Tag: onions

Posted in Friesland Farm

RIP HRH Queen Elizabeth II 😔

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Tuesday 6th September 2022: I didn’t blog yesterday as I was still at Sam and Luke’s looking after the children until around 6pm, I called in to see Charlie, Macca and Oscar on the way home. We eventually got back in time to get some dinner on, John did the birds and the egg collecting and then an evening of sitting down. It is getting dark much earlier now but I quite like that, it means you actually get some time off rather than continually working. We have one heck of a storm last night, thunder so loud and plenty of lightening to go with it plus very heavy rain, I am not complying I love a good storm plus I am loving the rain 🥰 I was watching the live lightening strike map as it was going on and it covered a huge area of Europe as well as the UK, thousands of strikes, incredible.

This morning we got up and down the usual jobs, John went off to work and I went out into the greenhouse to plant up some plants and sow some seeds. The plants are from the rudbeckia I have already growing, they send out runners under ground and then little plantlets appear, I dug those up the other day put them in some water and this morning potted them up, they will probably go out for sale once established. Then it was onto sowing some ‘snaps’ snapdragon or antirrhinum in various colours, also some white marigolds and a few cornflowers. All in seed trays to bring on over winter, I have still got plenty to direct sow as well. I tidied up the greenhouse a little while I was in there and then inside to do a bit of paperwork. The rain has started again lol same old thing, once it starts…..

The looming energy crisis is a hot topic at the minute and I am trying to look at all angles to see how well we will do. Financially we will manage but that doesn’t mean to say that we shouldn’t be doing all we can to keep the costs down. I read that many people are batch cooking now before the costs go up so that they can just reheat food which makes a lot of sense. I have thought a lot about how I will be doing g the cooking as the oven uses a lot of electric to heat up so slow cooker, microwave and induction hob will be used as much as possible instead. Potentially two slow cookers, one for dinner, one for pudding 😁 they use only as much energy as a light bulb so it makes sense to cook that way. Tiered steamer pans are also a great saver as are microwave steam bags, they work brilliantly. One of the problems that has caught my attention is the possibility of blackouts, this might seems very 1970’s (to anyone old enough to remember the strikes) but the UK producers approx 40% of its energy needs, 30% is bought from Norway. That leaves a shortfall of 30% that we will have to buy from other sources, the problem is that because of the Russian pipelines being closed, all other countries that need it will also be trying to buy it from elsewhere. Two potential problems arise, a price bidding war and a shortage. Europe has already warned of potential blackouts, our government has not but the energy sector is talking about it and so it makes sense to prepare. If the preparations are not needed it doesn’t matter but if they are then I am ready for it. To be fair when we switched over to all electric I prepared then because we do have at least 5 power cuts every winter 🙄 so I bought a small camping gas stove and canisters so that we could still boil a kettle and cook something warming. I do have battery powered lights we can use indoors and we have always have powerful torches for use outside if needed. I just need to make sure we have our thermals to hand and some big blankets 😂 you never know when you will need them 🤪 We have thermal door curtains already which come out in the colder months but I am thinking of getting thermal curtain linings or some material to make some for the the bedroom windows, I figure every little will help this year but in all honesty it’s probably something we should have already been doing before.

I sat down for a couple of hours at lunchtime and got a few things done that made me feel productive, it’s raining outside so might as well get on inside. I looked up thermal curtains etc but in the end I decided to order the material and make the linings myself 🤪 as if I don’t have enough jobs on the to do list already. I did a few bits of paperwork, I say paperwork it’s mostly digital these days but they are done ✔️ I ordered a rug for the spare room, the floor really needs doing in there but I doubt we will get it done before winter so a rug will help with any draughts hopefully. I also ordered a second slow cooker, I a, definitely going down this route lol. I need to write John a list of winter ready jobs, mostly just small ones but they will make a difference

Wednesday: A sunny start so I got the morning jobs done and then out into the garden. First job was to cut flowers for my weekly customers flowers and then into the small tunnel to do plenty of cutting back. Some of the cosmos was beginning to get powdery mildew so I cut them right back and removed the foliage, the flowers went into my collecting bucket and will be used for jam jar flowers. Then onto the big tunnel where I did much the same, though there is no mildew in there the plants were getting big and flopping over onto other plants. I watered the cucumbers and peppers plus fed and watered the flowers and then picked lbs and lbs of tomatoes 😂 plus courgettes, peppers and cucumbers. Inside then to sort all the produce out, weigh it and put some of it out for sale. Then whizz up the tomato sauce I made in the slow cooker yesterday and bag it ready to go in the freezer. Sit down at 1pm for a rest, the heavens opened and right at this minute there is a heavy downpour. It hasn’t really stopped since the drought was broken by the first lot of rain 😂 it is a doubled edged sword because we really need the rain but it would be good to have a dry day inbetween so I can get stuff done. I did also put 200, yes 200 ranunculus tubers to soak, what was I thinking, 200 🤪 I have to find somewhere to plant all of those 😝

Thursday: Last night I went to flower club, totally got my weeks mixed up, not surprising really, I thought it was last week but no it was this week. It was competition week and at 6pm I did think is there anything I can do in the next hour to submit, in the end I thought nope just leave it this time 🤪 John dropped me off as he always does, he went round to Shelley’s to drop off some tomatoes and stopped for a cuppa. He made his way back to ours at dusk, he turned into the downs road which is the lane that connects to ours (about 2 1/2 miles long) he had only driven a short distance along the lane when he thought, oh my god! A little way ahead of him he saw an animal come out of the hedge on one side of the lane, take two bounds and disappear into the hedge on the other side. This is not unusual as we regularly see deer, foxes, badgers, owls, rabbits etc but this appeared to be a big cat 😯 Sadly we don’t have a dash cam but he said it was as tall as an Alsatian, long in the body, black and had the unmistakable rear end of a cat. There have been several sightings in the area over the past couple of months and I have heard first hand from someone else who has seen it in their paddock a few miles from us 🙄 He drove down the lane on the way to collect me later and then we both drove down together on the way home but no more sightings. Internet chatter suggests that because of the drought there have been far more sightings than usual throughout the country, I guess they were looking for water just like all the other wild animals, I may put the wildlife camera up and see what we get.

This morning I have been busy in the kitchen and doing the washing line Hokey Cokey, each time I put it out it rains so I get it back in, at the minute I have given up 😂 I have done a fair bit of batch cooking, I bought a second slow cooker so that I can have two lots going at the same time. Today I have mince,veg and potato in one and I have a spag Bol sauce in the other, that was bulked out with mushrooms, peppers and a tin of salad beans and I used the sauce I made yesterday. Johns was bulked out with plenty of veg including spinach and half a tin of baked beans I opened last night for dinner. Each batch had half a portion of mince in and I think I will get around 5/6 portions from the mince meal and 4/5 portions from the spag Bol meal. Apart from what we eat tonight the rest will be batched and labelled and into the freezer for another day. I then peeled and chopped a load of cooking apples and stewed those down with some blackberries and sugar and I made up a batch of crumble topping. The topping I pre cooked spread out on oven trays and then once the apple mix was cooled and batched up I sprinkled the crumble mix on top. My thinking behind this is that I will be able to get those out of the freezer and because it’s precooked it will only need reheating, saving me time, energy and money. While I did have the oven on to toast the topping I also made a cake and cooked that as well which will also be frozen until needed. I made a batch of chutney with the tomatoes and apples as I have plenty of those, a couple of courgettes some wrinkly grapes, brown sugar, malt vinegar, chopped ginger, onions and some mixed spice went into the mix as well 😁 The cake was a bit of a use it up cake, I had some caramel sauce to use up so I made up a general mix without sugar, added the sauce and some apples and it appears to have baked well, hopefully it will taste ok too. We are not really in the position where we will be worrying about the energy bill too much (I may spit feathers when I see the next bill mind you) but I love a challenge and we should all be more energy conscious no matter what the price of it is shouldn’t we? So I am aiming to trim the costs however I can and batch cooking and baking is definitely one way of doing it. Having two slow cookers is something I should have done years ago I think 😂 because John and I eat totally different things it is much easier to do big batches for each of us at the same time. The above is one example but I am also thinking that while John loves a good stew I prefer a curry or korma so I can do both now plus once it’s all prepped and in I have the rest of the day to get on with other things 🥰

Tomato and apple chutney 🥰

As I sit down to type this up, our Queen has been taken ill and they are concerned for her health, the family is travelling to Balmoral to see her so it’s not looking good. I think even people who are not royalists nevertheless have a deep respect for Her Majesty, for her total dedication to a position she didn’t expect to inherit and one that she has unfalteringly carried out through thick and thin all these years.

Early evening we had the news that we hoped wasn’t coming but in reality we knew it was 😢 HRH Queen Elizabeth II has died peacefully at Balmoral Castle. That is the end of an era, the 2nd Elizabethan Era, it’s pretty profound, we have a new King, King Charles III. The devotion and dedication that The Queen gave to the position that she held was unfaltering and that alone deserves huge respect, what an incredible woman, dignified and constant, a great example to us all. RIP Your Majesty, you will be deeply missed not only by your family but by millions of people around the world. Long Live The King 🇬🇧

Friday: I still feel pretty emotional this morning, it is just sinking in, the magnitude of the event on our historic timeline. When I started blogging it was to diarise the events of our life in a new adventure on a Smallholding, the good things that happened and the bad. Over the years it has included major world events and so it really has become a snapshot of life in the 21st century.

This morning I cut some flowers for jam jars later today, it was drizzling, the rain hasn’t really stopped since last Thursdays break in the drought conditions 😂 The poor flower heads are hoping for a dry day tomorrow as we are forecast sharp showers today and more often than not this week they have come with thunder and lightening. You couldn’t write this stuff, months of no rain, burning temperatures and then straight into torrential downpours and storms 🤷‍♀️

I batched up and got everything in the freezer, I also made a bath of dumplings yesterday which I open froze and they have now gone into a bag to use whenever we have a good stew. Stews and soups are a staple over the winter for us, they are wholesome and warming plus cooking in the slow cooker means I can get on with other things.

Saturday: I spent a lot of the day with my apple picker getting cooking apples from the tree, there are so many 😂 I have been giving plenty of them away. Shelley came over with Josh and Flo and we picked some blackberries and then after they left I went and picked a whole load more. There are loads down in the back paddock and it was so peaceful and quiet, I just have to do something with them all now. I also want to get some elderberries picked and some rose hips to make the syrups which are great for winter, rose hip for coughs and sore throats, elderberries for colds and boosting energy.

Sunday: More picking today, eating apples and pears today as well as digging up some carrots and collecting a few more mulberries. Mum and Ken came over with bags to pick elderberries, I sent them in the direction of the blackberries as well, they also went home with windfall pears, cooking apples and some carrots. Charlie and Macca called in with Oscar, they had been out blackberry picking so I also sent them down to the paddock to get more blackberries and elderberries. To add to their haul were carrots and beetroot that Charlotte had sown back in the summer and they also had some pears and cooking apples. It’s a fabulous time of year and there is plenty to go round, I have been giving away loads of cooking apples but I still have more than I really know what to do with or indeed have time to process. Tomorrow I have pears, cooking apples and carrots to either process for freezing or wrapping for storing, I also want to get some batch cooking done in the slow cookers, chicken this time. John meanwhile has been digging up the ground 🙄 the IBC tanks won’t fit how we would have liked them to so we have had to rethink. While he was exploring his options he decided to re-route the drainage pipe that runs a cross the back of the hard standing. It makes sense because it collects run off rain water and goes off at a 45 degree angle, when it gets blocked this makes it difficult to rod so he decided to straighten it which meant digging out the concrete. For someone who complains about the amount of jobs there are to do he has done a great job of making himself more work 😂

It’s the end of another week but not just any old week, in just one week we have had a wedding, a new Prime Minister, a big cat sighting, the death of The Queen and a new King on the Throne. The mood of the country is double edged. Sorrow for the loss of a very much loved Sovereign who did her duty with total dedication for 70 years and was working right up to the end of her 96 years. Relief and happiness that King Charles III has taken up his rightful position. I don’t know about anyone else but that time in between the announcement of the Queens passing and the address to the nation from King Charles seemed very strange, almost as if I needed to see him to know all would be well and that someone was at the helm of the realm. It would take a whole blog on its own for me to explain how I feel about having a Monarchy, I know not everyone is as enthusiastic but for me it’s a rich tapestry of intricately woven threads forming a scene over hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. The traditions, protocol and ceremonies are so old they seem archaic but I like that, it’s some of those rich threads forming a links with the past. I think there are a few Royals at the forefront that are fantastic ambassadors for our country and do far more good than harm. And then there are those who are either completely stupid or self obsessed and don’t have the grace and dignity it takes 🙄 I feel that generally the country is behind King Charles and wishing him the best at such a time of loss, I know I certainly am 🥰 As we leave the second Elizabethan age and move into the Carolean age we can look back with fondness and look forward with hope and what could be better than that?

Have a lovely week x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Harvesting veg, my birthday & a little bit of rain 😁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Wednesday 27th July: Oooo it’s Wednesday before I even get anything written down 🙄 now I have to try and remember what I have been doing this week 🤔 On Monday I did a mornings work cleaning the house, boring but necessary for my own sense of peace and wellbeing. Just before lunchtime Sam came over with the children and we went for a walk up the lane, a couple of hours later and approx two + miles of walking we arrived back, the twins did very well but did start sitting down in protest on the last leg, they certainly earned their lunch that day. We took a bag with us in the hopes we would find something to forage but nothing was quite ready. Once they had left to go home I carried on with the rest of the housework and cleaning. In the evening I tried to get a bit done in the garden but I had developed a pain that was almost stopping me from walking. It’s funny but not funny, earlier in the day one of my feet slipped and went in a different direction to the rest of me. I didn’t fall and recovered quickly and thought no more of it until about an hour later when I had a dull ache at the front of my pelvis, I must have pulled a muscle or stretched a tendon/ligament or something and by mid evening I had to sit and rest. After a nights rest it was better when I first got up and then gravity kicked in 😂 it has gradually got better since then.

On Tuesday I did outside work, potting plants on, digging up self setting seedlings and potting those up, giving them all a good feed at the same time. I have also been collecting seeds from various plants, so far I have poppy seeds, calendula, cerinthe, nigella and sweet william, I am constantly watching to see what is ready to collect or transplant. I also cut a couple of big buckets of flowers ready for bouquets tomorrow. Then Shelley arrived with Flo and Josh and we went out for lunch at the garden centre where some plants fell into my basket 🤷‍♀️😂🤪 I spent some time in the evening weeding the pathways of the veg garden. One good thing about no significant rain is that the weeds elsewhere (front driveway)have mostly died off but where we heavily mulched the pathways in the garden with woodchip the moisture is retained (proves mulching works well) and so weeds (healthy ones at that) are popping up all over.

Wednesday: I was up early this morning and straight outside to get some watering done, still no rain and the rumblings of a hosepipe ban are getting louder, it’s a dry year. The last time it was this dry was in the 1970’s according to the statistics. In between watering I wired some dried flowers and had a go at making a hair comb with them, I have some tweaking to do but it was not bad for a first effort. Charlie arrived and stopped for a coffee before going off for a walk and a picnic with Sam, Shelley and all the children. I thought I had better not go out again today 😂 need to get some work done.

Thursday: A busy morning getting a few bits and bins done indoors and then outside to pick produce, quite a haul today which means one thing, inside to process it all in various ways. Prep for the freezer or for dinner this evening, put out for sale and put by anything that the girls want. That took me to 1pm and I think I earned a sit down which is exactly what I am doing now, although after writing up this and I shall be looking for recipe inspiration online 😁

Friday: I think I am officially done trying to bust a gut to keep everything alive, some things are dead already because I just can’t get round to water them as other things are more important and come first. It’s a pretty serious situation when you look at the bigger trees which are now starting to drop their leaves to save moisture 😔 the elderflower bushes are looking very sorry for themselves too, top fruit is going to be less than great when it was looking like a bumper crop year but now the fruitlets are dropping on the floor. I swear every year it gets more and more difficult when it should get easier 🤷‍♀️ Each year I start off with a great deal of enthusiasm which slowly gets eroded by one thing or another and they usually come in succession, I feel like I try really hard and the result is always not quite good enough. If we don’t get some rain soon it is going to be a hosepipe ban for sure and that is only the tip of the problems and failures ahead, not just for me but on a bigger food producing scale nationally. I know there is nothing I can do about it but still it is very irksome.

Saturday: It’s my birthday 🥳 still have jobs that have got to be done mind you so I was up to get on with it. Sam messaged to see if I wanted to go and watch Mia on her riding lesson and as it was overcast I said yes. Lovely watching her learning to ride and I was very impressed with her sitting trot, no reins 🥰 she has a good seat and great balance, last time I tried that I fell off and broke my collar bone and I have only ridden once or twice since then which was about 10 years ago. I did make me think I wouldn’t actually mind riding again but not sure I would manage to get my leg over the saddle without getting terrible cramp these days 😂 We came back to ours and then Shelley arrived with Josh and Flo and Charlie and Macca arrived. They bought a delicious spread of cheese, meats, fruits with them and Charlie made a lovely cake, very spoilt 🥰 At various times of the day other family members arrived to wish me happy birthday, have tea and cake and some chit chat and then in the evening it rained, oh happy day 😁 We need a bit more rain but anything is better than nothing at this point.

Sunday: It rained a bit more overnight, a gentle constant drizzle which is great, much better than a downpour, downpours though good to fill water tanks, run off very quickly whereas gentle drizzle has time to soak into the ground. Because we had rain I didn’t have to be outside checking to see what was flagging and watering so we went out for breakfast. We met my brother and his wife and afterwards went to the local garden centre, I know I have a bad plant buying habit 😂 and so do they 😝 He had told me of the great plant sale they had on there and he wasn’t wrong, I picked up some bargains for a couple of quid a plant and jammed them into every area of the car that was available 🤪 Once home I gave them all a good watering, they will also have a feed before going into their planting positions. We had more short showers this afternoon and hopefully we will have more overnight, we just need enough to keep them going for a few weeks with minimum watering from the refilled tanks.

Just having a sit down now in time to watch England Ladies play Germany in the Euro 22 final, Sweet Caroline I hope we win this but even if we don’t the team are incredible and are changing the future of womens football here in the UK, it’s history in the making from this team 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 COME ON ENGLAND 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Have a fabulous week and enjoy the little things as well as the bigger events x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Happy New Year 😁

Posted on by frieslandfarm

I hope you have all had a lovely festive time and I wish you a very happy 2022. We still have Covid (who would have thought it 🙄) but we are getting to grips with living with it on a daily basis, let’s hope this year coming is a little more like life used to be 😁

We have wined and dined, loved and laughed, rested and recuperated, felt grateful for what we have, watched endless Christmas tv and generally had a fabulous time. All the while of course, we have had to continue doing the daily routines with animal feeding and care no matter what day it was but that is ok it’s what we signed up for.

I have also spent some considerable time thinking about how we move forward with the Smallholding this coming year. I had mused over cut flowers and that is still very much part of the plan I just need to put it into practice now. As well as the usual bunches of flowers I saw a lovely jam jar posy while I was researching and thought ‘oooo yes, I like those’ they very much they fit in with the ethos here, the jam jars can be returned time and time again for refilling, they are small enough to fit on any table or surface if you don’t have a large enough area for a full vase of flowers and all kinds of up-cycled embellishments can be used including the customers own if they want a particular ribbon used, yep I really like this idea, ‘Flowers @ Friesland Farm’ is in its newborn phase 🥰 Locally grown, no pesticides or artificial fertilisers used, minimal miles, grown with love and pride, doesn’t get better than that does it 😁 Add to that the plants I divide or grown from seed to sell at the gate and the direction for the year is looking good, just got to hope the weather is kind 😜

Betwixtmas: 😂 We we’re not idle (not all the time anyway) over the holidays, the chickens and ducks keep on laying, the horses need checking over, the other non laying lot still need feeding and watering as do the dogs and cats as well as ourselves. We have been busy most days with cleaning out and cleaning up, the huts that the birds were moved out of when the avian flu came have now been cleaned and power washed. The hard standing has been cleared of leaves and debris and power washed, the leaves all over the driveway have been raked and piled under the trees and we have been moving woodchip onto the paths in the garden. We also moved plenty of barrowfuls to the orchard where the ground deteriorated very quickly once the rain came. When the weather permitted we worked on the veg garden to get ahead ready for spring, putting home made compost on the beds, harvesting leeks, carrots and beetroots, we still have kale and cabbages in the ground, the broad beans are growing nicely as are the garlic and onions. Flower bulbs are beginning to appear which is always a lovely sign that the wheel keeps on turning. There were also plenty of times when we sat and watched a film or saw family and ate up all the festive food 🥰 No matter how hard I try not to have too much food in, there always seems to be too much, none of it is wasted though. John had bubble and squeak on Boxing Day and I have three more portions frozen as well as cooked veg which will make soup at some point. I have some cake from an unexpected visit that I also froze because we have Christmas cake and Christmas pudding to eat up first and of course plenty of chocolate to get through 🤪

Once all the festive food is used up I have set myself a bit of a challenge (in fact I have started it even though we still have stuff left) I am not doing ‘veganuary’ but I am intending to make vegetables as much, if not the biggest, part of our meals. Sounds easy right but I also want to use seasonal and mostly what I have grown myself, this is a lot easier said than done. I searched for some inspirational recipes online but most of them overlook the seasonal and there are plenty of ingredients that have come from far flung corners of the world which I want to avoid. So you see keeping it interesting is a challenge. I will be using store cupboard goods that I have already such as rice and pasta (though I could make my own pasta if I run out) As it is winter then soup is the easiest go to lunch, packed with home grown veg, very nutritious and healthy which is what is needed after the indulgences lately.

The first recipe was lovely and lacto-vegetarian (it seems there are different versions of vegetarianism) John did not eat this 😂 but I fried off some butternut squash (cubed) along with some garlic and some dried sage in olive oil. Fry just enough to get them coated and then add a splash of water to flash cook until the squash is soft, then add chopped mushrooms until it all caramelises, add to cooked pasta and I crumbled blue cheese on top though you could use whatever cheese you like such as Parmesan. Twas delicious I have to say and what’s more it felt like comfort food which is all the more important during the winter months. I also got some vegetable soup going in the slow cooker, turnip, butternut squash, carrots and onions from the garden, I added celery (which I had bought for Christmas) some mushrooms and some peas, veg stock, bouillon powder and pepper. Cooked it down for a good few hours until everything was soft then turned it off overnight, blitzed it and reheated in a pan for lunch the next day, delish and I felt I had already had my five for the day 😁 Let’s hope I can keep up the momentum 😝

Butternut squash quickly fried in olive oil with garlic and sage, add water to flash cook, once soft add mushrooms and cook, add to cooked pasta and crumble cheese of your choice on top 🥰

New Year’s Eve went without a bang this year in fact we went to bed at 11.30 lol, well it arrives wether you wait up to see it or not doesn’t it and I think it was pretty muted everywhere this year. New Year’s Day we started off well, John started to build a plant table for me, for the plants I will have for sale this year coming and I sorted out all the pots of English Bluebells which will be the first plants to go out, and then it started to rain quite heavily 🙄 So we came in for coffee and waited for the rain to stop, it didn’t, so we took down the Christmas decorations and hoovered and polished instead 😝 Years ago I would have cooked a roast dinner on NYD but ever since the kids were late teens and too hungover the next day, I haven’t bothered. The place looks bare with the docs down and I can’t remember what went where beforehand 🤷‍♀️ but it’s a job done and quite literally ‘dusted’ 😝 sorry, not sorry.

I have been through all my seeds to see what I needed to get, turns out I have rather a lot of them and don’t need much else at all. For the few seeds I did want, we popped to the garden centre to get them there, I also picked up some first early seed potatoes. I am good to go now and as always I am chomping at the bit but I also know it doesn’t pay to get started too early. Our weather at the minute is ridiculously warm, 17c which is insane for Winter but I am also aware that it can take a real plummet at any point and if I have over sown I will be struggling for space so it’s best to hold fire and wait a while. There are a few things I can get started, some extra broad beans, there is still time to sow those and on the flower front, sweet peas can still be started off now.

Sunday: The weather was kinder today up until just after lunch, we got busy, John finished the plant table while I sorted out more plants to put out for sale. Once that was sorted and John cleared up the wet leaves on the drive he came to help me on the bed that was the herb bed and needs clearing. It has taken quite a while, many of the bigger herbs such as fennel and lovage had very big strong roots and I needed to wait for the ground to be soft enough to dig them up. There were a few other things to salvage, ice plants which I have potted up and will move to the tortoise run for them to feed on, a blackcurrant sage which I wanted to get out in good condition, that has now been replanted elsewhere and also a large patch of aster which has now been dug up and divided into many plants 😁 On the whole the area is now ready to clear ready to put grass down. The project after that which is also rattling round in my head at the same time is the cut flower patch, forming a plan on what to put in and how many of each plant. John and I also talked about putting the patch in the front paddock but we decided that for this year it will be better in the veg garden and we will work towards moving it next year. The idea being that it gets sun all day, it can be seen and even accessed on a pick your own basis if needs be plus it will look lovely but I need to see how well this year does before investing in fencing etc.

Have a great week, still one more bank holiday to go 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Snow, a beautiful bargain & a pantry 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm
Monday morning beauty 🥰

Monday 29th November: Oh what a lovely Monday morning 🤪 snow on the ground, flipping freezing and as yet (2pm) it has not thawed 🙄 A different routine this morning, the birds are now all housed and so that means there is no point John doing them in the morning before he goes to work, it becomes my job 😏 I was glibly thinking ‘I don’t need to go out until mid morning’ but then realised that I actually would have to go out first thing of course (silly me) The horses need hay, the water buckets need the ice broken and although we had filled up the feeders in the stable block and for the ducks, the others in the orchard will still need feeding and watering. So I donned my big ‘duvet’ coat, my isotherm wellies (they keep your feet warm down to -10 🥰) and my leather gloves because if they get wet it doesn’t go through to my fingers and make them freezing cold. I did all the feeding and watering and then had to set up a small run for the light Sussex hen with the chick, everything needs to be enclosed and no wild birds should be able to get to the food or water, this is quite a task but luckily, as it happens year on year now, we are prepared. Once I had finished outside it was back indoors to divide up some blocks of mature cheddar for the freezer and get those in along with some blocks of butter and a carton of milk. I am not stocking up honestly lol, the milk I asked John to get on top of our regular delivery because he seemed to be drinking a lot of tea. In the end we didn’t use it and had our normal delivery this morning so I need to freeze it and save it for another day. The butter I am going to need when I start making mince pies by the dozen and if I have them in the freezer ready then I can do them when I want to. The cheese is because John only eats mild cheese which is not much good for flavouring something like cauliflower cheese so if I put it in the freezer I always have some handy and it’s not going hard in the fridge. I have been a Jack of all trades today because after that job I went and painted the pantry. I say painted and John is going to tell me it’s not finished but that is the look I am going for 😂 he will hate it, I will love it, it’s my pantry and once the door is on I doubt he will ever go in there 😂 Then I spent a bit of time trying out new bits of crafting, I want to make some decorations for myself and so have been having a go at cone trees, not pine cone trees but cone shaped trees, I haven’t finished yet but if I am pleased with the result I will take photos. A quick sit down with a cup of tea and then onto the next job of the day, caramelised red onion chutney making 😁

With the chutney on the go, the dinner prepped ready for this evening and an apple and blueberry crumble also made, I got all togged up to go outside and do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting. Luckily the outside taps had thawed and I was able to get more water to the ducks, geese and horses who also had more hay. The shift took me far longer than it did to write about it 😂 I had planned on coming in for a cuppa before shutting them away at dusk but by the time I had finished that, collected the post, checked the egg shed, fed the dogs and the cats it was getting dark and so I shut down doors etc before coming back inside and taking off my artic gear. I just got into the kitchen when John arrived home, typical that he arrives just as everything is done. He asked if I had painted the pantry, I told him yes but he won’t like it, he said and I quote ‘it’s your pantry, you can paint it how you like’ 😮 As we went through to have a look, John shouted at the dog who was busy helping herself to eggs from the bucket! Normally I put the bucket of eggs in the sink but there was the paint tray in there so I put it on the floor, I won’t make that mistake again 😂 The reason I don’t box up the eggs right away is because then the cat sits on the boxes which is ok-ish when the weather is dry but if it’s wet she gets the boxes dirty. Sometimes I feel the battle is already lost before I even get up 🤪 I complain all the time that the geese eat all the chicken food (because they should not be down in the stable block) the dog eats the cat food (he reaches up on the side to sneak it out of their bowl) the chickens eat diesels cat food (big no no) if the he hasn’t eaten it all and now the dog is eating the eggs, I need some sort of order back with the feed routine which will be easier now the birds are all shut away.

Hens on lockdown 😏

I think I am just going to relax this evening, once the dinner is made, eaten and washed up that is! I hope it thaws overnight, Smallholding life is a lot harder when it’s freezing outside.

Tuesday: i did the rounds again this morning and it has all thawed thank goodness, it was hard work over the last few days 🙄 The art of the job is getting in through the stable doors without letting any hens out 😂 this morning just as I opened the door and ducked down to go in, one of them flew straight at me from where she was perching, I did t have the heart to tell her she has a very long time until she can go outside again 😏

I didn’t have anything in particular planned for today which was just as well as Sam came over with the twins and Shelley and Flo came after Flo finished nursery so it was a few hours of chaos and cacophony 😝 Once they had all left to do the school run I sat in total silence enjoying the moment 🤪

I did have time to make a cake before anyone arrived though, it was a recipe I wanted to have a go at, pumpkin cake with a cream cheese frosting. The verdict from the little ones was ‘nah’ the verdict from Sam was ‘not bad’ I can’t decide if I like it or not 🤷‍♀️ I think if I did it again I would doctor the recipe somewhat as it is quite heavy, more like a pudding texture but chances are I won’t make it again lol.

Wednesday: Busy day today, first up, the morning rounds and sorting out fresh water, feed etc then onto digging up the dahlia bulbs and putting them to dry out in the greenhouse before storing for the winter. The smaller ones I have left in the ground to see if they survive but the big star ones and the cafe au lait I have dug up as I don’t want to lose those. Some of them have got massive over summer and so I should be able to get lots more plants from them in spring. I also found a couple of lupin seed heads which I have drying in the kitchen now, also for sowing again next spring. I had quickly painted the remaining bits I needed to do in the pantry before doing the gardening and so once that was dry I went back to get some bits of furniture cleaned and moved in there. The apple rack is going to live in there and needed the dust cleaned from it, also a cupboard that needed a hoovering to get the dust off. The rest of the day until feeding time I spent cleaning out screws and nails from the workbench which is also going to be going in there. The bench is one that we inherited at our old house from the previous owner, it is old, heavy and well used, it will look fab once it is cleaned up. But before I can do that I needed to clean out the little cubby holes at the back which were full of screws and nails, some of which have been there for well over twenty years I imagine 😂 I sorted through thousands of screws and nails of all different sizes and types, lots were rusty and so have been thrown away, lots are still very useable and indeed we are always looking for nails and screws so sorting them all out will be a good job, well done. I have now ordered a screw organiser thingy that will go on the wall and I can sort them out into sizes hopefully. I came in for a s quick sit down before having to go out and do the afternoon rounds and saw what I thought was an egg customer sat in the car, I went out with more eggs as we have had a few visitors to the shed today. He got out and asked for Samantha, my thought were now whirring as the horses were due to have the dentist visit but I didn’t think it was today, I asked him if he was the dentist and yes he was 🙄 A quick phonecall to Sam and it seems she had the wrong day written down 🤪 he agreed to come back tomorrow bless him, which is when Sam thought he was coming. The reason that I couldn’t supervise is because Sam doesn’t know how Jack is going to react, previously he had to be sedated to have his teeth rasped and it’s not something I would be confident overseeing. I finally got a sit down for about half and hour before starting with the afternoon rounds and egg collecting.

Huge dahlia tuber root, hopefully I can get a lot more plants from it next spring.

I am not quite sure where Thursday and Friday went lol or what I did on those days except that the horse dentist came back to do their teeth and it’s good to finally get a rough idea of biscuits age, apparently somewhere around 20 years old. She is in good oral health though which is good to know, Jack also has no problems and his lameness has gone so that is good as well. I have had the twins three times since Thursday morning so no wonder I have no idea what else I have done 🤪 Friday (I think) I went into town with Shelley and Flo for a mooch round the charity shops and to get a nice coffee. I found a few bargains including a gorgeous Rumtopf pot, I did already have one but this one was so lovely I couldn’t leave it sat there so I bought it 😁 I gave the other one to shelley so she can have a go at it next year. Traditionally you fill the rumtopf with layers of fruit, rum and sugar, the fruit can be a complete mixture which means to can add to it as the season progresses. You then eat the boozy fruit around Christmas time. I tend to use plums and brandy but any combination works just as well if you fancy giving it a go.

Saturday: I had the twins for a couple of hours while Sam and luke went to a meeting and then it was time to go to the family Christmas party. Each year (except last year) my sister hires the hall in Kelmscot and we have a big family get together, there are a lot of us and we need a big space for everyone to be able to come 😂 This year it was mainly centred around the children having fun so there was a disco and games and a sack of gifts for them all, we all did something for a buffet and as always there was plenty to eat and drink 🥰 It is important for the children to get together as a good few of them have only known pandemic conditions which is really quite sad.

Sunday: Up and about early this morning and after getting all the Smallholding jobs done, feeding, watering etc, and then the household things done, washing on, rubbish out etc, I could finally get on with the job I was excited to get started, the pantry 🥰 We had moved some of the cupboards in yesterday but we could finally get started on fitting shelves and fixtures. I am delighted with how it is going so far, I have plenty of shelves and storage space and I have lots of hanging space for drying flowers or storing onions and garlic. I have tried to use everything I already had here and have easily achieved that, I still have a fair amount to put in there but here is a sneak preview 😁 I can’t wait to start stocking it with goodies 😍

Posted in Friesland Farm

A farewell, a home brew & Christmas cards

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Thursday 4th November: Again it’s midweek before I think of sitting down to write the blog, not sure why that is happening but I will try to be better otherwise I forget things.

Monday I spent the morning cleaning and then making some banana bread in the early afternoon before doing the afternoon feed and egg collecting rounds. The clocks have changed and now it is getting dark before John gets home from work and so it’s my turn to start doing the birds in the afternoon, the mornings are still light enough at the moment for John to do them before work. I also cleaned out the dirty ducks, no matter how much you clean them out they soon make a mess especially if it has been raining.

Tuesday I can’t really remember what I did first thing although I must have done something 😜 At midday my sister picked me up and we went to my cousins funeral, a lovely send off and a bitter sweet day really. Sad that he has left this world but happy that he was here at all and we spent a lovely afternoon with family reminiscing.

Wednesday was much busier, I figured I ought to get my arse into gear a bit 😂 As soon as the frosty morning disappeared I went out and got some things done in the veg garden. I have been waiting for the compost heaps to drop a little before putting any more on them, and now that they have I was able to pile on any dead foliage I had already pulled up a couple of weeks ago. I went into the big tunnel and finished the tidying I started late last month. The citrus trees have now been wrapped ready for the cold months ahead and all the beds are covered, it pretty tidy in there now, I cut back the lemon verbena and will be using some of that for various things, the dahlia is now cut back and the pit wrapped up, just some lettuces growing in there for winter use.

After that I sowed a packet of broad beans and some onion sets in the small raised beds John put in earlier in the year. I feel as though I am now getting the hang of year round growing, it has taken me long enough lol. I have leeks, cabbages, kale, winter lettuce, carrots and garlic already growing and now I have the onions and beans in as well, I really should add some peas to that list and it would be complete.

Mid afternoon I made some tea, not any old tea mind you, this tea was grown by me right here 😁 I have a camellia sinensis plant and have been growing it from small for the past two years, this summer I harvested a few leaves and dried them. There were just enough for a small cup, I bought a small tea pot and had a little tea ceremony. It wasn’t very strong but it did taste like tea, my self sufficiency goals are complete ✔️

The darker evenings come quickly now and it wasn’t long before the curtains were shut and the lights went on and after having dinner I went off to the flower arranging group. Tonight it was a demonstration by a local florist who has competed and won a medal at Chelsea, she did four arrangements, all different, all beautiful and now I will have to have a go a some of them myself 🥰

Thursday: I spent the majority of the day making Christmas cards with buttons and up cycled bits and pieces, they sold well last year and I want to get ahead I bit in case there is demand this year 😂 Apart from that and doing the rounds in the afternoon I didn’t do anything else on the Smallholding.

Friday: Oh my that was a cold night 🙄 very frosty this morning though the the sun is shinning through so hopefully it won’t last long. First thing this morning was a delivery of materials so I got that all sorted and then decided to make some roasted butternut squash soup, def a soup day. I had a look at a few recipes and then made my own up, I roasted two small squash with some red onions, garlic a chilli and some celery leaves in olive oil and some salt and pepper. Once roasted I blended it up with some vegetable stock and water, some of the recipes have ginger or maple syrup in them so depending on how you like your soup you can add what you like really. I went for a touch of maple syrup 😋 Apart from the maple syrup and the veg stock the rest of the ingredients are entirely home grown so the food miles are very low in comparison, also the energy consumption levels, minimal processing, just great quality food 🥰

I need to get back on some healthier than usual eating as I feel a bit urgh, dumpy, doughy, you know what I mean 😂 extra layers of winter clothing doesn’t help either.

Saturday: Spent the morning doing a bit of cleaning while John was busy out the back continuing with that project. Lunchtime a straw delivery arrived and then I went to Sams to look after the children overnight while they went away.

Sunday: Came back home around lunchtime and had a nap 😂 the twins were awake at around 4am having a dinosaur fest, I could hear them roaring at each other and laughing for about an hour 🤪 Roast dinner at Shelley’s late afternoon and that’s another week done.

Have a good one x x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Harvest time, home grown flowers & plenty of jobs to do 😝

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 22nd August 2021: Well we had the best weeks holiday 😁 the weather was just right for me, the sea was as calm as a lake all week long, the food was out of this world good and we rested and relaxed a lot, job done now back on with the work 😂

Shelley has looked after the farm beautifully, everything was in order and then some as her and Sam had done some mowing and weeding and clearing, it all looked lovely on our return. In order to keep up the good work we have not been idle since arriving home and have been trimming the front hedge, hoeing, sweeping and tidying, still a fair bit more to do but it’s looking loved again. Hopefully we can get quite a bit achieved this week as John has another week away from his plumbing and we can crack on here with tidying, strimming, cutting back, mowing, weeding, lol it’s never ending 🤪

We were up early and ready to crack on, I got some picking done and checking over everything to see what needed doing. John got busy with the morning jobs and then back to the front driveway which he has gone to town on, really pulling out and raking up all the stinging nettles and weeds. I picked another lovely bunch of flowers for the kitchen, beautiful pink dahlias this week 😁 We worked until almost lunchtime then John took me over to Sams to look after the kiddies while she went for her second vaccination. John was supposed to come back home and do some work but he made a cuppa sat down and had a sleep instead 😂 Once he had picked me up and we came home it was my turn for a quick kip, I was exhausted after and early start and grandchildren sitting 🤪 John went out and cut the middle paddock and gave the back paddock a better cut while I had a sleep. Once awake I picked some raspberries and blueberries, I still think birds are getting in the fruit cage as there is not a red raspberry to be seen, normally there are loads, I think I will definitely grow more yellow ones next year as the birds don’t touch them 🤷‍♀️ I picked a cucumber, tomatoes, garlic chives, celery greens, and carrots for dinner this evening, John has chicken with runner beans which I had already picked, plus the home grown carrots and potatoes while I have chicken with salad and baked potato and some home grown fruit with yoghurt for dessert including a home grown melon 🥰

Shelley did some daily recordings for the podcast if you are interested in listening to that, I do a weekly round up on a Thursday and then on a Mondays I cover a topic of one type or another, https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/our-smallholding-life-warts-n-all/id1574503311 or it can be found on Spotify. I am really enjoying doing them, I think it is a completely different perspective when you can hear me talking about things rather than reading them.

Tuesday: We got off to a flying star with all the usual morning jobs and then John continued with the driveway, it’s hard work but he is doing a great job and it looks fab. I picked some flowers this morning to go out with the produce and eggs, I definitely want to be doing more flowers and plants for sale. With that in mind I collected some seeds from a lovely soft pink snap dragon I have growing and I took some cuttings from some pinks, if I do a little bit every day I will soon have plenty of plants to put out next Spring. I have a large order of tulip bulbs arriving in September, most will go into the garden but a lot will be potted up and hopefully ready for Easter next year. I picked courgettes and lots of tomatoes this morning though the tomato plants are coming to the end now as they definitely have something wrong with them, I think it is from spray watering, I really need to get set up to water at ground level really. The lads from Wildpoint arrived to take some photos, they are working hard to get the website off the ground and have already had a piece in the Guardian and have been approached by a main tv station to do a bit on one of their daily programmes which is great for them. Exciting stuff and they were very enthusiastic about our little Wildpoint campsite 🥰

Mid morning we went to the garden centre for a mooch around and some lunch and then round to Mums for a cup of tea or two before returning home. As the sun was out we decided to wait until later in the day to carry on outside. Once it was cool enough John went out to put some things in the skip, it was changed over this morning and we always have plenty to fill a new one up 😂 I went out to pick some plums, the greengage and Victoria’s are ready and I think I will make jam with those. While I was in the vicinity I did all the water bowls for the animals in the orchard, rabbit, quail, light Sussex and turkeys plus the guinea pigs. Sadly I found one of the pigs in the last throes of dying, I have no idea why as it was fine yesterday although he is the one I had to separate because the others bullied him. Maybe they knew there was something wrong, animals have the instincts to detect things we can’t even see and I’m guessing this was something internal as there were no external signs of anything 😢

When we were driving to Mums I spotted a compost bin that had been put out on the pavement ‘free to take’ yay, I had been looking round the farm for something to use in the front area so that I didn’t have to keep taking it round the back and so that little find was perfect 👍

Wednesday: Busy day today, it was overcast so I made the most of being able to be outside all day 😁 Mostly I was weeding and clearing, the peas have finished so I took down the canes and cleared away dead foliage, weeded the bed and I will cover it to stop the cats using it as a toilet area and keep new weeds at bay. There is plenty of weeding to do, it’s amazing how much time it all takes lol I spent most of the day doing that. Meanwhile John was finding things that needed to go in the skip and burning the hedge clippings and all the weeds he has been digging up. It doesn’t sound like we did a lot but we really did 😂 we were tired by 3.30 so went in for a sit down and a cheeky nap 🤪 After I had cooked dinner and we had finished eating I used the tomatoes I picked yesterday to make some quality tomato soup. I used a BBC Good Food recipe as it does not have any extras such as flour as I don’t think it’s needed. Most of the ingredients were home grown, tomatoes, onion, carrots, celery and bay leaves, just the addition of vegetable stock, tomato purée and a pinch of sugar (which reduces the acidity of the tomatoes) were needed to finish it off, lovely jubbly. That will go into some pour and store bags ready for the winter.

Home grown ingredients for tomato soup, I love making this and then getting it out of the freezer on a cold winters day 🥰
I also strung up the red onions to store, these were a good crop unlike the white onions which won’t store and those have been chopped and frozen instead.

Thursday: Had a busy morning, first up after the usual stuff then onto blending up the tomato soup, I left it to cool down overnight so I could do it this morning and then freeze it in four portions of approx 500ml each in pour and store bags. Then straight onto making 4lbs of Victoria plum jam and 3lbs of garden chutney plus a ‘compost cake’ 😂 I found a lovely site with both these ‘formulas’ rather than recipes, formulas because she just talks about the basics and the ingredients are whatever you have. The garden chutney this time had courgettes, onion, apple and runner beans in it and the compost cake had banana, kiwi, plums and a satsuma as the ingredients. Basically it’s a cake that uses up fruit that is probably about to go into the compost, as long as it’s not mouldy or dry as a bone it can go in, the banana was black on the outside but still useable inside, the kiwi was a bit squidgy (it was one from the fruit bowl on holiday lol) the plums were the cherry plums I picked before we went away and so needed using up and there were a few grapes that went in as well. Makes a lovely, fairly heavy cake with is almost like a bread pudding texture, I had mine with some yoghurt when it was still warm 🥰 The chutney has a basic chutney base (sugar, vinegar, apples, onions) and then whatever you have to use up which in my case was some wonky courgettes and some tougher runner beans, I threw in some sultanas for good measure and I added some powdered allspice but you could use any combination of spices that you prefer.

Meanwhile John was very busy tidying up the stable block, over time lots of things had got put away (dumped) in there and now everything has been put away neatly and it looks great, he then went on to start cutting up a huge pile of wood that we still have. We decided to keep the wood and use it on the fire pit, should be enough to last about 5 years 😂

In the afternoon we had a rest, did a bit more late afternoon and then some dinner, out to get a bit of shopping and a bit more when we came back. Watering the greenhouse, feeding the cats and dogs, putting the birds away etc etc, feels like the jobs never end sometimes.

Cheeky little Anna cat playing hide and seek, she will go to Shelley’s once they are back from their holiday, no doubt she will keep them on their toes 😂

Friday: Another busy, busy day today, got to make the most of John still being at home 😉 He started off with the feed rounds and then went off to get a feed load, meanwhile I did the usual morning things and then set about picking which was a big session 🙄 Cucumbers, courgettes, beetroot, tomatoes, sweetcorn, jalapeños, all went out into the Little Shed along with some plum jam and garden chutney. Then I got started on covering an area that I cleared yesterday where the peas were, I don’t want the cat using it as a toilet so I have put down membrane to also prevent the weeds growing until I decided what to do with it. Then I was looking at the old bean bed, we moved the runner beans last year and it has been successful (with a modification) and now this bed needed repairing and tidying up, cue John 🤪 I called him over to help decide what was the best thing to do and we spent until gone 2pm taking out the old sides, digging in pallet collars and tidying the whole bed up. It will now be a one of these collars, which make great raised beds, instead of one long bed. It will be easier to cover individual boxes when they are not being used and also easier to make frames to put netting or environmesh over. We did have to leave some things in situ as I have leeks growing at one end and brassicas growing halfway down but we have put in four new collars and will do some more tomorrow. I am thinking that I will use some of the beds for some of the cutting flowers for next year but the decision has not yet been finalised.

Late afternoon we went round to water Shelley’s plants while she is away and then drop some veg off to Mum and have a quick cuppa. Back home for dinner and a restful evening (well except the putting to bed stint)

Saturday: A bit late up this morning, we have our daughters dog while they are away and it howled all night long 🤪 Once we were up and about and had got all the morning feeding and letting out done John cleaned out the ducks while I prepped some dwarf beans for the freezer. Mid morning we went out, there was a carnival on in the next town so we went for a mooch about, I won a nice ha dang, a hatching dinosaur egg and a bottle of wine on the tombola stall 😂 I also pledged to go along to the local flower arranging group which is starting up again on Wednesday evening, I am really looking forward to that, I have wanted to do it for a few years now and so I seized the opportunity to have a chat with them and said I would go along, the lady said I will probably be the youngest one there 😂 the way I see it that just means there is a lifetime of knowledge I can glean information from 😁 When we got back we decided to mostly take the rest of the day off as we have been working so hard this week, and we are tired from not getting a decent sleep during the night 🙄

Sunday: After having a more relaxed day yesterday we got on with it again this morning, after all the feeding and letting out was done John did another of the raised beds in the garden, I did a lot of dead heading and cutting back on the flower garden. Shelley, Martin and the children came over to collect the last little kitten who is called Anna and then we went to the DIY shop to get some bags of compost. On the way back we called in to see my brother and his wife for a coffee and came back mid afternoon so up to that point we didn’t actually get much done at all 😂 John continued with that theme by having a sit down but I got on with clearing some of the bed in the veg garden that will make way for more lawn. It has all the herbs in there but also some plants left from when I used it as a nursery bed before the flower garden got finished. My plan was to dig up all the seedlings and plants that were left in there and pot them up ready for next spring either to use or sell on. So far I have potted up 79 plants 😲 of one type or another and there are plenty more to do. I have hundreds of strawberry plants and runners to dig up, some I will save, some will be given away and some will be potted up for selling next spring. The same goes for all the herbs I will be digging up and dividing. John did come back out eventually and did two more boxes/beds, I think he said there will be 11 in all so that is 13.2m long (approx 43ft) by a metre wide, each box is 1.2m x 1m and I think it will be much easier to cover the boxes individually with different things depending on what is growing and what stage they are at. I carried on digging bits up and potting them until I felt I needed a sit down 🤪

Bank holiday tomorrow, it’s always nice when the weekend is extended, then job is back to the day job on Tuesday and I will be back on me tod again 🙄 Things get very busy in the garden at this time of year, harvesting everything that seems to be coming in fast and furiously, taking cuttings, collecting seeds, dividing plants, planting bulbs, cutting back, pruning, planting winter veg, prepping, freezing, drying, jams, chutneys, sauces, syrups, yep it’s a busy time for sure but it keeps me out of trouble.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, struggling & two new friends for Ted 🥰

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 26th July 2021: It is noticeably cooler today though we still have had no rain and the sun is out which means I have been watering this morning. We have seen only a drizzle of all the rain that was forecast, I was hoping we would get a lot more but as yet nothing so from here until we do I am going to have to start watering the veg beds in order to keep things alive and producing. I don’t want to, the aim of self sufficiency they way I do it is to be able to grow food without too much intervention but needs must. To be honest I have got away much more lightly this year than last so I can’t complain.

I had a jumble of jobs to get sorted in my head this morning, picking, potting on, watering, cutting back. I have achieved some but not all, I have picked tomatoes, cucumber, chillies, runner beans, French beans and young ying yang beans as well as some peas and beetroot. We will have some of the beans and peas with our dinner tonight along with potatoes I dug up the other day and I will pull some carrots later. I potted on a couple of plants that I had out for sale, bought them in potted them on and have left them to soak, I put some others out instead, foxgloves, verbena, geums and rudbeckia. I have a pile of onions to get sorted still, I have done half of them, and I have garlic to peel and chop for the freezer in one form or another, I will also freeze some whole cloves, the reason being I had to pull them early and so they are not going to store as they are. It is 11am and I already feel tired enough that I could have a nap 😂 dilemma, do I keep going half heartedly or do I stop and nap and then get on later 🤷‍♀️

Spotted this bumble bee on a sunflower this morning 🥰 🐝

Booked a Dmard blood test for later in the week, it’s due but I also feel as I am getting quite tired there may be a touch of inflammation going on 🙄

Peeled all the garlic cloves, two thirds I made into paste and froze flat then marked out sections on the bag (like noughts and crosses) so I can just break a bit off when needed, the other third is in the dehydrator and that will become powder. I chopped some onions to go in there too, half will be crispy onion and half will be powered. I still have some onions that I think will keep for a couple of weeks and so they are in a basket in the store cupboard. Did a bit of tidying away and some hoovering also a bit of un bountiful paperwork, ie I didn’t get anywhere with the results I was after 🙄 just a lot of chasing around. Time for a sit down before John comes home and I have to get the dinner on. Oh I did pick some more fresh flowers for my kitchen 🥰 Still got soo much to get sorted but rest first I think.

Tuesday: Today I have accepted that I am struggling, I am so tired it is unreal and my legs feel heavy, my feet hurt and I am incredibly grumpy about everything, all signs that something isn’t quite right 🙄 Hopefully it’s just a blip, I have taken some ibrufen along with my meds this morning and I will make an anti inflammatory smoothie of orange carrot and turmeric later, also make sure that what I eat is plain and fresh so that my digestive system doesn’t have to work too hard in order to leave the energy for my body to use for healing instead, that’s the plan lol. So unless the ibrufen kicks in I will not be doing much today except resting, luckily I have blood tests on Thursday so should be able to pick anything up quite early on although the lupus is like an iceberg by the time you can see the top, underneath has grown massively.

I went out and did the necessary it proper struggling now 😕 fed the Guineas and torts plus cleaned them all out and got new hay and straw for them and the light Sussex and cleaned Teds pen. Then picked some fat hen for the Sussex who don’t come out until later when Ted goes away otherwise Ted and the cockerel fight 🙄 After that I wanted to get some washing on the line. I took the rotary down when it was Johns birthday but the bottom broke and everything since I have been using the airer but when I want to dry bigger things that’s not practical. So I tried getting it back up as best as possible, it took a lot of effort to lump hammer what was left into the ground, then it wouldn’t go up which took me four or five attempts then once I had the washing on there it started to fall over 🤬 ffs I wedged a piece of wood behind it but that has just about finished me off and I could easily have a sleep. Washing lines have been the bane of my life, anyone else? Just me probably, never had a rotary that actually stayed upright and when we moved to one place it had those nice concreted posts at each end, fabulous I though till John decided they were in the way and dug them up and then it was back to rotary 😭 Although we have plenty of area I can’t actually find a good spot for a retractable one that isn’t under trees!

I did find some energy eventually so I went out and had a go at scything some of the grass in the front drive, came in and had a good look at technique on you tube plus how to peen the blade as well as sharpen it.

We finally had some much needed rain although by the time I realised it was raining my washing had got wet and to add to that the washing line had fallen over with all the washing on it 🤬 I have mow ordered a new screw in ground spike hopefully that will work 🙄

I spent the afternoon and evening sorting yet more stuff out for the holiday, I have had real trouble with the booking number 😂 not being able to log in, trying umpteen times, finally getting on and u able to print out the tickets, finally managed to do that and we are nearly good to go, so much extra paperwork this year all designed for contactless check in I think. Fed the cats and dogs at 7.30 and finally got something to eat before sitting down, no pressure to water this evening thank goodness because I don’t think I could manage it.

Wednesday: I have Josh and Flo today so whizzed round and did all the necessary things before spending some quality time with them. As we had rain in the day I didn’t need to water anything except the uncover stuff which was a blessing. Had a disaster though as the UV gazebo was flipped by the wind and landed on the pea canes making a hole in the gazebo and ripping up the peas 🤬 n the positive side John managed to get my washing line up securely in a place that is mor easy for me to get the washing in when it’s very hot.

Thursday: Blood tests this morning, good job as I feel totally exhausted at times, I can’t really explain it to anyone who does not have total fatigue but if you do you will understand. Firstly I feel incredibly tired, I can feel my words slurring, my eyes are really heavy and I guess it’s like you have been given sleeping tablets (wouldn’t really know as never had them but that’s what I am guessing) and then for I have a nap I have a real job waking up, it’s quite surreal to be honest and a little bit scary. I remember when I was having a really bad flare, I couldn’t rouse myself from sleeping just kept falling back to sleep and remember thinking ‘is this how you die, just drift off to sleep and that’s it’ 🙄 not that bad this time at the moment but definitely something is not right.

Having said that I did the jobs I needed to get done before going for the tests and then for a birthday treat Shelley, Josh and Flo took me to Buscot tea rooms and then we walked along to the weir and the lock, lovely area and never been there before but really wanted to go, glad we did. When I got back I literally sat down and then went to sleep 😴 for over an hour.

Friday: It’s my birthday 🥳 it’s been raining most of the day and I have been here by myself most of the day but I have done a few things on top of the usual jobs. After feeding my job lot I picked a few things, cucumbers, tomatoes, jalapeños, then I met a chap from a local farm museum who has two females turkeys to rehome and hopefully they will be coming here on Sunday 😁 Indoors then to make a super smoothie which was raw beetroot, a pear, some blueberries, some honey and then oat milk, blend and drink, full of goodness 🥰 I cooked some jalapeños and chopped onion in water until soft (but not mushy) then blended them and added avocado oil to make a chilli sauce for sausages later on. Then I still have plenty of stuff in the big freezer to get used up and so a whole load of things went into a pan to make a batch of soup, swede, sweetcorn, baby potatoes, beetroot, onions, leeks and some spinach together with veg stock and black pepper.

Shelley, Josh and Flo came round in the afternoon with a birthday cake for me and stayed until later in the evening, John came home early from work then everyone came round at 6ish, the weather was on off rain, then very windy, but luckily it settled a bit by the time we lit the fire pit, oh yes and the cat stole one of the raw sausages waiting to go in the pan 😂

I had cooked the soup earlier intending to freeze it but the weather was so shockingly bad in the evening that everyone had soup before their sausages 😂 the jalapeño sauce went down really well and so did the s’mores 🥰 lovely evening round the fire on a cold July evening 🤷‍♀️

Saturday: Early start as Charlie and Macca were coming round to pick us up and take us out for breakfast as a birthday present, I had no idea where we were going. We arrived in Oxford just after 8.30 and had breakfast at the Breakfast Club, delish French toast with pecans and and banana for me, traditional English for John, pancakes for Charlie and Macca, the coffee was lovely (I really appreciate a decent tasting coffee) fresh orange was exactly that and also delicious, once we had stuffed our faces we came home 🥰 When we got back we had a quick cuppa and then cut the front drive grass with the mower, apart from the areas I scythed it was long and difficult that was added to by the weather, one minute the sun was out, next it was a shower and this carried on until we had finished. Needs another tidy once it dries, whenever that might be 🙄

It carried on with some torrential downpours all afternoon so most other jobs apart from the necessary were just abandoned, ridiculous weather 🤪

Sunday: More showers in and around grey skies and occasional peeks of sunshine. Mostly I spent the first couple of hours picking and then sorting veg out one way or another. John did the morning rounds and then some weeding and I am delighted to tell you that Ted now has some lady friends 🥰 we have rehomed two female turkeys from Cogges Manor Farm and although it’s early days and they are giving each other a wide berth 😂 we hope they will all get on together. It’s lovely for Ted to finally have some of his own kind 😁

Tedalena and Tedaliscious 😂

Very tired, grumpy and disillusioned today 😕 and the constant rain showers don’t help because I can’t really get on with anything, never mind maybe a nap will help 🤪

Have a great week, and if you are reading this on my personal Facebook page please note that from next week it will only be available on the Friesland Farm Facebook page or you can subscribe for free on WordPress which will deliver it to your email inbox 😁

Posted in Friesland Farm

Sooo hot 🥵 a stuck hedgehog & more ash die back 😞

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 19th July 2021: And just like that it’s Monday again but not any old Monday, today is Freedom day 🤷‍♀️ That’s what they have named it anyhow 🙄 we are not free of the virus and we won’t be for a very long time yet but I guess it is time to get on with life as best we can under the circumstances. Who would have guessed this time a couple of years ago we would have had such a restriction on our liberties 😮 My personal opinion is that at some point we have to get on with life, we can’t keep locking down but I would say we still have to be very careful. I do know of double vaccinated people who have since caught Covid, their symptoms were not as bad as they may have been back in the beginning but they have had symptoms that are flu like and still lost the sense of taste. Proceed with caution is the advice we should have had.

Enough of that 😂 It is another hot day, set to be a scorcher of a week and you know what that means for me, yep I will mostly be found indoors! I was up early this morning and by 9.30 I had done four hours of work and come inside to do some more, I will probably nap mid afternoon as I will be out till dark once it cools down enough, if it does 😜 No picking today I am going to wait a couple of days until there is plenty to pick, so that left watering and weeding which is what I did as well as feeding the usual bunch of inmates. John got up after me but did the birds before going off to work.

Once I came in I decided it was going to be way too hot most of the week to put another coat of paint on the ceiling so I have abandoned that and started putting the bits and pieces back where they belong, at least the kitchen won’t be upside down any more which will make me feel calmer about things lol.

Apart from putting the kitchen bits back up and sorting dinner for later I didn’t do much else until much later, had an afternoon nap obvs 😂

Once we had dinner and done all the late afternoon/evening jobs, I went out to get some watering done. Although it is very hot because I have watered the tunnels and greenhouse everyday without fail, they are doing pretty well. The veg in the beds are also doing better than I had expected, all that rain at the beginning of the season and plenty of cover on the ground (including weeds) is keeping things going. I am looking at changing the beds a bit for next year and I think I will order some bulk mushroom compost at the end of the year, that seems to help keep moisture locked in. While I am at it I will incorporate some bio char as well, that’s the plan anyway, as always things don’t always go according to plan but I can see how far I get with it.

Tuesday: Another scorcher in store today 🙄 up with the alarm at 5am, lovely and cool at that time of the morning. I watered last night so this morning it was picking to concentrate on, I picked French beans and the first lot of runner beans, beetroot, carrots and from one of the small raise beds a good haul of potatoes, also a few blueberries. Fed the torts and Guineas, sorted out the boot room and gave it a Hoover, cleaned out the litter trays that the kittens have now started to use and then made a coffee. I could then hear Patch barking a ‘come and see this bark’ I checked to make sure he wasn’t locked in anywhere as he didn’t come when I called him at first. I went out the back and he ran off towards the paddock so I followed him knowing that something was amiss, a hedgehog was stuck firmly in the stock fencing, back up to get some gloves and wire cutters and back down to release the hog and make the hole in the fence ‘fat hedgehog friendly’ 😜 Back up to drink my coffee and sort out this major I go haul of goodies. The problem with the hot weather is that I don’t really want to eat carrots, beans and potatoes but they need picking and pulling so I am going to have to prepare them for freezing or storing, I also have onions and garlic (which can’t be stored due to the leaf miner) to get started on. I did want to dehydrate some onion rings but it will be a bit warm to have that on at the minute, I reckon the sun is warm enough to sun dry tomatoes here for once!

Oo I have done a thing lol, like I do, on a whim, I have listed our small back paddock as a Wildpoint camping site (tent only)l Well there are plenty of people staying in the country for holidays this year so might as well utilise some of our area and share the wonderful sunsets with them 🥰

I’m crying, I’m not sad, I’ve been chopping the onions 😂

Popped out this evening for a therapy treatment then stopped off in the village at the pond as Shelley, Martin and the kids were there with some friends and then back home to water the tunnels and the greenhouse. It is a bit cooler this evening which is nice and after watering I sat in the garden, a hedgehog ran across the lawn and there were two baby hogs in the paddock, they looked like large conker casings 😂 I have filled up a dish of water for them and put it on the lawn, probably struggling to find water in this heat wave. I hope it breaks soon, the struggle is real trying to keep everything going just at the time when fruits and veg are forming 🙄

Wednesday: Guess what, yep it is bloody hot again today 😂 It was nice and cool around 5am though and there was a slight dew on the plants which is great. I got started on some garden work almost straight away, only picked peas today and then cut back the tops that were not producing yet to see if I can stimulate a flush growth from them. Then it was into the fruit cage to cut back any dead steam from the summer raspberries, plenty of bindweed to pull up and water the fruit that is in pots. I suddenly realised how dumb I was 🤪 I have an oblong galvanised water tank on one side of the cage and it is on the opposite side to everything that is in pots and needs water most, derr, what was I thinking, well I clearly wasn’t thinking that’s for sure so I need to remedy that. The tank gets filled up with water from the bigger rain storage tanks and then it also fills naturally from any rainfall so there is usually plenty in there I just have to fill up the watering can and take it to the plants. It would be a whole lot easier if the plants were nearer 😂 The rest of the day, once I had finished outside, I have done next to nothing 🙄😬🥴 saving my energy for later tonight and the watering sesh.

Thursday: Same heat if not hotter certainly in the house anyway. I spent the early morning checking the veg garden and watering where necessary but I didn’t do any picking I decided to leave it another day and pick a lot at once rather than bits and pieces. The development of some veg is slow due to the heat and lack of moisture, rain forecast for the weekend which should wake it all up a bit. I spent a large part of the day inside as always but I was busy. We have a holiday booked and I was getting the paperwork printed sorted, emailing enquires etc, that seemed to take hours what with one thing and another. We are going on a weeks cruise to nowhere 😂 seriously we get on the ship in Southampton and it sails around the south coast and the French coast, no stops and then comes back, but that’s fine, we just need to get away. Good food and drink, relaxing and reading is just about all I will be doing and I can’t wait 🥰 Everyone boarding needs proof of both vaccines (and the nhs site was down 😜) we will all have to be tested at the terminal (courtesy of P & O) we need Covid travel insurance, health declaration forms, passports (even though we are not getting off) car parking booked, tickets and labels and umpteen forms to fill in lol, didn’t get all of it done for one reason or another but nearly there. We weighed up all the pros and cons, the ship is not filling to capacity (50%) we don’t have to go to the inside venues if we don’t want to, there are plenty of opportunities to eat outside, protocols are all in place and so because we feel we need to get on with life a little bit, we booked up. If I am honest I did think it might have all calmed down a lot more by now, I didn’t reckon on the football being a point of super spreading 🥴 Still, we are going and I still feel despite everything that it will be ok 🤞hopefully not famous last words!

In the evening it was supposed to be the usual jobs after dinner, watering, but we sat down and John out a film on so that was that as I got interested in it lol. I did go out around 9.30 just before the light faded and watered the greenhouse, it was so much cooler outside than indoors so we sat out there for a good while before ending the day.

Friday: It feels cooler today more like what we are used to in the summer. I got up at 5 and started watering, I splashed a bit round the front beds as well, they are flagging in this heat now. Then onto the veg garden and watering the tunnels before launching into picking. Cucumber, courgettes, tomatoes, runner beans, French beans, aubergines, peppers, chillies and some blueberries, raspberries and Logan berries, not many but enough for us. Once that was done and I had done the horses water and let out the ducks it was indoors to prep the stuff I had picked. Some went out for sale, Shelley and Charlie both wanted a few items and the rest I podded, chopped and peeled either for dinner tonight or for the freezer. It is the twins 2nd birthday today and we will be popping over there later this afternoon and so I have put dinner in the slow cooker, that way it is either ready before we go or I can leave it until we get back depending on how hungry John is 😁

Just typing this up I have now been working for almost six hours and it’s only 11 am, sometimes I wonder why I feel so tired by midday 😂

I had a delivery, it’s a birthday present for me from Sam and family and it arrived early as they will be away. The delivery man said, as is etiquette for the British, ‘isn’t it a lovely day’ to which I replied ‘yes it is but I’m glad it is a bit cooler than it has been’. Mistake really, normally I would just say, yes it’s lovely but for some reason this other sentence came out of my mouth today 🤷‍♀️ We shouldn’t complain about the weather, we don’t get it often enough’ he said (nicely I will add) I could tell he liked his sunshine, tanned, shorts on, t shirt etc, for some inexplicable reason I felt the need to defend my sentence 😆 So I tried to explain about UV and my skin, ‘oh right’ he said as he waved and walked away 🤣 Two things spring to mind here, he doesn’t understand it and nor do millions of people probably, and also I feel like I am ‘that person’ who has a hundred different allergies when I start to explain why it’s a problem 😕 I don’t want to be that person, I am not that person but I am becoming more disillusioned by the lack of awareness and understanding lately 🙄 Especially when it has been as hot as the last few days, when things get back to normal (eventually) there will be so many things I would love to do but can’t because it’s out in the blaring sunshine 🤦‍♀️

Saturday: John cleaned and tided the back area which always needs doing every few weeks due it being a dumping ground as we pass through. I did a bit of picking and then we went off to meet Shelley and the children at a local event and then had a coffee in town. Writing this on Sunday I can’t actually remember what else we did but we did something 😂

Sunday: Still haven’t had any rain, there was loads forecast but it has missed us almost entirely, we had a short burst of rain but that is it so far which is not what I need, really need some decent downfall. After doing indoor stuff I went up the back and burnt the rubbish and I used the scythe to cut down stinging nettles, found a clutch of eggs which we will save to give the dogs and cats. I also discovered that one of the ash trees that I thought would be fine for a couple of years, has got disease right at the bottom and half the trunk is gone. We need to get it down soon before it comes down of its own accord. Meanwhile John cleaned out the front hens and then pulled up some of the bigger weeds from the side driveway in readiness for some type 1 to be delivered. In the afternoon we went off to get me a birthday present, chuffed with my new fire pit that has cooking facilities 🥰 later in the afternoon I made some steak and onions on there, converted John finally to campfire cooking as he said it tasted soooo good 😁 Popped out to see Mum and Ken for a cuppa and then when we got back I pulled some of the dead stuff in the front beds and gave it a good watering, finished around 9.30pm, very tired now.

Posted in Friesland Farm

It didn’t come home 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿😕 painting & hot weather 🥵

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 12th July 2021: 😢😢😢😢 We lost the football final, but what we got was a nation riding high on hopes and dreams for a while and that was worth it’s weight in gold especially this year.

Still the weather is not typical but it’s fine for me except the rain showers which are making the weeds enormous, the soft fruit and flower buds wet and soggy and me run in and out with the washing 🙄 Today I ah e been spinning plates again (metaphorically of course) trying to get the kitchen washed down, holes filled, caulking done, almost ready to paint it but not looking forward to doing that job especially the ceiling 😂 At lunchtime the farrier came so half an hour beforehand I went to get the horses in, as soon as I took the electric down Jack jumped the rails effing donkey is what I called him 😜 I got biscuit in and tied her up, Jack was wellying around the yard and then found the big paddock with lots of grass. Of course he then did not want to be caught so I had to use some psychology on him, shut him in the paddock, go back to biscuit where he couldn’t see me, come back, stand with my back to him and eventually he came and stood so I could get his head collar on. Only then did he get half an apple and it was just in time as the farrier arrived. Feet done I turned them back out into the restricted grazing, I might let him out towards the end of the week when it’s going to be hot rather than raining.

Back into the kitchen to get some more bits of filling done, just some rubbing down to do and then it will be ready. With that and a chat to a couple of customers not much got done outside though I might get out and do a bit tonight if I can, providing no more rain that is.

Well tonight instead of getting on the garden I went out to the paddock as Sam came over to get the fencing sorted for the horses. We have now moved the fencing to go round the whole perimeter of the paddock with a gateway I can open and let them onto better grass at the weekends as a treat. Had a bit of trouble getting them back in as we had let them into the other paddock which is full of nice lush grass and obviously they didn’t want to come back in, but again with a bit of bribery, something tasty, and grabbing hold of biscuit to lead her in first, we got them in and put the electric back on, job done.

Tuesday: Up early, before 5am, I thought it was going to be a hot day so I got up and got on, turns out it wasn’t but at least I got plenty done. Hoeing, picking, cutting back things and I was in the kitchen painting by 9.30 😂

I have two large blackcurrant bushes in the fruit cage but one has struggled for the past two years and so this year I have cut it right back down to hopefully give it some vigour next year though it won’t produce fruit until the following year now. That’s fine because the other bush is healthy and loaded this year, I’ve no idea why the other is not 🤷‍♀️ Currants fruit on two year wood which is why I will have to wait for that long, normally you would just cut back this years growth and thin it out a bit but a hard cut back will either finish it off or renew it, I will have to wait and see which one happens. Then also in the fruit cage I have this triffid of a kiwi which takes up loads of room and as yet has never produced a kiwi even though it’s self fertile. So I made an executive decision to cut it down, I will dig up the root and plant something more productive in its place. I can pot the root and put it somewhere where it can just look attractive rather than keep waiting every year for something to grow.

Rain showers again today 🙄 tiresome and we are going straight into bloody hot weather I believe in the next couple of days urgh can’t win.

My scythe arrived 😁 it needed putting together so following the instructions I think I have managed to do it properly. I did contemplate not touching the blade until there was someone else here just in case I cut myself but I went ahead anyway 😜 and no injuries I am glad to say.

Painting the kitchen is the worst room isn’t it, you just think right I can get on and sort this and then you have to tidy away so you can get dinner, slow progress as I don’t want to be sanding down with food on the side, I’m sure I will get sorted eventually.

I did most of the cutting in and that took me till gone 6pm, more than a 12hr shift today, pooped 😜

John went out to put the birds to bed around 9.30 he was in the stable shutting the geese in when he heard the hens making a racket, ran out to them and a fox was carrying off one of the hens 🤬 I have ordered a cheap solar powered radio which we will put up the back with the hens and see if we can keep the bloody fox away like that, running out of options, and hens 😕

Wednesday: Spent most of the day painting, first colour coat was on by 10am, walls and ceiling, then while that was drying I went out and sorted the onions and garlic, the onions have had the first few layers peeled off and are drying in the sun. The garlic I divided into individual bulbs, they were starting to regrow and have become disfigured lol but if I dry each bulb out it should be fine to store. The onions will not store as they had to be pulled early due to the grubs in them and so I will have to chop and freeze most of them 🙄

I took some pics of what else is growing nicely, a melon, an aubergine and peppers, I also have some jalapeños growing nicely, happy with those especially the aubergine as I have not managed to grow one before now.

I did the second coat of paint in the afternoon but I think it will need a third coat 😭 my hands are swelling from holding the roller and the pressure used, I can officially say I bloody hate painting ceilings. I told John I am getting too old to do them now 🙄 especially in the kitchen where there are so many unmovable obstacles. I want to get it finished and get the kitchen back in some sort of order, seems to have taken ages to sort this out.

The weather has been pretty good for me so far this summer but it’s about to get hot 🥵 shame really as I have been able to get some work done nearly every day without feeling tired, all good things come to an end I guess, enjoy the sun while I sit indoors 😂

Thursday: I had already decided not to finish the painting today, I usually have the twins and didn’t want the kitchen upside down when they came, as it was they didn’t come because their cousin, who they saw on Monday, developed chicken pox today and so Sam and I decided it was best if I didn’t see them until we know if the have contracted it or not due to my lowered immune system. So that gave me a full day of doing what I had started in the morning, weeding, I kid you not, all day long I have been weeding 🙄 John made a cup of tea at 8pm and I had fully intended to carry on after I had sat and drunk it but as I got up I realised my legs were just not going to go anymore lol 😂 That is more than a twelve hour shift today and I am knackered, tired, grumpy, so I will quit now rather than push myself to beyond my limits and regret it, I feel a snooze coming on 😴

Friday: Grabbed a banana and a cup of tea for breakfast before get straight on with the day, it’s going to be hot, it was already very warm at 7am this morning.

I started off hoeing the flowering shrub bed in the front, this gets the first sun the morning and seemed a good place to start before it got too hot, pruned some of the spring flowering branches out that have now gone over. Onto some picking in the veg garden, a few bits and pieces before the main picking which was blackcurrants. Only one bush to pick this year but it is loaded. Into the kitchen to process them and so far I have blended and sieved blackcurrant purée and that is now freezing in ice cube trays and I have a tray of whole blackcurrants open freezing ready to bag up once they are done. Quick sit down and some lunch and then I will use the rest to make some apple and blackcurrant crumbles for the freezer, I have some cooking apples already that need using up.

Blackcurrant haul
Puréed blackcurrant, frozen in ice cube trays to use in smoothies etc

Keeping the house cool by closing the curtains and blinds, at least on a hot day I can get inside jobs done, it not painting the ceiling 🤪 that will have to wait until another day 🙄

The rest of the afternoon and evening consisted of the usual jobs, feels quite warm and muggy tonight, I still have some blackcurrants to sort out tomorrow, probably cook them down, extract the juice and either make jam or some cordial maybe, not sure yet.

I had to water some of the plants in pots tonight, it’s amazing how quickly they dry out, I really need to amend that and put something in to hold the moisture longer though these are out in the blazing sun most of the day so it’s no surprise really.

Saturday: Hot, hot, hot 🥵 Got as much as I could get done this morning, should have got up early but I didn’t (again) I did some picking, blueberries, courgettes, Blackcurrants, French beans, cucumber, let the horses out into the bigger paddock for a treat, all the other usual jobs and then planted some cauliflower and cabbage plants. They had to be covered as the cabbage whites are out in force at the minute 🙄 Meanwhile John had done the morning rounds and he spent a few hours hand weeding the paths in the veg garden which was nice of him, he also cleaned out the ducks. Once it was too hot for me I came in and hoovered and polished the sitting room, closed the curtains to keep it cook and did a quick clean in the bathroom. By lunchtime John was in and watching the F1 build up and then we had a rest for a couple of hours.

Mid afternoon I said to John I fancy and ice cream and so he has gone off to get some 🥰

I have been doing daily round ups on the podcast if you are listening to that, it’s just a different media and I quite like doing it, you get a different perspective on the same subject really 😂

In the evening I tried out the scythe, yep that definitely needs more practice despite watching a you tube video lol. After that I watered the greenhouse and the two poly tunnels and then indoors to sort the eggs and then de flea, cats, kittens and dogs and worm the adult cats and dogs, finally finished at 10.45. Time for a quick shower as it has been really muggy this evening and then collapse into bed ready to start again tomorrow. If I set the alarm for 5am fingers crossed I can actually get up and do some extra work.

Sunday: Phew it’s hot again today hot 🥵 sweltering temps mean most of my work is done in the early morning, inside most of the middle of the day and then out again in the evening until late to get stuff done.

This evening I have also washed Johns van as we went out to collect some shopping in it this morning (the air con in the car is not working and in the van it is 🙄) and I said I was embarrassed to be seen in it as it was filthy dirty lol, so I washed it. John meanwhile was out digging up ragwort, that should be all of it now and then I went on to do the watering until 10pm while John weeded some more of the pathways. He is doing a great job but I told him by the time he finishes it will be time to start again 😂

Fabulous evening 🥰
Posted in Friesland Farm

Busy picking, busy doing, generally just a busy week 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday July 5th 2021: I always have the urge to sing ‘Monday, Monday’ when I am writing up the first day of the weeks blog lol.

It is sunny today thought not a typical July day, it’s cooler than average I would say and we have constant threat of showers, a real topsy Turkey weather year this year, random 🤷‍♀️ I haven’t been up to much this morning apart from all usual jobs and one very important job first thing. That was get on the phone ASAP to get the cat booked in which I am glad to say they can do tomorrow I just hope the little bugger turns up for his dinner tonight so I can crate him ready to go 🤪 He has stuck around since we picked him up so I have no reason to think otherwise but you never know!

This morning a letter was released from Buckingham palace, the NHS has collectively been awarded the George Cross, the highest civilian gallantry award and covers the 73 years of dedicated service and for courageous service of healthcare workers during the Covid 19 pandemic, a great honour and richly deserved 🥰

I haven’t mentioned the restrictions for a while I feel like we are all treading water but hopefully mid July all restrictions will be lifted. I am guessing that those who wish to carry on with restrictions will but those that don’t will have the freedoms that have been sorely missed over the last year and a half. My opinion is that once the majority have been vaccinated we may as well carry on as normal otherwise there is no point in the vaccinations 🤷‍♀️

The sun is out today and although I have been out doing a bit of picking in it I soon get tired, that is my system saying we need to attack 😏 and so it’s not long before I go back indoors. Luckily it’s Wimbledon fortnight so I can rest out of the sun while watching something interesting. I would be doing something but I feel very tired, I can’t explain that to anyone who doesn’t experience it, it’s total fatigue it happens when I go out in the car on a sunny day too. Good job I don’t drive really isn’t it, I have no idea how people who have Lupus and do drive manage because the heat in the car and the sun rays totally floor me sometimes.

I picked soft fruit, a mix of raspberries, red currants and strawberries which we will probably have later for dessert, I generally have mine with some Greek yoghurt John will either have his just with sugar or with some ice cream depending on what he fancies.

In the evening before I sorted out our dinner I wanted to get the cat sorted and locked in! He appeared as he always did before he went and so I sorted out feed for him, water, a blanket and a litter tray and then we put him in a large dog crate. John said we should leave it out in the back bit I said no because he might get through the gaps at the bottom. He didn’t think that he could get his head through the gap, I said I have been here before with cats 😂 and so we moved the crate into the boot room, closed the window and shut and locked the cat flap. If he does get out of the cage, he can’t get anywhere else this time. The problem is that the dogs can’t get in (it’s actually a dog sized flap) and it means that Jill can’t get out either but it’s only for a short time, I have to make sure I have the cat to take to the vets tomorrow 🤪

Tuesday: Up with the alarm to get sorted before packing the cat safely off to the vets 😁 The usual jobs before he went except feeding the others because I thought that was a bit unfair as he was not allowed to eat from 9pm last night so I fed them after he had left with John. Outside then to let the ducks out, John had let everything else out but the egg numbers have gone down and sometimes when they are let out too early they lay outside and the crows eat them. However, they had still only laid half a dozen so I guess some of them are just on a break 🙄 Out then to do a bit of picking, broad beans mainly this morning, I picked approximately one and a half kgs of course once you have shelled them it’s a lot less. Some went out for sale some for dinner tonight and some for the freezer along with a few peas. I also grabbed an onion and some carrots, we have slow roasted shoulder of lamb and that will do nicely for dinner later. I went into the big tunnel to check in there and was horrified to find I had left the hose on, shit, ah well it won’t need water for a week in there now, I did pick a lovely big cucumber which went out for sale as I won’t be needing that today and there are plenty more forming for when I do.

At this point the sky turned dark and it looks like it is going to rain heavily at some point this morning. We have had heavy downpours overnight, great for the veg garden, not so good for the flowers as they have had a bit of a battering from it, can’t win them all I suppose. I now need to decide what I am going to get done today, the plaster still hasn’t finished drying in places so I won’t bother about painting yet, I still need to go and get paint and one or two other bits anyway so I’m not quite ready myself 😂 I still need to sort out the other freezer, I keep trying to use bits up in there but there is a fair amount still left to use or transfer to the freezer we are keeping.

I did order a couple of things online this morning as well, egg boxes, we are nearly out of those and so I have ordered 600 more and I ordered a scythe 🙄 The strimmers are a total pain if you can even get them going that is, they make a heck of a mess and so I d died in my wisdom 🤪 to order a brand new Austrian scythe, it doesn’t need any fuel and it doesn’t make a racket or a mess. My plan was to do a day course but as with most things this year they are either booked up or cancelled, Sod’s law that the three dates available near me are the only three days I can’t do all summer long 😂 so if anyone knows someone who uses a scythe on a regular basis let me know, I could do with some tuition especially on sharpening and preening the blade. Hopefully the walk in run will arrive either today or tomorrow and we can get that sorted, at least we will be able to go and get paint without worrying about the fox wiping out the hens while we are away. I am not sure if I a, honest what we are going to do about the increasing attacks, we can’t keep the hens locked up forever. My plan is that we keep the hens in until any foxes move on 🤷‍♀️lol not sure that will work but it might so we have to try.

I prepped the veg and meat for dinner later then made some biscuits, honey, pecan and orange, the raw biscuit dough was delicious and the biscuits themselves are too but when I was putting the ingredients in (from a recipe) I thought ‘this is a lot of sugar’ they came out flat and chewy lol. I will see if I can hone the recipe next time, meanwhile anyone need to exercise their jaw 😂

John came home at lunchtime with a box of quail egg boxes, the chap at the job he was on had them lying around and so gave them to him 😁 The delivery of the walk-in run arrived but it is raining so we won’t put that together unless it brightens up later. Shelley is picking up the cat from the vets for me and then dropping Josh and Flo with me for a couple of hours while she does some work.

John and I got the tiny paddock at the back cut again, actually I cut it while John cleaned out the chickens in the back pen. Just about finished when I ran out of petrol 🙄 Shelley arrived with Josh and Flo and the cat which she had picked up from the vets for us. I put the cat in the dog crate he was in last night, he has one of those big collars on and the first thing he did was go in the litter tray, which has sawdust in it because that all we have, dipped his head down, for what purpose I have no idea, and scooped up a ton of sawdust into his collar 😜 He didn’t like this and then proceeded to try shaking it out and knocked over his water bowl. So the nice tidy cage with a clean snuggly blanket in is now covers in water and sawdust 😂 I actually wish I had filmed it because it was a comedy sketch for sure, he has to stay in the cage until Thursday when I take him back for them to check him over, and the pain meds came in a syringe, I said to Shelley I don’t have to inject him do I 🤔 no it goes in his food, Phew 😥

Josh and Flo were here for a couple of hours and while Josh went with Grampy to feed the chickens, Flo was keen to go into the garden. I think Florence is going to be the next generation gardener in the family, she doesn’t want to play out there she wants to go round the veg garden looking at the fruit and veg, finding out what it is and having a taste test, yay I think the baton has been passed on already 🥰 Definitely going to have to nurture her interest 😁

Wednesday: The metal wire run got delivered yesterday but we didn’t get chance to put it up, hoping we can later this evening but the weather is all over the place. I spent the morning prepping and painting a mist coat on the bits John has replastered, then when I finished I went out to get some work done in the garden. I started off with some hoeing as the weeds are getting out of hand on the pathways, then onto the leek bed but it suddenly starting raining, I say suddenly it’s been grey and looming all morning. I went back indoors and it stopped, I came out and it started again so I have abandoned any work on the garden unless it clears up at some point.

About 10 this morning while I was painting I suddenly realised I hadn’t let the ducks out so I went and did that and found 12 eggs today which is a lot better, maybe we will leave them in until that time every day.

Didn’t get any more done outside, I pottered about inside instead, then John called and said he would be late and could I feed the birds and do the eggs, not while it is pissing down says I 😜 I waited for the rain to ease and shot out to do the job before coming back in and organising dinner. There was no chance we would get this pen up tonight, two reasons, one it was still peeing down on and off and two, the semi finals are on 😁

England only went and won, oh my days I don’t think we can quite believe it 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 I am not a football fan generally but I will watch England play and I am hugely patriotic so the excitement and pride are all there, well done lads, let’s bring this home we have waited long enough 🏆

Thursday: Up, shower, do the morning jobs and then get the cat into the cat carrier to take him to the vet.

He gets the all clear, his collar can come off and he is allowed to go out again but I leave him shut in the back bit as I am going out with Shelley and Flo for a coffee and then over to see Sam and the twins. He will be better if he has a bit more rest without his collar and I will let him out on my return.

I didn’t get an awful lot done when I got back in the afternoon, I had a good a chat with a friend I haven’t seen for a while over the gate and then the twins arrived and we looked after them while Mia went swimming. Sam did the horse fence when she came back, we had a very quick dinner and then outside to finally get something done today. While I was busy watering and picking peas, broad beans, beetroot, strawberries and raspberries, John cut the lawn and then went in to do the washing up. After I finished outside I came in to pod the peas and beans and get them in the freezer, the fruit I will be making some jam with at some point tomorrow. I actually managed to find some jam sugar in town today, it’s like gold dust at times. Put the bins out while John is putting the birds to bed and finally sit down around 9.30. Not finished there though as I have to order some predatory mites that feast on red mite, hopefully they will work as they are quite expensive! I am contemplating setting the alarm for 5am in the morning, setting it and actually get up at that time are two different things though but that time of the morning is really lovely so I ought to make the most of it.

Friday: I did t get up earlier 😂 I did get up just before the alarm though so around 6.20 and I got straight on with the day after breakfast, there was no ambling about this morning. I did a bit more picking, quite a bit of rhubarb and there is more to be picked, I need to start freezing some of it for winter use really. I also cut one of the lavender bushes, put some bunches out for sale, you never know somebody might like one, the rest I will either give to the girls or put indoors. The was just one lavender bush I have a fair few growing in different areas but these are in the veg garden to attract beneficial insects and to harvest for drying etc. I pottered about a bit more and then John arrived home, he is working today but he had also gone to collect feed while he was out and had a couple of hours spare when he came back. We got on with the job of putting the hen run together although I had to keep sitting in the shade when the sun made an appearance. It worked well though, me sitting there giving John instructions 😆 Even when I am reading them from the manual he is questioning what I am telling him 😂

Mid afternoon and the sun seems to be out for a while so I have come indoors, I am a bit cross with myself because I put the washing on yesterday evening so it was ready to put out this morning. I got it out of the machine and put it on the kitchen table so I didn’t forget to do it and then forgot 🤪 It’s nearly 3pm and I only just put it out, hopefully it will still dry enough for me to put into the airing cupboard to finish off 🙄 John had to go back out to do a couple of jobs but will be back when he has finished and we can get on.

John didn’t get back until gone 6pm which really annoyed me as I had three things I wanted to get sorted, we managed one of them in the time we had left in the evening. We got the rest of the run covered in mesh so that we can at least go out without worrying about the hens being attacked by the fox. We worked until it was dark and we literally couldn’t see what we were doing anymore.

Saturday: Rain to begin with but it cleared and stayed dry, at times it was muggy but still overcast. I had a list of jobs I wanted to get done today so John went off early to grab a few bits from the builders merchants so I could do them. Then he went off with Macca and the best men to collect his suit for the wedding. Meanwhile I put on a couple of wash loads, did all the usual morning stuff, let the ducks out sorted their eggs, did the horses electric fencing and back inside to start prepping the walls and ceiling for painting. I didn’t get very far as Sam messaged to see if I was in and come over with the twins, so I did the jobs I could get done before they arrived, feeding the Guineas and rabbit and hoovering. They stayed for a couple of hours and John arrived back, once Sam had gone we went to the diy store (finally) to get the paint for the kitchen and a couple of other bits we need to do the job, no idea when I will get chance to do that at the minute 🙄

Take a look at this lovely rose, the photo doesn’t actually do it justice , it is a rose that Shelley bought me on the anniversary of Dads death and it is called the simple life which is very apt.

Well we didn’t get much done the rest of the day once we got back from getting the paint, we made a cuppa, sat down and promptly fell asleep, me for over an hour, John a little less. He went and did the afternoon rounds while I was still sleeping, I feel like I have something coming and the cough and sinus thing still hasn’t completely gone away yet. I am wondering if it was a combination of the sun yesterday, although I did try to keep out of it, and working until late last night. I did say to John at one point during the evening, my leg is shaking and I have no idea why 🤷‍♀️ I hope it’s just a bit of tiredness and his whole thing is not going to flare up again or indeed the Lupus is not going to flare, I really haven’t got time for that at the minute and neither has John!

Talking of time, the year is whizzing past quickly I feel, already mid July, where has that gone.

Sunday: I regrouped and got on with the day, worked hard to get picking done early on and a plethora of other jobs before getting back out to the field to finish off the chicken run so that we can have some sense of being able to go out with out too much worry. To be honest it is not going to stop a full on attack but it will stop a chancer nipping in and picking a few off when we are not here, hopefully 😜

Now to the real topic of the day, the week, the month, the year, the century COME ON LADS, BRING IT HOME.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Have a fabulous evening and I hope to report that England won in tomorrow’s blog 😁

Nice pic of the geese to round off 😁