Month: August 2011

We have been so busy this week we have hardly had time to stop! Hubby was on his second week off and now I have a linen cupboard, an extra sink and cupboards in the utility room, extra space in the kitchen (enough to swing the proverbial cat!), a painted bathroom, a wallpapered bedroom, and new cladding all down one side of the Bunk House (which is the building we live in). That is all on top of the usual day to day stuff, he has gone back to work this week ‘for a rest’ 🙂 

We have had the very much appreciated help of my Mum and Stepdad, without them we probably would not have got half of it done. Mum and I spent one afternoon picking and pressing apples in my new press, the pressing part was easy, but before you get that far the apples need to be pulped, I bought a pulpmaster bucket that you attach a drill to which is supposed to be quick and easy, we should have know that was just ‘sales talk’ to be honest it would be quicker to do it in a food processor. We cleaned out and sterilised three 2 pint milk cartons (that was a bit optimistic) and got ready to press, it was quite exciting watching the first bit of apple juice run into the carton, the result looked like cold tea and we managed to get about a pint, but the taste was absolutely delicious 🙂 It was well worth doing and with all the windfall apples around ‘free’ juice is clearly a winner.

The lambs have been up to their usual tricks again this weekend, I thought it was odd to find what I assumed were rabbit bumbles on the drive at the side of the house, we had gone in to have lunch and when we came back out it was just laying there, when I went up to the back paddock to feed the animals later on I was greeted by 2 lambs who had been rummaging around in the stable block, when I looked for the others they had escaped their paddock and were down in the corner field merrily eating away on fresh grass. Chaos broke out within a split second 😛 picture the scene, the ducks and the geese were free ranging and all the animals recognise the purple bucket at feeding time, so I am walking up to the back paddocks with my feed bucket, followed by 7 ducks, the 4 geese look up and start coming towards me, a fight breaks out between the ducks and the geese, meanwhile the lambs have realised I am there and begin to thunder up the field straight towards me and I am stood in the middle of the ‘bird fight’. Sheep have a tendency not to stop until they hit something when they are running, and so they bundled headlong straight into the ducks and geese nearly knocking me over at the same time, luckily no one was injured, just a lot of quacking, and squawking and a few feathers flying around! Peace resumed once I had managed to get the sheep back in their field and shut (and tie) the gate.

I am waiting for a delivery today of 30 chickens, at the weekend we had to clean out and scrub the chicken ark in preparation for their arrival, these will be my permanent laying flock, we did just buy in hens for resale and use the eggs while they were here but found that we would suddenly sell a few and be left with no eggs for our customers, they will be out in the paddocks, free ranging behind an electric fence. We had a visit from the fox last week which took 3 of my Buff Orpingtons, we had not realised that they did not go into the hut before we shut them up for the night and in the morning the trail of feathers was everywhere. We have now got our very own fox trap thanks to my Stepfather and so it will be permanently baited, I can’t risk losing 30 hens to the fox!

On the veg front, since that downpour the runner beans have gone into overdrive! I swear they are growing faster than I can pick them, and I am picking a large quantity each day, I have also harvested a couple of Melons this week which are small but very sweet and juicy, the Tomatoes are finally beginning to ripen, I have picked a grand total of 5 to date!! Plenty of green ones left ready for green tomato chutney (groan), I still have a few jars left from last year. We are digging up potatoes as and when we need them and some of them are huge, one baked potato could feed 4 people! The Autumn raspberries are beginning to be a little more prolific, they are great at this time of year although I think the Summer raspberries have a much better flavour. I have not been out Blackberry picking yet although I have heard that there are plenty ready so I had better make time to do that very soon. 

Any day now we will be taking delivery of our Bacon, you will remember we had a pig living on our friends farm, this was because pigs need to live in pairs and they only needed one, so we agreed to have one as well and they lived together. One of them went for Pork, which we had back a couple of weeks ago and the other went off to be baconed, and we are looking forward to bacon sarnies 🙂

Our two horses came back up from their ‘summer paddock’ in the village and now when I open the back door in the morning, they are there to greet me, it is nice to have them back grazing on our land again, although judging by the rate they are eating it off it wont be long until they are moved again!

While I have been writing this I have noticed something rather odd, yesterday I noticed two very young Doves trying to build a nest and over the last hour I have also seen the Blue Tits trying to get into the nest holes that they use in the spring, Hmmm they are either very confused, or the weather is about to do something quite unusual for the time of year! Unlike the weathermen the animals very seldom get it wrong 😉

What a glorious morning, when Mother Nature gets its right, there is no better place to be on Earth than England on a warm August morning! As I write this the cockerel is crowing, the sun is pouring in through the windows and it almost feels like I am on holiday 🙂

Talking of holidays, Hubby is halfway through his two weeks off, (from his regular day job anyway), he has got plenty to do here so it will not be a restful holiday, last week we put the new Rayburn in and he has had to pipe up all the new radiators plus move the cylinder. This is his normal job so you would think that all would be straight forward :p unfortunately he is from the school of ‘what do you need instructions for’ and so had to drain down the cylinder twice in order to get the hot water working properly! He has worked very hard though and yesterday I cooked the first of many cakes in ‘Rosie’ as we have named her. She will provide us with heating, hot water and cooking facilities all powered by the wood that we have either collected from taking down old fencing or been given by friends cutting down trees they no longer want.

On the fruit and veg front, I am still busy bringing in the harvest, with the help of my Mum, the freezer has been organised with military precision and is very nearly full, just the runner beans and the cooking apples to pick, cook and freeze, everything else can be stored in a cold dry storage area. The onions are hanging in string bags and the carrot box, which is a large metal trunk filled with sand has been allocated a space, that will just leave potatoes, and swede to be dried off and bagged up ready for storage. Parsnips can be left in the ground until needed and are better after the frosts have got at them. Cabbages can be harvested, chopped blanched and frozen, but the stalks left in the ground, then if you cut a + in the top if the stalk they will produce smaller but still useful baby cabbages, the same technique can be used for broccoli, it is something my Dad taught me a few years ago and it works a treat. I am keeping a careful eye on the nuts, just incase the squirrel gets any funny ideas about beating me to it. I had to laugh the other morning when I caught myself telling a Bee off for assuming that these runner beans I had lovingly planted belonged to him and he was getting quite irate that I dared to pick them! He didn’t seem to understand that he was after the pollen from the flowers and I was after the beans and so we could work in harmony!

The lambs (I should really call them sheep now) have been up to their usual tricks, I went to feed them the other morning and could only count 7, I heard bleating across the paddock and one of them had got himself firmly wedged under the chicken house! How they can get themselves in somewhere but be unable to get themselves out again is a mystery, I called Hubby and we had to roll around on the ground in amongst all the sheep s**t to get it back out!

The baby rabbits are growing very fast now and eat like there is no tomorrow, it would be lovely if we could keep them all but we need to find homes for them quite soon. We also have a large population of wild rabbits in the lower paddocks and sadly yesterday had to shoot one that had Myxomotosis, so I am guessing that it will not be a large population for long. 

One of my older hens died of old age this week, they are the batch that we bought here with us and are nearly 4 years old, occasionally you will get hens that live much longer than that, but I think she has done well to get this far considering the amount of Fox attacks we have had. Sustained fox attacks will hopefully be a thing of the past as my Stepfather has now built us our very own fox trap, the other one we had was on loan to us and it works so well we thought we ought to have our own. I have another batch of 30  hens arriving next week, these will be my permanent laying stock, we will have eggs galore, if you want any they are £1 for half a dozen and we are quite happy to deliver in the local area when we are passing 🙂 The ducks are laying well too now and the eggs are £1.50 per half dozen if you prefer those.

Right I had better get back to work, make sure Hubby is not slacking, he has got a long list still to get through by the end of the week 😛 and I have to keep his strength up with plenty of cups of tea!

What a week we have had, hence the title, if we didn’t have a laugh about it, we would certainly be very down! Actually it wasnt so much as a bad week as one bad day, and I did check on the calendar that the Friday wasnt the 13th!

The most awful discovery on that day was that one of the lambs had fly strike, shearing off the fleece around her bottom we discovered maggots! I had suspected the day before that she may have a problem as she was stamping her back legs and flicking her tail. We quickly discovered via the internet what was to be done and also that it can strike very quickly and so not to feel too guilty. Today the maggots are all gone but she has a shaved behind that looks a bit sore but much better than it was.

Staying on the subject of ‘behinds’ we picked up some day old chicks last Thursday and they went under the lamp, on Friday we had to wipe their bottoms as they had developed ‘pasty vent’ which can happen when the lamp is not at the correct height, this causes the excretions to dry up and block the vent, after which they can go downhill very quickly.

Then there were three other bits of news affecting various members of the family, nothing serious, just things you don’t want to hear on a day that has already gone wrong! Hubby is having a holiday from his regular day job in order to fit the new Rayburn, it was a very exciting moment when it arrived and it is such a lovely piece of kit we have decided that it needs a name and will be known as Rosie. Before Rosie was installed we had to put down some self leveler on the floor, a nice runny mix that does what it says on the tin, unfortunately it ran through the kitchen wall, where it was supposed to stay and into the bathroom all over the lino!! Add to that an accidental fire while he was soldering some pipework, he shouts ‘ get some water quick’, then ‘quicker than that’ and you can see how the week has gone :p His excuse is that it will give me something interesting to write in my blog!!!!!!

On the up side, the freezer is filling up nicely, in fact I need to look out for another small chest freezer as a spare, which we can use as and when necessary. I have picked lbs of plums this week, the windfall apples are coming in thick and fast and the runner beans are yielding about 3lbs a day, the Autumn raspberries are not as forthcoming as I would like but if I keep freezing the small amounts I will soon have enough to make some jam. I mentioned an Autumn feel in the air last week and I don’t think I was far off the mark, it was quite chilly early this morning and reports of a light frost have reached my ears! The squirrel was spotted this morning in the nuts trees (another early indicator) and so I need to keep a close eye on those and get to them before he does 🙂  Blackberry picking season will soon be upon us (already is in some areas), I love to go blackberry picking, not only are they free, which is always a bonus, but I get to spend some time wandering along the country lanes at my leisure under the pretence of  ‘working’ 🙂

The onions, shallots and garlic have now finished drying out and are hanging in the back room, although quite what I am going to do with about 20kg of shallots beats me! They will easily last well into next year and I think everyone will be getting pickled onions as a Christmas pressie whether they like them or not! Some of the garlic will be going into bottles of Olive Oil and left for a few months to mature , it is then a delicious oil for dipping or for dressings, the longer you leave it the better it gets. I like to make a few bottles so that I always have one on the go and one ready to use. I have also bought my cheap bottles of Vodka to make Blackberry Vodka, a very easy (and unlike the pickled onions) a very much appreciated pressie. The Vodka, Blackberries and a small amount of sugar go into a jug for a few days, stirring once a day, then strain and pour back into the Vodka bottle and leave to mature for a couple of months, easy peasy 🙂 Sloe gin is made in the same way or you can use Blueberries for a treat. Fruit flavoured alcohols are very fashionable at the minute so why not make your own.

The baby rabbits are 5 weeks old now, that’s nine mouths to feed in total and they go through a lot of food! Luckily, the courgettes are growing faster than the rabbits can eat them,  they are also getting plenty of Kale and windfall apples to supplement thier dried food, and they love marigold flowers and a selection of herbs, so as I cut them back, I feed them to the rabbits, I love it when nothing goes to waste.

I hope you all have a good week and that we dont have another Friday like the last one!

Well I hate to say it again but there are signs of an early Autumn! Just as the Tortoises came out of hibernation early, they are going to bed early too! I thought perhaps one of them was ill, he had taken himself off into the house, so after a day or so I thought I better check, he seems fine, just keen to get indoors and under his straw pile. The apples and plums are earlier than usual, the nuts appear to be ripening early, all the signs are there!

Just as well then that we have an exciting new project starting next week in the form of a new Rayburn that we will not only be cooking on but will also do our hot water and heating, bliss! We have electric storage heaters that cost an absolute fortune and throw out the heat at the wrong time of day, so for three years it has been very cold indoors, we are looking forward to this Winter instead of dreading it! We have lots of old wood and people have given us their chopped down trees and so we decided to take the plunge, weigh up the costs and go for it. I researched the environmental impact of buying and running a wood burning stove and was satisfied that as a tree gives off as much carbon when it is rotting away as it does when it is being burnt it then becomes carbon neutral, together with the fact that Rayburns are 95% recycled and recyclable, I don’t think I have compromised my ethics!

I have literally just received an e-mail to say that my birthday present from the girls is on its way, a grape-vine, a goji berry, a kiwi, a pomegranate and a fig, I knew some fruit bushes were coming but didn’t know what until now, how exciting, lots of new fruits to try next year. I have been picking plums this week, the harvest is not as good as last year but still adequate enough to make plum jams and plenty of plum crumble for the cold Winter months, all made on the Rayburn (did I mention I was getting a new one 🙂 )

I am still harvesting plenty of veg and at long last might get some peppers although my tomatoes are still green, apart from putting a ripe banana in with them I don’t think there is much hope of them turning red! I will have to rethink for next year and possibly heat the greenhouse somehow, I am loath to use electric or paraffin so I will have to look at eco-friendly methods, solar power or possibly the Victorian method of using a pile of manure 🙂

The animals are all ticking along nicely at the minute, the rabbits are growing bigger and eating voraciously now, it will soon be time for them to be separated from the Mum, she will start to get fed up with them in the next couple of weeks, can’t blame her I suppose, eight little bodies eating all the food and climbing all over her, I have attempted to transfer some video footage of the baby rabbits from my phone to the computer but failed miserably:(  and will try again when I have a whole day to try to work it out!!!! I have not got round to doing the Farm Cat stories yet so apologies for anyone waiting for them, I will do it as soon as I get a minute.

Hubby has been planning and scheming again, this time he has come up with an idea about joining the caravan and camping club and using the front paddocks in the summer for up to five caravans, hmmm, I am not committing myself to a yes just yet, I quite like the peace and quiet and am not sure if I want to share it with holiday makers! I think he is envisaging that he can retire early on the proceeds from the egg and vegetable sales because being the optimist that he is we are sure to be fully booked from March to October! I dread it when I hear those words ‘ I have a plan’ although he has learnt to say  ‘I doubt if you will like it’ straight after!

 

August is upon us and this is the time of the year when as a gardener you take a look round and assess how things are going, what went right and what went wrong, why, and how to change it or improve it for next year. Unless you are a gardener extraordinaire there will always be something, I need to plant more in succession next year instead of jumping the starting gun and ending up with too many  of the same veg all at once. If you can hold yourself back enough to do this you will have small amounts of each crop to keep you going and then some to store for Winter, if you can’t, you end up like me in a mad panic when everything is ready at once and you spend all your time picking and freezing stuff!

The happy accident comes in the form of runner beans, at the beginning of the year I accidentally planted 4 rows of french beans, thinking they were runner beans, then something ate all but 3 of the plants. I found the runner bean seeds which had fallen down behind the bench and so planted the meagre few I had left, my Mum then bought me a whole load of runner bean plants from a car boot sale, the result is three different coloured runner bean flowers! Whats great about that you may think, well the french beans are the first to produce beans and they have a pink/purple flower, you will remember that there were only 3 plants left, in amongst all the greenery of the other beans I can easily spot the purple flowers, work my way down the stalks to the lovely little beans hiding at the bottom 🙂 Saving me a great deal of time searching, especially as I will then spend the rest of the day blanching and freezing them!  As each different type of bean begins to bear fruit I will be able to find them easily even in amongst the other types of bean.

Another mistake I made was planting the courgette plants too close together, they look very small and lonely when newly planted and so you tend not to plant them too far apart, but, and this is a big but, as they begin to grow, they swamp the whole area and begin to overcrowd each other, the huge leaves reach for the sky covering every inch of visible ground. Thats when the hunting begins, foraging around in the undergrowth to find the courgettes, undoubtedly I will miss one or two and they will be certain contenders for the Guinness Book of World Record as a Marrow! Strangely enough I planted the Sweetcorn too far apart and as they are wind-pollinated the plants on the outside of the patch have no cobs! I have also noted that I didn’t plant enough Broccoli or Cauliflower and far too much Kale! All this will be noted down and totally forgotten about by next year, and not only will I probably make the same errors in my rush to get sowing but I will make a few new ones to boot!

The animals are all enjoying a bit of sunshine, although keeping up with the water buckets is nearly a full-time job, as is watering the plot, the plants need watering morning and night just to stop them keeling over, what on earth was I talking about last week when I said I felt a nip of Autumn in the air!