April 2020 – frieslandfarm (flowers)

Muddling through, plenty of sunshine, still in lockdown.

Posted on April 26, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Monday 20th April: I am not sure how this week will pan out regarding the Smallholding blog, to be honest I think I will just be going through the motions 🙄

John went to pick up another load of wood from some trees a friend cut down, I have spent the morning between, watering the greenhouse and spending time on the phone with various people getting things sorted out.

Tuesday: I have been dealing with many phone calls and various processes including the funeral. Although Dad was living in Wales and has been for the past 20 years he will be bought back to his childhood home of Swinbrook and be buried in the churchyard with other members of the family. This is something that Sue, his life partner, wished to do for him which I think is lovely.

Inbetween all that I have been trying to do a few bits in the garden, and I am pleased to say that some runner bean seeds have arrived today, I wasted no time in getting them sown and underway, I did say to Dad ‘look after these seeds and help them grow’ 😂 not sure if it will do any good but I can use all the help I can get 😜

Sam came over with the children to give the horses a check over, I can cast an eye but I am no expert and so a second opinion is always welcome. They are doing well weight wise and their feet are in good order so we can leave them as they are for another couple of weeks without worrying that they are getting too fat. It amazed me that Mia understands that we can’t have any contact, at four years old it is a damn shame but also makes me proud that she completely understands the situation, she does however want to punch the germs on the nose lol and she is not the only one 😜

Wednesday: I had a terrible night, the inflammation decided to rage and it’s pretty awful when you feel like that in the depths of the night. In the end I got up and took naproxen which helped to calm it down, I was lying there thinking, have I got sepsis, meningitis, covid, nope just the good old Lupus flare. I’m glad it calmed down a fair bit although I can still feel it, I really don’t want to have to go to the doctors more than necessary at the minute 🙄 I am taking it very easy today and mostly indoors as it is supposed to be very hot and that only makes things worse. I did nip out and pick some rhubarb, asparagus, purple sprouting and three artichokes first thing but the rest of the day I will stay inside. It’s a bit rubbish when you really want to be out there doing the veg garden but needs must.

The flat leaf parsley is growing like billyo and it smells amazing, I have been looking for recipes to use it in, chimmichuri seems to be a good one or a pesto type dressing, I think I may make a parsley loaded frittata for lunch today and take advantage of some of the goodness. The herbs are pungent at the moment which if like me you love the smell of them is fabulous, I know some people hate the smell of fresh basil which I find odd as I love it .

Friday: Gosh I am sorry I am rather neglecting the blog but hopefully you will forgive me this week. I am doing ok both with the Lupus flare and with my emotions after Dads passing. I guess there is a natural process to go through, shock, grief, sadness then laughter and memories. Inbetween all that and sorting things out I have been trying to get a few bits and pieces done outside, all this constant sunshine is fabulous for anyone who can tolerate it but not so good for me getting out and working 😂 This morning I was up and out early so I could water a few things and do some weeding on the asparagus bed. I am picking lots of spears every day and I am told they are delicious but I haven’t actually had any yet! I then went on to prick out the cauliflower and broccoli seedlings and check on all the other seedlings that are growing nicely, I did take some phots so you can see how much I have on the go. I am aiming to get as much growing as possible both vegetable and flowers, I think we need plenty to make us smile this year don’t you?

I have been doing other things which I almost forgot to tell you about, animal related this time. This morning I noticed the rabbits eyes were weeping and she looked like she had loads of ticks on her head, I called John to give me a hand and got the stuff to prepare to remove them. When I actually picked her up I could see it was globs of gunk, which in one way was good as I didn’t fancy removing that many ticks (and I did wonder how come I hadn’t seen them before) She has had this before so I bathed her eyes and I have some eye drops I will put in when it’s cooler tonight, I also clipped her nails as her back ones had got a bit long. During the morning I noticed the turkey stag trying to mount the poor hen and then a short while later there was a commotion, he was at it again, I went over to get her but she had sadly died. Later on in the day I did a bit of a post mortem to see if I could find out why she had died, my thoughts were a blockage but normally that would kill quite quickly. I discovered that she had a hole in her crop, this is where the food goes first before down into the stomach, the hole was possibly made by something sharp like a piece of stick that she had eaten. The cavity at the top of her body was filled with fluid, this would explain why she seemed to perk up when we held her upside down and fluid drained out, she would then feel able to eat again which is what she did but it was never going to work properly with a hole in it sadly 😏

Saturday: We had a bit of a break in the weather today to begin with, overcast, which meant I was able to get on and get some things done in the greenhouse and outside. Firstly I cleaned out the rabbit cages and put in fresh bedding. Then round to the greenhouse where I have sown some more basil and coriander, always best to have an abundance 😀 Onto planting the melon and a cucumber plant in the polytunnel, I will hold some plants back just in case they don’t thrive then I have a back up plan. I planted some more mangetout plants outside and I have sown a raised bed full of turnip, swede, parsnip, beetroot and purple carrots. These are seed sown straight into the ground and so should produce after the seedling plants I planted the other week. My plan is to use the veg in the raised bed as baby veg so they will get pulled as soon as they are big enough. Normally you would leave them to get big enough to store for the winter but I think we will need these as we go this year. Lots of other veg plants are still in the greenhouse ready to harden off in a couple of weeks time, patty pan, courgettes, pumpkin, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, sweet corn, all manner of dwarf beans and runner beans. There are broccoli, cauliflower, leek seedlings and also peppers, chilli, aubergine, and tomato plants growing nicely. I think I have things covered 😜 I have ordered some ‘Jack fruit’ seeds as seen on Gardeners World, these are a Bangladeshi vegetable which can be grown here under cover so I’m giving them a go. I need to do more research into fruits and veg that are grown here for different cultures as I’m sure we are missing a few tricks with them, they are never in the mainstream seed brochures but they could prove useful in future years.

Sunday: Another day in paradise, another day in lockdown 🙄 To be honest I am happy pottering around in the greenhouse and garden 😀 I just wish I could do it for longer but the sun has been relentless, we are due so,e cooler weather and even rain though so it could be ‘all change’. I am looking forward to the ground being a bit easier to deal with, it’s rock solid on the beds so not much chance of getting anything in there yet, just as well we have a few weeks left before major planting begins after the risk of frosts. I did plant three tomato plants in the small tunnel, I figured they might as well go in there as in a pot in the greenhouse. John has been busy doing more tidying up, we have a skip which is now loaded with stuff he has been collecting for 10 years and never used 😂. At different times of the day and at a social distance, I have seen all of the grandchildren, Shelley and Martin and the children walked over to get some eggs and Sam and Luke came over with the children to check the horses. They are all pretty good at understanding we can’t go near each other, it’s just a shame, you spend years getting them used to each other and us and then bam, hopefully it won’t all be undone.

I cut the lawn and the driveway late afternoon, if it rains it will sprout and will be harder to cut so I wanted to get it done just in case.

Then prep dinner, tonight I am having homemade pizza with a garlic, basil and tomato sauce I made and froze last year, that’s when all the growing of various things become worthwhile, you can whip up a dinner with home grown produce 😀

Really must try harder on the blog, trouble is I usually sit down at the end of the day to write it and then I’m tired so I skip through it all.

Had a bit of fun this evening with a present I bought John nearly five years ago and he has never used, a metal detector, we found a grand haul of crap lol but the anticipation was great each time we had a ‘beep‘

Friesland Farm

The normal routine, a few blips and some sad times x

Posted on April 20, 2020February 8, 2023 by frieslandfarm

Sorry this is late you will find out why when you get to Saturday 😢

Monday 13th April 2020: I’m losing track of how long we have been in lockdown now 🙄 I think we are going into week 4.

The temperature has dropped by 10 degrees today, hugely noticeable. I am definitely struggling today, the absence of my meds has increased inflammation and I recognise where this road ends so I’m hoping that blood tests on Friday will enable me to go back on the meds. I took anti inflammatories this morning which helps me to be able to get on and do a bit and even though it was cold I still went out to the garden. I did a fair bit of tidying up, I know I always say that but there always seems to be an area that needs sorting out, this time is was the areas around the poly tunnel, stuff that had been stacked or stored for winter, some broken stuff to get rid of, a bit of weeding here and there, and the area where I keep plants for selling on, always something. I planted out the next lot of broad beans and did some pricking out and potting on in the greenhouse, it filled my morning nicely 😀

I put some plants out for sale and was amazed that they sold very quickly, I have some more to go out and also some that I am bringing on in the greenhouse, I guess people can’t use the garden centres and so I am a good alternative.

Tuesday: Oh dear I haven’t felt well for a week or more now, the symptoms slowly getting worse and yesterday they came to a head, constant shivering even under layers of blankets, my joints have been getting worse and I can feel the inflammation in my scalp. So this morning I have phoned the doctor and am waiting for him to call back, I have been down this toad so many times that I recognise the way, if I don’t get it sorted quickly I will end up back on steroids, I might anyway but I might just be able to catch it in the nick of time, go back on the meds and take stronger anti inflammatories. This disease is such a see saw it’s hard to keep a balance.

Wednesday: Slight blip there but I’m feeling better today, I had my blood test bought forward and had it yesterday so just waiting for the results. UPDATE the doctor called and the white cells have dipped even lower so it’s the disease and not the medication, I am back on steroids for two weeks, this is bitter sweet, bitter because it means the disease is not stabilising at all and I lurch from one crisis to another, sweet because I know on steroids I will get loads of jobs done and be full of energy. I will also be starving most of the time which is great for John as I will always be thinking of the next meal instead of the lack lustre attitude I have had lately lol.

This morning I have been outside watering, it’s ridiculous how dry the ground is, I can’t even hoe or pull weeds because it’s rock solid and I am having to water newly planted stuff every day to keep them all going, the overnight moisture is not enough for the heat of the sun in the daytime. As I recall it was exactly the same this time last year, we had a very dry warm spell and despite trying to mulch everything it’s still a task to keep stuff alive. Not the stuff that has been going for a year or more, that’s all fine but I was aiming to get the flower beds up and running and they are struggling with the lack of moisture. I tried weeding the brassica cage but the ground is as hard as rock, seriously, I pulled what I could and will have to wait for some rain before I can get in there and do it all properly.

I am loving that I have the time to take everything in rather than scooting round and getting everything done. The tulips that Mum planted at the end of last year have come up all over the place and they are an absolute joy, some of the colours are vibrant and there is one little flower combo I adore, the photo doesn’t really do it justice but it’s so sweet I would love to replicate it on a bigger scale elsewhere at some point.

Today is a very special day as it’s Charlie’s 30th Birthday 🥳, we should have been at our favourite hotel enjoying the spa and delicious food but instead we are all at home separately, it’s also my sisters 50th birthday another celebration that will have to wait. One thing I have noticed is how creative everyone has got during these times, poetry, paintings, stories, baking, innovative ideas, it’s lovely that people have the time to do these things for each other, it’s one of the good things that have come from all this.

John had literally just cleared the wood pile the day before yesterday (it’s been there for about 4 years) when he had a phone call to say that someone had a van load of tree they had cut down if he wanted it, off he went to collect it and that gave him more cutting to do 🙄😜😂

A busy afternoon started with the delivery of 40 more hens ALL of which have been pre ordered and going straight back out for sale 🙄 unprecedented but great for us as it means we are still earning which is more than a lot of people are, on hindsight we should have bought in hundreds as we certainly could have sold them all.

Thursday: Another lovely day in store and I have already started on the steroids so my symptoms have begun to diminish already which is great as it means I can get on. I put plants out for sale again this morning and lots have been sold already, happy me 😀 The rest of the morning I spent picking rhubarb, asparagus and sowing some more seeds both vegetable and flower seed. We have been busy selling hens again today and by teatime we only had two left.

The early part of the evening I spent giving everything a good watering, there is rain on the forecast for tomorrow it you can never be too sure it will get here so better safe than sorry.

I am kind of beginning to forget we are in a very strange situation, until I see the government infomercials or watch the news that is, this life has become normal lol, I wonder how many people are going to be able to cope with going back to real life when the times comes 🙄

The turkey hen is still alive, she is very quiet but moving around and chirping sometimes, I’m beginning to wonder if she is like that because we took her eggs away as there doesn’t seem like much else wrong with her, if she had a blockage I would have expected her to have died by now. The new boy rabbit, sporty scar, has developed one floppy ear, they are lips but I had forgotten that and thought he might have broken it or something 😜 The geese are sitting on eggs, not all of them just two but fingers crossed we may get goslings. Everything else is tickling along nicely.

Who would have thought that our weekly excitement would be 8pm every Thursday evening when we go outside and clap, cheer, ring bells the works to honour the key workers that are keeping our country running, the NHS, the carers, the delivery drivers, the dustbin lorry crews, the post men and women, the shop workers, the farmers, we thank you for keeping going despite the risks. Captain Tom needs a special mention, 99 years young and has raised to date 14 million pounds for the NHS by completing 100 laps of his garden on his Zimmer frame before his 100th birthday tomorrow, true British grit, our hearts swell with pride at his achievement.

Friday: A cooler day today and we had a sprinkling of rain, it enough to fill the water tanks but enough to freshen up anything that has been planted so I am happy with that. I have again spent today pottering around in the greenhouse or sowing seeds, I sowed some spring onion seeds I found, I don’t usually have much luck with the but I can only try. I also found some chickpeas I grew last year, only 4 lol but I have planted those and I found a packet of liquorice seeds so I am giving those a go. I have pricked out leek seedlings into trays and potted up some blackcurrant bushes that have been stood in a bucket all winter, I also planted one of these in the orchard. John has been busy changing one of the taps on the water tank that had snapped and when they are nearly empty is a good time to do that, then he started clearing out his shed which is a kind of open the door and throw it in shed. We have discussed building a new one as this one is really on its last legs, it will have to wait until we can buy materials again.

We sold the last two chickens from the 40 that came in on Wednesday, we are breaking all our previous records here lol.

Like many people, I suspect, we have slipped into an easy routine of a bit of work, a tea break, a bit more work, dinner break, a sit down, a bit more work, a tea break etc etc I imagine this is how things will continue until the lockdown ends.

I just realised it’s Friday again which means Gardeners’ world is on tonight 😀 the one thing I really look forward to watching.

Saturday: Today is a very sad day, we had an early morning phone call to say that my Dad had passed away overnight, as far as we know he didn’t have corvid-19, he had the usual older persons ailments and it seems he passed away quietly in his sleep. I obviously won’t be doing much today except remembering, laughing and crying 💙😘💔 Night, night Dad, you will be missed x x

Monday: Today is a better day after two days of tears and memories. If you have lost someone close you will know how hard it is especially when you weren’t expecting it. What is even harder is the situation we find ourselves in at the moment where you can’t get together with family members and have/give hugs, it’s hard, really hard. The coroner has said it was age related so that’s a blessing, and he went peacefully in his sleep which is just how he would have wanted to go, we are grateful for that. My Dad was a man of simple needs, he loved life, whisky, roll ups, cricket, singing, whistling, good food especially common game, he loved music and he loved to dance, right up to the start of the pandemic they would go to jazz festivals and music events and dance the night away, he loved country ways especially the old ways which was what he was bought up with, he was a countryman through and through. The more you think about things the more you begin to realise about a person, he was way ahead in his thinking about girls and boys, he never treated any of us any differently, if you could lift a shovel, you could mix concrete, boy or girl it didn’t matter 😂 he was a good cook and more often than not cooked his own dinners, he was a great forager and we used to go mushrooming with him when we were younger, there are a million and one things I could tell you about him but most importantly he was my Dad. Goodnight Dad, I love you and I will miss you dearly but you have left behind so many memories and I will cherish those always 😘😘

Friesland Farm

Sowing and growing, reading & Easter 🐣

Posted on April 12, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Monday 6th April 2020: And here we are again back round to Monday 😜 The weather is fair to good and so we were again working outside while we can.

I spent the morning watering the greenhouse, moving things around, potting some bits on etc and then planting the first lot of mange-tout out in a bed. I put a load of manure on the flower plants I put in the other week and then I did some watering because although we had a bit of rain last night it wasn’t nearly enough and the ground is really dry. Who would have thought that after weeks and weeks of endless rain we would be complaining 😜 Meanwhile John was cutting wood lol, burning some of the stuff that is no good and separating some of it, there are some big pieces that will make good raised beds but they are attached to ply and each other as they were from some type of shuttering. The nails I’m told are a right b*****d to get out so it’s kept him busy.

You may have noticed that I have slowed down a bit from the first week we were off, mostly this is due to the fact that I have had to stop the meds and it plays havoc with my systems, I feel tired a fair bit, my muscles get stiff and I’m am bloody freezing even when the sun is out lol, to the point I am sat writing this with three layers on 🙄 I generally do my work up to about 1pm and that’s it for the day, I have lunch, I read for an hour and then I have a nap if I’m really tired. Good job John is here though to be honest when he is not (in more usual times) I still do the same if I am not feeling up to it but everything has to wait if it can.

The turkey hen is still with us and I’m hoping she recovers fully, at times she must feel like me and does a lot of sitting around and then there are times when she is wandering about, I still can’t see anything that is physically wrong with her 🤷‍♀️ The torts are enjoying the warmer temps and have started to eat now, I’m picking any dandelion flowers I find as they love those.

Tuesday: Another nice day weather wise, not too hot but warm enough. We’ve done the usual jobs, I made bread and hovered and polished this morning then outside to water things in pots and the young veg plants, water the greenhouse and the polytunnels. It’s crazy all the rain we had a month or so back and now I’m watering because the ground is so dry. John meanwhile has been….you guessed it chopping wood lol, we have slipped into the easy routine of working till around 1pm and then lunch and a gentle afternoon which consists of a nap or some reading before egg collecting and feeding around 3pm ready for putting out at 4pm. After that we usually come in grab a cuppa and watch the update from Downing Street, of course we are all wishing Boris well and hope he makes a speedy recovery, whatever your politics are it’s not nice to fear for someone’s life at a time like this especially when he is the Prime Minister 🙏.

I have had a phone consultation with a friend that knows all about birds in the hope he can shed some light on what might be wrong with the turkey hen. She has no neurological symptoms, no respiratory problems, no mucky bum, she is not crop bound and she is not egg bound so I am struggling a little to work it out. She is pooing dark green and he tells me that’s because the stomach is empty (at least I learnt something new in all this) He suggested checking her over for ticks and mites and so John and I went out and picked her to check her over, she is a big bird and to double check she wasn’t egg bound and to get a look under her wings we carefully tipped her upside down. At this point clear fluid began to run out of her beak so I massaged her crop some more and more fluid came out, one of my suspicions was that she had a blockage further down which seems to be borne out by the fluid emptying out. The blockage must be further down possibly in her intestines and if that’s the case I won’t be able to do much more for her, I have given her a fair bit of vegetable oil in her water in the hopes it can help to move any blockage and it’s possible that gravity may have dislodged something, we will try again tomorrow and see what happens. Its such as shame as she was going great guns laying her eggs, and all of a sudden she stopped so it makes sense as nothing else fits the symptoms.

Wednesday: Another fine, dry day and we got a couple of jobs sorted, I started off by watering g the greenhouse and the newly planted stuff, I don’t know what John was doing but I couldn’t hear him cutting wood lol. Then I roped him into helping me, I had an elder tree that had started growing in one fo the beds, Mum tried to get it out last year but the roots were quite big so got John to dig it out 😜 The next job was to build a frame for the runner beans to grow up. For the last few years I have grown them the same in a dedicated bed up wigwam hazel poles but each year they grow well and then the wind blows them over eventually. This year I have decided to move them and I had a plan, this needed some muscle so John was on hand. We now have long lengths of wood leaning against the side of the fruit cage and stock fencing nailed to it, this will do three things, first, the wind can blow as much as it likes they won’t blow over, second, they will give shade to the raspberries and stop them drying out too much and third, the beans should hang down inside the frame so that I can pick them more easily 😀 It doesn’t look pretty but it is strong and functional and eventually will be covered by foliage 😀

The other job was to re cover the fruit cage with netting, quite a task which takes two of us and gets caught up in every single pokey thing around 😝 It has a few holes in which I will have to mend and sadly a bird had got tangled up in it at some point and died 😢 But it is now up and secured which is great because the Bush cherry I bought last year has flowers 😀😀😀 so I may get cherries this year.

I’m enjoying my ‘book hour’ it’s so quiet and totally relaxing. I sit and contemplate for a while after I finish reading and It occurred to me that if ever there was a moment in life to stop and re evaluate your life or areas of it, then this ‘situation’ is the perfect opportunity to do so. It has pushed to the front those that are considered lowly in their work and those that were taken for granted by many, and rendering useless those that are put on a pedestal or consider wealth/status to be the aim of life. I have always looked to the past to consider what is important in a ‘society’ take a large estate for instance, the people sat in the ‘big house’ on the whole were always mindful that without all the, ever decreasing in size, boulders underneath them they would be bought crashing down in an instant, they are nothing on their own, we are nothing on our own, we all need each other and each other’s skills (mostly 😜) for life as we know it to run smoothly. Long gone are the days when we each held all the skills needed to get by in life, those skills are now spread among all of us, we should remember this going forward.

Thursday: This morning began with a Group FaceTime call to our nephew in Australia who has his birthday today, they are practising social distancing but his friends came to the street to sing happy birthday and have cake, at a safe distance from each other of course 😀

Yesterday afternoon I had a FaceTime call from Mia and she cried and said ‘I miss you’ damn near broke my heart and definitely made me teary. So this mornings mission was to do a video of the farm and the animals so that the grandchildren know that everything is as they saw it last, I walked around chatting and showing them everything including Grampy cutting wood and then I tried to send it lol, too long apparently so I had to cut it into sections and send it and hope they came through in sequence 🤣

After that I got on with doing some bits in the garden, water the greenhouse had moving stuff around, it’s going to be hot today and I need to make sure everything gets it’s chance to grow well. I did some potting on, the squash family are doing really well and needed re potting. After that I planted a row of petit poi outwice, might as well get them out while the weather is good. I’ve just realised I haven’t sown and runner bean seeds yet so I need to do that later, I like to get them going inside as the mice usually eat them otherwise. I picked a couple of bunches of rhubarb to go out for sale and by that time the air was really heating up and I could feel the sun started to make my skin itch so it’s time to duck inside. Sometimes I hate this disease, just when I could really be getting on outside I have to go in, then I think the weather is bound to break eventually and I will be able to spend longer outside. Yesterday it was warm but cloudy so that was ideal, not many clouds today though so too risky for me. Had I known I was going to end up with this I would have sited the veg garden more in the shade but then you have the problem of what to grow as some things really would struggle.

I am in the middle of making hot x buns, well trying anyway the dough doesn’t seem to be rising 😏 at the moment I have the dough in a low oven to see if I can activate it a little, shame as the dough smells amazing, fingers crossed it rises a little other wise it will be hot x flatbread 🤣

Friday: Easter weekend, bank holidays, lovely weather, normally everyone would be over the moon but this year is very different, we need to stay home and help the NHS to save lives, I seriously hope people are doing just that.

I’m struggling a bit today, I can always tell as I go out to do some jobs and tend to end up just looking at things that need doing lol. This, I’m sure is because I am off the meds and normally I would take some anti inflammatory but I’m not quite sure about the information that is flying around about avoiding it at the moment 🙄 I came indoors and sat for a while and then decided to make a chocolate cake for the weekend, I hope it turns out better than my flat x buns which were a disaster, I baked it anyway and we have eaten a slice of it this morning, it tastes fine but is heavy.

Saturday: I have decided to take ibrufen, it’s definitely inflammation due to coming off the meds and as my blood test is not until next week I have to do something inbetween and with the ibrufen at least I can carry on. So this morning I have been very busy, watering everything and then I looked for my runner bean seeds and couldn’t find them anywhere, I am without runner bean seeds 😳 I looked online and some places are charging three times the amount they normally cost, my regular supplier haven’t even got any nor any seed potatoes and demand overall for seeds is huge. Two conflicting things I feel about this, one, I’m obviously delighted that people are growing their own, after all I am always banging on about it, two, I’m a bit peed off that I can’t get what I need lol. That will teach me to save far more seed in future years, it’s part of food security and I need to observe it more closely. So I have sown extra peas and dwarf beans, some basil, cauliflower and purple sprouting plus some seeds I saved from the welsh onions. I have planted more petit poi’s out and earthed up the potatoes I have growing in sacks. I sent John to get some more compost, luckily they sell it at a farm just up the road from us and I will carry on sowing and planting just in case we need it, if we don’t it will feed the animals so nothing lost there.

By 11.30 it was too hot for me to work on the garden so I came inside and to be honest didn’t do much inside either 😝 At 5pm I decided it was ok enough for me to go out and cut the grass on the lawn and the driveway. John offered to do it which is rare as in the thirty something years we have been married he has hardly ever been the one to mow the lawn, he thinks I’m stupid and don’t know that he was hoping I would cook dinner while he did it 🙄 Nope I can manage now you run inside and do the dinner, something else he has rarely done over the years, we had boiled eggs 😝

Easter weekend, definitely different to all the other Easters we have ever had and the same for everyone else I’m sure. Still the main thing is that we are staying home, protecting the NHS and saving lives, though many have lost the battle already 😢

I must include this in my blog, it was written by my middle daughter and it’s just so lovely 😊 and totes approp. Written by Shelley Silver 🥰🥰

Nana, when you watch the sunrise, we also watch it too, we also feel the same spring breeze that passes over you.
The buzz of the first few Bees, we know you hear the same, and in the sky when you look up we see the same grey plane.
Even though it’s been too long since we have played at yours, know that we are still connected through the great outdoors.
When you go to bed tonight, just look at up the moon and keep forever in your heart that we will see you soon.

Sunday: Easter Day, we have decided to have a day off apart from feeding the animals of course but the rest of the day we have done nothing but sit around enjoying some leisure time. I could get used to this way of life very easily except for not seeing the family bit. We did pop out to see if we could get some bananas and some carrots, had to go to two different places but both were fairly quiet and there was hardly anything on the roads. We also went to de bunk the theory that we might be the only ones left in the world as it is soooo quiet 😜 I have a leg of lamb in the oven for dinner later, then we will have it cold tomorrow, I found some pastry in the freezer so will also be making a pie, living it up today 😂

The weather has been amazing, very warm, very dry but to be honest I’m looking forward to it cooling a little so that I don’t feel so tired and can get on and do some more in the garden and if we could just have a little bit of moisture so that the rhubarb and asparagus come on a bit, that would be perfect 👌

As always have a good week and stay home, stay safe x x

Friesland Farm

What day is it? 😂 a missing guinea pig, did the cat do it? 🤔

Posted on April 5, 2020April 5, 2020 by frieslandfarm

I Monday 30 March 2020: And just like that it’s Monday again 😜 albeit different Mondays to what we once had as obviously John is at home. This morning he went out first thing to get the van an MOT, the government announced, the day after he had booked it in, that MOTs would be extended for 6 months but as it was already booked he went ahead with it as once things get back to normal he can just get on with work. It went through without any problems so that’s a bonus. He had to walk around outside for an hour while they did it and he was freezing when he got back, we went through the usual questions, did you wipe everything down before you touched it, 5e handles, the steering wheel, the gearstick, the keys 😂 such a lot to remember to do, but yes he was thorough he said. Meanwhile I did the morning rounds and once he was back he cut up some more of our (now shrinking rapidly) mountain of wood. I spent the first half of the morning sorting out the hazel trees at the side, they are grown and pruned the old fashioned way, I know this because I was told by an arborist that ‘you don’t see them done like that these days’. I have tried to research it but there is not much information out there, they have six trunks each and any growth is pruned off at the bottom third. They were like this when we came so we have kept them the same except the odd trunk that has fallen or the ones we pruned right back to allow summer light to the poly tunnels. They end up with a fair amount of debris under them so I pruned all the new unwanted growth out and then John helped me to shred the prunnings, rake out underneath, sweep the pathway and find nails 🙄 The nails are from the ash which is riddled out of the Rayburn, we use all kinds of wood and a lot of pallets so there are nails, screws, staples etc in the ash. We have a big magnet and the idea is to go through it often and get them out but as it’s usually cold over winter that job gets overlooked and so it ends up a spring job and today was a good enough day to do it. We came in at 2pm for some lunch and then John went to deliver some eggs, doorstep delivery, stand back and wait for the customer to put the money on the step and go back in, strange times but necessary distancing.

In the afternoon or what was left of it I made bread, and double choc chip cookies and lit the Rayburn while John did the afternoon feeding and egg collecting. Then it rained, only a quick shower so not too bad at least the ground will remain dry, it’s so much nicer without mud underfoot lol.

It seems that all this social distancing and closing of bars, clubs, restaurants etc has given a glimmer of hope in that the numbers going into hospital and the numbers that are dying has slowed very slightly. It’s a strange world we find ourselves in where we can’t see family members or friends, we can’t go out to places we normally would go, we can only do the necessary and that is shopping, an hours walk for exercise (and no driving to your destination), or going for medication/doctors appointments, work if it’s necessary and you can’t do it at home. Most people I know are adhering to this but I’m sure there are plenty out there who are not, I expect further restrictions will come soon.

Tuesday: The days are beginning to blur into any old day lol. Dry again today, sunny spells and warm when the sun is out but cold when it’s hiding behind the clouds. We did the morning rounds and then got on with moving the wood chip (it’s finished 😀😀) well actually John moved the wood chip while I did some hoeing/weeding and cutting back dead stuff, watering the greenhouse and the seeds I have sown, generally pottering is what I have been doing. The turkey hen looks a little off colour, I have given her a good check over and can’t see anything wrong with her, she isn’t egg bound and she doesn’t have an impacted crop, I’m hoping it’s a blip and she will perk up, she is still eating and drinking just a little unhappy looking. We have another anomaly that I haven’t worked out, a missing guinea pig, one disappeared a few weeks ago and we bolstered up the run to make sure they couldn’t get out and now another has gone 🤔 no sign of fur and it definitely can’t get out, my theory is the cat, there is a bit where the cat could get in if it really wanted to, we will be shutting them in the hut tonight which they are not used so that will be fun trying to catch them.

We did plenty of little jobs about the place in the afternoon, I did some weeding and tidying of borders and John did something though I’m not sure what. At dusk I went out to put the rabbits/guineas away and yes that was a mission, the rabbits went in fine but guineas a very fast when they want to be lol in the end I dropped a tea towel over the end of its tunnel and caught it li,e that bit I spent a good 10 mins trying to catch it before hand.

Wednesday: Dry again although it was pretty cold over night, the temperature was not bad though, workable. After the morning rounds I went and got the turkey a bowl of warm water with garlic powder, oil and cider vinegar as she is definitely not right, I also gave her some meds in case it’s cocci which it may well be and if it is we will probably lose her. There is usually blood in the poo if it’s cocci and she doesn’t have any, could be that she has eaten something that she didn’t ought to have but there is only her food and grass/bugs etc 🤷‍♀️

Then I spent a lovely morning tidying up some rough areas of the garden, we get a lot of broken branches over winter so I had a fire in the incinerator and raked up dead wood and leaves. I have unpacked and laid out my seep hoses ready for watering the beds, I bought three last year as I really don’t want to spend so much time doing it this year, they need to rest once unpacked otherwise they coil back up again, I found a mouse in one of the bags, nice little nest it had in there lol. John found some metal grill to cover up the hole into the rabbit run. We have never had a problem before and the hole is above waist height and very narrow so a fox couldn’t get through, however a cat well that’s another thing altogether. My suspicions got stronger later when I saw Benny slink along the paddock fence towards the back of the rabbit run, I watched from a distance but then he spotted me and came running over, I’m pretty sure the cat has been snacking on guinea pig 🤬.

We had a birthday FaceTime party this morning, for Mum this time, everyone recorded birthday messages and sent them via the family chat and then video conferencing took place lol, we can’t all get on at the same time but with people dropping in and out I think everyone managed at some point.

Thursday: Another day in paradise 🙄 we have slowed our pace a little now, still doing jobs but pottering rather than going full steam ahead. John is still cutting wood 😂 it will be great to see it all cut up and stacked for next winter. I am pottering doing household bits and gardening bits depending on how the mood takes me. This morning I have potted on some of the seedlings, patty pan, pumpkins and some morning glory. I keep looking to see what else I can start sowing but at the minute the greenhouse is pretty full. I will have to do some more cucumbers as I forgot to turn the heated propagator on one evening and they suffered because of it, some are hanging in there but some have had it, roll on some warmer days. Everything else is growing well, the aubergine, peppers and tomatoes are going strong g as are the peas and beans. I have salad lettuce on the go and some leek seeds I found have sprouted, plenty to keep me busy, on top of that there are flower seedlings and plants to nurture. The dahlias look like they are waking up which is fab as I didn’t think they would make it, these are the ones I left in pots, the tubers I stored have not shown any signs yet but it’s early days for them as they need to establish a root system first.

I had a phone call this morning from Dad to say that his partner Sue is in hospital after falling and smashing her kneecap, it’s about the worst time that could happen. I will be phoning him every day to see how he is doing on his own but he does have good neighbours who are already looking out for them. He can’t visit Sue as the hospital says no visits, they are probably going to operate and hopefully they will get her home again quickly. Its a worry as we can’t get to them to visit or help out 😏

I am making bread again today and spent a whole evening trying to find bread flour online in the end I managed to get 10kg so that will keep us going. I was disgusted to see people profiteering from the shortage, I have seen 1kg of flour for sale on eBay for £50 AND it had bidders, what is this world coming to, sheer greed, sad individuals 😢

We have taken to watching the live daily updates from Downing Street, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson is himself one self isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 so at the moment it’s other ministers delivering the updates. What is amazing is the way industries and companies that wouldn’t normally work together, are pulling out all the stops to get new products or products they don’t normally make, up and running, hats off to them and just goes to show what can be achieved in a short space of time when it’s really needed. Tonight the country will go outside and clap in appreciation of the NHS and all the key workers that are keeping the country running, it’s quite emotional to hear the sound of people uniting for a cause.

Getting the dinner tonight I realise that today is the first day I am feeling bored with all this which sounds petulant but it’s just how I’m feeling, I know we can’t change it but I am thinking how nice it would be getting a takeaway or going out to eat instead of doing the cooking every day lol. I am missing my family, FaceTime is not quite the same as real hugs. Tomorrow night I have Gardeners’ world to look forward to lol and tonight after dinner I may treat myself to a cherry coke and some chocolate 😝

Friday: Normally I love Fridays, they are the last day of the working week for us and a prelude to the weekend, now one day is pretty much like another 😜 and every day is the weekend! This morning we have done the usual rounds and then John fixed a few little things that needed doing, a gate that didn’t shut properly, the weatherboard on my greenhouse door before returning to cutting wood. Meanwhile I did one of my favourite jobs of the day now things are growing well and that is picking herbs and weeds for the rabbits/guineas. Today they had a mix of parsley, grass, dandelion, dead nettle, mint and sprouting broccoli that had gone to seed, the reason I love it is the smell, it’s amazing and then there are the delighted squeals from the guineas 😀 I did a bit of potting on in the greenhouse and sowed some more peas and some sunflowers.

In the afternoon I started off tidying up the front driveway, the edges get over grown and the debris from winter is usually stuck to the ground, John came and gave me a hand for a little while before it was time to collect the eggs. Charlie and Macca came over to drop off some shopping they got for us, just a few bits mostly for John, sausages, bacon and cheese, some bananas for me and a cherry coke.

I had a phone call in the afternoon and it was great to hear Sue on the other end, she has had her kneecap pinned back together and they have let her go home which is great news.

Saturday: A fine warm day is on the cards for today so we should get some jobs done. John did some wood cutting 😂 I did some seed sowing and some planting of seedlings outside. I am concentrating on fast growing crops such as micro greens (broccoli, celery, cabbage) which I mixed together and sowed into a container in the small tunnel and then covered with a pane of greenhouse glass so the mice don’t eat them. I sowed various lettuce/salad leaves in the big tunnel and covered with bubble wrap. I also planted a two rows of beetroots plantings and some mangetout outside. I spent a bit of time weeding the big tunnel and laying membrane down, it dose t look pretty but it will mean I can spend more time of the plants I want rather than the weeds I don’t. I found a froglet in there, that’s my slug control sorted 😀

I asked John to power wash the decking area as using it is his favourite job 😝 and he also reconnected the main water pipes outside, if it looks like the weather might turn to freezing we will have to undo them again but for now they will be useful for filling up water tubs as the big water tanks are getting low.

The longer this virus situation goes on the more bizarre it feels 🙄 hopefully a once in a lifetime occurrence but if not they will know what to or what not to do next time.

I made some yoghurt, well it is in the process of being made, I don’t make it from scratch I’m not that much of a yoghurt lover but I do have a yearning for something different to eat and I don’t have to go to the shops to get it. I bought a yoghurt maker over a year ago when I was eating it for breakfast regularly (a phase I go through now and again) I buy the sachets and mostly they are plain Greek yoghurt but I think there was a free trial of coconut and mango so that’s what I have on the go. I’m glad we already had food stocks and haven’t had to get very much at all, it’s fresh fruit and salad stuff that I yearn for, for John it’s sausages, bacon and cheese. We are lucky that the girls will get what we need and deliver it, charlie dropped off some bits yesterday but it’s not the same and strolling along the isles deciding what you fancy 😜

Sunday: Well what can I say about today that I haven’t already said for every day lol, eat, sleep, work, watch evening tv, repeat 😂 Actually it has been quite a nice day although the weather didn’t really live up to my expectations, wind wasn’t factored in to sunny weather. This morning we had a visit from my sister and her hubby, they came to gets eggs but it means we can have a chat over the gate. They bought their own mugs so we could make them a cuppa 🤣 the scenario goes something like this: she places the cups on the ground and steps back, I get the cups, I go inside wash hands (because I touched the cups) make the tea, put their cups on a tray, wash hands (now I can carry the tray) take it outside place tray on the floor, they pick up the cups by the handle, voila I think we got it covered 🤔 It was a nice interlude and a lovely chat in the morning sunshine.

Other jobs of the day included stripping the bed and getting the washing out on the line, good job it was breezy as it dried in no time, making bread and rock cakes and I took an hour off to sit outside on the newly cleaned decking to read my book. It’s an I interesting book, I got it for Christmas but it’s especially poignant now as it is a post apocalypse novel. When I say post I mean around 1000 years after something terrible wiped out society as we know it, the lastest clue (as I’m only a third of the way through) is that the ‘episode’ happened in 2025, how appropriate is that and it seems to be a disease that wiped them out though that remains to be seen 🙄 It’s now one and a half thousand years later and life has very much gone backwards! John as usual has been cutting wood 😂 and apparently (I haven’t actually looked yet) he cleaned and hoovered the back toilet, wonders will never cease.