Paperwork and Pumpkins

October is only half way though and it’s proving a much busier month than we had expected. At this time of year, we run our last ‘Beginners Guide to Organic Smallholding’, take the pigs off to the butcher and then have a moment of pause, a long exhale, to catch our breath and enjoy a golden October (if we’re lucky enough to have one) before turning our attention to the important reflection that we do at this time of year as well as starting on the list of winter jobs.

But this year we seem to be drowning in paperwork (and pumpkins although I’d take the pumpkins over the paperwork any day of the week!).

We gave two talks at the Scottish Smallholder Festival which involved a good deal of preparation (my PowerPoint skills are a tad rusty) but more of that anon. We have been collating and submitting the paperwork to our local council for the new Short Term Let license to allow us to continue running our B&B. We have been backwards and forwards with the planning department for a new venture – more of that anon too.  We are mid-preparation for our annual Soil Association inspection, which is always very time consuming. In the midst of this, we’ve been ‘randomly selected’ for a sheep and goat inspection – my theory is that Colin makes a visit here far too pleasant for the inspectors as he usually bakes a cake – so we’ll have to check everything is in order for her visit.

Finally, I managed to throw in a real googly this week by surprising Colin with a 9 week old miniature wirehaired dachshund. It’s been 10 years since we last had a puppy and we had definitely forgotten what special kind of chaos a tiny ball of energy (that we have named Ivy) can bring.

In a couple of weeks, the inspections will be over and we can start to hunker down for the winter, making time for planning next year’s events and importantly having plenty of daxi cuddles!