Month: November 2019

Posted in Friesland Farm

Christmas cake & stir up Sunday

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 18th November: The weekend passes so quickly doesn’t it 🙄 Back round to Monday and it’s a sunny morning, not too cold and not raining so that’s a pretty good winters day 😀 I did the morning rounds, we still haven’t moved the geese but I have opened up the paddock gate for them to wander round the place and hopefully I can herd them into the front paddock later today. Geese are great for keeping your grass under control as long as it’s not too long in the first place and although the front paddock got long it is now dying back so they should be able to get some good grazing in there for a couple of months.

I have a choice of tasks I can tackle today and as yet I haven’t decided which ones I will do, coffee first, decisions after 😀

Coffee drunk, decision made and I got on with cleaning the bathroom, the kitchen, stripping the sofa covers to wash and making a fish pie 😀 not very interesting things but very necessary ones 😜 I was putting my preserve pan back in the top cupboard as I don’t think I will need that any more this year and knocked an empty bottle out which smashed on the floor and covered every square inch of the kitchen floor or so it seemed, took me ages to make sure I had collected all the bigger bits and hoovered up the tiny bits.

Sam, Shelley and the kiddies came over in the afternoon.

John has been coming home in time to put the animals away since the clocks changed but tonight I was on my own, it wasn’t too bad, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get the front lot of hens in by myself as they for some strange reason won’t go to bed even when it’s dark so they have to be cajoled in but I did manage it 😀

Tuesday: I had a bit of a bonus this morning in that the Rayburn was still showing embers in the bottom so before I even got dressed I got it going again, just as well because it was very cold outside🙄 I did the morning rounds breaking ice in the water buckets as I went round teas that cold overnight.

Once that was all done and I was back inside I sorted out dinner for later and then I got some bread on the go. I haven’t made any for ages as I just didn’t have time but over winter there is more time to do those kind of things so I also gathered together all the dried fruit for the Christmas cake, weighed it out and it is now soaking nicely in some pear liqueur and orange juice ready for making tomorrow morning. This year I have been able to use home produce sultanas and I was thinking that if I could get all things aligned I could actually use home grown apricots, cherries, sultanas, lemons, possibly figs and nuts in the cake, wouldn’t that be something 😀

I had a quick visit from two of Johns uncles who had come over this way to visit Johns Mum.

I left the afternoon rounds as late as possible because I have to feed and collect the eggs then go round and put everything to bed so it makes sense to only have to put coat and boots on once. The front chickens were a pain in the proverbial as usual and one is still out but I chased it round long enough so I will see if John can get it when he comes home as I have dinner to sort out. I did manage to manoeuvre the geese down to the front paddock and they are back in their old lodgings tonight, that great because there is plenty of grass out there for them to nibble on 😀

I don’t think it’s going to be quite as cold tonight as last night and I was sweating after coming in from outside lol.

I washed the sofa covers and more holes have appeared 😂 I really need to sort out new ones I think but I can’t quite commit 😜

Benny has been earning his keep every other day I see him with a mouse or something similar, I am glad we went for farm bred kittens who learnt the trade from their Mum, just a shame about the disappearance of TC 😔

Wednesday: A milder day today and the sun is out although my feet got cold towards the middle of the morning.

First off before going out I got the Christmas cake mixed and I to the oven as it was going to take 4 1/2 hours to cook! Then out to do the morning rounds cleaning out the ducks while I was at it. Then Mum came over and she has planted the tulips 🌷😀 I dug up the dahlias and washed off the tubers and did a bit of division with them. Then onto the freesias, I dug half of them up ready to store and I will leave the other half in the ground to see how they do through the winter, hopefully they will survive and I can do that every year instead of lifting them. This is about the point my feet got cold so it was time to come in and make coffee, we had a bit of pumpkin cake that I got out of the freezer yesterday and I lit the fire. Sam arrived with the twins as I am having them while she goes for some physio, the cake was finally done about 5 hours in 😬 It’s a few years since I have made one as normally there is so much food the cake is hanging around for weeks but this year it really will be a treat having not had cake available on a regular basis.

I won a bookcase on eBay, I’m delighted as my other one has run out of room for books 😂 I know it’s the digital age but there is something about picking up a book to read that I’m not ready to let go of just yet 😀

Thursday: Not a bad morning weather wise, I did the rounds and it is quite dry underfoot although we are forecast rain this evening so that will bugger it all up again 😏 As well as feeding and letting out I moved the Light Sussex hens to a pen and had to chose a cockerel from the five we have left. I will be using them as a breeding group and the choice was difficult. I spent a good five minutes looking at them, should I go for size and as they will be for the table that might seem like the obvious option but they will produce more eggs than I need so in the end I went for feathering which means I should end up with good standards and can sell the surplus eggs for hatching which will fetch a good price. Jobs done outside I came in to sort the eggs, we have lots at the moment and not many customers at the farm gate, I say not many we are still turning over dozens of eggs but eventually the surplus catches up and I have a few trays to shift. The duck eggs are going rather better than I ever expected, sometimes we even sell trays of those which is unusual.

Occasionally I have random thoughts and today’s was ‘what is the definition of farming exactly’ I always assume, probably along with most people that farming, especially in this country, takes place on a fairly large scale so I wouldn’t call myself a farmer however the definition is ‘Farming is the act or process of working the ground, planting seeds, and growing edible plants. You can also describe raising animals for milk or meat as farming‘ so it seems that I am after all a farmer 😀 I would also take to task anyone who labelled smallholders as ‘hobby farmers’ as a hobby by definition is something you do for leisure in your spare time 😜

I took all the books off of the bookcase in preparation for the new one and so get what happens next? Yep I spend ages looking through books I haven’t picked up for a while lol. I did sort them out and put a few smallholding/countryside books up for sale, ones I no longer need or use. The range of books goes from smallholding topics to gardening techniques and then publications on local history in one form or another to British countryside, then there are the children’s books that I have never god rid of so poetry and story books and finally novels that I have read or need to read. Another pile of novels will go to a friend who sells them for charity and now I have my eye on sorting out the cook books on the kitchen bookshelf 😜

I did feel inspired by looking through one book and so I did some apple slices to dry in the oven for storing, great snack for the grandchildren or for use on breakfast porridge I reckon.

Around midday when I had slowed down from busying I suddenly felt cold and thought I’d better light the fire, I’m not sure if the temperature dropped or if was already that cold but I hadn’t noticed.

Very pleased with how the bookshelf project turned out and it was a bargain for solid oak, love a bit of second hand shopping.

Friday: Early start for early bloods this morning so I cracked on and got everything done by the time I needed to leave for the doctors surgery. When I got back I lit the Rayburn and decided that I was going to have an easy day today, I feel like I have a cold coming but not sure if it is a cold coming or if it’s the Lupus so I figured a rest day was probably the best thing.

Saturday: Feeling tired 😑 Did the morning rounds, I was hoping that John would be able to do them but he has to get materials for next weeks job apparently, not happy 😕 I do everything by myself from morning till night and look forward to the weekend when I get a bit of help, still the same amount of work but it’s easier with two and besides that it’s someone to talk to as well, makes things more pleasurable. Tired and grumpy do not bode well for the day today 😳

To be fair John didn’t take too long and got dog/cat food and delivered some eggs on the way and I soon got out of my sulk 😜 (at least I’m honest) and we got on with a few jobs. John cleaned out the hens in the front and the ones at the side while I did the ones in the POL pen and the stable ones, we altered one of the stable doors so that I can open it with ducking (and usually banging my head) then we went to get a bit of food shopping and called in to see Mum and Ken for a cup of tea and a slice of cake 😋 Once back home it was time to feed the birds, collect the eggs, light the Rayburn, put the shopping away and organise dinner for tonight all before it gets dark at 4.30 😕 then it’s time to go out and shut everything away and that’s the day done outside.

Sunday: It rained a bit in the night but not raining come morning however it is one of those dank dreary days.

John did the animals this morning while I did some indoor bits and then he went to visit his Mum, when he came back he went out with the tractor to move the chicken hut onto some better grass, it have become a mud bath. Meanwhile I lit the Rayburn and as it is stir up Sunday I found all the ingredients to put together and make a Christmas pudding. This is a light version (Jamie Oliver) as it does not have any added sugar it just relies on the dried fruit to sweeten it, find a recipe and use any combination of dried fruit that you like as long as it adds up to the same amount needed. I like to use dates and cherries for a bit of opulence but any dried fruit will work, the same goes for nuts, if you don’t like almonds or walnuts then use nuts that you do like. I like to add freshly squeezed orange juice and some Christmas spices such as nutmeg which makes it smell amazing 😀 Hopefully the grandchildren will be around sometime today and they can stir the pudding mix and make a wish before it gets steamed and then stored. My children are very used to stirring the pudding mixture it’s been a long-standing tradition in our house. The hardest part of making a pudding is the amount of time it takes to steam it and then people think you need to steam it again on Christmas Day, you can if you want to be purist but you can also heat it much quicker in the microwave 😉

The pudding is currently steaming on the hob with a couple more hours to go🙄

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, snow & sunshine all in the same week🙄

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 11th Nov: On the 11th hour of the 11th Day in the 11th month We will remember them.

It’s another cold November day, it rained heavily overnight again but this morning the ‘lake’ has shrunk, it disappears quickly it’s just a case of too much volume too fast and it collects at a low point of which our paddock happens to be a part.

I am having a coffee before I venture out this morning 😀

Did the rounds, checked on the ‘spring’ and even though the water has receded from there it’s still bubbling up? Took the rabbit/guineas a big bag of hay to make nests in or eat, then the egg shed needed a bit of attention. I found water sitting in one of the boxes of duck eggs this morning, where the rain has blown in I presume, so found a piece of Perspex to line to back wall with and hopefully that should stop it. The duck eggs are useless for sale now so they will have to go to the dogs for their breakfast.

I had decided while I was out that some pancakes would be a good idea for breakfast when I got in, I was so busy with an online discussion while I was making them that I forgot the flour 🤪 so in effect they were sweet omelettes lol still tasted ok though with a mug of coffee 😀

The sun is out but it’s cold, the crazy thing is that while it’s cold and flooding here, in Australia where my brother and his family are, there are bush fires all around, there are wild fires in California, there are storms wreaking havoc in Europe and plummeting Siberian temperatures reaching further than ever before, one thing is for sure were are in a climate emergency, wether its man made or not it’s very real 🙄

I did some hoovering and polishing then lit the Rayburn, then gathered together a load of vegetables from the freezer to make a pan of soup, might as well make good use of the heat. Most things in there, potatoes, leeks, broad beans, turnip, carrots, cauli, are from the garden, just some celery & garlic that isn’t. Veg soup is a very good way to get some of your 5 a day in you though I do wonder how much goodness is really left after cooking, still something is better than nothing 🙄

I observed the silence at 11am, I’m not sure if it was 1 minute or 2 these days but even though I am here by myself and it’s silent anyway, I stood still and quiet to reflect and remember those who have given their lives so that we can live ours, not forgetting of course all the animals that also perished for different reasons during the world wars especially.

Another text from the Doctor telling me that my white cell count has still not gone up enough 🙄 this is a bit of a worry to be honest, I have had it before but it usually comes back up pretty quickly but not this time 🤔 It means I am more prone than most to infections and that the symptoms of infection may not show up 😏 I have the consultant on Wednesday so I will have to wait and see what he has to say about it all.

Putting the animals away tonight I went up to the back paddock to do the geese and noticed Biscuit just stood in the middle of the big paddock and I couldn’t see Jack anywhere. I shut the geese and hens away and she was still stood there so I wondered if she was ok as Jack was not there and it’s unusual for them to be very far apart from each other. I went into the field and most of the way down, I walked into the field adjacent which is also open to the horses and looked in the field shelter for Jack, nothing, at this point I’m thinking we have lost a horse 🤔 I walk over to Biscuit to see if she is ok and Jack moves out from the shadow of the hedgeline I feel I must explain that at twilight it’s very difficult to spot a bay horse lurking in the shadows 😂

I had a massage tonight, amazing as always, sometimes I have Bowen therapy and sometimes a massage depending on how things are going and as I have no aches or pains at the minutes a lovely warm, soothing massage was just the ticket. I love a bit of alternative therapy and if a monthly massage was given on the NHS I reckon there would be a lot more people in a healthier state of mind and body 😀

Tuesday: My first thought when typing this was, is it only Tuesday’ lol seems as though it should be later.

The sun was shinning this morning and I set to doing a few extras after the feeding rounds, clean straw for the geese and for the ducks, then move the quail to a cage that is in the back area as they seem to be unhappy at the moment. The cage is smaller but it’s in out of the wind, a little warmer and I have plugged a heat lamp in for them just to see if that helps. They have stopped laying altogether and maybe a change of address will help get them laying again. Then I made coffee and went into the greenhouse to have a bit of a tidy up and sort out, some of the plants in there can go out for the winter but I was just giving them a bit of a head start first. I do have some plants left in there that I am trying to nurture, peppers, tomato, ginger, to see if they will make it through the cold and into Spring.

Back indoors to light the Rayburn, just as the weather did a complete turnabout, rain and wind turned the day very wintery but it only lasted for half an hour or more, weird.

I got the slow cooker going this morning with braised beef and vegetables in there so I don’t need to think about dinner until much later today, although it’s the kind of day I rather fancy a pudding so I might make a quick jam sponge later 😀

Sam thinks it might be a good idea to bring the horses into the stable for a day and a night and I’m inclined to agree, just to get their feet off the wet ground for a while. They are not standing in the water but the ground is constantly wet at the moment, they won’t like it much but it’s for their own good lol. My outlook on animals is to let them be just that, animals, don’t project human feelings and wants/needs onto them, I don’t feel it’s right but that’s just my opinion obviously. Our horses live out in all but the worst of weather and they are just fine, they grow a nice woolley coat to deal with the cold, they have access to shelter to get out of the wind and the rain should they choose to and they have space to wander so they can keep warm and supple. We have just had bonfire night (which goes on for days) and we don’t bring them in they stay out in the paddocks, they are fine, horses are flight animals and I feel confining them in a stable while fireworks are going off makes them more nervous than leaving them out. When they are out they can see and hear what is happening and deal with it in a matter of fact way. The same applies to our dogs, over the years we have had six dogs and only one was afraid of fireworks, (he came from a rescue centre so I had no idea of what he might have been subjected to in that dept so it’s understandable) but all the others have been well adjusted and are not bothered by the noise, they also don’t live indoors mind you so they don’t have access to a sofa or god forbid the humans bed 😝they have all had and do have access to a warm dry area to sleep but it’s definitely a dog area not human 🙄

At approx 6.30 we had a power cut 🙄 it’s not unusual in fact I have said that living here I have never known so many power cuts since the 1970’s miner strikes! John was in the bath when the lights went out so that leaves me to determine wether it’s our power or a bigger problem, the torch is in the fuse board cupboard so I quickly find out that there is no power coming in meaning it’s the electric board at fault somewhere. Next move is to find the telephone number to report or find out about a fault, John shouts from the bathroom ‘can you bring me the torch’ ‘are you getting out’ no but I can’t see’ then no pal, I can not, I need it to move around the pitch black house and find the number in the office, you just lay there in the bath and relax…in the dark 😝 I call the number and a recorded message tells me we have no power in our area (yeah I knew that) and hopefully it would be back on by 9.40 but may be later! As it was it was back on less than ten minutes later 😀

Wednesday: Slightly different morning this morning, for starters Johns first job was cancelled due to the wrong parts being delivered which meant he was here to help and that gets the jobs done twice as fast 😀 Secondly I have a hospital app at 3.50 in Oxford today 😏 that is a difficult time due to a number of factors, the school run and although we don’t have to do it there will be plenty of cars on the road that do. It will also mean that we are either still in Oxford or trying to get back when it gets dark so we are not here to shut the animals away, the Fox only needs one opportunity and it will wipe you out. It’s not possible to ask the girls to do it as it’s right at the time when the kiddies will all want their dinner and so for today the birds will remain shut in, all except the ducks in the pen and the geese because they will be easy to round up before we go. The ducks and hens in the stable, the side paddock, the front paddock and the turkeys will remain safely shut in as they would be impossible to round up while it’s still light. All have feed and water inside and it will be a minor inconvenience for them for one day and peace of mind for us.

After doing the morning rounds John got on with bringing in some wood loads, we are going through it more rapidly now, and I cleaned the flues and the ash pan and hoovered the kitchen and the boot room, put some washing on etc. John went off to the bank and to pick up some sawdust and rabbit feed and I looked at the clock to see how much time I had to do things, it was only 9 o’clock lol, I thought it was later than that!

Woody the woodpecker has been very active here the last few days, as with Cyril the squirrel I always say good morning but unlike Cyril who stands stock still when he hears my voice, woody just carries on climbing up the oak tree. I started feeding the garden birds again at the first sign of frost so a week or so now, I don’t feed them all summer as there are plenty of pests for them to feast on in and around the farm especially the veg patch but as it gets colder I want to encourage them to hang around so feeding them is a good way. They are still loving the dead hedges, I can’t believe that something so simple can attract so many birds, it’s wonderful and I will definitely have more of these when we have the next apple tree pruned.

I have lit the Rayburn early, again because we won’t be here from about 2.30 I need to get the place warmed up as we won’t be able to keep it going when we are not here it will probably go out. Ideally the Rayburn should run 24/7 but John has insulated this place so well that if we did that we would be living in a permanent sauna, I’m not complaining about the insulation we need it but it means that we can’t run the Rayburn as it should be really. You can run it on coal but we have free wood so there is not much point besides when they say multi fuel it doesn’t mean you can run it on wood and coal at the same time, it has interchangeable plates for different types of fuel so we stick to wood and that is a bigger commitment daily lol.

I still haven’t planted the tulip bulbs and there is a good reason for that, I have been trying to do a bit of research on tulips. Most modern advice is that they are treated as annuals so the whole tulip is harvested along with the bulb and the bulb then discarded 🙄 Well I understand this because if you take the flower and the leaves there is nothing to feed the tulip bulb so that it can restore energy BUT there must be another way which is what I have been trying to find out. It seems that tulips only do well in their first year after that they are not so good even if they don’t get picked and are left in situ, I can’t quite get my head around that because how then would they multiply/naturalise and if they didn’t then we wouldn’t have any? My thinking is that this is a modern answer to solving a problem in the flower industry, but it’s not a very sustainable one so more reading up is needed to find the answer which must be out there somewhere hidden in the archives of time. Maybe it’s just modern types and I suspect old types are better at producing each year though probably not as striking.

The traffic was epic in and around Oxford I’m glad we don’t have to do that very often 😜 Just when I thought I understood this disease of mine I’m thrown again lol, I thought that logically the meds I am on to suppress the immune system had been too high a dose which is why the white cells dropped but no it seems that the Lupus can do that all by itself 🤔 regardless of the meds, so at the moment I am no further forward as more blood tests at the hospital should reveal wether it’s the meds or the Lupus that is causing the drop. The consultant thinks its the Lupus as normally coming off the meds would rectify the blood count, it’s a waiting game now for the results and the action they want to take, meanwhile I feel pretty good, no aches and pains, no tiredness to speak of just more than normal hair loss🙄

Thursday: Oh my word what can I say about this morning 🤔 It rained heavily last night and we are predicted rain all day today but when we woke up and looked out we had snow! Yes snow lol, not a massive amount but a layering although it quickly began to rain again so then we had slush. I got sorted and went out, it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be but I had dressed appropriately and felt toasty. I fed and let almost everything out, not the turkeys as I have a feeling today will be troublesome enough without having to get them in from the driveway every couple of hours so they can stay put, they have a big run and plenty of room. The next job on the agenda was to get two stables ready for bringing in the horses just to give them a bit of relief from the rain and constant wet underfoot. After that it was to try and address some areas that are holding water, I honestly haven’t seen it this bad for about 7 years, the hay barn floor is flooded that’s the second time in a week, luckily everything is up off the floor on pallets and we concreted the feed room floor way back after the last serious flood issues. I say serious flood of course it’s not affecting the house (yet) and it shouldn’t because we are on higher ground however the paddock next door is slightly higher than us and as a result it runs off of there onto us and then continues down the slope to the lowest point. But it does affect the barn and the stables because where the floor gets worn over time dips are created and the water finds its natural course and gets in there. The lake and the river are back again and I spent a while digging small ditches to get water that was sitting to run downwards, behind the stable block we have a 5000ltre water tank which is full to capacity and overflowing causing problems in one of the stables so I have opened up the tap to let it all go and dig out small trenches towards the duck pen where it will collect in the pond before overflowing and carrying on down to the river/lake. As long as I can get the water to move downhill we should be fine and it’s only spitting at the minute if we have a deluge I’m not sure any of the measures will cope at all 😏 We do have some small issues each year but this is definitely the worst for many years and winter has only just begun that the worrying bit 😔

I couldn’t get the Rayburn lit, typical when you want it to dry out your coat and gloves, so I abandoned that and made some pancakes to go with my coffee instead 😀 Typically John is working pretty far away today so if we have any disasters I’m on my own, normally he would be in the next town or village so I can call him if needed and he can arrive quickly but not today 🤞

I gave Mia the dog a haircut this morning as she has ‘mud locks’ a bit like dreadlocks only much muckier 😜 she is fairly low to the ground and long haired so gets messy in weather like this.

Sam came over with the twins and got the horses in for a bit of respite care 😀 Luckily the forecast rain has not materialised giving us and everyone else a bit of a break from all the water standing. The rest of the days jobs passed without incident thankfully.

Friday: Forgot to jot anything down and no idea what I did apart from the usual and then going with Sam, Shelley and the kiddies to soft play for a couple of hours 😀

Saturday: Just sat down it’s 5.30 pm oh my days what a day of hard graft we have had but also a very positive one getting jobs done that have needed doing for a while. We started off with the normal rounds and then gathered up the ex laying ladies from the stable and put them in the point of lay pen. The reason being that we are selling off any birds that are no longer out with the laying flocks both chicken and duck. Normally they just retire and are free to wander around but it doesn’t really make much sense feeding and housing them over winter, it’s just more work than necessary, so I put them up for sale. We had a pretty quick response and managed to move 10 hens and 5 ducks on before lunchtime so that was great. We moved one of the Campbell drakes in with the laying ducks in the vain hope some may produce a batch of ducklings next year 🙄 We have fixed the rabbit run roof which had a hole in it and the rain gets in, the run is pretty big mind you and it was only wet at the door end but even so it needed doing. John cleaned out the hens in the front and I cleaned out the turkey run. We moved the water tank from the back of the stable block, this holds around 5000ltrs which I had to empty out the day before in order for us to move it to inside the duck pen. This was no mean feat, it’s not particularly heavy but it is large, round and awkward 😜 plus it wouldn’t go past the fir tree trunks so we had to man handle it up a slope (the ladder) and get it over the five foot fence into the duck run and then get it into situ on the other side so that John could reconnect the pipe work to the guttering that feeds it. After all this we had a sit down for about half an hour before I lit the Rayburn, fed the birds and collected the eggs. Meanwhile John got the tractor out and he turned the compost heap, I was convinced this was where any rats would be living but not one appeared so they must be elsewhere though I’m stumped as to where. The compost heap is an amazing little miracle of mother nature’s, you put all your prunings, old plants, clippings in there and voila it turns back into some wonderful soil that goes back onto the garden in Spring, we found a few potatoes in there which is always a Brucey Bonus 😀 A friend turned up with some pumpkins for the birds, they are from a local farm and so still whole which will be great for the hens as the seeds are supposed to be good for worming and in return he had some duck eggs, love a bit of bartering 😀 We had planned to move the geese back to the front paddock as they have now eaten the small back paddock down and I want them out before the daffodils begin to come up as their big feet will flatten them, but by the time we had finished chatting it was dark and they had put themselves to bed, this never happens 😂 so we will move them tomorrow instead.

Our egg sales are down this week, I’m guessing because the road was flooded and the rain was relentless, typically the egg numbers have begun to go up. It’s never a balanced thing with the eggs, in summer sales are brisk in winter no so much but still good normally so where is everyone 🙄 Where are those customers that audibly tut or huff when you have sold out (most don’t, just a few) and I still smile pleasantly and apologise 😜

I have to say that the weather today was glorious for a winters day, sunny, not windy and no rain, not even cold really, it was a pleasure to be out there and those are the days I feel a very lucky person indeed.

I know I should have put something in the slow cooker first thing but I had a hankering for some good old fish and chips tonight so that’s what we are having 😀

We finished our fish and chips and I thought that was it, cosy down for the evening until John went to lock up his van and couldn’t find his keys 🙄 It’s ok he says I have a spare set never been used, they don’t work 🙄 We go through the day to figure out when he last had them and then he goes out in the dark with a torch to try and find them. I went out the back and thought ooo it’s a bit cold I will stay in here in case they suddenly present themselves 😂 Eventually I decided I ought to go and help as he still hasn’t found them, two sets of eyes are better than one especially when one set belongs to a bloke 🤪 No offence but in our family we call it a ‘man scan’ you know, when you ask them to get something out of the cupboard and apparently it isn’t there and you go and look and it’s right in front of his eyes 🤔 I go round to all the places he has been today, the hay barn, the rabbit run, the back area, the van, I find them on floor next to the van 😬 I am always telling him not to just chuck stuff down on the floor perhaps he will listen from now on 😝

Sunday: I had planned on having an easier day today with a good few hours of doing not a lot BUT it hasn’t turned out that way lol. We were woken by Johns phone ringing and someone having water all over their bathroom floor, turns out they had had some heating work done the day before and it had disturbed the flush pipe on the toilet which is why water was all over the floor! So that left me doing the rounds this morning on me tod. Then we had the barefoot trimmer arriving to do the horses feet, that was a bit of a last minute thing as we couldn’t get hold of the usual farrier and their hooves were getting longer than is acceptable🙄 Meanwhile John had tried to start the tractor to finish the last bit of the compost heap but the battery was dead so he went off to visit his Mum, when he got back the battery still wasn’t ready so we popped out to get some bits of shopping, including ingredients for stir up Sunday next week. We get back I unload the shopping and get the Rayburn lit while John manages to get the tractor started and finish that job off. It will then be time for a bit of dinner, then do the feeding and egg collection, round to a relative for some birthday cake back to put the animals all to bed then we are out on a rare evening to the Theatre in Oxford, no rest for the wicked and we certainly must be pretty wicked 😜

I still haven’t got round to planting the tulips and haven’t moved any wood chip (nearly done) 🙄 I am also a bit tired and can’t see a gap for a power nap, I sure hope the I don’t fall asleep during tonight’s show lol.

Dawn Pearse over and out for this week 😀 have a good one 😘

Posted in Friesland Farm

Winter preparations, Chutney & Sustainable Flower arranging 💐

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th Nov: It rained in the night, it woke me up so must have been heavy at some point. The ground underfoot quickly goes from dry to a bit of a mud bath and, except for when it’s freezing, I don’t expect that to clear now until next Spring 😏

I got on with the morning feeding and then straight on with drawing and dressing (Sally Stewart 😜) the cockerels we dispatched and plucked yesterday. By 10.15 I had all three done, two in the freezer, one ready for roasting later, all the cloths and apron in the washing machine on a hot cycle, the utensils all washed on hot soapy water and the entrails in the incinerator. The necks, feet, heart and liver are cooking in the oven for the cats and dogs so nothing is wasted apart from the intestines, lungs, kidneys and gizzard, the first two are no good any way and the dogs won’t eat the other two. Previously I have kept the chicken livers for pate but I still have some in the freezer so the dogs can have these. Tonight we will have roast chicken, potatoes and vegetables, the whole lot will have been grown on the farm with almost a zero carbon footprint, I say almost because if I’m being purist things had to be delivered or transported here including feed for the birds so it’s ‘almost’.

Time for a coffee and sit down to watch a couple of videos on flower farming 😀 I reckon I have earned it. I watched that for about an hour and then had many more questions that needed a bit of researching lol.

I am planning on lift my dahlia bulbs and the freesias but I have to get the timing right for both of them, after the first two substantial frosts should be a good time. Normally I wouldn’t faff arse about with things like that but I want to move them from where they have been growing this year so lifting them is the only answer I think and besides having invested in the bulbs in the first place I really ought to try and keep them going each year. Most of the seeds I have collected are now dried and they will be stored in the spare room, it’s too damp through winter even in the greenhouse to keep them successfully but I have to put a notice up to remind myself where they are otherwise come spring I will be searching everywhere for them!

While I was busy on Saturday John installed a dog flap in the back door, we have a door to the boot room then a back door but we always had to leave the back door open for the dogs, now they have a lovely flap and I can keep the door shut 😀 it didn’t take them very long to work it out and I was hoping the cat would use it too be he has declined so far, he may get braver as the weather gets colder 😜

Reading through the previous blog that has been published those dratted ads are back, I’m very sorry about those they should not be there and I report each and every single one of them but somehow they manage to get back in, not sure how to get rid them entirely.

Tuesday: Morning rounds done and dusted, included this morning was the cleaning out of the duck shed 😏 a heavy mat of wet s**t is mostly what it is when it’s been raining like it has, all nice clean straw now but that won’t last long lol. On my way round I have shut the horses out of the big side paddock and at the moment they are in the small middle one but soon I will need to open up the large back one for them to use all winter. The ground gets poached very quickly when the rain is constant and this year is no exception, I’m slipping around in sloppy mud already, we have been trying to devise ways of getting the hens off the paddocks and maybe keeping them in the spare stables over winter but as I said to John they will just be all over my veg garden. We agreed that maybe a six foot fence around the veg area might be the best option however the logistics of doing that are complicated lol.

I did a good mornings work outside, not on the jobs I had intended to do as is often the way lol, I went into the big tunnel and decided that it needed tidying and sorting out. Last spring I used it for growing seedlings as the old greenhouse was gone and the new not finished. Most of the stuff had been moved out long since but there was still quite a lot left in there, plus I needed to get to the plants that now all resemble triffids and cut them back, pull them up or cosset them for winter temps. I grew cape gooseberries and the plants are huge and sprawling, plenty of flowers lots of fruit but none of them ripening 😏 I have cut them all back and left it on the ground to see if the fruit will ripen at all, I don’t hold out much hope, the plants I will cosset and see if they make it through the winter. The same applies to the lemon verbena, it got swamped by the gooseberries but it’s still alive and so I cut it back and hopefully with extra bubble wrap it will last. I have some lemon grass and pepper plants which have also been given a bit of protection with bubble wrap. The ground I have put in some well rotted manure and covered with weed membrane for the winter, I don’t tend to use the big tunnel for winter crops as it is not as sheltered as the small one and so crops do better in there besides it’s quicker to get to when it’s blowing a hoolie or there is snow on the ground, I’m a keen gardener but there are limits and winds and the cold are mine 😜

I can’t seem to make a decision to save my life at the moment, is it an age thing or brain fog or just apathy, I’ve have no idea. We have had our sofas for about 25 years, one set has gone as that broke, the other is threadbare but structurally sound and I have one that was Shelleys she was getting rid of which is perfectly fine but doesn’t match the other one. I have patched up the covers as best I can and throws hide a multitude of sins but keep thinking about getting new ones, but then thinking, well actually there is nothing wrong with these really lol, shall I just get some new cushion covers? Then I look at the selection and can’t decide what colour or pattern or if I should bother at all, I’m all of a fuddle 😜 The problem isn’t that the original sofa has covers that come off and can be washed but they are not going to stand up to many more washes, I have used the cushion covers from the sofa that broke to patch it up but I’m running out of cushion covers 😂 First world problems and all that 🙄

I don’t know about you but I often don’t know what day it is either 🙄 all day today I keep thinking it’s Wednesday, I had to ask John this morning because I thought I had forgotten to take my meds yesterday but no it’s seems we are only on Tuesday so that ok.

I did a bit of hoovering in the afternoon, that’s when the whole sofa debate rose in my head, then got some dinner on, chicken casserole for John from the left over chicken yesterday and I have had a lentil and vegetable soup going on the slow cooker all day, smell great 😀 the sky is getting very dark luckily I lit the fire earlier too, looks like I might get a soaking when I do the afternoon feeding and egg collection 😔 I have left the turkeys in their pen today as yesterday no only did I have to get them back in from the driveway but they were impossible to round up come bed time, good job John arrived about half an hour of me trying although by that time I was swearing a lot 🤬

I feel very tired this afternoon, I mean absolutely washed out dead on my feet tired, I’m wondering if leaving the blood tests for two weeks was a bad idea and that my inflammation markers have soared or if I am just coming down with something, that’s the problem with the Lupus you can never see the wood for the trees 😜 I have instructed John to return with chocolate just in case it’s what I need 😂

Wednesday: It’s fresh this morning, not sure if there was a frost but it seemed cold enough however at 7am there was no sign of one? The morning rounds were pretty straight forward, go to feed room fill up buckets go round empty out and let out, collect any eggs already laid. Two out of the four chicken huts/pens are not let out straightaway, they are the one in the stable and the ones in the front paddock, because they have complete free range they tend to run off and scatter when they are let out which means they are not eating their feed which in turn means they won’t lay so they are confined until they have had sufficient time to eat their breakfast lol. It seems to be working with the front lot as the egg numbers are slowly going up but the stable lot are probably getting too old to be laying very many eggs, most of them are the retired lot, we don’t get rid of them when they are no longer productive they are just allowed to while away their days on the farm keeping bugs and grubs down, pooping and fertilising so I guess they are still earning their keep really 🙄 There are signs of rat activity in the stable block again, new holes have been excavated and there is an empty eggshell in an unused stable. I am reluctant to put poison down but sometimes you need to knock a problem on the head quickly and it seems like the best way. I have tried traps and not caught a single rat in them but I know when the poison disappears I will find a dead rat sooner or later. Placement of poison has to be done with care obviously, I generally pour it down the hole and then put some sort of cover such as a piece of wood or a large stone over it so that it can’t be seen by small birds. I have tried the black boxes that you often see but they mostly get ignored by the rats, this way is a quick removal of bait usually overnight it’s all gone. We are careful to make sure that chicken/duck feed is not left down overnight but I learnt the other day that rats actually drink a lot of water on a daily basis so it’s best not to leave water buckets full overnight either.

Rat activity

I decided not to have a hard day today lol, so I have been making chutney from the apples and tomatoes (that never ripened even in the dark) and the grapes I picked were still in the fridge and are now drying out slowly in the oven to make sultanas 😀 waste not want not 😜

I feel stressed this week and it’s only Wednesday 😜 not anything on the smallholding but lots of, fairly trivial, things and each day seems to bring a new stress factor with it building it up to a bigger stress ball. I’m doing the deep breathing exercises and even trying some meditation but so far I’m still feeling it 😏 and ‘it’ is a physical thing, could be to do with not being on the Lupus meds after all they were stopped abruptly and although they needed to be, it can’t be a good thing for my physiology can it?

Did a bit of online shopping for Christmas presents, better get started I guess lol.

Thursday: I have a fresh head on today Aunt Sally, just in case you are not familiar its from an old programme called Worzel Gummidge 😜 Onwards and upwards as they say.

It rained heavily overnight, I was walking around this morning on what felt like wet carpet, it’s squishy underfoot everywhere you go, the silver lining in this has to be that the reservoirs must be full if not overflowing. There are warnings of flooding over parts of the country, I’m not sure we have had so much rain this early in the Winter before and who knows what the remainder of the season will bring we just have to ride it out.

After doing the animals I potted up some plant that arrived yesterday, these don’t look in as good condition as the ones that arrived earlier and plug plants at this time of year in an I heated greenhouse are a bit of a risk but hopefully they will pull through.

My aim this morning is to do a bit of research on rat proof duck housing. The hens will lay up high if you give them a place to do it but the ducks lay on the floor as they are not as agile. This morning I have been into the stable where I put down the poison and I can see another duck egg pulled through a hole in the wall from the stable where the ducks are 🙄 the poison remains untouched so I’m wondering if it might be something else such as a stoat or weasel. Anyway if I can find a solution for the duck housing we might be able to save a few eggs.

I have been out and cleaned out the stable that the hens use and tried to give them more places to roost, still not sure what to do with the ducks 😏

We popped out in the evening to go a see Mum, my stepdad is doing ok after a small procedure and hopefully will be home at the weekend. On the way there we saw two big deer in the road but by the time I got my phone out to take a photo they had gone and on the way back we saw a badger crossing the road, plenty of wildlife around here lol.

Friday: I didn’t do much other than the normal stuff and prepping the dinner for later, I lit the Rayburn early as Sam and the kiddies came over in the afternoon and I didn’t want it to be cold.

Saturday: A very cold start to the day, that killing frost had arrived with a vengeance, we did the morning rounds and then John took me over to Daylesford Organic Farm where I spent a lovely morning learning about sustainable flower arrangements, foraging for foliage (both dead and alive) to make an informal arrangement along with some flowers that were provided. The flowers were imported from Holland mind you because there is not much in the way of lovely blooms at this time of year over here.

I kept thinking, what a pleasant way to spend my time doing this, I think I would like to do a lot more of it next year.

John meanwhile had been very busy, dropping me off, going to pick up feed, getting in wood, lighting the Rayburn and meeting someone who had come to buy the horse box, then coming back to pick me up at the end of the morning 😀 We decided to pop out for lunch and spend the afternoon in the warm watching the telly. The weather started off ok today but soon spiralled downwards with the constant rain and the cold, a vile day to be working outside so if it’s not necessary then don’t do it lol, much better indoors nice and cosy for the afternoon, until feeding time that is 😜

It’s mid evening and still raining, sometimes heavily, flooding is an issue in many parts of the country and I fear for the village we live in. Although we live up on the top of the hill the main part of the village is in the Shill valley with the brook running through and a very picturesque pond in the summer. There was some flood prevention installed a couple of years back but it can only do so much and the ground was already sodden as I mentioned earlier this week, I can only imagine they are all praying for it to stop raining 🙄

Sunday: Well it rained most of the night but had stopped by morning when it was cold but sunny. I was shocked at the amount of water we had standing in the paddock and out in the lane, it always does this after persistent rain and soon clears but I think that it’s bigger than I have ever seen it before. I checked with someone in the village first thing to see if it had flooded but the new flood defences seem to have done the job intended and held back the water thankfully. I have spotted and marked a spot where water appears to be coming up, I’m secretly hoping it’s a spring lol or at least a point where a bore hole would be most beneficial 🙄 We went out early to get some shopping and then called in to see Mum and Ken, he is home now and looking/feeling ok so that’s good news.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Sausages but no stars, pumpkin bread & Autumn gardening jobs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 28th October: It’s 1.30pm and I have had a cracking few hours outside, I went out at 7.30 to do the feeding etc and I’ve only just come back in apart from two times to make coffee 😀 First off I started with cleaning out the quail and the geese and then onto the garden where I have done lots of clearing away, weeding, tidying and putting down weed membrane for the winter. I have potted up some plants that I dug up and divided and of course numerous wheelbarrows of wood chip (nearly done) It was really pleasant out there and I even took off my coat once the sun had thawed the frost, I finished about now because with the clocks changing it will be a short afternoon and so I need to get a few bits done inside before going back out again😜

I had a phone all from the Doc to say although my white cells are going up they are doing so rather slowly so I need to keep having the bloods tests and stay off the meds.

Busy afternoon getting dinner sorted, lighting the Rayburn, feeding the animals, collecting the eggs then putting them all to bed at just after 5pm. Eat dinner, get a bit of shopping for tomorrow night 🤔

Tuesday: Another dry day and I declined the offer of making Halloween cakes and pumpkin carving with the grandchildren because I know the rain is coming in and I wanted to get a bit more done outside. I have given the pear tree a winter prune and the gooseberries, I have cleared another bed and barrowed wood chip (nearly done 😜) I’m going to keep saying that until it’s finally done lol and I planted up some ixia bulbs (corn lilies) I still have the tulips to do but I have time yet to sort them out. There is plenty to do in the garden at this time of year, clearing, cleaning, tidying, pruning, dividing, planting it’s as busy now as it is at the beginning of Spring. It is my favourite time of year as far as gardening goes because you can make an impact in a short time. In spring it’s a slow wait for things to grow but in autumn it’s quick to clear, well fairly quick and you can actually see what has been done.

I haven’t stayed out as long today because I want to get some soup on the go for tonight. We are going to have a sausages and stars evening, cooking sausages on the fire pit along with marshmallows and some soup and look at the starry sky although it’s looking a bit cloudy at the moment but a small outdoor adventure in the dark should be fun for the children. Last year when Josh came to stay I took him outside to look at the stars but it was so dark here that he was a bit afraid, actually he just clung to me and wouldn’t look up 😬 he is not afraid at home because in the town there is plenty of light pollution but here it’s pitch black!

We had the best fun tonight, leek and potato soup, sausages, chocolate cornflake cakes (made by the children) marshmallows toasted on the fire and finally sparklers, the cloud cover meant we didn’t see any stars but we had fun anyway.

Wednesday: Another nice day and John is home so we got a few things sorted. We did the morning rounds and then John set about the task of the gate post, yes this is still ongoing 🙄 as he ran out of time digging the old post out, today he has dug it out and concreted the new post in we just need to wait for it to set before re hanging the gate then it job done. Meanwhile I did some cutting back and digging up and dividing flowers or potting up ones that have not done very well where they were. We pulled back the netting on top of the fruit cage which is a two man job, we don’t want a repeat of heavy snow falling on it and collapsing the cage entirely 😏 We fixed the end of a wooden planter box that had rotted and collapsed and then we went to witney to get some more compost and a rechargeable light for the chicken hut. When we got back I potted up a few more plants with the compost, I lit the fire, hoovered up, hung up the washing while John went and had a look at the sockets in the stable block and in the end contacted the electrician 😂 I ordered a dog flap for the back door, a log basket for the kitchen, my prescription online, made a cup of tea and had a sit down before it’s time to feed and collect eggs 😬

The plants I have been dividing up will all get put out for sale next year, they are free so it makes sense to do it and besides I am really enjoying myself. I also went around the garden and picked the last few remaining flowers to put in a vase, it’s surprising how many there are still going, the roses, dahlias, achillea, verbena, the very pretty blackcurrant sage which has flowered all summer long, cosmos, and chrysanthemums. Hopefully next year when my cutting bed is full I will have plenty of blooms to fill a vase on a regular basis 😀

I dug the Rayburn kettle out of the cupboard and gave it a good clean and descale, it makes sense to use this once the cooker is up and running for the winter and besides the whistling is a lovely sound addition to the day 😀

Thursday, Halloween 🎃: It’s been another nice dry day so far although a tad chilly. I was up early polishing my broomstick ready for tonight 🧙‍♀️😜

I did the morning stuff then inside to get the paperwork done. It’s the end of year books which were due in April and each month I think ‘ I will get them done this month’ then the month goes past and the next month I think exactly the same 🙄 However I have done them all up ready to go now as I need to get my mind cleared before I can start thinking about Christmas and presents lol.

Once I had finished I set about making some spiced pumpkin bread, I normally would carve a pumpkin but nobody will be coming here so I used the whole pumpkin, minus the skin, to make purée and then make the pumpkin bread. The recipe I used has American measures and I should know better as they usually seem to be double measures of everything, I will end up with two lots and so one can be frozen for later on in the year. I feel a bit redundant in the baking dept now that John is mostly cutting out sugar treats so today is a good excuse to do a bit of baking as a token to the day.

It’s Samhain today as well which is the end of the harvesting year and the beginning of the dark part of the year, we had our little family fire festival the other day so I will count that as part of the celebrations.

I’m proper grumpy this evening lol, John was supposed to be home early to hang the gate, it wouldn’t be a problem but the ducks keep going round to the front and routing through the planters 😡 anyhooo he didn’t get home early in fact it was after dark by which time after a busy day I was peed off to say the least, after all this smallish job has now gone on for over 5 days! An exchange of words takes place 🤬 and he goes out in the dark to do the gate which is now hung, this should make me happier but the grumps have set in and they won’t go away 😜 maybe I need chocolate!

Friday: It finally rained, I’m not complaining though we have been expecting it and at the moment it’s hasn’t been much so it may dry up over the course of the day. I did the morning rounds and then potted up some verbascum plug plants that I had ordered, the colours are delightful and I look forward to seeing them next year. I ordered 20 plug plants so probably some will go out for sale as I don’t need that many lol.

I am having Josh and Florence for an hour or so this morning so I haven’t got stuck into anything major

I suppose as this is a diary blog I really ought to address wider topics than what happens in my small world lol. We were supposed to leave the EU yesterday, that didn’t happen and the road we are on just got longer, whatever your opinion is I’m sure you are just as weary of it as I am.

Climate crisis, what can I say except if every individual did as much as they could towards saving the planet from the various man made disasters we have created that would go a long way towards putting on the brakes.

Saturday: It’s is an absolutely filthy morning this morning, John and I did the morning rounds together and ended up with soaking knees where the rain drips off the coat onto the knees, you would think a longer coat would be better but that then restricts your movement which is not ideal. We decided that as we can’t get much done outside today, coffee and the Rugby World Cup final would be a better option all together 😀

That didn’t last long, about three minutes into the match we had a message from Mum, our stepdad has been taken to hospital, with severe chest pains, he had gone off in the ambulance but Mum was at home so John and I went over, I stayed there most of the day while John had a rugby breakfast at Shelleys and then looked after the farm. We are lucky in that we have one of the best hospitals in the UK as our local hospital but still it’s a worrying time. It includes the Oxford university medical school which is ranked 1st in the world and has been for the last 7 years.

Mum had gone to the hospital with one of my stepbrothers and I waited there until we heard some news, they have stabilised him and now it’s a waiting game to find out how they will treat him.

Sunday: A better morning weather-wise this morning, one of the jobs we had planned this weekend was the dispatch of the meat birds but it was too wet yesterday and John has gone to visit his Mum this morning, we may get round to it at some point today we will just see how the day goes.

I potted up some more plug plants I had ordered, Tanacetum, from the aster family, one thing I learnt from watching gardeners world was about plug plants and how to pot them up so that they don’t just die off over winter. Not too big a pot is key and not much water initially, this is because the plants are about to go into their dormant phase and too much watering will just rot them off. These plants arrived and the roots were good and they were still moist so I just potted them and haven’t watered them at all for now. Labelling is what I have got good at with the flower plants because although you think you will remember what’s in the pot, you definitely won’t until it’s well established and only then if you are totally familiar with the plant itself.

My morning is interrupted by an egg customer ringing the bell to tell me that one of the turkeys is out down the driveway 😏 5 acres they have to roam on and they keep going down the driveway 😝 what’s wrong with them, they have been shut in the pen for three days because they keep roaming the wrong way. Mind you the same can be said for half our hens, you will find them mostly in next doors paddock, I have no idea how better to contain them, free range, more like bloody roaming everywhere and anywhere!

We processed three of the cockerels and I must say I was really chuffed at how they turned out this time, previously for years I hand plucked them dry, then we got a plucking machine, as sometimes my fingers just can’t do the job, but the result was laughable to say the least, now we have invested in a burco boiler big enough to scald the birds in before they go to the plucking machine and voila it’s a total success 😀 We only did three as they will have to be gutted tomorrow and there is only so much time I want to spend with my hand inside a dead chicken 😜 but the whole process was much quicker & much cleaner so a winner as far as I am concerned. And of course it means we will have our own chicken in the freezer, we know what it’s eaten, how it has lived (freely) and that no chemicals have gone anywhere near it at all, happy days 😀