Month: November 2018

Posted in Friesland Farm

Fox attacks, a bit of baking & Xmas pud thumbs up.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 19th November eek the year is coming to an end!

This morning, again, is much chillier than last week, but the sun is shinning so hopefully it won’t feel too cold outside.

Half the ducks from the orchard keep getting out and going off into the other duck pen so I have decided they can stay there, I moved the rat traps from the shed and put in clean bedding for them all, then cleaned out the other hut, put the traps in there and closed the door. I have caught about seven mice but not a single rat yet although I can see evidence of their activity in various places. The ducks are fairly secure in there during the daytime as the fence is six foot and the top is not rigid enough for the fox to land on top of.

Then I cleaned out the other duck shed in the orchard and dug over some of the ground for the Light Sussex chickens to scratch about in, I am also keeping them safely inside the fenced area at the moment, I don’t want to lose any more of those.

I barrowed a few loads of muck onto one of the veg beds but there is plenty more to do, I found that about 5 loads is as much as I can do at any one time if I still want to be able to function for the rest of the day.

I got some straw out of the greenhouse where I had stored it, closed the door and a two foot long panel of glass next to the door fell out and smashed 😩 that has put me back on the course of thinking about replacing it, I don’t know why I am finding it such a dilemma, maybe I just need to bite the bullet and go for it.

In between collecting the eggs around 3.30 and going back out to do the water at 4.30 the fox had been in the front paddock and had a chicken 😤 I go back out to start rounding them up and there he is larger than life running into the paddock ffs, I shout fox, no dogs appear, too busy warming themselves by the radiator I suspect! Eventually I get the dogs in the front paddock but the hens are riled and it takes forever to get them to go inside for the night. I manage the ducks, geese and light Sussex ok but the other pen of hens are also rattled, a five minute job that took forever tonight. I get inside, wait for my nose to stop running and my fingers to thaw a bit, John wonders why I’m always grumpy when he gets in, well when his first words are usually ‘what’s for dinner’ is it any wonder 🖕

Tuesday: A cold North wind this morning brr I have a feeling the Rayburn will be lit early. I have Mia today so before she comes I will put on some washing, sort the fire ready for lighting and make some bread, then it will be playing 😀

I did manage to read my e-mails and I’m not the only one who thinks that theft is rife in the village, everyone is concerned and a meeting with the local police has been organised for Thursday evening to discuss what can be done, what we need is for an MP to move in then security would be amazing 😉

Wednesday: Cold brrr, reports of snow all over the place even in the next town but at the moment it’s just cold rain here. I put the eggs out into the shed and my finger tips were freezing 🥶 I was going to move some more muck today which would keep me warm but I think I might bake instead 😀 I cleaned out the Rayburn flues and will light that a bit later on, I actually read the instructions yesterday, only taken five years, and think I have worked out how to stop it just burning away every hour. The difference this year is that we don’t have logs we have cut up pallets which burn hotter and faster than the logs, great for plenty of hot water but it gets a bit warm in here lol, anyhow a proper read of using the controls and I may just have it sorted 😀

The baking went ahead as the weather just deteriorated, snow/rain/sleet/snow and more rain 😜 I made a sticky gingerbread, yet to be tasted but looks/smells divine, remember the ginger I preserved last month, well some of that went in along with some of the syrup too, I will have tasted it by the time this is published in fact it will probably be all gone. I also made a quick fruit cake and then I lit the Rayburn as I had made two mixes that need to prove, a pizza dough mix and a breakfast muffin mix, both need a bit of warmth to get them going, well don’t we all 🤪and I can use the Rayburn plate to cook the muffins on when the time comes.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/8774387/River-Cottage-Baking-recipes-loaf-cakes.html

And then a well deserved sit down and catch up with two of my fav programmes The Walking Dead and Outlander 😀

The muffin dough was then ready to turn out, roll and cook into muffins, the first batch were a bit dark as the pan was quite hot but the second batch are excellent and both batches taste great, much better than shop bought ones. They were easy to do and the recipe came from Mrs Beeton 😀I will definitely make these again.

Outside then to feed and collect the eggs and top up the water buckets it’s supposed to be cold overnight so best to get them done tonight, I gave Jack a haynet and fed the rabbits and Guinean pigs, then back in to do the washing up and wait for dark to arrive, I’m hoping the fox does not make an appearance again, yesterday John was out there on patrol and there was no sign of it.

All the birds successfully tucked up with no sign of the fox, Joh has gone straight The to hospital to visit his Mum so I get an hour to have a quiet cuppa and sort out the pizza dough. Very sticky stuff pizza dough 😜 I divided it into 4 and decided I would have one for tea so I made what I would call a fresh pizza, fresh toms, cheese, olive oil, minced garlic and some dried basil, because that what I had laying around.

Thursday: Frosty and white everywhere brrr, however the sun is shinning 😀

John did the animals before work while I did some household bits and had a shower, I am having my haircut this morning, it’s has got a bit like no and getting on my nerves, Freya comes to the house so I don’t even have to go out 😀

This mornings task is to trial a microwave Christmas pudding! We are having a family Christmas feast get together in early Dec and I am down for the Christmas puddings, we have hired a hall as there are 50 of us and we need to keep the food as hot as possible and heat it up when we get there. Steaming a pud for hours is not an option so I thought I would trial a couple of recipes for a microwave version. John will be very happy to be chief taster, he loves Christmas pudding, the first recipe seems pretty easy and I have all the ingredients in the cupboard, except orange juice so I used pineapple juice, not sure I would use it next time as it gives it a very tropical smell instead of a Christmassy one. It has literally taken me just 10 mins to prep and it takes 10 mins to cook, if you have never made your own Christmas pudding before give this a try it’s very simple, quick. While I’m typing this the pudding is done, amazing, it needs to rest for 10 mins then I will taste it and see how it fairs. If I was making it for Christmas Day I would probably add nuts and cherries and some alcohol, Sherry or brandy, but I want to see what this tastes like before I ‘doctor’ the next go. The ones I make for the day will not have any alcohol in as people will be driving and the kiddies will be eating it.

I did a taste test, not bad for 20 mins work lol, it shrank in the bowl during cooking so I could put it in a smaller bowl then it would look in proportion, it’s lighter than a pudding I would normally do but that’s a good thing when you have just eaten a Christmas dinner I reckon. Yep with a bit of doctoring on flavours as mentioned above I reckon this is a winner and you won’t have a steamed up kitchen for hours while you are trying to prep the rest of the feast 😀

Went to the meeting in the village about the recent theft activity, good turn out and some good ideas to put into action.

Friday: Not so cold today but a rather gloomy, grey Friday. I have blood tests again today so I get everything done and ready before I go out. Then we called in to see Mum and Ken for a coffee and back home to light the fire as it is a bit chilly.

I gave Shelley some Christmas pudding for Martin to taste test and will wait to hear what he says, John hasn’t had any yet either.

I have been looking at geothermic ways of heating a greenhouse, they all seem complicated, I’m sure it could be more simple than what I have seen but maybe I’m not looking at all the issues. I was thinking you could basically sink pipes into the ground far enough and they would release the warmth from the ground and thus heat the air but all of the systems I have seen transfer the air backwards and forwards or rather in a cycle so more research needed on that I think.

Saturday: It got colder as the day wore on today.

We had a list of little jobs to get done, 2 doors that were not quite shutting properly, 2 lights in the stable that were not working needed sorting out, a couple of cctv notices that needed putting up, a tv bracket to put the tv on the wall in the spare room, a straw and hay delivery to oversee, John had to pop to Witney to get something sorted out, not big jobs but small, niggly ones that are now sorted 😀

Sunday: Another ‘non’ morning 😁 that will do for me. John did the birds etc this morning while I did the usual household bits, then I set to preparing food for the week ahead. I got the blood results from my last test and some of the liver function is a bit off, not enough for them to action anything but I figured if I can do something to help it then I should. So I am stripping my diet right back and in order to do this I need to be prepared otherwise I will fail at the first hurdle, it will be meat, fruit, veg, nuts, spices, herbs, eggs, only and even then some veg is out for the time being such as potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, there will be no dairy 😜 and no sugar. There will be bone broth 😁 coconut milk lattes and plates of colourful healthy food, I will let you know how I go.

The Christmas pudding trial got a thumbs up from John, in fact he said he preferred it to my usual one………what the one I spend hours over, soaking, mixing, cooking, nurturing and steaming, bloody great, ah well that’s a few hours of time saved each year then 😋

I did finally get outside, John barrowed more muck onto the veg beds then went on to clean out the hens and I raked up the fallen leaves, these were then deposited on the beds as well. Leaves are an overlooked, valuable resource when it comes to improving soil structure, indeed to most people they are a pain, swept or blown into a pile then deposited in the green bin 😫 if only you knew how much they add to the soil you wouldn’t throw them away. Gather them up by all means but then put them on your flower beds or stuff the tops of your pots with them, over winter the insects will feed on them or they will break down giving you some lovely nutrients, win, win 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Daffodils planted ✔️ trees planted ✔️ and a bucket of twigs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday November 12th: A pleasant November morning, sunshine, not too cold, a little bit of mist hanging low over the fields.

John did the animals and birds and I did a bit of early morning tidying up, we had coffee then he went off to work and I sat down to order some lightbulbs for the kitchen light fittings. You would think that would be a straightforward fairly easy task wouldn’t you, it used to be, years ago, can I have a 40 or 60 w light bulb please with bayonet fitting, not any more. Bayonet, skinny screw in, fat screw in, LED, halogen, Edison filament, 5, 7, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60w (I’m making these up 😝) candle shape, vintage, globe, spiral, warm white, winter white, coloured, colour changing, dimming, non dimming, WiFi smart, I JUST WANT A BLOODY LIGHT BULB THAT LIGHTS UP THE KITCHEN WHEN I FLICK THE SWITCH, life has become far too complicated, I blame interior designers 🤪it’s as complicated as ordering a coffee these days!

Light bulbs now ordered, they look a bit like the one I took out with practically the same numbers so fingers crossed 🤞

I made another coffee, milk, one sugar, hot water, simple 😀

I prepped Johns dinner for later, he is having braised beef, I fancy beef and broccoli stir fry, then I got the Rayburn lit, a bit temperamental today so had to have two goes at it, then I went outside to feed the rabbits etc and check the traps. The rats traps have not caught anything yet but the mouse trap in the poly tunnel has its first victim, I do feel sorry for it but I need to grow peas and beans in there and not have them feasted on by mice 🐭 there are plenty of other places it could have set up home but no, it chose my raised beds in the tunnel, I guess it though it would be safe and warm in there 😝 I didn’t come out of resetting the traps without pain mind you so a bit of karma maybe, not that the trap got me but they are very sensitive and go off easily, while I was trying to place it, keeping my fingers firmly out of the way, it sprung, flipped up and smacked my little finger. This is one of the fingers I had trouble with back in the summer when I had a flare and it is still highly sensitive to cold and pain! It took about twenty minutes of deep breathing until the sensation died down, I am going to have to be very aware of it in the Winter months when the extremities get cold, I might need an extra ‘finger jumper’ under my gloves 😛

I need to start sorting out the ducks, well drakes to be precise, we have far too many, 5 Welsh Harlequinns and about 4 Khaki Campbell’s, I have put them up for sale on various duck sites but if they don’t go then I will have to process them for the freezer. We have the rescue ducks which are doing a great job in the garden, they are safe from ‘any further action’ and I have decided to invest in 12 new point of lay Campbell’s next spring as ours are getting past their prime laying age now and so we are only getting 5 eggs a day at a push from about 20 females.

Tuesday: I signed a letter today and emailed it to my local MP, it is to ask them to look at Agroecology in the upcoming Agriculture Bill, for the life of me I can’t see why local, sustainable, is not at the top of the list anyway but it’s hasn’t even been included.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agroecology

Each Winter I usually make up a spice mix to add to the chicken feed for a few weeks, previously I followed the ingredients that are in a poultry spice ready mix, buy them individually and mix it myself as it’s much cheaper that way. This year I am going to try a few different components, kelp and brewers yeast as well as the usual stuff like garlic, turmeric, and fenugreek just to see if it makes any difference. I don’t think it boosts the egg numbers but I do think it helps with their overall health in the colder months.

You will have noticed that we didn’t mention the red mite very much this year and that is down to the using the cardboard traps and regularly cleaning them out weekly and burning all the bedding and cardboard, it really is working a treat as we have not had the ‘boom’ that the warm weather causes, really pleased with this method.

We have plans to move the hens but John wants to increase the enclosed area first just in case they need to be kept in for any reason, the back muck heap is in the way at the moment so that needs all shifting first. One day we might just get it right lol. On days like today, when I feel ‘normal’ I really want to make plans to increase what we grow, but then on other days, when I am not much good for any work, I give up thinking about it as it all seems like too much work. I would like a few ‘normal’ days in a row really then I could make a bit of a difference, maybe eventually this disease will go back into remission and it will be full steam ahead again 🤔

Wednesday: What a fabulous day, sunny, mild and made all the better for getting all the daffodil bulbs planted. Mum and Ken came over, Ken on the tractor with the back actor digging the trench, about 100ft of it and Mum and I putting the bulbs in and covering the, back over. It really was the most pleasant few hours work I have done in a long time, glorious, I look forward to seeing all the little yellow heads next spring 😀

Thursday: Another half decent day and more planting to be done, this time trees, the ground is just about perfect, although it seems a little late, the weather we have had and are having has made the conditions just right for planting. I have planted a cherry tree (Stella) in the front paddock corner, a pear tree (concord) and an apple tree (Braeburn) in the veg beds and then a plum tree, a brambly apple, a sweet chestnut and a small leaved lime tree in the small back paddock that we planted the daffodils in yesterday. The trees at the back have tree guards on the trunks so the rabbits don’t eat them, the trees in the front areas have mesh around the base so the chickens don’t dig, the easy bit is digging the holes, it’s keeping everything off them that is hard work. I am not too worried about getting fruit from the two at the back they are more for the birds and the bees and to create a little copse, eventually of course the lime and the chestnut trees will be huge but that is very many years away and I probably won’t be around then lol. It will be nice to leave trees behind though for future generations to climb and forage on.

I divided two of the rhubarb crowns, one I will leave and do that next year, now, I can’t decide wether to plant them and have even more rhubarb or not, I think I will definitely plant at least one.

Set some more mouse traps, so far I have caught two in the tunnel and two in the pallet stack out the back, they definitely like peanut butter!

John has chicken casserole tonight and I have korma, rice and peshwari nann, I used to make the korma from scratch when the girls were all living at home but this one is a 1,2,3 packet, I think I will go back to making it and try freezing some of the sauce. Shelley made homemade nann bread the other day and said it was easy to do so I would like to give it a try and as my favourite is peshwari I will def be making the filling 😀

Friday: Mild again, I let the dogs out before it got light and stood outside in my PJs thinking, I’m not even cold!

John did the birds before going off to work and I ended up doing the housework, I hadn’t intended to but I got a bit tired of noticing the dust 🤪 so now I have a sparkly house, well clean enough anyhow.

Saturday: Turned into a lovely day, bit chilly first thing but the sun came out eventually. John did the birds while I put some washing on etc then we went into the garden to move some of the muck mountain onto the veg beds.

I also cut all the tops off of the broccoli plants and fed them to the rabbits, I am going to leave the stalks and see exactly what happens, they may rot away or they may sprout again who knows but there is nothing to lose by trying. They have already been good value because first came the broccoli heads, then after they were cut came the sprouting stalks which went on for ages, now greenery for the rabbits 😀 After that I went on to prune out the gooseberry bushes and the blackcurrants, just thin them all out so that I can pick the fruits more easily next year. I also lifted the canopy of the Mulberry tree, I found it difficult to get into and pick the berries this year as there were a lot of foliage and branches in the way, hopefully I will be able to get under and work upwards next year. All of the woody cuttings from the blackcurrants, mulberry and a few apple branches, I have cut up into smaller pieces for the rabbits, it may look like a bucket of twigs but it’s actually good fodder for them over the winter months.

Sunday: Definitely getting chiller by the day, Josh stayed over last night and so John did the animals this morning while entertained and breakfasted him 😀

Due to various reasons we didn’t get much else done apart from the usual, in the evening Charlie came to pick me up to go to the cinema, just as we walked out the back door she shouted FOX. It was in the front paddock so we sent the dogs off round to chase it away, John had said that a hen had been got inside the electric fence in the side paddock ☹️ that is hooked up to the mains and supposed to keep it out, the battles are never ending. We seem to have a lot of undesirables at the moment both animal and human, theft in the village is rife at the moment with a notification every other day coming in about sheds broken into or number plates nicked or car windows smashed to get at belongings, what’s wrong with people, I despair 😩

Posted in Friesland Farm

A week to reflect and remember

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday November 5th:

Remember remember the 5th of November

gunpowder treason and plot

We see no reason why gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot.

And why not, it’s a very good excuse for a big bonfire and some amazing pyrotechnics, soup and hot dogs 😀

Years ago we used to do ‘penny for the Guy’ probably not politically correct now on soooo many levels 🤣🤣

Another morning of getting the paperwork in order and now it’s all ready to go so I can stop thinking about it, I also managed to get this years paperwork up to speed as well, go me 😀

Got the dinner sorted for later and watched the new season first episode of Outlander 😀

Then Sam and Mia arrived and we were so busy chatting I nearly forgot to light the fire 😝 it is much warmer today and so it didn’t really register.

Putting the birds tonight and one of the cats, Diesel was a proper pain in the rear, for some reason he decided I needed his company on the rounds, all very well except the birds are not used to him making an appearance like that and so were all of a twitter. He ran off in front of me to the front paddock then a cross it, then back again unnerving everyone, well one chicken wasn’t haven’t any of it and started chasing him across the paddock, never seen anything so funny 🤣

We have returned to putting a light in with the hens overnight, it’s rechargeable and runs out of battery early in the morning so they are not under light the whole time but just enough to keep laying enough eggs.

Tuesday: The morning after bonfire night and true to form it’s misty out, not as bad as I have seen it in previous years but still misty. It is also damp and looking at the forecast that will be the theme of the week 😕 rain 🌧

I have Mia today so not much will get done in the way of grown up stuff lol.

Wednesday: A rather dull and drizzly morning, temps are on the warmer side though. It was pretty windy overnight but that has settled this morning.

Once I had done a couple of indoor jobs I went out to get some bits done, in between rain showers and sun bursts, I collected a bucket full of weeds for the rabbits and moved three wheelbarrows full of muck onto the raspberries in the fruit cage. Three lots is just about all I can manage at the moment, it’s not pushing the barrow that’s the problem it’s digging into the heavy compacted pile that is hard work for my hands, so, little and often is what I will be doing until I can get John to help at the weekend. At least all the muck is now in the garden even if it is in a huge pile!

I am still working towards the forest garden and must admit that chopping and dropping is quite satisfying 😀 even chopping the tops off of the nettles and thinking, that’s a good bit of nitrogen for the soil, I am quite chuffed with how it’s all looking, to the untrained eye it looks messy 😉 but in reality it’s all good stuff for the soil with minimum effort, win, win.

Well it’s hammering down now so I abandoned outside, sat with a coffee and ordered a couple presents for the upcoming Winter festivities, I refuse to say the word until December 🤣

On a day like this I don’t really want to be getting a soaking unless it’s absolutely necessary and I need to come up with something for dinner tonight so after a rummage around in the freezer we have lamb pie. A pack of shop bought flaky pastry that has been in there for a good while, some saved, cooked lamb that would have been leftover from a roast, some swede, leeks, onions, celery, mushrooms (finely chopped, we are seeing how this goes with John, so far so good) pepper, lamb stock, a touch of mint jelly, Rosemary, 2 tomatoes (flesh only) and a dash of pontack sauce, smells fab and will hit the spot for a warming supper tonight. At this point I probably should have made something for pudding or a cake for the week but instead I thought I would have a go at something different and something I love, toffee 😀 Toffee, for me would be my last meal choice I think lol, and while I still have teeth that can chew it, I will. I used some walnuts and white choc chips and some sea salt, sprinkled it into a lightly greased oven dish then made the toffee to go on top.

I am waiting for a delivery today and get an e mail saying sorry we missed you, what! I have been here all the time, I check the crappy photo they send to prove they we here, that’s not my hedge, I check the cctv, no sign, I check for the card they left, nope, so they were in the wrong place, I email them through their website and it comes back with the dreaded demon mailer notification, bloody delivery companies, well not all but this one in particular is rubbish, thanks DPD for your great customer service…..not, and there is no other way to get in touch with them 🤬

Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and we were going to go out but it absolutely hammered down so Josh made chocolate fairy cakes instead.

Just as I literally put my wellies on to go out and do the feeding it started raining again, oh happy days, only a couple of days into winter and I’m already fed up with it, it got worse when I caught my foot in the electric netting and fell down in the mud, not a happy bunny this evening ☹️

The lamb pies were delicious 😋

Thursday: I always think it’s Friday on a Thursday, that is since Sam changed her job and my days for Mia changed, I wonder how long it will take for my brain to register it correctly again 😝 A damp but otherwise ‘non’ morning, the temps remain higher than last week so no need for early morning fire lighting. I did clean the flues out this morning though, I like to do it as regularly as possible at least until it’s lit nearly all the time, I made some bread did some hoovering, John had done all the outside and even washed, dried and put away this morning, as dinner was late last night I couldn’t be bothered to do it so left it lol. At this point I should have said well done or thank you, or should I because it’s his washing up too and so what I said was, ‘about time you haven’t done any all week’ and gave him a cheeky smile 😊

Went out to clean out the ducks in both pens and the light Sussex house, I found a round hole chewed in the bottom of the main duck shed, rats, no wonder we are not getting many duck eggs! I have decided this year to go back to old fashioned sprung traps, they can’t become immune to them 😝 like they can to the poison, besides they don’t then poison other wildlife and as long as they are placed sensibly they won’t hurt any other bird or animal. They are definitely under the shed as patch was sniffing and digging around, he is pretty good at getting them if we moved stuff and they run out, I have had a look in the stable block and they have been there also, so I have opened up one of the doors in the hope that the cats will get them, my plan was to move the ducks into a stable tonight but I will have to wait. Luckily we have a spare hut in the duck pen which I can put them in tonight, there are signs of rat activity there too as it’s only a few feet away but I will need to tackle one hut at a time. Even a concrete floor doesn’t stop them, in the end they chew through that as well!

I have ordered multiple traps 😀 and mouse traps too as the one in the poly tunnel is too big for the mouse, it stole the Camembert and didn’t set the trap off ☹️

I also spent an hour researching heated propagator tables/cables/mats etc to hopefully have more success with germinating more difficult things next year. I did think about building a table but that would be bulky and heavy, so then I thought I would look at the mats that you can use on the bench with polystyrene under, I thought that would be a better way to go because it can be put away once the weather warms up and stabilises. Then you have to be careful about what kind of plug it comes with, European or UK and what sort of wattage it puts out and if it comes with a thermometer or not, lol lots to think about. In the end I went for a UK manufactured one with a thermostat, though I have no idea what the wattage is as it did it say but I’m guessing it’s going to be around the temp I need so I will work with whatever it is. All the while I have been on here I have had the company of a tiny ‘money spider’ its keeps on walking round the edge of the iPad, then occasionally on my hand, I flick it off, it comes back round, do you think it’s trying to tell me something 😀

The wind has picked up a bit, that’s good it might dry out the wet mud and reduce my chances of slipping over again later 🤪

The spider is busy spinning threads 🕷 it’s quite fascinating to watch, it attached a thread to the iPad from somewhere in the air, I broke it, it went to collect the end and re attach it, so I broke it again and off it went to do it all over again.

John was at the hospital last night so it was me putting the birds away, normally this is pretty easy as they all know where they are going, except tonight because I shut off the duck shed to put the traps in there and opened up the other shed. They have been in there previously so you would think that as that was the only option available to them they would meander in there easily………nope, I tried for more than half an hour, with the daylight slowing slipping into darkness. The problem was they kept splitting off into multiple groups while I was trying to gently herd them towards the open door, well I got crossed and crosser lol, in the end I phoned John to see how long he would be as it would be easier with two, he was just coming up the lane, so I carried on trying and literally just as he got through the gate the buggers went in 😛😛😛

Friday: Gale force winds and rain forecast for later today, lovely 😕 Not bad this morning though, slightly colder but not too bad. The rat traps didn’t catch anything overnight but then I did it really expect them too, rats are cagey about anything different so it might take a while.

Did a few bits indoors then went out and fed the horse and the rabbits, checked the traps again (nothing yet)

I brought all the remaining seeds in from the greenhouse, I will keep them indoors over winter so they don’t get damp, I sorted them out and actually have a long list of seeds I already have, either left over, saved, free from magazines or bought in this year and not used, looks like I won’t need to get many more at all.

Well not sure what weather I was listening to when I picked up on gale force winds but it obviously wasn’t for our area 🤣 thank goodness because I hate high winds, everything creaks and groans and bangs about and it’s always at night!

Did the feeding and egg collecting a bit early as Mia is coming to stay overnight while Mummy and Daddy have a weekend away for a birthday treat, I only have her one night as she will go to her other grandparents for the next night.

Well the wind did pick up and it was quite gusty, it bought a tree down in the later further along from us.

Saturday: John did the animals this morning while I sorted Mia out with breakfast and dressing etc.

The sky came over very black midday, looks like it’s going to hammer down John said, and it did, it looked like someone was just throwing buckets of water at the window lol.

Yesterday I discovered black and white feathers in the garden, my light Sussex, and I am well peed off to find that there are only 7 out of 10 there grrrrr, they will have to be confined to the orchard for a while now, I don’t want to lose any more 😤

I haven’t checked the traps this morning I will do it later and I have more traps to bait and put down.

John goes off with a list to get some shopping while I lit the fire, no point doing anything outside might as well cosy up and hunker down. I had literally just got the fire going well when the electric went off, ffs 🤬 is nothing ever straight forward round here! I tried resetting it twice, well first I had to climb on a chair with the torch, then get back down as I needed my glasses to see, no luck so I put some wet weather gear on and go check all the outside fuse boxes and unplug/turn off anything that might have tripped it, yep a plug to the pump connected to the rain collectors, at least I worked it out. I am getting tired of the things that don’t work as they should round here I think it’s either time to move or time to build something more substantial, I can’t decide which at the moment 🤪

And then John comes home and asks me if I have been having a sleep 😬 he is always the positive to my negative, just think on the bright side he said, some people don’t even have electricity…….true. It’s not the lack of electric that worries me, I could manage easily enough but the fire needs the pump to take the heated water away from the boiler, the fire is lit, heating the water hotter and hotter and there is nothing to move it away, that’s the problem, it has plenty of safety features on it just in case that happens but still I have heard of people who have ‘cooked’ their rayburns like that.

Sunday: November 11th, The week started with a Remember, Remember and fittingly it ends with one, after doing the feeding etc we went out for coffee and pastries, then joined a couple of hundred people for the Remembrance service, last post and two minutes silence at the Town Hall. Good to see that many people turn out to honour those that fought for our freedom, I think they would feel humbled to know that we still honour them 100 years on and all those who fought in conflicts since then too. We also should not forget the huge numbers of animals, around 16 million, that also served in various ways including, Horses, donkeys, mules and camels, cats and dogs (to keep the mice and rats down in the trenches) pigeons and canaries.

To all those who served and especially to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, WE REMEMBER YOU AND THANK YOU

Posted in Friesland Farm

Winters here ❄️ Samhain & a disappointing sweet potato haul.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th October: Winter arrived with a bang this weekend and this morning it’s cold with a widespread hard frost brrrr. We were up early of course because the body clock doesn’t fall back along with the digital ones 😜 We have the usual ‘well it’s really an hour later’ conversations during the first few days until it all settles down.

One of the things I love to see in Autumn is the phenomenon of leaves falling all at once, this happens after a cold frosty night then when the sun hits the tree all the leaves fall at the same time, mostly on Ash trees I’ve noticed but it happens on others too just not in the same quantity, it’s like Autumns confetti 😀

There were some overripe bananas at Johns Mums that she won’t be using so this morning I have made a banana and Nutella cake, I have put a couple of the bananas in the freezer for easy banana ice cream if and when I need some. If you have never tried it then it’s a great way to use them, basically freeze them, then blitz them in a processor, either eat it there and then or re freeze it for a firmer ice cream, that’s it, no other ingredients necessary and it’s pretty good 😀

I lit the Rayburn while waiting for the cake to cook, since John insulated it the Sun no longer warms the place up like it used to, insulation is a double edged sword here, and that doesn’t even include the lack of a mobile signal because of it lol.

I need to get outside and clean out the duck pens this morning but I am waiting for the sun to defrost everything first, hence baking first thing, plus it warms up the kitchen a bit as we don’t have instant heating it can be a tad cold. I have now let all the orchard birds except the quail, out to free range on the veg garden, ducks and light Sussex all doing a great job of bug control, weed clearing and manuring 😀

I ran out of reasons to not go outside and so eventually went out to put fresh bedding in the orchard pens and cages, big mistake wearing woolly gloves to move straw about 😜 I was in the middle of it all when I heard the alarm call go up and the birds all start getting in a flap, I thought it was the Fox but nope, one of them had knocked over the wheelbarrow, and that’s all it takes for mayhem to begin 😝

It was actually quite pleasant in the sunshine to be fair and it’s a nice feeling to have cosied up all the nesting/sleeping areas for everyone even if it won’t stay clean very long!

I decided to make a start on the office now I have room to put stuff, so my sewing machine and paraphernalia has now got a home where I can get to it in the spare room. Whilst tidying and going through stuff I found all-sorts I had forgotten about, not least my college certificates etc, I got a distinction in organic gardening I had completely forgotten about that lol, there are essays and assignments for various subjects and lots of certificates I had long since forgotten about. I found diaries from 1908 & 1941 from a local farm, mostly illegible handwriting and mostly a log of the weather, cows calved and other general farming stuff by the looks of it, you would have to go through page by page to see if there were any titbits in there, not even a mention of the war as far as I can see, except a female employee left after 14 years working for him, presumably for the war effort.

I haven’t quite finished in there yet I still have reams of old paperwork to go through and throw away, I am aiming to get the filing cabinet looking neat, tidy and properly organised 😀

And what the heck do you do with a box full of technological cables? I have no idea what most of them are, everything we have plugged in or connected works fine so I’m guessing I don’t need all this other stuff but where do you take it?

Tuesday: Cold, windy but not frosty this morning, no Sun but a bit of rain first thing. I have Mia today so not much in the way of work will get done.

I am still having a few problems with my hands at the end of the day, I’m still not sure what it is by they get stiff and slightly painful in a couple of areas, one thought is the way I hold the iPad so I might stay off of it today and see if it makes a difference.

Just waiting for Mia to wake up from her afternoon nap, we have had a busy day playing 😀

I’ve done all the little jobs I can find and can’t start anything major as she is just as likely to wake up halfway through doing it lol. So thinking is the order of the moment and I was thinking back to something my sister said at the weekend, I gave her some Walnuts which I have not for out for sale as they are a bit hit and miss as to wether they are shrivelled or not. I was explaining that I didn’t want to charge a couple of quid for them if people found that half were no good, crack em open and sell them then she said, doh, why did I not think of that, so I think that’s what I will do, obviously it will take up some time but at least I won’t be wondering what to do with them all 😊

Wednesday: Made a schoolboy error last night saying to John ‘oh I don’t think it is going to freeze tonight, too much cloud cover’ wrong, very wrong! According to the met office the overnight temps in Oxfordshire went down to around -4 😝 It matters because we did not do the water buckets last night and this morning everything is frozen solid so I won’t be able to top them up until its thawed out a bit, hope the sun comes out soon. Also I let the fire go out around 6 last night because it got quite warm in here so this morning it’s only about 15c indoors which is a tad chilly!

I got some venison steaks out of the freezer for dinner tonight, I had forgotten they were in there, we don’t have it very often once every couple of years really but they will be nice pan fried and I will do some caramelised onions to go with them and chips 😀 I fancy chips today.

Had a split fitting on one of the outside taps and water spraying out everywhere so will need to get John to repair that when he comes home as it’s the only water down in the side paddock, good job I am married to a plumber 😀

Today of course it’s Halloween, the beginning of Samhain, as I say every year we do not get trick or treaters up here far too dark and out of the way 👻 I may persuade John to go and visit Charlie and Macca who have spooked up their house ready. I loved it when we lived in town and the kids knocked on the door all dressed up, I have been known to dress up to greet them 😀 And we have had a few great Halloween parties here in the past with carving competitions, pumpkin recipe competitions, we haven’t had one for a few years now but maybe next year now the grandchildren are getting old enough to stay up a bit longer.

Diesel showed up this morning, he has been awol for about a week, definitely getting fed elsewhere 😝

I went out with my Neighbour mid morning to a farm not too far away that sells it’s veg, quite a range of it too, brassicas, root veg, squashes a good selection, the details can be found on the Oxfordshire Smallholders Business and services page. After that we went to Millets farm for a coffee and a quick look round. I was surprised to read that most of their fresh produce was sourced within a 50mile radius. Millets started off as a small market garden and is now a big concern so good to see that their values are still well grounded.

Thursday: A wet, dull, misty morning, just like November should be 😝 John has let everything out and fed most of them just the rabbits to do, I will wait until the rain slows down a bit. We needed it because yet again we have gone weeks without very much at all and everything is bone dry, for a country that is know for the rain it has been very absent over the last 6 months.

Over an hour and a half later and it’s still raining so I still haven’t gone outside 😝 but I have been busy. Shelley bought over her pumpkin seeds, I am assuming she used the flesh, I have washed them and some of them I have dried and put aside to dry further for planting next year and some of them I have boiled in salt water for 10 mins, tossed them in oil, salt and pepper and they are roasting in the oven for 10 mins, tasty snack. You could make them sweet with sugar and butter but I thought savoury would be healthier. I have also prepared the venison for the slow cooker as I didn’t get round to cooking it last night, we had eggs instead. One of the things I need to do is organise the dinner first thing in the morning because I’m finding that once I have done the afternoon rounds, then gone out and shut everything in at dark, the last thing I want to do is turn round and prep everything for dinner, so if I do it all in the morning when energy levels are higher then it shouldn’t be a problem lol.

I fried some onions, garlic and celery, browned the venison, added a dash of Worcester sauce, salt and pepper and some beef stock, I will add potatoes and carrots later on during the cooking process.

I have just tasted the pumpkin seeds mmmm they are very tasty and easy to do really, I can see me picking at these all day 😀

Went over with Sam and Mia to see my Mum for coffee, Shelley, Josh and Flo came too.

Lit the Rayburn when I got back, I had already prepared it in the morning so it was a case of just lighting it, it’s not so cold today so didn’t need an early morning firing up.

I started de-shelling the walnuts in order to sell them but I realised it is going to take a lot to make up a decent weight to sell so I probably won’t bother and will just shell them for my own use.

Friday: Cold hard frost this morning again, but the sun is shinning too so it might be a nice day as long as you are not in the shade lol.

I keep forgetting to move my orange and lemon tree into the poly tunnel, I really need to do that unless it’s already too late which I will greatly chastise myself for.

I have some onion sets that normally I would put in over Winter but in all honestly they are not harvested much earlier than the spring sets so I’m thinking I will leave it, less to worry about and it also means that the ground I was going to use can have a good layer of manure instead. The courgette plants have now collapsed in dramatic style due to the freezing temperatures and my plan is to just leave them there to be incorporated back into the ground, that is what I am aiming to do with most of the annual plants.

I have gone back to writing a list otherwise I walk past something and think, I must sort that, then completely forget about it until next time I walk past it and the whole cycle starts again 😜

I was all geared up to go outside and get started but after looking out there again I decided to do some bits indoors and let the Sun warm up the ground a bit more first. I can easily keep my body warm it’s the extremities that suffer so I will wait 😀

I bought some ginger the other day with the intention of making some stem ginger, I just wanted some in the cupboard in case I need it. I am not a huge lover of ginger, unlike my Mum who adores it, but I like a hint of it in certain things. Of course the ideal would be to grow it but although I have managed to get it to sprout some greenery that’s as far as it had got never mind multiplying and producing more.

While I was waiting for the ginger syrup to boil I had a look at the pear liqueur I made a couple of months ago, and a little taste, oh my days, that is seriously good and I found myself wishing I had made a whole lot more 😀 (on the list for next year) it still has few more weeks to mature but it is a divine taste of Winter/Christmas and will definitely warm the cockles after a cold day outside.

I went out at 9.30, not too bad by then, I got stuck into some work to keep me warm, the sweet potato foliage had collapsed and so time to see what was underneath, 😝🤪😖😕 not a bloody lot! The sum total of four piddly tubers 😖 I will keep those and dry them and use them next year, I need to do a whole lot of reading up about them because I’m not getting anything despite trying different methods and locations each year. Once everything was cleared, I barrowed 3 lots of manure in there and filled up one of the beds and two recycle bins. Then onto the task of moving the citrus trees back into the big tunnel, first I put down some black membrane, then got the trees in and stood them on bubble wrap on top of it, then made what I can only describe as a bubble wrap tent 😀 They need to be protected from the cold ground and the cold air but they also need to be able to breathe in case they sweat and create moisture, hopefully I have done enough but you never know.

I had a look round the garden and the chickens and ducks are doing a great job of weeding 😀 definitely a good plan. There is still plenty to do out there but I need a bit of a hand with the heavy stuff so will wait until John has a spare minute which is a bit rare at the moment.

Saturday: A non weather morning lol, not raining, not sunny, not windy, not frosty, not cold!

John did all the animals except the quail and rabbits which I did a bit later on, I gave the rabbits some greens this morning which they were happy to have, I have found it more difficult to supply them solely on forage now the weather has turned. I like the whole idea of tree hay etc but in practice you need somewhere damp free to store it and the barns all have metal roofs which condensate so they are not moisture free. John went off to get some feed and sawdust so I got a loaf of bread on the go, a batch of shortbread cookies, and some chuck it all in soup 😀 onions, leeks, potato, mushroom, garlic salt, pepper, a couple of leaves of parsley and one of the vegetable freezer stocks I made earlier in the year, I will see what else it needs when it’s nearly done.

The car passed its MOT 😀

Had Josh in the afternoon while Shelley, Charlie and Flo went to visit Johns Mum.

In the evening I had a phone all from Shelley to say she was passing ours in the lane and a large white dog was loose, I grabbed a torch and a lead and she came to get me but we couldn’t find it as it had run off over the fields ☹️ I hope the owner finds their dog.

Sunday: Raining! Blooming typical because yesterday it was dry all day but what with one thing and another we didn’t get the outside jobs done that I wanted to. Still a drop of wet stuff wasn’t going to stop me today and I wouldn’t be letting it stop John either 😜 I wanted the front muck heaped turned, broken up and put on the garden so John got on with that. Meanwhile I burnt some paper rubbish, tidied some things away from the back undercover area, put some membrane down in the big tunnel and set a mousetrap in the small tunnel. I had deliberately filled in the hole in the compost to see if it got dug back out and yep there was another neat little hole. I want to put the peas in here overwinter so the mouse has to go 😖

In the afternoon, John cleaned out his van which took 2 hours! I am not going to let it get like that again are famous last words as far as his van is concerned. Then he cleaned out the chickens, while I lit the fire, prepped the dinner for tonight and did paperwork 😛 The end of year was supposed to be done after April but I wasn’t well enough all summer so it got left, there is that little nagging voice always there though ‘you still need to do the books’ so I made a good start on them today, all the farm paperwork is ready and most of the plumbing paperwork, just need to make sense of Johns scribblings and put it down so that the accountant can make sense of it 🤪 I know I should keep it all in order as I go along but as with all the best intentions, sometimes busy lives get in the way 😋

We have pork chops for dinner and a jam sponge pudding when John gets back from visiting his Mum. I figured I would use some apricot jam, though John doesn’t like apricot jam, I bet he will eat it if it’s a sponge pud.