Month: December 2021

Posted in Friesland Farm

Happy New Year 😁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

I hope you have all had a lovely festive time and I wish you a very happy 2022. We still have Covid (who would have thought it 🙄) but we are getting to grips with living with it on a daily basis, let’s hope this year coming is a little more like life used to be 😁

We have wined and dined, loved and laughed, rested and recuperated, felt grateful for what we have, watched endless Christmas tv and generally had a fabulous time. All the while of course, we have had to continue doing the daily routines with animal feeding and care no matter what day it was but that is ok it’s what we signed up for.

I have also spent some considerable time thinking about how we move forward with the Smallholding this coming year. I had mused over cut flowers and that is still very much part of the plan I just need to put it into practice now. As well as the usual bunches of flowers I saw a lovely jam jar posy while I was researching and thought ‘oooo yes, I like those’ they very much they fit in with the ethos here, the jam jars can be returned time and time again for refilling, they are small enough to fit on any table or surface if you don’t have a large enough area for a full vase of flowers and all kinds of up-cycled embellishments can be used including the customers own if they want a particular ribbon used, yep I really like this idea, ‘Flowers @ Friesland Farm’ is in its newborn phase 🥰 Locally grown, no pesticides or artificial fertilisers used, minimal miles, grown with love and pride, doesn’t get better than that does it 😁 Add to that the plants I divide or grown from seed to sell at the gate and the direction for the year is looking good, just got to hope the weather is kind 😜

Betwixtmas: 😂 We we’re not idle (not all the time anyway) over the holidays, the chickens and ducks keep on laying, the horses need checking over, the other non laying lot still need feeding and watering as do the dogs and cats as well as ourselves. We have been busy most days with cleaning out and cleaning up, the huts that the birds were moved out of when the avian flu came have now been cleaned and power washed. The hard standing has been cleared of leaves and debris and power washed, the leaves all over the driveway have been raked and piled under the trees and we have been moving woodchip onto the paths in the garden. We also moved plenty of barrowfuls to the orchard where the ground deteriorated very quickly once the rain came. When the weather permitted we worked on the veg garden to get ahead ready for spring, putting home made compost on the beds, harvesting leeks, carrots and beetroots, we still have kale and cabbages in the ground, the broad beans are growing nicely as are the garlic and onions. Flower bulbs are beginning to appear which is always a lovely sign that the wheel keeps on turning. There were also plenty of times when we sat and watched a film or saw family and ate up all the festive food 🥰 No matter how hard I try not to have too much food in, there always seems to be too much, none of it is wasted though. John had bubble and squeak on Boxing Day and I have three more portions frozen as well as cooked veg which will make soup at some point. I have some cake from an unexpected visit that I also froze because we have Christmas cake and Christmas pudding to eat up first and of course plenty of chocolate to get through 🤪

Once all the festive food is used up I have set myself a bit of a challenge (in fact I have started it even though we still have stuff left) I am not doing ‘veganuary’ but I am intending to make vegetables as much, if not the biggest, part of our meals. Sounds easy right but I also want to use seasonal and mostly what I have grown myself, this is a lot easier said than done. I searched for some inspirational recipes online but most of them overlook the seasonal and there are plenty of ingredients that have come from far flung corners of the world which I want to avoid. So you see keeping it interesting is a challenge. I will be using store cupboard goods that I have already such as rice and pasta (though I could make my own pasta if I run out) As it is winter then soup is the easiest go to lunch, packed with home grown veg, very nutritious and healthy which is what is needed after the indulgences lately.

The first recipe was lovely and lacto-vegetarian (it seems there are different versions of vegetarianism) John did not eat this 😂 but I fried off some butternut squash (cubed) along with some garlic and some dried sage in olive oil. Fry just enough to get them coated and then add a splash of water to flash cook until the squash is soft, then add chopped mushrooms until it all caramelises, add to cooked pasta and I crumbled blue cheese on top though you could use whatever cheese you like such as Parmesan. Twas delicious I have to say and what’s more it felt like comfort food which is all the more important during the winter months. I also got some vegetable soup going in the slow cooker, turnip, butternut squash, carrots and onions from the garden, I added celery (which I had bought for Christmas) some mushrooms and some peas, veg stock, bouillon powder and pepper. Cooked it down for a good few hours until everything was soft then turned it off overnight, blitzed it and reheated in a pan for lunch the next day, delish and I felt I had already had my five for the day 😁 Let’s hope I can keep up the momentum 😝

Butternut squash quickly fried in olive oil with garlic and sage, add water to flash cook, once soft add mushrooms and cook, add to cooked pasta and crumble cheese of your choice on top 🥰

New Year’s Eve went without a bang this year in fact we went to bed at 11.30 lol, well it arrives wether you wait up to see it or not doesn’t it and I think it was pretty muted everywhere this year. New Year’s Day we started off well, John started to build a plant table for me, for the plants I will have for sale this year coming and I sorted out all the pots of English Bluebells which will be the first plants to go out, and then it started to rain quite heavily 🙄 So we came in for coffee and waited for the rain to stop, it didn’t, so we took down the Christmas decorations and hoovered and polished instead 😝 Years ago I would have cooked a roast dinner on NYD but ever since the kids were late teens and too hungover the next day, I haven’t bothered. The place looks bare with the docs down and I can’t remember what went where beforehand 🤷‍♀️ but it’s a job done and quite literally ‘dusted’ 😝 sorry, not sorry.

I have been through all my seeds to see what I needed to get, turns out I have rather a lot of them and don’t need much else at all. For the few seeds I did want, we popped to the garden centre to get them there, I also picked up some first early seed potatoes. I am good to go now and as always I am chomping at the bit but I also know it doesn’t pay to get started too early. Our weather at the minute is ridiculously warm, 17c which is insane for Winter but I am also aware that it can take a real plummet at any point and if I have over sown I will be struggling for space so it’s best to hold fire and wait a while. There are a few things I can get started, some extra broad beans, there is still time to sow those and on the flower front, sweet peas can still be started off now.

Sunday: The weather was kinder today up until just after lunch, we got busy, John finished the plant table while I sorted out more plants to put out for sale. Once that was sorted and John cleared up the wet leaves on the drive he came to help me on the bed that was the herb bed and needs clearing. It has taken quite a while, many of the bigger herbs such as fennel and lovage had very big strong roots and I needed to wait for the ground to be soft enough to dig them up. There were a few other things to salvage, ice plants which I have potted up and will move to the tortoise run for them to feed on, a blackcurrant sage which I wanted to get out in good condition, that has now been replanted elsewhere and also a large patch of aster which has now been dug up and divided into many plants 😁 On the whole the area is now ready to clear ready to put grass down. The project after that which is also rattling round in my head at the same time is the cut flower patch, forming a plan on what to put in and how many of each plant. John and I also talked about putting the patch in the front paddock but we decided that for this year it will be better in the veg garden and we will work towards moving it next year. The idea being that it gets sun all day, it can be seen and even accessed on a pick your own basis if needs be plus it will look lovely but I need to see how well this year does before investing in fencing etc.

Have a great week, still one more bank holiday to go 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Almost Yuletide 🥰 Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, healthy 2022.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th December 2021: Monday again and as I read through the blog from this time last year not much has changed. I am still having to rubrics cube everything in order to get sorted for Christmas, move things from one place to another so that I can get the once a year decorations in. I know it would be bah humbug not to do it but sometime I must think life would be so much easier 🤪 This year is actually slightly different as we don’t have the Rayburn any longer, how is that going you might ask, brilliant is my reply 😁 Apart from not being able to get into a routine for washing and drying the clothes it is all good, it is so nice to go out and come back to a warm house. It has freed up a lot of time and it is cleaner I just don’t want to look at the electric bill when it arrives 😝 One day we will get the solar panels and storage batteries then it will be tickety boo.

This morning we went off to get the last bits of Christmas shopping and so I am pretty much done now (almost) Once back home we sat and had a cuppa and a rest before getting on with any other jobs that needed doing. John went out to try and fix the car door, the front passenger door has been playing up for months. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, sometimes you can open it from the outside, sometimes not and now we can’t open from the outside or the inside. Three times someone has had a go at sorting it out, John, John mad my Sister and the garage when it went for an MOT, each time it kind of worked for a while and then it stops working. This time John could not fix it and so finally he has booked it into the garage to get it fixed properly, instructing then to buy a new part for it. It is a pain in the backside as I have to jeep getting in the back when it won’t open. Meanwhile I was indoors sorting out so sides of the rubics cube 😂 Moving the spare room around so that I can get the grandchildren’s toybox in there so that I can get the Christmas tree where the toybox usually lives. Then complaining to John because the furniture we have is too big for the small rooms and it’s impossible to manoeuvre the vacuum cleaner around the room. My personal opinion is that the designing of rooms and furniture (including kitchens) should really only be done by women because they (on the whole) are the ones who have to clean them or use them 😜

Tuesday: I did the morning rounds while John went off to do a few jobs but he was home just after lunch. I had a plan which as usual was scuppered by something else, I had planned to get the house work done so that I could start with the Christmas decorations. I got as far as getting the bathroom cleaned and the towels washed. Then I thought I would check the delivery of my oranges, one box I have the other I haven’t received but in checking I can see that the status was delivered successfully. Nope, nope they have not been delivered to me even though at the time of delivery I was here 🙄 Then I have to spend the next hour going round and round in circles trying to find an email or a contact number to let someone know that I have not received them. You know how that goes, you get directed from one web page to another, at one point I was directed to a German website, I can’t read German so I have no idea what that was all about. The upshot is that the sender thinks I have received them because the carrier says it has delivered them 😏 Eventually I managed to talk to someone on the phone and have to fill in a claim form and they will resend a box of oranges, let’s hope they actually arrive at my address this time.

Wednesday: Ooosh busy morning, John was home today and so we were out before daylight broke to get the animals all fed and watered. I then went on to clean out all the huts and pens in the orchard and replenish with fresh straw and hay and clean out the water holders. I also took a couple of wheelbarrows of woodchip for the light Sussex pen as that is getting a bit mucky. Then John and I started to shift the mountains of type 1 to dust which will cover the lower part of the side driveway, it’s been sat there in two big piles for a few months and we haven’t done all of it yet but we can get a bit done at a time. While we were doing that a delivery of ply sheets arrived and then we had to carry those into the back area. That is easier said than done when you are only 5’3” with small hands, manhandling sheets of 8×4 is a difficult task for me 🤪 After we did that we went to find a Christmas tree, we tried yesterday in the late afternoon but they were all too big for our small sitting room, well now we have a very tiny tree because that was all that was left 😂 It will probably look quite big in our room to be honest, does t really matter a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree. That statement will be unbelievable to my children 😂 in the past all potential houses we bought or altered were viewed with the Christmas tree position in mind 🥰 We don’t have the option here so it is what it is 😜

Thursday: Up at the crack of sparrows to get on this morning. We got the morning rounds all done and then went into town to get some shopping done, the market first to get some bits of fresh veg for Christmas dinner. They will store nicely in the pantry for a week and it means I can beat the Christmas rush which I don’t want to get tangled up in 😜 Then round to the butchers where I ordered some gluten free sausage meat for the stuffing, I could have got a hand of pork and made my own but it’s just another job to add to the list and as they are ami,ing it anyway then I might as well buy it from them. Over to the post office to post some bits and then into the supermarket to get a few bits. I say a few bits, how come I always end up with much more than I thought I needed. I could have bought a whole lot more, there is a tendency to get caught up in buying huge amounts of food for Christmas but luckily I have trained myself pretty well over the years to stop and think about if I really need it or not, mostly it’s not. I have some bits in the freezer that I can get out if we have unexpected visitors but on the whole we won’t eat much ch more differently than we normally do. Once we got back home and unpacked John got on with the work out the back and I spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping presents. The tree still has to come in and it’s a bit little but I think I will put it in the ‘cute’ bracket lol. The twins and Mia arrived after school, Mia went for her swimming lesson and the twins stayed here with us, they seem delighted that their toy is has moved to the spare room, a whole new adventure for two and a half year olds 😜

Friday: John was supposed to go to a job this morning but the chap rang to cancel as he has woken up with a cough and needs to get tested. The infection levels are through the roof with this new variant, Omicron, but so far the hospital admissions and death rate are much, much lower than before so the vaccinations must be working. Watching the news last night the nurse reported that out of 11 patients they had in, 9 were unvaccinated, so it seems that it can still affect you if you are vaccinated but not as much as if you are not. That is not fake news, that is from a nurse on the front line and it’s not the first time I have heard it. There are so many conspiracy theories out there, I struggle to get my head around the fact that all these governments would band together to conspire when they can’t agree on anything else. I also read a comment from someone with a science background that said different departments can’t even agree on what colour pen to use to annotate notes let alone join together for a massive conspiracy 🙄 And I always ask myself, what would be their ultimate aim anyway? It has massively hit the economy, caused millions in spending for the governments which are pretty loathe to spend anything they don’t have to normally, and generally inconvenienced the whole travel system throughout the world, I struggle to see the benefits of any kind of pre organised operation or mass conspiracy. I also think that as much as I detest the probing press, a mere whiff of anything like that and somebody somewhere would be exposing the ‘truth’.

I spent the first 2 hours this morning feeding, watering etc and then moving the horses. The latter involves moving electric fencing stakes and tape and the water buckets, the horses were very happy and did plenty of belting around. They like a change of scenery as much as the rest of us and they certainly like to go on new grazing even if it is mostly standing hay lol. Then it was back inside to get the rest of the presents wrapped and the decorations up, I hate doing it but now I am sat in the festively lit room it feels lovely 🥰 Our tree is tiny 😂 but at least it doesn’t swap the room, there have been years when we could hardly see the tv which is not a bad thing at times 🤪 John came home at lunchtime and he has been busy doing more to the pool room out the back. It is in a kind of lean to (a very robust one) and so he has been insulating it all as well which will make the house even warmer hopefully. It has been fairly mild and the radiators have hardly come on, they are warm in the morning but then they don’t come on for the rest of the day usually. Our replacement window is in apparently but we don’t really want it fitted before Christmas, we can wait until afterwards. The room will then need redecorating as the window is smaller than the existing one and the floor is caving in one area where we had a prolonged leak on the radiator that we hadn’t noticed for months, more jobs on the to do list 😂 At dusk it was time to feed the birds, collect the eggs, put the geese to bed, check the post box and then back in to get the dinner on. Another day done and at least we have the dark evenings to relax 🥰

Tiny tree 😂

Saturday: After doing the usual rounds and an early delivery of diy materials we cracked on with the rest of the day. John out the back putting a floor down in his pool room and me making orange muffins. I made the muffins then tried to get some translucent bits of orange made to go on the top as decoration but they didn’t really work out too well. The muffins tasted good though and when Josh and Flo arrived mid morning they did a taste test which I passed 😁 I had them for a few hours while Shelley was working. Once the afternoon rounds were done I got ready to go and do my second stint of babysitting for Sam and Luke. When Sam asked me I was with my sister and she said she would come and babysit with me so that’s what we did. We had a fish and chip supper with the kids and lots of playing and cuddles.

Very foggy on the journey home last night.

Sunday: Up a bit later than usual today, totally exhausted 😂 children never stop talking do they lol, which is good because it’s mostly questions and I love a bit of learning 🥰 But questions like, why does Father Christmas never use the door? And why is God the father of Jesus when Joseph is Mary’s husband are very taxing on the mind 🤪 and how come that all conversations with a 5/6 year old end up talking about poo 😝

The fog was still lingering this morning and it is a tad colder on the finger tips but the sun is trying to peek out and we haven’t seen that for a good few days or more. We got the animals done and then I needed a sit down, I felt tired this morning, I could easily have gone back for another sleep.

The virus infection numbers are climbing rapidly, and with only five days left until the Christmas celebrations begin, I think everyone is holding their breath, trying to dodge catching it and generally very wary. I was thinking that I would like to go out here and there but on reflection I think we won’t bother, I want to spend Christmas with our lot this year so I don’t want to risk it.

Having said that we did nip out today, I wanted to go to a local well known organic farm for a look round and a festive coffee. We had the coffee and the a festive cake and marvelled at the insane prices of everything 😂 Though I really admire their whole ethos on sustainability and organic growing I can’t help but cringe at the niche that people buy in to 🤷‍♀️ I wander round thinking ‘I can make that for a third of the price’ or ‘why do people need these fancy pants things to grow veg’ It is astounding that a typical rural way of life (growing your own) has in some part become a twee thing to do and a whole industry of expensive equipment to do it with. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for people growing their own but I am confounded by the way it is becoming an artisan craft in some quarters. I am also amazed at the fact that people don’t seem to know how to do these things without going on a very expensive course to learn. How to make a twig, five point star should not cost upwards of £50 even if it does include coffee 😜 I think after all these years I am pretty qualified to teach most of these things but I still couldn’t bring myself to charge that much, maybe that’s where I am going wrong 😑

We are almost at the Winter solstice 🥰 and the year will be on the turn again, it is the return of the light and the Oak King begins his rule. Many of the things we do at Christmas time have roots going back to ancient times, pre Christianity some of them, wreaths are a symbol of the wheel, bringing in greenery, hanging up charms (tree baubles) feasting and blessings however you chose to celebrate, do it well, with love and sincerity, with happiness and hope for the new year. 😁

This weeks blog will be it for the year, thank you all so much for reading my musings and daily goings on. As I have always said it is a diary really, a record of daily life both on and off the Smallholding. Here are few stats for you: 11.1k views, 5,942 visitors to the site, 71 followers on the WordPress site, 16 that have it emailed to them, lots of people who read it on my social media pages (though I don’t have the figures for that) The very first blog was in February 2011 so I am now going into year eleven 😮 at first it was a monthly blog and eventually became weekly and now I try and jot something down daily. Where has all that time gone 🤷‍♀️ Still the aim is the same, be as self sufficient as possible, look after nature as much as possible, I have learnt a lot along the way and there is plenty left to learn I suspect. I know there are people who hope to live this kind of life that read and people who just enjoy reading about this kind of life, my aim is always to pass on any knowledge I have to anyone who wants to learn. I hope you will be back with me again in the new year and that by the end of next year we have begun to move on from the pandemic but who knows how that is going to pan out 🤷‍♀️ That just leaves me to wish each and every one of you A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2022.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Dizzy, another storm & getting my stores in.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 6th December: Today was a bit of a write off, I went out and did the morning rounds but started feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous halfway round, that feeling didn’t leave me all day and so apart from the absolute basics I didn’t do anything except sit or lie down. I was hoping it would pass quickly, I had the same thing on Sunday morning which went after about an hour but this time it didn’t shift until around 2pm. So I didn’t get anything done at all really and am hoping it’s a passing thing.

Tuesday: I haven’t got the dizziness today but I still feel a bit like my head is a dough ball. That I can cope with, the dizziness not so much, I am guessing it’s sinus related and that it doesn’t last too long. Going from the warm, out to the cold and then back into the warm makes it worse. It was a lot colder than I thought when I did the morning rounds, it didn’t look that cold but my fingers and toes were telling me something different 🙄 We have another storm warning, high winds, cold weather, possibly snow, at the minute it is quite calm but likely to be a different story by the end of the day. I would have liked to get on with doing the rest of the pantry but we only just picked up the door yesterday and I don’t want to put any food source in there until I can keep any animals out, cats, dogs and mice included, so that will have to wait, John is putting the door on when he come home from work later. I think I may make mince pies today, seems like a good day to get that done and another thing I can tick off my list.

Early evening we got the door lining in and the door on the pantry so it is pretty much finished now, I am super chuffed with it. Everything in there is something we already had, it looks like it’s been there for years which was the intention and I have plenty of space to be able to store everything I am going to grow next year plus hang dried flowers and stock up on extra things that I can’t usually get in the kitchen cupboards, yep happy, happy me 🥰

Now I have the space I have ordered some apples direct from an orchard in the UK, I have long since finished my apples as there were not that many. My intention is to do the same with whatever produce I can as well as oranges direct from the grower in Spain, I am cutting out the middlemen that make a big fat profit while producers get paid a pittance for their goods. At least if I do that then all the money goes to the farmers, growers and producers and not the supermarket chains.

Wednesday: Windy today and cold rain with it at times, I got the morning jobs sorted and then out to do the morning feeding and watering. I just got back in when Sam called to see if I wanted to go to the garden centre, the twins were at nursery and it is one of the first times she has had a morning to herself since they were born so off we went 😁 When I got back I sorted through the Christmas presents I have already got so that when I go shopping on Friday (I made John book a day off 😂) I will know what I still need to get. Then I started sorting through things to put in the pantry, I have things all over the place and so it will be great to have it all in one place and know where it is and what I have got. I am going to have a field day next year, drying, dehydrating, pickling, jamming, jarring and storing oodles and oodles of different things. I have started a list of different combinations of jams, dehydrated vegetables for soup mixes (thus relying less on the freezer) yep the pioneer women in me will be in her element 😂 I will definitely be hoping for the best but preparing for the worst case scenario as you never know what is around the corner. A bit ott maybe? But maybe not 🤔 China are the biggest producers of tin cans in the world and they are having crisis after crisis with energy supplies which in turn means they keep shutting down factories, including the tin can ones. You may think that won’t affect you but the knock on effect is that there will be a shortage of them, knock again means there will not be as many tinned products on the shelf, people start buying dried goods, shortages occur, people start panic buying or stocking up, the supply chain is easily affected all the way to us as individuals. You only have to look at the fuel panic to see how quickly things get ridiculous, whichever way things pan out, I will either have plenty to keep us fed or plenty to keep us going if needs be. Being prepared is not about being a weirdo with a massive underground bunker stocked with supplies (although I admit that would be awesome 😝) it is about looking ahead and asking yourself ‘what would I do if ? happened) and then trying to give yourself a buffer against that scenario. In the last twenty years that kind of thinking has completely fallen by the wayside and we have a ‘live for today culture’ which on the surface of it is fine but hopefully we have plenty of tomorrow’s ahead of us as well so it makes sense to look beyond today, I guess a lot will find that out the hard way eventually 😏

In the afternoon as well as doing the usual I also got the horses in, the farrier is coming at 9am tomorrow and I don’t want to be under pressure when Jack starts to give me the run around in the paddock🙄

Thursday: Had to be up and about pretty sharpish this morning so I could get the morning rounds done before the farrier arrived. I was halfway through them when he turned up early lol lucky that I did get the horses in overnight then. Jack was a right prat today, normally he is good as gold for the farrier but not today 😏 he messed him about a fair bit and then once he had finished and moved on to do biscuit Jack decide to lob his hay net at my back while I was talking, no idea how he managed to get it undone let alone toss it in my direction 😂 he was ‘hoofing’ the ground and snorting, very impatient to get back out to the paddock. Once I took him back out there he had a good welly around to get it out of his system.

Once the farrier had gone I got on with the rest of the rounds and skipped out the stables so they are ready for next time they need to come in. Next I was due to have my hair cut but the hairdresser had messaged me the night before to say she had double booked me with an mot for her car lol, that’s fine, it gave me breathing space that I otherwise wouldn’t have had. The reason for that was because Sam was arriving with the twins much earlier than usual today, it was Mia’s Christmas play and as with most schools only one person from the family was allowed to attend so that meant the twins needed to be looked after. They came over just after lunch and they too were in high spirits today, must be something in the air! I had the twins right through to around 5.30 and I honestly don’t know how Samantha copes, it’s pretty simple with one toddler but with two that go in different directions, are much more nimble than I am and so that much faster it’s like trying to catch a room full of bouncing balls 😂 I just stop one from doing one thing and the other is already up to something they shouldn’t be and added to that George has quickly worked out the round and round the table game when he doesn’t want to be caught 🤪

Once they had all gone home I could make my dinner and relax for the evening that’s the beauty of being a grandparent, the children go home and are someone else’s hard work 😁

Friday: John has more or less finished for Christmas now and so I had booked him for the day to go Christmas shopping in Oxford. We got the animals all done and off we went, might as well stayed at home really as the shop didn’t have what I wanted and I sat in the coffee shop and ordered it online to be delivered 😂 We did actually get a few other things but it was hard going, no wonder the high street is suffering when their stores don’t have the stock but the warehouses do 🤷‍♀️ That took up much of the daylight hours really and so apart from the afternoon feeding there is not much else to report for today.

Saturday: I did the morning rounds while John started clearing some more of the back bit, there was a last bit of old roofing that had to be cut off and taken down. Once we were both done John went to make coffee, he came back and I used his favourite phrase ‘I have a plan, you are not going to like it’ 😂 His plan was to move everything else we had left to the storage caravan, I thought this was a waste of time because it is stuff we will be using and it will have to come back over at some point. My argument is why move it twice? ‘because we have nowhere to put it’ is his reply, well that’s my plan, we build a cupboard 🤪 And so that’s exactly what we spent Saturday morning doing, building a cupboard, we used all the odd bits of wood and cut offs from the ply and now we have a very useful cupboard with a worktop that has the vice bolted to it, brilliant, even if I do say so myself. In the afternoon we popped over to see Shelley and the Children and had tea and cake with them before coming back to do the afternoon rounds. The days are very short in the Winter for animal work, no sooner have you had lunch and it’s time to start thinking about feeding them and shutting the up for the night but we are marching towards the Winter solstice and then the days will very slowly start to stretch out again 😁

One box of oranges arrived today but I don’t know where the other box has got too 🤷‍♀️

Sunday: John helped with the animals this morning and then gave the gutters a clean out now most of the leaves have fallen. Meanwhile I planted some pretty pink cyclamen bulbs I got in a sale and also some persica which were originally marked at £45 for five bulbs 😮 but I got them for £5 so a bargain indeed. Then John went off to the tip with a broken fridge and a broken microwave, I cleaned out the greenhouse and got the dahlia bulbs all brushed off now they are dry and I have them stored in boxes under the staging in the greenhouse, hopefully they will survive. In the afternoon John went to watch the Grand Prix round at Maccas and I did some crafting, I did have the race on though and it was an exciting and controversial race, good job nobody was here to see me jumping around and shouting at the final lap 😂

That’s another week over, it was mild ending weatherwise, we have had everything so far this winter from snow and ice to wind, rain and sunshine, the temperatures have so far ranged from just below freezing up to 14c 🙄 that seems to be how things are these days, all over the place 🤪

Posted in Friesland Farm

Snow, a beautiful bargain & a pantry 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm
Monday morning beauty 🥰

Monday 29th November: Oh what a lovely Monday morning 🤪 snow on the ground, flipping freezing and as yet (2pm) it has not thawed 🙄 A different routine this morning, the birds are now all housed and so that means there is no point John doing them in the morning before he goes to work, it becomes my job 😏 I was glibly thinking ‘I don’t need to go out until mid morning’ but then realised that I actually would have to go out first thing of course (silly me) The horses need hay, the water buckets need the ice broken and although we had filled up the feeders in the stable block and for the ducks, the others in the orchard will still need feeding and watering. So I donned my big ‘duvet’ coat, my isotherm wellies (they keep your feet warm down to -10 🥰) and my leather gloves because if they get wet it doesn’t go through to my fingers and make them freezing cold. I did all the feeding and watering and then had to set up a small run for the light Sussex hen with the chick, everything needs to be enclosed and no wild birds should be able to get to the food or water, this is quite a task but luckily, as it happens year on year now, we are prepared. Once I had finished outside it was back indoors to divide up some blocks of mature cheddar for the freezer and get those in along with some blocks of butter and a carton of milk. I am not stocking up honestly lol, the milk I asked John to get on top of our regular delivery because he seemed to be drinking a lot of tea. In the end we didn’t use it and had our normal delivery this morning so I need to freeze it and save it for another day. The butter I am going to need when I start making mince pies by the dozen and if I have them in the freezer ready then I can do them when I want to. The cheese is because John only eats mild cheese which is not much good for flavouring something like cauliflower cheese so if I put it in the freezer I always have some handy and it’s not going hard in the fridge. I have been a Jack of all trades today because after that job I went and painted the pantry. I say painted and John is going to tell me it’s not finished but that is the look I am going for 😂 he will hate it, I will love it, it’s my pantry and once the door is on I doubt he will ever go in there 😂 Then I spent a bit of time trying out new bits of crafting, I want to make some decorations for myself and so have been having a go at cone trees, not pine cone trees but cone shaped trees, I haven’t finished yet but if I am pleased with the result I will take photos. A quick sit down with a cup of tea and then onto the next job of the day, caramelised red onion chutney making 😁

With the chutney on the go, the dinner prepped ready for this evening and an apple and blueberry crumble also made, I got all togged up to go outside and do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting. Luckily the outside taps had thawed and I was able to get more water to the ducks, geese and horses who also had more hay. The shift took me far longer than it did to write about it 😂 I had planned on coming in for a cuppa before shutting them away at dusk but by the time I had finished that, collected the post, checked the egg shed, fed the dogs and the cats it was getting dark and so I shut down doors etc before coming back inside and taking off my artic gear. I just got into the kitchen when John arrived home, typical that he arrives just as everything is done. He asked if I had painted the pantry, I told him yes but he won’t like it, he said and I quote ‘it’s your pantry, you can paint it how you like’ 😮 As we went through to have a look, John shouted at the dog who was busy helping herself to eggs from the bucket! Normally I put the bucket of eggs in the sink but there was the paint tray in there so I put it on the floor, I won’t make that mistake again 😂 The reason I don’t box up the eggs right away is because then the cat sits on the boxes which is ok-ish when the weather is dry but if it’s wet she gets the boxes dirty. Sometimes I feel the battle is already lost before I even get up 🤪 I complain all the time that the geese eat all the chicken food (because they should not be down in the stable block) the dog eats the cat food (he reaches up on the side to sneak it out of their bowl) the chickens eat diesels cat food (big no no) if the he hasn’t eaten it all and now the dog is eating the eggs, I need some sort of order back with the feed routine which will be easier now the birds are all shut away.

Hens on lockdown 😏

I think I am just going to relax this evening, once the dinner is made, eaten and washed up that is! I hope it thaws overnight, Smallholding life is a lot harder when it’s freezing outside.

Tuesday: i did the rounds again this morning and it has all thawed thank goodness, it was hard work over the last few days 🙄 The art of the job is getting in through the stable doors without letting any hens out 😂 this morning just as I opened the door and ducked down to go in, one of them flew straight at me from where she was perching, I did t have the heart to tell her she has a very long time until she can go outside again 😏

I didn’t have anything in particular planned for today which was just as well as Sam came over with the twins and Shelley and Flo came after Flo finished nursery so it was a few hours of chaos and cacophony 😝 Once they had all left to do the school run I sat in total silence enjoying the moment 🤪

I did have time to make a cake before anyone arrived though, it was a recipe I wanted to have a go at, pumpkin cake with a cream cheese frosting. The verdict from the little ones was ‘nah’ the verdict from Sam was ‘not bad’ I can’t decide if I like it or not 🤷‍♀️ I think if I did it again I would doctor the recipe somewhat as it is quite heavy, more like a pudding texture but chances are I won’t make it again lol.

Wednesday: Busy day today, first up, the morning rounds and sorting out fresh water, feed etc then onto digging up the dahlia bulbs and putting them to dry out in the greenhouse before storing for the winter. The smaller ones I have left in the ground to see if they survive but the big star ones and the cafe au lait I have dug up as I don’t want to lose those. Some of them have got massive over summer and so I should be able to get lots more plants from them in spring. I also found a couple of lupin seed heads which I have drying in the kitchen now, also for sowing again next spring. I had quickly painted the remaining bits I needed to do in the pantry before doing the gardening and so once that was dry I went back to get some bits of furniture cleaned and moved in there. The apple rack is going to live in there and needed the dust cleaned from it, also a cupboard that needed a hoovering to get the dust off. The rest of the day until feeding time I spent cleaning out screws and nails from the workbench which is also going to be going in there. The bench is one that we inherited at our old house from the previous owner, it is old, heavy and well used, it will look fab once it is cleaned up. But before I can do that I needed to clean out the little cubby holes at the back which were full of screws and nails, some of which have been there for well over twenty years I imagine 😂 I sorted through thousands of screws and nails of all different sizes and types, lots were rusty and so have been thrown away, lots are still very useable and indeed we are always looking for nails and screws so sorting them all out will be a good job, well done. I have now ordered a screw organiser thingy that will go on the wall and I can sort them out into sizes hopefully. I came in for a s quick sit down before having to go out and do the afternoon rounds and saw what I thought was an egg customer sat in the car, I went out with more eggs as we have had a few visitors to the shed today. He got out and asked for Samantha, my thought were now whirring as the horses were due to have the dentist visit but I didn’t think it was today, I asked him if he was the dentist and yes he was 🙄 A quick phonecall to Sam and it seems she had the wrong day written down 🤪 he agreed to come back tomorrow bless him, which is when Sam thought he was coming. The reason that I couldn’t supervise is because Sam doesn’t know how Jack is going to react, previously he had to be sedated to have his teeth rasped and it’s not something I would be confident overseeing. I finally got a sit down for about half and hour before starting with the afternoon rounds and egg collecting.

Huge dahlia tuber root, hopefully I can get a lot more plants from it next spring.

I am not quite sure where Thursday and Friday went lol or what I did on those days except that the horse dentist came back to do their teeth and it’s good to finally get a rough idea of biscuits age, apparently somewhere around 20 years old. She is in good oral health though which is good to know, Jack also has no problems and his lameness has gone so that is good as well. I have had the twins three times since Thursday morning so no wonder I have no idea what else I have done 🤪 Friday (I think) I went into town with Shelley and Flo for a mooch round the charity shops and to get a nice coffee. I found a few bargains including a gorgeous Rumtopf pot, I did already have one but this one was so lovely I couldn’t leave it sat there so I bought it 😁 I gave the other one to shelley so she can have a go at it next year. Traditionally you fill the rumtopf with layers of fruit, rum and sugar, the fruit can be a complete mixture which means to can add to it as the season progresses. You then eat the boozy fruit around Christmas time. I tend to use plums and brandy but any combination works just as well if you fancy giving it a go.

Saturday: I had the twins for a couple of hours while Sam and luke went to a meeting and then it was time to go to the family Christmas party. Each year (except last year) my sister hires the hall in Kelmscot and we have a big family get together, there are a lot of us and we need a big space for everyone to be able to come 😂 This year it was mainly centred around the children having fun so there was a disco and games and a sack of gifts for them all, we all did something for a buffet and as always there was plenty to eat and drink 🥰 It is important for the children to get together as a good few of them have only known pandemic conditions which is really quite sad.

Sunday: Up and about early this morning and after getting all the Smallholding jobs done, feeding, watering etc, and then the household things done, washing on, rubbish out etc, I could finally get on with the job I was excited to get started, the pantry 🥰 We had moved some of the cupboards in yesterday but we could finally get started on fitting shelves and fixtures. I am delighted with how it is going so far, I have plenty of shelves and storage space and I have lots of hanging space for drying flowers or storing onions and garlic. I have tried to use everything I already had here and have easily achieved that, I still have a fair amount to put in there but here is a sneak preview 😁 I can’t wait to start stocking it with goodies 😍