Getting there, ramblings of an overactive mind and a thermometer malfunction.

Friday 6th July: 9.30am and I’m feeling better today, I only had to have a half hour sleep after getting up at 5 to water the garden lol, yesterday it was a two an half hour sleep so that’s progress, the pains have pretty much gone and the neuralgia in my fingers is back to minor pins and needles, I’m hungry and my brain is whizzing so all in all I would say I’m on the right side of good, still need to stop and rest a fair bit but that’s fine.

Charlie mentioned some bananas that need using up so I have made healthy, vegan, banana bread, vegan because Josh doesn’t tolerate eggs very well and so I have left them out, healthy because it’s made with coconut oil instead of dairy and maple syrup instead of sugar 😀

My mind as I said has been racing and I’m keen to get down all the ideas I want to work towards. I joined a new group called sustainable smallholding, to me it’s important and has been for many years to use the least amount of man made resources as possible ( I am not saying I don’t use any, of course I do and will do in the future) and we are now seeing the cataclysmic problems created by consumerism. We have to put a stop to this but it’s not easy, the western world is waking up to it all though so that’s a start, my role as I see it, is to question what I do and why I do it, is there a better way to do it that is less harmful and more sustainable, that’s a bit of a simple explanation but you have to start somewhere. I have never really been one for doing things just because that’s how everyone else does it, whenever I read something I want to know what’s the reasoning/science/understanding behind it. What is the procedure/benefit/damage, I think I was born in the wrong timeline, give me a working village/town/city/country/world where the cogs are driven by local needs/wants/services and not the desire to own things that consumerism says you really need in order to be the same as or better than everyone else. Reading this back I think I’m looking for a harmonious commune 🤪 I told you my mind was racing lol, I don’t begrudge anyone doing any of this what ails me is are they just in the race to ‘consume’ without thought? Sometimes I write a blog like this the hit the delete key because I think ‘nobody wants to be preached at’ but I’ve left it today because I’m not preaching, I’m just telling you what my thoughts about my life and the life going on around me are and that’s it really. I honestly need to get fit and well so I have less time to think 🤔🤪

Back to the smallholding 😀 As I have said I have been up at daylight watering, luckily early morning and late in the evening are the two times I feel at my best, such as it has been, and they happily coincide with the best time to water, we are now out of rain water supplies and there is none on the radar for weeks! The harvesting of water is one of the main focus points going forward as I’m am sure the problem is only going to get worse, not entirely due to climate damage in my opinion (that’s another whole in-depth discussion) but clearly what we do on this planet does have a massive effect. The next main focus is the preservation of moisture in the ground to get us through dry periods like this one. We cut the front paddock just before the rain ceased to arrive, in fact it did rain that evening but since then nothing, the reason we cut it was for the geese who need shorter grass, it was a mistake, we have areas of uncut grass that are still green but the front paddock looks like a savanna area. We should have left it, the chickens would have been happy with the number of insects that were flying around for their tit bits, what we should have done is either move the geese or created an area for them that was more controlled, lesson learnt because at the minute there is nothing out there for any of them and so they are solely on pelleted feed. At the moment I can’t rectify that because I’m not up to it and John is at capacity with everything else, so planning is the way forward for the time being, though I have not come up with a plan as yet, the main factor to look at is foxy, no point having a wonderful area that’s perfect for geese if the fox can slip in unnoticed and take them. The duck pen, which we keep saying needs moving, on consideration does not need moving it’s in a good place it’s just the environment is wrong, so plans are in place to rectify that but at the minute the ground is too hard and dry and again I don’t have the strength to be planting shrubs and trees, it’s waited this long, it can wait a bit longer. We have fences that are exactly that, just fences, why, what was I thinking, yes we need the barriers to stop livestock wandering whoever they want as they can cause considerable damage and soul destroying days if they get out but the fence lines themselves should not be barren they should be teeming with life and food so plans are in place to rectify those that we can. The paddocks are great swathes of open grassland that die off quickly in weather like this, yes easy to get machinery in there to drag and cut and spray etc but what if that’s not how we want to be doing it. The front paddock for instance is mostly where the chickens are kept, a chicken originated from jungle fowl, that paddock is about as far from a jungle as you could get lol, let’s rectify that with trees and shrubs, this is where my thought patterns are taking me, and I have ideas for their accommodation too that will be more natural for them and hopefully free up time for us to do other things, watch this space 😋

Yoghurt I make with a yoghurt maker so I don’t have to keep buying it in plastic pots, home made blackcurrant sauce and then walnuts to top it off, delish.

The light Sussex chicks are doing really well, we have had no unexpected deaths (touch wood) and John will be getting started on their new home tomorrow. They will have a designated enclosed pen in the orchard where we will be able to keep them shut in if necessary but the main aim is to let them free range and naturally forage as these will be our table bird flock, in the winter they will have full access to the veg garden and orchard to scratch in and help with pest control and pick at any left over foliage, again I have an idea for their housing which I will run past John but it should be much more natural than the usual hen house on the floor.

I went out to turn the last of the watering off at 10.30 and the fox frightened the absolute bejeebers out of me, I was walking up the path all was totally silent when it let out an almighty scream and was just the other side of the gate 😝 John had just put the dogs away so it was obviously waiting and we didn’t expect to be in the vicinity together lol. I’m guessing as we have nothing that it can get at, it had come for water, there can’t be much out there at the minute for them.

A particularly muggy night tonight.

Saturday: Up early agin, no pain in the mornings now so I can get straight on with watering, you may wonder why I am doing it morning and night everyday but if you came and had a look you would understand, by nighttime it’s as dry as a bone again, there are great fissures in the ground, if it carries on much longer we will need rope bridges over a couple of them 😜

While the watering is going on I am usually picking, a few raspberries this morning though the summer ones have slowed down somewhat. Blackcurrants and broccoli were the main focus, the broccoli was picked and blanched by 6am and is now open freezing ready for bagging up. The blackcurrants I tend to prune at the same time, so I cut off the stems that need coming out leaving new growth behind then I sit and pick off the currants which takes ages. They are sorted as I pick, good ones and then small, shrivelled or under ripe into a bucket for the hens, the stems then fed to the rabbits, I did think I should just pick off the good ones, chuck the stems to the chickens, let them pick off the other berries then take the stems to the rabbits, I think I will definitely do that next time. I have three more bushes that are not in the fruit cage but they are left for the wildlife to forage on, there are only so many you can harvest and process.

We have had a fair discussion about the geese and what to do with them, the grass is dead where they are, they need to move so we have invested in yet more electric fencing so that we can put them out the back and connect to the mains, hopefully the fox won’t enter an electrified pen 🤞 The grass is shorter out the back but it’s still green and there is plenty of clover too. In the meantime today they have been let through into the side paddock along with all the hens should they decide to venture that far, we will be around out there today so on fox watch too. Apart from lack of grass or indeed because of it the geese have taken to attacking the ducks and hens (when they can catch them) last night we had to rescue a duck from their beaks, it had a bloody eye and didn’t want to walk, it’s fine this morning though. It’s 8.45am and my legs are hurting so I have put the blackcurrants on to extract the juice and had a sit down though I don’t feel tired this morning at all so that’s a bonus. A weird thing happens, I start to feel cold (even in this heat) my legs start to hurt and then I know it’s time for a rest, the body is saying enough already I am trying my damnedest to heal here and you are not helping by keep working 😂😂

Our days at the minute are packed into the beginning or the end of the day and sometimes there is hardly enough time for everything! Luckily we had time to watch the football ⚽️ after that it was all systems go, John went off to do his Mum, I sidled round in shaded areas and fed the birds because we were short on time, we both showered then out for a Memorial evening in memory of a much loved cousin, fab evening and pig roast to boot so we actually ate 😜

https://eveappeal.org.uk/

There was a fab folk duo playing, I asked someone what they were called and they said, it John and his mate 😀 I loved this, I need to see more live folk music I think.

Sunday: Ooops just reading yesterday’s writings back and remembered the broccoli is still open freezing 😝 Up early again, before 5am, it’s very pleasant out there at that time of the morning and I’m well rested so able to get on with quite a bit, each day I can work a little bit longer than the day before and so I have been. Today whilst watering I planted up some hardy gerberas I ordered, picked a bit of fruit, foraged for the rabbits and potted on some shrubs I want to use in the new chicken pen that John has finished today. We will be moving the Light Sussex chicks out there later just as soon as it cools down enough for us. When I finished outside I came in and made some black currant jam, I had an equipment malfunction with the thermometer, the bubble has managed to divide itself 😝 so course it won’t give a true reading , I had to use the probe thermometer as well to make sure it reached the correct temperature of 105c.

I have been checking the other veg regularly, there are baby pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes, butternut squash, melons, and runner beans, all developing nicely the sweet corn plants are huge but no sign of cobs yet which is a bit worrying 🤔 My Rosemary bush has got huge and consequently the branches are heavy and dragging down to the ground, I don’t want it to break so I have given it a good prune and hopefully it will send up new fresh growth before the end of the season. The prunings have been either, chopped and dropped, hung up to dry out, put out for customers to help themselves or chopped up for the rabbits, there was a fair amount of it, enough to do a bit of everything. I had intended to plait the onion harvest but got distracted and so will try and do that tomorrow morning.

The last two afternoons I have been listening to some healing meditation, every little helps, currently I am sat with my feet up as my legs have taken to swelling in the evenings 😜 but as soon as it cools down they will feel better, the steroids will kick in and I can get on with a bit more watering and some work.

We must be getting used to this heat, as apart from the fact that I have to water all the time, I’m not even moaning about it, I remember all to clearly the long cold winter and awful spring, however if anyone is in a position to conjure up a bit of the wet stuff I would be eternally grateful as it means I will be able to get some other stuff done like housework, did I really just write that 😝 maybe don’t bother 🤪

Have a fabulous week 😃 enjoy what you are doing and if you are not enjoying it, don’t do it, life is too short!