Month: June 2017

Saturday

What a lovely sunny morning it is to welcome me to Friesland farm!

So first things first, don my work clothes and jump into the bosses wellies, and my goodness what big boots I have to fill this week, let’s hope I am up to the task?

The very first job is to feed, water and let out all the animals, ducks, geese, chickens, quail, rabbits, guinea pigs, cats, dogs, the list goes on….making sure they all have plenty of water as today is set to be hot hot hot. After the animals have all been fed, back inside to feed ourselves 🙂 very thankful to my dad for making me a bacon sandwich and a cuppa! Back outside to water the pollytunnel and all the veg/plants before it gets to hot!

On to check the egg shed is topped up as the customers are coming thick and fast today, nearly sold out of all the eggs, broad beans and artichoke!
Whilst josh slept in his pushchair under the tree I picked broad beans and strawberries and very much enjoyed shelling the broadbeans sitting in the sunshine with nothing but the birds song for company and a little bunny scampering across the field. Once josh had woke up we went inside to take cover from the midday sun. You quickly learn a lot here and 2 things I have learnt already are 1. Do not leave the quail eggs on the counter where your toodler can reach, said eggs are now all smashed and on the floor and 2. Don’t leave broad beans in a basket on floor as if you turn your back for 2 seconds there will be rather a lot of bite marks in them lol.
Lunch was of course a broad bean affair with mint from the garden, lemon and tomatoes, popped on top of a piece of fresh bread with garlic and olive oil, delicious, even if I do say so myself. After lunch all the animals got checked for water and general wellbeing, my son is obsessed with horses so trying to drag him away from them is difficult.

Once the sun started setting I watered all the veg/plants and pollytunnels, it’s only when you start looking properly at someone else’s garden do you realise the shear hard work they put in, the amount of veg and plants that have been planted is massive and the upkeep must be tiring for mum.

Unfortunately I think I may of overdid everything in the sun today as had what I think may of been heatstroke, was very poorly in the night and despite wearing Pyjamas, a blanket and a duvet, I was shivering!
Sunday

Still unwell this morning, so my kind husband did the rounds with Josh.

As you know today has been so hot, so apart from looking after the animals we have not been out in the sun, although me and Josh did take Daddy to the pub for a cold beer to celebrate Father’s Day!
The egg sales have been very slow today, I am guessing maybe it’s to hot for people to venture out or perhaps everyone is in the pub garden!
As the sun started to set I really cracked on with the jobs, I think if this weather keeps up it’s the only way I will manage, I believe this is what mum does too 🙂 so tonight I gave everything a good watering, picked broad beans, strawberries and raspberries, blanched the veg and froze it and Josh ate all the raspberries as they are his favourite! I have also been tending to the broccoli, wiping away the eggs from the leaves and squashing the caterpillars so they don’t eat them, one of mine and Josh’s favourite books is the very hungry caterpillar, funny how quickly you can go off things!
Monday
Another hot day in store today, 29 degrees at 10am!
At 7am when me and Josh did the rounds we saw Vicky taking the horses to the stables, she said it was too hot for them to stay out today so that was why, Jack however has a field shelter so he will be fine, although normally I am terrified of horses I have been getting better what with feeding and giving water to jack and I am proud to say this morning I went in his field, rather than hanging the hose over the fence! Although my husband, martin is still on poo picking duty as that’s a bit to much time in the field for me!
I am sad to say that on my rounds today I encountered 2 deaths, one was a poorly chicken which had curled up in the shade and passed (mum had warned me that he was unwell) and the other was a small wild bird that had drowned in the water bucket, I laid the small bird to rest under a tree as martin got rid of the chicken.
I tried my best to water as much as I could early this morning and also tidied up round the greenhouse whilst josh slept under the tree.
Again it was too hot to manage anything this afternoon, so I cleaned up inside and then we took to the shade and the paddling pool in the afternoon.
This evening I picked lots of strawberries, watered and weeded as much as I could in the veg patch. When undertaking all the tasks today the same thought kept popping onto my mind and that was, how on earth does my mum do this everyday? Granted it’s not normally this hot, but throw in keeping the house in order, having 3 children (who are always calling in) 2 very active grandchildren, Lupus and the daily activities on a normal life, I just don’t know how she keeps up! Also did I mention she bakes homemade bread every other day and is a good 20 years older than me! I know my dad works extremely hard too everyday so just don’t know how they manage!
Tuesday
So this morning I had a mini brainwave…normally whilst doing the morning rounds I start with the ducks and end up with the chickens, the whole process takes around an hour and by the end it is very hot a Josh is getting cranky and hungry for his breakfast, so today I started with the chickens and the geese as they are the biggest job, this way it was nice and cool for Josh and for me scraping the floor and we ended with the horse (this made josh very happy as he loves the horse)
After breakfast we went out to water everything whilst it was still cool enough and had a general tidy up.
For lunch my friend Heather popped round (she is expecting her first baby in a matter of weeks so it was exciting to have a catch up and have a bit of a break) I picked mounge tout, radish and lettuce from the garden and we had it with homemade mackerel pate, a very refreshing dish on a hot day.
When she had left Josh splashed around in the paddling pool whilst I watered some more plants that were in the shade.
In the evening the hard work began, I have clipped back all the trees by the front door to let in some much needed light (a job my mum doesn’t enjoy as it makes her hands ache the next day) it’s no mean feet either, all in all it took around 3 hours! More tidying up, weeding and watering and sorted out all the eggs for the shed. Egg sales have been slow this week, I believe due to the weather, you really don’t want to be going out in the car unless you have to.
I really feel like I am getting into the swing of things now and trying to concentrate on one area a day, so that if I don’t get so much time for that area the next day I don’t feel so guilty.
I have also come up with a little invention today, for anyone that has to fill big buckets of water up, you will know how irritating it is when the hose falls out, you come back from doing another job and see a flooded floor 😦 so I figure some type of magnet device to hold it in place would work wonders….maybe I will save that one for my next adventure.
Tonight is the first night we have sat down on the sofa of an evening, although it is 10.30pm and bed will soon be calling lol
Wednesday
Did the animals in the same fashion as yesterday this morning and again it worked wonders, this morning paying particular attention to the floor in the chicken coop as it is getting messy (although done everyday) I picked some broad beans, and artichoke this morning and Josh munched his way through the basket I was collecting (although if that’s the way to get your child to eat veg without a fuss, I say crack on)
Although today was supposed to be the hottest day so far, it didn’t seem it this morning, after doing the rounds and putting josh down for a nap, I decided to make a curry with mounge tout as the main star! (I know I must be mad) 
After lunch we cleaned out the ducks and when i say ‘we’ I mean Josh watched whilst I worked up a sweat in the midday sun, I scraped every inch of their hut as I am mindful of maggots with the weather! After cleaning out the ducks we went on a wander to check the rabbits and quail were doing ok, they are kept in the orchard and at the moment the only animals there (normally home to chickens) there are a few empty huts, I was checking the quail and Josh had gone quiet (any person who has had or had a toddler will know that this means trouble) well I nearly keeled over laughing when I spot 2 little legs dangling out of a hut! As soon as he knew he had been caught he jumped down with the biggest grin on his face, it did make me chuckle.
This evening I spent a good few hours in the veg garden, picking, weeding and watering! I don’t think i have mentioned but my husband is building a pirate ship playhouse for the kids, so that’s what he has been doing each evening on his return home from work! 
Tomorrow is suppose to thunder and rain and although I may sound like a party pooper, I hope it does, they veg need it so bad and a clear air will do us all good!
Thursday
Today was house tidy day before Mum and Dad get home, stripping the beds ect ect.
We also had a walk round of the farm, tidying up as we went, sweeping, collecting rubbish, raking up leaves ect ect.
This evening, we enjoyed poached duck eggs on toast for dinner and they were absolutely delicious, egg sales have also picked up again so I am pleased with that, must of been the weather lol.
It was a much cooler evening this evening so a bit easier to get on with all the watering and picking, picked another great big basket of veg (its growing like mad) bagged some up for the shed and put some in the fridge for mum and dads return.
Anyway my time is nearly up now and I have to say we have had a fantastic time looking after the farm, I’m brown, I have worked hard and I feel proud to have got everything done (although I am sure I have missed something)
Frieslands Farm, it has been a pleasure – until next time 🙂  
All I will add to that is a huge thank you to Shelley, Martin and Josh for looking after everything, it’s a massive commitment and they have done an excellent job, I know the place is in safe and capable hands when I go away and that makes all the difference to relaxing and enjoying my time off 😀 😘😘

I have a treat coming up for you in the form of a surprise guest blog. We were away last week and Shelley has written a blog of her time looking after the farm 😀 its fab and I will have to raise my game in writing my future blogs lol. I will post it Sunday as usual. 

Monday: So our guests have returned to Wales, it was lovely to have them for a week and they were no trouble (almost, there was the parsnip incident😉) I shall miss the washing up being done every time I turn my back, got to do it myself now lol. Sue had asked if she could do a bit of hoeing in the garden for me, naturally I said yes that’s fine and she is a keen gardener (flowers and shrubs) so I thought it would be safe 😜 Later on that day when we were having a drink in the pub she said ‘you didn’t have anything else other than broad beans in that raised bed did you? ‘ ‘ um, yes there were parsnips around the edge’ ‘ oh’ she said, ‘well there were’ I said and added laughing, ‘ we don’t eat parsnips very much anyway’ then she asked, ‘there weren’t any other plants in various places were there?’ now at this point I realised, as I had said in previous blogs, that I had been putting veg plants in every available space and someone who doesn’t do veg gardening may not necessarily recognise pepper plants, ‘yes there were pepper plants in the herb garden dotted around’ ‘oh’ she said again and went very quiet, we spent the evening ribbing her about hoeing down all my veg plants 😂😂😂😂 as it happened when I inspected them on our return, the pepper plants were intact and a row of parsnips had survived, I’d like to think of it as, thinning, 😂😂😂

Today the rain has set in and it’s cold for the time of year, the weather has been very mixed over the last few weeks, all or nothing. Anyway the rain is a good thing, I don’t need to water and everything should put on some good growth, I did pick some baby broad beans last week but have left the rest to swell and mature. Except the beans in the ply tunnels appear to be getting eaten, mice is my best guess, I have beer traps for the slugs, I may need to set a mouse trap, they really have stripped every broad bean in there and I don’t want them starting on the dwarf beans and peas so need to sort the situation promptly. 

I’m thinking I’d like to dig out the recipe for rhubarb and custard cake and make one of those this week sometime, I’m sure I had put it on a blog last year but can’t find it, luckily I have a hard copy 😀

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10500/rhubarb-and-custard-cake

This is the recipe I use, I’ve tried making it with homemade custard but the thick shop bought stuff is a better result. 

The globe artichokes are coming thick and fast and I have sold a few, however I’ve not really tried them myself properly so I need to remedy that, I mean, I can’t really sell something I haven’t eaten myself can I lol. They always seem a bit of a faf for not a lot of vegetable but I am going to give them a fair trial, I will try a couple of different ways of cooking them and see which I like the most. I boiled them then finished them off in the oven with some Parmesan and a bit of olive oil, they are a faf 😜 but strangely morerish. 

Weather has got worse, it’s foul outside, I did the feeding in between lashings, June, phaa ☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️ I decided that the horse would be better off in the stable than out in this, he will churn up the paddock and get a soaking so lucky him, he is in with a big pile of hay 😀

Tuesday: It’s still pouring down this morning 😝 so a quick round of feeding, muck out the stable, top up his hay and put the horse back inside, then off in doors to make some bread and cakes as it’s Johns birthday tomorrow. First the bread then a recipe for a gluten/lactose free cake, in the family we have two coeliacs and one that is lactose intolerant can’t leave them out 😀 Orange and almond cake for them and I think I will make an apricot and walnut cake too. 

Wednesday: The sun is shining this morning but it’s still windy, after the feed round I went to have a look round the garden to see how it had faired. I depressed myself slightly as all that was covered was now uncovered meaning the pigeons had been pecking at it, the brassica cage has been comprised in the wind meaning that the bloody butterfly’s have probably snuck in and laid eggs, the wind is still strong so I cant remedy that properly yet. The runner beans are looking a little bit ravaged but I guess they will recover, feels like a battle today, it will all be fine with a few days of ordinary weather and rain, fingers crossed that’s what we will be getting. I wonder how on earth the world gets fed when there are so many problems for growers to deal with, if I had the money I would build a walled garden, that at least would protect it from the wind and cold just leaving the pests to deal with 😜

This is roughly the problem here although the gradients are not that extreme, here it’s more of a soft undulation, it still has an effect on the veg garden, should have picked a better spot 😝looks like I need to dig up the paddock. 

Somehow Thursday has no notes lol and I can’t for the life of me remember what I did! Abducted by aliens I expect 😜

Friday: The weather is still unsettled, raining one minute then the sun comes out, but the worst thing is the constant wind, urrrgghh, its a pain to work in keep being buffeted, it’s affecting the taller plants and blowing off coverings that are there to protect the plants from every living thing that seems to be attacking them at the minute! I had a ‘I don’t why I bother’ morning, I’m up against, mice, chickens, pigeons, black/white/greenfly, woolly aphid, caterpillars, slugs, snail, cold winds, cold rain, sometimes I really think it would be easier to just nip to the shop 😝 and sooner or later it will be blight. I really need a holiday, thank goodness we have one on the horizon, that first glass of bubbly will be very welcome. 

Saturday: A busy morning in the veg garden, planting out all the remaining veg plants, weeding a couple of rows of seed in the tunnel which didn’t come up, a hard cap has formed on the soil, there is a clay seam that runs through so I decided to plant some spare cauliflower plants there they like firm ground so should do well. I went into the brassica cage and found a few clumps of tiny caterpillars so squashed all those and was chuffed to see the small heads of broccoli forming though the cauli have not formed yet. Sowed some rows of carrots and radish. It’s still windy and cold for the time of year although the early morning was lovely and sunny and I got very warm moving electric fencing for the horse and chickens. 

In the afternoon we went to my Uncles 70th birthday, sat in the pub garden with family and a pig roast doesn’t get better than that 😀

Sunday: Up early to get the animals done as we are off to the seaside for the day with the kids and grandkids 🏖

Monday morning: I know I don’t usually end on a Monday but we are going away next weekend for a week and I don’t think I will have much time for blogging and certainly won’t have an internet connection to post! Overnight the fox has had the lonely goose up in the back paddock and the guard dog has had a chicken that I could not for the life of me manage to restrain behind any fencing, great start to a week 😔 I need a recharge of batteries as all I seem to focus on are the negatives at the minute, a bit of warmth, a few bevvies and some time to clear my head will be just the tonic.

See you on the other side 😀🏖

I didn’t have time to keep notes for a blog this week with visitors here so I have taken photos this morning instead. As you can see everything is growing away nicely including the gosling and ducklings. The horse is making a pig of himself and bust through the electric fence so I have opened it up, as long as he doesn’t touch my fruit trees he can stay there for a while. 

Grey morning with lots of rain forecast so I shall be staying inside and doing house stuff lol.