MORROWS WORLD
MORROWS WORLD
ONCE again weve done it. We have actually cleaned up this mountainous mess that our farmyard has been gradually turning into after three months of being closed to the public. My husband Johnston loves this transformation and has spent the whole week power-hosing every square inch of concrete about the place. The piles of autumn leaves, the accumulations of mud, the caked on tractor tyre marks are all gone. Johnston is happy.
I have been making new signs, literally hundreds of them, to explain to our visitors where to go, what to see, when to wash their hands – even how to wash their hands! We have had to look long and hard at how to alert the public to the risk of picking up the various bugs without scaring them away in terror of E coli etc. We decided to front it out – everyone gets a leaflet when they arrive explaining the risks and how to avoid them. I think our visitors appreciate our honesty and care for their well being.
There are babies everywhere! The sheep are lambing, the heifers are calving, weve even got a broody hen sitting on 10 eggs in the corner of the workshop. The best of all was 15 piglets arriving right in the middle of Ulster v Colmiers European cup final. Johnston and Timothy were in Dublin with 35,000 other Ulster rugby fans, while I had to rig up heat lamps and find bolts to fix the door of our home-designed piggery. Like most of the inventions around here, they are perfectly adapted for easy use if you are 6ft and 14st – I am not. I was pretty pleased with my handiwork at the end of it all and was even back in the house to see the final score, 21-6 to Ulster.
The last of our three children will be receiving her 11+ results on Saturday. We still have the system whereby children are graded A-D on the basis of two exams sat when they are 10 years old and this then dictates their choice of school for the next seven years.
Helen is making big plans for the day to take her mind off the results. Luckily she is at the age where her friends still love to visit the open farm. Part of the "Big Day Plans" involve them all coming here for the afternoon where Helen will feel very important whatever her grade. She knows every animal about the place – even names for every rabbit – "Dont be daft, Mum, Thats Greybeard, he is much darker round the mouth than Smokey." is the sort of comment that puts me firmly in my place.
It is always a dread of mine that when we reopen after the winter break everyone will have forgotten about us and we will be sitting with all our new signs and scrubbed yards and not a visitor in sight. There were sighs of relief all round when the first cars came in and spilled out their excited toddlers. It was lovely to hear their mums say that they have been waiting all winter to tell the kids "Yes, we can go back to Streamvale today". The excitement of feeding the new lambs doesnt seem to have diminished at all and brand new bunnies were greeted with squeals of delight – and that was from the mums. Maybe this open farm lark is worthwhile after all.