Monday 25th Nov: Firstly I must apologise for not proofreading last weeks post before publishing it, I was under a time constraint but that was enforgivable 😜
Today I am having Josh and Flo while Shelley does a course so I was up early in order to get everything done before they arrived first thing. I half did the rounds in the dark but it soon got light enough to double check everything was as it should be and it was except for one thing, yesterday’s eggs. John did the collection round last night and he has left the bucket of eggs untouched out the back there. So I gave him a quick ring at work to tell him I was thinking of him 😀 and exactly what I was thinking of him 😝 It may seem trivial but it is a bone of contention, when I do the egg collection, I also sort them, box them and put them out, when he does them he shouts ‘eggs are here’ meaning come out and sort the eggs, generally I don’t mind and will do them though if it played out the other way round he would have something to say about it, the point this morning is that he didn’t even say they were there and he had plenty of time to do them while I was otherwise engaged, so that’s why he got the phonecall 😬
Did you know you can eat dahlia tubers? No nor did I until this morning when I was reading a post from another group, every day is a school day 😀
Shelley came back had a quick cuppa and then they left about 3pm, my day was filled with Peppa Pig, Llama Llama (yeah that’s a new one on me too) playing chefs ? matching card games which Josh wins hands down every time 🙄 a bit of spot the difference, some writing and an animated film about Turkeys travelling back in time to the first Thanksgiving to get themselves off the menu 😜 A totally different day to most of my days but a thoroughly enjoyable one 😀
Once they had left it was time to get outside and round up my own turkeys, feed everything and collect the eggs, sort them and put them out for sale (John) a quick cuppa and a piece of Star Wars cake from a party Josh went to yesterday, sling the hoover round and it’s time to go back out and shut everything away for the night.
Whizzing round with the hoover and I’m thinking ‘it’s bloody hot in here’ the fire is going but I’m increasingly finding it stifling as it is pretty mild outside at the moment. Well that’s my thoughts on it anyway, of course I’m probably menopausal, I don’t have hot flushes but I seem to be hot all the time and I don’t mean in a deliciously good looking way 🙄
Tuesday: We had more rain overnight, not heavy but enough on top of what we already had to make it horrible under foot and more rain forecast today 😏 It’s mild for the time of year I think, up to 13c today, would be great if the wet stuff didn’t accompany it lol.
Now I am back on meds (a lower dose) I am not feeling quite as tired as I was which is a good thing, I have other issues such as rashes that appear 🙄 at the moment it’s on the tops of my ears and round my hair line, quite bizarre but only minor so not really a problem.
What did I do today, I’m not really sure lol, I did sort out some Christmas bits and pieces, I also sorted out some stuff for making wreaths at the end of the week, I cleaned off the dahlia & freesia bulbs and have stored them in the back toilet for the time being as it’s dry in there so they won’t rot. Apart from that it was the usual things like lighting the fire, hanging up washing, washing up, drying up, feeding, collecting eggs, sorting out tonight’s dinner, not a very exciting day at all. We do have someone coming tonight to buy some of the ex laying hens so that will be fun in the dark 🙄
Wednesday: Have I ever told you how much I hate this time of year, more than once I know 😂 it really is quite depressing with the endless mud and short days. You may wonder about the mud, you may not but I’m going to tell you anyway, mud to most people is what you encounter when you decided voluntarily to go on a walk with the dog or a wander across a park or a meadow to clear your head. Mud here is on, not just a daily basis but it’s a three times a day affair, it’s not your average mud either nope this mud is like a species all of its own that has found the right conditions to multiply profusely. Different mud particles have different attributes, there is the runny wet surface (very slippery) mud with the occasional puddle, then there is the trash mud, that is where either animals or humans or even vehicles are constantly moving over an area that used to be nice green grass with firm ground and is now trashed, it is often well over ankle deep and I have seen it deeper than that before now. This mud has the potential to be dangerous, how? I hear you ask, and even if you didn’t I am going to tell you 😜 suction, yes suction is your worst enemy and nightmare. Many a time I have been walking along minding my own business, well doing what I am supposed to be doing, and shlooooop there goes the suction 🙄 now at this point you are of course in mid walk and I can tell you from experience that suction is strong enough to relive you of your welly leaving an exposed, socked foot to go plundering straight down into the rest of the mud that is waiting gleefully for this to happen. I have known it to take prisoners, two feet firmly stuck in the mud waiting for the rescue party to come and help them out, that is trash mud. The wet runny mud has tactics of its own, it lies there looking all innocuous but it uses other animals to get you. There you are walking along again and the dog comes flying by flicking mud up all over you, but it doesn’t stop with the dogs, no, it uses the ducks as well, they get in a flap at letting out or feeding time and slip, slap, slop mud has been flapped all over you before you can make a run for it. If I had a favourite mud (which I don’t) but if I did it would be claggy mud, usually found on the veg beds, this mud sticks to you like a car salesman on a Sunday stroll round the garage forecourt, however it does give back which is very kind of it, being only 5ft 2″ I can easily be getting on for 5ft 5″ when I have finished 😝 So now you know about mud, it’s the smallholders nemesis, I keep trying in vain to work out how to turn it into a tourist attraction but so far I have failed. If by any strange chance YOU would like to fully immerse yourself in the experience of mud do come over and knock yourselves out, it will cost you a quid but it will be the best money you ever spent 😉
And on to today’s mumblings 😀 I did the morning rounds as per usual and then onto cleaning out the duck shed as it gets pretty dirty pretty quickly because of….you guessed it, the mud. The ducks don’t mind it in the least in fact they love it, give them wet sloppy mud and they are in their element. The chickens on the other hand are far more sensible creatures and they loathe the mud but can’t escape it. The light Sussex breeding group I moved only a few days ago, now have a trashed pen due to all the rain, when I put them in there the ground was firm and clean, now it’s a quagmire and it didn’t take long at all for it to get like that. I needed to move them to a pen that won’t get wet so I cleaned out the turkey pen and moved them into there. At this point the turkeys have no idea that I have evicted them 🙄 and I intend to herd them into the stable tonight where they will be based from here on in (famous last words as you will find out). Then as the day was fairly pleasant I did a bit in the garden, watered the garlic which is doing nicely although something has eaten the giant spinach I planted in the same tunnel. I have covered up some more bare ground to prevent weeds, the more I can do at this end of the year the easier it will be for me to get a handle on things come Spring and if for some reason (Lupus, I’m talking to you) I am incapacitated, I won’t fret about the rate of weed growth.
I did think to myself this morning that at this time of year we really are just limping towards the Winter Solstice and the promise of a few extra nano seconds of light each day 🙏 However, as miserable as I may sound 😋 I do try to find something wonderful to look at and in truth there is plenty out there, this morning I noticed the mist rising up from the paddocks as the Sun began to break through, I noticed the horse stood in the middle of the paddock bathed in a patch of said Sunshine and I always love the way the low Winter Sun peaks through the hedgerows at this time of year 😀 You will also be pleased to know that I am never alone here, I am followed constantly by those who think I may have something marvellous to feed them, especially the geese.
Thursday: I can feel that it’s a tad colder this morning and we are due some colder weather from tonight, I look forward to firmer ground lol. After doing the rounds and making sure all the water buckets are topped up, in case it freezes overnight, I set about sorting out cupboards in the kitchen. It wasn’t a job I had intended it just happened and clearly I haven’t done it since 2016 judging by the dates on some of the packets 😝
This evenings putting to bed was a bit of a Benny Hill sketch 🙄 the Turkeys realised they are not living where they were and gave me the run around, so much so that they are now penned up in the run that the light Sussex have just come out of. It never ceases to amaze me how birds that can easily pop over a six foot fence to get out need the bloody gate opened to get back in 🤬 The chickens in the front paddock were a total pain in the proverbial and I went round and round and round the hut so many times I got dizzy, eventually all but one was in and I have left that one to fate because there is only so much I can do, if you were in the vicinity I apologise for the swearing. (John caught it when he came home)
We have excess eggs now that the freeloaders have suddenly bucked up their ideas and that’s an extra 20 eggs per day so I put them on the local selling sites and we deliver them. It goes berserk and it’s difficult to keep up with the messages lol but I have sold 6 trays within half an hour so great result 😀
Friday: It’s Black Friday, oh what a joy 😀😀 I am gearing up to put my order in, no not for a 452″ wide screen tv that cooks the dinner at the same time but I will be putting my seed order in 😜 at £1 a packet I’d be foolish not to.
Noticeably colder again this morning, the cold was nipping at my fingertips and the end of my nose, the sun is shinning but I don’t suppose it will give off much heat at this time of year. All the morning rounds completed without incident and back indoors to get that Rayburn lit.
I got a large pan of vegetable soup on the go always a good idea through the Winter months, warm, comforting and nutritious what’s not to like about that 😀
Sam and the kiddies came over and she took Mia out to get the horses in, give them a check over and put rugs on them as the temps are set to be quite low tonight. It wasn’t long before Sam bought Mia back in, they had got the horses in easily enough, then Jack, who was probably trying to itch his backside, knocked over the wheelbarrow which startled Mia and set her off crying, game over trying to sort the horses with a crying toddler so she came in.
I gathered some greenery/foliage because tonight we are going to be making wreaths.
John came home just after I had finished putting the animals to bed and as it happens just in time. We had discussed that the job of the weekend would be to clean out the flues on the Rayburn as they need doing, just as John came in the flue caught, by that I mean we had a fire in the back flues, this sends me into a panic I hate anything fire related (long story) and I feel better when someone else is there with me when things go wrong 😝 We shut it down and it soon went out but we were right with our timing on the flues (or maybe not depending on how you see it 😂) so that will be the first job on the list tomorrow lol.
We made wreaths from greenery mostly gathered here and some from Shelleys holly tree, we had a great evening and tomorrow night Charlie will be coming round to do hers.
Saturday: As expected a cold night resulting in the whitest of mornings with the frost widespread and beautiful. Everything looks so delicate when it’s frosted even grass takes on a beauty all of its own. John and I did the morning rounds and then got straight on with cleaning the flues on the Rayburn after last nights oopsie. The job is pretty mucky and starts off with John going up on the roof to sweep down the main flue, that collects in the firebox and is then hoovered out (I have a separate hoover for the fire lol) Then we take out the very heavy cooking plate which is given a hoovering, the fire box is hoovered out and then onto the back flues which are the ones that caused the problem last night. There are five flues along the back all about 2″ sq, four of the five are never any problem, the fifth which is actually the first flue gets pretty blocked/choked up. We brush them then rod them to get as much off as possible, the rest of the Rayburn gets a hoovering and normally that’s it we put it back together. This time though we needed to re stick the fire rope around the back flue cover as it had come off, I should have ordered some new before we started the Rayburn up again for the winter but I didn’t, I have now so next time we clean it we will put a new rope gasket in.
Once that was all done and put back together John went to clean out the front hens while I did some bits then it was off to get some essential shopping and we picked up a Christmas tree grown in a pot at the same time. Hopefully as it will only be inside for just over a week it will survive enough to go back outside and in again next year, that’s the plan anyway 😀
Charlie came round late afternoon to make her wreath and I made another one which I will put out for sale and see what happens.
After Charlie had I gone I set about an idea I had, last years wreath base which had now dried out after being in the shed all year and some flowers from the summer garden that I had picked and dried out, pretty pleased with the result 😀
Sunday: December 1st and the first day of the Winter season, although many think we are already in Winter, December, January and February are the Winter months 🙄 A cold start but not as cold as yesterday. We had a good day all in all, we had decided to go out for breakfast this morning and went to Bampton Garden centre, there we met Shelley, Martin and the kids who had come to get their Christmas tree, and I did a little bit of buying (be rude not too) a couple of shrubs and some tree baubles.
When we got home we lit the Rayburn then went out, set up and got the last four remaining Light Sussex cockerels dispatched and plucked ready for dressing tomorrow.
I have ummmed and arrrred about the turkeys and what to do, in the end I have decided that one we will have for Christmas, after all that’s why we got them, but we only need one so the other two a stag and a hen will get to live on and hopefully the hen will lay eggs come spring. The eggs can either be hatched or eaten and it will be a novelty to provide turkey eggs for eating. John was concerned that nobody will buy them to eat but I know the customers well enough to know that there will be country folk who will eat all kinds of eggs and there will be people who are willing to give something new a try 😀
Over and out for this week, I have had a great week and hope you have too 😀
frieslandfarm (flowers) 