Author: frieslandfarm

Well that time of the year is here again when the dark nights get darker earlier and in the mornings you feel like you have been up for ages. It’s only 8.45 at the moment and I have done the morning routine already but it seems much later it also felt like it took me ages but Clearly it didn’t. I quite like the darker evenings because it means I can do other things instead of being outside, catch up on some reading and tracing ancestry etc, cosy nights in the warm with a hot chocolate, mmm make the most of it I say.

We have all been a bit poorly this week and so have been on light duties only, the only extra jobs we have done is put the lazy Sheila back up in the kitchen over the Rayburn. We took it down last year when we rearranged the kitchen and never got round to putting it back up but with the Rayburn permanently lit it makes sense to utilise the heat coming from it to dry the washing. We also replaced some of the bulbs in the outside lights that had blown, we need all the help we can get in the dark at this time of year.

The paddock tractor sold on eBay and I am just waiting for them to pick it up and then we can think about buying that compact tractor. The local farmer that I buy grain from came to unload this week bringing his enormous machine with him, the driveway was turned into a quagmire by the time he had finished, the tyres were higher than me, I am glad we don’t need one of them. We bought a ton of wheat and the price has gone up from £120 a ton last year to £190 this year, that will give you some idea of how much your weekly shopping bill will increase because of the weather this year. Sadly it won’t end there because at the moment the farmers can’t get on the land to seed ready for next years crop because the ground is too wet. They have until the 1st December but my farmer says if they can’t get on they will leave the land fallow meaning there will be even less wheat around next year, you have been warned 🙂

We have managed to sort out the Christmas tree situation and will be taking delivery of 80 Nordman Fir, 6ft trees on the 30th November. They will be £36 each and we will deliver to surrounding areas for £40, I have started a list of names of definite orders so if you want to go on the list let me know. As this is the first year of selling them we were unsure of what kind of numbers to order in, we may find we could have sold twice as many on the other hand we may struggle to sell all 80 it’s an unknown quantity this year but it will be exciting to be part of people’s Christmas preparations.

I do love Christmas, my whole family does, that stems from my Mum’s determination to keep the spirit of Christmas alive after all if you cant be charitable to people at that time of year there is no hope! I remember when we were children we had an ‘adopted Granny’ come for the day, I have no idea where she came from but she would have spent Christmas Day by herself otherwise, she bought an enormous box of chocolates with her, probably why I remember her so vividly! For us it is not about the religious or commercial side of the holiday, it’s about getting as many people round the feast table as possible, people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying each others company. Obviously we cant all get in the same house anymore, this year there are 36 of us and the family is growing year on year, but we do all go to a local pub for a Christmas get together and carvery during December we can pratically fill the place by ourselves! Personally for me, Christmas Eve is my favourite day of the year, people dropping in throughout the day munching on freshly cooked mince pies and the excitement and anticipation of the old and young for the following morning after Santa has been. Yep we love the magic of Christmas in this house we are all big kids at heart, so selling the trees will be an added bonus, although ask me if I feel the same after being out in the cold for a couple of hours at a time!

Today is a lot milder than it has been over the past week and that coupled with the fact I have not done much due to illness means that it will be a busy few days catching up, the chickens all need cleaning out there is still plenty of tidying up to do in the garden. I am still waiting for the delivery of the fruit trees and they will need planting as soon as they arrive providing the ground is not frozen. The house needs a good clean as the dust created by the Rayburn is constant, and my eldest daughter has moved out and in with her boyfriend so her room needs a bit of a makeover. Mind you half of her stuff is still in it, either she has too much or she is hedging her bets, I think it is the former! For the time being all my fledglings have flown the nest until the wandering youngest finally returns, do I have empty nest syndrome, not a chance, when I clean, it stays clean and tidy, its a marvellous thing. The wash basket is no longer overflowing like some clothes munching monster and my cooking duties are much simpler and condensed into a shorter time zone rather than spread over a couple of hours to fit in with work ending times. I don’t really have an empty nest of course because I filled it with animals instead, pretty much the same except their mess is all outside!

It’s a bit of a dank start to the day today but at least we don’t have full on rain just yet, and if the forecast is to be believed we better make the most of the mild temperatures before the end of the week brings in a cold sweep from the North 😦

I always get to this bit of the blog and think what have I done this week, I can never remember from day to day let alone one week to the next! It was probably not helped by the very sociable weekend I have had resulting in what felt like cotton wool stuffed ears all day yesterday, still the company was excellent, the wine was flowing and the music was great so it was all worth it.

I made my Christmas cake in the week, this year I have tried a new recipe called ‘as you like it’ which basically means put in whatever is to your taste providing it is of similar structure and quantity. I chose to use dried apricots and cherries, replacing some of the dried fruit, I also used Amaretto instead of brandy this year, the smell was delicious although the mixture was a bit sweet! One of the best things to do in the run up to the big day is getting the cake out on a weekly basis and lacing it with alcohol, I never tire of the job 🙂

We have been moving chickens into the stable again this week, this time some of the pure breeds from the small runs. The end run has become a bog and is unhealthy to leave them in there over winter, they will be dusted, fed up a little and introduced at night to the chickens that live in the small paddock in the old shepherds hut. Introducing them at night minimises the risk of fighting although the hen pecking will still go ahead to establish a pecking order. I am worried about putting a little Blue Orpington in with them though as she is very timid, so timid that when I opened the gate to let them free range on Friday, she went and hid in the coop all day. I don’t know what to do with her, she can’t live on her own because thats unfair but she is scared of all the others, she needs a home that can give her the time and patience to bring her out of her shell. I have never known a chicken like it, so if anyone feels they can take her on let me know.

The pumpkins that I have grown have gone to the front gate for sale, there were 9 big ones and 4 smaller ones in the end so not bad, there were a few others but they had begun to go soft in the top and so were fed to the chickens who devoured them in minutes. Apart from what is left in the ground that is pretty much it for the veg season, the poly tunnel is still nurturing dwarf beans and some winter lettuce, there are also cauliflowers and broccoli growing although not showing any signs of much at the moment. The cucumbers are all but finished and so I will probably be clearing them some time this week. The potatoes that I put in for Christmas did not do week during growth and I am not sure why, it is possible I put them in too early and they have all bolted, I will leave the greenery there and see what happens over the next few weeks, I may be lucky enough to get a Christmas Day boiling.
I have established that I have far too many birds and need to reduce the numbers, as the geese are both male, and it is difficult to introduce new geese to each other, they will also be on the menu for the festive dinner this year, along with a couple of surplus to requirement cockerels, sorry guys that’s just the way it is.

The weekend is always much busier than the week days here and this weekend was no exception. The trees that overhang the ménage needed trimming, the ménage surface needed dragging, we dismantled the two coops from the pens ready to clean and creocoat and the horse trailer was ready to be painted. That’s what the before and after title is about this week, the pictures at the bottom are of the trailer before and after its great paint job that my eldest daughter and her boyfriend spent all weekend doing so thank you very much to them.
The other before and after photo I just had to include is of Mia, she had great fun this weekend the power washer being her new found toy! She usually plays with water from the hoses when we are filling up water buckets but this was a whole new level as far as she was concerned, the spray that was coming up when I was washing the chicken coops was so much fun for her but she was filthy at the end of it, there was no point trying to stop her and beside it was very entertaining watching her. She had to have a bath after that and it took two lots of shampooing to get her looking any where near to white. We kept her in after that but needless to say she is back out this morning getting just as dirty again.

Karma is a bitch as they say, but also a great leveller I find and I just had to share this little musing with you as it made me laugh out loud. I mentioned before that the ménage needed dragging and this is done with heavy metal chains on the back of the quad bike. My daughters boyfriend had bought his over and so we were going to use the opportunity to use it for the job, I was going to get to drive it and get the job done, Hubby joked that I shouldn’t be in charge of machinery, I was not in the mood for his jokes and stomped off leaving the job for someone else. The next day he took the hedge trimmer and went to cut back the trees in the school while I got on with power washing the chicken coops (my mood had improved by this point and everything was amicable) a short while later he came limping round the corner, in an only ever so slightly concerned tone, I asked him what he had done, and the blood leaking through his jeans confirmed his story that he had caught his leg with the hedge trimmer. Of course being a good wife we went indoors and I cleaned it up and put a big plaster on it. We went back out and I carried on cleaning the coops, thinking to myself, thats Karma and that will teach you to mock me about being in charge of machinery, this is where Karma took her chance to level me, I took a step too close to the coop I was cleaning and ended up with my face covered in chicken shit that was sprayed up from the washer! Karma, you gotta love it, it will get you in the end.

It definitely feels like the middle of Autumn in the mornings and evenings at the minute. The upside to cold cloudless evenings though is the beautiful sunshine the next day, Sunday was the coldest of starts but the day fully blossomed into a glorious warm happy day, I hope we have a few more days like that over the next few weeks.

I spoke too soon about the squirrel, I spotted him in the week picking up cob nuts from the drive in the front, he obviously had better pickings to get round first! Luckily I have gathered most of the Walnuts already and there are plenty of cob nuts for us to share 🙂

This week has been more of the routine maintenance to get things ready for the big Winter sleep, more muck on the beds, more cutting back and tidying up, making sure that the animal bedding is kept clean and dry, little jobs that will make the winter more manageable. We have a patch of ground just inside the stable side entrance where the rain runs in and together with the foot traffic makes a mess, Hubby laid four slabs down there so this does not happen this year, it is surprising how little changes like that can make a difference.
One of the big differences we have already noticed is that the insulation we put in when replacing the cladding along the front, is doing a great job. Normally we would know how cold it is outside by the temperature inside but it is nice and toasty now and a bit of a shock when you open the door to find a very hard frost!

I have been washing all the hats, gloves and scarves ready for the enviable cold times ahead, all the winter jackets have also had a good wash, ready to get dirty again. Hubby’s wax coat is beyond any kind of salvage, I decided to buy him a new one for Christmas but when it arrived it seemed pointless waiting most of the Winter to give it him so he has an early present. It was intended to replace the old one which I was hoping to throw out but he seems reluctant to part with the old one and was still wearing it this weekend to cut up logs, mind you parting with it will be like moving house, every pocket is full of useless bits and pieces that ‘might come in handy one day’.

The power washer has come out to play again so I seized the opportunity to indulge Hubby’s playtime and lined up a plethora of items that need cleaning, the garden tractor being one item that benefitted from a blast of water and a touch of soap, hopefully we will put it up for sale and get that quad bike instead.

I have been eyeing up the leeks over the last week and with the change in temperature I think it is an ideal time to make a batch of leek and potato soup for the freezer. The parsnips have been growing nicely all summer and should be good to go now that we have had a frost, they are supposed to taste better once the the cold has got to them, I am not sure if that is true as I have never done a taste test to find out but old wives tales usually have some truth in them and so I don’t doubt it for a minute. The last of the fresh summer produce is slowly being used up, I have a bowl of green tomatoes sat on the windowsill in the hopes that they will ripen and a couple of peppers, in fact my middle daughter is here for the day and loves cooking so I have let her loose on the Rayburn to come up with a pasta lunch using all home grown ingredients including the dried herbs, I will let you know the verdict next time!

On Sunday my eldest daughter, her boyfriend and myself began the task of rubbing down the old paintwork on the horse trailer, preparing it for its new paint job next week. It will need a blast with the pressure washer too but I know someone who will be more than willing to do that job 😉 it should look very smart when its finished and it giving it some TLC now will mean that it should last for a few years to come.

I did say that I would write about Mia and her antics this week but she has been impeccably well behaved and not got up to any mischief at all really. She does like to torment the cats though and I am not sure if she wants to befriend them or eat them, either way they are having none of it and sooner or later she is going to get a nasty swipe from one of them. She has been a bit under the weather again this week and I thought at first she was going to have another visit to the vets but I think that she has had a hangover, the small cider apples are just the right size to throw for her to chase and once caught she sits and eats them. Most of the are on the turn and I think they have been fermenting in her belly, she has been much better since we started using a ball instead! Her training is going quite well and she cottons on very quickly, she is very food orientated which makes it a whole lot easier to teach her new things. At the moment she is learning a hand signal and the command to ‘go round’ not as difficult as it sounds because I go through one gate into the front drive she waits behind the gate naturally and then on my way back I tell her to go round and point to the other gate on the far side of the house, she usually gets there long before me. This should be a useful command in the future if I need her to help round anything up, providing she does not just keep going round in circles that is, the next comment to learn ought to be stop I think.

Well we have just eaten the pasta lunch so I can give you the verdict now, it was delicious and there is plenty leftover to have for lunch again tomorrow, I think she can come again 🙂

Mia has been a busy puppy this week, she is developing her character a bit more and we find she is not afraid of much! She is wary of the geese but she will still climb through the gate to follow me across the paddock, she is not at all afraid of the horses feet although she has not been kicked yet, that will be a lesson when it comes. She spends her morning following me around on the feed round, then we play a bit of ball and she is usually tired by lunchtime and crashes in her bed, she has enough to keep her both physically and mentally exercised and so up to now has not been too naughty.

We have had a busy weekend and consequently I can’t think of what I did in the last week at all, I just know that by Sunday evening I was tired out! We cleared the hay barn on the Saturday morning so that we could get the trailer in the dry, we need to rub it down a bit and give it a coat of paint, also if it is not out in all weathers it will hopefully last a good few years. In the afternoon we went to a charity fun day which had been organised by one of our neighbours, luckily the weather was good and as it was within walking distance we were able to have a few more beers than usual 🙂 We went back for a BBQ in the evening and the chap got his home made cider out, he made it from the apples on his trees, he said he just chucked in the apples added a bit of sugar and voila! I wish I was that free and easy with my methods, I am the type who will get the book out and follow the instructions carefully step by step! To this day I still follow a recipe to make things, the only exception is a basic sponge cake and pastry, those I know half by heart.

I just remembered the major occurrence this week and that was the decision to put up the price of the chicken eggs to £1.20 per half dozen. With the cost of feed rising all the time and the threat of an increase of 15 percent on most foodstuffs in the coming months, we decided it was not viable to leave them at a pound. I then decided to weigh out exactly what each chicken should be eating per day and total it up to find how much it is costing us, probably not the best idea and it just confirmed what we already knew, that the chickens don’t make us any money. They would if they all laid everyday, because we easily have the demand for eggs, the problem is that we bought in too many at once to sell on and they are still waiting to be sold. If they laid any eggs to sell in the mean time they would be cost effective but it seems that the weather and the daylight hours are against us and so they are not laying as many as they should be. One of the problems was possibly that I was not feeding them enough, so they have now all had their feed increased to the optimum amount per day and no doubt we will have an egg mountain by the end of the week 😉 I have not even costed in my time and labour, with that included they would probably retail at around £5 a box!! So I still think the eggs are value for money, where else can you buy a protein and vitamin packed ready meal for 20p per portion!

On Sunday we were busy clearing rubbish and taking it to the dump, we also had a feed run to do and I needed some new wellies (again). You surely don’t need some more asked Hubby, yes I replied, when you spend the best part of six hours a day, seven days a week wearing them, they don’t last long I can assure you! Good job I don’t wear Jimmy Choo ones otherwise it would cost a fortune each year. Our eldest daughters BF came over with his quad bike to help sort out a couple of the paddocks, they needed dragging and a broken down elder tree needed cutting up with the chainsaw and bringing back to the woodpile. Whilst he was here he noticed the school mirrors moving around a bit too much in the wind, when they went to look closer they found that the top wooden rail had rotted away completely and basically all that was holding them in was one bolt, so they took them down to make it safe, it’s a good job he noticed, that would have been nasty, not to mention costly, if they had fallen out and smashed while someone was riding in there.

Our middle daughter and BF joined us for a family roast at the end of a busy but satisfying weekend, at this time of year there is nothing better than the noisy chatter of a family sat round the table feasting on homegrown produce and I might complain about the amount of washing up it produces but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Looking forward to the week ahead there are the small chicken houses to clean out as well as the rabbit cages and the Quail, Walnuts and cobnuts to be picked up, I need to try and weed the front area by the main gate in order to plant some of the bulbs that have arrived and a visit to see our cow is on the cards for the weekend. There are a hundred and one other little jobs to do as well so thank goodness for the nights drawing in and the chance to have a rest at the end of the day!

The Farmer sits in the kitchen by the nice warm fire with her head in her hands, the sky is heavy with, as yet, unleashed waterfalls of rain to accompany the previous 24 hour deluge. The farm is slowly disappearing under a vast volume of water and the animals must make thier survival decisions quickly! Ha ha not quite but it feels like it this morning, the rain is relentless and no amount of wet weather gear is going to keep you bone dry in this, I had my long waterproof coat my waterproof leather boots and my leather hat on, still got wet at the back of my legs. The hat is the type that the Aussies wear and I know why they have corks all around it, not to keep flies off but to remind you where the edge of your hat is is that you don’t keep bashing it into things.

As already mentioned Rosie the Rayburn was lit during the week, I think we timed it just right, although the first meal cooked in her was disappointing. I had put some braising steak in at about ten o’clock and then added veg later in the afternoon but I don’t think enough heat was generated because it was only just edible despite smelling great. Subsequent meals have been great though and on a day like this it is lovely to be able to keep the kettle simmering for a cuppa when you come in from outside.

The contrast in the weather today compared to Saturday is drastic to say the least. We had a beautiful day and we were lucky enough to have a day off and go to the races, we left Mum in charge and my middle daughter and her BF kindly came over and gave her a hand. It was great to have a day off and a thoroughly enjoyable day at that, although Lionel Ritchie was supposed to be playing but cancelled, shame as we had a great view of the stage and it would have been an awesome finish to the day.

We must have had quite a bit of Sun in the past week as on one of the days I decided to do a bit of blackberry picking. I don’t have to go far as there are some very prolific bushes on the perimeter of the farm, I picked three big punnets within an hour and they were sweet, and plump, probably one of the best years I have encountered. We always used to go blackberry picking when we were kids and I always took my kids picking too, the blackberry is one of natures finest little packages and free, which is a bonus. There are plenty of them this year, which in some circles would indicate a hard Winter ahead, however I think it is more likely to be because of all the rain we had during the Spring and Summer, being a late fruit they would have benefited enormously from that. I have noticed that the birds are stripping fruit quite quickly though, my plums were one, and the elderberries and sloes are another, maybe they are storing up now because there have not been many insects around during the wet summer. When I had finished picking I set about making Jam which is one of the best things you can do with blackberries, I picked the few apples that I have on the tree this year and decided to make Apple and Blackberry Jam, the apples have a high pectin content and help to set the jam very easily without too much effort and no disappointment 🙂

We finally got round to worming the sheep, hurrah, I had quite a sense of achievement when we had finished, strange how little things can give so much satisfaction. We took the advice of an old hand and made a triangular pen with the hurdles to catch them one at a time in. You drive the sheep into the corner and shut the gate behind it and because sheep like to move forward you have them nicely caught in order to give them the wormer. I thought this would be like giving the dog or the horse wormer, both usually protest and spit a large portion of it out, not the case with the sheep, they actually liked it! Why don’t they make every wormer that easy to administer, or maybe the sheep are just a bit stupid, who knows. Having got them cornered it was a good time to take a look at thier feet and check for any sores and cut back any excess hoof. We also checked over the under bellies to make sure there was no fly strike and then they were let go back into the flock ( oo I am getting carried away now as there is only two) one day maybe and I feel that I would be more than able to keep up some good husbandry after completing our first ever worming and sheep pedicure! They are now ready to go to the Tup whenever are called for and fingers crossed he does a good job.

A rainy day is a baking day in this establishement and it is definitely raining today! A chicken dish of some description will be going into the oven and I think a cake will be well received on a day like this, probably a Victoria sponge with the fresh jam as a filling. I will probably do a bit of batch baking as the rain does not look like it is going to let up at all for the next few hours 😦

Assuming it does stop raining at some point and we don’t get washed away in a muddy torrent of water, I will be back next week 🙂

We finally got the elusive trailer that will make life easier, we decided on a horse trailer, that way it is duel purpose. We found it on eBay and Hubby and Daughters BF went to have a look and bought it back with them from Northampton. It is now in the process of having some TLC, not that it is in bad condition but if we tart it up a little it will be splendid! That means we are free to carry livestock whenever we need to and are not restricted to borrowing anymore 🙂

The tack room overhaul is coming along nicely, Hubby has built some new cubby holes and fitted the kitchen units, it will be so much nicer in there now. It was dark, dingy, dusty and downright depressing before, now it will be somewhere that is of an acceptable condition to make a cuppa for the farriers and even one for ourselves when we are outside working.

The chicken ark has also had its overhaul, been sprayed for red mite and had a coat of creocoate, the chooks were moved back out there this morning and they look happy to be back outside. The stable has been made ready for the next lot to come in while we do the same to thier ark.

Mia is finding life fun on the farm, everything is a game, from the water coming out of the hosepipe to the apples falling off the trees. She is easily entertained and is at this moment having a ball with a piece of bale string, she has been on yet more antibiotics, looks like she is going to be high maintenance!

I was reminded that it was four years ago today when we arrived here in the morning to find that we had been robbed! The livery yard was full at the time and they had stolen all of the saddles and tack belonging to the girls, it is also my eldest daughters birthday and I was so relived that I had decided not to buy her a new saddle and leave it with a bow on for her to find, that would have been heartbreaking. It was a heartbreaking and distressing time for everyone who lost property, the police were great but said that in all honesty we would probably never get the stuff back and they were right. The girls even went to the local Gypsy fair so see if they could find thier stuff on sale but with no luck. People are under the misconception that if you have horses you are well off, this is not the case, in most circumstances the girls work hard to be able to fund a hobby that they enjoy and for someone to think they can just nick it is disgusting in my book.

That was part of the run of bad luck we had when we first bought the place, we had a second robbery just a fortnight later, they decided to come back for anything they left the first time round! It was something that played on my mind for a couple of years and I have only just stopped thinking that we are a potential target for any nighttime visitors. My motto had to become, don’t let the b……s get you down, cos if they do, they have won.

Rural crime is a real threat, and I am glad we have the dogs here, I never make any apology for the din they make whenever anyone arrives, for us they are a real necessity and the best alarm I can think of 🙂

We are still under discussion about when to light the Rayburn, once it is lit we don’t want to let it out and so the timing is crucial. At the moment with the sun shinning in it would make the place feel like a furnace, but at night the temperature is dropping quite a bit so we are using the little electric heater just to take the chill off the air.

We had a lovely meal of stewed rabbit yesterday, our middle daughter took one home that we had previously shot and invited us over to share. She cooked it in the slow cooker and it was quite delicious so I may put that on the menu more often from now on. We had a discussion about homeless people and if they ever catch rabbits and eat them, it’s pretty good free food after all.

Another free food that I am very much looking forward to are blackberries, the lack of cultivated soft fruit means that I don’t have enough jars of jam to see us through to next summer so the blackberries will be very useful. Although without a decent amount of apples to go with them I dont think there will be very many pies going in the oven 😦

We have a birthday to celebrate today, our eldest is 27 this year,so we will have a houseful of family later on. it’s always nice to have a bit of sunshine on a birthday, we will probably put the BBQ on for the last time this year, actually with the terrible weather we have only had it on twice anyway! Let’s hope next spring and summer are better and that the winter coming is not too harsh!

I seem to have lots to blog about this week, not sure why, just one of those weeks I suppose.

We have had two main jobs to do this week, the first was concreting the tack room floor which we did on Saturday morning. It went better than I had thought and within three hours it was completed, it probably would have taken less time with a better cement mixer as ours is a bit tired, three shovel fulls and it won’t rotate any more, I know the feeling! Mia decided to investigate and walk straight into it, all four paws, up to her knees covered in wet concrete, I had to get her straight into the sink and wash it off before she ended up with concrete boots, plus it burns the skin. The floor set overnight and is now being left for a few days to ‘go off’. We were lucky enough to be given some kitchen units that someone was taking out, they will fit just right, slightly worried about the colour though as they are White, we did joke that we should paint them dust Grey as that is how they will look most of the time probably.

The second big job of the week was undertaken after we discovered red mite in the old coops, we have never had it in these before as they have been soaked in old engine oil over the last one hundred years and that usually keeps them away. We decided not to use oil because of environmental issues and the result is an infestation of red mite 😦 No wonder our egg numbers were down, I decided drastic measures were called for and made a stable ready for the birds. We caught them all one night, doused them with louse powder and transferred them to the stable, within two days the eggs went from 6 a day to 14! Proof that they were not happy in thier coop, I ordered a strong chemical, which I dont like to use but needs must, I also ordered a power washer. Read carefully ladies, if you want a job doing buy a power tool and the Hubby can’t help himself, he was immediately attracted to the job because he got to play with a ‘boy toy’ brilliant! I left him alone for a couple of hours and voila the coop was cleaned out spick and span, maybe I will tell him he can use it to clean the bath out after him 😉 the next step is to spray the coop with the dreaded chemical and then creocoat it and hopefully that will sort it out for a while. Red mite are notoriously difficult to eradicate and this year has been a great year for them, the weather, wet and humid, makes for ideal breeding conditions. I will need to treat the rest of the coops too, the little blighters migrate and we would just be going round in circles if I don’t.

The baby quail have been moved outside, one of them has been feather pecking, you can always tell which one as its the only one with any feathers left. The culprit has been segregated and I have sprayed the backs with anti peck spray, they are beginning to grow new feathers back again now. Most of these birds were sold before I even hatched them out, so I just need to ring people up and tell them that they are ready for collection.

On the wildlife side we are having regular visits from the Woodpeckers, we spotted a greater spotted woodpecker and a green woodpecker on the same day which is fabulous. Not so great is the visit from the crows and magpies, earlier in the week I noted that the Victoria plums were ready for picking. I went up the ladder and picked as many as I could reach safely, the chickens below soon realised that any movement of the tree caused a few of them to fall on the floor and they swarmed round to greedily pick any of these over. One other thing I noted is that there was not a wasp in sight, normally I have to be careful grabbing hold of the plums in case I get more that I bargained for. I mentioned to Hubby that I needed help next time because I needed someone at the bottom of the precariously balanced ladder, I went out the next day and the whole tree had been stripped of every single remaining plum 😦 not happy and that was the only fruit we had in abundance. The magpies have been stealing the duck eggs, I caught one at it this morning, the ducks lay regularly so it’s odd when there are none. Three of the ducks live in an old dog cage and the magpies have been hooking them out of the bottom, they leave the remnants in the school, I need to wire the bottom of the cage so they can’t get to them anymore. At one time we had more duck eggs than we could sell but since I have been putting them out in the little shed they have been selling well, mostly because if people turn up and there are no hen eggs they just buy duck eggs instead.

I had a lovely visit in the week from my youngest sister and her friend, the friend reads the blog ( good morning ) and wanted to be able to visualise what she was reading about, I am always happy to show people round if anyone else wants to pop up for a cuppa you would be most welcome. I can’t guarantee there will be cake though as I have not had much time lately to do any baking, one friend who has though, won first prize in a local show for her Victoria sponge cake which she puts down to using our eggs 🙂 so I can now claim we have prize winning eggs can’t I 😉

We had a farm meeting, actually it was just me and Hubby, we walked around and discussed what needed doing urgently and, the most important bit as far as I was concerned, where we were going to put a permanent pig pen. Pigs can be kept in a small area such as a traditional pig pen, but it’s nice to let them have a bit of ground for natural behaviour as well, so we needed to identify an area that could be half concreted for easy washing out but that they could also be let out for rooting and rolling. The area at the back of the stable block has a row of conifers that will perfectly suit them. We did use part of this area to keep pig before but without much experience they soon trashed the place and we don’t want to make the same mistake again. Hubby has come up trumps with regards to the Ewes and their potential mate, no funny comments please, a chap he knows from his regular trips to the burger van during work time, has a flock of sheep that are due to be tupped soon and he has offered to have our two in with his, he even gave Hubby some wormer to give them before they go for a vist, excellent, fingers crossed the ram does his job and we will have lambing to blog about next Spring.

The end of the veg season is in sight, the foliage is beginning to die back on the pumpkins leaving them to ripen, and the runner bean plants are beginning to look tired, although strangely enough this is when they produce most of thier fruits. I am picking over 6lbs of beans every other day, I did have a blanching and freezing session in the week that included carrots and sweetcorn as well, but there is only so many hours you want to spend doing that. The sweetcorn has been successful again this year, it is obviously suited to the ground conditions here because the weather has been different two years running and they still have done well. I intend to double the amount of sweetcorn I grow next year as it is my favourite crop and I am reluctant to share it! Those that have been privileged enough to have had some this year agreed that it was the best they had ever tasted, once tried you will be very reluctant to go back to shop bought, fresh or tinned, I know I was.

I can’t remember if I mentioned missing out on a livestock trailer on eBay last week or not but I am still gutted about it. I put in my top offer and was pipped at the post by 20 quid in the last minute. A trailer will take us one step further to being able to regularly turn livestock over, trying to organise abbatior dates and then borrowing a trailer is a bit hit and miss and I have had to cancel the abbatior before now. This is why the pigs gots a bit too big and started to destroy thier surroundings and also why the sheep are still here in the field instead of in the freezer! Our own trailer will mean that the livestock can go at the optimum time without too much fuss, if you know anyone that has one for sale let me know 🙂

We will be selling Christmas trees this year, when I get round to ordering them, we are ordering in 5 & 6 ft trees of the non drop variety, we will have around 120 of them this year just to see how it goes, we don’t want to be left with any! It will be quite a big outlay, they are not cheap to buy in, so get your Christmas trees here, I will make Hubby wear a Christmas hat for added humour. We did get a bit carried away when planning it and had reindeers and Santa in mind also, but I think we better walk before we run don’t you?

Nearly forgot to give you an update on Mia, apart from her concrete boots, she is settling in very well, she has a laid back nature and takes everything in her stride, she even comes back when you just whistle her. She has taken to stalking the chickens though and I am not sure if it is just because they move and she is playing or if she sees them as potential dinner, she is a greedy puppy. I decided cure her by putting her in a pen full of hens, great, she spent her time eating chicken poo and ignoring the chickens, I need another plan!

Time in general seems to be flying past, the day, the week, the month, the year, life! As I have Said before, one reason for writing this is to be able to look back years from now and remember what we did, what we learnt and the laughs and tears we had on the journey.

One of the the most unpleasant days is septic tank emptying day, it gets emptied once a year and I always forget just what a stench it is, luckily it was not a hot day this year. The lorry has to park close to the kitchen window in order to be able to reach the pipes to the tank, it begins sucking up the contents and the stink begins. If you are one of those that think your s..t doesn’t stink, think again lol, and the smell does not leave once the lorry has gone, it lingers for hours, opening the doors and windows does not relive it. Luckily I had a phone call inviting me out for coffee and I quickly took the offer up!

Little Mia, the puppy, has been poorly this week, we thought at one point she would not make it through the night even though she had had an antibiotic shot, luckily she did and is well on the way to recovery, in fact she is full of beans this morning 🙂 Consequently she has not been up to much this week but I am sure she will make up for it very soon.

We have an escaped duck that is sat the other side of the the fence, as I write, up in the back paddocks. It was my aim to move the young ducklings that we were given from the local hotel a while back, they are getting big and making a mess of the paddock so it was time to move them to the duck pond area. I managed to catch two of them but the third was on a mission not to be caught, she went through the only gap in the livestock fencing, up and over the wall into the next farm. We spent the best part of yesterday morning trying to get her back from the thick undergrowth of the hedge, we failed, she spent the night out and luckily is still there this morning,I have tried coaxing her back with a bread trail but as yet that is unsuccessful. The thing with ducks is they are quite nervous and so the minute you take a step towards them they shoot off, I am hoping she comes back through the hole of her own accord otherwise she is likely to be fox food!

Hubby has at last finished the cladding on the front of the building and it looks very smart indeed, I used to be a bit embarrassed to say the least about the state of the building we lived in, but now I look at it and think wow, that looks good, I don’t mind saying That’s our home now 🙂 I think people think we are a bit mad actually, moving from all the mod cons to what was at best a shed with accommodation, but over the years we have made it warm and cosy, decorated it and made it home. If an opportunity presents itself to you in life then take it that’s what I say, you never know what adventures you will have along the way.

The air temperature is definitely falling in the mornings and evenings, Autumn is just around the corner and it seems to be catching us unawares because of the lack of Summer. The plums and the walnuts appear to be ready and I keep thinking that’s too early but of course it’s not, it just we are not ready for it yet. I have noticed one sign that indicates the nuts are ready, dead squirells on the road, obviously run over while they have been out collecting. I have not seen ours yet but I am sure he will be making an appearance soon. We have cleared all the suckers and and debris from under the nut trees so that we can collect them when they begin to fall.

Good news, one of the liveries has just come and knocked on the door to say that the duck is back this side of the fence, now I just need to catch her and put her in with the others, easier Said than done!

The amount of jobs to do seems to have overtaken the amount of hours to do them in again, it is a busy time again, after waiting for everything to grow, it’s now time to harvest and process everything, but it all comes at once. I need to check the sweet corn and see if they are ready and they will need cutting off, blanching and freezing. I was determined to have more sweet corn this year because the taste was sooooo good last year, seemed like a good idea at the time, now I am thinking, thats a lot of corn to process. The greenery on the pumpkins is beginning to die back and reveal just how many pumpkins we have managed to grow and how big some of them are. It’s all about preparing for the Winter months now, including cleaning out the Rayburn ready to fire her up when it gets too cold. I am quite looking forward to having it lit though, nice warm kitchen and long slow cooking stews mmmmmmmm what am I saying, as if life does whizz past as it is, I am wishing it away.

Well we made it through the two weeks holiday with barely a mention of divorce so I consider that a triumph! The jobs on the list have yet to be finished as the wood has still not arrived to finish re cladding the front of the building and Hubby decided to start another major job right at the end of the fortnight. The tack room is in desperate need of an overhaul, it is dark, dingy and dusty, after ripping out all the old units etc the job of digging the floor up ready to be concreted began, it was going well until about halfway through Hubby hit the water main with the pick axe, I don’t know why I was surprised really it was inevitable I think. After a few choice words the repair was made and it is now ready to be concreted hopefully next weekend, I have been on the look out for anyone taking out an old kitchen and have a couple of offers so fingers crossed. It will be nice to be able to have somewhere pleasant to make tea for the farriers when they come.

The fortnight seems to gave gone by so quickly and we never did manage to get those couple of days away, we were supposed to go down to Dad’s in Wales but sadly a family death meant that he had to come up here for the funeral and that put paid to that. While he was here I made good use of his knowledge and got him to show me what all the old tools we have lying about were used for and pick his brains about a few other bits that will need doing but we had no clue on how to go about them. It is a shame he is so far away now because he can do all the old trades, hedge laying, shearing, thatching, hay making, stonewalling, he would be worth his weight in gold if he was nearer 🙂

Some of the chicks have hatched out in the back paddock, the ones with the three broody hens sat on them, although the three of them in together keep squashing the new arrivals, I have had to take one of them out and place her and the chicks elsewhere otherwise there would be more dead chicks than live ones. We have changed the entire feed for the poultry this week to see if it kick starts the egg laying, we ought to be getting about 50 eggs a day but we are only picking up 20 if that, the demand for eggs has gone up and at the moment we are unable to meet it. The ducks on the other hand are laying well and the customer demand for those has also increased lately which is great, at one time I was giving duck eggs to the dogs for thier dinner but not anymore, they now have Quail eggs if I end up with too many sitting around, they seem to like them and eat the shell as well.

Yesterday we phoned the people about the puppy and she said you can pick her up anytime, we will be there in an hour, I said! We bought Mia home and introduced her to the other dogs, the chickens, geese and horses, I think she was a little overwhelmed. Her first major discovery is what happens when you try to get through the electric fence, yelp, she shot off across the field startling the sheep so much they ran away from her. No doubt there will be plenty of Mia stories to come over the next few weeks.