Monday: Got the animal rounds done then went to Oxford for a hospital appointment with Shelley. I didn’t do much after we got back except the afternoon feeding and a bit more mushroom picking, there are loads in the field. I cut some up for drying and out them in the dehumidifier and then we were out for a quick visit to a relative for a birthday. Tuesday: Today I decided to make pizzas 😀 I had some 00 flour to use up and I wanted to do something with the tomatoes so I made passata and pizza dough and voila some pizzas for tea later. I also made some bread and some chicken soup as John doesn’t eat pizza. I whizzed up the mushrooms into powder, I think I will be able to make a whole winters worth of mushroom powder with what is growing 😀
Had Mia in the afternoon so didn’t do much but play 😀
John has an appointment this afternoon as his shoulder where he fell is giving him a lot of trouble when he is trying to sleep.
Had a lovely surprise visit from my youngest sister who has just passed her test and her little one Zeri 😀
Wednesday: I have Mia today so have to crack on in the morning, did the usual feed rounds gave the ducks some clean bedding and cleaned out the little chicks who are not so little now. They are getting big, too big for the cage really but I need to wean them off the heat lamp, I have been turning it off in the day and now they are just having it at night, once they are fully feathered they will be without it full time and I will need to move them outside.
It was nice and sunny so I walked around the veg garden with my coffee to assess everything, the colder overnight temps mean that the more tender stuff is starting to collapse, courgettes particularly, it will very soon be time to start clearing plants away, the runner beans have all but stopped producing anything of any worth and it’s all looking a bit scruffy now. I haven’t decided if I am going to grow much over winter yet, possibly garlic and onions in the poly tunnel as they did not do very well this year and I don’t have a good supply of them to see me through.
Thursday: Feel exhausted this morning 😩 so the jobs I was going to plough into will have to wait a while. Did the usual feed routine, then had a cup of coffee as that wore me out, sometimes it does, had a quick FaceTime with Shelley and Josh and felt refreshed by then time we had finished speaking so I went outside to get some work done in the veg garden. Picked 11 cucumbers 🥒 they are still growing well, a few tomatoes 🍅 a courgette and that was about it, cleared the dwarf bean bed as they have gone over now, then started on the herb bed. That needed a bit of a haircut, the oregano had got straggly as had the mint but mostly it was cutting back and weeding, moving a couple of things round to get a better balance, I planted a lavender in there as well, they are very at home in the herb garden and it will be nice to brush against it and get a waft of soothing perfume. Pulled up the remaining beetroot before they start to bolt or rot and thinned out some carrots which are getting to a good size. Our wood man has bought me some more useful pallet guards, that is all I can think to call them, and so I got those in position, it should all make for easier planting and looking after next year. Came in to get some lunch at exactly he right time as almost as soon as I stepped indoors the heavens opened ☔️☔️ I am going to order some garlic bulbs and get those planted asap.
It’s a rainy afternoon so I’m looking on Pinterest for inspiration which I seem short of over the last couple of years, we are putting up a new fence at the front and moving the egg shed (making it bigger for all the eggs we will have) and I just couldn’t ‘see’ what it was I wanted out there, it has to be practical and functional and user friendly and my thoughts of what I would like have to go by the by to have what we need. However, after pouring over ideas and thinking I would like it to be symmetrical I have had a breakthrough and am going for a lopsided view instead 😜 One side of the gateway will have to be for the egg shed with a touch of artistic vision but the other side I can really do what I like and as I have lots of old galvanised junk lying around just waiting to be repurposed that is exactly what I will be doing, I have most of the plants I will need and hopefully it will turn out well, if not it will be back to the drawing (Pinterest) board 😀
The pullets are laying 😀😀😀 I picked up 6 yesterday and today 19! Thank goodness for that, the egg shed will overfloweth 😝
Friday: Autumn Equinox and the daylight hours are slowly but surely slipping away. I would say thank god it’s Friday but my stress levels seem high this morning, I couldn’t get the tack room door padlock undone to feed the cat, the hoses had a mind of their own, like snakes, and kept coming out of the water buckets, there was slippery mud everywhere from the rain and the new chickens are getting more adventurous and trying to discover what my feet are for, the dogs just keep yapping and the geese are shouting at me every time I go out the front, I thought it was supposed to be quiet in the country 😜
John is at home this morning getting the new fence underway, that involves a jackhammer to break up the concrete still it will look good when it’s done. Went to the garden centre with Sam, Mia, Shelley & Josh for a coffee, picked up a couple of plants for the pots and tubs at the front gate and some mugs in the sale with geese, hens and hares on them 😀 When we returned I checked the egg shed as I normally do to collect any money and see if we have sold out, the bantam hen has taken freshly laid eggs to a whole new level, someone obviously didn’t close the door properly and inside was the bantam hen! Did the afternoon feed rounds and the pullets are ramping up the numbers, 24 today, good stuff although the ones at the back have dropped to 50 😏
Saturday: Outside was all down to John today, feeding, cleaning and then on to the new fence and egg shed, I really needed to clean the house so that’s where I was most of the day, cleaning, hoovering polishing 😝 Had a visit from Shelley and Josh and Sam popped over to give Jack a brush and move paddocks.
I was going to write about Hygge pronounced hoo-gur or something like that, if you have never heard of it it’s the Danish way of coping with the cold dark months of Winter and from what I have read it’s nothing specific just what makes you feel cosy and comfortable, a candlelit room, a hot chocolate in your woolly socks, belly warming meals definitely a notion to follow 😀 and I say I was going to write about it because the nights are drawing in and the temperatures dropping, but today was lovely, at times there was not a cloud in the sky so I will wait a few more days before I hygge down.
John has a new evening friend, one of the new hens has taken to jumping from the ground up on to his shoulder and being carried to bed 😂😂
Sunday: Lovely morning and warm too, I fertilised the big paddock with our push along gadget, it wasn’t bad took about 1/2 – 45 mins, we are using one with no nitrogen as we have plenty of nitrogen rich indicator plants, what we are after is root growth/strength to bind it altogether better. After that I got some bread in the go and then went out to pick some more cooking apples, there are still loads on there and I don’t want them to go to waste 😀 Came in and did a bit of multitasking, next stage of bread making, put on box hair dye, whip up an apple cake, put the bread in the oven, wash off hair dye and dry hair, prep and cook off some apples for strudel later and get the veg chopped for a shepherds pie for tea. Meanwhile John is outside doing the new egg shed, mostly, because I clocked him for 45 mins talking to an egg customer, you can talk and work at the same time you know, it will get the job done a lot quicker 😜
Tis a beautiful day out there, no sign of Autumn temperatures whatsoever, although we have had some long tailed tits doing what I can only assume is squabbling about roosting sites in and around the house, there have been some proper fights going on, I’ve also seen the woodpecker again, the number and diversity of birds has increased greatly over the years we have been here which is a fabulous achievement I happen to think 😀
frieslandfarm (flowers) 