Tag: ducks

Posted in Friesland Farm

New chicks, a bit of rain, plenty of gardening.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Thursday 4th April: 🙄 What can I say, this is the first time in just over a week I have been able to function properly, I gradually went from bad to worse, my joints swelled, my muscles were all inflamed, I had chronic pain and I felt really lousy, freezing cold and very sleepy. Luckily I already had an upcoming appointment at the hospital, so I called the doctor to get some blood tests done ready and yes the Lupus is flaring, no idea why as I was really well last week. Anyway I have had a complete overhaul of meds plus am back on the steroids for a while so hopefully that should sort it all out, it’s only day one and already feel more ‘normal’ and able.

Not everyone is a fan of steroids but here is my take on them, my condition, Lupus, when it flares, is chronic, at the worst point no amount of alternative therapy/food/diets etc is going to help (I do think however that following these as a life plan helps to keep you well the majority of the time) and taking steroids is my choice, I am given the choice by the experts who probably hope I’m going to say yes but allow me the choice to decline if I want to. The reason I say yes is this, personally I would rather spend 10 years on steroids have a good quality of life and be able to do all the things I love doing and enjoy doing them rather than 20 declining years of a half life of pain, misery and isolation, that’s my take on it, not everyone’s view and I respect that but that’s how I approach it, and I admit I take a calculated risk because I am 55 this year, if I was only 25 (sigh) I may not make the same choice. Someone once said to me ‘you are very philosophical about it’ well I think you have to be, when you have a long term illness especially if it’s chronic it’s very easy to become a ‘victim’ of that illness so I try not to and I think a positive outlook is half the battle 😀

And while I am on a roll I would just like to say what a fantastic service we have with our NHS not just in this instance but throughout my life I have had the comfort of knowing that myself and my family are in the best possible hands in times of need, we take it for granted and sometimes forget what life would be like without it, yes there are problems and waiting times but hells bells imagine if it wasn’t there at all 😣

I’m trying to remember what has happened in my ‘missing’ days, we have had a hatch and have 12 light Sussex chicks 🐥 today we also took in three chicks that Joshua’s Nursery has hatched out 😀 Sarah, Ben and Bin apparently lol. I’m hoping Josh will help look after them as they grow and learn about cleaning them out and feeding them etc. We have welcomed another great niece into the wider family and have learnt that our grandchild twins will be one of each 💙💕 which will be good for family dynamics, Mothers and babies in both circumstances doing well 😀

Josh and his chicks

The rain we really need has arrived though it has bought the cold with it as well, hopefully it won’t hang around too long as Easter Holidays are starting and parents could probably do with some nice weather just as much as gardeners 😜

One of the geese has started sitting, she won’t come out now and so that’s the end of the goose eggs for sale as you won’t catch me trying to get her out with the others all standing guard!

I have therapy tonight with the truly wonderful Annette 😀 I think I will opt for a massage rather than Bowen, my shoulders and jaw need ‘loosening’ I tend to hunch my shoulders and clench my jaw with pain and I was also feeling the cold acutely, piles of blankets and a hot water bottle 😀

In the end I listened to Annette’s advice who said that Bowen, working with the body, would be better at this point in time than massage, which is working against it, so Bowen it was.

Friday: Wet and windy over night so not a pleasant morning still a tad cold too. We have lost a couple of hens over night or early this morning. The worrying thing is that this is yet again over the mains electric fencing, it seems one of the windows has caved in due to the wind probably, the hens probably flew out through the window first light and the fox has taken the opportunity to nab breakfast. These are the new lot and have just started laying ☹️ John will have to put something over the window to stop them getting out but it still means the fox is prepared to jump the electric fence 🙄

On the upside every day I feel a lot better than the last few days so that’s good 😀

A couple of weeks back I was searching in vain for around 10/15 pol ducks, they are pretty hard to come by in and around our area. I did a bit more searching and thinking and finally put in an order for 51 day old khaki Campbell female ducklings 😲 that way I’m guaranteed females and guaranteed their age, buying ducks is a bit of a lottery we have found in the past. They will be arriving in the first week of May and I’m hoping to sell a few on pretty quickly lol otherwise there will be A LOT of duck eggs in the shed eventually.

I did a bit today not too much just some essentials, the turnip seedlings needed potting on so I got three trays of those done, some important paperwork that needed to be got together, feeding the rabbits, collecting the light Sussex eggs, light the Rayburn, sounds easy but one of my knees is not bearing weight just yet and you’d be surprised at how much kneeling down needs doing daily 😂 most other parts of me are working well again now though so that’s good and definitely no more pain so that is excellent!

Saturday: We did the morning stuff then John went off to get feed and I tried getting a couple of things done but one of them including sawing and my hands just won’t do the job, I tried the chop saw but the wood did not fit, got frustrated about that will have to wait for John to come back and do it. I was trying to make a low run for feeding the tortoises, one the hens can’t get into ☹️. I also need to find the key to the very back door but unbelievably we dont seem to have any! I am assuming we had two and thought John would have one, the other was hidden for the liveries to use but I have no idea where it is and so we have none at the moment, I wanted to be able to shut the door behind me so that the hens can’t get in as they are knocking everything down off shelves and crapping over everything, I think my stress levels are a bit high today 😝 Shelley came over and we chose our runners in the Grand National later when we will all sit/stand/jump/cheer loudly for our horses 🐎 John went to put the bets on, I’m not using the app again as last year although I won I couldn’t find out for over 2 hours as I locked myself out of the app and then found I had put the bet on three times by accident lol, I won three times as much though 😜 but it’s a bitter sweet thing when the money transactions are just digital and not readies in your hand so we are opting to put the fun back in it this year and go with the cash to the bookies 😁

John came back and made a thing for the tortoises to eat under out of a pallet, then I found a key to the back doors but the lock wouldn’t work so John took it apart, hit it with a hammer and now it does, sometimes there is no skill needed just brute force 😜 Then everyone came over to watch the Grand National, that was a chaotic, noisy affair and great fun, Charlie and I had the winner, I didn’t realise when I picked it but it’s the same horse I had last year that has now won two years running 😀 shame I didn’t accidentally back it three times this year 🤣🤣

Inbetween all the chaos a hen was stuck in the electric fence, Martin noticed Patch out in the paddock which is unusual unless there is someone out there, I looked and could see the hen which is why patch was there, it pays to know your dogs well as the signs that something isn’t normal are easy to spot then. Hen rescued, race watched, monies won, John went off to collect winnings and pick up fish and chips on the way home while I lit the Rayburn, everyone else went home, quiet resumed 😜

The chicks are doing well, we have only had one death, not bad, usually get a couple, six of the eggs didn’t even pip, I haven’t checked them yet but I will just to see what stage they had got to before dying in the shell. If they had pipped I might be inclined to help them but with no external pip there is no point, weak chicks will die anyway ☹️

Sunday: Not a bad day weather wise, we got the morning stuff done then John went to visit his Mum and by 9am I was hoovering and cleaning. I’ve had a pretty good day, not in terms of wellness because I’ve been a bit tired but I still ploughed on and got some stuff done. I did have a rest after the cleaning lol, I thought I was up to a good clean but soon realised I wasn’t 😕 After resting I went out I to the polytunnel to do a few bits, I actually can’t remember what now but I did something 😜 I have covered the asparagus over with wire because I think the hens might be eating it as it comes up, they are eating everything at the moment and so covering is a priority task! During the afternoon I asked John to reconnect the water pipes up from the tap to the garden, we soon found some splits in the pipe and had to go and get the pipe cutters which he had left round at Shelleys. On the way back we called into Mums and she had a few plants for me. I have been trying to get some plants/shrubs growing in the duck area and so I got busy planting them in there, also having to protect everything that was planted, from the ducks. The area is just mud, it was grass when they first moved in a few years ago but gradually became a mud area, at the end of last year I planted a willow whip and a forsythia both have done well and survived so I wanted a few more things to go in there. If I can keep them growing and stop the ducks from trashing it there will be a nice little shrubbery for them to hide under. John has been busy loading wood, fixing the hen house, a bit had fallen off, feeding the afternoon feed, collecting eggs, fixing water pipes for me and then got called out to an emergency leak, not his I’ll add but a customer who lives in a flat and the upstairs flat had a water leak so it was coming through to hers, the chap upstairs could not get another plumber to come out so John went.

Tomorrow I start my new meds, this could go either way 🙄 I’m planning on it being good, time will tell lol.

Seedlings all doing nicely in the poly tunnel.

Posted in Friesland Farm

A Wedding, a death & a bloody great pot hole 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th March: Cold and blustery this morning but at least it’s not raining. I have not done much but the usual today what with house guests and all. Finally the family secret is out of the bag, yesterday we surprised Dad and today Adi, my other brother was surprised with the arrival of Joe, also my brother, and his family all the way from Australia. Adi and Heidi are getting married tomorrow and it was hard work keeping it a secret from him lol. Big get together tomorrow, I think the last time we were all together in the same country was five years ago!

I had to light the Rayburn early as Dad who is almost 82 is definitely feeling the cold wind today.

I probably won’t write anything tomorrow as it will be a busy day, we are travelling down to Winchester and the plan is to leave all the birds in with feed and water, a friend is popping round to let the dogs out for a stretch and a wee and we will be home late evening 😀

There is no sign whatsoever of Cruella De Ville, I have no idea what has happened to her, it’s possible the fox got her as it has been in the tack room and cornered a hen in there from the amount of feathers, or its frightened her so much she has run off but I would have thought she would have come back as she has been here 4 months now ☹️

Tuesday: I have a few minutes to write so this mornings routine was slightly different as the hens/ducks are being kept in all day as we are off for the the wedding and it being a Tuesday anyone I would have asked to do anything is at work 🙄 Trying to get in through the door with a bunch of birds that are used to coming out was not the easiest of tasks today. John had to go and do a quick job 😡 not happy about that, so it was me on me tod. First job, the quail and I could see fresh blood in the cage, so I pick them all up and find one bleeding on the back end, I wash her off, purple spray her and put her back, I watch and see the others pecking at her back end. Great now I have to find a separate cage/box, and isolate her, she is in a cat cage with food and water and hopefully will heal soon. Onto the hens, banged my head twice trying to get in with feed and water without letting any of them out, swearing can most definitely be heard at these points! I’ve let the geese out, they are easy to get back in so will herd them back in before we go. Molly the cat is not moving very much this morning, normally she runs under your feet every time you go through the door but today she is staying put, in fact at one point I thought she had died but she put her head up when I went over to stroke her, I don’t think she has long left though ☹️ The dogs will mostly be in today but a friend is coming round to let them out later and we won’t be too late home. Let the celebrations begin 😀

We arrived home around 10pm, my friend had done a fab job, closed the curtains, turned the lamps on etc. It was most unfortunate for her that Molly the cat died while we were away for the day ☹️ I knew she was near the end this morning but I was hoping she would hang on until we got back, so as she put it, a wedding one day and a funeral the next!

Wednesday: Dull and damp outside this morning, John let the birds out they were happy after being in all day yesterday and from here on in I can now reorganise them, we had been keeping them in the stable block because we knew they would need to spend the day locked in for safety.

I noticed more blood in the quail cage and on further investigation I found three out of four quail with a pecked vent, so I oiked out the culprit and then moved the other three back to the outside pen, I will give them time to recover then put the other one back in and hope it behaves itself.

Sue cleaned out one of the duck houses for me, ready to move the ducks back outside though probably not today as the weather has not improved in fact it has got worse, I did a few bits outside and then decided it was too horrible out there if it wasn’t totally necessary 😜

Thursday: Still no sign of nice weather, it’s a bit cold and windy but at least not raining this morning. John let the birds in the stable out and fed them and I went round and did the geese and light Sussex. When I got to the light Sussex the door had come open and one of the hens was out, now I checked the door yesterday and although the bolt did not go fully in it did feel secure so either the wind has rocked it or someone has been poking about! Luckily all the birds are still there and only one had got out. I have been saving the eggs from these birds and just need 3 more for 18 then I will set them in the incubator. I can smell the fox this morning so will need to set up the camera again and see what is prowling around at night. We are off out for breakfast this morning with our guests, nice to get out and about 😀

That turned out to be more eventful than planned lol, halfway down the lane Sue pulled to the side to let an oncoming vehicle pass went in a rather large pothole and burst the tyre! Luckily she is with the AA as the locking nut on the wheel wouldn’t turn so she called them and we waited an hour for them to come, a passing van stopped to help, a young chap got out and said ‘hello Brian’ turned out to be one of my brothers (the one over from Australia) mates from many years ago. We all had a good laugh on the side of the road and eventually made it just before they stopped cooking breakfast altogether 🙄

We had a funny incident tonight when Dad went out the back for a smoke, we had two black cats, Molly who died on Tuesday and Diesel who very rarely comes anywhere near the ‘indoors’ but for some reason he came running in the back meowing tonight, frightened the life out of Dad as he thought the Molly had come back to life 😂

Friday: I haven’t really done much apart from the usual today. I have a contorted hazel in the front of the drive and each year it sends up straight stems, these need to be cut out so that it doesn’t revert back, Sue kindly offered to do this job for me today 😀 Sam, Shelley and the children called round in the afternoon, Sam made a batch of scones while she was here 😀 they filled the kitchen with a lovely smell.

Rain in the afternoon again, it really hasn’t been the nicest of weeks for our visitors, they will be going back to Wales on Sunday, we say they bought the rain with them, hopefully they will take it back 🤣

Saturday: Windy again but the sun is out so not so bad. John let the animals out and fed them while I sorted out the eggs for sale. Then John went out and sorted out the hunt and fencing in the paddock ready for the new birds next week, meanwhile I cleared an area that I wanted him to put a shelf up in and promptly dropped a slab of marble on my foot 😡 it’s sore but not broken I don’t think. He had left his tools at work (there’s a surprise) so we had to use my cordless screwdriver, I plugged the battery in to charge and the charger stopped working, ffs, I have had mine for about 15 years and at times it won’t work so I have ordered a new one 😀 just as cheap to buy the whole lot as a new charger so decision made. I did a bit of a tidy up in the boot room and sorted out the incubator and got that set up, I have 18 light Sussex eggs to go in when it’s up to temperature and humidity, these, if successful are our dual propose birds. Dad and Sue went off out to do some visiting. I planted up some strawberry plants in the poly tunnel and sowed a row of spinach a row of salad leaves and also coriander, watered the citrus trees and sowed some peas in a tray, emptied the mouse trap and reset it. In the soil before sowing I mixed in some mycorrhizal fungi for good measure 😀 it was blooming blowy, I mean seriously blowy out there this afternoon!

Then an afternoon of rugby, we don’t do rugby but Dad and Sue do lol, Sue did shell some hazelnuts for me inbetween games 😀

Set the wildlife camera again tonight as last nights failed, no idea what I did wrong but fingers crossed tonight it will pick up something.

Sunday: It is VERY windy this morning, I don’t think I ever seen it so bad in the daytime before, the wind is literally ‘roaring’ through the tops of the trees. John was filling the water buckets from the tanks and the wind was blowing the water sideways completely missing the bucket! My anxiety levels are always high when it’s windy just waiting for something to happen 🙄 I got the sd card in from the camera, caught the fox on it a few things times plus diesel but not Cruella ☹️ We did the birds and caught up one of the drakes to dispatch as Dad is going to take it home and pluck it then dine on it 😀

Dad and Sue left about 10 to return to Wales visiting my Aunt on the way, I cracked on with the cleaning as I haven’t been able to do it all week. I’ve booked a weekend near Dads birthday at the end of May, I booked through Airbnb on a smallholding 😀 very excited about that 😀 John stacked wood, he was going to cut the hedge but it’s so windy it’s not really safe to do.

The son in laws are coming round to measure up for the top of the greenhouse later so I have a roast to prepare for them all and hopefully that will be the end of cooking for a while as I have plenty of leftover portions from the meals I have been making all week 😜

I am booking tickets for the Malvern Spring show, we decided we would go on the Friday when it’s not too busy, if I don’t book things we never go so that’s my plan this year.

Went out and got a bit of food shopping and for after the roast beef later I have made a traditional rice pudding.

March:

‘The Anglo-Saxons called the month Hlyd monath which means Stormy month, or Hraed monath which means Rugged month.’

Very apt!

Poor Mia asked where Molly the cat was, when we explained she had gone to sleep she completely understood and promptly burst into tears 😢

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It tasted great 😀

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Runner beans, runner beans and more runner beans 😝

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th August: Not Up so early this morning, the urgency to water everything has now gone as the drizzle keeps on coming, they say the heatwave will be back but I have my doubts about that. John did the feeding, I went out and got started with the picking, the runners have not been picked for a couple of days so there are plenty to harvest, a few courgettes, some mangetout, I also put out some Victoria plums as I still have plenty in the freezer from last years bumper crop. Egg customers come earlier and earlier in the hopes of getting eggs but what they don’t realise is that if we sell out the day before there will not be any more until around 10am as the hens only get going about 8.30/9 The ducks always lay first thing but even they are on a go slow at the minute, the only ones laying like crazy are the quail.

The book I ordered ‘ Timeless Simplicity’ by John Lane arrived and I have read a couple of pages, I can see me quoting from it left, right and centre there is already so much in it that I identify with that I wish I had read it many years ago!

The grass is coming back through 😀 it’s amazing resilient stuff, the paddock was almost black with dead grass and now there is a haze of green across it which will make the geese very happy indeed and the hens will benefit too because although they eat layer pellets they do eat the tips of the blades and of course the insects will return so we should see them skipping across the area trying to catch them 😀 The ducks were put in there as a temporary measure and it doesn’t really suit them so I need to move them out, beside the geese have now taken to attacking another one so the sooner the better really. I would do it myself but the hut won’t go through the gateway into the orchard so it needs a bit of muscle to man handle it round. The ducklings are making a proper mess now it has rained so I need to sort them out too and I also need to pick some more plums, better finish this coffee and get on with it I think 😀

By lunchtime I had made a slow but sure start on the orchard area, I managed to herd the other ducks through to there and I let the ducklings out of their run into the whole area. I began planting up the fence line which will be an edible/wildlife attractant hedge so far I have planted 3 blackcurrant, which are in degradable pots, some feverfew, comfrey, lemon balm, a dog rose and a thornless blackberry, I also planted a kiwi root I found growing in the path, under the greengage tree, bonus if this takes and grows. I planted some marigold seedlings in and around various places and I have a buffalo currant in a pot which I have placed under the damson tree for now. So I have a good mix now and all they have to do is grow, easier said than done when the first thing that appears is a chicken because I have disturbed the ground and they think it’s a scratch and freeforall 😝 I have protected a few of the plants and will do the rest later. Hopefully come spring it will have all settled and be growing nicely providing shade, food and cover not just for the ducks but for all manner of things.

I moved Billy into the big tunnel to do some foraging plus it’s a bit warmer in there and as him and Voldy don’t seem to get on too well he will welcome the break I think. I did move the melons up from the floor, I don’t want him tucking into those 😋

I picked some plums and grabbed hold of a wasp in the process, luckily I didn’t get stung, they are everywhere at the moment especially on the greengage but I managed to pick a handful of those that have not been eaten just yet.

Did the afternoon feeding and picking and filled up the water buckets, then went on the search to find something to put it over the plants in the orchard, we were given some water containers like the ones in offices they make great cloches when you cut the bottoms off and I also use the bottoms to stand pot plants in when they need extra watering.

Just when you think you know what birds are around you another surprise pops up, unfortunately this one had got trapped and died some time ago but when I saw it my first thought was a baby green woodpecker, after doing a bit of googling I discovered it was in fact a goldcrest the smallest of the UKs birds, I shall keep an eye out for live ones from now on.

Tuesday: A dry day, warm enough, John did the main of the birds this morning while I did the birds in the orchard of which there are quite a lot now lol, ducklings, two lots of ducks, two lots of quail, the light Sussex chicks and the rabbits and Guineas, I think it’s full 😀 The orchard, just to give you an image, has three plum trees, greengage, damson and Victoria, a pear tree, an apple tree and a huge walnut tree, so plenty of scope to begin under planting for a forest garden.

I did quite a bit of picking and harvesting

The potatoes were from a self setter, I think I am going to give up cultivating them and just leave the self setters to spring up around the place they do far better than the cosseted lot.

Yesterday I didn’t feel as well as I had been doing and feel that some of the symptoms are creeping back slowly, especially in my feet so today I am loading up on the anti inflammatory foodstuffs to see what happens. I will take serapeptase in the mornings and today I am having turmeric tea then later I will have pineapple and see if any of that helps at all. I make the turmeric tea with almond milk, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and maple syrup if you like chai, you will like this, spicy and warming with the added bonus hopefully.

I had some Megrim sole delivered with the fish from Cornwall and we had it tonight for dinner, Sam cooked it for us which was very kind of her 😀 John had his with potatoes and peas but I had a salsa of cucumber, tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts, in a balsamic dressing, with mine, she pan fried it in butter, salt, pepper and a couple of rashers of back bacon, it was delish. Megrim is the poorer relation to Dover sole in as much as it’s not so in demand but actually the flavour is good and it’s a sustainable fish 🎣

I was thinking about making a carrot relish of some type and it seems there is a popular sandwich sold by a well known food store, Wensleydale cheese and sweet carrot chutney, (sounds amazing) so there is demand 😀 I also need to have a go at the caramelised red onion chutney that everyone seems to love although I didn’t grow red onions this year and seems pointless buying them in so I will put it on my list to grow next year. I also want to try getting a pickle as close to the country’s favourite, Branston, I wonder if it’s possible?

I absolutely adore Pinterest, I’m pinning all the time lol, anything you have an idea about can be found on there, my folders take nearly as long to get through as the site itself 🤣

Wednesday: Dry again today, temps are average, overcast. Got the usual morning jobs done and then dug out a tub of fence paint and started painting the fence near the back door, random? , not really as Mum and my niece Anna are coming over this morning to do some jobs 😀 So I thought I would set them onto sorting out the front yard space, as I said before it had always been just left because of Kai but now he has gone I can tart it up a bit. It needed an awful lot of weeding and a good bit of tidying and so painting the fence and gate will make it look a whole lot better to boot! I also made another little raised bed out of the ones I took down, at the moment I have only put pots in it but I will get round to planting it up soon. Mum found four little buddleja saplings growing and has potted them up for use somewhere else or selling on, mine is the yellow, ball type and I would like to get the more common purple one at some point, superb for the butterfly population.

Thursday: Raining this morning, normally I would make rainy days, baking days, but I need to do the cleaning instead 😜 Before going outside I had cleaned the washing machine, Charlie was complaining it’s stinks, it did, so I cleaned out the drawer and put a solution through it, cleaned all the sink plug holes nearby and it smells much better now. I sprayed the bathroom ready to give it a clean later, and the back toilet, got the dinner underway (braised beef with garden veg) and a pudding, plum crumble, John will be very happy tonight 😀 put some washing on then went out and did the orchard animals before coming back in and getting on with it. Mid morning my cousin came with a bag of seaweed from his holiday, I had asked for some to make my own fertiliser. I had to put the sold out sign up because we are out of eggs until this afternoon as I don’t have time to keep going out and collecting them besides we would never catch up if I did. There has already been a steady stream of customers, we can never seem to get this balance right, too many customers, not enough eggs, too many eggs, not enough customers, I don’t know what the answer is?

My vest veg customer came twice this morning, I saw his car, but there was nothing out there mainly because I was not going to go out in the pouring rain and pick it! A quick lunchtime sit down before I carry on 😋

I had a brief look in the office/playroom/junkroom and decided that was a whole mornings work on its own so I shut the door again 😜 I think I need to employ the services of a professional de-clutterer! Besides the Sun is out again now so I may go out and do a bit of picking, I will just have a quick browse on Pinterest first 😋

Well looking on there mad me hungry cos it’s mostly food that comes up on my feed lol, luckily I had got some soup out of the freezer and ate that, then I really needed to have a bit of a rest because things are playing up a bit and I’m having to take ibrufen to get anything done ☹️ so I popped a couple of pills and had a lie down on the sofa 😀 But not for long, I think I will get a ‘do not disturb’ sign for the gate 😜

Fed the birds, picked up the eggs, picked some runner beans, cucumbers and tomatoes, I am trying to decide if the melons are ready, I think I shall have to pick one and cut it to see, I’m not sure what variety they are and it’s not totally clear if they have ripened. The rain and now the sunshine will give everything a bit of a growth spurt hopefully as it has dwindled a little bit, better be careful what I wish for because it will take me longer to pick everything lol. I think another batch of runner bean chutney is needed as the last lot went fairly quickly.

I made some Greek yoghurt in the yoghurt maker, another packet I’m afraid as I haven’t got round to reading how to do it without but I will, beside it does taste delicious 😀

Friday: Beautiful morning, fresh to begin with, no idea what the temps went down to overnight but must have been fairly low, then warm sunshine which looms as though it’s here for the day 😀

Got all the orchard animals fed and watered, I did a good bit of foraging for the rabbits so they have some diversity in their diet, I cut a melon to test for ripeness, its not quite ready but not far off so I gave it to the torts and some to the light Sussex chicks, who are now getting to a good size. Some of the runner beans are now getting older and so I made a batch of chutney with those and I am just investigating ‘shucking’ which is removing the bean from the pod and possibly then blanching the beans and taking off the outer layer leaving a lovely green bean that splits in two, can’t be much different from a pea really.

The kitchen smells amazing 😀 as well as the chutney I have tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrot, basil and oregano, salt, pepper all tossed in olive oil, reducing down in the oven for a sauce, delish. A bit of an indulgence really as John doesn’t like pasta so the sauce is all for me and whoever I share it with, it’s a bit of a shame because if I’m honest it is the part I love the most about harvesting it all is making lovely goodies to eat either fresh or later in the winter time.

Saturday: Dull as far as the weather goes though not cold. I spent a fair bit of the morning chatting with various customers but in between that did some picking, runner beans, courgettes and broccoli. The brassica cage is still holding up really well against the cabbage white so I am able to harvest quite a few sproutings, I also filled a trug with old leaves and bits that have ‘blown’ as I call them, there was also a cabbage in there which was supposed to be broccoli but isn’t, I gave that to the light Sussex chicks to pick over, it should keep them busy for most of the day. I need to put some kale in for overwinter and will definitely be using the cage for that. I noticed the other day that the few French beans plants I planted had got more flowers on so I thought I will leave them a few days and then pick the beans, well something has been eating them ☹️ at first I thought rabbits, but they would have eaten the whole bean and this is just the end so something that can’t quite reach all the way up, possibly a mouse which will be more difficult to protect them from.

I was walking down the garden and heard a familiar noise, oh shit, I had left the water on in the poly tunnel, for 24hrs 😜 damn, it won’t need watering for quite a few days now but hopefully it will swell the melons!

Had Josh and Florence for a few hours, mostly played with playdough that my sister had made for him, it started off four different colours now it just one 😋

Sunday: Another dull day, not that I’m complaining as it means I can get stuff done outside. John did most of the birds while I did the orchard lot. Today that meant cleaning out most of the huts and runs, putting in clean bedding and washing out the water bowls. Two of the huts needed moving as they don’t have floors they are just on the dirt ground. Meanwhile John has started repairing the movable chicken hut which will go into the side paddock to house a new batch of hens, just 30 in order to keep turning over the laying flock and meet the demand for eggs.

I went for a little wander around the farm to see what blackberries were about, not many they are still red, quite small and look dry due to the lack of rain I suspect. My cooking app,e tree continues to chuck apples all over the drive especially when it’s windy, it’s a shame as the tree showed great promise at the beginning of the year. I picked some more Victoria plums, a fair few of the last lot I picked had codling moth grub in them but the branches on the other side seem fine, it’s my own fault as I didn’t put grease bands around the trunk nor did I put up the moth traps, I definitely will do next time.

Have a great week 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Bad start, got better, life is good.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 30th April: A woeful morning right from the off, early morning call to John, his Mum is being admitted to hospital after an incident, I do the morning rounds, and we have had a fox massacre in the back paddock. It has gone in through the window on the roof and massacred the hens that sleep in there overnight ☹️ The window was broken but it’s up high on what you would think was an impossible incline, I’m thinking that the strong winds overnight have shaken the rest of the glass and it has broken and any opportunity is all the Fox needs.

It’s bitterly cold out there this morning, I’m hanging on to the fact that this is the last day of the cold weather 😜 It is fricking perishing out there, the wind is blowing a hoolie down from the North, less than half an hour out there and my hands are like ice blocks, I don’t think I will bother outside, the farm behind has a bonfire and there is smoke blowing straight down the yard, don’t get me wrong I love the smell of a bonfire but I can even smell it indoors too 🙁 Ever wish you had a rewind button for the day 😝

It warmed up in the afternoon, typical after I had lit the Rayburn, when John got back from the hospital he cleaned out the front hens which was overdue, while I cleaned out the quail, then he spent the rest of the evening cutting up wood from the mountain 😝 I did a bit of gardening, weeding etc and we didn’t finish until it was dark.

Tuesday: May Day 😄 Today didn’t start off much better lol, I cleaned and filled up a drinker for the hens in the orchard, turned it over and whoosh the bottom came off and a couple of litres of water went everywhere, all over the side and down the back of the cupboards in the boot room 😜While I was outside I took a little time to inhale the perfume of the apple blossom on this glorious May Day morning. I collected fodder for the rabbits, hazel, lemon balm, fennel, dandelions, plantain, grass tufts, I love watching them pick out their favourites first, usually the dandelion closely followed by grass and raspberry runners.

Then we did some tree work in the front paddock, two trees that died a couple of years ago after a pony got in and ate the bark from them, bits of branches keep falling off and they needed taking down properly. We have left about 4ft of stump on both of them, I saw this on a programme about an arboretum, they leave the stump to rot naturally and provide a home for the insects, great idea I thought so that’s what we have done. There is an apple tree that I planted a couple of years ago that should now get lots of light and put on some good growth, the dead wood has been cut up and put in the firewood store (smaller stuff is set aside for use in the fire pit later in the year)

After that John cut the front driveway grass and the lawn while I tidied up the orchard and burnt some dead stuff and twigs, a great mornings work 😀 John went off to the hospital at lunchtime and Mia arrived for her afternoon with Nana while Mummy goes to work, looking every inch the gardener in her hat today 😍

John came back and we had a load of wood chip delivered into the ménage so he got the tractor out and spread it, meanwhile Mia and I made daisy chains, had rides in the wheelbarrow and watched Grampy on the tractor.

I did a bit of baking while I was getting dinner ready, biscuits and a rhubarb loaf, mostly to stop John moaning that there is nothing to eat when he is home.

Wednesday: Raining and cold again ☹️ Did the morning rounds with John then he set about tidying up the wood mountain area and various bits while I went into the greenhouse to work. I feel disheartened at the amount of time and effort I am putting into growing seeds when the temperatures make it a struggle this year, a few of the seedlings have suffered damping off because the compost (that was watered when the sun was hot and shinning) is now cold and wet. I have relented and taken the power out there to turn on the propagators that I have available to warm it up a bit, hopefully it will only be a couple of days at most but this yo-yo-ing of the weather is making things difficult. I have just been watching a video of how to make a hot bench with soil warming cables which I think is what I am going to have to do for next year, I have earmarked a piece of celotex for the job and we have plenty of wood to make a bench 😝 I planted up the pea seeds I have had sprouting on the windowsill, I hope they grow, I never had such a bad year with peas as this year has been. I also planted the sweet pea seeds which I also had sprouting, we can only hope they continue to grow. I’m beginning to wonder what the heck I do wrong, some people are naturally green fingered and can grow something from a dead twig, I am not one of those, if the chance is there for it to die, it does 🤔

After being outside I came in to finish off the loaf of bread I had proving before I went out and got all the ingredients ready for dinner tonight, John has chicken casserole and I am having a Lean in 15 chicken carbonara. I put some sausage rolls in the oven at the same time as the bread, something warm and tasty for John to have with his coffee after being out in the rain.

I ordered myself a chop saw, as a girl does lol, there are things I want to make and waiting for John to be here with his circular saw (which doesn’t cut very straight or so he tells me) is a pain so I will have my own and I can get on when I want to. Bird boxes and herb boxes are on the list but I got carried away looking at benches with storage in, who knows I may achieve this yet 😀 My son in law Martin has offered to give me a lesson on the saw and I am taking him up on the offer better to be safe than sorry and if I know how to use it properly there will be no end to the kinds of things I can ‘knock up’.

Thursday: Lovely weather this morning and after doing the morning rounds, John came back from sorting his Mum out, she was discharged yesterday, we had the arduous task of taking down the fence in the back paddock, it took till lunchtime to cut off the stock fencing and then take down and clear up all the post and rail, we now have one huge paddock at the back 😀 easier for dragging and maintaining and Jack thinks it’s Christmas 😀

After some lunch and forty winks 😉 we started the afternoon jobs, John on cutting up wood as the mountain he was clearing is now full of old rail from the paddock 😝 and I did some veg gardening, to be honest, sitting here now I can’t think what I have done but I did do something 🤪 Mum called round with my niece Zeri and we spent a bit of time looking at the rabbits, guinea pigs and baby chicks 😀 then John did the afternoon feeding and egg collecting while I transported compost from the sack in the front to the beds that needed filling. It’s a shame I can’t get the tonne bag any closer to the garden but it’s in the front driveway until it’s empty enough to be able to drag it! John went off to get his Mums dinner and I planted some runner beans in the poly tunnel and some ying yang beans outside, hopefully they won’t get eaten by slugs and mice, always something attacking the veg.

I cleaned the oscillating sprayer and looked for the hand held trigger type sprayer which I can’t find, I have a feeling it didn’t work and water just spat out the end so I must have thrown it away, I will order a new one, I am going for the Karcher brand as their oscillating sprayer is so good much better than the hozelock one which gets stuck all the time.

A family birthday means we are out for the evening for nibbles, or scoffs which is more like it 😄

Friday: Another good day weather wise, temps look to be warm and no rain 😀 John went off to get some bits of feed and sort his Mum out so he won’t be back until gone midday today. After the morning feeding I did some weeding collecting four buckets of forage for the rabbits who were very happy about that, I sowed some sunflower seeds into pots and then some carrots into one of the smaller raised beds, I have to get everything ready to cover before even starting as the chickens can smell disturbed Earth from miles away and are there scratching as soon as your back is turned. I weed killed the bindweed as it is such a pain to try and dig it all out and I don’t want it taking hold this year like it did last year. When John came back he moved the tonne bag of multi purpose compost with the tractor so that it is nearer to the garden, makes life a bit easier. I have dedicated a small section of one of the beds to flowers this year, I am planting it up with anything and everything I have, it will be a totally random selection and randomly planted, no order to it whatsoever, we will see how it turns out, the main aim is to have a riot of colour to look at and a nectar patch for the insects to feed on. My chop saw arrived………watch this space 😜

Saturday: Well we are on a roll with the weather ☀️ of course with it this hot it means I have to get started early and then chase the shade 😂 which runs out around 2pm at this time of year. I have got plenty done though, I finally planted the potatoes, I looked round for a place but there is not enough soil depth on the beds to grow them so I have used the two long raised beds that used to have flowers in them, I had dug up and potted everything in order to empty them out and put them back together but it never got done and so it’s perfect for growing spuds in, the rest are in pots and potato growing sacks anywhere I can place them I have, I told you the garden was all a bit random this year 😜 First thing this morning I took clematis cuttings after seeing something on Facebook that reminded me it was the right time, I have Montana, Neiobe and Dawn, the Dawn was bought by a friend for my 40th birthday many, many years ago now, it’s a small clematis that is ideal for a shady corner, hopefully the cuttings strike but I won’t hold my breath lol. I potted on the runner beans and put some more seeds into trays, the sprayer I ordered arrived and I have sorted out and connected up all of the hose pipes and various heads for them, I think I will be watering sooner rather than later with this heat. I fixed a little wooden cold frame that I have had for years, the glass fell out and I have finally put it back in and secured it, it now has sweet pea, poppies and cosmos seedlings growing under it. I have filled up some old recycling boxes with compost ready for the cucumbers in the small tunnel and repotted a grapevine that was in the wrong place and struggling, it’s now in full sun so hopefully will romp away nicely. John has not felt well today but despite that has fixed the top rails on one of the paddock fences before deciding to have a sleep.

Cleaned the boot room up a bit, it gets so dusty very quickly that it’s a thankless task but has to be done, then gave the dogs a groom, patch is moulting like crazy, hardly anything came off of Mia!

John took to his bed, he has a high temperature and is pretty unwell 🤒 so it’s up to me to put the birds to bed tonight, it’s very pleasant out there this evening.

I noticed on my way round how much the asparagus has shot up just today, I have been picking a bundle of 10 nearly every day but in the morning I am going to have to cut it early or some will be too long, it does not stay in the egg shed very long it sells pretty quickly, mind you the rhubarb is the same and it looks like I will be picking mange tout as well, the over wintered broad beans in the greenhouse have just started to form, I love it when the veg starts coming in thick and fast.

Sunday: Cracking day again and even at 7am there is no ‘cool’ feel to the air so it’s gonna be hot! The animals are flipping annoying this morning, the cats have taken to following me everywhere and now diesel is sat on the shed roof right next to the bird feeder and all the little birds are giving the alarm call. The chickens are pesky this morning pecking at my boots while I’m sat drinking coffee outside and trying to wander into the kitchen, the dogs bark at fresh air and take off chasing fresh air also every 2 minutes, while I’m typing a chicken flies onto my knee, what’s wrong with them all today?

Did the morning rounds, John is poorly in bed though better than he was last night, then I did a bit in the greenhouse and moved some stuff to the poly tunnel and then I thought bugger this I’m going to have a few hours off lol. You may have noticed that we work 7 days a week usually but today as John is not up to it and it’s a lovely day I decided to read in the shade, bliss, inbetween I took a walk around one of the fields and thought why go anywhere when you have all this to enjoy 😊. I had an egg customer that was Spanish and out for the day call in and bought some eggs and asparagus, ‘you have a lovely Farm’ he said in a Spanish accent, ‘thank you’ I said and thought, yes we really do even though I spend all winter moaning about it, days like today give it back tenfold 😄

As I was having a few hours off and I can’t really sit still very long I decided to pick dandelions and have a go at making dandelion honey or ‘poor mans honey’ I was going to make dandelion jelly but I thought the honey seemed more interesting. I sat in the paddock for a good half hour picking the heads then another half hour or more pulling or cutting the yellow petals away from the green bits and then simmered them with a sliced lemon for 20 mins, they now need to soak overnight so the next instalment will be on next weeks blog 🤪

The petals once they are picked are incredibly fluffy and tactile to put your hands in and if anyone fancies a go themselves we have millions of dandelions all growing in untreated paddocks so come and help yourself 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Amazing smells of Spring, First pick of Rhubarb and new Guinea pigs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 10th April : Damp this morning with fine drizzle 😐 however it feels ok temperature wise.

Did the morning rounds, 1 egg from the new ladies and evidence of eaten shell, I suspect as we moved them into the outdoor run, we actually do have a rat nicking them, no other reason for them to go from 5 to 1 egg so I need to remedy that and possibly move them back to the stable until further notice and see how many they lay there.

Put out the eggs in the shed which is looking very full of every type of egg we do 😀 and then went round to collect some bits for the rabbits, dandelion I have been growing into a big plant, bits of hazel, blackcurrant and some lovage. I have ordered a book called ‘beyond the pellets’ to learn about feeding rabbits naturally all year round with fresh produce but also ‘tree hay’ which is basically chopped and dried twigs, leaves etc for the winter feed. A mention of it of one of the smallholding sites sparked my interest in being able to feed the bunnies without buying pelleted feed, they get fed a lot of fresh greens during spring and summer but not winter so it will be an interesting read and hopefully a way forward to natural feeding.

I picked the very first lot of rhubarb 😃😃 that makes me very happy and now I just need to decide what I am going to do with it, of course stewed rhubarb and custard is a must as I always say, if you haven’t tried it since childhood do give it a go now you are older, it is delicious.

Then a task I wanted to try all spring but didn’t get round to it and I saw a quick easy way to have a go so that’s what I have done, tapped the maple tree, only I haven’t bored a hole in the trunk and done it that way, I have cut a small branch and taped a glass bottle onto it, fingers crossed I’m not too late for the rising sap and get at least a bit to try. I will check it later to see if I am going to get anything.

The smells this morning have been enough to lift the spirits, the black currant is very strong even just brushing past it, the rhubarb smells divine, the blossom on the trees is heavy, it’s all full of promise and deliciousness 😀

Now going to look at all the rhubarb recipes I have been collecting 😀

Made rhubarb crumble and extras for the freezer, a rhubarb tea bread (simple and quick (except soaking the fruit bit) recipe) and I have some stewed rhubarb and vanilla ready to eat with custard 😀 also made a loaf of bread today.

Rhubarb Tea Loaf

• 300g sultanas

• 200g roasted rhubarb (see note below)

• 300ml strong earl grey tea

• 100g dark brown sugar

• 275g self-raising flour

• 1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Mix the sultanas, rhubarb and sugar together in a large bowl. Cover with the tea and leave to soak overnight.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 150°C(fan)/170°C/gas mark 3. Grease and baseline a 2lb/900g loaf tin. Stir the flour and egg into the fruit mixture. Pour into the prepared tin.

3. Bake in the oven for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cover the top with foil if it’s getting too brown.

4. NB: to roast the rhubarb chop into 2cm pieces, toss with 20g caster sugar (or more if you prefer it to be sweeter – I don’t think it needs more sugar in this recipe), cover and roast for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, in an oven preheated to 200°C.

This is a recipe from sneakyveg.com as always I used what I had rather than what’s in the recipe so instead of Earl Grey tea I used a Green Tea and a Tetley tea bag and steeped them for about 10 mins, I used currants instead of sultanas and I added a splash of orange juice (just because 😜) I also did not wait overnight for the fruit to soak, I did two hours soaking because I couldn’t be bothered to wait 😝 it will still turn out fine I’m sure.

Tuesday 10th April 🤣🤣 spot the error, I figured I would leave it as it was and it’s turning into Groundhog Day round here as regards to the rain anyhow!

Wet, muddy, slippery, I’m beginning to think this is our lot, seriously, it has rained pretty much every day for nearly 3 weeks at least, how much more is there?

Although there is evidence of the grass growing through the mud so that’s a more positive outlook, more grass = more grass roots = something to soak up the rain 😀

According to the forecast (though it seems to change daily) tomorrow is the last day of rain for a while, fingers crossed 🤞

Cleaned out the duck shed with the help of Mia while Sam was doing the horse, Mia was plastered in mud by the time she finished but she enjoyed helping out, I think she will be a great asset as she gets older as she likes to get stuck in ‘I help’ is what she says 😀 After that we went for a well earned costa 😀

Fed the chickens late afternoon and collected the eggs, we are managing to keep up at the moment and we have some fall back in the form of pullet eggs as they are all laying now. We moved the new ducks back into the stable overnight to see what was happening with the eggs as I only got 1 yesterday, I think it’s because they don’t lay as early as my established lot, they have all laid by 8am which is when I let them out. The new ones seem to lay all during the morning and so yesterday they would have probably laid outside and the birds would eat them. I opened the stable at midday and they have gone for a wander so I may have to keep putting them in the stable for the time being otherwise I won’t get any eggs at all.

The book about feeding rabbits naturally arrived and I have part read it, very interesting, there is a lot of fresh food that I knew they could have of course but also some that I had no idea about. I think I have an abundance of assorted material that I will be able to feed them on and save money on pelleted feed, as I have said Spring and summer will be easy it’s the winter and autumn will be more difficult. With that in mind I have knocked up a herb drying screen, it’s rudimentary but it does the job and I made it with stuff I had lying round so free as well 😀 It will be for drying summer herbs that I can make a herb hay with in time. When I started researching it I was amazed that you can buy freshly cut willow sticks for your rabbit online at £12.99kg and dried raspberry leaves, two resources that I usually assign to the compost heap, not anymore, everything will be assessed for rabbit fodder!

Wednesday: A pleasant enough morning, early drizzle but that went and after the morning rounds I got on with some things in the garden. I put some water in a large bucket and then a sack full of manure in the water to make some manure feed, I still have some concentrate left from last year but no time like the present to make some more. Planted up some of the Pak Choi seedlings, some in the large tunnel and some in the small, the weaker seedlings I have planted in a square mushroom container to grow on for the rabbits, I doesn’t matter if they don’t survive but if they do that a bonus. Uncovered and moved the citrus trees into the large tunnel also gave them a feed, they haven’t done too badly over winter and two lemons are still clinging on in there, then tidied up the small tunnel where they have been overwintering. Pinched out the tips of the broad bean plants now that they have started to flower, the soft fleshy tops attract black fly and they are good to eat so they will be wilted and I will eat them with fish later today. Everything else is still a bit slow but hopefully once the temps climb they will burst into life 😜 Still all too wet to do much on the garden itself, too wet to hoe, to wet to walk on really so it’s a waiting game. I read an article about earthing up potatoes, ha, they haven’t even gone in the ground yet! I collected some forage bits for the rabbits to eat, I am looking at everything as potential rabbit feed now 🤣 I even thought about giving them the bean tops then decided against it, they can have the plants when they go over and I will have the tops 😝

Thursday: Got a little bit excited when my weather ap said 24 and sunny today, then it quickly corrected itself and went to 7 and light rain 😩 It’s grey and misty/damp out this morning hey ho beginning to get used to it now. Still waiting for the wire to arrive for the fruit cage otherwise I could have got on with that at least. The nighttime temperatures are no longer dropping so that’s a bonus, it means I don’t need to worry too much about the seedlings in the greenhouse as they should be fine, I can’t see a frost forecast for the next two weeks, famous last words 😜

Went in the greenhouse after feeding and pricked out the broccoli seedlings, once again I have about 50 plants lol don’t know what I’m going to do with all those! I also potted on the Aubergines and moved them into the large poly tunnel underneath another cloche, I have no idea if they will survive or not but they have got too big for the windowsill and there is no where else to move them to at the moment. I did the same with some pepper plants, the tomatoes I did last week seem to be holding their own, waiting for some warmth like the rest of us. The courgettes I had in the propagator on the window sill rotted away, I have never known a year like this one, normally things can be slow but this is ridiculous! There are things that are growing however so all is not lost, the strawberries in the tunnel have grown some flowers 😀 the garlic has sprouted that I planted out last week, the peas in the small tunnel have flowers on, the rhubarb is getting bigger, hope springs eternal, as Pope said.

Came in about 11.30 with the intention of doing some baking but the Sam arrived and we went out to clean the tack room and throw a whole load of crap away, then sorted out all the fencing stakes and electric tape so that it was all in one place finally. Then the rain came, again 😟

Came indoors to make an egg/dairy/gluten free cake, sounds like a recipe for disaster and may well be, it’s still in the oven but I’m not hopeful that this mix is going to bind together while cooking 😝

Then out to do the pm feeding and egg collection, take a couple of photos of the quail house on my way round for someone who wants an idea on how to build their own, then off to look at a property with Shelley and Martin, busy day 🤪

Friday: Road trip 😀 actually it was five minutes down the lane to the Cotswold Wildlife Park, so I got the morning rounds done quickly and off we went, picnic packed, plenty of layers on, had an exhausting day but thoroughly enjoyed by all of us😀

Back home in time to do the afternoon feeding but not before a well earned cup of tea and a sit down.

Did the feeding, collected the eggs, fed the horse then cleaned out the POL pen at the back, John came home halfway through doing it so gave me a hand and then we went to pick up some new pets 😀

You will remember the story of what a rogue ferret did to my guinea pigs back in November, well I have two news ones, meet Tinker and Tucker, two little boars from a friends of ours that breeds them.

I ordered 100g of wild flower seeds for heavy shade, we have put poultry fence all along the roadside of the side paddock, it has a lot of trees along there and we decided it was heavily shaded and as it is fenced off at the moment hopefully the seeds will grow.

Saturday: Cracking day, Sun, Sun, Sun all day long 😀 After feeding this morning we got on with wiring the fruit cage as the rolls had arrived finally. In my search for the right size hole and the right height and length as I wanted 25m long 1m high x 2 I didn’t check the quality of the wire and as a consequence it was not really a great quality, the top and bottom wires were pulled too tight causing bagging in the middle, however we have put it on and it dose not look too bad. Just got the netting to put over the top and the door to wire then it’s finished 😀

Grand National Day, and whatever your thoughts are on horse racing, in our house the GN has always been a big day, normally we would all be in the living room screaming at the telly (except last year when none of us had any horse anywhere near finishing) this year we had a group FaceTime as Charlie is in Italy and Sam was at her house, Shelley and Martin came to ours for the event, Martin and I both had the winner this year 😀 However I made the mistake of doing the bet online, not the same I would rather go and collect cash winnings from the bookies. And that was pretty much it especially as I had to spend a couple of hours on hold while trying to unlock my betting account (which I opened for the occasion) having cocked up signing in in the first place 😝

I was hoping tomorrow was going to be similar to today but rain is forecast ffs!

Sunday: Well it’s not too bad to wake up to, it’s dry at the moment and though obviously a lot cooler than yesterday, it’s not bad at all. Got the feeding done, cleaned out the geese and put fresh bedding in for the ducks, then it was on to finish the fruit cage. We joined together the two lots of wire, top and bottom and then got the net out to put over the roof, John had tensioned two wires across to support the netting. Almost immediately it became apparent that the net was a bit too short, we turned it round and nope it was not quite going to stretch, umming and arghing we decided to put up what we could and we would have to get another piece and stitch it together, not ideal but we had already bought this piece. At this point John decided to measure the length and width, now I did ask him to do this in the beginning and he told me it was definitely 8m x 5m, on measuring it properly this time he admitted it was 8.5m long, no wonder it won’t reach 🤪 I made an executive decision to reorder a piece big enough to cover the whole thing and will use the other netting elsewhere.

After we couldn’t finish that, John went to clean out the hens at the front and I did some hoeing on the veg beds, the asparagus is just starting to poke through so I weeded that bed and a couple of others. I no longer think weeding is a chore as it is now seen as rabbit fodder, I always used to give them the dandelions but now they are having nearly every weed and tuft of grass, two birds with one stone comes to mind. Then I did a bit of work on a new bed I have made at the bottom of one of the raised veg beds, I decided I don’t have enough flowers and so marked that area off at the end of last year for the purpose. I have a small raised bed in front of it which is also filled with primula, cowslips, dwarf lavender and a rose, I put some tete a tete bulbs in there so it will mostly be a spring bed and the first to give colour. Most of the plants I have chosen to go in there will be single flower because that is best for the insects and especially the bees, they can’t gather pollen from double headed flowers. There won’t be much uniformity to it, it will be what I have got already and planted haphazardly (until it gets on my nerves then I will re arrange it all 😜) It began to rain while I was doing this last part but it wasn’t cold so I carried on until the rain became a bit too heavy, no point damagingthe soil by treading it down.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Beginnings, progress and endings.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Bank Holiday Monday 2nd April: Still raining 🌧 rained heavily in the night and as a consequence we now have the lake we usually have AND a tributary stream flowing into it across all the side paddocks, the hay barn is flooded, the stables are flooded, in fact, everywhere is bloody flooded. I know I said we need it but this is beyond a joke and still rain forecast every day up until Thursday! The fact that the farm slopes downwards towards the side paddock is our only saving grace really as at least it doesn’t stay up the top here very long.

We did the mornings rounds and slopped everything out, can hardly call it mucking out today as it just wet runny s**t 😜

John can’t finish the fruit cage as he needs a bit more wood and the wood yard is closed today, and even if he had it the holes he dug are filled with water. There is no chance whatsoever of getting on the garden as that is waterlogged and the problem is that it will be all to do once it starts to dry up and I will be back to single manpower.

At least we don’t have the snow that other parts of the country have had, I think I would just about blow my top lol.

I decided to hatch out some more quail so I ordered eggs from eBay as ours are not laying enough to use those and besides I could do with new bloodlines. I got the incubator out, last time the automatic humidity pump packed up and we still can’t fix it, dilemma, buy a new pump which is 1/3rd of the cost of a new machine and find out it’s the incubator circuit board that is causing the problem or buy a whole new set up and test the old pump on the new machine, that way if it works we will know exactly which part we need to buy, opted for whole new set up, I will need to do lots of hatching and selling to get my money back 😜

John spent a lot of time making sure that any more rainfall has an escape route and we don’t end up flooded, then he cleaned out the front hen house, meanwhile I did lots of washing and some research on various topics 😝

Tuesday: Shall I mention the weather, no need really, I’m sure you can guess what it’s like 😝 I have look at the long term forecast and we are due a lovely week of sunshine soon, though we all know how things can change 😜 John did the animals this morning while I sorted out the recycling, washing up, Rayburn, washing, tidying, made bread etc etc, then he went off to his Mums and get some more posts for the fruit cage, I sure am hoping that it gets finished this week! We have been totally hampered by the weather, I was hoping that the cage would be finished at the end of the week as there are other jobs to get done, it does not look like they will now, then I was hoping that as all the jobs were finished John would then have time to help with the veg garden sometimes and I don’t think that is going to happen.

All the framework is finished and concreted in, ordered the wire online but it won’t be here until next week 😐 Oh and we had bouts of sunshine inbetween rain showers today so that’s what I call improvement.

Wednesday: A dull start but at the time of writing it’s not raining, however I don’t expect that to last as it is forecast! I have a hospital appointment today, normally it’s at the JR in the morning but the Professor has inconsiderately decided to retire and the clinic has been moved to the Nuffield in the afternoons 😜 ok while it’s Easter hols but in future it will be a nightmare on the road. It appears that the discoid Lupus (which is what I was originally diagnosed with) is active which is why I have a permanent rash on my arms and some marking on my face, the doctor was really lovely and gave me a prescription for lotions and potions to help get it under control, luckily the systematic Lupus is still asleep 😴

Picked up Mia on the way back home.

Thursday: Well the long awaited and promised sunshine day has arrived and not disappointed (first things first, on with the factor 30) John fixed the small rabbit run roof that blew off in the last lot of gales, then he replaced one side of the muck heap where the timbers have all but rotted away, our chap with the wood arrived with some more to add to the mountain. Meanwhile I went into the greenhouse to see how everything is doing, moved stuff around, potted on, sowed some cucumber seeds and watered. Watered both the poly tunnels, the peas are beginning to get some flowers 😀 I put some Guinness down in the big tunnel in the slug traps, cut back the Japanese honeysuckle and pruned the gooseberry bushes, a bit late but they should be fine and I don’t want them sprawling. Then John and I discussed how and where we are going to grow the brassicas but we need to wait for the fruit cage wire before we can do that as we will build something off the side of the cage. Next a job that I was not looking forward too and that was the dispatch of the poorly duck 🙁 got to be done as she could barely get about any more, and then onto dispatching and plucking one of the bantam cockerels, we have four, I tried selling them, nothing and so might as well eat them, not much on them but it will provide a meal for two and leftovers for soup or something. The man with the wood came back with a second load! And then time for a well earned sit down (didn’t last long)

Potted on some more tomato seedlings and melon, they are getting a bit leggy with the lack of sunlight up to now, I can’t hold them back anymore or they will be too spindly, fingers crossed they survive otherwise I think I will just give up!

The new incubator is now up, running and primed ready for the eggs whenever they get delivered 😋

The nice weather looks short lived according to the forecast, however the temperatures look set to remain above 6c for most of the time which is fabulous as it means the grass should grow and cover up the mud in the paddocks 😀

John went out to change a set of taps, beforehand he had unloaded the feed he got the other day, when he got to the job and opened the back of the van he had a stowaway, a chicken had hopped in while he was emptying it lol.

Friday: Hopefully another dry day today. We did the morning rounds, I cleaned out the duck house and the small rabbit run while I was at it. I took a wander round the fields to have a look and see what kind of state they are in after the endless rain we have had, not too bad and will come back quite quickly once it stays dry. John chopped up and stacked some wood and then went off to his Mums, today it’s the hairdressers and shopping so he won’t be back until lunchtime. The bantam I dispatched and plucked yesterday needed processing so this was a good time to do that. I have done many a chicken before but not a bantam and I did wonder if it was too small to bother, however people eat smaller birds than that so better not waste it. I found the gutting much more difficult than a standard size chicken due to the small body cavity and I have small hands, so in the end I decided to spatchcock it and remove the insides after cutting up the back. This is still a delicate procedure with the insides as the last thing you want to do is burst any of the intestines or bowel, so I was very careful and luckily successful. I was going to freeze the bird but figured I might as well cook it today now that it has been done as I haven’t got anything else out of the freezer anyway.

So this photo is of the spatchcocked bantam (actually I am not putting the picture up because quite frankly it is the most ridiculous photo I have ever seen 🤣it should look like this

Except that I didn’t break the breastbone enough and it looks like this one but with attitude 🤣🤣🤣

I slathered it with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon 😀 it won’t look like a shop bought bird for two reasons, one, it is not pumped full of water to make it look nice and plump (as above)so the skin is quite dry and wrinkly, and two, it has not been bleached with a food grade bleach like they are in a processing unit, but it will taste 10 times better 😀 I cleaned up the feet and will roast those along with the neck and livers for the dogs. When I finished everything I used gets a wash in detol so as not to spread germs and voila, done.

Ok I will put the photo up but try not to fall off the chair laughing

I am aware that it looks a little like it’s sat there with it’s hands in the air 🤣🤣🤣

I went outside to burn some rubbish and the entrails of the bantam and needed to move the burning barrel as the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, sparks could either end up in the straw or burn small holes in my polytunnel. I tried moving it but it’s quite full of ash and heavy and hurt my shoulder so I thought that’s fine I will use the sack truck, looks for sack truck, nowhere to be found! Goes to phone hubby and his phone is on the side, bloody Nora, not even a simple task is possible when people don’t put things away or remotely even where they can be found! I really need that BIG shed with an even BIGGER paddock to stop things going walkabout 😡

Turns out the sack truck is somewhere under the mountain of wood, I ask you, ejit 🤪

John made the door frame for the fruit cage, I will try and gets some pics when I get a minute, and I did some bits in the garden including putting hoops over one of the raised beds ready for planting up, the chickens will be straight on it if I don’t cover it, I also planted some garlic bulbs and sowed some pumpkin seeds. Sam, Mia, Shelley, Josh and Florence came in the afternoon, Josh wanted to look for vegetables and so I introduced him to some bits in the garden, he happily chomped away on some chives and some pea shoots from the garden, Mia spat them out 😂

Made bread in the evening and set the quail eggs into the incubator, out of 48, three were broken in transit, not bad considering they have gone through the Royal Mail handling system!

Saturday: Did the morning stuff, John cleaned out the back hens and went to get sawdust and feed after going to his Mums, I got one of the hits ready for the ducks we are picking up later today, then I did cleaning indoors, bedroom, bathroom and living room, full move everything clean, not got time for the kitchen today as that will take a few hours it will have to wait for another day😜 Weather is not as bad as I expected it to be, had a small shower this morning but it has been dry since then 😀

Picked up the pekin duckies, in the end we were allocated eight rather than ten but that’s fine, these are ex commercial ducks, two years old and have never been able to immerse themselves fully in water! They have only ever had enough to submerge their heads into, as a consequence on their first time in water they are not yet waterproof, they soon will be once they start to preen and use their oil gland but for tonight they will stay in a stable so they don’t get cold. They are nice looking, clean (now they have been able to bath) healthy birds, I hope they enjoy their retirement with us and hopefully want to continue laying eggs 😀

Sunday: Today has been a fab day 😀 not particularly weatherwise but work wise it has been productive. Firstly the new ducks, we got 5eggs out of the 8 and they are big eggs at that, considering I didn’t think they would lay until they had settled in that’s a result. I moved into the outdoor run and closed the gate, the others had already been let out and gone off down the paddocks, however the drakes soon came running back up when they realised there was fresh talent around lol. I opened the gate later in the afternoon but they have chosen to stay where they are all day.

Next job was to go into the side paddock and remove all the electric fence stakes and tape and tidy it up, there was a few years worth of ‘bits of string’ which had been used to tie up various posts etc etc, all cut off and thrown away now. Then we cut a ‘gateway’ in the two fences to enable the chickens to move freely from the paddock they are in, we have put poultry netting up the length of the paddock close to their hut to shut off the front paddock so that we can drag it and seed it when the time is right.

I have drawn a lovely picture in the hopes it makes sense 😝

While we were out there we had a visit from a chap I have been in touch with on social media about the rats under the hut. Basically there is a group that take their dogs out and go ‘ratting’ it’s all done for free and watching the dogs work was an absolute treat, I say work, but they didn’t actually find any, the reason being that we have been so waterlogged that I think the rats moved out, it will only be temporary though as soon as it’s dry enough they will be back and so will the dogs!

Back to the paddock work and we then netted three sides of the bottom half of the side paddock, mainly to stop the hens wandering especially onto the roadside. It doesn’t sound like much but it takes forever to gather up fencing stakes and roll up the tape and we had to bring the poultry net down from the small paddock at the back so it took a fair amount of time all in all but very satisfying to get it done. Then John cleaned out the front hen house and burnt all the cardboard mite traps, while I went and took down some more tape and stakes (and oodles of string) from another part of the paddock, and neatly bundled and tied up all the stakes and tape, a fair amount of string and broken tape went in the bin. John did the afternoon feeding and the eggs then he lit the fire, Macca is cooking the dinner so I carried on pootling about outside, fed the horse, tidied up some more bits of rubbish and voila the day is done, almost, just got to put them all to bed later 😋

Posted in Friesland Farm

Jobs to do, manic egg sales and Eostre celebrations

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 26th March: A good productive day, John is off this week so we hoping to get a fair bit done, that’s the plan anyway! John went off to pick up a new batch of POL hens while I did the morning rounds. In the pen where we keep them he has installed some new devices for feeding and watering, I hope they appreciate it 😀

I wrote a list of jobs and once he was back we worked through them, first was the old sofa and a mattress that has been sat in the front for two months, we had to apply for a certificate to enable John to use the van to take stuff to the tip so that has at last been done. Then the flue needed cleaning out so after a coffee John went up on the roof and got that cleaned then cleaned out the fire. After that he cleaned out the chickens in the front house and burnt the rubbish and after that it was on to wood cutting, he did try and do the muck pile with the tractor but it was too wet.

Meanwhile I cleaned out the rabbit runs, the quail hut and the orchard chicken house, did a bit of cutting back of dead stuff, sorted out plants for selling that have been sat all winter and sowed some Swiss chard and some radishes. In between Sam and Mia and Shelley, Josh and Florence came to visit which was mayhem 🤪

I discovered a batch of 32 eggs in the tack room, did the freshness test on them, 2 floated (bad) 6 upended (not very fresh) but the rest were fine and stayed on the bottom, they obviously can’t be sold to customers but I can use them in cooking and in fact had some in a frittata for dinner, just need to be cracked into a cup first to double check them.

Plenty more jobs on the list but that’s it for today 😋

Been so busy I forgot to say

How springlike the weather was today

Buds bursting on flowers and trees

The distant buzz of bumble bees 🐝

A ray of sun is all it takes

For spring to leave winter in its wake

Tuesday: Two good days does not a spring make 😝 after the lovely weather we are back to wet and cold, not as cold as it has been but it’s not warm. I despair at ever being able to get on in the veg garden but instead of dwelling on what I can’t do I have decided to do what I can 😜 This morning I have concentrated on moving seedlings on a bit and hoping they will survive, I pricked out another pot of tomato seedlings, all have gone under cover in various ways but some in the greenhouse and some in the poly tunnel, fingers crossed we will have survivors! Then I pricked out the cabbage and Pak Choi seedlings, these will be fine as they don’t require any heat and have fared well up to now, I have sown some courgettes, some left in the greenhouse under cover and some I have bought indoors into the propagator. What I really need is a HUGE windowsill about 4ft wide and 6ft long lol, the problem is that we have small windows and so they don’t get the light they require, in the tunnels and greenhouse there is plenty of light but not enough heat. I thought about making heated staging for one of the tunnels but it seems like a big job and we can’t add any more to the list really.

John had to go out this morning and when he came back started digging the holes for the fruit cage posts, that is going to take a while 😝 I have Mia this afternoon so no chance of me helping which is just as well as I hate digging 🤪

I got some baking done first thing, fruit buns, Easter biscuits, a gluten free chocolate cake and a loaf of bread, mainly because John has been complaining there is nothing to eat!

And then while Mia was sleeping I made soap! I bought a kit to see how easy it would be and it’s very simple and quite satisfying to do, it’s my Mums birthday this weekend so she will be the lucky first recipient 😀 I was thinking that I could use my own dried flowers and herbs in future batches, all different scents, an exciting prospect.

Wednesday: Well wouldn’t you bloody know it, it’s raining again, the forecast is rain every bloody day for at least the next week, just when John is off to get some stuff done, god knows when we will be able to drag the paddocks if at all and digging posts in this weather is not great but concreting them in is not a good idea either! This morning I despair at ever getting on the veg garden or indeed getting much growing! I have sown a second lot of peas, the first lot rotted away, the second lot rotted away, maybe third time lucky? I have tried growing them under some cover, out of cover, the only thing I can think is when I water them they then get too cold and rot so I have just sprayed the top of the soil lightly this time and we will see what happens, good job peas come in big numbers of seed. I did a little bit in the greenhouse but that’s not much fun as the rain keeps dripping on my head, I just feel this morning like everything is working against us 🙁 BUT I am not a quitter so I will keep plodding on, eventually we may get a break, and I will concentrate on what can be grown so brassicas, broad beans, beetroot, pak choi, chard etc and hope the more tender stuff will catch up later on.

John managed to get one end of the fruit cage up and concreted in so at least that’s a start, though I’m hoping it will get finished!

Made another batch of soap.

Thursday: A frost this morning, well that wasn’t predicted 😝 as you will gather from that it was yet another cold start, talking to other growers on social media, they are all chomping at the bit, so at least I am not alone, however I do know that here we are usually two weeks behind when it come to growing stuff due to the lay of the land so I have no idea when things will get going 🤪

John did the animals this morning then off to his Mums, his week off is turning into half days only at the moment 🙄 he is looking very tired so while he is out I am busying making a nutritious dinner (chicken casserole) for him later, complete with turmeric for his aching bones, I may even throw in some dumplings to cheer him up 😀 I am making recipes out of the Lupus cookbook for my lunch and dinner, I’m not sure if it is helping, it seemed to the first week but since then I have suffered with aches and pains though it may be more to do with the cold weather as that has an effect too, it’s a non win situation as when the Sun comes out in full force I will be hiding away 😜

Some Calabrese plants arrived so I went out to plant some, actually I planted half of them in the poly tunnel, the other half I will plant outside once I can get on the garden to weed it and put the cage up, heaven knows when that will be? I sowed some coriander seeds for the greenhouse and some more basil seeds for the windowsill. Looking through my seeds I realised I hadn’t ordered any cucumbers or pumpkin so put an order in for them, the elephant garlic arrived and I need to find a place for those, I think I need a bigger veg patch lol. John did a bit more hole digging for the fruit cage posts though the weather is seriously hampering the job, it’s not much fun digging in the cold rain 😝

Hoping to rehome some 2 yr old laying ducks, just waiting to hear back about those, we only get a dozen a day but could easily sell more.

Good Friday: As well as the morning routine we covered a lot of ground today picking up little jobs here and there, I cleaned out the duck shed and cut up cardboard for the red mite traps, John fixed a loose door handle, put a plug on the pump in case of future electricity cuts so it can now run off the generator if that happens, he also finally fixed the dog shower. The shower got broke during the first lot of heavy snow so we have been without it for ages, he put in another that he had lying around but that leaked everywhere, third time lucky and we have a working shower again. Good job too as the dogs were desperate for a bath, well they weren’t but I was desperate to give them one, if it was up to them they would just stay dirty little mutts and love it, I think they disapprove of John finally get that job done 🤪 He also fixed some tiles that had come loose on the kitchen floor, and got a pile of wood inside to keep it dry. Shelley, Josh and Florence visited in the afternoon and I made some bread later on as we had none left.

The egg sales are absolutely going mad and we just about keeping up with the turnover.

Easter Saturday: No need to tell you what the weather is like 🙄 (she laughs and the hysteria is audible 🤪) We may look back during a long hot summer and think, thank goodness for all that rain in early Spring 😝

I was just reading reports that as of January 2018 we were heading for a drought as both the last Winters had been dry and the ground water was low, so I’m swayed a little to think that this large swathe of rain we are getting is actually a good thing and best not to moan about it. It has got me thinking though that we probably need to invest in more water storage tanks, we have approx 15,000 litres of storage but there are place that we could gather at least another 15,000 from so I will start looking into it.

I needed to use up the rest of those eggs we found and tested so I made two traybakes, one lemon and lime drizzle and one peanut butter 😀 In the afternoon I went with the grandchildren and their respective Mums to the village eggstravaganza, egg rolling completion down the hill, duck and boat racing on the pond then an Easter egg hunt in the churchyard. Josh won the duck race and got an egg which he shared nicely, then they both found hidden eggs, maybe next year they will be old enough to make Easter bonnets for that competition 😀

Easter Sunday: Eostre, an ancient celebration of new growth, new beginnings and everything associated with this time of year, birds laying eggs, flowers and trees bursting into bloom, wild animals including hares all doing what comes naturally, a glorious time of year indeed. And the weather has agreed as the Sun is shinning magnificently this morning, still a tad cold early on but the day holds promise 😀

We did the morning rounds and John has gone out to dig the last two holes for the fruit cage posts, then we will be visiting my Mum who has the unfortunate affliction of an April fools birthday, I can’t tell you how many horrid tricks we played on her when we were children, poor Mum 😋

We had dinner with Shelley, Martin, Josh and Florence late afternoon and when we returned the egg shed was empty, we have sold every available egg in the place!

We have been allocated 10ducks for rehoming so that will hopefully help with extra eggs.