Been A Good Few Days

Heya one and all tonight it’s I Jenny blogging for you all tonight. As I have not blogged for a while, so I feel that it’s my turn tonight, that and my great wife Motoko is fast asleep beside me on our bed as I am typing this. Well the weather has been a real mixed of late and let’s check out what it shall be doing later on this week.

Well now the weather forecast is not that forbidding is it; in fact you could say that weather wise we have got of lightly for this time of year. As a rule we get a lot of rain and floods which then leave ruined ground and a flooded home, lane and work place. I am sure though that this period of zero rain shall come to a swift and decisive end, and we shall be back to wind driven ice cold rain that stings you when it hits you!

It’s been a great few days that is for sure, I and Motoko this year held a small privet bonfire/Firework party. Was a small but cheerful occasion with our friends Sam Mia and Moria, Motoko’s big sister Sarah and her daughter Amanda, Motoko’s younger sister, my older sister and her husband to name a few. It was great fun and everyone really enjoyed it, and all the food Amanda helped cook and layout was brilliant and was enjoyed by all. Sam Mia and Moria slept over that night, and we all had an early night in the end as everyone was really sleepy. To much excitement I bet ha ha.

Motoko and I really love reading and we like nothing better than to snuggle up and read a good book, be it in bed or on the sofa in front of a flickering fire we love to read. Motoko’s English when she is sleepy can be really limited and that can either be speaking or reading it. One thing she likes is for me to read to her, and the other night was no exception. I and Motoko sat in front of the fire, and I was reading to her some Wind In The Willows. She sat giving at me with her wonderful eyes, she took in everything I was reading to her, smiling and really enjoying the story. Moments like this are fantastic, one of the most enjoyable moments I have is seeing Motoko Happy. Motoko reads to me in Japanese, she reads poems to me, and although I don’t always fully understand them I really enjoy her reading to me.

Well it’s been a short blog I know but I and Motoko are off to have a nice early night as we have work tomorrow. Then Friday morning I and Motoko have hockey team practice/ meet up, and then Motoko and I and our fantastic daughter are going to have a “The Elder Scrolls Skyrim” party with Sam Mia and Moria which shall be great fun. Remember Skyrim is out on 11 / 11 / 11!

That is all about it for the blog this evening but We shall blog again real soon, so take care!

Click the banner to learn about our wonderful paradise in England, which Is Cumbria.

As always we are supporting the RNLI, click the banner below to find out what the RNLI is all about and what do can do to help and support them.

Motoko & Jenny Carterr

Our Online Gaming Playstaion 3 ID

All Photographs Unless Otherwise Stated Are Taken And Owned By Us, And Are Not For Public Use.

It’s all starting to get a bit rainy here now

Hello everyone and one and all, its Motoko blogging for tonight. Yes once again it’s a weather related title for our blog, but you know the weather has been very mixed and dramatic of late with strong winds and driving rain. But let’s check out the weather for the week ahead before we start to get blogging!

So now as you can all see, the weather for our little section of Cumbria is set to be wet and wild for a few more days to come. This as you can imagine can put customers off from booking treks but at the moment we have and two treks and they have all been a fantastic success. All involved from staff to the customers have both come back happy and fulfilled even though the weather has been mad outside of late. I and Jenny have strict rules for the treks and all our staff members wear 66N hi-viz rainwear when it’s raining and normal hi-viz tabard when it comes to good weather. All of our staff members have been supplied with Exo body protectors as well. For the customers we also supply them for the duration of the trek their on 66N hi-viz rainwear and a hi-viz tabard. Can also provide footwear for the customers as well and hats if so needed.

I have been very busy of late and not really spent time with my own horse of late. So I thought I would teach Amanda how to clip a horse, and as it turned out Amanda already knows how to clip. So I let Amanda clip my horse and I must say that she did a more than fantastic job, I then did all the after clipping bits and bobs while Amanda cleaned and oiled the clippers. The wind and the rain was rather brutal outside and it was nice being in the stable where it was nice and warm. What was even better was the arrival of Jenny with a flask of welcomingly hot tea for all three of it. I can say hands down that it was a fantastic bonding time as a family.

With the weather turning colder and colder and the impending thought of snow which will fall when we enter the season of winter, it’s time to start thinking about what to get the horse to wear. So I have been busy all week washing, reproofing as well as mending all the horse rugs at work. Since we sold all of the riding school horses and then replaced them with strong native breeds, we sold and gave away a lot of the rugs that we had owned for the horses we once had. This keeps the cost down and so we only need rugs for one or two of the horses as well as mine and Jenny’s horses and a self few of the staffs horses as well. For all the hugs I can’t fix or wash I sent off, and so I was happy today when my friends dropped some of my own horse’s rugs off this afternoon. This shall keep my horsey nice and warm when the cold weather hits us.

This evening I and Jenny played host to my older sister Sarah and her daughter Charlotte. Now Charlotte was a very nice young girl that I and Jenny fostered a while back and it turned out to be a long term fostering post, and indeed that was the case. Sarah took Charlotte out for day trips when I and Jenny were working, and the two of them started to really get on well together and Sarah ended up Adopting Charlotte. I was and still am really pleased for my older sister Sarah and indeed Charlotte as they really and truly are fantastic together. So as I was saying Sarah and Charlotte arrived here this evening as I was going to cook them for them both, the meal I cooked was liked by everyone and that meal was Sheppard’s pie. Sarah and Charlotte have now gone home but it’s always great to see them both, and they live five minutes away.

That is all about it for the blog this evening but We shall blog again real soon, so take care!

Click the banner to learn about our wonderful paradise in England, which Is Cumbria.

As always we are supporting the RNLI, click the banner below to find out what the RNLI is all about and what do can do to help and support them.

Motoko & Jenny Carterr

Our Online Gaming Playstaion 3 ID

All Photographs Unless Otherwise Stated Are Taken And Owned By Us, And Are Not For Public Use.

Flying Off!

Good evening everyone, it’s Motoko typing away here tonight! Well since last blog a lot of things have happened. But before I go into what has happened here is our Cumbria forecast for the next few days! Warm clothing weather I think, don’t you?

Well now down to the topic at hand, on 17-09-2010 my father passed away which came as great shock as the night before I was on the phone to him. Me and Jenny where going to Kyoto to see his new home. As we haven’t been to Kyoto since he had brought it and moved him. We meant to be going out there on 20th November and coming back on the 30th November. Due to what has happened I am flying out on Monday the 11th October to Osaka and then going to Kyoto to sort out funeral and all the paperwork and legal side of things. Jenny will be flying out to Osaka on Sunday 21st November and I shall pick her up and drive back to Kyoto. Then we will be flying home together on Tuesday 30th November! The good news is that I and Jenny are on the same flight home and sitting next to each other. Below are the flight times.

I wish that Jenny could be with me for the whole of my duration but sadly due to work she can’t, it’s a disadvantage being co-owners sometimes I fear. Esumi and her wife will be popping in to keep my company, as I will be staying in my father’s new home. I am also keeping on my fathers maid so at lest I shall have company now and then. My old Kendo sensei said he will also drop by to pay respects and check up on me. Sarah by big sister can’t make it as she not allowed any more time off for the moment form her work. But I shall phone her up and chat I am sure. Webcams are good things I think when it comes to this sort of thing. I and Jenny shall be webcam chatting loads I hope.

Be odd to spent so much time in Kyoto again, I grew up there when I was small. It’s a part of me but also something I can live with out. Cumbria will always be my home now; I really love Cumbria so much! City life is something I will have to adjust to again, will drop into Dark Cherry I think. Also have a few hours in the Dojo with my old Kendo sensei and Esumi. I will also have to pack a few things, like my floppy horse cuddly and some a-ha and muse CDs and music I know that are not out there.

Well that’s about it for now people. Sorry it is not much of a blog tonight. Blog soon!

Click the banner to learn about our wonderful paradise in England, which Is Cumbria.

As always we are supporting the RNLI, click the banner below to find out what the RNLI is all about and what do can do to help and support them.

Jenny and Motoko Carter

Our Online Gaming Playstaion 3 ID

Floating Nicely!

Good evening to you all bloggers, Jenny blogging tonight.

Well today we discovered that the lane at the bottom of the driveway of our stables this morning has in fact become even more flooded and deeper than it was on the weekend. It’s also moved up the driveway a little bit more which means that the water is getting close to our home, which is not a good thing really. The water is still running though the yards and down the drive and passed our home, but good news is that we now have ten sand bags in front of our front door that hardly any water is getting though. To get into our home we simply open the top part of our front door and in, simple really. Picture below is some of our grazing flooded, and this was on high ground, the bottom two fields are a good 2 foot under water at the lower end of them so no using the bottom fields again this year me thinks.

For the staffs personal wellbeing me and Motoko and told them to wear their 66North waterproof clothing, we normally only ever use for hacking out. Reason is that the 66North clothing is same type as Ocean which is that oil skin type, but its orange and very hi visibility. Unlike our Ocean gear that is Orange and Blue. So all of our staff members now wearing their 66North clothing so they show up on the yard, this means we can see each other though all this flooding and rain. Also Motoko told them to go to their provided cottages and, do a stock take on all of their food and note it down and hand a copy to us so we know how long we can all home out. It’s good news as every one as plenty of supplies for a good whole week, and by then all this flooding should be slowly going. We have a plan to use our canoe and paddle around the flooded lane for supplies from local farm shop which is not as flooded as we are. Also Sam our friend is a flood response operative and she lives on the arm with her partner. So help is a flooded lane away if we really badly need it.

With all this weather no one as you know can enter our leave our stables, so today has been customer free. So that’s not so good, but means that there are no lessons and treks to take and lead. That means there is more time to work on other things.

Also if you are a fan of the band called Muse, you will love this video.

I think it was a really great performance but not as good as their Devon gig which was just fantastic to hear.

Everyone here been really cheerful and up beat about the whole thing and Motoko has been wearing a lifejacket all day over her gear as a joke all day, that made me smile. Also have a painted sign on our yards driveway gate with a cartoon raft with lots of horses on board it. Was my idea, so I was the one to wade in and tie it to the gate, once again I got my hunters flooded. I really must remember to wear my waders next time I do anything like test the depth or put if funny signs.

Here is another RNLI video to continue Motoko’s RNLI support in her last blog.

But that is it for now, I need to see to our fire and then help Motoko with our dinner. You can’t go wrong with bangers and mash!

Jenny and Motoko Carter

Our Online Gaming Playstaion 3 ID

Up To Hips In It All!

Hello all you bloggers this is Motoko blogging.

Well the rain still comes and with rain comes flooding, we are now really cut off from the closeted down about five miles away. Bottom of our yards driveway and the lane it leads too is totally flooded. Jenny felt like she wanted to test the depth by walking into it. It proved that the water was hip height, so after flooding her hunter wellies and wading back out we she agreed that it was not the best way to test the depth. So she now has her waterproof trousers and her socks and hunter wellies and jeans on cloths horse in front of our log fire. Told her next time she should try something like that she should year a lifejacket or buoyancy aid and a drysuit, that didn’t go down to well and only reply I got from her was a raised eye brow followed by a frown.

This morning we mucked out the whole yard between us, it didn’t take that long really. Part time people for very clear reasons can’t get in. So until they can and the flood water goes away me and Jenny will do the mornings on the yard on Fri, Sat and Sun and then some of our other staff that live in the stable cottages can do the afternoon and evening. So far its working really well, downside is that one of our part time girls is a college student who helps on Fridays, he arrived before the flood water burst into the lanes. So she is now sharing a cottage with Anna as she can’t get home or to college for that matter.

Our paddocks are oke which really surprised me. Oke in the way that they are still there and not been swept away by the flood water, but two out of five paddocks are flooded and the grazing is not that great but we will work around it.

Ground floor flooded again last night even though we added more sand bags, its like a bunker now and still the water floods in, never mind. We broke the hunters out and grabbed a broom each and swept it out in record time, as it didn’t flood as bad as before. I’ve stocked up on logs for the fire and we have plenty of food so I am sure that we will be ok.

The RNLI need to be thanked I think for helping our little part of the world that is Cumbria. With out you people would be stuck in cars, homes and other places. So I would like to thank the brave RNLI women and men who have been helping.

Click this link for the RNLI website: The RNLI

I think that will be all for now, stay tuned for me random blogging from me and Jenny.

Kind Regards,

Jenny and Motoko Carter

Our Online Gaming Playstaion 3 ID

The First Of Many Blogs!

Hey all this is Jenny Blogging tonight. Well we have at last got a blog, something we have kept thinking about but never setting up, not because we are lazy but because we just haven’t had the time.

 

It has been really wet and wild in our part of Cumbria of late and all the weather affects us at work. It makes extra jobs and makes the normal jobs twice as hard as they would be in the spring or summer. We have already got 3 flooded stables due to the hard rain we have been having and lost a while grazing area, but this is Cumbria so we are used to it! My new horse Saber is going really well and likes his new home at our stables, I think out of everything we have tried his top event is cross country, though he is good at dressage too.

 

The Christmas plans are still only plans, we are thinking of going to Motoko’s fathers home in Kyoto and seeing Muse play live Osaka too while we are there, but like I said they are only plans, as I am not sure we can leave work for a really long time. I am Head Of Yard and a co-owner and my wife Motoko is Head Groom here. I would love t go to Japan for Christmas as I know Motoko would enjoy it, and she has not seen her Farther for months as he works over there.

 

Just got an E-Mail this second from a friend who washes and mends all of the horse’s rugs for our yard, she says she has washed them all and fixed the ripped and damaged ones free of charge and will drop them back tomorrow morning, which I think is a great result!

 

We have a really romantic log fire tonight; firstly as out small cottage which was originally a gate keeper’s cottage has no heating, so our fire heats the house and our hot water with our Rayburn to help it out. I have to say that having no electric lights in bedroom makes an interesting evening. We have small alcoves in the walls we fit candles in and then put a small mesh covers in so they candles can’t fall out. It lights up the bedroom to perfection. We do have a lamp that’s connected to an extension lead we use no and then in bedroom, but extension lead only has two sockets on it and that’s used to TV and ps3 mostly!

 

Motoko is busy cleaning her Kendo things this evening and refolding her clothing she uses for it, she is somewhat a master at it and we book the local scout hall for a sparing match together and Motoko’s Sisters and Motoko’s friend Ritsuko joined in. I have to say that Ritsuko is really good at Kendo herself; I am personally rubbish at it.

 

Me and Motoko has now set up a second Playstaion 3 Network ID for purely online gaming and it’s Cumbrianvixen so if you have a Playstaion 3 feel free to add us if you are polite. Mostly play Uncharted 2 and Metal Gear Solid Online and sometimes Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising.

 

Now I think, it is time for us to start getting ready for bed. We work 5am till 5pm so an early night would really help hehe. I have been filling out the diary for tomorrow, which has what jobs need doing and who’s I will get to do them. It also has the lessons in it and who is teaching who. Motoko is helpful and filled it in… that’s the helpful part, the unhelpful part is that she filled it in, in Japanese. Old habits I guess, I will never fully convert her to English, I have tried and half succeeded lol.

 

Well that’s it for now. Good night all and take care!

 

Jenny and Motoko Carter