Welcome Duffle!

So he's finally arrived! The long awaited goat/mobile plant fertilizing unit. He's very naughty - I like him! He's quite happy to eat out of my hand (to eat in general actually! I never thought I'd find a creature more obsessed with his stomach than our Choccy Lab, Wellington, but we appear to have!) and any notion of placidity should be disposed of immediately. The little get is quite happy to knob off at a moment's notice, and given that our fencing is not yet properly finished, his steel rope will be staying on! He has actually started doing his job, he's been eating brambles (yummy!) but no poo as yet. I dare say there'll be an abundance shortly, though.

So, 25 metres of fencing has been erected, so far and temporary fencing erected where the proper fencing has not yet been put up. It's actually helped a bit with the mental aspect of land clearing as you can clearly see where ours stops. It seems a lot less infinite now there's a load of fencing around it. I still just can't believe how much rubbish there is to clear when we've already done so much. We've decided to fence off the main part of the land to concentrate on, and deal with the bottom part at a later date. Sensible, I think.

So that's where a lot of my day has gone today.Stock proof fencing and trying to stroke goats. So we had fish and chips to celebrate a day well spent and new addition to the herd. That's what we all are, you see, a herd.

But I went to my usual Monday job today, due to the bank holiday. I do a two hour "domestic" visit for a lovely lady that I would never offend by calling old - she certainly is not that. She just needs some assistance with some day to day tasks. This week, that manifested itself in the way of clearing out her conservatory. The tasks I had today made me think back to a conversation we had previously, and, in fact my constant grumblings when out on the land.

The "conservatory" is actually a very well made lean-to for storage, plant growing purposes. They had it decorated and the flooring done in 1946 when they moved in, and nothing more than a lick of emulsion since. My lady was very concerned about the rust makes on the 1940s linoleum floor and had me on my knees scrubbing the marks. I didn't get all that much off, but we gave it our best shot together. Luckily I still had the floor to polish to take the emphasis away. Yes, I said polish. Even after having the flooring down for 54 years, she still places emphasis on looking after it correctly. How many people would do that these days? They'd just think "yuck, look at those rust marks" and pull the whole lot up, when it was essentially fairly sound flooring.

This goes back to a conversation we had a few weeks ago about the rugs she has in the house. Great big oriental rugs in the middle of all her major rooms, with lesser, ordinary carpet around the edges in the old traditional style. My lady was telling me that the rugs cost them a fortune, back in the day, but now are worth more! Despite their 54 years of use. DO you know anyone who's had their carpet for 54 years?

Today, once again, while out on the mountain, I exclaimed that carpet should be banned, after unearthing yet another cheap, plastic, "disposable" carpet from the 70's or 80's. They don't deteriorate. They just sit, leaking chemicals and stifling the ground until some unfortunate person unearths it.

Pre-cycling is a relatively new term, but it encourages consumers and producers to think about the end of that product's life. How it can be disposed of? Are there any upgrading possibilities? What impact is disposal going to have on the environment. There's no such thing as "throwing it away". It never goes away. You remember learning about half lives in school? You're just moving it to a different location and passing the responsibility elsewhere.

"Away" simply doesn't exist.