Author: frieslandfarm

Monday: Temps are set to be quite warm for the first part of the week. Cleaned out the nest boxes in the chicken hut, dusted with louse powder and sprayed with thyme oil, smells lovely in there 😀Ducks in the stable haven’t laid any eggs I think they may be heading for the freezer 😝I went out to do some weeding in the polytunnel, turned into an interesting activity as I came across something I have never seen in all my years of gardening, a dried newt! 

After investigations were over on the newt I went back outside to do a bit of tidying in the garden, the bean plants were still on the canes although they were now dead so I pulled up the canes and untangled the plants to put on the compost heap. I decided that I will cover the bed in weed barrier but I need to order it first, it will save me time in the Spring, I will barrow some manure round to spread on it before I cover it up. Pulled up some of the dead asparagus foliage and cleared the now rotting squash plants. 
I was looking forward to the ‘Super Moon’ but sadly cloud cover meant it wasn’t visible 😔

Tuesday: An ok day weather wise, although the ground is now wet underfoot and probably will not dry out until spring with the only respite being frozen mornings! Did the usual morning routine, nothing untoward today, then on the clean the bathroom, well I left it long enough to see if anyone else was inclined to do it…………nope, clean the toilet and then try and sort out the office which has become a dumping ground for ‘stuff’ that has nowhere else to go. Looked after Mia while Sam went for some dentistry, made bread.

Since the clocks went back the afternoon and evening routine is my domain as well now, the birds need to be fed about an hour before sundown, they get wheat to keep them warm through the night, then they need to be all shut in as darkness descends, around 4.30 at the moment but it will be as early as 4pm in the depths of Winter. It does mean a longer evening to get stuff done, but in all honestly once we have had dinner and cleared up I just want to sit down lol

Wednesday: After the morning stuff, I decided to sort out the laptop, the one that crashed has been returned with the new hard drive which was still under guarantee but all the photos were on an old one so needed zipping and transferring. It would have been a whole lot better for me if they rest of the household had not used up all the milk in the morning leaving me with only enough for one cup of coffee and everyone knows you need at least four when waiting for files to transfer! I resorted to hot chocolate instead. As you can imagine this took up a large part of the day, I will be glad when technology is lighting fast! 

Thursday: I spent most of the day doing bits of paperwork that I had left too long and moving files from my back up drive to the repaired laptop, takes forever especially when putting software on there and having to restart it every time to install or uninstall something. 

We seemed to have been spared the horrendous downpours that were forecast and the horses spent the day doing the Hokey Cokey, in cos it was supposed to rain, out because it wasn’t gonna rain till after lunch, in again and out again when it was apparent the rain was not coming, this was even after checking with the met office site. We did get some pretty strong winds that blew everything around mind you but at least it wasn’t wet and soggy at the end of the day. 

Friday: Not a bad start to the day, not as frosty as I thought I was going to be, filling up the water bowls was easily done with the hose. The ducks are still not laying although the new POL hens have started to gift us with pullet eggs, they need to have a quiet word with the ducks I think 😉 Made bread including French baguettes and sorted out one of the crockery cupboards, you know how they get with items being put back in willy nilly. I dug out the gold Christmas platters from the back of the cupboard I will leave them out now as the season is fast approaching.

I made the most delicious beef cobbler for dinner, it tasted amazing though I do say so myself 😜

Saturday: I put my wellies and coat on at 8am and didn’t take them off again until 4.30pm, we worked outside all day clearing, burning, shredding, chain sawing and log splitting, the area is almost tidy now just a small pile to burn tomorrow. Hubby went off at one point to pick up a van load of logs that were going for free, they turned out to be already well seasoned and after splitting will be ready for the Rayburn. We left it a bit late to light the Rayburn and consequently it’s a tad cold in here this evening as it takes a while to heat the place up, I’m wrapped up in my blanket smelling of bonfire smoke and eating fish and chips 😀

I did manage to singe my hair a little today too, I bent down to pick up some debris and the wind whooshed the flames in my direction, I could hear and smell the singe then realised it was my hair 😜

Sunday: Much the same as Saturday really, more log splitting, more burning, apologies to the neighbours for the smoke! Although today it was much colder than yesterday, my toes and fingers were absolutely frozen, and I welcomed the chance to go in and warm up occasionally. We seemed to have missed the bad weather that was warned of again, it was a bit windy in the night but nothing too bad and it was a bit wet this morning but again nothing major. 

The dogs had to have a bath tonight, they were disgustingly dirty from charging around the farm, we have dug out their comfy beds too, now that the temps have dropped. 

Monday: Still a North wind but not as cold and at least it’s sunny, a decent day for November I reckon. On my morning rounds I found a beheaded goose in the large paddock, we were hoping that these three males would be able to fend off a fox attack but clearly that is not so. After picking up the body which was probably too heavy for the fox to drag over the wall, I found the head and then set about making the pig ark into a secure hut for the remaining two, these will have to be shut in from now on. While I was about it I decided to make the front goose hut more secure as well, it’s getting to the time of year when foxes get hungry and so the more I can deter them the better. I also put clean bedding in for everything and took a barrowful of hay for the bunnies.We were given some old tools and a workbench, which I immediately put to use putting new heads on broom handles, the simple things give so much pleasure lol, normally I would have to precariously balance the handle somewhere while trying to screw the head on, not anymore, and I can’t tell you how stupidly happy that made me 😁😁😁 

It was a bit of a rigmarole getting the geese to go into their new abode, after three attempts at herding them in I decided to wait for John to come home and help, three more attempts and numerous times running round the field in the dark and we finally caught one then the other and secured them inside for the night. Chilli for dinner tonight, mince and potatoes for John and left over apple pie for pudding. 

The evening topped off by two walkers in hi vis with a flashing walking stick coming up the drive at 9pm to buy eggs! The dog was going berserk, maybe I am going to have to close the gate so we don’t end up as a 24/7 😝

Tuesday: Another cold hard frost, last year I could count on one hand how many frosts we had all winter long, this year we have have three already, I prefer a cold hard winter to the wet, soggy, muddy one of last year. The geese survived the night in their new home, although we know the fox was around all night as the dog was continuously barking. It’s raining leaves this morning, after the frost the trees are shedding and they are falling in such numbers that you can actually hear them, lovely carpet of colours on the ground as well. 

Lit the Rayburn early today as it’s flipping freezing, made the most of it by getting dinner prepped, chunky roast chicken and veg soup, using left over roast chicken, I always freeze the carcass and remains to use in soups at a later date. I must admit we will eat a fair amount of stews, soups and casseroles in various guises over the colder months, you need something hearty and warming after a days work. 

As I had picked up some cranberries in the shopping last week ( I have a plant but as yet it has not produced anything) I thought I may as well make cranberry sauce and freeze it ready for the big day, it’s very easy to do, smells amazing.

300g cranberries

1cup sugar

1/2cup water

1/2cup orange juice, I used fresh squeezed orange 

Shake of cinnamon 

Simmer for 10/15 mins until it breaks down 

Cool and freeze, will keep for a week in the fridge if you want to make it in the run up, or freeze and get it out the day before you need it. 

The midwinter feast as I like to call it, is a serious affair in our house, it’s not just dinner it’s a celebration of good food, family and something to look forward to and brighten up the dark days of Winter. Most of what we will eat is home grown or homemade and the table setting is equally important, and as I have decided to slightly alter the table decoration this year, I have spent the evenings on Pinterest forming the look I am after, it will be exciting putting it all together on the day. 

Had to chase the geese around the paddock in the dark again tonight, and physically catch them to put them away, I won’t need a gym session for a while 😝and John got a whack on the nose from a wing 😜

Wednesday: So America has a new president this morning, makes no difference to the morning routine, except it was a little later as I watched the story unfold in breakfast tv. All was well in my little Kingdom overnight, the rainfall was more than I expected though at least an inch judging by the various buckets and bowls around the farm. Obviously it’s slightly warmer today if a little tacky underfoot. I checked the rat bait boxes on my way round, few signs of the bait being eaten in most boxes, one or two need a refill. 

Thursday: Sunny today but with the rain yesterday a little sticky underfoot. After the usual jobs, I set about burning a bit of rubbish and doing some tidying up, leaves blocking drains that kind of thing. Then I decided to harvest the Oca, unfortunately I read up about them after I dug them up and discovered I’d done it to early😝 I was under the impression that they were harvest as soon as the tops collapsed from frost but it seems they keep growing for a couple of weeks after that so I’ve done it too soon. Not to worry I still have a harvest of small tubers to use and will try better next year. Oca are a relatively new veg to the Uk but one that is growing in popularity, they are easy to grow and very versatile, boiling, roasting, mashing or raw in salads, they don’t need peeling which is just as well as they are nobbly. They are nutritionally similar to potato but higher in Vit c, when you dig them up there will be small ones left behind but that’s ok they will be ‘self setters’ for next year, they are not invasive and so fairly easy to contain in a designated patch. 

They come is various shades, the variety I grow are cream coloured. 

Friday: Another frosty morning, thick coat and gloves but the Sun is shining so it soon warmed up. Paperwork day so not much going on outside today. Visits from the grandchildren ( and their mothers) and a lovely friend, just as the friend arrive a fire engine went past in the lane with its blue lights and siren going, ooo a fire engine I said, yes there is a large plume of black smoke out the back of yours she said, so we went off up the back to investigate, I was most relived to see it wasn’t actually us on fire! The fire was in the next field, a bonfire I thought and I’m not even sure if that’s where the fire engine went but it was an interesting interlude to the afternoon. 
Saturday: It rained heavily, that’s all I have to say about that! 

Yet another late night customer for eggs 10.30pm!!!!!!!! Really gonna have to do something about it. 

Sunday: A lovely day, temperature is ok, not cold, did the morning stuff and noticed that I was a duck short in the back paddock, a quick look round confirmed it as a pile of white feathers were in the grass. The fox had done a daytime visit sometime yesterday, so we made a stable ready and herded the ducks down to the stable block, this will actually make life a bit easier as we can put the geese back in that paddock where they will readily go to bed without being caught each night. Cleaned out the main duck house and helped hubby split a big pile of logs with the splitter. Did a bit more clearing of the hedgerow and conifers and then decided we were hungry so got changed and went off to find a Sunday Carvery, (must do that more often) came back and time to light the fire, quick Hoover, feed the chickens and put out the eggs, John loaded up barrowfuls of logs to put away to season and tided up a bit out the back. All in all a good days work I would say and a good end to the week 😀

The weather has certainly changed over the course of a week and Winter has most definitely made itself known brrrrrrr. 

Monday: Foggy morning but it’s light early so crack on with the usual chores, then time out while I have my hair chopped off, it’s much shorter now as it was annoying me when it was so long. 

Halloween, I’d be very surprised if we got any trick or treaters up our dark drive with a very large dog growling and barking, you would need to be very brave indeed lol, however during the daylight hours I had two delightful treats in the form of grandchildren come to visit with their pumpkins and Halloween vests 😀🎃

Joshua was loving it

Mia was not! 

Tuesday: I darn well forgot that the electric was due to go off all day, until the moment that it did! I did the rounds in the morning then came in and had a coffee, looked through my e-mails and facebook, just decided to make another when click, it all went off, dang nabbit. Nothing much for it but to get outside and do a bit of clearing/tidying up, after about and hour I was beginning to hanker for a coffee so I got the fire pit out, lit it and dug out the old Rayburn kettle, sorted 😀

Sam rang a bit later and said she was going into Burford and did I want to go, the option sounded like a good one so off I went. 

We came back with still a couple of hours until the electric came back on, and by 3.45 with it due back on at 4 I was pacing up and down, it was beginning to get cold and the fire needed lighting but as it’s a pumped system I couldn’t do that either, then it came back on around five minutes early, fantastic, first things first, put the kettle on. 

Wednesday: A day out shopping, lol to start with this is all I wrote for my notes because we were out until 3.30pm partly by choice, partly because of roadworks holding up the traffic and an altercation between a school bus and a 4×4 down the narrowest of lanes and we were caught up in the back log. That meant by the time I got home it was all systems go, light the fire, feed the birds, collect and put out the eggs before the customers start coming, and get the dinner on. Day to day I mostly potter about on the farm, see the occasional customer, have the occasional visitor but needs must when Christmas approaches and a trip to town is necessary, there is only so much online shopping you can do, although I do quite a bit. The contrast is vastly different, busy, noisy, crowded, cramped, speedy, and I’m glad I only have to dip into it a few times a year 😝

Thursday: Hard frost this morning, that calls for a thicker coat and gloves, the hosepipe was frozen so had to bucket the water to the chooks instead. Will have to fill up the water properly on the afternoon run when it’s warmed up a little. Cleaned out the new ducks then clean the house, the dust is getting a bit too settled for my liking, made some bread, got dinner prepped and then caught up with The Walking Dead 😫

Light the fire before going out into the Sunshine to do the afternoon feed and collect the eggs. 

Friday: Today I had Josh for a couple of hours, then went to get my blood pressure checked ( came home with a machine to monitor it) and went for coffee and a sandwich with Sam and Shelley, for some reason I am very partial to goats cheese at the moment, if we ever get goats I would have to get a milking goat and make cheese, there is a thought for the future. 

Saturday: Bloody perishing North wind! After doing the animals in the morning we decided to do a bit of tidying the trees we cut down a few weekends ago, there was a big stack of branches to process and a lot of shredding to do, John was on the chainsaw and I did the shredding and barrowing. This took up the best part of the day and by the time we came indoors I was cold right through to my bones, it took hours to get warm again. Of course today is November 5th, Guy Fawkes and I am usually very keen to go and stand in the cold and watch the fireworks but not tonight, tonight I am staying in the warm instead and listening to the ‘bangs and booms’ Next year I must remember not to work outside all day so that I don’t mind getting wrapped up to go out and watch the fireworks. 

Sunday: That North wind is still here and after the morning routine I decided that I was going to work indoors, after yesterday I thought, I’m buggered if I am going to get that cold again today, there are after all plenty of things to do inside, in the warm 😀 John worked on the tractor, turning the muck heap completely, the dogs caught and killed another rat and I made apple pies, cake and bread in the cosiness of my kitchen. 

I lit the Rayburn around lunchtime which warmed up the whole house, Rosie seems to have settled right down after five years, normally you have to get the measure of her when re lighting her for the first time again but this year she does not seem so temperamental, we are back to lighting her every day now as the weather seems to have suddenly got a lot colder, still not having to keep her going 24hrs a day yet though. Today’s dinner will be cooked in her oven along with the apple pie, she will provide a nice tank of hot water and dry the washing overnight, fabulous when the wood is free 😀

Monday: Did the usual routine and found yet another quail dying, so I got the indoor cage ready and transferred the birds that were left inside, I have no idea why they are dying there are no physical signs of injury or illness, so it may be an external factor such as stress. I will be able to monitor them more closely if they are inside, they seem fine then just go downhill and die within a day, it could even be bad breeding but as yet I haven’t got a clue! The duck eggs have gone even further down in number 😝 the older ones at the back that have been moved only laid 3 this morning as opposed to their usual 5, that sometimes happens when they have moved home so hopefully it will pick back up, I still only got 1 egg from the new ducks. Busy morning sorting out doctor appointments and booking in my flu jab, also had my laptop chap come out as that has gone kaput, it’s getting old now but limps along from one failure to the next lol. Then off out for lunch with my sister and cousins for some much needed down time. Back in time to light the fire and get dinner sorted (bubble and squeak) out to feed the birds and collect the eggs, feed the dogs and the day is nearly done. 

A phone call from my laptop man and it’s not good news the hard drive is knackered and unrecoverable that means all data lost 😫😫😫😫😫😫 it also means I will have to spend tomorrow with my fingers crossed that the external hard drive has a recent back up otherwise I’m dooooooooomed captain. 

Tuesday: Well what can I say, my day went from bad to worse! The hard drive on the laptop as you know was knackered, that meant trying to retrieve information that was supposed to be backed up on the external drive……….nope 😖 I managed to retrieve enough enough to lower my blood pressure but still it means I have some inputting to do. After spending a day trying to download programs onto a spare laptop, which took foreveeeeeeeer, so I decided to buy a new one, meanwhile my granddaughter came to visit and in the space of 10 minutes chaos happened. Sam went out to do the afternoon feed and collect eggs, I stayed inside, I had bread in the oven, Mia in my arms, an egg customer at the gate waiting for the 4pm egg collection (at 3.45), Mia promptly threw up straight down my cleavage, the phone rang and the bank Fraud office had cancelled the business card thinking it had been nicked, f**k my life. At times like these I wished I had more to puff on than a vape stick!!!! Ah well tomorrow is another day and as Shelley said ‘at least your life is not boring’ no it’s not but I would like something in between ‘all or nothing’ a steady flow of problems and solutions would be much appreciated, I guess that’s where the darker evenings become a good thing, shut the door on the day and relax, until the next situation rears its ugly head. Consequently there was no dinner ready for the evening and I very dared anyone to even wonder what we were having 😜

Went out to get a bit of shopping after shutting the birds up for the night and the lane had fog pockets all the way along very eerie.

Wednesday: Looking after Mia this afternoon and early evening so I need to be organised early, got the feed routine done, sorted out what we were gonna have for dinner and got a bit of ironing done. I also got started on the Christmas pudding, I have made my own for years now and although I vaguely follow a recipe, I also chuck in whatever takes my fancy or what I have in the cupboards, first step is to get all the dry ingredients together and put them In a bowl along with spices and citrus zest and juice and then a good gluggin of whatever alcohol I’m am going to use. This year I have used some of the rumtopf together with traditional brandy, that will soak over night, then it has long been tradition in our house to stir the pudding for luck so that’s exactly what will happen once the rest of the ingredients go in. The stirring is something I have carried with me from my primary school days, our school cook (a jolly round, rosy cheeked lady) used to bring the pudding out for the whole school to stir, three times one way then three times the other and make a wish, when I had children and started making them I decided to do the same and we do it every year, this year the grandchildren will have a go though they are more likely to try licking the spoon lol.

Joshua arrived with his mummy and then Mia and her mummy, so grandchildren take priority, well they will only be little for a short while and so you have to make the most of it don’t you 😍 

The days are getting colder and the nights colder still but the rain seems to be staying away for the time being, this time last year the fields were already rather trashed but this year they are still nice and green with plenty of grass covering them and we have a warm weekend forecast so Winter will seem a lot shorter this year hopefully.

Thursday: To be honest I didn’t even realise it was Thursday until I’d seen that I’d already written Wednesdays notes lol. I thought today as I always write ‘did the morning feed routine’ I would photograph it as I went round so you can see who and what I am feeding.

First stop on this foggy morning is the cats, Molly was nowhere to be seen but Diesel was waiting in the feed room for his breakfast.

Then onto the Geese and the ducks in the back paddocks, also fill up thier water buckets.


After that back to the feed room to fill up the bucket for the new ducks

Back to fill up feed buckets again for the chickens in the orchard and the front paddocks, I added some poultry spice to their feed this morning as it’s a bit damp and gloomy.

Feed the rabbits and Aaron the Pekin and his one eyed girl friend, you can see that the rabbits have dug their own burrows despite the lovely home John built for them.

Then onto the main laying flock of chickens, top up the water, feed them and scrape off the overnight poop from the floor (this gets done everyday)

Let the geese and ducks out then, back to the utility room to get the dogs breakfast and take any eggs I have collected and wash them ready to put out. On the way back check the quail who are now indoors.

Back inside for a coffee or two 😝 and decide what is on the agenda for today. 

I need to put in some fresh bedding for some and others need cleaning out so that’s what I will be doing this morning probably. I realise how lucky I am that my day is more or less entirely my own, I decide what to do or not and when to do it, however it does mean that I need to be self motivated to or nothing would get done at all 😋

The sun came out and so on such a lovely day it would be rude not to work on the veg garden, I did a bit of clearing, the courgette have all but finished and the rhubarb has now started to collapse, I needed to cover up the cabbages as something has been eating them , probably pigeons, chickens or both, I won’t get anything for my hard work if I don’t salvage them now. I also planted some broad bean seeds, some outside and some inside in pots just in case the seeds outside get eaten by mice before they have a chance to grow, I covered them with mesh so the chickens don’t scratch in the fresh earth and dig them back up. 

Then back indoors to do a quick hoover, get the fire ready for lighting later and sort out what’s for dinner, a couple of steaks I think. 

Friday: Flu jab day 🙃 and get my blood pressure checked as it was high at my last hospital appointment, well guess what, it’s even higher! 😝So sod the farm and lets go for lunch, I did opt for goats cheese and beetroot bun, chips with no salt 😟 

Usual jobs later in the afternoon and also the annual stirring of the Christmas pud mix followed by 5 hours of steaming it! 

Though you can hardly tell the difference the picks are actually one of Shelley and Josh and one of Sam and Mia! 

Saturday: Feed and let out then fill up all the rat bait boxes with poison blocks, this was after I went to let the ducks out and saw a rat sat by the door, I picked up a handy brick and lobbed it missing it but it ambled off further down the outside of the hut so I picked up the brick and lobbed it again, direct hit, however it didn’t kill it but the rat was slow so I am guessing he had been feasting on the last lot of stuff I put down. 

We had an idea that the rats were living in the compost heap as the dogs are very interested in that area most days, so we decided to move the heap build a new raised bed there. It took a while before the first rat came scuttling out and would you know it the dogs caught and killed it, a big fat one got clean away to the stable block but the dogs caught a second one a bit later, who knew they would be good at ratting! We spent all day moving vegetation at various stages of decay and were just left with a good pile of lovely compost which is now mostly inside the walls of a new bed. We found a good couple of pounds of potatoes growing in there so that was a bonus. The problem with the heap I think, is that I covered it with a tarpaulin instead of letting the elements get to it, that left a nice dry, cosy home for vermin 🐀

Hubby picked up 25 new POL hens this morning ready for sale and by 10am we had sold the first two.

Heard an almighty racket from the stable block after the horses had been taken in, ran round to find one of them had frightened himself while tied up and pulled the ply wall clean off its frame, luckily no harm done to animal or otherwise.

The ‘kids’ have been busy carving the pumpkins and making Halloween goodies to eat

Sunday: Mostly a repeat of Saturday, back breaking stuff, we must have moved around 4 ton of compost, riddled and bagged up around 1 and a half ton, moved a ton to the new heap after it was riddled and filled the new raised bed with the rest of it, raked, shovelled, barrowed, tidied and eventually finished. We didn’t see any more rats today, any that were left have probably moved on, will have to wait and see where they start making themselves known. The new compost area has been relocated so that we can get the tractor in to turn it, we have so much that we need a big bin and it needs to be turned regularly so that it rots down fast. It is one of the gardens little miracles, you put old vegetation in a heap and it turns to soil, a marvellous thing 😀

Hubby also turned the muck heap with the tractor, it is very dry, needs some rain on it lol, but it can wait a while 😋. He also repaired the piece of wall the horse ripped off yesterday and fixed the back door so that it actually closes without having to lock it, all in all a fabulous, if hard, weekends work. 

And now the darker nights have arrived 😔 boo, that means everything needs to be done and dusted by 5 o’clock, I’m not one to wish life away but roll on the shortest day. 

If you are getting your broomstick out, make sure it has a valid mot 🎃👻Happy Halloween. 

Monday: Back to the day job, on my rounds this morning I noticed how well everything had been looked after while we were away, chickens and geese in the front had been cleaned out, everything looks happy and healthy. Made some bread today, but used a different yeast which did not work as well as the fast yeast so I will be going back to that, it’s still edible just didn’t rise as well as it usually does. Put out some Butternut Squash for sale in the little shed along with the recipe for the soup I put on here. Sometimes when people encounter a veg they have never had before they won’t buy it because they don’t know what to do with it and so I find printing off a recipe encourages them to try it, especially one that I have tried and tested. I have ordered some broad bean seeds but they have not arrived yet, last year I decided not to grow Winter veg but come Spring I really regretted that decision so I am on the ball this year, the cabbages and leeks I planted a couple of weeks back are coming on nicely and the poly tunnel is full of kale/cauliflower (both of which I could have planted outside, I just didn’t have the room at the time) carrots, peas, spinach, hopefully I can pick these throughout the Winter months. Also in the tunnel are the sweet potato, there is a lot of foliage and I have not been tempted to have a look under the soil yet to see what, if anything is there, you are supposed to leave them in the ground for as long as possible and fleece them over once the frosts come, but as we haven’t had any frost yet and the leaves are beginning to die back, I reckon it will soon be time to dig them up. Sweet potato are incredibly good for you full of vitamin C, thiamin, potassium and manganese, and if you have never tried them I would definitely recommend you do, one of my favourites ways is as a baked potato with cream cheese and spring onion topping, delicious. Chicken casserole for tea, I am trying not to use salt at all so plenty of herbs etc for flavouring. 

Tuesday: Dark morning and raining, tipping it down, when I went out to do the rounds it was only light rain, by the time I got to the geese at the back it was tipping down and I had to come back in and change my coat for something more waterproof. The chickens in the orchard were no where to be seen, all hiding indoors reluctant to venture outside even for breakfast. I can’t say as I blame them really, I was going to go out and do a bit in the garden today but as I had already got wet once I decided against it, I have few things to order, some straw from a local farmer, some powder for the chickens as the lot I ordered never arrived, they didn’t take payment so that’s good, look through the seed catalogues and decide what to grow next year, any suggestions (legal 😉) welcome. Made some jars of mincemeat with Shelley ready for mince pie season 😀 Gammon for tea with cheese and potato pie and runner beans, pan fried apples for pudding, as I have some of the eating apples to use up. 

If you are inclined, now is the time to make your Sloe Gin, it will give plenty of time for the nectar to develop, I have still go 2 bottles from last years batch and 2 bottles of Sloe Whisky we will have to open them and have a tasting session, I still made more today it makes great presents for Christmas, last year I made Rumtopf as well although I forgot to do it this year for some reason. It’s so easy to do as are all fruit liqueurs, vodka is a great base for all fruits, blackberry, raspberry even strawberry, and obviously cherries in brandy is a great one although I have not tried it yet. Just fill a bottle or jar half full of your chosen fruit, add two teaspoons of caster sugar and top up with your chosen alcohol, put the lid on, shake and leave for around two months giving it a shake occasionally or lay it down and turn occasionally, open at Christmas and impress your friends and family. The longer you leave it the better the flavour, just the tonic after a cold/blustery/wet late afternoon walk with the dog. 

Thoughts of Christmas then took over the day and I sorted out the Christmas pudding recipe and started thinking about presents, not bought ones but made ones, we started doing this a few years back and I have done all sorts from Meat & Veg packs to Chutneys & Jams, Home made liqueurs, oils, herbs, I even did individual movie packs for each family one year, old movies tailored to their interests along with popcorn, pick n mix, hot chocolates etc it was fun to do, in return we receive, shortbread, fudge, homemade liqueurs, bottled goods, preserves of all kinds, home made candles etc, its great fun and very satisfying to give and receive presents that have had such a lot of thought and effort put into them. 

Went to feed the cat later in the evening, and saw rats in the stable block! 

Wednesday: morning routine included filling the rat bait boxes up, damn things and we have something in the wall on the other side of the house now as well 😝

What a cufuffle, found some point of lay ducks on a site but couldn’t remember my password, round robin game of resetting password via e-mail link that wouldn’t work properly, took me about an hour to finally get the message sent! Waiting to hear back now. Spent quite a bit of time messaging and securing 20 point of lay ducks to be picked up Early Sat morning, very excited, not sure if I will be keeping all of them or selling some on yet, will have to wait and see, however I do need to organise accommodation for them so logistics has taken up the rest of the morning and obviously I won’t need to incubate eggs now. Cleaned out the ducks and tried to organise the area for when the new ducks come, came to the conclusion that I worry too much, ducks make the biggest mess you’ve ever seen not matter what you do. However I did order some rubber sheeting to put down where they feed in order to reduce the mud. 

Thursday: dry found another quail dead this morning, something def not right but no idea what, may have to bring them inside, at this rate I will have no eggs to hatch and as fertility is low at this time of year I am reluctant to try, this may be the end of the quail eggs. My original birds lasted about 5 years with no problems at all. The Diatomaceous Earth finally arrived, although I re ordered from a different company, I made a dust bath up with wood ash and soil plus the DE and sprinkled it in the nesting boxes. It is supposed to help with mites, lice etc even worm if they ingest it with food. I am not convinced it is the amazing product they say but it is useful for dust bathing so any other side use is beneficial. Did some hoeing in the cabbage and leek bed, made a mental note that the Oca have grown well and will need harvesting after the first frosts, then watered the plants in the poly tunnel. 

Friday: dry sunny day, but monthly paperwork beckons and so that’s what I have done today, I have to keep on top of it or it drives me mad, fills my head with the nagging thought that it’s still there and waiting, once it’s done I can think clearly again😀 in the evening we went over to friends to pick up half a cow for the freezer, they rear it at their smallholding and then we share half the costs and get an enormous amount of beef for the freezer, lucky timing as we had practically used up the last one, we are also picking up two lambs for the freezer tomorrow we shall be well stocked for the winter. 

Sat: 5.30am start, hubby is off to Warminster to collect the 20 ducks, we can’t both go because he needs to be there by 8am and I will need to let the birds out as daylight breaks so I will stay behind and do the feeding etc. I made bread before the sun even came up then got on with the feed routine and moved the old ducks to the paddock at the back and got the duck pen ready for the new arrivals. They happily settled in, glad to be out of their crates after an hour and a half journey, fingers crossed they lay some eggs sooner rather than later. The rest of the day was spent on the log splitter and going to collect the two lambs for the freezer, lamb chops for tea with a good slice of home made bread. I feel that we are ready for whatever winter throws at us now, freezers full of meat, veg and fruit, and a log pile, bring it on, but not too harsh lol.

I have noticed, over the last few days, the array of beautiful colours on the trees, they are quite stunning when the evening sun shines on them. Did you know that the Autumn colour of leaves are their natural colour, so red and orange, it’s just that the chlorophyll they produce turns them green and covers up the other colours 😬

Sunday: What a beautiful Autumn day 😀 we got various jobs done, did the feed routine, the new ducks laid 1 egg lol hopefully more will follow soon. On sat eve we moved what was left of the chickens for sale into the laying flock and Sunday morning John cleaned out the pen they were in. We discovered how the rat was getting in there and have blocked up the hole so that shouldn’t happen again. I dug up the sweet potatoes in the poly tunnel and harvested about 5 good tubers but that was it 😖 The ground was quite hard and dry which may have hampered growing so after clearing the ground I put a few loads of well rotted manure on top and will leave that to overwinter. I also picked a good selection (albeit small amount) of veg ready for dinner later. Then I decided to have a look at the compost area, I pulled back the tarp and found a good collection of potatoes, so dinner was complete 😀 Normally if you get potato plants growing in the heap, it’s all tops but this time I actually found tubers. Meanwhile John did some wood cutting and we split the logs, the pile is growing bigger and bigger. We also got the tractor out and moved the shepherds hut right into the corner of the paddock, mainly so that it is easier to herd them in at night, I normally end up chasing them round and round it if I do it ( and swearing a lot) whereas John manages to get them in no trouble. Later in the afternoon I went to have a look at some hens I had sold earlier in the year, the customer wanted me to give them a check over before winter just to make sure they were ok. They are some very lucky hens living a 5* life I can tell you, we came away with a mixed box of beautiful rosy apples and freshly made cake, can’t get better than that 😀

The clocks change next week, can’t say I am looking forward to that, for half the year John is responsible for shutting the birds away at night time but as the nights get darker earlier it will be up to me to do that as well, good job we moved the goose shepherds hut otherwise I would be swearing all winter long 😝

Home reared (by our friends) roast beef for dinner together with home grown everything including sweet potato mash and toffee apple crumble made by Shelley 😁

Monday: After feeding etc I spent a couple of hours doing some shredding, the pile is enormous as we didn’t do any as we went along on Sunday. In the afternoon, I tided up the brassica cage. I am still getting small florets of broccoli and picked a good pan full, they will soak in water to drown any bugs before being blanched and frozen. The sprouts are not too bad considering the caterpillars got in there, there will be a boiling or two for Christmas which will please John no end. I picked a good trug full of weeds and plenty of old cabbage leaves for the rabbits to munch on. In the poly tunnel I did the weeding, I had intended to plant onions and put in some carrot seeds plus perpetual spinach but my back was hurting so I will leave it for another day. The horses will be moving fields soon so I checked the electric fence and took out a new battery ready for connecting up when needed. The batteries have all been topped up with distilled water and charged up fully ready for Winter

Tuesday: after morning routine, plant onions and peas in the poly tunnel, moved grape vine from outside to inside the poly tunnel, cover kiwi in fleece as the frosts ruin the blossom and therefore any potential fruit. Pot on the cape gooseberries and put them in the small poly tunnel, they will survive the winter and be ready to go again next spring no need to grow these every year from seed. Put some wires up for the thornless blackberry bushes, I found they sprawl the floor otherwise and the birds readily eat them before I get to them. Peeled a large bagful of cooking apples that I was given and prepped them for the freezer. Peelings to the geese. Made bread. Lovely sunny dry day again, how long will it last??

Wednesday: got up early to get the feeding and watering done, had a hospital appointment at 10.15 and getting through Oxford is an ordeal so need to leave plenty of time. Found mr rabbit dead in his run, I have no idea why he has died, he seemed a little quiet over the last few days but still eating and drinking also in the middle of a moult, there will definitely be no babies now! 

Thursday: Old Mr Duck died overnight, we knew he was coming to the end as I had to carry him out yesterday morning and John had to carry him back to bed in the evening, fly high Mr Duck I hope you enjoyed life here. Damn mouse in the airing cupboard, keep hearing it scratching about in the mornings and evidence of mouse poo in there, have had to put poison down as there are wires for the boiler etc in there don’t want it chewing through those. Rodents are always a problem this time of year as they look for somewhere warm to overwinter and preferably near a food source, we don’t have a massive problem just multiple areas where they are living lol 

Thought I’d better sort out the cctv, the front camera got hit by a branch during tree felling last weekend and was recording the ground directly underneath it lol, gave the lens a clean and then linked it to my mobile phone via an app so I can see when I’m not there, not that there would be much I could do about it. I have a forth camera but when I tried it before it kept knocking the system off so I got a new cable just in case it was that and will give it another go, failing that I will need to try the port to make sure it’s not that that is dodgy and if that is ok get a different camera. I want to use the last one for filming the paddock at night to see what is about, hope I don’t get more than I bargained for 😝 clowns or something 😝 I have also put a motion activated light in the egg shed for the darker evenings ahead ( I know, look at me all organised! ) although I think I may have to set a time for last buying of eggs, someone came 9pm on Saturday evening, have they nothing better to do? 

Made bread and butter pudding with some leftover bread and cream to use up, shepherds pie for John spag Bol for me 😀

Had a phone call this week, the cow has gone to slaughter and will hang for a couple of weeks then be ready for the freezer, I have also ordered 2 lambs from a local farmer so need to sort the freezer space out asap! 

Friday: John went off to get the feed this morning as we won’t be here tomorrow, and a couple of new blades for his chainsaw, the old ones can be sharpened but our local sharpener takes forever, about eight weeks last time to get them back so quicker if not cost effective to get new ones. Went to visit Mum and Ken for coffee, they are now back for the Winter after spending the summer on the canal boat. Did a bit of washing and ironing and packed for a weekend away in Eastbourne. 

Sat & Sun: left the farm in the capable hands of Charlie and Macca, and set off for Eastbourne, we decided a while back we needed a break, a change of air, fresh fish and chips and an ice cream or two. I couldn’t escape the events of the farm even then, well I presume the mouse I found up my sleeve had come with us from the farm, either that or it hitched a ride from the place we stopped for breakfast and that doesn’t bear thinking about 😋 there I was in the middle of a busy shopping street fishing a mouse out from my sleeve, good job I am not squeamish, I didn’t bat an eye lid, just carried on walking and left onlookers dumbfounded lol. Of course I had to put up with the comments from John then, when window shopping he would say, ‘that looks mice’ or do you think ratatouille is cooking the dinner tonight or “did you bring your flute” ha bloody ha. All in all though it was a pleasant weekend and the weather was kind to us, and it was nice to see, hear and smell the seaside. 

Monday: spent the day cleaning, made bread, lovely day, washing. The chicken is still in her box, eye has gone down but still not right. The damn powder still has not arrived yet but I have some lime from our neighbour so when I get time I will have a go at painting that in the chicken house. Chicken casserole for John, Korma for me.

Tuesday: Got a bit of a shock when I found a strange man rooting round in my bush! 😉 Turned out to be a man from the electric board who had thrown the ball for the dogs and it had gone in the hedge, he had come to do a visual check on the poles they had put in and check for any wire offcuts they may have left. Chicken with the eye problem still having trouble, if something was in there I would have expected to see infection take hold by now although antibiotics don’t seem to be solving it either, will have to flush it again later and make a decision, she can lose an eye and still be fine but if it just won’t heal she will have to be dispatched as it clearly gives her problems, she is constantly rubbing it on her feathers. Sunny dry day. Gammon for tea baked a couple of cakes to use up stuff in the cupboard.

Wednesday: morning routine, then Nanny duties, had Mia for the morning, then quick visit to the new Costa Coffee. Afternoon feed routine, then cut the lawn, water the poly tunnel, pick some salad leaves for tea, still growing in the poly tunnel are lettuce, spinach, peas, beetroot leaves, spring onions, basil, and peppers. Try to find out where the bloody powder has got to, online supplier won’t be using them ever again, second time the stuff has taken forever to come and you can’t get hold of anyone to complain. 

Thursday: usual routine followed by 5 hours in the fruit cage, repairs, weeding, etc, picked some autumn raspberries for pud later, make bread.

A new product I discovered arrive today Bees wrap, it’s an alternative to clingfilm, cotton cloth soaked in bees wax, tree resin and jojoba oil, I thought it was worth a try to cut down on plastic use. I found I had been short changed in the egg shed today 😔 so I  turned the shed around so can see the customers on the cctv better, though it’s a sad thing to have to do 😞

Friday, morning feed routine also top up the nesting/bed areas with clean straw, because it hasn’t rained they are not too mucky so a top up of fresh bedding is all they need at the moment. Evidence of rats in the rabbit area plus a dead quail this morning that’s the second one this month not sure why. Need to think about hatching some quail eggs incase this lot don’t make it through winter. I was burning some paper rubbish when I spotted some lovely blackberries so I went and got a tub to pick them, had a lovely wander round the paddock edges and got a small haul, I grow thornless hybrid blackberries but you can’t beat the taste of hedgerow ones 😀 I hulled the remainder of the walnuts and now have a good amount for snacking on or using in cakes. 

Sat: feeding watering letting out, put few boxes of eggs collected this morning out, sold them by 9am with customers queuing up! Put out a notice to say next collection time is 4pm otherwise we are asked to go and get them all day long, it’s manic at the moment. I have no idea what makes our eggs so good but clearly it’s noticeable as a lady gave some to a friend and they wanted to know where they came from and now make a detour to swing by and buy them from us! Got the tractor out to move a bit of muck as John had had to go to work this morning, he obviously makes it look easier than it actually is, the first thing I did was knock down one of the posts oooops!  Went to our great nieces first birthday party in the afternoon, when we got back there were three lots of customers waiting for eggs and muck. 

Sunday: spent the day chopping down more trees! We had some help today which made a big difference but also made a hole in the side fence and ripped the gate post from the ground, a few little accidents nothing serious but def a gung ho work day, nipped down to the pub for a cheeky half after a hard days work, then back home for a nice piece of roast pork and some blackberry and apple crumble to round the day off. 

The photos are of the blackberries I picked , the Bee Wrap and the Sun shinning through the gap in the tree line 😀

I decided to get the week of to a flying start and tackle cleaning the boot/utility/dog bedroom, the dust layer on everything was getting a bit beyond embarrassing to be honest. I had intended to do it back in the summer but it gets a bit hot and stuffy in there so I left it. I now regret not doing it because the work coats and jackets are also hung up in there and washing them all on a rainy day wasn’t one of my finest choices. We have coats for all occasions, a bit of a damp day, thin raincoat, heavier rain, thicker raincoat, absolute downpour, blowing a gale, full head to shin, truss upable raincoat, cold autumn mornings, various fleeces, cold winter mornings, padded jacket that at least goes past the hips, full on freezing the balls off a brass monkey morning, full length duvet coat, all needed a wash or at the very least a hoovering. Then there are the hats, gloves and scarves, same type of thing, various degrees of thickness and style for different weather days, I left most of them in the drawer, dust can’t get in there right? 
I also discovered about 150 bags for life! Well perhaps not quite that many but at least twenty or so, all stuffed into each other and then into another bag, in one of them I even found a dress????? Don’t ask me how it got there I have no idea whose dress it even is let alone how it came to being there, it has a charity shop tag on it and it is my size but I don’t remember buying it.

I had to get a hen with a bad eye in from the front lot, I am not sure what has happened to it but it is clearly bothering her so I have bathed it and she in in an old recycling box in the back, I even discovered that the nets that go over the boxes make a great little cage, she can see out ( with her good eye) but she can’t get out, fab.

Later in the day I decided to light Rosie the Rayburn for the very first time this end of the year, it was a wet, coldish day and thought I would be a good time to fire her up, then after an hour of her burning away, the sun came out, it was bloody hot in the kitchen, still the oven temp went up nicely and so we cooked the dinner in her, and all those bags for life and coats are now drying on the radiator in the back room, love it when she is so useful, but I can see why flicking an instant heating boiler on for an hour has its advantages we will probably sit at breakfast and complain about how hot it was overnight. 

Tuesday: Feed routine first then sort out the eye on the poorly chicken, washed it out with some optrex, it looks as though she has cut the inner eyelid and it’s swollen, gave her some antibiotic via syringe and keep her in see how she does. Cleaned out the main duck house, a random chicken is living with them and has scratched up all the bedding, a good sign it needs emptying because she will be after maggots. Discovered a rat hole in the floor, into the house, prob where my eggs are disappearing to so mixed up a small bucket of ballast and cement and filled the hole, that will stop the little gits! Then onto the chickens at the front, picking up a bucket of those bloody apples for the geese on the way. Cleaned the floor area of the run and smeared petroleum jelly all along the perches etc to try and trap any red mite, still waiting for the powder to arrive. I am going to save the wood ash from the Rayburn to add to sand and a bit of compost for them to dust bath in. Collected a few Walnuts, the squirrel has been busy, although I never see him the evidence is on the ground, strips of walnut casing and empty shells. Cut three of the ripe pumpkins and put them in under cover, firstly to harden the skins but also so that the chickens don’t start pecking at them. Baked a couple of cakes in the afternoon as it started raining, had some lovely visitors for a cuppa.

Wednesday: feed routine, chicken cleansing eye routine, she laid an egg yesterday so must be feeling a bit better. Cleaned out the chickens in the for sale pen and gave them a barrow full of old horse muck to scratch through to keep them busy. Nothing caught in my home made rat trap yet but can def smell dead rat so the poison I put down previously must have done the job, however I will refill it just in case there is an army of them lurking in the dark somewhere. Still waiting for the powder to arrive for the dust baths so I made one without it for the time being, wood ash, builders sand and some compost should help them along. The plan is to get some lime and lime wash the chicken coup to help against red mite, they used to do this in years gone by so can’t hurt to try. The only other option is creosote but the chooks need to move out for a couple of weeks and we don’t have the space for that at the moment. 6 duck eggs this morning that’s 100% improvement on the last few days so plugging the hole with concrete has worked for now, just need them to up the laying, only half of them are giving me eggs. 

Lovely sunny day today, there is a fair bit of tidying to do in the garden but there are also other jobs that need doing round the farm so the garden can wait for a bit.

Walnuts: now I’ve tried various methods over the years to remove the outer husk, leave them to the weather to do its thing, the squirrel found my stash and nicked them, try removing the husks while they are still green, very difficult, bring them in and wait for them to go black, not nice, something in between is what I am doing this year, collect them up in a bucket and just when they begin to split peel off the husk, it’s a slow process only around 5/10 are ready each day! Once the outer case is removed I put them in an old wire shopping basket, you need to have an air flow all around them otherwise they get mould on the shell. If you fancy foraging for walnuts there are plenty of trees on the roadsides round here, once you know the smell of the leaves its unmistakable, when I was young we had a walnut tree in the playground at school and used the leaves as pretend money at playtime, you never forget the smell lol. Another tip, always wear gloves when peeling the outer husks otherwise your hands end up with a brown staining that is difficult to remove. 

Spent ages looking at broadband providers, minefield, with talk talk since they took over from aol but the reliability is awful, time for a change. 

Thursday: raining and a little windy, tired today. Rehoming a yard cat today so stable ready to keep her in for a week or so, good mouser we hope. Not sure what to do yet, prob give the house a quick clean, already feel like I need a nap and it’s not even 9 am!  Cat didn’t arrive, her transport broke down somewhere down South and she finally got here on Friday morning. 

The eggs are continuing to fly off the shelf this week, I can hardly keep up with picking them up and putting them out before I have to put the sold out sign up! 

Friday: to be honest as I have made no notes for this day, I haven’t the foggiest idea what I did, I have tried to remember but it’s lost in the depths of time 😋 

Saturday and Sunday, these two days I can lump together as we did pretty much the same each day after the morning feed routine etc, cutting more branches off of the huge conifers that we are gradually taking down, the easy bit is cutting the branches off, its the cleaning, shredding, and log splitting that takes the time, on Saturday we did it in between the rain showers and on Sunday, in the sunshine. We also took down the board from the muck pile as at least five people have been for manure, the old stuff is underneath the new stuff so we got the tractor out to scrape off the top so it can be got at. Re alined a couple of the bolts on the stable doors, as the stable is a dirt floor, they tend to move quite a bit depending on if the ground is wet or dry. Had to buy a loaf of bread as I didn’t have time to make any 😝

One very exciting thing I did this weekend was to book a cheese making course at River Cottage HQ, I had a voucher for my birthday from my lovely lot and that’s what I have decided to use it for. I can’t wait to go there and see the place for real plus learn a bit at the same time. 😁

I have been trying to keep up but the heat this week makes it hard, I spent too long in the Sun cutting the hedge last Sunday and paying for it this week, I should have been more careful but when the weather is with you, you got to work. 😝

So the Electric board came back on Wednesday and finally finished the job, hurrah, we now have the two old poles in the field. I ask if we could keep them as they come in handy, a lot of the outbuildings here have got old poles as main supports, they are great lengths of timber and mostly cedar wood so last a long, long time. And if we don’t use them for that they make great seats when you need an impromptu rest in the field. 

I began making bread again this week, it tastes so much better than the shop bread, even their freshly baked ones and although the proving takes a while the actual mixing and kneading only takes 10 mins. Through the Summer there never seems to be enough time but as the days grow shorter it feels like the right time to start again.

I picked a whole load of veg on Monday as I hadn’t done it for a few days and customers were wanting to know when I was doing it. The shed was nicely loaded with runner beans, courgettes, beetroot, tomatoes and even some jalapeño peppers. At some point in the week, I can’t remember when, I picked the keeper apples from the tree in the front paddock, they probably could have been left a bit longer but I find the birds start to peck at them if I leave it too long. There are not many this year only about half a bucket full, but they will keep for a good couple of months without losing their crispness, I have a great gadget for reaching the apples and picking them without bruising but there are always the ones at the very top that I can’t get and they always look like the best ones on the tree, I might have to get the ladder out. 

I have also been collecting buckets of cider apples and crab apples for the geese to eat, they love them, I swear they swallow some of them whole. The geese are very handy for eating up certain things, like the runner beans that have got a bit tough or the patty pan that have got too big, it makes a change from their daily diet of grass. 

The runner beans have come to the end of their fruitfulness and pickings of other veg are also becoming slim, the next crop that will be going out for sale will be the butternut squash. They are a great crop, once they are under way they don’t need much attention at all, the sprawling foliage does a great job of ground cover and weed suppressing and when they are ready the leaves die back to reveal its bounty, of course they store very well too so there is no need to make sure you sell them all quickly. The pumpkins are turning Orange and I need to make sure the chickens don’t find them and start pecking into them, these are for the children at Halloween, there are only 5 pumpkins but it is great fun to grow them and when the grandchildren are old enough they will be able to come and pick their own, hopefully as they get older they can start them off from seed, tend to them and watch them grow 😀 
This weekend was a write off as far as work was concerned, though we had a job lined up, John had to spend most of Saturday at the hospital with his Mum, in the late afternoon and on into the evening we went to our eldest daughters birthday bbq. On the Sunday we spent a very pleasant day at the Cotswold Living Landscape Festival, it was their first year and I think it’s a grower, all the countryside skills, walling, hedge laying, wood carving, bee keeping, some great folk music and the food stalls were fabulous, yep definitely going again next year.