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 😀
frieslandfarm (flowers) 