Monday 4th January 2021: Having decided we will go to the shop as minimally as possible I am busy ploughing through the freezers, luckily they are full of all kinds of things especially veg and fruit, what we don’t buy I can make, bread, biscuits, cakes, pies, yep we are pretty sorted and to be honest I am rather enjoying wondering what on Earth each lump of frozen stuff is 😂 The veg, you will remember from last year, was all chopped and open froze so that’s easy to identify, sometimes I get out what I think is soup only to find it’s stock or in one case tomato juice instead of tomato soup but they are small matters that can easily be used regardless. This is when being self sufficient/reliant comes into its own in a big way and it’s what I love about what we do, I can’t wait to get started on the next growing season 😀
There is not much that can be done outside on the veg garden at the minute, if you are starting from scratch and have an area identified or built you can cover with cardboard and mulch to keep the weeds down, it’s to cold, wet, frozen to do much else for now. It will soon be time to start off pepper, aubergine and tomato seeds but only if you have good heat and good light otherwise you will be wasting your time and end up with leggy, weak seedlings, I usually wait until the beginning of March and even then only if the weather is not too cold and dull. The onions, garlic and shallots I planted at the end of the last season are doing well, plenty of top growth on them if they carry on I expect to get a good harvest from them. I still have the brassicas growing in the cage, I think they are sprouting broccoli and they should soon begin to sprout, the foliage is about 5/6 feet tall so if nothing appears that will be disappointing 😜 only another few weeks and the rhubarb and asparagus will start to appear and the whole process of growing our own will begin again.
Getting the office sorted was the job of the day today, we (I say we but mostly John) have had to make good any of the walls ready for plaster boarding. For some reason five years ago we never got round to finishing the room and so it was half done and left like that for years 🙄 anyhow after a lot of hard graft today the walls, ceiling and window surround are now ready for plastering and John is plastering the ceiling as I write. We do have a problem with the floor where a radiator has been leaking and part of it will have to be replaced as it is rotten, the floor is also not level it appears and so that needs to be rectified as well, all doable I am told so I am letting the expert get on with it and I am there as a dead man or cleaner or labourer or tea maker whatever is needed 😜 That has taken up most of the day with the usual jobs slotting in when they need to be.
I did go out into the poly tunnel and pull up some pak Choi this morning, not for us to eat but for the hens, they have now been inside for quite a while and so giving them greens now and again will hopefully help with boredom and lack of natural foraging. I still have a fair bit of lettuce type plants growing in there and I will continue to pull them for the birds they are more in need of it than me I think.
It is early evening and we have an announcement at 8pm from the Prime Minister 🙄 another lockdown? I think it will be and luckily John had already decided to have January off and hopefully he will still be able to get materials to get on with the office, if not there are plenty of other jobs to do 🤣
Tuesday: So we are into another full lockdown which will be reviewed in seven weeks! Oh my days seven weeks, luckily we have plenty to occupy us. As I type John is taking out the second radiator, not sure that January is a good time to be taking out radiators but who am I so comment lol, the first electric one will be arriving today so we can see how well that is going to work. I am also waiting for him to clean the flue so I can get the fire lit as it is a tad cold this morning 🥶
Rayburn lit and outside jobs done, I spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon doing not a lot but not nothing if you see what I mean. We had butternut squash soup for lunch and I tried making a fruit loaf. This is the second or third attempt I have made at doing this but yet again it is failing to rise on the first prove so I think I will give up and never try it again. I don’t like to give up on anything but sometimes the constant failing at it wears you down to despondency, John would be the only one that eats it, I would try a slice but that’s it, and so maybe leave that to the mass production, they seem to manage it easily enough. I am saying all this but I know that I will want to nail it one day 😜
I did think about going down the driveway and pollarding the willow trees now they are dormant, but and it is a but, if I got lost in doing the job and forgot the time the Rayburn would be out when I came back in, it needs feeding every hour or so to keep it up to temperature and as John is plastering he dose t really have time to watch it. Maybe I will wait for a warmer day, today is pretty chilly with a North/East wind and you can really feel the bite in the air.
The fruit bread didn’t fail after all, I put it in the warming oven in the Rayburn and although it took a couple of hours it finally started to rise 😀 it was just on a go slow, it’s not the best loaf ever but it is edible and that’s the main thing.
Wednesday: I have to double check what day it is at the minute 🙄 John had a call out early this morning so it was down to me to do the morning rounds. It was cold but actually it was quite nice to get outside in the fresh air rather than being indoors in the warm. I fed everything and made sure all the water buckets and holders were topped up, collected a few eggs that had already been laid. John came home with a takeaway coffee as the job was at a local coffee shop where they do great coffee, I was delighted that the cup was 100% compostable as well as warming me up on a cold winters day. He left again shortly afterwards to another call out hopefully that will be it for the rest of the day as he has a couple more walls to plaster. So far the ceiling, one wall and two of the window reveals are done now all that is left is the top window reveal and two walls, time to start thinking about paint then 😀 I already have some wallpaper I want to put up on one wall, oh I forgot, the floor has to be done first before painting begins, it seems never ending but it hasn’t taken long really and we have waited five years to get it done so a few more days won’t hurt.
John is having to be very careful when he goes to jobs both for the customers sake and ours, the covid numbers are climbing so rapidly it’s crazy and the reports of the hospitals at breaking point is a big worry so the safer we can keep everyone the better.
I had an email to say the firebricks are with the Royal Mail so I am holding off lighting the Rayburn to see if they arrive with the postman this morning, the oven is reaching ridiculously high temperatures with our makeshift bricks in there and so the sooner we can get the right ones in the better it will be for the boiler.
I keep thinking I will get outside on the garden and do some work but it’s still rather cold at the minute, when I came in from doing the animals the top of my legs were blue 😧 there is plenty of time and I’m sure the temperature will rise slightly soon. I did look at the rhubarb that I am forcing, it’s growing nicely, the other plants have barely started so forcing is a good idea and it will mean an early crop which is good when there is not much else about. I think I will get the broad bean seeds sown sooner rather than later and I might try some salad leaves in the greenhouse as I the heat mat I have had on in there seems to be doing a great job of keeping the frost out.
The postman came and went and no fire bricks so I lit the Rayburn it’s too cold to wait anymore. Midday and John is still out fixing a leak, it’s a hole in a lead pipe so that means replacing the very old pipe with new or trying to find a fitting that will connect old to new which is rare these days. Meanwhile I decided I would have a look and order some seed potatoes, normally I only do maincrop but this year I am going to do first earlies so the sooner I order them the better. I ordered, Charlotte, swift and Vivaldi and I will probably set at least one lot in the polytunnel for an even earlier crop. I also ordered the main crop potatoes at the same time to save on postage, I have gone for Cara, I have had them before, they have a good yield and are fairly disease resistant plus the longer you leave them in the bigger they get which is perfect for baking potatoes. I always think I don’t grow enough potatoes but they do need quite a bit of space if grown traditionally. I have found that growing them in tubs is a hit and miss affair and never the yields you see in the photographs 🙄 Having said that I will be growing the earlies in tubs or potato bags I think, it’s easier and you can put them in a corner of the tunnel where they won’t interfere with later growing, that’s the plan anyway. The main crop will go in the ground I just need to decided where they will go this year.
Once John was back and the Rayburn had settled I decided to go for a quick walk around the village, might as well it’s the only out and about time I will be getting. It was Baltic as I walked along the lane towards the village but once I was surrounded by buildings it wasn’t too bad. I noticed all the bulbs forcing their way upwards, some daffodils already have flower buds waiting to open, mine by contrast have not even appeared above ground yet. The village was quiet, not a soul to be seen, all tucked up in the warm I expect. The sun is trying to shine, hopefully we will se more of it soon it has been very shy of late 🙄
John bought me a Monty Don book for Christmas and it is a lovely gentle read about the wildlife he sees in his garden, it is an ideal read for this time of year when you can’t really get out in the garden for very long, it’s called My Garden World and I highly recommend it.
Well you couldn’t dream up what happened in the USA today and we watched the news all night as events unfolded and demonstrators stormed Capitol Hill all spurred on by the current President, it is not our politics to comment on but I will be glad when the 20th January arrives and a new President is sworn in, the integrity of America can hopefully be repaired from then on in.
Thursday: Bloody hell it’s cold! We woke up to freezing fog which did not lift all day, a day shrouded in mist, an eerie landscape.
The office and its problems went from bad to worse, where the floor had been getting wet for a very long time the timbers underneath were also rotten. These are timbers that the whole floor sits on, luckily the main strut that sits on concrete blocks was sound but the rest had to be replaced and John has spent the day doing the first third of the floor we still have two thirds to lift, replace timbers, insulate and re-lay flooring. At least once it’s done it will be sound for a good few years again. The problem goes further than the office as we have discovered and the spare room next door will also have to have the floor lifted and repaired but that can wait until warmer weather comes along as it’s not very warm with the floor missing and freezing temperatures outside 😜
I have formed a childcare bubble with Samantha and the children so that once a week I can help look after the twins and Mia. Being locked down with three under fives is hard work and mentally wearing especially when there is an expectation to do home learning with Mia. I have seen for myself the difficulties Sam has encountered and I feel it’s only right to step in and help out. Essential childcare bubbles are legally allowed, I think they consider looking after children while parents are working as essential but I also consider this to be essential and until someone tells me differently that’s what we will be doing 🙄 So that’s what I was doing for most of the day, helping with Mia’s school work, doing some baking with her and going for a walk, and also playing with the twiglets who are a complete handful at the minute 😂
Friday: It snowed overnight, not too much, more of a dusting than anything but still everywhere is white this morning. We kept the Rayburn in overnight last night, partly because it was cold outside and partly because having no floor in place and no heating in two rooms it was cool indoors and so keeping it in overnight seemed like the best option. It was still going this morning after using our overnight Lekto fuel and so it started up easily this morning. I got it going while John went out and started the animal rounds and then I went out to help him. The horses are getting increasingly hungrier and so I decided we would try and get one of the big round bales out to the paddock. We huffed and puffed and heaved and rolled the 370kg round bale until it was in place, harder than it sounds when you have to negotiate it round corners and also when the cat thinks it’s a great fairground ride to be taken advantage of 😝 Outside jobs done it was time for a quick coffee before John went off to deal with a badly leaking tap that an elderly lady has and pick up some more flooring etc from the merchants. Meanwhile I hoovered and polished, the dust that comes from taking up the floor is considerable and the more I can keep it down the better in the long run, I will be glad when the floor is finally finished. Its slow going even though John is working all hours to get it sorted, good job we are in lockdown and can’t go anywhere else really otherwise it would probably take twice as long as it is already 🙄
Dug out the broad bean and pea seeds and had intended to sow them by now but as yet I haven’t got round to doing it, probably just as well to wait a while for the weather to warm up just a little bit more. I always find that February is a lot colder than we expect it to be, the thinking is, it’s a new year and we are approaching spring but in reality we are still in the throes of late winter so it shouldn’t be a surprise when the temperature plummets 😂
While John was out I got the dinner on the go, diced lamb in the slow cooker along with home grown veg, I added potatoes as well, might as well put it all in one pot than I don’t have to faff about later. The perfect dinner for a day like today especially as it has starting snowing again, no idea how long it will go on for or if it will settle. Shelley, who lives just ten minutes away in town said they only have the tiniest hint of snow not a layer like we have here, I guess that’s the differencein temperatures in towns/cities and rural areas, I have mentioned before that it is always 2/3 degrees colder here 🥶
John came home and got on with the job in hand and just while we are in chaos the electrician turned up. I am not complaining though as normally we have to wait an age for things to get done, that’s the problem when you are trade and your mates are all trade, you have to wait for them to do their real work first 😂
The electrics are done which is good because all the office equipment was running off an extension lead before and I now have usb points as well 😀 The floor is a tad slower 🙃 obviously because other stuff was happening it meant that John couldn’t get on as fast as he would have liked, last night he worked until about 8.30pm but tonight he has called it a day at 5.30pm we can start again fresh in the morning, it’s taking a whole lot longer than I had hoped but hey at least it is getting done 😀 We have put the electric radiator on the wall and turned it on but despite several readings of the instructions to programme it we have so far failed and it is just on permanently 😜
I made a mixed fruit pie to go along with the lamb stew tonight, a proper winter meal on what feels like another very cold night again tonight.
Saturday: Busy day today, first and foremost the animals and we are still having to bucket water to the ones outside as the taps and pipe are frozen. Then John is back on the office floor job and I am carting old flooring out and getting it burnt along with the feeds bags and the Christmas rubbish, as well as a few barrow fulls of wood to bring in for the Rayburn. Needless to say I was on afternoon duties and by the evening I was tired and when I get tired I get grumpy lol. We had a restful evening and recharged our batteries for tomorrow.
Sunday: It’s still all frozen this morning though last night I was able to fill up the water buckets as the tap defrosted during the day. Looking forward to slightly warmer weather though that will probably bring rain with it 😏 We did the animals and then went to get our click and collect shopping from the supermarket, restock on things that have run out and it’s actually a very easy, stress free process, hopefully covid dodging as well 😜 We had breakfast out and by that I mean a takeaway Costa coffee and bacon roll in the car in the car park 😂 I had some shopping to drop round for Mum and then it was back home to get on with lighting the Rayburn and the final bit of the floor to come up and new to go down. It’s mid afternoon as I write this and the final new timbers are going in. Meanwhile I spent a good couple of hours giving the bathroom a right good clean, wash down all the walls, shelves, windowsill, turn out the cupboards and throw away all the out of date stuff and things we don’t use anymore, a good use of my time I reckon.
Just as I was typing the electric tripped, it did it once already and the usual culprit is the pump outside that takes the water from the tanks to the garden so we unplugged it but it tripped again. This meant going though all the things we have plugged in to figure what was causing it, at one point we thought it was one of the big freezers which would be a disaster as we could never eat all that in 24 hrs. Luckily we figured out that it was the electric to the fencing out in the paddock that is keeping the horses in, I need to sort it out sooner rather than later as it won’t take Jack long to figure out that there is no current running through the tape and he will be pulling it down in no time. It has been fine while everything was frozen but as it starts to thaw I’m guessing moisture has got into the reel and caused it to trip.
We bought the cats a Christmas present as you can see from the main photo, not sure it was a good idea though as they hardly leave it except for feeding time 😂
That’s another week done and dusted and who knows what is going to happen over the next week, I am quite expecting further restrictions to be put in place as the numbers are scary at the minute. I always say it could be worse and of course there are worse situations to be in but during the Winter months I think many people are struggling emotionally and mentally with things. If that is you then put on your favourite uplifting song and dance and sing as if no one is watching, tomorrow is another day, we will keep battling forward until we have got this thing nailed 🥰 Stay safe x
frieslandfarm (flowers) 