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

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

Autumn Is In Full Swing

A very good evening to you all and I hope that you are well very well indeed, this evening it is Motoko blogging. Now then let’s start as ever with our blogs weather forecast for Cumbria for the week ahead, forecast I must is from the Met Office.

Cumbria is well known for is wet weather and indeed Cumbria is the wettest place in England, and this blogs forecast proves it. Well autumn is in full swing now here in our wonderful part of Cumbria, the wind and rain has arrived more than ever now. Which will soon give way to the icy winds of winter and the snow was pure as Mother Nature herself. But for now we are still in autumn and Mother Nature is gripping the leaves and caressing them, turning them in to a splendid spectacle of rich gold, red and amber colours. The winds here are strong and blow though the valley and into the natural basin we live in, the wind swirls around, ripping the magnificent leaves from the trees, robbing them of their golden splendour. The nights are drawing closer with each passing day this month, finishing work in the fading daylight shall soon give in to the natural course of our planet and we shall soon be finishing work by floodlights as apposed to Mother Nature’s warm embracing sunlight. The days of wearing summer clothing, straw hats and BBQs outside in the garden are over for this year. But I’m not depressed as each season we must endure always has it’s ups and downs and each has a charm that is different from that last. I really love nature.

With the nights drawing in, heavy rain and mist and fog arrive it’s even more important to be seen be it; riding horse, walking, push biking out on the lanes at the time of the year. A rule which has always been Paramount at work, and a rule I and Jenny take very seriously indeed is the use of high viability when hacking out and leading treks off into the heart of Cumbria. Looking after our staff and making sure they are safe and happy has always been important to I and Jenny, as well as making sure the customers are also safe and well while engaging in equine activates. To this end as part of the work uniform I and Jenny provide to each staff member two hi-viz tabards to wear when ever they go out on a hack and leading treks. Secondly we provide for our staff a full 66N hi-viz rainwear suit which you can ride in, 66N is very hi-viz and very waterproof so that is perfect for our line of work. Jenny and I got the idea to use 66N hi-viz rainwear when we wore them while having a horse riding holiday in Iceland, a holiday which we need to do again sometime as it was great. For normal work on the yard we also provide ocean rainwear which is strong and tough. So remember this autumn and winter to stay seen and stay safe, hi-viz may not be the height of fashion but its practical and makes sure you and your horse seen. All of our horses have high visibly sheets and boots as well to make sure we really do stand out.

Museic time now and yes I mean Museic and not music, as I and Jenny are very big Muse fans and always have been. At the moment Jenny’s arm is still sore but she is now working Mondays now which is good and her Physio is going very well. This means that Jenny will be working normal hours very soon, as long as she takes things easy. This also means that she will be back to drumming along to Muse and a-ha in no time at all, that means that I, Jenny, Amanda, Ritsuko and Sam Mia and Moria can play along to muse! Muse brings people together no matter what their differences ore views or beliefs are, it’s a universal language and should be embraced by everyone. It brings all of our friends together; we set up our instruments and just have an all day jam session. Playing muse is an amazing experience and great fun, if you have everyone playing life parts and no pre-recorded sounds it’s an even better experience. Muse also helps you bond and with Amanda that is very true, playing music together really helps I and Jenny bond with Amanda and that reinforces our relationship with Amanda. She is such a wonderful young women and the best daughter a family could ever wish for, and part of bonding with her is to play music together, she is a good keyboard and drum player. I used to run a jpop band with a sound very similar Tsukiko Amano, I was ever so lucky to meant Tsukiko Amano and it was a time I shall never forget. My jpop band did a few gigs around Kyoto for a few years but slowly my band slowed down and did fewer gigs and then at last the band fully came to and end when I left Kyoto to live in England. Once in England I started a band with Jenny and my younger sister Bex and Bex’s friend, but we have not produced much music this year.

November shall be a fantastic month for video games, and I am of course talking about Uncharted3: Drake’s Deception and the Elder Scrolls Skyrim. Let’s start with Uncharted first shall we, now the first thing I though as I brought Uncharted: Drake’s fortune was “Oh another 3rd person shoot em up game”. I brought it and took it home and well I couldn’t have been more wrong, it was more than a game. It was a full blown story driven action packed adventure full of plot twists, amazing characters and stunning visual effects. Nathan Drake isn’t like an everyday action hero, he is a human being and a normal one at that, sometimes when he jumps and lands it’s not perfect every time and he can stumble and so on as an example. He doesn’t hide pain and he doesn’t act like a tough guy the whole time. The Second Uncharted game called Uncharted2: Among Thieves took the game to a whole new level and I and Jenny really did fall in love with the game and this time the game had even more action packed moments such as dangling from a train suspended over a cliff edge and amazing moving sets. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves also has an online mode as well, and is our daughter’s favourite uncharted game. With what me and Jenny has seen of Uncharted3: Drake’s Deception looks to be the most action filled game of all the uncharted games to date, and Me and Jenny have pre-ordered the UK Exploration Collectors Edition of the game.

The Elder Scrolls have always been my favoured RPG games. I have always been a great fan of The Elder Scrolls since I played Arena many years ago, and since then I have enjoyed plaything The Elder Scrolls. My friend Moria is such a fan of The Elder Scrolls that she knows the Lore off by heart and can name many, many, many names, towns and locations in all of the games. I and Jenny can’t do that but we do enjoy the games, and The Elder Scrolls Skyrim looks to be the best yet. Not only can you get married in this new game and that can be same-sex-marriage, you can duel cast spell, have double swords, dragon shouts, better graphics, new game engine. Everything has been reprogrammed to make this game the best yet, and watching videos from the home website of The Elder Scrolls Skyrim I can tell that all their hard work has been worth it. Jenny and I have pre-ordered the collectors edition of this as well, and our daughter has also. It’s nice that Amanda has the same likes in games as well do, means we can play them together as a family.

Jenny and I used to play Final Fantasy XI Online for years and years and then we just stopped playing and then closed our accounts and then once Final Fantasy XIV Online was for sale we brought it and we have never looked back, till now that is. We love FF XIV but at the moment there not a lot of players to form parties with and that kind of thing, and FF XI has many players since it has been on the market for a lot longer. So I have re-installed FF XI Online and some time this week let it all update, then I and Jenny can make new characters to play online with, it’s a shame we have to start again from scratch but it will be fun to start all over again. Amanda has a FF XIV and a FF XI account which we found out only this week, we I, Jenny and Amanda can run around the online world together casting spells and hitting stuff.

Now that the yard has been built up, improved and open again this year I and Jenny are going to hold a small staff party on Halloween of this year. It shall be full of music and lots of homemade cake, snacks and meals for everyone to enjoy. Plan to hold it in the indoor school where it shall be warmer and good lighting. That also means that there will be plenty of room for tables and so on. I and Jenny plan to go in one our catsuits each, and be great if staff dressed up for it a little was well. Jenny and Amanda has already planned what food and drink shall be there, and all I have to do it seemed is to help them cook it all and then set everything up ready on the day part is being held. Talking of staff parties I am also planning a Christmas staff party as well!

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.

Autumn Arrives In Cumbria

A very good evening to you all, its Jenny once again blogging tonight. It’s taking me a while as I am typing a lot of this with one hand as my bad arm in a sling tonight. Right then before we get down to the main blog, it’s time for the local Cumbrian weather forecast for our local area. What would our blog be without it!

Well then now that the weather forecast is over and done with, now we can get on with the matter at hand or rather get on with the rest of the blog. Cumbria always has very defined seasons and if I may say so, I would go as far as to say that we have proper seasons unlike a lot of other parts of the country. Autumn has now really arrived in Cumbria with lashing heavy rain and gale force winds playing with leaves that are turning a golden spectacle. This has to be one of my favourite seasons, or I my go as far to say that it is my very favourite season. It produces stunning colours and the scenery changes in a dramatic fashion, its fantastic to watch and be part of it.

My arm is getting much better and recovering from the operation very well indeed, and I am starting to have physio done on my arm. I must admit that it is my fault that it came to this, this being having my arm re-pinned again! Last time it was re-pinned it was because I didn’t follow the recovery advice and then I went back to work far too soon. This made my arm weaker than it should have been and that is why I had to have another operation to my arm again. But this shall be the last operation I have to have on it as I am following the recovery advice to the letter. Motoko and I now have a daughter and I am no good to her as a mother if I can’t look after her and support her if I have crippled my arm due to lack of care. Another thing is that after buying the yard and becoming its new owners, I would be no use to anyone on the yard if my arm wasn’t up to all the hard work. Working Mondays at the moment and that is office work, such as making orders and phoning people and so on. Rest of the time I am doing small amount of physio and curled up on sofa with my cuddly rabbit and reading a good book and playing music or playing a game.

Motoko got me a small surprise present in the form of a new rubber catsuit from Libidex which put a massive smile on my face and really cheered me up. The catsuit is from there Princess Style and has built in feet and a three-way back-zip. Zip matches the same colour as the catsuit colour, and that colour is bright red. So the colour really matches the colours of autumn.

Its custom fitted to my measurements which my wife knows off by heart, and fits exactly which is fantastic. I have never owned a red catsuit before a catsuit with built in feet so it’s a nice new experience.

One more thing my awesome wife Motoko has been doing is building a new computer for our daughter. I just took a few bits and bobs to photograph for the blog just to have a picture to go with this part of the blog. But Motoko has the case and all the parts ready to go. She finished building it after we had dinner. It’s a really very nice rig and was built for gaming, as she said “It will play Elder Scrolls Skyrim on max no prob” we shall see if she right there. But she is fantastic at building computers.

Our friends Sam Mia and her good wife Moria came around to our home Saturday morning and we had a fantastic morning walk and then a very nice home cooked lunch and then an even better evening meal. Moria is a great fan of the old TV show called “Dad’s Army” and indeed so is I, so Moria brought her Dad’s Army DVDs down here as well and we watched them long into the night. Motoko has ordered the box set of Dad’s Army now for ourselves since we enjoyed them so much. It was fantastic to watch a classic and very funny show with great food; great drink our daughter beside us and sharing the evening with very great friends. Sam Mia and Moria have not brought our old boat off us now, so it is all theirs to do with as they please. I and Motoko feel a little sad but it must be done as we really want a new one, which is why we are going to the Southampton boat show this year to get a new one! Thank you to Moria for allowing me to photo the Dad’s Army box set before she packed it up!

Kendo always comes up in our lives, as Motoko is a master at it. She and her friend we call “Neko” (which is Japanese for the word cat) who is in fact named Ritsuko has been Kendoing (That probably isn’t a work but I am using it) each evening in a corner of our indoor school. The indoor school is brand new and stands on the site of our old one, and so because of this they are playing Kendo in it. They say they are crimsoning it, but I think it’s because its indoors and arm and nice soft surface It is how ever amazing to watch them as they are so great at Kendo, and Motoko is also teaching Amanda Kendo. Amanda I must say is getting on really well in Kendo and is really enjoying it, Motoko also teacher her younger sister Becky as well in the skills of Kendo. Motoko’s older sister is very good at it as well and when she up against Motoko you can be sure of a massive match, and an impressive one at that. Esumi is lethal at Kendo and is stunning to watch her, she is on the same level / grade as Motoko but she is the only one Motoko finds a full on challenge.

That is all about it for the blog tonight 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.

Enter… The Dragoness!

Good evening to you all, it’s Motoko blogging tonight, and before I say anymore about the topic in the title I want to talk about the weather.

The weather is at last coming to its senses and it’s stopped pouring it down now which means that the lane is slowly becoming less flooded and is still dropping. By the end of the week the flooded lane will just be a normal lane again, although it will need to be swept clear as I am sure that a lot of silt and rocks will be on the bottom of it. It’s still deep enough to canoe on still which is our only way to get away from the stables at the moment, as not even my Jeep will able to drive thought it at the moment. Below is a screen shot of the forecast for a small area of Cumbria, less rain so it’s all good. Looks like it will be a little bit gray though but its better than more flooding.

Now I will tell you what the blog title is all about. The Dragoness is my very good friend called Esumi, and she is also a member of Dark Cherry, but not any old member of Dark Cherry. She is the top model and is a figure heard of the club, so she is well known in the club, which if you don’t know Dark Cherry is in Kyoto in Japan. She arrived a few days ago but due to the flood stayed in a local Bread and Breakfast for a night and then the day after got a taxi to drive to edge of our flooded lane and then we canoed to her and picked her up and took her to our home. She is here for two weeks and already she is helping out at the stables so she is also very useful. We have already done a small fun shoot army style directed by Esumi, not for my Dark Cherry profile but a fun shoot for my personal blog on the Dark Cherry’s website. Esumi also was the bringer of my favourite brand of green tea, which I am hooked on. Pictures of my favourite green tea brand are pictured below. Esumi is now a physical education teacher at school in Kyoto but before that she was a member of Japan Air Self-Defence Force, her nickname was Dragoness and she has carried across that nickname for her Dark Cherry profile and model name.

For all of thoughts who would like to know the area where I grew up in I have taken a few photographs to show you. I love Kyoto but I love Cumbria more so, I wouldn’t give up Cumbria for anything in the world.

Below is the week’s weather forecast for Kyoto, very different from Cumbria!

If you wish to learn more about Kyoto click my banner I made below.

Final Fantasy XIII is at long last made real and the date for release is 2009-12-17 of course that is the Japanese date for release. The English copy of the game is out on 2009-03-09, which Jenny has reordered, but sadly for her my Japanese copy will be here just after Christmas. Jenny also can’t fully understand Japanese so looks like she will be jealous while I play it in front of her. Below is a video of Final Fantasy XIII.

While we are on the subject of Christmas Me and Jenny should be going out to Kyoto but this may not happen due to the resent flooding and so on. We shall have too see, and if we can’t go out to Kyoto we will do what we do every year which is have a nice small joint of beef and spend it together with no one else. Eat the dinner in front of our log fire and then snuggle up and red a good book and have some nice background music on. Must remember to stock up on log as soon as the flooded lane is fully clear, as we can’t fit all the logs we need into our canoe *laughs*

Work at the moment is a little less hectic and things are starting to go back to normal now at last I can say with great relief. Once the lane is clear our customers will return and we shall get the part time staff back in as well to work. This means that me and Jenny will have our days off totally clearly as at the moment we are still working the mornings on the days we have off. But all the staff here has been really supportive and helpful and I can’t fault their gallant efforts at all, they are a good team. Jenny’s sign on the gate is still up and always make me laugh when I think of it, although the paint has ran slightly but you can see what and read it. With my friend Esumi lending a hand she had ti be kitted out of our work uniform and she borrowed some of my stuff including a pair of coveralls, which are slightly too big for her but looks funny. Coveralls are photographed below, red is not that bright its just the light =^.^=

Also I am still supporting the RNLI for all the good work they have done in our small English paradise that is Cumbria. So please support them and click on the banner below. Also see a video below of the RNLI in Cumbria.

That’s it for now!

Jenny and Motoko Carter

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A Change in the Weather!

Good evening one and all it’s Motoko Blogging tonight. As my blogs title says the weather is indeed starting to change and it’s about time too. The flooded lane at the bottom of our drive way has started to drop and the distance that the lane as flooded has decreased dramatically. Me and Jenny geared up and put our canoe on the flooded lane to check how far the flood was now, and that’s when we found that the water level had dropped. So we paddled back slightly happier knowing that things are changing for the better at last. It’s still raining here but that doesn’t matter, its Cumbria after all isn’t it! Below is the new forecast for our area of Cumbria.

We are still unable to leave the stables and so on so we are still working the mornings that we normally have off, but it’s not as bad as I could have been. I made a good call saying that our staff should wear our 66N waterproofs we use for hacking out and leading treks, rather than our Ocean Crewman waterproofs while the flooding is on. As it’s been so mistily with fog and hard rain and its very slippery on the yards and the fields are potted. Anna sipped up and twisted her ankle, it was hard and raining hard, but we found her as she showed up well. Once the harsh weather has stopped we will use our Ocean Crewman for working in and our 66N for riding and stuff in. Still I and Jenny took our doggy out for a stroll around the yard and we chose to wear our Musto gear for a change, some of our Musto gear is pictured below.

If you want to know what 66N looks like this is a photograph of our stuff. As for our Ocean crewman is Orange and Blue bib pants and smock, and they are sort of hi-viz but you will have to look Ocean Crewman up s our gear has our yard name on it and I am too lazy to edit the name out off them hehe.

Tonight I am going to make homemade spicy potato edges, with fresh carrots and broccoli. This will all go with my homemade stake and ale pie, which is currently in our Ray Burn and it’s making an awesome smell as I type this. Jenny is curled up on Sofa next too me reading one of her favourite books “The Wind In The Willows” she hasn’t head it for years. I my self have been playing Uncharted: 2 online, below is a score walkthrough from one of my co-op matched I played this evening.

Cumbria has updated its Flood Bulletin made by Cumbria’s public sector organisations, click on the picture below for the 27/11/09 update.

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

I am still going to show my support for the RNLI, as they have done so much good work in Cumbria.

Right I must be off to finish off dinner, and then relax before our mornings work tomorrow morning.

Jenny and Motoko Carter

Our Online Gaming Playstaion 3 ID

Change in the tide!

Change in the tide is upon us I will reluctantly say in case the water rises again. But for now the flooding has not got any worse where we are and in fact it has started to withdraw from the drive and back into the lane, which doesn’t look as bad as it did a few days ago. A few days ago it resembled a white water river, but now it’s like a bubbling stream. Because the lane is still flooded that means that we still can’t get out of the stables grounds and that also means that we are still getting no customers, or the part time girls arriving to work fri sat and sun. Which is why me and Motoko have been on the yard this morning mucking out and doing odd jobs, we are still going to work the mornings on the three days we have off until all this flooding is over, and the rest of the girls are doing afternoon and evening work.

Our home now has ten sand bags in front of our front door and ten sand bags behind the front door, this works really very well and hardly any water is steaming into our home now, so this is a really good thing! Also currently have some nice big logs on our fire and the warmth is really very welcoming and slightly romantic. As you can see from the picture below our floor is water free.

I put on my waders and strolled out to the sign I painted and put on the yard gate the other day, as I had to re-tie it back onto the gate as some of the cable ties snapped in all theses high winds that has been battering us. Motoko watched from the edge of the drive-way waiting for me to slip up and fall in the flood water, but sadly for her I didn’t hehe. Some of the paint has run off the sign but it looks ok, which is the main thing.

Below is a picture of our predicted weather for the rest of the week, and so far it is fairly on target. Though at the moment it’s raining pretty hard, but nothing like the rain we have been getting of late.

This made me smile found this on YouTube from the BBC© TV show Top Gear. They find out that Cumbria is indeed the wettest place in England.

Also we are continuing to show our support for the RNLI. So below is another video.

Well that’s it for now, we are going to do some much needed house work and washing. Pile of work uniform to wash and other things like that. Then we are going to bake some muffins, since we ran out of our last batch.

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