Tag: greenhouse

Posted in Friesland Farm

Elderflower, more hatchlings and greenhouse planning.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 11th June: An idyllic day, those are my thoughts of today, of course I haven’t done much again his morning so I can take the time to just enjoy what’s around me, sunshine, birdsong, gentle breeze, totally idyllic, I need to take more time to appreciate it in future I think. It is in fact a perfect morning for collecting elderflower heads, the sun has warmed them and the heady smell is wonderful, it’s something gentle I can do as the tree i use is just out the front, I picked 25 heads, added a couple of slices of lemon and lime and poured on boiling water, it will steep for 24hrs then I will decide what to make with it, cordial, syrup, jelly who knows? It is such an underrated, bountiful tree because of course later on in the year you get those glorious vitamin packed berries as well.

The Epsom salts arrived so I will be using them later providing my joints will co operate.

ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL

Tuesday: I pretty much didn’t do anything other than make some bread and the dinner today. Getting better slowly.

Wednesday: Same again today, I haven’t done much in the way of the farm/garden.

I did however notice something on the dog, Mia, Charlie bathed her on Sunday and said she had a sore, today I noticed another and my suspicions were aroused, mange from a mangey fox, Mia is the only dog who loves to roll in fox poo and seeing as they don’t go off the farm that’s the only way she could have caught it. She is off to the vet tomorrow for confirmation and decontamination will begin!

Mum called in today and bought the aubergine plants I had given her to nurture, they were started at the same time as my others which are in the tunnel but they are three times bigger and flowering! What am I doing wrong I keep asking myself?

Thursday: Feeling capable again today although John still did the morning routine. I got up showered took painkillers and set about a few tasks that needed doing, water the poly tunnels, we have misty drizzle today so outside will be fine. While I was out there I pulled the onions and garlic that are ready and will need a week or so to ‘cure’ there are still onions growing that I planted later so I have left those in. Then empty the brooder unit that the goslings were in as I am expecting a hatch of light Sussex this weekend, onto burning the card/paper rubbish that was piling up. Before all that I had put a wash load on but the red light was telling me that the filter was blocked so I had to drain off the water and empty that, I found two Kirby grips, a piece of wood and a small plastic bag! Time for coffee and a sit down I don’t want to over do it, though I know I’m feeling better as I keep thinking of all the jobs that need doing, I’m not muscly by any means but have noticed some muscle loss especially in my arms from not doing anything all week 😝 I also found some mesh and made a leaf guard for the new bit of guttering John put up over the rabbit run, best to keep as much rubbish out as possible.

The drizzle turned to very windy, great for drying the washing, not so good for plants 😜 normally I would fret about the runner beans being wind ravaged after they had only just been planted out but these were sown straight into the ground and are good strong plants with strong roots hopefully, so I’m not too worried.

In the afternoon Sam came over and we sorted out the dog area and fed the birds before taking Mia to the vets, I ordered some antibacterial shampoo which had arrived by the time we got back which was useful. Mia is on antibiotics as there is a bit of infection on one of the areas, we bathed her, put the spot on for the mites (it kills about a hundred other things too!) then on went the buster collar 😩 and I fed her the antibiotics, Patch and Alfie had a wash and the spot on as well, though they show no signs of having anything, better to be thorough. By this time my feet and ankles were killing and I had a lay down, John made dinner, well eggs on toast, popped to the shop to get some wet food so Mia will take the tablets, quick cuppa at my sisters and the day is done.

Oh, we had a lovely note in the egg money box today, some visitors from Singapore that were staying up the lane wrote to tell us that they had never had farm fresh eggs before and that the absolutely loved them and the children had adored seeing the birds in the front paddock, positive feedback, lovely.

Friday: Up early, painkillers, then a bit of early morning gardening 😀 John did the birds at the front early and I did the others a bit later on.

I did a bit of tidying up, planted some flowers, repotted some bits, picked the rest of the peas in the tunnel and then pulled up the plants, I have sweet potato growing there now, emptied out a large pot that had broken and was full of bulbs, all kinds of little jobs that needed doing. An hours sit down and I’m good to go again 😀

Slightly concerned about Molly the cat, I haven’t seen her for a couple of days, normally she is hanging around the garden, she does go off sometimes but the older she gets the less likely she is to come back and she is around 13/14 years old.

The light Sussex are starting to hatch, at the moment there is just one, I hope I get a few more than that!

Saturday: 10 little fluffy chicks in total, not great from 24 eggs but not too bad all in all. After morning jobs I did a bit of pottering again in the garden, I can’t actually get my teeth stuck into any great jobs as I still can’t bend at the knee terribly well but getting there slowly. Mostly pulling weeds which the rabbits were very grateful for as they have been on pellets all week with John feeding them, well I can’t really ask him to spend half an hour foraging for them on top of everything else he was doing can I 🤣 John did a bit of digging up docks in the big side paddock and then did a bit of weeding in the garden to help out. In the afternoon we went to look at greenhouses 😀 I decided I definitely need to get a new one, have decided which one I want and went to have a look at one that is up just to make sure. All we have to do is put a base down and they will come and install it, so watch this space 😀

Sunday: Father’s Day and we are off out for lunch later on, in the meantime we did a little bit of goodness knows what because I can’t remember but one of the things was make a planter out of an old pallet, I wanted it for lavenders in the front which is an idea I had right from when we first came but couldn’t do it because Kai would have just trodden all over it. Now I’m not so sure that’s what I want or need so I need to rethink what it is I want to achieve 😝 better do it soon as the lavender plants arrived yesterday!

Put the onions and garlic in the greenhouse to cure for a week or so before storing.

This week I have managed to pick broad beans, strawberries, raspberries, broccoli and cauliflower for our meals, I haven’t had much to put out for sale as yet but I’m sure there will be plenty soon.

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rhubarb Tea Loaf

• 300g sultanas

• 200g roasted rhubarb (see note below)

• 300ml strong earl grey tea

• 100g dark brown sugar

• 275g self-raising flour

• 1 egg, beaten

Method

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Cabbage seeds, cookery books and bird boxes.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

A game of cat and rabbits

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Man down and ‘the hobble’

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seed order, missing dog and red mite remedies.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 8th Jan: It’s cold but dry this morning, did the morning rounds, one of the hens from the front paddock seems to have a bad leg so I got her in and put her in a stable with some water and food. She wasn’t walking very far so wouldn’t be able to get to the feed and water buckets, not sure what is wrong but if I give her rest and food hopefully it will sort itself out.

Had to have two goes at lighting the Rayburn this morning as the first attempt failed, most unusual but second time around it went well.

I contemplated doing a bit outside this morning but it really it too chilly to wander round looking for jobs, it’s ok if you have something you can get stuck into and warm up a bit, I decided the seed catalogue might be a better and warmer option, I do need to order sooner rather than later or the favourites will be sold out.

I noticed over the weekend that the geese are getting into the water bucket, a sure sign that mating season is starting for them, although I couldn’t top it up this morning as the hose was frozen, I will do it later on when it’s hopefully thawed a bit.

A package arrived his morning with some goodies in as a thank you from our Christmas guests, that was a lovely surprise.

I forgot to put the grey bin out even though I had marked it on the calendar, the bin men stopped at the end of the drive and then came looking for the bin, what a fab crew 😀 very grateful for that and messaged the local authorities to let them know how thank full we were, I’m sure they are always getting grief for things that go wrong so a bit of positivity will even it up a little.

It seems to have warmed up a little this evening so I took the opportunity to fill up and clean the water buckets, the hen I put in the stable is no longer there but I found a dead one in the back hut, not sure if it’s her or if she has just wandered off, I will keep an eye out for a limping hen tomorrow!

Trying to organise a delivery of straw bales as we will run out soon and our normal farmer does not have any left 😜 For some reason I didn’t keep the telephone number of the chap we used before, I looked all through my messages/contacts but can’t find any reference so having to track him down by other means, must be more organised 😝

Tuesday: Definitely milder today, I couldn’t see any sign of limping hen this morning so I’m guessing it was her that died. I put fresh bedding in for the ducks while I was on my rounds, made a quick coffee and took it outside with me to do a few bits in the garden. I read an article yesterday that said don’t do any gardening while to mud sticks to your boots lol so I will heed that and just Potter when necessary. I still have carrots growing and wanted some for tea so pulled those and weeded the bed a little, they work well in a raised bed, it doesn’t get waterlogged so they haven’t rotted and it’s high enough for the carrot fly not to be able to reach them and lay eggs, I also dug up some celeriac although something has been eating the tops off of them, my escaped rabbit I expect, she is still loose. I gave the carrot tops to the rabbits and went back in to make apple and celeriac soup and a chicken casserole. To be honest the soup was a little bit too sweet for my liking and I would probably leave out the apples next time but as it was packed with goodness I still ate it for lunch along with some Parmesan croutons I made from the last bit of the loaf I made the other day, they were delish 😀 I made a new loaf and got some apple and blackberries out of the freezer for a crumble for John later. I have a lot of fruit to use up, I’m am going to have mine with a blob of creme fresh I think. I had Mia and while she was asleep I looked through the rest of the seed catalogue and put markers on the ones I want to purchase so just need to sit down and put the order through now.

Did the afternoon feed and collected the eggs, the numbers have now gone up as we relented and put a light in with the front lot, it made a difference within a couple of days so we will carry on doing it, the light is rechargeable and dies sometime during the night so they are not on 24hr egg laying duties 😝 I need to put oyster shell and grit on the feed shopping as a fair few of the eggs from the ladies at the back are breaking readily when they are washed, the oyster shell helps to harden up the egg shells and they are obviously not getting enough even though they free range.

Wednesday: Today felt like Groundhog Day, I asked Alexa if it was, she said ‘no’ which made me laugh and be grateful that I woke up even if it was to the same old routine or so I thought. I did the morning feeding and then went into the greenhouse to contemplate what needs doing, I went through the seeds to bring indoors so that I don’t over order something I already have, I also bought in the clear covers for the seed trays to give them a good wash along with two propagators, and a big load of seed markers, though where the rest are is a mystery, I had hundreds of them. I went to the postbox and on the way back wondered why there was only one dog waiting at the gate, I called the other one, nothing, 45 mins later after me searching everywhere including up and down the lane she finally turned up, it is not something she has ever done before and she is definitely in the dog house 😡 I ordered some shelving to make the most of the space in the greenhouse, there is plenty of higher up space that doesn’t get used to it’s full potential so I am rectifying that.

The sun was lovely this afternoon, I was almost fooled into thinking that spring was in the air, it would be nice to have a few more afternoons like that.

Thursday: I am off out for lunch with Shelley and Josh today so got the morning feeding done, lit the fire, got tonight’s dinner sorted and cleaned the two propagators for the greenhouse before I went.

After doing the afternoon egg collection and shutting the birds away John phoned to say he would be late so I took the opportunity to sit quietly and order my seeds, a bulk tonne bag of multipurpose compost and some miscellaneous bits for the greenhouse including capillary matting. I can’t wait to get started on the growing season, though I can’t believe the prices of some things these days, I thought the garden centre would be cheaper but nope it turns out ordering online is.

When I use the multipurpose compost for seedlings I will add vermiculite, sand or well composted bark, you could use leaf mould if you have it too, it doesn’t need any extra nutrients for seeds just good drainage. When I use it for potting on I will add either some well rotted manure that has dried out or something like blood fish and bone for slow release nutrients. I do have large quantities of compost I made last year and then grew the potatoes in but I will be needing that to fill up some new raised beds I have planned.

Friday: I had a busy day planned so got the rounds done as quickly as possible then onto sorting out the greenhouse, I wanted to move it around, clean it inside and out and tidy up any rubbish, all was going well, I had planned to come in at around 10.30 to light the Rayburn as it’s not too cold today and Mum was coming for a coffee. Then at about 10.20 life went a little haywire for a moment or two! Apart from the fact that my cordless screwdriver decided not to work, an egg customer came and left empty handed, I had forgotten to put the eggs out 😝 cue a mad dash to get them out there, a fox shot across the back, the dogs were in because Mia slunk off again, and at this point I’m guessing she has been doing her job and chasing off foxes, the skip lorry arrived and as I looked for fox footage on the cctv I found it hadn’t been working! A little bit later and a riderless horse went galloping down the road but thank goodness it wasn’t one of ours. Everything settled back down for the rest of the day, the greenhouse is now looking tidy, clean and I have maximised the useable space for growing, with the hazels down there is much more light getting in so I should have a good seed germination, that’s the hope anyway. John is looking at a job tonight so it’s down to me to do the feeding and then the shutting away when it gets dark.

There are so many jobs that need doing I need octopus arms lol, the veg garden needs a good tidy up but then I’m inclined to think I will wait in case we get any more windy weather which just blows everything all over the place again, the poly tunnels need the algae cleaning off to let maximum light in, of course the fruit cage is still in a heap and that needs looking at before stuff starts to grow, there is still a lot of stuff to cut back, weed membrane to put down to suppress weeds and warm the soil, rigging up fencing to keep the ducks and the escaped rabbit off the garden, clean the rabbit runs out, clean the ducks out, fresh bedding for the geese, look at the cctv, tidy the hay barn, do some paperwork, cleaning, cooking, washing, light the fire and keep it going, I’m exhausted just thinking about it all 😂 where is my list?

As John wasn’t back yet I thought it would be a good opportunity to sort out some paperwork and get the desk cleared, made some bread as well.

Before and after photos of the tidy up and reshuffle. The things under the green covers are my orange and lemon trees, I have two lovely lemons growing which should be ready to harvest later this year.

Saturday: Normally John is here at the weekends but today he is working to finish a job, first though he went to collect feed. I did the morning feeding and put some fresh bedding in for the ducks on the way round, then as John arrived back the postman also arrived with some of the bits I had ordered for the greenhouse, happy me 😀 It was the greenhouse shelving and some yellow fly strips so I got on with putting together the shelving and hanging up sticky paper to catch anything lurking in there. The shelving is going to give me some much needed extra space for seedlings, an extra layer up high, they come as a four shelf unit but I have used it in half and it can easily be put back together as I need space for growing on outside so a win win buy I think. I also potted up the Autumn Gold raspberry canes I bought at the end of last year, I am intending to pot most of the raspberries I grow to stop the runners taking over the whole patch. The fruit cage is the next job on Johns list so he tells me whoo hoo I need to get that up and running again before things start to grow, this time the posts will be concreted in, the last ones were just rammed into the earth but they have rotted away although they did last about 5 years so that’s not too bad. The new one though should be altogether more stable and not move and rock in the windy weather which is a bonus as the door will also stay firm, the old door moved a lot and sometimes I couldn’t even shut it properly. I put some net up for the peas in the small poly tunnel to climb up, I have grown them in there because if I did it outside they would have been eaten by now, I will hopefully get a good crop of early peas 😀 Daffodil bulbs have pushed through as have the garlic and onions, I feel positive for the year ahead, for now at least 😝

I sat down with a cuppa and through various trails of reading I ended up reading a report of trials to control red mite in the poultry industry (a little light reading 🤣🤣) it was very interesting though and here is the link http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/4506/1/S0043933909000403a.pdf for any other poultry keepers in case you want to have a look. Apart from chemical controls there are other methods used such as high heat 45c, fungus (entomopathogenic fungi) which if I could find any for sale would be very useful, good old diatomaceous earth (silica, which basically cuts the exoskeleton on the mites) and also simple things like cardboard traps which I am definitely going to try out when we next clean the boxes.

Try and learn something new as often as you can is something I have always done, not necessarily have a go at it just reading and digesting the information is good enough to keep the grey cells from slipping into a coma.

Sunday: A busy morning doing the usual stuff, then putting a windbreak up around the veg garden mostly to stop the ducks coming in now that we are gearing up to grow stuff and it will also help to create a micro climate for the veg so a double bonus although I needed to order more as there is not quite enough. It doesn’t look pretty but needs must, no point putting stuff out for the ducks to walk all over it or worse, eat it! I cleaned out the three rabbit pens, and the bantams house, we spent a mad 15 minutes trying, in vain, to catch the rabbit that is still loose, she is now eating any available crops in the garden including the celeriac and carrot tops. A delivery of 50 straw bales turned up so those had to be stacked, the cat presented its arse with a worm hanging out so that had to be sorted luckily I had stocked up on wormer so they have both been done 😝 John cleaned out the hens at the front and cut up cardboard to try this new technique of trapping red mite, it’s not full season yet but might as well start as we mean to go on. Bird flu is in the country albeit a different strain from last year so we need to be mindful of that and keep up to date with any bulletins, they do send a text by landline but Facebook is much quicker at letting us know.

And then out for lunch 😀

Well that turned into a long lunch and we were late back, the fire had gone out and the chickens were waiting for their tea, the eggs had sold out so it was action stations for a mad half hour and then relax 😀

That’s it, the end of another week, have a good one, make each day count, learn something you never knew TTFN 😀