As if it never happened . . .

It's been a bit quiet on out Blog lately as we've been away! Henry and I went off in our caravan for 6 nights. I can't remember the last time we were away so long. We chose last week as we were up to date with silage, not many cows to milk (a lot dried off and ready to calve), it was half term so my childminding duties were on hold. We decided to go to our usual site near Carlisle (less than an hour to get there). We can usually get in last minute as it doesn't have a toilet block or children's playground. But this time it was very busy (we were lucky and got a good pitch - with uninterrupted sunshine when it was fine). I can't say we had good weather. But it didn't rain all the time. We did manage to sit outside to read (or fall asleep), and even cooked on the barbecue one night. But it was very cool.

Our caravan is beginning to show it's age, and things mysteriously go wrong over winter. This year we did remember to remove the water filter and drain the system before it froze (see Blog from last June), but as usual we  had trouble with the lights when we connected up to the car. Henry spent about two hours under the van fiddling with wires and though we got them working, the connection seemed so tenuous, we took the trailer board "just in case". And when Henry washed off all the winter's grime, signs of "tin worm" were beginning to show. But it's big enough for the two of us. (It should be, it's very long and meant for five), and is reasonably comfy. The weather being what it was we planned to watch television in the evening, but the signal was not exactly reliable. Sometimes we could only get BBC channels, and sometimes only ITV and Channel 4 (plus some shopping channels of course). So we decided to splash out and buy a new aerial. With the wonders of the Web on my new smart phone we found a caravan dealer a few miles away. We weighed up the pros and cons (and cost) of several aerials and took one down to the till. Then something went wrong. Henry said "we'll just have a look at the caravans". We should have walked away at that point. But I was led astray and went inside a  newer version of our caravan. I sat down, looked around and was completely seduced. It was as if someone knew what we wanted and put the van in our path. We didn't jump straight in. Henry looked at some other vans, and then in detail at this temptress. But it was a forgone conclusion and we're picking it up next week.

You would think our old caravan would be glad of the chance to retire gracefully (after careful advertising). But no; if it could go wrong it did - fridge and hot water being the worst. So now we have to continue to fiddle about with wires and plumbing to fix the old van, while looking forward to it's shiny new replacement.

Note - when I say new, I mean "new to us" (we're not that flush).

We got back yesterday and have been hard at work ever since. Me with mountains of paperwork (a full alphabet of abbreviations - VAT, HLS, SA, RPA, BCMS, NE etc), and Henry and James have started on the next round of silaging. Some fields weren't ready when we did the first lot, and we thought we would big bale them. But there's too much, so it's mowed and scaled out,  ready for rowing up tomorrow before the contractor comes to pick up, and will go in the pit.

The holiday? As if it never happened.