Are you superstitious?
I never know if I am or not. I definitely always hold my breath over bridges and cross my fingers for luck. I have been known to throw salt over my shoulder and definitely wouldn't willingly walk under a ladder. When she’s working at the farm, Lucy always makes us make a wish at 11:11 and I participate. But I wouldn’t say I believe in some big cosmic mega alignment or that I should be open to signs from the universe.
Or I didn’t.
Until I made a crowdfunding campaign talking about the challenges of working with Victorian plumbing and the need to redo our event toilets.
Two days later, the barn where the new toilets were going to be housed burned down and then, in a twist of terrible fate a week later, the septic system collapsed as well.
I had spent months planning those loos. I had spoken to every expert I could find - compost loo builders, SEPA, Environmental Health, Building Control. Friends weighed in, neighbours came up to have a look to see our options. Putting in a new system of any type was always going to be a challenge. We sit on solid rock, in the catchment of two important water courses, in an area with a challenging history with compost toilets.
We’d finally found a solution that would work for all the parties.
And then the barn burned down and the sewage line gave up the ghost and we are back to the drawing board.
I’ve had better months.
Someone commented recently that we seem remarkably cheerful and all I could think was I wasn’t sure how else we could be. Surely the other option is to collapse in a heap? But we have tickets to sell, events to deliver, barn doors to paint and 300+ brassicas to shift so the digger can get in which is all very difficult to do from the floor.
In all of this, the only thing we can really control is how we react to it. If I were to lose it and give up, the only thing that would change is that I would be even more miserable when the work needed to be done.
And that seems like a rather good reason to get up, dust ourselves off and just keep moving forward.
As for the loos, until the barn gets a roof and the new septic system is in, we have some temporary solutions in place and are just going forward as best we can.
Though I did cross my fingers and make an 11:11 wish today that everything would go smoothly from here on out, because I am not taking any chances.
With the farm reaching a new era and the events side of our work re-launching as Fodder + Farm, we have a cracking line up of events this summer.
Our opening weekend will be jam packed full of good food, fires, goats, food, music, pizza, foraging and, have I mentioned, food.
We can not wait to welcome you back to the farm!!
This week, in amongst the absolute chaos of renovations, we managed to get the Soil to Made issue of Life in the Making to our graphic designer. This is the issue that was part of the crowdmatch, so some folk have ordered already, but if you haven’t, can I interest you in a sneak peek??
You can preorder the issue now.
Cheers Kat for your vigor and resilience. Just restacked your post. 💜
Never rains, but it pours!
Kat, I just love your attitude - I know you said you *have* to do it, but you always do everything with such verve! (And record it with your clever words and beautiful photos). You are a Truly Inspirational Lady *hugs*
I’m crossing everything that the rest of the summer goes wonderfully for you and yours up at Gartur xxx