Monday 2nd November 2020: Morning 😀 It was very windy overnight and still some pretty hefty gusts first thing this morning, we are supposed to get drier weather from Wednesday I will look forward to that. This is the week that we potentially go into another semi lockdown, I say potentially as it still has to go through parliament and who knows what could happen there 🙄 I am pretty chipper about it all because, well there is not much choice really is there, do or die, hopefully not that dramatic but you get my drift! I am also feeling pretty smug because I have all but finished my Christmas shopping (hush my mouth 🤭) normally I would not have even thought about it yet, I usually start mid/end of November but this year I started early, mostly because I did not want to be shopping with thousands of others during a pandemic, I’m glad I made that decision now. I have a feeling this lockdown may last longer than expected, food is not an issue I can rustle up Christmas dinner for two easily enough 😜
Today is kids tea at Nanas but it will be the last one for a while sadly, I have made the jelly already and will get the cake on the go shortly. John did the birds this morning and I just need to do the other animals, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, horses, quail, then a bit of cleaning probably, I am waiting for this dry weather to arrive before I do much outside.
Small businesses are busy cramming their last few appointments and opening hours in as much as they can. I just managed to get a hair appointment for a trim otherwise I can see I will resort to doing my own fringe which never works out well 😜 I feel sorry for these businesses, shut, open with caution and conditions, shut again but I also feel it’s necessary for the NHS. Nobody working on the front line wants to be in a position that they have to choose who lives and who dies, that is potentially what would happen if the cases needing to be admitted outstrip capacity, that’s what we all need to remember 🤔 And it’s not just the elderly and vulnerable that are severely affected, I have heard of youngish, fit people that are suffering long after they had the virus, still struggling to walk any great distance, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone so for those reasons I am for the lockdown not against it. The economy will suffer, yep, but life is about more than the economy, though we have interwoven it so tightly that it doesn’t seem like there is anything else. Perhaps I can say that because it won’t affect me much apart from the inevitable tax, vat and price rises, but that’s because of the lifestyle I have chosen I think, self sufficiency is about more than growing your own food it’s about being able to manage and weather the storm when the shit hits the fan as it has this year. I have been saying for a few years now that an economy bust will come, I didn’t expect it to be disease but it was booming, more disposable income than ever before and some quite frankly astonishing pay packets at the higher end of earning, reality tv ‘celebrities’ that have no talents, ordinary people emanating these wannabes who’s highlight of the week is to go out and get hammered 🤷♀️ the climate in desperate need of attention but nobody cares enough to change their habits for the better, if you really looked at each individual cog from an outside perspective you would see how depraved it was all getting and eventually it collapses. Greater civilisations than ours have fallen before, everything has a cycle, we are in the throes of the decline of ours in more ways than one, that’s what I think anyway 🤔 I don’t think that ever before have our hopes for a better future been pinned on the youngest generation like they are now, I hope they are a generation that sees things for what they are and not the dressed up gloss that has infiltrated every aspect of life, every photo is filtered, every news report is one sided, false news, false body bits, false…. oh, I am thinking too much, I will depress myself in a minute 😝
The kids came for tea one last time before the lockdown, that’s the saddest part for me not being able to see them whenever I want or they want but hopefully it will only be for a few weeks, I hope it dose t go on any longer than that.
Tuesday: It is noticeably colder this morning, yesterday it was 20c indoors so I didn’t even light the Rayburn until after 5pm, overnight the rain was at times heavy, it woke me at least once and then this morning Sunshine but colder, hopefully it will be drier as well, I’m getting fed up with the rain even though it’s only been on and off it’s still annoying.
I need to think about what I will be doing during the lockdown, life won’t change much except that I will be by myself most of the time so I need projects to occupy me. I guess there is always reading and Netflix box sets to catch up on, that’s what winter is for isn’t it, I may have to look for some good books to read and order them in, any suggestions? I generally browse the prize lists and see what catches my attention. My fav author, Phillipa Gregory has a release soon which I already have on order so I look forward to that, trouble is I can read her books in a couple of days. I love her style of writing and after going to one of her talks last year I got to understand her passion for the hidden women in history and why she likes to tell their stories.
I’m not sure where the hours went yesterday but I seemed to have used them all up lol, haircut, deliveries, FaceTime, feeding rounds, dinner, household chores, rayburn lighting and a bit of reading.
Wednesday: It was a good frost this morning, let’s hope it’s the first of many for winter, we only had a handful if that last year which is not good. Pests and disease are killed off by the cold snaps and last year that didn’t happen, it’s also good for the soil to have that freeze thaw action on the particles.
I was up before the alarm went off and I turned on the TV straight away, along with a large part of the world, I want to see what is happening in the US elections 🙄
I have to admit I have been doing only two things today really, one, turning the tv on periodically to see the updates in the US and two, reading 😜 I have done a few others things in between but mainly those two. About the reading, I have to confess it’s my addiction, once I pick up a book, one that I engage with, I can’t put it down unless I absolutely have to. It’s why I don’t constantly have a book on the go because I don’t like to be interrupted while I’m reading it 😂 and that includes day to day life 🙄 I am the same with a film, I could never be one of those people who can watch a bit of a film and not the rest 🤷♀️ I always want to know how the story is panning out and how it finishes.
I finished the book, a good story, The Binding by Bridget Collins, worth a read if you like a bit of escapism and a little bit of magic and mystery in the mix. The next book I have in my sights is called The New Wilderness, it’s on the Booker shortlist so should be a goodie and it’s climate change, survival, dystopia story so right up my street 😀
Thursday: 2nd Lockdown, day 1 😜 I have been a very busy bee this morning, the weather is lovely and so into the garden I go to get some good work done. First the plants that have been affected by that hard frost we had, the yacon can be dug up after the first frost, the foliage on all these plants go black and limp very quickly. I have never grown them before so wasn’t sure what to expect but there were tubers, not masses but enough. Yacon are very good for you they are prebiotic and full of antioxidant, they are sweet but fructose has no calories so great for diabetics, they can be eaten raw or cooked and apparently make a great syrup but you need a lot of them. I have dug up the whole plant and will put the root somewhere dry over winter and hopefully get them going again next year. The smaller tubers need drying off and only washing just as you use them or they will get mouldy. The next veg to harvest were the Oca, similar in that it’s the tubers you eat, little cream coloured knobbly nuggets, also left to dry off before storing for later use. After that I went on to clear and clean the asparagus bed and the rhubarb, these are the first two harvests to begin appearing next spring so getting those done first is a good idea. I have used one of those darlek type compost bins to ‘force’ one of the rhubarb plants, I will get early, sweeter stalks, at least that’s the plan. The bed still needs to have manure put on there but apart from that it’s done, I did dig up the artichoke plants as they get huge, nobody really wants to fiddle about prepping them so I decided they could go though I did replant one elsewhere out of the way. Then it was the turn of the dahlias to be lifted, again they collapse in the frost and so lifting them over winter means I will still have some next year. After that the herb patch, cutting back, weeding, tidying plants up. By then my back was aching a bit and so I did some more gentle jobs, putting stuff away for the winter and finally pulling a few beetroot which are still growing really well. The temptation is to keep going as there is plenty to do but I know if I do that I won’t be any good for tomorrow so I came in for lunch and a sit down before starting on the afternoon shift.
The rest of the day was spent prepping dinner for cooking later, lighting the Rayburn, feeding the birds, collecting the eggs, feeding cats and dogs, putting clean sheets on the bed, doesn’t sound like much but surprising how many hours it all takes 😀 Once the night draws in and the curtains are closed it’s back to some reading or tv, except that, damn it’s Thursday 9pm and I have forgotten the dustbin AGAIN, well done for volunteering John 😘
Friday: We are still awaiting the results of the presidential election in the US, I have never been interested before, not ever, but with this one I find myself waking early to see if there is a result every morning. They are not my politics but I know who I would be voting for in the circumstances.
It’s cold this morning though the sun is shinning so it should warm up a tad 🙄 I should be getting on with stuff but I have the TV on waiting to see what happens next 😂 Beats corona virus and Brexit chatter anyway!
I lit the Rayburn late morning because I don’t think it’s going to warm up very much before it starts to get cold again. I picked up the wood basket and went to open the door out to the boot room and the door fell off! Well not quite all the way off but the top hinge had come away from the frame. The door had been sticking and Martin had a look last time he was here and said you need some more screws in the hinge, it’s not something you really look at regularly is it. I couldn’t find any sign of screws that had come out and I’m wondering exactly how many were in there, I do have a nick name for John when he puts hinges on anything ‘Johnny two screws’ I’m pretty sure there are four holes for a reason but he only ever uses two, well they had both failed 🤷♀️ Luckily I have my own cordless screwdriver and can manage the repair on my own, I wedged the door up so that the hinge was in place and I used three screws 😜 that’s because I couldn’t find a forth, but at least the door can be opened and closed again now and as a bonus it no longer sticks 😂
We appear to have some kind of turf war going on in the skies above us here, for about an hour we have had a pair of Red Kite and a pair of Buzzards screeching overhead with some crows joining in occasionally. It’s quite fascinating as I have not seen this behaviour here before. They don’t usually roost or live here but maybe they are looking for new homes 🤷♀️ if I work out what is happening I will let you know.
I bought myself a lockdown cup 😂 it’s wonky and perfectly reflects life as it is at the moment. There are not many pleasures to be had at the minute but I am enjoying drinking my tea from this 🥰
The horses are getting hungry now as the grass they have eaten off all summer is no longer growing like it was, time to order in hay. They have the free range of all the paddocks during the summer, the chickens are also out on the paddocks with electric fencing and this is not a problem until the grazing gets less and then the horses try to break into the chicken runs. Biscuit has now got caught up three times in the fence, luckily she just stands there until she is rescued but it’s definitely time for hay and putting electric up so they can’t get into that particular paddock.
Every day at 3pm it’s egg collecting time and the hens get fed as well, but I was thinking on the way round this is a silly system. The reason we do that is to put the eggs out at 4pm so everyone knows when they go out and have a chance to get them if they want some. To start with, as I am always telling John, the hens should be fed an hour before dusk especially in the Winter because the grain is to keep them warm overnight. It’s not so important in the summer but you can’t collect the eggs without being mobbed by the hens which is why they get fed. I am going to make an executive decision and change the system this will allow me to keep on working in the spring, summer and autumn months without having to stop what I am doing to go and do something else which is a real bugbear for me. It also will mean that there is no pressure to get the eggs sorted and into the shed for an allotted time because life does not always go to plan and sometimes the turnaround it tight which is stressful, yep I am going to tell john that is what is going to happen in the New Year 😝
I found out why the door fell off, I found a sheared off head of a screw on the floor, doesn’t explain where any others went to but maybe they came off previously, a bit weird but that’s the kind of thing that happens at ‘the funny Farm’ Another weird thing is flies again, they are infesting the boot room, it started yesterday when there were about twenty of them. I hoovered them up as they are drowsy at this time of year, I hoovered four more times yesterday and then twice already today. I have no idea where they are coming from but I have told John that I want every crack and crevice sealed to stop it happening again. They must be in the wall and when it warms up a bit they crawl out, probably something dead in there though I can’t smell anything.
Saturday: Wow what a day, we have been busy outside from first thing this morning only stopping quickly for a speedy lunch of homemade chicken soup. We have been very busy sorting out the front area, building part of the new raised bed that will go under the windows, moving the remaining topsoil and the leftover ballast. Doesn’t sound like much but it has taken us all day to get stuff tidied and built and swept and chipped, dotted with cups of tea, feeding the hens, collecting the eggs. I will eventually get pictures to show you but I want to wait until it’s all done and we have quite a way to go yet so don’t be expecting them anytime soon. My back is aching from digging, shovelling and even a stint on the pick axe. We had a fish and chip supper followed by a chocolate bar to round the day off, it will probably be an early night as we are both pooped.
I didn’t even come in to find out how the election results were going but it seems they didn’t come in until just before we finished anyway, at least there is now confirmation even if it is going to be contested 🙄 What on Earth will be talk about now 😂
Sunday: The usual jobs to get done this morning before going to town to try for a second week in a row to get my eye test. The town was noticeably quieter now the lockdown has commenced. Success this time though it was a mighty thump to the bank balance 🙄 new glasses, varifocal and light reactive this time, also a new 3D scan of the eyeball which showed that they are in excellent condition, thank goodness for that 😀 Back home in time for lunch and by now the drizzle had started so we haven’t bothered doing any work outside, opting for Netflix instead 😂
Apart from the usual afternoon jobs that will be it for us today as far as the smallholding is concerned so that just leaves me to wish you a good week, stay safe and look after your mental health, I think that is going to be very important with a Winter lockdown, practice some good Hygge (pronounced hoo gah) 🥰
frieslandfarm (flowers) 