Worrying about leaving the farm

The trouble with leaving  a market garden is always the things that are screaming at you "we are urgent". In fact leaving the farm accelerates the pace and lots of urgent and non urgent job seem to get done. Maybe we should leave more often?
Just like leaving people that you care about it is also difficult to leave a place that you love. Will the garlic be eaten by rabbits and cockatoos? Have we set up enough sprinklers and drippers if winter is dry? What will Matthew or Emrys do if it gets so cold that  pipes freeze and burst? Should we plant a few things now or leave it till we get back?
I reassure myself that we have left before and we have coped when we returned and this time we are leaving in late autumn and will return in mid winter so the chances are that all will be well. We should return to a very slow and stable farm. Cold weather and short days will keep growth to a minimum and we have organised our uncomplaining chicken workforce to do a lot of cleaning up while we are away.