Thursday 19th November 2020: It’s a dry day with some sunshine although it’s colder and breezier than it has been lately. I have been waiting everyday for the weather to be nice enough to go outside but the rain was persistent and it’s not much fun in the wet. Today however I got up, got on with the morning tasks, went for a brief walk and then returned with the determination to get some stuff done. I cleaned out the quail and the guinea pigs and then went into the greenhouse to sort out seeds and look over the plants that are still in there. I planted up some sweet pea seeds that I had started off on the kitchen windowsill and then bought all the seeds in to go through later today. I seem to have got a huge amount of them 🙄 and I need to go through them all and may as well do it indoors in the warm. I also picked the tiny loofah, cleared the plant foliage and a bought that in to dry on the windowsill, I think that potentially it will go mouldy if I leave it in the greenhouse.
I wasn’t going to blog at all this week, on Monday a friend had a tragic and life altering day and I couldn’t bring myself to write about my trivial daily life but I found that as I was going round doing things I kept thinking ‘I must put that in the blog’ and it is a diary so eventually I found myself today writing it down again.
I have also started the list of wildlife we have here and even writing things from the off the top of my head I realise that we have a lot going on. Today a small flock of long tailed tits arrived, they always appear when the temperatures dip. My aim is to also get photographs but the little birds are far quicker than me or my shutter speed 🙄
Friday: Once upon a time I looked forward to Fridays and the weekend just around the corner, now in lockdown every day is pretty much the same except this time round John is out working and the weather is s**t. This morning we have the grey drizzle again and it’s noticeably colder no wonder people are putting up their Christmas decs early lol. I still won’t be putting mine up until Christmas week though 🙄 John asked if we are having a tree this year 🤷♀️ not sure if it’s worth the bother to be honest, it’s a squeeze to get a tree in here and still be able to see the tv 😂 but I don’t really want to break with tradition, you can’t beat the smell of a real tree indoors lol. I briefly considered an artificial one (hush my mouth) I have never in my entire life had a fake one, not when we were kids and not as a adult with my own home but I did think about it, then quickly dismissed it, it’s a real one or none at all 😀 I am still planning for a family Christmas though we have no idea if that will actually be the case this year. The Christmas cake is done and needs feeding again, my sister made mincemeat and gave me a big jar and I also have a small jar in the store cupboard from last year, I usually make the pudding and we have ‘stir up’ and the kids make wishes but that won’t happen this year and so I bought one from a posh supermarket instead and I indulged and bought some celebrity chef stollen for me as John hates it. We have discussed Christmas dinner it will be a bit sad if it’s ‘dinner for two’ 🙄 I also just ordered myself some Asbach Brandy, traditionally made in Oak barrels it’s my favourite brandy, not that I drink much of it anymore but I figure a treat is in order this year 🥰
Sometimes life changes drastically in less than a minute and other times it’s a long slow process. This morning I went down the Lane to say goodbye to our nieghbours over the road. We are all about a field or two away from each other here but still we are neighbours, they are moving today to retire to a warmer climate and I will miss having them over the road. They have been there long before us but I used to take Samantha there for riding lessons when she was little, they started out living in a caravan in the field and over the years built up a business and a house and now they are retiring, I wish them a long and happy retirement.
Saturday: Still grey and gloomy outside though not raining but it is damp. John did the feed rounds and then went off to collect more feed, he hasn’t had to do that for nearly nine months as we were having it delivered at the same time we had point of lay hens delivered, but we won’t be having any new birds over Winter. The avian flu that I thought would get out of hand appears to be contained and I haven’t heard of any further outbreaks which is good news. We are however still planning to bring the birds in for a couple weeks, mainly so that the ground can be rested and the mobile coops cleaned out properly, we can also keep a good eye on the health of the birds, worm them if necessary, give them a good dust bath area and see exactly how many eggs we are getting 🙄 With that in mind John also went to get bales of sawdust to deep litter them.
After he had done that we set about the job I really wanted to get done today, chop out the floor in the kitchen by the back door so that I can get a mat down for wiping feet on. Up to now the door was too low to be able to put a mat there and open the door, so that mat had to be about three feet inside which as you can imagine is a pain in the proverbial as that always means muddy foot prints up to it. It’s the little things that make the difference and that is one of them though it did take over an hour to chop it all out 😜 The next job was the electrics in the stable, the wet weather keeps knocking it out and we think it is because of one of the plugs though we can’t pinpoint it. By the time the electrician gets here it’s always dried out and working fine but as soon as it rains heavily it goes again. We will need the lights for the darker evenings and so at the minute the light circuit is on but the socket circuit, which we don’t use very often, has been isolated, another little job that helps the day run smoothly🤞
We nipped into town just to get something and grab a costa while we were there. As we arrived there was an ambulance and it appeared that a car had reversed from a parking space and hit a pedestrian, then a police car arrived on blue lights, then another, then another and then another, I am full of support for our boys in blue but seriously that’s over doing it I think 😂
Back home and get the Rayburn lit, get the eggs collected and sorted, it’s getting dark around 4.15/30 and that will be another day done and dusted, time seems to have shot past today.
Sunday: We have been busy little bees today 😀 first all the morning jobs to get done and then to Witney to pick up my new glasses and a few little pressies. Then back home where John got on with putting the metal coping on the front of the building, it’s a 90 degree piece that goes on the roof then down the front to cover the ends of the roofing sheets. They look good, we got them colour coded to match the paintwork 😀 Meanwhile I spent my time burning the paper rubbish which seemed to grow by the day, feed bags and cardboard boxes etc, after that I got two of the stables ready to move the hens to and the outside POL pen which we will put the light Sussex in for a while as their run has no solid roof and the ground is dire after all the rain. In the afternoon Emma arrived with a delivery of her award winning lamb, that will keep us going for a few months along with the beef we had from her last month.
After collecting the eggs and a bite to eat it will be time to shut the hens away and we will move two lots tonight, maybe three we will se how dark and cold it gets 😝
We are heading towards mid winter and the shortest day, after that the nights will draw out slowly again, the wheel keeps on turning and one thing is for sure, Spring is on its way even though it’s a way off yet 😏
Stay safe and have a good week 🥰
frieslandfarm (flowers) 