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🙄
frieslandfarm (flowers) 