Author: frieslandfarm

Posted in Friesland Farm

Mixed weather, a unexplained death and a bit of baking.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st Jan: I was up early to get a look at the Moon, sadly it was too cloudy and I couldn’t see anything at all ☹️ Today is labelled as Blue Monday, it’s a Monday morning in January they are all blue 🥴 The upside of the last nights cloud cover is that it is not frosty this morning which makes the morning water rounds much easier 😀 And hopefully it will mean our man will be here to do some brickwork on the greenhouse as he had said weather permitting, I don’t know much about this subject but it looks like ideal conditions to me 😀

I didn’t do much worthy of writing about for the rest of the day except the normal routine stuff really. When I did the afternoon feeding I made sure all the water was filled up and extra hay in for the rabbits as it’s supposed to be very cold overnight.

Tuesday: It was not cold as I was expecting it to get and the sun is shinning this morning so although there is a frost it’s not that hard and should be quite a pleasant day. The moon is huge and still out it’s a shame I couldn’t see it yesterday 🙄 I have Mia today so as usual on a Tuesday I won’t be doing much more than entertaining her 😀

I did do one thing today 😝 I signed up for an online learning course and to become a citizen scientist, it’s about understanding soil and exploring global environmental soil issues, climate, food growing, technology, and the environment, it begins in February I will let you know more about it then.

Although the weather is not up too much I can still think and plan for the growing year ahead, the fruit bushes and trees need some sustenance and I have asked Shelley to save the ash from her fire, we can’t use our ash as it has all kinds of things in it but her are logs so are ok. Ash is high in potassium and so will encourage flowering which is what you want from fruit, I will sprinkle it about and lightly fork it in. It does make the soil more alkaline though so not near the blueberries which prefer acid soil. I am also waiting to cover up the bean bed that we mucked up the other week but while it’s cold and dry I am letting nature do its thing, as soon as it turns wet I will cover it over.

I already have broad beans and peas growing but this is the time of year to get them underway if you want to. Chillies, Aubergine and sweet peas are started off indoors now as well, I will probably do some sweet peas but I haven’t decided wether to just buy a couple of chilli plants this year instead of raising from seed. I don’t have much window sill space so being selective is the way forward. I saved the sweet pea seeds from last years display a lovely very dark purple called ‘dark knight’ I think. I have had a look through the seed catalogue and probably marked off far more than I really need, I will go through what I have saved and thin the order out a bit 😜 One thing I do need to order soon is the seed potatoes, last year I was late and couldn’t get the varieties I wanted as they were sold out, there is quite a decision to be made with which potatoes to go for, mostly wether they bake, roast or boil and if they are waxy or floury lol, I prefer a floury type and they have to be multi purpose 😀

The tips of the daffodil bulbs are just beginning to push through the soil in the back paddock, remember the 950 Mum, Ken and I planted 😀 well they are still there and doing ok much to my Dads relief who has been asking me every week if there is any sign of them yet lol.

Wednesday: We had a dusting of snow, just like icing sugar 😀 it’s cold and frozen but the sun is shinning. I had a busy couple of hours, firstly lighting the Rayburn, sorting the eggs and washing up, then out to feed the birds and let them out, break the water buckets etc, on my way round I found the smaller Guinea pig dead, back indoors to keep the fire going, make a quick coffee and just as I made that the hay delivery turned up😜 I leave the coffee go out open up the gates and direct Micheal as to where I want it, one reel was going straight into the field shelter as Jack is waiting. That takes about 15/20 minutes and luckily when I get in my coffee is still warm enough to drink lol, sort the fire out, get something in the slow cooker for dinner tonight and get some bread made up to the first proving.

Now back to the Guinea pig, it has no signs of injury and it does not have rigor and considering how cold it was over night it is not frozen either, a conundrum? Well I have seen something like this before so my plan was to bring him in and place him somewhere warmer just in case it’s hibernation, I must add that he is not curled up but fully stretched which is the only reason I am in doubt. We had a hamster that we thought had died so I put it in a bag and out in the shed to wait for the burial ceremony for the children, unfortunately it poured with rain for two days and by the time it was dry enough to do it, the hamster was sat on the mat looking at us!! You can see why I am reluctant to bury it just yet 😜 The other pig is fine so I don’t know what has happened to this one, although a quick bit of research tells me that they do not hibernate but I will keep him there for a day or two anyway.

Thursday: Another cold and frosty morning but it quickly thawed so it must be warmer than yesterday as the ground in places never even thawed.

I did the morning jobs as well as putting clean bedding in for the front hens and the geese I also moved the separator in the goose hut, his just divides the laying area in two as hopefully it won’t be long before they begin laying.

As it did not feel so cold today I delayed lighting the Rayburn and did a bit of baking instead, I made a cherry pie, a batch of pear and plum crumble, some for the freezer and a batch of buttermilk scones. The buttermilk was what I saved from turning pots of cream (reduced in price) into butter and the left over liquid is buttermilk. It gives the scones a distinct sour smell but they taste wonderful 😀 At that point I ran out of butter and milk so any more cooking will wait for another day. Last year with the fruit produce I made the decision to freeze it whole and then get it out to cook it down and use it but in reality it didn’t really work so I will go back to cooking it off then it is always ready to get out and make into pies/crumbles etc, if I batch make pastry and crumble too then I can quickly make a pudding in no time at all.

While I was cooking I noticed out of the window that one of the geese had got stuck in the poultry fencing so I picked a convenient moment, put on my coat, hat, wellies and gloves and went out to rescue it, by the time I got to the front fence it had freed itself 😝

Lit the Rayburn at lunchtime and sat down to enjoy some crustless quiche that shelley bought over for me yesterday, it was packed with different things, mushroom, tomato, bacon, sweet corn, cheese, very tasty.

Friday: I love Friday, no idea why really as work is done seven days a week here lol but it has a different feel about it maybe it is the palpable relief of all those who do have Monday to Friday jobs who knows. It’s weird because I was saying to someone the other day that having done this for 10 years now I would be able to tell (almost) what day of the week it is without a calendar, Fridays, Saturdays and definitely Sundays all have a different feel about them, Monday has it own feeling, only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday would be hard to distinguish between, the time is also something I can roughly manage without looking at a clock, even in the middle of the night.

Morning jobs done, I have opened the side opening between the two paddocks to try and encourage the geese to move out a little as they keep getting behind the poultry netting, this probably means they are running out of nutritional grass so encouraging them to move to pastures new will be better for all of us 😜 I topped up all the wild bird feeders, we have a lot of garden birds here and I want to keep them around, they are part of our little ecosystem now 😀 I know that pigeons are too but the numbers keep growing and I want to keep a good balance so for that reason some will be dealt with.

It’s much milder today just as well as I am popping out for coffee and cake with Shelley mid morning so the fire won’t get lit until lunchtime.

This fox thing is getting beyond a joke, we put the hens in barricade stables, it has tried digging in under the stable doors so we barricaded them more now I discovered it has been trying to dig in from the outside wall. I thought I could see daylight so I went round the back to have a look and it has been digging away, I called John to see when he would be home so that we could move a whole load of hardcore into the hole it has dug, it’s getting very tiresome 😞 On the upside I did get a glimpse of Cruella De Vil through the tack room window, I am going to set the camera tonight to see if she is actually coming out at night or not, we need to encourage her to venture a bit further as life will be very boring for her otherwise.

Saturday: A dreary morning, milder again. John got up and did all the outside jobs as well as getting in quite a few barrows of wood for the fire then went off to get the feed. I did the eggs and stocked up the egg shed and then had a look at the footage from the camera which I set up last night. The cat does come out which is good, I could also see that the fox hangs around ALL night, there are captures of it from 8pm right through to 5.30am, even going in and out of the tack room through the cat hole. That means I’m feeding the fox cat biscuits as well 😛 poor cat, I wonder how much she is getting?

I am off to Winchester today for an afternoon tea hen do with our future sister in law, i am looking forward to a little road trip and some tea and cake 😀 John will hold the fort and hopefully do some of the jobs on the list 😀

Just as well I don’t have to do much today, I’m quite tired and my hands are a bit swollen and hurt so a day off is needed.

The egg sales have ramped up again this week we have sold all yesterday’s by lunchtime today and have now put out today’s 🙄 if they all sell this afternoon there won’t be anything for tomorrow 🥴 It’s not something you can gauge at all, one week it will be very slow, the next we can’t keep up!

Sunday: WINDY! Very windy, all night and today, talk about getting a buffeting, did the morning stuff then went for breakfast locally 😀

Cleaning out the stable that has had 45 hens in it for a couple of weeks was on the list today, we let them out and barrowed out 6/7 full barrows of straw and poo and now it’s all nice and clean with fresh straw back in.

Trying the keep the Rayburn on an even keel has been a challenge today, the wind is making it draw too much so it’s burning away quickly but if you shut it down that’s not ideal either as it just dies off, the struggle is real people 😂

And that is pretty much the end of another week, one step closer to Spring 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Gardening, cooking, clearing out, a little bit of everything this week.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 14th January: Another non weather morning, slightly cold but dry, I keep waiting for some ‘weather’ to arrive and am keeping my eye on the long term reports. Not from the press as they are always predicting some major event that never happens but from the met office, there has been some ‘catastrophic’ event in weather terms but because of ‘blocking’ they are not sure if it will reach here or not, so not much info there either! It’s just wait and see I reckon 😛

Well it was so mild out there I decided to get stuck in to a bit of gardening so I moved a few barrows of muck into the fruit cage, planted up the rhubarb I had divided back in Autumn and cut down and shredded the Autumn raspberry canes. I also cut back the thornless blackberry and then dug up and potted some raspberry runners, the thornless blackberry had also layered itself into the ground so another free plant there 😀 I got so warm I had to come in and take a layer off!

I actually can’t remember a January like it for years to be honest, this time last year it was ‘the beast from the East’ causing chaos this time it’s just so mild and dry that it’s been a pleasure so far.

I spent the afternoon confirming and finalising paperwork for our upcoming holiday to Norway, we are good to go when the day arrives 😀

Then back out at 3pm to do the feeding and egg collection, the bonus with hens living inside is clean eggs so no washing them, though it may have more to do with the dry ground outside than anything else, I guess once it rains I will find out 😝

I have cold pork, baked potato, salad and lashings of homemade chutney for dinner, John has bubble and squeak, his favourite after a roast dinner 😀

I have finally ordered our SmartWater pack, this is a long lasting traceable liquid that has a unique code visible under ultraviolet light, basically you splatter it on high value items and equipment and if it gets stolen and recovered its traceable back to you. The village as a whole has registered and within that registration each person that signed up gets their own code, hopefully it’s a deterrent if nothing else.

Tuesday: I have Mia today so whizzed round and get the feeding done quickly, the guy turned up to start putting the base down for the greenhouse. Gramps biscuit tin was empty much to Mia’s disappointment so we made a batch and shared them with Josh when he came over with Shelley and Florence 😀 I made a loaf of bread, pretty good one today if I may say so myself.

Wednesday: I am clearly feeling much better and fitter and have clarity (one of the things about Lupus is brain fog) lol, this morning I have done the feeding etc then moved a few barrows of muck onto the veg beds, then onto sorting stuff out. Must be a Spring/New Year thing because I am finally getting round to listing stuff for sale/free that has been lying around for ages, or chucking stuff I no longer need.

I made a bit of a boo boo as I had a delivery yesterday and it was three boxes that said ‘live plants’ now as I am expecting some plants I naturally thought that’s what they were and so left them out overnight. When I looked this morning, bearing in mind it was a damp drizzly morning, it was the cardboard egg boxes I had ordered 😛 luckily two of the three boxes had them wrapped in plastic as well and only the third box was soggy which also luckily hadn’t affected the contents, good job it wasn’t pouring down!

We have so much clutter that I am determined to shift one way or another so I have a box for the charity shop, a pile of textiles for the recycling, various items up for free on social media, fingers crossed I go on as I have started 😝

The chap doing the base has come back to concrete it today, yesterday it was set it out and fill with some hardcore, tomorrow or probably the next day he can begin the dwarf wall and then it will be over to the boys for the timber work when they have time 😀

I checked the post box and the smartwater had arrived so I went round with my little swab, dabbing items with the forensic coding 😀 we don’t really have items of high value but they are all things we use regularly and collectively any theft would stop us getting on with jobs around here.

And the random thoughts are happening again 😛 When we were at school (back in the dark ages 😝 seriously my first teacher had a mortarboard and cloak and must have been 100) why did the teacher ask a question, the watch half the kids put up their hands to answer but always ask someone who hadn’t put up their hand? I would have been one who didn’t put up her hand, it didn’t mean I didn’t know the answer just that I wasn’t confident enough, nothing has changed there either so it’s not confidence building I still wouldn’t put myself forward in most circumstances, and if the person who hasn’t put up their hand didn’t know it what was the point of singling them out? You can learn a lot just as easily listening to other people’s answers and thoughts, back in the days when it was fashionable to sew patches over the holes in your jeans (and yes I am from the double denim era) I had one that said ‘help me keep by big mouth shut until I know what I’m talking about’ I’ve pretty much kept to that my whole life, with probably the occasional slip up 😝 I don’t take part in debates unless I have a clear idea of what I want to say and even then there is much to be learnt from the other persons point of view.

I didn’t light the Rayburn until about 1.30pm by that time it had started to rain and the air temp had dropped noticeably, according to the met office we have a couple of coldish nights ahead, a bit more like Winter ought to be, a couple of frosts would be good to break down the muck on the veg beds.

Some comfort food is in order so we have cottage pie tonight.

Thursday: I was expecting quite a hard frost this morning going on the forecast but we didn’t have one, the ground is wet not frosty, good for us as the concrete base has been curing overnight and it’s better if it didn’t freeze. I find our weather can sometimes be a bit of an anomaly here, we are approx 350ft above sea level according to an app, and the paddocks to the west slope down a fair bit. When we moved here Dad did say to me the best place for a veg garden would be the far right/top corner and if I had been a more experienced vegetable gardener then I would have paid attention, it’s only 10 years later I realise how right he was and that where we eventually chose to site it is a frost pocket! However it is a central location and I can keep an eye on things from there whereas the other position would have been too far out of the way to answer the bell or keep an eye on things.

I did the morning feeding and letting out, put some fresh bedding in for the geese, I want to move these soon to a stable, they will begin laying soon and also it will make life easier while we are away. Then I cleaned out one of the stables with the hens in and put in fresh bedding for them.

Later on I washed the car because I was sick of it looking so filthy, I don’t drive it, I don’t drive, I passed my test about 20 years ago, drove for a couple of months, absolutely hated it and so never drove again not on public roads anyhow, but John never washes it so I figured I had better do it.

Friday: A frost this morning, not a hard one but at least it will help to break up the soil a little bit. My plan today is cleaning 😛 and sorting stuff out so not much will be done outside apart from the necessary.

Well it’s lunchtime and I have sat down with a cuppa, I haven’t actually got any cleaning done as yet but I have got plenty of sorting out and throwing away achieved including the airing cupboard 😝 I have added to the charity shop box and got a large bag of textiles for recycling. I did eventually get round to cleaning and I bought a new polish a while back, the ‘Method’ wood polish, it smells fab, it has almond oil in it, one of my favourite smells in products and how sad is this, I washed all my dusters and cloths last week, it was great getting out a clean duster to do the job with 😂 I am not a manic cleaner, not anymore, I used to be someone that had a regular cleaning routine and bleached/washed/polished everything even scrubbing the kitchen floor by hand but eventually I realised that life is too short to worry and these days as long as I do it once it gets on my nerves then that’s fine after all there are a million more interesting things to do in life 😀 Having said that, once I have done it I do feel more relaxed and clearheaded so maybe I haven’t quite let go entirely 😝

Saturday: I’m a bit tired and things ache today 🙄 not sure why, it started late yesterday afternoon and my right arm was pretty uncomfortable, hopefully it will pass quickly. A wet drizzly morning and the temperature has dropped quite a bit over the last couple of days too, I had planned a list of things to get done but John has had to go into work to finish the job he was on after a cock up by the suppliers so they will now have to wait 😡 not happy, I have wait all week to get the jobs that I can’t manage on my own done and then I still can’t get them done!

The concrete base for the greenhouse has cured nicely so hopefully I will get some walls next week. The base is more than just a floor it is part of the thermal mass that will help to absorb the heat of the sun in the daytime and then release it overnight, of course this will only be needed during the cooler parts of the year but considering we never know exactly what kind of weather we will get it may be useful all year round. I have changed the position of the new greenhouse to run a NW to SE direction so that I get maximum use of the sun down the left side of it for cold frames, before it was in a East to West position which left a north facing side (outside) that you couldn’t put to good use. I’m so looking forward to this new space I may have to put a chair and a radio in there and get a billy can to make tea 😀

Sunday: John had done the animals by the time I got up at 8! Very nice, thank you 😀 he then went onto clean out the flue and the Rayburn as it’s not burning very well. Meanwhile I potted up some lavender plants I had ordered, these were Monday 14th January: Another non weather morning, slightly cold but dry, I keep waiting for some ‘weather’ to arrive and am keeping my eye on the long term reports. Not from the press as they are always predicting some major event that never happens but from the met office, there has been some ‘catastrophic’ event in weather terms but because of ‘blocking’ they are not sure if it will reach here or not, so not much info there either! It’s just wait and see I reckon 😛

Well it was so mild out there I decided to get stuck in to a bit of gardening so I moved a few barrows of muck into the fruit cage, planted up the rhubarb I had divided back in Autumn and cut down and shredded the Autumn raspberry canes. I also cut back the thornless blackberry and then dug up and potted some raspberry runners, the thornless blackberry had also layered itself into the ground so another free plant there 😀 I got so warm I had to come in and take a layer off!

I actually can’t remember a January like it for years to be honest, this time last year it was ‘the beast from the East’ causing chaos this time it’s just so mild and dry that it’s been a pleasure so far.

I spent the afternoon confirming and finalising paperwork for our upcoming holiday to Norway, we are good to go when the day arrives 😀

Then back out at 3pm to do the feeding and egg collection, the bonus with hens living inside is clean eggs so no washing them, though it may have more to do with the dry ground outside than anything else, I guess once it rains I will find out 😝

I have cold pork, baked potato, salad and lashings of homemade chutney for dinner, John has bubble and squeak, his favourite after a roast dinner 😀

I have finally ordered our SmartWater pack, this is a long lasting traceable liquid that has a unique code visible under ultraviolet light, basically you splatter it on high value items and equipment and if it gets stolen and recovered its traceable back to you. The village as a whole has registered and within that registration each person that signed up gets their own code, hopefully it’s a deterrent if nothing else.

Tuesday: I have Mia today so whizzed round and get the feeding done quickly, the guy turned up to start putting the base down for the greenhouse. Gramps biscuit tin was empty much to Mia’s disappointment so we made a batch and shared them with Josh when he came over with Shelley and Florence 😀 I made a loaf of bread, pretty good one today if I may say so myself.

Wednesday: I am clearly feeling much better and fitter and have clarity (one of the things about Lupus is brain fog) lol, this morning I have done the feeding etc then moved a few barrows of muck onto the veg beds, then onto sorting stuff out. Must be a Spring/New Year thing because I am finally getting round to listing stuff for sale/free that has been lying around for ages, or chucking stuff I no longer need.

I made a bit of a boo boo as I had a delivery yesterday and it was three boxes that said ‘live plants’ now as I am expecting some plants I naturally thought that’s what they were and so left them out overnight. When I looked this morning, bearing in mind it was a damp drizzly morning, it was the cardboard egg boxes I had ordered 😛 luckily two of the three boxes had them wrapped in plastic as well and only the third box was soggy which also luckily hadn’t affected the contents, good job it wasn’t pouring down!

We have so much clutter that I am determined to shift one way or another so I have a box for the charity shop, a pile of textiles for the recycling, various items up for free on social media, fingers crossed I go on as I have started 😝

The chap doing the base has come back to concrete it today, yesterday it was set it out and fill with some hardcore, tomorrow or probably the next day he can begin the dwarf wall and then it will be over to the boys for the timber work when they have time 😀

I checked the post box and the smartwater had arrived so I went round with my little swab, dabbing items with the forensic coding 😀 we don’t really have items of high value but they are all things we use regularly and collectively any theft would stop us getting on with jobs around here.

And the random thoughts are happening again 😛 When we were at school (back in the dark ages 😝 seriously my first teacher had a mortarboard and cloak and must have been 100) why did the teacher ask a question, the watch half the kids put up their hands to answer but always ask someone who hadn’t put up their hand? I would have been one who didn’t put up her hand, it didn’t mean I didn’t know the answer just that I wasn’t confident enough, nothing has changed there either so it’s not confidence building I still wouldn’t put myself forward in most circumstances, and if the person who hasn’t put up their hand didn’t know it what was the point of singling them out? You can learn a lot just as easily listening to other people’s answers and thoughts, back in the days when it was fashionable to sew patches over the holes in your jeans (and yes I am from the double denim era) I had one that said ‘help me keep by big mouth shut until I know what I’m talking about’ I’ve pretty much kept to that my whole life, with probably the occasional slip up 😝 I don’t take part in debates unless I have a clear idea of what I want to say and even then there is much to be learnt from the other persons point of view.

I didn’t light the Rayburn until about 1.30pm by that time it had started to rain and the air temp had dropped noticeably, according to the met office we have a couple of coldish nights ahead, a bit more like Winter ought to be, a couple of frosts would be good to break down the muck on the veg beds.

Some comfort food is in order so we have cottage pie tonight.

Thursday: I was expecting quite a hard frost this morning going on the forecast but we didn’t have one, the ground is wet not frosty, good for us as the concrete base has been curing overnight and it’s better if it didn’t freeze. I find our weather can sometimes be a bit of an anomaly here, we are approx 350ft above sea level according to an app, and the paddocks to the west slope down a fair bit. When we moved here Dad did say to me the best place for a veg garden would be the far right/top corner and if I had been a more experienced vegetable gardener then I would have paid attention, it’s only 10 years later I realise how right he was and that where we eventually chose to site it is a frost pocket! However it is a central location and I can keep an eye on things from there whereas the other position would have been too far out of the way to answer the bell or keep an eye on things.

I did the morning feeding and letting out, put some fresh bedding in for the geese, I want to move these soon to a stable, they will begin laying soon and also it will make life easier while we are away. Then I cleaned out one of the stables with the hens in and put in fresh bedding for them.

Later on I washed the car because I was sick of it looking so filthy, I don’t drive it, I don’t drive, I passed my test about 20 years ago, drove for a couple of months, absolutely hated it and so never drove again not on public roads anyhow, but John never washes it so I figured I had better do it.

Friday: A frost this morning, not a hard one but at least it will help to break up the soil a little bit. My plan today is cleaning 😛 and sorting stuff out so not much will be done outside apart from the necessary.

Well it’s lunchtime and I have sat down with a cuppa, I haven’t actually got any cleaning done as yet but I have got plenty of sorting out and throwing away achieved including the airing cupboard 😝 I have added to the charity shop box and got a large bag of textiles for recycling. I did eventually get round to cleaning and I bought a new polish a while back, the ‘Method’ wood polish, it smells fab, it has almond oil in it, one of my favourite smells in products and how sad is this, I washed all my dusters and cloths last week, it was great getting out a clean duster to do the job with 😂 I am not a manic cleaner, not anymore, I used to be someone that had a regular cleaning routine and bleached/washed/polished everything even scrubbing the kitchen floor by hand but eventually I realised that life is too short to worry and these days as long as I do it once it gets on my nerves then that’s fine after all there are a million more interesting things to do in life 😀 Having said that, once I have done it I do feel more relaxed and clearheaded so maybe I haven’t quite let go entirely 😝

Saturday: I’m a bit tired and things ache today 🙄 not sure why, I started late yesterday afternoon and my right arm was pretty uncomfortable, hopefully it will pass quickly. A wet drizzly morning and the temperature has dropped quite a bit over the last couple of days too, I had planned a list of things to get done but John has had to go into work to finish the job he was on after a cock up by the suppliers so they will now have to wait 😡 not happy, I have wait all week to get the jobs that I can’t manage on my own done and then I still can’t get them done!

The concrete base for the greenhouse has cured nicely so hopefully I will get some walls next week. The base is more than just a floor it is part of the thermal mass that will help to absorb the heat of the sun in the daytime and then release it overnight, of course this will only be needed during the cooler parts of the year but considering we never know exactly what kind of weather we will get it may be useful all year round. I have changed the position of the new greenhouse to run a NW to SE direction so that I get maximum use of the sun down the left side of it for cold frames, before it was in a East to West position which left a north facing side (outside) that you couldn’t put to good use. I’m so looking forward to this new space I may have to put a chair and a radio in there and get a billy can to make tea 😀

A chap called round to discuss some pest control on the farm, we already have someone controlling the rabbit numbers but he is going to control pigeon and rats, rats are not too much of a problem we are not over run but it would be good to get a few taken out without using poison and the pigeon numbers have also shot up, he eats pigeon so nothing wasted there 😀

Tonight while putting the birds away we had the torch with us so I thought I would just shine it across the paddocks to see if foxy was around, what I saw were about six pairs of eyes looking up from the field behind, as they walked away I could see the white rumps so I’m guessing they were fallow deer, certainly they were large enough. We have three big ash trees at the back there and John and I talked about building a platform around one of them, somewhere you could sit in the dark and see what is going on around you without being seen yourself, great idea I think.

Sunday: John had done the animals by the time I got up at 8! Very nice, thank you 😀 he then went onto clean out the flue and the Rayburn as it’s not burning very well. Meanwhile I potted up some lavender plants I had ordered, these were ‘misshaped’ plants from a Nursery so reduced considerably, they worked out at £1.39 each and I bought 10, they are great, a good size, good root system on them and they should romp away come spring, very pleased 😀.

We have duck legs for dinner tonight so I have been looking at various recipes, I will probably take a combination of a couple and mix them up according to our taste. I wanted to do these legs justice so I chopped up finely, onion, garlic, celery and mushroom then some thyme, rosemary and flat leaf parsley, softened them in butter and black truffle oil then seared the legs quickly on both sides and put into a pot that I added chicken stock and tomato paste to. Most of the recipes call for alcohol like wine or beer, which we hardly ever have in and I did consider apple juice but I tasted the liquid and it was sweet enough, apple juice would have made it too sweet, I want this to be more earthy. We will just have to wait and see how it comes out, I’m planning on mash potato and peas to go with it.

It tasted great 😀

It would be worth getting up early tomorrow morning to look at the Super Blood Wolf Moon: total lunar eclipse, a rare event, weather permitting, about 5am though the eclipse will last about an hour 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Random thoughts, tree pruning, and fox v hens.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 7th Jan 2019: A whole new year to start planning for 😀and we are already well under way with the plans for the new greenhouse which I am very excited about, I do sometimes think if I had my time all over again I would have liked to work in the walled garden of a big house with a Victorian greenhouse, I’m sure the fantasy far outweighs the reality but there you have it 😜 There is just something about greenhouse work that I love, it’s by far my favourite bit of gardening.

As you know for a large part of last year I wasn’t up to much and John had to take over doing the birds before he went to work, well now I am feeling fit again I have taken the plunge and told him I will do it 🙄 I am going to be knackered by the end of each day I reckon but it’s good to feel well enough to have a go.

Well I managed the morning rounds with ease although John did go out and put all the buckets of feed in position for me bless him 😀 I watched big bird soaring above me for a while until the crows came and saw it off that is.

I put some fresh bedding the the stable for the hens in there, then scrapped and cleaned the pen at the back and put fresh bedding in then indoors to hoover the fire flues and get it lit, hoover the floors generally, give the bathroom a quick clean, strip the bed and wash the covers, hang up previous wash load to dry, wash up the breakfast dishes and sit down with a cuppa for an hour before starting again 😜

The first part of the afternoon rounds begin at about 3 which takes about an hour then just time for a quick cuppa before the night draws in and it’s time to go and shut everything away for the night. I have done lots of other little things in between all this so I am beginning to see why I tie myself up in knots trying to do it all! For instance at this point in the day I have not made any bread and I have not organised any dinner for tonight, and there were a few more jobs on the ‘mental list’ that didn’t get done, ah well, we have to get a bit of shopping tonight so I will buy bread and pick up dinner, I do have something out for tomorrow already so I’m not doing too badly 😀

Tuesday: I had Mia today so apart from the morning rounds and letting the hens out at lunchtime we didn’t do much other than playing, until she became ill that is! I say became ill, I should have known something was amiss as she normally eats for England but not today and she was unusually cuddly, then in the afternoon she started saying her head hurt and her temperature went up ☹️ luckily Sam finished work early and came home to find her baby cuddled in a blanket on the sofa.

I fed the birds and gathered the eggs to put out for sale and then thought about what to have for dinner, I got some chicken out yesterday so John will have that with potatoes and runner beans. I am trying to be good with eating, not on a diet but more mindful so I am stir frying my chicken with garlic, mushrooms, and noodles all tossed in sweet chilli, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and wine vinegar. I made a quick crumble with pears from the freezer and as an added precaution to any illnesses going around some elderberries as well, load it with vitamin c lol, I have no idea what it will taste like, I’ll let you know later 😛

It was yummy totally different but totally yum.

Wednesday: A dance around the Mulberry Bush morning 😀 I am not complaining though as in a month we are off to Norway for a holiday (seemed like a good idea at the time 😂) so we have been out and purchased appropriate clothing, merino base layers, fleece layers and warm coats and boots. Mornings like this give me the ideal opportunity to do a try out and to wear my boots in, everything is very toasty except my face 🙄 not sure what you do about that, I will have to look it up.

Went outside and did a bit of tidying up and putting away, Johns Mums house is up for sale as she has gone into a home and they have been clearing stuff out. There was a lot of gardening stuff which we bought home and needed somewhere to live until I can sort it all out. I did some litter picking around the front of the place, it’s amazing how much gets blown about, I just can’t reach right under the hedge with my litter picker gadget so I need a long pole to oik it out then it will look tidier. It’s is tempting this time of year to start cutting back dead stuff etc, especially now the sun has come out, but I’m resisting so that the beneficial insects still have plenty of places to hide, I guess there will more than enough time once spring gets here 🙄

With my apparent need to tidy I decided to tackle the cupboard under the sink, that dark place where things get shoved, never to see the light of day again lol. It wasn’t too bad and didn’t take as long as I thought it might but I do wonder why I have so many dusters 🥴 and I found things in there that I had bought, forgotten about and bought some more! A large bottle of Castile hand soap, light bulbs that we couldn’t find so had to buy some more, half used rolls of bin liners, you know the kind of things. I have a fair few cupboards like this to tackle, the airing cupboard is so rammed that I dread opening it to get a clean tea towel out, maybe that’s the next one on the list 😜

The snowdrops have made an appearance 😀 always a pleasure to see their little white heads bobbing away, oh and the grass is growing! It’s an oddity in January, I first noticed it at the beginning of the week when I took over doing the birds in the morning. The goose water bucket has little bits of grass in where the geese have been grazing and washed off their beaks in the water, this does not usually occur during the winter months as the grass is not long enough, reading various online posts confirms that others are agreeing, the grass is growing 😜 that’s good news if you have grazing animals but not so good if you have to cut the lawn a lot earlier than normal lol.

Night time rounds done, I reckon it’s gonna be a cold one tonight.

I am going to have a shower tonight, why do you need to know that? Well you don’t really but it’s a change from my usual routine, I have decided if I don’t like something just change it, I always shower in the morning but it’s usually a tad cold as the fire has gone out overnight, so instead of not looking forward to it I’ll change it lol, I did similar this afternoon, the sun, which was lovely, was shinning in and showing the dust so I shut the blinds 😂 small things but they make life more enjoyable.

Thursday: Before I’m even dressed this morning John comes back in from outside to tell me we have lost a chicken to the fox overnight, worryingly this was inside the electric fence. My fault as I shut them away last night and one must have been under the hut but I hold up my hands and say, I didn’t check 🙄

I was scrolling through social media and saw this quote:

‘A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit’ ELTON TRUEBLOOD

It’s appears I have started the journey to discovery 😀 I said to someone one day that I was going to plant Sweet Chestnuts and that they would take at least 60 years to get to full height and spread, what is the point, you won’t get to see it they said, well that is the point, to plant it, enjoy it growing and leave it for someone else to sit under. If everybody thought that first thought we would never have huge beautiful old trees to marvel at and we certainly would not have a few large estates to wander round and admire, after all Capability Brown, and the landowners that paid him were NEVER going to be around to see his amazing landscaping come into it’s full glory. The more I mull it over the more impressed I am with his vision, he must have had an inbuilt CAD going on inside his head.

It’s random thought day today 😝 I have no idea where this came from but I started wondering about the term vegetable, applied to a humans actually, I thought, that term is hardly fair on a vegetable lol then I thought, these days we call it a vegetative state which is more appropriate but not quite:

Definition: A vegetative state is absence of responsiveness and awareness due to overwhelming dysfunction of the cerebral hemispheres, with sufficient sparing of the diencephalon and brain stem to preserve autonomic and motor reflexes and sleep-wake cycles.

Of course that definition strictly applies to the human form, I am certain that a perennial vegetable has an ‘awareness’ and its core workings are not ‘dysfunctional’, they are just doing what they need to do in order to conserve energy and be ready to ‘wake up’ when the conditions are right.

🤣🤣 I told you it was random, just a little insight into what goes on in my head when there is no one about to talk to 😜

I went out to do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting and discovered two bodies in the paddock hut, I phoned John to ask if he had looked inside this morning or just opened up without looking, turns out he just opened up, at least this is not a daytime attack then but these poor hens have had their legs chewed off and consequently died. We will now spend the evening moving them to somewhere safer, into a stable, because the fox is getting over the electric fence and he will just keep going until he breaks into the hut. Another thought is that it’s possible I didn’t leave one outside but he has pulled one through the wooden bars from the inside, the huts have narrowed spaced bars so that the poo can fall through onto the ground and then you move the hut to clean ground every now and then, that’s the theory anyway, we tried boarding it out but it’s difficult to clean and ends up in a mess. Back to square one, I have never yet come across a small scale system without problems of one kind or another.

So tonight when John got home from work it was straight outside to make another stable secure and then move 52 hens in the dark once again, these are a different lot, our younger more prolific layer hens, that took us about 2 hrs 🙄 We also set up the wildlife camera to see exactly what is getting in as the rabbiting boys had told us there was a stray ferret in the copse the next field along from us so it could be that and not a fox. The two bodies I had put by the fence had gone by the time we went out to start moving the live hens though and they were big, heavy birds so fox is my first guess.

Friday: My first job this morning is to check the footage on the wildlife camera and yep it’s a fox, yes it’s going over the electric fence which is on the mains so we are going to have to do something about it but for now the hens are safe in the stable block. The second job on my list is to prepare the front drive and paddock as I have someone coming to give the cooking apple tree a good prune, it has got so big and intertwined that it’s difficult to pick the apples now. It’s too big a job for John and I partly because he doesn’t know what he is doing, I do but I can’t do it 😜 so easier to get someone who knows and can do it. I have had to shut the front gate to egg customers so as not to put them or the workers at any risk, I also needed to move some electric fence so that the geese don’t attack the workers lol.

I made bread, it seems like ages since I last did it, then mostly I did bit of paperwork that needed doing or bills that needed paying, the insurance is always due in January 🥴 that’s public liability and product liability as well as all the usual insurance cover. I also ordered some white clover seeds, we have plenty of grass seed left to over-sow the paddocks in March but I wanted to add in clover. We have it growing in the back paddocks both red and white but not in the front and I will plant a patch somewhere to feed the tortoises on, if I can wean them off of their favourite snack of peppers that is 🙄

I am onto a new piece of loofah for washing up, the last bit lasted ages but it’s had its day, if you are trying to reduce man made items then I would recommend swapping your washing up sponge for a piece of loofah they work really well and if I ever manage to grow any you can buy it locally too 😀

It’s lunchtime and the tree pruning is going well they have reduced it hugely, when I look at it now I wonder why we hadn’t had it done before and I am also looking at the other trees that need doing lol, John and I will be able to manage those it’s just that I need that particular tree to continue to be productive whereas the others don’t matter quite as much.

Saturday: Milder than of late so a good day to do a few jobs, John and I had discussed what we wanted to achieve the night before but come morning he had forgotten so instead of getting some temporary fencing up to stop the chickens and ducks wandering next door all the time he went ahead and let them all out meaning that job could not be done 🥴 Onwards and upwards, instead I cleaned out the front hens and the geese while John moved some more manure from the heap to the garden. Then I cleared the bean bed of dead bean stalks and sticks and both John and I (more John it has to be said) barrowed muck to the bed until it was done. Everything seems like flipping hard work lately, not sure if that’s because I haven’t done it for a while or I’m just getting too old for this malarkey! We didn’t do the veg beds last year so they were in dire need of some nourishment but we need to look at ways of making it easier, hopefully everything will romp away in the new season.

We have someone coming to put the base down and build a dwarf wall for the greenhouse next week, I’m looking forward to it getting underway. We went to chose the bricks this morning a nice cream colour that we both instantly agreed on, it’s funny because we are such opposites in so many ways but when it comes to choosing stuff we are exactly the same.

We had two events to go to tonight, one a family birthday, surprise, surprise, we must hold the record for family birthdays I reckon, the second was a BBQ at a house in the village, it may seem like a strange time of year but as long as you wrap up warm it’s good fun, it is still quite mild at the moment so we didn’t feel the cold at all.

We got home about midnight and could hear a fox screaming, we had taken a torch with us in case we decided to walk home, John shone it down the side of the house and there it was, he went up to the back paddock and when he came back he said there were three of them up there 🥴 we are really up against it at the minute.

Sunday: This morning we got the temporary fencing put up that I wanted to do yesterday, it seems to have done the trick especially at keeping the ducks inside the farm boundaries, the hens will probably eventually jump over but for now they are staying put as well. Then we dispatched three of the drakes, we have nine excess drakes altogether and at this time of year they relentlessly hound the females, it can be quite distressing to watch, these were drakes we had hatched out last year and ended up with too many. John then did a few bits of tidying up and wood cutting while I cut out the duck breasts and took off the legs, plucking them without any mechanical aid at this time of year when they are fully feathered with a double layer is a long job so I have just taken the best bits to use. I saved the feet to roast for the dogs to eat and I saved a liver from the last duck, I just forgot to do the other two but duck liver may come in handy for a recipe sometime. We aim to do three more next week and the ladies should be a lot happier, seriously they try to hide in an effort to get away from them lol.

We had an easy afternoon, well you have rest sometime 😋 we have got roast pork in the oven and I really fancied a good old fashioned syrup sponge and custard for pudding.

I forgot to take any photos at all this week 🥴 so here is one from roughly the same time last year of the garden, it looks pretty much the same this year 😋

Posted in Friesland Farm

Welcome to 2019 at Friesland Farm 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Twixmas 😝

I will be honest, in the run up to Christmas we didn’t do much apart from the necessary, we went out for breakfast a few times and went shopping mid week while it was quiet, all things we never usually do so it was quite a nice gentle stroll up to the big day. We had Christmas Day at Charlie and Maccas along with Sam, Luke, Mia, Shelley, Martin, Josh and Florence so that was fabulous, the other days were quiet and we did a lot of sitting about lol.

After Boxing Day we decided we had sat around long enough lol and so dismantled the greenhouse, there is no going back now. To be honest I don’t know how it was still up it was so rotten, we cleared, cleaned, threw out and burnt everything until there was just an empty space. Next we decided that the ash tree had to come down, I had a wobble about this as I had watched Dame Judi Dench on trees just the evening before and finding out a lot more about trees than I already knew, I was in two minds. Obviously a tree that size is a great carbon sink but I have planted a good few more recently so hopefully that will help, an Ash tree, if you didn’t know is a most revered tree both spiritually and practically, it was used to make bow and arrows, oars, so an important wood. It is dense and low in moisture so it burns very well and was considered the ultimate firewood and to that end it was in the past only used for Kings and Queens, or the lords of the manor, if you were a mere peasant you had to make do with something that smoked a whole lot more!

Bearing all that in mind I was determined not to waste any of it, so the larger stuff will be logs for the Rayburn, the smaller stuff will be kindling and the bits and pieces were all shredded to put down a pathway in the orchard that had got a bit too muddy. The other ash tree will be pollarded but not cut down entirely and again the wood will all be used, if I can manage to save the right type of branch I would quite like to make a rambling stick with it.

We had the first frosty morning in weeks, it’s has been until now unseasonably mild, not that I’m complaining as it hasn’t rained either so it’s not a muddy mess everywhere. It amazes me how each season through the years can be entirely different to the same ones in previous years, that’s a temperate climate for you I guess, you never know what you are going to get!

One of our favourite programmes at the minute is Escape to the Chateau with Angel and Dick Strawbridge, between the two of them there is not much that they can’t achieve. I love watching it, the recycling, repurposing is impressive enough but when you see the end results it’s just amazing and very inspirational. One of the resources in their vast garden is eucalyptus which I also happen to have and so for New Years Day dinner which I was cooking for the family I gathered a bunch of it and put it in a vase, it looked fab even if I do say so myself lol.

Cruella de Vil seems to have disappeared, she was eating and using the toilet tray fine now suddenly, not, she may return, after all she knows she can get a meal here and sometimes feral cats do go for days at a time ☹️ Molly is still hogging the boot room, honestly she hardly ever leaves, I think I will have to give her some marching orders soon, every time I try to get out the door I’m falling over her or stepping on her, roll on warmer weather when she can find a sunny spot outside to sleep all day in.

As the temps dropped I had a go at making the cashmere gloves, it was a trial and error attempt, it erred more on the side of error it has to be said 😝 It seems like a simple enough task but I guess you need to know a bit about knitting and how it all holds together, which I don’t! I have learnt some valuable lessons though and I will give it another go using different techniques I think and see how that turns out. I just need to find something to do with the rest of the jumper now I have cut half the arms off 😜 And I will use the ones I made though I don’t think the stitching will last very long, I will see how warm they keep my hands and go from there.

With a little bit of extra time to think things over I have been able to hone my thoughts to exactly which direction I want to take the produce gardening in. Definitely for me it’s forest gardening, I feel more comfortable with the idea than permaculture as a whole although they obviously both integrate with each other but the way I see it the whole permaculture thing is promoted on a higher level than I am prepared to study lol whereas forest gardening seems like a simple, more natural approach which sits very comfortably with me, my aim this year will be to try and fit this into every area I can, however I can, I think that should work.

It’s Wednesday 2nd Jan 2019 and we have spent the afternoon working outside, taking down more branches from trees that are shutting out light from the place the greenhouse will go and also the polytunnels. We have a line of hazelnut trees and have pollarded a couple of those in strategic places to let the sunlight flood the tunnels when the time is right. It’s back breaking work but quite cathartic and I really enjoy being outdoors as long as it’s not raining and I am busy enough to keep warm. We now have another big pile of logs which will need seasoning 😀 it all adds to the free heating/hot water and cooking for next winter 😀 We have tidied up as we go with each tree, normally John gets a bit trigger happy with the chainsaw and it all comes down at once then you just have a colossal pile to sort out. As I say to him, anyone can make a mess it’s the clearing up that takes the time but I finally got him to see that doing it this way is a lot less soul destroying lol.

Second error of the day happened when I tried to make some mayonnaise, it split so I used it like a dressing instead, I have tried to make it once before when it also split so I may give that one a miss in future and stick to Heinz!

John went for his over 50s MOT today 🤣 it’s amazing how someone who eats quite a lot of ‘crap’ can have blood pressure that is on the button and is slightly underweight! Flipping unbelievable, mine is on Friday and I know this will not be the case for me even though I try really hard to eat fairly well, there is no justice 🙄

My brother gave me some chestnuts that he had bought and wouldn’t get round to using, now when I say some, what I really mean is about 10kgs 😝 he likes a bargain does Kev lol, anyhow apart from roasting them you can make a chestnut purée which can be used for all sorts of cooking (chocolate and chestnut cake will be a definite) as well as spreading, sweet chestnut spread. I also intend to make the delicacy Marron glacé which are preserved chestnuts, they take about four days to do so not as long as glacé cherries thank goodness. I looked at the sacks and decided to pass one sack to Shelley as a challenge to find something to do with them. They can be boiled then frozen for use at a later date which I may well do with half of them.

Well I did do some of the chestnuts but I should have left more time as I was trying to multitask 😜 I made the purée, it’s not really my thing so I probably won’t try it again but I will have a go at the glacé when I get a minute, it’s the peeling them that takes a fair amount of time.

Sunday 6th Jan: The boys we’re here from Wales to do a bit of rabbiting this morning, they caught 7 so were happy with that, we set out the framework for the base of the greenhouse and then went off for breakfast and did a bit at Johns Mms house on the way home.

Last night I put the wildlife camera in the tack room just to make sure that it was Cruella de Vil that is eating the cat food, yep she is definitely still around although we never see her, to be honest that’s my kind of cat 😝

Tomorrow John goes back to work so everything is back to normality, not sure if I am looking forward to it or not, we have had a pleasant month with no time constraints, coming and going more or less as we please and either getting things done or not it was entirely up to us, now everything will be squeezed in around Johns work again lol.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Festive greetings to you all 🎄

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 17th December: A cold but sunny morning, I was up early and made myself a cup of tea and went back to sit in bed with it which is a rare treat. John is now at home, I won’t say off work as there is plenty to do here 😜 we did the animals and then tidied up and swept the back area, I cleaned and tidied the boot room where the cat is still in residence much to the amusement of the dogs. Cruella de Vil is eating her food and using her toilet but keeps safely hidden away when we are around. John then went out to the side paddock to move the electric fencing round the hens out there. I made some more mince pies, cleaned out the fridge, cracked open a jar full of walnuts for using over the festive period (took an age). I dug out a few jars of tracklements from my store cupboard, some plum sauce, chutneys and jam, mostly to give to Macca who has asked if I have any 😀 I also took out the pear liqueur, I figured this is exactly the right time of year to sip that in the evening 😀

While I was cleaning the boot room a robin flew in, unluckily for him as Molly who I thought was getting old and fragile leapt up on the the side, quick as a wink and had it for breakfast 😢

I used some of the wool packaging that the pork arrived in to needle felt today, this was supposed to be a hare but looked more like a dog so I changed the tail, more practice needed I think 😂 but not a bad start.

Tuesday: I have Mia today so quickly get the outside jobs done, John is off but popping to visit his Mum this morning.

I bought a shampoo bar a while back and now I have finished the bottle I already had today was the first opportunity I had to try it out, it’s marshmallow/nettle root with all sorts of other things in it but no nasties, I wonder how long it will be before the big companies catch on to the popularity of these. I have to say it lathered up well and my hair felt very clean (squeaky) I did use a regular condition as I still have some left but the recommendation is to rinse with cider vinegar which I will do at a later date. My hair looks shiny and feels nice, different, more body I think so it’s interesting.

Wednesday: Had Mia again today so we went off the the garden centre to see the fish and have Rainbow cake.

Thursday: Up and got the outside jobs done then off to Witney to do the last bit of shopping, I did go into Waitrose to find some goodies but it was so packed I put the basket down and came back out lol. In the afternoon, Shelley, Josh and Florence came over, it’s great having John at home because he went and collected all the eggs and fed the birds and lit the fire, I could get used to this 😝.

I won a cashmere jumper on eBay so it cost me £3 plus postage, not to wear but to make into fingerless gloves. I saw an ad for fingerless gloves made from recycled cashmere jumpers but when I saw the price I nearly choked and thought I can do that myself 😀 Apparently if you keep the wrists warm the fingers stay warm too so I will give it a try and see what happens, I just need to work out what to do with the rest of the jumper as you only use the sleeves 😋I am sure I will find something.

Molly the cat has peed in the washing basket, luckily it was empty but her days are now numbered slumbering in the boot room! I shall have to kick her out a couple of times a day.

I had another session of Bowen therapy on Monday night and I must say I am feeling almost 100%, I’m not sure if I can put it all down to that or the short burst of the AIP diet or the meds but whatever it is a combination of it is doing wonders and I’m raring to go, bursting with ideas, I just need the growing season to begin again lol, meanwhile I will do some bits of crafting. I have decided life is too short to not do the things you want to so I will be going ahead with a new greenhouse I’m just not sure when but it will be before the Spring gets underway 😀 You don’t actually realise what a fog you have been in until you come out the other side of it 😜 So to anyone who knows what I’m talking about, I say, just keep going, try everything and anything even if it sounds a bit crackers, you never know, it might just be the answer you we’re looking for.

Friday: The Winter Solstice has arrived, with a whoosh here as it’s very windy this morning 🌬

Spent the morning wrapping presents, I am not a good wrapper upper, too impatient! But a good bit of backache, 3 coffees and a bacon sandwich later and it’s all done 😀 Sat here typing and realise I have a couple of presents missing 🥴 need to go on a hunt for them. Phew found 😀

Saturday: A sunny morning, very mild for the end of December! We were up and got the animals all sorted, we haven’t done anything really in the way of farm work this week just chilling and prepping for Christmas. Today is Joshs 3rd Birthday, Mia and Sam stayed last night as I babysat while the grownups went out so we FaceTimed Josh first thing to sing to him and we are all going bowling later so not much else bar the necessities will be done today.

It’s a very quiet time of year really, when we had sheep and pigs of course it was much busier but with just the birds, cats, dogs and horse it’s more laid back and not much in the way of gardening to be done this time of year, more planning and dreaming 😜

Cruella de Vil is still coming down for her food and toileting just in case you wondered how she was doing, I haven’t actually seen her though which is fine as that’s the kind of cat I wanted. The other two more than make up for her, Diesel has now discovered that Molly is getting preferential treatment and jumped on board the cosy train, so that’s two cats getting under my feet in the boot room now lol, roll on spring when they will prefer finding a sunny spot to laze in.

Lovely afternoon bowling and then some junk food, back home to light the fire and do the egg collecting and feeding then off round to take Josh his pressie and eat cake 😀

Sunday: A wet morning but very mild, it’s so mild at the minute that we really only light the Rayburn towards the end of the day to get some hot water and dry the washing. John did the main of the birds this morning while I did the the cats and the rabbits, on my way round I saw the woodpecker, he is he more often than not at the minute. I smiled as there was some very pretty birdsong going on and the bulbs are pushing their way up through the soil in the pots, I checked the back paddock no sign of the daffs yet. The buzzard was on the ground in the paddock that Jack is in, he had found a tasty morsel fo breakfast. I watered the broad beans and peas in the tunnel, they don’t need a lot just enough to keep the soil slightly damp.

And now first thing on a Sunday morning I’m going to brave the shops to get what bits of food we need, not much really just a few bits and some basics is all.

When I got back it was hoovering, polishing, floor washing and bed changing, light the fire have some lunch then sit and watch a Christmas Carol one of my favourites Christmas films.

Well that is going to be it from me until after the holidays so it just leaves me you wish you all the best over the season, whatever you are celebrating, do it in style 😀 Thank you so much for reading my ramblings and the goings on here at Friesland Farm 😜 and I wish you all a very Happy 2019 may it bring you love and happiness.

Blessed be 😘

Posted in Friesland Farm

Creations, Christmas decorating and Cruella de Vil

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday evening: We moved 74 hens in the dark lol, each crate takes 12 hens and we have two crates, the last crate we squeezed the extra in as it’s not very easy pushing the loaded wheelbarrow through the wet mud 😜 They are now in the back pen which is fox proof, just as well as the little sod was out there at 3pm this afternoon, we also moved the garden ducks to the stable just until the weather changes again. Most birds are now on dry ground for the nighttime, after a couple of days they will be allowed out to roam, they will know where they belong by then hopefully.

Monday 10th December: Up early and got everything done ready for my trip out 😀 It was a beautiful sunny morning driving through Gloucestershire to Stroud for my morning of wreath making with The Cotswold Flower Company at Miserden Nursery, a gorgeous little nursery, we were welcomed with coffee and cake, I had a cappuccino with chocolate and cinnamon just to add to the festive feel, beautifully presented cakes, with gluten free and vegan options and two lovely ladies running the morning. One grows the flowers and the other is the florist, a perfect combination and add to that the provenance of being Prince Charles florist for ten years and you know it’s going to be good 😀 Learning something from an expert is always going to be fun, informative and educational, I was pretty pleased with the end result and it smells divine so I have hung it indoors where I can relish the fragrance. The girls were all here so put the tree and decorations up 🎄

Tuesday: Noticeably colder this morning, a low fog hanging about, the sun was very bright today mind you.

I had Mia as usual and Shelley came over with Josh and Flo but poor Josh was sick on the drive before he got in then sick again so they didn’t stay very long.

I had a tub of double cream in the fridge that I bought back from the family feast, as we won’t use it as cream I sat and shook it into buttermilk and butter which we will use. John is a bit disappointed as I just have not had time to make mince pies yet! Normally I start making them the first week of December.

Wednesday: Today we went to do a bit of Christmas shopping in Swindon, it was gloriously quiet lol and we had a nice few hours wandering around with ease.

Thursday: A colder morning today, John did the animals first thing then went to work, he is not supposed to, he finished Tuesday, then I get, I just have to do a few small jobs 😏 I need to clean out the quail and rabbits so that is on my agenda and lighting the fire a bit earlier today, yesterday because we were out it never seemed to get warm enough in here by lighting it later on.

Looking out of the stable door this morning I could see that the long tailed tits have made a re appearance which made me smile, of all the little birds we have, those and the wrens are my favourite although the long tailed usually only return when bad/cold weather is on the cards so we shall see. I had a phone call yesterday from the chap who is coming to do some rabbiting, weather permitting he will be here first thing Sunday morning to keep the rabbit numbers in check as they are a bit out of control at the moment.

I had to come back in and get a second pair of gloves on this morning the nip in the air was noticeable though the sun came out later. It’s a good feeling to get cages/runs completely cleaned out and all fresh new cosy bedding down, the rabbits/Guineas also had a good handful of chard and big pile of hay and some twigs to chew on, they should be happy bunnies today 😀

I think I need to start looking for a new farm cat, Mollys eyesight is not so good now and she is quite an old lady approx 15 this year, Diesel keeps going awol I think he has found someone to feed and fuss him lol. The problem is that a farm cat needs to have been raised semi feral by that I mean only had the minimum of interaction from a human, born to a farm mother would be ideal. I have had recuse cats in the past that are labeled as feral but they usually tend to be just very frightened, kittens that are born and raised in a household are not ideal either as they have usually had lots of cuddles etc and want to come inside. Don’t get me wrong the cats have somewhere warm to sleep, in fact I just found Diesel deep inside the hay pile, they get fed once a day, they are wormed and fleaed but they don’t come inside and they don’t have lots of lap time lol, they have to earn their keep, finding a cat like this is quite difficult.

The peas plants finally arrived so I planted them straight away in the small tunnel along with the broad beans, roll on next spring when I can harvest them. I could probably do with about 3 or 4 times as many really especially peas they must be the no 1 favourite vegetable and so good for you. I find growing them overwinter avoids the pea moth getting at them then I usually follow them with mange-tout which also avoid the moth as they are picked before they swell and attract any insects.

Friday: Very cold this morning brrr, John did the outside jobs while I did a few bits inside, then Shelley Josh and Florence came over and we had pancakes with berries, Florence had to go to hospital last night as she has been unwell since last Saturday but after checking her over and giving her some fluids they let her back home again.

I have been in contact with a group re homing cats and we are going to see a six month old with the right criteria (semi feral) tomorrow morning, then they will come and give us a home visit and hopefully we will have a new cat for the farm.

The frost has not lifted much today.

I finally made a batch of mince pies.

We went to Mia’s Christmas play and then to visit Johns Mum who has now moved to a nursing home.

I had a go at needle felting and made a hare, I did buy a kit because I have some wool that came as packaging and I wanted to see how easy or difficult it was to do. It is a very forgiving medium to work with and my hare is not bad, now I just need to use the other wool and see what I can make with it.

Saturday: Cold again this morning the hoses are frozen and there is a forecast of snow later 😜 I lit the fire early as we are going out to have a look at and potentially bring home a new farm cat, she is semi feral so I may be able to get a photo of her or maybe not 😝 I think the timing is good as Molly is behaving oddly especially the last few days and today she has come into the boot room and taken up residence on patch’s cushion which he is none to happy about. In my experience cats either run off to die or seek you out more which is what Molly is doing, she is very thin and as I said her eyesight seems to be going either that or she has just decided ‘sod the stable block, I’m off indoors’.

We went to see the new cat and bought her home with us, she is absolutely semi feral in that gloves are needed to handle her 😝 they called her Cruella and I am giving her the full title of Cruella de Vil as I feel she fully deserves a grand name. She is not a cat that can be rehomed to a family so a place like ours is ideal for her, she can have as much or as little contact with people as she chooses and hopefully will ‘work’ for us as well.

We built the fire up in the Rayburn and hunkered down for a couple of hours in the afternoon, it’s perishing out there, even the geese had their heads tucked away under their wings today.

Normally at this time of year I would be knee deep in cooking preparations for the big Winter feast but this year we are not hosting so it’s over to others lol, I already had some jars of mincemeat in the cupboard which I made last year, I have plenty of chutney and pickles etc and even got pudding that I made for the family feast. The only things I will buy extra is a ham, various cheeses, crackers a few other bits but not much at all, we have all we need 😀

It has been and continues to be a vile day, it’s cold and wet and disgusting lol, half the hens we moved the other day keep going back to the old hut so we decided we would move them and put them in a stable where they will stay shut in for at least a week this time so that was the plan for the evening. I took some hay up the back to Jack but I could see that as he came across the paddock he was lame so I needed to get him in, I grabbed his head collar and one of the hay nets and just as I was about to go in the field and get him I spotted the fox! Shouting fox as loud as I could I dropped everything and ran down the yard, the dogs were in the back but came out when they heard me, John was sat indoors, get your coat on the fox is out here 🦊. Eventually we got the horse in got the hens captured and in and we were done, cold and wet time to go back in to the warm for the evening 😀

Sunday: Up late and totally forgot the chap was coming to do some rabbiting today 😝 As I opened the blind he had just arrived with two colleagues plus a Harris Hawk called Ethel, a ferret and a dog. By this point we would normally have been up and let all the dogs and birds out but we hadn’t done any of that, so quickly let our dogs out for a wee and a stretch then got them back in. They flew the Hawk but she didn’t catch anything and then they used the dog and the ferret, they got six, quite fat rabbits so they were happy with that and will be back in the New Year. They were off home to make rabbit curry, excellent, that’s how it should be, hunt and eat what you hunt, and only as much as you need to keep you going. By sheer coincidence Missi the Hawk was being worked by her owners on the farm over the back, fantastic, I love it, I wish I had come to this life a lot earlier and maybe it would have been me with the Hawk and the ferrets but at least there are people around who still do it.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, mud and rabbits and rats 🤪

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday December 3rd : Oh what a dismal morning, never mind, onwards and upwards. At some point last night the electric tripped on the sockets in the office, I can’t find the offending item as everything seems to be fine now?

After the epic family feast yesterday I don’t feel too bad considering, I thought I would hurt all over but only my left hand is a bit swollen and stiff so I will call that a win 😀

As John has a pile of leftovers for bubble and squeak tonight I don’t have to think about dinner so that will free up some of the day, I have yet to decide what I will do, there are plenty of jobs indoors and considering the weather I think that’s where I will stay until feeding time.

The sun came out a bit later, I’m not keen on sun this time of year though as it’s low and shows up all the dust 🤣 no matter how much dusting it always comes back with a vengeance!

In the end I did go outside for about an hour until it started raining again, I did a few jobs that needed doing, replenishing the straw in a duck hut and a chicken hut, filling up the rat traps with peanut butter. I moved one of the traps to the greenhouse as I can see that there is activity around there, also rabbits have dug in under it 😝 We have a chap coming with ferrets soon to reduce the rabbit numbers but the rats are a different problem. I went out to the back pen which we cleaned out in the summer and I have put traps in there as you can see where they have ‘front doors’ under the concrete and I am hoping to put the hens that are in the front paddock in there over Winter, it’s the one used for selling hens but we have not got any at the moment and although I did say we wouldn’t do them anymore we may decide differently come spring. I want to move the ducks out of the big pen as well, into a stable probably, they will all be let out during the day but the pens just get really messy at this time of year so the less of a mess we can make the better and it gives the paddocks and pens a rest. The light Sussex are living in mud also, this was never the plan and we have a spare kennel out the front that I have my eye on to move them to, not sure how well it will work but it’s got to be better than what they are in now. Roll on the frozen weather (hush my mouth, did I really say that 🥴) seriously though it’s a lot easier when the ground is frozen.

The ducks in the veg garden will stay there, they are doing a sterling job of eating insects and weeds whilst manuring it all for me 😀 I just need to move their hut around a bit I think to stop the ground getting poached in certain areas. I ordered a sack truck to move the hut with, we have a really old one, and I mean really old, with cast iron wheels and all but it’s also extremely heavy before you start even loading stuff onto it lol.

I went out again to make secure one of the stables and take a broken hinge off of the kennel door, Sam and Mia arrived while I was out there and literally just as we were coming in the heavens opened with a vengeance lol, three sopping wet people 😝

Sam did the feeding and got the eggs in when she went out to check on Jack, and I managed to singlehandedly herd the ducks from their pen into the stable before putting everything else to bed for the night. That is quite a task because once ducks know where they are supposed to be going they are easy to move but when you want them to go somewhere new it’s panic stations lol. They will go into the stable overnight and be let out during the day to wander, the idea is that they can play in the mud and the rain, which they love, but they can go to a dry stable at night which is easier for me. The wet mud is slippery and quite frankly it’s depressing sliding around in it day after day! I have another stable to clear out and get ready for one lot of hens and the back enclosure for the other lot, they will all be allowed to free range during the daytime but again will come in off the mud for bedtime, as these are all under cover it should make life easier all round plus if we need to keep them shut up for the odd day we can meaning that probably Christmas this year we won’t have to leave anywhere early to go home 😀 that’s the plan anyhow 🤪

Johns Mum is still in hospital and he has gone straight from work to visit her tonight.

I’m am LOVING the bone broth I made, not so much the chicken one but the beef one is fabulous, I will definitely be making this on a regular basis, I didn’t think I would like it so it a bonus that I love it as it’s nice and warming on a cold day, as well as doing my gut good. I didn’t waste what meat was on the bones either, that goes into casseroles or stews for John.

Tuesday: Had Mia today

Wednesday: Up early because there are a few things I want to get done and I have an appointment at hospital this afternoon. First on the agenda is to get the kennel ready for the light Sussex, put a new hinge on the door, put down bedding and put in a perch, get some food and water in there and move the birds over. It all went well, although I nearly lost the first two as they made a bid for freedom towards the door I had just come in lol good job my reactions were quick! I have given them a pumpkin as an extra treat and it’s 100% improvement on the run they were in 😀

We lost a cockerel to the fox the night before last, it had scaled the 6ft fence again and got into the orchard where this lone cockerel perched up in the tree, it’s a shame as he was a lovely little fella.

I planted 60 broad bean plants in the polytunnel, hoping I have got rid of all the mice now otherwise they will be munched! They could go outside but there are too many beaks around that will eat them not to mention the rabbit that has set up in the greenhouse and I have spotted roaming the garden lol, also the weather here is pretty harsh at times so I figured they would have the best chance in the tunnel really. I’m still waiting for pea plants to arrive.

Then I went to clear out one of the stables, this one was made secure from the fox last winter and hopefully we can put at least 30/40 hens in there as their overnight accommodation. You can see by the picture of the other pen just how muddy it gets over winter and if we can eliminate some of that it’s better for all of us 😀

Great news at the hospital, all my bloods are bang on and looking very boring as the consultant said, which is a good thing😀 excellent, I must admit this week I have felt ‘normal’ so I knew it was all going in the right direction at last, onwards and upwards 😀

Thursday: As I am feeling pretty good now it’s time to start helping John in the mornings again, so he does the two lots of laying hens and I do the ducks, quail, light Sussex etc, I will probably be back to do all of it soon but just at the moment the feed buckets are a bit heavy, I need to build up to it lol. I checked the rat traps, nothing but def signs of activity still, I haven’t caught a single one in these traps and may have to go back to poison which is not what I want but then nor do I want to be overrun with them. The light Sussex seem happy, a little bemused at their new lodgings, but it’s so much cleaner and therefore better for their health. I did discover yesterday, not sure if I mentioned it but the fox also had one lot of quail, it has broken through the wire in the cage and had the lot so I only have one lot left now ☹️ I burnt some cardboard/feedbag rubbish, checked that my broad beans hadn’t been munched overnight and checked the daffodil bulbs and trees I planted. The small leaved lime tree has been eaten down to the ground 😫 I think I will grow the others in pots until they are bigger then plant them out. The wind must have blown the tree guard off and it’s got eaten as the other three trees are fine so far, there is still root in the ground though so maybe if I cover it, it will still grow, I can but try. No sign of the bulbs pushing up yet but it is a tad early for that, the ground does not look like it has been disturbed at all so that’s good.

Friday: I went out with Shelley to do a bit of Christmas shopping 😀 we both got annoyed by 11.30 when it started to get busy so went for lunch lol.

Saturday: A dry start to the day which makes a bit of a change, honestly it doesn’t seem to have stopped raining over the last few days and water is sitting on the surface everywhere 😜 As it was dry the job of the day was the flue and fire, both needed a good clean, so John got the sweep brush out and did the main flue, I had intended to do the rest but was busy doing a few other things so John did it. Now I’m very grateful for the help, no really I am 🤪, BUT….. when I do it I have dust limitation damage in mind so I’m very careful with everything, the first thing I see when I come into the kitchen is a big black soot mark on the wall where he has got his sleeve dirty then lent on the wall while cleaning out the back flue FFS, I cleaned it off and bugger me if he didn’t go and do it again when replacing the cover!!!!! And breathe……😀 He wasn’t having a very good morning to be fair because the outside light wasn’t working, he changed the bulb, nope, changed fuse, nope, tested the power to the unit, nope no power the cable is knackered, still no light after all that and the back door has moved again meaning it’s not shutting properly so he had to fix that, he only did it last weekend but the winds were quite strong and they shift the whole building slightly at times, roll on the day when we maybe get solid concrete foundations and these jobs don’t have to be done anymore. He has gone off to visit his Mum in hospital now so I get a couple of quiet hours to myself 😀

Sunday: It’s definitely getting a bit colder day by day, still rain most days though. Did all the usual jobs this morning, John got a few barrows of wood in and stacked, I cleaned out the duck hut in the orchard. Then we decided to go out for breakfast 😀 which was a nice treat, we went and got the Christmas tree at the same time though it won’t go up until next weekend, I managed to get a few little Christmas presents too. When we got back we lit the fire and sat down for the afternoon, John watching the snooker final and I did some online Christmas shopping and a bit of scrabble 😜

We have decided to move the hens in the front paddock to the back pen and will have to do this later at dusk as that will be the easiest time to catch them all up and transport them over.

Tomorrow I am off out on a Christmas pressie day that the girls bought me so you will find out all about that next week.

I thought I would just add this photo it’s not great but if you look carefully enough you can make out the buzzard on the gate post, it didn’t let me get near enough to take a great shot but it is around most days so I will try again another time.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Sewing, cooking and a Fantastic family feast.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 26th November:

Wednesday 😜 I didn’t get round to writing anything Monday and Tuesday, that’s mainly because I didn’t do much, on Monday I had a rest day mostly, I still had to do things around the house and chop kindling for lighting the fire but on the whole I watched some cheesy films 😀 On Tuesday I had Mia so again not much other than the basics got done, Shelley, Josh and Flo came over to play and my Mum and Sister dropped in for coffee 😀 all in all the the weather was pretty filthy outside so we were better off in the warm watching the rain roll down the window 😁

I have been busy putting all my efforts into food for the AIP diet I am following, I’m not a follower normally but given the health issues I have and how bad they have been this year I thought it would do my body good to cut out a lot of harmful stuff ( even some veg can be harmful if you are that way inclined) and pump it full of good stuff. It’s just a different mind set that you have to get into really, the food is packed with nutrients and for me preparation is key otherwise I will go off the boil and reach for a sandwich or toast. I won’t bore you with the details but if you want to know more then please ask.

Back to Wednesday lol, it has been a filthy night and not much different this morning, the rain hammered down causing flooding in a lot of places due to the dry, hard ground and the water not getting away fast enough, we are due high winds later, oh joy, but at least they will dry up the surface.

This morning I completed a job I have been itching to get done, a bit of sewing 😀 I haven’t done any sewing for a few years really, I used to do quite a bit, I worked in a factory sewing coats before I was first pregnant over 30 years ago, I am not fabulous at it but I can get by 😀 I rather enjoyed it and the item was a cover bib for Mia for when she comes, I got some different materials from My Mums vast store of it and Mia chose the one she liked and voila, it’s a simple, light, easy to wash and quick to dry item, hopefully she will love it 😍

While I had the sewing machine out I might as well do another thing I have been wondering about, we bought sofas about 25 years ago with removable, washable covers, which have served us extremely well, one of the sofas has now gone and I could kick myself that I didn’t save the cover, but the other one is still fine apart from the seat covers which are threadbare. We have decided to get new ones at some point but as yet have not taken the plunge, I did have the foresight to keep the cushions though so I cut one up and patched the seat covers lol, not the greatest repair job ever but at least I’m not looking at the holes anymore 😝

Feeding the birds and collecting the eggs this afternoon you certainly know your alive, although storm Diana is hitting some of the country hard it’s not too bad here but it is very blowy! John was home early and staring cleaning out the drains that take the excess water away from the house, they soon fill up with debris after the rain especially a downpour like yesterday’s. I hate high winds more than anything the whole place feels like it’s going to blow away, although from the West, which is the direction these are coming from, is less destructive for us than other directions.

I found a chicken in the orchard with no head?? John says it wasn’t there this morning so it must have happened during the day sometime but there does not seem to be any other attack evidence, anyway he is going to use it to set the trap as we are losing birds during the day at rate faster than we can manage to be honest. Having said that, the egg sales are well down, they have been for a couple of weeks and over the last three days we have only had one customer a day! Not sure where they have all gone? During the Wet, windy, cold winter months is when you begin to wonder if it’s all worth it 😫 and I’m thinking that now in November we have a ways to go yet.

Thursday: High winds this morning, about 40mph which is not too bad, when you live on a site that is as exposed as ours though you do notice it and hear the roar through the trees. When we lived in the town I never took much notice of the weather extremes, I guess they didn’t really affect us as much apart from getting wet on the school runs or the brolley blowing inside out that was the only inconvenience I suffered back then 😂 I watched ‘A Yorkshire Farm’ the other night and how those two manage with nine children being that isolated without having breakdowns, I don’t know, made of tough Yorkshire grit I suppose, man up Dawn is what I thought to myself lol.

I had notifications that my broad bean plants have been dispatched so I should be able to plant those this week sometime, I caught another mouse in the poly tunnel trap yesterday, great for me, not so much for the mouse ☹️ I also have had notification that some trees I ordered will be arriving, these are goat willow or pussy willow, I really need to get a handle on planting them quickly as time is of the essence now, we could easily plunge into an artic episode at any minute.

I’m panicking about the whereabouts of our egg customers lol, seriously we have only had a handful over the last few days, I have no idea where they have all gone, at one time we couldn’t keep up and now??

I am trying to potter round inside this morning, I have been out to the egg shed a couple of times and the wind is quite fierce, trying to open the gate without the other one hitting me is a great game 😝, I have got bread and date and walnut loaf on the go and washing on, the winds are supposed to drop by 10am, here’s hoping. Some of these gusts are pretty hefty 😫 if you have ever watched titanic and the groaning noises that the ship makes well that’s what I am hearing only on a wooden structure instead, one day I’m sure we will end up with Dorothy in Oz 🤪

It’s very mild though, so mild that I have not been lighting the Rayburn until late afternoon and the only reason I do that is so that we can get the coats dry from the rain.

The wind had dropped and so I went out a bit earlier than normal to feed and collect the eggs, I wanted to get some of the trees planted that arrived today at the same time. I have planted a trio in the front paddock and put tree guards on them, I cut a slit and heeled them in so the chickens are not scratching at the bottom and so far the geese have stayed away but I know that won’t last forever. The trouble with the geese is that they will strip the bark which effectively will kill the tree, I say tree, they are just whips at the minute lol but still, I need to sort out some better protection for them. I in came and thought it must be nearly 4.30 as it was getting dark, nope, 3.30 just an enormous big black cloud coming over, good time for a cuppa I reckon 😀

The goat willow/pussy willow is an important tree for insect life, it flowers early providing a good nectar bar for insects emerging from winter, it is especially important for the purple emperor butterfly, the wood can be coppiced for firewood or bbq/open cooking and it it also used to make pegs😀 might have to have a go at that lol.

Friday: A bright sunny morning, no rain yet and quite mild. I helped John outside this morning 😀 that’s the first time in months hopefully at the end of the long road now.

I have to make Christmas puddings this weekend for 50 people lol, that’s why I chose the microwave recipe so I need to make a shopping list and get the goods ready to make them tomorrow. Didn’t have much else on the agenda today lol.

I got an early present from the girls, I am off on a day course with a lady who was Prince Charles official florist for a decade, I will definitely fill you in on that when it happens 😀 very excited and it will be lovely to go and do something different.

Saturday: December 1st 😀 Pouring with rain first thing. By 8.30 am I have the puddings mixed and the first one in the microwave, production is on target. This will be no mean feat from everyone providing a full Christmas dinner for 50 with all the trimmings and decoration in a hall, good job my family is fantastic at this kind of thing, everyone has different skills and we should pull it off with style. 🎄

One tree I realise I don’t have here is a Holly 😏 I really need to rectify that especially at this year of year!

Sunday: Well we did it, pulled of a Fantastic Family Meal, 3 courses of hot food, full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings for 50 people, plus cheese and crackers, mince pies, secret Santa’s the works, the hall looked absolutely amazing, we worked like troopers and everyone had a fabulous time, I’m now officially pooped and may not be able to move tomorrow lol

Posted in Friesland Farm

Fox attacks, a bit of baking & Xmas pud thumbs up.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 19th November eek the year is coming to an end!

This morning, again, is much chillier than last week, but the sun is shinning so hopefully it won’t feel too cold outside.

Half the ducks from the orchard keep getting out and going off into the other duck pen so I have decided they can stay there, I moved the rat traps from the shed and put in clean bedding for them all, then cleaned out the other hut, put the traps in there and closed the door. I have caught about seven mice but not a single rat yet although I can see evidence of their activity in various places. The ducks are fairly secure in there during the daytime as the fence is six foot and the top is not rigid enough for the fox to land on top of.

Then I cleaned out the other duck shed in the orchard and dug over some of the ground for the Light Sussex chickens to scratch about in, I am also keeping them safely inside the fenced area at the moment, I don’t want to lose any more of those.

I barrowed a few loads of muck onto one of the veg beds but there is plenty more to do, I found that about 5 loads is as much as I can do at any one time if I still want to be able to function for the rest of the day.

I got some straw out of the greenhouse where I had stored it, closed the door and a two foot long panel of glass next to the door fell out and smashed 😩 that has put me back on the course of thinking about replacing it, I don’t know why I am finding it such a dilemma, maybe I just need to bite the bullet and go for it.

In between collecting the eggs around 3.30 and going back out to do the water at 4.30 the fox had been in the front paddock and had a chicken 😤 I go back out to start rounding them up and there he is larger than life running into the paddock ffs, I shout fox, no dogs appear, too busy warming themselves by the radiator I suspect! Eventually I get the dogs in the front paddock but the hens are riled and it takes forever to get them to go inside for the night. I manage the ducks, geese and light Sussex ok but the other pen of hens are also rattled, a five minute job that took forever tonight. I get inside, wait for my nose to stop running and my fingers to thaw a bit, John wonders why I’m always grumpy when he gets in, well when his first words are usually ‘what’s for dinner’ is it any wonder 🖕

Tuesday: A cold North wind this morning brr I have a feeling the Rayburn will be lit early. I have Mia today so before she comes I will put on some washing, sort the fire ready for lighting and make some bread, then it will be playing 😀

I did manage to read my e-mails and I’m not the only one who thinks that theft is rife in the village, everyone is concerned and a meeting with the local police has been organised for Thursday evening to discuss what can be done, what we need is for an MP to move in then security would be amazing 😉

Wednesday: Cold brrr, reports of snow all over the place even in the next town but at the moment it’s just cold rain here. I put the eggs out into the shed and my finger tips were freezing 🥶 I was going to move some more muck today which would keep me warm but I think I might bake instead 😀 I cleaned out the Rayburn flues and will light that a bit later on, I actually read the instructions yesterday, only taken five years, and think I have worked out how to stop it just burning away every hour. The difference this year is that we don’t have logs we have cut up pallets which burn hotter and faster than the logs, great for plenty of hot water but it gets a bit warm in here lol, anyhow a proper read of using the controls and I may just have it sorted 😀

The baking went ahead as the weather just deteriorated, snow/rain/sleet/snow and more rain 😜 I made a sticky gingerbread, yet to be tasted but looks/smells divine, remember the ginger I preserved last month, well some of that went in along with some of the syrup too, I will have tasted it by the time this is published in fact it will probably be all gone. I also made a quick fruit cake and then I lit the Rayburn as I had made two mixes that need to prove, a pizza dough mix and a breakfast muffin mix, both need a bit of warmth to get them going, well don’t we all 🤪and I can use the Rayburn plate to cook the muffins on when the time comes.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/8774387/River-Cottage-Baking-recipes-loaf-cakes.html

And then a well deserved sit down and catch up with two of my fav programmes The Walking Dead and Outlander 😀

The muffin dough was then ready to turn out, roll and cook into muffins, the first batch were a bit dark as the pan was quite hot but the second batch are excellent and both batches taste great, much better than shop bought ones. They were easy to do and the recipe came from Mrs Beeton 😀I will definitely make these again.

Outside then to feed and collect the eggs and top up the water buckets it’s supposed to be cold overnight so best to get them done tonight, I gave Jack a haynet and fed the rabbits and Guinean pigs, then back in to do the washing up and wait for dark to arrive, I’m hoping the fox does not make an appearance again, yesterday John was out there on patrol and there was no sign of it.

All the birds successfully tucked up with no sign of the fox, Joh has gone straight The to hospital to visit his Mum so I get an hour to have a quiet cuppa and sort out the pizza dough. Very sticky stuff pizza dough 😜 I divided it into 4 and decided I would have one for tea so I made what I would call a fresh pizza, fresh toms, cheese, olive oil, minced garlic and some dried basil, because that what I had laying around.

Thursday: Frosty and white everywhere brrr, however the sun is shinning 😀

John did the animals before work while I did some household bits and had a shower, I am having my haircut this morning, it’s has got a bit like no and getting on my nerves, Freya comes to the house so I don’t even have to go out 😀

This mornings task is to trial a microwave Christmas pudding! We are having a family Christmas feast get together in early Dec and I am down for the Christmas puddings, we have hired a hall as there are 50 of us and we need to keep the food as hot as possible and heat it up when we get there. Steaming a pud for hours is not an option so I thought I would trial a couple of recipes for a microwave version. John will be very happy to be chief taster, he loves Christmas pudding, the first recipe seems pretty easy and I have all the ingredients in the cupboard, except orange juice so I used pineapple juice, not sure I would use it next time as it gives it a very tropical smell instead of a Christmassy one. It has literally taken me just 10 mins to prep and it takes 10 mins to cook, if you have never made your own Christmas pudding before give this a try it’s very simple, quick. While I’m typing this the pudding is done, amazing, it needs to rest for 10 mins then I will taste it and see how it fairs. If I was making it for Christmas Day I would probably add nuts and cherries and some alcohol, Sherry or brandy, but I want to see what this tastes like before I ‘doctor’ the next go. The ones I make for the day will not have any alcohol in as people will be driving and the kiddies will be eating it.

I did a taste test, not bad for 20 mins work lol, it shrank in the bowl during cooking so I could put it in a smaller bowl then it would look in proportion, it’s lighter than a pudding I would normally do but that’s a good thing when you have just eaten a Christmas dinner I reckon. Yep with a bit of doctoring on flavours as mentioned above I reckon this is a winner and you won’t have a steamed up kitchen for hours while you are trying to prep the rest of the feast 😀

Went to the meeting in the village about the recent theft activity, good turn out and some good ideas to put into action.

Friday: Not so cold today but a rather gloomy, grey Friday. I have blood tests again today so I get everything done and ready before I go out. Then we called in to see Mum and Ken for a coffee and back home to light the fire as it is a bit chilly.

I gave Shelley some Christmas pudding for Martin to taste test and will wait to hear what he says, John hasn’t had any yet either.

I have been looking at geothermic ways of heating a greenhouse, they all seem complicated, I’m sure it could be more simple than what I have seen but maybe I’m not looking at all the issues. I was thinking you could basically sink pipes into the ground far enough and they would release the warmth from the ground and thus heat the air but all of the systems I have seen transfer the air backwards and forwards or rather in a cycle so more research needed on that I think.

Saturday: It got colder as the day wore on today.

We had a list of little jobs to get done, 2 doors that were not quite shutting properly, 2 lights in the stable that were not working needed sorting out, a couple of cctv notices that needed putting up, a tv bracket to put the tv on the wall in the spare room, a straw and hay delivery to oversee, John had to pop to Witney to get something sorted out, not big jobs but small, niggly ones that are now sorted 😀

Sunday: Another ‘non’ morning 😁 that will do for me. John did the birds etc this morning while I did the usual household bits, then I set to preparing food for the week ahead. I got the blood results from my last test and some of the liver function is a bit off, not enough for them to action anything but I figured if I can do something to help it then I should. So I am stripping my diet right back and in order to do this I need to be prepared otherwise I will fail at the first hurdle, it will be meat, fruit, veg, nuts, spices, herbs, eggs, only and even then some veg is out for the time being such as potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, there will be no dairy 😜 and no sugar. There will be bone broth 😁 coconut milk lattes and plates of colourful healthy food, I will let you know how I go.

The Christmas pudding trial got a thumbs up from John, in fact he said he preferred it to my usual one………what the one I spend hours over, soaking, mixing, cooking, nurturing and steaming, bloody great, ah well that’s a few hours of time saved each year then 😋

I did finally get outside, John barrowed more muck onto the veg beds then went on to clean out the hens and I raked up the fallen leaves, these were then deposited on the beds as well. Leaves are an overlooked, valuable resource when it comes to improving soil structure, indeed to most people they are a pain, swept or blown into a pile then deposited in the green bin 😫 if only you knew how much they add to the soil you wouldn’t throw them away. Gather them up by all means but then put them on your flower beds or stuff the tops of your pots with them, over winter the insects will feed on them or they will break down giving you some lovely nutrients, win, win 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Daffodils planted ✔️ trees planted ✔️ and a bucket of twigs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday November 12th: A pleasant November morning, sunshine, not too cold, a little bit of mist hanging low over the fields.

John did the animals and birds and I did a bit of early morning tidying up, we had coffee then he went off to work and I sat down to order some lightbulbs for the kitchen light fittings. You would think that would be a straightforward fairly easy task wouldn’t you, it used to be, years ago, can I have a 40 or 60 w light bulb please with bayonet fitting, not any more. Bayonet, skinny screw in, fat screw in, LED, halogen, Edison filament, 5, 7, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60w (I’m making these up 😝) candle shape, vintage, globe, spiral, warm white, winter white, coloured, colour changing, dimming, non dimming, WiFi smart, I JUST WANT A BLOODY LIGHT BULB THAT LIGHTS UP THE KITCHEN WHEN I FLICK THE SWITCH, life has become far too complicated, I blame interior designers 🤪it’s as complicated as ordering a coffee these days!

Light bulbs now ordered, they look a bit like the one I took out with practically the same numbers so fingers crossed 🤞

I made another coffee, milk, one sugar, hot water, simple 😀

I prepped Johns dinner for later, he is having braised beef, I fancy beef and broccoli stir fry, then I got the Rayburn lit, a bit temperamental today so had to have two goes at it, then I went outside to feed the rabbits etc and check the traps. The rats traps have not caught anything yet but the mouse trap in the poly tunnel has its first victim, I do feel sorry for it but I need to grow peas and beans in there and not have them feasted on by mice 🐭 there are plenty of other places it could have set up home but no, it chose my raised beds in the tunnel, I guess it though it would be safe and warm in there 😝 I didn’t come out of resetting the traps without pain mind you so a bit of karma maybe, not that the trap got me but they are very sensitive and go off easily, while I was trying to place it, keeping my fingers firmly out of the way, it sprung, flipped up and smacked my little finger. This is one of the fingers I had trouble with back in the summer when I had a flare and it is still highly sensitive to cold and pain! It took about twenty minutes of deep breathing until the sensation died down, I am going to have to be very aware of it in the Winter months when the extremities get cold, I might need an extra ‘finger jumper’ under my gloves 😛

I need to start sorting out the ducks, well drakes to be precise, we have far too many, 5 Welsh Harlequinns and about 4 Khaki Campbell’s, I have put them up for sale on various duck sites but if they don’t go then I will have to process them for the freezer. We have the rescue ducks which are doing a great job in the garden, they are safe from ‘any further action’ and I have decided to invest in 12 new point of lay Campbell’s next spring as ours are getting past their prime laying age now and so we are only getting 5 eggs a day at a push from about 20 females.

Tuesday: I signed a letter today and emailed it to my local MP, it is to ask them to look at Agroecology in the upcoming Agriculture Bill, for the life of me I can’t see why local, sustainable, is not at the top of the list anyway but it’s hasn’t even been included.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agroecology

Each Winter I usually make up a spice mix to add to the chicken feed for a few weeks, previously I followed the ingredients that are in a poultry spice ready mix, buy them individually and mix it myself as it’s much cheaper that way. This year I am going to try a few different components, kelp and brewers yeast as well as the usual stuff like garlic, turmeric, and fenugreek just to see if it makes any difference. I don’t think it boosts the egg numbers but I do think it helps with their overall health in the colder months.

You will have noticed that we didn’t mention the red mite very much this year and that is down to the using the cardboard traps and regularly cleaning them out weekly and burning all the bedding and cardboard, it really is working a treat as we have not had the ‘boom’ that the warm weather causes, really pleased with this method.

We have plans to move the hens but John wants to increase the enclosed area first just in case they need to be kept in for any reason, the back muck heap is in the way at the moment so that needs all shifting first. One day we might just get it right lol. On days like today, when I feel ‘normal’ I really want to make plans to increase what we grow, but then on other days, when I am not much good for any work, I give up thinking about it as it all seems like too much work. I would like a few ‘normal’ days in a row really then I could make a bit of a difference, maybe eventually this disease will go back into remission and it will be full steam ahead again 🤔

Wednesday: What a fabulous day, sunny, mild and made all the better for getting all the daffodil bulbs planted. Mum and Ken came over, Ken on the tractor with the back actor digging the trench, about 100ft of it and Mum and I putting the bulbs in and covering the, back over. It really was the most pleasant few hours work I have done in a long time, glorious, I look forward to seeing all the little yellow heads next spring 😀

Thursday: Another half decent day and more planting to be done, this time trees, the ground is just about perfect, although it seems a little late, the weather we have had and are having has made the conditions just right for planting. I have planted a cherry tree (Stella) in the front paddock corner, a pear tree (concord) and an apple tree (Braeburn) in the veg beds and then a plum tree, a brambly apple, a sweet chestnut and a small leaved lime tree in the small back paddock that we planted the daffodils in yesterday. The trees at the back have tree guards on the trunks so the rabbits don’t eat them, the trees in the front areas have mesh around the base so the chickens don’t dig, the easy bit is digging the holes, it’s keeping everything off them that is hard work. I am not too worried about getting fruit from the two at the back they are more for the birds and the bees and to create a little copse, eventually of course the lime and the chestnut trees will be huge but that is very many years away and I probably won’t be around then lol. It will be nice to leave trees behind though for future generations to climb and forage on.

I divided two of the rhubarb crowns, one I will leave and do that next year, now, I can’t decide wether to plant them and have even more rhubarb or not, I think I will definitely plant at least one.

Set some more mouse traps, so far I have caught two in the tunnel and two in the pallet stack out the back, they definitely like peanut butter!

John has chicken casserole tonight and I have korma, rice and peshwari nann, I used to make the korma from scratch when the girls were all living at home but this one is a 1,2,3 packet, I think I will go back to making it and try freezing some of the sauce. Shelley made homemade nann bread the other day and said it was easy to do so I would like to give it a try and as my favourite is peshwari I will def be making the filling 😀

Friday: Mild again, I let the dogs out before it got light and stood outside in my PJs thinking, I’m not even cold!

John did the birds before going off to work and I ended up doing the housework, I hadn’t intended to but I got a bit tired of noticing the dust 🤪 so now I have a sparkly house, well clean enough anyhow.

Saturday: Turned into a lovely day, bit chilly first thing but the sun came out eventually. John did the birds while I put some washing on etc then we went into the garden to move some of the muck mountain onto the veg beds.

I also cut all the tops off of the broccoli plants and fed them to the rabbits, I am going to leave the stalks and see exactly what happens, they may rot away or they may sprout again who knows but there is nothing to lose by trying. They have already been good value because first came the broccoli heads, then after they were cut came the sprouting stalks which went on for ages, now greenery for the rabbits 😀 After that I went on to prune out the gooseberry bushes and the blackcurrants, just thin them all out so that I can pick the fruits more easily next year. I also lifted the canopy of the Mulberry tree, I found it difficult to get into and pick the berries this year as there were a lot of foliage and branches in the way, hopefully I will be able to get under and work upwards next year. All of the woody cuttings from the blackcurrants, mulberry and a few apple branches, I have cut up into smaller pieces for the rabbits, it may look like a bucket of twigs but it’s actually good fodder for them over the winter months.

Sunday: Definitely getting chiller by the day, Josh stayed over last night and so John did the animals this morning while entertained and breakfasted him 😀

Due to various reasons we didn’t get much else done apart from the usual, in the evening Charlie came to pick me up to go to the cinema, just as we walked out the back door she shouted FOX. It was in the front paddock so we sent the dogs off round to chase it away, John had said that a hen had been got inside the electric fence in the side paddock ☹️ that is hooked up to the mains and supposed to keep it out, the battles are never ending. We seem to have a lot of undesirables at the moment both animal and human, theft in the village is rife at the moment with a notification every other day coming in about sheds broken into or number plates nicked or car windows smashed to get at belongings, what’s wrong with people, I despair 😩