Tag: Autumn

Posted in Friesland Farm

A lot of rain, a lot of wood-chip & a few celebrations 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 14th October: Not raining this morning and it hasn’t rained overnight 😀 although by 12pm Mother nature just couldn’t help herself 😜 However I did manage to get some good jobs done before the rain started, John had cleaned both the big hen huts over the weekend and so it was my turn to clean out some pens. I started with the duck hut, got all the wet soggy straw out and put nice clean stuff back in although it won’t stay like that very long 😐 next it was the turn of the quail, clean out all the wet, dirty soggy stuff and refresh with clean, dry straw. I also got a piece of polycarbonate (which actually was for another job but I can get some more) and stapled it to the side of the hut, putting the dogs away first of course otherwise Mia would take off 🤪 The polycarbonate is to stop the rain blowing in and this making a nicer environment for the quail, it’s see-through which is perfect for letting light in but keeping the wet off. They seemed pretty happy with it all, I also gave them a bit of a treat with some wild bird seed. Next onto cleaning out the Turkey pen, I let them out to roam as it’s easier to do it without them in there, there are signs of rats so I need to sort that out.

After that is when it began to rain so I tackled the small poly tunnel, Monty Don says the tomatoes won’t ripen anymore and I am inclined to agree with him, so I picked all the remaining tomatoes, green and ripe ones and cleared the plants from the tunnel. I have put the basketful in the shed as he says they may ripen in the dark, I’ll give it a go and if they don’t it’s green tomato chutney time 😀 I put in a top dressing of fresh compost and planted the left side with garlic bulbs, the two small tubs I have sown some giant winter spinach and hopefully they will all grow well. I did notice some mouse activity in there, clusters of eaten hazelnuts and tell tale holes so I have set the mousetrap 😏 I don’t want the garlic bulbs all eaten before they get going.

With that job done I then picked some broccoli and purple sprouting spears for dinner tonight and picked a few bits that had gone to seed and gave them to the rabbit/guineas who squealed with delight lol.

I took a couple of other photos while I was out there, the first was a little ‘shroom village’ I love his time of year when these appear all over the place, I like to imagine that they are indeed little villages 😜 The second photo is of our ducks making the most of the recent downpours which has left a small lake in the corner of the paddock. The river that goes with it has now gone but it has left a playground for them to enjoy. Late last night when we were stood out there we could hear wild ducks also enjoying the temporary feature.

Lunchtime 😀 then tidy and clean the boot room, I have been looking at ways to improve this room, gently showing pictures of a built in thing to John lol. Ideally I would like a bench to sit on when getting boots on and off, mostly for the grandchildren 😉 and I have a few other ideas that would make the room more workable than it is at the moment, we will see, it may never happen but it just might if I’m lucky ☺️

Well that took me all afternoon and then some to tackle the boot room 😜 I managed to bin a black bag full of stuff and a black bag full of old coats, gloves etc for the clothes bin and now it looks a whole lot better than before. I have also secured a date from Martin to do some carpentry out there 😀 Hopefully I will eventually get a room that works rather than a room I have to work around 🙄 The only problem with getting it sorted is that a lot of it got put out into the next undercover bit lol so guess what is on the jobs list for tomorrow.

A bonus of tidying and sorting was that in the preserves cupboard there is mincemeat and I found a couple of bottles of sloe gin I have made either last year or the year before 😀

It hammered down again this afternoon and John came home early to a few jobs lol, the eggs and feeding because I was still knee deep in boot room junk, then rod the drain out the back because the water was starting to come in, change a light bulb (not an ordinary one or I would have done it myself) haha no peace for the wicked 😜

Dinner, animals shut away, dogs washed so they can come into the clean boot room and the day is done. And still it keeps on raining 😏

Tuesday: So as stated the job on the list this morning was the undercover back area but first the animals all need feeding and letting out. On my first trip up to the small back paddock I can see that Jack has let himself out into the large paddock, Biscuit, bless her has stayed where she should. She is a very sweet little Shetland pony, they can have the affectionate term of ‘shitlands’ 😂 but she is not of that ilk…..not yet!

Onto the job in hand and starting to sort out what needs keeping and putting away and what needs throwing out. Over the years we seem to have accumulated a huge array of gadgets and gizmos that do various jobs around the place, sometimes they may only get used once a year, sometimes they are in constant use just depends on what needs doing. One thing we do have a lot of is horse paraphernalia 🙄 anyone who has horses or has someone living with them will know that they don’t throw anything away. They also get given old stuff from people giving up the horses and so it continues until the place is stuffed with numnahs, bridles, head collars, saddles and rugs of every type, one for the wet, one for the cold, one for a bit wetter or a bit colder, one for -5 -10 -15 one for the summer, one for the flies, its endless, pretty sure the horse couldn’t give a flying **** about being trussed up and would love to just run free 😜 That said I have found spaces for it all and the rest of the stuff and it’s looking a whole lot tidier out there which in turn gives me a clear mind and a happy disposition, objective achieved 😬

Yesterday when I was tidying up the boot room I was sighing at the amount of alcohol that was in the preserves cupboard, we don’t drink that much, some of it came from Johns Mums house, most of it from birthdays and parties that didn’t get used and is still there. Then I looked in another fridge we have out the back that is not plugged in and more bottles of various alcoholic beverages, I’m thinking of having a bottle stall 😜

I have discovered a leak in my greenhouse 😏 not a big one but with all the rain we are having it’s finding it’s way in, I have mentioned it to John and it looks like a roof window so as soon as the weather backs off we will fix it.

The sun shone beautifully this afternoon and it was most welcome in fact I went out to the front and just stood there letting it warm me, it had a good bit of warmth in it too considering the time of year. It made doing the afternoon rounds a pleasant job instead of drudgery.

Wednesday: Turned out to be a lovely day full of sunshine. In the morning after the rounds I did a bit in the big tunnel, I can’t do as much as I want to get done because I want to protect the pathways with the wood chip before I start barrowing manure into there, so I did some cutting back and tidying up. I sorted out some tomatoes and the little bit of remaining veg to go out for sale and found a bucketful of greens for the rabbit/guineas.

The guy came with the wood chip which was handy, the pile is huge and he has more if I want it. I got stuck into moving some of it straightaway, 15 shovel fulls in each barrow, around 30 loads, backwards and forwards until I was a bit pooped lol, and hot because the sun was still shinning fiercely. It should easily do all the pathways in the veg garden with a good thick cover which will kill off the weeds and make walking round the garden a lot less messier after the rain 😀 a quick rest and cool down before the afternoon feeding gets done.

It took me half an hour to cool down and another 15 mins to be able to move 🤪

I did think that after doing the rounds I wouldn’t be able to do any more woodchip moving but I found a bit in the reserve tank and did a few more barrowfuls. The sun was beginning to sink lower and lower, as it was still sunny the gnats were up and dancing into the night and I have enough issues to process without all over bites adding to the mix so I called it a day.

At dark John usually puts the animals away to bed, when the clocks change and it gets dark early it will be my job but for now it’s his. Tonight he called on me to help him as Ted was up on the roof, who is Ted I asked him, Ted the Turkey he replied 😂 I had no idea he had named him, just him it seems as he is the only one of the three that won’t go to bed nicely lol.

Thursday: A cold night and a ground frost this morning, I made the mistake of thinking because it was sunny yesterday it would be warm enough not to light the Rayburn, wrong, it was cold and a tad damp which is even worse 🙄 So it will probably get lit every night from here on in and eventually will be running all day and night.

I did the morning rounds and then went to check on the torts as I do each morning, I can’t find Billy 😏 he was there yesterday and they can’t get out, I will do another good search later but judging by the ground disturbance where I last saw him something has taken him, he is pretty heavy mind you and I wouldn’t think an animal would get far with him, also he would be pretty difficult to eat if not impossible.

I went out to get my hair cut with Shelley and when we came back Sam was here with the twiglets. Shelley went to have a look for the tortoise and crisis averted it seems I didn’t look hard enough 😂

The chap with the woodchip came with a second load 😬 and now I literally have heaps of it.

Did the afternoon rounds, lit the Rayburn got the dinner ready and sat down with a cuppa 😀

Friday: Repeat blood tests this morning so up and on with it 😀 I went to Shelleys afterwards where we put together a new toddler bed for Florence and then had some soup before returning home. Shelley stayed for a bit and barrowed some woodchip with Josh and Flo helping until they got bored and cold lol. This evening we are going to Sams for tapas so I made those, I did dates stuffed with sheep’s cheese and wrapped in prosciutto and some gluten free mushroom pin wheels, I also roasted a bunch of grapes to see how they would turn out 🙄

I bought some kefir the last time we went shopping and I had a sup today but I have found it makes me feel sick, it’s the second time I have tried it and the same result so I maybe won’t be trying that again. Kombucha I can tolerate so will stick to that I think.

Saturday: A dry start to the day, John did the morning rounds while I did housework, a bit more in depth than a run around of the hoover and a flick of the duster this time 😂 So that took up a large part of the day and I can now see the top of the kitchen table which had got clogged up with ‘stuff’ John meanwhile did some cleaning out of the hens and cut back some tree branches that snapped off last winter and were overhanging the neighbours field.

In the afternoon we watched the live parliament debates wondering what the heck is going to happen with Brexit and hope that they sort something out sooner rather than later.

It was Johns 40 year school reunion this evening which was great fun, considering it wasn’t my year or even my school I knew quite a few people there, having never moved away we both still see a lot of old school friends locally.

Oooo yes and Charlie and Macca got engaged today 😀😀

Sunday: A clear night last night meant a cold start to the day this morning 🙄 John did the morning rounds while I did some mundane household jobs 🤪 Then we went out for breakfast which made a nice change. John went off to visit his Mum and I took the time to get into the greenhouse and pot up a few plants that my Mum had bought over, some stocks (a nice cottage garden flower) and some dancing ladies which are rose campion but in various different colours. I just need to decide where I am going to plant all these flowers lol and also decide if I am going to totally rearrange the garden (which will be a mighty task) or just to modify it.

Tea and cake in the afternoon at Mums for my niece Zeraphina’s 3rd birthday and not is that another day done but also another week.

Take care and take time to enjoy something everyday however small.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Procrastination, lots of rain & leftovers.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Captains Stardate 7th October 2019 😜 Monday again already, I’m pretty sure that along with the rest of you, I’ve no idea how time flies by so fast so enjoy every day, enjoy the little things that make you smile, a favourite tune with the volume up, take a few seconds to really feel the sun, rain, wind on your face (this might not make you happy but they are a confirmation that you are alive and well, which should) put your wellies on and jump in a puddle, go on really have a good splash around, look around on your journey and take note of something you have passed by a million times and never really seen before, life is precious and can change in a split second so make the most of everything.

It’s raining this morning 🤪 I procrastinated a little by cleaning the area around the hob where the piece of kitchen fell down, it’s now back up but the area needed tidying and the dust wiping down. I should have gone out and done the rounds first though as by the time I did it was raining much heavier 🙄 A quick round, as John had already topped up all the water buckets last night, and back inside to have a coffee and a think about what to get done today.

I picked up some garlic bulbs yesterday when we went to the garden centre to get some more compost, I need to divide up a few plants and pot them ready for spring time. The circle of the year constantly turning never ceases to amaze me as already the saffron crocus and the muscari are pushing up some tiny shoots of green, spiderwort tips are also beginning to emerge though of course they will all slow right down in mid winter it’s nice to see they have hope lol. The sunrise this morning was a vibrant pink, though if you had only looked out of the front windows you would have said it was grey, different aspect gives a different outlook.

I rather feel I am procrastinating again sat here typing away so I’d better get on with something useful 😏

So firstly I set to making the red tomato chutney:

2 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes all sizes cut the bigger ones

7floz red wine vinegar, cider vinegar if you don’t have red

6oz muscavado sugar or any sugar will do you just get a different colour result

4 small onions chopped

4 small cloves of garlic chopped

1 cooking apple chopped

A couple of handfuls of sultanas, I used the ones I made from the grapes

A sprinkle of ginger powder

A sprinkle of paprika

Put it all in the pan bring to the boil then reduce and simmer for approximately 1 to 1 1/12 hours, put into sterilised jars, they will store for at least a year if not longer.

Did you know that 24 million slices of bread are wasted every single day in the UK! This house is no exception when it comes to leaving the crusts, generally I throw them out for the birds but today I have about 4 crusts, a hunk of bread and a couple of flatbreads that should have been eaten over the weekend and weren’t so I made a bread pudding. I’m am not keen on the traditional looking pudding with slices of bread, the edges always seem to end up hard so I did it the other way. The bread was whizzed up into crumbs, we had a seeded loaf but that’s fine, all adds to the flavour 😀 I added milk, sugar, sultanas, egg, mixed spice, melted butter and let it all soak in so the mixture is soft and then bake it for a delicious pudding or as a cold slice with a cup of tea. You could doctor this anyway you want to, orange, lemon, cinnamon, ginger, cherries, dried fruit of any type, even chocolate chips whatever flavours you have or fancy. The basic measurements were, 250g bread, 300ml milk, 50g melted butter, 1 large egg, 70g brown sugar, the rest is up to you 😀 John doesn’t like bread and butter pudding he says, my guess is he has never had it and I won’t tell him what it is just leave on the side until he asks if he can have some lol, I’ll let you know what happens, if he really doesn’t like it all the more for me in the freezer 😀

I have been taste testing the chutney as it reduces, I think this one is going to be one that needs to mature, the temptation is to add more sugar but I’m going to leave it and hope that after a couple of months in store the flavour has deepened.

I’m on a roll now with the whole ‘making’ things, especially with leftovers today, next was the vegetable box at the bottom of the fridge 😀 A few sticks of celery, some wrinkled mushrooms, and I am on my way to making vegetable stock for soups over winter. We all have those bits that need using up and there is no better way than throwing them all in a pan with some herbs and seasoning, simmering it for a couple of hours to end up with a useful pan of goodness that can either be drunk as a gut healer or used in winter soups like leek and potato. When you peel your veg put all the scraps in a bag and pop it in the fridge until you have enough, nothing is off limits here, peelings, provided you have washed them, from sweet potato, carrots, swede, parsnip, etc, anything remotely vegetable like that is lurking and unlikely to get used otherwise, add a chopped onion, some garlic, a tomato or pepper, brassica, literally anything (except beetroot unless you want a red stock 🙄) You will get a different result each time probably but all will be tasty. Separate the veg from the juice and either use the juice or freeze it, don’t discard the veg, whizz them up and use them in your soup recipes as well. You can of course just whizz up the whole lot at the end of simmering and use that but if you want a separate stock for any reason that’s the way to do it.

Tuesday: I got woken up at 5.30 by a peculiar noise a bit like someone trying to shoulder a door in but it wasn’t, I got up and looked out but it was pitch black and I could see anything or hear anything more, it’s a mystery. The next odd thing was Benny wasn’t around, he is usually there miaowing away in the morning for his breakfast, by the time John had gone he still wasn’t there. I went out and called him and he came running from the haybarn, phew, I guess the nice comfy bed of hay is a lovely place to sleep 😴

I am also buzzing this morning with an idea given to me by a visitor yesterday. Kellee is over from the USA and she used to live here on the farm with her Mum (Sue, my Dads partner) and her sister Robin. She loves to come and visit as it bring back childhood memories, she mentioned Airbnb experiences where people get a unique experience in the things they are interested in. I have looked it up this morning and am thinking, yep, I could easily do that here, gardening, grow your own, smallholding, chicken keeping, any number of things really, it’s all buzzing round in my head now lol but it definitely something to think seriously about.

I did a stint in the big tunnel, weeding cutting back getting the dead stuff out then picked a few raspberries, the Autumn ones are doing well if you can get them before the rain spoils them. After having a good few days of feeling quite able, by lunchtime today I was flagging. Being able to recognise the fact that I am feeling tired is helpful because I no longer push myself to the limits and end up much worse, these days I go and have a sit down and maybe even a short nap 😀 to recharge my batteries.

It hammered down in the afternoon, just as well that Shelley, Josh and Flo called in after picking Josh up from school. After the left I did a bit of hoovering and then sorted the walnuts out again 🙄 I had washed them and dried them all then put them on a rack, from the apple storage, but some of them still developed a mould so I wiped them all over with a dry cloth and I have put them in the oven on 50c probably for an hour to try and dry out the shells better. I don’t want the nut inside to dry too much though I want that to dry naturally. I did think about shelling them now but the not meat is still too soft and it’s a bit of a mission just to get one out.

Wednesday: It rained quite heavily in the night and so it was a bit soggy this morning 🙄 I did the morning rounds and I’m keeping the stable birds I for a few days as they have become freeloaders 😜 actually, I have no idea where they are laying and we could do with the eggs. I then went into the greenhouse and picked all the remaining peppers, the foliage is starting to fall off and so that’s pretty much the end of those. There were plenty to pick, mostly small but they will still be useful, I then thought I may as well do the same to the courgettes and cucumbers, if we get a sharp drop in the overnight temperatures they won’t be much good after so pick them now while they still have a bit of substance to them. I also cut some lemongrass, that has grown really well and I would definitely grow it again, it has such a wonderful smell 😀 if you like Thai cooking I would encourage you to grow it or even if you just want to make limoncello 😀 I need to find out what other things I can do with it.

I had quite a few smallish cucumbers so I have begun to make some cucumber relish, ideal for hot dogs, at the moment they have been finely chopped along with onion and red pepper and are sat in salt to draw out the moisture, I can then make the relish tomorrow.

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before so apologies if I have but going back to the peppers, I have never had much luck with them, I usually end up with one tiny pepper lol, but this year in the new greenhouse, wow, they have done really well and they didn’t even go in there until quite late so I’m excited to plan again for them next year, maybe even a few chillis and I may even try an aubergine again 😜 Just goes to show that the right tools for the job is the way forward.

I also pulled a few ‘mooli’ radish, these are the round ones, accord I think, I got free seeds and thought I might as well give them a go, well they taste great and they grow bigger than a French breakfast radish (size of a golf ball or you can grow them to tennis ball size) but don’t ‘blow’ so they don’t get hollow and woody, these will be a definite regular from now on, they will replace the more familiar red and white radish.

I am off out to Sudely Castle tonight for a audience with my favourite author Phillipa Gregory, very much looking forward to that and we are having Tudor tapas, the mind boggles but I will let you know what they consist of tomorrow lol. In the meantime I have got shepherds pie ready for an early dinner and I will be doing the rounds earlier than usual.

I am hoping that we have a couple of dry days in store so that I can get out on the garden and give it a good tidy, plus I need to dig up the self set potatoes before they rot in the ground.

This afternoon we were sat having a cup of tea in the living room when I spotted a Hummingbird moth on the Verbena which was bobbing about in the breeze, amazing little moth, though I had to have a look at a picture online as they don’t stay still long enough to see what they actually look like lol.

This is a pic from the internet not mine 😬

Thursday: A lovely sunny morning, slightly chilly but hopefully it will warm up a tad over the course of the day.

Last nights outing to hear Phillipa Gregory was fabulous, a talk on the hidden women in history, which was most of them as they were only recorded either through their husbands, through work they may have done and thus recorded in household journals or through crime, was riveting and I could have listened to her for hours. The Tudor tapas were venison sausages in onion chutney, kipper on top of bruschetta and a veg option of avocado on bruschetta followed by a lemon posset/parfait type dessert, fab evening 😀 I do have her new book (signed 😀) to read but I shall resist the temptation during the daytime unless is raining in which case I think that’s allowable lol.

I have bloods this morning and my flu jab 🙄 I have had varying reactions to the jab each year, sometimes nothing at all, sometimes a very sore arm that flared up every few weeks, sometimes decidedly unwell, however I think the alternative doesn’t really bear thinking about especially if there is an epidemic, we have all seen how it can move through animal populations rapidly (bird flu especially) the devastation it would cause in the human population doesn’t bear thinking about, so off I go.

Friday: Ooo what a terrible morning, it’s raining, sometimes hard and it’s blowing a hoolie. At first I thought urgh I don’t want to go out in that but then I had an attitude adjustment and figured at least it will be refreshing and might wake me up a bit lol. We have a long wait until Spring so I am going to have to make the most of what Winter brings, dark mornings and dark evenings, wet weather, cold weather, freezing weather, ice maybe even snow. It also brings the opportunity to get things done indoors, a bit of crafting maybe, reading, catch up on films I have missed over the summer, planning for next years veg. There are also a few of my favourite times of year to celebrate, All Hallows Eve, Bonfire night, Winter Solstice, a few winter birthdays and of course the great Winter Feast that is Christmas.

I started growing pumpkins the year before the first grandchildren were born I think and now it has become a must grow item for me to be able to carry on the tradition lol. I tend to grow small ones that are also suitable for eating but might have to move into the realm of giant pumpkins later on 🎃

I procrastinated a little until the weather looked more acceptable then went out and fed and watered everything letting them all out as I went. It was actually quite mild out there and I wanted to get a couple of jobs done, the first was to divide up my hardy geranium and get some small plants on the go ready for next spring. I got 11 in total, I won’t need most of them so they will go out for sale next year providing they take and make through the winter. The next job was to dig up some self set potatoes, these particular ones come every year in the same place, they are from a batch of Red Duke of York that I planted about 5 years ago. Each year they grow back, strong, healthy plants, no sign of blight no scab they just do really well and they are mostly growing in old manure! It just goes to show that you really don’t need to faff about with some veg they will make it anyway and without any problems. They produce whopping big spuds, ideal for a hungry worker who wants a baked potato 😀 the only problem that does occur is slug damage to some of them because they are growing in something that holds moisture which is why I wanted to get them dug up sooner rather than later. Those were the two things I really wanted to achieve today and so job done ✅ I had a few more walnuts in the greenhouse that I cleaned the outer cases off last week so I bought those in and gave them a wash in some white vinegar and then dried off the shells in a very low oven for about an hour. It should be air drying but I found that because we don’t have constant heating, mould starts to appear on the shells so properly drying them off is a must.

Went out with Sam, Shelley and the children for coffee and cake in the afternoon.

Got a hammering from the rain when the heavens opened at feeding time 🌧 I was trying to find the turkeys who had wandered off, the rain was pouring, splattering onto my glasses which were steaming up, the wind was blowing wet hair onto my face despite having my hood up, urgh hate times like that lol times like that I think what the actual ‘bleep’ am I doing 😜 Came indoors and went straight to the kettle for a nice hot cuppa ☕️

Saturday: Wet, nothing more to say about it than that! John did the morning rounds which gave me a chance to catch up with all the bits indoors that needed doing, the usual mundane stuff such as hang up clothes, put the rubbish out, wash up, a plethora of small jobs that all add up to an hour or two of busy 😜

I had a phone all from the doctor last night about my blood results and no wonder I have been feeling tired, my white cells have dropped too low again 🙄 great, there never seems to be an even keel these days, at least I know why I haven’t been up to speed I suppose but it gets me wondering about exactly how to handle this disease 🤔

We didn’t do a lot more today other than go and get some bits of food shopping and visit Mum and Ken, the afternoon rounds when we got back and light the Rayburn.

Sunday: Oh my days it has been raining heavily all through the night, there hasn’t been much let up for a couple of weeks now so you can imagine what that brings 🙄 I woke up at 6.30 that was not the first time mostly due to the noise of the rain on the tin roof, I got up and made a cuppa then went back to bed and did a bit of reading. I couldn’t sleep because I was wondering what we would be greeted with out there come daybreak and what to do about it. The horses have been grazing a large paddock all summer but it has no overhanging shelter apart from trees at one end, there is plenty of windbreak from the hedges but that doesn’t help in these conditions, we had left the other paddocks to work as standing hay hoping that by the time we needed it the grass would be exactly that. But needs must when the weather drives and this morning I need to move them to a field with a shelter, I couldn’t bring them in as they are already soaking and would get cold standing in a stable, we don’t have luxury features such as a dryer lol. When I first went out to the paddocks the water that is standing came over the foot of my welly by the time I had got the hay nets and gone back out a river had formed down through the middle of the all the side paddocks and the rain is not letting up 😏 I moved the horses and they seem happy to be in a field with grass but they can’t gorge on too much grass all at once, I don’t have an alternative at the moment though.

Delighted that I just managed to secure a load of wood chip from a tree surgeon next week 😀 that will go on the veg garden paths, they are in desperate need of doing especially with all the rain.

The rain eventually eased off though how long for is anyone’s guess.

My brother went to a garden centre that was selling off all its stock ready for a refit, he picked up some packets of seeds for me at 10p a packet, I think I need to plough up a field 🤣

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lots of rain, passata & baked beans 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 30th Sept: Oh don’t you just love Monday mornings 🙄 I wanted to get on but the gremlins are at it again, half way into feeding the electric trips again 😏 Our electric consists of 4 fuse boxes each one reaching further out into the farm, so the main box is in the kitchen, then we have another in the outer building another in the stable block and then one in the hay barn. This means multiple trips backwards and forwards to discover which fuse is actually causing the problem, I unplug everything and turn everything off and go through a process of elimination backwards and forwards, plugging back in as I go until I am left with the stable fuse box which is knocking out the main box in the house. Eventually I find the individual fuse that is causing the problem so now we have everything working except the sockets in the stable block, everything is unplugged but it’s still not staying on so I’m guessing it’s actually a socket that is the problem but which one 🤪 The problem is that this ring of sockets are the ones out to the electric fencing in the side paddock so I’m hoping the horses and the chickens don’t work it out until we get it sorted 🙄 At least I can make a coffee now 😀

I spent the rest of the morning out in the veg garden, it is supposed to rain later so I’m taking advantage of the dry morning. First some weeding and tidying of the small poly tunnel and then onto some small raised beds, all the weeds went to the rabbits and turkeys who were happy to have some greens. I’m covering beds with weed membrane as I clear them, it will save me a whole heap of time in the spring and I did a couple of beds last year and it worked well, besides if I don’t get round to planting into them they will stay manageable. I squished a few caterpillars in the brassica cage, mainly on the sprouts, John loves them and so I grow 2/3 plants each year for Christmas. Then onto picking a few things, I still have plenty of tomatoes, a few courgettes, some peppers, the odd cucumber, thousands of hazelnuts on the floor 😂 so I’m still gathering in the harvest so to speak. I picked a few raspberries then some blackberries and by this time it’s lunchtime so I made an almond milk, banana, raspberry and blackberry smoothie and had a quick sit down before starting on tidying the house 🙄

The rain came on cue as I was hoovering 😏 so I spent some more time tidying up and sorting out tonight’s dinner, then out to do the afternoon rounds and collect the eggs.

I saw Cyril the squirrel tip toeing across my lawn, I said ‘I can see you Cyril’ at which point he stood stock still lol, then I said ‘it’s ok you can have the rest of the nuts I’m done collecting’ 😜 and he scuttled off towards the walnut tree.

John came home and we deduced that is one of the actual sockets that is causing the electric to trip, we now have to figure out which of the sockets it is and what’s causing it. As they are all inside at a guess something has got inside but that’s the best guess we have at the minute. The electric fencing will have to be plugged in the back here instead of the stable block and it needs doing before the horses realise it’s not on so that is Johns job later as I am going for a massage 😜

The lady and little girl that we got the pony from came over to see how she had settled in, very well so no worries there. We were in the field when a VERY LOW FLYING Chinook came right over where we were standing, you can imagine how the horses reacted not to mention the chickens flying everywhere. That has to be the lowest I have seen one fly and it’s bloody dangerous for both the horses and people when you are in the field and that happens. I sent a complaint via the website e-mail but it was returned as undelivered, typical, I have complained by phone in the past and found it doesn’t make any difference anyhow, so in future if I hear a helicopter I will get out of the field quickly!

Tuesday October 1st 😮 We are trying to get up earlier, we have been getting up around 7.15 which is quite late really. Last night I set the alarm but apparently did not turn it on 🙄 so again today it was around 7.15 before we got up. I like to think it’s the natural body clock and that it’s something we should follow and perhaps if we were both working here we would but John has to be at peoples houses before they go to work so that’s out of the window, for him at any rate 😜 I got the morning rounds done and it was already spitting with rain, by 9am we had a full on downpour and I think it’s set for most of the day so I haven’t made any plans to go back outside until necessary at feeding and egg collecting time later this afternoon. I have plenty I can turn my hand to indoors, some very outstanding paperwork, making some kind of sugar free goodies, checking thoroughly through the cctv to see if I can find out what actually happened to the cat. The more I think about it the less I think he just took off, I think he would have returned by now if that was the case, so I’m left with an accident of some sort or he has been taken, by what or who I don’t know and maybe the cctv can help, but there are nearly 100 hours of footage to look through 😏

I just had a quick look at the forecast, heavy rain right through to 9pm 😮

So rather than wall to wall rain, the sun actually came out ? By that time I was knee deep in paperwork 😏 but on the plus side the farm accounts are up to date, just need to do the plumbing ones but that can wait for another day, my eyes are tired, not used to doing a days paperwork anymore lol.

I felt the need for some stodgy food for dinner so we had a beef slice with homegrown mash potatoes and broccoli and then I made a sugar free pudding, basically I made a fruit sponge pudding with stevia instead of sugar, we had a small amount of ice cream with it and felt very full and satisfied. I know there are many people moving to a plant based diet but I wonder how many of them do a proper physical job, heavy lifting, digging, carrying 20kg sacks, lugging stuff about all day, working outside in the cold, I would bet not many, you really need some excellent fuel when you are doing jobs like that I think. Not one to write something and then carry on regardless, I looked it up, it seems you can do manual labour but supplements are mentioned and careful balancing of the diet is a must.

Wednesday: I had finished the morning rounds and was just finishing my coffee when Mum arrived to do some work 😀 I’m sure she has more than enough work of her own but she comes over to help when she can, love her 😘 Rather than work on the veg garden which is sodden we decided to sort out the plants directly in front of the house. When I put them all out there I had a definite idea of how I wanted it to look, which never really transpired due to one thing or another and now it’s looking, frankly, a muddle at the very least. So we moved pots around and took things out and put other pots in then got some of the weeds out of the gravel until it looked more structured and less cluttered. The sun was shinning so it was a good location to be working in.

John came home for lunch and a cuppa then after he left I cleaned out the rabbit which Josh has named Rosie and she is doing really well he even held her on his lap yesterday 😀 Then I went out and planted a few of the tulip bulbs in the driveway grass area, a bit of cheer for spring, we planted some crocus under the apple tree a month or so ago so it should be nice and cheery in the early part of the year. It’s getting near to (but not quite time for) feeding and so when I go out at this time of day I have stalkers 😋 the pitter patter of tiny hens feet and sometimes they are not even that subtle, launching themselves on a bucket if I happen to have one in my hand no matter what is in it!

By the way it’s a fab day, the sun is shinning and it’s not cold a real boost after the last week of rain.

Thursday: A frost again this morning, that’s two in a row and so the high water content veg will soon be showing signs of going over, the courgettes and outdoor tomatoes especially, the rhubarb leaves which were already wilting will fall off, the leaves on the trees will begin to brown and fall quicker 😔 There is no stopping the march of time into Winter 😜

Cor blimey that is a tad chilly out this morning, I came back in and put my wax jacket on instead of my gillet and even the ends of my fingers were feeling it inside my gloves 🙄 I flicked the electric fire on in the living room to take the chill off the air. John and I discussed lighting the Rayburn but it’s a difficult time of year to get it right, the building does not take much to heat it up so having the Rayburn on would make it too warm in here but without it it’s decidedly chilly in the evenings and early morning especially when it’s a cold night like last night. The temps today are forecast to be up to 13c but that is even through the night which would then be too warm and we would be sweating lol, ideally once the Rayburn is lit it wants to be kept going so it’s game of wait and see how long we can tolerate the chill for. The lucky thing is that the year before John cut enough wood for two winters, this will be the second one so he will have to cut more next Spring, lucky because he hasn’t felt well for a few months and so would never have got it done and we would have had to buy in. The good news is that he is feeling and looking much better, he is getting the hang of a healthier diet and rarely has cake, choc or biscuits and has cut down to around 5 cups of tea a day, anyone who knows him will realise what a big change that has been 😜 But he is much better for it 😀

I am having a coffee contemplating what jobs to do today, topping up bedding straw in some of the sheds/huts is a definite, especially as it’s got colder and wetter, the torts need to be monitored closely now to watch for them closing down towards hibernation. They need clean straw packed into their hut which they will spend more and more time in, when they no longer come out they will be packed away and put in the shed until next spring. There are the tomatoes of course lol, I will probably have a go at the Passata today, the last of the walnuts need cleaning up and drying ready for use and there is plenty I could do on the garden, some self set potatoes that need digging up and always at this time of year clearing of dead or dying stuff ah decisions decisions 🤔

I decided that first off, as I have been talking about it long enough and besides it was still a tad cold out, that I would make the passata. As I was doing it I was still thinking that I would freeze it but I have taken the plunged and put it jars and then in a water bath whoo hoo go me 😜 I will put two jars in the fridge just to be on the safe side but the other I will put in the dark preserves cupboard and leave it a while to see how it stores. I did the traditional Italian method (almost) but I think I would change a couple of things next time, the Italian way is processing the fresh tomato so no blanching to remove the skins as a lot of the flavour is in the skin apparently. I used some overripe toms and some just ripe but I would always use overripe in future as they are much easier, the bigger toms I used had a lot of flesh so they were fine but the smaller ones probably should have been scooped out and the middles put to the side, only small changes but things I think would make it better, the Italians by the way do scoop out but these were cherry toms so a bit fiddly. I kept the pulp pure so no basil or garlic because I may use it for chilli which won’t require basil. Not having a mooli 🙄 I used, firstly a steamer pan and squished them through the bigger holes then a sieve and the back of a wooden spoon to get as much as I could from them, a bit of effort required but not too bad with a small batch. I didn’t weigh the tomatoes but I ended up with three 1lb jars which I felt was a good ratio for the tomatoes I used. The pan has a clean tea towel in the bottom and wrapped round the jars to stop them moving about and as a bonus my tea towel gets a good boiling, win win I say 😀 It smells like a Chinese laundry in the kitchen with the tea towel boiling away, I know the smell because pre children I used to work in one (not a Chinese one but I like the saying) it reminded me of the hot washed sheets as they went through a huge roller machine that would dry and press them at the same time, funny how smells can bring back long ago memories.

Well I got the jars out of the water bath and the passata has separated 😏 nothing was ever mentioned in anything I have read so I did some further research and it seems that blanching the tomatoes is a very good idea, I didn’t do it remember, it’s a good idea because it destroys an enzyme that cause the separation of tomato and liquid, so in future I will definitely be blanching, apparently it’s still fine to use, it just doesn’t look good in the jar lol.

This is what I found:

‘During storage, pulp and juice in home canned tomatoes may separate, especially in sauce or juice made with crushed or puréed tomatoes. Separation is caused by an enzyme, Pectose (Pectinesterarse), found in high concentrations in tomatoes. The enzyme is activated when tomatoes are cut. To reduce separation, heat tomatoes quickly over high heat to 82 C (180 F) to destroy the enzyme’

We decided with the weather forecast for this evening, windy and wet, that we would light the Rayburn and so not one to waste the use of free cooking I cooked the first dinner of the winter on the top 😀 It will be nice to have warm dry towels and a overall warmth in the house.

Friday: I did the morning rounds and then mostly had the day off 😜 I went with Shelley, Josh and Flo to soft play where we met Sam, Mia & the twiglets as they have become affectionately known. By the time we got back in the afternoon John was already home and had lit the Rayburn, he went and got a few bits of shopping and then did the afternoon rounds while I did some tidying and hoovering. Shelley, Martin and the kids came over after tea and picked up Rosie the rabbit to take back to theirs and then early evening Charlie came over and we had cheese, wine and a proper natter, day done, bedtime 😴

Saturday: We got the rounds done had a coffee then went off to a local tractor spares jumble sale 😀 not just tractor parts there I should say but plenty of old and interesting bits and pieces too. I bought some lovely old tools, the craftsmanship is so much better than today’s stuff, a lovely old back hoe, I have been wanting to get one for ages and a lovely old fork, nice and light, little and beautifully made, no doubt it was a much loved tool for somebody. I also bought an old galvanised paint bucket, yesterday I went to the garden centre looking for something to plant into and everything is so expensive for what it was. This cost me a fiver, a bit of time cleaning it up and making holes in the bottom and voila a lovely planter for a splash of colour, happy as a pig in poo this morning 😀

When we returned John went to power wash the POL pen and I went into the garden, the outdoor tomatoes have blight which is a shame as there are loads of fruit on them, some beefsteak and some cherry but none of them any good so I pulled them all up and took them to the burning pile. I watered the poly tunnel, I keep forgetting that it needs doing now that the rain is doing the job outside 🤪 and I weedkiller the pathways, they are just too weedy to hoe and I’m not sure what else to do with them, I need a whole load of wood chip delivered ideally then I could use that to smother the weeds perhaps.

I still have plenty of tomatoes ripening I the tunnels and greenhouse but there are also a lot of green ones as well, that’s where green tomato chutney recipes are useful. I do though have a lot of very small cherry tomatoes that are ripe but smaller than average, I think I might do a ripe tomato chutney with these 😀

Sunday: Up and out to do the rounds, I was doing the orchard when I heard John chatting away and wondered who he was talking to, I suddenly remembered that the lads with the ferrets were coming this morning to do a bit of rabbiting lol. John went off to visit his Mum and I took a coffee out to the greenhouse, the sun is shinning this morning so it was a nice place to be for an hour or so. I spent my time, potting up some Chinese lantern that I had grown from seed but not yet divided and they were becoming a bit crowded in the one pot. The rest of the time I spent shelling beans and this is where the baked beans come in, they are haricot beans which I trialled and they did very well considering the few plants I grew. I also did a few kidney beans which also grew well, they have both been drying in the greenhouse waiting for the moment for me to shell them and now they are done. There are not many of each but it just shows that I could plant plenty more and they would be a good crop. I don’t think we use dried beans and pulses in this country as much as we should, me included. There seems to be divided opinion on wether to soak your dried beans prior to cooking or not, I think I may have to excitement with the soak and no soak methods and see which I prefer. I think I would err on the side of caution for the Kidney beans mind you as they contain a toxin that needs to be extracted before eating apparently but I shall still look forward to making a chilli with them at some point in the future, provided I remember to soak them prior to thinking, I’ll have chilli today 🤪

I let the turkeys out into the orchard pen today and the first thing they did was fly over the top! So they are currently grazing in the front paddock, turkeys are quite sweet birds, much more gentle than I thought they would be and quite timid, the chickens soon see them off and tasty morsel lying around.

With the daylight hours ever decreasing the egg numbers are dipping drastically too, I think currently we are feeding twice as many birds than are laying 😏 The last new lot have never got up to speed with only 38 eggs out of 50 and now they have dropped down to around 28. We have tried leaving them in until lunchtime to make sure they are not laying elsewhere, they have a light on for a few extra hours in the evening but it’s not helping much. They have been a ‘rouge’ batch from the beginning, the first day half of them flew over the electric fencing and we have not been able to keep them in despite multiple attempts at various things including heightening the fence, a lost cause is what they are I think.

Posted in Friesland Farm

A week to reflect and remember

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday November 5th:

Remember remember the 5th of November

gunpowder treason and plot

We see no reason why gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot.

And why not, it’s a very good excuse for a big bonfire and some amazing pyrotechnics, soup and hot dogs 😀

Years ago we used to do ‘penny for the Guy’ probably not politically correct now on soooo many levels 🤣🤣

Another morning of getting the paperwork in order and now it’s all ready to go so I can stop thinking about it, I also managed to get this years paperwork up to speed as well, go me 😀

Got the dinner sorted for later and watched the new season first episode of Outlander 😀

Then Sam and Mia arrived and we were so busy chatting I nearly forgot to light the fire 😝 it is much warmer today and so it didn’t really register.

Putting the birds tonight and one of the cats, Diesel was a proper pain in the rear, for some reason he decided I needed his company on the rounds, all very well except the birds are not used to him making an appearance like that and so were all of a twitter. He ran off in front of me to the front paddock then a cross it, then back again unnerving everyone, well one chicken wasn’t haven’t any of it and started chasing him across the paddock, never seen anything so funny 🤣

We have returned to putting a light in with the hens overnight, it’s rechargeable and runs out of battery early in the morning so they are not under light the whole time but just enough to keep laying enough eggs.

Tuesday: The morning after bonfire night and true to form it’s misty out, not as bad as I have seen it in previous years but still misty. It is also damp and looking at the forecast that will be the theme of the week 😕 rain 🌧

I have Mia today so not much will get done in the way of grown up stuff lol.

Wednesday: A rather dull and drizzly morning, temps are on the warmer side though. It was pretty windy overnight but that has settled this morning.

Once I had done a couple of indoor jobs I went out to get some bits done, in between rain showers and sun bursts, I collected a bucket full of weeds for the rabbits and moved three wheelbarrows full of muck onto the raspberries in the fruit cage. Three lots is just about all I can manage at the moment, it’s not pushing the barrow that’s the problem it’s digging into the heavy compacted pile that is hard work for my hands, so, little and often is what I will be doing until I can get John to help at the weekend. At least all the muck is now in the garden even if it is in a huge pile!

I am still working towards the forest garden and must admit that chopping and dropping is quite satisfying 😀 even chopping the tops off of the nettles and thinking, that’s a good bit of nitrogen for the soil, I am quite chuffed with how it’s all looking, to the untrained eye it looks messy 😉 but in reality it’s all good stuff for the soil with minimum effort, win, win.

Well it’s hammering down now so I abandoned outside, sat with a coffee and ordered a couple presents for the upcoming Winter festivities, I refuse to say the word until December 🤣

On a day like this I don’t really want to be getting a soaking unless it’s absolutely necessary and I need to come up with something for dinner tonight so after a rummage around in the freezer we have lamb pie. A pack of shop bought flaky pastry that has been in there for a good while, some saved, cooked lamb that would have been leftover from a roast, some swede, leeks, onions, celery, mushrooms (finely chopped, we are seeing how this goes with John, so far so good) pepper, lamb stock, a touch of mint jelly, Rosemary, 2 tomatoes (flesh only) and a dash of pontack sauce, smells fab and will hit the spot for a warming supper tonight. At this point I probably should have made something for pudding or a cake for the week but instead I thought I would have a go at something different and something I love, toffee 😀 Toffee, for me would be my last meal choice I think lol, and while I still have teeth that can chew it, I will. I used some walnuts and white choc chips and some sea salt, sprinkled it into a lightly greased oven dish then made the toffee to go on top.

I am waiting for a delivery today and get an e mail saying sorry we missed you, what! I have been here all the time, I check the crappy photo they send to prove they we here, that’s not my hedge, I check the cctv, no sign, I check for the card they left, nope, so they were in the wrong place, I email them through their website and it comes back with the dreaded demon mailer notification, bloody delivery companies, well not all but this one in particular is rubbish, thanks DPD for your great customer service…..not, and there is no other way to get in touch with them 🤬

Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and we were going to go out but it absolutely hammered down so Josh made chocolate fairy cakes instead.

Just as I literally put my wellies on to go out and do the feeding it started raining again, oh happy days, only a couple of days into winter and I’m already fed up with it, it got worse when I caught my foot in the electric netting and fell down in the mud, not a happy bunny this evening ☹️

The lamb pies were delicious 😋

Thursday: I always think it’s Friday on a Thursday, that is since Sam changed her job and my days for Mia changed, I wonder how long it will take for my brain to register it correctly again 😝 A damp but otherwise ‘non’ morning, the temps remain higher than last week so no need for early morning fire lighting. I did clean the flues out this morning though, I like to do it as regularly as possible at least until it’s lit nearly all the time, I made some bread did some hoovering, John had done all the outside and even washed, dried and put away this morning, as dinner was late last night I couldn’t be bothered to do it so left it lol. At this point I should have said well done or thank you, or should I because it’s his washing up too and so what I said was, ‘about time you haven’t done any all week’ and gave him a cheeky smile 😊

Went out to clean out the ducks in both pens and the light Sussex house, I found a round hole chewed in the bottom of the main duck shed, rats, no wonder we are not getting many duck eggs! I have decided this year to go back to old fashioned sprung traps, they can’t become immune to them 😝 like they can to the poison, besides they don’t then poison other wildlife and as long as they are placed sensibly they won’t hurt any other bird or animal. They are definitely under the shed as patch was sniffing and digging around, he is pretty good at getting them if we moved stuff and they run out, I have had a look in the stable block and they have been there also, so I have opened up one of the doors in the hope that the cats will get them, my plan was to move the ducks into a stable tonight but I will have to wait. Luckily we have a spare hut in the duck pen which I can put them in tonight, there are signs of rat activity there too as it’s only a few feet away but I will need to tackle one hut at a time. Even a concrete floor doesn’t stop them, in the end they chew through that as well!

I have ordered multiple traps 😀 and mouse traps too as the one in the poly tunnel is too big for the mouse, it stole the Camembert and didn’t set the trap off ☹️

I also spent an hour researching heated propagator tables/cables/mats etc to hopefully have more success with germinating more difficult things next year. I did think about building a table but that would be bulky and heavy, so then I thought I would look at the mats that you can use on the bench with polystyrene under, I thought that would be a better way to go because it can be put away once the weather warms up and stabilises. Then you have to be careful about what kind of plug it comes with, European or UK and what sort of wattage it puts out and if it comes with a thermometer or not, lol lots to think about. In the end I went for a UK manufactured one with a thermostat, though I have no idea what the wattage is as it did it say but I’m guessing it’s going to be around the temp I need so I will work with whatever it is. All the while I have been on here I have had the company of a tiny ‘money spider’ its keeps on walking round the edge of the iPad, then occasionally on my hand, I flick it off, it comes back round, do you think it’s trying to tell me something 😀

The wind has picked up a bit, that’s good it might dry out the wet mud and reduce my chances of slipping over again later 🤪

The spider is busy spinning threads 🕷 it’s quite fascinating to watch, it attached a thread to the iPad from somewhere in the air, I broke it, it went to collect the end and re attach it, so I broke it again and off it went to do it all over again.

John was at the hospital last night so it was me putting the birds away, normally this is pretty easy as they all know where they are going, except tonight because I shut off the duck shed to put the traps in there and opened up the other shed. They have been in there previously so you would think that as that was the only option available to them they would meander in there easily………nope, I tried for more than half an hour, with the daylight slowing slipping into darkness. The problem was they kept splitting off into multiple groups while I was trying to gently herd them towards the open door, well I got crossed and crosser lol, in the end I phoned John to see how long he would be as it would be easier with two, he was just coming up the lane, so I carried on trying and literally just as he got through the gate the buggers went in 😛😛😛

Friday: Gale force winds and rain forecast for later today, lovely 😕 Not bad this morning though, slightly colder but not too bad. The rat traps didn’t catch anything overnight but then I did it really expect them too, rats are cagey about anything different so it might take a while.

Did a few bits indoors then went out and fed the horse and the rabbits, checked the traps again (nothing yet)

I brought all the remaining seeds in from the greenhouse, I will keep them indoors over winter so they don’t get damp, I sorted them out and actually have a long list of seeds I already have, either left over, saved, free from magazines or bought in this year and not used, looks like I won’t need to get many more at all.

Well not sure what weather I was listening to when I picked up on gale force winds but it obviously wasn’t for our area 🤣 thank goodness because I hate high winds, everything creaks and groans and bangs about and it’s always at night!

Did the feeding and egg collecting a bit early as Mia is coming to stay overnight while Mummy and Daddy have a weekend away for a birthday treat, I only have her one night as she will go to her other grandparents for the next night.

Well the wind did pick up and it was quite gusty, it bought a tree down in the later further along from us.

Saturday: John did the animals this morning while I sorted Mia out with breakfast and dressing etc.

The sky came over very black midday, looks like it’s going to hammer down John said, and it did, it looked like someone was just throwing buckets of water at the window lol.

Yesterday I discovered black and white feathers in the garden, my light Sussex, and I am well peed off to find that there are only 7 out of 10 there grrrrr, they will have to be confined to the orchard for a while now, I don’t want to lose any more 😤

I haven’t checked the traps this morning I will do it later and I have more traps to bait and put down.

John goes off with a list to get some shopping while I lit the fire, no point doing anything outside might as well cosy up and hunker down. I had literally just got the fire going well when the electric went off, ffs 🤬 is nothing ever straight forward round here! I tried resetting it twice, well first I had to climb on a chair with the torch, then get back down as I needed my glasses to see, no luck so I put some wet weather gear on and go check all the outside fuse boxes and unplug/turn off anything that might have tripped it, yep a plug to the pump connected to the rain collectors, at least I worked it out. I am getting tired of the things that don’t work as they should round here I think it’s either time to move or time to build something more substantial, I can’t decide which at the moment 🤪

And then John comes home and asks me if I have been having a sleep 😬 he is always the positive to my negative, just think on the bright side he said, some people don’t even have electricity…….true. It’s not the lack of electric that worries me, I could manage easily enough but the fire needs the pump to take the heated water away from the boiler, the fire is lit, heating the water hotter and hotter and there is nothing to move it away, that’s the problem, it has plenty of safety features on it just in case that happens but still I have heard of people who have ‘cooked’ their rayburns like that.

Sunday: November 11th, The week started with a Remember, Remember and fittingly it ends with one, after doing the feeding etc we went out for coffee and pastries, then joined a couple of hundred people for the Remembrance service, last post and two minutes silence at the Town Hall. Good to see that many people turn out to honour those that fought for our freedom, I think they would feel humbled to know that we still honour them 100 years on and all those who fought in conflicts since then too. We also should not forget the huge numbers of animals, around 16 million, that also served in various ways including, Horses, donkeys, mules and camels, cats and dogs (to keep the mice and rats down in the trenches) pigeons and canaries.

To all those who served and especially to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, WE REMEMBER YOU AND THANK YOU

Posted in Friesland Farm

Winters here ❄️ Samhain & a disappointing sweet potato haul.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th October: Winter arrived with a bang this weekend and this morning it’s cold with a widespread hard frost brrrr. We were up early of course because the body clock doesn’t fall back along with the digital ones 😜 We have the usual ‘well it’s really an hour later’ conversations during the first few days until it all settles down.

One of the things I love to see in Autumn is the phenomenon of leaves falling all at once, this happens after a cold frosty night then when the sun hits the tree all the leaves fall at the same time, mostly on Ash trees I’ve noticed but it happens on others too just not in the same quantity, it’s like Autumns confetti 😀

There were some overripe bananas at Johns Mums that she won’t be using so this morning I have made a banana and Nutella cake, I have put a couple of the bananas in the freezer for easy banana ice cream if and when I need some. If you have never tried it then it’s a great way to use them, basically freeze them, then blitz them in a processor, either eat it there and then or re freeze it for a firmer ice cream, that’s it, no other ingredients necessary and it’s pretty good 😀

I lit the Rayburn while waiting for the cake to cook, since John insulated it the Sun no longer warms the place up like it used to, insulation is a double edged sword here, and that doesn’t even include the lack of a mobile signal because of it lol.

I need to get outside and clean out the duck pens this morning but I am waiting for the sun to defrost everything first, hence baking first thing, plus it warms up the kitchen a bit as we don’t have instant heating it can be a tad cold. I have now let all the orchard birds except the quail, out to free range on the veg garden, ducks and light Sussex all doing a great job of bug control, weed clearing and manuring 😀

I ran out of reasons to not go outside and so eventually went out to put fresh bedding in the orchard pens and cages, big mistake wearing woolly gloves to move straw about 😜 I was in the middle of it all when I heard the alarm call go up and the birds all start getting in a flap, I thought it was the Fox but nope, one of them had knocked over the wheelbarrow, and that’s all it takes for mayhem to begin 😝

It was actually quite pleasant in the sunshine to be fair and it’s a nice feeling to have cosied up all the nesting/sleeping areas for everyone even if it won’t stay clean very long!

I decided to make a start on the office now I have room to put stuff, so my sewing machine and paraphernalia has now got a home where I can get to it in the spare room. Whilst tidying and going through stuff I found all-sorts I had forgotten about, not least my college certificates etc, I got a distinction in organic gardening I had completely forgotten about that lol, there are essays and assignments for various subjects and lots of certificates I had long since forgotten about. I found diaries from 1908 & 1941 from a local farm, mostly illegible handwriting and mostly a log of the weather, cows calved and other general farming stuff by the looks of it, you would have to go through page by page to see if there were any titbits in there, not even a mention of the war as far as I can see, except a female employee left after 14 years working for him, presumably for the war effort.

I haven’t quite finished in there yet I still have reams of old paperwork to go through and throw away, I am aiming to get the filing cabinet looking neat, tidy and properly organised 😀

And what the heck do you do with a box full of technological cables? I have no idea what most of them are, everything we have plugged in or connected works fine so I’m guessing I don’t need all this other stuff but where do you take it?

Tuesday: Cold, windy but not frosty this morning, no Sun but a bit of rain first thing. I have Mia today so not much in the way of work will get done.

I am still having a few problems with my hands at the end of the day, I’m still not sure what it is by they get stiff and slightly painful in a couple of areas, one thought is the way I hold the iPad so I might stay off of it today and see if it makes a difference.

Just waiting for Mia to wake up from her afternoon nap, we have had a busy day playing 😀

I’ve done all the little jobs I can find and can’t start anything major as she is just as likely to wake up halfway through doing it lol. So thinking is the order of the moment and I was thinking back to something my sister said at the weekend, I gave her some Walnuts which I have not for out for sale as they are a bit hit and miss as to wether they are shrivelled or not. I was explaining that I didn’t want to charge a couple of quid for them if people found that half were no good, crack em open and sell them then she said, doh, why did I not think of that, so I think that’s what I will do, obviously it will take up some time but at least I won’t be wondering what to do with them all 😊

Wednesday: Made a schoolboy error last night saying to John ‘oh I don’t think it is going to freeze tonight, too much cloud cover’ wrong, very wrong! According to the met office the overnight temps in Oxfordshire went down to around -4 😝 It matters because we did not do the water buckets last night and this morning everything is frozen solid so I won’t be able to top them up until its thawed out a bit, hope the sun comes out soon. Also I let the fire go out around 6 last night because it got quite warm in here so this morning it’s only about 15c indoors which is a tad chilly!

I got some venison steaks out of the freezer for dinner tonight, I had forgotten they were in there, we don’t have it very often once every couple of years really but they will be nice pan fried and I will do some caramelised onions to go with them and chips 😀 I fancy chips today.

Had a split fitting on one of the outside taps and water spraying out everywhere so will need to get John to repair that when he comes home as it’s the only water down in the side paddock, good job I am married to a plumber 😀

Today of course it’s Halloween, the beginning of Samhain, as I say every year we do not get trick or treaters up here far too dark and out of the way 👻 I may persuade John to go and visit Charlie and Macca who have spooked up their house ready. I loved it when we lived in town and the kids knocked on the door all dressed up, I have been known to dress up to greet them 😀 And we have had a few great Halloween parties here in the past with carving competitions, pumpkin recipe competitions, we haven’t had one for a few years now but maybe next year now the grandchildren are getting old enough to stay up a bit longer.

Diesel showed up this morning, he has been awol for about a week, definitely getting fed elsewhere 😝

I went out with my Neighbour mid morning to a farm not too far away that sells it’s veg, quite a range of it too, brassicas, root veg, squashes a good selection, the details can be found on the Oxfordshire Smallholders Business and services page. After that we went to Millets farm for a coffee and a quick look round. I was surprised to read that most of their fresh produce was sourced within a 50mile radius. Millets started off as a small market garden and is now a big concern so good to see that their values are still well grounded.

Thursday: A wet, dull, misty morning, just like November should be 😝 John has let everything out and fed most of them just the rabbits to do, I will wait until the rain slows down a bit. We needed it because yet again we have gone weeks without very much at all and everything is bone dry, for a country that is know for the rain it has been very absent over the last 6 months.

Over an hour and a half later and it’s still raining so I still haven’t gone outside 😝 but I have been busy. Shelley bought over her pumpkin seeds, I am assuming she used the flesh, I have washed them and some of them I have dried and put aside to dry further for planting next year and some of them I have boiled in salt water for 10 mins, tossed them in oil, salt and pepper and they are roasting in the oven for 10 mins, tasty snack. You could make them sweet with sugar and butter but I thought savoury would be healthier. I have also prepared the venison for the slow cooker as I didn’t get round to cooking it last night, we had eggs instead. One of the things I need to do is organise the dinner first thing in the morning because I’m finding that once I have done the afternoon rounds, then gone out and shut everything in at dark, the last thing I want to do is turn round and prep everything for dinner, so if I do it all in the morning when energy levels are higher then it shouldn’t be a problem lol.

I fried some onions, garlic and celery, browned the venison, added a dash of Worcester sauce, salt and pepper and some beef stock, I will add potatoes and carrots later on during the cooking process.

I have just tasted the pumpkin seeds mmmm they are very tasty and easy to do really, I can see me picking at these all day 😀

Went over with Sam and Mia to see my Mum for coffee, Shelley, Josh and Flo came too.

Lit the Rayburn when I got back, I had already prepared it in the morning so it was a case of just lighting it, it’s not so cold today so didn’t need an early morning firing up.

I started de-shelling the walnuts in order to sell them but I realised it is going to take a lot to make up a decent weight to sell so I probably won’t bother and will just shell them for my own use.

Friday: Cold hard frost this morning again, but the sun is shinning too so it might be a nice day as long as you are not in the shade lol.

I keep forgetting to move my orange and lemon tree into the poly tunnel, I really need to do that unless it’s already too late which I will greatly chastise myself for.

I have some onion sets that normally I would put in over Winter but in all honestly they are not harvested much earlier than the spring sets so I’m thinking I will leave it, less to worry about and it also means that the ground I was going to use can have a good layer of manure instead. The courgette plants have now collapsed in dramatic style due to the freezing temperatures and my plan is to just leave them there to be incorporated back into the ground, that is what I am aiming to do with most of the annual plants.

I have gone back to writing a list otherwise I walk past something and think, I must sort that, then completely forget about it until next time I walk past it and the whole cycle starts again 😜

I was all geared up to go outside and get started but after looking out there again I decided to do some bits indoors and let the Sun warm up the ground a bit more first. I can easily keep my body warm it’s the extremities that suffer so I will wait 😀

I bought some ginger the other day with the intention of making some stem ginger, I just wanted some in the cupboard in case I need it. I am not a huge lover of ginger, unlike my Mum who adores it, but I like a hint of it in certain things. Of course the ideal would be to grow it but although I have managed to get it to sprout some greenery that’s as far as it had got never mind multiplying and producing more.

While I was waiting for the ginger syrup to boil I had a look at the pear liqueur I made a couple of months ago, and a little taste, oh my days, that is seriously good and I found myself wishing I had made a whole lot more 😀 (on the list for next year) it still has few more weeks to mature but it is a divine taste of Winter/Christmas and will definitely warm the cockles after a cold day outside.

I went out at 9.30, not too bad by then, I got stuck into some work to keep me warm, the sweet potato foliage had collapsed and so time to see what was underneath, 😝🤪😖😕 not a bloody lot! The sum total of four piddly tubers 😖 I will keep those and dry them and use them next year, I need to do a whole lot of reading up about them because I’m not getting anything despite trying different methods and locations each year. Once everything was cleared, I barrowed 3 lots of manure in there and filled up one of the beds and two recycle bins. Then onto the task of moving the citrus trees back into the big tunnel, first I put down some black membrane, then got the trees in and stood them on bubble wrap on top of it, then made what I can only describe as a bubble wrap tent 😀 They need to be protected from the cold ground and the cold air but they also need to be able to breathe in case they sweat and create moisture, hopefully I have done enough but you never know.

I had a look round the garden and the chickens and ducks are doing a great job of weeding 😀 definitely a good plan. There is still plenty to do out there but I need a bit of a hand with the heavy stuff so will wait until John has a spare minute which is a bit rare at the moment.

Saturday: A non weather morning lol, not raining, not sunny, not windy, not frosty, not cold!

John did all the animals except the quail and rabbits which I did a bit later on, I gave the rabbits some greens this morning which they were happy to have, I have found it more difficult to supply them solely on forage now the weather has turned. I like the whole idea of tree hay etc but in practice you need somewhere damp free to store it and the barns all have metal roofs which condensate so they are not moisture free. John went off to get some feed and sawdust so I got a loaf of bread on the go, a batch of shortbread cookies, and some chuck it all in soup 😀 onions, leeks, potato, mushroom, garlic salt, pepper, a couple of leaves of parsley and one of the vegetable freezer stocks I made earlier in the year, I will see what else it needs when it’s nearly done.

The car passed its MOT 😀

Had Josh in the afternoon while Shelley, Charlie and Flo went to visit Johns Mum.

In the evening I had a phone all from Shelley to say she was passing ours in the lane and a large white dog was loose, I grabbed a torch and a lead and she came to get me but we couldn’t find it as it had run off over the fields ☹️ I hope the owner finds their dog.

Sunday: Raining! Blooming typical because yesterday it was dry all day but what with one thing and another we didn’t get the outside jobs done that I wanted to. Still a drop of wet stuff wasn’t going to stop me today and I wouldn’t be letting it stop John either 😜 I wanted the front muck heaped turned, broken up and put on the garden so John got on with that. Meanwhile I burnt some paper rubbish, tidied some things away from the back undercover area, put some membrane down in the big tunnel and set a mousetrap in the small tunnel. I had deliberately filled in the hole in the compost to see if it got dug back out and yep there was another neat little hole. I want to put the peas in here overwinter so the mouse has to go 😖

In the afternoon, John cleaned out his van which took 2 hours! I am not going to let it get like that again are famous last words as far as his van is concerned. Then he cleaned out the chickens, while I lit the fire, prepped the dinner for tonight and did paperwork 😛 The end of year was supposed to be done after April but I wasn’t well enough all summer so it got left, there is that little nagging voice always there though ‘you still need to do the books’ so I made a good start on them today, all the farm paperwork is ready and most of the plumbing paperwork, just need to make sense of Johns scribblings and put it down so that the accountant can make sense of it 🤪 I know I should keep it all in order as I go along but as with all the best intentions, sometimes busy lives get in the way 😋

We have pork chops for dinner and a jam sponge pudding when John gets back from visiting his Mum. I figured I would use some apricot jam, though John doesn’t like apricot jam, I bet he will eat it if it’s a sponge pud.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Organising, fruit bread fail & hibernation time.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday evening: We had a young lad come up and get some muck for his Mums roses on his old tractor which promptly broke down ☹️ but he sorted it out and got it going again, I think it’s fabulous to see a youngster working with old machinery otherwise it will be a skill that is lost to the past like so many other skills.

Monday 22nd Oct: A crisp, sunny morning full of promise for a lovely day 😀 I put the wildlife camera up last night, outside the back door hoping to catch a glimpse of the hedgehog but there was no sign, however I did get some footage of foxes eating the crab apples that are on the ground, definitely two different foxes judging by the tails as one has a crooked tail.

Having emptied and turned off the smaller freezer yesterday I will be cleaning that out and turning it back on this morning ready to load it back up later, hopefully in some sort of order though that is more difficult than you think because it’s basically a big box that everything gets thrown into! I do have some large sacks that I separate fruit and veg into so that’s a little helpful, I will do my best and maybe make a list of what’s in there so that I have a reference for future use.

A quick look through the other rammed freezer and I got out some steak for dinner a bag of plums and a small bag of pears. My quick go to recipe that John will eat is crumble and I thought the pears would add something different to the plums. I would prefer something like a plum and custard tart but such is the cruelty of life, I who would eat all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff would pack on the lbs at an alarming rate and John who only eats plain food can eat for England without gaining an ounce. What I am saying is there is no point experimenting or indeed cooking elaborately just for me unless I want to be buying a whole wardrobe of the next size up 😜 Those recipes have to wait until I am feeding others as well. I did find a cake wrapped in foil in the freezer, no idea what it is lol it looks as though it might be ginger or something so I got that out to thaw. When we went shopping the other day John tried to put a jar of strawberry jam in the trolley, I refused, it’s not that I don’t allow him to have jam it’s that I have plenty of homemade jam in the cupboard, all flavours but he only likes strawberry which we ran out of months ago, I am trying to force him to try blackcurrant or apricot but it’s a battle 🤪

I have been trying to organise my kitchen cupboards, and failing miserably! The cupboards I keep the ‘food’ (tins,sugar, ketchup etc) in requires kneeling on the floor to see what’s at the back which is no good really so I swapped it for a cupboard I keep all the daily cooking paraphernalia in like mixing bowls, jugs, food processor etc, so far so good except I can’t fit all the ‘baking’ (dried fruit, nuts, ) ingredients in with the food cupboard and so it’s not organised at all, more scattered, I either have too much stuff or not enough space can’t decide which 😜 I do use it all, thats the problem, but sometimes only now and again and you know that as soon as you get rid of something you wish you hadn’t 🤪 In-between sorting I made a batch of chocolate fairy cakes for the grandchildren.

Late afternoon I started getting the other freezer emptied some of it into the freezer I had defrosted yesterday but it was obvious it wouldn’t all fit so I had to quickly turn on the small freezer and cram whatever I could into there until tomorrow when I can get the second freezer cleaned out and turned back on. At least I have a good idea of what is in there now, a small amount I have thrown away just the odd bread roll or some bits that had frosted badly, some I have got out and will have to cook tomorrow including a tub of blackberries where the lid had split but most of it is away for now. Once the other freezer is cleaned I will have lots of room to sort it properly and I have pork arriving tomorrow as well, we actually don’t need to buy meat/fish for months on end and I have enough gravy stock to sink a battleship! Why I keep making crumble mixes and Yorkshire pudding batter to put in there is anybody’s guess, definitely time to start using it all up instead of making more to put in there lol. Oh and I have a bag of corn on the cob which I absolutely could not fit in anywhere that will need to be eaten in the next day or two 😜

Tuesday: I was up early in order to sort out the second freezer which I thought would take about an hour but as luck would have it although it had begun to defrost the ice was still on the sides of the unit. This meant that it just fell off in large lumps which I was able to get out instead of a watery mess in the bottom to soak up with cloths, done and dusted and switched back on to fast freeze by 7.30 😀

Got the eggs done (I put the sack of corn cobs on the floor, more about that later) then made a crumble and a jar of jam with the blackberries I had to get out of the freezer, then Mia arrived for the day.

Shelley, Josh and Florence came to visit and had to pop out the back for something and discovered that I had forgotten to pick up the sack of cobs and put them back in the sink and the dogs had decided they were a tasty snack 😖 they had shredded the sack in the process as well.

When Mia had her nap I quickly got everything out of the small freezer and put it back into the big freezer along with my pork delivery which had arrived earlier, I kept out some chops for dinner and some sausages for the fridge 😀

This evening I am going for some Bowen therapy to help with the sciatica, which has actually been fine the last two days so hopefully this will help with the healing, if you have never heard of it don’t worry neither had I until about a year ago, look it up and see what you think and I will let you know how I get on. The massage therapist I see is amazing, very knowledgeable and positively radiates healing so I am looking forward to a bit of Bowen and maybe some massages over the next couple of months. I personally think that a regular, good massage would do wonders for a multitude of ailments it’s a shame it’s not available on the NHS it might save them a fortune 😀

Wednesday: Sunny morning, the sunset last night was amazing though I didn’t get photos. I felt like I had been in a fight this morning after the Bowen, that’s to be expected it seems 😂 I took some paracetamol as instructed and feel fine now. I needed to get a few bits tided up indoors, stuff that has been sitting round for ages all now put away. Shelley rang to see if I wanted to go to the country park, yep, everything stops for grandchildren I far as I am concerned, just like it did in my Mums house, they are small for such a short time so almost anything else can wait 😀

My Nan always gave you a warm welcome if you popped in from school, I have been lucky really and had a well nurtured life which I am passing on to the next generation hopefully 😀

The country park walk was fab, I have not been there before even though it’s been in place for about 10 years, it’s on the edge of a large housing development in the next town and I have to say I was really impressed with the thought that had gone into it. We even found a spindleberry bush, a rare find, that had been planted along with all the other shrubbery, we collected some seeds and I will see if I can manage to grow one. There are two huge sculptures of horses which are pretty magnificent to come across, Josh named his favourite one Jack lol.

Thursday: Overcast not to chilly though but no sunshine today. I have had a productive morning which I am pleased about, it seems ages since I was able or had the energy to do much more than the necessary. I started off by burning some of the tomato vegetation because I don’t really like putting it on the compost heap in case it’s harbouring disease, the last of the toms are ripening on the windowsill. I did a bit of tidying up in the small polytunnel and had a root about to see if I could find any sweet potato tubers growing, there is plenty of foliage but I couldn’t find anything else unless they are deeper down. It will be disappointing if there are none at all. Then I picked off all the broccoli sproutings that had flowers on for the rabbits along with some chard and a few weeds. Then I dug up a few self set potatoes, there were some whoppers that will be ideal for baked potato, I dug up the rest of the carrots as they are beginning to get holes in them from various pests plus once the soil starts to get damp they will begin to rot away. I have tried storing carrots in various ways but it’s easier to prep and freeze them. I gathered all the bean pods that I have left on the plants ready to dry the bean seeds, some for planting next year and some to use in soups and stews over the winter. I have seeds from the spaghetti and butternut squash drying on the windowsill as well, I am hoping to save as many seeds as I can from the veg and flowers this year, it will save money but it’s also good practice to begin a good programme of saving, closing the loops 😀 and I planted some broad bean seeds to plant out as soon as they are up. I was going to plant peas in the small tunnel but a tell tale hole in the compost tells me I need to put a mouse trap in there first 😝 otherwise all the seeds will get eaten.

I had a little look at the tiger nuts and found one, I’m sure there are plenty more but they are not ready for harvesting until later in the year, it’s about chickpea sized and nutritionally packed with minerals and vitamins, you can eat them raw but they are better cooked it seems. There is a recipe I will have a go at when they are ready called horchata https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/horchata

I processed a pan full of carrots using the mandolin to slice them, it’s very sharp and you have to be carful not to get too carried away near the end of the carrot as I have taken a chunk of my finger off before now and it 🤬 hurts!

Sam came over as the farrier was coming to do Jacks feet, her car is off the road and she came by bus, I didn’t even know there was a bus service but she was able to get from the top road in Witney to the top road in Shilton, fair bit of walking to do each end mind you as she had to walk from her village about 2 Miles, then once at our end it’s about a mile from the other end, at least it’s not raining.

Friday: A different morning altogether, I was surprised to hear a short burst of rain first thing and the temps are set to fall drastically this weekend. I want to make a Guernsey Gache which is basically a fruit loaf, it takes 3 hours for first prove so I need to get my timings right as I have blood tests/flu jab this morning as well. I also need to get the torts moved they have decided to dig into the ground in the greenhouse but I will be moving them back into their hut, packing it with straw then moving them to the shed, that needs doing before the temps drop too low and today seems like a good day for that.

You may ask, why didn’t I leave them to naturally dig into the ground? well I would have except that the greenhouse lets rain in and then the ground would get wet and freeze on cold days and that would be game over for them, so I have to intervene.

Tomorrow we are going to a ‘Watcher of the Old Ways’ ceremony to celebrate Samhain at the local standing stones and I need to make some biscuits or something similar for sharing, it will be a good opportunity to get an mot on my broomstick 🤪 and then Sunday we are off to the Spellbound exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, a magical weekend all in all, when I say we, I don’t mean John, I am going with my sisters, it’s not Johns type of thing lol.

I have taken some pictures and you can see, just about, how they had ‘dug in’, especially Billy I had to prise him out lol, anyway they are now safely packed away for the long Winter sleep, I will check on them from time to time and put more insulation round them depending on the weather. I’m glad I left it though as this year has been unseasonably warm.

Once the torts were done I got started on the Guernsey gache (pronounced gosh), I followed a recipe but this did not quite go as I expected, the dough kept creeping up the sides of the bowl instead of coming together like a dough normally does, I had to keep stopping the mixer and pushing it back down, eventually I added extra water and that did the trick although the quantity of fruit seems too much but we will see what has happened after 2/3 hours of proving! As long as it’s edible that’s the main thing.

Pants, I get back from having bloods and the fruit bread is not rising at all……..google gives various answers all of them contradict each other so I will try what I think might work which is to knead it a bit by hand then put it in a very low oven and see what happens.

I got it out to knead but it was obvious it was far too dry so I added some luke warm water and knead again, turned the oven on to heat at 50c for five minutes then turned it off again and put the mix in there to prove, this is taking up far more of my day than it ought too 😜

What with blood tests, the fruit bread not going to plan, making a batch of cookies, the egg shed selling out and needing replenishing and the dogs barking constantly I’ve not had a minutes peace today and there was me thinking I could maybe make something more technical like a layered cake, chance would be a fine thing!

I lit the Rayburn mid day, I’m thinking that warming the kitchen might help with the proving 🤪 at least the cookies turned out ok 😀

I’m still looking up reasons and remedies, it’s not the yeast being too old as I use it regularly and made bread with the same packet the other day, it can only be the temperature I think.

So it’s past 2 and I have been trying to get this fruit bread going since 8.30! It has a little raise but not much so I have put it in the oven that is off, now the biscuits are cooked, but still warm, oh my days who knew it would take up most of the day 😝

The wind has picked up outside it’s supposed to be coming down from the north but at the moment it’s squalling around in all directions.

Ok this loaf shows no inclination to rise whatsoever and I’m running out of daylight hours so I’m going to bake it, def not expecting a Paul Hollywood handshake on this effort 🤣🤣 and that’s one recipe I won’t be using again! Total disaster, after an hour baking it was still doughy inside and burning on the outside, I will chalk that one up to experience……..☎️ ‘darling, could you pick up some fruit bread from the supermarket on your way home’ 😂

The eggs sales have been rapid today, cleaned out before afternoon pick up and every egg we have in the place is now out for sale.

Saturday: Cold this morning, much colder in fact the front paddock tap was frozen! It’s warm in the Sun now though.

John did all the outside while I hoovered, polished put washing on etc, made a loaf of bread, which went well and restored my faith in my abilities 😜 I also made a quick batch of candied walnuts to take out with me later. They are so easy to do, walnuts, brown sugar, butter and a bit of water, all in a pan on high heat and stir until the liquid is pretty much gone, then cool and sprinkle with salt or you could use cinnamon, nutmeg whatever really, you could put a dash of vanilla in the mixture or any flavouring you want I suppose, easy peasey, crush it up to use as a cake topping or on top of ice cream the possibilities are great 😀

Well we went to the Samhain ceremony with the ‘Watchers of the old ways’ it was uplifting and energising, even though it was first raining, then sleet, then snow! Afterwards we went to the pub for hot chocolates 😀

Clocks go back tonight.

Sunday: Sunny but cold morning, we had an extra hours sleep 😀 The phones and internet were not working first thing, I have a feeling this happens whenever the clocks change but never really taken much notice before, I will try and remember next spring and see what happens then. John did the outside while I sorted the phones/clocks etc, the Rayburn was still active so got that going again, no point letting it go out and re lighting it later besides we have plenty of wood 😀

We sat down with coffee and watched the news headlines, well that was depressing, we don’t normally watch any daytime tv probably won’t again, why people can’t just live in harmony is beyond me, surely no matter what religion, colour, creed, nationality they are, being a good person is what is most important, too simple I guess 😢

John is off to the hospital later to visit his Mum

We went to get a few bits of shopping this morning, just random bits like butter and icing sugar, mushrooms etc, we don’t need much and I couldn’t believe how busy the supermarket was, I mean heaving 😝 Everyone is gearing up for Halloween, in my day you were lucky to get anything except short shrift if you knocked on a neighbours door after dark lol, except if you went to the American married quarters, then you would be rewarded with Reece’s pieces and other stuff we had never seen before 😀 Nowadays everyone is in on it and why not on the whole it’s a good bit of fun, my favourite time though has to be Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night, with toffee apples, homemade soup and awesome pyrotechnic displays, Winter is upon us and the various celebrations begin 😀

Spent the afternoon at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford at the Spellbound exhibition, ice to do something a bit different.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Two days on ice, an irritated Jay & moving day.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th October: The year seems to be racing past now! Yesterday afternoon while just straightening cushions on the sofa my back twinged and now I am suffering with lower back pain, ffs does it never end 😝 It’s not massively painful, I can move but it’s a constant nagging even when I have taken numerous pills for it so today’s progress will be slow 🤪 This went from bad to worse through the day and eventually I couldn’t sit down for longer than a couple of minutes, luckily standing/Walking is fine but I hope after a nights sleep this has gone!

We need to sort out the duck situation, we have a lot of free loaders at the minute, the drakes that we hatched out, some older ducks that no longer lay and some who just refuse to lay no matter what we do.

I made a batch of ‘use it up’ soup which is basically anything that looks like it needs using, veg some chicken even 1/4 tin of baked beans, along with some herbs, mushrooms and tomatoes and that’s what is for dinner along with some freshly baked bread and an apple crumble.

Tuesday: Ok so this is sciatica I think! Very painful to sit down for more than 2/3 minutes, luckily standing, walking and bending is fine and mostly lying down is ok except it woke me this morning with lots of pain 😝 I have done some stretches and taken aspirin which has taken the edge off of it and I have contacted a fabulous lady that does massage and Bowen, hopefully she will be able to help sort it out. I have Mia today and tomorrow this week so that’s going to be a bundle of fun 🤪

Yesterday I got fed up with the hops that were in the kitchen drying on an oven tray, I have been waiting for about a month for some cotton sacks to put them in, no sign of them so I threw the hops away as the potency would be gone by now and guess what turns up today, yes, the sacks 😤 never mind I will keep them for the lavender harvest next year if I ever get a decent amount lol. I wanted to make slumber sacks with hops and lavender, maybe I still will I can probably order some online, mine did not seem to have much of an odour to them anyhow so maybe they were not quite ripe enough or overripe, who knows?

Thursday: I have spent two days with an ice pack on my sciatic nerve, oh my goodness how painful is sciatica, at times I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I asked for tips and was amazed at how many sufferers there were out there. After trying various things I settled with ice packs and anti inflammatories, plenty of lying down or walking around as I couldn’t sit up at all. Luckily in our waste not want not life I had ice packs from when the fish was delivered that I kept for just such an occasion lol. Poor Mia wondered what an Earth was going on when instead of sitting down with her I had to lie down, still we entertained ourselves by me pretending to be her baby, I have seen every episode of Baby Joy Joy, that’s a new one on me, and somehow we managed to get through the two days 😋 Consequently I have done nothing else, John even had to do the orchard lot.

Today it is so much better, just a small nagging which reminds me to be a little bit careful, I doubt I am going to be sitting down for long periods anyhow as I have plenty of catching up to do.

Charlie and Macca should, fingers crossed, complete on their new house tomorrow and so it will be moving day for them, their excitement is palpable and hopefully it will all go according to plan and by the weekend they will be in their own house and I will have a spare room back again 😀

I ordered some haricot beans which have arrived, 500g, I will use some of them for cooking and then save some for planting next year, that’s the plan anyway, now all I have to do is learn to make good baked beans 😝

The geese have finally discovered that they can get into the side paddock, it’s only taken them about three months! When the grass was scarce we opened up the rails for them to go through but they wouldn’t pass the tape that was up on the top, any other barrier we don’t want them to go through seems fair game but when you want them to do something they won’t, go figure, anyhow they are now wandering in there but seemed obsessed about getting into my garden as they linger, looking longingly through the fence for a large part of the day, there is no logic to a birds thinking I have learnt over the years 🤪

I wanted to let the ducks out of the duck pen to forage around under the crab apple tree but I needed to secure a few areas into the veg garden first to make sure they don’t get in there, the veg garden will be for the orchard ducks when I have finished harvesting everything. After that I set about harvesting some of the veg that needed picking, butternut squash, courgettes, some tomatoes, spaghetti squash and a token aubergine! I always have trouble growing aubergine and this year was no different really, I keep trying but for some reason they don’t like it here, except for one plant which is thriving, in fact it’s still flowering, I have only had two fruits from it mind you.

The butternut squash are all different sizes from very small to large but they will all be used one way or another. One of the things I love about growing is being able to bring it in and make something fresh with it, today it’s butternut squash soup, and I am proud to say that every ingredient bar one is Home produced, onions, garlic, carrots, sage, rosemary, and of course the squash itself, the only thing that wasn’t grown here is the celery, not bad and definitely from farm to fork or spoon in this case, with a freshly made loaf of bread that will do nicely for lunch 😀 I had a thought that I could put together all the items needed for the soup and sell it as a package, I wonder if it would sell?

While the oven is cooking bread I might as well make good use of it so I am roasting tomatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, and basil in olive oil and butter, this will probably be the last batch of tomato sauce for the freezer, It’s all chunky or whole as it will be sieved when it’s done.

Also made a quick fruit cake 😀

While I was mixing it I heard a noise that I haven’t heard before, a kind of squawking, a bird, I looked out and in the Oak tree was a Jay, I have never seen one before certainly not here, I was pretty sure it was a jay though and googled it to make sure, yep definitely a jay and to check the call it was making I Googled that as well, I found a video that was titled ‘irritated jay’ lol yep that was the noise it was making, obviously irritated about something, we seem to have a few animals and birds that we haven’t seen before, not sure if it’s the weather or something else but they are welcome additions.

Charlie cooked dinner for us tonight as a thank you, she moved back in with Macca in Feb in order to save a deposit for a house and tomorrow is the day they get the key to their new home 😀

Friday: Moving day 😀 you forget how much waiting around there is on moving day, packing everything up has mostly been done over the last few days and waiting for the go ahead seems like forever 😝

Ground frost this morning and it is a chilly start to the day, John did the main lot and I did the orchard lot then he went off to do some small jobs while I helped here and did a bit of cleaning, then we had a phone call to say that an ambulance had been called for Johns Mum, all the best laid plans and all that.

The move was smooth 😀 they got the keys around lunchtime and with the cars and van loaded up everything was in by about 4pm, we all helped with putting things away and getting it liveable.

Fish and chip supper at the new house.

Johns Mum is staying in for tests we will have to wait and see what the results are.

Saturday: Foggy, quite chilly this morning.

I knew it was coming and it finally arrived, I now have Johns cold 🤒 I think I will write this year off as far as health is concerned, it would be easy to just give up but I will chalk it up to experience instead and carry on regardless 😜 Besides the year is winding down now as far as the veg garden is concerned, and I have already decided not to tidy it too much but to leave it to nature and the ducks to process weeds and debris 😀

The torts have not been out of their hut for a week or more so it will soon be time to pack up the hut and move it to a winter location and leave them until March time.

John had to work first thing but when he got back we got the tractor out to spread some wood chip that we had delivered last week on the ménage. I had been burning some rubbish and some scrap wood and thought I would have a go at spreading it with the shovel, I soon discovered that it had built up heat and was starting to decompose so spreading it will stop that and using the tractor bucket is more efficient than a shovel. After that we went to pick up a sofa from Shelley as we had been using and storing Charlie’s and now she has moved we didn’t have one, a bit of shopping on the way back, then John went to see his Mum in hospital and the day is done.

Sunday: Foggy and chilly again today, I lit the Rayburn quite early, around 10 as it was noticeably cool and low and behold the Sun came out, it turned into a very warm afternoon. There are ladybirds flying around all over the place out there, confused by the warm weather I think. We popped out to collect a set of bedside drawers for the now spare room, when we got back I ordered some pork and a bit of goat meat from a fellow online smallholder which will arrive Tuesday. That made me think I better empty one of the freezers to defrost it so that I can sort them out, we have two large chest freezers and now one of them is rammed full, there is so much good stuff in there and once it’s all sorted I can a) see what exactly is in there and b) start using it to make some great things 😀

I also stood and shelled quite a few walnuts this morning and put them in a jar ready to use when needed or to snack on as and when, with all that going on I can feel a cooking sesh ahead 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Autumn jobs, Autumn food & Autumn weather, must be Autumn 🍂

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 1st October 🎃

I made a batch of tomato soup last night ready for my lunch today, it simmered slowly on the Rayburn hob, lovely. I got thinking about the green tomatoes and looking at something a bit different, enchilada sauce seems like a good way to go, not that we eat enchiladas but the children do so I will give it away, and invite myself for dinner when they make them lol. I also made another batch of granola, with walnuts, almonds and maple syrup this time and a pinch of cinnamon 😀

This morning is one of those beautiful sunny mornings with a hint of mist early on so it’s going to be another lovely day. Just as well because the first job on my list apart from animals is to get my bedroom cleaned, yes kids, even adults have to do their bedroom 😝 For some reason that we have never fathomed it gets very dusty, very quickly and drives me mad, so strip everything, wash everything, Hoover everything, polish everything, job done, almost, because the windows need a clean. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not someone who is fastidious about smear less, sparkling windows but I do like to be able to see out of them 🤣🤣 especially this time of year when the early morning sun beams in through them. The extra blankets go in the wash then it’s out to collect eggs and remember the price increase from today.

I made a lamb hot pot for dinner tonight, we have quite a few bits of lamb breast to use up so it may be a favourite on the menu this winter, for this one I actually used a small shoulder and from the writing on the packaging it looks like it was one of ours, in fact it will be mutton so should taste amazing. It was going to be a cobbler but I don’t have any GF flour so just in case Charlie wants some, I have done it without the ‘cobbles’ if she doesn’t I can’t easily knock up some dumplings and pop them in halfway through cooking 😀

Had a bit of flour to use up some I made some batches of crumble mix for the freezer and a few dumplings hopefully to use later.

My body, at last seems to have caught up with my mind and I am finding I can work easily and without swellings and ache and pains at the end of the day, having said that I can feel my thumbs starting to ache but a couple of ibrufen should sort that out.

After my delicious tomato soup for lunch I got on with sorting out the greenhouse. When we decided to get a new one I cleared it all out and stored the stuff I wanted to keep, throwing out anything I didn’t want. Moving it all back in again was lovely, it felt comfortable and familiar so I’m not in the least bit disappointed. I had got rid of the mish mash of staging I had so I need to sort something else out, we have plenty of wood so it shouldn’t be hard, I started looking at greenhouse interiors to give me ideas and that led onto looking at passive solar and now I’m looking at ways to achieve that! With almost everything out it’s easier to begin again with what I really need to put in, black water tanks for heat storage will be a definite and gravel or slabs on the ground to increase thermal mass & insulate the North facing lower panels, we need to remove some of the tree branches that are blocking out the sun rays on the South side and Bobs your uncle, it should be a whole lot better😀

Tuesday: My day to have Mia so out early to get the feeding done, I wonder how many customers read the memo about no egg collections on Tuesdays 🙄 there are plenty of eggs out there from yesterday though so it’s ok if a few still come.

We watched the BBC 1 programme ‘Drowning in Plastic’ , I am not easily shocked but it’s horrifying, what have we done to the world ☹️

Wednesday: Lovely day with an even temperature, quite pleasant. I have been working in the garden, more tidying and hoeing etc, I pulled up the rest of the outdoor tomatoes and put all the green ones in the poly tunnel, they may ripen, they may not but at the temps are set to dip at the weekend I figured they were nearing the end anyhow. I weeded the brassica cage and that was two jobs in one as the rabbits had a feast of weeds and now the ground is clear. They are still producing loads of florets and the leaves are still nice and green, mostly, I am going to see how long they keep on producing for. I cut back (hacked actually) the kiwi in the fruit cage as it has got a bit out of control, as yet it has never produced a fruit but it adds a good bit of cover and foliage for the time being, maybe one year when all the conditions are right it will surprise me 😀 The torts are still awake though not eating much at all now, the daytime temperatures are pretty warm so it’s no surprise they are still awake but that should begin to change over the next couple of weeks and when they no longer wander around I will put them into a straw filled hutch and then the hutch will go into the shed. I know these are used to fridge hibernation but I have never done that before and was worried about it so decided to stick to what I know. I cut the lawn which will probably be the last cut this year, I also got round to putting some pieces of wood along the barked area so that the chickens don’t keep scratching it out onto the lawn, every time I cut I have to rake the bark off the lawn first and have been meaning to put up a small barrier for a couple of years, job done finally.

I ordered myself some screws, they will be hidden along with my screwdriver bits so that I actually have some to hand when I need them instead of sorting through buckets of old, knackered, rounded off, screws, John says, ‘you can have these’ yes cos they are no bloody good that’s why, cheers for that 😝

Quick rest at lunchtime then back out to plant a couple more shrubs and a tree, then time to pick up and sort eggs, even though they have gone up the sales have not declined in the least!

Then I ran out of steam 😜 at this point it would be mice to sit down with a cuppa and a slice of cake but I haven’t made any for ages so it’s a banana instead 😋 My foot is giving me jip today, the upper surface of it, when I had the flare. Apart from my two fingers that went numb so did the skin on my left foot, it seems to have started to go back to normal feeling but it’s stinging in the process. My little finger is still not quite back to normal yet and the nail beds have also died back about 1/3 from the top of my finger, I tell you the body can do some pretty awful things to you that when it wants to.

I keep meaning to tell you about the ‘loofah’ washing up thingy, the first bit I used has only just gone into the compost bin this week, I can’t find the original blog but it must have been around June time so it lasted approx 4 months, pretty good going I think, I have now cut a new piece 😀

I made an Eves pudding as a treat, I was going to do crumble but thought that was a bit boring, it’s similar ingredients just a different set up 😀

Lovely evening with a super pink sunset 🌅

Thursday: A pleasant enough morning, one that doesn’t need a coat, the sun is not out but the temps are not cold. ‘what jobs are you doing today’ John asked this morning, we’ll pick a job, any number of them really but while the weather is kind I’d better chose an outdoor one so this morning I will be cleaning out the pens/huts in the orchard, washing out water and food bowls, raking the floors, 5 huts and 2 rabbit pens.

Mum came over early morning and did some gardening while I carried on with the cleaning out etc, I let the light Sussex out for the very first time, it’s all bit new for them and there were a couple of scraps but they settled down eventually.

We sat and had coffee about 11.30 and ate some wet walnuts as a snack, delicious, I am still picking them up despite saying I wouldn’t, I can help it, I don’t want to see them going to waste, sometimes I stand on a few so the chickens can pick at them.

Just as well I keep collecting them because I had to throw a tray out, the bottom tray of the stack had mould, probably due to lack of airflow so I have put an empty tray underneath to stop it happening again, mould and nuts are not a good combination and even though it only looks like it’s on the outside it will have got inside so better safe than sorry.

We have had a couple of reports of a drone flying over the village on two separate occasions this week, one was yesterday near me but although I was outside all morning I didn’t see or hear anything. It un nerves people because this is the criminals latest way of finding out what is on a property, and as we are in such close proximity to the air base both the police and air traffic control are keen to find out who is flying it.

Friday: Overcast but pleasant. Occasionally I set to a job that was never in my plan for for the day, not that I ever have much of a plan but a vague idea of what I want to get done. Today on a whim I decided to get the ménage sorted, normally throughout the Spring and Summer I weed killer it to keep it tidy but this summer I had not been able to and it’s out of control. I did weedkiller it about a month ago but it needed doing again and it will need another go in a couple of weeks or it’s just going to end up as waste land. While I was about it and the creosote was to hand I thought I might as well start creosoting the timbers as well, this is no small job 🙄 and I have managed to do one whole end, inside and out and it looks pretty good, just another three sides to go 🤪 I have definitely go some of my mojo back or I wouldn’t have even attempted it. It is due to rain tomorrow and hopefully Sam will be over later to drag the fields if not I will have to coax John into doing it tonight!

Sam did come over and we managed to get the drags on the back of the tractor so that job is done. Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and Josh bought over an apple crumble made with his own hands (Mummy assures me he washed them first 😝)

Spoke too soon about the mojo though lol, my legs are aching like crazy, a cuppa and some inbrufen is in order.

When John came home he had to get the drags back off the tractor as Sam couldn’t undo them, they are very heavy chains and once they have been bouncing around the field they are difficult to undo!

We had Josh’s crumble for pudding, delicious, he loves his food and more than that he loves home grown and home cooked food, he is always delighted when I ask him if he wants to take some tomatoes or cucumbers home, ooo yes please Nana lol. Mia on the other hand will try stuff but usually spits it out 🤣 ah well as long as she tries, that’s the main thing.

Did a quick bit of shopping this evening and stood chatting to a neighbour outside the shop, I couldn’t believe how mild it was at 8pm on an October evening.

Saturday: It’s peeing down, can’t say we weren’t warned and looking at the forecast it’s in for the day, we do need it though, I can’t tell you how dry everything is, I’ve never know a year as dry as this one. Tomorrow looks to be dry though, so it’s not the ‘once it gets here it never leaves’ scenario we usually have 😜

John did most of the animals this morning, I did the orchard lot as usual, when the clocks change it will be my turn to do the lot as it will be dark when he leaves in the morning and dark when he gets home at night. It will be rainy day jobs today, I have plenty to choose from, apple processing, cleaning, chutney making, John will probably tackle the end bay in the hay barn or the back area which needs a quick tidy. This afternoon we are off to have drinks and cake with a 90 year old Uncle who is still very spritely, in fact I think he still swims on a daily basis 😀

Well John didn’t pick a job in the dry in fact he didn’t pick a job at all which didn’t really sit well with me but I guess time off now and again is needed and tomorrow is supposed to be dry so hopefully he will do something then 😆 I did a batch of tomato purée for the freezer then a bucketful of apples.

A good evening to light the Rayburn but it seems she is not having any of it today either! It took three goes at lighting to get her going and now she is busy crackling away, I think my longing for the flick of a thermostat is getting stronger each year 😜

Digging about in the bottom of the freezer this morning I found an aitchbone joint of beef which has been in the slow cooker for quite a few hours, what a treat, will probably have it with mashed potato and some carrots from the garden.

Sunday: Bright and dry but chilly this morning. We had a hot air ballon over us this morning, normally they are a bit further in the distance but this one was right over the field next door and then landed in the field over the road, John said he saw about 3 of them when he was driving back from his Mums so it must have been the perfect weather for them. I lit the Rayburn mid morning to take the chill off the place, she went first time today 😜

At the minute John is up the back burning some of the debris from tidying up the wood pile, there is quite a bit still to burn.

I am suffering a bit today as bits of me ache all over and I have no idea why?

So the sun came out and now it’s boiling indoors with the Rayburn going as well 😂😂

John cleaned out the chickens in the afternoon and I moved the tortoises to inside the greenhouse where I can keep an eye on when they slow right down ready to hibernate. Then I decided to get the area ready that they will go into once they wake up again in spring, it needed a couple of things planted in there and some low fencing around the outside so they can’t escape. We have plenty of wood 🤣 so I set about re using some of it, I need to build a couple more pieces before we set it in place next week, then it will be ready when they are next year. It’s quite a big area under the crab apple tree next to the decking, I have put a hut in there for them and some paving slabs so they can heat themselves up, planted a shrub and some herbs for food and shade, I just need to get a deep enough dish for water which will have big pebbles in it, put in a couple of hiding places and maybe a tree stump or two and then it should be tortoise heaven.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Hygge, Hops and a Hedgehog 🦔

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th September: The Autumn equinox has occurred, the end of the light time of the year and the beginning of the dark time is upon us. Time to reflect and look back at what has worked, what hasn’t and a time to look forward and think about what to do next year. A time of myths, legends and rituals of all kinds, harvest is one of my favourite times of year, the word derives from an old English word meaning Autumn. I like the fact that it gets dark early and you can hunker down inside all cosy and warm having fed everyone with a hearty supper, Hygge as the Norwegian and Danish would say.

Talking of myths we heard a lovely one in Guernsey, some of the older houses have a large stone protruding from the chimney of the building, a witch seat, the belief was that a witch out flying on her broomstick could rest on one of these stones and get warmth from the chimney and if you provided one of these you would be spared of any witchy spells she might inflict 🧙‍♀️

The temps plummeted last night and I think there was a grass frost this morning, good job the Rayburn is ready when we are although the temps are set to climb again during the week.

John did the main of the birds this morning then it was just the orchard lot for me to do, my main thought is to lock up the house while I’m out on the farm, sad times but I’ve heard another report from just down the road that occurred yesterday so there is still skullduggery going on and best to be safe than sorry.

There were plenty of walnuts all over the floor so I have picked them up, washed them off, rinsed them in white vinegar (to stop mould forming) dried them off and put them in open trays in the kitchen to dry off. Quick coffee then outside again to see what else can be done, Sun is shinning this morning though you can feel a real nip in the air.

Managed to get a good bit done, two loads of muck into the polytunnel, plant a shrub in the duck pen and secure round it, plant a bush in the orchard and secure round it, pick a trug full of greens for the rabbits, harvest all the small broccoli florets and collect eggs and put them out for sale, the biggest pain in the arse though is keep locking and unlocking the doors to go in and out!

Tuesday: Mia arrived early in the morning, I had managed to just get the orchard lot fed and watered so that was ok, we did go out about 10am to pick up some eggs but apart from that we spent the day inside. Mia is in the middle of potty training so it doesn’t do to venture too far from the bathroom at the moment although she is doing very well, amazing, as I keep telling her 😀

I am practising Hygge tonight, an extra cardi on, a nice cup of milky coffee and my Norwegian slippers which are very warm and cosy, I have already worn them out once and Mum kindly re-felted the bottoms so I could carry on wearing them 😀

Wednesday: Another sunny, dry day 😀 After doing the orchard lot and re filling some of the bedding in various houses, I decided to try and start sorting out the garden in preparation for the winter. The garden gets ravaged either by the weather, the ducks or the chickens and so putting everything away or securing everything is a must, especially any plants in pots that you want ready for next Spring. The ducks walk over everything squashing it all, the chickens kick everything over then scratch through it and the wind just blows it all around, so it seemed like a good day to start organising stuff. I now have two areas that have plants in that are cordoned off and covered with mesh, I have planted a few more bits along the edible hedge in the orchard, when I say edible that includes food for the birds and bees as well as the chickens and ducks 😀 A bit of egg collecting and sorting in between and suddenly it’s already lunchtime.

I have decided to pull the plug on the new greenhouse for now, we haven’t got round to dismantling it and putting a base down and to be honest I’m not sure I can justify the money really, so I will use the old one again next year and see how things go. No point spending a fortune on something if I’m ill again and can’t get out there to use it to it’s maximum so for now it’s on the back burner.

I’m quite tired after all that so going to have a sit down and maybe a quick nap 😀 I’m am very fortunate to be able to stop and rest when I need to if I had a regular job I think I would have got the sack by now 😝 Don’t get me wrong, what I really want to be doing is ploughing into jobs, the mind is willing, the body is most definitely not!

I tried a little shut eye but I couldn’t so I thought I would read the rest of my book instead, after visiting Guernsey the obvious choice for new reading material was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. What a delightful gem of a book 😀 I thoroughly recommend it if you are a reader, now I just need to watch the film and see if they managed to capture the essence of it? (I watched it, they didn’t)

I have been eyeing up the light Sussex chickens, they are pretty big now but need to put on weight before we process them, ideally I would like them to get a couple of months on the garden free ranging, some will be selected to hold back for breeding for the next batch and I think there are at least 4 cockerels in there. The joy with writing a blog diary is that I can look back and find out exactly when they hatched, on investigation I find that they are 16 weeks so plenty of growing time left yet 😀

Did a bit of hoovering, polishing and cleaning, the place needs a proper good going through really but I will save it for rainy/colder weather.

I’m still picking up walnuts and there are still loads left on the tree, I need to make a real effort to use them this year especially in cooking but by the time I have cracked them all open I have lost the will to cook 😝

Did the afternoon egg collecting, the pullets are laying really well now, at least half of them, though the eggs are small they are still mighty fine eggs 😀

I need to decide about Tuesdays, it proved quite a logistical event especially as its potty training time as well as having to lock the doors behind me, I can no longer, nip out so I’m contemplating putting a notice out to say there will be no egg collections on a Tuesday until further notice, it would give me a bit of a break from the pressure of having to get them out there on time and who knows we may be able to catch up with sales instead of constantly selling out.

Think it, do it, lol, that’s what I have done, put a notice out, no eggs on a Tuesday for the foreseeable future.

I lit the Rayburn 😋 just for a couple of hours to take the chill off the air during the evening and I must admit it will be nice to have dry, warm towels again. The problem with this time of year is that it’s not quite cold enough to have it full on but it’s too chilly not to have it at all, probably be sweating in bed later lol.

It will take a while to get to know how she has decided to perform this year but I’m sure we will all settle into a routine soon enough, the one regret I have is that there is not enough space to have a chair right next to her, that would have been perfick 😋 mind you, you would have found me sat there all Winter long 😝

Thursday: Fabulous morning, sunny with a hint of mist rising from the ground, beautiful. By 8am I had done my morning bits and was stood having a coffee outside. My neighbour had ask if I have anything for the harvest festival display so I went round and had a look, some hops, a few little pumpkins and some sweet corn stalks is about all I have this year, hopefully they will be of use. I cut down all the hops and put some aside and the rest I have harvested ready to dry, I want to make hop pillows and need to dry the heads. They are very tactile little things once they are off the vine and as light as a feather, I will leave them in the sun for today and finish them off drying indoors for a couple of days. I don’t have very many as I try to keep the vine under control, it’s suppose to grow along the fence but it keeps creeping up the pear tree and strangling it!

Did a bit of pottering about which was nice, I watered the shrubs I had planted on the front paddock fence line and the apple tree, collected a couple of ‘keeper’ apples there are not many this year, sat and ate the last pear I found hiding on the tree, beautifully succulent and tasty 😋 picked up some eggs and put them out, saw a dragonfly which made me smile, a fab day for pottering out there.

I have a large amount of tomatoes to use up so I’m going to roast them with some olive oil and garlic then sieve them and freeze them for winter use, it’s such a good year for them that you can’t even give them away let alone sell them lol.

I ordered a bulb planter for the daffs, it’s a good strong one which I was surprised as it only cost £24, I took it up the back paddock to have a go but the ground is still much too hard! It needs a bit of rain on it dare I say 😋

Friday: No sun as yet this morning but it’s still early, John was up and out to do the birds just as it got light, patch the dog was barking incessantly, I got up to investigate couldn’t see anything, when John came in he told me it was a hedgehog 😀😀😀😀😀 A hedgehog, I couldn’t be more delighted 😁 they are in decline here in the UK and I haven’t seen one on the farm for about 5 years now so it’s an exciting find and puts paid to any idea that I had about using roundup on the veg garden paths, it will have to be hoed instead 😝

The wildlife has steadily increased over the years, frogs, toads, hedgehogs (well at least one of each) multiple different garden birds, the sparrows that seemed to have gone over the last few weeks have suddenly all come back to check out the roosting areas they used last winter, dragonflies, butterflies, insects galore, it’s a great feeling to nurture nature.

I’m walking back from doing the orchard lot and what do I see in the middle of the driveway but a rolled up ball of prickles covered in leaves, the dogs must have managed to roll it out to play football with it! So I went and got appropriate hand wear and picked it up and took it to the greenhouse along with some cat food, it’s not hungry and I’m pleased to say it looks in good condition, no ticks. I watched it walk around looking for a way out and so went and built a quick hedgehog house out of wooden posts and a broken slab with some leaves and straw for bedding, and then popped it in there. Hopefully it will at least hang around, taking care to stay out of the way of the dogs in future 😋

Blood tests this morning, I was supposed to have them last week but didn’t ring up in time.

Popped in to see my Mum and Ken as they have just come back from caravanning in the south west, came home with lots of killer jars and a couple of shrubs 😀

Went for a walk along the downs road with Josh, Shelley and Flo this afternoon, we played hide and seek behind the trees, ‘room on the broom’, ‘pull me out of the rabbit hole nana’ and conker football 😀

The woodpecker is about, I spotted him hammering a tree trunk this morning, then when I was out doing the afternoon feeding I heard him and then saw him take off in the unmistakable, undulating flight back toward this mornings tree. It is a greater spotted woodpecker the green ones tend to stay more in the hedge-line at the side of the long paddock so I don’t see them as often, one day I will get a picture but they are very quick.

Saturday: Another lovey sunny Autumn morning, I know the bubble is going to burst eventually but loving it while it’s here 😀 Today we are off to the local ploughing match, heavy horses, tractors galore and plenty of ‘Old McDonalds’ for Josh to see 😝

Fabulous day, glorious weather and bone dry under foot, we have seen heavy horses in their finery, steam engines galore, tractors old and new, eaten ice creams, doughnuts, hot dogs and baked potatoes (some of us ate some of them, not all of us ate all of them 😜) had a beer, looked at the produce competitions, watched some old crafts, thank goodness there are people who keep these going and chatted to friends and acquaintances, all in all a great time had by all. I am pretty sure Josh will fall asleep early and not wake up till morning, dreaming of the vintage tractor parade 😀

I bought a Hardy plumbago plant while I was there, mine died over winter and it’s a plant that I miss.

Sunday: I almost forgot it’s blog day! Perfect day for me outside for getting some work done, pleasant enough, not much sun but a hint now and again. I have been planting, barrowing, weeding, covering and generally trying to get things in order ready for Winter. Plants that I have bought and needed to plant out or on, barrowing muck from the heap onto beds, weeding the pathways and covering bare soil that has been weeded. By 2pm I was quite exhausted but feel I have achieved something at least. I pulled some carrots, they are in a raised bed and so not getting waterlogged (chance would be a fine thing as rain is mostly a distant memory this year) I’m hoping to get some cooking and baking done this week and tomato soup is still on my radar, carrots add a great bit of flavour to the soup. I am still picking outdoor tomatoes though it won’t be long before the frost gets them, I would make green tomato chutney but we have enough pickles to last us a while. My Dad always says ‘you should try green tomatoes fried’ hmmm not sure on that one, maybe I should at least try them?

John has been busy, tidying up and burning the bits of wood that couldn’t be cut up for the fire, we always seem to have wood lying around that needs burning, then he cleaned out the front hens and he has a plan to move them off of the front paddock and make a bigger pen where the hens for sale used to be housed seeing as we won’t be doing that anymore. He has now gone to do his Mum and I’ve sent him with a shopping list so I don’t have to go 😜

I washed and dried another load of walnuts today, that’s it now I’m not gathering any more! It’s weird because when Johns Dad was alive he used to ask me for walnuts and we never had that many, the two years since he died have been bumper years and the squirrel has been nowhere near, coincidence? Or is he giving me a helping hand?

I saw a green woodpecker flying around the farm today 😀

Definitely going to light the fire tonight, it’s chilly indoors at 3pm already.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Naughty bunnies, rainy days and Winter celebrations. 

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday: 3.30pm just sat down with a cuppa after a bit of a day, I’m back on a daily dose of painkillers at the minute, hands hurt, muscles hurt, pain in the arse, not literally but it’s difficult to get stuff done when bits of you won’t work properly! Anyhow, this mornings shocker was, wait for it, two more baby rabbits just born, although they were both dead, this means that the rabbits were getting out for longer than I had suspected. Did the feeding rounds then went and gave both the rabbits and Guineas a good clean out and I really needed to round up these babies that are getting behind the boarding and out into the field. Samantha and Mia came over mid morning and we set about trying to catch them by means of lying in wait for them one at a time, We caught two and caged them, by his time Mia was getting a bit bored so we decided to wait until after lunch when she had her nap, to finish the job. In the end we managed to round up 5 of them, one has a chunk missing from its ear and one has managed to get a wound on its back probably from scrabbling in and out of the small gap, two are still on the loose. We think one of them is now too big to get back through the gap and as it could be seen on the other side of the fence nibbling grass, if we don’t manage to catch it, it will have to fend for itself. This morning I had to turn the horse out without a rug on because I couldn’t do the fastenings, see these pains are really inconvenient, but as the sun was looking like it was coming out Jack didn’t mind too much, Sam mucked out the stable then did his field and put his rug back on and all is well again. I planted the pea and bean seeds I had growing on the windowsill and fingers crossed nothing will eat them 😜

Caught another one when I was putting the birds to bed, just one more to go.


Tuesday: Rainy day 😕 on and off rain so bad luck if you get caught like I did doing the afternoon feeding. I had a 10 minute window to feed and collect the eggs as Mia was asleep and John came home before he had to go to the dentist. I quickly discovered that my waterproof needs reproofing, I was only out 10 minutes and was soaked through literally to the skin in places, urghh need to sort out wet weather gear as well as the cold gear. I remember why I hate the winter now, I could be heard muttering about having only a few chickens for self sufficiency purposes rather than a large flock. The rain is coming over the top of the guttering inside the stable block, I did tell John he needed to clear them a couple of weeks ago when I did the ones I could reach, need to start those lists again I think 😝 At least I had already lit the fire so it was nice and warm when I came back in. 
Wednesday: Cold this morning but at least it’s not raining. Did the morning stuff, put the eggs out for sale and had a conversation with a regular customer who is retiring to the coast next week so will no longer be coming. I wished him all the best and hope he finds a nice little farm to buy his eggs from where he is going. I have been remiss about making bread for the last couple of weeks, I just didn’t have the time or the inclination but I’m back on track with that again, I may even make a cake today 😀

Definitely got my cooking head on as I decided to prepare a lamb stew for tomorrow which will cook in the Rayburn this evening, an apple and blueberry sponge pudding, a batch of dumplings, some for the stew and some to freeze for another day and some fully loaded potatoes that cook in the slow cooker to go with the pork chops later. Stews are great because you just make it up as you go along with whatever you have, this one is stewing lamb, potatoes, butternut squash, onions, rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper, red wine, some pontack sauce, vegetable stock and cornflour. 


I would have done more cooking but I had Mia from lunchtime so Bing and babies were on the agenda instead.

Thursday: I plan to pack a fair bit into today so I was up early and got the bathroom and living room cleaned before daybreak came 😜 Then out to do the morning feeding etc, the grass in the back paddock particularly, is like a skating rink so we have decided to move the hens from there and put them into the POL pen for the winter as nothing else will be going in there. They will be let out to free range every day but not until mid morning that way we will hopefully get the eggs laid all in one place instead of all over the farm. But my first job on the list is to make a secure pen within the rabbit run for the babies, bit of a mission as they can seemingly squeeze through the tiniest of gaps, an hour later, a roll of chicken wire, staple gun, wire cutters, scratched hands, dirty knees and the sides of a run and objective achieved 😀 I can now let them out into a bigger area and assess their health etc. After that it was on to prepare the POL run for the hens, my plan is to get it all cleaned, put in a dust bath made up of diatomaceous earth, wood ash, louse powder and shavings, extra nesting boxes which will be plastic buckets and tubs, and lure them in at the afternoon feed with corn. I very nearly managed to get all but about 10 hens in so that’s not bad, the rest we will gather up when we have time or hopefully they may follow suit later tomorrow. 

Meanwhile I have been making a list of jobs for John to do at the weekend and a shopping list of things we need for the Farm, lightbulbs for the hay barn, rat poison, I’m determined to not have the same problem we had last year and the cats seem completely useless, feed, including wild bird feed because the little birds that have grown in number are raiding the rabbit food to the extent that there are bird droppings galore in there, might as well get something to feed them as it’s costing me which ever way I do it 😜

Josh and Shelley came over in the afternoon and helped me to feed the rabbits some fresh veggies and feed the horse, I didn’t get round to cleaning the rest of the house but there is always tomorrow😀

The stew, complete with dumplings was superb, only I forgot to get a photo before we ate it 😝

Friday: Up early again as I forgot to put the dustbin out last night so need to get it out before 6am, not that they come before 8 but on the day I don’t do it you can bet your life they will be early! John was also up early so he went out and cleaned out the front hens, fed the and let them out, saves me a job 😀 
The weather yesterday, by the way was cracking for early November, this mornings sky is dark and ominous, however it is windy so I’m hoping the dark clouds will blow around us and not towards us.

One of the jobs in the mornings that I do now is laying the fire in the Rayburn ready for lighting as soon as I think it’s getting cold, at the moment that’s usually around 1pm as the heat from the night before slowly ebbs away, we have been burning pure logs for a while as I have been saving the wood ash for the chicken dust baths and for the garden. It needs to be good wood and not wood with nails for obvious reasons and it needs to be untreated, then it’s perfect for all sorts of uses around the farm. 

I went out to do the rest of the feeding and discovered there are only 3 baby rabbits in the run, ffs! They have chewed through one of the ties, pulled the metal fencing forward and escaped, I think that’s my lot with them they can take their chances in the wild 😩

Gave the windows a clean, I say that rather loosely, not my forte, window cleaning 😜 I hate it but at this time of year with the low sun you can see all the dirt and eventually it starts to really annoy me so out comes the bucket, cloth and the window rubber thing, my windows are small and few but I do need the hop up to reach the top, and now I have cleaner windows with a few smears, that will do for me 😝😝 I have better things to do than spend an age getting them smear free 😏

I started thinking about the Mid Winter feast and the various components, the meat is in the freezer as are the veg, I have all the ingredients for making the pudding, I just need to pick a good time that incorporates, the soaking of the fruit, the children coming to stir it and the hours of steaming it will need, I went onto testing the sloe gin I made last year, yep 10am I’m on the booze, well a little sip at least, I think I need to add a bit of sugar syrup and I might add a cinnamon stick to give it a deep, warming quality, not that it doesn’t have that already 😀 but I fancied giving it a go. The mincemeat has been developing nicely for a few weeks now and in our house we traditionally start making, and eating mince pies from Dec 1st, I don’t usually make a Christmas cake as we are always still eating it for weeks after we have got fed up of it but we will have visitors this year so I shall make one very soon. Obviously we have the nuts I gathered and plenty of fruit in the freezer to make many a splendid dish with 😀 We shall eat like kings🤴 and queens 👸 

Once I began thinking about it I couldn’t resist getting the Christmas cake underway, so I dug out all the dry ingredients I needed and set them to soak in brandy, as usual I went off piste and used what I had so instead of currants I used dried figs and some sorry looking satsumas in the fruit bowl went in as well, I whizzed both lots up separately in the food processor, and in they went, along with sultanas and raisins, I don’t have glacé cherries at the minute but the soaking is a three day process so plenty of time to get some and put them in. I am loosely following a Mary Berry recipe just to get the weights and I didn’t have any oranges hence the satsumas, I also don’t like waste so the whole lot went in not just the juice, the membrane can be taken out once the flesh has fallen off and incorporated, just pick it out. 

Saturday: Today I thought it was high time to tackle the office come dumping ground! That was a big job that took most of the day, everything pulled out sorted out, piles for the charity shop, piles for the rubbish bin, piles for giving or selling on. It is a multifunction room really and most things are stored in there, grandchildren paraphernalia, Christmas stuff, photo albums, hoover, spare chair, fold out bed, a small chest of drawers filled with stuff we haven’t worn for a few years, cctv monitor, music system as well as the desk, filing cabinet, folders of paperwork, printer etc you get the idea, it’s pretty rammed. As a consequence when I am cleaning I kind of look in there hoover the floor and shut the door so it was well over due for a de webbing and dusting too. I felt it was a great and worthy achievement when it was finished, how long it will stay like that is anyone’s guess 😝 Meanwhile, John took care of all the outside work and feeding, cleaning gutters out, tidying the muck heap, burning rubbish, all the jobs on my list and a few more besides 😀

The rain has put us squarely back into winter mode and the dogs were filthy by the end of the day so they had their first bath in a while, they were not happy but what’s not to like they have a bath to stand in AND hot water to boot, can’t please some. 

Sunday: The weather is windy today so that should dry things up a little, I went out and checked the baby rabbits but apart from that John did the rest, including cleaning out the ducks. I came in and got started on mixing up the Christmas cake ready to go in the oven. 

https://pin.it/r-sJ9dP
I’m on a roll with the Christmas eating ideas now and I think I will try a pork pie with hot crust pastry, never done it before so excited about giving it a go. 

Apart from the usual domestic chores and going down to do the horse that was pretty much it for the day and we are having dinner at Charlie and Maccas tonight so I don’t even have to cook 😀

The photos are the stages of the cake, it smells divine, now just got to decide how to decorate it in a few weeks time.