Tag: rain

Posted in Friesland Farm

Muddling on, madness & Mothers Day

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

A pandemic, turkey eggs & the first rhubarb

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 9th March 2020: Well it’s me on me tod this morning and it’s been an interesting start to the day. Firstly, the horse was out, how come it happens on my shift? This time of the year the grass is growing but not very fast and to be honest there is not a lot of foraging left in the paddock they are the in so I have opened up the side paddock for them as well although by lunchtime they still hadn’t noticed 😂 The second event was the helimed trying to land, it came low over our place and our neighbours twice, at this point I had not let the chickens out so I waited to see where they wanted to go, they landed further up the lane. I messaged my neighbour to make sure she was alright and nothing had happened at her place, I later found out it was an elderly lady just up the lane and I hope she is alright.

Excitements over I finished the morning rounds and then did a bit of pottering round the place, a few barrowfulls of compost on the veg beds, moving the branches from the pruned apple tree, nothing much but a little bit here and there. At lunchtime someone came to get duck eggs, these I have been saving for them to hatch out as part of child minding activities fingers crossed they are viable.

Sam came over in the afternoon with the children, we talked about the corona virus situation as it’s on everybody’s mind (makes a change from the weather) I think it’s prudent to have at least some idea of the measures you would take if the situation gets worse, though of course we can’t make definite plans as no one really knows how this will pan out.

I made bread in the afternoon, turned out really well, not the usual bread flour I buy nor the usual yeast as none of that was available at the shop but a happy discovery of a better product 😀

Tuesday: A quiet morning rounds this morning, the rain was hard in the night knocking off the electric 🙄 but a flick of a switch and it was back on. The wind is strong this morning hopefully that will dry up some of the ground and we are forecast a sunny afternoon so I will wait with anticipation to see if that is the case.

The Coronavirus situation is worsening daily especially in Italy which is virtually locked down, is this nature’s way of getting its house in order I wonder sometimes 🤔 We can only watch and wait to see what happens, ‘keep calm and carry on’ is an English mantra we are used to guess it’s time to practice it 😀 Naturally I am worried as I am on immunosuppressive medication, I wonder if I stopped taking it, if I got the virus, it would kick it into touch, does it work like that? I have no idea, I guess I would find out if I do get infected 😏

In light of the situation and the fact I have plenty of room to grow food, I will be growing as much as possible this year, I think it’s prudent to do so. The ground is still too wet to be sowing directly into so module sowing is the way forward for me this year.

Tuesday: A morning where the weather can’t quite make up its mind, it’s mild so that’s a good start, sometimes sunshine, sometime spits of rain a little wind every now and again a mixed bag it’s fair to say. I did the morning rounds topping up the goose hut with new straw, then onto the rest of the feeding and I found our very first turkey egg (well chuffed). After that it was into the greenhouse to sow a few seeds and generally have a look how things are progressing in there (doing well) onto watering the garlic and then have a look at the potatoes in their sacks and we have greenery appearing already so I gave them some water. I wanted to get a particular area weeded so I tried hoeing but it’s too wet still so I hand weeded a couple of other small areas, I really want to stay on top of it so that there is not all to do at once. I also checked the tortoises as I would have expected movement from them by now, I tentatively had a looked and I am pleased to say that a foot moved so that’s a good sign, they are still alive at least. I am waiting for this elusive sun to move them outside and also the quail, they have been in the back all winter and I just need it to warm up a little before putting them back outside in the fresh air.

1st Turkey egg 😀
1st picking of this years rhubarb 😀

Wednesday: I seem to have lost a day lol no idea what I did today 😜

Thursday: I am so sick of this weather now, this morning was vile, yesterday the ground was beginning to show good signs of drying out and then in the evening the rain started and didn’t stop all night. This morning it’s raining and blowing a hoolie, vile and I am delaying going out to do the morning rounds.

An hour later and the sun was shinning although the wind is still blowing and it’s a cold wind, come on already we just want some warmer, drier days, it’s been a very long few months.

The turkey laid again today 😀 can’t wait to put them out for sale and see who is willing to try them, I need to eat one first just so I can say what they taste like. I’m not expecting them to be much different to a chicken egg to be honest but people do ask so best to be prepared with an answer.

Apart from the usual I have been watching the news bulletins and as I write this an emergency Cobra meeting is taking place to decide the next steps and measures. Today the USA has banned flights from Europe which has caused uproar but I’m of the opinion that they may be right to do so, I can’t understand the seemly lax attitude here to travellers arriving from affected areas 🤷‍♀️ Ireland has now moved to closing schools and colleges and banning large gatherings, I’m guessing we may be following suit fairly soon.

Friday: A glorious start to the day, warm enough to venture to the egg shed in just a long sleeved t-shirt but it hasn’t lasted and the sun has now gone in lol. Morning rounds done and dusted, eggs sorted, it was time to go and get my bloods checked 🙄. I think I can safely say that the nervousness is palpable especially in a doctors waiting room, interestingly, I have more than the usual bloods today, checking thyroid levels and blood pressure plus questions, a more overall look at my health I would say.

I make no apologies for continuing to write about the situation the world has found itself in, this after all is a diary blog and at the moment it is a very big part of life. Although we are not at the self isolate stage we are practising social distancing that means we will not be putting ourselves in a position of being with people more than is very necessary. A play I was due to see next week has sensibly been cancelled and we will avoid any social gatherings, we were due to go on a cruise in June, that will now be cancelled. To me this is not over reaction it is sensible precaution and I don’t understand why a lot of people are just not getting the potential of the seriousness of this pandemic 🤷‍♀️ We are apparently 4 weeks behind Italy and they are in a dire situation, life is not as we know it and we need to adjust our thinking. One thing I have found out about myself is that I am much more in the self sufficient group than the smallholder group, I realise they are two different things with some overlap but definitely different. Self sufficiency is just that, it’s about relying on your own efforts to maintain a living/life, it’s about having the skills to do what needs to be done and not relying on others to do it for you, paid or otherwise and fundamentally it’s about having an attitude of self preservation. With all that in mind I have ordered a large first aid kit the reason is that when this epidemic is at its height the NHS will be stretched to the maximum and beyond so it is prudent to have to hand a kit that will cover any emergency until help arrives or basics so that a trip to the doctors is not necessary immediately. I like being self sufficient/reliant I think it’s good for the soul to know you can manage if TSHTF 😜

Well it definitely feels more spring like out there today thank goodness. I did some pottering in the greenhouse, a bit of watering and turning, I also have some hardy fushia plug plants arrive that I have potted up. Fifteen of them lol, I won’t be keeping all of them some will be sold on but that will pay for the ones I keep. I am really pleased with how well the greenhouse is performing it’s made such a difference to getting things successfully started, I have high hopes this year, now if I can just stop everything eating it I will be very happy.

Saturday: If I open the top of my stable door in the kitchen, as I often do, and look out to the garden and paddocks, it seems like any ordinary day, like hundreds before, except it’s not and we are in unchartered territory. There are countries going into lockdown and panic buying in the shops 🙄 We went yesterday to get some bits (cat milk because he doesn’t know there is a problem and still yowls for his milk) and some of the shelves were just ransacked, not all there is still plenty of fresh fruit and veg but canned goods were sparse in some sections, there are no ibrufen or paracetamol to be had, no sanitiser or antibacterial goods, there were toilet rolls but only a few packs, still no bread flour or any flour for that matter. I’ve e no doubt the shop will have restocked by now but it’s flying out as fast as it comes in!

My Mum and Ken went to Spain for three months after Christmas, they were due to start driving home on the 30th March, it looks like they will be staying longer than planned. It’s a worry because we can’t get to them if they become ill but they have managed to get a few provisions and we will see how this pans out, it’s all we can do, I know she reads this blog so lots and lots of love to you Mum and stay well 😘😘

Meanwhile on the farm John and I have been working and if you don’t have the radio or tv on you would be forgiven for not having a clue as to the events unfolding. John went to get a new blade for his saw so that if he is off for any length of time he can cut up wood 😂 He also picked up dog and cat food to keep us going. When he came back he power washed the side pathway this is because as I was going out to the egg shed I slipped and fell with a thud. The path is east facing and in the winter doesn’t dry out much and so algae builds up and makes it slippery, I think I will ache tonight but luckily I didn’t break anything.

After that we spent a good couple of hours mending the roof on the outdoor tortoise house. I heard a shuffling in the greenhouse this morning and Big Billy has woken up proper and was trying to get out of the cage. I got him some water and some bits of aloe Vera in case he was hungry and then thought I need to fix the roof, so that’s what we did, and a pretty good job we did of it even if I do say so myself 😀 John then carried on cutting up wood while I lit the Rayburn and got some lunch. Charlie and Macca called in for a coffee and some eggs.

We were expecting patchy rain today but we are into early evening and no sign of it so we had a good run of getting some things done. The ground is beginning to dry out faster than it was before bough it is still soggy.

Sunday: It’s raining heavily this morning and so not a very nice morning at all, to be honest the weather is now the least of our worries 😏 John did the morning rounds while I did the indoor bits, we lit the Rayburn early and we are not planning on doing much today except visit Florence for cake later as it’s her 2nd birthday today 😀

I’m feeling rather vindicated this morning, if you have been reading my blogs for a long time you will have read about my thoughts on an ‘apocalypse’ 🙄 at times I thought maybe I was a bit batty going on about preparing for a ‘situation’ such as this but it seemed obvious to me that something would happen eventually. This situation is a virus but potentially it could have been war or a terrorist attack on the ‘grid’ both of which would have been much worse as far as human nature goes, at the moment it’s toilets rolls, hand sanitiser and ibrufen people are fighting over 🤔

Stay well people, I have a feeling that we will all be seeing a lot less of each other for a while, I am certainly minimising my contact with the outside world from here on in, I am in the lucky position to be able to do that and I have plenty to occupy my time so it will pretty much be business as usual for me 😝

Posted in Friesland Farm

Afternoon tea, potatoes planted & Jobs list ticked off.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 2nd March 2020: The beginning of Johns week off, the weather is on our side for today at least. We both did the morning rounds then straight on with the job of the day, the fence at the end of the veg garden. This is a job that had to be completed in one day otherwise the dogs and the ducks would be all over it. We kept at it all day with a few interruptions by way of Johns phone, going to get some gravel boards then a quick trip to the solicitor to sign some papers, a few cups of tea and by 3pm we had finished 22m of fencing and tidied up. I am pretty pleased with the result, the fence had to keep the ducks/dogs out which it will and it looks a whole lot tidier to boot. I will look forward to working this part of the garden now, it has been a bit neglected in the last couple of years and so brambles and stingers have taken hold but I managed to dig most of them out, I will have to weedkiller any new growth but it shouldn’t be much and the area outside the fence is now clear enough to mow so that will keep them down on that side. I gained an extra bit of planting space as we had a gate halfway along the fence but never used it so have taken it out, now the pathway leading to the previous gate can become planting area. Indoors for something to eat, a cuppa and a quick rest before lighting the Rayburn, feeding the birds and collecting and sorting the eggs, getting the dinner. Day one, ✅ 😀

Tuesday: The weather is holding though it’s a tad colder today, we did the morning rounds and then got on with today’s jobs. First make a raised bed in the polytunnel out of wood we have lying around, the ground in the tunnel has a clay seam running thorough and one side is particularly difficult to manage when it dries out, I found low raised beds gives better results. I now have a 10ft x 3ft bed to fill with compost from the heap. Then onto moving the strawberry troughs, these are about 8ft long and a foot wide but they are up on legs, the problem is there is a lot of ground underneath that I can’t get too so we took them off the legs and moved them to the sides of the beds. This was harder than it sounds as they are very heavy, the second one we had to use bars to roll it along and get it in position. Then onto making the arches, for the morning glory etc, a bit more secure than they were, this still needs a bit more work but it’s nearly there. Shelley called in with Florence and bought cake so we stopped for a cuppa and then I had a phone call from a friend to see if I wanted to go for afternoon tea, yep, not gonna turn that invite down. I still had a couple of hours spare so I planted up the area that is now free of the strawberry troughs. I had potted up enough plants from last year to fill it, stocks, chrysanthemums, delphiniums, achillea, aster, campion, verbascum, huechera and some more that I have forgotten at this minute. The bed will be for cutting flowers for birthdays and to bring in the house 😀 John went off to do some tidying elsewhere, objective achieved today 😀 And now I am off out for afternoon tea ☕️ perfect day, it’s not normally something I would be able to take advantage of but as luck would have it and John is off to hold the fort and I’m going lol.

Afternoon tea was a lovely affair, plenty of tea, cake and sandwiches and of course chit chat with my friends, by the time I got back John had fed the birds and done the eggs so that looks like the rest of the day off for me 😀

The turkey stag has started covering the hen, hopefully eggs will follow soon. If you have never been close to a turkey come and get a look at ours, the stag is pretty impressive with his ‘snoods’ and the sounds are even better, the ‘gobbling’ that everyone knows but also a low ‘booming’ sound, at first I wondered what the heck it was then I realised it was coming from within him lol. A description I read referred to it as guttural which is pretty accurate and scientists don’t 100% understand how the noise is made. They are originally forest dwellers and love to forage for insects, slugs and snails, berries and fruit, seeds, nuts and green foliage or buds so a pretty comprehensive list.

We decided to call them Bonny & Clyde
(photos from Sally 😋)

Wednesday: Despite rain being forecast it didn’t arrive until about 1.30pm which meant we were able to get a fair bit done beforehand. With the morning rounds done by John while I put on some washing and did some general tidying we then set about sorting out the rest of the compost heap and tidying that up. John went off up the back to burn some rubbish and get the rest of the mirror structure down while I pottered in the garden. Making good the extra area we created by doing away with the path, filling it with compost, putting an edge board up and topping up the wood chip in that area. It looks good and I have decided to fill it with flowers, as you enter the garden at the other end it’s the long view down and it would be nice to see a splash of colour. Again I have plenty of plants, rudbeckia, lupins, geum, probably some aquilegia and maybe some foxgloves as it has the Mulberry bush for canopy.

We filled the bed in the tunnel with compost and I have put a washing up bowl at the end with a piece of gutter and a stone in there, this is because I know we have frogs (I found a few today while I was working) and I know they like to live in the tunnel during growing season when it has plenty of foliage and gets watered daily. The bowl will be filled with rain water and the frogs can help keep the slugs down, win, win 😀 I did a fair bit of sorting out, plants that never made it through winter and picking up stuff that had been blown about by the winds. In the greenhouse I did a bit of watering and had a look at the seeds I sowed last week, most are showing signs of sprouting so I’m happy with the progress so far.

When the rain came I came indoors to put on more washing, light the Rayburn and think about dinner later while John went off to get some diesel for the tractor as it’s nearly out. It looks as though rain will stop play as it’s pretty heavy and not much fun to be working out in.

I spent 4 hours, yes that long, trying to pair my new camera with my phone, eventually giving up after reading that the operating software on the phone has a problem with the app I am using to pair, an app created by the camera manufacturer so that’s buggered that, eventually I tried it with Johns phone which is different and voila, first time 😝 I have two choices as I see it, use the camera and download to the laptop as I did with the old one or wait until I’m due an upgrade and choose a different phone, for the time being I will just get taking some pictures. My old camera is around 30 years old and I love it but the quality of pictures on the new cameras is amazing and I want to start cataloging the wildlife here not just the birds but everything I see really.

Thursday: Still cold but not raining. John did the morning rounds while I got on with some household bits and got something out of the freezer for dinner tonight. John has been busy tidying up the back area and we had a lot of scrap metal bits, old tin sheets and chicken wire that has now thankfully gone to the scrap an and earned us a whopping £14 🙄 He has also been busy stacking wood in the back, you can do an awful lot of work and it doesn’t look like you have done much but we know it’s done so that’s what matters. Meanwhile after sorting indoor stuff out I went to the poly tunnel and planted up the chitted potatoes. I decided as these were first earlies, which I don’t normally do, I would grow them under cover, we have had a lot of rain and I would hate for them to rot away. They are now in 6 bags that have compost in and each time the greenery pokes its head above the compost I will cover with more compost, this way i am hoping to get nice clean early potatoes with very thin skins. I also moved a few things round, the citrus have now gone from the greenhouse and into the tunnel which gives more more room to move in the greenhouse. The bottom end of the tunnel is becoming my ‘exotics’ area, with the citrus, lemon grass (if it survives) cape gooseberries, grape vine, lemon verbena and a pineapple guava, if only I could grow bananas and avocados I’d be set for life oh and chocolate of course 😜. Other than that I sowed a few flower seeds, these were free so might as well give them a go, dwarf delphiniums, rudbeckia, dahlias and amaranth. When John went off to the scrapyard I came in and lit the Rayburn and got the dinner sorted for later, we have shepherds pie and an apple and blackberry crumble for dessert.

Chitted seed potatoes, Kestral, I think

Random thought of the day, how come the turkey stag only ‘covers’ his hen and doesn’t try it on with the chickens?

I have been listening to the radio talk about stockpiling, it never ceases to amaze me how much food people buy especially at Christmas or snow days, do people really eat that much or does a lot of it get wasted. I try very hard not to waste anything if I can help it, but I am aware of the need to have a few things in the cupboard just in case. For me it’s extra flour and dried milk because with what I already have in the freezers or cupboards I can pretty much knock something up, we don’t eat pasta or rice really so what I have will suffice and we seem to have accrued a few tins of fish in various forms so that will do us in a crisis. We did buy extra tea bags and coffee and I still have my 5ltr of olive oil from the Brexit crisis 😂 Luckily we are going into the growing season 😀 and I have plenty of seeds on the go for that so hopefully we should muddle through any problems in the supply chain. I agree it is a worry, I mostly worry about the grandchildren and that they will be able to get enough food, I’m sure it’s just people panicking and it will all be ok in the end 🤞‘don’t panic Mr Mannering’ I can hear the Dads Army cast saying lol.

On the topic of not wasting anything I had a net of clementines which were sour, you know the ones that make your face twist lol, not wanting to waste them I made a jar and a quarter of jam with them, hopefully it will taste better than the initial ingredient 😀

We made it all the way through to Thursday before John got a call out to an emergency, that’s pretty good going, this one was someone deciding to take the shower apart and now they can’t stop the water from flowing 🙄 He had his ‘not happy’ face on when he left lol, though I think he secretly likes to be a super hero plumber 😜

I am keeping an eye on the rhubarb, it’s getting there but it’s not quite long enough to start picking just yet, we could do with some warming sun on it after all the rain we have had, that would give it a spurt of growth I think. I can’t see any in the weather radar for a couple of weeks yet so just have to hope it’s not far away.

Friday: I can’t actually remember what we did in the morning but in the afternoon we had the twins while Mia went to her swimming lesson and then Shelley and the kids called in.

Saturday: Today’s the day, the new sofas are arriving and I’m a bit nervous that they won’t fit through the doorways lol. John did the rounds and then we got the old sofas out, I then cleaned the room while John did some outside jobs. We got a phone call to say that the delivery was only 5 mins away, they arrived, a lovely couple of chaps, easily got the sofas in, phew, put them together, tidied up and took the packaging, easy as that we now have new sofas though we are not allowed to sit on them in our work clothes 😂 Now they are in it is noticeable how shabby the old ones had got and I am delighted with the new look.

In the evening we went to get a few bits of shopping for Johns lunch next week, pretty bemused to see some of the shelves are empty of goods, not a piece of chicken to be had, no ibrufen and the toilet roll shelf was empty 🙄 I guess the panic buying is in full swing then, there was no bread flour and no yeast, this is a big uptake of people who are suddenly going to bake their own bread, I buy these all the time and never struggle to find them normally. I’m not sure which camp I am in to be honest, on the one hand it’s selfish behaviour because there are those that can’t bulk buy, either because they don’t have the money or they physically can’t get it home and on the other hand I think, what if we have to self isolate, you are going to need supplies. For the time being we will just carry on shopping as normal I think and if push comes to shove we will have to make do. On a bonus note I was looking for a lightbulb under the the kitchen sink and I found a box of face masks ( I had these when we had bird flu in the country and used them when cleaning out the birds)

We have in fact also taken around a third more on eggs this week, a good week or an indicator?

Sunday: More rain overnight and the wind is cold today but if you can stand in a sheltered spot when the sun is out there is heat in it so it won’t be long before we get some nice Springlike weather hopefully. John did the morning rounds and I did some potting on in the greenhouse, then I mentioned the ducks needed cleaning out which I had intended to help with, the next thing I know John has done it (I like having a helper lol)

We are on the last day of Johns week off and we haven’t managed to strangle each other in fact we have done quite well with hardly a cross word between us 😜 although he does do some things differently to me which I find annoying such as marking up the egg boxes the wrong way round (because he is left handed) I kept quiet 😝 I will miss having him around to do the daily tasks while I get on with other things but I will also look forward to having my space back 😋

We pretty much got everything done that was on the list though there are always many more jobs to do, they can wait until Easter weekend now. ✅ 😀

Have a good week and stay well 🤞

Posted in Friesland Farm

Painting, pancake day, leap day and plenty of rain 🌧

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th February 2020: Another Monday, another crap weather day, still blowing around and still raining on and off. Never mind though I had a project to do today, paint the kitchen, just the bottom end as the rest is tiled. It’s a good way to wonder where on Earth the hours disappeared too mind, I started at 9.30 after doing the morning rounds and the next thing I am listening to the 2 o’clock news thinking ‘what, where did the time go’ and no I didn’t do the ceiling 😜 It was a lick to freshen the place up a bit. I just about left myself enough time to tidy up, light the Rayburn and sit and have a cuppa while the fire bedded in before going out to do the afternoon rounds.

It will be interesting to see if John notices 😜

Tuesday: Pancake day, or more accurately Shrove Tuesday, we all know about pancake day the best day of the year when we were kids, we had no idea of any religious background to it in our house we were just happy to jump on the delicious bandwagon of pancakes, syrup, lemon and sugar, these days often chocolate spread as well. It’s is generally known that Ash Wednesday follows but did you know there are other named days in that week? Collop Monday when you used up your meat stores, Shrove Tuesday, eggs and flour stores, Ash Wednesday, depending on where in the country you were, Fritter Thursday, (apples and pears) or Bloody Thursday when you used up your black pudding and Kissing Friday. As with many traditions they have all got muddled in with different religions and regions but pancake day remains steadfast across all areas 😀

The morning started off damp and drizzly and I wasn’t really feeling it, I think I rather overdid it yesterday and consequently suffered with many aches and stiffness. I had breakfast, a couple of ibrufen and sat and listened to a podcast from Conversations of Inspiration with Holly Tucker founder of Not on the High Street. This podcast caught my eye because she was interviewing Robin Hutson who is the founder of The Pig hotels, if you have never been to one of these hotels I urge you to go, pricey but well worth it, the whole ethos of each hotel is fabulous and I loved staying at The Pig in the Forest.

After waiting for the ibrufen to kick in I went for a shower, seriously I was struggling to move but luckily the warmth of the water eased my overworked muscles and by the time I got out of the shower the sun was shinning ☀️ Well I was not about to pass up that little nugget of delight so I whizzed round doing the animals and then straight into the garden. Into the greenhouse to be exact because I knew it was going to be lovely in there with the rays of the sun. The sun didn’t actually last that long but it had the desired effect of firing up my engines and so there was no stopping me 😀 Seed sowing was the job I had in mind and this year I am sowing into smaller modules, most years I would wait and sow into the ground but it’s so wet that I am taking a different approach this year. I sowed beetroot, swede and turnip, 50 of each then 10 each of patty pan, courgette, loofah, pumpkin and butternut squash, 15 sweet corn and 50 each of mangetout and petit poi’s. I have bought in the metal shelves I had last year so that I can get layers of trays all going at the same time and use the excess heat from the heat mat at the same time. I am really pleased with the way the seedlings I started on the windowsill are doing now that they are in a heated propagator, I managed not to let them get too spindly and the cucumbers are putting on their second set of leaves. I had a hunt round for this elusive mouse and thought I had found its house but it was empty, I have moved everything that is high enough for it to move from the ground area up to the bench area and hopefully that will stop it eating any seeds I have sown. I also took the added measures of covering the seed trays with see through lids or putting them up on the shelving and unless the dear little soul is a gymnast it shouldn’t be able to get up there.

After doing that lot I checked on the poly tunnel and the carrots and peas are doing well. Then I picked some purple sprouting broccoli, kale and a few small Brussel sprouts which we will have with dinner tonight.

We will have some of the greens with mashed potato and lamb chops but some I will use for tomorrow as I have also got a chicken carcass out of the freezer, I never throw them away I always freeze them and use them for soups, broth or stock.

This is the daphne I bought the other week, I wish they would get round to inventing smelly vision as it smells amazing, you will just have to take my word for it.

The sun came back out in the afternoon and I popped back into the greenhouse to pot up the melon seedlings and put those in the propagator as well. I am chuffed that the melon seeds from Josh’s water melon have sprouted, I am going to give these a real good go which will please him no end as it’s just about his favourite thing to eat. The temperature in the greenhouse was a whopping 25c, amazing!

Wednesday: Not a bad morning, by the time I got out there the sun was shinning though it was cold but not too bad. Before I went out I watched Ben Fogle: A new life in the country, John watched it last night but I fell asleep and this morning he said you really need to watch it so I did. What an inspirational person Miss Puffin (not her real name) is, she moved at the age of 43 from London where she was a nanny to John O Groats to run a petting farm, farm shop, b & b with no experience of animals, business or Scotland, all on her own, now that is life changing, challenging and ultimately hugely rewarding despite the lows. The Facebook page is Puffin Croft if you want to look her up.

Feeling inspired and cheerful I went out to sort out our menagerie, feeding, letting out and topping up bedding etc. I sorted out the eggs and put some trays of duck eggs up for sale on the selling sites as they are stacking up again. The goose egg sales are a bit slow, I find this happens every year, then suddenly they take off and people continue asking for them well into summer when of course they are no longer available 🙄 Thinking ahead to next week when John will be here instead of his normal work and he will constantly want to eat 😜 I decided to bake a couple of fruit cakes using the goose eggs.

I took a photo of what is my favourite view at the moment, it’s our side window in the kitchen and there is normally not much to see to be honest but this week Mr Robin has shown his wife this little house and she has decided it’s a good place to raise her young so they have been very busy moving in 😀 This box has been there for about 5 years and never had any occupants before so I’m very excited to watch the comings and goings and hopefully catch sight of the fledglings when the time comes.

You can just see the bird box on the back of the shed where a robin family have decided to move into.

Thursday: What can I say about today’s weather lol, it’s wet but snowing, not settling thankfully. It was a thicker socks and thicker gloves morning and I got the rounds done early, I was back in lighting the Rayburn at 8.30 I figured I might as well feel warm all day before I have to go back out later on. This bug I have is lingering, one day I feel ok the next I feel washed out and tired, still coughing but not as much and still got a blocked nose and ears making my head feel thick 🙄 I may just have a rest day today or a mostly rest day anyhow.

What does one do on a rest day, well watch a film, pay a few bills and order new sofas of course 😜 I was thinking I should hoover and polish the living room and then started thinking that I need to wash the sofa covers but I don’t honestly think they will make it through in one piece so I went all in and ordered them lol We have had them for over 25 years so I think it’s allowed don’t you.

Friday: Back to the wet horrible weather and surprise we have a storm rolling in for the weekend. This one is called Jorge as it was named by the Spanish (it’s visiting there first 😜) I got on and did the animals first thing then sorted out the eggs to fill the shed up completely and then a few house keeping bits and pieces before having Josh and Florence for the afternoon. It’s Shelleys birthday and Martin is taking her out for lunch 😀

The Corona virus situation is getting worse, I’m not sure if they have declared a pandemic yet but they will be very soon if not. I include this in my blog because you never know what is going to happen world wide and so it seems a good idea to have a written record of what is happening.

Saturday 29th Feb: A bonus day 😜 all I can think it’s and extra day of rain! We had some real downpours through the night and we are sodden this morning with more heavy rain due sometime this afternoon. Couple that with high winds again and well it’s becoming a regular weekend thing. My cold is not shifting very quickly it’s now blocking my sinuses, so a constant thick head means I find it difficult to concentrate on much more than what I have to. All in all a pretty depressing outlook for the weekend 🙄 a

Well it’s midday and so far the weather hasn’t been too bad, the sun is shinning though it’s cold and the wind has just picked up though not as much as was predicted…..yet🙄

We went round to Shelleys in the evening for a joint birthday cake with my sister who had her birthday last week. I got to see my newest great nephew Theo, a beautiful little bundle of cuteness 😀

Sunday: I’m starting to feel better thank goodness, this has dragged on and on and I really want it gone as John is off for the next week so we can get some jobs done. I wanted to drag the fields but that is not going to happen as they are very wet still so we started with the rabbit run, boarding up the mesh so that little Dotty Iron Man rabbit can come out and be with the other rabbit and guineas. I did a full clean out while we were at it, over winter I deep litter them which basically means putting fresh stuff in on top of the old but eventually it all needs to come out. Then it was on to sort the ménage mirrors out and take the framework down, over the years the wind has rocked them and now they are cracked and one had fallen out and so we decided to take them out altogether. In between that I did a bit of seed sowing and moved the aubergines and peppers into a heated propagator, I now have a free windowsill again. We popped to the garden centre to pick up some compost as the seed potatoes are ready to go in the bags but the garden compost is soaking wet. We had visits from Charlie and then from Sam, Luke, Mia and the twiglets Lucie and George, I wonder how long they will get called twiglets for lol, we used to call Josh sausage but that didn’t stick lucky for him 😜 Some of the wood that was used for the mirror frames will be reused as sides for a long raised bed in the polytunnel, on one side there is a clay seam which is difficult to use given the heat in there in the summer so I am putting a bed on top of it to give the plants a better chance.

I’m hoping, along with the rest of the country I’m sure, that we will have a bit more sunshine next week 😀😀😀

Have a great week everyone.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Crap weather, Dotty Iron Man rabbit & decisions, decisions.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

A bit late, sorry 😜 normal service will return when I feel better 🤒

Monday 17th Feb 2020: We are back round to Monday again how did that happen 😜 The remnants of storm Dennis have still been felt, lashings of rain, some gusts of winds, to be honest I expected the lake to have become a reservoir this morning but to my surprise it had receded quite a bit instead 🙄 and the river has almost gone too.

I did the morning rounds as per usual, the horses were still in their stables so I took them some hay and topped up the water buckets. I cleaned out the quail and then did a little bit outside, planted the pretty primroses and the miniature iris that I bought at the weekend. It was cold but not freezing, however, when my fingers and toes started to get cold I came back in. Paperwork was calling to me and I really needed to be able to see the top of the desk so I got on with sorting it out, doing some invoices and paying some bills.

Sam, Mia and the twiglets arrived mid afternoon and Sam had a look over the horses before turning them back out, she said they almost ran out lol, they don’t like being in.

I eventually got the Rayburn lit just before it was time to go out and do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting.

In the evening we went to pick up a new member of the pet menagerie, a little black and white rabbit, very sweet little girl and our other rabbit seems to like her, don’t worry I have checked and it’s definitely a girl 😜 The guinea pigs totally ignored her prefering to squirrel away the cabbage leaves I had given them to share lol.

Tuesday: An altogether better morning this morning, it’s not raining that’s a big bonus, it’s not too cold and the sun keeps trying to come out. The ground underfoot is awful, squelchy, sodden, sticky, muddy hopefully we will have a few dry days now.

I’ve just spent and hour and a half cleaning the bathroom 🙄 a proper clean, all the walls, toothbrush and white vinegar in the difficult areas, behind the towel rails etc. This is because we have 5 downlights and two of them had blown, the one in the shower cubicle over a year ago, we replaced them yesterday (long story as to why we hadn’t done it before now) and suddenly I could see all the areas that had got grubby 😮 so I decided to give it a right good clean, just as well I didn’t decide to work outside as the rain returned 😏

Shelley, Josh and Florence came round in the afternoon for a while and in the evening I had a Bowen therapy session booked.

Wednesday: A typical February day, dull, slightly cold and trying to rain. Before going out this morning I got some dinner going in the slow cooker, a rich beef stew if I get time I will pop in some dumplings.

Then out to do the animals, the new baby rabbit has been locked in her cage for the time being, I couldn’t quite believe it yesterday when I went out and couldn’t find her in the run with the others, turns out she is small enough to squeeze through a 2″ square mesh and she was in with the light sussex hens. I would have left her there but that run is not as secure as the other one and there are small gaps she could get out of so for her safety and my sanity she is in the cage which is within the run.

I pottered about for a little bit, putting clean bedding in the duck shed and checking the seed potatoes in the greenhouse. Again they have been nibbled, I thought it was a one off but no, not only the potatoes but the second lot of broad bean seeds have also been eaten along with the sweet peas 😡 I removed the seed potatoes and put them in a dark cupboard indoors and I have set a mouse trap, judging by the droppings it’s not a rat or a squirrel but a mouse which means it has probably set up home in there somewhere so I need to exterminate it 😕 sorry.

I contemplated finding more to do outside but it started to drizzle and as the ground is already waterlogged, tramping about compacting it won’t do much good either so I came inside. I have a stupid dry cough and feel a little under par so I think I will potter about indoors and listen to a few podcasts 😋

Having spent the day inside in the warm I was reluctant to go out and do the afternoon feed and egg collection but it has to be done. It is about this time of year (every year) when I am trudging round in the cold and the mud (which is worse this year than any other) thinking ‘why am I doing this’ and thinking perhaps selling up is a good idea. I know once the sunshine comes and the ground dries up I will think this is the best place in the world to be but right here right now it’s not 😏

Thursday: (and I had to change that as I keep thinking it’s Friday) Another vile day 😕 I got everything done and dusted by 8.30 as I had Josh and Florence for the morning while Shelley had her hair done. She had it cut short and had been growing it to donate her pony tail to the Princess trust who make wigs for children with cancer. We had planned, along with Sam, Mia and the twiglets, to go to Blenheim Palace for the afternoon but the weather was just horrible so we stayed home instead. We made a super hero’s den for the kids in the spare room and set up a picnic blanket for them, then Shelley went off to the shop to buy the kind of goodies you need on a day like today, chocolate, biscuits, an activity magazine and apple juice, while the adults had baked Camembert and chocolate 😜 They played very well together all afternoon and tidied up with the tidy up song while I went out to feed the animals and collect the eggs. The weather had cheered up a bit by then, still a little windy but the Sun had come out, after I had finished the afternoon rounds I went and got the new rabbit and bought it indoors to show the children. What shall we call her? everyone chipped in and now she has the name Dotty Iron Man Rabbit 🤣

Friday: It’s definitely Friday 😀 I went out to do the morning rounds and Jack had managed to get his rug off, a horse rug is basically like a straight jacket with many buckles and belts so how the heck he has done this I have no idea 🙄 On with the rest of the rounds and nothing much to report which is always a good thing 😀 I then spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse, first I set up the heat mat and I put some staging up higher to make use of any rising heat. Then I set up an electric propagator and the tomatoes and cucumber I had growing on the kitchen windowsill have now been potted on and are in the warmth in there. I am trialling this so it may be that I have peaked too soon but nothing ventured is nothing gained as they say. I have also put a couple of tomato plants on their own and a few in bunches as they grew, I want to see if they do better with other plants as company. The next job was to hunt for this damn mouse but I couldn’t find it living anywhere, at the moment I am filling the mouse trap and it is eating it all so it must be quite small and light, I will feed it up until it gets heavy enough to spring the trap 😜

Back indooors to light the Rayburn as I have the twins later while Mia goes for a swimming lesson and some great news on the family chat as my niece had her baby last night 😀 a little boy (well 8lb 12oz, ouch) lovely news 😀

It’s been a bit of a boring week to write about to be honest and I have had a horrible cold coupled with a hacking cough, I am kind of hoping that my bug will do one right about the same time as the crap weather and what a joyful day that will be 😀

Saturday: Another crap weekend with the weather, seriously, the wind and the rain have been going all night long and have not eased this morning. I am weather weary now, feeling so poorly doesn’t help, I can’t breathe through my nose, the cough is hacking, my head feels like it will explode, wake me up when it’s spring.

We ran the feed right out this week, it’s good to empty the feed bins totally now and again, and so John has gone off to get supplies, we can’t do any feeding until he gets back and so no point letting them out either. I also have a hay delivery coming this morning, we are at that stage when the horses are hungry but the grass is non existent especially this year with all the rain. We will be rolling a big round bale into the field and hoping it will keep them going for a couple of weeks until the weather settles and the new grass comes through.

Fingers crossed that the week I have booked for John to be at home is a decent week. It’s a shame really as we could have been getting ahead of ourselves but it looks like it will be all to do at once 🙄

Sunday: Yesterday I felt really ill but it seems to have turned a corner this morning thank goodness. The weather has not really got any better, still blowing a hoolie with rain now and then for good measure, I am so done with this weather stream as are many other people. I know we have a lot to be grateful for as our home is not flooded and everything is intact but even so I have had enough of the relentless wind and rain it’s been going on for around three weeks with hardly a break.

Whinging over 😜 John did the morning rounds and then we measured up for some fencing that has come down at the bottom need of the veg garden, the posts have been going for a coup,e for years and now they have gone and all that is holding the fence up is the wire. We thought about picket fencing and went off to the diy shop to have a look but when we priced it up decided it wasn’t worth it so we bought some more wire with smaller holes to stop the ducks getting in and then went to get some breakfast at a local garden centre. We met Shelley, Martin and the kids there and they joined us, I bought a couple of pots for the daphne and another shrub I got the last time I went. I want to keep them in pots for now as I am not sure where I want them to finally end up and besides they are quite small so need a bit of looking after to being them on. The rest of the day we spent discussing and researching various topics such as solar panels and electric boilers, mulling around ideas of wether to apply for planning for a house and what kind or, as this one is perfectly adequate and just need some upgrading, wether we just upgrade it, we went round and round until our brains were frazzled, we discovered what we don’t like but not what we do.

I will try and do better with the blog next week, hopefully I will feel a little more up to it by then, have a good week.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Cold winds, fence repairs, my seed stash and storm Dennis 😏

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 10th Feb 2020: Oooooh it’s Monday again 😏 Some Monday’s I don’t mind, the ones where the weather is fair to good but it’s cold out and we still have the blustery remnants of the storm so I’m not really feeling this one lol.

Still the winds blew over night, not quite so fierce but still audible, I found some ear plugs last night though and so managed a good nights sleep 😴 in fact John was up, breakfasted and gone to work by the time I dragged my sorry backside out of bed! I can already tell this will be a ‘non’ week, a week where I won’t be able to achieve very much outside due to the weather. This is a month of hope and then disappointment, ah we’ll roll on Spring.

John and I watched the woodpecker yesterday, I spotted it on the oak tree just outside the black door and called John over and we were both amazed when the woodpecker started to walk backwards down the tree trunk 😮 right to the bottom it went then onto the ground. Well I have never seen that before we both said and this morning I have tried to find out a bit more but apart from the fact that they have two toes that point forwards and two that point backwards I can’t find any reference to them walking down backwards as standard behaviour.

I went out and did the morning rounds and surveyed the place, a few small branches down but apart from that no major damage I am glad to say 😀

I picked some purple sprouting, I was mindful that it needed picking and didn’t want to waste it, it’s now soaking in cold water to get any bugs out then I will either blanch and freeze it or have with dinner tonight I haven’t quite decided which yet. There are still some Brussel sprouts to be picked and there is curly kale too, I need to make an effort to remember to pick them for dinner this week.

Next job on the list was to try and shift some duck eggs online, that’s always frantic backwards and forwards messaging but tonight we will be delivering trays of duck eggs and a few quail eggs so that’s a result 😀 The aim is to get customers coming to the farm but every now and then we are willing to go out and deliver to those a bit further away and so that people get to know where we are and we can then shift the eggs faster, I don’t like them hanging around for more than a couple of days lol.

I thought about making a quiche with one of the goose eggs and scoured around for ingredients, I only had a small pot of sour cream though so I will wait until I can get a big pot of proper cream. In the end I made a Madeira cake, one of Johns favourites and I decided we would eat the purple sprouting for dinner, might as well eat it while it’s fresh and full of nutrients.

The brassica cage is not going to be used for brassicas this year as I have already used it at least two years in a row and I don’t want pests and disease to build up in the soil. I had a big problem with whitefly in there last summer and need to break their cycle. That leaves me with two dilemmas , what to grow in there this year? And where to grow the brassica? The cage is permanent as we found a flimsy structure that is moveable doesn’t keep out the cabbage white butterfly very well so we built a more robust structure that did the job, however we can’t move it 🙄 I need to use it for something that at least needs either a bit of protection or a bit of shelter as the environmesh does slightly increase the temperature, you can feel the difference when you go in there. At the moment I haven’t thought about it very much and so have no idea on either problem. A lot of things don’t need protection of that kind but I’m sure I will think of something that does. Meanwhile, where to grow the brassica if at all, it would be a shame not too but they do need absolute netting otherwise they just get decimated.

Well the weather got proper shitty 😜 still blustery and then a good dose of rain thrown in for good measure, at one point I thought it might even snow it certainly looked that way.

I feel a bit tired and could do with an evening relaxing but we are off out to deliver some trays of duck eggs after dinner.

Tuesday: It’s a bitterly cold wind today, the wind hasn’t actually stopped for a few days now it’s just got colder and colder 😏 I didn’t do much in the way of the farm today mostly hoovering, polishing and I looked after the twins for an hour while Sam went for physio.

Wednesday: A cold frosty start to the day but the wind has dropped however we have another storm rolling in at the weekend, storm Dennis 🙄

I did the morning rounds, topping up straw bedding in the ducks and geese as I went, taking a sack of hay to the horses and then a bagful to the rabbit/guineas, still no sign of the other one, completely disappeared. I noticed the fence inbetween the side paddocks is nearly touching the floor having gone over, this didn’t happen during the worst of the winds but must have happened yesterday evening or I would have seen it. I have phoned John and asked him to come home an hour early so we can get it back up and temporarily fixed in position, the horses will soon be through to the side paddock if we don’t get it sorted ASAP.

The grass has definitely been growing, I can tell by the little flakes of grass left in the water bucket by the geese and also John moved the chicken fence the other week and that ground has completely recovered with a growth. There are other tell tale signs, the geese and the horses can be seen more often with their heads down gleaning the new blades of grass emerging, all good signs that we are moving towards Spring.

Here is my random thought of the week lol, I was reading an article about Jane Fonda and the fact that she has reused a dress for an award ceremony 😲😲 shock horror surely not 😜 and I’m not knocking her it’s great that she is doing her bit but I was slightly concerned to read that she spent 7 hours having her hair completely transformed. I am guessing that she has not used very environmentally friendly products to achieve what is a splendid look, that got me onto thinking about nails, not natural nails that everybody once used to have but these horrible little bits of plastic stuck on in place of a perfectly adequate nail underneath. How many millions of bits of plastic are used daily in the pursuit of the desire to look glamorous I wonder? I have had them once, for Shelleys wedding 6 years ago, I wouldn’t have them again as the state of my real nails when they came off was awful. Is there a compostable or biodegradable product out there? I have no idea🙄

I put my coat on mid morning and went outside to see what could be done and have a look at how things are going. On the plus side the carrot seedlings in the poly tunnel are coming up and so are a few peas, the garlic in the small tunnel are growing well and so is the parsley, I gave them all a light watering. On the downside something has chewed one of my seed potatoes in the greenhouse and looking at the tooth marks I’m thinking rat 😝 I need to get rid of that, it can only get in under the door so something needs to be done though I’m not sure what just at the moment. The broad beans spin the greenhouse are also coming through and the over wintering plants in there are doing fine. The arches I put up were bending in the wind a fair bit during the storm so I have strengthened them for the time being although I have discussed with John about concreting some stronger posts in to help. Needless to say the wind has picked up again so I wasn’t out there very long as my fingers and toes were freezing so I came back in a lit the Rayburn. This is what I mean about February, it teased with some lovely weather at the beginning of the month and ever since then it’s been a right sod 😏 The seedlings on the window sill are just starting to emerge, I guess all in all I am winning 😀 I would just like some warmer, still days to get ahead 😬

John came home early and we got the fence propped back up as a temporary measure, the ground is too wet to get the tractor on there to do a proper job for now but we need to time it right when we do, too dry and the posts won’t go in.

I did the afternoon feed rounds and egg collecting while John cut up some more wood, we have piles of it out there to get through and so he has decided an hour here and there is better than a whole day doing it. I sorted out the eggs, fed the dogs and got something out for dinner later, then had a sit down, I am struggling with stiff hip joints at the minute and I’m hoping it’s just the cold weather. They are not painful, just don’t want to work, squatting down to chop kindling is hard work, getting back up is hard work, lifting my leg over the chicken fence is proving hard going 🙄 and to think that last week I was thinking it was the best I had felt in a few years, hey ho.

Thursday: It’s milder this morning, the downside of that is rain, we have had torrential downpours during the night and have the beginnings of the lake in the side paddocks again 🙄

I felt unwell this morning but after taking a coup,e of ibrufen feel a lot better now, I had blood tests tomorrow and am hoping it’s a passing bug and nothing more.

The seedlings that showed tiny progress yesterday have burst through with more growth today, not all of them, I’m still waiting for the aubergine and water melon to show up lol.

I have had all my seeds out this morning, going through them to see what I have and try to organise what will go in first. I could do parsnips and swede now straight into the ground but I know my garden and so I am going to wait a couple more weeks as a too cold/wet start will only rot the seeds off. I have ordered a totally new vegetable (to me anyhow) and that is yacon, it is also perennial and so will go in the permanent bed although it seems I may have to dig the tubers up for overwintering. I also ordered multicoloured beetroots seeds to give those a go and I still need to find some of these round radish I grew last year though I can’t remember what they were called which is a shame. They were free seeds and far better than the breakfast radish that is usually grown.

I gave the grandchildren a goose egg each, Mia made cake with hers, Sam said it was the best tasting cake she had ever made. Josh and Florence decided to eat theirs, Josh had scrambled egg and Florence had a dippy egg almost as big as her 😂

I really am busting to get out and get something done that is productive on the garden, keeping my fingers crossed for some better weather though it doesn’t look like it’s heading our way any time soon, must try not to be so impatient. I am feeling instinctively that the greenhouse will soon be ready to use mind you as everything in there has either survived the winter really well or is starting to grow (broad beans). The tooth marks I thought were rat I’m now thinking are actually squirrel, I see him daily and I think he could easily squeeze under the door to nibble on my seed potatoes, I need to sort that ASAP, we have a weather board to go on the bottom of the door which should solve it but it’s in Johns van and I keep forgetting to ask him for it.

Friday: I feel ok this morning, I was worried yesterday in case it was all going ‘Pete Tong’ but all seems well and I had blood tests this morning so that should pick up any anomalies.

After that we went to yet another independent cafe, Humble Bumble cafe in Brize Norton, it’s in the old cricket pavilion and is just charming, the coffee is good and I had toasted banana bread with Greek yoghurt and honey, delish 😋 A quick trip to the shop to get something for dinner later and then back home to light the Rayburn. The wind is already picking up a bit and the forecast says we are going to get a battering of 49/50/60 mph winds and 100% chance of lashing of heavy rain for a 24hr period, oh the joys of the English weather systems. It’s further north I feel sorry for they have already had floods and are likely to be hit hard again, I can’t imagine how they feel with another storm warning to close to the last poor people 😢

It’s Valentines Day today and no I won’t hold my breath waiting to receive a card or flowers 😂 if I did that I would have died about 20 years ago which is around the time John stopped buying me anything. To be honest it’s not quite the same as when you were a teenager and you opened that card with a big ? and really had no clue as to who sent it 💕 ah those were the days 😀 I am not the kind of wife who presses John into buying me anything either, you know, like saying, ‘don’t forget it’s Valentines day’ there is no joy or delight in knowing that you nagged someone to show you their undying love 😜 besides he would say ‘I love you every day, not just on Valentines day’ well of course you do 🙄 but it would be nice to be surprised once every few years 😬 I did get a box of Maltessers from Josh and Florence though, ‘Happy Birthday Nana’ he said ‘thank you and Happy Valentine’s Day to you’ ‘I do know it’s Valentine’s Day but I like to say Happy Birthday’ Josh said, lol that suits me fine 😀

Saturday: What a totally crappy day so far weather wise, it’s horrible out there. I helped John do the morning rounds so that neither of us got too wet and then Shelley picked me up and we went to a second hand book sale where I picked up a book of wildlife gardening and a book on caterpillars and butterfly’s for the kids to learn from.

Shellley came in for a cuppa when we got back and Charlie and Macca called in as well so we had a nice little gathering round the kitchen table and tried to ignore the weather 😀

We nipped to the local diy centre to pick up some paint for the kitchen, I have been wanting to freshen it up for a while and as we can’t get much done outside we might as well go and get items we need. We also went to the local nursery to pick up some plants and have coffee and cake. I wanted a Daphne as they smell amazing and as I said before I wish I had bought the one I had at the old place with me when I moved. At the time I was focussed on smallholding and so flowers and flowering shrubs didn’t really fit into the picture but as time has gone on I have realised that they should and so I’m on a mission to fill the place with a wide variety of plants, shrubs and trees. Of course I couldn’t walk past the bright colours of the primroses and picked up a pack of those to cheer up a dull day. I also hatched a plan to fill some of the gravel areas out the front with low growing creeping plants so I bought a few of those to see if my plan will work, I need to keep the chickens off them while they establish but once they have they should be fine, I also think that if they spread enough It won’t matter if they get walked on now and again as long as it’s not constant treading. And then there were these miniature iris that I just couldn’t resist 😜 I actually went back to get them as they were so endearing, no idea where I will put them yet but that’s not a big issue.

I think I will grow the plants on a while and then divide them to give me twice as many little plants to dot around.

Sunday: Ooooo it’s lunchtime and we have already been busy thanks to storm Dennis 🙄 remember the fence we propped back up in the week, well it was back down again this morning, properly down, the horses had escaped as well. I rounded them up and got them into the stables and after feeding and letting everything else out we picked up the post rammer and went out the the field to repair it again. A little more robustly this time, the post rammer is a very heavy piece of equipment to use and the ground is soft so we (I say we, John was on the rammmer lol) got some new posts bedded well into the ground and re nailed the rails back up. I don’t mind telling you it was a filthy, cold, wet, windy job that I would rather not have had to do. The stream we get runs through that bit and at one point John dropped a post, it went into the muddy water and guess who got a splattering 😜 I have researched a petrol driven rammer that I think we might invest in as we are not getting any younger and after each post John tells me he is too old for this 😂 We have plenty of fences to do this year and so now might be a good time to get one, it also would make it easier for my plan to have double fences so that we can grow hedges in between them. This idea would, stabilise the ground, provide shelter/shade for the horses, provide a buffer from the winds and be a wildlife corridor, I wish I had done it ten years ago but hey you live and learn.

Dennis was pretty horrendous through the night as well, the strong gusts kept waking me up and in the end I listened to some soothing music on my headphones just so I could actually get some sleep.

When we finished doing the fence I came in and lit the Rayburn while John cleared the drains, they soon get silted up with rain like we have had, then I sent him off with a shopping list for some essentials while I waited for someone to come and collect a tray of duck eggs which they duly did. I think we have earned the afternoon in the warm on the sofa don’t you lol.

I took a photo of the geese in the week then I played with the filters, love the result they almost look cartoon like.

I think that’s me done for this week, if you drive past you will probably see me with my nosed pressed up against the window looking for some nicer weather 😝

Posted in Friesland Farm

9 years of blogging, ‘dragons’ & storm Ciara

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 3rd February: Oh my goodness WordPress has informed me that I first registered and posted 9 years ago, 31st Jan 2011 😲 It seems I have been banging on with my blurb for quite a long time 😜 My first blogs were short and sweet lol, they have got a lot longer over the years. You can access these old blogs by scrolling right the way back , I tried to find a search bar which would be useful but there doesn’t seem to be one 🙄

So we are safely into February a month that usually disappoints on a couple of fronts. Firstly we are always hopeful of some warmer weather we almost hold our breath waiting but it never quite comes and eventually we tell ourselves ‘well it is only February’ lol we do tell ourselves that at the beginning too of course but still we hope 😏 The second disappointment is Valentine’s Day, I think maybe this is the year I will get some flowers then usually nope lol. We have been married a long time and have got to the point where over the years at some point I have mentioned what a waste of money flowers are, indeed as is the whole frenzy surrounding any type of celebration 🙄 my mistake. We also hit the point years ago when John would say ‘well you don’t get me anything’ now we are at the stage where if I did get him something and he didn’t get me anything I am going to be bloody fuming 😂 so probably best to ignore it and leave it to others 💕

I take back everything I said about February 😜 I just spent a lovely morning outside, first job was to burn the pile of sticks that we failed to do yesterday, then I burnt the paper rubbish. Then into the garden where I spent a good couple of hours tidying stuff up, cutting dead stuff down, sowing a few early seedlings (climbers for my arches) making a new raised bed in the poly tunnel for salad stuff, generally looking over the plot to think about where I will plant stuff. I captured four chickens and put them back over the fence so I could work in peace and so they didn’t undo any tidying I was doing, pretty satisfied with my mornings work 😀

While I was out with the bonfire I noticed two little holes in the bottom of one of the buddleia bushes, if you look closely at the phot you can just about see them. I think this is a mouse home as the cat was pretty interested in the activity under the piles of sticks when they were there, they could be vole I suppose, I would have to sit and wait to see what came out of them to be sure. These bushes were planted way back in the seventies and have done really well to survive this long, the trunks are beautifully gnarly.

I met a lovely couple who have taken over the running of a local pub, The Carpenters Arms in Fulbrook, they are hopefully going to have quail eggs from us 😀

Tuesday: A colder feel to the start of the day 🥶 so I don’t think I will be spending the morning outside again today.

You may have noticed that occasionally I have a random thought 😂 and just have to get it written down to get it out of my systems otherwise I will be thinking about it all day. We watched Shrek at the weekend and on it there is a dragon, the conversation goes like this, ‘that dragon would never actually be able to fly with wings that small and a belly that big’ 😜 then I said to John ‘as there are so many myths around dragons is it possible that they did exist? Who can say if there wasn’t a pterodactyl or two still around back in the 6/7/8th century and that’s where the legends come from’. If there are any eminent palaeontologists reading this 🤣 please let me know if this is a possibility.

Now that is off my chest I’d better get on with the rest of the day lol.

I did the morning rounds, it’s a tad cold due to the wind but not as bad as I was expecting it to be however I hate trying to work in the wind so I will give outside a miss today lol. I got some wood in and will probably light the Rayburn earlier yesterday, I didn’t need to light it until 2.30 it was that mild. I have a haircut booked today, it’s that time again 😜 I’m not a regular, I’m the type that thinks, yikes I need a haircut and desperately tries to get an appointment before I let myself loose on cutting my own fringe 😂

We have roast pork for dinner tonight so I may make an apple pie/crumble as a treat for pud.

I had my first ever proper disaster with making bread today. First prove and it wasn’t growing in size particularly well, I put that down to the temp of the kitchen which was cool as I hadn’t lit the fire yet. I left it half an hour longer than normal until it had doubled in size, I was timing the whole thing to fit in with my hair cut so was now half an hour behind, second prove was on course but I had to take it out of the oven when the hairdresser arrived otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get it out. I took it out and thought, it looks ok, nope it was not cooked through as I discovered later. What I should have done was left it to prove and not put it in the oven until after I had my hair done but you live and learn.

I listened to a couple of pod casts while I was working today, the first was the Organic Gardening pod cast and the second was from Roots and all which was about Forest gardening, some useful information on both in fact I even started taking notes on the forest gardening one lol.

Wednesday: Every morning once I’m up I open the top half of the stable door in the kitchen and I am greeted with the sounds of excited chattering birds. Over the years the number has increased and there are now a whole flock of sparrows we also get great tits, chaffinch, blackbirds, wren, robins, sometimes goldfinch, long tailed tits, greater spotted woodpecker, we have had a jay and I often spot a flock of greenfinch in the back hedge and wagtails in the paddocks. Crows, jackdaws and magpies. Other wildlife I have spotted here are frogs, a toad, a newt, a grass snake (although this had got caught in netting and had died but it indicates that there may be more) hedgehog, squirrel, rabbits, a deer in the paddock, bees nesting in the ground, leaf cutter bees, mason bees, ladybirds, lacewings, all manner of ground beetles and bugs. A real plethora of wildlife and I keep trying to encourage more by having the right kinds of habitat for them as well as not using any chemicals of course. One I want to concentrate on a bit more is the butterflies as I have noticed a decline, we have little blue in the paddocks when the grass is long but the garden butterflies seemed sparse last year compared to previous years, although we had a lot of caterpillars for the cinnabar moth more than I have ever seen before.

Again, another nice morning, sorry for being so negative February 😜 The shingle arrived this morning, it was supposed to come yesterday and John came home early to shovel it but after phoning the supplier they had forgotten 🙄 It arrived before 8.30 this morning so after doing the rounds I set about shifting it to where it needed to go. The driver was pretty helpful trying to drive and tip it at the same time but most of it ended up as far away from where it needed to go as was possible 😂 So cue Dawn, a shovel and a wheel barrow to spread it around, I did a pretty good job I reckon though I think we could have done with more than the three ton. The dog in the photo, Patch, although he looked as though he was ready and willing was absolutely no help whatsoever 😬

As I said, it freshens things up a bit and once the foliage starts to grow on the shrubs and flowers it will look quite nice, well nicer than it did before lol.

I was delighted to receive some feedback about the quail eggs, the chef sent this picture of his game scotch eggs using the quail eggs, don’t they look yummy, I might have to go a sample them lol

Thursday: An entirely different morning this morning, freezing fog 🙄 it was weird as it seemed as though daylight was early but it was the fog lightening everything up. It should burn off into a lovely day.

I wanted to get a couple of jobs done, the boot room needed a hoover and a wipe round, some washing needs doing so as well as the usual morning rounds I did those too.

I ordered a windowsill propagator, in the early days we didn’t have any windowsills so I never bothered but I do now and so I might as well use them to my advantage. I want to get some of the seeds going early but it’s still too cold even in the greenhouse for some seeds so a warm windowsill is ideal. There is a knack to raising seedlings indoors, light but not full sun all day, if the sun moves round that’s fine but they don’t want to be in it all day long. When the seedlings appear it’s important to keep turning the trays around this will hopefully stop the seedlings reaching for the light and getting too leggy, it also strengthens the stem. The next thing to consider is where you will move them onto, you have all these seedlings appear and then what do you do with them if it’s still too cold? That’s why I bought a heat mat for the greenhouse because that will be their next destination, after that it will be the greenhouse staging with no heat then depending on where they are going either to the poly tunnels or into the cold frames to harden off. I have sown tomato, cucumber, aubergine, peppers and melon, all these need a long growing season to produce anything useful.

The broad beans I showed in the greenhouse are coming up and the peas in the guttering in the polytunnel are also appearing. The carrots have still to appear 🙄

There are a couple of things you can sow now under cover, radishes and cut and come again lettuce. The other thing you can sow are micro greens, these are just seeds from broccoli, cabbage, celery, beetroot, peas, radish, rocket and you grow them like you would grow cress (which can also be sown) and snip them off to sprinkle on your salads or add to something cooked like a bolognese. Growing and harvesting like this gives you great little power packs of greens, full of nutrients and the kids will never know they haven’t just eaten something good for them 😜 I gave some packets of seeds to Shelley and she has been trying it with great success. The range is huge so even if you have a small space you can grow your own and it’s not difficult, if you can grow cress you can grow these there is no mystery to it. I found out accidentally many years ago when I sowed a tray of celery seeds intending to plant them out for full sized celery, I didn’t get round to it so snipped off the seedlings and they were really tasty. At this time of year I would probably use the hardier veg as mentioned above but as the season gets warmer you can start to use all kinds of greens including basil and coriander.

You would think that sowing a few seeds this morning would have satisfied my yearning to get on with preparing for the sowing season, but no, I am looking at the lovely sunshine and thinking what can I get done out there lol all the while I know full well the ground is too cold and too wet to do much at all so all I can do is plan. One part of my plan is already in motion, I have booked John a week off work in March so he can help with the heavy stuff 😜 I have compost to move onto the beds, the heavy strawberry troughs to move and any other job I can’t manage all by myself. I have identified exactly what area I will be using for the perennial cut flowers and they have all been growing in pots since last year ready to fill the bed up. I have chosen the area near my apricot tree, it has been a kind of non area for the last couple of years. Mum dug out all the raspberry runners and bindweed at the end of summer, half the bed will be for runner beans and the other half will be full of flowers hopefully. I have been going round identifying exactly what I have got to plant in there and I will be filling it as full as possible. Rudbeckia, lupin, delphinium, geum dahlia, sweet William, stocks, achillea, campion and a lot more that I can’t remember just now. At the moment it is weedy and I can’t really get on it to weed it until it’s a little drier but as soon as it is I will be raring to go 😀 And if I never get round to cutting them I will have a lovely flower bed to admire.

Friday: Another foggy morning but without the freezing bit however it is still pretty cold and the forecast is not much more than 6c so I will light the Rayburn early as I have the twins for an hour or so while Mia has her very first swimming lesson this afternoon.

I did the morning rounds and I have a missing guinea pig, there is no sign of it being attacked and laying dead anywhere, I assume it has got out somehow, it may return but if it has got out it may have been somethings supper 😏

I lit the Rayburn as soon as I had finished and come back inside, typically the sun cam out about half an hour later but I still don’t think it’s going to get very warm today.

I chopped up a load of veg to make some soup, tomato, pepper, leek, celery and carrot, should make a tasty lunch. I should do more soups as they are easy and packed with goodness all in one hit.

Saturday: A lovely day, the calm before the storm, and we spent most of it outside doing various jobs. John connected up the other ibc tank ready for the torrential rain and we moved the geese to the small back paddock where the grass is better for them and they won’t terrorise the hens now that they have started laying and are fiercely protective. Other jobs included cutting large tree trunks up and then splitting the logs.

Late afternoon I went off with a few family members to Aylesbury Waterside Theatre to watch a play called Ghost Stories 👻 I have no idea why we thought that would be a good thing to do lol.

Sunday: The storm rolled in at around 11pm last night and it has been noisy all night long, roaring through the tree tops. We are only on the letter C and this is Ciara so not too many so far this winter however they are saying that this is a once in every ten years storm and some areas have tornado warnings 🙄 If we get through this without any damage I will be surprised (and very relieved) We have discussed this morning the lighting of the Rayburn or not, I think not as we are bound to lose power at some point and indeed as I write this the lights have flickered ominously. John thinks light it now and if the power goes off at least the house will be warm, decisions, decisions. The storm is set to peak between 1 & 4 pm so we still have a while to go yet I have put a lump of beef in the slow cooker though and hopefully it will be in there long enough to cook.

Doing the animals this morning is going to be a task and most of the hens will probably not venture out very far from their huts, I am wondering how to get hay to the horses without it just blowing away 💨 I hate the wind, I almost hold my breath during storms, obviously won’t be able to hold it all through this one as it’s over 24/48 hrs. I can’t even begin to image how people feel in tornado/hurricane prone areas, I think I would have to move 😏 or have an underground bunker 😜

I went out to fill hay nets for the horses and take them down to the field shelter so that we don’t end up with hay blowing all over the place. As I got in there the wind blew hard, the roof of the shelter was loose and flapped and banged, the horse shat himself and so did I 😬 I went to get John, we found a roof strap, a hammer, nails and a ladder and went back down to secure the roof, crisis averted I reckon 🙄

I think smallholders are probably at their best in times of adversity, either alone or as a team they get out and sort it out. One of the things we tend to do is keep everything, it means we have a lot of crap but sometimes that crap comes in handy, like the roof straps, I have had them knocking around for years, I’ve used a couple for other things now and again but luckily I still had one left.

It’s just gone 4pm and we seem to be coming out of the other side of the storm, it’s still blowy but the strong winds have subsided apart from an occasional gust. Over the day we have had lightening, heavy rain, sunshine and of course the winds. I have seen Facebook updates of fallen trees all around us on the local roads and the new reports of the damage around the whole country is epic, fingers crossed that’s the worst of it over and in our little kingdom we have escaped unscathed 😬

We mostly spent the day inside hunkered down, we had bacon and eggs this morning and plenty of cups of tea, I have done some reading and John has watched the tv (when we had signal that is lol) Nov to have a day of not doing much every now and then even if it is forced upon us 😜

Posted in Friesland Farm

Stormy weather, goose eggs & pod casts.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 13th January: I had a cracking evening last night, by that I mean cracking nuts not having a good time 😜 I thought I’d better get started on the nuts if I do half an hour here and there I will soon have plenty of nuts to snack on or use in cooking. Turns out that only approx 60% of the walnuts are any good but that’s still useful, I haven’t started on the hazels yet. John spent late afternoon getting the gate finished and hung, he is getting very good at gates now, if you put his first effort next to the latest you would laugh and wonder how on earth it ever kept anything in or out let alone shut properly. Our skill set has widened massively over the years, hopefully we can pass some of them on to the next couple of generations you never know when they will need them.

I did a few extra jobs while I was on the rounds this morning, topping up the duck house bedding, moving the electric fence for the hens out in the side paddock and I had to fix the turkey pen fence. Something, probably a Fox has had a go at pulling the fence and there was a gap in it next to the doorway, basically it had been pulled out of the wood pinching it together. I grabbed a hammer and some u nails and fixed it, good job I saw it other wise the turkeys would have been got.

When I finished that I thought I would see what could be done in the garden, the weather is nice enough this morning and I feel like these are bonus days and shouldn’t be wasted. I got the jute out that I ordered and set about putting that down on a bed I cleared last week. I have reservations about using it, on the one hand it’s natural and therefore environmentally friendly, biodegradable, compostable so plenty going for it, it also does not flap about in the wind like the plastic and it would stabilise the soil if left in situ with more compost put on top. On the other hand it’s quite expensive monetarily speaking and I doubled it up because I’m not sure it will exclude the light with just one layer. It is an experiment so we will see how it goes.

I then tried to dig up the blackberry and stingers that have taken hold near the far fence 🙄 hmm I found I wasn’t strong enough to get right to the bottom of the roots nor to pull them so I am going to have to get John to help with that as some point. It does need a new fence there so we will probably do both jobs at the same time. While I was mooching about I found a piece of guttering and had a lightbulb moment, I would use it to plant some peas into in the tunnel. Mice usually bugger up my plans for early peas but you can hang a piece of gutter from the cross bars and that means the little sods can’t reach the seeds 😀 Even if I just use the shoots for salad they will be welcome early greens. The gutter didn’t have any stop ends so I got two plant pots and used those instead, filled it with compost and planted the seeds, it’s not pretty but it is functional and will hopefully work well.

The weather is about to get a bit nasty, we have a very deep depression coming in from the west which will bring strong winds and rain according to the forecasters but the temperatures are still well above average for the time of year.

So I just joined the group NFFN which stands for Nature friendly farming network, I don’t normally randomly join groups but this one seems to be aimed at exactly what I am trying to achieve here which is living off the land but not to the detriment of all other living things that are also here, sustainable farming, not that I farm in the general sense but I do have land that needs managing.

In the run up to Christmas the egg sales went berserk and we couldn’t pick them up and get them out fast enough, the week between Christmas and New Year was pretty steady but since the New Year it’s safe to say it has slowed down considerably and non existent on some days. In order to have a good turn around I have been trying to sell the duck eggs on the sale pages, normally they get snapped up but nothing doing today so I need to look up ways of using them up lol.

Tuesday: It’s calm this morning but we have another weather front coming in apparently so we are in the calm between storms. Here in the UK the storms are named in alphabetical order yesterday’s was storm Brendan so we are only just into storm weather, it usually gets to around g/h/i/j/k but there are 21 storm names allocated each year, if they surpass that I don’t know what they do lol.

I did the rounds this morning, again doing a bit extra as I go, this time it’s a sack full of hay for the rabbit/guineas and two sackfuls of fresh straw for the light Sussex pen, a quick coffee and sort out the egg shed and it will be time to clean out the quail who are still in the back area under cover as they seem to be laying much better in there. Not that we need the eggs, as I said yesterday the customers seem thin on the ground at the minute, I have been plugging them on the sale sites though so hopefully we will get a few new customers to help keep the eggs turning over quickly.

Sat and watched the horses frolicking in the paddock, I don’t know what had got into them but they were having a fine time of it 😀

I have some strawberry plants and some pots of tête-à-tête daffodils to put out for sale but I am kind of holding off until the storms pass as they will just get blown everywhere 💨 The winds were quite strong last night probably around 55-60mph (not strong in comparison to some countries) further up country they were reaching 85mph, but coming up from the south west and from that direction they don’t seem to affect us hugely.

I cleaned out the quail, one of them gets hard little balls of muck stuck to its toes so I had to soften that and get it off, it only happens to one I don’t know why. Then I collect up the daffodils and strawberry plants took them into the greenhouse and gave them a tidy up before putting them up for sale on the sites. The minute I got into the garden I was swarmed by hens all thinking that hopefully it’s three o’clock and I am going to feed them, not a hope it’s only 11am. I don’t know why they do it as they have feed inside the hut so if they were really hungry they could go and get that 🙄 Then is was inside to get the Rayburn lit, the weather though it started off ok has declined and it’s now wet with a breeze, I can tell it’s colder because I wanted to light the Rayburn at 10am but held off to get things done outside first.

I got myself ready to leave the warmth of the house to do the afternoon rounds, I stood at the back thinking ‘bloody heck it’s rough out here’ when all of a sudden crack and a bough came down, good job the wind is blowing so that the bough went along the fence and not towards the house, this is exactly the reason we started taking these down, we really need to finish the job 😏 Just before I went out, as I was getting my coat on, we lost the electric, just for a minute and it came back on but I’m pretty sure it will go again at some point.

We lost power at 4.45 after a couple of flickers, I just knew it was going to go 🙄 luckily I had kept the Rayburn low so there was not much in the fire box which is good as no power means no pump to take the hot water away from the boiler!

John came home and we went out to get something to eat and called into my sisters to get a cup of tea, when we got back at 8pm the electric was still off so John had a bath by candlelight while I sat in the living room with a torch and did some reading. All good fun, this is when we could do with a small wood burning stove that would be like the 1970s when Mum used to make toast on the parkray during power cuts 😀

Wednesday: Is it only Wednesday lol, the power did not come back on until 10.30pm by which time we had given up and gone to bed, it was starting to feel a tad cold and likely that the torch would run out of power so called it a night at 10pm.

It is a calm pleasant morning again, and this mornings survey of the place found no other damage but we do have the big lake back in the side paddock. This normally appears after days of relentless rain and not overnight, there was nothing there yesterday. The chap was due to come Sunday morning for rabbiting but I have warned him it might not be worthwhile as the rabbits have either drowned or fled the burrows.

I keep thinking we must be able to utilise this transient feature somehow but you can bet your bottom dollar that the minute we decide to male it into a permanent wildlife pond we will have a drought 😜

One good thing is that I was unable to cook dinner last night so I am ahead of the game with what to have tonight 😂 I have also lit the Rayburn earlier than usual as you can feel the cold having had no heating during the previous evening.

Thursday: It was colder overnight and I thought we would see a frost but at 6.30 this morning I couldn’t see any sign of one.

Out to do the rounds once it was light enough and nothing untoward but I did find the first goose egg of the season 😀 John had said he thought he saw something when he was shutting them away last night and he was correct. This is nearly a month earlier than usual and I can only assume that the mild winters as contributed to that. Normally the winter would be full of days when the ground is frozen or at least frosted but we have had less than a handful of days like that so the geese have been able to steadily graze grass constantly which is unusual. It means that they have been able to get good nutrition throughout and therefore start laying early which is great for them and a bonus for us.

One of the things I started listening to when the electric was off were podcasts, the selection out there is phenomenal and every type of subject is available. This morning I listened to an hour long podcast about growing and storing enough food to feed your family for a year, it was interesting and the best thing is that on the phone it’s mobile, I just take the phone with me whatever I am doing and can carry on listening. I got dressed, I did the washing up, then out to sort and box the eggs, all the while taking the phone with me and listening to something that interests me, much better than listening to the radio or the cat meowing 😜 I think I will definitely include podcasts as a part of my day.

Friday: I have blood tests this morning, these are for monitoring the effects of the drugs I have to take, they are disease modifying drugs and can have all sorts of side effects so need keeping an eye on. When I feel really well, like I do at the minute, I question wether I even have anything wrong but in truth if I came off the drugs I think things would plummet pretty quickly.

So the weather has been pretty atrocious this week I think it’s fair to say, today is not much better but we do have some sunshine in the forecast for the weekend, hopefully it will make an appearance, if for no other reason than to bring a bit of cheer to what seems like a very long month. We have about six weeks to go before we can get uplifted by the fact that spring will actually begin to spring. I watched a programme last night and the clip with the birds singing and the green grass made me realise how much I long for that time of year. I said to John yesterday that I look forward to the weekends when he takes over the feeding, if I had to do it seven days a week I think I would give up the birds entirely 🙄 We have customers that say ‘don’t give up doing this, we love your eggs’ but I reckon if they spent even one day in the wet, wind and mud they might think differently lol.

After the deluge of rain we have had this last week one serious thought I have been having is about exactly how to stabilise the ground. You can visibly see serious amounts of run off (as we are on a slight incline) and consequently the erosion of the soil especially on the veg garden. If the past few years have taught me anything it’s that this problem is getting worse and I don’t really have the expertise or knowledge so I am going to have to read all I can and work it out. The problem would not doubt be easily solved if we did not have grazing animals on the land and by that I mean the horses and the geese. They would eat most of anything you plant unless it is well protected, heavily protected in the case of the horses. I think I need to, and indeed want to, increase the hedging especially in the side paddock at the front by the lane. We have discussed putting up a fence to keep the horses away from anything newly planted but the geese would get through that and so would the chickens and they would scratch up round the roots so you see what I am up against here, multiple procedures are needed. In the meantime if anyone can point me in the direction of some serious land management articles involving erosion and how to prevent it I would be very grateful 😀

Saturday: A good hard frost overnight whoop, nice and fresh and crisp this morning and we did need it. Those plants that go dormant over winter need the cold so that they recognise when to break dormancy as it gets warmer plus it kills off a few pests and diseases. Of course along with the frost generally come a sunny day and that is exactly what we got, cold but sunny. John did the animals then had to shoot off and sort something out on a job he is currently on. Meanwhile I sorted out the morning household jobs and then went out to give hay and some carrots to the horses, top up the wild bird feeders and feed Diesel who had actually bought his own breakfast along in the form of a dead mouse 🙄 glad to see he is still earning his keep. When John came back he got to work on the fence that runs along from his new gate, digging holes and putting in fence posts, not a great job for a cold day so I made a batch of biscuits to keep him ticking along. Shelley, Josh and Florence came over, Josh wanted to help with some jobs. Always keen to take up the offer of some help as you never know when they will stop wanting to, we put some clean bedding in for the ducks, checked the growing daffodils and fruit trees at the back, had a tour around the veg garden, Josh was very interested in what was growing he kept asking ‘what’s this plant Nana’ lol, we went to watch Grampy do a bit then they found a nice icy puddle to jump up and down in which entertained them no end 😀

Back indooors for a cup of tea and some lunch and we had an episode that is the only time it is acceptable to hit a child, choking, Josh got a whole hula hoop stuck and was choking, Shelley whacked him a few times nothing, she looked at me saying ‘Mum’ and I went round and took over, three hard whacks, nothing, rapidly going through my head was after this next one if it doesn’t budge I am going to have to do it much harder and roll my fist up under his rib cage, thankfully it budged and came out. It was probably seconds but it feels like a lifetime and so many thoughts are running through your head mostly what your next stage of action will be. Of course a hula hoop will eventually go soft but at the time, the child is panicking and in this case Florence was also screaming because we were whacking Josh. Object removed, sighs of relief, then come the lectures lol, don’t talk with your mouthful, chew your food properly, and sit still while you are eating, all the things countless generations of mothers have said to their children, there is a very good reason for that 😜

I listened to another pod cast this morning while I was sorting eggs, one from the RHS about Wisley, very interesting and it got me intrigued, I definitely want to go and visit this year if I can. They have an attraction called ‘The giant houseplant takeover’ I am not really keen on houseplants but listening to the pod cast I was thinking how very clever the idea is as they explained what it was all about. John will be delighted lol, I’m sure they have a good cafe he can sit in and while away the time 😝

I made a pan of vegetable soup, nice and warming on a day like today and obviously very good for you, get your five a day all in one hit lol. I will probably whizz it up as I have put herbs in there and what John doesn’t know won’t hurt him 😜

I really have a hankering for a Cornish pasty lol, I might just have to make some.

I cleaned the windows, I thought it would probably be better if I could see through them 😝

The sky is kind of purple tonight, love the spectacular sunsets and sunrises the cold weather brings.

Sunday: Another hard frost, harder than yesterday I would say, but again the sun is shinning brilliantly and it looks magical shinning on the frozen branches and ground. John did the morning rounds and cleaned out the front hens, I sorted eggs etc.

This morning we are going to Blenheim Palace for a walk around the grounds and a coffee. We are very lucky to have this magnificent stately home only 20 minutes down the road and this year I bought annual passes for us and the girls so that it can be enjoyed all year round.

Well that turned into quite a chunk of the day visiting ‘The Kingdom’ as Josh called it 😂 I bought family passes for presents and I think we will definitely get our monies worth going there regularly, there is plenty of ground to cover and lots to do as well as the events they put on.

We got back at 3 and it was then a rush to grab a sandwich (long story as the cafe was packed as were the palace grounds) and scoot round to visit Charlie and Macca for his birthday. A quick cuppa with them then back home to do the afternoon feeding, egg collecting and light the Rayburn. The place gets pretty cold when there is no heating all day 🙄

Posted in Friesland Farm

Back to normal, stuff to sort & Winter flowering shrubs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 6th January 2020: I have enjoyed having John at home for three weeks but this morning I am also happy to have the place back to myself as he goes off to work early. I think it’s the sense of back to normality and there is definitely a lot to be said for doing things the way I want them done instead of compromise or argument 😜

So what will I be doing with my time? Good question, I always say ‘I never make plans’ they go awry quite quickly I find so a loose idea of what I want to achieve with an indefinite time frame is a much better option lol, it also give me room to completely change my mind 😀 Today’s tasks are to get the morning rounds done, finish setting up the heat pad in the greenhouse now I have found everything I need, possibly move a bit more wood chip (nearly done) a few household tasks such as hoovering, dinner prep, lighting the Rayburn (they all take time) and probably a million other little things along the way. I have a couple of other jobs in mind that need doing such as cleaning out the quail and the ducks and they are the kind of job that are on the list but can be flexible as long as I get them done at some point within the next couple of days.

I did the animals, topping up the duck bedding as I went round, finding the rabbit/guineas some lovely greens and then figured I may as well strike while the iron is hot with a bit of outside work. I chose to do the rest of the wood chip laying in the fruit cage, the plan was to get the wood chip down, weed and mulch the pots of summer raspberries and cut back the autumn canes. I was about six barrowfuls in when I felt decidedly shaky, stupidly I had only eaten a banana for breakfast like I have been for the past couple of weeks but with some hard work on top the banana didn’t cut it 😜 I can only assume it’s blood sugar levels, I have had it before when I haven’t eaten enough to fuel the jobs I’m doing, I went in and had a large bowl of bran flakes, and a couple of shortbreads, 15 mins later I felt better but still a bit shaky so I made a coffee and sat down a while.

Once I had recovered I went back out and got the job in hand finished in the fruit cage, the areas that needed wood chip are all done, the summer raspberries have a mulch layer of wood chip on top of their pots, I have cut down the autumn raspberry canes and did a bit extra pruning of the blackcurrant bushes. I got half a trug of weeds out which will go to the rabbit/guineas for tomorrow’s snack. I secured the posts and canes and then shut the gate, that is all that will need doing in there now until well into spring except a bit of potash feeding for the strawberries to encourage flowering.

A midway through and finished picture of the fruit cage.

Indoors to light the Rayburn, John called in for a cuppa and I will have a quick sit down before a chap arrives mid afternoon to collect some hens.

Just as I am about to get back into working outside the weather is on the turn, the forecast over the next couple of days is for warm temps but accompanied by rain and possible high winds 🙄 urgh. Not to be deterred I have rainy day jobs in mind including getting the big poly tunnel up together and ready to plant into.

And right on cue just as I wrote this, it began to rain 😂

Tuesday: I have enjoyed another great morning outside getting things done, I am really enjoying myself at the minute, the weather is fairly kind and I have the energy and strength, fabulous. First up as always was the morning rounds and this time while I was doing them I cleaned out the goose hut, I have to then close the door all day as the chickens would get in there and scratch it all out again 🙄 Then onto the garden or more precisely the big poly tunnel, I tidied it up a little, pruned the grapevine, tidied up the strawberries and topped up the compost they are growing in. I made sure everything else was tidied up and added extra compost, I have chard and flat leaf parsley growing nicely. The other things overwintering in there are the lemon grass and the Chinese gooseberries, I am hoping they come through the winter ok along with the basil and the lemon verbena. All look ok at the minute so fingers crossed. I cut up some old compost bags and used them for weed suppressant round the edges and then I topped up an empty raised bed and sowed some early carrot seeds. I have covered them with fleece and we will see if they germinate or not, nothing to lose as they are some seeds I found from last year so if they don’t grow it’s not a big loss. I sorted out the potato bags and I need to order some first earlies, I am going to grow these in the tunnel as well, I don’t normally do earlies but it’s good to change things about now and again.

Early in January it’s mostly about preparation for the months ahead, there is not much that can be sown until early next month. It’s a good month to get your crop rotation plan sorted and write down anything you would really like to grow. Sit with a cuppa and order your seeds, onion sets, garlic bulbs and seed potatoes. I have just ordered mine, the plants are despatched to you at the appropriate times for planting so you can’t go wrong really. I have also ordered some grafted plants, water melon and aubergine, two plants I find difficult to get going from seed as a general rule. Often with the amount I order I get a ‘deal’ of some kind, this time I have opted for 36 geranium plug plants for £2.99 I probably won’t keep them myself but what I will do is grow them on and put them out for sale for a couple of quid each depending on size, that way I will hopefully cover the costs of the veg I have bought. That’s what I always aim to do with the veg/fruit I sell at the gate, if I can cover the cost of the seeds, growing them and harvesting what we need then I am doing myself a favour plus providing some tasty home grown veg/fruit for customers, a win, win situation 😀

Indoors at lunchtime to grab a sandwich and get the Rayburn lit, decide what to have for dinner later and prep it.

Wednesday: The weather is holding beautifully which means after doing the animals I was able to get another morning out in the veg garden. I started off tidying the greenhouse a little bit, moving stuff around, sowing a few broad bean seeds then out onto the beds. I lay awake last night thinking about what beds I had done and what still needed to be tackled, a bit sad lol but at least I got up this morning knowing what I wanted to achieve. You may remember last year I tried the ‘chop and drop’ thing, well not this year, I didn’t really like the untidy look and more importantly it didn’t give a feeling of an end and a beginning if that makes sense, I also found that I felt I had a lack of control over the garden which persisted all season long. So this year I am clearing and tidying which is what I have been doing this morning, I am happy with what I have done and whilst doing it I am mentally making a note of what will go where which I felt unable to do last year. As it stands out there I just have two more areas to sort out, I do have to replenish the soil with homemade compost or manure but once everything is cleared I can get that done. Both the compost heap and the manure pile are very wet at the moment which in turn makes heavy work so I will wait a while and hope it continues to dry out some more. I still have a few bits of produce growing, the winter spinach and a few tiny cabbages that the birds have been at, I have now put protection over them so they can continue to grow. There is of course curly kale still in the ground and the sprouting broccoli which I am able to get a few bits off of. The babbington leeks are pushing up through, they are a perennial leek and at the moment I’m not quite sure how that works. With conventional leeks you plant one and pull it when it’s bigger the perennial leeks should keep produce off shoots I suppose but as yet that hasn’t happened. I pulled up some radish, I need to try and find out which variety these are as they are far better than the usual French types. They are white and grow to golf ball size, tasty and more importantly they don’t bolt and go woody, a winner as far as I am concerned and a definite to grow again. Oh and the rhubarb is beginning to grow 😀😀

I have to order some more weed membrane to block out the light on the growing beds so that weeds don’t become a big problem. At the moment I am using black plastic which I reuse each year until it falls apart so although it’s not the option I would like it’s the one I take. The reason being that the thin fabric stuff gets absolutely ripped apart by the winds up here, the thicker stuff is very costly and I need quite a lot of it. I will keep searching, I may eventually find an alternative.

So scrap what I have just written, I am going to trial jute, it’s a natural fabric, it will have a limited life span but it’s better for the environment, hopefully it will do a similar job to the plastic in cutting out the light. I also am thinking I can use off cuts of it as strawberry mats or cut holes in it to plant into, watch this space and I will let you know how it performs 😀

Thursday: The weather is a bit more feisty today lol but despite having lots of rain overnight, this morning it is dry and windy. I had already decided not to work on the garden today there are other jobs that are calling. One of those was my jam jar cupboard, I have a cupboard dedicated to jam jars, bottles, Kilner jars and any other glass container that might come in handy, some have been bought, some given and some had goodies in them made by others so it’s quite a collection. Over time they just get washed and stuffed anywhere that is not in the way and that means that I don’t really know what is in there 🙄 so sorting and tidying the cupboard was a job that needed doing, I can also then see what if anything I need to get for the coming seasons. I made a coffee, went out there and got so engrossed in what I was doing I forgot the coffee and it went cold 😏

That actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would and now I need to find some other jobs to get on with.

I’m not sure what triggered the next job but it took me a lot longer than I had thought 🙄 I think I started off by thinking I will tidy up the office, another area that just gets stuff dumped until you can hardly get in the door to find stuff. My aim was to get some of the things under the bed in the spare room but then I looked under the bed and pulled out stuff that was under there. Stuff that came from Johns Mums and to be honest I have no idea why we still have it, other stuff that we no longer use and have nowhere else for it to go, that all got sorted and out into piles, charity shop, free sites, selling sites. The space was then ready for the things like the travel cot which is stored in the office but can go under the bed. That then led me onto all the other stuff in the office lol, again things we no longer use or that are broken so more piles for recycling or selling on or putting on the free sites. I am not saying the office is now clutter free because there are still things in boxes to be gone through but I have made a dent in it.

Friday: Today has been an altogether different day, Josh arrived early morning to help with the morning rounds 😀 he was all kitted out in mud proof gear and keen as mustard to help me. We fed everything and let them out, collected a few eggs then took some hay to the horses. What made me laugh is that he is a little afraid of the chickens and ducks but no fear whatsoever of the horses. Once we had finished outside we came in for a juice break and chatted about the types of food he likes, then I asked ‘shall we make a cake’ ‘oooooo can we make pie’ he replied lol. I let him choose the fruit and he decided on apple, plum & blackcurrants 🙄 it actually tasted quite nice if a little sharp. He did a good job of rolling out the pastry and even made a pastry triceratops head to go with it 😂 Mid morning, just before Shelley came to pick him up, Sam arrived with Mia and the twiglets, everybody (except the twiglets) had pie 🥧 I looked after the twins and Mia while Sam went off to get some food shopping in peace and then it was time to do the afternoon feeding and egg collection. A lovely day.

When I walk down the driveway at this time of year I always stop when I am halfway back to smell the Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) that has been growing for a few years now. The amazing sweet scent of this otherwise unremarkable shrub is delicious and a real treat at this time of year. It goes by some other rather sweet names such as kiss-me-at-the-gate or sweet breath of spring 😀 I took a few sprigs indoors to put in a pot on the windowsill for a natural room scent and I also took a couple of cuttings, I’m not sure if they will take this time of year but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

At our old place I had a Daphne and really wish I had dug it up and bought it with us as you could smell its lovely scent long before you got anywhere near it. I think sweet smelling winter shrubs are under used probably because by the time people go to the garden centres en mass it’s late spring and they have passed their best and don’t look particularly engaging but they are definitely worth a thought if you are looking for something to fill a gap and the reward is uplifting in the depths of winter.

Saturday: 😀 yay the weekend, great because John does the rounds in the mornings giving me a break from it. I get on with other things and besides the household chores I spent a small amount of time in the garden. A quick job of tidying the bird, butterfly and beer bed, I call it this because it has a pear, apple, cherry and mulberry tree in it as well as Japanese honeysuckle, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes which pretty much feed the birds and hopefully some butterflies, the beer comes in with the hop I have growing there though I have never used it for that purpose as yet lol. It was a quick visit outside because it’s a bit blowy and a tad cold so my fingers soon felt the nip in the air. I had intended laying the jute weed fabric but when it’s windy trying to do that by yourself is a tricky job and John has gone off to get feed.

When he gets back the jobs on the sheet are to brush the flue and clean out the Rayburn and then he is building a gate for a new fence in the orchard as the one I put up keeps falling down. I need to stop these demented hens in the front paddock from reaching my veg garden. At first just a couple made it there then a few and now about 15 of them, most of the wood chip I put down on the pathways has been scratched into piles or onto the lawn 🙄 I want to get well ahead with keeping them at bay so that gardening is an altogether pleasant affair this year instead of an angry one because they have scratched up all my hard work.

The gate didn’t get built but John re loaded the wood pile in the covered area just out the back then we actually had a few hours off before starting again with the afternoon rounds, Charlie and Macca walked over for a cuppa, we went and got a bit of food shopping and called in to see Shelley, Martin and the kids to deliver a tray of eggs. By 8.30 I was asleep on the sofa, feeling tired after a busy week 💤

Sunday: The weather was filthy overnight, lashing rain and strong winds but all is settled this morning. Again, John did the morning rounds while I had a shower and did the household chores. A quick coffee and John went out to power wash the POL pen now that we have moved our ex laying hens on to a new home. I don’t know what it is about that job but as soon as it needs doing he moves it directly to the top of the list 🙄 still once it’s done it can be left until we buy in the next batch of POL for selling probably in March.

The plan for the rest of the morning is to go out for breakfast at a local plant nursery, John gets a cooked brekkie and I get to look round at the plants it’s a win, win 😀

I bought an evergreen shrub at the nursery, only a small specimen, I can’t bear to part with the amount of money they want for things when I can grow it on lol. If I specifically wanted something for a certain space then I would but this will go in a pot for now and be put out the front, I’m trying to get a bit of colour out there as it’s all very dead and brown looking. On the way back we called into my Sisters for a cup of tea, one cup lead to another cup and before we knew it we’d been there a couple of hours 😜 We booked a trip to the theatre while we were there, some sort of interactive ghost show 👻 it is billed as ‘not for those of a nervous disposition’ 😝 it will get the adrenaline pumping and blow away the cobwebs lol.

We got back, I lit the Rayburn, I had to pop along the road to get some natural fire lighters as we only had one left. These are rolled up wood shavings and I think they have a extremely thin layer of wax on them, I was finding it more difficult to get hold of newspapers as we don’t ever have them and so these are a great alternative, they also light first time and are very easy to use. Meanwhile John went and finished cleaning the POL pen then he fed the birds and collected the eggs then he finally got on to making the gate and I got tonight’s dinner sorted which is shepherds pie.

The long range weather forecast shows no freezing temperatures in sight so looks like we are going to have a mild winter (famous last words) I must admit that although we always think we need a bit of freezing weather to break dormancy and kill off any pests, I am rather enjoying a milder season. Though it does means I am really wanting to get my teeth sunk into some sowing, I’m like a race horse that is being held back at the minute 🐎 I have learnt from many years experience not to be too hasty in that department though as it can all go horribly wrong 🤪

Whatever you are doing this week have a good one, do something outside your comfort zone if you can, as I say to Josh ‘put your brave hat on and go for it’ TTFN 👋

Posted in Friesland Farm

Windy, a passing & a family feast.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 9th December: Oooo we are getting closer, not to Christmas but to the Solstice 😀 I am writing this at 7.30am on Monday morning ( that’s approx 15 hrs of darkness 🙄) and it’s still dark outside 😏 I have bumbled round and done as many indoor jobs as I can and am waiting for it to get light before going outside. I could let everything out while it’s dark and indeed some people don’t have any choice as they have to get off to work, luckily I don’t have to do that and so I can wait. I’m sure that people have been caught out many a time by the fox in circumstances like the one above so I won’t risk it.

It’s been pretty windy overnight so I have no idea what I will find once I get out there, hopefully no damage anywhere just stuff scattered.

I’ve just come back in and all in all it’s ok out there, no damage that I can see just stuff blown around, if there was a leaf on any tree there sure isn’t anymore lol. One thing that I spotted which has been exposed by the leaf fall is a drey 🙄 I wasn’t sure if that’s what it was until I came back in a looked up some pictures but it definitely is, it is in the tree in the front paddock. A squirrel nest, not sure what I think about that to be honest, on the one hand I’m thinking ‘how lovely’ on the other I am thinking ‘thieving little sods living a bit too close for comfort’ 😜 It will remain of course and I will have to up my security over the veg garden, they don’t just pinch your nuts they steal fruit as well 😂 especially strawberries. Luckily I already have squirrel proof bird feeders, actually I got them initially because the crows were stealing all the bird food but I was a good move. This morning I have filled up the feeders with suet pellets as it getting a little bit harder for the birds to find food and they need a bit of extra help over the coldest months.

The wind exposes your weaknesses, loose window panes, ill fitting doors, gates that don’t quite shut properly, fences that are not as secure as they should be, things you haven’t put away properly, the wind is out to show you what you haven’t done properly. Even if you think you have it sorted the wind will come from a different direction and prove you wrong 🙄 We are pretty exposed to the westerlies here which are our prevailing winds and we are used to those but today’s wind was northerly meaning different problems with things that don’t normally get affected. We rarely get an easterly, when we do it comes with artic weather and we rarely get a southerly either. Then there are the Squallies as I would call them, that is wind that seems to come from all directions at once and just buffet you constantly, I don’t know what the technical name is for them but that’s what I have named them lol. There is a silver lining to the wind as it dries up all the ground so it’s not all bad 😀

Mid morning I had a call from John who had a call from the nursing home, after her turn on Sunday his Mum has taken a turn for the worst and they said that they should probably come in and see her. He spent the rest of the day there, came home had dinner and a bath and then we went back in the evening for a short visit.

Wednesday: Ok so I have missed out pretty much all of yesterday and today the reason being as you might have guessed is that Johns Mum passed away very late last night. Sadly it was only an hour until her 85th birthday but she didn’t quite make it, just over a year ago she suffered a stroke which left her paralysed down one side and sent her into decline, a peaceful end was reached yesterday.

Meanwhile the daily routines still have to be carried out, animals need feeding and cleaning out, eggs need collecting and sorting and home life has similar routines to continue as well, all in all it’s possible I won’t get much else written this week depending on what is happening, there are obviously many things to sort out and finalise and paperwork to do so I will see what other time I have left.

Oh and we have the election to contend with and an outbreak of avian flu in the country again, could be a tough end to the week this week 🙄

Thursday: The weather is appalling, bursts of heavy rain with light rain inbetween not very nice out there at all. I’m hoping that I am at the tail end of this bug now so that I can crack on with things and although I did clean out the ducks on my way round this morning, I haven’t done anything but the necessary out there.

John, the girls and I have discussed planting trees in memory of both Johns Mum and Dad, at first we thought about a scheme in a woodland but in the end we decided on planting two apple trees here. John said it would be good to be able to see the trees whenever you went past them and also with apple trees you would get something back from them in a few years time. So I have ordered the varieties Greensleeves and Rosette, we had a greensleeves apple tree at our old house and the apples were plentiful and tasty, the Rosette is a new one on me but it apparently produces pink apple juice which will be pretty 😀

Saturday: Gaps again, sorry about that but really not much has been happening, the weather is awful with what seems like constant rain and indeed we have a mini lake back in the paddock and the hay barn has water on the floor. I haven’t been doing much in the way of anything, where I was all geared up to get ready for the festivities this cold and sinus thing has cocooned my thinking, I can’t hear much other than ringing in my ears and muffled noises, it’s surprising how debilitating that can be. John has now finished for the Christmas break so he will be here doing a few jobs, at the moment he is re stocking the wood pile out the back to keep us going over the holidays.

This afternoon we have our family Christmas get together, last year we did a full on four course roast dinner for around 50 people, this year we have decided to do a buffet lol. The men, of course, were heard to mutter and moan that they wanted the roast but most of them put absolutely no effort into helping achieve that and so they will have to put up with what they get this year 😜

A lovely time was had by all we feasted and made merry. I received what I think will be one of my all time favourite gifts from one of my Sisters, a hand made plaque with meaning 😀

The rain has been relentless again and we have water standing everywhere but it’s not really affecting us overall so I am not going to worry about it.

Today’s plans are mainly for us and not for the farm so I will finish this earlier than usual and hope you have an excellent week.