Jobs to do, manic egg sales and Eostre celebrations

Monday 26th March: A good productive day, John is off this week so we hoping to get a fair bit done, that’s the plan anyway! John went off to pick up a new batch of POL hens while I did the morning rounds. In the pen where we keep them he has installed some new devices for feeding and watering, I hope they appreciate it 😀

I wrote a list of jobs and once he was back we worked through them, first was the old sofa and a mattress that has been sat in the front for two months, we had to apply for a certificate to enable John to use the van to take stuff to the tip so that has at last been done. Then the flue needed cleaning out so after a coffee John went up on the roof and got that cleaned then cleaned out the fire. After that he cleaned out the chickens in the front house and burnt the rubbish and after that it was on to wood cutting, he did try and do the muck pile with the tractor but it was too wet.

Meanwhile I cleaned out the rabbit runs, the quail hut and the orchard chicken house, did a bit of cutting back of dead stuff, sorted out plants for selling that have been sat all winter and sowed some Swiss chard and some radishes. In between Sam and Mia and Shelley, Josh and Florence came to visit which was mayhem 🤪

I discovered a batch of 32 eggs in the tack room, did the freshness test on them, 2 floated (bad) 6 upended (not very fresh) but the rest were fine and stayed on the bottom, they obviously can’t be sold to customers but I can use them in cooking and in fact had some in a frittata for dinner, just need to be cracked into a cup first to double check them.

Plenty more jobs on the list but that’s it for today 😋

Been so busy I forgot to say

How springlike the weather was today

Buds bursting on flowers and trees

The distant buzz of bumble bees 🐝

A ray of sun is all it takes

For spring to leave winter in its wake

Tuesday: Two good days does not a spring make 😝 after the lovely weather we are back to wet and cold, not as cold as it has been but it’s not warm. I despair at ever being able to get on in the veg garden but instead of dwelling on what I can’t do I have decided to do what I can 😜 This morning I have concentrated on moving seedlings on a bit and hoping they will survive, I pricked out another pot of tomato seedlings, all have gone under cover in various ways but some in the greenhouse and some in the poly tunnel, fingers crossed we will have survivors! Then I pricked out the cabbage and Pak Choi seedlings, these will be fine as they don’t require any heat and have fared well up to now, I have sown some courgettes, some left in the greenhouse under cover and some I have bought indoors into the propagator. What I really need is a HUGE windowsill about 4ft wide and 6ft long lol, the problem is that we have small windows and so they don’t get the light they require, in the tunnels and greenhouse there is plenty of light but not enough heat. I thought about making heated staging for one of the tunnels but it seems like a big job and we can’t add any more to the list really.

John had to go out this morning and when he came back started digging the holes for the fruit cage posts, that is going to take a while 😝 I have Mia this afternoon so no chance of me helping which is just as well as I hate digging 🤪

I got some baking done first thing, fruit buns, Easter biscuits, a gluten free chocolate cake and a loaf of bread, mainly because John has been complaining there is nothing to eat!

And then while Mia was sleeping I made soap! I bought a kit to see how easy it would be and it’s very simple and quite satisfying to do, it’s my Mums birthday this weekend so she will be the lucky first recipient 😀 I was thinking that I could use my own dried flowers and herbs in future batches, all different scents, an exciting prospect.

Wednesday: Well wouldn’t you bloody know it, it’s raining again, the forecast is rain every bloody day for at least the next week, just when John is off to get some stuff done, god knows when we will be able to drag the paddocks if at all and digging posts in this weather is not great but concreting them in is not a good idea either! This morning I despair at ever getting on the veg garden or indeed getting much growing! I have sown a second lot of peas, the first lot rotted away, the second lot rotted away, maybe third time lucky? I have tried growing them under some cover, out of cover, the only thing I can think is when I water them they then get too cold and rot so I have just sprayed the top of the soil lightly this time and we will see what happens, good job peas come in big numbers of seed. I did a little bit in the greenhouse but that’s not much fun as the rain keeps dripping on my head, I just feel this morning like everything is working against us 🙁 BUT I am not a quitter so I will keep plodding on, eventually we may get a break, and I will concentrate on what can be grown so brassicas, broad beans, beetroot, pak choi, chard etc and hope the more tender stuff will catch up later on.

John managed to get one end of the fruit cage up and concreted in so at least that’s a start, though I’m hoping it will get finished!

Made another batch of soap.

Thursday: A frost this morning, well that wasn’t predicted 😝 as you will gather from that it was yet another cold start, talking to other growers on social media, they are all chomping at the bit, so at least I am not alone, however I do know that here we are usually two weeks behind when it come to growing stuff due to the lay of the land so I have no idea when things will get going 🤪

John did the animals this morning then off to his Mums, his week off is turning into half days only at the moment 🙄 he is looking very tired so while he is out I am busying making a nutritious dinner (chicken casserole) for him later, complete with turmeric for his aching bones, I may even throw in some dumplings to cheer him up 😀 I am making recipes out of the Lupus cookbook for my lunch and dinner, I’m not sure if it is helping, it seemed to the first week but since then I have suffered with aches and pains though it may be more to do with the cold weather as that has an effect too, it’s a non win situation as when the Sun comes out in full force I will be hiding away 😜

Some Calabrese plants arrived so I went out to plant some, actually I planted half of them in the poly tunnel, the other half I will plant outside once I can get on the garden to weed it and put the cage up, heaven knows when that will be? I sowed some coriander seeds for the greenhouse and some more basil seeds for the windowsill. Looking through my seeds I realised I hadn’t ordered any cucumbers or pumpkin so put an order in for them, the elephant garlic arrived and I need to find a place for those, I think I need a bigger veg patch lol. John did a bit more hole digging for the fruit cage posts though the weather is seriously hampering the job, it’s not much fun digging in the cold rain 😝

Hoping to rehome some 2 yr old laying ducks, just waiting to hear back about those, we only get a dozen a day but could easily sell more.

Good Friday: As well as the morning routine we covered a lot of ground today picking up little jobs here and there, I cleaned out the duck shed and cut up cardboard for the red mite traps, John fixed a loose door handle, put a plug on the pump in case of future electricity cuts so it can now run off the generator if that happens, he also finally fixed the dog shower. The shower got broke during the first lot of heavy snow so we have been without it for ages, he put in another that he had lying around but that leaked everywhere, third time lucky and we have a working shower again. Good job too as the dogs were desperate for a bath, well they weren’t but I was desperate to give them one, if it was up to them they would just stay dirty little mutts and love it, I think they disapprove of John finally get that job done 🤪 He also fixed some tiles that had come loose on the kitchen floor, and got a pile of wood inside to keep it dry. Shelley, Josh and Florence visited in the afternoon and I made some bread later on as we had none left.

The egg sales are absolutely going mad and we just about keeping up with the turnover.

Easter Saturday: No need to tell you what the weather is like 🙄 (she laughs and the hysteria is audible 🤪) We may look back during a long hot summer and think, thank goodness for all that rain in early Spring 😝

I was just reading reports that as of January 2018 we were heading for a drought as both the last Winters had been dry and the ground water was low, so I’m swayed a little to think that this large swathe of rain we are getting is actually a good thing and best not to moan about it. It has got me thinking though that we probably need to invest in more water storage tanks, we have approx 15,000 litres of storage but there are place that we could gather at least another 15,000 from so I will start looking into it.

I needed to use up the rest of those eggs we found and tested so I made two traybakes, one lemon and lime drizzle and one peanut butter 😀 In the afternoon I went with the grandchildren and their respective Mums to the village eggstravaganza, egg rolling completion down the hill, duck and boat racing on the pond then an Easter egg hunt in the churchyard. Josh won the duck race and got an egg which he shared nicely, then they both found hidden eggs, maybe next year they will be old enough to make Easter bonnets for that competition 😀

Easter Sunday: Eostre, an ancient celebration of new growth, new beginnings and everything associated with this time of year, birds laying eggs, flowers and trees bursting into bloom, wild animals including hares all doing what comes naturally, a glorious time of year indeed. And the weather has agreed as the Sun is shinning magnificently this morning, still a tad cold early on but the day holds promise 😀

We did the morning rounds and John has gone out to dig the last two holes for the fruit cage posts, then we will be visiting my Mum who has the unfortunate affliction of an April fools birthday, I can’t tell you how many horrid tricks we played on her when we were children, poor Mum 😋

We had dinner with Shelley, Martin, Josh and Florence late afternoon and when we returned the egg shed was empty, we have sold every available egg in the place!

We have been allocated 10ducks for rehoming so that will hopefully help with extra eggs.