Month: October 2018

Posted in Friesland Farm

Organising, fruit bread fail & hibernation time.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday evening: We had a young lad come up and get some muck for his Mums roses on his old tractor which promptly broke down ☹️ but he sorted it out and got it going again, I think it’s fabulous to see a youngster working with old machinery otherwise it will be a skill that is lost to the past like so many other skills.

Monday 22nd Oct: A crisp, sunny morning full of promise for a lovely day 😀 I put the wildlife camera up last night, outside the back door hoping to catch a glimpse of the hedgehog but there was no sign, however I did get some footage of foxes eating the crab apples that are on the ground, definitely two different foxes judging by the tails as one has a crooked tail.

Having emptied and turned off the smaller freezer yesterday I will be cleaning that out and turning it back on this morning ready to load it back up later, hopefully in some sort of order though that is more difficult than you think because it’s basically a big box that everything gets thrown into! I do have some large sacks that I separate fruit and veg into so that’s a little helpful, I will do my best and maybe make a list of what’s in there so that I have a reference for future use.

A quick look through the other rammed freezer and I got out some steak for dinner a bag of plums and a small bag of pears. My quick go to recipe that John will eat is crumble and I thought the pears would add something different to the plums. I would prefer something like a plum and custard tart but such is the cruelty of life, I who would eat all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff would pack on the lbs at an alarming rate and John who only eats plain food can eat for England without gaining an ounce. What I am saying is there is no point experimenting or indeed cooking elaborately just for me unless I want to be buying a whole wardrobe of the next size up 😜 Those recipes have to wait until I am feeding others as well. I did find a cake wrapped in foil in the freezer, no idea what it is lol it looks as though it might be ginger or something so I got that out to thaw. When we went shopping the other day John tried to put a jar of strawberry jam in the trolley, I refused, it’s not that I don’t allow him to have jam it’s that I have plenty of homemade jam in the cupboard, all flavours but he only likes strawberry which we ran out of months ago, I am trying to force him to try blackcurrant or apricot but it’s a battle 🤪

I have been trying to organise my kitchen cupboards, and failing miserably! The cupboards I keep the ‘food’ (tins,sugar, ketchup etc) in requires kneeling on the floor to see what’s at the back which is no good really so I swapped it for a cupboard I keep all the daily cooking paraphernalia in like mixing bowls, jugs, food processor etc, so far so good except I can’t fit all the ‘baking’ (dried fruit, nuts, ) ingredients in with the food cupboard and so it’s not organised at all, more scattered, I either have too much stuff or not enough space can’t decide which 😜 I do use it all, thats the problem, but sometimes only now and again and you know that as soon as you get rid of something you wish you hadn’t 🤪 In-between sorting I made a batch of chocolate fairy cakes for the grandchildren.

Late afternoon I started getting the other freezer emptied some of it into the freezer I had defrosted yesterday but it was obvious it wouldn’t all fit so I had to quickly turn on the small freezer and cram whatever I could into there until tomorrow when I can get the second freezer cleaned out and turned back on. At least I have a good idea of what is in there now, a small amount I have thrown away just the odd bread roll or some bits that had frosted badly, some I have got out and will have to cook tomorrow including a tub of blackberries where the lid had split but most of it is away for now. Once the other freezer is cleaned I will have lots of room to sort it properly and I have pork arriving tomorrow as well, we actually don’t need to buy meat/fish for months on end and I have enough gravy stock to sink a battleship! Why I keep making crumble mixes and Yorkshire pudding batter to put in there is anybody’s guess, definitely time to start using it all up instead of making more to put in there lol. Oh and I have a bag of corn on the cob which I absolutely could not fit in anywhere that will need to be eaten in the next day or two 😜

Tuesday: I was up early in order to sort out the second freezer which I thought would take about an hour but as luck would have it although it had begun to defrost the ice was still on the sides of the unit. This meant that it just fell off in large lumps which I was able to get out instead of a watery mess in the bottom to soak up with cloths, done and dusted and switched back on to fast freeze by 7.30 😀

Got the eggs done (I put the sack of corn cobs on the floor, more about that later) then made a crumble and a jar of jam with the blackberries I had to get out of the freezer, then Mia arrived for the day.

Shelley, Josh and Florence came to visit and had to pop out the back for something and discovered that I had forgotten to pick up the sack of cobs and put them back in the sink and the dogs had decided they were a tasty snack 😖 they had shredded the sack in the process as well.

When Mia had her nap I quickly got everything out of the small freezer and put it back into the big freezer along with my pork delivery which had arrived earlier, I kept out some chops for dinner and some sausages for the fridge 😀

This evening I am going for some Bowen therapy to help with the sciatica, which has actually been fine the last two days so hopefully this will help with the healing, if you have never heard of it don’t worry neither had I until about a year ago, look it up and see what you think and I will let you know how I get on. The massage therapist I see is amazing, very knowledgeable and positively radiates healing so I am looking forward to a bit of Bowen and maybe some massages over the next couple of months. I personally think that a regular, good massage would do wonders for a multitude of ailments it’s a shame it’s not available on the NHS it might save them a fortune 😀

Wednesday: Sunny morning, the sunset last night was amazing though I didn’t get photos. I felt like I had been in a fight this morning after the Bowen, that’s to be expected it seems 😂 I took some paracetamol as instructed and feel fine now. I needed to get a few bits tided up indoors, stuff that has been sitting round for ages all now put away. Shelley rang to see if I wanted to go to the country park, yep, everything stops for grandchildren I far as I am concerned, just like it did in my Mums house, they are small for such a short time so almost anything else can wait 😀

My Nan always gave you a warm welcome if you popped in from school, I have been lucky really and had a well nurtured life which I am passing on to the next generation hopefully 😀

The country park walk was fab, I have not been there before even though it’s been in place for about 10 years, it’s on the edge of a large housing development in the next town and I have to say I was really impressed with the thought that had gone into it. We even found a spindleberry bush, a rare find, that had been planted along with all the other shrubbery, we collected some seeds and I will see if I can manage to grow one. There are two huge sculptures of horses which are pretty magnificent to come across, Josh named his favourite one Jack lol.

Thursday: Overcast not to chilly though but no sunshine today. I have had a productive morning which I am pleased about, it seems ages since I was able or had the energy to do much more than the necessary. I started off by burning some of the tomato vegetation because I don’t really like putting it on the compost heap in case it’s harbouring disease, the last of the toms are ripening on the windowsill. I did a bit of tidying up in the small polytunnel and had a root about to see if I could find any sweet potato tubers growing, there is plenty of foliage but I couldn’t find anything else unless they are deeper down. It will be disappointing if there are none at all. Then I picked off all the broccoli sproutings that had flowers on for the rabbits along with some chard and a few weeds. Then I dug up a few self set potatoes, there were some whoppers that will be ideal for baked potato, I dug up the rest of the carrots as they are beginning to get holes in them from various pests plus once the soil starts to get damp they will begin to rot away. I have tried storing carrots in various ways but it’s easier to prep and freeze them. I gathered all the bean pods that I have left on the plants ready to dry the bean seeds, some for planting next year and some to use in soups and stews over the winter. I have seeds from the spaghetti and butternut squash drying on the windowsill as well, I am hoping to save as many seeds as I can from the veg and flowers this year, it will save money but it’s also good practice to begin a good programme of saving, closing the loops 😀 and I planted some broad bean seeds to plant out as soon as they are up. I was going to plant peas in the small tunnel but a tell tale hole in the compost tells me I need to put a mouse trap in there first 😝 otherwise all the seeds will get eaten.

I had a little look at the tiger nuts and found one, I’m sure there are plenty more but they are not ready for harvesting until later in the year, it’s about chickpea sized and nutritionally packed with minerals and vitamins, you can eat them raw but they are better cooked it seems. There is a recipe I will have a go at when they are ready called horchata https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/horchata

I processed a pan full of carrots using the mandolin to slice them, it’s very sharp and you have to be carful not to get too carried away near the end of the carrot as I have taken a chunk of my finger off before now and it 🤬 hurts!

Sam came over as the farrier was coming to do Jacks feet, her car is off the road and she came by bus, I didn’t even know there was a bus service but she was able to get from the top road in Witney to the top road in Shilton, fair bit of walking to do each end mind you as she had to walk from her village about 2 Miles, then once at our end it’s about a mile from the other end, at least it’s not raining.

Friday: A different morning altogether, I was surprised to hear a short burst of rain first thing and the temps are set to fall drastically this weekend. I want to make a Guernsey Gache which is basically a fruit loaf, it takes 3 hours for first prove so I need to get my timings right as I have blood tests/flu jab this morning as well. I also need to get the torts moved they have decided to dig into the ground in the greenhouse but I will be moving them back into their hut, packing it with straw then moving them to the shed, that needs doing before the temps drop too low and today seems like a good day for that.

You may ask, why didn’t I leave them to naturally dig into the ground? well I would have except that the greenhouse lets rain in and then the ground would get wet and freeze on cold days and that would be game over for them, so I have to intervene.

Tomorrow we are going to a ‘Watcher of the Old Ways’ ceremony to celebrate Samhain at the local standing stones and I need to make some biscuits or something similar for sharing, it will be a good opportunity to get an mot on my broomstick 🤪 and then Sunday we are off to the Spellbound exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, a magical weekend all in all, when I say we, I don’t mean John, I am going with my sisters, it’s not Johns type of thing lol.

I have taken some pictures and you can see, just about, how they had ‘dug in’, especially Billy I had to prise him out lol, anyway they are now safely packed away for the long Winter sleep, I will check on them from time to time and put more insulation round them depending on the weather. I’m glad I left it though as this year has been unseasonably warm.

Once the torts were done I got started on the Guernsey gache (pronounced gosh), I followed a recipe but this did not quite go as I expected, the dough kept creeping up the sides of the bowl instead of coming together like a dough normally does, I had to keep stopping the mixer and pushing it back down, eventually I added extra water and that did the trick although the quantity of fruit seems too much but we will see what has happened after 2/3 hours of proving! As long as it’s edible that’s the main thing.

Pants, I get back from having bloods and the fruit bread is not rising at all……..google gives various answers all of them contradict each other so I will try what I think might work which is to knead it a bit by hand then put it in a very low oven and see what happens.

I got it out to knead but it was obvious it was far too dry so I added some luke warm water and knead again, turned the oven on to heat at 50c for five minutes then turned it off again and put the mix in there to prove, this is taking up far more of my day than it ought too 😜

What with blood tests, the fruit bread not going to plan, making a batch of cookies, the egg shed selling out and needing replenishing and the dogs barking constantly I’ve not had a minutes peace today and there was me thinking I could maybe make something more technical like a layered cake, chance would be a fine thing!

I lit the Rayburn mid day, I’m thinking that warming the kitchen might help with the proving 🤪 at least the cookies turned out ok 😀

I’m still looking up reasons and remedies, it’s not the yeast being too old as I use it regularly and made bread with the same packet the other day, it can only be the temperature I think.

So it’s past 2 and I have been trying to get this fruit bread going since 8.30! It has a little raise but not much so I have put it in the oven that is off, now the biscuits are cooked, but still warm, oh my days who knew it would take up most of the day 😝

The wind has picked up outside it’s supposed to be coming down from the north but at the moment it’s squalling around in all directions.

Ok this loaf shows no inclination to rise whatsoever and I’m running out of daylight hours so I’m going to bake it, def not expecting a Paul Hollywood handshake on this effort 🤣🤣 and that’s one recipe I won’t be using again! Total disaster, after an hour baking it was still doughy inside and burning on the outside, I will chalk that one up to experience……..☎️ ‘darling, could you pick up some fruit bread from the supermarket on your way home’ 😂

The eggs sales have been rapid today, cleaned out before afternoon pick up and every egg we have in the place is now out for sale.

Saturday: Cold this morning, much colder in fact the front paddock tap was frozen! It’s warm in the Sun now though.

John did all the outside while I hoovered, polished put washing on etc, made a loaf of bread, which went well and restored my faith in my abilities 😜 I also made a quick batch of candied walnuts to take out with me later. They are so easy to do, walnuts, brown sugar, butter and a bit of water, all in a pan on high heat and stir until the liquid is pretty much gone, then cool and sprinkle with salt or you could use cinnamon, nutmeg whatever really, you could put a dash of vanilla in the mixture or any flavouring you want I suppose, easy peasey, crush it up to use as a cake topping or on top of ice cream the possibilities are great 😀

Well we went to the Samhain ceremony with the ‘Watchers of the old ways’ it was uplifting and energising, even though it was first raining, then sleet, then snow! Afterwards we went to the pub for hot chocolates 😀

Clocks go back tonight.

Sunday: Sunny but cold morning, we had an extra hours sleep 😀 The phones and internet were not working first thing, I have a feeling this happens whenever the clocks change but never really taken much notice before, I will try and remember next spring and see what happens then. John did the outside while I sorted the phones/clocks etc, the Rayburn was still active so got that going again, no point letting it go out and re lighting it later besides we have plenty of wood 😀

We sat down with coffee and watched the news headlines, well that was depressing, we don’t normally watch any daytime tv probably won’t again, why people can’t just live in harmony is beyond me, surely no matter what religion, colour, creed, nationality they are, being a good person is what is most important, too simple I guess 😢

John is off to the hospital later to visit his Mum

We went to get a few bits of shopping this morning, just random bits like butter and icing sugar, mushrooms etc, we don’t need much and I couldn’t believe how busy the supermarket was, I mean heaving 😝 Everyone is gearing up for Halloween, in my day you were lucky to get anything except short shrift if you knocked on a neighbours door after dark lol, except if you went to the American married quarters, then you would be rewarded with Reece’s pieces and other stuff we had never seen before 😀 Nowadays everyone is in on it and why not on the whole it’s a good bit of fun, my favourite time though has to be Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night, with toffee apples, homemade soup and awesome pyrotechnic displays, Winter is upon us and the various celebrations begin 😀

Spent the afternoon at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford at the Spellbound exhibition, ice to do something a bit different.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Two days on ice, an irritated Jay & moving day.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th October: The year seems to be racing past now! Yesterday afternoon while just straightening cushions on the sofa my back twinged and now I am suffering with lower back pain, ffs does it never end 😝 It’s not massively painful, I can move but it’s a constant nagging even when I have taken numerous pills for it so today’s progress will be slow 🤪 This went from bad to worse through the day and eventually I couldn’t sit down for longer than a couple of minutes, luckily standing/Walking is fine but I hope after a nights sleep this has gone!

We need to sort out the duck situation, we have a lot of free loaders at the minute, the drakes that we hatched out, some older ducks that no longer lay and some who just refuse to lay no matter what we do.

I made a batch of ‘use it up’ soup which is basically anything that looks like it needs using, veg some chicken even 1/4 tin of baked beans, along with some herbs, mushrooms and tomatoes and that’s what is for dinner along with some freshly baked bread and an apple crumble.

Tuesday: Ok so this is sciatica I think! Very painful to sit down for more than 2/3 minutes, luckily standing, walking and bending is fine and mostly lying down is ok except it woke me this morning with lots of pain 😝 I have done some stretches and taken aspirin which has taken the edge off of it and I have contacted a fabulous lady that does massage and Bowen, hopefully she will be able to help sort it out. I have Mia today and tomorrow this week so that’s going to be a bundle of fun 🤪

Yesterday I got fed up with the hops that were in the kitchen drying on an oven tray, I have been waiting for about a month for some cotton sacks to put them in, no sign of them so I threw the hops away as the potency would be gone by now and guess what turns up today, yes, the sacks 😤 never mind I will keep them for the lavender harvest next year if I ever get a decent amount lol. I wanted to make slumber sacks with hops and lavender, maybe I still will I can probably order some online, mine did not seem to have much of an odour to them anyhow so maybe they were not quite ripe enough or overripe, who knows?

Thursday: I have spent two days with an ice pack on my sciatic nerve, oh my goodness how painful is sciatica, at times I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I asked for tips and was amazed at how many sufferers there were out there. After trying various things I settled with ice packs and anti inflammatories, plenty of lying down or walking around as I couldn’t sit up at all. Luckily in our waste not want not life I had ice packs from when the fish was delivered that I kept for just such an occasion lol. Poor Mia wondered what an Earth was going on when instead of sitting down with her I had to lie down, still we entertained ourselves by me pretending to be her baby, I have seen every episode of Baby Joy Joy, that’s a new one on me, and somehow we managed to get through the two days 😋 Consequently I have done nothing else, John even had to do the orchard lot.

Today it is so much better, just a small nagging which reminds me to be a little bit careful, I doubt I am going to be sitting down for long periods anyhow as I have plenty of catching up to do.

Charlie and Macca should, fingers crossed, complete on their new house tomorrow and so it will be moving day for them, their excitement is palpable and hopefully it will all go according to plan and by the weekend they will be in their own house and I will have a spare room back again 😀

I ordered some haricot beans which have arrived, 500g, I will use some of them for cooking and then save some for planting next year, that’s the plan anyway, now all I have to do is learn to make good baked beans 😝

The geese have finally discovered that they can get into the side paddock, it’s only taken them about three months! When the grass was scarce we opened up the rails for them to go through but they wouldn’t pass the tape that was up on the top, any other barrier we don’t want them to go through seems fair game but when you want them to do something they won’t, go figure, anyhow they are now wandering in there but seemed obsessed about getting into my garden as they linger, looking longingly through the fence for a large part of the day, there is no logic to a birds thinking I have learnt over the years 🤪

I wanted to let the ducks out of the duck pen to forage around under the crab apple tree but I needed to secure a few areas into the veg garden first to make sure they don’t get in there, the veg garden will be for the orchard ducks when I have finished harvesting everything. After that I set about harvesting some of the veg that needed picking, butternut squash, courgettes, some tomatoes, spaghetti squash and a token aubergine! I always have trouble growing aubergine and this year was no different really, I keep trying but for some reason they don’t like it here, except for one plant which is thriving, in fact it’s still flowering, I have only had two fruits from it mind you.

The butternut squash are all different sizes from very small to large but they will all be used one way or another. One of the things I love about growing is being able to bring it in and make something fresh with it, today it’s butternut squash soup, and I am proud to say that every ingredient bar one is Home produced, onions, garlic, carrots, sage, rosemary, and of course the squash itself, the only thing that wasn’t grown here is the celery, not bad and definitely from farm to fork or spoon in this case, with a freshly made loaf of bread that will do nicely for lunch 😀 I had a thought that I could put together all the items needed for the soup and sell it as a package, I wonder if it would sell?

While the oven is cooking bread I might as well make good use of it so I am roasting tomatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, and basil in olive oil and butter, this will probably be the last batch of tomato sauce for the freezer, It’s all chunky or whole as it will be sieved when it’s done.

Also made a quick fruit cake 😀

While I was mixing it I heard a noise that I haven’t heard before, a kind of squawking, a bird, I looked out and in the Oak tree was a Jay, I have never seen one before certainly not here, I was pretty sure it was a jay though and googled it to make sure, yep definitely a jay and to check the call it was making I Googled that as well, I found a video that was titled ‘irritated jay’ lol yep that was the noise it was making, obviously irritated about something, we seem to have a few animals and birds that we haven’t seen before, not sure if it’s the weather or something else but they are welcome additions.

Charlie cooked dinner for us tonight as a thank you, she moved back in with Macca in Feb in order to save a deposit for a house and tomorrow is the day they get the key to their new home 😀

Friday: Moving day 😀 you forget how much waiting around there is on moving day, packing everything up has mostly been done over the last few days and waiting for the go ahead seems like forever 😝

Ground frost this morning and it is a chilly start to the day, John did the main lot and I did the orchard lot then he went off to do some small jobs while I helped here and did a bit of cleaning, then we had a phone call to say that an ambulance had been called for Johns Mum, all the best laid plans and all that.

The move was smooth 😀 they got the keys around lunchtime and with the cars and van loaded up everything was in by about 4pm, we all helped with putting things away and getting it liveable.

Fish and chip supper at the new house.

Johns Mum is staying in for tests we will have to wait and see what the results are.

Saturday: Foggy, quite chilly this morning.

I knew it was coming and it finally arrived, I now have Johns cold 🤒 I think I will write this year off as far as health is concerned, it would be easy to just give up but I will chalk it up to experience instead and carry on regardless 😜 Besides the year is winding down now as far as the veg garden is concerned, and I have already decided not to tidy it too much but to leave it to nature and the ducks to process weeds and debris 😀

The torts have not been out of their hut for a week or more so it will soon be time to pack up the hut and move it to a winter location and leave them until March time.

John had to work first thing but when he got back we got the tractor out to spread some wood chip that we had delivered last week on the ménage. I had been burning some rubbish and some scrap wood and thought I would have a go at spreading it with the shovel, I soon discovered that it had built up heat and was starting to decompose so spreading it will stop that and using the tractor bucket is more efficient than a shovel. After that we went to pick up a sofa from Shelley as we had been using and storing Charlie’s and now she has moved we didn’t have one, a bit of shopping on the way back, then John went to see his Mum in hospital and the day is done.

Sunday: Foggy and chilly again today, I lit the Rayburn quite early, around 10 as it was noticeably cool and low and behold the Sun came out, it turned into a very warm afternoon. There are ladybirds flying around all over the place out there, confused by the warm weather I think. We popped out to collect a set of bedside drawers for the now spare room, when we got back I ordered some pork and a bit of goat meat from a fellow online smallholder which will arrive Tuesday. That made me think I better empty one of the freezers to defrost it so that I can sort them out, we have two large chest freezers and now one of them is rammed full, there is so much good stuff in there and once it’s all sorted I can a) see what exactly is in there and b) start using it to make some great things 😀

I also stood and shelled quite a few walnuts this morning and put them in a jar ready to use when needed or to snack on as and when, with all that going on I can feel a cooking sesh ahead 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Power failure, all kinds of weather and a milk delivery.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 8th October: It was eventful from the off! Before Johns van even disappeared from view down the drive, we lost power, no electric, so I check the main fuse board, nope not our electric at fault, next find the phone that plugs into the phone line because we have the handsets that are powered by electric as well which don’t work in a power failure. Call the electric board, yep they have a fault on the main line and power should be restored by 11am, 11am! I haven’t had my coffee yet 🤪 so dig out the fire pit, hunt for sticks and something to light it with, couple of bits of flint knocked together should do it 🤪 actually we have a great wood supply, paper and a gas powered lighting stick so they will work just as well 😆 get the old Rayburn kettle out and bobs your uncle, I have coffee, just as the power was restored at 8.41 🤣

Seriously though, it does make you think about what you would actually have to do if we lost power for a lot longer, I keep meaning to organise ‘survival ready’ bits and pieces but never get round to it, for instance the rechargeable torch was flat, not that I needed it but if it was night I would be fumbling around in the dark. My portable recharge pack is also flat! The phone that I connect is old and crackly and has the tiniest bit of lead on it that it the whole thing hangs from the telephone point, small things I need to get sorted to make life a bit easier in the event that we have a more catastrophic loss in the future.

The ducks in the orchard have laid no eggs this morning, that’s unusual normal we get between 3 and 5 so I need to investigate further, something may be pinching them or the ducks are eating them.

The tortoises took them selves off to bed into the straw filled hut inside the greenhouse last night, that’s great, that’s what I need them to be doing, once they stop coming out during the day I know they will be ready for the big sleep, however with Wednesday predicted to be the hottest October day on record I doubt it is going to be this week that they go into a slumber.

Cleaned out the ducks in the main duck pen, the floor is going in there and I doubt it will last out the Winter, we shall see. Then picked up half a bucket of crab apples for the geese to munch on and onto some gardening, hoeing, weeding, fed a trug of weeds to the rabbits and Guinea pigs, then a sit down with a glass of water, a banana and some ibrufen because my hands are giving me jip this morning, probably all the hammering I was doing yesterday to make the tortoise fence.

Had a lovely message from the lady at the electric board, apparently it was wildlife on the line that knocked out the electric, poor thing, whatever is was, is now fried I’m guessing 😏

In the afternoon I thought I would tackle the boot/utility room 😝 a mammoth undertaking and I started out with great determination to chuck everything out, but as always it was a case of, I might need that, or, there is wear left in it, how many hats, coats, pairs of gloves and wet weather gear does one need though? On then to the preserves cupboard, well I have runner bean chutney for every year from 2013 in there 🤪 on the plus side I found some Christmas mincemeat and apricot jam which I had forgotten about, also some sloes still steeping in gin from last year, that should be good 😋 one faux-par though, I poured away what I though was some old vinegar, it was in a vinegar bottle, but realised it was pontack sauce 🙄 pontack sauce is supposed to sit for seven years before it’s at its best, it’s probably been there a couple of years at least, oooops, oh well that will teach me to label stuff in future!

Tuesday: Delightful sunny, misty morning, looks like it’s going to be warm again. Yesterday I washed some of the winter coats so they have gone out on the line to dry today. Did the orchard lot and gave a big sack of hay to the bunnies/Guineas, put some clean bedding in for the ducks, both lots of ducks seem to have gone off lay a bit so maybe nothing is eating them like I thought. I have moved the wildlife camera to the stable block because something is pooing in there on a nightly basis, I would say fox but the dog hasn’t rolled in it so it must be something else. I think the batteries are getting a bit low on the unit but they have lasted a couple of years so I can’t complain at that, not constant use obviously, now and again but even so they lasted longer than I thought they would.

I am having quite a problem with my hands on and off throughout the day, I can’t work out if it’s fluid or inflammation, either way it’s a hindrance 😏

I have had to order a new rechargeable torch, quite a big one, we have had the other one for a few years but the bulb has gone and the unit is a sealed one and I can’t find one anywhere online, typical that nothing is built to be repaired these days ☹️

I made cake finally! An apple, date and walnut cake as I have apples to use up, an easy recipe, chuck it all in the bowl, mix and bake, perfect 😀

When the cakes were cooked I went out and planted a tree, as you do lol, I had a space on the driveway verge and decided a sweet chestnut would go well there, it will of course get huge over the years but not that big while I’m around I don’t think.

There was a big discussion on one of the smallholder pages I’m on, in fact the topic was started by my neighbour, anyway the upshot is that we have now signed up for milk deliveries in glass bottles, who would have thought that years ago when the milkman came every day that things would change so much, plastic is the reason we are doing it but I think it will bring a touch of nostalgia too, hope the bluetits don’t get to the foil tops 🤣 of course the ideal would be to buy from a local dairy farmer but we seem devoid of that service near us so until things change we will hear the clink of empty bottles again soon 😀

Wednesday: Had Mia today instead of yesterday so not much going on outside, we went for a walk along Scrubbs lane for a couple of hours with Shelley, Josh and Flo, it was like a summers day except that the old mans beard is everywhere lol. It’s amazing the difference between boys and girls, I gave a bit to Josh who immediately tore it into bits (a form of dissection I think lol) and a bit to Mia who held it like a bouquet and tested the fluffiness on her face.

Thursday: Pleasant day, not cold, Partly sunny. There were a few bits to sort in the garden, a couple of courgettes to pick and the pumpkins to put out for sale. They were not very big this year due to the lack of rain but I had about 12 of them so that’s ok, I grow them for the grandchildren to use and any extras go into the shed. The tomatoes are still ripening off and the butternut squash are still hanging on in there, this is a second flush which are actually bigger than the first lot. I was reading how incredibly good for you they are, a great source of magnesium and potassium, vit A and vit C. Magnesium is great for regulating things like blood sugar, muscle and nerve functions, also blood pressure, potassium helps to prevent things like high blood pressure, stroke, osteoporosis and is a regulator like magnesium, Hmm I need more butternut squash recipes.

One thought on my mind since our power failure is ‘what if’ so what if there was a cyber attack on the National Grid or a solar storm or similar that knocked out the grid, everything comes to a halt that’s what! No electric, no water, no communications, no fuel, so, no deliveries of any kind, no banking, the scenario gets worse from here on in. How prepared are we? Most of us are not, should we be? Well as far as I can see it doesn’t hurt to be a little bit prepared. I grew up in the 70’s with the miners strikes knocking out the electric on a regular basis, to us as kids it was fun, cooking our beans on toast on the parkray and candles and stories from Mum, I am sure for her it was more stressful but she never showed it. Thinking it over I came to the conclusion that you need water first and foremost (I am assuming that you have somewhere to live so shelter is taken care of) it won’t hurt to have a few litre bottles stashed in the garage/outbuildings, matches/gas powered igniter, wood (or know where you can find some) if you have a wood burner then you are already on a winner 😀 Candles or wind up torch/spare batteries for a torch and with what food you have in the cupboards you should be fine for a few days 😜 It’s not much is it? but it is preparing for the ‘what if’ and of course if it went on longer you would need a whole lot more plus the skills to go with it but that is a whole different scenario 🤪

Friday: Filthy morning, wind and rain, not as bad as some other parts of the Kingdom, (and the world) are getting though so I won’t complain! I felt like a kid finding her Christmas stocking this morning when I saw our first milk delivery 😀 After a big discussion on an online Smallholders group I decided to have milk in glass bottles delivered, no more plastic cartons. To be honest as we are out of the way and addresses often get muddled up I rather thought it wouldn’t happen but nope the milkman obviously knows his area and there it was right where I had asked it to be put, along with a free bottle of OJ to go with the one I had ordered. It’s rather nostalgic too as it’s a very long time since I have even seen a glass milk bottle let alone held one, can’t wait to pop that foil with my thumb 🤣 Of course my ideal situation would be to buy direct from the dairy farm but we are devoid of those in our area, the thought, as you know, about a house cow has crossed my mind from time to time, maybe a micro dairy is what I need to be thinking about 😜

Blood tests again this morning, every fortnight at the moment until the disease settles again. I can tell what kind of affect this last flare has had through my hair and nails, the nails are all ridges and my hair is like straw, still falling out though not as much now. I started taking hemp oil at the beginning of the week just to see if it makes a difference, it tastes vile, but my symptoms do seem to be lessened over the last few days, now this could just be the fact that they were going that way anyway albeit slowly or it could be the oil, who knows, I will keep taking it until it’s used up anyway.

John came home at lunchtime in between jobs and he has ‘man flu’ luckily I had made some lamb broth from left over lamb we had on Wednesday, I also made hot pot for dinner tonight so it’s a lamb day today 😋just the weather for it 🌧💨

I’m already thinking about what to grow next year and one thing I want more of are beans for drying, haricot beans and even kidney beans if I can get them to grow. I did butter beans last year and the ying yang beans again this year, what I need to do now is to remember to incorporate them into my cooking instead of leaving them in the jars 😝 It’s because they need soaking for a few hours before use that I always forget them, then I look at them on the shelf and think, I should have used some beans!

Saturday/Sunday: What a change in the weather! Still very warm temps for the time of year but wet and windy urgh, the type of weather where you don’t really want to do anything outside, so we haven’t, except for the essentials of course. John has man flu anyway and of course that requires lots of lying down and sleeping 🤣 moaning about how ill he feels and generally feeling sorry for himself which is fine just don’t think I should be feeling sorry for you and running round after you lol.

I got some bread made this morning before going out to do the orchard lot, not sure what else I will do today.

The immersion heater went this afternoon, we didn’t know it had gone until Charlie and Macca came back from one of these obstacle runs that they had gone too, it was cold and they were wet and Charlie wanted a hot shower when she got in 😝 ooopps the shower was cold ☹️ luckily we know a good plumber 🤪 and we happened to have a new heater ready to install. So John spent a couple of hours draining down and installing the new heater, however we are on a three tariff electric option and so the heater won’t come back on until tonight when the lower rate kicks in so I have had to light the fire to get some hot water.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Autumn jobs, Autumn food & Autumn weather, must be Autumn 🍂

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 1st October 🎃

I made a batch of tomato soup last night ready for my lunch today, it simmered slowly on the Rayburn hob, lovely. I got thinking about the green tomatoes and looking at something a bit different, enchilada sauce seems like a good way to go, not that we eat enchiladas but the children do so I will give it away, and invite myself for dinner when they make them lol. I also made another batch of granola, with walnuts, almonds and maple syrup this time and a pinch of cinnamon 😀

This morning is one of those beautiful sunny mornings with a hint of mist early on so it’s going to be another lovely day. Just as well because the first job on my list apart from animals is to get my bedroom cleaned, yes kids, even adults have to do their bedroom 😝 For some reason that we have never fathomed it gets very dusty, very quickly and drives me mad, so strip everything, wash everything, Hoover everything, polish everything, job done, almost, because the windows need a clean. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not someone who is fastidious about smear less, sparkling windows but I do like to be able to see out of them 🤣🤣 especially this time of year when the early morning sun beams in through them. The extra blankets go in the wash then it’s out to collect eggs and remember the price increase from today.

I made a lamb hot pot for dinner tonight, we have quite a few bits of lamb breast to use up so it may be a favourite on the menu this winter, for this one I actually used a small shoulder and from the writing on the packaging it looks like it was one of ours, in fact it will be mutton so should taste amazing. It was going to be a cobbler but I don’t have any GF flour so just in case Charlie wants some, I have done it without the ‘cobbles’ if she doesn’t I can’t easily knock up some dumplings and pop them in halfway through cooking 😀

Had a bit of flour to use up some I made some batches of crumble mix for the freezer and a few dumplings hopefully to use later.

My body, at last seems to have caught up with my mind and I am finding I can work easily and without swellings and ache and pains at the end of the day, having said that I can feel my thumbs starting to ache but a couple of ibrufen should sort that out.

After my delicious tomato soup for lunch I got on with sorting out the greenhouse. When we decided to get a new one I cleared it all out and stored the stuff I wanted to keep, throwing out anything I didn’t want. Moving it all back in again was lovely, it felt comfortable and familiar so I’m not in the least bit disappointed. I had got rid of the mish mash of staging I had so I need to sort something else out, we have plenty of wood so it shouldn’t be hard, I started looking at greenhouse interiors to give me ideas and that led onto looking at passive solar and now I’m looking at ways to achieve that! With almost everything out it’s easier to begin again with what I really need to put in, black water tanks for heat storage will be a definite and gravel or slabs on the ground to increase thermal mass & insulate the North facing lower panels, we need to remove some of the tree branches that are blocking out the sun rays on the South side and Bobs your uncle, it should be a whole lot better😀

Tuesday: My day to have Mia so out early to get the feeding done, I wonder how many customers read the memo about no egg collections on Tuesdays 🙄 there are plenty of eggs out there from yesterday though so it’s ok if a few still come.

We watched the BBC 1 programme ‘Drowning in Plastic’ , I am not easily shocked but it’s horrifying, what have we done to the world ☹️

Wednesday: Lovely day with an even temperature, quite pleasant. I have been working in the garden, more tidying and hoeing etc, I pulled up the rest of the outdoor tomatoes and put all the green ones in the poly tunnel, they may ripen, they may not but at the temps are set to dip at the weekend I figured they were nearing the end anyhow. I weeded the brassica cage and that was two jobs in one as the rabbits had a feast of weeds and now the ground is clear. They are still producing loads of florets and the leaves are still nice and green, mostly, I am going to see how long they keep on producing for. I cut back (hacked actually) the kiwi in the fruit cage as it has got a bit out of control, as yet it has never produced a fruit but it adds a good bit of cover and foliage for the time being, maybe one year when all the conditions are right it will surprise me 😀 The torts are still awake though not eating much at all now, the daytime temperatures are pretty warm so it’s no surprise they are still awake but that should begin to change over the next couple of weeks and when they no longer wander around I will put them into a straw filled hutch and then the hutch will go into the shed. I know these are used to fridge hibernation but I have never done that before and was worried about it so decided to stick to what I know. I cut the lawn which will probably be the last cut this year, I also got round to putting some pieces of wood along the barked area so that the chickens don’t keep scratching it out onto the lawn, every time I cut I have to rake the bark off the lawn first and have been meaning to put up a small barrier for a couple of years, job done finally.

I ordered myself some screws, they will be hidden along with my screwdriver bits so that I actually have some to hand when I need them instead of sorting through buckets of old, knackered, rounded off, screws, John says, ‘you can have these’ yes cos they are no bloody good that’s why, cheers for that 😝

Quick rest at lunchtime then back out to plant a couple more shrubs and a tree, then time to pick up and sort eggs, even though they have gone up the sales have not declined in the least!

Then I ran out of steam 😜 at this point it would be mice to sit down with a cuppa and a slice of cake but I haven’t made any for ages so it’s a banana instead 😋 My foot is giving me jip today, the upper surface of it, when I had the flare. Apart from my two fingers that went numb so did the skin on my left foot, it seems to have started to go back to normal feeling but it’s stinging in the process. My little finger is still not quite back to normal yet and the nail beds have also died back about 1/3 from the top of my finger, I tell you the body can do some pretty awful things to you that when it wants to.

I keep meaning to tell you about the ‘loofah’ washing up thingy, the first bit I used has only just gone into the compost bin this week, I can’t find the original blog but it must have been around June time so it lasted approx 4 months, pretty good going I think, I have now cut a new piece 😀

I made an Eves pudding as a treat, I was going to do crumble but thought that was a bit boring, it’s similar ingredients just a different set up 😀

Lovely evening with a super pink sunset 🌅

Thursday: A pleasant enough morning, one that doesn’t need a coat, the sun is not out but the temps are not cold. ‘what jobs are you doing today’ John asked this morning, we’ll pick a job, any number of them really but while the weather is kind I’d better chose an outdoor one so this morning I will be cleaning out the pens/huts in the orchard, washing out water and food bowls, raking the floors, 5 huts and 2 rabbit pens.

Mum came over early morning and did some gardening while I carried on with the cleaning out etc, I let the light Sussex out for the very first time, it’s all bit new for them and there were a couple of scraps but they settled down eventually.

We sat and had coffee about 11.30 and ate some wet walnuts as a snack, delicious, I am still picking them up despite saying I wouldn’t, I can help it, I don’t want to see them going to waste, sometimes I stand on a few so the chickens can pick at them.

Just as well I keep collecting them because I had to throw a tray out, the bottom tray of the stack had mould, probably due to lack of airflow so I have put an empty tray underneath to stop it happening again, mould and nuts are not a good combination and even though it only looks like it’s on the outside it will have got inside so better safe than sorry.

We have had a couple of reports of a drone flying over the village on two separate occasions this week, one was yesterday near me but although I was outside all morning I didn’t see or hear anything. It un nerves people because this is the criminals latest way of finding out what is on a property, and as we are in such close proximity to the air base both the police and air traffic control are keen to find out who is flying it.

Friday: Overcast but pleasant. Occasionally I set to a job that was never in my plan for for the day, not that I ever have much of a plan but a vague idea of what I want to get done. Today on a whim I decided to get the ménage sorted, normally throughout the Spring and Summer I weed killer it to keep it tidy but this summer I had not been able to and it’s out of control. I did weedkiller it about a month ago but it needed doing again and it will need another go in a couple of weeks or it’s just going to end up as waste land. While I was about it and the creosote was to hand I thought I might as well start creosoting the timbers as well, this is no small job 🙄 and I have managed to do one whole end, inside and out and it looks pretty good, just another three sides to go 🤪 I have definitely go some of my mojo back or I wouldn’t have even attempted it. It is due to rain tomorrow and hopefully Sam will be over later to drag the fields if not I will have to coax John into doing it tonight!

Sam did come over and we managed to get the drags on the back of the tractor so that job is done. Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and Josh bought over an apple crumble made with his own hands (Mummy assures me he washed them first 😝)

Spoke too soon about the mojo though lol, my legs are aching like crazy, a cuppa and some inbrufen is in order.

When John came home he had to get the drags back off the tractor as Sam couldn’t undo them, they are very heavy chains and once they have been bouncing around the field they are difficult to undo!

We had Josh’s crumble for pudding, delicious, he loves his food and more than that he loves home grown and home cooked food, he is always delighted when I ask him if he wants to take some tomatoes or cucumbers home, ooo yes please Nana lol. Mia on the other hand will try stuff but usually spits it out 🤣 ah well as long as she tries, that’s the main thing.

Did a quick bit of shopping this evening and stood chatting to a neighbour outside the shop, I couldn’t believe how mild it was at 8pm on an October evening.

Saturday: It’s peeing down, can’t say we weren’t warned and looking at the forecast it’s in for the day, we do need it though, I can’t tell you how dry everything is, I’ve never know a year as dry as this one. Tomorrow looks to be dry though, so it’s not the ‘once it gets here it never leaves’ scenario we usually have 😜

John did most of the animals this morning, I did the orchard lot as usual, when the clocks change it will be my turn to do the lot as it will be dark when he leaves in the morning and dark when he gets home at night. It will be rainy day jobs today, I have plenty to choose from, apple processing, cleaning, chutney making, John will probably tackle the end bay in the hay barn or the back area which needs a quick tidy. This afternoon we are off to have drinks and cake with a 90 year old Uncle who is still very spritely, in fact I think he still swims on a daily basis 😀

Well John didn’t pick a job in the dry in fact he didn’t pick a job at all which didn’t really sit well with me but I guess time off now and again is needed and tomorrow is supposed to be dry so hopefully he will do something then 😆 I did a batch of tomato purée for the freezer then a bucketful of apples.

A good evening to light the Rayburn but it seems she is not having any of it today either! It took three goes at lighting to get her going and now she is busy crackling away, I think my longing for the flick of a thermostat is getting stronger each year 😜

Digging about in the bottom of the freezer this morning I found an aitchbone joint of beef which has been in the slow cooker for quite a few hours, what a treat, will probably have it with mashed potato and some carrots from the garden.

Sunday: Bright and dry but chilly this morning. We had a hot air ballon over us this morning, normally they are a bit further in the distance but this one was right over the field next door and then landed in the field over the road, John said he saw about 3 of them when he was driving back from his Mums so it must have been the perfect weather for them. I lit the Rayburn mid morning to take the chill off the place, she went first time today 😜

At the minute John is up the back burning some of the debris from tidying up the wood pile, there is quite a bit still to burn.

I am suffering a bit today as bits of me ache all over and I have no idea why?

So the sun came out and now it’s boiling indoors with the Rayburn going as well 😂😂

John cleaned out the chickens in the afternoon and I moved the tortoises to inside the greenhouse where I can keep an eye on when they slow right down ready to hibernate. Then I decided to get the area ready that they will go into once they wake up again in spring, it needed a couple of things planted in there and some low fencing around the outside so they can’t escape. We have plenty of wood 🤣 so I set about re using some of it, I need to build a couple more pieces before we set it in place next week, then it will be ready when they are next year. It’s quite a big area under the crab apple tree next to the decking, I have put a hut in there for them and some paving slabs so they can heat themselves up, planted a shrub and some herbs for food and shade, I just need to get a deep enough dish for water which will have big pebbles in it, put in a couple of hiding places and maybe a tree stump or two and then it should be tortoise heaven.