Month: August 2019

Posted in Friesland Farm

The wrong shoes, plum moth and hard working Mums 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 19th August: whoo hoo Monday again 😬 Not a bad day weatherwise so far, cool enough, a touch of sun, no rain and no wind 😀 After doing the morning stuff I got on in the garden, not veg gardening, today I am giving that a rest but flowers instead. I have a few plants that are struggling where they are and I wanted to save them so I have dug them up, a fushia, delphinium, lupin and gaura, and potted them in fresh compost and put them in the greenhouse for a boost. Then I went out to the front by the egg shed and hoed and weeded, dead headed and brushed, so it looks a bit more presentable now 😀 The ranunculus have died back and I want to try and store the bulbs over winter as they were pretty special so I have bought in the pot to sort them out and in its place I have put a dahlia which should flower soon.

I got dinner sorted for later, we had a roast chicken yesterday and got to use it all up lol so I will be having a baked potato/salad with mine and John will be having a throw it all in the pot and reheat job 😀 I also made a summer fruit pudding crumble with the blackberries and raspberries I picked this morning, I mixed them up with some greengages and I meant to take a photo before putting the crumble mix on top as the colours were vibrant, but I forgot 🙄

The Victoria plums, I have discovered have plum moth 😟 I had a trap in the damson tree which is about 20ft away and I thought it would cover it but it seems not 😏 so I have ordered some more traps and grease bands to do as many fruit trees as possible. It’s a pain in the arse to wait all year only to find they have moth in them grrrr

I keep eyeing up the mulberry tree and there are loads on there but the blackbirds are beating me to them every morning, mulberries turn very quickly, red one day, black and very squishy the next, hard to get them at the right time, I have not had one single berry yet 😏 The biggest problem with the soft fruit is that the birds will eat them before they are ripe enough to pick!

When John came home he noticed some of the new hens had got out and on further investigation a big hole has been chewed in the netting, I think the geese are to blame but also the charge was not going through so John spent 2 hours fixing it. I went out when he had just about finished and he asked if I was going to help him put the birds to bed, I said, I haven’t got the right shoes on. Anyone who works outside especially in and around paddocks/stables will know you need the right shoes, anyhow I obliged and went to the stables block to lock the birds in, I turned on the main light, turned around and caught my foot under the rubber matting which was slightly proud. I kind of flew, hands sprawled out in front of me and then belly flopped onto the hard ground beneath me, I cried out and then just lay there whimpering until John found me, concerned at first but then laughed when he realised I was grazed but not broken 😜 I feel lucky that I didn’t break anything, especially my wrist which took the brunt and lucky that I had taken some ibrufen an hour before for my sinusitis (I know, I’m a walking disaster at the minute) I’m sitting here typing with bits of me smarting and I can imagine in the morning it will hurt or at the very least be stiff🙄

Tuesday: A little sore this morning but nothing much thank goodness 😅 I spent a good deal of the morning trying to get the fruit cage under some sort of control, the bindweed has been awful this year and has rampaged through the raspberries smothering everything. I did other things but forgot to write them down and now poof, can’t remember 🙄

Wednesday: I got busy doing some cutting back and tidying in the garden, then Mum came over and also got busy doing some weeding and tidying and suddenly it’s all starting to look a bit more under control lol. I think I have decided that I am going back to the way I gardened before 😜 I will plant trees and shrubs in among things but I need a bit of order 🤪 and can’t really cope too well with what seems like haphazard gardening. I think we have decided I should garden to what suits me and not try and follow a regime as such, much better for my sanity lol.

Some more plum moth traps arrived today so I have put them up in the trees to catch the males, I have until early September to trap them and hopefully slow down the numbers.

Thursday: A bloody good session outside this morning 😀 following on from Mums sterling work on the feverfew, which has gone beserk and taking over everywhere, I did a bit more to the same area and the pathway which is so weedy it’s a job to distinguish from the garden! Then onto the hazel trees at the side of the house, normally at this time of year nothing needs doing to them but last autum we cut three of them back to let light into the tunnels on the other side. You can image how much growth they have put on and the tomatoes in the tunnels are struggling to ripen so I have cut back some of this years foliage and the stinging nettles to hopefully help with the light issues. Then I noticed that the ripe hazels are beginning to fall so I raked the area clean, it’s easier to spot them that way 😀

Yesterday and today I have felt fit and well whoo hoo hence some hard graft, have to be careful though as wham it will hit me when I’m not looking lol.

I went on chicken watch because despite John spending another hour last night fixing holes, they have still got out today, so I am sat waiting to see where exactly they are doing it, luckily the sun isn’t out 😀 At the moment the hens are behind electric that’s because they are only just starting to lay and we want them to lay in the nest boxes. If we let them free range straightaway they would just lay anywhere and we will not find the eggs, chicken training, who knew there was such a thing 😜

I been sat here for 20 mins and no one has made a bid for freedom but I know as soon as I turn my back they will be out 🙄

I spent the evening sorting out, or trying to sort out, the office, going through old paperwork that we no longer need so that I can find any paperwork we do need!

Friday: It’s lunchtime and so far I have split my time between cleaning the bathroom and doing some washing, picking veg and sowing some winter seeds.

I am cleaning because Dad and Sue are coming to stay for a week, they arrive Sunday, I am not cleaning because they will mind the a bit of dust but because I would like it to be nice and clean when they are here lol. My thoughts reminded me about a conversation with Johns Dad once, asking me if Women dressed for Men or for themselves pffft, themselves of course (most women anyhow) quite conceited of the male of the species to think that we dress for them 🤣 We used to have some good conversations, generally we saw things from opposing angles which you would think put us at odds with each other, not in the slightest, we enjoyed discussing our different opinions and often learnt from each other’s views, and he always enjoyed playing devils advocate 😜

The winter veg I have sown are not very exciting but will hopefully provide some fresh veg in the ‘hungry gap’ some winter spinach which is always useful, sweetheart type cabbage which will be ready next spring and some mooli radish. The latter I have never grown before and they were free seeds, from experience weird and wonderful veg rarely grow well but no harm in trying, they grow as big as a tennis ball so will make great additions to soups and stews over winter.

I have picked a bit of veg this morning but to be honest it’s meagre pickings, that’s because whatever I haven’t used or frozen has sold out quickly and now I’m struggling to keep finding things to put out, there are worse problems to have I know 🙄

Saturday: Turned out to be a scorcher of a day with more to come over the next few days! We were up early because we wanted to get into town and get some shopping before it got too hot. Just before we left another early bird was up and over here, Mum came to do some more work on the weeds, it’s all now looking pretty good largely due to her hard work 😓 so thanks Mum 😘 I did a bit when I got back and John did a few jobs but by lunchtime it was very hot and in the afternoon the temp gauge in the greenhouse was off the scale which stops at 50c 🙄 Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and we sat in the shade until that even got too hot, after they had gone it was just basic jobs that got done.

I was babysitting Mia and the twins for a few hours while Sam went off in search of her sanity 🤣 with Luke to their local pub. I said to her ‘hats off’ I don’t know how she gets everything done, it took two hours to feed, wind and change them both then another two hours to settle them and in fact Lucie didn’t settle for the whole evening. Mia was fab, patient, helpful and obliging at bedtime which made it a whole lot easier.

Sunday: An early sign off this week, temps are set to climb even higher today although at the moment it’s overcast so we will see what happens. Again we were up early, I got straight on with watering as I couldn’t do it last night and somethings are struggling, amazing that this time last week it had been raining for days! Then the last bit of cleaning before Dad and Sue arrive for the week, I probably won’t blog much if at all as I will be very busy entertaining etc 😀

Have a great Bank Holiday 🌞

Posted in Friesland Farm

Apple picking, baking day & the Wildlife Park day out 🦁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 12th August: A decent morning considering last nights storms, I helped John do the animals then got on with tidying up the hay bay in the barn. The hay gets everywhere once it’s opened, we have the big round bales, and most of it is now gone but I bagged up the last bits which makes it look tidier. I don’t want to tidy too much as somewhere round there is where the hedgehog is living or at least passes through. In the bay is also a double height rabbit hutch which had fallen apart, it got worse when a hen snuck in there overnight and the fox trashed it getting at her. I have now taken it apart and put it back together, making it stronger as I went and I have a usable hutch again. At the moment I have just put some hay in and left the doors open so that the free roaming hens can lay in there if they wish to and we can actually find the eggs🤞

I have plenty of other jobs to do but feeling a bit tired after those jobs, not a good sign really 😟 I have a few other minor issues I am monitoring at the moment hoping they are all individual things that will clear up one by one, wishful thinking maybe 🤔

Dinner is going in the slow cooker today so that is one less thing to do later on and frees up my day no end 😀

Just lost the electric for a second or two, it happens quite regularly here after heavy rain 🙄

Afternoon chaos with Sam, Shelley and the children lol, the babies are doing well, not even at their due date just yet but putting on the weight well.

Early evening John cleaned out the hens in the side paddock while I got the dinner ready, braised beef, mash and runner beans, followed by rhubarb crumble and ice cream 😀

Tuesday: A lovely sunny morning, the temps are below average and it feels a bit autumnal. I am buzzing today as everything seems to to ready to harvest all at once lol, more runner beans and tomatoes but also plums, pears and apples.

I spent an hour or so picking greengages, got to get them just before they are ripe so that the wasps haven’t had them all, pears, which need picking when they are mature but they don’t ripen on the tree only once picked, tomatoes and beans which are in abundance now and the apples.

Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and we had a glorious time picking eating apples 😀 I didn’t think there were many on the tree, I kept looking at the side by the driveway, but when I went round to the other side my goodness it was loaded 🍎 They are keeper apples so will store well if they last that long lol, as I don’t have any cooking apples I intend to use these instead.

I had a lunch of pasta, feta, freshly picked basil and tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and a twist of black pepper and then sat down to have a look at what kind of recipes I will use the produce for. Though the skins on the pears are not very cosmetically pleasing the flesh underneath will be perfect for freezing, baking, bottling whatever I decide. I have three types of tomatoes, small Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, your average red tomato and a black variety, I can’t remember the name and I have no idea how to tell when it’s ripe lol. I never put my tomatoes in the fridge they taste so much better if they are kept on a sunny windowsill until needed.

I love this time of year and all the possibilities of using the fresh produce, not to mention the amazing smells, I picked some fresh basil popped it into a bag and straight into the freezer for use in the winter months, smells divine.

Tonight we are having chicken and potato bake I think, that will be a new one on John but hopefully he will like it, I will only put parsley on half of it as he does not like parsley 🙄

Lunch finished, sit down finished, now time to process runner beans for the freezer 😜

Usual afternoon routines done and I had intended to go out in the evening and do a bit but I was quite tired so I didn’t 🤪

Wednesday: Oh what a different morning this morning! Pouring down with rain, it’s not cold though and I don’t mind doing the animals in a bit of summer rain. We had planned on an hour round trip to collect a lamb for the freezer but as it happens they were coming out this way and delivered it first thing so that saved us a trip out. We used to do our own lambs but after a terrible year what with one thing and another we gave up and now try to buy from other local producers. I was thinking that I should set up some kind of page for local produce to advertise because although it is shared on the Smallholders site I run, not everyone has access to the page. Primarily it’s for Smallholders to network and not for the general public so how would the public know what produce is available locally unless it is sold at some outlet like a farm shop or local shop, there must be plenty of farm/garden gate sales like ours that locals would use if they knew they were there. I think that is something I will mull over for the next few days and see what I can come up with.

After planting 1000 daffodil bulbs last Autumn I thought I would expand a little and get some tulips to plant this year, not quite as many though, only 125 lol.

The rain is set to be here for the day so the choices are tidy and sort out the office or bake, yep baking it is then 😜 I made, choc chip shortbread biscuits, good old rock cakes, the faithful Marry Berry Orange and Sultana cake and a Gingerbread loaf. I started at 10 and finished washing up at 1pm it’s surprising how long everything takes which is why I police Johns eating of them, they are not McVities 50p a pack biscuits rattled out in a massive factory in 20 seconds flat you know!

Thursday: One of those days when you never quite get on, windy but dry, are we going to just go straight into autumn, it seems these days that we don’t have any gentle ride into the seasons, just boom, Winter, boom Spring, boom Summer and now boom Autumn , we are ver hopeful in the UK that we will get an ‘Indian summer’ well we have been known to have a day or two in the past 😂

Firstly, I did the animals this morning as John and I were mulling over some invoices first thing which made him later than he likes to be. He doesn’t have to be anywhere on time as he is self employed but he had good work ethics and likes to be at a job early.

Animals done I had just made a coffee and someone came to buy point of lay hens, sorted that out and sat down to drink my coffee, almost finished it when someone else came about a cockerel that needs rehoming, we have enough already though so it’s a no from me. Someone else came for veg and eggs but we are all sold out so I shouted a rough time when there will be more available and figured I better get on with some picking. Runner beans, courgettes, beetroot, cucumbers and some purple sprouting broccoli. Not all of that will go out for sale as we will use some things and the girls will have some of it too. I was thinking about what has done well this year, Runner beans, until the wind knocked them over, the French beans, though I should have planted more, cucumbers, they are going strong as are the tomatoes, the courgettes and the spaghetti squash too although they are not ready to harvest yet, I had a few broccoli and cauli, and the broad beans, asparagus and rhubarb did well. What has not done so well, carrots, sporadic, soft fruit, weather related? Peas, hmmm never seem to get those right, globe artichoke, plenty of heads but the plant was too big and went over in the wind, the brassica cage has white fly so that’s no great and a caterpillar or two as well.

Still going strong but yet to harvest much are the peppers, cape gooseberry and melon and one success I am rather chuffed with is the lemon grass, not ready to harvest yet but growing well and some ginger I bought from the shop has sprouted and going strong for the time being, with the latter two it’s always winter that is the tricky part of keeping them going, I’m hoping the new greenhouse will aid that greatly. I had a rogue chickpea plant come up and that has done well in the greenhouse so maybe next year I will try those again.

I am acutely aware that the garden is like a jungle at the moment, I have not had time to keep fully on top of everything and it shows, I got to a point when I thought ‘ah sod it, I will tidy it all up at the end of the year’ I know I was going in for forest gardening but it has got a bit out of hand lol. It looks like a jungle, feels like a jungle and when I can hear the monkeys from the wildlife park down the road, it sounds like a jungle 🤣

Friday: We had broken sleep last night and here is why: John turns the light on in the bedroom and starts getting dressed, what time is it? I say, 1am he replies, what are you doing? I heard a van pulling away from our drive, how do you know it was a van? It sounded sluggish like a van. Now considering the rural crime rate in the Thames Valley is high and at the moment activity just across the border is very active plus we have a big local gypsy fair coming up which always increases the crime rate, it makes sense to be on alert for these things. Can you check the cctv footage he asked, well I can but there is a 15 minute delay between recording and playback so I probably won’t see anything yet, I oblige anyhow and go into the office to look at the footage while John goes outside to check his van and anything else. The cctv as predicted is not available yet and I can’t see any other activity on there, meanwhile John comes back into the kitchen from outside and I go to the kitchen from the office. The first thing I see on the side is 3 bottles of milk and a bottle of orange juice, the milkman, you heard the bloody milkman ffs 🤣 Well at least I heard him John replies, I reply, he has been coming three times a week for the last year!!

Luckily this morning we don’t have to rush around and get to work because we are taking Joshua and Mia to the above mentioned Wildlife Park for the day 😀 Just the big kids to give the Mummies a break and to help the both of them feel grown up now that they have little sisters and brothers that they have to share the attention with, and the fact that it’s school holidays which seem very long to parents and children alike 😜

It’s overcast and just started to rain so not quite sure what kind of a day we will have but we will make the best of it 😀

Well it wasn’t too bad of a day, we got a bit soggy and a bit muddy, a bit tired but a lot happy 😀 Lovely day and the children were super good all day 😘

Saturday: Slightly better weather today although it’s still drizzled a little eventually the sun came out, now all we need it to do is dry up the wet mess the rain has left. John did the animals while I picked veg, I got a soggy pair of gloves and sleeves for my efforts 😜 If it dries up some more I can get on the garden and start tidying up a bit but at the moment it’s too wet. John fixes the pop hole on the duck shed which has been broken for a while and then did the guttering on the greenhouse, that’s the final bit for that and then we need to make tops for the cold frames. I have some cleaning out of cages to do but again I need to wait for the ground to be a little drier, no point traipsing muddy boots in and out 🙄 We have three out of the six turkeys left and they have been good for a week now and looking strong (famous last words) it looks like we have two stags and a hen judging by the tail displays 😀 One of the quail died in the week but I think that has to do with the cold wet weather, they are more exposed here than where they came from, they are laying well though so that’s a bonus.

Sunday: I was well peed off this morning to find that it was raining 😏 I was hoping to get up and get on a little bit and the rain hampered us a little bit not too much. After doing the usual we set about cleaning out the goose hut, putting some cover on the ridge of the quail hut as it’s been letting in rain, pulling up stinging nettles in the orchard and tidying that area, tidying and clearing the orchard pen including dismantling a falling apart hut and lastly but not least cleaning out the turkey pen. The turkeys have just begun to make the distinctive gobbling noise which makes me laugh every time I hear it 😆

John went off mid morning to visit his Mum and I did a bit of tidying of dead and dying stuff on the veg garden and fruit cage. I got stung in places I didn’t know existed by 5ft nettles 🤪

After lunch I did a bit more tidying and clearing before calling it a day, it’s windy and that really gets on my nerves after a while lol.

Charlie and Macca called in for a cuppa and then we went over to visit my brother and his wife and came back with some blackberries 😀

Oh the pullets started laying today as well 😀😀

That’s another week over, thanks for reading, have a good week and I hope the world is kind to you wherever you are 😘

Posted in Friesland Farm

Courgette soup, new hens, stormy weather & Tussie Mussies.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday eve: I took a couple of ibrufen and as John was watching the F1 I decided to go outside and do a bit of pottering. Firstly I watered the tunnels and was delighted to see that the cucumbers and melons have begun to grown quite quickly, then I potted in some plants, blackcurrants, lupins and a few other bits, they will all be left to overwinter and hopefully be good strong plants next spring.

Monday 5th Aug: I feel like s**t 🙄 no other way to put it lol, I have a cold, I think, I can’t breathe, well obviously I can a little or I wouldn’t be here typing this but I can’t breathe through my nose at all, it’s blocked which makes my head feel thick and heavy. I got up had a shower had my breakfast laid down and went back to sleep for a short while, got up had coffee, put some chicken, bones and veg in the slow cooker to make a broth. My throat gets dry then I start coughing away 🤧 sneezing, the works, urgh. The insult to injury is that I can’t take cold and flu remedies due to other meds so the broth mix contains garlic, turmeric and ginger along with chicken, veg and herbs, hope it helps 😜

Tuesday: Feeling a bit better today so I cracked on outside with an early start. I thought I would concentrate on flower gardening so I started with the front area, weeding, deadheading, cutting back and digging up any self seeded things and anything that is struggling. I had a happy time listening to the radio in the greenhouse potting up foxgloves, huechera and a couple of struggling lavenders. Then onto cutting the lawn and hoeing the paths around it, a bit of weeding and taking out the borage which has gone over and a few weeds from the herb bed. Sit down and have coffee and a bagel 😀 Going well and it’s only 10.30!

Shelley came over with Josh and Flo and picked some runner beans, Josh and I dug up potatoes and then Shelley made courgette soup which was delicious and I would definitely make it again.

500g courgettes (we used yellow)

Garlic chopped or minced

Olive oil

450ml of chicken stock, could use veg stock

Fresh parsley

Fresh basil

Salt

Pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

Chop courgettes and soften in olive oil, add stock and cook until soft enough to blitz or mash, add chopped parsley and basil and the pinch of nutmeg. Serve warm with Parmesan cheese and crusty bread 😀

Simple and good for you.

We popped over to see Sam, Mia and the babies.

Rain on and off all afternoon and into the evening but we have to get the fencing up ready for the chickens arriving tomorrow 😜

John finally got the strimmer working, I had sprayed the carburettor with cleaner but couldn’t start it, John had a go then he cleaned out the end of the pipe going into the fuel tank and voila it now works 😀

Wind is predicted for Friday, my first thought was ‘oh no’ that won’t be good for the runner beans, nor the fruit and nuts on the trees 😏

Wednesday: A bits and bobs day, flitted about doing various things but not one big job. First I burnt the paper feed bags and any paper rubbish we had lying around, then I put sawdust and feeders in the POL for sale pen, then I collected a few eggs, washed out and filled up Jacks water trugs, got the mower out and cut some areas that needed doing ( I tried starting the strimmer but I couldn’t get it going 😤) weighed out some veg to put out for sale, picked a few cucumbers, hoed an area that was getting overgrown, weeded the carrot bed, watched the kittens catch their first mouse, fed the rabbits/guineas and torts with the weeds all before noon 😀 Quick sit down before the afternoon begins.

I am trying to get my head around Instagram at the minute lol, not much to figure out I am sure but I never have more than a few minutes to glance at it #clueless 🤪

The new hens arrived in the afternoon, John gets a bit cocky with new arrivals and puts them outside saying ‘they will go in when it gets dark’ well nine times out of ten they do but not this lot! We had to catch all 50 in the front pen and put them inside on the perches, once we had done them we separated off to do the others, I went up the back and John did the side paddock and the duck pen. The other new lot (20) were in the sale pen up the back but they had all collected on the floor near the front of the cage, we have had this before and the fox can nip at them through the mesh, I called John to help but he had already buggered off indoors 😲 Eventually he came looking for me, just as I picked up number 20 😜

Thursday: We have had weather warnings for a storm, quite a big one by all accounts, they have actually cancelled some big events by the coast so they are taking the threat seriously, and so am I. I have been picking as many runner beans as I can manage because the wigwams will be the first thing to be blown down if the wind is that strong, I’m hoping that inland we won’t get hit so hard. With the runner beans I have made some chutney, I will freeze some beans, sell some and give some away to family. I have picked more courgettes 😜 and I’m contemplating having another go at jam, I reckon it would taste really nice but I don’t want another non set disaster, maybe I will make half the quantity as a test run.

At the moment the weather is lovely outside, sunny, calm, not too hot just pleasant, and great drying weather for the washing, I figured get it done today as the next couple of days don’t look good lol.

Despite having plenty of other things to do I did decide to have a go at the courgette jam, 1/2 quantity just in case, it smells amazing as it has lemon zest in it as well and I picture a vanilla sponge with the jam and some whipped cream in the middle and a dusting of icing sugar on top, 😋 I also had a go at another recipe I came across, sugar free caramel sauce, I had a can of coconut milk in the cupboard, it’s been in there for ages and all you add to it is 7tbls of some kind of syrup like agave, or in my case maple, boil it and reduce it down, easy, it tastes good and I think if I had used full fat coconut milk instead of the reduced fat which is what I had, it would be thicker but it’s still a nice pouring consistency.

The new hens went into the hut early today because it was raining so it was an opportunity to shut them in and not having a repeat of carrying them in one by one 😂

Friday: Rather boring but I did the cleaning today, you know when it just starts to make you feel uncomfortable seeing the dust and dirt kicking around lol. I am sat typing this up and it smells lovely, in fact sometimes I just open a door to a room just to take in the fresh clean smell 🤣

We have had three people this week who were supposed to come and collect stuff they had asked for, chickens and veg, all of them no shows 😏 I’m sure people think we have nothing better to do than wait for them to finally decide they might bother, it is one of the reasons that on the whole I do not save eggs for people. Many have asked in the past but I won’t do it, firstly sometimes as above, those people don’t turn up and secondly we have many customers who have been coming for years and take their luck on wether there are any available or not and I feel I owe them that loyalty back.

While I am getting bugbears off my chest the other one is when we have sold out of eggs, in the past I have had huffs and puffs because the ‘sold out’ sign isn’t displayed, this is because I don’t have time to run out every five minutes to see if the last customer took the last box of eggs! While I am on a roll here….we are not a supermarket, we have what we have and when it’s gone, it’s gone 😜 Hopefully, very soon, we will have an abundance of eggs but until then they are a bit thin on the ground. One last small tiny bugbear 🤪 we have plenty of fair weather customers who come in the summer but again the loyal ones come all year long but it’s always the summer ones that complain lol.

The courgette jam, although it smells and tastes amazing, is a soft set and that’s using the term loosely 🙄 I may incorporate it into a cake recipe I think.

Went out for tea and cake with Shelley, Josh and Florence this afternoon, the weather today has not been as bad as I expected but apparently there is worse to come tomorrow 🙄

I have made enquires today about getting some more quail, hopefully I have found some I can pick up at the weekend, that will please the quail egg customers.

Saturday: Windy this morning but as yet no rain. We started off well got the animals sorted and then John got the tractor out and moved loads of muck from the pile at the back to the pile at the front lol. One of the reasons we decided to do this is because two mornings running there have been duck egg shells enroute from the stables to the muck heap so I am convinced there must be at least one rat in there, John thinks not but then he never believes that we have rats about even when the dog kills one 🙄 No rats appeared so maybe he is right about them not being in there but they are living somewhere round there for sure. I did a bit of picking, cucumbers and tomatoes are coming thick and fast now, I picked a few French beans and I planted out some more that will hopefully grow pretty fast and we can get a harvest at the end of September. I also put some in modules in the greenhouse just in case the outdoor ones get eaten by mice though I am hoping the kittens are onto them 😜 I have some cabbage and some winter spinach to sow at some point as well. I went to Mums last night and came back with a seed pod from a peony, I read up about growing them from seed and they can take up to five years that will be a long wait 🙄 I had a walk around the boundaries to see if there were any blackberries ready, nope still small, I have heard people saying they are picking but I don’t know where as round here they are not ready yet.

I clipped back the lavenders and made a few bunches, one each for Sam and Shelley, Charlie has lots of lavender in her garden so I picked some of my precious freesias and a few other flowers to make a Tussie Mussie (small bunch of flowers or aromatic herbs) for her.

Sunday: It’s 3pm and we have had a busy day and I need to sit down as my legs are feeling wobbly 😜 We started off doing the usual rounds and then an early morning trip to Bicester to buy some laying quail, a good journey and we made a great contact there, a butcher with a smallholding 😀 On the way back home we called I to the DIY shop to get a solar powered security light for the front, recommended by my brother who has some, quick pit stop for a takeaway coffee 😀 Back home and straight to work, John put up the light and then got on the tractor to move the last of the muck pile. Meanwhile I worked in the garden, flitting about between indoors and outdoors with the on off rain showers and cloud cover. I potted up some willow that I had taken cuttings of (very easy to strike) I intend to grow them on into trees to use around the place, I cut back the sage, it’s getting old and gnarly so I gave it a hefty prune, there were three pieces that had taken root so I dug those up and potted them. The high winds yesterday have caused a bit of damage but not much, a big bough has come down from my weeping birch tree and 4 lots of runner bean wigwams are down. I have picked all the beans I can from them as they probably won’t recover from the whipping 🙄 I picked cucumbers which are now coming thick and fast and a couple of courgettes lol. John picked up the eggs and fed the birds and I sorted and boxed them, that’s when I felt the need to have a sit down.

Later I went up the back where John was clearing and burning some wood, we heard a rumble of thunder then the heavens opened, proper thunderstorm 😀

We have been out then in then out then undercover, then out then in and have now abandoned trying to tidy up at the back, the bonfire is still going well but it’s so wet out there now I doubt it will go anywhere it shouldn’t !

Posted in Friesland Farm

My birthday 🎂 caterpillar missiles, Lammas & a corn dolly.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th July: Lovely morning, sunny but cool enough early on, John did the birds while I fed the torts and the rabbits/guineas, then I got straight on with some cleaning as Sam, Mia, George and Lucie are coming for the day today. As I have said before the self employed don’t get holiday pay, sick pay or for that matter paternity leave and customers can be very demanding 😜 so Luke is going back to work for a few days and while Sam still finds it difficult to move quickly they will come here so that I can help out and keep an eye on the farm at the same time.

The veg sales have at last picked up a bit, last year I couldn’t get them out there fast enough but this year has been slow, so much so that I had thought I won’t do it next year, then all of a sudden they start selling. I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of eggs so customers stopped coming as we were often sold out. At the end of the week we will be getting 50 pullets in and at the end of next month 22 ducks should start laying 😂 we will be overrun with eggs hopefully lol.

Although the veg sales are lower, the plant sales have been brisk, so when one door shuts, another door opens as they say. Shelley came over with Josh and Flo to help pick runner beans and see Sam, Mia and the babies and Mum came over to see them all as well.

I noticed yesterday that my freesia are starting to flower, you have no idea just how much joy that gives me, I put them in late and didn’t think they would flower this year and as they are probably my favourite flower I am dead chuffed to say the least.

There are few things in the veg plot I have got wrong this year with the whole forest garden thing, one being the sweet corn I planted along side the asparagus. Asparagus, if not picked as spears eventually turn to a fern and they are quite large I didn’t think this through and as sweet corn are wind pollinated and they can’t move in between the asparagus fern, they won’t pollinate, simple as that so I need to cut the ferns down and allow the sweet corn to move. The other problems are smaller, like overcrowding, but I need to make sure next year that doesn’t happen, it’s fine when the plants are all small but once they get going and smother other plants that’s not so good as the yield from the smaller stuff will be down.

Tuesday: Today is my birthday 🎂I am 55 years old, how the hell did that happen 😜

Consequently it’s my turn to do Birthday tea, sandwiches, cake and nibbles this time and by 7am I have a ham roasting in the oven, I think it will be quite hectic this afternoon lol, Sam is getting dropped off here again today, Shelley will be over later to help with sandwiches, my friend is popping in and the Midwife is coming to see Sam and the babies at some point too 😀

Of course the best present I could have near my birthday was the safe arrival of our grandchildren but the next best thing was Johns present which was a solar powered dab radio 😀😀 that means I can listen outside and the batteries will not run out during a crucial/interesting bit of broadcasting 😀 Solar is a theme as my sister bought me some solar Edison style lights for my new decking area 😀 I shall be able to sit out with my lights on listening to an evening play, lovely.

Normally I would make all the cakes etc but this time round I have bought them lol, too many other things going on. One exception is a cake that is sugar free, when I thought about it we have quite a few diabetics in the family either type 1 or type 2 so my mission today was to make a sugar free cake. By Jove I think I’ve done it 😀 I looked at a recipe for a gluten free, sugar free cake and adapted it (almost so it’s nothing like the original) I wanted to get a handle on the quantities and how they worked together. I have just taken it out of the oven and a) it has risen and b) it looks and smells lovely, when it cools I will make a sugar free buttercream for the top and have a taste test before I unleash it on anyone else. I thoughtfully wrote down the recipe just in case it came out ok lol

Sugar free Honey cake:

4 1/2 oz of SR flour

1/2 cup of runny honey

3oz butter melted

Splash of vanilla

Pinch of salt

2 medium eggs

Mix up altogether into a batter

Bake @ 180c for approx 15/20 mins

Small 1/2lb tin

The cake was a big hit and the recipe has been passed around for those who want to have a go themselves.

I had lots of lovely presents including a hammock from the girls to while away some sunny hours (chance will be a fine thing lol) and a huge chocolate brownie stack made by Indulge by Amy, I have had to freeze some of it as even with the rest of the family we didn’t manage to get through it all!

The weather was pretty vile all day, mostly it just hammered down 🙄

Wednesday: A quiet day today, just me on my own I think (as you never know) I have a fair bit of catching up to do, with all the rain yesterday I imagine the courgettes have gone bonkers and there are other veg/berries to pick and prep for the freezer. John fed all the birds and let them out before going to work, I need to pick some forage for the rabbits/guineas and torts.

I keep looking at jobs as I walk round thinking this needs doing, that needs doing lol too many jobs and not enough hours (or not enough energy) as usual.

Quiet it may have been but I certainly had a busy morning, firstly picking, courgettes, French beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, blueberries and Logan berries. Most of the courgettes went straight to the chicken as I already have enough for the time being. Then on to some cleaning out of pens, first the stable block where I had to get on the tools to repair a few things, so a hammer and nails, cordless screwdriver and even the chopsaw were in use. Clean out the nesting boxes and put in fresh straw, hopefully that will encourage to lay eggs in there where I can find them 🙄 Next the duck pen where the new ducklings are, the fence we use to section it off didn’t hold up so I took that down and cleaned out the shed and put in fresh bedding. Next was the light Sussex hen in the paddock, she has been on her own since the fox got her friend but I have made plans to put a couple of the younger Sussex hens in with her along with a cockerel. The rest of them will now be kept separate and fattened on corn ready for processing in about a month, that’s the plan anyway. I cleaned out their hut and put up a rail for them to roost outside if they choose to, that’s how I always wanted to rear them, free range and open sleeping.

Then lunch, cheese toastie from the leftover sarnies 😀 and a little rest 😜

In the afternoon I harvested another bed of potatoes, there are some good big ones in there so ideal for baked potatoes, I also picked some carrots although there are not many ready at the minute. John came home and we had a cuppa and cake and then he strimmed the front paddock ready for the new laying birds next week, meanwhile I prepped and froze the produce I picked earlier on.

I looked at the Victoria plum tree today and yet again it is heavy with plums, this tree has consistently given full yields for the past 10 years that we have been here, it’s amazing. The nut trees were full of nuts until the wind the other day, now there are a lot on the floor, not ripe yet so no point saving them, there are still plenty on the trees but we were looking at a bumper harvest before that lol. The cooking apple tree that we had pruned last year does not have many apples but I would not have expected it after a heavy pruning, the eating apple tree, which is a keeper apple, (good for storing over winter) in the front paddock has plenty and the pear trees look pretty good as well, top fruit has done well this year.

So this evening I decided to strim a few things with my strimmer except it wouldn’t work! A you tube video or two later we decide it’s probably the carburettor that needs cleaning and having no cleaner switched to the electric one. That bloody thing just keeps locking up the spool so after about an hour and a half of trying we gave up, maybe weedkiller IS the answer we are thinking, then when putting the animals to bed Patch found a hedgehog in the hay barn and I was reminded as to why we try not to use it any more 😀

Thursday: It’s Lammas, a celebration of the first cutting of the harvest, though I have noticed that most of the fields have already been cut over the last couple of weeks here. Still I have a few stalks of grain growing here (self set) that I will cut today and give to the hens 😀 to honour the day.

Not much got done today apart from the usual things and watering the tunnels, I had bloods at 10am and then Sam, Mia, Lucie and George we’re here along with Shelley, Florence and Josh, a seemingly endless round of feeding, winding and changing the babies, Shelley took the older ones for a walk after lunch so Sam could have a sleep. I kept an eye on the babies and sat in the garden for a bit, while I was sat there suddenly a fat caterpillar landed on the ground, then another and another, the caterpillars I had seen a couple of weeks ago in the Oak tree were now huge and dropping down to go and find a place to pupate, they are buff tip caterpillars 🐛

I had a little try out on my hammock 😀 very comfy.

Friday: I am a bit tired today lol I didn’t get a good nights sleep at all and consequently feeling it this morning.

Had a shower first thing and while I was in there remembered that I forget to put the dustbin out 🙄 got dried and dressed and went straight out to do it. Having a cuppa outside and heard the bin men driving back up the lane meaning I had missed them BUT they stopped and emptied it anyway 😀 We have great bin men, that’s not the first time they have done that and even come up the drive to get the bin when I have totally forgot 😜

Picked stuff for the rabbits/guineas and then picked some courgettes before they get too big.

Sam decided to stay at home today and see how she got on so that gave me the day free, however I felt so tired that I didn’t do much at all! The sun when it came out from behind a cloud was pretty hot, it makes me feel very sluggish, I can feel a total difference when I’m in the shade or the sun goes in. I pottered a little and napped a little and did the eggs at 3pm that’s about it, oh I did sit and make a rudimentary corn dolly 😀 and cleaned up the onions that have been drying in the greenhouse.

The caterpillars are still launching themselves off the Oak tree 😜

The grapes are doing great in the poly tunnel, unlike the melons, although the plants are growing and tiny melons are on there they do not seem to be getting very big!

Saturday: Todays job on the list was to get the front paddock cut ready for the arrival of 50 hens on Wednesday, John had already strimmed a bit of it but this morning we used the ride on mower to chop up the grass that was laying and cut a bit more of a bigger area. I noticed there is a tomato plant growing in there complete with tomatoes lol, that will be from throwing the chickens tomatoes last year, just goes to prove they don’t need any molly codling 😜

We have a bit of a problem with the turkeys at the minute, two have died, I think its coccidiosis and I am waiting for a treatment to arrive. In the meantime a regime of cleaning, disinfecting, foot baths (for me not them) and giving them everything I have available that is natural. Tea tree and thyme oil, garlic, kelp and brewers yeast powder, apple cider vinegar and lots of fresh herbs in the hope that it will help with the immune system and they can get over it. I have not had a case of cocci for about 6 years so it’s not great to have it now 😏 The majority of our hens come from the industry and are vaccinated against it but of course smaller breeders, including myself, don’t vaccinate because it’s not cost effective, the batches of vaccine are big and costly and most people don’t breed enough to warrant it.

We had a family lunchtime event today so off we went for that and when we got back we had to catch a couple of the ducklings which were being sold. I have now sold 31 of them so I am happy with that, we made a good profit plus 20 ducks, winner, now all they need to do is begin laying lol. In the evening we went over to my brother to sit by the fire pit and eat pizza, chillaxing 😀

Sunday: We started off with good intentions today, early on we went up to the small back paddock to take down the electric fencing (we need it for the new hens at the front) and while I cut the grass up there, John pulled up a bunch of stinging nettles and some docks, then we had a visitor and stood chatting for about an hour and a half lol. Off to get a bit of shopping, John went to visit his Mum and when he got back Shelley, Martin, Josh and Flo popped in for a visit, so we didn’t get much done today. After they left I should have gone out and done some garden stuff, picking etc but I don’t feel too well, I seem to have picked up a cold, John said, just go and have a sit down because you can’t work when you are dead 🙄 ok I don’t need any more excuse than that lol.

I’m still,using loofahs for washing up and cut some new bits yesterday, the old bits will go in the compost, they seem to have lasted for ages.