It is Wednesday and I realise I have not written a single thing for the blog! The main reason for that is that I have had other things on my mind and plenty to do that is not Smallholding related.
Tomorrow is Charlotte and Maccas wedding day 🥰 and so as you can imagine I have had lots of things to get ready and sort out for that. Couple that with half term and going out with the grandchildren and there is not much time for writing or anything else really. On Monday afternoon we went on a pumpkin trail that a local farm/cafe/campsite had put on for free in their woodland area, the kiddies really enjoyed finding the pumpkins and the treat at the end of the trail.
On Tuesday morning I went with Sam, Mia, George and Lucie for a photo shoot, part of a competition Sam won on social media. That was a fun morning until the twins got tired and fractious. Back home for lunch and then Sam and Mia went out into the front paddock to move the fencing for the horses again as they had eaten off the little bit extra I had given them on Sunday.
This morning I have mostly been organising my bag for staying away overnight ready for the big day tomorrow. I also had to nip round and make sure the rabbits, Guineas and the birds in the orchard were all topped up with feed and water, make sure the horses water was full up and that all slip rails and gates were closed just in case 🤪
Thursday: Charlie’s wedding day 🥰🥰
Friday: It’s going to be a short blog this week 😂 Wednesday afternoon, Sam, Shelley, Charlie and I left for the The Wheatsheaf hotel in Northleach where we spent the night before the wedding. Lovely hotel and the food was superb, the staff were friendly and very accommodating. The next morning we were up early and had breakfast before the hairdressers, make up lady and photographer arrived. We spent a wonderful and surprisingly relaxed morning getting ready before John and the cars arrived and we were off to the venue. Stone Barn near Bibury, again another fantastic venue, the staff were amazing and know their job well, the food was outstanding and the day was filled with love and laughter, an absolutely delightful day celebrating the marriage of two wonderful people who make an awesome couple. An amazing day full of so many thoughtful little touches, a day of many amazing moments for my memory bank, just perfect 🥰
My very beautiful youngest daughter Charlie and her new husband Sam aka Macca
Saturday: After doing all the usual jobs we spent the rest of the day taking down old bits of the back area and putting up new stud work for the pantry. A very exciting project as far as I am concerned because it’s were I get to store everything I grow or make and hang flowers and herbs to dry 😁 That literally took us all day to get that sorted.
Sunday: Oh my days, rain, torrential rain, non stop torrential rain! Then flooding in the back area because the outside drain was blocked, John normally keeps it clear but because of everything else he has been doing it got left. We had water coming in everywhere out the back 😏 Then the electric tripped, we went round trying to find out what had tripped it, it took six goes of turning it back on only for it to go again before we found the culprit which was an extension lead to one of the freezers, it was getting wet and electrics do not like that 😂 Eventually after spending time in the pouring rain, John managed to get the water to run away. We then got on with the job we had originally gone out there to do which was take down some more of the old stuff at the other end of the building where Johns pool table will be going. It’s like playing rubics cube at the minute because we have to keep moving everything from one place to another in order to get any further forward, eventually it will all fall into place.
We went out with Sam, Luke and the kiddies for a Sunday roast, it’s Luke’s birthday tomorrow so it was nice to have a bit of time out with them to mark the occasion.
The clocks went back last night and it’s Halloween or Samhain today. Samhain marks the end of the natural year really, everything is now harvested including nuts and berries and growth naturally dies back ready for the winter sleep. Having something hearty to eat is appropriate, it is a season to celebrate feasting now, not too much though or else or your stores will be gone before the next growing season gets underway 😂 I will miss the summer days and temperatures but I also enjoy the darker nights and frosty mornings, hunkering down and staying cosy as much as possible. I still have plenty to do outside in the garden but at this time of year if it doesn’t get done it can wait until spring, I can find plenty to occupy me inside if needs be.
Have a good week and find lots of things to do that give you that cosy feeling, Winter has arrived 😬
Monday 18th October: I had fully intended to get a fair amount done today but in the end I didn’t. The one thing I did do was to get the tortoises inside ready for the winter sleep. I found Voldy pretty easily he was still out and about, when I started searching for big billy though he was nowhere to be found. I spent about 15 minutes searching the compound, searching again, moving the hut, looking in the foliage etc etc. I was just about to give up, convinced he had been taken as he can’t get out of there (unless he was Houdini) I noticed some loose soil near a big tuft of grass, when I lifted it up I could just see the top of his shell. He had dug himself so far into the ground that he was hardly noticeable, definitely time for him to go away indoors 😜
I came indoors once I had discovered his whereabouts and picked up my phone to record the story for the podcast, I could see I had many messages and once I opened them I realised that we had received some devastating news this morning. My cousin who was double vaccinated but had contracted Covid around three weeks ago had died. We had been getting daily updates on his condition since he was admitted to hospital and things had not looked good but we were all hoping that he would pull through, he didn’t and it was quite a shock really. Covid is still out there, two vaccinations mean that the risk is less but there is still a risk, it doesn’t make you immune. That’s the reason I have done nothing else today, I just couldn’t find the energy or the concentration to do anything. As I have said before I have a big family, a close family, we all keep in touch with each other as much as possible and so it feels close to home and has hit hard. My heart goes out to his family, he was a big character with a big heart and he will missed so much by all of us but especially by them 💔
Tuesday: I have mostly been sorting stuff out in the back area, goodness knows how we accumulated so much stuff 🙄 but it all needs sorting out. Lots of it just needs to find a new home, some of it needs to be thrown away, some of it will stay in the back but we need new shelves to keep it on, some of it will go to the scrap man and some of it we have no idea where it will be going yet. I moved a fair few things today but when John came home we went through the stuff I had no idea about, was it any good? did John need it for something? 🤷♀️ Hopefully a few more sessions of that and we should be all sorted 😜
Wednesday: We are getting to the time of the year when I start doing the animals rather than John. The mornings are dark and only get light just as John needs to go to work and the evenings are drawing in every day which does not give John much time once he gets home. So it becomes my job to do it instead as the garden is not demanding so much of my time anymore. This morning was my first morning, it was thundering and hammering down at 7.30 🙄 I left it another hour, had a shower and got the eggs from yesterday sorted and by 8.30 the sun was shining 😁 I got all the feeding and letting out sorted and then I spent the rest of the morning cleaning out the light Sussex pen. I cleaned out their hut, sprayed it for red mite, put in clean straw and then I barrowed umpteen loads of woodchip to put on the floor in there to stop it getting too muddy over winter. I did want to get a tarpaulin over the top but it was very windy so there was no way I was going to be able to do that on my own, best wait for a calm day when there are two of us around. Shelley called round with Flo at lunchtime for a couple of hours and then John came home early so he did the afternoon rounds.
I had my third vaccination this evening, initially there was some confusion with this vaccine, we were informed by Lupus Uk and NHS vaccine that this was a third primary. When I rang the surgery they said nope it’s a booster but eventually the catch up of information happened, when I got the appointment and when I arrived for the vaccine I was told it is a third primary and I will be due a booster in six months time. Either way I am glad I have had it, the efficacy of the vaccine seems to wane according to some sources so I would rather keep topped up just in case 🤔
I keep thinking I need to do more for winter veg but having watched a you tube video that someone else has done I realise I am pretty prepared. Leeks, kale (of various types) cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, they are all growing well out in the garden. Winter lettuce in the greenhouse, and carrots and beetroot are still in the ground doing well, the only other veg they had growing that I didn’t were chard and turnips both of those I won’t miss if I don’t have any 😜
I still have a fair bit of preparation to do on some of the veg beds to get them ready for winter, mostly because they have been left to their own devices all summer and need some control measures, some of the weeds are taking over. The brassica cage has not been used since I finished harvesting the sprouting broccoli back in spring. I didn’t have time to go in and clear it and now the weeds are pretty rampant including a wild blackberry. My plan in there is to pull or dig any perennial weeds and then smother the annual weeds with cardboard, that should hopefully knock it back a bit and give me a chance to sort it when I have more time.
Thursday: I spent a couple of hours first thing recording a podcast and then I spent the rest of the morning sorting out draughts around the two doors in the kitchen. The wind has changed direction NE and it’s quite cold, I can feel it blowing in through gaps. I have ordered some draught excluder for the door frames and I ordered some thermal curtains for when it gets very cold. I have saved some wool insulation that comes with fresh food deliveries sometimes and have used them for the floor in front of the doors to stop any cold coming underneath. First and foremost I don’t want to be cold and secondly we need to save energy wherever possible, it’s the right thing to do for our pocket and the planet. John came home just after lunch so we sat down with a cuppa for an hour before he went and got on with some more of the side cladding. Meanwhile I prepped dinner for later and also prepped some tomatoes, onion and garlic for roasting later when the oven was on. That will make a nice passata once I have put it through a sieve and I will be having that for spag Bol tomorrow. The twins arrived with Sam and Mia who went off to swimming lessons leaving the twins here to have their tea. Our electrician arrived to do the bits of electric work we needed to get done, lol everyone arrives at the same time, chaos, actually it wasn’t too bad. I did think the twins would get all upset with a stranger in the house but they were fine mostly because I was feeding them by then so they were more interested in the food 😜 After everyone left we were able to get our dinner sorted, I also made some toffee sauce to go with some sautéed apple for dessert, very easy and very delicious on an October evening 🥰 John went out to put the animals to bed and that’s another day done. My arm is fine, I did think it might hurt but only slightly where the actual vaccination site is nothing more.
I have been collecting a few flowers to dry and the combination of these drying is really pleasing at the moment, hopefully I can do them justice when I try using them in some sort of arrangement.
Friday: It was much colder this morning than it has been for months but the sun came out and there is still some warmth there when it does so I got some washing on the line. John was up early and so he did the animals before going to work, he will be home early today and will be working on the side of the building, trying to get it all done before it really gets too cold. It is a different winter for us this time, no Rayburn, no wood chopping, no cleaning out of the ashes, not cold in the mornings before we get to re light it. The electric radiators give us constant gentle heat that we are not used to yet lol, I said to John this morning ‘it’s a bit warm in here’ 😂
I got this evenings dinner sorted, the tomatoes, garlic and onions I roasted yesterday have been pushed through a sieve and I have a delicious passata for my spag Bol later. John has mince, I may make it into a shepherds pie or I may just do mince and potatoes separately with veg not decided yet. I have got a pan of soup on the go and I have used the carrot tops in the soup as well, I looked it up to see if you could eat them because I wasn’t sure and turns out you can. They have 6x the amount of Vit c in them than the actual carrot plus calcium and potassium, nutrient packed so not going to waste them. Both lunch and dinner tonight will be entirely from produce either grown by me and reared by a local smallholder plus the bread is made from flour at the local mill, food miles approximately 7 🙄 a good day I reckon, I also know exactly what has gone in to each meal, no added extras or unnecessary ingredients unless I choose to add them 😁
Late morning I spent some time in the big tunnel clearing down, weeding etc but the sun came out and it got a bit warm in there 😂
Saturday: This started off with John coming to shout me for some help, I had my dressing gown and slippers on still so quickly changed and went out to see what the problem was. The dog had disturbed and chased a muntjac deer in the small paddock at the back, the terrified deer had tried to jump the wall but got his antlers stuck in the stock fencing. It was thrashing about and making a heck of a racket for something so small, John quickly got the wire cutters and we were able to release it successfully. It ran off back down the paddock, along the walkway, through the other paddock and then through the hedge along the side. We had no chance of making sure it was ok as it was gone like lightning 🙄
I went back in got a shower and went off to get my hair done, John stayed at home doing some more to the side of the building, it is almost finished but not quite. I think he will be happy when it’s done as it means he can start on his pool room 😁 Once home again I spent the time sorting out a few bits for the wedding and also some thermal curtains for our two doors in the kitchen. The aim is to reduce our energy consumption as much as possible both for our pocket and the environment and the doors are a bit draughty, we need to get them sorted next year I think.
I picked a few more dahlias for the kitchen, the plants just keep on giving, they certainly are the best value for money of all the flowers I have ever grown I think, I just hope I can keep them alive for next year.
Sunday: I spent until mid afternoon working, firstly I helped John do the animals as he is not feeling well then I spent a very pleasant few hours in the front cutting back dead foliage on the flower beds. I pulled up quite few aster plants that seem to have grown where I hadn’t intended, I feel like a achieved a good amount out there and it’s still looking good even in late October. After that I went into the front paddock to extended the grazing area for the horses, that took me a lot longer than I had expected as I didn’t think the area I added was big enough to last very long and so I gathered up more fence stakes and electric tape and made it even bigger. The reason being that the horses are looking longingly over the other fence on the side paddocks and I don’t want them to break into there anytime soon 🙄
Back inside for a sit down and to check on John who by this point had gone back to bed, we did a Covid test, it’s negative, hopefully it’s just a passing bug and he will be well after a good sleep. I made some beef broth, I would have made chicken except I don’t appear to have any saved chicken carcasses so beef will have to do. I chopped up and onion added some garlic plus some of the bouillon powder and a bag of frozen beef broth I made a few weeks ago. It is one of the best things to use as a pick me up when you feel unwell, it’s light on the stomach but highly nutritious and helps to rehydrate, what could be better 😁
I will be feeding the animals and egg collecting this afternoon and then I will be putting them to bed as well I think. Then I have an evening of getting my eyebrows threaded and tinted plus an eyelash lift ready for the wedding this week 🥰
Monday 11th October 2021: Must try harder to write every day and not forget like I did last week 🤪
Already this morning the plans I had have changed and it’s only 9.30 am. I had a phone call from a tree company who are working in the area had want to bring wood chip😁 I am on a site where they can ring and ask if you want some, I said yes please and now I have three loads coming 🙄 so I need to decide where they are going to dump it and what I will do with it. We use a lot of it on the pathways in the veg garden, it’s ideal for suppressing weeds and does need renewing each year. We used to use a lot of it in the ménage but that has just become a weed bed at the minute so I can put it straight on there although I will probably put it there when I get time to sort it all out. So the jobs I had on my list go by the way and make way for a different job today, sometimes that’s just how things go. I might have another cup of coffee before having to get stuck in to moving it all.
I have spent most of the day shifting wood chip onto the pathways (still a long way to go yet) I spent the rest of the time, cutting things down or pulling things up. I have tidied up the hoses and anything I left lying around which is always a fair amount of stuff 🤪 and I worked right until it was dark. I did have a short interlude when Shelley came over with Josh and Flo and we cooked sausages on the fire pit (Shelley moved a few barrows of wood chip for me as well)
Tuesday: Another busy one in the garden, I was going to move more woodchip but I was thinking while I was falling asleep last night that I needed to get the fruit cage in order so that I could woodchip in there. If I did all the paths around it first I would find it hard to push the barrow, so I spent the morning tidying, weeding, cutting back and repotting the blueberries and the yellow raspberries. I topped up all the pots with compost and added some pelleted chicken manure and some carbon at the same time. I did actually find a few raspberries 😁 only around 15 but still that’s a win. The raspberries have on the whole been terrible this year but there is a late flush, due to the weather I imagine and so I might get a few more before the weather turns.
I did plan to sit down after that but found I had more energy so I changed jobs and barrowed some of the homemade compost onto the smaller raised beds that John put in for me. I got three of them filled, added some carbon and covered them with membrane, they will stay like that until I either decided to plant into them for winter or leave them until spring. I have a lot of much smaller beds now which is time consuming at this end of the year but will be much easier to look after in the growing season hopefully.
I did get the dinner on first thing in the morning and got the ducks some clean bedding before I started all of that lol.
Wednesday: Another good lot of work in the garden today although I did sit down at 1.30 for a good hour or so, the more I do the more tired I feel the next day 🙄 But I feel like I am really getting somewhere and making good progress with the preparation which in turn will make next spring a lot easier hopefully. I started off in the greenhouse picking any remaining chillies and peppers then putting the plants outside, they will go in the compost bin when there is room. I cut all the lemon grass, took the tops to the rabbit and Guineas and kept the rest of the stems, some are for sale some I will find a use for. I also took one of the plants inside to overwinter along with another ginger plant. I dug up part of the horseradish, it has got huge and I don’t want it taking over, some of the root I put out for sale the rest I will grate and freeze. Next I fixed the side of one of the long beds, the wood had rotted and the side collapsed and then onto a fair amount of weeding. I picked all the remaining courgettes, they are small but still useable. All the while I was popping back and forth to the kitchen because I was baking bread. While I was waiting for the bread to cook I made a batch of tomato soup all with home grown ingredients, garlic, carrot, basil, tomatoes and a lovely red pepper. Back outside to get some more bits done before moving 4 barrows of woodchip. I think I earned the sit down lol.
All home brown ingredients for tomato soup, can’t show you the finished article because we ate it all up 😋
Thursday: Mostly busy indoors today which was unexpected, I was quite tired so I had already decided to potter today rather than get stuck into anything big. But the day didn’t pan out like that, Luke came to rebuild the end side of the building which is the undercover outer area, we had a discussion however an decided to completely remodel the whole thing 🤣
Friday: Gotta love Friday and especially a sunny one 😁 I got busy straight away with putting some bits up for sale to make room in the back covered area and then I started dismantling the worktop and anything around it in the area where the door will now be going. I also rang the surgery as I had notification from nhs vaccine that I need to get a third vaccine booked. There is some confusion over if this is the booster or a third primary vaccine but a bit of research showed that the booster is the same as the origin vaccine so I can’t see it makes much difference really except that I am then supposed to have a booster in six months time as well 🤷♀️ Luke is busy out the back opening up the new doorway and re fitting the doors, can’t believe we didn’t do it years ago it would have made much more sense lol. I have barrowed a few loads of woodchip as well today, if I do some every day then eventually I will get it done.
Lemon grass tea, full of antioxidants and goodness and so easy to grow in the UK
Saturday: Did a bit of pottering about first thing, I was waiting for someone to arrive who was coming to buy some equipment we were selling. They were a lovely young couple eager to get started on some land for their smallholding dreams, it was lovely to chat and show them around listening to their enthusiasm 😁 I totally forgot I had a loaf of bread proving mind you 🤣 all was not lost and after I had baked the loaf I went outside and cleaned the Guineas and quail. This was a big clean out ready for the coming winter months, mostly they get skipped out, that’s just the messiest bits clean up but this was a complete job for both pens. The quail often come inside for winter as they will keep laying then but I think this winter we will leave them out and they can rest from egg production. I put in fresh hay for the rabbit and cleaned out all the water and feed bowls. A quick bite to eat and a little sit down before going out to sort the light Sussex pen and the Turkey pen.
Sunday: Been busy today helping John do the side of the building, it coming along nicely now but still a fair amount to get done yet as always 😜
Thai chillies in various stages of drying outStill managing to harvest a few things though the summer veg is coming to and end now. The flower garden is still giving up its bounty, this has been one of the best decisions I have made, they brighten up the garden and the house 😁
The summer veg garden is almost finished but there are still things growing for winter, I have leeks in as well as kale and brassicas and winter lettuce.
As we have been redoing the side of the building I thought it would be a good idea to buy a bat box, we have plenty flying around at night and so a box seemed like a good idea. It all adds to the diversity of the wildlife we have here.
Monday 4th October 2021: A nice day for the best part, a little rain in the afternoon but only quick showers really. I had decided how my day was going to go and got on with things only to get a phone call from John at around 9am. The job he was starting this week and had gone to was cut short because the customer had received a phone call from the hospital to say they had tested positive with covid. John put his tools back in the van and came back home, that put paid to my peaceful day 🤪 he decided to stay home and so I got him working, not going to waste an unexpected opportunity like that 🤣 He burnt all the paper and cardboard rubbish that had mounted up and then did some tidying up of various areas. He did pop out again in the afternoon to a couple of small jobs.
Meanwhile I spent the whole day outside working on the veg garden. Firstly I did some picking, the tomatoes are still giving me plenty of lovely fruits, I had considered pulling them all up a few weeks back but I am glad I left them now. I picked a few of the last cucumbers, the plants have pretty much finished and the cues I picked were really only any good for the animals. While I was in the tunnel I decided to give it a bit of a tidy up, the weeds had grown again and mint has managed to find its way in too so I cleared all that. I will keep the mint, dry it and it will be used for the Guineas and rabbit over winter. I cleared one of the makeshift beds that had strawberry plants in, got some huge pots, filled them with compost and replanted some of the strawberry runners. Plenty of work left to do in there yet but the sun came out and it was quite warm in there so I left that and moved on to something else. I kind of floundered around a little doing bits of this and that before knuckling down to digging up the herbs from the herb bed. I am relocating that bed and it will be flatted and laid to lawn, more grass for the children to play on, less area that I have to work on. The herbs have been there for nearly ten years and the roots on some of them are huge, I have dug up what I can, divided and potted at lot of it up ready for when I decide where it will go. Some of the p,ants will be kept to go out for sale next year. That all took me up to around 5pm and I didn’t really stop except for a few tea breaks so a good days work there. Luckily it was bubble and squeak for Johns tea and I had cold lamb so not much preparation to be done for that.
Tuesday: Oooosh that was a lot of rain over night but not as much as other parts of the country have had and I just saw the forecast for the end of the week the temps are going up again to an unseasonable 20c 🙄🤷♀️ crazy days.
I had a good productive morning, I spent the first couple of hours clearing the small tunnel, all the tomato plants are now down, those plants were mostly finished, they were flowering again but I don’t think we will have temps that would help them to fruit successfully at this time of year. I planted the garlic chives in one of the beds instead of leaving it in the pot, hopefully they will continue to grow all through winter. Next it was the turn of the tomatoes in the big tunnel, there were still plenty of tomatoes on these. Some were ripe and some still green but I have got all of them off and have left them to ripen in the greenhouse. The tigerello tomatoes are definitely a type I would grown again next year, they are nice and fleshy and ideal for cooking with, produce well and have few problems with disease as far as I can tell.
The farrier was arriving at 11 and I worked right up to 10.45 when Sam arrived with the twins, I twinsat while she went and got the horses in, gave their tails and bit of a trim and waited while the farrier did his job then she put them back out in the paddock. They stayed until mid afternoon. The weather was on and off in the afternoon, rainy, sunny, rainy sunny so I did some inside bits and pieces. The lamb we had Sunday was a big joint and so there was plenty left even after John had bubble and squeak yesterday. Today I sliced it all up, put two lots in the freezer and saved a third lot to reheat with gravy for dinner tonight. The bone has gone into the slow cooker along with carrots, celery leaves, baby leeks and a bay leaf, also a bit of lemon juice. The lemon juice is the acidity needed to pull all the goodness from the bone to make broth, a delicious, nutritious way to use every last bit of the joint.
When John came home we organised getting the side of the building reclad, I say organised, what that consisted of is me taking control because John hasn’t done anything about it and then John interfering with what I was doing! Anyhow we now have the ball rolling, I just got to keep pushing it 😜
Wednesday: I spent a very pleasant morning in the garden, working mind you, but it was lovely and sunny and not too hot so I got on with things. At first I couldn’t decide what exactly I was going to get done but once I made decision I cracked on and didn’t stop until early afternoon. The bed that the herbs are coming out of is a very long bed and at the other end is where the rhubarb grows, before that is the asparagus bed and where all the strawberries have run riot, there is a pear tree and a chokeberry as well and somewhere in the middle are the courgettes I planted this year. I pulled off all the dying rhubarb leaves and weeded round them, then I weeded round the courgettes, cut down the asparagus fern (normally I leave them but want to get sorted this year so they have been cut down) after that it was the humongous task of taking out literally hundreds of strawberry plants and runners. They have really taken over and so I needed to thin them right out, buckets and buckets of plants went onto the compost heaps. I still want a fair few of them left to grow again next year, not for the strawberries particularly but because they grow well with asparagus and they make excellent ground cover, they also provide food and shelter for wildlife and I seem to get a great crop of pears each year with them growing underneath the tree. I worked on that until I found myself self resting more and more often, time for a break and some lunch. It may seem like such a waste with the plants going into the compost but honestly there are too many of them to do anything with, I have already planted up plenty of runners for next year both to plant elsewhere and to sell, you have to know when to stop lol.
Shelley called round with Flo before going to pick up Josh from school and then I hoovered through and cleaned the kitchen floor which I have been looking at for ages thinking I really must do that, well now it’s done 😁
Tonight I have my flower arranging group so I made sure I had everything ready to take, not really sure if I have enough or if I have the right things but I guess I will find out later. I am looking forward to it although a bit nervous about what I am supposed to produce 😂
Not a bad effort if I do say so myself 😁
Thursday: A perfect day for working in the garden all day which is exactly what I did. I spent the whole day weeding the veg beds, digging up what I didn’t need anymore, a whole lot more time on my hands and knees carefully picking out couch grass. I actually love weeding couch grass 🤣 I find it very therapeutic trying to get all the roots untangled from the soil. I feel like the beds are coming back into some sort of order now although there is still a lot of work to get through before I am finished. It helps that this year I have not been plagued with any Lupus flares 🤷♀️ no idea why but I am not complaining as it means I have been able to achieve a lot more than previous years. We had a couple of loads of type one delivered for the side driveway first thing this morning and I could have spent the day levelling it but nah I would rather garden instead. Twin sitting late afternoon means chaos and fun and then dinner and the day is over already.
Oooo I have been proper slack at writing this up this week, it’s Monday morning and I haven’t done it since Thursday! Mostly it’s because I have been pretty busy with one thing and another, I have done a fair bit of clearing in the garden, tidied out both my sheds so I can get in them and store stuff away for winter. I have also sorted out all the bird feeders and boxes ready for winter feeding and roosting for the wild birds, cut the grass, helped John with recladding the side of the building, been out twice for cake with both lots of grandchildren, cooked a Sunday roast for one of the families to join us in, moved the fencing for the horses so they can start to eat off the grass in a different paddock as they were getting a bit hungry, planted garlic, transplanted winter lettuce, been foraging for apples in the lanes around here, no wonder I haven’t had time to write anything 🤣
Must do better next week 🤪 Have a good one wherever you are x
Monday 27th September 2021: Autumn made itself known this morning, we have had sunshine and warm temperatures for a few weeks now but this morning we woke to windy, rainy weather and the temps are a tad lower than they have been. The sun did break through though and most of the day was nice apart from a sudden shower just after I put the washing out 😜
I have been busy today trying to catch up with jobs that I couldn’t do Friday and Saturday. Firstly though I had promised John a roast dinner so I got that all sorted, veg, potatoes all from the garden and beef from Emma, apples for an apple crumble from the garden as well. I had promised John apple pie but discovered I had no flour left, lucky I made some crumble mix for the freezer last week. Then I made some elderberry syrup with a batch I picked and put in the fridge last week, knocked it over as I was bottling it, swore, then mopped it all up, lucky I didn’t lose too much of it but it was a messy clear up job.
Once that was done I set about sizing up and ordering the last electric radiator we need, John took the last old one out of the living room and I need to get the new ordered and in before the cold weather sets in. After some lunch I went out to the greenhouse and potted up all the herbs I dug up yesterday, some will be for the relocation of the herb bed and some will be for sale next Spring. Back indoors and I had an hour sit down before making a couple of loaves of bread. I want to try and utilise the energy I am using as well as possible and so the bread making was timed to bake them while I am cooking the roast dinner and the crumble. I need to be more aware this winter, not having the Rayburn anymore is going to change how I have to do the cooking and drying the washing (yep the rain shower wasn’t helping today on that score) I don’t actually have to be energy efficient in terms of paying for it but I chose to do it for the sake of the planet, hopefully I am doing the right thing, it won’t always work but at least I am trying.
I put in an order at our local flour mill for different types of flour, plain, self raising and bread flour, that should arrive tomorrow and I also have a delivery of chicken, in various forms plus sausages and bacon from a farm arriving tomorrow as well. With all the problems around CO2 and now fuel John said ‘I think we should go shopping and stock up’ no we don’t need to do that I told him, we have enough here in one form or another to keep us going. I prefer to make sure we can manage with what we have rather than rely on the supply chains as they seem dodgy at the moment lol.
With that in mind I have been thinking ahead to Christmas, we are already being told there will be shortages, think laterally then, eat something different, it doesn’t have to be the same as every other year just because that’s what we usually do. I shall be checking over my stores etc and see what I can use as replacement ingredients for things like the Christmas pudding and mincemeat just in case we can’t find the usual ingredients, in fact I may not even look for the usual ingredients and use what I have which is the whole idea of a life of self sufficiency really.
Tuesday: Today I wanted to get the new project area planted up but I felt I needed to get the ‘must do’ jobs done first, that way I could enjoy the time doing what I wanted to get done. Mainly it was all the usual stuff and then some bill paying etc before finally getting outside to plant up. The area is in front of the dog kennels, they are no longer used and the plan was to take them down and build an arbour but as that is not an urgent job I can’t see it getting done anytime soon so I started growing things up the kennel instead 😜 The hop looked so lovely that I thought I would add some more bits to it and that’s when the plan formed. I had a big wooden box that my brother was getting rid of one day when we were visiting, I will have that please 😁 It’s been sat there a while but today I lined it all filled it with some well rotted manure and a few bags of compost and planted it up with a hydrangea I bought in the summer. Everything I used was something I already had, plants, box, manure, just the compost I bought to do the job. It looks good, the hydrangea is a bit lost at the minute but next year it should look brilliant if I do say so myself. I now have a wisteria, hop, climbing rose and a jasmine which will grow up and over the kennels, the hydrangea in the box along with some huechera and bronze grass, various pots with small trees in to give shade to the hydrangea in the afternoon and a pot of tulip bulbs which will add a lovely splash of colour come spring, I planted some small dahlias in the pot on top of the bulbs for now. I think I will move some pots of daffodils out there to at some point.
Next Spring this should all look lovely and colourful and a lot more full. A nice way to hide the dilapidated kennels 😁
Once I had finished that I had a quick sit down and then got on with other jobs. The beef we had yesterday was quite a good sized joint and I don’t want to waste any of it. I have used half of what is left, chopped it up and along with onion, swede, turnip, carrots and potatoes, added some beef stock, mustard powder, flour, black pepper, tomato purée, Pontack sauce, rosemary sprigs and a bay leaf and piled it into the slow cooker. Once it is cooked I will freeze it in portions for another day. I had a delivery of fresh, free to roam chicken in various forms, a couple of whole ones and then breast, thighs and diced plus some marinated strips as well as some pork chops, sausages and bacon. That all came from Blackwall Farm in Dorset, I sorted out what we would have for dinner later and got the rest sorted for the freezer. I am pretty much stocked for the next few months with everything really, I have flour coming form the local mill and I have 5kg of sugar delivered lol. Every time we go to the shop there is no sugar so I ordered some and will have to find a space to keep such a big bag.
I am not sure what I will do with the chicken thighs yet, I would have liked to make a korma with some but also don’t want to waste energy cooking two different meals as John won’t eat curry, maybe if I cook a big enough batch I can freeze some for another day 🤔
I did intend to go out and pick runner beans in the afternoon but the rain came in and didn’t really stop long enough to get out there, it is definitely turning towards autumn now, hopefully John will get the wall plastered tonight where he took the old radiator off and we can get the new electric one on, we might need it soon.
In the end I did decide to make a batch of curry, some for dinner tonight and some for freezing for another day. With Johns chicken I made a spring chicken pot lol, in autumn 🙄 It’s just basically chicken, potatoes and runner beans in veg gravy, I fried off onions and garlic then browned his chicken before taking it out with a few onions and then I added mine chopped along with tikka spices and a tin of tomatoes, smells good hopefully it will taste good. I think I have a garlic naan lurking in the freezer somewhere so I will have that instead of doing rice.
I do love the Autumn not just for the amazing colours but also because as the weather changes I love being in the kitchen cooking up lots of delicious dinners and treats, I was thinking I may even make a harvest loaf just because I can 🥰
And the rain has well and truly set in today 🌧 When that happens and I can’t go outside to get stuff done I generally browse online for ideas on many different things. Today’s ‘ooo I think I might have a go at that’ is homemade bouillon cubes, I have most of the ingredients already as I have made powered onion, garlic and mushroom, I have herbs I can dry and powder and I have paprika in the cupboard, the only thing I would need to buy is nutritional yeast flakes and voila I would have my own bouillon cubes which could be used in soups and stews etc or can be added to hot water for a tasty warm up drink in the winter, watch this space 😜 I am definitely a prepped at heart I think 😂 I was also looking to see if could make hazelnut flour, turns out you can 🤷♀️
Wednesday: A better day today, I did some picking, it’s getting fewer and further between now but there are still things to pick.
Thursday: Blood tests this morning so I got up and got on then out early to the docs, had my flu jab at the same time so that’s ticked off the list. John dropped me at the docs then went off to do a small job so I had a look round the charity shops and then had a coffee before he returned to pick me up. He is at home today and so has been plastering the wall that the old radiator came off, then drilling through the wall in order to get electric cable to where the new one will go, hopefully the electrician won’t take too long to come round 🙄 he then had to make good the floor and skirting and we will think about decorating in the new year, until then it will stay as it is . Meanwhile I pottered about tidying bits up and sorting the office area out but all the while being on hand as the labourer 😂 When he went off to get some more supplies I set about making some bouillon powder. I had all the dried herbs so thought I would give it a go, I just needed nutritional yeast flakes which arrived yesterday. Blended it all up and it’s now stored in a jar on the side for use whenever I need it. I tasted the powder and it tastes delicious so I think I will be drying more herbs and making bigger batches of that 🥰
Friday: Not a bad day, the sun was out but it was slightly colder than of late. I spent the morning in the greenhouse sorting out the chilli and pepper plants. A lot of them have all but finished now, still a few that are producing but in all honesty I don’t need any more than I have got stored and I only sell a tiny amount of them. Half of them I removed from the greenhouse, some have succumbed to whitefly and greenfly, half of them I have left in to finish off the fruits that are still growing. I moved all the trays and are moved the capillary matting as they don’t need constant damp now and besides I found an army of slugs and their eggs hiding under it 😜 I bought one of the ginger plants indoors to see if I can keep it going over winter so it has a good head start next year. The other one I will put in the poly tunnel and see what happens, it will depend on how cold the winter gets as to its survival. I have some seedlings growing in there which I need to pot on next week, some herbs, parsley, coriander and basil and also some winter lettuce which I need to plant up in the tunnel once it’s cleared of cucumbers and tomatoes. I also have some annuals already growing for next spring. Sam came over with the twins, Charlie popped in and then Shelley came with Flo, John was home as well so we had a houseful in the afternoon. 🥰
Saturday: Oh such a different day today lol, we knew it was coming 🙄 Before the rain broke through John cleaned out the ducks and geese and I did the quail, rabbit, light Sussex and turkeys, topping up all the pens and huts with fresh straw. Two reasons, one because as their minder you want them to be warm and comfy 😜 two because it will make the eggs less muddy in all this rain. I put a load of straw in the tortoise hut and placed them inside, they have been digging into the ground so are definitely getting ready to hibernate. Then I got the hop up and the apple picker and went out to pick the remaining apples from the cooking apple tree. To be honest I didn’t think there were many but in the end I got two bucketfuls so I am happy with that this year. Into the kitchen then where I chopped up a butternut squash and made some soup for lunch and I made a big batch of mincemeat ready to jar up and store for December when I will begin making mince pies 😁 John grouted the tiles in the living room, the electric radiator is now in place and the area round it made good just need an electrician to put a socket in. Apart from the necessary jobs of afternoon feeding and egg collecting I doubt very much we will do anything for the rest of the afternoon, just sit and relax I think.
Sunday: Not too shabby today although it feels colder, still some sunshine in the showers though. John was up early enough, surprising really as he went out last night for a pre wedding drink with the lads and had much more than one too many sherberts 🤣 While he was doing that I made bread, an apple pie and prepped for a roast later. That seemed to take me a lot of the morning as I can’t think I did much else other than peeling and mixing 🤪 Mid afternoon a chap called in to drop some honey off, the honey we had been selling has now finished but he is just down the road and had supplies and so we struck up a deal and now have more honey in the egg shed to sell 🥰
Home made mincemeat batch, 8lb and most of it will be gone by new year 😂
frieslandfarm (flowers) 