Tag: hedgehog

Posted in Friesland Farm

Time to release Hilda, everywhere is parched & still no significant rain.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 1st August 2022: Last night Hilda had her first slug supper 🥰 I was glad she dived straight on it and devoured it because it means she knows what she should be eating and will be able to feed herself when she is released. She is also self anointing now which is another sign that she is capable of taking care of herself, I don’t know if they fully understand why hogs do his but they basically regurgitate and cover their spines in it 😝 Thoughts are that they cover their spines with toxins to protect from predators so I would say she is very ready to move on. I weighed her and she weighed 340g 😲 I have been making sure that we have as little interaction with her as possible and that I only feed her at night so that she doesn’t get used to food on tap during the day when she ought to be asleep. Basically I have made sure that the conditions she has been under were as close to her natural routine as possible to give her the best chance when she goes it alone. So it was release time 😁 I took her out in the dark and put her down near the shed and watched her for a while, she spent all the time I was watching, rubbing along the ground and self anointing which I guess is her way of marking territory 🤷‍♀️ I made sure there was water nearby and there are usually cat biscuits out by the door where diesel gets fed so I will also make sure that she can find those if she needs to. Job done ✔️ successfully reared and released and I will keep a look out for her to make sure she is doing ok, go forth and hedgehog Hilda 😂

Busy day today, John was home as my labourer 😂 so I set him to work on the compost area which had got a bit out of control. Meanwhile I did plenty of planting up and mulching, one bed of delphinium and one bed of Veronica and saliva. I also planted up various other plants that I got from the sale section at the garden centre 🥰 I sat down on my root bench mid morning and moved the blanket that had fallen on the floor and guess who was under it 😂 yep, Hilda, so I got my gloves and moved her to under the shed. We worked hard most of the day, even when the sun came out I found some jobs to do in the shade, a sit down late afternoon, cook dinner and then back out in the evening. We spent a couple of hours watering, weeding and then mulching the shrub bed in the front, this bed has suffered more than most for some reason, the two enormous orange ball budhliea probably sap all the moisture from the ground around them. Once that was done I went on to watering some of the beds in the garden area and then fill up the horses water. Just after dinner we were going out to do a bit and guess who came wandering towards us, Hilda 😂 I went and got her some soaked cat biscuits which she readily tucked into though she did eat a few slugs I found in a nearby pot as well. Once I had finished for the evening I sat on the bench outside, picked up the blanket which had fallen again and guess who was underneath 😂 yep you guessed it, Hilda 🤪 I have now made her a little house stuffed with straw which is next to the bench seeing as how that where she seems to want to be. I guess eventually she will be brave enough to wander off but for the time being she is still happy to be around me though she really does need to learn what exactly ‘nocturnal’ means 😝

Tuesday: Busy morning doing the usual then Charlie called in for a coffee and then Sam and the kids arrived. I was pretty tired today and so not a lot else got done to be honest apart from cooking dinner. No sign of Hilda today, she has gone off to hedgehog by herself hopefully 😁

Wednesday: Busy day 🙄 I began at 5.30am (and then I wonder why I am shattered by 2pm 😂) It was lovely and cool this morning, these humid, windy, overcast days are hard work 😓 The best time of the day is very early, quiet and peaceful as well as cool and fresh. This morning has been all about cutting flowers and harvesting veg, loads of both! Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and courgettes, flower of every colour and size and foliage to compliment them. Flowers and grasses for hanging to dry were also on my to do list, loving dried flowers, if you have a go at them then rip up the rule book and try anything. One of my favourite so far is antirrhinum and I wish I had done more but the truth is I just did one to see how it went 🙄 Once everything was gathered it was sorting the veg to go out for sale, tying up the flowers for drying and hanging those up and then onto making up jam jar flowers plus three bouquets and two bunches. I definitely need a separate workshop for this but at the minute because it’s indoors at least I clean up after myself, I can imagine not bothering in a workshop situation as I would think ‘I will do it after the next lot’ 🤪

Jam jar flowers

Gosh it’s Sunday evening 9.30pm and I haven’t written anything since Wednesday 😂 I now have to try and think of what I have been up to. Nothing unusual really, some seed sowing, flower cutting, apple picking, watering, watering, watering, a few bouquets and a couple of jam jars. A morning out with Sam, Mia, George, Lucie and Charlie, a walk round the woods and then coffee and cake, a tip to the garden centre with John to get some specific plants, all the usual household jobs and anything else that needed doing 😁

I haven’t seen Hilda again at all so I guess she has gone on her merry way somewhere although there is always water out for any animal that needs a drink and I think it’s pretty hard to find at the minute so please put water out if you haven’t already. A shallow dish with stones in for the wasps and bees, a dish that is kept topped up for the birds, a bigger dish for anything bigger that comes your way, foxes, deer, cats, hedgehogs etc. Its pretty dire out there, the trees are very stressed and dropping leaves already to conserve moisture, the only things still going are the bloody perennial weeds 🙄 I was just out filling up the horses buckets and looking at the paddocks, I have never seen them so dead and brown 😏 We had to let the horses into the winter paddock the other night as there is nothing left in the ones they were in. That means unless we get some rain in time for the grass to grow again we will be feeding hay for the first time in a couple of years. Up to now the system has worked well, leave the big paddock at the back as standing hay and they fast on that most of the winter, last year we didn’t even have to supplement with any hay at all, this year looks like it will be a different story all together.

I think we had a tiny bit of rain at some point this week, about a five minute burst but then the sun came out again and it was dried up before we knew it. Just imagine if it doesn’t rain ever again, nothing is impossible as the last few years have shown, we will be up s**t creek without a paddle 😬 There is no sign of rain in the forecast for at least another two weeks either, this green and pleasant land is now brown and thirsty 😔

I am now well into the stage of selecting what gets watered and what doesn’t, a couple of areas are very dead, the wild area under the weeping birch tree has been dying back for a while and so I have left it unwatered, just hoping that any seed will be viable enough for next spring. The area where I have the thornless blackberry, some of the rhubarb, and where I planted herbs in the spring has also not been watered for weeks and so most of that is dying back too. The three fruit trees at the bottom of the patch, the cherry, dual pear and apple tree are looking stressed but I have not watered them, that would take gallons and not very responsible but the mulberry bush is still thriving and that is in the same area 🤷‍♀️

John cut the grass in the walkway this evening, it’s not green grass it’s just dead long grass 😂 but might as well tidy it up anyway. One bonus in all this is that all the annual weeds have died so that has saved us a job.

It’s a crazy year in more ways than one and now we are also heading for recession, way back I did say I thought we were in for a bumpy few years and I wasn’t wrong was I!

Posted in Friesland Farm

Scorching temps 🥵 no rain & still no rain 😏

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 18th July 2022: Today could possibly be a record breaking day here in the UK as the temperature is set to climb up near 40c and possibly 41c 🙄🥵 That is insane for this country and possibly a warning of what is yet to come 😏 I was up early as you can imagine, I have done all I can to prepare the garden for todays heat, I have no idea if it is enough I am just keeping my fingers crossed. No doubt I will lose one or two plants and some of the the bigger well established shrubs are already suffering from lack of water. This will have a knock on effect for the top fruit because lack of rain means the fruit is not getting any moisture and it won’t swell, indeed if we continue to have no rain they will shrivel and die altogether. These are the things we need to be mindful of when thinking about climate change and how it will affect us and future generations because it is going to have a big impact. I really feel that we are entering some kind of Armageddon, without being too dramatic we have war, drought, flooding, fires and disease, I mean was there ever a clearer message to mankind 🤷‍♀️

On a lighter note 🤪 this mornings jobs were cutting flowers, some for bouquets, some for drying and some for trying out a different drying technique. Once the flowers were all cut I made sure the hedgehog was fed, I have had to give her a bigger bowl to eat from now she is consuming much more food. I made sure there were bowls of water out for birds, cats, other hedgehogs, bees, in fact anything that needs a drink can hopefully find a source they can use somewhere out there in the garden (in the shade of course). By 9am it was already hot, John had done all the farm animals early this morning before he went off to work (he is working in an old cottage with thick walls so it will be nice and cool in there) I fed the torts, they will eat a lot in this weather and they are very speedy too lol. Then I sorted out all the dried flowers that have been drying in the kitchen, they have all moved to the pantry now and I have the next lot hanging in the kitchen to dry. Plus I have put some flower heads in silica (like the little sachets that come with shoes etc, it can be reused many, many times) to see how well that works, you can do that then microwave it but I am going for the longer method of putting them in an airtight container and extracting the moisture slowly, hopefully this will retain more of the colour. After that was all done and I quickly hoovered up I sorted out dinner for later. I don’t want to put the oven on today and so I am using the slow cooker which I would normally only use in the cooler months. I went round and closed all the windows and shut the curtains and blinds putting up extra cover on some of them. Our front three windows which are south facing filter out UVs luckily 😁 on a colder day it’s a bit of a pain that they don’t allow the sun to warm the room but on days like this, yippee 😁 I have even put a cover up on the little window on the stable door, I pinned a doubled over tea towel up there 😝 anything to keep the heat out and the cool in.

Early morning flower cutting to beat the heat.
Pretty flowers with short stems are not wasted, silica is another way to dry flowers so I am giving it a go.

This all might seem dramatic to those who live in warmer climates but we are just not used to it and we are also not geared up for it. We tend to have large windows to let maximum light in during the darker months, more glass area means the house heats up, useful for winter sun, not for extraordinary summer sun. Most of us don’t have air conditioning, nor on the whole, do our shops, offices or public buildings, we just about have it in our vehicles (though ours doesn’t work 😬) We don’t have cellars or cold storage other than a domestic fridge or freezer and although my pantry is cooler than anywhere else, it’s not insulated well enough for abnormal heat spikes like this. So you can see we are ill prepared for 40c, add to that the fact that most workplaces will still expect staff to turn up for a days work and you can see we are going to run into problems. Some places are closing for the day, the majority won’t and I feel sorry for those who don’t have a choice. We have rules for working in minimum temperatures in the UK (rules, not laws) but we have nothing similar for maximum temperatures because on the whole the matter never arises. Schools are normally constructed to look like giant greenhouses, big windows for maximum light so stop the kids nodding off 🤭 We just never considered that heat like this might become the norm but if it does we need to sit up and pay attention and get our act together pdq!

I spent the evening from 8pm (that was when it was finally comfortable enough to go out) until after dark, checking things over, making sure everything had enough water and was doing ok. One or two of the plants had suffered badly, one of the squash plants was at the point of collapse, the other 9 were fine so no idea why that one, I gave it a good long drink. Also some foxglove plants in pots that I had been growing on until I can plant them collapsed, all the other plants around them were fine. Again I gave those a good long drink, moved them to heavy shade, recovered them with shade netting and hope for the best. The hedgehog has been moved to a cooler room as the heat was building too much in the pool room, the horses water has been moved to a more shaded area closer to where they are choosing to stand in the daytime heat, they don’t have to go far to rehydrate then. I did as much as I could do in order of priority, just hope it is enough.

Tuesday: The night was not quite as bad as I expected, though it was warm I did manage to sleep most of the night. Up early this morning when it was nice and cool, I flung open all the windows to make use of the cool air and closed them about two hours later to keep out the rising heat. The two lots plants that I had to rescue have revived but they have searing heat again today so who knows what will happen to them. I did water in the poly tunnels but that is all, it’s a case of just keeping everything ticking along until the temperature drops again which hopefully will be tomorrow 🤞 still no sign of rain though 🙄 A good thunderstorm would be a bonus right now. It is already 24c indoors and I can’t get it any cooler than that, we definitely need to think about how we go forward because I don’t think this is going to be the one and only time we hit these temperatures so we need to gear up for them really.

I am going out early this morning with Charlie, we are going for breakfast, it’s my birthday treat from her. My birthday is a couple of weeks away yet but her due date is not far behind so we are going now while we can. We didn’t bank on it being the hottest day ever mind you 😝 thank goodness for air con in cars these days, when I was young air con was an open window 😂

Well what a treat that was The Yurt at Nicholsons (Bicester) if you have never been then I urge you to try it out 🥰 The breakfast, and I had Turkish eggs, was so delicious, seriously good food. The yurt is awesome and even in this heat it was ok to sit in without feeling too hot. One of the best bits, though it was all totally fabulous, was that I received a birthday card on arrival and the yurt supports Women in the Wild in the Maasai Mara who grow and plant indigenous trees to help with things like soil erosion, shade and climate change. To celebrate my birthday (and anyone else who goes along for their birthday) the yurt supports the growing of a tree in my name 🥰🥰🥰 I just absolutely love this, it’s amazing, the world needs more trees, I am always saying it and right now an extra one can be grown in the Maasai just because it’s my birthday and I ate there, big fat ✔️ from me 😁

This was seriously good tucker people 🥰 Turkish eggs and most of the ingredients they use are locally sourced 🥰
All I did was eat breakfast for my birthday but look how far reaching that can be 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

Not much done for the whole afternoon but once the early evening arrived and there was cloud cover it was out to water and check on how things had managed. There are a couple of losses that I do t think will recover but on the whole not too bad, I say that glibly because that’s just the things I have been watering. The plants I haven’t done because they are low down on the priority list have all but collapsed, under the apricot tree for instance were herbs I planted, feverfew en masse, a couple of rhubarb plants, a thornless blackberry and some asparagus. I just couldn’t do those as well so they have gone by the by, they may recover they may not and only time will tell. It tried to rain, we had a few spots, I kept on watering regardless as that was never going to make much difference. I spent most of the evening moving the sprinkler around and giving some of the beds a really good soak, the rest I will do in the morning. I also spent some time picking purple French beans, carrots, kohlrabi and hunting for the hidden cucumbers. There are tomatoes that are ready but I want to leave them to see if this year I can get a whole vine ripened, never managed it before maybe this is the year 🙄 I am totally done in now, the temps seem to have dropped slightly, I am hoping they drop some more overnight, I will be very happy to get up early if it is much cooler than the last couple of days.

Wednesday: Oh soo much cooler plus we have had a splash of rain, not much but we will take anything at the minute. I had bouquets to make up for later on in the day plus I did a couple of jam jars and got all the veg out for sale in the shed. I got the dinner prepped ready for later, it’s a full home grown/locally grown dinner tonight 🥰 At lunchtime Sam came with the children and then Shelley came with hers, schools out for summer 🥳 well the kids will be happy anyway, the parents not soo much 🤪 After delivering two lots of flowers late afternoon it was get the dinner on slow to cook, have a cuppa and a sit down, not rush out to water because we had a drop of rain. Great really because I feel really tired and my finger joints are playing up, must be something going on with my system so it’s good to have a restful evening.

Thursday: A quiet day on the whole, I did plenty of the usual jobs plus a fair bit of weeding and some cutting back some seed collecting and cutting for dried flowers and grasses. Shelley came over with the children at lunchtime for a couple of hours, after they had gone Sam came with the twins for their Thursday session while Mia was swimming. Today I introduced the twins to fresh tomatoes from the plant and showed them how cucumbers grow. The taste test was approved by George in both cases but not by Lucie 😂

I discovered why it was quiet when Sam came and she said the road is closed, is it that was news to me 🙄 Apparently there was a water leak and Thames Water was fixing it so they closed the road. John and I went and had a look in the hole they had dug and it seemed like they had taped it up and were coming back hopefully tomorrow to fix it properly and reopen the road. By the evening cars were ignoring the road closed sign and squeezing past the mound of rubble they had dug out and left in the road surrounded by plastic fencing. It was pretty annoying as our egg customers could get through from that end and I felt that if they had put the rubble they dug out to the side a bit more they could have left the road open 🤷‍♀️ Bearing in mind that they might turn the water off tomorrow to fix it I made sure everything had water or was well watered.

Friday: I was up early and getting on with tidying up the front area where I have lots of plants in pots, I potted up a couple of other things to put out there, fed it and watered it all and weeded all the pavement cracks and it’s looking much better. I want to go and get some bedding plants which is not something I normally do but all the grass and paddocks are looking brown and dead so I thought that might cheer things up a bit No sign of any workmen by 9am and by this point a huge lorry had decided he wasn’t going round and moved everything to the side so it could get through and plenty of cars were still going through as well.

I went to Witney with Charlie who was having a blood test, we stopped and had coffee beforehand then a mooch around the shops and some lunch afterwards. When I got back about 1.30pm there was still no sign of any workmen 😏 but people seem to be ignoring the road closed sign which is just as well really, don’t close the bloody road and then not bother to come back and fix it, I doubt they work weekends either so when will the hole get filled in?

John came home early and we went to get some singing colour plants for the front area, I should have got them earlier in the year really as there was not much zing left 😁 But I managed to find some plants to buy 😂

I got in touch with Thames Water and they apparently have a permit to close the road until the end of Monday 😏 No need to close the whole road off, people are still moving the signs and barriers to get round or they are driving on the verge and quite frankly I don’t blame them 🙄 Meanwhile I am very depressed about the whole egg sales situation 😢 I am doing all I can as it is trying to get people to buy eggs, for some reason it has become very difficult to shift them and now a road closure is the icing on the bloody cake. I am not in a happy place regarding that topic today, seriously I just feel like shutting the gate and saying nope, not doing this anymore, I’m done. What will happen is that we will carry on but definitely won’t be replacing any chickens that die or get taken by the fox. It’s not just the road closure, there just doesn’t seem to be any interest in eggs or veg anymore 🤷‍♀️ and it’s depressing to keep flogging a dead horse so I’m not going to bother. Meanwhile though the eggs are piling up and even more depressing is that you know if you put them up for free there would be loads of people willing to come and get them then 😫 Oh woe is me today 😔

To add to my misery the bloody crows keep landing in my cooking apple tree and raiding it, with the amount of crows we have around here they will strip it in no time at all, they stripped the cherry trees, they strip everything, it’s a bad day folks.

Saturday: I am altogether in a better mood today 😝 I know they are first world problems but sometimes they weigh you down and it’s ok to acknowledge that, sleep on it and move on 😊 I was up early today no for any other reason than the dog was barking, obviously something about outside so I got up and let them out and then carried on with the day. I did a bit more hoeing, weeding and sweeping in the front drive and although the grass is dead it’s looking tidy. Still no significant rain despite it looking like something will happen at any minute 🙄 I am sure eventually we will get a downpour that doesn’t stop for days 😂

It’s a busy time of year for flowers and plants and I have been collecting seed, cutting for dried flowers, dividing some plants, potting some plants on, feeding plants in pots and generally making sure everything is growing away healthily. Anything that isn’t is either fed to see if I can revive it or discarded if it gone past the point of no return. The ‘big guns’ are flowering, dahlias, cosmos, zinnia, gladioli, all delightful pops of colour and exquisite form 🥰

Today is George and Lucie’s 3rd birthday, where has that time gone lol. They are at the most delightful age, an age I love because they come out with the funniest things and you can hold a conversation with them and you never know how it will develop 😂 At three they are always happy to see Nana and readily give hugs and kisses, by school age that’s not very cool so I take what I can now. It has been fascinating watching them grow together, they always have each other, sometimes to bounce off of, sometimes to fight with, sometimes to share with but the one thing they always do is look out for each other, one will always ask where the other is if they can’t see them, definitely a bond there that will never be broken 🥰🥰

Sunday: Still no rain, things are looking grim, the verges are brown, the fields are brown, even big trees are beginning to drop their leaves 😢 I am battling every day to just keep things alive and feeling like I am losing the battle. I am exhausted trying and it’s getting me down, I feel that nothing is ever good enough, no matter how hard I try there comes a point in the year when everything is hard work. It can be all kinds of reasons, too much rain, not enough rain, too much sun, not enough sun, too windy, pests, disease, or usually multiples of them all at once. I have seen one flower farmer further North who has lost a massive amount of her flowers due to the high temperatures, they are just scorched 😔 At least it’s not that bad here but still it feels pretty rubbish today.

I have had some good things though, the tomatoes are doing really well as are the cucumbers and this year I have had great success with peppers. I have got way too many though as nobody seems to want to buy veg this year 😂 that’s fine, next year I will just be growing enough for us, that will give me more time for other things. It feels like everything is going uphill, a general state of flux is what I thought today.

That’s it for this week, Hilda is doing fine, eating loads and escaping out of her run every now and then, it should be another couple of weeks and I will be able to release her. I will keep on feeding her if she stays around, at least that way I will know she is well enough to survive the winter.

Have a good week 🥰

Posted in Friesland Farm

A hoglet, a jab & a baby shower.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th July 2022: Happy 4th of July to any Americans reading 🥳 Meanwhile back in Blighty I have been as busy as a bee. I have plenty of jobs on the list and was hoping to sear through a good few of them today but I got to lunchtime and my feet hurt, my back hurt and I was tired, hungry and thirsty so I sat down for an hour or so. If I do t sit down and rest I am not very productive for the rest of the day and evening so I may as well sit, rest and refuel. I started off this morning watering because although it rained where we were on Saturday it didn’t rain much here 😏 It keeps looking like it is going to rain but we are not getting anything and the ground is drying up very quickly when we do get something. It’s weird at the minute because it July for goodness sake but it’s like the weather doesn’t know that and it was even chilly in the late evening, almost frost weather I would go as far as to say 🙄 It’s not going to last though as temps will be climbing again by the weekend, to ridiculous degrees 😝 all or nothing that’s the UK weather these days. Next I went on to do some weeding and then some harvesting of various crops, potatoes, carrots, broad beans, peas, elephant garlic (just the one) artichoke, courgettes, kohlrabi, then strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants and gooseberries. I then spent an hour harvesting all the blackcurrants that are growing on one bush, a big haul. I have two bushes (two that I use, the others I leave for the birds) so I cut the branches off on one bush and harvest the blackcurrants that way, the other does not have any on because I did the same to that one last year and the currants grow on two year old wood. Now I have a pile of goodies sitting in the kitchen that I need to process lol. I wanted to get the rest of the red currants harvested and the gooseberries but I needed a rest first. I also have plants I want to get planted up, cuttings to take, seeds to sow and I have no idea how I thought I would get all that done in one day 😂

Todays haul, roasted veg for dinner tonight I think 🥰

We have had issue with the fox as you know, John dragged out the trap and we caught it and had it dealt with. Less than an hour later I was working in the garden when I heard a hen doing a ‘I am being chased noise’ I went to the fence and by then patch was tearing across the field after, yep, another bloody fox 🤬 I got a bucket of corn, went to the front and got all the hens inside the safety of the outside run, I had only just let them out because I thought it would be safe for the day, bloody relentless! They are clearly urban because it’s rare to see a country fox out in the broad daylight, they know better than that, these are not scared of people being around and they are not scared when you get up close which indicates they are used to people. I am thinking they have been ‘relocated’ which is a pretty cruel practice if you ask me. If pest control are called out to deal with foxes in someone’s garden, they should be dealt with there and then, but what happens is the householder asks for it to be trapped and released 😏 This is not good for a fox who is used to being able to find leftover McChicken in bins, they are hungry, they don’t understand the pitfalls of the countryside, they get injured and maimed and catch mange, there is no kindness in this at all. The numbers are so great they are competing for what little food there is available and so they go for an easy target, our hens, in the middle of the day no less, it’s never going to end well 😞 This is only my opinion of course, but it is based on fact because I live and work in the countryside and I don’t mean in a posh house with an office at the end of the garden!

Finally sit down at 9.30pm, oh my days every time I turn round there is another job to do and another and another and none of them can really wait. I spent the evening in the garden, planting up and watering and then I thought I will sort out the plants in the cold frame that are potted up. I get plenty of failures and so I went through them and threw out the ones that were dead or dying or I couldn’t be bothered to keep anymore, I discovered leather jackets! No wonder things are not growing very well 🤬 if it isn’t one thing it’s something else but at least I now know it’s not my incompetence 🙄 The nematodes I got for the vine weevil in the front beds worked really well and everything is now growing as it should so I have ordered nematodes for the leather jackets and hope that works just as well. Leather jackets are crane fly larvae (daddy long legs) the adults don’t do any harm but the larvae munch on plant roots, normally you would find them in the lawn but for some reason I have an infestation in my pots 🤷‍♀️ Next spring I will arm myself with nematodes before growing begins 😝 I still haven’t got round to doing the cuttings yet but I will get there eventually. Tomorrow I have a big bouquet to cut for and some really nice flowers are now coming on, there are a few cosmos for pops of colour as well as zinnia and even a few dahlias. One thing I have discovered is that I much prefer the spring flowers to the summer ones even if the summer ones are the showstoppers 🥰

Tuesday: Up early as I have a fair few flowers to cut this morning 😁 then onto cutting for drying 😝 then picking soft fruits, gooseberry’s and redcurrants today. Just about got all that done when Sam arrived with the twins for the afternoon. After dinner was done I did an hour or so outside but to be honest I am knackered today so finished at 9pm 😝

Wednesday: I had planned on a relaxed day today, I made up the bouquets that were going out today, let the ducks out, did the eggs and pootled around. Midday and a customer was coming to collect a bouquet, I had a phone call initially and she wanted 3 x bouquets and wanted some pictures sent so she knew what they were like. I sent the pictures and said I can do anywhere from £10 upwards and so she wrote back and said £30 please. I had got her £30 flowers ready and when she collected she was delighted and then asked where the other two bouquets were 😣 We apologised for both miss communicating and I was very professional and said ‘it’s no problem, I can get them cut, conditioned and delivered by this evening’ All the while I was thinking s**t what have I got left in the garden to cut that hasn’t already be allocated to another bouquet 😂 Luckily it was overcast as well because cutting flowers in the midday sun is not ideal, not for the flowers nor for me 🙄 Plus once cut they had a good four hours conditioning, not ideal again but the minimum amount at least. I went round (amazingly enough, not in a panic) and cut anything and everything I could see that I could use including two beautiful gladioli that had been hiding in a bush! All is well and I learnt a very good lesson in precise wording lol. I am very definitely going to be expanding this side of things going forward, I am loving it and so are the customers, I just need to identify a stable for conversion to a workshop now 😝

With all flowers delivered, dinner cooked and eaten it was more work in the garden for the evening.

Thursday: Up and about, flowers to cut for another bouquet plus I cut a lot of shorted stems for jam jars, might as well cut them that encourages another flush of some of the plants but also they don’t just go over and get wasted. Once that was done and a bit of watering plus all the usual morning jobs including letting the ducks out it was time for the farrier to arrive. Sam and the twin arrived just beforehand and while I got the twins to feed the tortoises, Sam got the horses in to have their pedicures 😁 Sam left before they were done as the twins had an afternoon session at nursery so I turned the horses back out. I cleaned out the water buckets and left one to fill up while I took the head collars back to the stables, I picked up a broom and started sweeping down the hard standing where all their hoof clipping were and yep you guessed totally forgot that I had left the water on 😝 Luckily while sweeping I suddenly realised and although it was overflowing it had only been about ten minutes. Once that was done I did a bit in the garden until around 1.30 then went in for some lunch and a sit down. I had just finished making up some jam jar flowers when Sam and the children arrived again this time for Mia’s swimming lesson, the twins stayed here and had their dinner, they were then collected and off they all went. I then had to make up a bouquet for collection this evening and someone was also coming for a jam jar. Dinner then John played pool with the lads while I watered the garden and then watched an online summer flower festival with our flower group. Charlie had come over with Macca and so she did some watering for me and stayed outside doing that while I watched the flower festival which was fab of her, it freed me up to do something I wanted to do but also meant that an important job was still getting done.

Friday: Boy was I up early today 😂 4.45am, well I woke up and thought I might as well get up and get on so I did exactly that in my pyjamas 😝 Mostly watering, some cutting back and some seed sowing, there is still time to sow annual flowers so I did cornflowers, I also sowed stocks which are biennials. They will get big enough to transplant by September into a permanent bed and then they will flower next year. I was just picking courgettes when John called me, it was about 7.30am, there is a tiny baby hedgehog right in the middle of the path by the hay bar he said. So off I went with him to have a look, yep it’s tiny all right, we have a great hedgehog population here and I am used to seeing them about, I am even used to seeing them nearly as small as that but they are usually very near the nest site or their mother, neither of these were nearby. I left it for a few hours just in case mum came back or it made its way home but it was still there when I went back so I gathered it up and took it back with me. First observation was that it had a tick so I removed that, second that it’s eyes were tightly shut so I think it’s around two weeks old, third it only weighed 89g so way to young to be out on its own and probably (almost definitely) still suckling. How it got there I don’t know, I looked around for other siblings but couldn’t see anything and I have no idea where the nest would be at the back. If it was in the side paddock then it will be under the decking as that’s where I regularly see hogs, I have seen them at the back but the hedge row is so long and the nest site could be anywhere along there 🤷‍♀️ I tried phoning the British hedgehog society but the phone was constantly busy so I emailed them and they got back to me quickly and gave me a number for the local wildlife rescue lady. She has covid and can’t come out but between reading the rearing pamphlet, the lady’s reply’s to my questions and the fact that we have all the equipment needed here I felt I was pretty well prepared to look after it. First it needed rehydrating with a sugar and salt preparation (carefully weighed out in the correct quantities) not a problem I have made that kind of solution before. Then it needed heat, not a problem we have heat lamps, I found a box, put in some straw and put it in a quiet dark room. Then we needed goats milk, quick phone all to John who arrived with said goats milk. We have tiny syringes so that fine, I sterilised everything before using and gave it some fluid, you will have to use a little force to get it in its mouth the lady had told me (but not too much) yep well I have had fed plenty of baby animals so that was all ok. Once it was time for the milk I warmed it to blood temp filled the syringe with 4ml of the milk and went to feed it. I seriously don’t think I have ever seen anything cuter than a baby hog feeding from and tiny syringe 😍 It drank the first 4ml so I offered it another 2ml and after the first one it even put its little paw on the syringe to move it away, it was full up 🥰 little happy dance done I then had to do the next part. It’s face has to be cleaned after eating or drinking, wipe a cotton bud dipped in a mix of olive oil and water to clean it and keep the skin from drying out and then you have to stimulate it to wee and poop lol just like it’s mother would, luckily I have also done this before with kittens and puppies. Again that is done using a cotton bud dipped in the oil and water. Job done I put it back in the box with an old tea towel for a comfort blanket and left it to sleep. Everything then sterilised again until the next time in around three hours 😂 I seriously hope it makes it and if it does I will be a very happy hog mummy 😁

Oh yes before all of that I went off to get my fifth vaccination and so I had planned on having a restful day 😂

Saturday: Hilda the hedgehog is doing well I am pleased to say, she has opened her eyes and is more mobile though shaky on her legs still, eating well and pooping and weeing so hopefully this will end well. Just a few more weeks of feeding her up and then she can be released.

My vaccination has floored me 😏 totally exhausted, headache, unable to do anything for more than ten minutes before I need a sit down, lie down or indeed a sleep. All the others did not affect me at all but with this one I have a thick head and am on the paracetamol 😝 Not what I needed this weekend, I was supposed to go to my friends 60th birthday party tonight but I was just too tired to function, even eating tired me out, and I feel quite teary 🤷‍♀️ There is definitely an immune response as I can feel it in my hands and joints so hopefully it’s doing good at least. Tomorrow we have Charlie’s baby shower and I hope I feel better in the morning as I have an awful lot of things to do beforehand. It’s afternoon tea in the garden but still there is furniture to move about, sandwiches to make, crockery to wash, etc, etc and right at this minute I have not got very far at all 🙄 It is also bloody hot today and going to get hotter which means I have no hope of getting anything done outside past 10.30am, so it’s indoors in the dark, cool for me for the foreseeable future. So many events happening this weekend out and about and I won’t be attending any of them for fear of frying and shrivelling and setting off a flare, fml sometimes, I tell myself there are worse situations to be in but that doesn’t really help knowing that I am constantly missing out on life in the sun 😢

Sunday: Luckily I woke up feeling fine this morning, just as well as I had a long list of things to get sorted for the Charlie’s baby shower. We had a traditional English afternoon tea with triangle sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, a selection of delicious cakes and a few other goodies for good measure 😁 We had a busy morning setting it all up then a very relaxing time sitting and enjoying it and then…..a water fight 😂 well it was very hot and the kids had the paddling pool out and one thing led to another 💦

It is set to get seriously hot over the next week, I am having to constantly work to keep some things alive, even well established bushes are beginning to show signs of lack of water and I imagine the grass will be dead before the week is out 🙄 but I will be getting up super early and doing my best to keep it all going lol.

Little Hilda is doing great, she is now on cat food mixed with goats milk and it’s ad lib so she can please herself. I gave her a bigger pen so that she can have a mooch about and stretch her legs. Have you heard the screech they make, it’s like a warning screeching think, she also has sharp teeth and she is already pretty strong, moving the bowl with her snout or forefeet.

Have a great week and try to stay coolio.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Hygge, Hops and a Hedgehog 🦔

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th September: The Autumn equinox has occurred, the end of the light time of the year and the beginning of the dark time is upon us. Time to reflect and look back at what has worked, what hasn’t and a time to look forward and think about what to do next year. A time of myths, legends and rituals of all kinds, harvest is one of my favourite times of year, the word derives from an old English word meaning Autumn. I like the fact that it gets dark early and you can hunker down inside all cosy and warm having fed everyone with a hearty supper, Hygge as the Norwegian and Danish would say.

Talking of myths we heard a lovely one in Guernsey, some of the older houses have a large stone protruding from the chimney of the building, a witch seat, the belief was that a witch out flying on her broomstick could rest on one of these stones and get warmth from the chimney and if you provided one of these you would be spared of any witchy spells she might inflict 🧙‍♀️

The temps plummeted last night and I think there was a grass frost this morning, good job the Rayburn is ready when we are although the temps are set to climb again during the week.

John did the main of the birds this morning then it was just the orchard lot for me to do, my main thought is to lock up the house while I’m out on the farm, sad times but I’ve heard another report from just down the road that occurred yesterday so there is still skullduggery going on and best to be safe than sorry.

There were plenty of walnuts all over the floor so I have picked them up, washed them off, rinsed them in white vinegar (to stop mould forming) dried them off and put them in open trays in the kitchen to dry off. Quick coffee then outside again to see what else can be done, Sun is shinning this morning though you can feel a real nip in the air.

Managed to get a good bit done, two loads of muck into the polytunnel, plant a shrub in the duck pen and secure round it, plant a bush in the orchard and secure round it, pick a trug full of greens for the rabbits, harvest all the small broccoli florets and collect eggs and put them out for sale, the biggest pain in the arse though is keep locking and unlocking the doors to go in and out!

Tuesday: Mia arrived early in the morning, I had managed to just get the orchard lot fed and watered so that was ok, we did go out about 10am to pick up some eggs but apart from that we spent the day inside. Mia is in the middle of potty training so it doesn’t do to venture too far from the bathroom at the moment although she is doing very well, amazing, as I keep telling her 😀

I am practising Hygge tonight, an extra cardi on, a nice cup of milky coffee and my Norwegian slippers which are very warm and cosy, I have already worn them out once and Mum kindly re-felted the bottoms so I could carry on wearing them 😀

Wednesday: Another sunny, dry day 😀 After doing the orchard lot and re filling some of the bedding in various houses, I decided to try and start sorting out the garden in preparation for the winter. The garden gets ravaged either by the weather, the ducks or the chickens and so putting everything away or securing everything is a must, especially any plants in pots that you want ready for next Spring. The ducks walk over everything squashing it all, the chickens kick everything over then scratch through it and the wind just blows it all around, so it seemed like a good day to start organising stuff. I now have two areas that have plants in that are cordoned off and covered with mesh, I have planted a few more bits along the edible hedge in the orchard, when I say edible that includes food for the birds and bees as well as the chickens and ducks 😀 A bit of egg collecting and sorting in between and suddenly it’s already lunchtime.

I have decided to pull the plug on the new greenhouse for now, we haven’t got round to dismantling it and putting a base down and to be honest I’m not sure I can justify the money really, so I will use the old one again next year and see how things go. No point spending a fortune on something if I’m ill again and can’t get out there to use it to it’s maximum so for now it’s on the back burner.

I’m quite tired after all that so going to have a sit down and maybe a quick nap 😀 I’m am very fortunate to be able to stop and rest when I need to if I had a regular job I think I would have got the sack by now 😝 Don’t get me wrong, what I really want to be doing is ploughing into jobs, the mind is willing, the body is most definitely not!

I tried a little shut eye but I couldn’t so I thought I would read the rest of my book instead, after visiting Guernsey the obvious choice for new reading material was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. What a delightful gem of a book 😀 I thoroughly recommend it if you are a reader, now I just need to watch the film and see if they managed to capture the essence of it? (I watched it, they didn’t)

I have been eyeing up the light Sussex chickens, they are pretty big now but need to put on weight before we process them, ideally I would like them to get a couple of months on the garden free ranging, some will be selected to hold back for breeding for the next batch and I think there are at least 4 cockerels in there. The joy with writing a blog diary is that I can look back and find out exactly when they hatched, on investigation I find that they are 16 weeks so plenty of growing time left yet 😀

Did a bit of hoovering, polishing and cleaning, the place needs a proper good going through really but I will save it for rainy/colder weather.

I’m still picking up walnuts and there are still loads left on the tree, I need to make a real effort to use them this year especially in cooking but by the time I have cracked them all open I have lost the will to cook 😝

Did the afternoon egg collecting, the pullets are laying really well now, at least half of them, though the eggs are small they are still mighty fine eggs 😀

I need to decide about Tuesdays, it proved quite a logistical event especially as its potty training time as well as having to lock the doors behind me, I can no longer, nip out so I’m contemplating putting a notice out to say there will be no egg collections on a Tuesday until further notice, it would give me a bit of a break from the pressure of having to get them out there on time and who knows we may be able to catch up with sales instead of constantly selling out.

Think it, do it, lol, that’s what I have done, put a notice out, no eggs on a Tuesday for the foreseeable future.

I lit the Rayburn 😋 just for a couple of hours to take the chill off the air during the evening and I must admit it will be nice to have dry, warm towels again. The problem with this time of year is that it’s not quite cold enough to have it full on but it’s too chilly not to have it at all, probably be sweating in bed later lol.

It will take a while to get to know how she has decided to perform this year but I’m sure we will all settle into a routine soon enough, the one regret I have is that there is not enough space to have a chair right next to her, that would have been perfick 😋 mind you, you would have found me sat there all Winter long 😝

Thursday: Fabulous morning, sunny with a hint of mist rising from the ground, beautiful. By 8am I had done my morning bits and was stood having a coffee outside. My neighbour had ask if I have anything for the harvest festival display so I went round and had a look, some hops, a few little pumpkins and some sweet corn stalks is about all I have this year, hopefully they will be of use. I cut down all the hops and put some aside and the rest I have harvested ready to dry, I want to make hop pillows and need to dry the heads. They are very tactile little things once they are off the vine and as light as a feather, I will leave them in the sun for today and finish them off drying indoors for a couple of days. I don’t have very many as I try to keep the vine under control, it’s suppose to grow along the fence but it keeps creeping up the pear tree and strangling it!

Did a bit of pottering about which was nice, I watered the shrubs I had planted on the front paddock fence line and the apple tree, collected a couple of ‘keeper’ apples there are not many this year, sat and ate the last pear I found hiding on the tree, beautifully succulent and tasty 😋 picked up some eggs and put them out, saw a dragonfly which made me smile, a fab day for pottering out there.

I have a large amount of tomatoes to use up so I’m going to roast them with some olive oil and garlic then sieve them and freeze them for winter use, it’s such a good year for them that you can’t even give them away let alone sell them lol.

I ordered a bulb planter for the daffs, it’s a good strong one which I was surprised as it only cost £24, I took it up the back paddock to have a go but the ground is still much too hard! It needs a bit of rain on it dare I say 😋

Friday: No sun as yet this morning but it’s still early, John was up and out to do the birds just as it got light, patch the dog was barking incessantly, I got up to investigate couldn’t see anything, when John came in he told me it was a hedgehog 😀😀😀😀😀 A hedgehog, I couldn’t be more delighted 😁 they are in decline here in the UK and I haven’t seen one on the farm for about 5 years now so it’s an exciting find and puts paid to any idea that I had about using roundup on the veg garden paths, it will have to be hoed instead 😝

The wildlife has steadily increased over the years, frogs, toads, hedgehogs (well at least one of each) multiple different garden birds, the sparrows that seemed to have gone over the last few weeks have suddenly all come back to check out the roosting areas they used last winter, dragonflies, butterflies, insects galore, it’s a great feeling to nurture nature.

I’m walking back from doing the orchard lot and what do I see in the middle of the driveway but a rolled up ball of prickles covered in leaves, the dogs must have managed to roll it out to play football with it! So I went and got appropriate hand wear and picked it up and took it to the greenhouse along with some cat food, it’s not hungry and I’m pleased to say it looks in good condition, no ticks. I watched it walk around looking for a way out and so went and built a quick hedgehog house out of wooden posts and a broken slab with some leaves and straw for bedding, and then popped it in there. Hopefully it will at least hang around, taking care to stay out of the way of the dogs in future 😋

Blood tests this morning, I was supposed to have them last week but didn’t ring up in time.

Popped in to see my Mum and Ken as they have just come back from caravanning in the south west, came home with lots of killer jars and a couple of shrubs 😀

Went for a walk along the downs road with Josh, Shelley and Flo this afternoon, we played hide and seek behind the trees, ‘room on the broom’, ‘pull me out of the rabbit hole nana’ and conker football 😀

The woodpecker is about, I spotted him hammering a tree trunk this morning, then when I was out doing the afternoon feeding I heard him and then saw him take off in the unmistakable, undulating flight back toward this mornings tree. It is a greater spotted woodpecker the green ones tend to stay more in the hedge-line at the side of the long paddock so I don’t see them as often, one day I will get a picture but they are very quick.

Saturday: Another lovey sunny Autumn morning, I know the bubble is going to burst eventually but loving it while it’s here 😀 Today we are off to the local ploughing match, heavy horses, tractors galore and plenty of ‘Old McDonalds’ for Josh to see 😝

Fabulous day, glorious weather and bone dry under foot, we have seen heavy horses in their finery, steam engines galore, tractors old and new, eaten ice creams, doughnuts, hot dogs and baked potatoes (some of us ate some of them, not all of us ate all of them 😜) had a beer, looked at the produce competitions, watched some old crafts, thank goodness there are people who keep these going and chatted to friends and acquaintances, all in all a great time had by all. I am pretty sure Josh will fall asleep early and not wake up till morning, dreaming of the vintage tractor parade 😀

I bought a Hardy plumbago plant while I was there, mine died over winter and it’s a plant that I miss.

Sunday: I almost forgot it’s blog day! Perfect day for me outside for getting some work done, pleasant enough, not much sun but a hint now and again. I have been planting, barrowing, weeding, covering and generally trying to get things in order ready for Winter. Plants that I have bought and needed to plant out or on, barrowing muck from the heap onto beds, weeding the pathways and covering bare soil that has been weeded. By 2pm I was quite exhausted but feel I have achieved something at least. I pulled some carrots, they are in a raised bed and so not getting waterlogged (chance would be a fine thing as rain is mostly a distant memory this year) I’m hoping to get some cooking and baking done this week and tomato soup is still on my radar, carrots add a great bit of flavour to the soup. I am still picking outdoor tomatoes though it won’t be long before the frost gets them, I would make green tomato chutney but we have enough pickles to last us a while. My Dad always says ‘you should try green tomatoes fried’ hmmm not sure on that one, maybe I should at least try them?

John has been busy, tidying up and burning the bits of wood that couldn’t be cut up for the fire, we always seem to have wood lying around that needs burning, then he cleaned out the front hens and he has a plan to move them off of the front paddock and make a bigger pen where the hens for sale used to be housed seeing as we won’t be doing that anymore. He has now gone to do his Mum and I’ve sent him with a shopping list so I don’t have to go 😜

I washed and dried another load of walnuts today, that’s it now I’m not gathering any more! It’s weird because when Johns Dad was alive he used to ask me for walnuts and we never had that many, the two years since he died have been bumper years and the squirrel has been nowhere near, coincidence? Or is he giving me a helping hand?

I saw a green woodpecker flying around the farm today 😀

Definitely going to light the fire tonight, it’s chilly indoors at 3pm already.