Monday 14th February 2022: Weeee another week to slide into 😂 A sunny, mild start to the day but the actual forecast for this week does not look the best overall, time will tell. John has gone to work today and so I am on duty, once sorted indoors it was out to get the birds all fed and watered. I was hoping to find a goose egg today as traditionally this is the day they be in laying but no such luck just yet, I did put some nice clean straw in to try and encourage them 😝 Then it was onto the hens, the outside run needs a clean but I got on with the stable hens first, top up the water, top up the feed, I added some DE, seaweed and sunflower seeds to their breakfast this morning, raked over the old sawdust to check for any buried eggs and put in a whole bag of clean sawdust in one of the pens, the other only just had some the other day. Then onto let the ducks out and collect their eggs, they need a clean out but I am waiting for John to finish the compost area because that’s where the stuff goes. Onto the orchard pens, did I say that the fox had one of the light Sussex hens, the one that raised the chicks, only one chick made it to full size and now she is all on her own because mamma was taken by foxy, how the other one made it through I don’t know but as I found mums headless body in the paddock I assume the fox was disturbed by something. I put some fresh straw in for her and fresh straw in for the turkeys and the other light Sussex hens. I barrowed two loads of woodchip into their pen as well, the rain has made the ground deteriorate a fair bit and now all but the ducks and the outside hens are clean and tidy. I may go out and do those later or I may wait until tomorrow morning not sure yet.
Back inside for a coffee and a quick sit down before getting on with other things. It is Valentines Day today, not that it makes much difference in our house 🙄 probably the subconscious reason I decided to grow my own flowers at least that way I will have some. It is amazing how delightful a bunch of flowers can be, I remember one year a flower van pulled up and the lady got out with a big bouquet, it immediately lifted my spirits, then I realised they were for our daughter and not me 😏 😂
Still no sign of the Lisianthus seeds sprouting (told you they were difficult) but others are popping up all over the place. The Ami and snapdragons are doing well, some lupin growing nicely and the sunflowers have just sprouted then there are some veg as well, beetroot, celeriac and tomato are all doing well in fact while I think about it I must sow some more tomato seeds. Oh and the rhubarb is beginning to appear so that won’t be long before the first harvest 🥰
Decided to do some paperwork in the afternoon as the rain began mid morning, simple enough task you would think, printer only has one job and that is to print 🙄 Low on ink it says, change ink, not genuine cartridges it says, I know yours are too bloody expensive, printing it says while making all the right noises but not actually doing anything 🤦♀️ Prints out, eligible, shall I clean the print head, ooo yes please do, cleaning please wait, just exactly how long for 🤷♀️ A simple task that should have taken a minute and that’s half an hour of my life gone and my blood pressure raised! Not to mention wasted paper and that was only the first of many 😝 I actually went away and made a cup of tea while waiting for it to perform the task of cleaning, came back, want me to clean the nozzles, oh go on then, seriously I can have a shower quicker than that thing can clean itself. And the blame of me gaining a lb or two this week lies fairly on the shoulders of Epson because what else was I supposed to while waiting other than eat the whole valentine blondie that Shelley bought me 😂
After printing out a reem of invoices (yes I know there is a better way but I like tangible paper copies 😝) I need to make yet another note to self: Keep a check on what plants you are buying or you will end up doubling up 🤪🤪 I think I could probably start a garden centre at this rate! I am not even going to begin to add it up yet, just keep telling myself I will make it back in sales 😉 Yes the most I print off the more I realise I need to get a grip on the order information including what, when and prices. No idea how many hours I have sat here now waiting for print outs, tried to make them more printer friendly, failed 😣
Tuesday: Pardon me but what a shitty day 😂 the weather is horrid, wet, cold and breezy, yuk. John was home for the morning and so he did the animals and then a couple of jobs out in the garden I needed done. The slabs down the side of the polytunnel which form a pathway have been down for about 8/9 years and have ‘walked’ so he took them all up p, shored up the side and laid them all again nicely 😁 He was brave working out there because meanwhile I found plenty to get done indooors in the warm 😊 Clean and vacuum the boot room, change the bed sheets and clean the bedroom, dig into the freezer and get ingredients for dinner tonight, a nice beef stew in the slow cooker for John, salmon for me 😝 I also got a chicken out to thaw for cooking tomorrow. We still have plenty in the freezers to get through yet, all that work back in the summer months prepping and freezing starts to pay off now that there is not much growing in the veg garden. I still have cabbage and kale available but nothing else really.
Wednesday: Storm something or other (we get so many these days I stop listening to the names) bought with it some pretty hefty gusts of wind and apparently tomorrows storm (yep one after the other) is going to be even stronger 🙄 I had ordered some turf which arrived first thing so John and I spent the morning laying that and repairing the edges of the raised beds next to it. We have done away with one of the pathways and the herb bed so have another 6mx5m of lawn or we would have if I had ordered enough 🤪 I had to order some more which will arrive tomorrow, but rather glad it didn’t all arrive today as working out in that all morning has been hard work. An afternoon of sitting down is definitely on the cards 😂 We sat down mid morning for a coffee outside and as a vehicle drove past a massive clatter occurred, it was towing a trailer with a tailgate which had come undone and fell with a bang onto the road, not something that happens everyday lol.
Thursday: The rest of the turf we needed arrived 😁 we now have a bigger lawn area for the kiddies to play on and less for me to weed and tend to. We scrapped the path down the side as well, I spent hours weeding the damn thing might as well cut grass instead. I have also sown a few more seeds today, more tomatoes (gardeners delight, Alisa Craig and tigerella) I have sown some basil and some dill as well, they are all in the greenhouse in a propagator. Still haven’t managed to catch the mouse, it has now eaten all the peanut butter so I have loaded the trap with maple syrup and wheat, my plan is to fatten it so that it is heavy enough to trip the trap 😂 The cats are doing a great job mind you, while we were out there today one of the cats had two mice for lunch. There was a lovely rainbow this morning, the calm between the storms, we are due a pretty nasty one in the early hours, storm Eunice is an explosive cyclogenesis which is a weather bomb apparently, instead of a storm building as it moves, the weather front moves and explodes into a storm. I hope we all come through it without any damage, watching the way they keep going on about it on the news I am surprised everyone isn’t totally terrified and digging holes in the ground to climb into 😏 I am not looking forward to the next 24hrs that’s for sure 😥
Friday: It is 10am just sitting here with a coffee thinking that so far it has not been too bad when a massive gust made the place groan and creak 😏 John has been here all morning but he now has to go and do a small job just when the winds are getting stronger, two points here, he is on the road when it is not so great out there and I am on my own here awaiting any catastrophe by myself 😣 I have some veg soup on the go for lunch and it occurred to me yesterday that we really need some kind of back up plan for any power cut. At least if we had a small gas stove we can boil a kettle, get a warm drink and make a hot water bottle. We have a generator but as I said to John I am not so good at starting it, so it’s fine if he is here not so good if I am on my own 🙄 I figured it would be a good idea to boil the kettle, fill a flask and a hot water bottle just in case 😂 To be honest the hot water bottle is much needed for my back, I woke up with a bad back on Wednesday and it hasn’t really got much better, stiff and slightly painful though not massively, I can move but with caution ⚠️ I would have gone for a walk to try and ease it off but today is not the ideal day 🤪
The winds got pretty fierce with some strong gusts, then it all seemed to die down again and then we lost power and the winds picked up once more. Good job I made a hot water bottle 😝 I called the power company but naturally they are only putting out a recorded message saying they have no idea when they will be able to get power back on and it could be off overnight 😣 I think a few layers of clothing will be needed, although I do have battery powered lights and a solar powered radio which is fully charged so that’s the evenings entertainment sorted 😂 At least I am not panicking about the Rayburn this year, every cloud and all that.
The power came back on for an hour or so and then went off again, but then came back on, how long this will go on for is anyones guess lol. The delivery of point of lay hens was cancelled for today, too risky to travel and we can wait another few days. At one point the wind was so loud it sounded like to door was open, it has died down somewhat now and I nipped out to the post box. I had a quick scan round to assess the place and apart from the bay tree in a big pot that has gone over it’s all looking fairly unscathed, plenty of reports locally of trees down everywhere though.
Judging by a lot of smallholders photos and videos I have seen online, we got away lightly, mostly I would say that is due to the positioning of and building robust pens and huts. We nearly always plan something with the wind direction in mind because it does get pretty windy here even on a regular day so stormy days are much worse. The older buildings are robust as well, Dad was a belts and braces person, there are straps on everything to hold it down luckily, the only thing that always worries me is the metal sheet roofing. Normally they would be fine but with constant winds at that speed they can easily be shaken so much they come loose, I said to John that once the weather calms we (he) needs to check the fixings and tighten any that have come loose.
Saturday: Weather was not much better but less wind and more rain. Didn’t do much outside at all and in the afternoon we went to a joint birthday party for two of our great nephews, 1 and 2 years old respectively. Nice to catch up with people we have not seen for a year or so and the children enjoyed playing together 🙄🤪
Sunday: Shocking again, almost as windy as Friday, raining most of the afternoon, cold and grey, yuk and more storms rolling in over the next couple of days 😏 It wasn’t raining first thing and John did the animals and then built the new compost bin area. The other has all been cleared and stacked ready to rot down more but we needed a new bay built with pallets which is what he did. Then he cleaned out the ducks, couldn’t do that until he built the bay as that’s where the duck muck goes. And finally he put the wheel back on the car, it had to be taken to the garage at the beginning of the week as the wheel rim had cracked and needed welding. Meanwhile I found stuff to do indoors, I didn’t really want to go outside in all that plus I still have a bad back so didn’t want to be lifting anything.
What is one to do on a cold, wet windy Sunday, well go and buy more plants of course 😁 When John came back in looking for a coffee I suggested we go out and get one accompanied by cake 🥰 and a mooch round at some lovely plants 🤪 I purchased more dahlia, gladioli and some anemone bulbs plus some sweet Williams, you can never have enough plants right 🤷♀️ My plan is to take cutting from all the dahlias I have so far which will increase my overall stock. Anything I can propagate I will have a go at, this morning I took some basal cuttings from the delphinium and I will be doing the same from the chrysanthemums and lupin that are coming up, it is a great way to get free plants and easy enough to do. I have used the carnations I bought from the garage a few weeks back (to have a go at an arrangement I wanted to try) to get new plants as well. They are easy to root just in water at this time of year, give it a go if you have any from your valentines flowers 😁 You are looking for new little plants coming from a leaf node, pinch those out and pop in water, they will soon form roots, don’t forget to change the water every couple of days to stop bacteria building up.
That’s is for this week, rubbish weather week I think I will call it 🙄 let’s hope it gets better during the week ahead, have a good one x
frieslandfarm (flowers) 