cold weather – Page 7 – frieslandfarm (flowers)

The beast from the East and all that goes with it!

Posted on March 4, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Monday 26th Feb: It is cold this morning but not as cold as I was expecting it to be but time enough for that. Did the morning stuff had to break all the water buckets and was glad we filled them yesterday, though prolonged cold will obviously bring problems further down the line.

Made a shepherds pie with the left over slow roasted beef we had yesterday, I used the meat juices for the gravy and even fried the onions in the beef fat, just what you need to keep the cold out, I also made an apple and blackcurrant crumble again lots of vitamin c and a good stodgy pudding works wonders on the soul 😀

The rest of the day was mostly spent stoking the fire to keep the temps up inside and it’s nice and cosy so bring it on beast.

For the afternoon feeding and egg collection I dug out my duvet coat, a splendid if a little dusty affair, that came from a mountainous, snowy part of the world and is perfect for sub zero temperatures, only it wasn’t that sub zero lol, I found that the hosepipes were flowing freely so it can’t be minus anything just yet, a good opportunity to again top up the water buckets, a little snow flurry added to the ambience but that soon passed over and so we wait and see what happens next.

We are ready for most things except a loss of electric, still not got the generator sorted, the idea is to be able to plug the pump into it so that we can still run the Rayburn, I’ve got a feeling I will be cursing John if that happens and we still can’t do it.

It’s 4.30 and I’m looking out fo the window at the lovely sunshine wondering if this is all going to be something and nothing!

Made some oat and blueberry bars as I had a few oats to use up, trying to gradually use up store cupboard stuff and I will then replenish, anyone have a recipe to use up a tin of refried beans 🤣

Tuesday: Still cold although no sign of the snow that northern parts have had as yet.

Water buckets frozen solid, they take a good hard heeling to break them 😜 all the birds seem quite content and not showing any signs of the cold affecting them. Mia arrived early so it was lucky I had already got everything done except for lighting the Rayburn so I got that done quickly.

We have had snow flurries on and off all day mixed with sunshine!

I am slightly concerned for the aubergine seedlings on the window sill, although it’s warm during the day, during the night time the temp drops and where they once were thriving they are looking a little sad, I have put a clear polythene tent over them so hopefully they will recover, I only need two or three plants any way so it will be the strongest that pull through I guess. There are two melon seeds that have sprouted and they seem fine and strong, hopefully the other 4 seeds will sprout soon.

Putting the birds to bed this evening with a layering of crispy snow that looked blue in the moonlight, pure magic 😀 already -6 at 6.30 though, goodness knows how cold it will get overnight!

Wednesday: Goodness knows what the temps went down to last night I’m guessing about -10! So this morning I lit the Rayburn before going out and I wrapped up properly, my duvet coat, two pairs of gloves, one fingerless pair under the thermal gloves and my iso therm wellies. The only part of me that got cold was my face and a few gurning exercises when I came back in soon thawed it out 🤪 The water buckets were the most difficult thing this morning, as expected they were frozen solid, right to the bottom on the smaller buckets, I broke what I could which was most of them, just the one at the back that was too hard, luckily the sun is shinning this morning so it should melt off a little bit, the hens are free ranging so they will find the other water buckets soon enough. I checked the egg shed and one of the eggs had frozen and split, the others were fine but if the temperatures stay low we might have to start bringing them in over night. I have put plenty of bird seed out for the wild birds, I moved the feeder so it is now in the oak tree outside the back door which is lovely because I can see them all feeding and there are lots of them 😀

So far the ‘beast from the east’ has been more of a ‘cub’ but plenty of time left in the arctic blast to get bigger. The snow flurries are on, off, on again but the temperature has remained low all day. Went out for lunch with Shelley, Josh and Mia as it’s Shelley’s 30th Birthday today, the kids were in ‘full on’ mode, well behaved but hard work lol, luckily Mia was tired when we got back so I put her down for a sleep and went out to do the feeding and egg collecting. While I was out there I filled 4 wheelbarrows full of cut wood and bought that in and also quickly skipped out jacks stable, put some hay and water in for him so he can just be bought in later. I think tonight might be when it hits us if at all.

Thursday: The ‘beast’ was grumbling all night here, the winds never let up from 10pm till 7am, I was surprised that we didn’t have a blanket of snow. It has been steadily snowing since 7.30 now and the sky looks full, the warnings have been issued, schools and offices are closing from lunchtime, I wonder how bad it will get and I wonder if I will be the only one here tonight if the others can’t get back! As for the morning rounds, they were difficult especially watering, the buckets are frozen solid, the taps are frozen solid, I took out some cartons of water with me for the smaller animals and a bucket for the ducks. For the chickens I have moved the buckets inside, as the hens won’t come out I figured their collective body heat will melt at least a top layer of ice otherwise they will have to eat the snow which is what I guess wild animals would have to do.

From the weather reports I am expecting a white out blizzard I just hope the electric stays on! In preparation, as I have been caught out before I have charged everything up, torches, phones etc. I have learnt from previous episodes to keep an old plug straight into the phone line phone, as the ones that connect via a pod to the electric as well won’t work, all the little cogs in my survival wheel lol.

I have a beef stew in the slow cooker and I’ve made hot cross buns, without the crosses 😜

This was a recipe from the River Cottage Bread book, actually they were so easy I wondered why I had never made them before.

I have been looking at the forecast from RAF Brize Norton as it’s less than 2 miles away and the wind chill factor is -12 in the day time!

Well the afternoon round was a fun event……..NOT! The snow is coming down it’s f**king freezing in the wind and I had to spend the time carrying buckets of water from indoors to the outer reaches, they are heavy let me tell you, at least everything has had chance of a drink but my arms are hurting, pfft I know, weakling, there are times when I can easily carry stuff and times when I can’t, this is a can’t time and it’s not much fun. My blood tests came back from last week with high inflammation markers so that is the reason I am struggling with carrying. I filled up the wild bird feeder as they have gone through a fair bit of seed today, ready to hunker down no doubt.

There has been a red warning issued for tonight in the South, joy, still at least it gives me something to write about, the next few days possibly a week are going to be flipping hard work. While most people are thinking whoo hoo a snow day, I am thinking why the hell would you want to play in it 🤪

Friday: Well most people managed to get home last night and it didn’t look too bad this morning from the window but John went off in the van and came back an hour later after trying two roads out of the village both blocked by cars stuck in drifts of deep snow, he had to leave the van and walk back. So that meant with Charlie not going in either there were plenty of hands on deck as it were, good job because the girls couldn’t get here to do the horses as they were stuck in the lane for well over an hour. The stable block was full of drifted snow and so was the feed room and the hay barn, I have never seen it like this before. We fed and watered everything, cleaned snow off of the top of the poly tunnel, then I made some bread, Charlie did the cleaning and John decided he would sit on the sofa and watch tv. The livery girls got picked up and bought here, the same chap then knocked and asked John if he wanted him to tow his van back with him which he did, an egg customer came for eggs in his tractor lol, a load of sausage rolls in the Rayburn and a nice cuppa, a sit down for a while until it’s time to go back out later.

Just finished the final shift of the day putting everything to bed, it’s cold and snowy, I am sooooo over winter now it can shove off, lots of lovely pictures of people playing out in it bah humbug not me not these days 🤪everything is snuggly tucked up in stables, coops, shed, huts annnnd relax 😀

Some snow patterns lol

Saturday: In terms of the weather it’s quite pleasant this morning lol, the temperature is above freezing and I even went outside without my coat on to put out eggs after some customers came on sledges 🛷 John was here first thing to help with the water though that hopefully will be the last time we have to bucket it across as it is beginning to thaw. His phone has been going as frozen pipes begin to thaw and have burst, I went out and about 20 mins later I saw him coming back and trying to get out another way as cars are still stuck in the lane and village, eventually after going a long way round he managed to get to someone who had been stood with their finger over a pipe for two hours! The thaw will bring different problems including mud but hopefully spring will not be far away 🤞 It seems like we have been snowed in forever but it was only two days lol.

The weather has dominated everything we have done over the last few days and to be honest inbetween feeding and some wood cutting etc we did a lot of sitting on the sofa lol

Sunday: As I sat down to write this in the afternoon the heavens opened and I mean opened, hard, fast, heavy rain lol when will it ever just be normal weather again? The snow is now pretty much slush or it definitely will be now. We went round to Johns Mums first thing then down to the shop to get a few supplies, good job we didn’t need much because there was no fresh produce on the shelves!

Friesland Farm

Cabbage seeds, cookery books and bird boxes.

Posted on February 25, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Tuesday 20th Feb: Back to the routine today after a short break and guess what, it’s windy! It woke me up around 4.30am something was banging around luckily I eventually fell back to sleep, woke up again at 7 and it’s still windy. The greatest thing about the wind is that it’s drying up the ground so we are grateful for that. I asked John to take the feed out to the front chickens this morning as at the moment I’m finding two bucketfuls of feed too much to carry. I did the rest then went into the greenhouse to sow some cabbage and comfrey seeds, the cabbage seeds I saved from last year but I can’t remember what type they are 😝 surprise cabbage 😀 I watered the peas that are growing nicely in the small polytunnel and then watered the strawberries and beetroot in the big tunnel. The pea and bean seeds I showed last week are just beginning to sprout and the lettuce in the ‘mini greenhouses’ have also sprouted, maybe in a weeks time I will be able to eat a pea top and lettuce leaf salad.

While I was thinking about salads I ordered some more lettuce seeds and some leeks and thinking back to our stay away some mushroom spawn while I was at it 😀

I had Mia in the afternoon but also I wasn’t feeling too good either so not much more got done.

Wednesday: The wind has dropped today thank goodness and it’s quite a pleasant morning, I bimbled round and did the feeding and watering, I made a horrible discovery, not horrible in any way other than I was horrified with myself. You will remember we let the baby rabbits go, most were from the large run but one was an older boy rabbit from before, we had two in a separate cage and I am keeping one of them but the other was set free, we closed the hutch door to enable us to catch the rabbit, went off down the paddock, let them go, then went away for two days completely forgetting to open the door to the hutch so that the remaining rabbit could get to it’s food and water. I thought it was odd that he hadn’t eaten his carrot then noticed (horrified) the door was still shut, luckily he had plenty of hay in there with him so didn’t go hungry but all the same I can’t believe I forgot 🙄

Still feeling under the weather so keep popping the pills, hopefully it will pass soon, not that I have the luxury of resting up until it does, jobs still have to be carried out.

Thursday: I am up at 5.30 this morning, not because I have something to do but because I don’t feel well, I’m not sure at this point in time if it’s a Lupus flare or if I have a virus or possibly menopausal or all three! I ache and shiver and sweat all at the same time and the welcome cool air of the half opened stable door is refreshing at this time of the morning. I have bloods tomorrow, mostly to check that my meds are not damaging me in any way but if it’s the Lupus they will show up inflammation markers and if it’s not then I am just poorly (that’s what I would prefer). It’s quiet, it’s quite nice, normally I wait till everyone has got up and gone to work before I get up so that I can then just get on.

Once the painkillers and anti inflammatory kicked in I felt totally normal so got on with the jobs in hand and sorted out all the eggs for the shed. I put an extra board roadside to advertise the goose eggs, what normally happens is that people come and ask for them well after the geese have finished laying or begin sitting in earnest, so this way I can notify anyone who is interested that they are available now. I lit the fire and then had the intention of going out to do something but after 10 mins out there I decided it was too cold and there was nothing urgent in the garden or greenhouse that warrants getting frozen for.

I decided to do a couple of jobs that have been nagging at me for a while now, one was my cookery book shelves, they all needed coming off having a good clean, sort out and putting back and the other was the kitchen window blinds. Most of us opt to have the kitchen sink in front of the window but boy it does make it difficult to clean, kneeling on the draining board is a bit ouchy but not too bad but trying to lean over the sink area means training as a contortionist! The blinds haven’t been done properly for a year so took a while to get the dust off, very pleased with myself, in between the two jobs I got out some tomato soup from the freezer that I made back in the summer, what a treat and a great reminder of the growing year ahead😀

Going through the bookshelf was a great exercise, I had forgotten some of the great books I have there, I shall definitely refer to them more this year rather than turning to google, as convenient as it is.

Well of course I didn’t stop there suffice to say that some areas of the kitchen look gleaming 😀

Friday: I don’t know what happened to Friday, I have no notes lol, I had bloods done in the morning and had coffee with Shelley and Josh, Sam and Mia came in the afternoon apart from that we had some off cuts of wood delivered ummm nope can’t remember!

Saturday: It’s a cold start and I’m glad John offered to do the morning rounds, I stayed inside and did a bit of clearing up, then went outside where some more wood was being delivered. This wood is all old cut up pallets etc but it still needs cutting smaller to fit in the Rayburn, it is a mountain of wood, literally poor John will be there for the rest of his life cutting it up 😜 I spotted a lot of it that would be the perfect size for making bird boxes so that is what I started doing, marking them up, getting John to cut the pieces then I put them together, now I know I’m never going to win carpenter of the year 🤪 but I reckon the birds will be pretty chuffed with their little houses and I intend to make as many as I can for all round the farm. It was bitterly cold mind so I had to keep coming in to warm up the ends of my fingers and toes, the workshop area faces North, not so good for working in the Winter.

I made six in total one of which is a robin nest box and they are now in situ waiting for the first occupants of the year 😀

The weather warnings are beginning, the beast from the East is apparently going to hit us hard, oh the joys and it’s a prolonged period of cold probably with snow, just when we thought Spring might appear lol.

Sunday: Lovely sunny but cold morning again today and we have been mostly preparing for the cold weather that has been forecast. First the routine stuff then the cleaning out and bulking up of extra bedding for the rabbits, quail and orchard hens, filling up all available water buckets and vessels as the pipes will be frozen and at least if we have things filled up we can break the ice to retrieve water. On cleaning out the rabbits I found two more newly born babies, I half expected this as the rabbit that was out before we caught her was bound to get knocked up in between times, the saying is certainly true!

I could be heard shouting ‘John, you dickhead’ as he had come in to the orchard pen to bring rabbit feed then locked me in and gone off to do something else 🤪

Then is was my turn to be called something rudimentary as John discovered I had left the rain water hose on to fill up a tub which I estimated would take about an hour, came in and had something to eat, then Shelley, Martin and Josh popped in and I forgot all about it, result, overflow 🤪 ooops at least it wasn’t mains water that we are charged for but still 😜

I also prepare the greenhouse and the citrus trees in the poly tunnel, all with extra fleece covering just in case, I don’t want to risk losing any of the plants or seedlings that are underway so better to be safe than sorry.

While I was in the greenhouse I scattered a bit of mushroom spawn into the hotbox and covered them with soil, I have never been successful growing mushrooms this way but willing to give it another try, you never know.

I think if it does pan out to be as cold as they say I shall mostly be baking and cooking next week, it keeps me busy and warm at the same time 😀

Friesland Farm

A game of cat and rabbits

Posted on February 11, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Monday 5th Feb: Crikey when I looked at the date I wondered where the last 5 days have gone! Been busy this morning, finally got my welly on, I had to really as John is busy with his Mum so morning routine was down to me. I got the birds and rabbits fed and watered, cleaned out the front house floor, John did the boxes yesterday, then sorted the recycling and burnt the paper rubbish along with feed sacks etc. Then a few minutes in the greenhouse checking the seed I have already down and I used some clear boxes with lids, the type apple turnovers come in, to sow some lettuce seeds, I’m hoping they will work like mini greenhouses, inside the greenhouse. Then on to light the fire and get some washing on a bit of tidying up and putting away and then coffee time so I can write this up. I took a photo this morning, have a look at it and see what you can see, not much? Well there is a lot more going on here than you realise, the rabbit on the grass and the cat on the fence but the cat is not interested in that particular rabbit what she is interested in is the baby rabbits that at a guess are under the shed! The babies in the run are now moving about a lot exploring their surroundings, I’m guessing the others are of a similar age and doing the same, Molly certainly thinks there is something interesting to watch here and knowing Molly, she is thinking 💭 breakfast 😀 Unless I can catch them it will be natural selection situation I’m afraid.

Tuesday: Is it just me or is everyone’s life chaos at times? This morning was one of those mental half hours, Mia arrived early, that’s fine I have done everything outside and lit the fire, she sits to the table and eats her ready brek (which I’d had forgotten gets bloody everywhere and is a pain to clean up because when you think you have finished you find bits stuck to your hand) Ok get her down now she is cleaned up and I am having an omelette for breakfast so I start that, then the septic tank lorry turns up, gotta now get the dogs inside so I am shouting them before the lorry starts to reverse into the driveway, dogs locked away, Mia is crying as she wants something I can’t quite understand what, I think at this moment Peppa Pig will sort the situation out, the fire stick decides it’s not playing ball today, frantically clicking on it and it finally kicks into life, the phone rings (a customer of Johns) I talk quickly to the tank driver, the phone rings again (John, this time) meanwhile my omelette is still cooking, I make tea for the driver, put wood on the fire before it burns down too far, eat my omelette while I can smell the product of the tank emptying 😝 meanwhile Shelley is messaging as she is coming over to collect Mia and take her back to play so i am arranging that and then almost as quickly as it started, the lorry goes, Mia is still watching Peppa Pig and sanity resumes 🤪🤪

Mia went off with Shelley, John came home after collecting the feed and I decided to make a cake, I really like this Mary Berry recipe, it’s easy, doesn’t take very long to make, I put everything in the bowl then mix it up and it tastes great even when you alter the ingredients slightly.

Wednesday: I was hoping to have a bit of time in the garden today after doing the morning feeding etc but it’s too frozen 🙄 I couldn’t even pot on the blueberries as the ericaceous compost was frozen solid, my fault I asked John to put it out by the greenhouse, I should have had it put inside really. The aubergine seedlings have come up on the windowsill in the kitchen the problem now is making sure they get enough light so they don’t get ‘leggy’ so I have taken the cover off and the tray will get turned a couple of times a day especially when the sun is shinning. I have some mini daffodils (paper whites, which always remind me of a friend that I know loves them) in a pot that I was given for Christmas, they are also on the windowsill and the green tips are just peeking through. I find it an exciting time when everything starts to grow again but I need to beware as the temperature can plummet drastically as we have seen overnight.

I always think I would quite like a heated greenhouse for this time of year but it goes against my ethos, I can’t really justify it and keep looking for ways to heat it up for free. There are some good ideas online in various places it’s just getting round to doing them lol, one if making use of the muckheap and having a pipe run from the bottom of the greenhouse, through the heap and back into the top of the greenhouse though I’m not sure this would work entirely as warm air rises anyway so it would probably all escape through the roof!

So after getting the fire lit and looking at a few you tube vids I decided that the hot bed probably would work fine though it hasn’t really up till now, but that’s because the manure in it was fairly old and so cooked itself through. The solution was to put more, fresh stuff in there so I ripped up a newspaper and spread that, then some kitchen compost waste, tea bags, banana skin etc and finally some cleanings out from the rabbit and quail runs which should bring it back to life and raise the temperature. I also added a bucket of multipurpose compost and stood a black bucket filled with water on top. Looking at the dirt floor, which is always colder than anything else, it needs a layer of something on, either cardboard or even straw though I think I would find the straw annoying so I will opt for the cardboard as we have plenty of it about.

John came home late afternoon asking what jobs need doing 🤪 look around, bloody hundreds lol, you can start by collecting up all the buckets and cleaning them, I’ll use the power washer he says (any opportunity to play with a toy) I don’t think that is necessary I say just clean them with a brush or sponge, he sulks, ten minutes later he comes back in, I’m going to use the pressure washer as there are TEN buckets, TEN buckets oh well you better had then otherwise you will be there all week long, I roll my eyes and retreat, pretty sure that is overkill but if it makes him happy 🙄

Thursday: Phew what a day, busy, busy, busy, we did the usual morning stuff then started on tidying and clearing the back. John and I spent pretty much the whole of the day tidying stuff up, putting stuff away, throwing stuff away, putting stuff up for sale or giving it away and building a new worktop area and storage under. How long it will stay like that is anyone’s guess 🤪 but for now it looks like a clean, tidy, usable space. Oh and John and one of the liveries managed to catch the loose rabbit now that her offspring are able to fend for themselves, if we can catch them up we will, if not they will be on their own!

Friday: After winds last night then downpours during the night it’s sunny though a cold wind with it. Did the morning rounds and the bubble wrap for the greenhouse arrived yesterday so I am going to put that up this morning, I’m determined to get this greenhouse warm enough for an early start.

So I ordered 50m of 2ft wide (large bubble, they let in more light than small) bubble wrap and used nearly all of it insulating the greenhouse, it took about an hour, I haven’t done the bottom half just the sides and top to stop the warm air escaping. I really hope it makes a difference lol, it cost £25 but I should be able to reuse it again next year. Of course what I would really like is a new greenhouse lol, but replacing like for like would cost a few thousand so I am happy to limp along with this one until the wind blows it down 💨 it’s been repaired so many times and is not the best but it still works in a fashion, I will put one on my ‘dream’ list.

I got really cold and couldn’t warm up for the life of me, then ended up with joint pains oh the joys of Lupus 😜

Saturday: It’s cold and raining 😐 John did the birds in the front and I did the birds at the back, we relocated the ducks back to their original pen and will feed them inside their hut as it’s not really fair to keep them in the stable unless absolutely necessary. John then went off to sort his Mum out and I decided to make some pickled eggs as we have got plenty of them! I looked for a pickling recipe but couldn’t quite find one I liked so as usual adapted one, white vinegar, salt, sugar, juniper berries, coriander seeds and a pinch of mustard powder all went in, we will see how they taste in a few days 😀 a packet of crisps, pickled egg and a beer is supposed to be beautiful lol.

Got the Rayburn going early, she has been a bit of a pig to light over the last few days taking me nearly an hour to get her up to speed, it’s one of the things that I have a love/hate relationship with 🤪

We are finally getting round to clearing up some of the things that have been lying around for ages, yesterday someone came to collect some big sheets of insulated metal we were given (don’t like to say no lol) we didn’t really have a use for them so we passed them on to someone who does. Now just got to get rid of our old sofa and Charlie’s mattress and I can start making the front look attractive, I never could put flowers etc out there before because Kai would always dig them up, now he has gone I can 😀 I always wanted a lavender hedge out the front so time to put some plans into action.

It’s such a cold wet depressing day I decided I’m not doing anything except sit in the warm lol. I looked through all the old photos and can’t wait for the place to look spring like and warm again, I found old videos of little lambs, photos of the garden when it looks at its best, roll on better weather, it’s at this stage of the year it feels like it’s been winter forever.

Sunday: Cold again 😟 we’ve had wind, rain, sleet, hail and even a touch of sun all a 24hr period! I haven’t been outside at all today, John was up early and has done all the outside jobs while I warm the house, cook the dinner, do the chores lol. He is really earning his keep at the moment, 7 mornings and 5 evenings a week he is seeing to his Mum, in between he is fitting in the plumbing work and keeping up with his farm chores and doing a sterling job to boot.

Friesland Farm

Man down and ‘the hobble’

Posted on February 4, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th January: It’s 10.45 and mission accomplished this morning, after doing the feeding the job was to fully secure the rabbit run and make sure that when the babies start moving about they can’t get out! We have 2inch square welded mesh around the run so the adults can’t get through it BUT baby rabbits can and do or did last time but not this time mwaahaha I have boarded and wired every escape route (hopefully)

I really need to have outside shoes to hand as I had just come in taken off my coat and wellies made a coffee and the bell rang at the gate 😜 even if I nip out in my indoor shoes they get covered in mud and that is the second time in 24hrs I have de robed only to have to go back out.

I had a wonderful view of a buzzard ‘big bird’ as we call him or her, sat on the fence outside the bedroom window this morning, the photo is not great taken with my I pad but I went to get my proper camera and the battery was flat. This bird is the one that is around all the time especially in the early mornings, either in the paddocks or sat on the fence, I will try and get a better picture, I should carry my camera round with me, there were deer in the field to the side of us the other morning it would be great to get some photos of the wildlife around us.

Tuesday: Hard frost this morning and brrr very chilly but the sun broke through so that was nice to see.

Did the usual morning feeding and egg collecting, nothing amiss thank goodness, then did a bit of tidying up outside before coming in to light the fire and make some soup. The long tailed tits have made an appearance this morning, nice to see them back again though I always say they indicate bad weather 😝

Had lots of visitors today, Sam dropped off Mia before going to work, Charlie was here on her last day off before returning to work, Mum, Gill and Zeri came for tea and cake, Shelley, Martin and Josh came round later to pick up some things for Charlie and Luke arrived later to pick up Mia so ‘full house’ today. Lucky I made cake in the morning, I used the orange and sultana recipe except that Charlie had a dried toffee apple/nut concoction that was out of date and she was throwing away so I used it up in the cake instead, smelt amazing and tasted pretty good too 😀 I made some chicken/veg soup in the morning which was also pretty good. John came home early and got some more wood in from outside and did the birds.

Wednesday: Well I am so over Winter ❄️I was trying to get everything done in the house so was a bit later out this morning than usual, I spotted the biggest black cloud and thought I might just be able to outrun it and get the front birds done, nope, bloody hailstones smacking me in the face like someone firing peppercorns through a tube at me. I slipped in the paddock spilling the chicken feed all over the ground, not the best start to a day, please hurry up Spring I am trying to be patient but it’s wearing thin 😝 We have plenty of eggs as the hens have now ramped up their laying, chicken, duck, goose, quail just waiting for the bantams to start as well. Some Salvia seeds I ordered arrived today, White Sage, I am hoping to grow them for smudging bundles, we will see how it goes, the blueberry bushes I ordered also arrived these are early fruiting to prolong the picking season, just need to get some ericaceous compost to pot them into unless I can find the right ingredients to make my own, pine clippings usually does it but not sure how much I would need and how long it would take to bring the ph levels down, apparently, oak leaves and coffee grounds will also work but with the time constraints it might be easier to go and buy some for now 😀

Sometimes when I write these blogs what you read is all about the swan gliding steadily along the river 😜 what you don’t read, because on the whole I don’t write all of it, is the feet furiously paddle away underneath the water trying to get somewhere! Today is one of those days, I have numerous tasks to do including keeping the Rayburn going, looking after Mia, meanwhile the phone is ringing multiple times, the doorbell is ringing, I need to make an urgent phonecall and then wait for a return call, the dog (not mine) keeps jumping the gate every time an egg customer arrives, a family situation that is very stressful, to deal with over the phone and internet…………I have a headache 🤕

Thursday: It’s dry but the wind is cold brrrr. After feeding etc I cleaned out the single rabbit run and the baby boy rabbits, still no idea what we will do with these 😜 and now more of them! After doing that and sorting the egg shed with today’s eggs I did a bit in the greenhouse. Its still very cold in there so can’t do much but I did sow the white sage seeds and the pomelo seeds, they are now indoors on the windowsill as they won’t germinate out there. I made a bit of a boo boo though because there was I gaily putting seeds on the warm south facing windowsills completely forgetting that the glass in them stops the UV rays doh, still they will get light and the indoor warmth so that’s better than outside. I ordered some more blueberry bushes which have now arrived so I unpacked them and they are in the greenhouse until I get them planted up. My old plants struggled last year and I have no idea why, I tested the soil it wasn’t that, I will have to wait and see if they come back this year, they have been fine for about three years so I’m at a loss as to why they failed.

I put new batteries in my small camera and took it out with me this morning, I took photos of the rabbits and the runs and a cheeky hen who is always right under my feet no matter what I’m doing. I also took photos of the greenhouse, garden and large poly tunnel, my thought is to take them on the first of each month and have a round up later in the year to see the progress over time.

Then I came in for a coffee and to warm up my toes, I’ll wait for the sun to warm things up a bit before going out again.

Did a bit of tidying up and lit the fire and then things went tits up about 2.30! I was just going out the boot room door to get some more wood for the fire, put my foot down straight onto a 5”long, 2” round stick that the dog had left there and went over on my ankle with horrible pain, then crash down onto my kneecap with horrible pain and ended up in the dog bed and dog hair in my mouth not that it mattered as I first shouted f***ing dogs, at that point they scarpered, then the pain fully kicked in and all I could do was let out loud primal moans. At this point I could not stand up and proceeded, after moaning for a good minute or so, to drag myself back inside the kitchen and half up to the table to grab my phone and call John who luckily was on his way home anyway. 3 hours later, I have iced, rested, elevated and compressed the ankle, taken painkillers and arnica and assessed that I have not broken anything as far as I can tell, but badly sprained the ankle and bruised the kneecap.

Friday: Not the day I planned to have, the weather is going to be better than yesterday and I had planned on getting the veg garden tidied up 😩instead I am doing what can only be described as ‘the hobble’. Everything takes three times as long so simple tasks like going backwards and forwards to the recycling bin, getting wood for the fire, anything really is slow. First thing is to do the morning routine, John can’t because at the moment he is going round to his Mums to get her up and I can’t load any more stress onto him this week! It is painfully clear my welly won’t go on, nor will Johns which are 3 sizes bigger nor Maccas which are bigger still, so the only option is to wear slip on garden shoes, good job it’s not freezing out there today. The ground is fairly dry and hard though that has its problems because it’s lumpy so having to be very careful where I tread, I did the bare minimum needed and the only thing I couldn’t do was clean the front hens floor because the mud in front of the door is still wet and deep enough to cover my shoes, never mind the slip hazard!

Then it was time to put egg in the shed, well this would be interesting as I needed to carry trays of eggs lol, luckily the eggs and I survived the hazard trip negotiating 3 gates and a shingle driveway. It becomes evident how much you actually do when suddenly you are encumbered and are only doing half a job.

I sat down with a coffee after that and will rest it now for an hour or so before I start again, plenty of resting bits in between and anti inflammatory/arnica and I will be swinging from the trees before you know it. I have ordered an ankle strap and put out a plea to the family for a pair of boots that might be suitable oh my days life is complicated sometimes.

All the birds have ramped up their laying but we seemed to be short on customers, last week the sales were down and so far this week it’s the same, I hope they come back soon lol, it’s typical when you have limited eggs the customers come thick and fast and when you have loads of eggs you are eagerly waiting for them to buy 🤪

Sam and Shelley came over in the afternoon and did some of the jobs for me while I pretty much rested my ankle, then John came home and did the afternoon feeding and egg collecting and got me some dinner 😀

Saturday: The resting did me a whole lot of good as I can walk around fairly normally now, however I still can’t get my wellies on so John did the morning routine and then went to his Mums and I got on with de cluttering and cleaning our bedroom. I had decided January was going to be the month to get sorted and get rid of stuff but never got round to it, so today seems like a good day, a bag full of clothes that i never wear for the charity shop, some for the rag and shoe bin, some stuff for the dustbin and voila it’s done. Meanwhile John is getting barrowfulls of wood into the back area and Macca is cleaning the bathroom, happy days 😀

Sunday: Still no chance of me getting anything other than a slip on shoe on this foot, bearing in mind the mud out there it means John has to do the morning routine again today. Poor John is working flat out at the minute, looking after his Mum having to do what I can’t do and he is not even complaining 😐

I have been doing what I can inside including up dating the chalk board we have out by the egg shed, well I would if I could get the last lot of writing off! I scoured the internet for tips, tried everything from nail varnish remover, hob cleaner, white vinegar, a rubber and plain old water but there is still ‘ghost’ writing. I have ordered a ‘magic eraser’ to see if that helps but what is the point of a board that you can’t re use? I can’t use water based chalk pens because that will just wash off in the rain, ah well there are bigger problems to have I suppose. I made fresh bread, did the washing etc etc, if the ground would only dry up enough I could be outside 😀 I bought some ericaceous compost yesterday for the blueberries but I will have a go at making a batch to see if it’s worth doing, the biggest problem will be getting the ph right and seeing how long the ph levels stay like that because from what I have read without peat it reverts back to neutral after 4/6 months or so which is not a lot of good.

This is fanny, she is a pain in the butt, she is constantly under my feet when I am in the orchard pen, she follows me round (very closely) pecking at my feet, coat, hands wherever she thinks she might get a morsel or two 😝

The little birds that have taken to roosting in our boxes all winter, there are loads of them, they even roost in the vent from the hob extractor hood and behind loose house boards!

Bird flu, gale force winds, snow, rain and a whole load of other stuff!

Video• Posted on January 21, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Friesland Farm

Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018 and the bits in-between 😀

Posted on January 7, 2018 by frieslandfarm

I thought I may as well make a few notes over the festive period, so Christmas went really well, our visitors enjoyed themselves immensely, objective achieved 😀. Most of what went wrong was technology, Alexa crashed on Christmas Day due to the overload of her system with all the new ones I’m guessing, and the day after Boxing Day we lost our landline and internet connection so couldn’t catch up with programmes we had hoped to watch. As you know I am a great advocate of modern technological developments but when they go wrong it’s a big fat fail. To begin with trying to get hold of a human being to report a phone line down is hard work, it keeps directing you to the website, all very well but we don’t have any internet either, the fact that we don’t get much mobile signal compounded the issue further, still I eventually made contact with the outside world, probably India 😜 and reported that we and our neighbours had a problem, an engineer (grumpy by all accounts) is fixing it as I type, thank you 😊

John held the fort outside doing ALL the feeding, egg collecting and putting to bed, while I held the fort inside doing all the cooking and hosting. One of our house guests insisted on doing all the washing up every time there was any to do and I was very grateful for that. We have had 4 family birthdays over the Christmas week as well so have been extremely well fed and no doubt we are all looking forward to the new year clear out of bad habits etc to have a fresh start. I got the ball rolling by clearing out my baking cupboard, specifically the ‘cake making box’ full of out of date food colouring (2011) sprinkles of various descriptions, gelatine sachets and two full tubes of liquid glucose? A bottle of vegan rennet? About 20 half burnt cake candles 😝 I even found a dead spider though how it got in there in the first place is a total mystery. It’s all cleaned out now and at least I know if I need supplies for birthday cakes I shall have to go and buy some and as we are on a septic tank the pretty colours going down the sink might show up in the excess run off and give us a laugh 😂

The weather has been up and down, nothing new there, 11 degrees on Christmas Day, snowing and bloody freezing two days later, lashings of rain and some cold winds thrown in for good measure. Our guests left yesterday and this morning I ventured out to give John a hand for the first time in almost a week, the first thing I did was put my foot down on what I thought was a puddle, it was in fact ice, the foot slipped forward causing me to crash down on the opposite knee looking like I was waiting to take a well deserved knighthood, **#@£&!!? bloody good start that was, heat and pain shot up my leg to my hip and after a few minutes it eased off and thankfully after quickly taking some ibrufen no lasting damage has been done.

Marvellous job, the phone line/broadband has been restored, message on the answerphone from BT thanking me for reporting the fault and that they will be out to fix it and ring me to keep me updated!!! Some serious joining up of thought needs to be done in that company me thinks 😜

It seems like a continuous round of sorting leftovers, some to the dogs, some sliced for the freezer, some to use up as soon as possible and reluctantly some for the food waste bin, I only use that when we have had a ‘gathering’ as most things are processed as above in various ways but once things like pate/dips have been opened and left on the table for a few hours I prefer not to keep them especially when multiple knives with other stuff has been in and out of it!

The next preparation is for NYE, we are gathering with some of the village and eating, drinking, making merry, I shall be making a large beef stew, I hate cooking for other people, just in case it doesn’t come up to expectations, and have never been a natural hostess (or even sociable some may say) type but I am making an effort, it’s the least I can do once a year 😜

I will not be making any resolutions, I’ve NEVER kept one I have made in he past so gave that up as a bad job years ago, what I will do is probably make a list of objectives and see how many I can achieve, I’ll make them reasonable, no point failing before I begin. I have been looking at the seed catalogues, not rushing into buying them this year, I will look carefully at each variety, see what their strengths are and see how well they can be used in specific areas of the garden. After all there is no point having sugar sweet peas that take forever to grow to a reasonable size when we have such exposed conditions here, what I need is something of acceptable taste that can withstand a wind chill, that’s the kind of thing anyhow. On the garden subject the fruit cage or rather replacement of it will need to go on the list and a possible relocating of it if I feel there is a better place for it to go.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND WELCOME 2018

The second day of the New Year, I was busy cooking dinner for the family yesterday and watching films 😜

This morning it’s raining but we still had work to do so off we went outside, I did the rabbits etc while John did the others, then I decided to rake up the leaves from the drive next to the house it been bugging me for ages. I blocked off a particularly muddy bit, that the dogs keep running in, with some sheep hurdles and swept the area clean, very satisfying but I was actually soaked through to the skin by the time I finished.

John went off to the dentist to have a tooth out so that’s him done for the day today and he will probably spend the rest of it in bed, I set about looking for a new waterproof coat! I decided on a wax coat as they are obviously made for lots of outdoor use, I didn’t go for a brand name however, they are extortionate in price but for one about a third of the price. John has had one for years so I know they do the job, I also ordered some waterproof gloves that are intended for cycling but should be just as good for farm work though I may need to replace them regularly as the finger tips tend to wear away quite quickly.

I had Mia for a few hours so got the house warm and we watched The Gruffalo for the umpteenth time 😝 could be worse, could have been Peppa Pig 😩

John got up eventually and probably should have stayed in bed, it’s not easy having to look after someone who has had a major operation like an amputated leg, oh, wait it wasn’t, it was a tooth out, honestly, I had a caesarian section then looked after a new baby and two other children while he was at work, I can see a kick up the arse coming, obvs I will wait till he has healed a little bit 😜

Wednesday 3rd Jan: Storm Elenor is currently roaring away outside, she could be heard all the way through the night here but as yet no damage luckily. John is into his last week of three weeks off, to be honest we are getting to the end of each other’s tether 😝 coupled with the fact he had a tooth out yesterday and hasn’t had a smoke for nearly 24hrs he is getting on my nerves, I am getting on his nerves lol roll on Monday when we will be out of each other’s hair for a good 8 hours a day 😝 It makes me wonder how retired couples get on, badly, I’m guessing, at least to begin with.

My hands were a bit swollen from raking and brushing yesterday, that’s typical of the Lupus and very annoying, I get the bit between my teeth, do a job and then wham there is a price to pay.

Thursday: The winds dropped last night but are back with some force again today 💨 John is off to do some work later but stayed to do the animals this morning first, he did the usual stuff while I cleaned out the goose hut and the ducks. The goose hut has a separator in there for spring use when they start to lay eggs so that they are not all laying in one nest, that becomes a problem when one starts to sit as the other eggs can’t be collected, this way we stand a chance until they all decide to sit. The duck pen is basically a giant muddy puddle and hopefully that’s one good use for the wind it will help dry it up a bit in between rainfalls😝 I tided it up as best I could given the circumstances, it’s a waiting game for a dry or cold period to give us some respite now.

My new coat arrived this morning and I can’t wait to put it on and go out to play lol. The old one has seen much better days, been repaired goodness knows how many times and the zip is at best barely functional and at its worse downright stubborn. I’m not one for throwing things away too quickly mind you so I shall attempt another repair job and use it when the weather dries up a bit, but for now I am happy with my new waterproof, windproof coat, I hope it doesn’t get too dirty too quickly 😩.

I am waiting for a calm, dry day so that I can get in the greenhouse, empty it out and give it a clean ready for spring. I know a lot of people do it at the end of the season but I’ve done that before and had to do it again as the wet/damp weather just creates more green algae so no point wasting energy better to pick the right time.

It is at this time of year gardeners are chomping at the bit to get going and I’m no exception, I have already clocked the emergence of the snowdrops and noted dead stuff that needs cutting back or clearing when the time is right. The seed catalogue takes the main place on the coffee table pile though I haven’t finalised my decisions yet it won’t be long 😀 The broad beans and peas I planted in Autumn appear to have survived and are doing fairly well as are the garlic and onions, I haven’t ventured into the poly tunnels yet but as they are a dry space I really ought to get started on them, I can feel a list coming on 😜 John has a couple of jobs on his list that need doing, the post that holds the big gate open by the back door got ripped out of the ground by the last winds and I am having to hold it open when anything drives through so that’s a priority and the stable bolts all need adjusting again as the water table has gone up and pushed the posts up slightly, we are always adjusting them depending on the water table lol.

Got some homemade veg soup out of the freezer and made some bread, definitely a day to appreciate it, I think more scanning of the seed catalog is in order this afternoon apparently the winds will not die down until tonight and I can’t take a day of buffeting so indoor stuff until it’s necessary to go out again.

Well we must have had a very strong gust of wind, when I was doing the afternoon feed rounds I could hear something banging away and looked over towards the rabbit run, one of the roof panels had come off together with the wood that it was screwed to, phoned John to let him know he had a job waiting for him before dark 😝 We managed to patch it up enough that it should hold overnight and not let the rain in, the garden chairs had all gone flying as well but I have left them where they are until the wind dies down.

Spent most of the evening looking for chickens of certain varieties, they are proving elusive or a days journey away! I am after a utility breed, Large Light Sussex, Ixworths or what would be best of all Le Bresse, these would be to rear the cockerels as table birds, I may have to purchase hatching eggs which is not a problem just takes much longer to get what you want.

Friday: John has gone to work today so it’s down to me to do the morning routine for the first time since before Christmas. My nice new coat didn’t stay clean very long, I let the ducks out, one flapped it’s wings sending mud splattering all over me including my face 😜 After that job I cleaned out the quail hut completely and put in fresh bedding and floor covering plus a nice dust bath bowl for them to play in. They have laid all through winter not as many as in the summer months but that’s to be expected. The egg numbers in general are going back up thankfully just waiting for the geese to start laying and we will have a full range for sale again.

One thing about having someone else around is that I can never find my equipment, the time I have spent looking for something that hasn’t been put back where I left it is nobody’s business, drives me insane, this morning it’s the shovel, the light weight one I bought for myself because the heavy one is, well, too heavy!

I took photos of the silkies this morning, I have asked online for an opinion on which sex they are, I can normally sex chickens easily however these have a full head of fluff and not many obvious features that are different. I looked online for the answers but it’s a bit vague so needs must, or I can just wait to see how many eggs I get or if any start crowing.

Saturday: What a day, 2.30pm and I have only just come inside or indeed sat down since 8.30 this morning! After doing the morning feeding we decided to ‘cut back’ the two big bushes in the front, why stop there we thought, might as well do the hazels while we are here with all the equipment out 😝 we have cut back hard this year, previously we have just trimmed so they are not in the way so in for a penny in for a pound we set ourselves loose. As the hazels were quite tall it was an ideal opportunity to make some bean and pea poles with the debris, so with the billhook and loppers in hand I spent many hours making them. My back, legs and hands are aching but it’s an excellent job done and I will be thankful when I need some supports in the garden I’m sure. I don’t think I will be able to move again for a while now I have sat down lol.

Sunday: Got the usual stuff done then it was on to burning all the debris from cutting the bushes back and sorting out my bean poles into sizes. The wind was bitter, but we kept going, well I did until lunchtime when I came and put some sausage rolls in the Rayburn, once they were done I took them out to John with a cuppa and he suggested I go inside as I was pretty cold. I did a bit of cleaning and some washing and was grateful to be in the warm. The sun has been shinning nicely and with the tops out of the hazels lots more light is streaming into the house, unfortunately that shows the dust 😝 but dust is always there no matter how much I polish and I have better things to do than worry about it too much.

In-between all the other jobs John concreted in a new post to hold the gate open it is much better than the last one so I’m very pleased.

Hazels cut right back this year

Hazel poles for beans and peas

Poles sorted into sizes

John still outside burning the cuttings 😜

Friesland Farm

Rouge ferret, sad goodbyes and an eco egg.

Posted on November 26, 2017 by frieslandfarm

Monday PM: Just got back from my away day with the girls and a fabulous time was had by all of us 😀

Update on the Guinea pig versus ferret episode:

Saturday night, I heard the guinea pig squealing at around 10pm went out with a torch to see a ferret chewing on his neck, the ferret disappeared quickly and I got the pig out and bought him in to do some first aid on him and put him in a box out the back for the night.

Sunday morning I got an old cage, cleaned it up and put the guinea pig in there to get better, the damage surprisingly was not to bad just superficial. Bearing in mind I was due to go away it was all hands to the pump to set a live trap and try to catch this ferret otherwise it would be starting on my rabbits and bantams! John called later in the day to say it had been caught, though I never got to see it, it was obviously a pet as it was quite tame and must have been on the run for a while as it was also underweight and had lice.

Back to Monday: John has done a sterling job looking after everything albeit only for 24 hrs lol, it’s still a big responsibility 😀 and decisions have to be made and he has booked Kai in to see the vet for tonight. Kai has been off his food for nearly a week, is limping and is reluctant to leave his bed, these are not good signs, if he has a temperature and needs antibiotics that will be he best outcome, if it’s not that then it’s more serious and we will be saying goodnight to him.

Well he returned with Kai and he has had a shot of painkiller and antibiotic although the vet could not find anything obvious wrong with him except the tenderness he is feeling in his front leg. However he needs to eat in the morning, if he doesn’t he is not going to get any better and an appointment has been made for tomorrow night just in case.

Tuesday: Obviously my first thought for the day was to feed Kai and see if we can get him to eat, success, he seems a little perkier and has eaten a bowl of wet food, the call to cancel the appointment can be made and we can pick up some more medication. It doesn’t mean he is out of the woods yet though, if the meds don’t help him to improve then we are back to square one and decision time so fingers crossed. He is twelve this coming year, which doesn’t seem old but it is for a husky and he has lived outside all his life and so is bound to suffer with his joints more readily than a house dog. We bought him indoors yesterday evening until his appointment but it is clear that it’s unfair on him to change his surroundings, especially when it’s a lot warmer than he is used to.

As for the rest of the morning, the guinea pig is doing well and I was going to put him back with the rabbit BUT on my morning rounds I found a dead baby bunny, one of the ones that had escaped and we hadn’t been able to catch. A bit of detective work and I could see that it had been bitten out in the paddock as there was a patch of fur, it has then made a dash for the orchard pen as it can get through the pheasant wire and died in there. Question is, what has bitten it in the first place? Possibly a fox has tried to catch it or we maybe have more than one ferret on the premises so I have reset the live trap to see if anything else is caught. Always something 😜 The chickens, ducks and geese are all tickety boo thank goodness. I filled up the wild bird feeders and have turned on the wildlife camera to see if I can get some footage of how many there are and what type.

The wildlife camera in the day was a disaster the only footage I got was of me opening and closing it! I will try again maybe at dusk.

Kai seems to have made quite a remarkable recovery, he is back to barking, wolfing his dinner down (with the meds in) and hardly limping, fingers crossed it stays like that.

Wednesday: The weather continues to be mild which makes going outside pleasant enough and at least the wind is drying things up a little.

Not much on the to do list today, Mia arrived and did a bit of baking, a crazy, wacky chocolate cake, no eggs, no dairy so great for Josh to share when he arrived later in the morning.

Put some more rat bait down when I put the birds to bed and that was pretty much it, just as well as the weather has turned quite foul out there, the wind was blowing a hoolie all night long. Went out to get a bit of shopping after dark and saw two tiny baby deer on the side of the road, goodness knows what they were doing out and hopefully Mum was not far away.

Thursday: The wind is still going, though not so fierce, got the morning rounds done, cleaned out the smaller rabbit run and the girl baby rabbit cage while I was at it. Then inside to make some bread, I made whole meal the other day but it was a bit like lead lol so gone back to white with a bit of whole meal flour mixed in as I now need to use it up. John came home at lunchtime and cut up some of the wood mountain 😝 while I cleaned and tidied up the boot room a little, it gets so dusty and cluttered in there that it needs a sort now and again.

I heard or read a saying ‘a story told is a life lived’ that has stuck with me all week (I googled it and it was from Outlander!) For some reason it struck a chord with me and I am glad to be able tell my daily story albeit a cutting room floor version, trust me you wouldn’t want the full blown ‘life of Dawn’ version, to start with it would take a week to read and secondly I would probably get a lot of hate mail due to the sarcastic tone I would inevitably adopt 😜 Maybe one day under a pseudonym, invitation only, those who have a strong mind and a sense of humour 😉

I did the afternoon feeding and John did the putting to bed, ‘put the grey bin out and feed the dog’ I tagged in as he was going out of the door, 34 years and the training is only just kicking in 😁

The temperature has dropped rapidly outside tonight so looks like a cold start tomorrow morning, I follow a page called Reality Weather which looks at very long range forecast and the movements of weather fronts, blockages etc, we might be in for an extremely cold and prolonged snap either this winter or next, yep that’s how long range it is, they can’t tell exactly because it depends on how the fronts move but it seems there is some unusual movement going on in the Northern hemisphere which will eventually wreak havoc! I look forward to that 😝 and in the light of the information I will make sure we are well stocked up in wood and food just in case 😀

Friday: My rounds took longer than usual this morning, firstly I checked on Herbie the guinea pig and his eyes had closed over so I got him out and bathed them, happily they are now open and he looks fine. He is still on the sick ward out the back, apart from his eyes he seems ok still eating and drinking and no sign of infection in fact his neck has healed well though it does look like leather it will probably restore given time. Then it was onto the routine stuff, cleaning out the ducks on the way round, when I let the bantams out in the orchard I noticed one was not looking well, hunched and not running for food like the others. I picked her up and immediately could feel that her crop was full, this should not happen, in the morning a hens crop should be empty as the food they have eaten the day before should have been digested overnight. The first step is to massage the crop to loosen the compaction, then hold the hen upside down and continue massaging, gravity will help to move the obstruction, sure enough though it took about ten minutes, a smelly mess began to appear from her beak, I began to gently pull it to help it along it was a mix of straw and grain. Young chickens can be a bit stupid and eat anything, this one has decided straw might be good, it’s not, and that is what has caused the blockage. I bought her in and I gave her some kefir by syringe, a delicate job as you can accidentally send the liquid into her lungs which would be fatal. Then I made her some scrambled egg and put her in the dog cage in the back room with some water, I can’t make her eat but hopefully she will pick up enough to want to eat. The kefir is a fermented coconut drink which I happen to be taking at the moment, it is full of good bacteria and hopefully will help to process anything left in the crop. The rest of the rounds went with out incident 😀

I have said before that I could do with a little hospital corner, a couple of purpose built in cages that are easily accessible so that anything poorly can be monitored with ease, may put that one on the to do list.

Did some tidying and putting away in the back area, another dumping ground that needs doing every now and then, and then got the bantam out to repeat the upside down massage, not much in there now but she still hasn’t eaten or drunk anything so unless she does she will probably got into heart failure if she is not already on the way.

Had a discussion about Kai this afternoon, although initially he picked up a little, there has been no improvement and this afternoon he started growling at me when I tried to get him up, he has a course of meds and painkiller and we will finish those and see what happens but it’s not looking good he should have improved a fair bit by now.

John came home early and cut up some more of the wood mountain 😝 I put the front birds to bed and he did the back lot, it was bloody freezing even then so we also did the water ready for the morning and there was ice in the hosepipe already brrrrr. I have been putting rat poison down each time the last lot disappears, which it is going alarmingly fast, this time of year they are looking for an easy feed and somewhere dry to sleep, right under the hen house is ideal but I’m determined to knock them on the head quickly.

I bought an eco washing egg, I looked at the reviews and thought I would give it a try, it probably won’t be so good on heavily soiled garments but on normal day to day wear it should be fine, they last for 720 washes apparently and obviously kinder to the environment in terms of chemicals, packaging reduction and general manufacturing, I hope they are good, I will let you know.

Saturday: It’s only 10am and we have had a proper morning of it, had to call the vet to book Kai in today as he is not eating again, this will be his final appointment 😩 and you don’t realise how it affects you until you try to talk to the receptionist on the phone 😪 The Guinea pig has not made it, turns out there was infection under the skin, the bantam doesn’t look like she will make it but I have put her out with the others for today to see if being with them helps pick her up and something upset the horses all around and Jack cleared a 5ft fence into the next paddock! Roll on wine o’clock 😜

On the upside the girl baby rabbits went off to their new home this morning, in one fell swoop we have 4 less mouths to feed now one way or another.

I can’t settle to do the jobs needed, made bread, lit the fire, waiting for John to return with an empty collar and lead, I cried when I put him in the car, he has been an amazing dog, pulling John around the block on the skateboard for his daily exercise a few years back, keeping an eye on everything night and day, driving me mad with his yapping sometimes, he is irreplaceable.

I have just done the first wash with the eco egg and I have to say I’m quite impressed, it was a whites wash and the clothes look clean and fresh, fresher than usual, high hopes for this egg 😀 darks next and we we see how that comes out.

Sunday: A beautiful crisp, sunny but bloody cold morning! John went out and did the feed rounds and reported that there was a dead rat in the front chicken hut, that’s good at least we are managing to kill them off, well one at least 😝 I stayed inside and did a few small household tasks and then the biggy we had on the list today which is sweeping the flue and cleaning out the Rayburn. A very dirty job but very necessary as we don’t ever want a repeat of a chimney fire again, we clean it depending on the amount of use it has had and now was as good a time as any.

I have done three washes with the eco egg and I’m still pretty impressed I have to say, the clothes look fresh and clean, you can add conditioner if you want it to smell nice but I haven’t as yet as I can’t see the point, I’m in the minority camp of liking my bath towels rough not fluffy so I won’t even put some in when I wash those.

Last night was the first night without Kai and I woke up this morning thinking I had heard him bark, which of course I didn’t, makes me wonder how many times I had thought I heard him when he was here when really I didn’t, dreamt it maybe lol.

It remains cold into the afternoon and I am very reluctant to venture outside unless I have to, luckily John volunteered to do the afternoon feeding and collecting of eggs so I’m staying put in the warm, plenty of time for me to be doing it all next week. He said the bantam was eating with the others so at least she is still alive for now.