Interlude

Hello friends. Long time, no blog.

I think the general consensus is that one announces a blog break in advance of their absence rather than upon their return but since I didn't exactly plan to have a blog break for quite so long I couldn't follow correct bloggy etiquette. And 6 weeks away? Yikes, I didn't even realise it had been that long or that I would need that long. Sorry about that. Rest assured all is well here and thank you for the e-mails of concern. I am neither at the bottom of a mineshaft nor am I sun-baking in the Bahamas, although right now I'd give my right arm to be doing the latter. I'm simply here at home, trying to maintain a sense of normalcy amongst the total utter chaos that comes with project managing our farm development and raising 5 children.

What that means is that instead of having the evenings while the kids are in bed to engage in my usual activities of reading, writing, blogging, knitting or staying abreast of important affairs of the world binge-watching House of Cards, Homeland, Outlander, Game of Thrones and Eurovision, I've been spending that time thinking. Just sitting on the sofa thinking. Thinking about how to organise the home life when the business opens, planning how best to go about it and talking about all the daily issues that need to be resolved with this project as it's being built. It has taken a long time, all this thinking, planning and talking. I simply haven't had the headspace for anything else. We've also made the decision to have an au pair join our family and are super excited to welcome Vanessa from Germany here in just a few weeks time. This process has involved lots of late night skype interviews with potential candidates not to mention some mammoth cleaning frenzies to particular areas of the home. If only she was here already to help me organise the house for her arrival.

So, in a nutshell, I've had an interlude of sorts to deal with the backlog and prepare for the next phase and I'm planning on keeping up with this space more regularly now. I thought I'd share some photos of the build process so far (although I needed a more serene image to start the post off and get those first words on the page). Of course it has been very exciting watching it all unfold day by day but it has also been an all-encompassing roller-coaster ride with lots of unexpected twists and turns and hairy moments. It has been a huge challenge for me personally, to keep it all together and not lose the plot entirely. I could have blogged through all the ups and downs but that's not really my style. I prefer to stay super focussed and just get the job done and then debrief afterwards. Unfortunately the debrief on this one will be a 4000 page novel which I predict I'll only have time to write in about 20 years time when the children have flown the nest. Or not. Consider yourselves spared :-)

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So, here's how things are shaping up for Coal River Farm with the next phase of the project - the cheese and chocolate making facility along with farm kitchen/restaurant.