Month: August 2012

Well we made it through the two weeks holiday with barely a mention of divorce so I consider that a triumph! The jobs on the list have yet to be finished as the wood has still not arrived to finish re cladding the front of the building and Hubby decided to start another major job right at the end of the fortnight. The tack room is in desperate need of an overhaul, it is dark, dingy and dusty, after ripping out all the old units etc the job of digging the floor up ready to be concreted began, it was going well until about halfway through Hubby hit the water main with the pick axe, I don’t know why I was surprised really it was inevitable I think. After a few choice words the repair was made and it is now ready to be concreted hopefully next weekend, I have been on the look out for anyone taking out an old kitchen and have a couple of offers so fingers crossed. It will be nice to be able to have somewhere pleasant to make tea for the farriers when they come.

The fortnight seems to gave gone by so quickly and we never did manage to get those couple of days away, we were supposed to go down to Dad’s in Wales but sadly a family death meant that he had to come up here for the funeral and that put paid to that. While he was here I made good use of his knowledge and got him to show me what all the old tools we have lying about were used for and pick his brains about a few other bits that will need doing but we had no clue on how to go about them. It is a shame he is so far away now because he can do all the old trades, hedge laying, shearing, thatching, hay making, stonewalling, he would be worth his weight in gold if he was nearer 🙂

Some of the chicks have hatched out in the back paddock, the ones with the three broody hens sat on them, although the three of them in together keep squashing the new arrivals, I have had to take one of them out and place her and the chicks elsewhere otherwise there would be more dead chicks than live ones. We have changed the entire feed for the poultry this week to see if it kick starts the egg laying, we ought to be getting about 50 eggs a day but we are only picking up 20 if that, the demand for eggs has gone up and at the moment we are unable to meet it. The ducks on the other hand are laying well and the customer demand for those has also increased lately which is great, at one time I was giving duck eggs to the dogs for thier dinner but not anymore, they now have Quail eggs if I end up with too many sitting around, they seem to like them and eat the shell as well.

Yesterday we phoned the people about the puppy and she said you can pick her up anytime, we will be there in an hour, I said! We bought Mia home and introduced her to the other dogs, the chickens, geese and horses, I think she was a little overwhelmed. Her first major discovery is what happens when you try to get through the electric fence, yelp, she shot off across the field startling the sheep so much they ran away from her. No doubt there will be plenty of Mia stories to come over the next few weeks.

The publishing and indeed writing of the blog is way behind today, I picked up a stomach bug somewhere (goodness knows where as i haven’t been out) and spent most of last night up and unwell so I am not at my best today. It is quite a shock to the system as I am made of tough stuff and very rarely become infected with anything other than the odd cold 🙂

We are well into the second week of Hubby’s time off and aside from a couple of spats and a few glares in the ‘I am not speaking to you’ moments, we are doing alright! The main job was to get the front of the building reclad, two thirds of it are finished already and we are just waiting for some more wood to arrive. We were given some off cuts of very good insulation, even while it was lying on the floor it felt like a duvet and should keep out some of the biting wind in the Winter. The weather seems to always be against our work choices though as the front of the building is South facing and the sun shone and shone while we were trying to put it up and stain it. We have taken out all the plants that were growing along the front, hopefully we will be able to save some of them by healing them in until we need them again. A south facing wall is the perfect place for a Wisteria and that’s hopefully what I will be growing across the front maybe coupled with some rambling rectors!

A disaster has occurred in the poly tunnel and the tomatoes have all succumbed to blight, I was hoping it was natural die back but sadly that was not the case, I have managed to get a few fruits off but they will probably go bad as they ripen. I can only assume that it was caused by watering them with the rain water before they were planted, blight is carried in water droplets and so next year I will raise them entirely in the poly tunnel so they do not come into contact with any rain water at all. The rest of the produce in there is fine, in fact I am picking cucumbers daily, the aubergines are forming nicely although still quite small, there are French beans forming, the winter veg plants are slowly coming on too. I put my home brew to good use in the slug traps and placed them in the tunnel to stop any nocturnal munching going on, I have caught quite a few, the boozy lot 🙂

At this time of year the veg plot can become a bit overwhelming, everything is growing out of control, the weeds are overtaking the plants and the picking of the veg itself can take a good deal of time, the cabbage white butterfly mount a continuous attack on any brassicas that are standing, even netting them is almost a waste of time because they find a way in no matter what. With all that going on imagine just how cross I was to find that the chickens had started nibbling away at my pumpkins, we had to quickly put up some netting to keep them off of the prize winning specimens we are nurturing for Halloween. These chickens are not supposed to be out and certainly not supposed to be in the veg garden but they keep finding a way out over the six foot fence. One of them gets out to go and lay her eggs, we discovered a little egg clutch when we were taking out all the foliage at the front of the house, we even had to wait until she had finished laying before we could dig the shrub up. The next day she spent all day wandering about wondering where her shrub had gone and looking for a new place to lay, luckily they like to announce loudly when a new egg is imminent and she was later heard in the compost heap where lo and behold she had deposited her treasure. Every egg is a treasure at the minute as we can’t keep up with demand, we have acquired a couple of new customers since a local farm shop closed down and the eggs are literally flying off the shelf as well as the excess veg, great for us but we don’t have anywhere near the quantities that the farm shop were selling!

We are getting closer to the date that we get the new puppy and have puppy proofed the area as much as possible, I can’t wait to bring her home and put some more pictures of her on the blog. It should be an interesting few weeks with her about and there will no doubt be a few stories to tell, meeting the cats, that will scary for her as will most things I expect.

I have totally enjoyed catching some of the Olympics over the last two weeks but now it’s time to get back to some serious work and my list has suddenly got very long. The veg patch has been putting on some growth at a great rate of knots, the runner beans grow about six inches overnight, no rude comments please;) We have finished digging up the potatoes, normally the main crop would stay in the ground but they have succumbed to blight, not surprising considering all the rain we had. The haul was disappointing, not because of the lack of potatoes but the condition of them, the Desiree did very well and I am pleased with those but the King Edwards were nearly all rotting or eaten, they are a drought resistant variety and did well in the first part of the year but the wet has rendered them useless, and I had to throw away about 90 percent of them. we have got enough to keep us going for a few months but they won’t last until next Spring. To fill that gap I have planted some in the poly tunnel, these will be ready at Christmas and because it is a controlled environment I should be able to harvest them throughout January and February with a bit of luck. I have also planted some Winter lettuce, Chinese cabbage and red mustard to give us some salad during the colder months. The other crops are still going strong in the tunnel, the cucumbers are increasing in number and my middle daughter tells me they are the best she has ever tasted 🙂 Tomatoes are slowly ripening, I am just managing to pick half a dozen every other day and along with a couple of peppers we are doing alright for salad.

Sadly one of my ducks died yesterday, it actually drowned in the pond, this is the same duck that always get stuck in a bucket of water whenever she gets in, she obviously can’t get herself out for some reason and I found her last night, once the feathers become soaking wet they no longer protect her from getting cold and it can be a rapid decline.

Hubby has the next two weeks off work and so hopefully we will get a good few jobs done, although I am not holding my breath as at this very moment he is asleep on the sofa! Now i know what your thinking, that he is entitled to a sleep while I am sat here doing my blog, well I am not just sat typing this for you to read, I am multitasking, I have just dyed my hair and am waiting for the colour to take whilst writing this 🙂 Job one was a bit fat fail this morning as I had asked him to take the broken glass from the greenhouse to the tip, they informed him when he got there that he would need a permit because he was in a van, this is a free permit that permits a householder to take rubbish in a van up to 12 times a year. Now in essence I don’t have a problem with this except that the chap said if he brings it back in the car they can accept it! There is no logic to some red tape, surely recycling is recycling no matter what vehicle it arrives in, or is just me?

The quail eggs have hatched and out of 74, pretty nearly all of them were fertile, however only 30 of them hatched the rest were failed hatches. I think I have a cold spot in the incubator which would affect the hatch rate, they nearly all pipped which is the first stage of hatching, then the chick rotates in the shell breaking the rest of it as it goes, this is where the problem begins, I would expect a few weaker ones not to be able to manage it hence the survival of the fittest, that would not account for the other 30 or so. They are tiny, cute little chicks but they do die at an alarming rate, they tend to climb all over each other and sit in a huddle, consequently the one at the bottom gets crushed, then I have found a couple in the drinker that have drowned, it is not an easy process by any means.

The veg and egg sales at the gate have been huge this week, as fast as I put produce out, it gets snapped up, great for us but not so great for customers that make the journey specifically to buy our stuff. I always feel bad if we sell out but short of increasing everything again, which I would not be able to cope with, it is just a case of, first come, first served, or the early bird gets the worm!
We have also sold a few chickens this week too, I had literally said to Hubby in the morning that we hadn’t sold any for a while and lo and behold two people turn up that same day, he said, can you do that again but this time talk about winning the lottery!

I rather think he has had long enough napping on the sofa now don’t you, I will wake him kindly with a nice cup of tea, after all he did make me lunch today which made a nice change, even if it was from the builders menu, i.e a bacon butty instead of my usual salad, and if you are thinking ah how lovely they are to each other, don’t forget, this is just day one, we have two weeks to go yet 😉

We had a rather rude awakening this morning at 4.30 when the dogs began to make a heck of a racket. This was far more noise than they usually make and clearly something was amiss, all three of us shot up out of bed and quickly pulled some clothes on to see what was happening. We soon realised that something was inside Kai’s kennel and he was not about to let it out, in fact he was fighting with it and Moloko was egging him on with a bit of barking too. We called Kai, who obediently came out and whatever it was shot out behind him and away across the field. On inspection of the kennel this morning, the overpowering smell led me to believe it was a fox although it could have equally been a badger, whatever it was I don’t think it will be back in hurry!
This mornings first job after feeding had to be cleaning out the kennel and using an antiviral cleaner to lessen the risk of the dog catching anything from the mystery short stay guest.

The unpredictable weather has returned and we are back to doing jobs In-between showers, although I am assured the sun will be back next week. The rain/sun pattern has been quite good for the garden though and the veg are now coming on in leaps and bounds, I am picking plenty of runner beans and courgettes and the pumpkins are showing great promise this year. We decided to grow them for two reasons, firstly they cover a fair bit of ground and so we have planted them in any available spaces to keep the weeds down, secondly, the shortage of pumpkins available for Halloween, this year they will be on sale at the farm gate for anyone who has left it a little late!

I had been having a bit of trouble with inserting photos using the laptop but with this iPad it is much easier and as a story is bit boring without any pictures I have taken a couple so you can see how this are progressing in the garden and the poly tunnel.

I had a big pile of carrots to wash, chop and blanch ready for the freezer today, last year I tried storing them over winter but it was not very successful and we missed having carrots to eat with our stews, so this year I am freezing them to be on the safe side. Picture at the bottom of the blog as I can’t get it to go under this piece!

This week has been hectic for all sorts of reasons not least of which was my birthday 🙂 I had a lovely day with some great presents to use in and around the farm. We also went to the rare breed auction in Cirencester on Saturday, we came away with a few purchases, one was a complete indulgence of some Blue Andulucians which are beautiful birds and when I get them settled I will post some photos of them. We also bought a few blue eggs layers, these will be sold on but will will be keeping one of the cockerel as he is unrelated to our own hatch and therefore will be used introduce new bloodlines.

The duck that we had high hopes of brooding her eggs has abandoned the project, probably just as well as we don’t need any more ducks but it would have been nice to see her waddling round the farmyard with ducklings in tow. I cleaned them out this morning and there were two dozen eggs in the nest, no wonder we weren’t getting many duck eggs to sell. We do have another hen gone broody though, this will be the second batch she has brooded this year and we don’t really need anymore chickens but it is hard to break them from brooding once they start so we will let her get on with it and see what happens. The egg numbers dropped drastically during that very hot spell and it is only just beginning to pick back up, the weather certainly has the poultry in a bit of a tizz, they don’t know if they are going into Winter or coming out of it!

I will get some pictures of the sheep and their dreadful new haircuts for you to chuckle at next week, I keep thinking I ought to have another go at making them look better but it was quite a struggle and they can’t see what they look like can they 😉