Roast Pheasant and the joys of winter self-suffiency

I was trying to finish up the edits on Steam-Mole so Barbs has been doing horses etc alone today. She did have a little crisis with the horsepoo sucker, which involved a call to Switzerland to find out all that was wrong was that if it's not truly in park it won't start. Galena - the girl Border Collie was trying to be an eye-dog on a wombat today... not working:-). Wombats are not sheep. I have tried being an eye-human on the sheep and found out it works. Anyway, as Barbs had two long traipses up the hill while I was home, dry and warm... I cooked the pheasant. We had roast pheasant, with crispy roast potatoes, roast carrots, pumpkin and beetroots (all our own) with a thick gravy redolent of thyme and sherry, a cosy fire behind us, a glass of good red wine, and then home made apple pie and custard. It was a princely meal, and I think - as most of it came off the farm possibly cost us a dollar, maybe two, as the wine wasn't the bottle B got for helping pick. Self-sufficiency is hard work, but it does result in some mighty fine provender. The rolls for the week are baked, and the pheasant will give us another meal, picked off the bone (and picking out the shot). It's mizzly rain out there, and tomorrow will be another early start and dealing with grumpy horses, bolshy sheep, needy border collies, and cold water. But for tonight... it's not half bad.