Tag: greenhouse

Posted in Friesland Farm

Back to normal, stuff to sort & Winter flowering shrubs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 6th January 2020: I have enjoyed having John at home for three weeks but this morning I am also happy to have the place back to myself as he goes off to work early. I think it’s the sense of back to normality and there is definitely a lot to be said for doing things the way I want them done instead of compromise or argument 😜

So what will I be doing with my time? Good question, I always say ‘I never make plans’ they go awry quite quickly I find so a loose idea of what I want to achieve with an indefinite time frame is a much better option lol, it also give me room to completely change my mind 😀 Today’s tasks are to get the morning rounds done, finish setting up the heat pad in the greenhouse now I have found everything I need, possibly move a bit more wood chip (nearly done) a few household tasks such as hoovering, dinner prep, lighting the Rayburn (they all take time) and probably a million other little things along the way. I have a couple of other jobs in mind that need doing such as cleaning out the quail and the ducks and they are the kind of job that are on the list but can be flexible as long as I get them done at some point within the next couple of days.

I did the animals, topping up the duck bedding as I went round, finding the rabbit/guineas some lovely greens and then figured I may as well strike while the iron is hot with a bit of outside work. I chose to do the rest of the wood chip laying in the fruit cage, the plan was to get the wood chip down, weed and mulch the pots of summer raspberries and cut back the autumn canes. I was about six barrowfuls in when I felt decidedly shaky, stupidly I had only eaten a banana for breakfast like I have been for the past couple of weeks but with some hard work on top the banana didn’t cut it 😜 I can only assume it’s blood sugar levels, I have had it before when I haven’t eaten enough to fuel the jobs I’m doing, I went in and had a large bowl of bran flakes, and a couple of shortbreads, 15 mins later I felt better but still a bit shaky so I made a coffee and sat down a while.

Once I had recovered I went back out and got the job in hand finished in the fruit cage, the areas that needed wood chip are all done, the summer raspberries have a mulch layer of wood chip on top of their pots, I have cut down the autumn raspberry canes and did a bit extra pruning of the blackcurrant bushes. I got half a trug of weeds out which will go to the rabbit/guineas for tomorrow’s snack. I secured the posts and canes and then shut the gate, that is all that will need doing in there now until well into spring except a bit of potash feeding for the strawberries to encourage flowering.

A midway through and finished picture of the fruit cage.

Indoors to light the Rayburn, John called in for a cuppa and I will have a quick sit down before a chap arrives mid afternoon to collect some hens.

Just as I am about to get back into working outside the weather is on the turn, the forecast over the next couple of days is for warm temps but accompanied by rain and possible high winds 🙄 urgh. Not to be deterred I have rainy day jobs in mind including getting the big poly tunnel up together and ready to plant into.

And right on cue just as I wrote this, it began to rain 😂

Tuesday: I have enjoyed another great morning outside getting things done, I am really enjoying myself at the minute, the weather is fairly kind and I have the energy and strength, fabulous. First up as always was the morning rounds and this time while I was doing them I cleaned out the goose hut, I have to then close the door all day as the chickens would get in there and scratch it all out again 🙄 Then onto the garden or more precisely the big poly tunnel, I tidied it up a little, pruned the grapevine, tidied up the strawberries and topped up the compost they are growing in. I made sure everything else was tidied up and added extra compost, I have chard and flat leaf parsley growing nicely. The other things overwintering in there are the lemon grass and the Chinese gooseberries, I am hoping they come through the winter ok along with the basil and the lemon verbena. All look ok at the minute so fingers crossed. I cut up some old compost bags and used them for weed suppressant round the edges and then I topped up an empty raised bed and sowed some early carrot seeds. I have covered them with fleece and we will see if they germinate or not, nothing to lose as they are some seeds I found from last year so if they don’t grow it’s not a big loss. I sorted out the potato bags and I need to order some first earlies, I am going to grow these in the tunnel as well, I don’t normally do earlies but it’s good to change things about now and again.

Early in January it’s mostly about preparation for the months ahead, there is not much that can be sown until early next month. It’s a good month to get your crop rotation plan sorted and write down anything you would really like to grow. Sit with a cuppa and order your seeds, onion sets, garlic bulbs and seed potatoes. I have just ordered mine, the plants are despatched to you at the appropriate times for planting so you can’t go wrong really. I have also ordered some grafted plants, water melon and aubergine, two plants I find difficult to get going from seed as a general rule. Often with the amount I order I get a ‘deal’ of some kind, this time I have opted for 36 geranium plug plants for £2.99 I probably won’t keep them myself but what I will do is grow them on and put them out for sale for a couple of quid each depending on size, that way I will hopefully cover the costs of the veg I have bought. That’s what I always aim to do with the veg/fruit I sell at the gate, if I can cover the cost of the seeds, growing them and harvesting what we need then I am doing myself a favour plus providing some tasty home grown veg/fruit for customers, a win, win situation 😀

Indoors at lunchtime to grab a sandwich and get the Rayburn lit, decide what to have for dinner later and prep it.

Wednesday: The weather is holding beautifully which means after doing the animals I was able to get another morning out in the veg garden. I started off tidying the greenhouse a little bit, moving stuff around, sowing a few broad bean seeds then out onto the beds. I lay awake last night thinking about what beds I had done and what still needed to be tackled, a bit sad lol but at least I got up this morning knowing what I wanted to achieve. You may remember last year I tried the ‘chop and drop’ thing, well not this year, I didn’t really like the untidy look and more importantly it didn’t give a feeling of an end and a beginning if that makes sense, I also found that I felt I had a lack of control over the garden which persisted all season long. So this year I am clearing and tidying which is what I have been doing this morning, I am happy with what I have done and whilst doing it I am mentally making a note of what will go where which I felt unable to do last year. As it stands out there I just have two more areas to sort out, I do have to replenish the soil with homemade compost or manure but once everything is cleared I can get that done. Both the compost heap and the manure pile are very wet at the moment which in turn makes heavy work so I will wait a while and hope it continues to dry out some more. I still have a few bits of produce growing, the winter spinach and a few tiny cabbages that the birds have been at, I have now put protection over them so they can continue to grow. There is of course curly kale still in the ground and the sprouting broccoli which I am able to get a few bits off of. The babbington leeks are pushing up through, they are a perennial leek and at the moment I’m not quite sure how that works. With conventional leeks you plant one and pull it when it’s bigger the perennial leeks should keep produce off shoots I suppose but as yet that hasn’t happened. I pulled up some radish, I need to try and find out which variety these are as they are far better than the usual French types. They are white and grow to golf ball size, tasty and more importantly they don’t bolt and go woody, a winner as far as I am concerned and a definite to grow again. Oh and the rhubarb is beginning to grow 😀😀

I have to order some more weed membrane to block out the light on the growing beds so that weeds don’t become a big problem. At the moment I am using black plastic which I reuse each year until it falls apart so although it’s not the option I would like it’s the one I take. The reason being that the thin fabric stuff gets absolutely ripped apart by the winds up here, the thicker stuff is very costly and I need quite a lot of it. I will keep searching, I may eventually find an alternative.

So scrap what I have just written, I am going to trial jute, it’s a natural fabric, it will have a limited life span but it’s better for the environment, hopefully it will do a similar job to the plastic in cutting out the light. I also am thinking I can use off cuts of it as strawberry mats or cut holes in it to plant into, watch this space and I will let you know how it performs 😀

Thursday: The weather is a bit more feisty today lol but despite having lots of rain overnight, this morning it is dry and windy. I had already decided not to work on the garden today there are other jobs that are calling. One of those was my jam jar cupboard, I have a cupboard dedicated to jam jars, bottles, Kilner jars and any other glass container that might come in handy, some have been bought, some given and some had goodies in them made by others so it’s quite a collection. Over time they just get washed and stuffed anywhere that is not in the way and that means that I don’t really know what is in there 🙄 so sorting and tidying the cupboard was a job that needed doing, I can also then see what if anything I need to get for the coming seasons. I made a coffee, went out there and got so engrossed in what I was doing I forgot the coffee and it went cold 😏

That actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would and now I need to find some other jobs to get on with.

I’m not sure what triggered the next job but it took me a lot longer than I had thought 🙄 I think I started off by thinking I will tidy up the office, another area that just gets stuff dumped until you can hardly get in the door to find stuff. My aim was to get some of the things under the bed in the spare room but then I looked under the bed and pulled out stuff that was under there. Stuff that came from Johns Mums and to be honest I have no idea why we still have it, other stuff that we no longer use and have nowhere else for it to go, that all got sorted and out into piles, charity shop, free sites, selling sites. The space was then ready for the things like the travel cot which is stored in the office but can go under the bed. That then led me onto all the other stuff in the office lol, again things we no longer use or that are broken so more piles for recycling or selling on or putting on the free sites. I am not saying the office is now clutter free because there are still things in boxes to be gone through but I have made a dent in it.

Friday: Today has been an altogether different day, Josh arrived early morning to help with the morning rounds 😀 he was all kitted out in mud proof gear and keen as mustard to help me. We fed everything and let them out, collected a few eggs then took some hay to the horses. What made me laugh is that he is a little afraid of the chickens and ducks but no fear whatsoever of the horses. Once we had finished outside we came in for a juice break and chatted about the types of food he likes, then I asked ‘shall we make a cake’ ‘oooooo can we make pie’ he replied lol. I let him choose the fruit and he decided on apple, plum & blackcurrants 🙄 it actually tasted quite nice if a little sharp. He did a good job of rolling out the pastry and even made a pastry triceratops head to go with it 😂 Mid morning, just before Shelley came to pick him up, Sam arrived with Mia and the twiglets, everybody (except the twiglets) had pie 🥧 I looked after the twins and Mia while Sam went off to get some food shopping in peace and then it was time to do the afternoon feeding and egg collection. A lovely day.

When I walk down the driveway at this time of year I always stop when I am halfway back to smell the Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) that has been growing for a few years now. The amazing sweet scent of this otherwise unremarkable shrub is delicious and a real treat at this time of year. It goes by some other rather sweet names such as kiss-me-at-the-gate or sweet breath of spring 😀 I took a few sprigs indoors to put in a pot on the windowsill for a natural room scent and I also took a couple of cuttings, I’m not sure if they will take this time of year but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

At our old place I had a Daphne and really wish I had dug it up and bought it with us as you could smell its lovely scent long before you got anywhere near it. I think sweet smelling winter shrubs are under used probably because by the time people go to the garden centres en mass it’s late spring and they have passed their best and don’t look particularly engaging but they are definitely worth a thought if you are looking for something to fill a gap and the reward is uplifting in the depths of winter.

Saturday: 😀 yay the weekend, great because John does the rounds in the mornings giving me a break from it. I get on with other things and besides the household chores I spent a small amount of time in the garden. A quick job of tidying the bird, butterfly and beer bed, I call it this because it has a pear, apple, cherry and mulberry tree in it as well as Japanese honeysuckle, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes which pretty much feed the birds and hopefully some butterflies, the beer comes in with the hop I have growing there though I have never used it for that purpose as yet lol. It was a quick visit outside because it’s a bit blowy and a tad cold so my fingers soon felt the nip in the air. I had intended laying the jute weed fabric but when it’s windy trying to do that by yourself is a tricky job and John has gone off to get feed.

When he gets back the jobs on the sheet are to brush the flue and clean out the Rayburn and then he is building a gate for a new fence in the orchard as the one I put up keeps falling down. I need to stop these demented hens in the front paddock from reaching my veg garden. At first just a couple made it there then a few and now about 15 of them, most of the wood chip I put down on the pathways has been scratched into piles or onto the lawn 🙄 I want to get well ahead with keeping them at bay so that gardening is an altogether pleasant affair this year instead of an angry one because they have scratched up all my hard work.

The gate didn’t get built but John re loaded the wood pile in the covered area just out the back then we actually had a few hours off before starting again with the afternoon rounds, Charlie and Macca walked over for a cuppa, we went and got a bit of food shopping and called in to see Shelley, Martin and the kids to deliver a tray of eggs. By 8.30 I was asleep on the sofa, feeling tired after a busy week 💤

Sunday: The weather was filthy overnight, lashing rain and strong winds but all is settled this morning. Again, John did the morning rounds while I had a shower and did the household chores. A quick coffee and John went out to power wash the POL pen now that we have moved our ex laying hens on to a new home. I don’t know what it is about that job but as soon as it needs doing he moves it directly to the top of the list 🙄 still once it’s done it can be left until we buy in the next batch of POL for selling probably in March.

The plan for the rest of the morning is to go out for breakfast at a local plant nursery, John gets a cooked brekkie and I get to look round at the plants it’s a win, win 😀

I bought an evergreen shrub at the nursery, only a small specimen, I can’t bear to part with the amount of money they want for things when I can grow it on lol. If I specifically wanted something for a certain space then I would but this will go in a pot for now and be put out the front, I’m trying to get a bit of colour out there as it’s all very dead and brown looking. On the way back we called into my Sisters for a cup of tea, one cup lead to another cup and before we knew it we’d been there a couple of hours 😜 We booked a trip to the theatre while we were there, some sort of interactive ghost show 👻 it is billed as ‘not for those of a nervous disposition’ 😝 it will get the adrenaline pumping and blow away the cobwebs lol.

We got back, I lit the Rayburn, I had to pop along the road to get some natural fire lighters as we only had one left. These are rolled up wood shavings and I think they have a extremely thin layer of wax on them, I was finding it more difficult to get hold of newspapers as we don’t ever have them and so these are a great alternative, they also light first time and are very easy to use. Meanwhile John went and finished cleaning the POL pen then he fed the birds and collected the eggs then he finally got on to making the gate and I got tonight’s dinner sorted which is shepherds pie.

The long range weather forecast shows no freezing temperatures in sight so looks like we are going to have a mild winter (famous last words) I must admit that although we always think we need a bit of freezing weather to break dormancy and kill off any pests, I am rather enjoying a milder season. Though it does means I am really wanting to get my teeth sunk into some sowing, I’m like a race horse that is being held back at the minute 🐎 I have learnt from many years experience not to be too hasty in that department though as it can all go horribly wrong 🤪

Whatever you are doing this week have a good one, do something outside your comfort zone if you can, as I say to Josh ‘put your brave hat on and go for it’ TTFN 👋

Posted in Friesland Farm

Sausages but no stars, pumpkin bread & Autumn gardening jobs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 28th October: It’s 1.30pm and I have had a cracking few hours outside, I went out at 7.30 to do the feeding etc and I’ve only just come back in apart from two times to make coffee 😀 First off I started with cleaning out the quail and the geese and then onto the garden where I have done lots of clearing away, weeding, tidying and putting down weed membrane for the winter. I have potted up some plants that I dug up and divided and of course numerous wheelbarrows of wood chip (nearly done) It was really pleasant out there and I even took off my coat once the sun had thawed the frost, I finished about now because with the clocks changing it will be a short afternoon and so I need to get a few bits done inside before going back out again😜

I had a phone all from the Doc to say although my white cells are going up they are doing so rather slowly so I need to keep having the bloods tests and stay off the meds.

Busy afternoon getting dinner sorted, lighting the Rayburn, feeding the animals, collecting the eggs then putting them all to bed at just after 5pm. Eat dinner, get a bit of shopping for tomorrow night 🤔

Tuesday: Another dry day and I declined the offer of making Halloween cakes and pumpkin carving with the grandchildren because I know the rain is coming in and I wanted to get a bit more done outside. I have given the pear tree a winter prune and the gooseberries, I have cleared another bed and barrowed wood chip (nearly done 😜) I’m going to keep saying that until it’s finally done lol and I planted up some ixia bulbs (corn lilies) I still have the tulips to do but I have time yet to sort them out. There is plenty to do in the garden at this time of year, clearing, cleaning, tidying, pruning, dividing, planting it’s as busy now as it is at the beginning of Spring. It is my favourite time of year as far as gardening goes because you can make an impact in a short time. In spring it’s a slow wait for things to grow but in autumn it’s quick to clear, well fairly quick and you can actually see what has been done.

I haven’t stayed out as long today because I want to get some soup on the go for tonight. We are going to have a sausages and stars evening, cooking sausages on the fire pit along with marshmallows and some soup and look at the starry sky although it’s looking a bit cloudy at the moment but a small outdoor adventure in the dark should be fun for the children. Last year when Josh came to stay I took him outside to look at the stars but it was so dark here that he was a bit afraid, actually he just clung to me and wouldn’t look up 😬 he is not afraid at home because in the town there is plenty of light pollution but here it’s pitch black!

We had the best fun tonight, leek and potato soup, sausages, chocolate cornflake cakes (made by the children) marshmallows toasted on the fire and finally sparklers, the cloud cover meant we didn’t see any stars but we had fun anyway.

Wednesday: Another nice day and John is home so we got a few things sorted. We did the morning rounds and then John set about the task of the gate post, yes this is still ongoing 🙄 as he ran out of time digging the old post out, today he has dug it out and concreted the new post in we just need to wait for it to set before re hanging the gate then it job done. Meanwhile I did some cutting back and digging up and dividing flowers or potting up ones that have not done very well where they were. We pulled back the netting on top of the fruit cage which is a two man job, we don’t want a repeat of heavy snow falling on it and collapsing the cage entirely 😏 We fixed the end of a wooden planter box that had rotted and collapsed and then we went to witney to get some more compost and a rechargeable light for the chicken hut. When we got back I potted up a few more plants with the compost, I lit the fire, hoovered up, hung up the washing while John went and had a look at the sockets in the stable block and in the end contacted the electrician 😂 I ordered a dog flap for the back door, a log basket for the kitchen, my prescription online, made a cup of tea and had a sit down before it’s time to feed and collect eggs 😬

The plants I have been dividing up will all get put out for sale next year, they are free so it makes sense to do it and besides I am really enjoying myself. I also went around the garden and picked the last few remaining flowers to put in a vase, it’s surprising how many there are still going, the roses, dahlias, achillea, verbena, the very pretty blackcurrant sage which has flowered all summer long, cosmos, and chrysanthemums. Hopefully next year when my cutting bed is full I will have plenty of blooms to fill a vase on a regular basis 😀

I dug the Rayburn kettle out of the cupboard and gave it a good clean and descale, it makes sense to use this once the cooker is up and running for the winter and besides the whistling is a lovely sound addition to the day 😀

Thursday, Halloween 🎃: It’s been another nice dry day so far although a tad chilly. I was up early polishing my broomstick ready for tonight 🧙‍♀️😜

I did the morning stuff then inside to get the paperwork done. It’s the end of year books which were due in April and each month I think ‘ I will get them done this month’ then the month goes past and the next month I think exactly the same 🙄 However I have done them all up ready to go now as I need to get my mind cleared before I can start thinking about Christmas and presents lol.

Once I had finished I set about making some spiced pumpkin bread, I normally would carve a pumpkin but nobody will be coming here so I used the whole pumpkin, minus the skin, to make purée and then make the pumpkin bread. The recipe I used has American measures and I should know better as they usually seem to be double measures of everything, I will end up with two lots and so one can be frozen for later on in the year. I feel a bit redundant in the baking dept now that John is mostly cutting out sugar treats so today is a good excuse to do a bit of baking as a token to the day.

It’s Samhain today as well which is the end of the harvesting year and the beginning of the dark part of the year, we had our little family fire festival the other day so I will count that as part of the celebrations.

I’m proper grumpy this evening lol, John was supposed to be home early to hang the gate, it wouldn’t be a problem but the ducks keep going round to the front and routing through the planters 😡 anyhooo he didn’t get home early in fact it was after dark by which time after a busy day I was peed off to say the least, after all this smallish job has now gone on for over 5 days! An exchange of words takes place 🤬 and he goes out in the dark to do the gate which is now hung, this should make me happier but the grumps have set in and they won’t go away 😜 maybe I need chocolate!

Friday: It finally rained, I’m not complaining though we have been expecting it and at the moment it’s hasn’t been much so it may dry up over the course of the day. I did the morning rounds and then potted up some verbascum plug plants that I had ordered, the colours are delightful and I look forward to seeing them next year. I ordered 20 plug plants so probably some will go out for sale as I don’t need that many lol.

I am having Josh and Florence for an hour or so this morning so I haven’t got stuck into anything major

I suppose as this is a diary blog I really ought to address wider topics than what happens in my small world lol. We were supposed to leave the EU yesterday, that didn’t happen and the road we are on just got longer, whatever your opinion is I’m sure you are just as weary of it as I am.

Climate crisis, what can I say except if every individual did as much as they could towards saving the planet from the various man made disasters we have created that would go a long way towards putting on the brakes.

Saturday: It’s is an absolutely filthy morning this morning, John and I did the morning rounds together and ended up with soaking knees where the rain drips off the coat onto the knees, you would think a longer coat would be better but that then restricts your movement which is not ideal. We decided that as we can’t get much done outside today, coffee and the Rugby World Cup final would be a better option all together 😀

That didn’t last long, about three minutes into the match we had a message from Mum, our stepdad has been taken to hospital, with severe chest pains, he had gone off in the ambulance but Mum was at home so John and I went over, I stayed there most of the day while John had a rugby breakfast at Shelleys and then looked after the farm. We are lucky in that we have one of the best hospitals in the UK as our local hospital but still it’s a worrying time. It includes the Oxford university medical school which is ranked 1st in the world and has been for the last 7 years.

Mum had gone to the hospital with one of my stepbrothers and I waited there until we heard some news, they have stabilised him and now it’s a waiting game to find out how they will treat him.

Sunday: A better morning weather-wise this morning, one of the jobs we had planned this weekend was the dispatch of the meat birds but it was too wet yesterday and John has gone to visit his Mum this morning, we may get round to it at some point today we will just see how the day goes.

I potted up some more plug plants I had ordered, Tanacetum, from the aster family, one thing I learnt from watching gardeners world was about plug plants and how to pot them up so that they don’t just die off over winter. Not too big a pot is key and not much water initially, this is because the plants are about to go into their dormant phase and too much watering will just rot them off. These plants arrived and the roots were good and they were still moist so I just potted them and haven’t watered them at all for now. Labelling is what I have got good at with the flower plants because although you think you will remember what’s in the pot, you definitely won’t until it’s well established and only then if you are totally familiar with the plant itself.

My morning is interrupted by an egg customer ringing the bell to tell me that one of the turkeys is out down the driveway 😏 5 acres they have to roam on and they keep going down the driveway 😝 what’s wrong with them, they have been shut in the pen for three days because they keep roaming the wrong way. Mind you the same can be said for half our hens, you will find them mostly in next doors paddock, I have no idea how better to contain them, free range, more like bloody roaming everywhere and anywhere!

We processed three of the cockerels and I must say I was really chuffed at how they turned out this time, previously for years I hand plucked them dry, then we got a plucking machine, as sometimes my fingers just can’t do the job, but the result was laughable to say the least, now we have invested in a burco boiler big enough to scald the birds in before they go to the plucking machine and voila it’s a total success 😀 We only did three as they will have to be gutted tomorrow and there is only so much time I want to spend with my hand inside a dead chicken 😜 but the whole process was much quicker & much cleaner so a winner as far as I am concerned. And of course it means we will have our own chicken in the freezer, we know what it’s eaten, how it has lived (freely) and that no chemicals have gone anywhere near it at all, happy days 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Minor mishaps, more rain & a jobs list 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st October: We are rattling through the year now, always seems slower at this end than the warm end 😜

Weekdays mean I’m on the duty rota for the feeding and letting out of the birds. I do it slightly differently to John and prefer to keep the birds shut in while they eat their feed and go back and let them out after. This is for two reasons, 1, they eat the feed otherwise they are off out to play and the feed is left meaning they are not getting the nutrients they need to be healthy or to lay well, reason 2 is that they are then not all under my feet while I am going from pen to pen, John lets them out as he goes.

When I have finished I look forward to a cup of coffee and I usually sit down and take the time to try and learn something new by reading up a topic that has caught my eye or ear over the weekend. Today though I am having an in depth look at quail, their natural habitat and feeding. Our quail seem a bit unhappy at the minute, they were fine until I introduced new males to the females and now the ladies have stopped laying 🙄 Potentially this is coincidence as the light levels drop and the temps drop but I want to make sure I am not missing anything vital. Having read up I am going to up the amount of seed in various forms and see what happens, I will also pick them up one of their favourite treats of mealworm for extra protein. If that fails to get them laying I may have to bring them in under a lamp as they may just be too cold and using all their energy to keep warm.

I did a trial growing of amaranth, millet and quinoa this year to see how they did, the amaranth was fine and grew well although it didn’t ripen, the un ripe seed will still get used to feed the quail probably, the millet was less successful producing only one stem though I think that has more to do with how I grew it (a trial bed was too small an area and got crowded with the amaranth and tree spinach) the quinoa was totally unsuccessful and nothing grew, again I think a larger area would have been more beneficial. If it taught me anything it’s that the amaranth can indeed be grown in a garden setting while the other two need more agricultural conditions I would say and that’s what trialling is for 🙄

A great spotted woodpecker landed on an oak tree bough outside the kitchen door with a beak full of grubs/caterpillars, I wondered if it had young somewhere nearby which would be completely the wrong time of year, I couldn’t find any information other than they lay eggs March to May so hopefully he was hoarding for himself otherwise any young probably would do well at this time of year. Having said it’s the wrong time of year one of my clematis have also reflowered? This one is an early flowering variety and had already flowered once back in April, further proof, as if we needed it, that the seasons are all over the place 🤔

I did a few hours outside including moving more wood chip 😜 I also moved the torts hut into the greenhouse where they will spend the winter in hibernation, I had to cut a pop hole a bit bigger as Billy was trying to ram himself through it without much luck. I potted up a couple of kiwi that had rooted in the pathway and a Japanese honeysuckle, I cleared some dead stuff and pulled some weeds for the rabbits/guineas.

Sam came over in the afternoon with the twiglets and Mia, we made some gingerbread men although I might find a different recipe next time as this one seemed to have a lot of molasses in it which overpowered the ginger so I guess they were actually molasses men 😂

Oh and I was really surprised to see the garlic I planted only last week has already begun to shoot 😀

Tuesday: It looks promising for a fine, sunny October day today 😀

Every morning when I come in after doing the rounds I make coffee and stand at the stable door in the kitchen for a bit having a look out, and everyday for the past few weeks I have been having a conversation with Cyril 🐿 A one sided conversation obviously 😜 not that far gone yet! ‘Morning Cyril, what are you collecting today’ at this point he either stands stock still hoping I can’t see him or he shoots off up to the top of the oak tree faster than the speed of light lol.

When I first went out this morning I could hear the Lions roaring really loudly today, I got my phone out to try and record it but by the time I had done that they had stopped. It must have been breakfast time for them or something and I thought, crikey if it’s that loud here (approx a mile away) how loud must it be stood right near them 🤔

First major job on the list was to put up electric fencing in the next paddock for the horses to eat off, we did put them in there last week but they bust through into the large paddock so they went back to the side paddock until I could get it sorted. Jack has been charging at me for the last two days so I’m guessing he is hungry. A few minor hiccups, the electric sockets in the stable block still don’t work so had to work out how to get the cable to the other side of the field and still get power. While doing this and feeding the cable along side the paddock, I got to the field gate pulled the cable and the plug end caught the top of the gate, flicked up and smacked me clean on the forehead, 😣 Next plug in the fence charger and make sure it works, yep clicking loudly, move the box so it can be covered from rain and doh second whack from the electric pulse 🤬 have I earned the rest of the day off yet 😜 probably not but I am going to find something pleasant to do 😀

So I spent a good few hours in the garden weeding and clearing, spreading wood chip, the asparagus bed was the main target, it was lovely out there and I have dirty knees to prove I did indeed do a bit 😀

Last year I did chop and drop but I’m not doing that this year lol, I found it was too messy come spring so this year I’m clearing but I have left a pile of asparagus fern choppings where the rhubarb is so that anything that needs a winter home has got one available.

You know when you think 🤔 ah well the day will get better I’m sure, nope, so after my two minor mishaps this morning I had a third (hopefully we are done now) I was doing the feeding and collecting eggs, I stopped to take a photo of the cat, Benny, drinking out of the horse bucket, I thought it would provide a little amusement 😜 I carried on with my rounds and tripped over fresh air, yes fresh air, well there was nothing else around and I hadn’t had any wine it was only four o’clock! That wasn’t the end of the mishap, oh no because if that wasn’t bad enough I put my hand out to stop my face from hitting the dirt and it went straight into the bucket of eggs I had just collected 🤬 and faster than a Kit Kat disappears at a weight loss meeting Benny was in the bucket snacking on broken eggs 😭

My thoughts went like this ‘ffs I’m done today’ ‘I want to cry’ ‘have I broken anything’ ‘nope, better carry on then’ My knee hurts and I have a bit of a headache, hoping that isn’t the head injury this morning 🙄

I am actually going to blame varifocals, I would like a formal inquiry into the correlation of varifocal wearers and minor accidents like mine 😬 I can’t see clearly without them but my spacial awareness is not as accurate as it used to be when I’m wearing them, hence I’m always bumping my head when I have to duck under something, seriously I think there is definitely something in this, either that or my glasses are just crap 🤓

Wednesday: I thought it was going to warm up today but the sun never actually burnt through the mist and by lunchtime I decided I should light the Rayburn. It’s dry though so I am not complaining 😀 Apart from the usual I haven’t actually done much today 🙄 I have done a fair bit of reading up on various topics, cut flowers, autumn gardening jobs and how many sexes there are 😜 a random one that but something came up on my news feed and I just had to look further into it lol, scientists have a blob that is neither a fungus nor a plant/animal and it has 720 sexes, what, how, those questions and more are what I asked myself so I had to find out. I actually didn’t get very far as the explanation was beyond my understanding so I’m leaving that particular topic alone for now lol.

Thursday: It’s 11.45 and it’s raining 🌧 fear not though it has been pretty dry all morning and I have been very busy 😀 After the rounds I went straight out to the veg garden and got stuck into clearing one of the beds. This one is behind the fruit cage next to the brassica cage and I have decided that this is where I will grow flowers, a strange choice maybe as it can’t be seen from the seating areas but there is method in my madness. The beds at the far end are difficult for me to manage, they get the first lot of sun in the morning and then all day until the sun goes down, I very often can’t get out there because it’s too hot and there is no shade. So my plan is to plant perennial flowers on most of it along with some annuals, this will be my cut flower bed 💐 I cleared the bed which had beetroot and fennel still growing in there and then a good few barrows of well rotted manure went on top, I didn’t weed because I then put on a weed membrane and secured it with pegs. By the time I got to the end it was beginning to spit but undeterred I then tackled the other end of the bed, this end I have decided to try a thick layer of wood chip, as I have plenty, and see how that turns out compared to the membrane and manure. It will be a good comparison, it might work better, it might not, only time will tell, the winter weather can now do it’s work and hopefully under the membrane all the insects will be doing their bit as well. Just as I had finished it started to rain heavily so that was good timing. One thing I realised this morning, in fact all this week is that I am only limited by the Lupus, by that I mean I can still do a good mornings hard graft, I was beginning to think I couldn’t and would maybe have to give a lot of it up but no, it seems that if and that’s a BIG IF, if I can keep the disease on an even keel I can do the jobs I want to get done. I have repeat bloods again tomorrow to see if my white cells are going back up before I go back on the meds but I am wondering now if the meds are too much as I keep see sawing on them, might be time to have a conversation with my consultant about the dosage.

This part of the garden by the way is where I was trying out the permaculture and I had my first guild, the comfrey did fantastically every thing else not so, the apple tree eventually died but it had been moved once already because it was failing so I’m guessing it just wasn’t meant to be. Never be afraid to admit when things don’t work out and you have to start over 😏

Friday: By the time I’d finished the morning rounds of feeding watering and letting out it was raining 🌧 hmm I was hoping for a dry day but it’s not to be so I turned my thoughts to chutney. Remember the basket full of green tomatoes that I was hoping would ripen, well they haven’t lol and so chutney making is on the cards. Luckily I had picked a bucket full of apples from the front tree, these are eating apples but they will be fine in a chutney as they are keeper apples and are pretty firm. I surveyed the tree while I was picking and it really needs a good prune and I’m wondering if John and I are up to it or if I get the chap who did the cooking apple last year to come and do it. It’s a case of money expenditure versus strength/energy expenditure, I will see what John says. It needs doing because most of the apples, around 60/70% were tiny and in clumps, a fair few were a double apple so an apple with an extra lump and out of the rest which were all ok there were quite a few with maggot.

Bloods this morning before I can decide what to get on with.

I didn’t get anything else done lol as Shelley and the children came back with me then Sam and the children came over, just as well as it wasn’t a very nice day out, Sam and Mia did the feeding and egg collecting in the afternoon so I didn’t even have to do that 😀

There were a large flock of long tailed tits in the oak tree today, I always say they arrive when the weather is about to get very cold (snow even) so we will see over the next few days if I am right.

Saturday: It was a filthy night last night, rain, wind, orrible, and it’s not any better this morning though not as windy. We did the morning stuff then John went off to get some feed and I sorted some bits in the greenhouse, beetroot and swede I had pulled up when I did the bed ready for winter. It doesn’t look like we will do much outside at all today but that’s fine, we need to get a list sorted of jobs that need doing eventually such as the greenhouse leak and the electric sockets in the stable block. I have messaged the chap about pruning the tree as John decided he didn’t want to do it and we have some beef arriving from a smallholder this afternoon.

I ordered a baby burco so that we can scald these chickens and get them done and in the freezer, I have got to an age where I don’t want to be doing it and I don’t mean because I’m getting too old but I am getting too soft 😏 It’s always been a fine line that you tread when raising your own meat and the older I have got the more I dislike doing the deed but I also am not ready to give up eating meat yet and so the option is meat from the supermarket or from another smallholder. I can easily get lamb and beef, we don’t really eat much pork except bacon and sausage, but chickens are more difficult to get unless you get them from a farm shop and then they are pretty expensive. The expense I have to say is justified as usually they are quite big chickens and you can get three meals out of it and of course they are much more tasty, not pumped full of water and not bleached either so worth the spend but not when you can raise your own.

It turned into an busy couple of hours in the afternoon, John decided to clear the drain that runs across the driveway because the water was not getting away, the rain has not let up at all and now we have the river and lake back in the side paddocks. My nephew and nephew in law arrived with a lorry full of wood for the Rayburn, it has to be cut up yet but it’s old oak from a roof and so it will burn nicely. Then my beef delivery turned up, we ordered from smallholder Emma’s Ewesful Acres ://www.emmasewesfulacres.com/news she does lamb as well but we already have some, I made some rock cakes as a treat and got the Rayburn going, then there was the feeding and eggs to do so rather than sitting down doing a bit of reading like I planned I was busy as a bee 🐝

We have a nice grass fed steak for dinner tonight 😀

Sunday: Clocks went back. A pleasant, sunny morning after a cold night and a frost bit at least no rain 😀 John did the morning rounds while I cleaned out the Rayburn flues and did some hoovering.

Yesterday I made a list of jobs that need doing and this morning we have got on with some of them, disconnect the water pipes from the veg garden before we get a big freeze and a pipe burst ✅ Put the horse box up for sale as we don’t really need it ✅ John has added a few of his own jobs and of course prioritised those 😏 so at the moment only one of the jobs on my list for him has been done 🙄

I am a little bit excited to tell you that I have booked a workshop for myself at a local organic farm and I will be learning about sustainable floristry, I am not planning on going into floristry in a big way lol but I would like to know a bit more about sustainable cut flowers and arranging them so I treated myself 😀

After identifying yet another job that was not on my list I managed to steer John onto one that was 😂 We have a 6ft wide gate by the side of the house that has a smaller 4ft one as well, in the spring the posts rotted away and the small gate post got done but not the bigger one, we don’t open it much anyway but when we do it has to be lifted off the ground so that post needed doing which I have managed to get him working on, he has also loaded up the wood store so he has earned some brownie points today 😬 Meanwhile I have been barrowing wood chip to the paths in the veg garden 🙄 I still have plenty left to do but I have managed to cover a large part of it already.

Sam, Luke, Mia and the twiglets came over and took Biscuit for a walk up the road and Mia had a sit on her back while she was led around the school. Biscuit was exceptionally good once we managed to get her away from the field, I think she thought she would never see Jack again, they have become firm friends.

Light the fire, get the dinner sorted and it’s dark just after 5pm 😏 roll on to the shortest day 🙄

Have a fabulous week everyone 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lots of rain, passata & baked beans 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is what I found:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

The wrong shoes, plum moth and hard working Mums 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 19th August: whoo hoo Monday again 😬 Not a bad day weatherwise so far, cool enough, a touch of sun, no rain and no wind 😀 After doing the morning stuff I got on in the garden, not veg gardening, today I am giving that a rest but flowers instead. I have a few plants that are struggling where they are and I wanted to save them so I have dug them up, a fushia, delphinium, lupin and gaura, and potted them in fresh compost and put them in the greenhouse for a boost. Then I went out to the front by the egg shed and hoed and weeded, dead headed and brushed, so it looks a bit more presentable now 😀 The ranunculus have died back and I want to try and store the bulbs over winter as they were pretty special so I have bought in the pot to sort them out and in its place I have put a dahlia which should flower soon.

I got dinner sorted for later, we had a roast chicken yesterday and got to use it all up lol so I will be having a baked potato/salad with mine and John will be having a throw it all in the pot and reheat job 😀 I also made a summer fruit pudding crumble with the blackberries and raspberries I picked this morning, I mixed them up with some greengages and I meant to take a photo before putting the crumble mix on top as the colours were vibrant, but I forgot 🙄

The Victoria plums, I have discovered have plum moth 😟 I had a trap in the damson tree which is about 20ft away and I thought it would cover it but it seems not 😏 so I have ordered some more traps and grease bands to do as many fruit trees as possible. It’s a pain in the arse to wait all year only to find they have moth in them grrrr

I keep eyeing up the mulberry tree and there are loads on there but the blackbirds are beating me to them every morning, mulberries turn very quickly, red one day, black and very squishy the next, hard to get them at the right time, I have not had one single berry yet 😏 The biggest problem with the soft fruit is that the birds will eat them before they are ripe enough to pick!

When John came home he noticed some of the new hens had got out and on further investigation a big hole has been chewed in the netting, I think the geese are to blame but also the charge was not going through so John spent 2 hours fixing it. I went out when he had just about finished and he asked if I was going to help him put the birds to bed, I said, I haven’t got the right shoes on. Anyone who works outside especially in and around paddocks/stables will know you need the right shoes, anyhow I obliged and went to the stables block to lock the birds in, I turned on the main light, turned around and caught my foot under the rubber matting which was slightly proud. I kind of flew, hands sprawled out in front of me and then belly flopped onto the hard ground beneath me, I cried out and then just lay there whimpering until John found me, concerned at first but then laughed when he realised I was grazed but not broken 😜 I feel lucky that I didn’t break anything, especially my wrist which took the brunt and lucky that I had taken some ibrufen an hour before for my sinusitis (I know, I’m a walking disaster at the minute) I’m sitting here typing with bits of me smarting and I can imagine in the morning it will hurt or at the very least be stiff🙄

Tuesday: A little sore this morning but nothing much thank goodness 😅 I spent a good deal of the morning trying to get the fruit cage under some sort of control, the bindweed has been awful this year and has rampaged through the raspberries smothering everything. I did other things but forgot to write them down and now poof, can’t remember 🙄

Wednesday: I got busy doing some cutting back and tidying in the garden, then Mum came over and also got busy doing some weeding and tidying and suddenly it’s all starting to look a bit more under control lol. I think I have decided that I am going back to the way I gardened before 😜 I will plant trees and shrubs in among things but I need a bit of order 🤪 and can’t really cope too well with what seems like haphazard gardening. I think we have decided I should garden to what suits me and not try and follow a regime as such, much better for my sanity lol.

Some more plum moth traps arrived today so I have put them up in the trees to catch the males, I have until early September to trap them and hopefully slow down the numbers.

Thursday: A bloody good session outside this morning 😀 following on from Mums sterling work on the feverfew, which has gone beserk and taking over everywhere, I did a bit more to the same area and the pathway which is so weedy it’s a job to distinguish from the garden! Then onto the hazel trees at the side of the house, normally at this time of year nothing needs doing to them but last autum we cut three of them back to let light into the tunnels on the other side. You can image how much growth they have put on and the tomatoes in the tunnels are struggling to ripen so I have cut back some of this years foliage and the stinging nettles to hopefully help with the light issues. Then I noticed that the ripe hazels are beginning to fall so I raked the area clean, it’s easier to spot them that way 😀

Yesterday and today I have felt fit and well whoo hoo hence some hard graft, have to be careful though as wham it will hit me when I’m not looking lol.

I went on chicken watch because despite John spending another hour last night fixing holes, they have still got out today, so I am sat waiting to see where exactly they are doing it, luckily the sun isn’t out 😀 At the moment the hens are behind electric that’s because they are only just starting to lay and we want them to lay in the nest boxes. If we let them free range straightaway they would just lay anywhere and we will not find the eggs, chicken training, who knew there was such a thing 😜

I been sat here for 20 mins and no one has made a bid for freedom but I know as soon as I turn my back they will be out 🙄

I spent the evening sorting out, or trying to sort out, the office, going through old paperwork that we no longer need so that I can find any paperwork we do need!

Friday: It’s lunchtime and so far I have split my time between cleaning the bathroom and doing some washing, picking veg and sowing some winter seeds.

I am cleaning because Dad and Sue are coming to stay for a week, they arrive Sunday, I am not cleaning because they will mind the a bit of dust but because I would like it to be nice and clean when they are here lol. My thoughts reminded me about a conversation with Johns Dad once, asking me if Women dressed for Men or for themselves pffft, themselves of course (most women anyhow) quite conceited of the male of the species to think that we dress for them 🤣 We used to have some good conversations, generally we saw things from opposing angles which you would think put us at odds with each other, not in the slightest, we enjoyed discussing our different opinions and often learnt from each other’s views, and he always enjoyed playing devils advocate 😜

The winter veg I have sown are not very exciting but will hopefully provide some fresh veg in the ‘hungry gap’ some winter spinach which is always useful, sweetheart type cabbage which will be ready next spring and some mooli radish. The latter I have never grown before and they were free seeds, from experience weird and wonderful veg rarely grow well but no harm in trying, they grow as big as a tennis ball so will make great additions to soups and stews over winter.

I have picked a bit of veg this morning but to be honest it’s meagre pickings, that’s because whatever I haven’t used or frozen has sold out quickly and now I’m struggling to keep finding things to put out, there are worse problems to have I know 🙄

Saturday: Turned out to be a scorcher of a day with more to come over the next few days! We were up early because we wanted to get into town and get some shopping before it got too hot. Just before we left another early bird was up and over here, Mum came to do some more work on the weeds, it’s all now looking pretty good largely due to her hard work 😓 so thanks Mum 😘 I did a bit when I got back and John did a few jobs but by lunchtime it was very hot and in the afternoon the temp gauge in the greenhouse was off the scale which stops at 50c 🙄 Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and we sat in the shade until that even got too hot, after they had gone it was just basic jobs that got done.

I was babysitting Mia and the twins for a few hours while Sam went off in search of her sanity 🤣 with Luke to their local pub. I said to her ‘hats off’ I don’t know how she gets everything done, it took two hours to feed, wind and change them both then another two hours to settle them and in fact Lucie didn’t settle for the whole evening. Mia was fab, patient, helpful and obliging at bedtime which made it a whole lot easier.

Sunday: An early sign off this week, temps are set to climb even higher today although at the moment it’s overcast so we will see what happens. Again we were up early, I got straight on with watering as I couldn’t do it last night and somethings are struggling, amazing that this time last week it had been raining for days! Then the last bit of cleaning before Dad and Sue arrive for the week, I probably won’t blog much if at all as I will be very busy entertaining etc 😀

Have a great Bank Holiday 🌞

Posted in Friesland Farm

Picking, Strawberry jam & feathers everywhere.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 1st July and the weeks keep rolling on 😏 A nice morning as far as I am concerned, overcast, dry and not to warm 😀 John did a couple of the bird pens before going to work and I did the rest and picked greenery for the torts and rabbits etc. Then once I had done the ‘housekeeping’ bits I got on with putting out some plants for sale and digging up some self set plants and potted them up ready for sale in a couple of weeks. After that I picked blackcurrants and gooseberries, you can tell they are ready when you disturb the blackbirds foraging underneath the bushes. I do leave enough for the birds, taking some to put out for sale and some to either freeze or make jam.

The girls and the grandchildren came for a couple of hours in the afternoon and after they went I made the blackcurrant jam.

After getting the dinner I went outside to do some more picking and the watering, I picked broad beans and rhubarb and found a courgette I had missed previously which was on the way to becoming a marrow 🙄 Everything I s coming on nicely, the tomatoes have started to form as have the peppers, there are tiny melons, no sign of cucumbers yet though. Dwarf beans are flowering and there are some squash forming, I am keeping an eye on the cherries so the birds don’t get them first, the brassicas in the cage are romping away and the potatoes are abundant, looks like a good year 😀

Tuesday: Another lovely looking morning, the sinusitis was getting better, I thought, but it had come back with a vengeance this morning 😐 thick head and all.

After doing the rounds I then collected greenery for the torts and rabbits/guineas, the rabbits etc had mainly trees and herbs this morning, lilac, hazel, willow, mint, lemon balm, fennel and a few dandelion types for good measure. The torts love the yellow flowers of all dandelion types so I went round and collected those for them today.

I noticed this morning that my nut and fruit trees are absolutely covered with ladybird larvae in different stages, fantastic 😀

I took some blueberry cuttings, I need to do something with the blueberries they are not thriving like they should and therefore the yield is not great, in fact an overhaul for the fruit cage interior is very much on the cards. I have ordered some weed membrane and intend to plant the raspberries that are in pots into the ground, it was a job I was going to do last year but didn’t get round to it, the membrane will hopefully keep most of the weeds at bay and the moisture in the ground so it will be less work in the long run.

In the afternoon, Sam, Mia, Shelley, Josh, Florence and I went to a pick your own farm to get strawberries 😀 I do not have enough of my own this year to make jam so off we went to gather some, a few kilos later and a fun afternoon and this evening I have made strawberry jam 😀 I wish I could let you smell the divine smell of it bubbling away on the hob, amazing smell 😀 A word of advice if you ever buy homemade jam, if you are dairy intolerant just check with the maker that they haven’t put butter in it. Some recipes advise a knob of butter to disperse the scum, personally I haven’t found it makes a difference and I prefer to use the back of a metal spoon to lift it off, it sticks readily to the back and can be scrapped off into a bowl. If I am making jam that is purely for our own use I don’t even bother, it looks unsightly but there is nothing wrong with it, it’s just froth really.

Normally I would make a dessert or two with the strawberries but the last two weeks John has come home with cakes made by his customers, not little cakes, full size cakes, last week a chocolate one and this week, from a different customer I might add, a lemon one. So we have cake to eat and no point making anything with the strawberries except jam lol.

I sold three more ducklings today, that’s 27 in total so not bad, I am planning on keeping 15 so have another 9 to sell.

Wednesday: Up and at it early, did the rounds then onto watering things that are in the shade, the ground is dry again due to lack of moisture. I spent a good hour or so watering things and I will have to do the rest tonight, especially the raspberries as they are small and dry not plump, so lacking in water even the ones in the ground, I never used to have this problem, only in the last couple of years. By 10 I had come in, I was feeling tired, the steroids stopped a couple of weeks ago, and once I’m tired I know I’m not going to achieve much so time to recuperate with a coffee, some cake and a sit down 😀

Blue skies mean I don’t get outside much more today, I did go back out in the evening once it had cooled down a bit and did some more watering.

The fox had a hen in the side paddock, she was out when I fed them at 4pm, I had tried to catch her but couldn’t and forgot to tell John when he came home, at about 8pm the dogs barked, but they do that a lot so we didn’t take much notice and then when John went to put the hens to bed…..feathers everywhere ☹️

Thursday: Another blue sky, sunny day on the cards so I set my alarm for 5.30, the early morning air was fresh and cool, delightful, I got plenty done before I had to come in. I didn’t water as I had done that the night before but I did a bit of weeding in the polytunnel and I harvested some potatoes, these were some I grow in a large square crate, and I leave the tiny potatoes that come off in there to go again, so in essence they are self set and I always get a good haul from them, touch wood they have never had disease either, I have been doing this for about 4 years now, maybe I should just do it for all my potatoes?

Contemplating what to do for dinner tonight, I found some frozen pizza dough I made and some passata frozen from last years tomatoes, I have mozzarella in the fridge and fresh basil, a drizzle of chilli oil that Shelley bought back from Italy so I’m good, that just leaves what to cook for John 🙄

With some of the strawberries I have left I made a simple strawberry sauce to bottle up and put in the fridge, this can be used on ice cream, in milkshakes, on pancakes or in yoghurt, whatever you want to put it on really lol. I made a batch of Greek yoghurt at the same time then I will have both things to use at the same time. I use an easiyo maker which is VERY easy to use and makes great yoghurt, one day I would like to make my own yoghurt from scratch but as only I eat eat and not that often it’s not something I have tried doing yet.

I’m getting paranoid about the crows stealing my cherries 😂 the minute I hear them out there I go out to check they are not raiding my trees. The year before last they stripped everything, cherries, pears, gooseberries so I am determined to get some this time round, I can’t imagine how farmers feels when they strip a whole crop!

Friday: I went to Josh’s sports morning first thing then we went to the new shake shop that has opened in town 😀 I’m writing this Sunday and can’t actually recall what else I did that day apart from probably watering 😜

Saturday: Overcast today, whoop, so I did a fair bit of weeding and sorting out plants for sale, generally speaking all day in the garden doing stuff. In the evening we went to a Memorial walk and family fun event, I didn’t do the walk but joined them later for the bbq and raffle. It was in aid of the Eve appeal which is a charity for research into gynaecological cancers, a very special lady, Julie, our cousin died from Vulval cancer and the event is to raise funds and awareness. Here is the link to their website if you want to know more

https://eveappeal.org.uk

It was raining when we left there it just about 4/5 miles away and when we got home, nothing 🙁 could have done with a small shower for the veg garden.

We came back with My sister and brother in law who were having a ‘quick cuppa’ a couple of hours later, we had booked a small break between us and it was time for bed lol.

Sunday: Overcast to begin with so I did a lot of picking, carrots, peas, broad beans, raspberries, turnips, potatoes. The raspberries are getting more numerous now so it makes them worth picking 😀 We are having lamb later with all our own veg seasoned with homegrown rosemary and garlic, then we will have the raspberries for dessert.

One of my cherry trees has already been raided, not the crows en mass this year but the blackbirds in covert operations from underneath, and now they have started on the morellos 😕 The problem is that they eat them just before they ripen and as cherries do not continue to ripen there is no point me picking them early, so the decision I have made is to let the birds have them, I have plenty of other fruit and I can’t keep rushing out there to shoo them off because they come straight back when I go in. Netting won’t work for the smaller birds as they go under and up, it would keep off the crows mind but they don’t seem interested this year.

The tomatoes are turning red 😀 I always feel that it’s the pinnacle of the main growing season and I have a strange sense of fulfilment 😀

The geese are moulting after their egg laying stint, it looks like a fox attack as there are feathers like this all over the farm 🤣

Posted in Friesland Farm

Kittens, Fairy’s & Bon Jovi lol

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 17th June: Perfect day for me finally, no rain, no sun 😀 so I spent until 2pm out in the garden, mostly weeding, a huge trugfull for the rabbits and Guineas one for the little chicks, some juicy thistles etc for the torts, yep plenty of weeding done today lol. I planted some more sweet corn that Shelley gave me, and watched the little robins darting back and forth to the nest with worms, this is the second brood they have raised in my plant pot holder, I disturbed a little frog under a pile of weeds, good to know the wildlife is abundant 😀

I picked more courgettes today, I was looking at all the plants thinking omg I am going to have a lot of courgettes lol but the hens will eat them so will the torts and the rabbit and guineas so what ever we don’t use or sell will still be of use. The cucumbers I planted out when it was warm are struggling with all the wet weather so I dug one up and moved it indoors, one looks like it may be ok and the other three, well I don’t think they will make it 😏 I do have three more in the big tunnel that are doing fine so should have plenty of cues 😀 There are tomatoes beginning to form on one of the plants and plenty of flowers on the other plants, most things are just beginning to get going now, it always seems like a long wait and then there will be gluts of everything 😜

Just watching ‘The War on Plastics’ again, horrific, it goes from bad to worse! Wet wipes 🙄 Flannels, cloths, cotton rounds, water and baby lotion are the way forward!

Tuesday: Dry so far this morning although the rain is forecast this afternoon 😛 Mia day today, last one as Sam goes on maternity leave after this week. This cold I have gets better one day and comes back the next so I have a headache today, better than a blocked nose I suppose. A quick look round the garden with my coffee in hand, picked a few raspberries and a couple of strawberries but not many.

We had a lovely lovely day, the rain mostly stayed away, Mia was a fairy in the morning lol and then my Mum came over to do a bit of gardening and Mia was her little helper, well more talking her ears off but it was lovely listening to the pair of them while they were working.

I picked all of the remaining broad beans from the plants that have been growing since last autumn and as mentioned the early potatoes have blight so I dug most of them up, there is half a row that as yet is untouched by it. It wasn’t a bad haul from a small space and I will now use that space to grow more carrots I think.

In the evening we went to collect two new animal members of the farm, meet TC and Benny, you will have to be of a certain age to get the names 😜 but it was one of Johns favourite cartoons.

Wednesday: Strange day as far as the weather goes, it seems like it’s going to rain but hasn’t yet, dreary but warm, I know there are big thunderstorms going on in the UK but we don’t seem to be getting anything. I did the morning rounds and then a quick check of the veg garden. Some hoovering and prepping the dinner later, home grown potatoes, carrot and broad beans, yum. Played with the kittens a couple of times to get them used to me, they were born on a farm in a shed and did have humans but being taken away must be quite frightening so I am trying to settle them in gently and hope they realise we are nice 😀

We are fast approaching the longest day, summer solstice, and haven’t even had any summer yet! Hmmm we could definitely do with a bit more warmth for the toms cucumbers and peppers, the rest will tickle along nicely as it is.

The kittens are in a large dog cage in the boot room, I thought they were secure 😂 I watched them earlier climbing up the cage and thought, ah how cute, when John went out the back later he said ‘the kittens are out, do you know’? Now maybe the fact that the cage door was still bolted might have given him some kind of indication that, no, I didn’t know! It seems they have climbed up and got out of a gap at the top, obviously a cage made for a large dog isn’t going to keep two tiny kittens in, duh, I should have thought it through more thoroughly. Gap now plugged it remains to be seen if they can squeeze through any other gaps, the problem with letting them out is that we have a large pipe running surface on the floor, right in the middle to be precise and it has to be stepped over every time 🙄 it was temporary about 5 years ago, and until the exit areas of the pipe are checked I have no idea if they are sealed when they meet the walls. John is busy eating an ice cream so can’t do it at the moment 😜 priorities. All checked and secured, kittens now back inside the cage hopefully they will remain there 😏

TC is the friendliest one who will come for a stroke and purrs, Benny doesn’t, he hides away and so he is the one we need to work on.

One thing really bugging me at the moment is the integral fridge, it is freezing everything so at the weekend we are going to pull it out clean all around it and see if that makes a difference.

Thursday: Writing this at the end of the day and can’t actually remember what I have done, can’t be that memorable 😏

I do know that I prepped the dinner early on this morning, I had a random minced pork in the freezer, I probably bought it for stuffing at some point and never used it so tonight John has ‘piggy pie’ a pork version of shepherds pie and I made meatballs to go with some garlic, basil and tomato sauce that I made last year and froze.

The kittens have been given free reign of the boot room, well they were escaping every time we shut them in the cage anyhow so might as well let them out. It does mean the dogs can’t have the door open to come and go like they usually do though, I don’t think they are too bothered and they don’t seem bothered by the kittens who have found themselves a perch high up out of the way 😜

Friday: Summer solstice, It looks set to be a warm day today 😀 I did the morning rounds cleaning out the ducklings on the way round, they are getting big now and have almost feathered up and are definitely quacking instead of cheeping lol. I did a bit of watering, it’s surprising just how quickly things dry out even after a week long of rain showers. The other ducks have been left inside the stable today as we are off to Wembley to watch Bon Jovi tonight, looking forward to that, as the ducks tend to roam far and wide I thought it would be safer if they were in😀 Charlie will be coming after work to let the dogs out and put the birds to bed.

It’s befitting that we are going to a concert today on the solstice, a day of celebration which traditionally combines feasting, music, and enjoying the company of others, yep I think that covers it, I have of course taken time to just enjoy the outdoors and wander amongst the flowers, herbs and veg, stroking some of them so that they release their scents, listen to the birdsong, watch the butterflies and bees flying around and appreciating it all, that’s the main thing, you’d be surprised how many people can be right in the middle of nature and not really notice anything and there is such a lot going on even in the smallest of spaces.

I have begun to pick a few raspberries, not many at the moment but enough to have with a bit of cream after dinner 😀

I did a bit in the poly tunnel, some potting on of plants to put out for sale when they get big enough and some potting on of others that I either will plant eventually or keep to gather seed from. Having been out of ‘flower gardening’ for a long time I am re kindling my love affair with certain flowers, Cerinthe is one that I love, it’s not showy or particularly fabulous but I like it for its understated beautiful purple drop like flowers.

One thing I have discovered while looking up some plants is I seem to be drawn to the ‘wort’ family, cerinthe is honeywort, I have motherwort, soapwort, spiderwort, dropwort (in fact the dropwort was the plant I thought was growing and turned out to be ragwort) and the drop wort was growing next to it. Worts have medicinal uses, must be the hedgewitch in me that is drawn to them 😜

The concert was amazing 😀 Manic Street Preachers were the warm up band, all you can eat food and all you can drink bar, we didn’t overdo it though lol, many thanks to my sister and brother in law for the opportunity x x

Saturday: So busy today that it’s 9.30pm before I sit down and type this up 😜 We have at last got all the glass in the greenhouse and we have 2 out of 3 benches in plus my potting bench that John bought me a few years ago, although I use it as a work station because it’s too nice to use for anything else 😂. Basically that’s what we have been doing most of the day with cups of tea and a bite to eat in between, we went to the DIY shop to get a sander and some storage boxes and called in to see Sam, Luke and Mia on the way back.

It has been hot today although we did have occasional cloud passing over, with the temps rising the forecast is for thunderstorms tomorrow evening ⛈

Sunday: Today we finished off the benches/staging in the greenhouse and now I am as happy as a pig in poo 😝 I have just come in from sitting in there with a cuppa and listening to classic fm, did you know they had a classics chart countdown on a Sunday evening, nope neither did I lol.

This morning I picked 6 courgettes and some raspberries 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Last of the planting, some picking & Johns birthday

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 3rd June: Well rested after a weekend away it’s time to crack on 😜 After sorting all the birds out in the morning it was straight into the garden to see what’s been happening and what needs to be done.

I planted the cucumbers, loofahs, some tomato plants and the dahlias, all a bit late going in but it won’t harm them. I put a few more plants out for sale, picked some buckets of weeds and herbs for the rabbits and hens and picked some veg that was ready. Today’s pickings were rhubarb, broad beans and baby turnips, some of which I put out for sale, the turnips I kept back were washed diced and blanched and will be open frozen for use in soups, stews and casseroles. It’s it easier to do it this way then I can grab a handful when I need them, I am aiming to do this will all the root veg if possible. The dwarf kale is reading for picking but I will pick it as I need it. I also cut some flowers for the table, roses, sweet Williams and huechera , it looks pretty and brightens the place up plus the roses smell amazing.

There are one or two strawberries that have ripened while I was away, might as well eat those while I am wandering around lol, there are also plenty of radish and salad leaves to be had at the moment.

We have plaice for dinner, I keep avoiding it in the freezer because I need to fillet it first but today is the day I decided to do it lol, I will cook it with lemon and parsley butter, potatoes and the peas I picked before we went away, delish 😋

Did the afternoon egg collection then cleaned out the ducklings and prepped the dinner, then time for a sit down and a cuppa plus a piece of banana bread that Charlotte made while she was staying here 😀 I taught her to bake from about the age of seven, she was diagnosed as a coeliac at 14 months and the whole family mostly ate gluten free while she was growing up and so teaching her about food was important. In fact all three of the girls know about food, they understand the different food groups and how they go together, they understand the difference between ‘real’ food and processed food (you’d be surprised at how many people don’t) they can all cook and bake from scratch without a jar of sauce or packet mix in sight (I’m not saying they do all the time, just that they can 😝) and most of all on the whole, they enjoy cooking, job done ✅ there I reckon 😀

I pruned the leader branches from the cherry tree, two reason, one I don’t want it to get too big and the other so that when they start to ripen I can still get a net over it to stop the crows from stripping the tree in no time at all!

With stone fruit you should prune in June that’s the general rule so they don’t get silver leaf or canker.

As rhubarb is still in plentiful supply I made a rhubarb pudding cake for dessert, a self saucing pud, easy peasy.

Tuesday: Mia day 😀 I got all the morning jobs done before Mia arrived and then we pretty much played all day lol, picked dandelions for the torts, sat on a blanket on the grass for an hour or so, then the rain came. We are getting the ideal amount of rain as far as the garden goes because I’m not worrying about things not growing, on the contrary they are growing well including the weeds 😝 I’m not quite sure what to do about them they have overtaken my ability to keep them in order at the moment. I saw some cornstarch weed barrier but the price is rather high for my liking so I will carry on hoeing until I come up with a plan! Once the veg start to romp away it will be fine as they will shade out the weeds but until then it’s a constant struggle lol.

Wednesday: Well the weather is certainly not flaming June! Not that I’m complaining because at least I can work out in it but it a tad on the cold side 😜 After sorting out the morning jobs I set to sorting out the poly tunnel so that I could get a couple more melons and tomato plants in, I did a fair amount of hoeing outside so that I could rearrange pots of plants that I am growing on and organised those. Mum came at lunchtime and did some weeding and it looks great especially the fruit cage and I no longer feel like I’m drowning in weeds so thank you Mum you are a star ⭐️ I had Josh for a couple of hours in the afternoon he likes to come and be on his own at the farm with me and help do the jobs lol, we collected the eggs and did the ducklings, pinched the tops off of the broad beans as they have blackfly, sang some songs with Mum and then had to watch tv as we had worked so hard 🤣 his words not mine.

I did a bit of hand weeding late afternoon, the carrots have been sporadic to say the least, we will get some summer carrot but I think I will need to sow some more for winter use.

I made some bread and some choc chunk cookies and I also picked some elderflower which is steeping in water and lemon juice overnight to extract the flavour, I’m intending to make jam with it 😀

The 75th Anniversary of the D Day landings got me interested in learning a bit more about RAF Broadwell, part of our land was part of the dispersed sites, No3 to be precise. When the weather is dry and certainly last summer you can easily see where the foundations of buildings were and when you are trying to get anything in the ground in the front paddock you always hit red brick lol. It would be great if I could find a comprehensive map or old photos of where we are but although there are many photos online and some sites are detailed ours does not seem to be 😏 If we ever found an underground bunker I would consider that we would hit the jackpot lol, it would be cold storage at it best.

Thursday: Did the morning stuff then popped to town to get a few bits, it’s Johns birthday tomorrow and so our turn to feed everyone 😀 the forecast is heavy rain ☹️ so I am doing pulled pork rolls and accompanying salads.

I finally got the limoncello under way, basically it’s lemongrass (bashed with a rolling pin) and lemon verbena, steeped for a few days in vodka then make a sugar syrup to add to it and voila. I have also got elderflower and lemons steeping in water to make elderflower jam. It being a creative kind of day I picked some roses and I am drying the petals, to start them off drying I have put them in the poly tunnel but I won’t leave them in there as it will be too hot and also the light will fade them too much, along with that I have picked some flowers to hang to dry, I’m thinking I need a drying shed 😜 as I would like to dry a whole bunch of things. I want to be making wreaths at Christmas after my day out last year and so drying things to use seems like a good idea, I will experiment with all sorts and see what turns out the best.

Friday, Johns Birthday: I spent most of the day prepping and cooking food! Starting with the birthday cake first thing in the morning after getting the animals done. John had the day off from his regular work but neglected to tell me he was going to be home, consequently I had arranged to get all this cooking done and have a visit from a friend so he sat around like a spare part most of the day🙄 It mostly rained so doing anything outside was a bit pointless for him, it was a surprise he said, yes guess what, surprise, I’m busy all day 🤪 next time tell me in advance and we will go out for lunch and I will do nibbles for the birthday guests not a full on pulled pork feast!

In amongst all that two new Guinea pigs arrived, I wasn’t expecting them until the weekend and so I hadn’t got anything ready, I put them straight in with the rabbit (who is still fine) and the other pig, later in the day when Sam and Mia came they cleaned out the run which I had intended to do tomorrow morning.

Later in the early evening everyone arrived, ate, drank, chatted, sang happy birthday and then went home, Happy Birthday John 😀

We had a bit of thunder and lightening but not much, I love a good storm.

Saturday: Pouring with rain this morning and looks like it has been from early on, June, such a lovely warm month 😂

We are off out to have breakfast this morning with Sam, Charlie & Shelley as a little treat for Sam as she didn’t want a baby shower, the twins are growing well but she could go into labour anytime and she can’t eat a full on meal anymore, no room 🤪 so breakfast is the lighter option.

Breakfast was lovely, I had waffles, bacon and maple syrup 😋 we went to The Old Shed just outside Charlbury, it’s delightful there, shame the weather wasn’t better or we could have eaten al fresco!

We popped in to see my brother and sister in law on the way back, then home, John cleaned out the ducklings while I got Jacks stable ready to get him in for a day or so, with all the rain we have had the grass is going to grow like billyo and he needs restricting so until we make his field smaller, he is coming in and going on hay, he won’t like it one bit but it’s for his own good.

The sun came out but it’s really windy, it makes moving straw a bit of a futile effort, get a load on the end of the pitchfork, turn around to put it in the barrow and you’d be lucky to get half of it in while the other half blows away!

I decided to call the guinea pigs Boris and Donald 🤣 Josh has named the other one socco? Until now he hasn’t really had a name lol, the rabbit is called Peter even though she is a girl, that’s at Mia’s insistence and she is still very well thank goodness. When we went for breakfast they had animals and I noticed that they had double lined the cage with two lots of wire with a gap inbetween, this seems like a good idea as any wild animals could not get nose to nose with the enclosed ones, an idea I think I will implement on future runs.

Sunday: John did the morning rounds while I went out and picked broad beans and rhubarb to put out for sale which went within minutes!

Yesterday Martin came over and did a bit more to the greenhouse and today Luke came over and we got some of the windows in, just a bit more to do and it will be finished.

It’s cold for the time of year this evening, the sun was nice today but now the temps have dipped a bit ☹️

The elderflower I had steeping, and it said 48 hours, went mouldy so I’m going to have to start that again 🙄

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lots of Sunshine, lots of birthdays & Easter 🐣

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th April: I was up Uber early today lol, I woke at 5 decided it was still dark so would go back to sleep, couldn’t settle back so eventually got up at 5.45. I was starving, that’s the steroids, I couldn’t settle because my mind had by this time gone into overdrive and that’s also the steroids lol, still it’s a lot better than not having the energy to bother with anything at all so I’m happy 😃

I got up, dressed, breakfasted, out to do the morning rounds all before 7am, it gave John a lie in anyway 😘

I made a gruesome discovery in the quail house, something has devoured one of them, I’m not sure if the others have attacked it or if something has got in, I can’t see how but it’s possible, whatever has happened they have torn it apart and stripped all the meat off the bones making me think it’s possibly a rat but this hut is on 4ft legs up high. I will have to move the other three to safety and see what happens, they can be vicious towards each other if they decide to turn but at the moment it’s a mystery.

According to the weather forecast we are getting some warmer weather this week 😀 a bit of heat for all the fruit and veg will be very welcome.

Today is Charlie’s birthday and we are off out for lunch at Aston Pottery https://astonpottery.co.uk/ which is local to us, it’s a lovely place for lunch, plus a vast range of pottery and gifts and they also have a fabulous garden and sell the plants too, what’s not to love 💗

The wind was a bit blowy today and the warmth never really materialised but it didn’t matter for lunch and nattering and to be honest apart from the basics I didn’t get much else done today 🙄

The seeds are doing well in the tunnel, well most of them, yet again this year the peas are sporadic to say the least, last year I had to sow two lots and still they didn’t come up and this year the first lot are hit and miss, mostly miss 😜 Everything else is romping along.

Tuesday: Mia day today and so I got a few bits done outside as well as the feeding etc, then when she arrived she helped to do a few more bits before we spent a hour playing pirates in the pirate ship 😀 Then Josh, Flo and Shelley arrived for a couple of hours playing, Sam finished early and picked up Mia so I dashed round got the eggs and feeding down then indulged myself with Game of Thrones 😃 Another birthday today so when John got home we went off for cake 😀 Hoping for the warmth of the sun tomorrow as I have plenty of jobs to get done.

Wednesday: Up early because I couldn’t resist the promise of some warm weather 😀 I could see the orange Sun rising over the hedge when I opened the curtains whoop whoop, then it went cloudy lol, but still warmer than of late. I got the bed stripped and room hoovered and bed re made before 7.15 😀 off out to get the birds feed and let out and then straight into the poly tunnel and garden 😀 Mum arrived and we had a lovely session in the poly tunnel, she was giving me some lessons on cuttings, she has green fingers and years of knowledge so I’m tapping into that 😀 It got even better when some plants arrived with the postman and we got those potted on, ooo what a lovely morning 😀 Mum was just going when Sam and brought lunch, could this day get much better, lunch eaten Sam went to get the horse in and get him a wash down which by all accounts he enjoyed thoroughly. I went and picked some weeds for the rabbits and guinea pig and the set up a run that we have to put the tortoises in so they could eat without the chickens stealing it all.

I’m still moaning on about the price of plants at the garden centre lol, this has driven me to learn more about cuttings and propagating everything I have and I’m enjoying doing it, I just need the green fingers that my Mum has 😜

A quick sit down before I start again.

I did the feeding etc then spent a good few hours doing lots of little jobs, there are a million and one of them 😂 bathing the dogs, they haven’t been done for a while and with some dry days now is a good time. Patch is easy as he is short haired and lanky so doesn’t get too dirty, Mia on the other hand is shorter, longer haired and loves to roll in fox poo 💩 they both get a dose of flea treatment, Mia has a prescription treatment because she likes to roll in fox poo 💩 and can get mange from it. I altered the wording on the egg board sign, put some plants out for sale, got the washing in, put the dinner on, fed and watered the little chicks which are growing at a rate and beginning to feather up, watered the plants in pots out the front, oh and in between I reserved some turkeys to raise for Christmas 🤣 as you do. We always said we would like to do some turkeys and the opportunity arose so I took it, only 6 just to see how they do, excited 😜

I haven’t seen Diesel on the farm for a while, I see him down on the boundary wall and John sees him up the road a little but he is hardly ever at the yard at the moment 😕 there has been no sign of Cruella since the fox attacks back in February so I have no idea what happened to her ☹️ we have not had much luck with cats over the past two years, Molly hung around but obviously she was already old and now no longer with us so to that end I am on the search for two kittens. We have tried the re homing feral cats with not much success, they turn out to be not so feral more petrified, so we thought have them from young, two will be company for each other and hopefully they will be here for a long time to come, just got to find kittens that are short haired and not ridiculously priced!

Thursday: Up early again, you guessed it, bathroom cleaned and hoovered before 7.15, I’m on fire 🔥 😜 two loads of washing on and done then out to feed everything and let it all out for the day. Watering next because we have a distinct lack of rain 😲 so things in pots need a bit of help. Onto the polytunnel to water in there then a quick clean up in the boot room. I had Josh on his own for a few hours and we fed jack a carrot, put fresh bedding in for the ducks, moved the torts to the pen so they can eat, hung out the washing, made a paper aeroplane and flew it, kind of, then we gathered sticks and made a fire, cooked and ate cowboy sausages in the garden 😀

PICTURE ‘this is the life’ was our motto today 😀

Quick rest and a cuppa then onto the unending list of jobs, I’m down to around 999, 874.3 left on the list now 😝

Cleaned out the little chicks who are feathering up nicely now and growing every day!

Did a few more domestic bits before John came home and then went to get a bit of shopping because with a 4 day weekend there will be nothing left on the shelves 😂 I picked up a couple more plants for a couple of quid each a hardy fushia £2 and some day lilies also £2, not complaining at that 😝 and I think they will be on sale by the end of the weekend as most are in need of water!

Good Friday: The beginning of the Easter weekend, Eostre an ancient word meaning Spring, the celebrations of new life, hence the eggs and bunnies both symbols of fertility and the return of some warm weather 😀

It also happens to be Mia’s 3rd birthday today 😀

Up early 😜 crack on before it gets too hot! John did the feeding etc while I did some watering and domestic bits then we set about getting the poultry netting set up in the back paddock, this is a belts and braces job because we have three single strands of wire around the outside too. We need to (a) keep the hens in and (b) keep the foxes out 🙄 the netting has been chewed to bit by various animals, rabbits, geese, fox, as soon as there is not enough charge in a battery it gets chewed so I’m thinking we won’t buy that again. Anyway we have it, such as it is so we have doubled it all up and can only hope that this will work.

While we were collecting netting from the front we saw a car parked in the lane, I went to investigate as there was no one in it and saw a chap taking photos over our neighbours gate, I asked him what he was doing and he said he was photographing the horses, I think he was genuine but I explained to him that it’s not a good idea and he could be seen as scoping the place out, he seemed a bit shocked at that, either way if he was genuine he learnt something new and if he was not he has been clocked, keep em peeled people 😜

I was supposed to have a customer come and collect some goose eggs today but they can’t get past the traffic to the local wildlife park, do you think I should put in a claim 😝 honestly in the last two years the traffic to there on bank holidays has got horrendous.

We had a birthday party for Mia in the afternoon, the weather was amazing, bit too hot for me, hush my mouth, but it was a lovely time playing in the front paddock.

We moved 51 hens to their new back paddock enclosure, fingers crossed they stay there 🙄 by this time it was 9pm so we shut everything else away, I made myself a hot chocolate and John a tea, then I sat outside and drank mine 😀 The moon was fantastic tonight with an Amber glow just fabulous, I listened to all the noises, distant dog barking, sheep bleating, watched the night flights going back to London and wondering where they had been, and was aware of the bats flying around. We have always had bats flying here, I don’t know where they roost, we have never come across any in 10 years but they are out every night. Back inside to catch up with Gardeners World 😀

Saturday: Ahhh up at 5.30 lol, once I’m awake these days and if it’s light I figure I might as well get up and get on so that’s what I did, nice time of the morning as I watched the deer running across the field at the back of us. By the time John got up at 7.30 I had everything fed, watered and let out, got some plants in situ and done the watering 😀 He went off to finish the last few bits of Shelley and Martins bathroom and I set about planting the broad beans and putting together some metal shelving in the poly tunnel. Martin came and dropped off the wood for the greenhouse which is being done tomorrow 😀

Now by this time I was beginning to notice one or two hens walking around the place 😣 I went into the stables and there were about 10 of the buggers, more have appeared during the morning, we decided in the end just to electrify the ring fencing hoping the hens would stay behind the netting, so that’s clearly not working. I managed to shut the majority of them in a stable and that’s where they can stay for now, at least it’s not all 51 of them……yet!

I cut a piece of contorted hazel for the Easter tree, I like doing it and the children like looking at it, they get to take something off the tree to keep each year.

The thing I’m finding with this glorious weather is that I quickly run out of time to spend in the poly tunnel, it gets hot and as the trees are not out in full leaf yet there is no shade either, so while I’m itching to be out there, i can’t 🙄

Browsing through things while it’s a bit too hot for me I discovered you can eat Hostas, Hostas, who knew that? Amazing, apparently they taste a bit like asparagus and are considered a mountain vegetable, might just have to try one 😜 further reading and I discover that they are the perfect forest garden vegetable and have the potential to be a major commercial vegetable 😲 I wonder how many people I can convince to have a go lol, well if they are good enough for the slugs I guess they must be tasty 😋

Late afternoon/early evening I planted out some peas and watered bits that I have been planting over the last couple of days, then it was time to round up the escapees and take them back to the hut in the small back paddock, 22 of them in all 😕 Tomorrow we will electrify the netting instead of the strand wire and see if it keeps a few more of them in.

Before we did that John put the other birds away and I went to do the geese and Sussex, as I stepped out of the door I could hear a Robin sending out the alarm call and jumping from branch to branch in the trees, I wondered what was alarming it and then the cat appeared (the Robin has a nest in my plastic flower mountain) then I went over to the geese two of which had managed to get the wrong side of the fence so there were geese honking, A Robin shrilling loudly and the cat meowing, a right racket going on lol.

Easter Sunday: A busy day ahead of us, Martin & Luke are coming over to build the frame for the greenhouse, Macca is giving them a hand as is John. Charlie, Sam, Shelley, Josh, Mia and Florence will also be coming over and I will be on bacon rolls and tea duties then later on a roast lamb dinner and blueberry and apple pie, Chocolate cake and of course Easter eggs😜

It really was a busy day but the lads got loads done, we ate heartily and the children were exhausted at the end of it all, I am pooped 😬

The asparagus is at last coming through 😀

Over and out for this week 😴😴😴😴😴

Posted in Friesland Farm

‘Timeless simplicity’, tortoises & pasta sauce.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday August 6th and the year is rolling on😜 By 9am this morning I had already done a 4hr stint in the garden! Watering the bits I didn’t get done last night and tidying away pots, I have a place where I keep them all over winter then as they get used I tend to chuck them down by the front of the greenhouse along with anything else I have been using 🤪 I figured it was time to tidy it all up, I also demolished one of the narrow raised beds in front of the greenhouse. Over the years it has had various different things growing in it, mostly flowers but the trees have got a bit big and it’s too shady, I did however shove the potatoes in there when I could finally get them in after the wet spring, they have not amounted to anything so that was waste of time, the wood at the bottom was rotting and coming away so it’s time to remove them. As always I didn’t take a before photo so this one is of the remaining bed so you get the idea of what I am talking about and the nice clear space I have now made. I contemplated doing the other one straight after but sitting here having my coffee I’m thinking that was probably enough action with the lump hammer and spade for today.

You can see that I have mounded up the soil in the background and covered it with black plastic, the soil was dead, there was hardly any life in it at all so covering will help to bring it back to life and get some composting done.

And then I finished my coffee and thought, sod it, in for a penny, in for a pound, and got on with demolishing the other one 🤪 although as fast as I was trying to rake up the chickens were in there scratching it all about! The asters that were growing on the end have been put in a tub of water, each year I kept meaning to divide them as they have been struggling for a couple of years, so now after a good drink I will pot the, up ready for selling or planting in various areas. Once the soil has broken down a bit I will be re using it on other projects I have in mind or to top up any existing raised beds, that area is going to have a small compound and house built for my new arrivals so that they are nice and close for the grandchildren to help feed and watch.

After collecting some eggs, as trade is brisk this morning, and finishing tidying stuff away it was 10.30 and time for a well earned rest and catch up with my fave tv programme at the moment 😀

Tuesday: Lay in, Up at 6am 😜 I only did a small amount of watering today I will do more tonight but the night are much cooler and full of moisture so it’s not as needed as it was. Picked a good amount of veg, 14 cucumbers lol, they have been hiding I think, beans, mangetout, tomatoes that will ripen out in the open sun and some baby corn. Then I got on with removing another raised bed that is under the trees and doesn’t get much light or rain so things struggle, actually the hens all scratch in in too so most things have died off. I moved it to the front, dug up all the soil, added some rotted manure and planted it up with the plants I bought ages ago and haven’t been able to sort yet and gave it all a good soaking. Then I made a coffee and sat down for five minutes peace, I got to about three and Sam, Mia and Alfie arrived. Sam and Mia helped to put the run up and move the ducklings outside for the day, they had great fun splashing, washing and preening themselves, the bigger ducks came to have a look and it’s got me wondering if I could get them to adopt the same way the geese did, it’s worth a try I reckon. Then we fed the rabbits a couple of the cucumbers and the light Sussex chicks some spinach and a few weeds, I collected up some eggs as customers keep on coming this morning and then it was time for Sam to go to work and Mia and I to entertain ourselves 😀

We have some roast chicken left over so I am going to make a curry with that today, John won’t eat curry so I will have to come up with something else for him.

While Mia was asleep I made a chicken and broccoli bake for John, the recipe suggests breadcrumb on top but I will just use potato and cheese. When Mia woke up we went outside to hang out the washing and pull some carrots to go with Johns dinner and then we fed the chickens and collected the eggs, Mia very carefully carried the quail eggs back and put them in the egg box, none broken 😀 Then we had a well earned rest and watched Wisspa 😜

Not many eggs to put out this afternoon and we had completely sold out, they have dropped in numbers by about 20 a day which is a lot!

Oooo when is it ever going to rain again, just keeping everything alive is bloody tiring, sometimes I look at how dry the ground is and think shall I just stop? The paddocks have now gone from brown to starting to blacken, I know they will come back as soon as it rains for long enough but honestly I don’t want another summer like this one!

We made a decision to put the ducklings in a hutch outside with the run around them, they are only three weeks old but they haven’t been under the lamp for the last week and the nighttime temps are not cold, in springtime I wouldn’t have taken the risk but at this time of year, with the weather as it is, it should be fine.

Wednesday: Noticeably cooler this morning though the rain forecast for the end of the week has disappeared off the radar again! Did a bit of watering and Mum arrived early to do some more hoeing, it’s great because I would never keep on top of it all otherwise, so thanks Mum 😘 I tidied up the small bed in front of the front gate, a bit of chopping and cutting back, clip the grass edges (the only bits of grass growing) planted up one of the lime trees in a pot and put that out there and pulled out no end of shasta daisies they are so thuggish and take over entirely. A quick cup of coffee and then set about sorting out the greenhouse, throwing away stuff I don’t need, taking down the staging that is in there, it will be burnt, it’s not very good as it had to be screwed to the frame to stop it falling over! Plenty of stuff to keep but I need to sort out the shed so I can get it in there lol, always a knock on job, once it’s cleared it will be ready to take down then John can put the base down and I can get it ordered, we have some very large tree branches to remove as well so that will be quite a big job. We pick up my new pets tomorrow and they will be living in there temporarily until we get sorted for them. Molly the cat has disappeared again, sometimes she does this for a few days but as she is quite ancient I know one day she won’t return.

The evening sky was totally awesome tonight, we were driving back from my brothers (another birthday 😀) and the view across the Windrush valley was fantastic, it reminded me of a Wild West sunset (not that I’ve ever seen one except in films) I did say to John that we are lucky to see things like that, people living in cities and big towns don’t get to see it very often and we see great sunsets every evening, I did try and get a photo but my phone camera just does not capture the magnificence of it at all.

Thursday: Awake early because it’s become the norm and I can’t turn it off now 😜 This morning we are off to pick up the two new members of the menagerie 😀 I will introduce them later.

On one of the smallholding pages during a discussion about meat production and all that comes with it, was a quote from a book, a book that I have now ordered and look forward to reading.

‘The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking his pipe.

“Why aren’t you fishing?” said the industrialist.

“Because I have caught enough fish for the day.”

“Why don’t you catch some more?”

“What would I do with them?”

“Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. That would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats, even a fleet of boats. Then you could be rich like me.”

“What would I do then?”

“Then you could sit back and enjoy life.”

“What do you think I’m doing now?” ‘

from ‘Timeless Simplicity’ by John Lane

The hens are looking decidedly worse for wear with this continuing lack of rain and consequently a lack of green grass! In the industry they are kept for 52 weeks from point of lay and we are nearing that point so have some decisions to make, difficult because around 60 of them are still laying and I think if we had better ground the others would probably still be but the relentless heat has taken its toll as well, do we get a new batch at a cost and retire the others but that means twice as much work, do we sell off the older birds cheap even then we would have a cross over period of waiting for the eggs to get big enough, hmmm we will ponder on it for a while I think. It will be better to get new birds later in the year so that they carry us through the summer months when demand is higher but that means keeping more birds than would be ideal through the winter months. It is not just the hens, the ducks have dropped off too, with this in mind I have ordered feed with wormer in the hopes that keeping them in the best condition possible will help bring them back into lay, then of course you have the added problem of the daylight hours getting shorter all the while, it’s not easy 😝

So we went on a road trip, not long, about an hour and look what we bought back with us, meet Billy, who we shall call Big Billy and Voldertort or Voldy for short, currently they are in the fruit cage on weed patrol. Their owner is relocating out of the country and was looking for new owners and we were chosen 😀😀😀

In the afternoon I carried on clearing out the greenhouse, goodness knows why I’ve got so much stuff in there but I do use most of it at times, I have tidied up the shed a bit so I can get some stuff, that shouldn’t be getting wet, in there, the rest is outside! Hopefully I can get John started on taking it down this weekend and then the base can go down ready for the new one.

The tortoises spent all afternoon trying to get out of the fruit cage, Billy is very astute, he knows where the door is and if I’m in the garden he comes over or follows me while I’m walking round the outside. He also likes feet lol, especially ones in flip flops and kept making a beeline for Sams toes. We just (by a whisker) got their hut sorted with dry bedding in it before the rain came down, they had taken themselves off to bed about 6, into the trug with the straw in it which wouldn’t have held off the rain, so they are now nice and cosy for the night.

I found a great list of what torts like to eat, it’s very extensive and we have plenty of most of that on and around the farm 😀

IT RAINED 😀😀 not a huge amount but enough to wet the ground and hopefully we will get a bit more before the night is over.

Friday: Still raining 😀 giving the ground a good soak, I did intend to get a fair amount done but with the rain to begin with then visitors it ended up with nothing, not outside anyhow, I made bread and used fresh tomato/basil/ garlic to make bolognese and a batch for the freezer for another day. Picked some veg and weeds for the tortoises who were slow to wake today with temps dipping so much, then picked more herbs and weeds for the rabbits.

Saturday: Dry and sunny today and after getting all the morning chores done I went off to Worcester with our next door neighbour to a sheep sale 😀 Yvonne has Oxford Down sheep and this was a special sale of that breed.

John had instructions to clean out the ducks, geese, and hens and we discussed creosoting one of the moveable huts so that we can move it to the side paddock and purchase some news hens to overlap the older ones.

By the end of the sheep sale if I never hear another sheep bleating again that will be fine 😜 it was a very interesting day mind you and the whole operation is very slick. I spent the day wandering around and watching some judging and some of the sales and people watching too, fascinating day all in all, and with a few purchases made and loaded we headed home.

Rain in the evening.

Sunday: Wet start maybe it will dry up later on, John did the birds then went off to work for a couple of hours. I made pasta sauce for the freezer, tomatoes, basil, onions and garlic all homegrown mixed with salt, pepper and olive oil then roasted in the oven, cooled blitzed and frozen. I also had some bananas to use up so I made a GF banana, chocolate (cocoa powder) and peanut butter loaf, a basic chuck in the bowl and mix along with maple syrup and some coconut oil, baking powder so it’s dairy free and low in calories as well 😀

Sam and Luke stayed overnight as they went to a function locally and we looked after Mia so we had Mia to entertain us this morning 😀

We are off out for a Sunday roast later with Shelley, Martin, Josh and Florence so depending on the weather we might not get much more than the routine things done today.

Molly returned.

Well as usual once it starts raining it doesn’t flipping stop, it always goes from one extreme to the other!