So where has eleven years gone? why did i stop blogging on this blog? well all you have to do is look at 2010 and you will see that shortly after winning the 2009 Devon Envitonmental Business Awards life took a very different turn with my daughter aged 26 at the time and as a result of tests to eliminate possibilities me,in my late 40s, both being diagnosed with an agressive form of breast cancer despite my daughter having a nodule the size of a pea and me a deep seated tiny tumour of a centimetre diametre which was undetectable other than by a mamogram. This led to surgery, six months of chemotherapy, a months worth ofradiotherapy, 18 months of IV Herceptin and five years of hormone treatment....and me nearly dieing of septicaemia on New Years Day 2011. It also led to friends suddenly vanishing, some family backing away and general shock as people tried to come to terms with a situation that had struck out of the blue to two very fit healthy people. It also led to meeting a whole load of other people, who had been diagnosed with various types of breast cancer and investigations that revealed that both my grandmother, aunt and estranged mother had all died from breast cancer so it was concluded that there was a genetic link and so genetic tests were undertaken revealing that whilst there was not a BRCA1 or 2 connection we were probably one of the genetically linked families that had not been 'discovered' as yet. This put a lot of things in perspective and made us realise that life was fragile and the future unknown. our youngest child was 7 when his sister was diagnosed and 8 when i was and we decided a new start should be sought. Woolly Shepherd that had been my absolute pride and joy and was at the point of huge expansion at the very point of my cancer diagnoses needed to stop. it was a bit like stopping a steam train at full pelt....but the word cancer had already caused competitors and others to start circling like a pack of wolves waiting for the injured animal to fall. However i couldnt mothball it as we had rent on three huge business units to pay.....so i split it and sold it and the main part went to safe hands where it flourishes to this day. my wonderful old machines went to various places including Oban in Scotland but sadly some then vanished never to be seen again including my needle felter that I'd had made in Michigan and the garnet carder. i didnt really realise how ill the treatment to save my life had made me until 2012 when after tests for generalised pain i was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. 2012 also bought the sad deaths of both my step mother who had severe demetia and lived in Sussex and who i hadnt seen since my fathers death in 2005 and Petes mum, both in their 90s. we now felt that the oppotunity to move could be now as in 2013 youngest child would move from primary to secondary education and next one up would still be at university..... The next big decision had to be made...The Ouessant sheep numbering nearly 30 and a small flock of Ryelands I had acquired....as you do! I'd also still got a few pigs....farming never really stops....especially when you like sausages. so late in 2012 the entire Ouessant flock save for a group of wethers went to Cumbria to found The Danaway flock. The pigs went to the freezers of various people and the Ryelands went to others along with Gilles our old Ouessant wether who was companion for the Ryeland ram. We were left with the poultry and the four grass mowing ouessant wethers. in February 2013 we found Berry Lane Cottage a house that had been empty for nearly two years after the elderly owner had died, it was the most modern house we had looked at having been built in 1990 and yet even standing empty it felt dry....Ivy Cottage being over 200 years old had always had damp issues! it had six flattish acres and a bedroom and bathroom downstairs...for when we got old we thought... Ivy Cottage had been a vertical smallholding all the land we owned...nine acres....was on a steep slope and even the house was on several levels and full of steps and stairs. with my knee problems a flat bit of land seemed a good idea and a house with only one staircase seemed perfect....after all Berry Lane cottage had been built as a retirement project for the previous owner and her husband when they were in their late sixties and was designed for easy management.Little did we know what the future would hold.... So in June 2013 we moved, lock stock, shepherds hut and chicken house....and god knows what else....to Cornwall....quite a sight....a convoy of various lorries other vehiles and trailers containing everything from one smallholding to the next and anyone who has a small farm or smallholding will know its not a task undertaken lightly and i still have visions of the hen house full of hens hanging bu huge straps from the prongs on the front of Ruths John Deere tractor slowly making its way up the steep lane at the side of the house and being loaded onto a flat bed trailer on the road and the traffic chaos it caused.....along with a goose house full of hissing geese. The idea was that i would start a new life and new bed and breakfast business and Pete would continue working in Somerset two or three days a week and look for work in Cornwall. it was a clean break from the loss of my business world, cancer and everything that went with it. a fresh start in a county we had tried to move to a few years previously, a place a lot of my family had originated and a place i felt was coming home.

well its now about 10 years since the last post on this blog....getting very nostalgic reading it through. we are all still alive and the ouessant sheep are still part of life.... will update the entire blog and overhaul it in the next few months. watch this space!

Well here we are again and blogging!
Time does fly...well I think it does! All back to normal now at Ivy Cottage and I can report a fantastic year despite the cancer blip! 23 sheep are currently in residence 3 of whom are waiting to go to the freezer! 15 ewes are in lamb to 4 top class rams one of whom I trecked all the way to Margate to buy....Margate is a long way from here!
I have also built a new website and will be opening for eco b&b in the spring....lots of painting, tiling and coffee drinking going on!
My lovely daughter Laura has just opened her new business Loop the Loop which you MUST check out as its perfectly brilliant and I think loads better than the famed Cox & Cox!!!

Right back to that paintbrush!

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.

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!

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....!

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.....