the next village on a 25 year lease from the Woodland trust and as soon as the paperwork is done they will all be moving up there. This will rest my set of small fields here at home and they will be back to lamb. We made some nice haylage and it is sitting waiting for the worst weather. A new large hen house is being constructed for my 6 hens and cockerel and my now fully grown buff orpingtons...only 2 hens and will keep best male....rest for the pot! I have a new plucker in the house, Charlie aged 8 plucked and cleaned a plump phesant a couple of weeks ago which tasted great roasted!
On the other front i am now on my chemotherapy treatment and have had 2 out of 4 and am still standing! Its not so bad and feels like the hangover from hell plus slight morning sickness nausea for a couple of days and makes you tired and unable to concentrate which is infuriating when trying to calculate wool insulation square metres! I still walk my dogs 2-5 miles a day and am fit and well. The hair thing is quite bizzare as now falling out like a moulting dog....I now have more sympathy for their plight when hoovering up mine as well as theirs!!!
The sheep have all been wormed foot checked and sorted out. A ram lamb has departed for a new flock and the rest of the lads relocated to a clean field of 2 acres down in the village 6 Ouessants....so lots of grass! The 8 older girls and 4 ewe lambs have Merinos for company and I'm breeding him back to his daughters by design as I want to fix some of his small size in the flock. This has to be done with care as line breeding for certain charecteristics can be risky. We have a lovely 3 acre field that has not had any livestock in it in the next village on a 25 year lease from the Woodland trust and as soon as the paperwork is done they will all be moving up there. This will rest my set of small fields here at home and they will be back to lamb. We made some nice haylage and it is sitting waiting for the worst weather. A new large hen house is being constructed for my 6 hens and cockerel and my now fully grown buff orpingtons...only 2 hens and will keep best male....rest for the pot! I have a new plucker in the house, Charlie aged 8 plucked and cleaned a plump phesant a couple of weeks ago which tasted great roasted!
On the other front i am now on my chemotherapy treatment and have had 2 out of 4 and am still standing! Its not so bad and feels like the hangover from hell plus slight morning sickness nausea for a couple of days and makes you tired and unable to concentrate which is infuriating when trying to calculate wool insulation square metres! I still walk my dogs 2-5 miles a day and am fit and well. The hair thing is quite bizzare as now falling out like a moulting dog....I now have more sympathy for their plight when hoovering up mine as well as theirs!!!
Friday, October 01, 2010
Its my birthday and I'm off on a 2 day escape in the pouring rain to Devon....yes I know I live 1 mile from the Devon border...just going to a different bit!
Got good news yesterday....clear CT scan, all rest of my lymph nodes are clear and no more boob reshaping needed either wooo hooo!!!
So I will leave you to savor some Breton dancing at our local Fest Noz when we were in Berrien in August.
Got good news yesterday....clear CT scan, all rest of my lymph nodes are clear and no more boob reshaping needed either wooo hooo!!!
So I will leave you to savor some Breton dancing at our local Fest Noz when we were in Berrien in August.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Our piggies have been relocated....to the freezers of myself, Lesley, Penny and Selena. They killed out at 7 months at 69, 70 and 73kg with 2cm max backfat which pleased me a lot as it was exactly what I was aiming at and I feed by eye and never weigh. One is still at the butchers being made into bacon...well why cure it myself when one of my amazing wool pack clients is Anna at Bringing Home the Bacon it is being cured traditionally and slowly and then being oak smoked in Annas smoker. She has made our sausages too and as a person who makes sausages myself I can report she is an amazing sausage maker and well deserves every award she has won!
We fed the pigs the usual amount but saved this time on costs by getting lots and lots of past sell by date fruit and veg from the local greengrocers....pigs just love strawberries! barley meal and......beer! We collected the slops from the local pub exery few days and boy didn't they just love it. The result was 3 very chilled pigs who would do anything to get their snouts into it when mixed with barley!
The pigs were Mangaliza x Tamworth a cross I was so delighted to get hold of as the meat is dense, tasty and very suitable for bacon in both breeds....with the addition of beer plus also copious quantities of windfall apples and about 3/4 of an acre to root, wallow and bounce around in this pork is special...cannot wait for the bacon!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Well the results were not quite as good as I had hoped and a lymph node had some micro bits in it and they needed to do a bit more digging to get a good margin around the very small lump taken out...1.9cm which in view of where it was it was not surprising I could feel nowt!....also its agressive...marverlous....but hey its also oestrogen fed so can be switched off with drug therapy ....hooray! so I have been back to the hotel (whoops I meant hospital)for further treatment (all lymph nodes in armpit out!) and an even better looking boob (he decided to adjust it a bit more...plastic surgeons eh?)...I will be a Marilyn Monroe look alike soon!
I also have a CAT scan booked for Friday....always wanted a 3d image of myself! Next results day next Thursday...the day before my birthday so it had better be something bloody good in the way of news!....I will be having chemotherapy starting in a few weeks and already have a business idea....more in a minute!
Now breast cancer is treatable and most women live for years...and years...and years after treatment but you know so many folks are telling me to 'take it easy' and 'rest and look after yourself' or 'well you are of course going to sell the sheep'
Well politely sod off please...
Flippin heck guys....I will of course look after myself....I do already! I eat healthily, grow my own and have done for 30 years, I don't smoke, don't drink too much and get loads of exercise. I'm a fit healthy woman with a small problem which will be resolved not a person fleeing from the man with the scythe!!!
Rumours of my iminant demise have reached me on the grapevine....well anyone who hears anything like that please tell the person to contact me personally for the real lowdown.....my daughter is the same....she is beautiful, very healthy, has lovely hair now, is getting married in May and she and her new husband will be off to run a 200 acre farm on behalf of his dad....
Now as for business.....I am going to create a range of wool dreadlock wigs so that those of us who have to have a few months without hair can have a bit of fun...watch this space ;-)
I also have a CAT scan booked for Friday....always wanted a 3d image of myself! Next results day next Thursday...the day before my birthday so it had better be something bloody good in the way of news!....I will be having chemotherapy starting in a few weeks and already have a business idea....more in a minute!
Now breast cancer is treatable and most women live for years...and years...and years after treatment but you know so many folks are telling me to 'take it easy' and 'rest and look after yourself' or 'well you are of course going to sell the sheep'
Well politely sod off please...
Flippin heck guys....I will of course look after myself....I do already! I eat healthily, grow my own and have done for 30 years, I don't smoke, don't drink too much and get loads of exercise. I'm a fit healthy woman with a small problem which will be resolved not a person fleeing from the man with the scythe!!!
Rumours of my iminant demise have reached me on the grapevine....well anyone who hears anything like that please tell the person to contact me personally for the real lowdown.....my daughter is the same....she is beautiful, very healthy, has lovely hair now, is getting married in May and she and her new husband will be off to run a 200 acre farm on behalf of his dad....
Now as for business.....I am going to create a range of wool dreadlock wigs so that those of us who have to have a few months without hair can have a bit of fun...watch this space ;-)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
6 days after being in hospital I was getting a little bored and so Pete and I went off to judge the Melplash Agricultural Society Annual Hedgelaying competition held in conjunction with their ploughing match. We had been invited to this prestigeous task a few months ago and 30 hedgelayers were entered in a range of classes....Open, Novice, Local, Pairs and Young Farmers (thats a class for youngsters and the youngest competitor was 14)
There were several notable hedgelayers competing including the 2008 national champion!
The weather was beautiful and the location stunning, being in West Dorset near Beaminster with views across the Marshwood vale (The vale of the little daries in Thomas Hardy books) to Bridport and sparkling blue sea in the distance!
We walked miles looking and re looking, observing the cut, the style, the use of tools, the skill etc to reach our decisions and also went up for a break to watch the ploughing competition and partake of some super Dorset apple cake and a cup of tea with milk from that mornings milking! The pictures show the Open class hedge just as the competitors were starting, the ploughing competition, including the judges deliberating and two competitors deep in conversation about problems with their plough and the finished hedge in the local competition with the view behind it.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
A summer to remember.....for all the wrong (?)reasons!
Work has been manic, the sun has shone, the veg has been amazing, the sheep have lambed, the pigs grown on to slaughter and volunteers....most magnificent ones this year have come and gone....and despite a wet August the summer has been fantastic....we had a wonderful holiday in Brittany without any rain! So it should have been a wonderful summer.....however things have been happening that will ensure life will never be quite the same again and could actually be the most positive things that have ever happened....in a funny sort of way!
You may recall earlier in the year that I mentioned that my daughter aged 26 at the time had been diagnosed with breast cancer...as a result of that making me a little less upbeat and also the incredible amount of work we have had in...this blog has suffered somewhat....
So, why was I a little less up beat?....and for an enthusiastic person like me a little preoccupied?
Well since my gran had died of breast cancer, and my mother, who i had little contact with since the age of 13 had died of what was thought by her husband to be cancer, and my daughter had it I went for an appointment at the genetic dept of our local big hospital. They were able to find out that my mother had indeed died of breast cancer making 3 generations with me as the meat in the sandwich.....
We were labelled as a high risk family and 3 weeks later I was sent for an early mamogramme.....just to rule out anything as nothing could be felt....and I had always checked...
well a week later I had been referred for 'further investigation'....great!
A week and several proceedures later plus a biopsy of 'something suspicious' I went for the results....
They had discovered a 1.8mm grade 2 invasive ductal cancer in the centre of the left breast in a place where no one could have felt it!!! I swore quite loudly!
Surgery was booked for the 6th September....
Well I am happy to report I survived the surgery....they got the lump, they dug out a lymph node or 2....with the aid of blue dye, radioactive stuff and a geiger counter!!!, the anasthetic made me very groggy but nothing hurt and I have a remodelled boob (yes I know gents...too much info!)that is better than it started out (they will redo the other one to match if I want).
Results will be given to me on Thursday when I find out the rest of the info after pathology on the nodes and tumor and fingers and toes crossed it will be just radiotherapy or that and possibly chemotherapy....
So why have I shared this on a smallholding/woolly blog?
Well to tell you to tell your friends, relatives and colleagues both women and...men (yes more and more men are getting breast cancer) to go and get checked, to not 'forget' about the mammogramme they have been called for, to look for changes, however small in boobs....and not to assume that only older women get it...they don't look here and also remember Kylie Minogue!
Lets rise to the challenge people and save a life!
Me and my daughter will be ok....but those who are frightened to go and get something suspicious checked need to know to do it NOW!!!
Work has been manic, the sun has shone, the veg has been amazing, the sheep have lambed, the pigs grown on to slaughter and volunteers....most magnificent ones this year have come and gone....and despite a wet August the summer has been fantastic....we had a wonderful holiday in Brittany without any rain! So it should have been a wonderful summer.....however things have been happening that will ensure life will never be quite the same again and could actually be the most positive things that have ever happened....in a funny sort of way!
You may recall earlier in the year that I mentioned that my daughter aged 26 at the time had been diagnosed with breast cancer...as a result of that making me a little less upbeat and also the incredible amount of work we have had in...this blog has suffered somewhat....
So, why was I a little less up beat?....and for an enthusiastic person like me a little preoccupied?
Well since my gran had died of breast cancer, and my mother, who i had little contact with since the age of 13 had died of what was thought by her husband to be cancer, and my daughter had it I went for an appointment at the genetic dept of our local big hospital. They were able to find out that my mother had indeed died of breast cancer making 3 generations with me as the meat in the sandwich.....
We were labelled as a high risk family and 3 weeks later I was sent for an early mamogramme.....just to rule out anything as nothing could be felt....and I had always checked...
well a week later I had been referred for 'further investigation'....great!
A week and several proceedures later plus a biopsy of 'something suspicious' I went for the results....
They had discovered a 1.8mm grade 2 invasive ductal cancer in the centre of the left breast in a place where no one could have felt it!!! I swore quite loudly!
Surgery was booked for the 6th September....
Well I am happy to report I survived the surgery....they got the lump, they dug out a lymph node or 2....with the aid of blue dye, radioactive stuff and a geiger counter!!!, the anasthetic made me very groggy but nothing hurt and I have a remodelled boob (yes I know gents...too much info!)that is better than it started out (they will redo the other one to match if I want).
Results will be given to me on Thursday when I find out the rest of the info after pathology on the nodes and tumor and fingers and toes crossed it will be just radiotherapy or that and possibly chemotherapy....
So why have I shared this on a smallholding/woolly blog?
Well to tell you to tell your friends, relatives and colleagues both women and...men (yes more and more men are getting breast cancer) to go and get checked, to not 'forget' about the mammogramme they have been called for, to look for changes, however small in boobs....and not to assume that only older women get it...they don't look here and also remember Kylie Minogue!
Lets rise to the challenge people and save a life!
Me and my daughter will be ok....but those who are frightened to go and get something suspicious checked need to know to do it NOW!!!
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wool has many uses! Here we see some of the insulation offcuts used in my hanging baskets and some reprocessed waste wool used in an old wire veg rack to very pleasing effect!
Life is getting really exciting with us being featured in National Geographic Green!.....Reuters News wanting to film us for world wide distribution and a couple of other exciting things yet to be confirmed!
Budget day was yesterday and boy are people going to have to cut their spending habits! We live on a really low income.....below the 'poverty line' according to government statistics but we live really well due to being very very frugal! so when I hear people with combined incomes of over 40k moaning how they are going to be worse off by 3k I am amazed! 40k is an amount of income I can only dream of....
combined with a set of statistics received yesterday that reveals that........... Britons annually put 2 million tonnes of textiles in landfill each year
That in 2009, women bought nearly 3x the amount of garments they bought in 1999 and 20% of the clothing we buy we don’t even wear.
and a garment worker in
The Green Party MP complained there were no green issues addressed by the budget but I would say that making people reuse their clothes....and actually wear them out, reduce their spending and buy ethically....good well made clothes that will last and give the makers a fair price rather than throwaway teeshirts that cause environmental catastrophes due to cotton production methods and recycle the old clothes and textiles rather than land filling with them is a HUGE issue well addressed......
The wool you see in the veg basket would have been destined for landfill......I have stopped approx 6 tonnes of waste wool going there in the last 12 months......fibre for thought eh!
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Taken from Father Peters excellent blog....look at my links.....
"When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country, but it, too, seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it. And now, as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realise: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I may have even changed the world".
In the words of Ghandi 'Be the change you want to see'.
The following is inscribed on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in Westminster Abbey
"When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country, but it, too, seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it. And now, as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realise: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I may have even changed the world".
In the words of Ghandi 'Be the change you want to see'.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Earlier in the year I was asked by an artist if I would take part in a project called 'Soft bench in a hard landscape' which is all about knitting jumpers for park benches!!! The idea is that lots of people in a comminity knit a bit of the jumper and its then placed on a bench where people can sit, bringing the community together....
So of course I glibly said yes and found that within 10 days I had to take some Jacob wool (a black and white spotted sheep breed) and turn it into knitting wool....yikes!
So I set about the task of washing, drying, picking and carding the wool, trying hard to retain some of its charecter of being multi coloured. I then had to find a very fast hand spinner who could produce enough wool to knit into a bench jumper and felt some of the wool to cover the legs!!!.......and the result?
Well its pictured on the left...Salon Bench Knowle West.
Rather good eh?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Well lots of exciting things are happening so I have got to keep blogging or I will have to write sooooo much to catch up!
The sun has decided to shine so at last everything is growing with a vengence! All 8 ewes have lambed....4 ewe lambs and 4 ram lambs including a grey one!
Our new pigs have settled in.....3 mangalitza cross Tamworth gilts who will be going to the great freezer in the sky in September! I am running a pig co-op this time teaching 2 friends how to raise weaners ready for pork and bacon so we have 1 pig each and do a week on week off rota of feeding etc....really good way of doing it! They are very long in the body, very well grown and lovely pigs.
We have been working our socks off and have just completed over 100 sheets of felt for a customer, had a project to felt a peat bog in Wales come in and borrow our felting machines, had an open day with over 80 visitors....and escaping alpacas!!!
We have also been involved in a project to knit a woolly park bench and have branched out into designer dog beds and......futons....The futons will have their first outing at Wonderwool Wales this weekend along with some amazing clothing designed and made by a fashion designer out of waste wool felt!!!
I have not seen the jackets etc made as they are top secret but I will take some pics for the blog on Saturday when they are featuring on the 'Sheep Walk'
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Normal service will shortly be resumed!
I have not really felt like posting of late as I try to keep this blog very upbeat and full of challenge.
However late last year my daughter aged 26 was diagnosed with breast cancer which was a terrible shock to everyone concerned....this is a very young age to find out such a diagnosis. I have a tendency to be a cool level headed person who copes well in a crisis....and on the outside I do....very well. There is a part of a poem by Rudyard Kipling that talks about " if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, ..." and that sums me up well....although a good friend of mine often says if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs - you really don't understand the seriousness of the situation!.....well may be! however it is very hard when a child of yours is diagnosed with something like this....and you have other kids....another daughter aged 28, a son aged 24 and sons at school aged 17 and 7.......what do you say, and how? Especially when all your older female relatives have died directly or indirectly from it albeit at a much older age!
It is also hard as if you have a young child diagnosed with a serious illness there is a lot of help and support for the family for example CLIC have a home from home where families can stay together whilst having treatment.....but when your child is an adult, even though they are still your child and even though you have other children....and I have a 7 year old who adores his sisters and brothers....there is nothing! you don't count, there is no support, no information....of course this is because your ill child is an adult......in the eyes of a parent age means nothing, they are your child, but you are not involved anymore, you do not count, you are anonymous, you don't exist......
And it is very very hard!
Friends ask if everything is going ok....and you give as much news as you can. My daughter lives with her partner over an hour away so poping in is very difficult....and he is very protective of her so it feels like interfering to intrude on them uninvited.....and that is seen as being uncaring....so hard to get things right......
I have no family left alive other than my kids so no supportive sister or brother for me.....and her dad who is not my husband, we split 13 years ago, has never asked how the rest of the family are or how the other kids are feeling......and his family, all evangelical christians, have never contacted me about it either.....so its actually rather difficult to keep cheerful at times!
She is half way through very strong chemotherapy at the moment and its hard, almost impossible to know what to do and how to give support when running a business (I'm main breadwinner so cannot put on hold!) sorting out a difficult teenager, occupying a lively inquisitive small boy and supporting a husband who has recently broken a bone in his leg falling off a ladder! not to mention trying to be a friend to my other daughter who can be a little distant and difficult at times and my other son!
So please forgive me for being open and honest and please people check your 'bits' boobs for the ladies and balls for the blokes.....it might save your life!
I have not really felt like posting of late as I try to keep this blog very upbeat and full of challenge.
However late last year my daughter aged 26 was diagnosed with breast cancer which was a terrible shock to everyone concerned....this is a very young age to find out such a diagnosis. I have a tendency to be a cool level headed person who copes well in a crisis....and on the outside I do....very well. There is a part of a poem by Rudyard Kipling that talks about " if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, ..." and that sums me up well....although a good friend of mine often says if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs - you really don't understand the seriousness of the situation!.....well may be! however it is very hard when a child of yours is diagnosed with something like this....and you have other kids....another daughter aged 28, a son aged 24 and sons at school aged 17 and 7.......what do you say, and how? Especially when all your older female relatives have died directly or indirectly from it albeit at a much older age!
It is also hard as if you have a young child diagnosed with a serious illness there is a lot of help and support for the family for example CLIC have a home from home where families can stay together whilst having treatment.....but when your child is an adult, even though they are still your child and even though you have other children....and I have a 7 year old who adores his sisters and brothers....there is nothing! you don't count, there is no support, no information....of course this is because your ill child is an adult......in the eyes of a parent age means nothing, they are your child, but you are not involved anymore, you do not count, you are anonymous, you don't exist......
And it is very very hard!
Friends ask if everything is going ok....and you give as much news as you can. My daughter lives with her partner over an hour away so poping in is very difficult....and he is very protective of her so it feels like interfering to intrude on them uninvited.....and that is seen as being uncaring....so hard to get things right......
I have no family left alive other than my kids so no supportive sister or brother for me.....and her dad who is not my husband, we split 13 years ago, has never asked how the rest of the family are or how the other kids are feeling......and his family, all evangelical christians, have never contacted me about it either.....so its actually rather difficult to keep cheerful at times!
She is half way through very strong chemotherapy at the moment and its hard, almost impossible to know what to do and how to give support when running a business (I'm main breadwinner so cannot put on hold!) sorting out a difficult teenager, occupying a lively inquisitive small boy and supporting a husband who has recently broken a bone in his leg falling off a ladder! not to mention trying to be a friend to my other daughter who can be a little distant and difficult at times and my other son!
So please forgive me for being open and honest and please people check your 'bits' boobs for the ladies and balls for the blokes.....it might save your life!
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