Lupus – Page 3 – frieslandfarm (flowers)

Hedgehogs…plural 😀😀 gremlins & the weather 😜

Posted on July 13, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Monday 6th July 2020: Oh my days where is the year going 😏 July already and the world is still in the grips of the pandemic. The UK has eased lockdown measures and at the weekend pubs opened their doors for the first time in over three months. We did not rush out to go lol, nor have we rushed to the shopping centres or anywhere else really, a good coffee somewhere nice is treat enough for me 🤪

First thing this morning I watered the poly tunnels and greenhouse, the garden could do with a water but rain is forecast Thursday and I will see how damp the ground is in the morning before I decide if it needs it before then or not. Meanwhile the task of the day was mostly cleaning, dusting, hoovering, polishing and putting things away, the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen all had a going over and at least I don’t have to think about that for the rest of the week. I also made a loaf of bread and an orange and sultana cake, got dinner organised and prepped and made a rice pudding with some milk that needed using up. That took me through to about 2.30, John went to work today but was coming home at 3 so I finished just in time. A quick cuppa and then when John came home we did the eggs.

I had noticed a damp patch on the wall between the spare room and the office and it was getting worse so I got John to have a look at it. This resulted in smashing holes in both walls to find a joint on the heating pipe had been leaking and for a long time by the looks of it 🙄 The whole thing now has to dry out before it can be ‘made good’. While he was sorting that out I did a bit of weed pulling in the garden and cut back some plants that have got much too big and were falling over squashing other plants.

It’s quite cold today I think, the wind has toned down to a stiff breeze but it’s still there, funny weather for July lol.

Nice loaf 😀 you can make the crust softer by placing a clean tea towel over it when it has just come out of the oven, also, always place your cooling loaf on a wire rack otherwise the underside will sweat.

The rat poison we have been putting down is taking effect, I saw one that was obviously dying as flies were beginning to land on it even though it’s head was still moving. Unfortunately Johns gun won’t fire and needs looking at so we couldn’t put it out of its misery. When I went back out to look for it a little later it had gone but it’s definitely not going to last long.

I have spotted the first tomato that is almost ready to pick 😀 it’s beaten the runner beans as they are no where near ready yet 🙄 The ladybird larvae I bought seem to be doing their job although I can’t see any of them nor adult ladybirds but the aphid problem has gone 😀 so they must be there somewhere.

Oh and after abandoning the aubergine plants outside, because they became pest infested and didn’t look like they were going to do much, they actually have baby aubergines on there 😂 Preening and cosseting them is obviously not neeeded just abandon them and voila lol.

Tuesday: I did a bit out in the garden this morning, the weather was nice, overcast but warm enough. I dug up some self set potatoes and some carrots that were in small raised beds, I have now cleared and weeded them ready for something else to go in. I did a bit of hoeing to keep the weeds under control and watered the bean bed as the ground is quite dry. At 10.30 Shelley arrived with the kids and my Mum arrived as we had planned to go for a walk somewhere different. We found a lovely village not too far from us and a lovely riverside walk under the trees. By lunchtime though the weather had turned quite cold, for July it’s freezing lol, not actually freezing obviously but it’s pretty chilly. All that hot, hot weather we had back in spring seems to have disappeared for summer 🙄 We came home for a nice cuppa and a slice of cake and Sam and the kiddies were here so we all sat outside enjoying the cold 🤣

Very excited to tell you that we have not one, but three hedgehogs, all spotted on the same night as John was doing his rounds, in three different areas of the farm, one in the orchard, one near the hay barn and one in the front. Whoo hoo that means they will probably breed or are breeding, this is fabulous news for a declining population. John, who is not normally on board with the whole ecological side of things said, well we have a lot of weeds but it’s definitely worth it 😀 I think I may have converted him 😀😀😀

Wednesday: It has been raining overnight and is still raining this morning, that’s great because the ground was so dry again, the wind really takes the moisture out of the ground when it’s that blowy. It means I don’t have to water anything outside and it will hopefully give the veg and fruit a boost of growth (also the weeds of course 😏) I have been out and watered and fed the poly tunnels and I sowed some autumn cauliflower seeds, hopefully they will produce heads around November time. I don’t normally bother with winter veg but you never know what this pandemic is going to do and so I am preparing just in case.

As it’s wet I decided to give the boot room a bit of a clean up and then have a look in the freezers and sort those out. As I said before the thing about freezing small amounts at a time is that they add up to larger than you think amounts eventually. I was surprised to find that I had a couple of kgs of strawberries in there ready for jam, I had thought I didn’t have many. I also have quite a bit of fruit left from last year, mainly plums but also some blackcurrant so I will make a couple of batches of jam with those. I am just waiting for the jam sugar to arrive as it’s still not available in the shop, although I haven’t tried other shops to be honest so might just be the one I frequent 😜

The top fruit are looking great this year, no scab on the apples or pears and the plums are abundant in all the trees, the walnut tree is loaded and looks like a bumper crop if I can get there before the squirrel and even the cooking apple, that didn’t have anything last year after it’s trim, has some big, healthy looking apples on it., hence the need to clear out last years haul from the freezers lol.

I bought some gram flour which is chick pea flour, I bought it so I can make vegetable pakoras, I think they are great little snacks and an ideal way to get your veg intake up. They will freeze nicely and be ideal for gatherings (when we are finally allowed to have one).

I was supposed to go to the hospital for my consultant appointment today but it was changed to a telephone consultation so I had to wait all afternoon for that, the phone eventually rang about 3.30 and all appears well apart from the rash on my arms. I am using elocon ointment but have only started using it consistently for the last couple of days, if it doesn’t clear up I have to get an appointment with dermatology which apparently will be via video link somehow 🙄 how times have changed but it beats driving up to Oxford with all that traffic and if the system works efficiently enough I imagine they might continue with it.

Thursday: A quick whip round to do the necessary this morning and then a day spent with the grandchildren, Sam and Shelley at the local wildlife park. It was a great day and the only shower we encountered was when we sat down to eat our picnic lunch 😜

Friday: Today has been one of those uphill days 🙄 John was off and after we waited for a delivery to arrive we went out for a coffee and to have a look at a little project we were thinking of doing. The company whose goods we wanted to look at were no longer in the location they once were though their advertising still has that location lol. We eventually found them about 20 miles away and when we got there it was appointment only 😏 though they did give us some leaflets lol. Then on returning home I had a phone call, unusual on my mobile but apparently the house phone no longer works! Yesterday when I returned home I found a letter in the postbox that was dated 1st July informing us that another service provider was taking over our line and to call before 2pm (I got home at 3.30pm) We phoned BT and told them this was incorrect and that we hadn’t authorised this and they said that’s fine they would just cancel it, then today the phone doesn’t work 🤬 John phoned them (outgoing calls work fine) and spoke to someone she said it’s fine and that the change had been cancelled and that she didn’t know why our line won’t work and she will ring us back on the open line, it cut off and we still have no incoming call facility 😜 Then I had a new phone delivered and you know how that goes lol, I thought technology should get easier but no, not really, umpteen passwords and sign ins later and we are nearly set up. Then the tv box decided to pack up or at least unpair with the smart remote, wtf is going on today, gremlins everywhere!

I did do a bit of picking before we went out this morning, peas, mange tout, dwarf beans, a few tomatoes, a few blueberries and some gooseberries. I have left the gooseberries a bit too long and this morning I was in competition with plenty of wasps 🤪 Not only do I need to be careful of the thorns on the Bush but I also need to make sure I don’t grab hold of a jasper in the process, anyone else call them jaspers? I don’t know why we used to call them that or where the term comes from. One thing I have discovered is that wasps are useful after all, we saw one wrestling and winning with a fly, it gathered it up and flew off with it, so they eat flies, a winner in my book. Back to the gooseberries, I don’t want all of them just enough to put in the freezer for winter use, the wasps can have the rest along with the birds as there will be plenty of other fruit to use and I don’t want to be greedy lol.

I still can’t get hold of egg boxes that are not massively hiked in price, it’s disgusting they are three times the price I normally would pay for them. We have asked customers to bring any clean ones back so that we can re use them, we are not short of them at the moment but some of the wholesalers are saying no new stock until November. I might have to look at other ways to package eggs.

It’s still chilly for July, the Sun was doing it’s best to shine today but the breeze is cold, our weather is all over the place at the minute. We had the best weather during the main of the lockdown which was a good thing I suppose, can you imagine what it would have been like if it happened in the middle of winter, I imagine depression would have been at an all time high 🙄 Still, I would like it to warm up a tad, I don’t mind overcast, in fact I prefer it, but some warmth in the air would be most welcome. I was thinking it almost felt like an autumn morning this morning, I hope that doesn’t arrive too soon, this year has been a disaster as it is 😂

We bought one of those ‘ring’ doorbells for the front gate, it’s great, the picture is clear and I get a notification (tinkling noise) when motion is detected by the egg shed. I can see who is about without having to stop what I am doing as I can’t really see from the garden so constantly going out to the front when the dogs bark is a pain as usually they re barking at nothing. If anyone rings the bell I can talk to them from the house lol, I can talk to them even if they don’t ring the bell which might give them a bit of a fright 😜 If you were thinking of getting one I can highly recommend it.

Saturday: The weather is a bit more promising today and certainly slightly warmer 😀 I have been busy, 8500 steps worth of busy by 12 noon, cleaning out the guinea pig run. Total clean out, move the hutch and everything, then onto the quail hut, and then the other guinea hutch. We also moved the other hutch into the light Sussex pen, this is so that the guinea is more secure and we dont have to shut him up at night. The two guineas have now moved to the bigger run and the single guinea is in the hutch in the chicken pen. I don’t really want him to be on his own but introducing other boars is tricky and we dont want a female, so for the time being he is alone. John cleaned out the ducks and the geese and then went off to get a new Perspex roof panel for the guinea run as the wind broke it off awhile back, all in the dry again now. A quick rake over of the orchard ground and it’s all done.

A few views of the garden which is looking full at the moment 😀

Sunday: The weather is set to be fair again today although just like all week long the mornings are chilly, reminiscent of autumn if you ask me. We got the main routine done early on and the John started on cutting down one of the remaining conifers, this has been an ongoing job (a couple of years I think 🙄) the trees are huge with many multiple big branches so it has to be done a bit at a time. If we did it all at once there would be an awful lot to clear up, cut a bit, clear a bit is the best option. We are going to change the entry way to the yard, at the moment the driveway goes to the left and past our back door, it will go to the right of the building and straight to the back which will be a lot easier with less corners to negotiate for any vehicles. That’s the plan, how long it will take to implement is anyone’s guess lol.

I spent 2 hrs of my life on the phone to BT this evening, we couldn’t have any calls coming in, but could phone out, then suddenly the phone rang, it was BT checking the line, great I thought, it’s working again. I tried to call our number just to double check and nope still not working, so I called them and that’s where the trouble all began! It seems, and nobody can really explain why, that we have a different number now 🙄 plenty of discussion and being passed round and in the end we have had to order a new package as if we were transferring to a new property, not only that but we can’t have our old number back yet, unbelievable, especially when they wanted to charge for some things, luckily the ladies on the other end were fabulous and all the charges will be reimbursed, I should think so, none of this is our fault in any way what so ever. It means we are on a temporary number until the end of July and then a different number will be allocated and then after 24hrs I can ring and see if I can get our old number back, though there is no guarantee, we have had the same number for over 35 years, beggers belief. What I also can’t understand is how come it takes so long to sort it out, it didn’t take them long to cancel it 🤪 even though they were not authorised to do so! Technology, fabulous when it’s going right but when it’s not look out 😏

Because it is sunny and I still have a rash on my arms, which I am trying to clear up, I avoid going outside during the mid part of the day, even at 6pm it was hot enough for me to be able to feel the effect on my skin so I have to wait until it’s cool enough to go back out in the evening, it’s a real bind but there are worse things in life I suppose.

Sorry the blog is a tad late, have a great week and as always stay safe this thing is no over by a long shot in my opinion 😏

Friesland Farm

Keeping busy, drying herbs & VEDay celebrations.

Posted on May 11, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th May 2020: We are still in the depths of the global pandemic, not that anyone needs reminding but it’s good to look back in a few years time and see what was going on lol. We escaped for a few hours today, a few hours we will never get back, queuing 😜 We decided to venture out and get some shopping, a big shop, the first we have done in six weeks! To be fair the queue into the shop was non existent and doing the shopping was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated and we got a lot of shopping. It should keep us going for a few weeks more and most importantly I know have choices when it comes to lunch and dinner which is a real treat. Up to now either the girls have been getting us stuff or we have popped to a small shop to get the odd bits and pieces, but it’s good to get all the odds and ends that you never think of when writing a list for someone else to get. They have their own shopping to get as well and so I don’t like to burden them with a massive list lol, anyway now we have done it once we will probably do it again but not for a few weeks. Then we went to the surgery to pick up my prescription of steroids, another queue and wait times with social distances always at the front of your mind. How we are going to progress through this I don’t know but we have to move forward somehow and probably need to start creeping forwards soon.

We only did the basics for the rest of the day lol, getting a bit lazy now.

Tuesday: We have a busy day ahead of us as the next batch of point of lay hens are coming in. Half are going straight back out but we are keeping half of them as we cannot keep up with demand for the eggs again. We should have kept some back from the second batch but hindsight is a wonderful thing 🙄 Before they arrive John has had to go and fix a leak for someone, those are the only jobs he is going out to do at the moment, he also went to pick up some sawdust and collect an order from our local builders merchant. It’s a long process, you have to e mail them with the order, then wait for them to confirm they have it then call them to arrange a collection time. Gone are the days when you could just nip down because you need some screws etc, one day I am sure it will all be back to normal but for the time being everything takes a few days.

Meanwhile I have been pottering, I am not feeling the best today, last night I broke out in a rash on my legs and was very tired, today my arms hurt and it’s an effort to lift them. I have done a bit of seed sowing in the greenhouse, the hoovering some washing and a wipe round of the bathroom but I am struggling. I had decided not to take any anti inflammatory today but I caved in around 10.30. I had an idea that I would go through my wardrobe and put anything with holes in the rag bin, anything that I don’t wear in the charity shop bag but I didn’t get very far with that. Sometimes, jobs can seem huge when you are not feeling up to it and I think I really need to be in a great frame of mind to sort stuff out otherwise it all goes back in the wardrobe. Johns work clothes I am able to sort though as his get pretty tatty, I have ordered him new jeans, trainers, t-shirts and sweatshirts so he will have a whole new lot and if I can sneak out the old lot without him seeing all will be good lol. He has favourites that he will spend days looking for if they get thrown away 😜

I also ordered a mini greenhouse/grow house that will go out the front to put plants for sale in. Some plants that are ready for sale can’t go out because they are annual and it’s a little too cold especially with the exposed area we have and so in order to move them on I need something for them to go in so that people can still buy them, as sitting in the greenhouse is never going to work 🙄

I picked a big bundle of oregano to dry in the dehydrator, I normally forget to do this as it wants picking well before the flowers appear and I always leave it too late. The plant will recover easily and I can use that fresh through the summer but have dried oregano for Winter use. I would like to make up some jars of herbs de Provence and I will try but it means picking various herbs as the others dry, if you do it all at once you can’t tell what’s what 😂 they are all green bits lol.

I have taken a few photos of plants I am loving in the garden at the minute, the mighty Angelica which has reached well over 5ft this year a beautifully architectural plant that I put in the tortoise run to give some shelter with the huge leaves. The ranunculus, which is the pink one in with the tulips, I adore these romantic flowers, lovely open blossoms perfect for bees and insects. And then there is the red Maple, again another mood lifting colour which goes particularly well with the clematis behind it, my intention was always to plant this tree in the front paddock but at the moment it’s still in the pot lol.

Angelica, used for medicinal purposes and you may remember the green sugary sticks on granny’s trifles.

Red Maple, beautiful colouring, maybe one day I will get it planted into the paddock 😀

We have been at home for a good few weeks now and although we haven’t argued there are a few things beginning to grate 😜 one is every time the phones rings either house phone or mobile, John turns off the radio, I have told him it’s mobile for a reason, so you can leave the room 🙄 I wouldn’t mind but he never turns it back on again and I hate the silence with tinnitus. The other thing is that he keeps swilling out his cup and then leaving it right under the tap, now if I am wanting to wash my hands this means that soapy water is going into his cup, at first I would completely move it but now I’m like, if it tastes of soapy water, tough luck 😜 There are, as you can imagine, many more little things like this and I’m sure for him too, but we are muddling through as best we can just like everyone else 😂

This evening we were busy selling point of lay hens straight back out but have managed to keep a dozen for extra eggs.

Wednesday: We have been busy today but not really achieved much 😜 Thinking about it I don’t actually know what we have done just seem to have buzzing about sorting lots of little things. Sam came over with the children to poop pick biscuits mini paddock and Mia was able to get her a brush, we all kept a social distance but it’s hard when the twins are crying and Sam is trying to manage by herself 😏 Shelley came over with the children to get some eggs and they sat in the garden for a chat, again at a social distance. We have enough space here that we can easily do that and as they are coming to get essentials we figure that’s ok. I think many people are getting restless now and so hopefully we will be able to start some kind of shifting soon.

We got busier in the evening, I did some weeding and cut and edged the lawn while John made the tops for my cold frames, they are not exactly what I would have liked, I like the ones with old windows lol but that’s not very practical with grandchildren around and also they are pretty heavy so we have some lightweight safe ones. We had just finished up when we heard a commotion in the back paddock, John ran up there and there was a young fox trying to grab a hen so we were on fox patrol for the rest of the evening. By the time we had shut everything away it was 9.30, time to come in and get some supper as we missed dinner 😜

Thursday: Another fine warm day ahead and I had a good night so I feel fine today 😀 We got off to a start with the usual feeding and letting out then John had to get some petrol for the ride on mower as we want to mow the little back paddock later when it’s cooler. I moved all the plants that need hardening off to outside in the cold frames and did a bit of hoeing plus moved the fire pit which for some reason was right in the middle of the lawn. I then had to take up the bricks it was standing on and put some grass seed down, the fire pit is now near a bench which makes much more sense and I am likely to use it more.

It’s VE Day tomorrow and up to now I have only been able to find a tiny Union Jack, I considered printing out paper bunting but I don’t have enough ink to print colour ones or paint to paint plain ones so I raided Johns work t-shirts and made some bunting 😀

Pretty pleased with how these turned out 😀 🇬🇧

The new mini greenhouse arrived so we put that together in between proving and baking bread and rolls 😜 and I will fill it with plants for sale as soon as I think I can get out there I.e I need a passing cloud for cover lol

In the evening I cut the grass in the little paddock while John cleared up the burning patch and was on Fox watch, it appeared but because he was up there with the dogs he soon disappeared again. Even so, John spent the rest of the evening up there keeping guard. We did our claps at 8pm though and I had Mia on FaceTime as she wanted to do it with me 😀

Bank holiday Friday: VE Day 75th anniversary and we all have to celebrate at home 😏 as there wasn’t much point sitting out in our front garden to wave to the occasional passerby, we put up bunting and offered chocolate in the egg shed 😀

The day was spent pottering around, it was pretty hot early on and so that’s me counted out lol, I did manage to get a few bits potted on in the greenhouse and sort out plants to put out for sale. I’m not quite sure what else we did, but we will be busier outside once it cools down, I have some watering to do and John will be on fox watch again 😏

Saturday: Another fine hot day, I am looking forward in a strange way to the cooler weather coming in, at least I will be able to get on the garden. This morning and actually through the night I have had pains in my wrists and ankles and I fell exhausted so not much done today. John did all the morning rounds and then some weeding for me in the brassica cage to get that ready for planting. It should have been done by now but it’s just been too hot for me to do it. Meanwhile I potted on some runner beans, for a strange reason and I have never seen it before the beans started to grow upside down, in trays and in pots, very bizarre, all of them not just a couple, the roots coming up and the leaves under the soil. I have now turned them the right way up and hopefully they will continue to grow normally.

Sunday: We did a good mornings work as expected with the weather much cooler. Yesterday John clears the brassica cage for me and so today I was able to go in and plant 12 cauliflower and 12 broccoli in there. Meanwhile he was busy weeding the next area for planting up which will be the sweet corn and butternut squash areas. I am slowly getting everything in the ground and looking at the longer range forecast I may take the chance to plant these things out and possibly cover with fleece if it looks like frost but there are only 1 or 2 cold nights on the radar until the end of the month so a ch ace worth taking I think. I also planted up a few flowers that have been growing in pots and potted up some phlox that arrived yesterday. The plant sales have been amazing, really amazing and I am chuffed to bits with how much I have sold. The eggs are still in huge demand and we never have enough for the amount of customers but can’t increase the flock as once this is all over half of the people probably won’t come lol. W

We had someone take without paying this morning, as I came out of the garden I just caught a look at the back end of a lorry with motorway maintenance on it, that only means one thing round here as we are pretty far from any motorway 🙄 and we knew exactly what was in there and how much money should be there, luckily it was only a couple of boxes but still it makes you cross.

We had some rain, yippee that will save me watering tonight.

Friesland Farm

Muddling through, plenty of sunshine, still in lockdown.

Posted on April 26, 2020 by frieslandfarm

Monday 20th April: I am not sure how this week will pan out regarding the Smallholding blog, to be honest I think I will just be going through the motions 🙄

John went to pick up another load of wood from some trees a friend cut down, I have spent the morning between, watering the greenhouse and spending time on the phone with various people getting things sorted out.

Tuesday: I have been dealing with many phone calls and various processes including the funeral. Although Dad was living in Wales and has been for the past 20 years he will be bought back to his childhood home of Swinbrook and be buried in the churchyard with other members of the family. This is something that Sue, his life partner, wished to do for him which I think is lovely.

Inbetween all that I have been trying to do a few bits in the garden, and I am pleased to say that some runner bean seeds have arrived today, I wasted no time in getting them sown and underway, I did say to Dad ‘look after these seeds and help them grow’ 😂 not sure if it will do any good but I can use all the help I can get 😜

Sam came over with the children to give the horses a check over, I can cast an eye but I am no expert and so a second opinion is always welcome. They are doing well weight wise and their feet are in good order so we can leave them as they are for another couple of weeks without worrying that they are getting too fat. It amazed me that Mia understands that we can’t have any contact, at four years old it is a damn shame but also makes me proud that she completely understands the situation, she does however want to punch the germs on the nose lol and she is not the only one 😜

Wednesday: I had a terrible night, the inflammation decided to rage and it’s pretty awful when you feel like that in the depths of the night. In the end I got up and took naproxen which helped to calm it down, I was lying there thinking, have I got sepsis, meningitis, covid, nope just the good old Lupus flare. I’m glad it calmed down a fair bit although I can still feel it, I really don’t want to have to go to the doctors more than necessary at the minute 🙄 I am taking it very easy today and mostly indoors as it is supposed to be very hot and that only makes things worse. I did nip out and pick some rhubarb, asparagus, purple sprouting and three artichokes first thing but the rest of the day I will stay inside. It’s a bit rubbish when you really want to be out there doing the veg garden but needs must.

The flat leaf parsley is growing like billyo and it smells amazing, I have been looking for recipes to use it in, chimmichuri seems to be a good one or a pesto type dressing, I think I may make a parsley loaded frittata for lunch today and take advantage of some of the goodness. The herbs are pungent at the moment which if like me you love the smell of them is fabulous, I know some people hate the smell of fresh basil which I find odd as I love it .

Friday: Gosh I am sorry I am rather neglecting the blog but hopefully you will forgive me this week. I am doing ok both with the Lupus flare and with my emotions after Dads passing. I guess there is a natural process to go through, shock, grief, sadness then laughter and memories. Inbetween all that and sorting things out I have been trying to get a few bits and pieces done outside, all this constant sunshine is fabulous for anyone who can tolerate it but not so good for me getting out and working 😂 This morning I was up and out early so I could water a few things and do some weeding on the asparagus bed. I am picking lots of spears every day and I am told they are delicious but I haven’t actually had any yet! I then went on to prick out the cauliflower and broccoli seedlings and check on all the other seedlings that are growing nicely, I did take some phots so you can see how much I have on the go. I am aiming to get as much growing as possible both vegetable and flowers, I think we need plenty to make us smile this year don’t you?

I have been doing other things which I almost forgot to tell you about, animal related this time. This morning I noticed the rabbits eyes were weeping and she looked like she had loads of ticks on her head, I called John to give me a hand and got the stuff to prepare to remove them. When I actually picked her up I could see it was globs of gunk, which in one way was good as I didn’t fancy removing that many ticks (and I did wonder how come I hadn’t seen them before) She has had this before so I bathed her eyes and I have some eye drops I will put in when it’s cooler tonight, I also clipped her nails as her back ones had got a bit long. During the morning I noticed the turkey stag trying to mount the poor hen and then a short while later there was a commotion, he was at it again, I went over to get her but she had sadly died. Later on in the day I did a bit of a post mortem to see if I could find out why she had died, my thoughts were a blockage but normally that would kill quite quickly. I discovered that she had a hole in her crop, this is where the food goes first before down into the stomach, the hole was possibly made by something sharp like a piece of stick that she had eaten. The cavity at the top of her body was filled with fluid, this would explain why she seemed to perk up when we held her upside down and fluid drained out, she would then feel able to eat again which is what she did but it was never going to work properly with a hole in it sadly 😏

Saturday: We had a bit of a break in the weather today to begin with, overcast, which meant I was able to get on and get some things done in the greenhouse and outside. Firstly I cleaned out the rabbit cages and put in fresh bedding. Then round to the greenhouse where I have sown some more basil and coriander, always best to have an abundance 😀 Onto planting the melon and a cucumber plant in the polytunnel, I will hold some plants back just in case they don’t thrive then I have a back up plan. I planted some more mangetout plants outside and I have sown a raised bed full of turnip, swede, parsnip, beetroot and purple carrots. These are seed sown straight into the ground and so should produce after the seedling plants I planted the other week. My plan is to use the veg in the raised bed as baby veg so they will get pulled as soon as they are big enough. Normally you would leave them to get big enough to store for the winter but I think we will need these as we go this year. Lots of other veg plants are still in the greenhouse ready to harden off in a couple of weeks time, patty pan, courgettes, pumpkin, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, sweet corn, all manner of dwarf beans and runner beans. There are broccoli, cauliflower, leek seedlings and also peppers, chilli, aubergine, and tomato plants growing nicely. I think I have things covered 😜 I have ordered some ‘Jack fruit’ seeds as seen on Gardeners World, these are a Bangladeshi vegetable which can be grown here under cover so I’m giving them a go. I need to do more research into fruits and veg that are grown here for different cultures as I’m sure we are missing a few tricks with them, they are never in the mainstream seed brochures but they could prove useful in future years.

Sunday: Another day in paradise, another day in lockdown 🙄 To be honest I am happy pottering around in the greenhouse and garden 😀 I just wish I could do it for longer but the sun has been relentless, we are due so,e cooler weather and even rain though so it could be ‘all change’. I am looking forward to the ground being a bit easier to deal with, it’s rock solid on the beds so not much chance of getting anything in there yet, just as well we have a few weeks left before major planting begins after the risk of frosts. I did plant three tomato plants in the small tunnel, I figured they might as well go in there as in a pot in the greenhouse. John has been busy doing more tidying up, we have a skip which is now loaded with stuff he has been collecting for 10 years and never used 😂. At different times of the day and at a social distance, I have seen all of the grandchildren, Shelley and Martin and the children walked over to get some eggs and Sam and Luke came over with the children to check the horses. They are all pretty good at understanding we can’t go near each other, it’s just a shame, you spend years getting them used to each other and us and then bam, hopefully it won’t all be undone.

I cut the lawn and the driveway late afternoon, if it rains it will sprout and will be harder to cut so I wanted to get it done just in case.

Then prep dinner, tonight I am having homemade pizza with a garlic, basil and tomato sauce I made and froze last year, that’s when all the growing of various things become worthwhile, you can whip up a dinner with home grown produce 😀

Really must try harder on the blog, trouble is I usually sit down at the end of the day to write it and then I’m tired so I skip through it all.

Had a bit of fun this evening with a present I bought John nearly five years ago and he has never used, a metal detector, we found a grand haul of crap lol but the anticipation was great each time we had a ‘beep‘

Friesland Farm

The normal routine, a few blips and some sad times x

Posted on April 20, 2020February 8, 2023 by frieslandfarm

Sorry this is late you will find out why when you get to Saturday 😢

Monday 13th April 2020: I’m losing track of how long we have been in lockdown now 🙄 I think we are going into week 4.

The temperature has dropped by 10 degrees today, hugely noticeable. I am definitely struggling today, the absence of my meds has increased inflammation and I recognise where this road ends so I’m hoping that blood tests on Friday will enable me to go back on the meds. I took anti inflammatories this morning which helps me to be able to get on and do a bit and even though it was cold I still went out to the garden. I did a fair bit of tidying up, I know I always say that but there always seems to be an area that needs sorting out, this time is was the areas around the poly tunnel, stuff that had been stacked or stored for winter, some broken stuff to get rid of, a bit of weeding here and there, and the area where I keep plants for selling on, always something. I planted out the next lot of broad beans and did some pricking out and potting on in the greenhouse, it filled my morning nicely 😀

I put some plants out for sale and was amazed that they sold very quickly, I have some more to go out and also some that I am bringing on in the greenhouse, I guess people can’t use the garden centres and so I am a good alternative.

Tuesday: Oh dear I haven’t felt well for a week or more now, the symptoms slowly getting worse and yesterday they came to a head, constant shivering even under layers of blankets, my joints have been getting worse and I can feel the inflammation in my scalp. So this morning I have phoned the doctor and am waiting for him to call back, I have been down this toad so many times that I recognise the way, if I don’t get it sorted quickly I will end up back on steroids, I might anyway but I might just be able to catch it in the nick of time, go back on the meds and take stronger anti inflammatories. This disease is such a see saw it’s hard to keep a balance.

Wednesday: Slight blip there but I’m feeling better today, I had my blood test bought forward and had it yesterday so just waiting for the results. UPDATE the doctor called and the white cells have dipped even lower so it’s the disease and not the medication, I am back on steroids for two weeks, this is bitter sweet, bitter because it means the disease is not stabilising at all and I lurch from one crisis to another, sweet because I know on steroids I will get loads of jobs done and be full of energy. I will also be starving most of the time which is great for John as I will always be thinking of the next meal instead of the lack lustre attitude I have had lately lol.

This morning I have been outside watering, it’s ridiculous how dry the ground is, I can’t even hoe or pull weeds because it’s rock solid and I am having to water newly planted stuff every day to keep them all going, the overnight moisture is not enough for the heat of the sun in the daytime. As I recall it was exactly the same this time last year, we had a very dry warm spell and despite trying to mulch everything it’s still a task to keep stuff alive. Not the stuff that has been going for a year or more, that’s all fine but I was aiming to get the flower beds up and running and they are struggling with the lack of moisture. I tried weeding the brassica cage but the ground is as hard as rock, seriously, I pulled what I could and will have to wait for some rain before I can get in there and do it all properly.

I am loving that I have the time to take everything in rather than scooting round and getting everything done. The tulips that Mum planted at the end of last year have come up all over the place and they are an absolute joy, some of the colours are vibrant and there is one little flower combo I adore, the photo doesn’t really do it justice but it’s so sweet I would love to replicate it on a bigger scale elsewhere at some point.

Today is a very special day as it’s Charlie’s 30th Birthday 🥳, we should have been at our favourite hotel enjoying the spa and delicious food but instead we are all at home separately, it’s also my sisters 50th birthday another celebration that will have to wait. One thing I have noticed is how creative everyone has got during these times, poetry, paintings, stories, baking, innovative ideas, it’s lovely that people have the time to do these things for each other, it’s one of the good things that have come from all this.

John had literally just cleared the wood pile the day before yesterday (it’s been there for about 4 years) when he had a phone call to say that someone had a van load of tree they had cut down if he wanted it, off he went to collect it and that gave him more cutting to do 🙄😜😂

A busy afternoon started with the delivery of 40 more hens ALL of which have been pre ordered and going straight back out for sale 🙄 unprecedented but great for us as it means we are still earning which is more than a lot of people are, on hindsight we should have bought in hundreds as we certainly could have sold them all.

Thursday: Another lovely day in store and I have already started on the steroids so my symptoms have begun to diminish already which is great as it means I can get on. I put plants out for sale again this morning and lots have been sold already, happy me 😀 The rest of the morning I spent picking rhubarb, asparagus and sowing some more seeds both vegetable and flower seed. We have been busy selling hens again today and by teatime we only had two left.

The early part of the evening I spent giving everything a good watering, there is rain on the forecast for tomorrow it you can never be too sure it will get here so better safe than sorry.

I am kind of beginning to forget we are in a very strange situation, until I see the government infomercials or watch the news that is, this life has become normal lol, I wonder how many people are going to be able to cope with going back to real life when the times comes 🙄

The turkey hen is still alive, she is very quiet but moving around and chirping sometimes, I’m beginning to wonder if she is like that because we took her eggs away as there doesn’t seem like much else wrong with her, if she had a blockage I would have expected her to have died by now. The new boy rabbit, sporty scar, has developed one floppy ear, they are lips but I had forgotten that and thought he might have broken it or something 😜 The geese are sitting on eggs, not all of them just two but fingers crossed we may get goslings. Everything else is tickling along nicely.

Who would have thought that our weekly excitement would be 8pm every Thursday evening when we go outside and clap, cheer, ring bells the works to honour the key workers that are keeping our country running, the NHS, the carers, the delivery drivers, the dustbin lorry crews, the post men and women, the shop workers, the farmers, we thank you for keeping going despite the risks. Captain Tom needs a special mention, 99 years young and has raised to date 14 million pounds for the NHS by completing 100 laps of his garden on his Zimmer frame before his 100th birthday tomorrow, true British grit, our hearts swell with pride at his achievement.

Friday: A cooler day today and we had a sprinkling of rain, it enough to fill the water tanks but enough to freshen up anything that has been planted so I am happy with that. I have again spent today pottering around in the greenhouse or sowing seeds, I sowed some spring onion seeds I found, I don’t usually have much luck with the but I can only try. I also found some chickpeas I grew last year, only 4 lol but I have planted those and I found a packet of liquorice seeds so I am giving those a go. I have pricked out leek seedlings into trays and potted up some blackcurrant bushes that have been stood in a bucket all winter, I also planted one of these in the orchard. John has been busy changing one of the taps on the water tank that had snapped and when they are nearly empty is a good time to do that, then he started clearing out his shed which is a kind of open the door and throw it in shed. We have discussed building a new one as this one is really on its last legs, it will have to wait until we can buy materials again.

We sold the last two chickens from the 40 that came in on Wednesday, we are breaking all our previous records here lol.

Like many people, I suspect, we have slipped into an easy routine of a bit of work, a tea break, a bit more work, dinner break, a sit down, a bit more work, a tea break etc etc I imagine this is how things will continue until the lockdown ends.

I just realised it’s Friday again which means Gardeners’ world is on tonight 😀 the one thing I really look forward to watching.

Saturday: Today is a very sad day, we had an early morning phone call to say that my Dad had passed away overnight, as far as we know he didn’t have corvid-19, he had the usual older persons ailments and it seems he passed away quietly in his sleep. I obviously won’t be doing much today except remembering, laughing and crying 💙😘💔 Night, night Dad, you will be missed x x

Monday: Today is a better day after two days of tears and memories. If you have lost someone close you will know how hard it is especially when you weren’t expecting it. What is even harder is the situation we find ourselves in at the moment where you can’t get together with family members and have/give hugs, it’s hard, really hard. The coroner has said it was age related so that’s a blessing, and he went peacefully in his sleep which is just how he would have wanted to go, we are grateful for that. My Dad was a man of simple needs, he loved life, whisky, roll ups, cricket, singing, whistling, good food especially common game, he loved music and he loved to dance, right up to the start of the pandemic they would go to jazz festivals and music events and dance the night away, he loved country ways especially the old ways which was what he was bought up with, he was a countryman through and through. The more you think about things the more you begin to realise about a person, he was way ahead in his thinking about girls and boys, he never treated any of us any differently, if you could lift a shovel, you could mix concrete, boy or girl it didn’t matter 😂 he was a good cook and more often than not cooked his own dinners, he was a great forager and we used to go mushrooming with him when we were younger, there are a million and one things I could tell you about him but most importantly he was my Dad. Goodnight Dad, I love you and I will miss you dearly but you have left behind so many memories and I will cherish those always 😘😘

Friesland Farm

Garden produce, borage & hot weather.

Posted on June 30, 2019 by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th June: It’s very humid today, no Sun so that’s great for me but, sweating and glasses steaming up hinders work 😂 On top of that my cold has now turned to sinusitis, bloody brilliant 🙄 I can’t breathe through my nose very well and that even makes eating difficult lol. Having said that I have been working (and eating) I did the morning rounds as usual and then tidied up the front flower border outside the gate, then I went into the brassica cage and weeded all of that, a trugful of weeds divided between the torts, the rabbits/guineas and the young chickens. I picked some peas which we will have with our dinner tonight, some rhubarb which I am planning to make jam with and some artichokes which I have no idea what I will do with! Artichoke is a delicacy and we are not that kind of eaters, they are also a bit of a faff if I’m honest but they make great architectural plants and if there was nothing else available I’m sure we would eat them, I must try the torts actually as they might like them. The easiest way to eat them is cut in half, remove the choke, then use garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, plus herbs if you like to coat them and roast them in the oven, they are delicious but as I said a bit of a faff even to eat them lol.

It was trying to rain when I came in at lunchtime and we have these thunderstorms supposed to arrive but as yet nothing.

I’m sorry a couple of the photos didn’t upload correctly on last weeks blog so the pic of the kittens wasn’t there, nor the greenhouse, I will see if I can fix that this week.

Update on the kittens, Benny is getting a little braver and will have a stroke now and again, Sam bought them some dreamy treats and they love them so it’s a good way to get him to come to me, however when I say love them, I mean love them, addictively 🤪 so much so that I have had to limit them and be careful when giving them as TC bit into my thumb last night because I was holding one, his needle like tooth went straight through my thumbnail, ouch, very ouch 😲

We finally got round to getting the fridge out, it’s an integral fridge so everything had to be unscrewed, we found a mouse nest at the bottom and it had chewed the lagging off the cooling pipe which had then frozen with solid lumps of ice. Unfortunately we also found a hole in the top and water leaking from it, goodness knows how it got there, anyhow we weighed everything up, the fact that it is over six years old and if we got someone to repair it, if they could, it would start to cost the same amount as a new one. The fact that it’s integral means it is quite small, goodness knows what I was thinking when I decided on it in the first place, and I have always complained that I can’t get much in it, so we decided to buy a new one, not integral but freestanding. I opted to have it taken away and recycled and to have the packaging taken away and recycled so I feel better about it slightly, but things ain’t what they used to be these days 🙄

Watered the poly tunnels and a few other bits, no sign of the storms yet.

I decided not to make rhubarb jam in the end instead I cut it and open froze it for use in the winter.

Tuesday: It’s raining this morning, it seems the thunderstorms that were predicted have abated a little, I’m glad of the rain it means I don’t have to water the garden but the temps are set to climb high this week. I say high, probably not by some countries standards but they are by ours.

Today is our 36th wedding anniversary 😲 where did all those years go.

It’s 7.30am and I am waiting for a break in the rain before I go out and do the rounds, I don’t fancy getting too wet this morning 😂

After braving it and not getting too soaked, I made some bread and a mixed crumble with the rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries, did a bit of cleaning, then got soaked when someone came to buy some ducks lol, some you win, some you lose 😜

Wednesday: Another good day for me weatherwise, overcast which means I can get out and about easily and do some stuff. Mum came over in the morning (with a bit of homemade Bakewell tart 😀) to give me a hand so we weeded the front area which looks better now 😀 I am not sure what to do about it long term, it’s a huge expense of gravel and normally I weedkiller it but I’ve been trying to avoid that, however the weeds are growing like billio 🙄 and it looks scruffy. One idea is to cast seeds from love in a mist, foxglove, poppy etc so that it’s supposed to look like that lol, what ever I decide it has to be the least amount of work possible to keep it looking ok.

Sam arrived and took me food shopping, the new fridge also arrived and I didn’t want to go before that came so that I didn’t have too much to unload when the time came but now I can fill it up 😀

After a short rest I went out and cut the lawn and the front driveway grass while John pulled up a forest of stinging nettles. The farmers are out busy cutting the hay so we know we are in for a good few days of sunshine, great for everyone, not so great for me 😂 I shall be up early (hopefully) to crack on before the temps climb too high.

Thursday: A sunny morning, feels like it’s going to be hot 🥵 I did the morning rounds, discovered John had turned on the ICB tank at the back last night, forgot to turn it off and now it’s empty! Great just what we needed 1000ltr of rain water gone and no rain forecast for a while 🙄🙄 I went for routine blood tests today and on the way back along the lane a hare ran across the road in front of us, that made my day, week, month 😀😀😀 I have a particular love for hares.

We had lamb for dinner tonight with carrots, kale and potatoes all from the garden, and then raspberries and strawberries for pudding also from the garden, delish, the taste is amazing especially the carrots, John said ‘I don’t know what they do to the carrots in the shops but they have no taste compared to these’ I take that as a compliment 😀

Friday: Another fine day, I often wonder what other countries use as an icebreaker conversation, here in the UK it’s always the weather lol, mostly ‘it’s, hot, cold, wet, horrid, today isn’t it’ but occasionally ‘it’s a beautiful day’ and today is one of those 😀

After doing the morning rounds and collecting forage for the torts I made coffee and sat and watched them to see what they prefer. For both the rabbits and the torts it’s always dandelions first, especially the flowers for the torts they love them. I gave them some borage flowers today, I had picked some along with the raspberries and strawberries which I will eat alongside each other. Borage, just in case you didn’t know is the starflower, all parts are edible but the root is not palatable, it’s contains gamma linoleic acid which is anti inflammatory and helps to build muscle rather than fat, besides that it is a beautiful plant, though it self seeds readily, and it attracts pollinating insects by the score.

I am always interested in what is edible both conventional and wild, John says that I can’t wait for an apocalypse lol, I can, I don’t want one to happen but if it does and the supermarkets run out, I want to know what we can eat 😜 and if that ever happens in our lifetime, he will be grateful too.

I am beginning to get a fair few courgettes, I can feed them to the chickens and I do make the yummy chocolate/courgette cake but as a general rule we don’t eat them, I would like to know how others use them in their cooking please 😀

The baby robins have fledged so I can now rummage around in my plant pot stash without fear of disturbing them, unless of course Mum and Dad come back for a third batch!

I was watching the ‘dead stick pile’ the other morning and the amount of birds that use it for cover is amazing, all the fledglings feel safe flying into the piles and there are obviously nests in there as well so I will definitely be using these for the wildlife. I thought I had hit upon something new but apparently they are called dead hedges and I can see how they would be totally useful in a very quick time to ‘fence’ off an area, I intend to use the idea round newly planted trees to stop the geese from stripping the bark and the hens from scratching up the disturbed soil.

I made a lemon and courgette Madeira cake, simple enough recipe and tasty enough, at least it’s a way of getting some of your 5 a day 😜 I’m not actually sure it counts to be fair but it uses up a courgette and they are coming thick and fast now.

The recipe is from thecrazykitchen.co.uk

For dinner we had roasted new potatoes and peas from the garden with steak, I roasted the potatoes and steak in the oven with olive oil, crushed garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, simple but delicious 😋

Saturday: John went and did the rounds while I cleaned the boot room where the kitty’s are and then cleaned out the rabbit/guinea run and collected leaves for them and the torts. Picked a few courgettes and some raspberries and by 9.30am it’s already hot out there, I can feel my skin beginning to prickle and itch, I can see I won’t be outside for very long today. The Lupus makes it difficult to get out and get some work done on days like this because I don’t want to end up with another flare which is what will happen if I was stupid enough to work out in the Sun, the antibodies would have a field day and I would be back in a place that is not good, so although I would love to be out in it, I will hide away inside for most of the day 😏

I was able to work in the shade until about 12.30 sorting out the area around the greenhouse, by then bumps started to appear on my hands so it was time to go inside. Days like these are when I am grateful for the insulation as it’s wonderfully cool indoors 😀 we had lunch and then rested on the sofas for the afternoon waiting for it to cool down again.

The dogs are laying in the shade, they have a great life, they don’t go for walks but have free range of the place from early in the morning to late at night, Mia spends a lot of time trying to round up ducks 😂 patch doesn’t bother choosing to lay and watch 😜

Charlie and Macca invited us for a bbq in the evening, their garden is shaded by that time so it was nice and cool 😀

Sunday: I had set the alarm for 5am this morning in order to get some stuff done before it gets too hot, John got up at the same time and did the morning rounds then cleaned out the hens, I watered things that were flagging from yesterday’s heat and then picked courgettes, broad beans, raspberries and rhubarb. It was lovely and cool at that time of the morning and easy to get on with things. I potted up some peppers that I had been growing in the poly tunnel but moved to the greenhouse, even though they are late they should do ok in there and produce something. Then we went for breakfast at Shelleys, they returned home from a holiday in Italy yesterday so we went to hear all about it, sounds wonderful and they fell in love with Italy 🇮🇹

As it happens it’s about 8 degrees or more cooler than yesterday and cloudier so we probably didn’t need to get up early but it’s a great time of the day 😀

I tried the gooseberries but they need a little longer until they are sweet, I will be keeping an eye on them and the cherries as the crows strip them as fast as anything once they know they are ready.

Friesland Farm

Cherry pie, apricot jam and still no rain 😏

Posted on July 15, 2018July 15, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Monday 9th July: Up at 4.30am! Needed the toilet, starving, that’s the steroids, there was daylight so I figured I might as well get up an on. It was so wonderfully fresh and cool at that time of the day, even better than late at night, a welcome break from the daytime heat. Diesel also ate breakfast with me, not too close though as his was a mouse 😜 Of course there are plenty of people who are regularly up then, but as a general rule not me, though I would love to be an early bird it’s totally forced 😜

By 7am I have hung out the washing, cleaned out the outdoor quail, sorted and boxed yesterday’s eggs, filled up the pool and sorted the outside duck pen, moved the sprinkler several times over, done the washing-up/drying and putting away, stripped the bed, put more washing on, starving again now 😝 more breakfast, trying to eat well, toast first thing now yoghurt, blackcurrant sauce and walnuts.

By 8am I have hung out the second lot of washing and put a third load on, done some hoeing, collected weeds and forage for the rabbits and moved the sprinkler two more times, I need a sit down, what I should have is a glass of orange juice, what I will have is a coffee 😋 So far it’s cooler than previous days, I hope it stays like that for a few hours.

So after my busy early morning things went a bit downhill ☹️ I am on a short burst of steroids tapering off by 5mg every 5 days taking 20 days in all, I have 7 days left and I feel that things are slowly sliding backwards again, consequently I sat down at 12, laid down at 12.30 and didn’t do anything else until 7 when the days steroids had kicked back in. At 1.45 we lost our electric 😡 again, luckily I called John he came home and set up the generator to plug the incubator in, we also had to connect up the electric fence round the hens as the farmer over the back lost 17 hens on Saturday afternoon to the fox, normally I would be able to do the generator myself but not at the moment.

So after my next dose of steroids I am able to function again, there was a nice breeze this evening though it’s still muggy, feeling better I got on with hoovering and polishing the bedroom, changing the covers, not that we need any at the minute 😝 and cleaning the shower, then outside to get some watering done. I had a good look around at the veg plants, tiny runner beans are beginning to grow, there are tomatoes and cucumbers just coming along I think it will be ‘al rite’ in the end. I made a mental note to pick the morello cherries in the morning, they are not quite as dark as I would like but from last years experience if I don’t get them now the birds will strip the tree while I’m not looking, the cherries are plump and soft to the touch, that’ll do for me, I am looking forward to cherry jam 😀 One year I made glacé cherries with them, that’s a long (2 week) process and well worth the effort but I’ve decided on jam (I think 😝)

The apricots are also nearly ready, my most favourite is apricot preserve, it reminds me of three weeks spent on a French exchange when I was a teenager, real French bread, butter and apricot preserve, delish 😋

Off to bed for another early start tomorrow.

Tuesday: Well I woke at 3.30 decided that was far too early 🤪 the alarm went off at 4.30 and I eventually got out of bed at 4.50! Straight out and turn on the watering, you are probably thinking ‘why don’t you get a timer’ well there are many answers to that question lol. I do have a timer but in the past it’s failed in some way, either water pressure issues or just not turned on, so reliability is the first reason, secondly, the way we set things out originally isn’t very ergonomic for getting the maximum watered by the minimum amount of movement from the sprinkler, basically the area is spread out too far with obstacles in the way blocking the water flow, so constant moving of the sprinkler is what I need to do. We never really envisaged ending up growing so much so never thought about a whole sprinkler system in the first place plus as the main source of water we use is harvested rainwater it’s more difficult to pump it and get the pressure needed. Soaker hose is the next best option and we do have one on the bean bed but that’s it and because the raised beds are all separated by paths we can’t run a continuous hose so I would still have to go out and disconnect the hose and reconnect elsewhere, all these issues need to be looked at.

There were a couple of jobs I wanted to get done, the cherries and picking the apricots, objective achieved 😀 That’s the best haul of apricots I’ve ever had, around 50/60 up to now there have only been about 10 so I’m well chuffed with that, I left a few on there for the birds and insects, same with the cherries. The trees will need pruning now that the fruit is harvested, I need to raise the height of the lower branches slightly so I can get a guild growing and I need to just keep the height and spread of the trees in check so that I can still pick the fruit. Established stone fruit trees are done in early summer to minimise any chance of silver leaf, a fungal disease that can affect them. I hoed the fruit cage which had got quite weedy and the rabbits had a huge haul of mixed weeds. By then it as 7am and I am already flagging and needing to sit down ☹️ not the direction I was hoping I would be going in by now 😏

I did, well, practically nothing until about 3pm, except rest and sleep. Sam and Mia came over and when I woke up from sleeping the cleaning fairy had been 😁 how lovely. I spoke to the doctor and he suggests not dropping the dose on the next change over in two days time but to carry on with the same level and it will probably be for longer, also need more blood tests to check the CRP levels, that’s C-reactive protein which are markers for inflammation.

I lost my glasses somewhere in the garden this morning, where my hair has got thinner (oh yes there are more joys to his than you can imagine 😜) they keep falling backwards off my head, and you know that feeling that you know are supposed to be there but they are not well I kept getting it thinking I must have left them indoors but nope they are lost, they are not my new ones thankfully 😅

In the evening after I got the watering under way I sat and pitted the cherries with the little cherry stone pitter which John thought was a very clever tool. I ended up with 5 cups of them so not a huge haul but enough to do something with, I said I would make jam BUT when I was FaceTiming Shelley and telling her about them and a pic I had seen of a lovely looking Cherry pie, a little Joshy voice piped up and said ‘ooo yes please nana’ 🤣🤣 so cherry pie it will be 😀 I have also got some mixed berries straining to make sauce for ice creams, yoghurt, jellies etc. I’m left with a couple of handfuls of cherry pits (stones) apparently you can process these and then grind they will be almond in flavour BUT stones contain cyanide so it’s quite a process, you can use the pits whole which will still have cherry flesh on them and infuse cream with them and turn into a whip or fool type pudding, I had already washed them though so I am going to keep washing them until they are clean enough, then dry them and make one of those little cherry stone bags for headaches or warming your hands on a cold day.

I finally plaited the first of the onions, the plaits are not expert and a bit loose but I’m not looking to win any shows with them just store them for use, I put around 12 in a plait, that’s heavy enough to lug around. I have more onions to bring in and cure but I wish I had planted double the amount given that the growing conditions and curing conditions have been perfect this year, still you never know how it will go, there have been years where the moisture in the air is too much and some of them end up rotting so I will take what I have. The garlic has also cured nicely, again I wish I had planted a whole lot more, I have hard neck garlic so they won’t plait but they will be cleaned up and stored in a net, they store well until mid winter when they are likely to go hard, (it won’t last that long anyhow) once the temperatures have cooled down in the house (Autumn) they will all hang in the boot room ready for use. A final bit of watering before it gets too dark to see and I’m done for the day, the cherry pie filling is cooling hopefully I will get the chance/ be able, to make some lovely sweet pastry in the morning and couple them together. I did read a recipe that said to drop in almond essence once it was cooked but I’m a bit of a purist with my flavours, I like to taste exactly what it is, I did look for some essence as I was going to mix a tiny bit and see what I thought but I don’t have any so that sorted that out 😋

Wednesday: Up and out to water early, it is noticeably cooler this morning meaning the watering will have much more effect than in recent mornings. I cleaned and netted the garlic, small haul but nevertheless a home grown one 😀 I have rushed about a bit this morning trying to get some stuff done, pastry for the cherry pie, cook the berry sauce with some sugar for keeping in the fridge, actually made the first loaf of bread in weeks, lots of washing up, you’d be amazed how much there is just doing a few little things, sort and put the eggs out. Towards the end of the jobs I can feel myself going down, I start to feel cold, get a headache then very tired, so I had a hot shower, and am now sitting on the sofa with a decaf coff 😋

I did manage to make the cherry pie and I think Josh was pretty chuffed with it, Mia had some after her sleep but has a sweeter tooth than Josh and preferred the pastry and the ice cream to the cherry filling lol

We had decided we were not going to go on holiday this year but we really need one so I booked one 😀 it is at this point I part with my ethics somewhat because we cruise, have done for over 20 years, John hates flying and on the three occasions in 35 years that he has it’s not much fun sitting beside him 😜we spent the early part of the children’s life holidaying in places like Cornwall but in all honesty that is not a holiday for me what with still having to do the cooking and tidying up, organising picnics etc etc. So we went on our first cruise in 1997, it was fabulous, we get to eat the different foods we each like, someone else does everything except get us dressed for the whole time, we can do as much or as little as we want to, yes there are environmental issues as with all forms of transportation, yes there are waste issues, there are issues in every quarter but the industry is working hard to counteract or remedy these and we have actually seen the difference over the years, so there you have it my Achilles heal as it were! There will be no shopping trip for new clothes though, I take the ones I have had for years, evening dresses from the charity shop (bargains lol) John has had the same tuxedo and shirts for 20 years 😜 though he did have new trousers two years ago, we’ve earned this and are looking forward to a relaxing break 😀

I’m watering the garden again this evening as it’s overcast I can start a bit earlier, dashing out to move the hose at half time, England’s hopes are riding high tonight with this game and I doubt there are many countrymen/women/children that are not watching it 😀⚽️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Thursday: Up early as usual watering, I think with the temps having dipped I am on top of this for a while a least, picked a very small amount of raspberries then went back to bed for 2 hours as I didn’t feel well, I have more bloods test this morning so we will see what the markers are doing and hopefully get sorted as I was doing well on 15mg but 10 is not enough.

One of the brown rabbits was dead this morning, there is no sign of fly strike, injury, myxomatosis and body condition is good, the others are fine so I am putting it down to age, we had them from someone re-homing them and I don’t know how old they are exactly though we have had them nearly three years and I do believe they were a few years old then.

Haven’t done anything else all day except rest and sleep and then watering in the evening ☹️

Friday: Alarm went off, I didn’t get up, not for another half hour anyway, so 5.30 I went out to turn on the water and the hens were making such a racket I thought there must be something in with them, I went over but nope they were just very vocal so I let them all out. In between moving the sprinkler around I pruned the apricot tree, just as bit so that the branches don’t get too heavy next year and break, well that was the plan but the tree has canker 😩 It had it in the trunk last year and I treated it with Bordeaux mixture but it has appeared on the branches, this is not good, the tree will have to be removed and burnt, gutted as it produced a good amount of fruit this year. There are no other controls available and if it was just in the branches it could be cut back to clean wood but being in the trunk already means it’s fate is sealed and it will come down so that it doesn’t spread to the other stone fruit trees 😪 I will probably order another tree, a more resistance variety, of course it cannot be planted in the same place and I have yet to think what I will put there instead.

One of the ‘news’ items currently circulating is regarding the government stockpiling food ready for Breixt, I have no idea if this is true, probably a nano comment made had been blown all out of proportion by the press as is usual and although I wouldn’t advocate storing large amounts of food, but given the ‘panic buying’ culture in his country it does make sense to have some reserves. I suppose as someone who strives for self sufficiency this is part and parcel of what we do, we grow, plant, harvest and process for the leaner months, obviously not everyone is able to do this but there are small changes you can make to your habits that would help in a temporary shortage of any kind. Just picking up an extra tin or dry goods packet when you shop, I’m not suggesting you do it every time otherwise you end up with a bulging cupboard but just making sure you always have 2 tins/packets instead of 1, things that have a long use by date on them are useful to have on standby, dried milk powder, jelly for instance, given the long, hot, dry spell, bottled water might be a good idea, things that if you don’t need to use in an emergency, will still get used, we don’t want wastage here 😀 It’s not scaremongering, it’s just good practice to think about how you would manage given an emergency situation, whatever that situation happens to be.

Needless to say I am monitoring this expected rain very closely today, I’m not sure why, I’m just hoping it doesn’t disappear off the radar and there is not much I can do about it if it does! Please rain, is not something I would ever normally utter but PLEASE RAIN 🌧🤪

I have to tell you what a total success the brassica cage has been, it was a belt and braces job, if you have ever tried to grow them you will know why 😝 I grew broccoli because that’s what we like and the early planted ones have done amazingly well, first a nice round head on each of them and now they are producing florets galore. The later planted ones have done nothing but keep going to seed despite me constantly cutting them back (continuous rabbit forage though) There is not one single butterfly in there and so no caterpillars borne out in the blanching water which has nothing floating in it except bit of broccoli, big success 😀

One thing I want to get made this year is a ‘souper mix’ it is basically vegetable stock, any combination of veg and herbs, blitzed to within an inch of its life in a processor then preserve with salt in a jar, the actual recipe can be found in the River Cottage handbook No2 but you can make it up as to what you have and I found it will keep longer than 6 months or you could always freeze it in batches, you need about 2 tsp per 500ml liquid, a great base for soups and stews and packed full of nutrients instead of preservatives.

I made apricot jam, I am functioning better today and really wanted to get it made, jam sessions are never the same twice and today was no different this came to a set point quicker than softer fruits. Tips, get your jars ready before you start, by that I mean if you are re-using jars, clean them first and get them ready for sterilising don’t put the fruit on to soften and then realise the jars you want to use need the labels soaking off! I have some sticky stuff remover which is fab but I really should have done it before I put them away lol. Secondly EVERYTHING is hot and I mean hot, especially if you are using kilner type jars with metal on them so be very careful in your procedures, thirdly always prepare extra jars, todays batch made more than I was expecting so I had to quickly find two more jars to sterilise, last but by not means least I find the right equipment is key to having continually successful jam sessions, heavy based pan, thermometer (one where part of the bubble has not gone on its own holiday 🤪) metal funnel, and never leave the jam to answer the phone or the door 😝 Oh boy am I looking forward to tasting this one 😀 one quick thing I used a large orange for pectin, just because I didn’t have a lemon or any lemon juice, it will work just as well, apricot have a medium amount of pectin but are low in acid meaning they need added extra to help the gelling process.

Although I feel a lot more with it today I still took it easy for the afternoon, blood results were back and had an appointment with the doc, the inflammation markers are up higher than they were before but with no symptoms, so no pain??? The problems I have had seem to be from the reducing of the steroids so we have slowed it down to see what happens and more blood test next week, in the meantime I carry on when I can and rest when I can’t.

The rain I was hoping for was nothing more than a ‘piddle’ and didn’t even wet the air let alone the ground so watering duties will continue for the foreseeable future 😋 I know we are far luckier than some countries where it’s a life or death situation but it does make life difficult.

Saturday: Well at 4.30 this morning it was very foggy, great because it means there was moisture in the air overnight for the plants to absorb however watering must still commence as the temps are set to be high again today. Other jobs included digging up a hardy fushia that isn’t doing so well where it was, I’ve potted it and will give it some tlc before repositioning it, to be honest I think the dog has been laying on it! I had a reg legged partridge right outside the kitchen window and a cricket on a plant out there too, pretty sure one was looking for the other 😜 I picked a random selection of different beans, they are just starting to come through but not enough of anything to sell yet, my best veg customer came and I gave them to him for free as a taste of things to come seeing how he has been so patient! I finally managed to move the quail from out of the back area to the orchard, it was a case of dismantling two cages to make one decent one, I put a ramp in so they can get to the top area, an upside down covered hanging basket which I’m hoping they will lay in and a dust bath, hopefully they will be very happy there. The odd silkie chick that survived a throwing against the trees stump as an egg is now pretty big, and a cockerel 😜 he has been living with the quail but he has also now got freedom to move and it in the orchard. We will probably allow him to roost in the trees and come and go whenever he pleases. I candled the duck eggs in the incubator, only one was infertile, they are due to hatch next week.

I picked a big bunch of basil, washed it and waiting for it to dry off a bit before I chop it and mix it with olive oil to freeze in an ice cube tray for winter use, I made bread, I’ve taken to making a traditional cottage loaf which I rather like the look of, and then had a well earned couple of hours sit down as my feet are beginning to hurt.

The last couple of days the air temperature early in the morning has been much cooler and then the fog today, you can see the difference in the plants just from that little bit of relief, they are suddenly more upright and not flagging so much, there is rain forecast next week, well there would be, bang on cue for the summer holidays!

We are directly in the airspace between the Royal International Air Tattoo and RAF Brize Norton and the air show is this weekend so it’s pretty noisy at times but we get random displays flying over every now and again so, the best one I have ever seen while we were here was a formation of about 12 helicopters flying directly towards us, it was a pretty awesome sight.

Standing at the back door a got a whiff of bonfire 🤔 had a look round and yep someone close by has one going, now we have had no rain for weeks, the ground is parched and as dry as I have ever seen it, personally I would think I was very stupid if I lit a bonfire in this climate, fingers crossed it stays under control!

We had a rare evening out, thanks to Shelley and Martin for coming over to shut the birds away, The Great British Summer Garden Party at Blenheim Palace, a wonderful evening, very relaxing, great entertainment and fireworks to finish with a round of Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory, perfick 😀

Sunday: Despite a long day yesterday I was still awake at 6 so I got up and went out to get the watering underway, the moisture in the air over night lately has done wonders for both the lawn and the plants, they are not needing quite so much watering as before. I used the lawn edger and tidied it up putting all the sods into the bucket for the rabbits, then cut the grass as it was looking rather strangely with long bits and dead bits all mingling in, at least they are all the same length bits now 😋 A quick cat nap after that just to recharge, I’m pretty tired today so will be taking it steady, I don’t want to be overdoing it, though there is so much I want to be getting on with, it can wait a bit longer.

John is out there this evening cleaning out the hens, he has to wait until it’s cooled down enough to be in there, just watching the countryfile weather and things are getting fresher, now if we could just have a touch of rain too please that would be marvellous 😜

Getting there, ramblings of an overactive mind and a thermometer malfunction.

Video• Posted on July 8, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Friesland Farm

Apologies for the lack of a blog!

Posted on July 4, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Thursday 28th June: Yep this is the first time this week I am able to write something, the Lupus had taken hold, looking back I can see I was on a slippery slope I just didn’t recognise the signs as they are different to the last, and only, flare I had. I knew I was in trouble when I started getting pins and needles in my right hand. I had attributed most problems to the virus that both John and I had but with Lupus once the immune system has finished fighting off any attack on the body, it starts on the body itself, healthy tissue as well, it’s a bit like a frenzied fox attack, the job is done but the attacker can’t stop. Anyhow I am now back under the care of the doctors and rheumatologist and back on a short course of steroids which will hopefully knock it into touch. Needless to say I have not done anything except get myself up and dressed (which was hard work in itself) for the past 4 days! Thank goodness then for my amazing family 😀 John, who has worked every morning and evening shift, worked in between AND had to do his Mum every night as his brother is away, Sam, Shelley and Charlie who have done household chores, made lunches and dinners, run me backwards and forwards for blood tests and doctor appointments, cleaned out animal cages, watered the garden, the list goes on. Mum for coming over and planting, watering, weeding and worrying about me 😘

Steroids are not really the way I like to control the Lupus but sometimes you just need the extra bit of help, it’s five years since my last flare so not bad at all and since I am now on them I will be making the most of them 😜 Last time I took them I was like superwoman! I would go to bed thinking about what I would have for breakfast in the morning and running through a list of jobs to do, I was extremely active until well into the evenings, cleaning out cupboards etc etc, so if they react the same way this time I will be able to get all those jobs that are piling up done in no time 😀

I started taking them last night and even by this morning, although there is still pain, it’s not so acute. Once the painkillers kicked in it was a perfect morning to get some watering done, well soaking actually as it’s incredibly dry out there, though the bits of mulching I did have been doing their job really well so I need to get more of that in place, it is the same as yesterday, overcast but I’m sure the Sun will appear with great ferocity at some point. I did manage to pick about 7 heads of broccoli lol, they needed picking quite quickly or they will begin to go to seed and at the moment they are just perfect. I made some broccoli and cauliflower soup, with a bit of lovage and onions from the garden, it was very tasty, all from the garden and highly nutritious what more could you want? I had a power packed salad for tea time, mackerel, oranges, spinach and black grapes with a yoghurt and lime dressing, I have now got to fill my system with all the nutrients I need to get back in top form whilst making sure I don’t add extra weight from taking the steroids, so lots of potassium as well.

Wednesday 4th July: Posting few and far between because I’m still not well enough to maintain a full day or even half a day for that matter!

Most of the time I can give has been getting up with the daylight, and going outside to get the watering done as it is very desperate and I don’t want to loose the work I put in at the beginning of the year. We are now out of tanked rainwater so I am down to main hoses making the job longer because the pressure only enables one area of the garden to be worked at one time 😜

I have done some little bits, picking raspberries and gooseberries and making jam, picking blackcurrants to make syrup and jellies 😀 I have made some rosemary cuttings and hoping they will strike, I have done a bit of mulching which has helped no end but there is plenty more to do.

Yesterday I had a delivery of fresh fish straight off the boat from Cornwall, I like fish but I like it fresh and was put off from supermarket fish when the polystyrene tray stuck to it and was left on there, though I did wash it off obvs. So I have fresh mackerel, mussels, sea trout, hake, scallops and it smells amazing, we are as far from the sea as you can get so it’s a real treat.

My loofah plants didn’t grow, well it was a difficult year for the normal things so no wonder, but I have been introduced to the online ethical supermarket and have ordered loofah for washing up and bathing, to get rid of the sponges and the bloody plastic scrubby thing that John likes to use 😜

After I have done a few early hours in the garden I mostly then lie down and rest/sleep until later in the day when I have built up enough reserves of energy to go again, more watering in the evening, I try and do the bottom half, which gets the sun first, in the evening and the nearer half in the morning. This morning, as I received some free smoked salmon with my order, I had scrambled egg, smoked salmon and coffee as a treat, delish 😋

I will try and write a bit more as I get better, but living with Lupus, especially when it’s not behaving itself is difficult and tiring.

Friesland Farm

Forest gardening, Midsummer and a Harris Hawk

Posted on June 24, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Monday 18th May: The weather looks set to be fair this week, no rain in sight which means lots of watering to be done! I’m pretty good this morning once I’ve taken something to help out so John did half the birds and I did the other half, we have 10 hatchlings in the final count, good strong chicks though so hopefully they will continue that way. Weeding and foraging for the rabbits goes hand in hand so I did some of that, there is plenty for them at this time of year. I made up a cutting compost mix as I have a few bits I want to try and strike, the mix is compost, sand and vermiculite and then the cuttings dipped in root gel and put on a lower shelf in a unheated propagator in the greenhouse out of direct sunlight, nothing to lose really so I will give them a go.

I sold 6 quail over the weekend 5 female and one male so the urgency to find them a proper place is not so bad now, my plan, I think, is to keep a male (and I have identified which one already) with a few females, that way I have two separate flocks and if I want to breed I can swap the males over for new bloodlines, the rest of the males I will probably let go and they can have a couple of days freedom before they become dinner for some other wildlife, it’s a dog eat dog world out there 😩 The POL sales also went crazy at the weekend, we haven’t sold any for a couple of weeks then all of a sudden 20 in one weekend!

Lots of pottering in the garden and a bit of planning for ‘forest gardening’ which I am going to have a go at, to be honest I already have bits of it in place I just didn’t realise there was an actual term for it! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_gardening

Harvested some potatoes from the self setter box I have, it’s a large crate and I have now grown self setters in there for about 4 years in a row with no problems whatsoever ever, basically I harvest as I have today, leaving behind all the tiny potatoes and they grow again, I will probably get some more in time for Christmas and do the same all over again.

Picked a few strawberries and raspberries, not many but I plan to plant strawberries in with the forest garden as I have found that the best plants are always the ones that have self set, I’m beginning to think all this preening, pruning, row growing etc is a complete waste of time, I think I will let nature show me how it’s done 😀

I have noticed a fair bit of ‘June drop’ from the fruit trees, I just hope there is enough left at the end of the season to harvest, one of my plum branches has already snapped under the weight and the plums are pretty small at the minute. I have an apple tree in the paddock that is struggling, it’s been struggling ever since I put it in but this year it’s just not managing at all so I need to dig that up and move it, I think I will plant a sweet chestnut out there instead.

On my down time I am continuously learning, today it’s all about ‘swales’ as far as I can make out, it’s basically a ditch dug out on the contour or slope and piled up on the other side to create a water catchment that is ‘level’ this collects the rain and then filters it slowly or much more slowly at least in the downward direction meaning the plants in its pathway can utilise the water more efficiently. I am definitely going to give this a try, Swales can be large covering a whole field or they can be smaller such as in a veg plot setting, interesting and pretty obvious when you think about it, and obvious that our ‘natural’ Swales run in completely the wrong direction! I have also been reading other bits and pieces that seem obvious but I had never thought of it, I seem to be having my eyes opened just recently to a number of things, maybe I had closed my mind and was just bumbling through. I couldn’t really get my head around permaculture being anything more than lots of people trying to make money out of writing a book about it but I am beginning to see exactly what it’s all about and how to apply it, looking, learning and applying. Sure we are doing the basics, collecting rainwater etc but I am still having to stand and water everything which takes time, and I am missing out on useful water such as the duck pond when it’s emptied just gets tipped out, all those duck poo nutrients going to waste waahh what was I thinking 😜

Sowed a bed of carrot seeds where I had pulled the onions from.

I have spotted, pardon the pun, many, many ladybird larvae all over the garden, on a positive note this is fab for my garden however they are Harlequin larvae so not so good for the native ladybird ☹️ firstly, parasites that attack native ones don’t attack harlequins and secondly if the harlequins run out of food they will eat native ladybird eggs.

Had a dental appointment then dinner then out to cut the front paddock, it’s grown so much since we last did it which doesn’t seem that long ago, while John was on lawnmower duty I did a bit of watering then went to help him, typically it’s now spitting with rain 😝

Ordered a book called ‘Permaculture in a nutshell’ hopefully it will help me see what it is we need to be putting in place, meanwhile I am looking at things with new vision, I also ordered an Alder tree as apparently it fixes nitrogen and will be planting that out near the fruit trees in the paddock, and some horseradish, the last lot I bought as dried foot failed to appear although (I had forgotten) there is some on the side of the road just a bit up from us so I may go and dig a piece up from there as well.

Found a baby bird dead in the water butt, how it got there is a mystery as there is a lid on it, the only thing I can think is that it has fallen down the drainpipe?

Tuesday: Apart from John carrying two feed buckets to the front for me it was, me, myself, I, on morning duties today, I don’t mind telling you I was worn out after lol. Mum arrived fairly early to do some gardening 😀 yay many hands make light work as they say and I am always grateful for extra hands. She did some weeding up on the far end while I did some in the middle, then I potted up a thornless blackberry and some black currant seedlings that had grown in the brassica cage. I cut some broccoli, one for Mum and one for our dinner later.

At the moment I am collecting eggs from the Welsh Harlequin ducks that I separated off they will be the last batch of eggs to go in the incubator this year, I should be able to fit about 12 in there hopefully.

Some trees I ordered have arrived, not any old trees but ‘sacred’ trees, small leaved lime or linden, multiple uses including using the young leaves in salads, linden tea can be made for blood pressure and the bark can be used for rope making if I ever need it 😀 They are small at the moment but will reach a great height eventually, I will pot them up and bring them on keeping a close eye on them for a year, they can be used as coppice for fuel so there’s an option, I will probably use one in my ‘edible forest’ that is the veg garden.

The summer solstice is fast approaching, why does is come so quickly when winter drags on so long, anyhow I have found a recipe for honey cakes which are used as an offering for the ‘faeries’ on Midsummers eve, a pretty simple recipe and something I haven’t tried before so I will be giving them a go.

Wednesday: Ooops totally overdid it yesterday and by the evening I was not too good so a dose of painkillers and a good nights sleep was in order. This morning John kindly did the morning routine before going to work bless him, I showered and by 8.30 I had started to clean the kitchen which has been bugging me for a while. A deep clean, drawers, cupboards, walls etc so at this present time 12.30 I’m having a break and still have plenty to do in there.

I noticed a grasshopper on the wall by the breadbin, thought ah that’s sweet and took a photo,

I thought about putting it back outside but forgot, now I have to live with the consequences because on my, hoovering the tops of the walls round, I found a spider had wrapped said grasshopper up for lunch 😩 so I hoovered up that bastard too 🤪

Went on clean the living room and the bedroom, knackered now and shoulders are killing me ☹️ still it feels nice and clean everywhere, well not everywhere there is still the boot room and the office to de clutter and deweb but they can wait for another day.

After some more anti inflammatory pills and a rest some dinner it was back to work watering, picking etc and I made the honey cake, I use the term loosely and I won’t put the recipe on here because there are probably far better examples out there. Honey cake, well it has honey in it and it’s definitely cake, it also has a fair amount of coffee, I used decaf so we won’t be bouncing off the walls after eating it, it’s edible, pleasant enough but not what I would call honey cake really.

Today I picked a small tub of strawberries and raspberries, 4 heads of broccoli, some beetroot, a courgette, rainbow chard and some new potatoes, most of which I have put out for sale as we have already eaten. The dilemma is what to charge for naturally grown veg, I always check the supermarket prices but I feel that if I priced them like that they are grossly underpriced for what you are getting, something that actually tastes like its supposed to, been lovingly tended, had nothing sprayed on it whatsoever, the best veg you can get to be precise 😀

Thursday: Up in the middle of the night to eat and take anti inflammatory! The trouble is when I feel ok I get stuck into jobs then pay for it later on 😜 Anyhow, John did the morning routine then went off to get feed then take the van for a service, I had some paperwork to do so got on with that as much as I could because for some reason my iPad and printer are not talking to each other 🤪

In the afternoon I used the cardboard, that I had put on the floor in the greenhouse over winter, to cut and place round the squash plants that are growing outside, it’s a start to the mulching I need to get done. Mulch, mulch, mulch is my mantra of the week, we are in for a serious lack of rain and some very high temperatures which won’t do the plants any good at all so best start preparing now. John came home and was on in ‘half a job John’ mode, at this moment we have everything pulled out from under the kitchen sink as he is putting in an outside tap but that’s as far as he has got, then we have tools out in the orchard area where he has half fitted some angle irons at the top of the fencing with wire attached to it to stop the fox getting over, at one point I wondered where he had gone and he was up the garden weeding in goggles due to the high pollen count!!! “There is medication available you know” but you can’t help those who won’t help themselves can you 😩

Just been informed after asking what the plan is, that every time he goes to do a job he needs a tool that is in the van that has gone for a service, I get it now, I thought he was just being unproductive lol.

My bit of bedtime reading arrived yesterday ‘permaculture in a nutshell’ and today I have been making a plan to start the polyculture, permaculture, forest garden approach, I have a pear tree in the orchard that I will start with. I have chosen plants that I already have available:

Comfrey – Mulch/insect attractor

Lavender – attractor

Borage – attractor

Fennel – attractor

Rhubarb – mulch

Solomans seal

Strawberry – attractor/stabiliser

Thyme – soil stabiliser

Peas – nitrogen fixer

I still need to have fruit bushes which will probably be currant and roots which may be onion or wild garlic or chives but this is the basic outline of my ‘guild’ I will observe and see what does well and what fails, either way I will learn a fair bit I think.

I’ve just read a blog on a forest garden hedge so that will be another project to think about, ooo so much to do and so little time 😜 Inbetween that I fancied a snack so I made some raspberry fritters 😀 mashed banana, flour, cinnamon, mash and stir then add the raspberries then fry in coconut oil, rather delish with some creme fresh though they didn’t hold shape too well, still it all goes down the same way 😝

So I asked for an outside tap under the kitchen window and this happened!

Well I wouldn’t mind so much except that John is a time served plumber 😩 there was a LOT of swearing and a bit of a puddle and apparently the kitchen tap (which admittedly we had been having problems with) was f**ked this is why it has been leaking even though John fitted new washers a while back. On the up side I now have an outside tap to water the front plants with 😀

A bit later I asked John if it was connected to the hot, “nope, it’s just a cold tap and before you say anything, a hundred years ago they would have delighted with that fitted” so I said, “a hundred years ago they would have been delighted with rabbit for dinner “ guess what’s on the menu tomorrow 🤪

Mowed the grass and used the mowings for mulches on various plants that are in danger of drying out too quickly when this hot weather hits us.

Friday: By mutual agreement I have decided to take it a bit easier today, I find that I am suffering a lot once I stop in late evening and then the joints seize up over night. Having said that there are a couple of jobs I want to get done, the first is my second ‘guild’ an Apple tree this time. It was growing out in the paddock but it has never been happy there so I dug it up and pruned it back, put in in water to soak for a couple of days and planted it elsewhere this morning. So far I have planted comfrey, strawberries and black currant round it, there is a pumpkin growing close by and some Welsh onions, I need a few other things in there, I will probably try coriander as a quick growing herb and some broad beans for fixing nitrogen. I have some b bean plants that I cut back after they had finished, they are in a pot so will transplant easily.

As I look at things with new vision so much of ‘traditional’ gardening seems pretty foolhardy now, most attributed to the victorians who liked neat and tidy rows but then they had plenty of man power in the kitchen garden which I definitely don’t have here. One of the practices I will definitely adopt is the ‘chop and drop’ I mean unless you want compost to plant into then why on earth spend all that time taking it all to the compost heap, turning it and hauling it back again, chop it, leave it where it is and let nature do the work for you seems obvious now, unless of course there is disease but even then burn it and use the ash on the garden. I am rather liking this new outlook, how can I save time and work but still reap the benefits. Another thing I have taken more notice of is how/where plants grow, one instance is a rogue strawberry plant that had escaped out of the fruit cage and is growing in the path, it’s not watered or fed or tended in any way and yet it is in much better health than the cosseted ones inside the cage? Another observation is of 5 sweet potato plants, 4 of them struggling 1 which is under the tomato plants is romping away, again the 4 had greenfly which I wiped off but the other one didn’t have any, that information will be consigned to memory for future years.

Today I picked raspberries and strawberries, in previous years we had an abundance but I dug three rows of raspberries up last year as they were getting out of control in terms of I didn’t have time to tend or even pick them properly and the strawberries had got in the same kind of muddle so we cleared them, sadly this year I don’t have very many so there won’t be jam!

Saturday: Up early to take painkillers again so that I can get up at the usual time and be able to do some work! I did the morning rounds with John then onto a bit of watering in the shady areas, then I put up a temporary fence in the orchard to let the Welsh harlequins have more room but not get on the veg garden or they will eat the courgettes 😜 Then I planted a lime tree in the duck pen and put some protection round it, we were going to change the duck pen and move it but actually all it needs is some greenery in the form of trees and bushes and preferably ones with berries that will feed them too such as elderberry and currant, they will provide shade, shelter and forage. Then onto foraging for the rabbits, willow, hazel, lemon balm, plenty of plantain, dandelions, clover, thistle and birds foot trefoil and grass. It’s getting quite warm out there now after a cool start.

Charlie is making smoothies with the few berries I have collected 😀 there looks like there will be plenty of black currants and gooseberry and hopefully I will get some jam made with those although John is not particularly keen on those flavours as that’s all there will be he may actually try them 😝

I watched a red legged partridge, that had somehow managed to get in the front paddock with all the birds, frantically running round trying to find a way back out while being chased by all and sundry, it must have eventually got out as peace was resumed pretty quickly. We get a pair visit the farm every year, I presume they are the same pair and it’s always the same time of year.

Picked some gooseberries (I know they are ready because each time I go up there the blackbirds are ferreting about underneath them) topped and tailed them and made some jam with a bit of elderflower cordial in for good measure. I went slightly wrong, don’t know what I was thinking when I put the sugar in at the same time as the gooseberries 😜 no harm done really it just meant I needed to cook them slowly to begin with then on to a boil. While I was waiting I put the contents of the under the sink cupboard back after John advised me to leave it all out and check for any leaks after fitting the new kitchen tap, we now have a proper mixer tap back. I always sterilise my jam jars in the oven, it’s just how I prefer to do it, I know it can be done in the microwave or with sterilising fluid but that’s my preferred method, wash with hot soapy water, rinse and then with the oven set at around 120/30c they can stay in there until the jam is ready to jar up, I use a thermometer rather than a plate from the freezer, mainly because I can’t be bothered to keep going backwards and forwards to the freezer which is out the back! I was surprised how quickly the temperature went up to setting point so I’m hoping it does actually set. It was only after I made the jam I remembered I had bought a proper jam pan last year, I had to search for it but I will definitely use that next time so as not to burn it which can happen in a thinner saucepan. I had enough strawberries and raspberries to make a couple of jars of mixed jam so that’s what I did, in the proper pan this time. This jam had quite a lot of foam, you can remove it with a spoon just before putting it a jar, you can use a tiny amount of butter or oil when you cook the jam or you can do what I do and leave it. It is said that it can shorten the life of the jam but as two jars will probably not even last a month in this house then I don’t worry too much, I prefer to take it off when I open a jar. If you take it off you can heat it in the microwave and it will make a bit of extra jam ready for instant use, the foam is just jam bubbles so nothing terrible. Obviously if you are wanting to give your jam as a present/gift I would recommend scooping it off, if it’s for home use then don’t worry unless you really want to.

I made a pineapple, turmeric and ginger blitz in the nutrition bullet tonight, I need to try and get this inflammation down and I’d rather try and do it naturally rather than continuous pills.

The sunset tonight was magnificent, Charlie took some photos 😀

Sunday: I’m not in very good shape this morning, I will have to relent and call the doctor tomorrow and see what can be done. John did the morning stuff while I hobbled around, had a shower got dressed etc then I did manage to go outside and pick a few raspberries and do a bit of watering of stuff in the shade. Then I heard a peculiar noise 3 times so I was about to go and investigate when I heard somebody shouting hello across the hedge. It turns out a chap who was hawking at the farm over the back from us had lost his Harris hawk, so that’s the noise I could hear. We eventually located it in the top of one of our conifers and he called it down with a tit bit to entice it, her name was Missie and she was a beautiful bird. I invited the chap to feel free to catch rabbits with her here and I hope that he will take us up on the offer at some point as we are getting over run with them.

Didn’t do much for the rest of the day except watering in the evening, John cleaned out the front birds and we had to move a duck that the geese have regularly been picking on for some unknown reason ☹️

Friesland Farm

Edibles at last, another birthday & a successful adoption.

Posted on June 10, 2018 by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th June: Rain first thing, I watered last night so that seems a waste of time but you never know how things are going to go! John is back as his proper job this week so I am on my own doing the feeding etc this morning. When I finished that it was onto the veg garden and I did a bit of weeding before doing some picking, there is not much in the way of offerings at the moment but I did pick some broad beans, peas, asparagus, rhubarb, rainbow chard and 5 baby cauliflower. This all bodes well as I got a piece of gammon from the freezer last night so for dinner with it we are having cauliflower cheese, peas and broad beans, the other veg was put out for sale and gone within half an hour. The broad beans I have gone to the extra length of skinning them as well, not sure that’s the right term, so they are taken out of the pod first then the whiteish skin on each bean is also taken off and you are left with a bright green bean, worth it so I am told, I will let you know.

Sam and Mia came over and they cleaned out the rabbits while I got on with some more hoeing, it’s a constant activity with all this sunshine then rain, I did joke to John that I should maybe sell fat hen, chickweed and dandelion leaves as bagged salad, all are perfectly edible, his face said what most customers would say I think 🤪 There are plenty of people out there who regularly eat this kind of thing and some who exclusively eat ‘weeds’ and forage but I’m not sure we are ready for that just yet although most veg as we know it are just hybrid weeds 😝

On a positive note the garlic have formed beautiful large heads and the onions are doing very well, normally with all that rain they would start to rot but in the raised beds this year they are sitting pretty.

Tuesday: A pleasant enough day today, overcast, average spring temps so a good day to get stuff done. The morning routine went as per usual then onto the garden, I spent a good couple of hours in the big poly tunnel tying up tomatoes, beans, weeding etc, then Mum popped in for a coffee and I had a chat with her about a couple of problems in the garden, I have ordered some Epsom salts to try and combat some of the issues. Then onto hoeing in the fruit cage, it’s like a jungle in there, then Sam and Mia, Shelley, Josh and Flo arrived and made lunch, after they left I did the egg collection and afternoon feed, then a bit of hoovering and tidying and the day is done, well sort of as after dinner I did some more hoeing and sexed the goslings, I think they are both female, happy days 😀

At some point in the day I candled the eggs in the incubator, I removed nine that were not fertile, fingers crossed that the rest all hatch, I think there are 15 left in there.

Wednesday: A warmer day with sunshine from early on, I did the morning stuff then a bit of watering in the small tunnel then onto hoeing the pathways. Yesterday my muscles in my legs and arms were playing up but I took some paracetamol and all was well until later in the evening. This morning I took paracetamol a bit later and then did the hoeing but found I couldn’t manage much more than two pathways, always listening to what my body is trying to tell me, I gave it up and went and had a sit down instead, no point trying to do something I can’t and if I rest it should help.

I put the baby goslings out for an hour in a run on the lawn, I don’t think they quite knew what to make of it, I need to figure out what I am going to put them in as they are getting too big for the brooder unit.

Thursday: June 7th Johns Birthday 🎂 Overcast this morning but good temperatures. I did the morning routine, then picked some forage for the rabbits and a bit of watering, I looked over the garden to see what is coming in, tiny little courgettes forming, globe artichoke, heads of broccoli beginning to form so not too bad. I smile when I go past the onions and garlic as they are doing fabulously in the raised beds, we have been given some big pieces of timber that will be ideal to raise up more of the beds and we really need to put a lot of effort into soil structure come autumn. I have decided that polyculture is definitely the way forward for me, mixing up the veg with fruit trees/bushes and flowers, for the main part anyway, I will still need to heavily cover the brassicas.

Friday: You can probably tell by the lack of any thing written that I haven’t done much these past few days, that’s because of my joints/muscles, I don’t know what is wrong with them but they are not working properly. It could be the Lupus or it could be the virus John had at the beginning of the month, either way it’s has steadily got worse until this morning John had to do the animals as I couldn’t bear weight at all on my legs, plenty of painkillers and a bath hasn’t made much difference but I can at least walk again albeit slowly, I certainly cannot bend my knees though and it’s not just my legs affected one side of my jaw is stiff, some fingers and the palms of my hands, very random! I have to keep moving though otherwise it’s worse so some slow pottering is the order of the day. It gives me time to think about things and one of those is the goslings, looking back over the blog posts I realise the eggs can’t be much good the goose has been sat for too long now so tonight all being well I will try swapping the live goslings in and take the eggs out, who knows how this will go, I can only try and it will be the best option for all of them.

8pm and operation swap goslings for eggs gets under way, first John went out with some corn to entice the goose off her nest while I put the goslings in a bucket and covered them with a towel so they stayed silent. Corn thrown, off goosey gets, in I nip and unload the goslings into the nest and cover them with nest debris, remove the eggs, they start chirping and John shouts ‘she’s coming’ get out quick as the whole family is coming, lots of noise going on in there but they are not attacking so that’s a good sign. I watched for a few minutes before deciding to shutting them in once everything quietens down. I will have a look later and see how it’s going. I break open the eggs against a tree, oh my god what a stink with half grown embryos, they were never going to hatch so the right decision was made as long as all goes well.

Saturday: Still having trouble with my muscles/joints meaning I’m fairly incapacitated first thing in the morning, I got up at 6am to take painkillers and went back to bed to let them work then got up at 7am. John did the animals this morning before going off to get some dog food, a tap for the water butt and to do his Mum.

I am delighted to tell you that the adoption of the baby geese is going really well and today they are all out grazing happily together, I will definitely be doing that again next year, more successful all round.

Once the continuous painkillers were in action I managed to get some jobs done, it’s better to keep moving, once I stop it all seizes up again. I did a bit of weeding and gave that to the rabbits then planted up the rest of the tomato plants I had in the greenhouse, they are excess plants but I figured I may as well plant them out and might even get a crop from them before they get blight. I picked a bunch of asparagus, some strawberries, peas and some rainbow chard, watered the carrot seedlings and that was about it for the morning. John cleaned out the goose hut now everything is going well, then connected up a water butt to the guttering he put up on the rabbit run so there should always be water available for them now providing it rains occasionally that is lol.

Struggled a lot today, do a bit, sit down, do a bit, lay down, do a bit, sit down again, pants I hope this moves on quickly! Just finished watering the garden when it started to rain, I did check the forecast first and it was something like 5% chance 😝oh well.

Chickens are the most annoying things, John put a whole bale of straw in when he cleaned out the goose hut, tonight it’s all across the bloody paddock, scratched out by the hens!

Sunday: Still rather incapacitated so John has done all the jobs again while I lie around and take painkillers 😩 After the usual stuff and going to sort his Mum out he came back and turned my compost heap with the tractor, there is some great looking stuff in there and I want to be able to use it on the beds this autumn so it needs regular turning. Charlie is cooking a roast later so that leaves me free to sit around and not do much lol, eventually I got bored of that and suggested a trip to the garden centre which John readily agreed to as it means he can get out of working in the heat. I wanted to get some flowering plants of various descriptions, in the end the haul included the most amazing smelling rose and a patio grape with tons of fruit already forming on it, some plants came from the casualty dept and I have split and planted some of them and taken cuttings as well.

Hopefully I will start to feel better very soon as I have jobs I want to get on with 🤪