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.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 