Tag: goose eggs

Posted in Friesland Farm

Wind, a fence and some much needed R&R 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 12th Feb: What a fabulous day, after the endless miserable weather we have had today was welcomed with, let’s get busy, thoughts. To begin with it was still frozen but without that cold wind, so I began tidying up, putting away, picking wind blown paraphernalia up. By mid morning it was thawing but still frozen so into the greenhouse, which by the way was a balmy 17c thanks to the bubble wrap 😀I potted on the blueberry bushes, some primula and pansies, sowed some pak Choi seeds before going on to dig out a huge patch of stingers that have taken over the orchard area. Before I did all that this morning I had put up some temporary fence and let the orchard pen birds out into the whole of the orchard, they had a great time as I was digging and pulling up nettle roots.

Also inbetween all that I had lit the fire and got the dinner ready for tonight, a slow roasted breast of lamb, well it was supposed to be slow roasted except that the Rayburn was in full flo today and by the time I came back inside the oven was up to roast and the lamb was cooking too fast 😩 I have come to the conclusion that you can either work outside and neglect inside or you can work inside and neglect outside but trying to do both doesn’t work very well. The lamb will be fine in the end I’m sure but the best laid plans and all that 🤪

I would have carried on until I had done all the nettles, there is a small patch left to do, but I though I would have an hour sat down before beginning the afternoon session, good job or the lamb would have been crispy 😝

Tuesday: I’ve got wind again! Nope it’s not something I have eaten 🤪 it’s outside battering the heck out of the farm. Winters, I find, are usually defined by the weather that prevailed the most, you know, it was a wet winter, it was a dry winter, it was a cold winter, well this is the first time I will write, it’s been a windy winter, I have never known so many wind storms and strong ones at that. The weather, always a constant topic on this island and even more so among those who work outside, is not as reliable as it used to be, even going back eight years you could work around what was likely to be but these days nothing is certain, climate change or weather patterns that stretch over millennia? I personally think a bit of both, I mean, you can’t say that all the weather deviations are caused by climate change and ignore the greatest power on Earth, Mother Nature, and although we as a species are always pushing the boundaries of knowledge, there is so much more in the Universe we don’t understand yet. 🌍 we’ve had Ice Ages and mini ice ages, I know those could not have been stopped even by the greatest of brains, what if we are now on a naturally warming cycle, ok we would be contributing to it massively but we wouldn’t be able to stop it. Who knows, not us because ‘since records began’ is a tiny nano second in comparison to the age of the Earth.

I ordered some grass seed today for the chicken paddocks, we have different seed for different grazing, the poultry mix has a short ryegrass which is hard wearing and grows pretty quickly, combined with clovers and fescue we have been really impressed with how well the grass has stood up to the weather this winter, as it grows quite quickly and goes to seed fairly early it also is thickening up the ley as it does so, providing the hens don’t eat all the seed!

Wednesday: Crap weather again, did the basics outside in the morning, went to lunch at Shelley’s with Sam, did the basics in the afternoon and John put the birds away, well most of them as there are remnants on Thursday morning of chicken feathers 😟

Thursday: Nice sunny start, soon started spitting with rain 🌧 I will be honest I’m struggling, physically and mentally today. This thing with my hands is becoming a nuisance, I have to take anti inflammatory in the morning just to be able to get stuff done, not good, coupled with trudging/slipping my way through the feeding rounds. I have buckets of eggs to wash but after carry heavy buckets of feed and scrapping the hen hut floor my hands are just not willing and neither am I 🙄 I’m tired after being awake half the night with chronic acid reflux, my own fault as I spent a couple of hours bent over cutting up felt pieces for some craftwork, should have used a higher table. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day 😐

Gave my arse a kick and cleaned out the geese, the sun came back out 🌞 makes a difference.

Friday: After doing the usual routine I spent a lot of time in traffic going to and from the hospital with Shelley and Josh as Shelley went for her 36 week scan 😀 I am amazed at how technology has come on, in my day you could only hear babies heart beat now you can see pictures, see what sex they are, tell if they have hair and roughly how much they weigh amazing! Josh was convinced it was a hippo he could see on the screen instead of his baby sister 😜

Saturday: Had a more productive day today, I cleaned out the ducks while John did the rest of the feeding, then some tidying and clearing outside, that’s all we seem to do and don’t get anywhere! I then decided I needed a small fence round my plants outside the back door as the dogs keep knocking over the pots and digging holes in the dirt so I set about making a fence as you do lol. It turned out ok and serves the purpose I need it for.

John cleaned out the front hen hut and cut up some wood plus got a few wheelbarrow fulls inside for next week, we are slowly getting through the wood mountain.

This morning we also caught up all the baby rabbits and took them to the far corner paddock where we released them into some scrub, it was that or raise them for meat and I didn’t really want to do that, if we lived a frugal life I would have but we don’t need to so they can run free. The babies that were born under the decking or shed I’m not sure which, have not been seen for days, I did find remnants of one in the stable block so I’m guessing that the cats have caught them, along with a headless pheasant I found in the stables too, now if they could just catch a few mice and rats that would be awesome 😀

Tomorrow we are off to The Pig in the Wood for an overnight stay that the girls bought us for Christmas so we are looking forward to a bit of R & R. The girls will be looking after the farm and taking over from John looking after his Mum so a huge thanks to them all 😘😘

This store room at the place we stayed was amazing, all the produce that was grown on site then pickled, dried or made is store here until needed, I am so going to have one of these 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Goose eggs,

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 22nd January: Well once again after thoroughly disgusting weather yesterday, today is not a bad day, warmer, dry for the time being, bit wet under foot but hey it’s winter can’t expect much else. The impending floods that threatened to come in the back, didn’t, so John did a good job there (just stopped typing in my tracks as I could hear a chewing noise, this is in the wall right in the middle of the house, we are used to things living in the outside walls but really, this takes the bloody biscuit ffs)

I did the feeding and collected the eggs, we got the first goose egg of the season today 😀 the ducks have laid 10 eggs so they are either happy to be in or they were laying outside and the birds were eating them as we were only getting 5/6. Then lit the Rayburn, then outside to the greenhouse to make a hot bed, I’m hoping it will work and raise the temp of the greenhouse a little, if it doesn’t work I will have dry manure to add to my compost so either way is a winner. I moved the citrus trees to the smaller poly tunnel, I have nurtured and cosseted them each winter and at the moment if all goes well I should have lemons this year coming 🍋

Caught the remaining five hens from the pol pen and gave the pen an initial clean out and dug over the earth in the middle, John likes to power wash it clean so that is now ready for him to do when he gets time. Somebody is selling a Gauloise trio so I messaged them and hopefully we can go collect them at the weekend as it’s not too far away, they will be bred for the table.

Tuesday: Temps set to be up to 12 today (oo summer I joked) you can feel the difference though I started sweating with my big coat on. No goose egg today so that means only one is laying as they lay every other day but I’m sure the others won’t be far behind. 6 eggs from the ducks today so yesterday was either a fluke or John didn’t pick up the day before? My seed order arrived yesterday, hopefully I will get some time to look through them and possibly start off the earlier ones such as aubergine.

Spent a pleasant couple of hours doing various things in and around the greenhouse. Got a barrowful of compost in to dry out and sowed the aubergine in a half size tray, that will fit on the kitchen windowsill nicely and as it is constantly the warmest place they should germinate. Sorted out the pots of tête-à-tête mini daffs that I divided last year and put them out for sale at 50p a pot. Sorted the plants that have been overwintering next to the greenhouse, some are in standing water, most are covered in dead leaves so cleared all that and then fenced them off as the escaped bunny has taken to having a munch on everything 🐇 Although it’s fairly mild outside it is so wet that just walking is causing damage let alone wheeling a heavy barrow over it so I will just do little bits here and there till it dries up, whenever that will be lol

Image is from google just for reference as they are not in flower yet but they always brighten up the winter no end when they start.

Wednesday: This Winters weather certainly hasn’t been dull, everyday is a different day and once more overnight I wondered if we were going to end up in Oz, the winds are coming from a different direction to the last lot so at least they are warmer from the south west.

Made an orange and raisin cake as I was a bit peckish and a loaf of bread, had Mia in the afternoon.

Thursday: A pleasant day weather wise, sunshine, mild, a good day to get something done😀 After doing the usual morning stuff it was on to dismantling the rest of the fruit cage, John is at home today so I have some muscle power to fall back on 😀 We finished that job then I sent John on a trail of little jobs that needed sorting while I dug up a row of Autumn raspberries, I have far too many to be able to pick in a morning when they are ripe so I decided to lessen the burden and dig a row up, in fact that’s two rows I have taken out as I took one out at the end of last season. We intend to make the fruit cage 8ft bigger than it was before so it will be a whopping great area to grow soft fruit in. Then I cleaned the outside of the small polytunnel, I was thinking it’s probably better to do it in the rain but a quick wash will do for now.

John finished his instructed jobs 😜 and started dismantling the chicken hut in the pol pen, he power washed it all down yesterday but we decided that the hut in there is too big and clumsy and they really don’t need it as generally speaking it is a transient pen.

Sowed some broad beans in pots, they will stay in the greenhouse until they sprout, by the time they are big enough it should be warmer outside and I can transplant them.

Came in for a cuppa and a sit down then on to give the boot room a bit of a clean and wash the dogs, I didn’t move fast enough after bathing dog 1, result, I got covered in wet dog shake uurgh 😜

Friday: Uber busy day, did the usual to start with then finally on to sorting out the rabbit run, that took us most of the day to get the bunnies shut in, get all the existing mesh on the floor out, dig off the soil that had built up, level it and finally put some boarding back down so there is nowhere for them to dig 😜 hopefully! John altered the lid of their house as it was just one big piece of ply and heavy, so he cut it in half and hinged it, put a door that you can close and shut on the house as before it just had two tunnel entrances one each side, now one is closed off and the other shuts so that I can round them up, shut them in and clean without them under my feet or trying to get out of the main doorway. He has also blocked up any holes that babies will be able to get into and get stuck, I just need to wire up the sides so the babies can’t escape and we are done. The job took longer than expected but worth doing it all in one go.

Later on in the day while John did the egg collecting and feeding I started clearing the spare room so that Charlie and Macca can move back in next week, books are the main problem, I have far too many and not enough bookshelving lol so I am getting John to put some more shelves up tomorrow in the office. As I was looking through the books I realised how many I would actually like to have time to read, books from memoirs of local folk, books on herbs, books on most smallholding subjects, gardening, maintaining fields, wildflowers, native trees as well as a few novels I haven’t had time to look at yet, and children’s books, some that my girls had when they were younger and some that I have got for the grandchildren, books everywhere 📚

Saturday: Another Uber Uber busy day today, first get animals done, then get John to put up new shelves in the office so I can move stuff out of the spare room and have a place to put it all. Then dismantle the big sofa in the living room, we have had the sofas nearly 20 years and they are past their best, well one is, it is making way for Charlie and Maccas sofa and chair so they don’t have to store it. While I am busy moving everything around and cleaning and trying to find homes for way too much stuff, John went with Luke to collect the other sofa and chair, meanwhile Richard and Debbie turned up to put a new battery on the car so that is now usable again 😀 In-between that I am fielding phone calls about MIL and messages about raspberry canes I offered for free on various sites, despite numerous messages of ‘I will be there’ as yet not one person has turned up! Doesn’t sound a lot of work when I type it but as well as the domestic chores like washing and cleaning I have run around like a headless chicken today 😜

John cleaned out the hens in the front in the afternoon, removed the cardboard traps for the red mite and put some new ones in, I’m hoping this method will keep on top of them this year. No idea where our egg customers have disappeared to this week as we have not had many, I have a theory that they go away before any school holidays as they are mostly the older generation, I’m sticking to that one 😀

Finally sat down at 3.30, after getting the dinner underway, to write this, still got the dogs to wash as they are bloody filthy and wait for anyone who bothers to show up for these raspberry canes 🤪😁

The geese have laid two more eggs, it’s early, I’m hoping it’s an indicator for an early spring 🙏

The weather was crap today, drizzle all day long, not much change for tomorrow by the looks of things, in fact the weather for the week ahead looks pretty grey and dull.

Sunday: Not bad weather wise but still muddy underfoot, did the morning routine then another busy day ahead but first nip and get a bit of shopping in as we are out of everything. When we got back, John cleared away all the debris we have made over the last few days doing the rabbit run and the fruit cage while I got the fire lit. Then I went outside and got a bit done in the garden, well mostly the poly tunnel, I have been inspired by someone on a smallholding group and thought it was about time I got my arse into gear. I moved a large pot of strawberries into the tunnel and then planted up some hanging baskets with strawberry plants from last year, apparently if you put them in the tunnel after the first frosts of the year they will do well and produce early so here’s hoping. I also moved my fig tree into the tunnel, it has limped along outside so nothing ventured nothing gained, I cleared a few more raspberry bushes and potted up some Japanese wine berry canes to sell on at a later date. I have put one of the raspberry canes in a pot that I intend to put out by the eggs shed for people to try before they buy 😀 I got some mange-tout seeds sown and put them inside the propagator although it’s not turned on it’s just to stop the mice eating them before they have even sprouted.

The broad beans that over wintered are growing well in the greenhouse, not sure weather to move them or leave them be for now.

My head is buzzing with ideas for the new growing season and I’m eager to get started with what I can, I have ordered some new blueberry bushes to lengthen the harvesting season and some white sage to grow for smudging which is something I would like to have a go at doing. I would also like to have a weekend during the height of the season to open the garden for customers to come and have a look around and see the veg they buy in situ just an idea and I would want the garden to be in tip top form for that lol so we will play that one by ear!

I ate a pomelo this week for the very first time ever 😀 it is a cross between a grapefruit and orange, I have saved the seeds and will have a go at growing them to see what happens.

Posted in Friesland Farm, Smallholding Life

Sun, sea and sand (not all at once though)

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday: Another quail died overnight so we are down to 12 now. The weather forecast is set to be fair all week with high temperatures for the time of year 😀 This morning as I walk round feeding, the sun is shinning and it feels great to be where I am, the day is my oyster 😜 There are plenty of little birds flitting around, wrens, sparrows and long tailed tits plus the ever present robin of course. Rabbits running around at the bottom of the paddock and we have seen an increase in pheasants over the last few days as well. During a cold snap one of the arms on my washing line snapped so I had to go and buy a new one which I will put up today as it promises to be a good drying day I think, and as we are lighting the Rayburn later and later in the day I need to start drying outside instead of inside overnight. Remember when I told you about all the different coats well I have been swapping the winter coat for my gilet in the middle of the day whoop whoop I much prefer to work unencumbered. Spent the first part of the morning cleaning out the rabbit run and sorting them out, I let the chickens back into the penned area in the orchard, I feel much happier about where they are all living now, I also moved the rabbit that lives on her own into the big rabbit run but she is living in a hutch, I figured it was better than not being able to see the others. 

Then onto some gardening, well you have to on a day like this don’t you? I concentrated on the fruit cage, tying in all the raspberry canes and cutting back any that I didn’t want, then weeded it and dug out the couch grass, weeded round the blueberries, one had a branch that had rooted so I cut that off to pot up, I don’t have any ericaceous compost so I mixed in some conifer clippings for the time being to lower the acidity. After that I went into the greenhouse, the temperature was up to a crazy 25 in there, I showed some celeriac and outdoor tomato seeds, it was a bit warm to spend too long in there. I really wanted to stay outside but time was getting on and I still had bread to make so I went indoors and got that started, made some jelly with strawberries I got out of the freezer last night ( they smell amazing) and made some chocolate chip and marshmallow muffins 😀 what a fabulous day I have had. 

I made John a chicken casserole with some stock I made from yesterday’s duck carcass and I will have chicken with baked potato and some salad bits from the poly tunnel, John will have jelly and ice cream while I will have macerated strawberries and ice cream, we both eat totally differently but it’s ok as long as I am organised enough to sort it out. We both love chocolate muffins 😀

Tuesday: The old lady duck died overnight and also another quail chick, one other is looking weak despite me keep making it drink and eat. I turned on the turner for the duck eggs yesterday so it’s a waiting game now. Sat outside drinking my morning coffee and today’s garden birds are blue tit, great tit and chaffinch, obviously we always have fat pigeons, collared doves, crows and little brown jobs as my lecturer always called them. I got some jobs done this morning before Mia arrived, put the seed potatoes in, sowed some Swede and parsnip and some perpetual spinach and coriander outside. I have two ton bags of compost from the heap so I planted the seed potatoes straight into them rather than decanting them onto the beds and putting the potatoes there, I couldn’t see the point and as potatoes seem to grow well in the heap they should do ok in the sacks 😀While Mia had her lunchtime nap I managed to get a shepherds pie made along with a chilli, several portions for the freezer too for the days I am working long hours in the garden. 

Wednesday: The weather is looking ok again today, a misty start and hopefully the sun will burn it off. John and I discussed dragging the big paddock at the end of the week if it stays dry, I will have a walk over it today and see how it’s doing, it could probably do with a top seed as well. I’m am unsure about dragging the chicken paddock, it has a fair amount of moss in some areas so I guess it does need doing really, it’s just that it looks so good undisturbed. 

All is well on the rounds this morning, a quail chick died yesterday I think we are left with ten but overnight, no more fatalities. As I was coming back in from the front I saw the sparrow sat on top of his nesting box with a big fluffy feather in his beak ready to line the nest, he looked very pleased with himself and I’m sure the missus will appreciate such comfort 😀

Had a good morning in the garden, got the washing line post secured, I was going to cement it in but instead I used the spike from the old one as the cement we had was set hard in the bag! Then onto fixing up the fencing that storm Doris blew down, this included a post that I had to use the post rammer to get back in, heavy piece of equipment that is 😜 then I set up a climbing net in the poly tunnel and planted some sugar snap peas for a (hopefully) early crop, I also planted some yin yang beans and some asparagus peas which I have not grown before. Did a bit of hoeing and also took some cuttings from a clematis I have growing over the shed, hopefully they will strike, though I do love growing food to eat, I do miss a bit of ‘proper ‘ gardening. 😀 I have Mia this afternoon and we are off to ‘soft play’ obviously Nana is going for the coffee and cake 🎂 

Thursday: Cracking weather yesterday hoping for more today! Did the rounds this morning everyone seems happy enough, I gave the rabbits some of the willow whips I cut the other day and they have been chewing on them, I must make little bundles for them all through the year, it’s one way to use the whips. I have in the past tried to grow a willow wigwam which didn’t take and used them for edging which did take though I didn’t want it to lol you can’t win. 

Sam came over late morning and we got the tractor and chains out and dragged the paddocks, this does a couple of things, pulls out dead thatch and hay, breaks up and clumps of mud, spreads any poo lying on the ground and tells the grass to WAKE UP and start growing lol. We got the tractor stuck in a particularly wet part but brute force and a puff of black smoke got us out and we avoided that bit from then on. An hours catch up with The Walking Dead and a cuppa then onto the afternoon feeding rounds. 

I took my phone out with me this morning to get some photos then got side tracked with the hay delivery so I will really try to get some photos of anything otherwise just words are a bit boring 💤

Lamb chops for dinner tonight, I think that is the last of them, I will have to start using up breast of lamb otherwise they get left for ages, only because I never really know what to do with them, will have to Pinterest it, unless anyone has any good recipes they can offer me 😀 I have just ordered a book for 99p from Amazon called ‘it’s raining plums’ which has been recommended by another smallholder blog, seasonal recipes and at 99p it’s a steal. 

There are so many Cade lambs being advertised at the minute I’m almost tempted lol, then I remember about bottle feeding and the routine and wind my neck back in 😜 maybe next year when the grandchildren are older. 

Friday: This will be the last entry from the farm this week as John and I are off to the coast again for the weekend, Shelley will be looking after the farm. This morning after the rounds I gathered up any paper/cardboard rubbish to burn then weed killed the front driveway, it’s surprising what is already growing, from a distance it just a green haze but up close its weeds and tufts of grass. Cleaned the chicken run at the back, put in fresh bedding for the ducks and cleaned the front chicken hut. Then I felt hungry so I decided on eggs and coffee, I scrambled a goose egg, sooo creamy. It’s only 10.30 so I may while away some time in the greenhouse 😀

Saturday : Shelley and Josh came over to look after the place and we set off for Lymington for an over night stay, we took a detour through the New Forest and saw all the ponies and a few donkeys before arriving at our destination. It was quite nice weather, well not raining at least and the temperatures were warm enough, we wandered down to the old cobbled quay area and to the marina, stopped for a drink and a pasty before checking in to our room at The Angel and Blue Pig, had another wander round the town and then went back to watch the Rugby and eat steaks and drink plenty of bottles of beer. 

Sunday: Up and breakfasted then decided to drive along no the coast to Bournemouth, we stopped at Milford on Sea for a coffee, it was mightily windy lol but nice to watch the waves come crashing in. Then we drove onto Bournemouth, we haven’t been there for over 30 years, I don’t think it’s changed an awful lot, still very windy but pleasant enough. After that we headed on home but via the A roads rather than the motorways, I like to see a bit of the countryside, the change of the colour of bricks and stone that the houses are built from, the difference between, the forest, the plains and the downs, none of which is obvious from the motorway which is a faster but sterile route 😝 and back home ready to start again tomorrow 😀

The big paddock


Posted in Friesland Farm

Scotland, dead quail and roast dinner. 

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Good morning 😀 normally I write notes each day as I go along for typing up into the blog but as we have been away this week I am winging it and hope I don’t forget anything.

Firstly, Scotland, what an amazing place that was, Eagle Brae is the most fantastic place I have stayed, the log cabins were huge, made from hand sawn Cedar from British Columbia, the whole place is sustainable and the ethos is very much on local, organic, eco friendly, in an amazing location to boot 😀 I can’t recommend it highly enough if you fancy a stay there, you won’t be disappointed.


As you know Mum looked after the place while we were away and I am hugely grateful to her for that 😘😘 She said she enjoyed it, I hope she did and wasn’t too cold trying to get the Rayburn lit! On the morning we were leaving I found a dead quail in the cage with its neck stripped, I figured one of two things happened, either something had got at it through the bars or it had got its head stuck and de sleeved itself trying to get out. When Mum told me that three more were in the same state I knew it was the first option. The evening we came home Mum had covered them with a blanket and put a heavy lock on the door but in the morning I found two more dead, the remaining lonely quail is now in a small cage in the utility room and I am going to have to find some more. I set two traps, one live trap and one snap trap but to date nothing has been caught, we know it’s there though as we actually heard it squeak while we were stood in there, the cheek of it, laughing at us I reckon 😝 

John spent the weekend cutting down more branches from the huge trees and cutting /shredding them, I helped in between feeding the animals, washing, cooking etc, this task seems to be taking forever but it’s cheaper doing it this way than paying someone to do it I guess. 

We have had an update on the bird flu situation and there are now zones in place for the end of March when the birds should go out, we are on the very border of a high risk zone and so are expected to keep them in until further notice although the situation changes every day. 

I got a piece of beef out for Sunday roast, it’s huge, I think I should have cut it before I froze it but often we don’t have time to do that as the cow is usually killed in the summer and when the beef arrives it’s usually in the evening so we try to get it in the freezer as quickly as possible without re cutting it. 


Not to worry I’m sure the kids will make short work of it when they arrive later for dinner 😀

Apart from the fate of the quail everything else was all in order, the ducks have started laying more eggs, the geese are laying well now too, I spotted the rhubarb shoots pushing up through the ground, we are marching towards Spring thank goodness 🌱🌱🌱

While I was waiting for dinner to cook, I looked through my seeds to remind myself what I had bought, then I decided to make a list of everything I grow to see if there was anything obvious I was missing.

Apples x 3 varieties plus a cooker, Pears x 2 varieties Cherries x 2 varieties, Plum x 3 varieties Grapes Apricots Raspberries Blueberries Strawberries Black currant Gooseberries Rhubarb Blackberry Kiwi

Potato carrot peas beans (broad and runner) asparagus artichoke onion garlic tomatoes pepper cucumber beetroot spinach radish lettuce courgette parsnip pumpkin cauliflower cabbage leeks spring onion sweet corn 

Also trialing asparagus pea, butter beans, chick peas, celeriac and banana squash this year and the edamame again. 

Shout if I’ve missed anything I should be growing 😀