Tag: Point of Lay hens

Posted in Friesland Farm

Muddling on, madness & Mothers Day

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday March 16th 2020: A cold start to the day but it yielded a glorious day which I took full advantage of. I started off indoors hoovering and polishing so that I could dedicate more time to outside 😋 Once the animal rounds were done I took the dahlia tubers from the back toilet and potted them up in order to begin waking them up, they are now in the large tunnel. The dahlias are a bit of a faff but I am enjoying growing them so until I get fed up of digging them up and storing them I will continue. I also potted up some of the freesia bulbs, I experimented by digging half up and leaving half in the ground, the ones in the ground have done well and not rotted so that’s a win. I’m hoping the temps keep climbing as sharing the floor in the greenhouse with Big Billy is proving difficult lol, and he keeps lying behind the door so it’s hard to get in, also I remembered that Voldertort likes to go for feet, luckily he hasn’t come out yet but when he does they will have to go outside I think. I did a bit of weeding and planted a couple of plants and some more garlic bulbs which have started to sprout. It was lovely working out in the warm, the kind of weather I have been waiting for 😀

The afternoon was a much more frantic affair, we had a delivery of 40 pullets and a large delivery of feed which will keep us going for a couple of months. To be fair if we ran out of feed the birds would just have to manage on forage, they would lay less eggs but they wouldn’t starve. At about this point, which was 3pm ish we ran out of chicken eggs, this is because within two customers this morning most of the eggs were gone! I’m hoping it was a fluke and that people are not panic buying them, the hens lay every day and so the same number are always available, no need to stash them. So while I am trying to get water and feed for the new hens (which will hopefully start to lay pretty quickly) a customer was shouting over the gate because we had run out of eggs. I hate being put under pressure and we have had a good run of being able to keep the egg shed stocked but I then had to think about doing the egg collecting sharpish.

The first of our daily updates from the government indicates that life is about to get difficult, we are advised to avoid social contact, unnecessary contact and travel, work from home if possible ✅ to isolate the whole house for 14 days if one person has symptoms, and that vulnerable people should be shielded for up to 12 weeks, that’s anyone who it’s recommended has a flu jab, that’s me 😏 I don’t mind telling you, it’s a real worry, I worry about Mum and Ken so far away from any of us, I worry about Charlie who is an NHS dental nurse, I worry about Shelley and Sam and the kiddies, strange times indeed. We are all trying as hard as we can to isolate ourselves, John is on a job for two weeks but when that’s done, if not before, he will not go to work anymore for the time being.

Tuesday: A duller morning but not too bad at the minute, dry but rain coming later. I did the rounds and put out what few eggs I picked up but they are getting snapped up quickly, even the duck eggs are flying off the shelf which is unheard of 🤔

I spent the morning in the greenhouse, watering and sowing a few seeds, wallflowers, ranunculus corms and some leek seeds I had saved from last year. I also sowed a row of little gem lettuce and some wild rocket inbetween the rows of garlic in the poly tunnel. I shall keep sowing as much as I can, it keeps me busy and hopefully will keep us fed.

The situation in this country and others is changing fast every day sometimes minute to minute. Many people I know are practising significant social distancing already and I imagine it’s going to get a lot tougher in the next couple of weeks.

Wednesday: I was determined to get outside and away from any media this morning, I’m finding that I end up with a headache at the end of the day probably due to heightened anxiety and some outdoor work is the cure 😀 This morning after doing the rounds I did end up with umpteen messages pinging back and forth but after that I went out and did some hand weeding. It’s therapeutic at the best of times and a welcome interlude today, I weeded and tided the asparagus bed as these will be the next veg to start making an appearance although I did notice a small artichoke forming so that’s good news as well.

I try and run my day so that I do outside work in the morning when I have plenty of energy and then come in for lunch and do household stuff in the afternoon before having to go back out to do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting, it seems to work well enough.

I’ve had to put a notice on the egg shed as we are selling out of chicken eggs quickly each time I put them out, I have noticed a few ‘new’ customers I hope they keep coming even after the crisis is over 🤔

I get a lot of time to think about things and one thing I hope people take on board is having a buffer for future events, it strikes me that so many people spend everything they have on ‘stuff’ bigger houses, newer cars, more holidays, all the gear, that they are totally reliant on that pay check coming in to keep them going. I guess it will be a lesson well learnt to figure out that there are there are things that can put that all into jeopardy and in a short space of time to. I guess what I am trying to say is people need to be more self reliant across the board if you get my meaning.

Had a stressful couple of hours this afternoon, I had an egg customer sat waiting for eggs after I put out a notice due to the shortages at times, so was under pressure to get the eggs out in the shelf, meanwhile the carbon monoxide alarm was going off 😮 so open all doors and windows, I think a seal has gone on the flue. In between that I was trying to arrange a payment for something in Spain and probably because I was rushing I kept getting locked out of online banking 🤷‍♀️ All sorted in the end, I hate it when everything happens at once, I want my orderly days back lol.

Thursday: It’s raining this morning which is a bummer because I went to bed thinking about the jobs I would do in the morning and now they are scuppered as they were mostly on the garden 😏

At the moment although I am social distancing, John is still working, he is working at one house and limiting contact with anyone else, though I think by the weekend we will be more restricted. He did go out to the shop last night, I asked for oranges and bananas and some cucumber for the torts, there was 1 orange left, no bananas and two halves of marked down cucumber, he did manage to get two Easter eggs 😂 some bread rolls and some cheese. Although we are face timing, I miss seeing the children and grandchildren in the flesh lol, the kids kind of understand that we have to do this until the virus is gone but it’s hard going and we are only at the beginning. Mum and Ken have decided to sit tight in Spain, they might as well as driving through Spain and France at the minute would be extremely difficult and they would be going from one bad situation into another as it stands now they will be through this before us and at least they will have some nice weather 😀

It’s rumoured that the army are on standby to be deployed here, doing what is yet to be seen, the schools and colleges are closing from Friday only key worker and vulnerable children will attend, its all closing down slowly. I fully agree with the way the government are listening to scientists and doing what needs to be done at the right time, their strategy seems logical to me.

Not only have the chicken and duck eggs sales gone barmy now we have people looking for chickens to keep 🙄 Obviously I will not be selling hens to anyone that hasn’t kept them before, the hens welfare is always top priority but more so in times like these.

I’m going to have to change a few things around here as we have hit barmyville today 😝 First off as mentioned a sharp increase in enquiries of hens for sale, going to have to protect the ones we have I think 🤔 I had someone come to buy 4 I made them wait at the gate while I got them, standing six feet away while I left the wheelbarrow with the crate of hens then got them to put the money in the barrow, then I had an older customer who has been coming for years came and the only eggs I had were ones not yet put out so I hid them in an amazon box and took them out to her so anyone arriving would not see I had given them to her. Finally despite a note in the shed saying if we are sold out do not ring the bell, I had a customer come marching across the drive to the door, I went out the back and pretended I didn’t hear the knock, it seems no matter what you tell people they don’t listen, I say finally but after putting eggs out I was making a cuppa, I could see people who obviously had never been before, they had three boxes of eggs and when I checked the money later after sales it was short 😤 Could have been anyone but it’s bad form people. So I think tomorrow I will shut the very front gate with a closed until 4pm sign, take the roadside board in so we are not getting people who have not been before and then limit customers to a dozen eggs, not really what we should have to do, seeing the best and the worst of people at the minute.

History in the making is what we are witnessing in these fraught times, the interest rates here have been cut again to the lowest EVER 0.1% We see countries in lockdown all over the world, the armies are out on the streets in some of them, you can’t find a toilet roll for love nor money, crazy times people.

Unbelievable, I thought my day of fucktardness had finished but no, I asked John to shut the very front gate as we had sold out of eggs, a while later a car pulls up to the gate someone gets out realises the gate is shut and they can’t open it and then proceeds to climb over the fence and walk up the driveway!

Friday: Still cold but dry this morning. After yesterday’s shenanigans we made the decision to close the front gate with a notice saying ‘closed, eggs will be available at 4pm’ this gives me peace of mind that I am not going to be hunted down and that I am not constantly worrying about people arriving to no eggs. The fact that I have seen reports on poultry groups that people are having their hens stolen is another worry, honestly what the hell is wrong with people 😏 John is finishing today, he is in the middle of doing a bathroom but if he leaves it now it is still fully functional just not finished, if he carries on next week and the suppliers shut down he will be scuppered so makes sense to stop at a good point.

This morning I did the usual rounds then a few bits of tidying up on the yard and in the stable block, and took the horses some hay putting up at the far end of the paddocks so that they actually have to move from the front, right to the back to get it lol, since they discovered the side paddock was open they haven’t left it at all🙄

I’m sat here in the afternoon hiding again, a planned one this time as Sam has come over to get the horses in because the farrier is coming first thing in the morning. I am hiding because she has Mia with her and if she knows I am in she will want to come in and see me, she won’t understand why that can’t happen, it’s so sad that we have to do this but we are protecting not just myself but others in the family with health issues. I hate that this virus has deprived me of precious time with the grandchildren we still FaceTime but it’s not like real hugs and kisses

So the gate was opened at 4pm and it was mental, by 4.15 we had sold all the duck and chicken eggs, it was car after car coming in, add to that the amount of enquiries about point of lay chickens and people coming to get them, just bonkers today 🙄

Saturday: A cold start but dry and with the promise of some sunshine. We did the morning rounds, the farrier was here bright and early at 7.30am then onto the jobs of the day. John went off to get some fire cement for the flue and then replaced the broken fire cement and the fire rope of the flue. He then went to get some compost so I can carry on potting on and seed growing, after that he spent most of the day cutting up wood. I topped up bedding in the duck and goose house then cleaned out the quail, after that I was free to potter in the greenhouse, watering and potting on. I also had a look round at what I had, a few leeks that didn’t get planted last year, same with a tray of garlic and some welsh onions that I separated at the end of last year. All of these I have now planted, not wasting anything this year so spaces were found to pop them in. I also have some strawberry plants that I had put out for sale but I got them back in and potted them up, I will need as much as I can grow especially soft fruit for the grandchildren so might as well use them myself. I have raspberry/blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes that I potted up last year that I can also use to increase yields. We got ready for the 4pm onslaught again today but it was much less frantic more of a steady stream.

People are starting to understand that we need to stay home more and more but there are plenty out there who are not getting it (usually in a supermarket queue).

I am hugely proud, and also terrified at the same time, to tell you that our youngest daughter Charlotte, who is an NHS dental nurse, has put herself forward and will be working with a dedicated team in a dedicated surgery to provide emergency dental care for patients with confirmed covid-19. As soon as I heard there was a possibility that her practice had been designated I knew she would volunteer to be on the team, that’s my girl 🥰 and there are thousands of NHS workers doing the exact same thing so please don’t go out unnecessarily, flatten the curve and give them a fighting chance to deal with this crisis.

Sunday: A cold start again but that soon blossomed into a beautiful day, the wind was still cold at times but the heat of the sun could be felt which is the main thing. It is of course Mother’s Day and the 2020 version is very different to previous years, a quote I like is ‘who would have thought that the best thing you can give your Mother today is distance’ sad but true. Despite the distancing we have managed, I managed to find somewhere in Spain to get a pot plant to my Mum, my girls have managed to get an afternoon tea delivery to me (and some for John of course 😜) Charlie and Macca walked over and we stood in the driveway having a conversation with distance between us, we exchanged goodies by placing them on the floor then stepping back lol, the likes of these things only ever seen in movies before now.

Other than that John is still cutting wood, he said he ‘liked being forced not to have to go to work’ I think it’s different to taking a week off and feeling under pressure about the workload he would have to go back to. I know it will be stressful for a lot of people but for a few it will relieve the stress. Meanwhile I have been baking some bread and doing some bits of gardening, getting the beds ready for planting into when the time comes to plant out. We are keeping a very close eye on the weather so that we can drag the fields as soon as possible, the ground is slowly drying out which will make living conditions for the birds a lot easier than it has been all winter.

I wish you all well this week coming and never have I written that before with more sincerity than now.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Courgette soup, new hens, stormy weather & Tussie Mussies.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday eve: I took a couple of ibrufen and as John was watching the F1 I decided to go outside and do a bit of pottering. Firstly I watered the tunnels and was delighted to see that the cucumbers and melons have begun to grown quite quickly, then I potted in some plants, blackcurrants, lupins and a few other bits, they will all be left to overwinter and hopefully be good strong plants next spring.

Monday 5th Aug: I feel like s**t 🙄 no other way to put it lol, I have a cold, I think, I can’t breathe, well obviously I can a little or I wouldn’t be here typing this but I can’t breathe through my nose at all, it’s blocked which makes my head feel thick and heavy. I got up had a shower had my breakfast laid down and went back to sleep for a short while, got up had coffee, put some chicken, bones and veg in the slow cooker to make a broth. My throat gets dry then I start coughing away 🤧 sneezing, the works, urgh. The insult to injury is that I can’t take cold and flu remedies due to other meds so the broth mix contains garlic, turmeric and ginger along with chicken, veg and herbs, hope it helps 😜

Tuesday: Feeling a bit better today so I cracked on outside with an early start. I thought I would concentrate on flower gardening so I started with the front area, weeding, deadheading, cutting back and digging up any self seeded things and anything that is struggling. I had a happy time listening to the radio in the greenhouse potting up foxgloves, huechera and a couple of struggling lavenders. Then onto cutting the lawn and hoeing the paths around it, a bit of weeding and taking out the borage which has gone over and a few weeds from the herb bed. Sit down and have coffee and a bagel 😀 Going well and it’s only 10.30!

Shelley came over with Josh and Flo and picked some runner beans, Josh and I dug up potatoes and then Shelley made courgette soup which was delicious and I would definitely make it again.

500g courgettes (we used yellow)

Garlic chopped or minced

Olive oil

450ml of chicken stock, could use veg stock

Fresh parsley

Fresh basil

Salt

Pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

Chop courgettes and soften in olive oil, add stock and cook until soft enough to blitz or mash, add chopped parsley and basil and the pinch of nutmeg. Serve warm with Parmesan cheese and crusty bread 😀

Simple and good for you.

We popped over to see Sam, Mia and the babies.

Rain on and off all afternoon and into the evening but we have to get the fencing up ready for the chickens arriving tomorrow 😜

John finally got the strimmer working, I had sprayed the carburettor with cleaner but couldn’t start it, John had a go then he cleaned out the end of the pipe going into the fuel tank and voila it now works 😀

Wind is predicted for Friday, my first thought was ‘oh no’ that won’t be good for the runner beans, nor the fruit and nuts on the trees 😏

Wednesday: A bits and bobs day, flitted about doing various things but not one big job. First I burnt the paper feed bags and any paper rubbish we had lying around, then I put sawdust and feeders in the POL for sale pen, then I collected a few eggs, washed out and filled up Jacks water trugs, got the mower out and cut some areas that needed doing ( I tried starting the strimmer but I couldn’t get it going 😤) weighed out some veg to put out for sale, picked a few cucumbers, hoed an area that was getting overgrown, weeded the carrot bed, watched the kittens catch their first mouse, fed the rabbits/guineas and torts with the weeds all before noon 😀 Quick sit down before the afternoon begins.

I am trying to get my head around Instagram at the minute lol, not much to figure out I am sure but I never have more than a few minutes to glance at it #clueless 🤪

The new hens arrived in the afternoon, John gets a bit cocky with new arrivals and puts them outside saying ‘they will go in when it gets dark’ well nine times out of ten they do but not this lot! We had to catch all 50 in the front pen and put them inside on the perches, once we had done them we separated off to do the others, I went up the back and John did the side paddock and the duck pen. The other new lot (20) were in the sale pen up the back but they had all collected on the floor near the front of the cage, we have had this before and the fox can nip at them through the mesh, I called John to help but he had already buggered off indoors 😲 Eventually he came looking for me, just as I picked up number 20 😜

Thursday: We have had weather warnings for a storm, quite a big one by all accounts, they have actually cancelled some big events by the coast so they are taking the threat seriously, and so am I. I have been picking as many runner beans as I can manage because the wigwams will be the first thing to be blown down if the wind is that strong, I’m hoping that inland we won’t get hit so hard. With the runner beans I have made some chutney, I will freeze some beans, sell some and give some away to family. I have picked more courgettes 😜 and I’m contemplating having another go at jam, I reckon it would taste really nice but I don’t want another non set disaster, maybe I will make half the quantity as a test run.

At the moment the weather is lovely outside, sunny, calm, not too hot just pleasant, and great drying weather for the washing, I figured get it done today as the next couple of days don’t look good lol.

Despite having plenty of other things to do I did decide to have a go at the courgette jam, 1/2 quantity just in case, it smells amazing as it has lemon zest in it as well and I picture a vanilla sponge with the jam and some whipped cream in the middle and a dusting of icing sugar on top, 😋 I also had a go at another recipe I came across, sugar free caramel sauce, I had a can of coconut milk in the cupboard, it’s been in there for ages and all you add to it is 7tbls of some kind of syrup like agave, or in my case maple, boil it and reduce it down, easy, it tastes good and I think if I had used full fat coconut milk instead of the reduced fat which is what I had, it would be thicker but it’s still a nice pouring consistency.

The new hens went into the hut early today because it was raining so it was an opportunity to shut them in and not having a repeat of carrying them in one by one 😂

Friday: Rather boring but I did the cleaning today, you know when it just starts to make you feel uncomfortable seeing the dust and dirt kicking around lol. I am sat typing this up and it smells lovely, in fact sometimes I just open a door to a room just to take in the fresh clean smell 🤣

We have had three people this week who were supposed to come and collect stuff they had asked for, chickens and veg, all of them no shows 😏 I’m sure people think we have nothing better to do than wait for them to finally decide they might bother, it is one of the reasons that on the whole I do not save eggs for people. Many have asked in the past but I won’t do it, firstly sometimes as above, those people don’t turn up and secondly we have many customers who have been coming for years and take their luck on wether there are any available or not and I feel I owe them that loyalty back.

While I am getting bugbears off my chest the other one is when we have sold out of eggs, in the past I have had huffs and puffs because the ‘sold out’ sign isn’t displayed, this is because I don’t have time to run out every five minutes to see if the last customer took the last box of eggs! While I am on a roll here….we are not a supermarket, we have what we have and when it’s gone, it’s gone 😜 Hopefully, very soon, we will have an abundance of eggs but until then they are a bit thin on the ground. One last small tiny bugbear 🤪 we have plenty of fair weather customers who come in the summer but again the loyal ones come all year long but it’s always the summer ones that complain lol.

The courgette jam, although it smells and tastes amazing, is a soft set and that’s using the term loosely 🙄 I may incorporate it into a cake recipe I think.

Went out for tea and cake with Shelley, Josh and Florence this afternoon, the weather today has not been as bad as I expected but apparently there is worse to come tomorrow 🙄

I have made enquires today about getting some more quail, hopefully I have found some I can pick up at the weekend, that will please the quail egg customers.

Saturday: Windy this morning but as yet no rain. We started off well got the animals sorted and then John got the tractor out and moved loads of muck from the pile at the back to the pile at the front lol. One of the reasons we decided to do this is because two mornings running there have been duck egg shells enroute from the stables to the muck heap so I am convinced there must be at least one rat in there, John thinks not but then he never believes that we have rats about even when the dog kills one 🙄 No rats appeared so maybe he is right about them not being in there but they are living somewhere round there for sure. I did a bit of picking, cucumbers and tomatoes are coming thick and fast now, I picked a few French beans and I planted out some more that will hopefully grow pretty fast and we can get a harvest at the end of September. I also put some in modules in the greenhouse just in case the outdoor ones get eaten by mice though I am hoping the kittens are onto them 😜 I have some cabbage and some winter spinach to sow at some point as well. I went to Mums last night and came back with a seed pod from a peony, I read up about growing them from seed and they can take up to five years that will be a long wait 🙄 I had a walk around the boundaries to see if there were any blackberries ready, nope still small, I have heard people saying they are picking but I don’t know where as round here they are not ready yet.

I clipped back the lavenders and made a few bunches, one each for Sam and Shelley, Charlie has lots of lavender in her garden so I picked some of my precious freesias and a few other flowers to make a Tussie Mussie (small bunch of flowers or aromatic herbs) for her.

Sunday: It’s 3pm and we have had a busy day and I need to sit down as my legs are feeling wobbly 😜 We started off doing the usual rounds and then an early morning trip to Bicester to buy some laying quail, a good journey and we made a great contact there, a butcher with a smallholding 😀 On the way back home we called I to the DIY shop to get a solar powered security light for the front, recommended by my brother who has some, quick pit stop for a takeaway coffee 😀 Back home and straight to work, John put up the light and then got on the tractor to move the last of the muck pile. Meanwhile I worked in the garden, flitting about between indoors and outdoors with the on off rain showers and cloud cover. I potted up some willow that I had taken cuttings of (very easy to strike) I intend to grow them on into trees to use around the place, I cut back the sage, it’s getting old and gnarly so I gave it a hefty prune, there were three pieces that had taken root so I dug those up and potted them. The high winds yesterday have caused a bit of damage but not much, a big bough has come down from my weeping birch tree and 4 lots of runner bean wigwams are down. I have picked all the beans I can from them as they probably won’t recover from the whipping 🙄 I picked cucumbers which are now coming thick and fast and a couple of courgettes lol. John picked up the eggs and fed the birds and I sorted and boxed them, that’s when I felt the need to have a sit down.

Later I went up the back where John was clearing and burning some wood, we heard a rumble of thunder then the heavens opened, proper thunderstorm 😀

We have been out then in then out then undercover, then out then in and have now abandoned trying to tidy up at the back, the bonfire is still going well but it’s so wet out there now I doubt it will go anywhere it shouldn’t !

Posted in Friesland Farm

A busy, tiring but highly productive week 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 18th March: Not a bad morning, not too cold, not raining and not windy 😀 so after I did the animal feeding etc I got stuck into a bit of gardening. I had two beds in mind to get done, the first is the very far bed, this has fruit in it, Cherry/pear/apple trees, black currant/gooseberry/mulberry bushes, it also has two Japanese honeysuckle bushes. A golden hop grows in there but never where I want it to which is along the fence, instead it grows up the cherry tree and strangles it so each year I try in vain to dig it out. I have potted up some roots of it to plant elsewhere but the best I can do is keep it under control for now. The black membrane is down over the bed because this bed gets sunshine all day from early morning to late evening, this is great but because of the Lupus it means it is the most difficult bed for me to look after during the summer months, the membrane helps keep the weeds under control when I can’t.

The next bed is the one opposite that had sweet corn growing in it last year, at the end of the season I bent the stalks down and left them over winter. There are two reasons for this, one the stalks/roots are very tough and difficult to get out so I left them to dry out so I could snap them off, secondly they make ideal overwintering for beneficial insects 😀 I cleared the stalks away and then dug out the roots, as always the ninjas were there ready to do their thing. Just as I finished it began to rain so an ideal time to pop into the tunnel and pot up the hop roots and a couple of raspberry runners.

Indoors to do a bit of tidying, washing, light the fire etc and then I decided to make a cake, I was going to make fruit cake but I don’t have a single pack of dried fruit in the house 😜 unbelievable, so I made a simple vanilla pound cake instead. I need to reorganise my cupboards as they are just not working for me, I moved them last year but things are a bit disjointed so I may just move it all back again, at least I will know what I have. I miss the pantry that we had at the old house, everything in one cupboard and you could see clearly what was in there, I should have made sure I had one here but I didn’t and regret that now.

So I just did something incredibly dumb 🙄 I was waiting for the cake to finish cooking so pottering round doing odds and sods, I had noticed that our mouse friend in the kitchen has been back so I grabbed the mouse trap that was behind the mixer in order to re bait and set it. It was set already so for some unexplainable reason I tried to bait it while it was set 😲 I know, how stupid can you get, it just didn’t register that it was set and as I tried to put the peanut butter in….snap…..it trapped my middle finger on my left hand, luckily this is not a metal trap or I would have lost the top of my finger I think, these are plastic traps but even so my finger is bound to suffer somehow, at the moment it’s numb and I am waiting for the changeover occur 😣

I did the afternoon feeding and egg collection, gave the rabbits some hay, burnt a bit more paper rubbish (feed bags) and picked a bunch of rhubarb to put out for sale. I also picked the first bunch of daffodils 😀 I put them out for 50p for a bunch of 10, I think the shops sell them for more but they have large overheads besides, 50p would buy a pint of milk if we needed it 😋

I filled up the wild bird feeders today, when the weather is not frozen I don’t always fill them because I don’t think it does the birds any good to solely rely on food put out for them, I don’t know what anybody else thinks?

Tuesday: A promising start to the day, sunny, cold but not too cold, a promising day ahead maybe?

I checked the mouse trap in the kitchen, it had been sprung so I picked it up and had a look only to be looked right back at! The mouse had been caught by the tail and was still alive 😲 I took it up the back and let it go, l last saw it being chased by the dog. My finger by the way is mostly fine just a tiny bit sore but nothing to complain about. I have Mia today so will be whizzing round to get the animals sorted before she comes and hopefully, as it’s looking like it might stay nice, we can get outside and do something.

I went up the back when I was doing the morning rounds to check on the hens at the back, as I got up near them I saw two big white bums bounding down through Jacks field, deer 😀 with an educated guess I would say they were two female fallow deer 🦌I might try and sneak out tomorrow and see if I can get a photo 😀

I have been doing the Citizen Science course, so far it’s mostly reading/watching video and mostly stuff I already knew but now I know all the proper terms and names 😋 for instance I live in a moist, temperature forest biome and I understand my topography and micro climate, ooo it’s all good stuff 😀

Wednesday: Up and at it 😀 not windy, not raining, not sunny, not cold, perfect 😀😆 I went out at 7.30am and I’ve just come in it’s now 1.30 pm. Had an excellent morning outside, at first I was slow to start but soon picked up the pace a little. I have been sorting the shed and surrounding area and putting bits out for sale, giving bits away, chucking stuff in the skip, burning tree/garden debris, picking up stuff that has blown all round the place from the windy weather (mostly plastic pots) Then I set my sights on the herb patch, there were two hazels growing in there that had self set a couple of years back and they are getting big so I needed to get them out and have relocated them along the hedge in the orchard. There were also two bay trees that started off as little whips in pots, I sunk them in the ground thinking I will do something with those later, it’s been about four years and they have deep rooted and grown rather large 😋 so time to get them out, I have potted one up for relocation the other I have yet to decided what to do with, I may pot it up, wait to see if it takes and then sell it, it’s about 4ft so a good size.

I ordered the chickens chicken plucker which arrived this morning, my first thought was about the crate it came in, ooo nice crate, I can use that for something lol 😝

As always I’ve slightly over done it and feeling the aches and pains 😜

The Angelica arrived so I planted that and protected it from the ninjas, some of the seeds are coming up in the poly tunnel, lettuce and spinach, no sign of the coriander yet. In the other smaller tunnel the broad beans have flowers and the few remaining peas are looking good, also in there is the flat leaf and curly parsley which have survived the winter 😀

Today is the first day of Spring 😀 the vernal equinox, the changing of the seasons, already the days are much longer now we just need them to warm up a little.

Tonight I had a little chuckle to myself, we have a chap coming to pick up the mower for a service tomorrow so I wanted to make sure it started and it has a slow puncture so needs to pump it up, I roped John in to help out, we did that then while I was cleaning it off a bit John put all the birds away as usual. He shut all the stable birds in then went and did the others, I finished up and turned out the light in the stable, walked outside and there was a duck that he had missed, it sleeps in the stable not with the others that I separated at the weekend. John sends me in to turn the light back on while he rounds up the duck, it gives him the runaround 😜 he opens the single door at the far end while I open the stable door waiting for him to herd it in, this is where I start to chuckle because it’s like a scene from Benny Hill, I’m stood inside and I can see him run past, first one way, then the other, then back again with a tree branch in his hand, all the while swearing at the duck, eventually I think I ought to step outside and give him a helping hand, job done in two shakes of a donkeys tail 😜

Thursday: Another non weather morning, we are supposed to be getting some warmer weather hopefully it will arrive soon 😀 I did the morning rounds, nothing unusual to report so that’s good 😀 The chap arrived on time to collect the mower for a service, I do like people who arrive when they say they will, I am a punctual person myself so I will always organise everything round the time people say they are coming when they don’t it’s very annoying and you are left waiting lol.

What I thought was going to be a quiet day turned into a busy one, it was like grand central station at times lol. Firstly I had forgotten that I was having Mia while Sam went for a scan so she got dropped off first, then Shelley and Florence called in, then Mum and Ken came, I had asked Ken last week if he would do a bit of welding for us, then Gilly, my sister, and her little one turned up, full house 😀 Gradually everyone left to continue with their day, by this time Sam had returned and her and Mia went out to collect the eggs but got cornered by the geese so they bought in what they had got so far and then went home, I went out to collect the rest of the eggs. It’s all quiet again now 😋 I lit the Rayburn, mostly we are lighting it just for the hot water, drying any washing and to take any evening chill off the air so I don’t light it until around 3.30, then sorted out what we are having for dinner, put the bins and the milk bottles out and the day is nearly done.

I candled the eggs in the incubator tonight, all 19 are fertile and growing 😀

Friday: Weather pretty much the same as the last few days, I did the morning rounds putting fresh poultry grit and shell out for the birds, we have got a couple of egg eaters and if I can get the shells hardened up that will help stop it. I’m struggling today, gradually through the week it’s has got harder as my muscles seem to be seizing up, not sure if at some point I have overdone it and now paying for it or what but my shoulders and arms are slightly painful and stiff, it’s definitely muscle not joints. I have taken a couple of paracetamol and will see if that helps as there is so much I need to be getting on with! Even though it’s only 9.30 I’m tired so I might have a rest and see if that helps as well.

I had a bit of a rest but realised I wasn’t mentally tired just bodily lol, so I figured I would just get on and potter around doing what I can, I think sitting still would make it worse so onwards and upwards! I’m pretty sure a bit of warmth in the air will make all the difference so come on sun where are you 😝

Lunchtime and I have been out doing some bits this morning, I’ve planted a row of garlic, I think I will plant some more because although it doesn’t really sell well the girls use a fair bit of it and so do I. I weeded the raised strawberry beds that John made a couple of years ago, they don’t work as well as I had hoped they would and the plan is to move them eventually but for the time being they can stay where they are. Then onto the small flower bed I made last year, the shasta Daisy is a thug and taken over the spring bed meaning other plants in there have either died or are struggling, so I had been digging and pulling that out, I may have to start over with that bed 🙄 I checked on the torts they are still alive and hopefully once the temps go up a bit they will come out of hibernation properly, there is movement there and I have turned on the heat lamp again, I turned it off a while back because although we had that warm spell it then dipped again so there was not much point leaving it on. I still have finish their area, I’ve noticed rabbits have been digging so need to get that sorted or the torts will dig out 😜 I have planted a few things in there for some cover and interest, I now need to plant some things that they will eat to make it more interesting, they will have a shallow water area and slabs that they can heat themselves up on and a house to go into if they choose to.

After a cheese roll and drink I went out to get on with the tortoise area because before I know it they will need it. I had to clear some areas of ground, attach wire to the upright fence and then bury the wire to try and stop the rabbits getting in, I did two pieces of fence like that and then also used some thick chunks of wood to put in front of other possible escape routes. Then I just needed to finish the side fence off, I had already made it last year and Sam and I had put most of it up last month, just an end bit that needed to go in. The remaining bit of fence to go in was too long so it gave me a chance to use the chop saw and cut it all down then rebuild it. I planted a couple more bits, lemon balm, perennial geranium (tasty for torts it seems) some bonariensis for height, covered them with portable cold frames so the ninjas don’t dig them back up and sprinkled some red and white clover seed down. Then on to feed the birds and collect the eggs, next stop, cuppa, more paracetamol and a sit down 😋

Had forty winks, I figured I’d earn it today, felt better when I woke up, shoulders are still a bit achey no idea what that is but that is what life is like living with Lupus 😜 twists and turns all the time, I got the Rayburn lit, we need some hot water, I’m hoping John will clean out the flue tomorrow and we will give the insides a good clean out too, that should last us until the better weather then. I have plans to drag the paddocks this weekend as it’s been dry hopefully we can get that done then I will be over seeding the front paddock and adding clover seed as well this year, the hens love it and it’s great for insects.

Saturday: 4.30 and omg I am exhausted, we have been Uber busy all day long getting stuff done. It started with the cleaning of the Rayburn, not just a riddle but a full clean of all the flues, plates and boxes. Then out to start on the paddocks, the front one first, we needed to clear all the apple tree cuttings and they are now on the other side of the fence but still need to be sorted 😜 then clearing electric fencing, water bowls, debris and finally we could go and fetch the tractor and the drags. It was a great day for me as I got to spend a lot of it driving round on the tractor 🚜 I even managed to negotiate some tight areas around the trees. Then onto the other paddocks, we moved the hen hut further into the field and John moved all the electric fencing then dragged the top half that had got a ‘crust’ on it. While he did that I cleaned out the goose hut and put up fencing so that they can’t get onto the front paddock, they now have to go into the side one to graze. After that it was onto the rest of the paddock, which is now one large one, we won’t go in through the smaller area I said to John because the gateway between that and the bigger area is too wet, ‘I will get it through’ he says………and proceeded to get stuck in the mud, ‘I f**king told you’ says I 😜 Eventually we got it moving and I dragged the field while John went to put the electric back on etc for the new hens. Dragging finished, John went off to get some rabbit food, I still need to supplement with hard feed for the time being, and I cleaned out the hens in the stable block. When he returned he put fresh bedding in for the new hens and the ones for sale, counted up the takings for the week, I picked some rhubarb to put out for sale, fed the rabbits and picked up some wind blown debris, potted up some Jostaberry plants I ordered and that was when I thought, I don’t think I can actually do much more, I need a rest lol.

Dragging or harrowing the paddocks does four things, it aerates the soil so that rain can drain better, it levels the ground out, it pulls or loosens any moss or weeds giving the grass a better chance and it spreads any poop. It looks good when it’s done 😀 and tonight just before dark I will go and and over seed the front and side paddocks with short, quick growing seed that is ideal for hens and geese, I am also going to mix in some clover, clover is great for the insect, the hens love it and it fixes nitrogen. The horse paddock has a different kind of grass seed and will not have added clover. The reason I am doing it just around dusk is because if I did it in the daytime all the hens and half the wild bird population would just eat it all before I got very far, so doing it just before everything goes to bed gives it a fighting chance, also the overnight dew will help bed it down, I’m all for working with nature 😀

The seeder wasn’t working too well so I only got one paddock sorted before it got dark and my back was killing me so the other will have to wait until tomorrow.

Sunday: Lovely sunny morning 😎 fresh, my favourite kind of a start to the day. We did the morning rounds and then John went off to help Shelley and Martin start on their bathroom. I needed to get some cleaning done, not too much it’s such a lovely day I don’t want to spend it inside cleaning everything within an inch of its life. A wipe round the bathroom, change the bed sheets, polish and hoover everywhere and that’s it that’s all I am doing 😀 A long time ago when I had nothing better to do I used to clean like a fanatic but not any more, passable is all it needs to be these days, I wouldn’t mind a cleaner just so I could spend the time doing other stuff 😂. Charlie want me to make her a bird house for her garden and that’s the kind of thing I rather be doing than ‘household’ stuff.

I have thrown open the windows to let the spring in and chase away the winter, long may it last 😀

I made coffee and sat outside in the sun, it’s so peaceful, I can hear a horse trotting up the lane, the birds singing the occasional quack from the ducks, I’m watching birds flying round with nest building material, if you could capture a moment in time this one would be great 😀

John came back then went off to visit his Mum and I had an idea about making some wire tunnels to protect any seedlings I plant from the chickens, it half worked but not as easy as I thought.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seed sowing, incubating & poultry processing

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday March 11th: It’s still windy! Generally we have a day or a night of windy weather then that’s it for a while, it seems like it’s been windy for weeks 😜 and it’s not finished yet as the weeks forecast still has high winds making an appearance. Our weather patterns are definitely becoming more erratic, even 5 years ago there were distinct seasons with seasonal weather, these last few years they are all over the place, global warming?, possibly but is it man made or a natural cycle or a combination of both?

We got the greenhouse measured up last night (just as they arrived there was a snow/hail/wind storm) and a cutting list sorted, just have to get it priced up and see what kind of wood we go with, it would be nice to have Oak but I’m thinking that will be a bit pricey 😝

I have a multitude of jobs to get done today and luckily there was enough roast left over for bubble and squeak for Johns dinner later so I don’t have to stop and think about that 😀

Phew it’s 1.30 and I haven’t stopped, I have got a lot done and I am pleased with what I have achieved so far today. Most of it was in the garden but a few indoor bits like ringing for blood appointment, booking in the septic tank clearance, changing the skip, then setting the eggs int the incubator, moving the lone quail back with the others, feed the rabbits etc. The septic tank was an interesting conversation the chap told me he would have to pass me to a different dept as he didn’t deal with commercial, he thought this was a Hotel🤣 it gets very confusing as we are listed as Shilton Horse Hotel, I’ve changed it now to Friesland Farm which is our other title, I told you its confusing, in the past we have had people looking for a bed for the night, I was allocated a personal manager from a company I ordered stuff from (them thinking it was going to be big business as a hotel needs a lot of things lol) the TV licensing asking how many TVs we had the list goes on 😜

Eventually I got out into the garden, ah, my happy place 😀 I sowed some more peas, I’ve decided to go big this year, plant loads lol, then I got the raised bed outside ready for sowing carrots. I weeded it and raked it over then I went inside for a coffee while the hens did their bit scratching it over and picking out any insects, preparation is key when the ‘ginger ninjas’ are around as any disturbed soil and they are there so I had to get the netting all ready before I sowed the carrot seeds otherwise they would be quickly scattered. I have sown an early variety and these are short carrots so should be a quick crop, well fairly quick, I have only sown half the bed for the time being and will sow the other half in about 3 weeks I think so the whole crop does not come at once. I have some amaranth that I will sow alongside them but I want to wait until it’s a little bit warmer before putting that in, the seed heads will be great for my utility birds and you can eat the leaves but the rabbits will probably get those. I did a bit of raking up debris and tidying around the raised bed, I think if I do bits at a time instead of looking at the whole job at once it will be better. Then it was onto weeding the brassica cage, one or two plants have survived the winter and are sprouting again so I will leave those they will be a welcome harvest of greens in a couple of weeks time. After that I tidied up and weeded the fruit cage, the rabbits had a bucketful of greens, I also put up a couple of wires along the far side so that I can train a grape along them, it’s a nice sunny spot and hopefully the grape will do well there. Then onto one of the main beds that has had Swiss chard in it all winter but now it’s started growing the hens are ravaging it so I have hooped and netted it. I stopped for a rest and found my back and knees were not so willing to get going again so that’s when I decided I would come in for a break. It’s great to feel that I can get all this done but I also have other jobs to do like the fire and the afternoon feeding and eggs so best not overdo it. Plenty of jobs still on the to do list though 😝

At about 1.20 while I was sat thinking should I do a bit more, and my back was saying no, the wind suddenly dropped, just like that, all of a sudden it was very still and I wondered for a moment if it was the calm before a storm but nothing else happened it was quite weird.

The goose eggs are at last selling, in fact they sold out yesterday without me realising, good job we are getting plenty 😀

Tuesday: Yet another storm is blowing in, this time storm Gareth, last year it was The Beast from the East, this year its The Winds from the West! It seems to have been constantly windy for over a week here 🙄 John has done all the outside jobs this morning already so I don’t even have to go out 😀 ⭐️ I have Mia today and although she went to hospital yesterday to see if the cast can come off they have decided it needs to stay on for longer. Not sure what we are going to find to do with heavy rains forecast as well could be a long day lol.

I decided to light the Rayburn quite early as it was a bit chilly, I had already prepped it before Mia arrived so just light it and off we go, or so I thought but the cook/heat lever had jumped its fitting and was stuck on cook, no amount of pulling or pushing the lever would move it, I tried levering it with the poker from inside the hot plate but nope, at this point there were flames so I couldn’t move it from inside, only one option I have to let the fire die right down so I can manually do it from within the fire box 🙄 all the best laid plans and all that! I put the little electric fire on instead 😋

I turned on the turner for the incubator, fingers crossed we don’t get any power cuts like last year!

Wednesday: Still the weather is a bit crap, windy, cold, not raining, yet. John did the morning stuff, he said one of the geese is permanently in the hut but I will need to encourage her out as we don’t really want them to sit, not yet anyway, that will be a fun task 😜

As I didn’t have to get outside straight away I though I ought to do some paperwork, bill paying etc, I hate this time of year when everything is due lol, I called John to remind him that as his van is now three years old he needs an MOT before I can tax it, great, let’s hope it sails through 🙄 When we had a limited company I would always allocate Fridays for paperwork, now that we don’t I just do it willy nilly but it does mean that I sometimes get behind and then hate the thought of having to sit and do it all, mind you when it’s done I feel a sense of freedom 😀

Went out and sorted some things for the animals, rabbits fed, quail some feed, the geese were all by the boot room window so I quickly went and collected the eggs while they were out 😝 checked for the cat again, still no sign, managed to get the pigeon out they are a bit stupid it’s the second time it has got stuck in the tack room. Then onto a bit of garden stuff, I cleaned the polytunnels with Algon, an organic wash that smells a lot like vinegar so I guess that’s the main ingredient. It’s blooming hard work out there with some real strong gusts of wind 💨 In for a coffee and a look at the to do list, plenty to choose from 😜

I thought I would have a go at the tree tapping as the spline arrived so I gathered everything together and went out to drill a hole in the tree but the drill bit isn’t big enough and the wind is making it hard work so I will wait for my new drill to arrive, it has bits with it and hopefully one will be ideal for the job. The wind is really making things difficult, it’s not structurally damaging (at the moment) but things are flying around. The small poly tunnel door has come off the runners and flapping about so I have fixed it back and put some buckets of water in front of it to hopefully hold it in place. I can’t do mucking out as the straw will just fly around all over the place so I’m giving that a miss for today, I wanted to get some rubbish moved to the skip but again it just gets blown out of my hands so that is also on the back burner, it seems like we have had this windy weather for ages 🙄 I have done what I can out there and looking at the forecast things should settle down after today and definitely next week looks a whole lot quieter.

I checked on the quail this morning there does not appear to be any more vent pecking hopefully I’ve nipped it in the bud.

I had Josh this afternoon as he wanted to come over ‘on his own’ and help me do the feeding and egg collecting 😀

John has come home with this cold everyone seems to be passing around ☹️

Thursday: So this damn stormy weather is still with us this morning, it’s supposed to have moved on by now it’s getting very tiresome 😋 It woke me up a couple of times in the night along with a noise that I have no idea what it was. I heard it and it woke me with a start, it was right outside our bedroom window and my very first thought was ‘that’s a big cat’ I didn’t get out and look out of the window I wish I had, Ive looked at the cctv this morning but it’s mostly covered in cobwebs (on the to do list) Ive pretty much heard a great many things at night here before but not that and I checked with every sound effect I could google to see if fox/badger/deer make a noise like that, nope. It made a sound like a domestic cat does when it’s cornered but it was a much bigger sound. It’s a mystery and I will ask around for any other sightings, I do know that where John was working the lad thought he saw something going into their wooded area last week and that is about three miles down the road?

I have been out this morning and let all the birds out and fed everything, all the while looking for clues lol, everything seems normal, well as normal as we get here 😝 I have some bread on the go, it’s ages since I last made some and John has requested it, did I mention he has a cold 😜 he is feeling sorry for himself, I hope I don’t get it as well otherwise how on earth will life function here 😝

I went out into the back bit to do a bit of tidying away and sorting, I had loaded the wheelbarrow up with some stuff for the skip but it started hailing and it’s still blowing a hoolie out there so I gave up and came in, took my coat and wellies off and the sun came out, exasperating weather.

It’s rhubarb season 😀 I picked the first bunch of rhubarb this morning put it out and it’s was sold in no time at all 😀 once it really gets going I think I am going to make a batch of rhubarb and vanilla jam and of course there is always my favourite stewed rhubarb and custard to be had 😀

At 2pm our delivery of new hens arrived 40 new laying stock and 20 for selling on, these are always lovely clean birds strong and healthy and start laying pretty quickly as they are around 17 weeks old. I settled them in with feed and water, now we just have to wait for eggs 😀

My new cordless screwdriver/drill arrived, it has a European plug 🙄 I should have checked, I have now ordered the converter! I cut the old plug off of the old charger which no longer works, you never know when you need a plug lol and I will put the charger out for recycling, I will keep the drill and batteries until they are well and truly knackered.

I am off to see an American Bluegrass group, Hayseed Dixie, in Oxford tonight, I’m really looking forward to something a bit different 😀

Friday: The wind is still here ☹️ I’m not the only one banging on about it lol, I had blood tests this morning and unprompted the nurse was saying about how the wind is getting annoying, then the septic tank lorry arrived and the driver also unprompted started talking about the windy weather and he wishes it would stop, glad it’s not just me 😝

I did all the usual things first thing, then went off for blood tests and popped in to the local shop to get some new work trousers, back home and the tank lorry arrived, got that done and dusted for another year, then out to check on the new hens in the hut in the paddock, we are not letting them out until tomorrow as it’s Florence’s 1st birthday and I don’t want to spend all evening chasing chickens rather than eating birthday cake! I did a bit more seed sowing into modules in the poly tunnel, broad beans this time and all year round cauliflowers. I took the wheelbarrow full of junk down to the empty skip and also put a load of wire that has been on the floor into it, though I’m now thinking I will take some back out and use it to cover beds so the chickens can’t scratch everything up. I was thinking I ought to sow some beetroot and turnip as well. I have so many jobs running through my head that I want to get sorted, although I said I was moving the light Sussex, I never got round to it and now I’m thinking I will just dispatch two of the cockerels and move the others. I have filled the incubator with their eggs and typically because I wanted to save some for the lady with the pre school, they have stopped laying so I think a move will kick start them again. I have made enquiries to find some POL ducks as we have more customers than eggs, hopefully I will find some soon 😀 I would hatch but too many drakes and we are not that keen on duck although we could learn to like it I suppose and at least it’s self sufficiency at its best.

The wind dropped suddenly around 6pm and John had been called out on an emergency (water coming through their ceiling) so I quickly went out and burnt the rubbish I had been trying to get done all week. We burn all our cardboard/paper rather than putting it in the recycling bin, only through the autumn/winter/spring months though not in the height of summer 🙄 and then once it was dark and everything was shut away for the night it was time to go and visit our little Florence who is 1 today 😀 it’s easy to remember her birthday if you studied Julius Caesar in English Lit, beware the ides of March. There is in fact an ‘ides’ in every month, it is the day of the month you settled your debts, some months it is the 15th and some months the 13th.

Saturday: Wet and windy 🙄 On a smallholding there is always a list of jobs to do and you start the day with the intention of doing what’s on the list, then something else comes along and takes priority. After doing the animals this morning the plan was to dispatch drakes but in the end we cleared up the back area, putting away etc because I need to order wood for the greenhouse and it needs to be kept dry and flat. Then I noticed that one of the mirrors in the ménage had been hit by the wind and broken, it was just hanging there which, obviously, is dangerous so that had to come down. Before John sorted that out we caught up the two light Sussex cockerels that we don’t need and dispatched them and I got on with plucking them while John sorted out taking down the mirror. I was still plucking (took me an age today) so he went and made the pen, that the remainder of the Sussex were to go back into (we moved them after the fox got in) more secure. The pen they are in is secure but small and mostly concrete, I wanted to get them back out on some dirt and weeds. I have two hens and two cockerels left and they all got a dusting of louse powder and DE for good measure.

Yesterday I ordered an Angelica plant and a jostaberry Bush, the Angelica will go where the tortoises will be, it’s great for the bees 🐝 and I may even get round to doing crystallised Angelica you never know.

F1 season begins again this weekend so that has to be watched of course, after years of just watching with John I’ve decided if you can’t beat them join them but I thought I would bring some rivalry by backing a different team to John lol, and after watching the Frank Williams story I’m getting behind the Williams team, I don’t expect great things like a world championship but a little bit of competition does you good 😜

Sunday: Well the weather today has certainly been changeable that much I know 😀 sunny first thing, then the wind picked up mid morning and it was cold, we have had hail, rain, the lot and now back to sunny again. First thing we sorted out the duck enclosure, the floor was giving in the hut so John put new ply down, the bolts all needed adjusting and then new straw put down. We will aim to get the ducks we want in there later today 😝John went off to visit his Mum while I did a bit of gardening and burnt some of the rubbish, chicken feathers from yesterday etc. When John came back we had coffee and we had intended to go outside and do a bit more but the wind was really cold so we decided to go out for lunch instead 😜 When we came back I did a bit of seed sowing in the polytunnel, flower seeds this time, some lupins, delphiniums, sweet peas plus a few others, all from seed I collected last year. It’s nice and warm in the tunnel as the sun has been shinning on it but while I was in there the hail came down, that was a bit loud lol.

Oh and I learnt something new this weekend, you can eat dahlia tubers 😲 who knew, apparently they are a staple food source in some countries, any dahlias even the lovely ones you grow in your gardens 😀

It’s 6pm, I’ve just sat down with a cuppa after processing the two birds we dispatched yesterday. They won’t look like the chicken you buy in a shop, firstly they are much older, about a year compared to a commercial chicken which is slaughtered at around 8 weeks (that’s not a typo) meat chickens are bred to eat constantly and grow very fast, we have had these breeds before and it’s not very nice which is why we chose a slow growing utility breed. Secondly they are not plump like the chicken you buy in the supermarket, this is because they have not been pumped full of water after death to make them look appetising and thirdly they are not bleached (albeit a food grade bleach) the dark marks on the skin are from me getting a little trigger happy with the scorch torch which is used to burn off and wispy bits and fluff. They are altogether more gamey looking and taste a whole lot better than the blandness of a commercial breed because they have been alive longer to develop flavour. These two weighed 3&1/2 & 4lbs, plenty for the two of us to feed on for a couple of days, the feet and necks I have put in the Rayburn to roast for the dogs, they do not particularly like the heart and liver so I don’t bother but sometimes I will save the livers and freeze them for pate or stuffing.

It is getting dark and we have two things to do tonight, one get the new hens into their hut, yesterday even though the door was open they didn’t venture out but today they have, they may go in by themselves, they may not 🙄 and two get the ducks into the duck pen when they have been used to going to bed in the stable block all winter, could be a lot going night 😝

Posted in Friesland Farm

Dandelion honey, more fox attacks and a toad 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday eve: Waiting to put the birds to bed as John is sleeping again, hope this illness passes soon 🤪it’s 8.30pm and still very light so might have a coffee outside while I’m waiting.

Bank Holiday Monday 7th May: Hot, hot, hot today phew. Got the birds done first thing, John was just well enough to help out a bit but then it wiped him out for a few hours. I did a few bits in the garden, picking asparagus, watering the tunnels etc, gave the rabbits some hay and did a bit of foraging for them. Meanwhile Charlie and Macca hoovered and tided the house oh and John changed the sheets on our bed, that is the first time in over thirty years he has done that! Then I finished making the dandelion honey, oh my days, that is some seriously good stuff, and going down a storm with everyone who tries it, obviously it’s not honey and it does have sugar in it, quite a lot, but it really does taste like honey, better in fact. Here is the link to the page and recipe http://tinandthyme.uk/2013/05/dandelion-honey/. Do have a go at making it if you are that way inclined, you won’t be disappointed, I will certainly be making some more at some point.

Had to laugh this morning, a local retired Doctor who is a customer of Johns phoned this morning, not on a plumbing matter but needed to borrow a metal detector as he has lost his wedding ring in the garden somewhere (that’s not what I laughed at just so you know 😝) but John told him his symptoms and asked him what he thought was wrong with him lol, he suggested taking aspirin instead of paracetamol and it seems to have done the trick to an extent, either that or he was getting better anyway 😝

Then Sam came over and we went to Cogges Farm craft fayre, I had planned to go with John but he wasn’t up to it, it was incredibly hot and as with most of these things there was not much shade so we only stayed a couple of hours before coming home again. When I got back Shelley and Martin were here and had done some of the jobs that John usually does like cleaning out the front hens, thank you everyone today for helping out and taking me out x x Martin showed me how to use the chop saw safely and I had a go so I should be able to start making stuff 😀

Charlie and Macca did a bbq in the evening, we had meat already in the freezer to use up but the salad leaves, chives, mange tout and asparagus all freshly picked 😀 from the garden to the plate.

Sitting here are 8.30 typing up and Charlie comes running in the back way with a hen , she was sat outside with Macca when the horse started making a racket the dogs shot off and they ran up the back to see foxy with a chicken in its mouth, the dogs chased the fox who dropped the hen minus a load of feathers! The hen has a puncture wound which I have purple sprayed and hopefully she will survive the shock, I have now shut her away with the rescue ducks in the stable, we caught up all the other hens out the back and shut them away and also shut the ducks in their compound. Last night we lost a hen at around the same time of night, we are suffering attacks daily now and the problem is that it’s still light and the hens are still out, they will be confined for the next few days until the fox either moves on elsewhere or stops visiting because there are no birds about.

I candled the goose eggs in the Incy and all but one are viable so hopefully we will have eight goslings 😀

A farmer in the village has lost his cows! Eight of them are missing and a Facebook appeal has been put out for any sightings, we haven’t seen anything hope he finds them soon 🙁

Tuesday: Wall to wall sunshine again this morning although showers are possible later which would be just perfect, save me watering the veg plants 😜

Got on quite early this morning as it is so pleasant working in the cooler morning air than the hotter parts of the day. As I said yesterday the birds at the back of the farm are being confined in their runs much to their disgust but I am not going to risk any more attacks from the fox. After feeding, straight into the garden to pick, this mornings offerings are asparagus, rhubarb, mangetout and some radish, mostly all put out for sale in the shed, some saved for dinner later. Forage for the rabbits, mostly dandelion and thistle today, I planted some more broccoli plants out in the cage and sowed some more seeds, mini corn, courgette (as the other seeds just rotted away) beetroot and coriander, I am trying to do them fortnightly so I get a succession this year instead of gluts! I picked some herbs for drying, sage, thyme, lovage and oregano, I intend to dry quite a lot this year to keep me going through the Winter months (though I don’t want to think about that too much just yet it still has to be prepared for) Watered the poly tunnels, I have moved a few things from the greenhouse into the tunnels as the greenhouse does not seem to be performing well this year. I have been pondering about rebuilding it or getting a new one or another tunnel, though the tunnels are really good nothings beat the feeling of being in a greenhouse in the spring, seems like a heart or head decision 🤔

Then Mia arrived had a bit of lunch then went for a sleep as she was quite tired, while she was sleeping I picked some of the thinner sticks of rhubarb to make a pudding for later, rhubarb pudding cake, easy, quick and hopefully delicious. I did a double take at the ingredients as there are no eggs in this pudding mix but I thought, ok, we will see how it turns out? The rhubarb retains its sharpness as the mix is sat on top of the fruit but there is plenty of sugar in it it counterbalance that, then it is soft and almost custard like with a chewy sweet topping, it’s fab, I love it and a dollop of creme fresh would top it off nicely 😀

Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pudding Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped rhubarb

• 1 3/4 cup sugar, divided

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup milk

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

• 1 cup sifted flour

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 2/3 cup boiling water

Directions

Cover the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch square pan with fruit. (I prefer an 8 inch or 9 inch square glass baking dish. You could also use a deep dish glass pie plate.)

Mix 3/4 cup sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, extracts, milk and flour together (add a little more milk if it is too thick to pour); pour over fruit. Mix remaining sugar and cornstarch; sprinkle over mixture in pan. Pour boiling water over the top. ( I know this sounds strange, but trust me, it works to create a pudding around the rhubarb in the bottom of the pan.)

Bake at 375°F for 45 minutes.

https://commonsensehome.com/rhubarb-pudding-cake/

I am having chicken left from the bbq last night with salad leaves from the tunnel, asparagus, mangetout and some avocado I need to use up, John will have his with beans and chips probably, some people don’t know when they are well off, I keep telling him he needs to change his diet but it’s like trying to drag a kicking and screaming bear out of the woods, not worth the bother 🤪

I ordered some silicone callipo style lolly moulds, we grow a lot of soft fruit and sometimes you can only eat so much of it so I thought the grandchildren would appreciate real fruit ice lollies if the weather stays on the same course it’s on now and I ordered biodegradable paper straws for smoothies 😀

The egg sales were extraordinary at the weekend which resulted in selling every available egg on the place, I thought today would see a slow down but nope, everything I put out this morning was gone by 2pm and I have just put out what is left of todays laying, great for us not so good for customers who turn up when they are all gone 😝

The farmer has found his cows, they had gone along the downs quite a long way away, I know the farmer was very upset at losing them so all has ended well 😀

Wednesday: Not much happening today, did the morning rounds, still keeping some birds confined to pens, we will be moving the pullets to the front house tonight to live with the older hens as we have secured 40 new POL for delivery on Friday, partly for demand in sales of hens and partly for the high demand in eggs. I did a bit of pottering in the garden then Mum called over so we sat and had coffee and chatted, then Sam and Mia arrived, Sam went off to work and so it was just Mia and I for the afternoon. We had good fun playing in the pirate ship, land ahoy lol.

After tea, which was beef stew today with frozen veg I am still using up from last year and some left over rhubarb pudding, I was looking at the stats for my blog site and I couldn’t believe that I have been blogging for seven years!! Oh my days lol, at some point when I get time I will have to have a random read of some of the posts 😝 no idea where that time has gone.

Covert operation completed at dusk and all pullets moved swiftly and without incident 😜 we had taken down the poultry netting across the big side paddock when we dragged it so we put that back up again to hopefully contain the hens or at least to put the fox off or give the hens a chance if it comes in the daytime.

Thursday: Another nice day forecast, a little cooler than of late but still pleasant enough. Before I did the morning round I spent an hour cleaning out the POL pen then onto feeding and watering the animals, nothing untoward in my rounds. After that I cut asparagus to put out for sale and went foraging for the rabbits, today they had ribwort, grass, dandelions, lilac, they love it, I love watching them love it 😊 Then Shelley, Josh and Florence came and it was time to play with Josh, we fed the rabbits, went for a wander across the paddocks, went up the back to take some treats to Jack, ran off some steam in the ménage, cuddled the baby quail and it was time for lunch 😀 In the afternoon I did a few bits then popped next door for a chat and a cuppa, came home and did some hoeing and watering. I realised I had put the hose from the rainwater tanks to the duck bath and forgotten to turn it off, all day 😝, I did think for a moment that I had lost all 15,000 litres but luckily there was still enough in there to water the plants, I’m not sure how much of it was lost but I will be glad when it rains again to fill them back up to maximum! Tonight’s jobs will be to round up the hens we moved last night some of whom have made their way to the back again which is all shut up so they can’t get in 😜

I have started meditating 😜 to focus mainly and to be honest I’ve only done two days at 5 mins each session so I’m not sure there is much to report but I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained 😀

I also want to tell you about an app called what3words, every single 3m x 3m square in the world has been allocated three random words, what’s the point I hear you ask, because that’s exactly what I first said but if you read up about it it’s actually brilliantly simple and useful. Words are easier to remember than co ordinates and the UN can use it to give people in refugee camps an ‘address’, the car manufacturers are beginning to use it in their sat navs so watch this space, just when you think there is nothing left to invent 🙂 and do download the app and see what yours are, then have fun typing in three random words and seeing where it takes you, it’s a free app.

Friday: An ok day weather wise. My first job was to spend a bit of time organising the duck compound, I needed to get the ducks that were in the stable into the compound so they have some outside space, then partition off the smaller duck house so that there are now three available areas for them to choose from. The problem at this time of year is the drakes, they are very amorous and competitive and it causes all kinds of racket, probably why a small group chose to go up to the back paddock each day out of the way. All ducks are now in the same compound and they have a choice of sleeping quarters so hopefully all will be well. Then onto finishing the rest of the rounds. After that it’s gardening, though I did put a couple of loads of washing on inbetween times and with the wind as it is today it should dry quickly. I have planted some of the leek seedlings, they may be a bit small but fingers crossed they will carry on growing, cut the grass, weed some of the beds, plant some dwarf beans straight into the beds, normally I would get them going in the greenhouse but with this years weather it’s getting late, they will hopefully be stronger plants for it. Sam and Mia called in and Sam gave Jack a good brush to get his winter coat out.

New batch of POL hens arrived this afternoon.

John is feeling much better thank goodness so we went out for steak 😁

Put the birds to bed, had to catch a few of them up and we put them in the stable, as it had rained a little I spread a bit of grass seed in the small back paddock then watered it in.

Saturday: realised I had left the hose on all night after watering in the seed 😆 Had a very busy day today and only just taken a break (3.30pm) Found a dead quail hen on my rounds, don’t know what happened to her they are only a year old ☹️ John spent most of the day cutting up wood, it’s getting there and we will definitely have enough to keep us warm next winter 😀 I spent all the rest of the time in the garden, I have put in the hazel poles for the runner beans and sowed the beans seeds straight into the ground, planted some tomato plants in the poly tunnel and some little gem lettuce seed tapes. Potted on some of the seedlings in the greenhouse, cabbage, tomatoes, doesn’t sound very much now I’ve written it down lol there must be something else I’m missing can’t remember now though 🤪

There is always something else to do but it can wait for another day as it will be feeding time soon, though we won’t be egg collecting as we have sold out again, bumper week this week selling out every day. I need to have a go with my chop saw, I need to tidy the kitchen, I really need to do some baking as I have not done anything all week!

I found a friend when I pulled back the weed membrane to put the bean poles in, I’m not sure if it’s a frog or a toad, I’m leaning towards toad anyway he let me pick him up and put him under some other membrane, I have no idea where he has come from as we don’t usually see them here.

Sunday: Had a lovely day today, did the morning rounds, had 4 lots of egg customers by 8am! Did a little bit in the garden before finally getting to play with my new toy which occupied me until well I to the afternoon 😀 I made two more bird boxes and a herb box whoop whoop. I had the best fun making them, I need to gen up on some carpentry skills really so that I’m not so ham fisted, there are obviously tricks of the trade that I’m not very au fait with, yet 😜 John spent most of the day cutting up wood and we now have a cleared space, still plenty of wood to cut yet but it’s getting there. His Mum is back in hospital so he went to visit her this afternoon, my sister and brother in law popped in for a cuppa, I dug deep into the depths of the freezer and found some smoked fish for dinner, I really need to make bread either tonight or tomorrow and a bit of baking would probably be appreciated 😝

Posted in Friesland Farm

Jobs to do, manic egg sales and Eostre celebrations

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 26th March: A good productive day, John is off this week so we hoping to get a fair bit done, that’s the plan anyway! John went off to pick up a new batch of POL hens while I did the morning rounds. In the pen where we keep them he has installed some new devices for feeding and watering, I hope they appreciate it 😀

I wrote a list of jobs and once he was back we worked through them, first was the old sofa and a mattress that has been sat in the front for two months, we had to apply for a certificate to enable John to use the van to take stuff to the tip so that has at last been done. Then the flue needed cleaning out so after a coffee John went up on the roof and got that cleaned then cleaned out the fire. After that he cleaned out the chickens in the front house and burnt the rubbish and after that it was on to wood cutting, he did try and do the muck pile with the tractor but it was too wet.

Meanwhile I cleaned out the rabbit runs, the quail hut and the orchard chicken house, did a bit of cutting back of dead stuff, sorted out plants for selling that have been sat all winter and sowed some Swiss chard and some radishes. In between Sam and Mia and Shelley, Josh and Florence came to visit which was mayhem 🤪

I discovered a batch of 32 eggs in the tack room, did the freshness test on them, 2 floated (bad) 6 upended (not very fresh) but the rest were fine and stayed on the bottom, they obviously can’t be sold to customers but I can use them in cooking and in fact had some in a frittata for dinner, just need to be cracked into a cup first to double check them.

Plenty more jobs on the list but that’s it for today 😋

Been so busy I forgot to say

How springlike the weather was today

Buds bursting on flowers and trees

The distant buzz of bumble bees 🐝

A ray of sun is all it takes

For spring to leave winter in its wake

Tuesday: Two good days does not a spring make 😝 after the lovely weather we are back to wet and cold, not as cold as it has been but it’s not warm. I despair at ever being able to get on in the veg garden but instead of dwelling on what I can’t do I have decided to do what I can 😜 This morning I have concentrated on moving seedlings on a bit and hoping they will survive, I pricked out another pot of tomato seedlings, all have gone under cover in various ways but some in the greenhouse and some in the poly tunnel, fingers crossed we will have survivors! Then I pricked out the cabbage and Pak Choi seedlings, these will be fine as they don’t require any heat and have fared well up to now, I have sown some courgettes, some left in the greenhouse under cover and some I have bought indoors into the propagator. What I really need is a HUGE windowsill about 4ft wide and 6ft long lol, the problem is that we have small windows and so they don’t get the light they require, in the tunnels and greenhouse there is plenty of light but not enough heat. I thought about making heated staging for one of the tunnels but it seems like a big job and we can’t add any more to the list really.

John had to go out this morning and when he came back started digging the holes for the fruit cage posts, that is going to take a while 😝 I have Mia this afternoon so no chance of me helping which is just as well as I hate digging 🤪

I got some baking done first thing, fruit buns, Easter biscuits, a gluten free chocolate cake and a loaf of bread, mainly because John has been complaining there is nothing to eat!

And then while Mia was sleeping I made soap! I bought a kit to see how easy it would be and it’s very simple and quite satisfying to do, it’s my Mums birthday this weekend so she will be the lucky first recipient 😀 I was thinking that I could use my own dried flowers and herbs in future batches, all different scents, an exciting prospect.

Wednesday: Well wouldn’t you bloody know it, it’s raining again, the forecast is rain every bloody day for at least the next week, just when John is off to get some stuff done, god knows when we will be able to drag the paddocks if at all and digging posts in this weather is not great but concreting them in is not a good idea either! This morning I despair at ever getting on the veg garden or indeed getting much growing! I have sown a second lot of peas, the first lot rotted away, the second lot rotted away, maybe third time lucky? I have tried growing them under some cover, out of cover, the only thing I can think is when I water them they then get too cold and rot so I have just sprayed the top of the soil lightly this time and we will see what happens, good job peas come in big numbers of seed. I did a little bit in the greenhouse but that’s not much fun as the rain keeps dripping on my head, I just feel this morning like everything is working against us 🙁 BUT I am not a quitter so I will keep plodding on, eventually we may get a break, and I will concentrate on what can be grown so brassicas, broad beans, beetroot, pak choi, chard etc and hope the more tender stuff will catch up later on.

John managed to get one end of the fruit cage up and concreted in so at least that’s a start, though I’m hoping it will get finished!

Made another batch of soap.

Thursday: A frost this morning, well that wasn’t predicted 😝 as you will gather from that it was yet another cold start, talking to other growers on social media, they are all chomping at the bit, so at least I am not alone, however I do know that here we are usually two weeks behind when it come to growing stuff due to the lay of the land so I have no idea when things will get going 🤪

John did the animals this morning then off to his Mums, his week off is turning into half days only at the moment 🙄 he is looking very tired so while he is out I am busying making a nutritious dinner (chicken casserole) for him later, complete with turmeric for his aching bones, I may even throw in some dumplings to cheer him up 😀 I am making recipes out of the Lupus cookbook for my lunch and dinner, I’m not sure if it is helping, it seemed to the first week but since then I have suffered with aches and pains though it may be more to do with the cold weather as that has an effect too, it’s a non win situation as when the Sun comes out in full force I will be hiding away 😜

Some Calabrese plants arrived so I went out to plant some, actually I planted half of them in the poly tunnel, the other half I will plant outside once I can get on the garden to weed it and put the cage up, heaven knows when that will be? I sowed some coriander seeds for the greenhouse and some more basil seeds for the windowsill. Looking through my seeds I realised I hadn’t ordered any cucumbers or pumpkin so put an order in for them, the elephant garlic arrived and I need to find a place for those, I think I need a bigger veg patch lol. John did a bit more hole digging for the fruit cage posts though the weather is seriously hampering the job, it’s not much fun digging in the cold rain 😝

Hoping to rehome some 2 yr old laying ducks, just waiting to hear back about those, we only get a dozen a day but could easily sell more.

Good Friday: As well as the morning routine we covered a lot of ground today picking up little jobs here and there, I cleaned out the duck shed and cut up cardboard for the red mite traps, John fixed a loose door handle, put a plug on the pump in case of future electricity cuts so it can now run off the generator if that happens, he also finally fixed the dog shower. The shower got broke during the first lot of heavy snow so we have been without it for ages, he put in another that he had lying around but that leaked everywhere, third time lucky and we have a working shower again. Good job too as the dogs were desperate for a bath, well they weren’t but I was desperate to give them one, if it was up to them they would just stay dirty little mutts and love it, I think they disapprove of John finally get that job done 🤪 He also fixed some tiles that had come loose on the kitchen floor, and got a pile of wood inside to keep it dry. Shelley, Josh and Florence visited in the afternoon and I made some bread later on as we had none left.

The egg sales are absolutely going mad and we just about keeping up with the turnover.

Easter Saturday: No need to tell you what the weather is like 🙄 (she laughs and the hysteria is audible 🤪) We may look back during a long hot summer and think, thank goodness for all that rain in early Spring 😝

I was just reading reports that as of January 2018 we were heading for a drought as both the last Winters had been dry and the ground water was low, so I’m swayed a little to think that this large swathe of rain we are getting is actually a good thing and best not to moan about it. It has got me thinking though that we probably need to invest in more water storage tanks, we have approx 15,000 litres of storage but there are place that we could gather at least another 15,000 from so I will start looking into it.

I needed to use up the rest of those eggs we found and tested so I made two traybakes, one lemon and lime drizzle and one peanut butter 😀 In the afternoon I went with the grandchildren and their respective Mums to the village eggstravaganza, egg rolling completion down the hill, duck and boat racing on the pond then an Easter egg hunt in the churchyard. Josh won the duck race and got an egg which he shared nicely, then they both found hidden eggs, maybe next year they will be old enough to make Easter bonnets for that competition 😀

Easter Sunday: Eostre, an ancient celebration of new growth, new beginnings and everything associated with this time of year, birds laying eggs, flowers and trees bursting into bloom, wild animals including hares all doing what comes naturally, a glorious time of year indeed. And the weather has agreed as the Sun is shinning magnificently this morning, still a tad cold early on but the day holds promise 😀

We did the morning rounds and John has gone out to dig the last two holes for the fruit cage posts, then we will be visiting my Mum who has the unfortunate affliction of an April fools birthday, I can’t tell you how many horrid tricks we played on her when we were children, poor Mum 😋

We had dinner with Shelley, Martin, Josh and Florence late afternoon and when we returned the egg shed was empty, we have sold every available egg in the place!

We have been allocated 10ducks for rehoming so that will hopefully help with extra eggs.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Why?

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Now I know what some of you are thinking ‘what’s Hubby done now’ sorry to disappoint you, he appears to be blemish free this week! The ‘why?’ are genuine musings that I have pondered over while going about my work, I work alone all day, every day for at least five days a week and so with only myself to talk to (not out loud, I hasten to add) questions pop up all the time and none more so than this week.

Some musings are more intelligent than others such as why are we trading with China? and do we have more to fear from the controlling president of that country than we do from thousands of immigrants pouring into Europe with the only agenda for them being a decent life for their families? Sorry, that’s probably a bit deep for a smallholding blog but it is what goes on in my head along with why do flies make that irritating buzzing sound when they fly? Birds fly, but they don’t make a sound like you instantly want to swat them every time they come near, come to think of it they do not dive bomb you every few seconds either. They are not very clever, I mean if they went silently about their business we wouldn’t be reaching for the fly spray in the height of summer would we?

Other musings range from, why did we lend our new 1m blade electric hedge trimmer out and why didn’t they notice that the flex was dangerously close to the blade that chops thing off? I actually know the answer to this, because said person is an idiot that is why, and now we have a lovely piece of blue tape covering up the joiner (exasperated sigh) Shall I continue? Why when there are five acres, and a considerable amount of countryside thereafter available, does the cat want to **** right where you have just planted seedlings?  Why wont the geese go to bed on the only night there is no one around to help? Why would you think it is perfectly ok to go and get your eggs from the local smallholding honesty shed at 11.30pm? Why didn’t anyone bring me chocolate home today? they must have known I needed some 🙂 It is at this point you are probably thinking, yep, she spends too much time on her own with only the chickens to talk to lol

Why is life so cruel sometimes? that applies to humans and animals alike, this week it all went very wrong for one of our new point of lay hens, life was ticking along nicely for her, she had been reared in a shed for the best part of 16 weeks then she arrived here and had her first taste of outdoor life, the smells, sounds, and new sights such as dogs and horses, in her prime she laid her first egg and disaster struck. A prolapse is not something I have had to deal with before and so I turned to Google to find out what to do, first bathe the prolapse in antiseptic, then using Vaseline and gloves push the prolapse back to where it came from (not for the squeamish I can assure you)  use Witch Hazel to bathe it afterwards in the hopes that it will retract and deflate. Leave the hen somewhere quiet overnight with water only and see what happens, the hen went into shock, that’s what happened and so the kindest thing to do was ‘the deed’. Normally I don’t get sentimental feelings over the hens but I really felt sorry for this one, she was only a youngster and hardly had a chance at a happy life.

The tidying up of the veg plot has continued this week and this morning I began to venture out further onto the farm and identify areas that needed doing, one main area being the hedge along the front driveway. So that is where I was, trimming the hedge with my blue bandaged electric trimmer when today’s Why? came along, actually I wonder this one every year and people who do it seem to think it is a very reasonable thing to do, I however, cannot see the point, except under certain circumstances (which I consider to be ludicrous anyway). Why do people feel the need to spend most of Autumn and the first part of Winter gathering up all the leaves that have been shed from the trees? Do people not know that the worms and the weather will do most of it for you without any sweat being broken at all? Perhaps its a case of that shiny red/green leafblower in the corner of the garage is calling and you cant wait to play with it or it might be that the only bit of earth that actually belongs to you (so to speak because I bet a pound to a penny if it came to it you would not own the fracking rights under your driveway) has been entirely covered with block paving or slabs (that’s the ludicrous bit as far as I’m concerned and a topic for a whole blog of its own one day) and understandably you don’t want to slip on the wet soggy leaves. If you leave those leaves they will enrich the soil beneath them, ok so I know it will look untidy for a few weeks but its far better for the ground than buying lawn feed or soil improver surely, you don’t have to break into your wallet or that sweat, you can sit in the evening sun, sipping your glass of cider/ale/prossecco smug in the knowledge that those worms are working for you 😉

Have a great week 🙂

Posted in Friesland Farm

Water!

Posted on by frieslandfarm

The topic this week has to be water in its different forms, firstly because we spent a lovely weekend by the sea, courtesy of our daughters for our Pearl wedding anniversary. We went to the Cary Arms in Babbacombe, Devon, a five star boutique hotel and if you ever get the chance or the inclination I would certainly recommend a stay there. The setting is picture perfect, you couldn’t actually get any closer to the beach without being on a boat, the room was large and comfortable, the food was superb, the staff were efficient and friendly and the private terrace overlooking the bay was a treat each morning when I got up early to watch the Sunrise. We took a stroll along the quiet, pebbled beach on the first morning before breakfast and you could have been in the Mediterranean  it was that idyllic!

The next batch of water was the rain, we desperately needed it and so (unlike me, I know) I am not going to complain, not about the downpour watering the garden and the fields at any rate. My complaint came when water started pouring through the kitchen ceiling this morning, great we have a leak in the roof, I went over to the stable block and the internal guttering is leaking, great, we have another leak, right outside of Jacks stable making the dirt floor a soggy mess, I turn to go to the bottom of the stable block and I am not sure yet if its another leak or if the guttering was just not coping, either way there is water gushing in and another soggy mess on the floor, the to do list for Hubby is already written!

Apart from the animals and birds all looking a little bit wet, they are much the same as normal, we have some new additions, three little piggies called Alvin, Simon and Theadora, they are Oxford Sandy and Blacks, a rare, traditional breed, so we were lucky to find them. The main reason for having pigs at this time of year is to use up the windfall apples and gluts of vegetables, they have been greedily tucking in to the fresh produce and when you watch them eat you know why they are called pigs, fighting over a piece of apple or banana is common. At the minute they are in one of the stables, they had not been outside at all since they were born although we will be transferring them to an outside run when Hubby gets to that particular job on his list!

Since I went away on Friday I have not yet had time to look in the veg garden, there is probably plenty of produce waiting to be picked but I was reluctant to get soaking wet doing it this morning, now at least I know I can easily feed the surplus cucumbers to the piglets instead of trying to find recipes for them. I did pick a few bits this morning very quickly, sweetcorn, celery, potatoes and an onion, to make a sweetcorn chowder for a friend who is visiting tomorrow, I hope she likes it. The egg number is slowly increasing from the laying stock but not back up to full production yet.  We have been selling plenty of the point of lay hens and wont be buying any more in until Spring now, so whatever is left will go into the laying pen with the others. I don’t think the new ducks have started to lay yet, they will probably all go at once and I will have more than I need, that’s the time to do some batch baking for the freezer.

I have heard that we are in for an invasion of hornets! I hope that particular rumour is untrue, we seem to go through stages of insects, the flies were an absolute pain during the sunny days, always a loud buzzy one flying around and dive bombing you while you were trying to watch the news. Then there are the wasps, you need close inspection before picking up a windfall or plum off of the tree, they might have got there before you and give you a nasty surprise, luckily I have not been stung yet, even though each morning when I am picking beans I am surrounded by the Bumble Bees searching for nectar. Spiders, of various hugeness, are now rearing their ugly little heads indoors as the days get cooler, Hubby was waiting for a scream from the general area of the toilet roll holder the other day when a one the size of a football (nearly 😉 decided to roost there, very mean of hubby not to remove it I thought, but I didn’t cry out, I merely gave the spider my best, bugger off back to where you came from stare, and lo and behold he was gone by the morning.  After that lot we now have the invasion of the earwig, they are on everything, I just had to eject one from the crawling up the inside of my trouser leg, to be fair, none of them are dangerous unless you are allergic, but I will be glad when it is too cold for them to bother coming out to play.

Cary Arms
The Cary Arms, a delightful little bolt-hole by the sea

Two of the three little pigs!
Two of the three little pigs!