Tag: poly tunnel

Posted in Friesland Farm

Swallows, petrichor & some CPR training

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Easter Monday: I keep thinking it’s Sunday lol, Another nice morning, up early again because John is off it means I can go straight out to the garden and get started on some stuff. I have hoed the brassica cage, keeping the weeds for the rabbits, planted some broad beans round the edge of the cage and the brassicas will go in the middle, I’m also planning on growing peas in there because they will grow upwards rather than outwards so I can get them in between the brassicas and keep the birds off, bonus 😀 I did as much hoeing as I needed, I’m taking a more relaxed approach this year as I mentioned before, a lot of the weeds will be hand pulled to feed the rabbits and torts so I need a supply lol. The only weed I am actively controlling is bindweed, the rabbits will eat it but it’s such a thug it gets out of hand quickly and swamps everything so I’m trying to keep it down. I have planted a couple of herbs, my rosemary got so big it split in two and that caused the plant to rot over winter so I have a new one in and I also bought a curry plant to give that a try, I have been going round finding self set plants and digging those up and potting them, even things like Rosa rugosa because I can plant those in the hedge lines eventually.

The swallows have arrived, John spotted them yesterday afternoon flying around, you know Spring has sprung when they turn up 😀 They will have come from South Africa travelling up to 200 miles a day to get here, I think they deserve the noting of their arrival!

Tuesday: St George’s Day April 23rd not celebrated as it should be in my opinion considering it’s our National day! Mia day today but I got everything done before she arrived plus a little watering, I do hope we get some rain this week as things are beginning to struggle a little, they need something to perk them up. We didn’t do much apart from watch the torts and play but Sam finished early so I whizzed round and did the feeding and eggs then time for GOT 😀😀 I feel tired today, that’s the first time in a week or so, not sure why but definitely not got the umph I have had 😕 Late afternoon I planted some more peas, these are going in the brassica cage with broad beans and the brassicas. I thought I would take advantage of the fact that the cage is netted so that will keep the pigeons off them also they will grow much higher/narrower than the beans and cabbages/cauliflower so won’t be competing for space and light. I watered them in even though a touch of rain is forecast and I could smell that the air was charged. I could hear rumbles of thunder while I was out there but as yet I hasn’t come to much and the from the amount of times I have left it because it was supposed to rain and didn’t , I have learnt from experience, a little extra doesn’t do any harm. Hopefully with a rest tonight and a good nights sleep (which now I think about it, I didn’t have last night, I kept waking up for some reason) I should be raring to go tomorrow 🙄

I have ordered 25 Silver Birch trees, yep 25, well they were a bargain, I will only want a few of them but the rest I can pot up and sell on hopefully, if not we will have lots more lovely trees around the place. I tried growing some from seed but they didn’t grow at all and the around the two birches I already have I have never found saplings.

Going back to this morning I just have to tell you this, I went into the stable block to feed the hens that are in the stable (the escapees from the back paddock) near the tap was an overturned bucket with lots of the ground scratched about round it, I lifted the bucket and there was a hen, she has had a lucky escape from the fox by the looks of it, obviously the fox couldn’t work out how to knock the bucket over but it knew there was something under it, the hen clearly felt safe as she had even laid an egg 😬

Wednesday: Feeling less tired today so cracked on a bit, got the feeding etc done and then Into the garden. With rain forecast I wanted to get a couple of things done, first, cut the grass on the lawn and the driveway, two reasons, I want the clippings to put on the beds as a mulch and I don’t want the grass to spurt and get too long to cut when the rain comes. Second job was to get some things planted in the ground also because rain is forecast and that will give them a good start, eating peas and sweet peas mostly. I could have spent forever doing things but finally a shower 😀 I have heard thunder and the patter of a few drops since last night but nothing materialised until now. It seems odd that in England, where the rest of the world thinks it rains all the time, we are desperate for some rain, we haven’t had any for around 2/3 weeks and together with the scorching spring temperatures we have had, it’s a recipe for disaster in the garden, especially veg gardens. It’s not that we want rain all the time but over the years we have got used to it and so garden accordingly, we are now beginning to realise that we need to adapt and change, that is the reason I have been trying to create more of a forest garden so that we have a canopy to hold the moisture in the soil. The time for neat rows and bare soil has passed, well here at least and I need to learn a different way, not new, it’s been done in various forms for hundreds of years and there are always new ideas to tap into, it’s a journey of discovery I am enjoying.

I took a photo of one of the ‘guilds’ I created, it’s in its infancy and the photo is taken from directly above, I planted this up last year and the apple tree had been moved from the paddock because it was struggling massively. The tree is the one with the red leaves in the middle, I so want this to do well because the flesh of the apple is also red which I thought would be fun, then there is comfrey an accumulator, it will pull up nutrients from deep down and deposit them when it either dies back or is chopped and dropped, that’s the theory anyway, then there are strawberries they will spread, covering the bare ground and they obviously bring bees and insects to the area (pollinator) it doesn’t matter if the berries get eaten by birds, they are not my main plants for harvesting, you can just see onions poking through, those help deter pests due to the smell (repellers) I need to plant a (fixer) in there which will be from the legume family, they draw nitrogen from the air and store it in nodules on the roots and release it into the soil when they die back, nitrogen is one of the most important chemicals to a plant, it’s needed to make chlorophyll, clover is probably what I will sow, it’s permanent unlike the beans and peas although I may put a couple of those in as well, it’s not difficult once to understand what each plant does and how it helps the other, in this case they are all helping he apple tree, hopefully it will work out, I will let you know. I have other guilds to plant up, the fruit trees have already been in the ground for a year so time to build the guilds 😀

We had a short shower, long enough to be able to smell that delightful smell of Petrichor 😀 one of my fave smells, this is the rain causing chemical reactions of either oil being realised from plants or bacteria, either way it’s a smell I love and the garden loves it too which is the most important thing. You could spend a day watering with tap water just to keep things ticking over, but a short burst of rain and the plants do a little happy dance, burst into life and put on good growth, now we just need a little bit more to fill up the water tanks please 😜

Went up to my neighbours to try and help identify some veg seedlings for her, the classic mistake we all make ‘I will recognise those when they come up’ or the labels fade/wash away, and you are left with trays of very similar looking seedlings 😀

Back home and did an hour in the tunnel, emptying things that have not grown, sowing odd packets of things that have been opened last year and a few left, they may come up, they may not but nothing ventured nothing gained. There were a few chick pea seeds so I sowed them and they grew well but didn’t produce much last time, however I figure the rabbits will eat the tops if nothing else.

I picked a few bits for the egg shed, rhubarb, asparagus and I put out Welsh onion, these are not something you will find readily in the shops, they are a perennial onion with a bit more of a kick than chives but not as strong as an onion, use them the same way you would as spring onion or chives.

Thursday: We have had a substantial amount of rain overnight by the looks of it which is great, the sun is trying to shine and the temps are not too low so it’s great growing weather. We popped out to do some bits last night and driving down the lanes I was thinking how fabulous the countryside looks when the hedges all start to fill out.

Pick a job, any job that’s the order of the day today, indoors, animals, garden, plenty needs doing, first of all though shower and coffee 😜

I ordered some tomato plants, I thought I had ordered some previously but I can’t find any email saying so (probably end up with loads arriving) I have got some seeds in but I think it’s a bit late really and the plants will give me a good start.

Yesterday while gardening I found a few borage seedlings in the path so I dug them up and relocated them back onto the herb bed, I was reading this morning that borage is especially useful to pollinating insects as it fills up with nectar every two minutes 😲 so I will be on the look out for more seedlings to transplant around the rest of the beds, borage can be a bit annoying if you like well structured gardening as it is big, hairy and floppy (yes, now I’ve written it, I see how rudely that will be interpreted by some 😜) and seeds everywhere but it is a fabulous plant for the insects so well worth putting up with 😀

I got a few of those jobs done that have needed doing for a while, you know the ones you walk past daily thinking, I need to do that, I must do that, I really have to do that soon lol. Mainly it was cleaning out the rabbits, they get deep littered over winter which works well, they have a couple of wet areas the rest is dry and the bumbles fall through the straw to the bottom. Well now was the time to sift all through it, take out the wet, shovel up the bumbles and dust, a lot of the straw is perfectly fine to throw on the toilet areas and then they will have clean straw and hay elsewhere. The quail hut needed doing as well and the nest boxes of the incarcerated hens in the stable, I’m keeping them in hoping that when they finally go back out into the back paddock most of them will stay there 🙄 I picked some fresh food for the rabbits and guinea, weeds, some herbs, and some chard, I gave a bit of chard to the light Sussex and the hens in the stable. We have a light Sussex hen sitting on eggs at the moment, I would be nice if she manages to hatch a bunch of them out, we haven’t had hen raised chicks for a couple of years.

What I really need to get a grip with is feeding the light Sussex as naturally as possible, that was always the intention, a flock of dual purpose birds for our own use, to feed them fresh fruit, veg, herbs & then grain & pulses. For one reason or another it has not been possible to get them out on a paddock as yet and now she is sitting I will have to wait a while longer but it gives me time to put something in place for when the time comes.

We hadn’t had as much rain over night as I thought, just a spitting by the looks of it but just as I finished the rabbits, tidied away and came in for coffee the heavens opened and down it came, good timing 😝

The sun is coming out in between showers so I went out and planted the rest of the seed potatoes this year we have swift (earlies) and Picasso (main crop) last year the potato harvest was not good because of the long hot spell hopefully this year will be better. I also scattered some cornflower and poppy seeds in the flower bed, I have cornflower growing from seed in the tunnel as well but you can never have enough cornflowers 😀 I am trialing a few other things, millet, quinoa, kidney beans, and haricot beans, and sunflowers seeds from the bird seed, to see if they grow and how well and I have had a piece of ginger in my fruit bowl that I was hoping would begin to sprout, it has so now I have placed it on top of some compost in a pot in the tunnel to see if I can get that going. Ginger is a bit hit and miss I find, it sprouts really well then dies off but I do know people who grow it successfully so giving it a go. My tea bush (Camellia Sinensis) survived winter, I need to read up on the best location to plant it once it’s big enough and get this, because if I was trying I wouldn’t succeed, but I used some cut apple wood branches to secure a piece of mesh round some bulbs and the wood has rooted 😲 free apple tree 😀 only one piece out of about 8 buy hey I’ll take that as a win. Amaranth is another I am going to try, the leaves are eaten like spinach and if it goes to seed the birds/hens will love it.

I put an item up for sale on social media and had a chap contact me as he wanted to buy it, all very normal, he didn’t know the area and doesn’t have a sat nav so asked if he could meet in Carterton which he does know a bit, that’s fine we can do that, as a thank you for going out of your way (it’s not really) would you like some tomato plants, yes please 😀 Sungold and Indigo, I haven’t grown either before so looking forward to seeing how they do.

Friday: I have only done the basics today, firstly it’s bloods day, I am pleased to say that the last lot of results were all normal so these should be too, then I went with Shelley while Josh had his class photos taken, then to get a coffee and cake, then a bit of food shopping. Back home and Mum came, then Sam and Mia so we all had a lunch of prawns and salad leaves from the tunnel and some general chat while the children argued over every little thing 😂 the amazing thing is that when it was time for Josh to go, he and Mia suddenly declared how much they love each other lol, if only they did that at the start it might have been a less fractious afternoon, kids 😝

Some brassica plants arrived today, I had forgotten that I ordered them but I’m pleased that there are Brussel sprouts in with them as well as cauliflower, cabbage and purple sprouting, I have loads of the latter two as seedlings so goodness knows what I will do with them all. I ordered plants last year and they did so well that I must have decided to repeat it again this year, meanwhile gaily sowing plenty of the seeds as well 🙄

Saturday: Oh what a difference in the weather from this time last week! The wind is very cold this morning, if you are reading this and not living in the UK you might be able to see why we are obsessed with talking about he weather, it’s soooo changeable it’s ridiculous, it makes planning anything outdoors very sketchy. We are lulled into a false sense of Spring then wham October is back lol, it’s a reminder to make sure any plants that are going out are short and strong rather than spindly or leggy as they will get battered.

We did the morning feeding and letting out and John keeps complaining about the wind and how cold it is, I told him, I know you are just trying to talk yourself into a warm comfy seat in front of the telly for F1 and some snooker 😝 I can find plenty of jobs under cover 😂

Before we get under way for the day on the smallholding though we are going for a bit of CPR training, the village now has a defibrillator in place and offered the free opportunity to learn or freshen up on CPR and familiarise ourselves with how the defibrillator works, too good an opportunity to miss.

The we went straight to pick up some multi purpose compost from the garden centre and of course John had to have a breakfast while he was there 😂 It gave me a bit of time for a look round and pick up some bits, I like to go to the casualty dept and rescue something I might fancy, today was a large lemon thyme for £2. For nearly ten years I have only grown vegetables and fruit with the odd flower or shrub in a pot, I realised how much I missed flower gardening, gardening in general, but I’m a bit giddy with my rediscovered passion for it lol and buying, propagating plants left right and centre. I’m even thinking, where can I start a real garden, by that I mean a dedicated area, it’s not that we don’t have the space, 5 acres is a lot, but can I, should I, give over a particular space to it? At the moment I have a small border in the front of the gate, pots and boxes in front of the building and a small area approx 5ft x 5ft in the veg garden.

I am changing the place bit by bit, I wish I had started 10 years back but hey that’s hindsight for you, the small paddock has got some fruit trees and I have a couple more native trees to go in so that will have a small copse area, and we have a small copse area in the side paddock right down near the road, I have never touched this but was looking at it yesterday thinking I could doing a little bit of tidying in there, it’s mostly hawthorn bushes and put a couple of other trees in there as well. We would have to fence it off though or the horse will probably eat anything I put in!

When we got back I spent a bit of time in the tunnel, it’s nice in there and horrid outside the wind is fierce. I picked up some 50p herbs from the supermarket, basil and parsley the basil I have planted in a pot with a cloche and the parsley I took a sharp knife to the roots and divided it into 4, planted 2 in the salad bed and potted 2 just to see if they take and how they do because that would be a very cheap way to get plenty of herbs on the go. I also picked up a rosemary also 50p, (these are all living herbs with roots) and took some cuttings from the nice soft tips of it, also just to see if it works.

After that we had decided that we would use one of the brooders that John made to move the chicks into as they need more space and will be moved out of it by the time the ducklings arrive. I don’t often give John the credit he is due (doesn’t pay to let him get too big for his boots 😜) but I am soooo pleased with these, they are just perfect and he has done a great job of building them, so if you see him out and about you can tell him ‘nice brooder unit’ 😀😀

Back out into the tunnel (my happy, happy place) and pot on a few more seedlings that are getting big enough now, I’m going to have so much to plant out very soon I will be busy from dawn till dusk 😋 Inbetween I was trying to go round picking up stuff that has been strewn by the wind 😕 hoping it dies down soon.

Then we went to pick up Josh who is coming for sausage and chips and a sleepover at Nanas and Gramp Gramps 😀

Sunday: A better day weather wise, the wind has dropped and we had a fair bit of sunshine in the afternoon. Josh went out and helped Grampy do the feeding and letting out this morning then the boys came over to do some more to the greenhouse and the girls came over with the rest of the grandchildren. By early afternoon they had gone and I set about planting the brassicas up, the whole cage is full now with broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts, cabbage, purple sprouting, dwarf kale and some turnips, all that together with the broad beans and some peas should fill it to bursting once it’s all growing.

I potted up most of the silver birch whips, heeled a couple of them in in various places in the veg garden, the rest will be planted around the farm somewhere yet to be decided.

Charlie and Macca invited us for roast dinner, never going to say no to that 😀 and when we returned I went out to water the stuff I had planted earlier.

Picture of ranunculus which I have totally fallen in love with.

Job done

Day done

Week done 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Plenty of sun, plenty of work & plenty to say 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Oooo I’ve a lot to say this week 😀 must be feeling better 😁

Sunday evening: Although I had already published this weeks blog I just wanted to tell you that the rhubarb is coming thick and fast and I really fancied some stewed rhubarb and custard for pudding tonight 😀 Nothing better than popping out to the garden to pick it fresh, and I’m looking forward to the next few months of being able to do that with all sorts of produce 😀

John went out to put the birds to bed and we have suffered yet more fox attacks, ffs😡😡😡 this has to be when we nipped out, in broad daylight because the feathers were not there when John fed them earlier. It’s fast becoming unsustainable and for anyone who thinks foxes are cute furry things I’m here to tell you they f…ing well are not, we paid £400 for new hens just a couple of weeks ago, the fencing is hooked up to the mains power, we are always here to shut them up at night, often missing out on social events depending on the time of year, how much more do we need to do, even John, who is not easily defeated is ready to throw in the towel. We have NEVER had such a problem as bad as this year, it’s been getting worse every year but this is unbelievable. Fuming, depressed, defeated, lost as to what we do next, short of investing 100s of pounds, which again is unsustainable, we may be coming to the end of our tether!!!

Monday 8th April: Getting towards the middle of the month, from then on we don’t expect to have much of a frost and certainly not a hard frost, could be famous last words mind you with the weather patterns these days who knows lol. It’s raining this morning, just what you want, A wet Monday morning 😕 I was hoping to get some pottering in the garden done but unless the sun comes out later it will be a bit muddy, so it will have to be a bit more cleaning yay.

You know how life has a way of coming along and giving you a kick up the arse every now and then well that just happened to me, after ranting about the fox attacks and feeling a bit dejected what with the tiredness and lack of sunshine today, I find out that someone died ☹️ someone only a third of the way through life and suddenly those things don’t matter in the slightest anymore, because they really don’t do they, ok they are annoying and sometimes get to you but in the grand scheme of things they are blips.

I must be feeling better, by 12 I had already done a few bits and bobs and got the dinner ready for this evening. We had a slow cooked leg of lamb yesterday and there is plenty left on it, John has taken sandwiches to work and has lamb casserole for dinner and I made a lamb biryani. Now I have never even eaten a biryani before so I have no idea what it’s supposed to taste like lol, I found a recipe, thought, yeah I quite fancy that and so I made it. The secret to being able to do these things is a well stocked cupboard, I don’t actually have any curry powder but I do have all the separate powders that go into making curry powder, plus I substituted a couple of things, tomato/onion chutney instead of mango chutney for instance, it can’t make that much difference, well I’m hoping not lol.

The chap that was fixing our mower bought that back this morning, it looks all nice and clean not filthy and dusty like the embarrassing condition it was in when he collected it 😜 just need some dry weather and I can top the smaller paddock to keep it under control.

You will remember that we had the big apple tree pruned and the prunings left for us to deal with, which we have never got round to 🙄 we moved them from in the paddock to just over the fence in the front yard, the idea was to eventually shred them. I have watched the birds absolutely loving these piles of twigs, I don’t know if it’s insects in there or if they like the cover but they are having a ball with it so I’m inclined to leave them for the time being, they are not hurting anything, not particularly unsightly and anything that creates that much wildlife interest probably needs to be left untouched for a couple of seasons at least.

Stick pile that the birds are loving

I discovered last night that the glass rope seal on the Rayburn flue has come away, that’s not ideal, the rope on the other flue is also loose and we haven’t changed the door one for a couple of years, we have a bit of rope and glue left but I have ordered some more to get all three of them up to scratch, that will be a filthy job to look forward too 😝 I was hoping the weather was going to warm up bough not to need it for a day or two but it seems not as we are forecast a day of rain tomorrow 🙄

I made a favourite cake, Mary Berry’s orange and sultana cake, the goose I thought was sitting tight turned out not be to be, I collected up 20 eggs yesterday which had to be discarded and today there were four fresh ones but as I picked one up I dropped it onto another and they both have cracks, waste not want not, time for a cake 😀 The other egg just had a chip out of it so I hard boiled it for snacking on 😀 I thought about lots of different things to make with it but mostly I’m lured towards something sweet and with the steroids at the moment that’s best to be avoided 😜

Tuesday: I have Mia today and we have just had a quiet day of films really as I had a bout of double vision last night which is a bit of a worry, never had it before, I didn’t feel unwell and it only lasted about 10 mins but I’m wary today. I will need to get it checked out, probably to do with the first lot of new meds but it wants investigation.

During the quiet day I had a strange visitor, I say strange more odd really, a young lady called to ask for work with horses she said she was living in her car with her dog at the moment 😕 first impressions were that she was a respectable person then I was worried that she may be a vulnerable person or missing person? In the end I reported it on the W Oxon RCRG which is like neighbourhood watch just in case, I listened to my instinct for a change 🙄

The difference between rain in the Winter and rain in the Spring: Winter, it’s cold, wet and grey, Spring it’s not so cold, still wet but everything looks green and lush, definitely a more pleasant outlook lol and we get glimpses of sun occasionally.

Wednesday: Dry, the sun is trying to come out, still a tad cold though we could do with some heat. I spent an hour trying to log into an app, you know the routine, we don’t recognise your username or password, funny that as you are taking my money 😝 please reset the password, the password should be numbers and letter only, they f..ing well are 🙄 this session has timed out please try again 😡 we don’t recognise your username (or the new password you just reset) 🤬 eventually I got in, I love a bit of technology but sometimes it tries the patience of a saint!

I went outside to get a few jobs done, feed the rabbits, torts, etc, water the plants in the poly tunnel, much easier now John has connected the water up, put some clean bedding in with the ducks, round up the geese from the front yard because John left the gate open 🙄 Enough of that, back inside for a cup of coffee and a sit down, I think I am trying to run before I can walk here so recognising the need for rest is vital.

I sit down with my coffee, think, ooo I will catch up with The Walking Dead, oh no you won’t, the smart hub is updating, please try later 😣 Well I tried later and on and off it took till 3pm to get everything back up and running as it should, who has time for all this sh*t, bloody smart tv, not that smart because it fails to recognise the firetv stick which decided that as the tv didn’t want to know, neither did it 😣 unplug it, plug it back in, unplug it again, wait for it to load (forever) then just freeze and do nothing, unplug it, plug it back in and so it goes on, eventually for no reason that I can figure out it suddenly decides, ooo I think I will work now. I am pretty good with the technology on the whole (and when I say good I mean I can find my way around jargon and get stuff downloaded and set up, stuff like free streaming, I can get that up and running so I’m not a technob 🙄) but this has driven me buggy today 😡 Anyhooo all done now at least John will be able to record the F1 this weekend, now he is a technob, he constantly points the wrong remote at the box shaking it wondering why it won’t work, that’s why we now have a smart remote, one remote, many tasks but not many buttons and it doesn’t take much to mess with his lack of tech skills 😜 but he always insists on holding the remote and asking me how to do stuff 🤣

I had a few visitors today, Mum called in the morning and she was going to do some work in the garden but to be honest the wind was a bit cold so we had coffee and a chat instead, Shelley, Josh and Flo came in the afternoon and then Charlie popped in after work.

Inbetween those welcome faces I did the afternoon feeding and the egg shed then spent an hour in the tunnel potting some overwintered stuff on. It was nice and sunny and very warm in there by about 4pm so I took my guilty pleasure with me, a bottle of Dr Pepper, I can’t drink alcohol any more as it doesn’t agree with the meds and mostly I drink defcaf coffee, tea or water so I buy a small bottle when we go shopping and save it for the right time 😁

I have a lightweight cold frame that the top plastic has long since gone on and wanted to put some environmesh on it to stop the hens getting at the plants. A simple enough job you would think 🤣 except that I just wanted to quickly staple gun the mesh on, the problem is that Mia, the dog, does not like the staple gun. She happily throws a ball round Johns feet when he is using the chainsaw, gets in the way of the tractor or any other vehicle, doesn’t mind the hedge trimmer, wood chipper, log splitter or any other type of tool but she does not like the staple gun and takes off when she hears it. I only needed to put about 5 staples in so I took the chance, but as soon as the first one went in she shot off up the back so I had to call her, get her in the back and shut the door. Couple this with hens trying to get in the shed the minute I opened the door to get said staple gun out and the risk of the fox coming because the dogs are not out and you can see how a simple, two minute job, is very far from it 😝 Objective finally achieved, normal service resumed 😀

Frost is forecast tonight, -1, I did go round and have a look at the blossom on the top fruit trees but I have rather too many to cover them all so I figure that nature will have to take its course and hope it’s not too hard a frost and not too much blossom suffers, I don’t know how they manage in commercial orchards, I’m guessing they don’t cover rows and rows of trees so there must be a balance there somewhere.

Thursday: ‘oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day’ absolutely 😀 I spent the morning pricking out seedlings, cauliflowers mostly lol, I seem to have a lot of them 😝 I planted up three rows of onions, covered various things to stop the hens scratching it all up again. I have come to the conclusion that the hens do more good than harm provided I cover vulnerable plants because they are doing a great job of weeding and manure going as they go plus they are eating up insects along the way, probably beneficial ones too but you can’t have it all 😜 Remember the lady who is going to hatch out chicks with the children she looks after, well she collected her eggs today and I’m looking forward to hearing about the progress and fingers crossed a good batch.

Sat having a cuppa at 5pm, I’ve had one of the best days especially of late, no pain, I feel well (famous last words) I have energy to get stuff done, but been pacing myself 😁 just a glorious day for doing stuff in the garden. In the afternoon Sam and Shelley came over with Josh, Flo and Mia and we had a fab afternoon, firstly giving the tortoises a sponge bath to get the winter dust off them, then washing their play car and having a go in it, then up to the small paddock at the back to pick daffodils for the Mummy’s and dandelions, grass and sticky willy (goosegrass) for the rabbits, back down to feed the rabbits, brilliant 😀 After they had gone I collected the eggs, filled up all the water buckets, picked up some bits and pieces to put away and then came in for me cuppa 😀 Loving life today 😘

John came home and I went and mowed the strip between the paddock and the manège as I don’t want the grass to get too long down there, the geese will be able to graze it nicely now and hopefully keep it down a bit. Job done, day done, well nearly, just the dinner to cook 👩‍🍳

Shelley took some lovely photos yesterday, we have a temporary viewing platform on the farm and the views are fabulous, I don’t like heights so I have only climbed halfway up but she went right up and took this:

View across the paddock and beyond, from a platform 😀

It’s Friiiiiiiiiiday 😀: I don’t know why because it doesn’t really make much difference to us we are always working but Fridays still seem like the best day of the week 😀 The sun is shinning this morning so that makes all the difference, although it’s cold and was pretty cold overnight too, we didn’t light the Rayburn as it had been so warm in the day, that was a mistake 🙄 I will be lighting it tonight lol

I have my first lot of blood tests this morning since starting the new meds so am just pottering about before I get them done then I will crack on later.

Another glorious morning working in the tunnel and outside. I was pottering about taking some leaves off of an apple tree that I have already moved once and is still struggling, it has powdery mildew and it’s best to pick off the infected leaves to try and control it, anyway I looked up across the paddock and saw Jack in the field then I saw another horse which looked a bit too close to be in the field opposite. I went into the front paddock and realised that the horse was loose on the road, I ran (I say that lamely) to the lane, by this time a couple of cars had stopped and the occupants trying to find out who it belonged to, not me for a change 😝 the loose horse was charging up and down the lane trying to get back to where it came from, it went up and along to the farm track opposite, I met the young girl who lives there, she was walking back home with the dog and we tried to corale it into a nearby gateway, nope it wasn’t haven’t any of it, eventually it stopped by another gateway and the young lady opened the gate and got it in, good for her, I was pretty useless really as I couldn’t keep up with the horse. It took about 15 mins but any accident was avoided and the horse was safe back behind a gate, not the gate it’s supposed to be behind but still that’s for the owner to sort out later.

I carried on with my day, potting on, covering plants, then I remembered I hadn’t secured the gate I went through when the horse was loose so I went for a wander into the paddock, picked some wild garlic, had a quick look at a couple of things I planted in the hedgerow and wandered back. I’m going to have some pasta, cream cheese and wild garlic for lunch 😀

The flat leaf parsley has done well over winter in the tunnel so I have picked a bunch and hung it to dry, gave the rabbits some of the limper bits that are dragging on the soil, which they loved, hopefully the parsley will flush again now, I have curly parsley too but prefer the flat leaf variety, the smell is fabulous.

Lost my mojo around 1pm, all that running I suspect 😜 time for a nap me thinks 😁

It seems every one has a different plan, egg customers, deliveries, you name they come a calling when I just nod off so onto plan B a cuppa and a piece of cake and see what daytime tv is putting out these days 😝 Find it, fix it, flog it, there is inspiration for all the junk we have lying around here, now where did I put my tools?

Eventually I go out and do the feeding and egg collection, pick some rhubarb for the little shed and then think, I have a spare hour I will mow the small back paddock. The mower worked perfectly fine last night and I was thinking how much easier life is when things work properly (it’s just had it’s service) but no the damn thing does not want to start, the brake is on, the choke is on, there is fuel in in, the cutter is not engaged, all checks done, it turns over but won’t fire up 🤬 why, why oh why can’t some things just be straight forward. There is another way to start it, with the pull cord but that takes two people and there is just me, I could put something heavy on the seat (safety feature, has to have weight on it .i.e my arse) but when I take the weight off it will stop, I swear to god they make these things just to piss people off 😣 ‘Right said Fred, we’ll ave a cuppa tea’ and try again in a moment or two 🙄

Tried again, still won’t start, abandon that job from my head then 😕

Picked a whole bunch of stuff for the rabbits and Guinea pig who seemed very happy with their supper, they had : Dead nettle, Lilac, Raspberry shoots, Hazel, Lovage, Grass,Dandelion, Mint, Comfrey, Groundsel and chard, got to be a whole lot better than the generic pellets and there is an abundance growing now so that’s good. I decided I will let mint, strawberries, dead nettle and groundsel grow wherever it likes from now on as it’s all free food for the rabbits.

John came home, got on the mower and started it first time, course he did, FML😣 he went in and made a cuppa while I went off to mow the grass and ran out of petrol halfway round, yes, this is a real day 🙄 He went off to get some more petrol because of course we don’t have any left while I light the fire, do the washing up, hang up the washing to dry, feed and water the hatchlings and wait for him to return hopefully with some dinner as well 😜

Ate dinner, finished off the mowing, job done ✅

Next door had all her hens and her duck wiped out by the fox late yesterday afternoon, she is very upset and I know just how she feels ☹️

Saturday: Cold but sunny already 😀 John went off to help Shelley and Martin with their bathroom first thing so I did the morning rounds. That’s the first time I have done it all for weeks, I was going round thinking, have I done everything, lol, it was quite nice to have a purpose again 😀 after the feeding, watering, eggs etc I made a coffee and wandered up to the small paddock with my coffee to pick daffodils 🌼 lovely 😊 We haven’t sold loads of bunches but we sold a few and that’s cheered up someone’s day so it’s all good.

Busy morning in the garden planting stuff up and hoeing weeds down, bucketfuls for the rabbits though 😀 We are going to have to do something about the 40 free range hens though, I can’t see me being able to grow much with them all over the place, they are either eating stuff or treading on it and breaking it! I would have liked the front paddock to recover before them going back out on it but it’s looking likely that we are going to have to put them back out there sooner rather than later for my sanity and the sake of home grown fruit and veg 🙄

I am right here with a fork trying to dig over the ground 😂

John came back in the afternoon and we set about starting the brooder for the ducklings, we were given some big sturdy ply boxes (that aeroplane wheels come in) a couple of years ago and have stored them ever since wondering what we could use them for, well now we know they will make excellent brooders 😀 so we got the basic size and shape made up then went to Witney to find some small gauge mesh to make the top with, I accidentally bought a wisteria while we were there 🙄 I have done a full shift today because John then went back to Martin and Shelleys to finish some pipe work, came home and went off out for a drink! To be fair he/we hardly ever go out socially but it is farewell drinks for a company he has been using for over 30 years and they have now closed down, end of an era, he started using them went he was a very young plumber, it was a independent business so you get to know each other well, they know our family, have been in the know when all the girls were born and Sam even went to work for them for a few years so it was a lengthy and personal connection 😀 Anyway it means I put the birds to bed tonight AND I GET THE REMOTE 😜

We have made plans for getting the free range hens into the small back paddock behind electric fencing with added strand fencing, hopefully the fox won’t like that but I do have to get them out of my garden! I know that last night a very mangey fox was shot in the vicinity, it wasn’t in good condition and that’s what happens when they are not controlled, not all foxes are healthy and well, there are a lot out there that are diseased, maimed from vehicle incidents, generally in bad condition, controls are needed to keep the remaining population healthy, not hunting, that’s fine, I don’t necessarily agree with that but culling and controlling, yes that needs to happen for the sake of a healthy population.

Sunday: Not a bad morning a tad colder than of late but the Sun is out. John did the outside morning stuff while I did the inside stuff. Then we went off early to do a few things including a stint at the garden centre as I have some vouchers that were burning a hole in my pocket now it’s growing weather. HOWEVER I could not believe the prices of plants 😲 shocking! I think this is definitely something to get into, it’s money for old rope providing you have the space to bring them on, honestly I couldn’t bring myself to buy some of the things I would have liked (even though I have vouchers lol) I thought ‘I’m not paying that for a bog standard shrub or plant that I could propagate’ 😜 having said that the place was rammed with buyers. I did get a few things and I will definitely be splitting them come Autumn and selling them on next year lol, in the meantime I will be visiting plant stalls at the local fetes where you should still get a bargain or two 🙄

Back home and John is cold so lighting the fire midday, I must admit the wind is a bit cold but it can only get better can’t it?

In then out again to get some food shopping, John thinks if the biscuit barrel is empty we need a full shop 😝 we only needed a few things but spent most of the time chatting to people we hadn’t seen for a while 🙄 I picked up four plants while I was at the supermarket at about an 1/4 of the price they are in the garden centre 😬 crazy.

Posted in Friesland Farm

New chicks, a bit of rain, plenty of gardening.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Thursday 4th April: 🙄 What can I say, this is the first time in just over a week I have been able to function properly, I gradually went from bad to worse, my joints swelled, my muscles were all inflamed, I had chronic pain and I felt really lousy, freezing cold and very sleepy. Luckily I already had an upcoming appointment at the hospital, so I called the doctor to get some blood tests done ready and yes the Lupus is flaring, no idea why as I was really well last week. Anyway I have had a complete overhaul of meds plus am back on the steroids for a while so hopefully that should sort it all out, it’s only day one and already feel more ‘normal’ and able.

Not everyone is a fan of steroids but here is my take on them, my condition, Lupus, when it flares, is chronic, at the worst point no amount of alternative therapy/food/diets etc is going to help (I do think however that following these as a life plan helps to keep you well the majority of the time) and taking steroids is my choice, I am given the choice by the experts who probably hope I’m going to say yes but allow me the choice to decline if I want to. The reason I say yes is this, personally I would rather spend 10 years on steroids have a good quality of life and be able to do all the things I love doing and enjoy doing them rather than 20 declining years of a half life of pain, misery and isolation, that’s my take on it, not everyone’s view and I respect that but that’s how I approach it, and I admit I take a calculated risk because I am 55 this year, if I was only 25 (sigh) I may not make the same choice. Someone once said to me ‘you are very philosophical about it’ well I think you have to be, when you have a long term illness especially if it’s chronic it’s very easy to become a ‘victim’ of that illness so I try not to and I think a positive outlook is half the battle 😀

And while I am on a roll I would just like to say what a fantastic service we have with our NHS not just in this instance but throughout my life I have had the comfort of knowing that myself and my family are in the best possible hands in times of need, we take it for granted and sometimes forget what life would be like without it, yes there are problems and waiting times but hells bells imagine if it wasn’t there at all 😣

I’m trying to remember what has happened in my ‘missing’ days, we have had a hatch and have 12 light Sussex chicks 🐥 today we also took in three chicks that Joshua’s Nursery has hatched out 😀 Sarah, Ben and Bin apparently lol. I’m hoping Josh will help look after them as they grow and learn about cleaning them out and feeding them etc. We have welcomed another great niece into the wider family and have learnt that our grandchild twins will be one of each 💙💕 which will be good for family dynamics, Mothers and babies in both circumstances doing well 😀

Josh and his chicks

The rain we really need has arrived though it has bought the cold with it as well, hopefully it won’t hang around too long as Easter Holidays are starting and parents could probably do with some nice weather just as much as gardeners 😜

One of the geese has started sitting, she won’t come out now and so that’s the end of the goose eggs for sale as you won’t catch me trying to get her out with the others all standing guard!

I have therapy tonight with the truly wonderful Annette 😀 I think I will opt for a massage rather than Bowen, my shoulders and jaw need ‘loosening’ I tend to hunch my shoulders and clench my jaw with pain and I was also feeling the cold acutely, piles of blankets and a hot water bottle 😀

In the end I listened to Annette’s advice who said that Bowen, working with the body, would be better at this point in time than massage, which is working against it, so Bowen it was.

Friday: Wet and windy over night so not a pleasant morning still a tad cold too. We have lost a couple of hens over night or early this morning. The worrying thing is that this is yet again over the mains electric fencing, it seems one of the windows has caved in due to the wind probably, the hens probably flew out through the window first light and the fox has taken the opportunity to nab breakfast. These are the new lot and have just started laying ☹️ John will have to put something over the window to stop them getting out but it still means the fox is prepared to jump the electric fence 🙄

On the upside every day I feel a lot better than the last few days so that’s good 😀

A couple of weeks back I was searching in vain for around 10/15 pol ducks, they are pretty hard to come by in and around our area. I did a bit more searching and thinking and finally put in an order for 51 day old khaki Campbell female ducklings 😲 that way I’m guaranteed females and guaranteed their age, buying ducks is a bit of a lottery we have found in the past. They will be arriving in the first week of May and I’m hoping to sell a few on pretty quickly lol otherwise there will be A LOT of duck eggs in the shed eventually.

I did a bit today not too much just some essentials, the turnip seedlings needed potting on so I got three trays of those done, some important paperwork that needed to be got together, feeding the rabbits, collecting the light Sussex eggs, light the Rayburn, sounds easy but one of my knees is not bearing weight just yet and you’d be surprised at how much kneeling down needs doing daily 😂 most other parts of me are working well again now though so that’s good and definitely no more pain so that is excellent!

Saturday: We did the morning stuff then John went off to get feed and I tried getting a couple of things done but one of them including sawing and my hands just won’t do the job, I tried the chop saw but the wood did not fit, got frustrated about that will have to wait for John to come back and do it. I was trying to make a low run for feeding the tortoises, one the hens can’t get into ☹️. I also need to find the key to the very back door but unbelievably we dont seem to have any! I am assuming we had two and thought John would have one, the other was hidden for the liveries to use but I have no idea where it is and so we have none at the moment, I wanted to be able to shut the door behind me so that the hens can’t get in as they are knocking everything down off shelves and crapping over everything, I think my stress levels are a bit high today 😝 Shelley came over and we chose our runners in the Grand National later when we will all sit/stand/jump/cheer loudly for our horses 🐎 John went to put the bets on, I’m not using the app again as last year although I won I couldn’t find out for over 2 hours as I locked myself out of the app and then found I had put the bet on three times by accident lol, I won three times as much though 😜 but it’s a bitter sweet thing when the money transactions are just digital and not readies in your hand so we are opting to put the fun back in it this year and go with the cash to the bookies 😁

John came back and made a thing for the tortoises to eat under out of a pallet, then I found a key to the back doors but the lock wouldn’t work so John took it apart, hit it with a hammer and now it does, sometimes there is no skill needed just brute force 😜 Then everyone came over to watch the Grand National, that was a chaotic, noisy affair and great fun, Charlie and I had the winner, I didn’t realise when I picked it but it’s the same horse I had last year that has now won two years running 😀 shame I didn’t accidentally back it three times this year 🤣🤣

Inbetween all the chaos a hen was stuck in the electric fence, Martin noticed Patch out in the paddock which is unusual unless there is someone out there, I looked and could see the hen which is why patch was there, it pays to know your dogs well as the signs that something isn’t normal are easy to spot then. Hen rescued, race watched, monies won, John went off to collect winnings and pick up fish and chips on the way home while I lit the Rayburn, everyone else went home, quiet resumed 😜

The chicks are doing well, we have only had one death, not bad, usually get a couple, six of the eggs didn’t even pip, I haven’t checked them yet but I will just to see what stage they had got to before dying in the shell. If they had pipped I might be inclined to help them but with no external pip there is no point, weak chicks will die anyway ☹️

Sunday: Not a bad day weather wise, we got the morning stuff done then John went to visit his Mum and by 9am I was hoovering and cleaning. I’ve had a pretty good day, not in terms of wellness because I’ve been a bit tired but I still ploughed on and got some stuff done. I did have a rest after the cleaning lol, I thought I was up to a good clean but soon realised I wasn’t 😕 After resting I went out I to the polytunnel to do a few bits, I actually can’t remember what now but I did something 😜 I have covered the asparagus over with wire because I think the hens might be eating it as it comes up, they are eating everything at the moment and so covering is a priority task! During the afternoon I asked John to reconnect the water pipes up from the tap to the garden, we soon found some splits in the pipe and had to go and get the pipe cutters which he had left round at Shelleys. On the way back we called into Mums and she had a few plants for me. I have been trying to get some plants/shrubs growing in the duck area and so I got busy planting them in there, also having to protect everything that was planted, from the ducks. The area is just mud, it was grass when they first moved in a few years ago but gradually became a mud area, at the end of last year I planted a willow whip and a forsythia both have done well and survived so I wanted a few more things to go in there. If I can keep them growing and stop the ducks from trashing it there will be a nice little shrubbery for them to hide under. John has been busy loading wood, fixing the hen house, a bit had fallen off, feeding the afternoon feed, collecting eggs, fixing water pipes for me and then got called out to an emergency leak, not his I’ll add but a customer who lives in a flat and the upstairs flat had a water leak so it was coming through to hers, the chap upstairs could not get another plumber to come out so John went.

Tomorrow I start my new meds, this could go either way 🙄 I’m planning on it being good, time will tell lol.

Seedlings all doing nicely in the poly tunnel.

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

A moment to cherish, plenty of jobs & visitors.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 25th Feb: Frosty, sunny, glorious 😀 A new week 😀 John has returned to work today I don’t think he is in the best of moods as I made him do some work at the weekend as well 😬 but as I explained we have to get some stuff done while the weather is with us 😝 I am hoping the weather holds enough to get the Hen hut moved a little ready for the new birds and to get the front paddock dragged and rolled, if we miss the window of opportunity who knows what the weather will do and when we can eventually get it done. It is not something I can get done by myself as the chains are really heavy to move, even attaching them to the tractor is an effort, a few years back I would have had a damn good go but these days I won’t even attempt it as it would just result in frustration and tears lol. In a normal year I would get Samantha to help me if I couldn’t do it by myself but she is expecting their second (& third, yes twins!) and so asking her is off limits for now 😀

I walked round yesterday I wanted to get a look at two things, the daffodils, they are just about up, pretty much the same as bulbs down the driveway so that’s good, bulbs in pots are up and flowering so they are way ahead. The second thing was to see if there is any sign of the wild garlic I planted along the front paddock hedge, no sign yet but I am pretty excited for these this year, it will be a real treat to pick some of that and I will probably put some out for sale for the more adventurous culinary customers. I need to have a look in the polytunnel to make sure the beans and peas ok, Shelley said she gave them some water when it got very warm, I need to give the citrus trees a little drink as well, not too much in case the temps plummet again.

The geese are laying 4 eggs a day between them, I’m still convinced the two youngsters are female so we may even get more a day than that, I might have to find somewhere local to sell them too, although social media selling pages produce great results I have found in the past.

One thing I learnt while I was away is that it’s not necessarily the work that makes my hands/feet swell and joints hurt, it happens anyway even while on holiday, I will await the results of my blood tests and see how we proceed from there 🙄

3.30 and I’m exhausted and contemplating a power nap, I have been outside all day trying to secure the area that the tortoises will go into when they wake up which won’t be long. I made some of the fences back in autumn out of pallets but I needed to fix them in place, easier said than done 😋 and then make another piece of fence for the front. Sam and Mia came over at lunchtime and together we hashed up something that will keep them in, I say hashed as we had a box full of useless screws to choose from and a saw that would be difficult to cut a melon with! Even so, we have a sort of result, just one more bit to do and it will be ready when they are and hopefully they won’t escape 😬 Then on to feed the birds and collect the eggs, not many tea breaks and certainly no dinner break today 🥴

Two cups of tea, some ibrufen and a quick nap and it’s on to the next jobs, luckily John was home by 4.30 so we went out and cleaned the two stables that the birds are in and put in barrowfuls of nice clean straw, he also sorted out the rainwater from the tanks as it was blocked this morning. Then John cleaned out the back pen ready for new birds in March while I lit the fire and sorted out tonight’s and tomorrow’s dinner, annnnnd relax finally. A good day, I’m happy with what we got done 😀

I am in the middle of liaising with a lady who runs a childcare group locally and each year she has eggs to hatch out for the children to watch and learn about, this year she will hopefully be having some of our light Sussex eggs, they will be incubated, hatched and reared under a brooder, when they are ready to go outside we will have them back to grow them on, this is a win, win situation for both of us as the children get to be excited by hatching fluffy chicks and we get young birds back to bring on to adulthood 😀

Tuesday: I have Mia today but the weather is great and so we have been outside, walking in the paddock first thing, feeding and watering the rabbits, then letting the birds out and collecting the eggs, playing with the dogs. Even with a broken arm she is a real trooper and nothing stops her trying, it’s amazing how quickly children adapt. Shelley, Josh and Florence came over at lunchtime, a bit of playing in the garden, then it was time for a sit down on the sofa, it’s pretty tiring carrying your arm round in a heavy plaster cast lol.

Mia and I have managed to feed the birds and collect the eggs, not that there are very many at the moment, I keep wondering why we bother really, I’d like the hens to be truly free range but the loses are just too great ☹️

This warm spell is a bit disconcerting, a false Spring, I keep thinking I need to get on and then reminding myself that they are bonus gardening days, the temptation to crack on with seed sowing is great but experience tells me that it is better to wait and so tidying up is all that is needed at the moment 😀

I have been lighting the Rayburn around 5pm because it’s so warm we haven’t needed it all day long but we do need hot water and some heat overnight.

Wednesday: Another lovely sunny, warm day, I had Florence for the morning so went out and did everything quickly before she arrived. She is a pretty laid back baby and so I managed to get a few things in the house sorted while she was playing with toys on the floor, mostly we spent the time playing ‘peek a boo’ or ‘pat a cake’. I don’t often get the chance to spend time with her on her own so we made the most of it. In the early afternoon. I went and got a bit of food shopping in preparation for Dad and Sue coming to stay next week after that it was sit down with a quick cuppa before going out to feed the birds and collect the eggs. By now it was 4pm and so I thought I would have an hour in the large poly tunnel, a bit of weeding and preparing the ground. I got about 45 minutes done and Mum and Ken turned up to collect an item they were borrowing, time for another cuppa 😀 The rabbit were happy with the fresh weeds, I need to get back into the routine of supplying them with fresh greens again. I think the tortoises have woken up as I can hear bashing in the shed, not quite sure what to do with them yet as although it’s been warm enough if the temps dip low again it could be disastrous! I ordered a 100w lamp because now they have woken up they need to come out and rehydrate and begin eating, I will need to find somewhere inside for them to ‘bask’ for a while.

Thursday: There are spots of rain on the window this morning so I think it will be an entirely different day altogether from what we have had over the past week. I have two jobs to sort this morning along with the usual, the first is to get the tortoise house out and find somewhere to set them up, the second is to separate one of the Light Sussex cockerels as he is being picked on and has blood on his head. This is the more dominant cock pecking him on the head to get subservience but it can all get out of hand and end in death so separation is the key. These are the birds we will be eating but at the moment I need them to produce eggs for incubation, however four cockerels to two hens is way too many so I will remove two and fatten them up.

I decided this morning that I will do that good old school experiment with the runner beans in a jam jar that we always did in primary school for Josh and Mia, I think they will enjoy watching the beans grow. It’s simple enough, a jam jar, a bean seed, a toilet roll inner and a bit of water, voila, science at home 😀

I decided that the best place for the torts will be the tack room, Cruella De Ville seems to have disappeared, her food has not been eaten for days and it’s clear there has been some disturbance in there as everything is scattered and there are chicken feathers. My guess is that a Hen has gone to bed in there, the fox has gone in and had her and the cat was terrified and fled, only a guess but judging by the scene and the clues that’s what has occurred 🙄 I will block up the cat flap but leave food water and a dirt tray just in case she is well hidden and set the torts up in there with a uv lamp.

Two of the welsh harlequin ducks have bonded and keep escaping outside the perimeter, presumably to find somewhere to set up home and raise ducklings. Unfortunately at the moment I can’t let that happen not until after Tuesday next week at least because they will need to be kept in all day just for the day, after that I can rearrange everything and fingers crossed they play happy families. The geese are laying phenomenally well and my educated guess was right the two youngsters are female, that means we are getting just over 40 goose eggs a week 😲 I really need to find somewhere to push the sales of these lol.

Meanwhile in the ‘ffs’ race, the sink in the back has blocked up, the washing machine discharging water is backing up into the sink, I’m am nothing if not a plumbers wife though and it’s a job I can manage, just not one I needed today 😝

Out to clean the goose hut out, I need to get all the old stuff out to make sure that I haven’t missed any eggs so far, only 1 so that’s good, I will now know for sure that all eggs are fresh eggs. I filled it up with fresh straw then shut the door, the reason being that the hens will soon find it and oik it all out if I don’t. Let me tell you a bit about hens, they are endearing and exasperating at the same time, endearing when they run and skip in the spring to catch insects on the wing, when they lay you a lovely egg, when they are clearly enjoying dustbathing and soaking up the sun 😀 But chickens are ninjas, they silently follow you and then when you open a door to the shed/polytunnel/tack room, they shoot in-front of you with lightening speed and proceed to wreck the joint. You May think they are light footed but they knock over everything, they scratch up everything and scratch everything out of where it ought to be. They also lay in the most awkward or inappropriate places you could possibly imagine, if it looks like you are going to get cramp or a near death experience climbing over something to get the egg, that’s where they laid it, if it’s just out of arms reach down a crevice, that’s where they laid it, honestly, free range is an obstacle course of egg collecting 😜 The ducks by complete contrast will dump their egg anywhere, oh we’ve been let out, let’s go, ooops laid an egg while I was running to the food bowl 😂

I moved the tortoise hut from the shed near the house to the tack room and sealed up the cat hole so they can’t get out, but neither can the cat if she is still in there so I will put a litter tray down, at least I will know if she is about or not. The lamp is arriving today and I need to put out some water for them to rehydrate and see how it goes from there.

We went out for lunch today as it was Shelley’s birthday, we picked up Josh from school later on and he wanted to help do the animals so he stayed while Shelley went home, Sam and Mia came out to help as well. I had a moment when I felt really blessed as I had a grandchild in each hand walking up to the hay barn, one of them was dressed in a fairy outfit with her wellies on 😂 the other having had a full day at school and helping out in his uniform, both jumping in muddy puddles on the way, that has to be right up there with one of my favourite moments 😍😍

Friday: March 1st St Davids Day I have got a fair bit to get done today, sat having a coffee at 8am having already cleaned the bathroom, put on a wash load and sorted out the spare room ready for Dad and Sue to come and stay on Sunday for a week. The weather is back to its grey, damp look but I don’t feel that the temperatures have gone too low again yet, it feels pleasant enough for the time of year.

Did the morning rounds, I can’t collect the goose eggs yet as one is still laying so I will have to do that later, spotted Diesel sitting on the bottom paddock hedge-line near the rabbit holes, which is good because we haven’t seen him for a few days, obviously out hunting 😀

Back inside now to get everything shipshape 😝

Saturday: Another dull, grey, uninspiring day today but work goes on 😋 I did the morning rounds while John finished cutting the hedge he started last week. When you watch farming programmes on the telly they always have the big equipment to do the jobs but in smallholding it’s nearly always done by hand making the jobs long and sometimes heavy work and most Smallholders do all the jobs themselves, no contractors to do it for them while they sit having a coffee lol.

The horse came in last night as we had our chap here to shoot, his mission was successful. My neighbour had said she thought the fox was coming at around 5.30 and so he set up around 5.15 and lo and behold by 5.45 he had done the job he came to do, he stayed until 9pm and though he could hear more that were further away he didn’t see any more on our land. That gives us a bit of a lull for a while and the hope that no more birds will be picked off. We are expecting a batch of new hens in next week, these will go back behind the electric fence rather than being fully free range, it’s just not possible, they will be free range in terms of the area they get is very large about 1/2 acre to 40 birds and on grass, moving regularly so that will have to be sufficient.

I finally got round to checking the tortoises, I unpacked a bit of straw to find them and there is movement there so they have survived hibernation, I’ve set up the heat lamp and put out water so hopefully they will slowly come back to life 😀

John went off to get the feed and I spent a pleasant hour or so in the poly tunnel and raking up debris in the garden. It was warm in the tunnel and I’m planning to get some seeds sown in there soon (as soon as I get around to it) probably some beetroot and early carrots, I have set a mouse trap just in case there are some living nearby as they will just gobble up and seeds that are sown his time of year 🙄 I went through the seeds I have already and decided on salad leaves, radishes, turnips, beetroot, spring onions and all year round cauliflower, I will also get some more broad beans and some peas on the go and see how we get on. Once the spare room is spare again I can use the window sill to start off some peppers and tomatoes, it’s the only sill I have got that will be useful so may as well use it. I realised I have no carrot seed so ordered some and will sow some of those too, these will only be small amounts just to get something growing but with most we should have something to eat in no time at all 😀 I might give planting/seed sowing with the moon phases a go, nothing to lose I figure and it may well just be beneficial, the idea is the pull of the moon which affects tides will also pull moisture up from the soil and help the plants develop better, with this is mind, leafy above ground crops are good for sowing next Wednesday & Thursday so that will fit in well with my week 😀

Sunday: Dull, drizzly but not too cold this morning, I stepped outside to drink my coffee first thing, heard the Lions roaring and watched the woodpecker fly across to our ash tree then proceed to hammer it 😀 happy mornings. It’s a busy day today, John unloaded the feed while I did the animals, then I needed to get some cooking done as Dad and Sue are arriving later plus we have some other lunch guests as well. I made a gluten free almond and coconut cake, dead easy and looks good, I will let you know how it tastes later on, I have a ham on the stove boiling reading for sandwiches all week, a keto avocado, chicken and bacon salad for lunch, a bit of hoovering to do and a quick wipe round of the bathroom, sort out the Rayburn ready for lighting then we are all good 😀

I walked to the edge of the paddock this morning while I was waiting for the goose water to fill up and there are the first signs of the wild garlic, excited muchly 😜, I pinched tip off just for a taste, mmm delish 😋 can’t wait for it all to come through.

Dad and Sue arrived and I forgot all about publishing the blog 🤣

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seeds, Snow and Stars

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 28th Jan: Trees, or rather planting trees, is very much in focus at the moment as far as the government and environmental departments are concerned. Do you remember a few months ago I put some cherry pips into the fridge to undergo stratification, a period of cold that will simulate Winter, well it’s time to get them out and get them planted up and hope that they grow 😀 I also put some spindle-berry in at the same time so they will also be planted and fingers crossed they will amount to something. Not all gardens are big enough to plant full size trees but there are plenty of ‘patio’ trees available these days especially fruit trees and all you have to do is make sure they stay watered, so it is possible to have trees and grow your own produce even in a small space, a ‘micro garden’ can be highly productive.

Cold and sunny this morning, I did the morning rounds and then onto a couple of phone calls I needed to make. The second call was to do with water, because we are commercial a different company took over from Thames Water over a year ago, we had notification but as the accountant pointed out we’ve never had a bill. Turns out they had no idea there was a water supply here……doh….. if I had left it we would never have had a bill or would we? Eventually they would have realised I’m sure and then who knows how much we would have owed 😝 as it is we will end up with a back dated bill of probably a few hundred pounds 😲

Today seemed like a good day to go through what seeds I have already got, either seed I have saved or seeds left from last year and yen to order what else I wanted to grow this year.

This is what I have already:

GRAIN:

Millet

Quinoa

Wheat

Amaranth

BEANS/PEAS:

Haricot beans

Dwarf French beans – purple

Dwarf French beans

Ying Yang beans

Red kidney beans

Pea

Broad beans

Chickpea

SQUASH

Spaghetti squash

Butternut squash

Pumpkin

Luffa

Courgette – round

Banana squash

SALAD:

Mixed salad leaf

Spinach

Radish

Cucumber

Tomato

Pepper – Hot

Pepper -sweet

ROOT:

Carrot – Early Nantes

Beetroot

Parsnip

Celeriac

BRASSICA:

Cauliflower

Broccoli

ONION:

Leeks

Spring onion

HERBS:

Coriander

And this is what I ordered:

Turnip

Courgette – long

Fennel

Melon

Swede

Potato

Brassica plants

Now I just have to decide where everything is going to go lol, I’ve decided not to do sweet corn this year as they are quite a lot of faffing about to get them ready, I also decided not to do aubergine, they nearly always fail so I am giving them up as a lost cause, I don’t eat them anyway they were for selling on so I’m better off using the space for something else. Someone once said to me that I should buy in veg wholesale to sell on, um that’s not the point, the point is to grow things that we (or the wider family) eat and to sell any surplus to cover the costs. Firstly, I am then confident on how it’s grown and that it is first class, ripe, freshly picked fruit and veg and secondly it doesn’t cost us or the customer the earth 😀

Tuesday: Mia day so only the basics and playing with stickers, pretend friends and cuddles today 😀

Wednesday: Cold and frosty, no sign of the snow/sleet yet though. I did the morning feeding, watering, letting out, collecting eggs, last week we couldn’t keep up with customers, this week it’s slow again 🤷‍♀️ Before I went out I sprayed cleaner round the bathroom and back toilet, that would ensure that I had to get on with cleaning them when I came back in which I duly did. Having a quick coffee now before I get on with cleaning the rest of the place 😀

The greenhouse walls are nearly finished, it’s unfortunate that we have had some very cold frosty nights and building walls is not ideal as the mortar freezes so best to do it when the temps are up and are staying up, the process is slower but a better result in the end.

A sit down at 1pm phew, I have been busy cleaning, mostly giving the kitchen a good going over, pulling everything out, I have discovered that we have had a small rodent visitor at some point since I last did it. I haven’t heard anything or even seen anything it’s just left a few calling cards behind the microwave 😂 I will move it all again in a coup,e of days and see if it’s still coming or not. The sun is shinning beautifully today and I don’t feel cold, probably all the running around I have been doing, I still have the office and the boot room to do but maybe they can wait until tomorrow 😝

Just in case you’ve been wondering what Molly is up to she can still be found permanently located in a dog bed in the boot room 🙄 She has now taken on that air that most cats do eventually, hooman you are here to serve me 🐈 It is now her job to get under my feet every time I go through the door, she hasn’t worked out that she gets fed twice a day not every time she sees me!

I have lost three ducks now, daytime losses 😞 why do they always take the laying ducks and not the surplus to requirements drakes so bloody annoying, two ducks are from separate trios and the other ducks are quacking and looking for them ☹️

I was just reading about our starry skies and how the light pollution affects the ability to see them, one of the most amazing things about living here is the amount of stars we can see on a clear night, not wishing to keep this all to ourselves if anyone wants to come down one evening and have a look just get in touch or if you want to get a look at a meteor shower when they are happening then let me know 😀

Total coincidence after I wrote this but John came in after letting the dogs out at 10pm and said “I‘ve just seen a shooting star” 😀

Thursday: My goodness that is cold out there this morning 🥶 I don’t know what it went down to but it’s still -6 at 7.30am so I am guessing about -8/9 or possibly lower in the night. I know that’s not cold compared to some areas of the world but it is for us lol, I have decided to light the Rayburn early and warm the house before going outside today, I’m waiting for the Sun to do some of its magic. It might be cold but it is also very beautiful out there 😀

I need to top up the small bird feeders and put some water out in the sun, the little birds are well catered for but I need to find out about the ground feeders like blackbirds, robins and wrens, I threw some scones out this morning but they were gone quickly, the magpies have pinched the lot, I want to be able to feed the blackbirds without the magpies stealing everything. Having a quick look on google I improvised and found a bicycle basket which I have staked down so it can’t be moved by bigger birds and then I have bought a fat block that I cut into four and will place it in the middle hopefully out of reach of long beaks.

The mouse came back last night and I think I can see where it’s coming in so I will be setting a trap in the kitchen tonight and getting John to fix the tiniest of cracks between the wall and the worktop, because the building moves the worktop has come away and somehow this has let it in.

A cold afternoon routine, the water hasn’t really thawed and neither have the outside taps, the ice was pretty thick in the water buckets this morning and although I did manage to break them they are still mostly frozen. With the threat of snow we have topped everything up and put in extra feed/hay etc just a waiting game now ⛄️ I got some shopping in earlier just in case and I made bread so we are all ready for at least six foot of the white stuff 😂

I took a photo I have been meaning to show you for a while, just proving that plants don’t need much to grow, just a bit of determination 🤣 of course they wouldn’t amount to much like that if left and I may try to see if I can plant them and see what happens.

I haven’t talked much about Brexit mainly because well how much can you say that’s not being said all over social media by one group or another and neither can agree. There is a lot of scaremongering from both sides going on but one thing I do think is that if the shelves are barer and food is more expensive, on the whole I see that as a good thing. Obviously not for those struggling already but where we live you don’t see much of that to be honest, it’s an affluent area and for a good few years now it astounds me how much food people buy, do they eat it all or do they waste a lot of it? I think curbing excessive spending on foodstuffs you don’t really need is good and I think a lesson in where your food comes from, how it gets here and how you could/should be buying British can only be a good thing too. So if the shelves in your local supermarket look bare take a trip to your local farm shop & eat seasonably it may cost you more but it’s better quality and learn how to make it go further than you normally would. ‘That’s all I have to say about that’ 😝

Friday Feb 1st: And we had a dump load of snow 🙄 great this will make life fun out there this morning 😝 John has gone to work because nothing stops him going to work 😜 to be fair he is only working in the next village along and he drives very well in snow but that leaves me here in slightly more difficult circumstances today 🥴 One of the first jobs will be to knock the snow off the top of the polytunnels and fruit cage, too much weight would cause a collapse. Then onto the animals, the hens probably won’t come outside all day, the ducks and geese will, the dogs are loving it the cats not soo much in fact I caught Molly peeing on the cardboard recycling as she obviously didn’t want to get her feet cold, she got short shrift! Jack, the horse would probably like to be out in it especially if I took his rug off so he could have a good roll but that’s more trouble than it’s worth so he will be staying in, he came in last night and will most likely kick the door all day long in frustration. I moved the quail indoors yesterday afternoon, mostly because they are not laying so a bit of extra warmth in the back might kick start them. Then it will be back inside and hunker down for the day until afternoon time. Snow days probably would be fun under different circumstances 😜

Doing the animals was pretty easy and as predicted the hens won’t come out, but on my way round I saw that the fruit cage was under a lot of snow and it’s still snowing, so I had to get it off pretty quickly which resulted in getting snow showered for a while (I did chuckle until I started to get cold) 😝 I should have and indeed had said out loud to myself that I needed to get the netting off before any snow but never got round to it so that serves me right really. I’m just waiting for my clothes to dry off before going out and trying to sort it out. The brassica cage netting is too heavy for me to push it off so I will probably have to get a ladder out and do it that way, such fun 😫

After days and days of the Rayburn running in a similar way, today it’s changed and I was having trouble with it just roaring away meaning all the heat is just going up the flue, so I have had to adjust the heat/cook combo normally we just run it on heat and the cooker gets up to temp anyway but it’s now on half and half and has settled down. One thing we discussed if we ever build or move is underfloor heating providing its run by solar panels, I look forward to that day, I am coming to the end of my love affair with wood burning heating and cooking lol.

The long tailed tits have gathered, they always turn up when is snows, beautiful little birds 😀

Saturday: The Sun is out but it’s not thawing the snow very quickly however it is beautiful out there, I took a walk across fresh snow in the paddock, the snow glistens like diamonds and in the shade it takes on a blue hue 😀 John did most of the animals except the horse so I went out and fed him then turned him out into the snowy paddock, he will come back in later as it’s going to get very cold overnight. I took out some feed for the wild birds including the ground feeders, I bought one of those blocks of fat with insects in hopefully it will help during this very cold snap.

With not much to be done outside I decided to make some little chocolate fairy cakes with mini eggs on top, I will be totally honest here and say that I bought the eggs with cakes in mind but ate half the packet before I got round to doing the cakes 🤣

We had Josh to stay last night and the plan was to wait till dark and then go out and look at the stars, his Mummy had packed some cookies for when we came back in. I looked out of the window and said it looks dark enough now, he came and had a look and then said ‘that’s enough can we have cookies now’ 🤣 we did wrap up and go out for all of five minutes, he was scared because it was so dark lol.

Sunday: I was hoping the Sun was going to melt most of the snow today although I’m not looking forward to the sludge that comes after, it melted a fair bit but still a lot left. The temps are set to climb a little after tonight but with it comes the rain 🙄 Josh came out and helped with the feeding though John did most of it, we had great fun using a small hammer to break all the water buckets 😀

That was pretty much it for the day apart from the usual stuff, and that is pretty much it for the week, we are into February so onwards and upwards 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, mud and rabbits and rats 🤪

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday December 3rd : Oh what a dismal morning, never mind, onwards and upwards. At some point last night the electric tripped on the sockets in the office, I can’t find the offending item as everything seems to be fine now?

After the epic family feast yesterday I don’t feel too bad considering, I thought I would hurt all over but only my left hand is a bit swollen and stiff so I will call that a win 😀

As John has a pile of leftovers for bubble and squeak tonight I don’t have to think about dinner so that will free up some of the day, I have yet to decide what I will do, there are plenty of jobs indoors and considering the weather I think that’s where I will stay until feeding time.

The sun came out a bit later, I’m not keen on sun this time of year though as it’s low and shows up all the dust 🤣 no matter how much dusting it always comes back with a vengeance!

In the end I did go outside for about an hour until it started raining again, I did a few jobs that needed doing, replenishing the straw in a duck hut and a chicken hut, filling up the rat traps with peanut butter. I moved one of the traps to the greenhouse as I can see that there is activity around there, also rabbits have dug in under it 😝 We have a chap coming with ferrets soon to reduce the rabbit numbers but the rats are a different problem. I went out to the back pen which we cleaned out in the summer and I have put traps in there as you can see where they have ‘front doors’ under the concrete and I am hoping to put the hens that are in the front paddock in there over Winter, it’s the one used for selling hens but we have not got any at the moment and although I did say we wouldn’t do them anymore we may decide differently come spring. I want to move the ducks out of the big pen as well, into a stable probably, they will all be let out during the day but the pens just get really messy at this time of year so the less of a mess we can make the better and it gives the paddocks and pens a rest. The light Sussex are living in mud also, this was never the plan and we have a spare kennel out the front that I have my eye on to move them to, not sure how well it will work but it’s got to be better than what they are in now. Roll on the frozen weather (hush my mouth, did I really say that 🥴) seriously though it’s a lot easier when the ground is frozen.

The ducks in the veg garden will stay there, they are doing a sterling job of eating insects and weeds whilst manuring it all for me 😀 I just need to move their hut around a bit I think to stop the ground getting poached in certain areas. I ordered a sack truck to move the hut with, we have a really old one, and I mean really old, with cast iron wheels and all but it’s also extremely heavy before you start even loading stuff onto it lol.

I went out again to make secure one of the stables and take a broken hinge off of the kennel door, Sam and Mia arrived while I was out there and literally just as we were coming in the heavens opened with a vengeance lol, three sopping wet people 😝

Sam did the feeding and got the eggs in when she went out to check on Jack, and I managed to singlehandedly herd the ducks from their pen into the stable before putting everything else to bed for the night. That is quite a task because once ducks know where they are supposed to be going they are easy to move but when you want them to go somewhere new it’s panic stations lol. They will go into the stable overnight and be let out during the day to wander, the idea is that they can play in the mud and the rain, which they love, but they can go to a dry stable at night which is easier for me. The wet mud is slippery and quite frankly it’s depressing sliding around in it day after day! I have another stable to clear out and get ready for one lot of hens and the back enclosure for the other lot, they will all be allowed to free range during the daytime but again will come in off the mud for bedtime, as these are all under cover it should make life easier all round plus if we need to keep them shut up for the odd day we can meaning that probably Christmas this year we won’t have to leave anywhere early to go home 😀 that’s the plan anyhow 🤪

Johns Mum is still in hospital and he has gone straight from work to visit her tonight.

I’m am LOVING the bone broth I made, not so much the chicken one but the beef one is fabulous, I will definitely be making this on a regular basis, I didn’t think I would like it so it a bonus that I love it as it’s nice and warming on a cold day, as well as doing my gut good. I didn’t waste what meat was on the bones either, that goes into casseroles or stews for John.

Tuesday: Had Mia today

Wednesday: Up early because there are a few things I want to get done and I have an appointment at hospital this afternoon. First on the agenda is to get the kennel ready for the light Sussex, put a new hinge on the door, put down bedding and put in a perch, get some food and water in there and move the birds over. It all went well, although I nearly lost the first two as they made a bid for freedom towards the door I had just come in lol good job my reactions were quick! I have given them a pumpkin as an extra treat and it’s 100% improvement on the run they were in 😀

We lost a cockerel to the fox the night before last, it had scaled the 6ft fence again and got into the orchard where this lone cockerel perched up in the tree, it’s a shame as he was a lovely little fella.

I planted 60 broad bean plants in the polytunnel, hoping I have got rid of all the mice now otherwise they will be munched! They could go outside but there are too many beaks around that will eat them not to mention the rabbit that has set up in the greenhouse and I have spotted roaming the garden lol, also the weather here is pretty harsh at times so I figured they would have the best chance in the tunnel really. I’m still waiting for pea plants to arrive.

Then I went to clear out one of the stables, this one was made secure from the fox last winter and hopefully we can put at least 30/40 hens in there as their overnight accommodation. You can see by the picture of the other pen just how muddy it gets over winter and if we can eliminate some of that it’s better for all of us 😀

Great news at the hospital, all my bloods are bang on and looking very boring as the consultant said, which is a good thing😀 excellent, I must admit this week I have felt ‘normal’ so I knew it was all going in the right direction at last, onwards and upwards 😀

Thursday: As I am feeling pretty good now it’s time to start helping John in the mornings again, so he does the two lots of laying hens and I do the ducks, quail, light Sussex etc, I will probably be back to do all of it soon but just at the moment the feed buckets are a bit heavy, I need to build up to it lol. I checked the rat traps, nothing but def signs of activity still, I haven’t caught a single one in these traps and may have to go back to poison which is not what I want but then nor do I want to be overrun with them. The light Sussex seem happy, a little bemused at their new lodgings, but it’s so much cleaner and therefore better for their health. I did discover yesterday, not sure if I mentioned it but the fox also had one lot of quail, it has broken through the wire in the cage and had the lot so I only have one lot left now ☹️ I burnt some cardboard/feedbag rubbish, checked that my broad beans hadn’t been munched overnight and checked the daffodil bulbs and trees I planted. The small leaved lime tree has been eaten down to the ground 😫 I think I will grow the others in pots until they are bigger then plant them out. The wind must have blown the tree guard off and it’s got eaten as the other three trees are fine so far, there is still root in the ground though so maybe if I cover it, it will still grow, I can but try. No sign of the bulbs pushing up yet but it is a tad early for that, the ground does not look like it has been disturbed at all so that’s good.

Friday: I went out with Shelley to do a bit of Christmas shopping 😀 we both got annoyed by 11.30 when it started to get busy so went for lunch lol.

Saturday: A dry start to the day which makes a bit of a change, honestly it doesn’t seem to have stopped raining over the last few days and water is sitting on the surface everywhere 😜 As it was dry the job of the day was the flue and fire, both needed a good clean, so John got the sweep brush out and did the main flue, I had intended to do the rest but was busy doing a few other things so John did it. Now I’m very grateful for the help, no really I am 🤪, BUT….. when I do it I have dust limitation damage in mind so I’m very careful with everything, the first thing I see when I come into the kitchen is a big black soot mark on the wall where he has got his sleeve dirty then lent on the wall while cleaning out the back flue FFS, I cleaned it off and bugger me if he didn’t go and do it again when replacing the cover!!!!! And breathe……😀 He wasn’t having a very good morning to be fair because the outside light wasn’t working, he changed the bulb, nope, changed fuse, nope, tested the power to the unit, nope no power the cable is knackered, still no light after all that and the back door has moved again meaning it’s not shutting properly so he had to fix that, he only did it last weekend but the winds were quite strong and they shift the whole building slightly at times, roll on the day when we maybe get solid concrete foundations and these jobs don’t have to be done anymore. He has gone off to visit his Mum in hospital now so I get a couple of quiet hours to myself 😀

Sunday: It’s definitely getting a bit colder day by day, still rain most days though. Did all the usual jobs this morning, John got a few barrows of wood in and stacked, I cleaned out the duck hut in the orchard. Then we decided to go out for breakfast 😀 which was a nice treat, we went and got the Christmas tree at the same time though it won’t go up until next weekend, I managed to get a few little Christmas presents too. When we got back we lit the fire and sat down for the afternoon, John watching the snooker final and I did some online Christmas shopping and a bit of scrabble 😜

We have decided to move the hens in the front paddock to the back pen and will have to do this later at dusk as that will be the easiest time to catch them all up and transport them over.

Tomorrow I am off out on a Christmas pressie day that the girls bought me so you will find out all about that next week.

I thought I would just add this photo it’s not great but if you look carefully enough you can make out the buzzard on the gate post, it didn’t let me get near enough to take a great shot but it is around most days so I will try again another time.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Winters here ❄️ Samhain & a disappointing sweet potato haul.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th October: Winter arrived with a bang this weekend and this morning it’s cold with a widespread hard frost brrrr. We were up early of course because the body clock doesn’t fall back along with the digital ones 😜 We have the usual ‘well it’s really an hour later’ conversations during the first few days until it all settles down.

One of the things I love to see in Autumn is the phenomenon of leaves falling all at once, this happens after a cold frosty night then when the sun hits the tree all the leaves fall at the same time, mostly on Ash trees I’ve noticed but it happens on others too just not in the same quantity, it’s like Autumns confetti 😀

There were some overripe bananas at Johns Mums that she won’t be using so this morning I have made a banana and Nutella cake, I have put a couple of the bananas in the freezer for easy banana ice cream if and when I need some. If you have never tried it then it’s a great way to use them, basically freeze them, then blitz them in a processor, either eat it there and then or re freeze it for a firmer ice cream, that’s it, no other ingredients necessary and it’s pretty good 😀

I lit the Rayburn while waiting for the cake to cook, since John insulated it the Sun no longer warms the place up like it used to, insulation is a double edged sword here, and that doesn’t even include the lack of a mobile signal because of it lol.

I need to get outside and clean out the duck pens this morning but I am waiting for the sun to defrost everything first, hence baking first thing, plus it warms up the kitchen a bit as we don’t have instant heating it can be a tad cold. I have now let all the orchard birds except the quail, out to free range on the veg garden, ducks and light Sussex all doing a great job of bug control, weed clearing and manuring 😀

I ran out of reasons to not go outside and so eventually went out to put fresh bedding in the orchard pens and cages, big mistake wearing woolly gloves to move straw about 😜 I was in the middle of it all when I heard the alarm call go up and the birds all start getting in a flap, I thought it was the Fox but nope, one of them had knocked over the wheelbarrow, and that’s all it takes for mayhem to begin 😝

It was actually quite pleasant in the sunshine to be fair and it’s a nice feeling to have cosied up all the nesting/sleeping areas for everyone even if it won’t stay clean very long!

I decided to make a start on the office now I have room to put stuff, so my sewing machine and paraphernalia has now got a home where I can get to it in the spare room. Whilst tidying and going through stuff I found all-sorts I had forgotten about, not least my college certificates etc, I got a distinction in organic gardening I had completely forgotten about that lol, there are essays and assignments for various subjects and lots of certificates I had long since forgotten about. I found diaries from 1908 & 1941 from a local farm, mostly illegible handwriting and mostly a log of the weather, cows calved and other general farming stuff by the looks of it, you would have to go through page by page to see if there were any titbits in there, not even a mention of the war as far as I can see, except a female employee left after 14 years working for him, presumably for the war effort.

I haven’t quite finished in there yet I still have reams of old paperwork to go through and throw away, I am aiming to get the filing cabinet looking neat, tidy and properly organised 😀

And what the heck do you do with a box full of technological cables? I have no idea what most of them are, everything we have plugged in or connected works fine so I’m guessing I don’t need all this other stuff but where do you take it?

Tuesday: Cold, windy but not frosty this morning, no Sun but a bit of rain first thing. I have Mia today so not much in the way of work will get done.

I am still having a few problems with my hands at the end of the day, I’m still not sure what it is by they get stiff and slightly painful in a couple of areas, one thought is the way I hold the iPad so I might stay off of it today and see if it makes a difference.

Just waiting for Mia to wake up from her afternoon nap, we have had a busy day playing 😀

I’ve done all the little jobs I can find and can’t start anything major as she is just as likely to wake up halfway through doing it lol. So thinking is the order of the moment and I was thinking back to something my sister said at the weekend, I gave her some Walnuts which I have not for out for sale as they are a bit hit and miss as to wether they are shrivelled or not. I was explaining that I didn’t want to charge a couple of quid for them if people found that half were no good, crack em open and sell them then she said, doh, why did I not think of that, so I think that’s what I will do, obviously it will take up some time but at least I won’t be wondering what to do with them all 😊

Wednesday: Made a schoolboy error last night saying to John ‘oh I don’t think it is going to freeze tonight, too much cloud cover’ wrong, very wrong! According to the met office the overnight temps in Oxfordshire went down to around -4 😝 It matters because we did not do the water buckets last night and this morning everything is frozen solid so I won’t be able to top them up until its thawed out a bit, hope the sun comes out soon. Also I let the fire go out around 6 last night because it got quite warm in here so this morning it’s only about 15c indoors which is a tad chilly!

I got some venison steaks out of the freezer for dinner tonight, I had forgotten they were in there, we don’t have it very often once every couple of years really but they will be nice pan fried and I will do some caramelised onions to go with them and chips 😀 I fancy chips today.

Had a split fitting on one of the outside taps and water spraying out everywhere so will need to get John to repair that when he comes home as it’s the only water down in the side paddock, good job I am married to a plumber 😀

Today of course it’s Halloween, the beginning of Samhain, as I say every year we do not get trick or treaters up here far too dark and out of the way 👻 I may persuade John to go and visit Charlie and Macca who have spooked up their house ready. I loved it when we lived in town and the kids knocked on the door all dressed up, I have been known to dress up to greet them 😀 And we have had a few great Halloween parties here in the past with carving competitions, pumpkin recipe competitions, we haven’t had one for a few years now but maybe next year now the grandchildren are getting old enough to stay up a bit longer.

Diesel showed up this morning, he has been awol for about a week, definitely getting fed elsewhere 😝

I went out with my Neighbour mid morning to a farm not too far away that sells it’s veg, quite a range of it too, brassicas, root veg, squashes a good selection, the details can be found on the Oxfordshire Smallholders Business and services page. After that we went to Millets farm for a coffee and a quick look round. I was surprised to read that most of their fresh produce was sourced within a 50mile radius. Millets started off as a small market garden and is now a big concern so good to see that their values are still well grounded.

Thursday: A wet, dull, misty morning, just like November should be 😝 John has let everything out and fed most of them just the rabbits to do, I will wait until the rain slows down a bit. We needed it because yet again we have gone weeks without very much at all and everything is bone dry, for a country that is know for the rain it has been very absent over the last 6 months.

Over an hour and a half later and it’s still raining so I still haven’t gone outside 😝 but I have been busy. Shelley bought over her pumpkin seeds, I am assuming she used the flesh, I have washed them and some of them I have dried and put aside to dry further for planting next year and some of them I have boiled in salt water for 10 mins, tossed them in oil, salt and pepper and they are roasting in the oven for 10 mins, tasty snack. You could make them sweet with sugar and butter but I thought savoury would be healthier. I have also prepared the venison for the slow cooker as I didn’t get round to cooking it last night, we had eggs instead. One of the things I need to do is organise the dinner first thing in the morning because I’m finding that once I have done the afternoon rounds, then gone out and shut everything in at dark, the last thing I want to do is turn round and prep everything for dinner, so if I do it all in the morning when energy levels are higher then it shouldn’t be a problem lol.

I fried some onions, garlic and celery, browned the venison, added a dash of Worcester sauce, salt and pepper and some beef stock, I will add potatoes and carrots later on during the cooking process.

I have just tasted the pumpkin seeds mmmm they are very tasty and easy to do really, I can see me picking at these all day 😀

Went over with Sam and Mia to see my Mum for coffee, Shelley, Josh and Flo came too.

Lit the Rayburn when I got back, I had already prepared it in the morning so it was a case of just lighting it, it’s not so cold today so didn’t need an early morning firing up.

I started de-shelling the walnuts in order to sell them but I realised it is going to take a lot to make up a decent weight to sell so I probably won’t bother and will just shell them for my own use.

Friday: Cold hard frost this morning again, but the sun is shinning too so it might be a nice day as long as you are not in the shade lol.

I keep forgetting to move my orange and lemon tree into the poly tunnel, I really need to do that unless it’s already too late which I will greatly chastise myself for.

I have some onion sets that normally I would put in over Winter but in all honestly they are not harvested much earlier than the spring sets so I’m thinking I will leave it, less to worry about and it also means that the ground I was going to use can have a good layer of manure instead. The courgette plants have now collapsed in dramatic style due to the freezing temperatures and my plan is to just leave them there to be incorporated back into the ground, that is what I am aiming to do with most of the annual plants.

I have gone back to writing a list otherwise I walk past something and think, I must sort that, then completely forget about it until next time I walk past it and the whole cycle starts again 😜

I was all geared up to go outside and get started but after looking out there again I decided to do some bits indoors and let the Sun warm up the ground a bit more first. I can easily keep my body warm it’s the extremities that suffer so I will wait 😀

I bought some ginger the other day with the intention of making some stem ginger, I just wanted some in the cupboard in case I need it. I am not a huge lover of ginger, unlike my Mum who adores it, but I like a hint of it in certain things. Of course the ideal would be to grow it but although I have managed to get it to sprout some greenery that’s as far as it had got never mind multiplying and producing more.

While I was waiting for the ginger syrup to boil I had a look at the pear liqueur I made a couple of months ago, and a little taste, oh my days, that is seriously good and I found myself wishing I had made a whole lot more 😀 (on the list for next year) it still has few more weeks to mature but it is a divine taste of Winter/Christmas and will definitely warm the cockles after a cold day outside.

I went out at 9.30, not too bad by then, I got stuck into some work to keep me warm, the sweet potato foliage had collapsed and so time to see what was underneath, 😝🤪😖😕 not a bloody lot! The sum total of four piddly tubers 😖 I will keep those and dry them and use them next year, I need to do a whole lot of reading up about them because I’m not getting anything despite trying different methods and locations each year. Once everything was cleared, I barrowed 3 lots of manure in there and filled up one of the beds and two recycle bins. Then onto the task of moving the citrus trees back into the big tunnel, first I put down some black membrane, then got the trees in and stood them on bubble wrap on top of it, then made what I can only describe as a bubble wrap tent 😀 They need to be protected from the cold ground and the cold air but they also need to be able to breathe in case they sweat and create moisture, hopefully I have done enough but you never know.

I had a look round the garden and the chickens and ducks are doing a great job of weeding 😀 definitely a good plan. There is still plenty to do out there but I need a bit of a hand with the heavy stuff so will wait until John has a spare minute which is a bit rare at the moment.

Saturday: A non weather morning lol, not raining, not sunny, not windy, not frosty, not cold!

John did all the animals except the quail and rabbits which I did a bit later on, I gave the rabbits some greens this morning which they were happy to have, I have found it more difficult to supply them solely on forage now the weather has turned. I like the whole idea of tree hay etc but in practice you need somewhere damp free to store it and the barns all have metal roofs which condensate so they are not moisture free. John went off to get some feed and sawdust so I got a loaf of bread on the go, a batch of shortbread cookies, and some chuck it all in soup 😀 onions, leeks, potato, mushroom, garlic salt, pepper, a couple of leaves of parsley and one of the vegetable freezer stocks I made earlier in the year, I will see what else it needs when it’s nearly done.

The car passed its MOT 😀

Had Josh in the afternoon while Shelley, Charlie and Flo went to visit Johns Mum.

In the evening I had a phone all from Shelley to say she was passing ours in the lane and a large white dog was loose, I grabbed a torch and a lead and she came to get me but we couldn’t find it as it had run off over the fields ☹️ I hope the owner finds their dog.

Sunday: Raining! Blooming typical because yesterday it was dry all day but what with one thing and another we didn’t get the outside jobs done that I wanted to. Still a drop of wet stuff wasn’t going to stop me today and I wouldn’t be letting it stop John either 😜 I wanted the front muck heaped turned, broken up and put on the garden so John got on with that. Meanwhile I burnt some paper rubbish, tidied some things away from the back undercover area, put some membrane down in the big tunnel and set a mousetrap in the small tunnel. I had deliberately filled in the hole in the compost to see if it got dug back out and yep there was another neat little hole. I want to put the peas in here overwinter so the mouse has to go 😖

In the afternoon, John cleaned out his van which took 2 hours! I am not going to let it get like that again are famous last words as far as his van is concerned. Then he cleaned out the chickens, while I lit the fire, prepped the dinner for tonight and did paperwork 😛 The end of year was supposed to be done after April but I wasn’t well enough all summer so it got left, there is that little nagging voice always there though ‘you still need to do the books’ so I made a good start on them today, all the farm paperwork is ready and most of the plumbing paperwork, just need to make sense of Johns scribblings and put it down so that the accountant can make sense of it 🤪 I know I should keep it all in order as I go along but as with all the best intentions, sometimes busy lives get in the way 😋

We have pork chops for dinner and a jam sponge pudding when John gets back from visiting his Mum. I figured I would use some apricot jam, though John doesn’t like apricot jam, I bet he will eat it if it’s a sponge pud.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Runner beans, runner beans and more runner beans 😝

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th August: Not Up so early this morning, the urgency to water everything has now gone as the drizzle keeps on coming, they say the heatwave will be back but I have my doubts about that. John did the feeding, I went out and got started with the picking, the runners have not been picked for a couple of days so there are plenty to harvest, a few courgettes, some mangetout, I also put out some Victoria plums as I still have plenty in the freezer from last years bumper crop. Egg customers come earlier and earlier in the hopes of getting eggs but what they don’t realise is that if we sell out the day before there will not be any more until around 10am as the hens only get going about 8.30/9 The ducks always lay first thing but even they are on a go slow at the minute, the only ones laying like crazy are the quail.

The book I ordered ‘ Timeless Simplicity’ by John Lane arrived and I have read a couple of pages, I can see me quoting from it left, right and centre there is already so much in it that I identify with that I wish I had read it many years ago!

The grass is coming back through 😀 it’s amazing resilient stuff, the paddock was almost black with dead grass and now there is a haze of green across it which will make the geese very happy indeed and the hens will benefit too because although they eat layer pellets they do eat the tips of the blades and of course the insects will return so we should see them skipping across the area trying to catch them 😀 The ducks were put in there as a temporary measure and it doesn’t really suit them so I need to move them out, beside the geese have now taken to attacking another one so the sooner the better really. I would do it myself but the hut won’t go through the gateway into the orchard so it needs a bit of muscle to man handle it round. The ducklings are making a proper mess now it has rained so I need to sort them out too and I also need to pick some more plums, better finish this coffee and get on with it I think 😀

By lunchtime I had made a slow but sure start on the orchard area, I managed to herd the other ducks through to there and I let the ducklings out of their run into the whole area. I began planting up the fence line which will be an edible/wildlife attractant hedge so far I have planted 3 blackcurrant, which are in degradable pots, some feverfew, comfrey, lemon balm, a dog rose and a thornless blackberry, I also planted a kiwi root I found growing in the path, under the greengage tree, bonus if this takes and grows. I planted some marigold seedlings in and around various places and I have a buffalo currant in a pot which I have placed under the damson tree for now. So I have a good mix now and all they have to do is grow, easier said than done when the first thing that appears is a chicken because I have disturbed the ground and they think it’s a scratch and freeforall 😝 I have protected a few of the plants and will do the rest later. Hopefully come spring it will have all settled and be growing nicely providing shade, food and cover not just for the ducks but for all manner of things.

I moved Billy into the big tunnel to do some foraging plus it’s a bit warmer in there and as him and Voldy don’t seem to get on too well he will welcome the break I think. I did move the melons up from the floor, I don’t want him tucking into those 😋

I picked some plums and grabbed hold of a wasp in the process, luckily I didn’t get stung, they are everywhere at the moment especially on the greengage but I managed to pick a handful of those that have not been eaten just yet.

Did the afternoon feeding and picking and filled up the water buckets, then went on the search to find something to put it over the plants in the orchard, we were given some water containers like the ones in offices they make great cloches when you cut the bottoms off and I also use the bottoms to stand pot plants in when they need extra watering.

Just when you think you know what birds are around you another surprise pops up, unfortunately this one had got trapped and died some time ago but when I saw it my first thought was a baby green woodpecker, after doing a bit of googling I discovered it was in fact a goldcrest the smallest of the UKs birds, I shall keep an eye out for live ones from now on.

Tuesday: A dry day, warm enough, John did the main of the birds this morning while I did the birds in the orchard of which there are quite a lot now lol, ducklings, two lots of ducks, two lots of quail, the light Sussex chicks and the rabbits and Guineas, I think it’s full 😀 The orchard, just to give you an image, has three plum trees, greengage, damson and Victoria, a pear tree, an apple tree and a huge walnut tree, so plenty of scope to begin under planting for a forest garden.

I did quite a bit of picking and harvesting

The potatoes were from a self setter, I think I am going to give up cultivating them and just leave the self setters to spring up around the place they do far better than the cosseted lot.

Yesterday I didn’t feel as well as I had been doing and feel that some of the symptoms are creeping back slowly, especially in my feet so today I am loading up on the anti inflammatory foodstuffs to see what happens. I will take serapeptase in the mornings and today I am having turmeric tea then later I will have pineapple and see if any of that helps at all. I make the turmeric tea with almond milk, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and maple syrup if you like chai, you will like this, spicy and warming with the added bonus hopefully.

I had some Megrim sole delivered with the fish from Cornwall and we had it tonight for dinner, Sam cooked it for us which was very kind of her 😀 John had his with potatoes and peas but I had a salsa of cucumber, tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts, in a balsamic dressing, with mine, she pan fried it in butter, salt, pepper and a couple of rashers of back bacon, it was delish. Megrim is the poorer relation to Dover sole in as much as it’s not so in demand but actually the flavour is good and it’s a sustainable fish 🎣

I was thinking about making a carrot relish of some type and it seems there is a popular sandwich sold by a well known food store, Wensleydale cheese and sweet carrot chutney, (sounds amazing) so there is demand 😀 I also need to have a go at the caramelised red onion chutney that everyone seems to love although I didn’t grow red onions this year and seems pointless buying them in so I will put it on my list to grow next year. I also want to try getting a pickle as close to the country’s favourite, Branston, I wonder if it’s possible?

I absolutely adore Pinterest, I’m pinning all the time lol, anything you have an idea about can be found on there, my folders take nearly as long to get through as the site itself 🤣

Wednesday: Dry again today, temps are average, overcast. Got the usual morning jobs done and then dug out a tub of fence paint and started painting the fence near the back door, random? , not really as Mum and my niece Anna are coming over this morning to do some jobs 😀 So I thought I would set them onto sorting out the front yard space, as I said before it had always been just left because of Kai but now he has gone I can tart it up a bit. It needed an awful lot of weeding and a good bit of tidying and so painting the fence and gate will make it look a whole lot better to boot! I also made another little raised bed out of the ones I took down, at the moment I have only put pots in it but I will get round to planting it up soon. Mum found four little buddleja saplings growing and has potted them up for use somewhere else or selling on, mine is the yellow, ball type and I would like to get the more common purple one at some point, superb for the butterfly population.

Thursday: Raining this morning, normally I would make rainy days, baking days, but I need to do the cleaning instead 😜 Before going outside I had cleaned the washing machine, Charlie was complaining it’s stinks, it did, so I cleaned out the drawer and put a solution through it, cleaned all the sink plug holes nearby and it smells much better now. I sprayed the bathroom ready to give it a clean later, and the back toilet, got the dinner underway (braised beef with garden veg) and a pudding, plum crumble, John will be very happy tonight 😀 put some washing on then went out and did the orchard animals before coming back in and getting on with it. Mid morning my cousin came with a bag of seaweed from his holiday, I had asked for some to make my own fertiliser. I had to put the sold out sign up because we are out of eggs until this afternoon as I don’t have time to keep going out and collecting them besides we would never catch up if I did. There has already been a steady stream of customers, we can never seem to get this balance right, too many customers, not enough eggs, too many eggs, not enough customers, I don’t know what the answer is?

My vest veg customer came twice this morning, I saw his car, but there was nothing out there mainly because I was not going to go out in the pouring rain and pick it! A quick lunchtime sit down before I carry on 😋

I had a brief look in the office/playroom/junkroom and decided that was a whole mornings work on its own so I shut the door again 😜 I think I need to employ the services of a professional de-clutterer! Besides the Sun is out again now so I may go out and do a bit of picking, I will just have a quick browse on Pinterest first 😋

Well looking on there mad me hungry cos it’s mostly food that comes up on my feed lol, luckily I had got some soup out of the freezer and ate that, then I really needed to have a bit of a rest because things are playing up a bit and I’m having to take ibrufen to get anything done ☹️ so I popped a couple of pills and had a lie down on the sofa 😀 But not for long, I think I will get a ‘do not disturb’ sign for the gate 😜

Fed the birds, picked up the eggs, picked some runner beans, cucumbers and tomatoes, I am trying to decide if the melons are ready, I think I shall have to pick one and cut it to see, I’m not sure what variety they are and it’s not totally clear if they have ripened. The rain and now the sunshine will give everything a bit of a growth spurt hopefully as it has dwindled a little bit, better be careful what I wish for because it will take me longer to pick everything lol. I think another batch of runner bean chutney is needed as the last lot went fairly quickly.

I made some Greek yoghurt in the yoghurt maker, another packet I’m afraid as I haven’t got round to reading how to do it without but I will, beside it does taste delicious 😀

Friday: Beautiful morning, fresh to begin with, no idea what the temps went down to overnight but must have been fairly low, then warm sunshine which looms as though it’s here for the day 😀

Got all the orchard animals fed and watered, I did a good bit of foraging for the rabbits so they have some diversity in their diet, I cut a melon to test for ripeness, its not quite ready but not far off so I gave it to the torts and some to the light Sussex chicks, who are now getting to a good size. Some of the runner beans are now getting older and so I made a batch of chutney with those and I am just investigating ‘shucking’ which is removing the bean from the pod and possibly then blanching the beans and taking off the outer layer leaving a lovely green bean that splits in two, can’t be much different from a pea really.

The kitchen smells amazing 😀 as well as the chutney I have tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrot, basil and oregano, salt, pepper all tossed in olive oil, reducing down in the oven for a sauce, delish. A bit of an indulgence really as John doesn’t like pasta so the sauce is all for me and whoever I share it with, it’s a bit of a shame because if I’m honest it is the part I love the most about harvesting it all is making lovely goodies to eat either fresh or later in the winter time.

Saturday: Dull as far as the weather goes though not cold. I spent a fair bit of the morning chatting with various customers but in between that did some picking, runner beans, courgettes and broccoli. The brassica cage is still holding up really well against the cabbage white so I am able to harvest quite a few sproutings, I also filled a trug with old leaves and bits that have ‘blown’ as I call them, there was also a cabbage in there which was supposed to be broccoli but isn’t, I gave that to the light Sussex chicks to pick over, it should keep them busy for most of the day. I need to put some kale in for overwinter and will definitely be using the cage for that. I noticed the other day that the few French beans plants I planted had got more flowers on so I thought I will leave them a few days and then pick the beans, well something has been eating them ☹️ at first I thought rabbits, but they would have eaten the whole bean and this is just the end so something that can’t quite reach all the way up, possibly a mouse which will be more difficult to protect them from.

I was walking down the garden and heard a familiar noise, oh shit, I had left the water on in the poly tunnel, for 24hrs 😜 damn, it won’t need watering for quite a few days now but hopefully it will swell the melons!

Had Josh and Florence for a few hours, mostly played with playdough that my sister had made for him, it started off four different colours now it just one 😋

Sunday: Another dull day, not that I’m complaining as it means I can get stuff done outside. John did most of the birds while I did the orchard lot. Today that meant cleaning out most of the huts and runs, putting in clean bedding and washing out the water bowls. Two of the huts needed moving as they don’t have floors they are just on the dirt ground. Meanwhile John has started repairing the movable chicken hut which will go into the side paddock to house a new batch of hens, just 30 in order to keep turning over the laying flock and meet the demand for eggs.

I went for a little wander around the farm to see what blackberries were about, not many they are still red, quite small and look dry due to the lack of rain I suspect. My cooking app,e tree continues to chuck apples all over the drive especially when it’s windy, it’s a shame as the tree showed great promise at the beginning of the year. I picked some more Victoria plums, a fair few of the last lot I picked had codling moth grub in them but the branches on the other side seem fine, it’s my own fault as I didn’t put grease bands around the trunk nor did I put up the moth traps, I definitely will do next time.

Have a great week 😀