Tag: shilton

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stick pile that the birds are loving

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

View across the paddock and beyond, from a platform 😀

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ate dinner, finished off the mowing, job done ✅

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

Josh and his chicks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seedlings all doing nicely in the poly tunnel.

Posted in Friesland Farm

A busy, tiring but highly productive week 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seed sowing, incubating & poultry processing

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

A Wedding, a death & a bloody great pot hole 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th March: Cold and blustery this morning but at least it’s not raining. I have not done much but the usual today what with house guests and all. Finally the family secret is out of the bag, yesterday we surprised Dad and today Adi, my other brother was surprised with the arrival of Joe, also my brother, and his family all the way from Australia. Adi and Heidi are getting married tomorrow and it was hard work keeping it a secret from him lol. Big get together tomorrow, I think the last time we were all together in the same country was five years ago!

I had to light the Rayburn early as Dad who is almost 82 is definitely feeling the cold wind today.

I probably won’t write anything tomorrow as it will be a busy day, we are travelling down to Winchester and the plan is to leave all the birds in with feed and water, a friend is popping round to let the dogs out for a stretch and a wee and we will be home late evening 😀

There is no sign whatsoever of Cruella De Ville, I have no idea what has happened to her, it’s possible the fox got her as it has been in the tack room and cornered a hen in there from the amount of feathers, or its frightened her so much she has run off but I would have thought she would have come back as she has been here 4 months now ☹️

Tuesday: I have a few minutes to write so this mornings routine was slightly different as the hens/ducks are being kept in all day as we are off for the the wedding and it being a Tuesday anyone I would have asked to do anything is at work 🙄 Trying to get in through the door with a bunch of birds that are used to coming out was not the easiest of tasks today. John had to go and do a quick job 😡 not happy about that, so it was me on me tod. First job, the quail and I could see fresh blood in the cage, so I pick them all up and find one bleeding on the back end, I wash her off, purple spray her and put her back, I watch and see the others pecking at her back end. Great now I have to find a separate cage/box, and isolate her, she is in a cat cage with food and water and hopefully will heal soon. Onto the hens, banged my head twice trying to get in with feed and water without letting any of them out, swearing can most definitely be heard at these points! I’ve let the geese out, they are easy to get back in so will herd them back in before we go. Molly the cat is not moving very much this morning, normally she runs under your feet every time you go through the door but today she is staying put, in fact at one point I thought she had died but she put her head up when I went over to stroke her, I don’t think she has long left though ☹️ The dogs will mostly be in today but a friend is coming round to let them out later and we won’t be too late home. Let the celebrations begin 😀

We arrived home around 10pm, my friend had done a fab job, closed the curtains, turned the lamps on etc. It was most unfortunate for her that Molly the cat died while we were away for the day ☹️ I knew she was near the end this morning but I was hoping she would hang on until we got back, so as she put it, a wedding one day and a funeral the next!

Wednesday: Dull and damp outside this morning, John let the birds out they were happy after being in all day yesterday and from here on in I can now reorganise them, we had been keeping them in the stable block because we knew they would need to spend the day locked in for safety.

I noticed more blood in the quail cage and on further investigation I found three out of four quail with a pecked vent, so I oiked out the culprit and then moved the other three back to the outside pen, I will give them time to recover then put the other one back in and hope it behaves itself.

Sue cleaned out one of the duck houses for me, ready to move the ducks back outside though probably not today as the weather has not improved in fact it has got worse, I did a few bits outside and then decided it was too horrible out there if it wasn’t totally necessary 😜

Thursday: Still no sign of nice weather, it’s a bit cold and windy but at least not raining this morning. John let the birds in the stable out and fed them and I went round and did the geese and light Sussex. When I got to the light Sussex the door had come open and one of the hens was out, now I checked the door yesterday and although the bolt did not go fully in it did feel secure so either the wind has rocked it or someone has been poking about! Luckily all the birds are still there and only one had got out. I have been saving the eggs from these birds and just need 3 more for 18 then I will set them in the incubator. I can smell the fox this morning so will need to set up the camera again and see what is prowling around at night. We are off out for breakfast this morning with our guests, nice to get out and about 😀

That turned out to be more eventful than planned lol, halfway down the lane Sue pulled to the side to let an oncoming vehicle pass went in a rather large pothole and burst the tyre! Luckily she is with the AA as the locking nut on the wheel wouldn’t turn so she called them and we waited an hour for them to come, a passing van stopped to help, a young chap got out and said ‘hello Brian’ turned out to be one of my brothers (the one over from Australia) mates from many years ago. We all had a good laugh on the side of the road and eventually made it just before they stopped cooking breakfast altogether 🙄

We had a funny incident tonight when Dad went out the back for a smoke, we had two black cats, Molly who died on Tuesday and Diesel who very rarely comes anywhere near the ‘indoors’ but for some reason he came running in the back meowing tonight, frightened the life out of Dad as he thought the Molly had come back to life 😂

Friday: I haven’t really done much apart from the usual today. I have a contorted hazel in the front of the drive and each year it sends up straight stems, these need to be cut out so that it doesn’t revert back, Sue kindly offered to do this job for me today 😀 Sam, Shelley and the children called round in the afternoon, Sam made a batch of scones while she was here 😀 they filled the kitchen with a lovely smell.

Rain in the afternoon again, it really hasn’t been the nicest of weeks for our visitors, they will be going back to Wales on Sunday, we say they bought the rain with them, hopefully they will take it back 🤣

Saturday: Windy again but the sun is out so not so bad. John let the animals out and fed them while I sorted out the eggs for sale. Then John went out and sorted out the hunt and fencing in the paddock ready for the new birds next week, meanwhile I cleared an area that I wanted him to put a shelf up in and promptly dropped a slab of marble on my foot 😡 it’s sore but not broken I don’t think. He had left his tools at work (there’s a surprise) so we had to use my cordless screwdriver, I plugged the battery in to charge and the charger stopped working, ffs, I have had mine for about 15 years and at times it won’t work so I have ordered a new one 😀 just as cheap to buy the whole lot as a new charger so decision made. I did a bit of a tidy up in the boot room and sorted out the incubator and got that set up, I have 18 light Sussex eggs to go in when it’s up to temperature and humidity, these, if successful are our dual propose birds. Dad and Sue went off out to do some visiting. I planted up some strawberry plants in the poly tunnel and sowed a row of spinach a row of salad leaves and also coriander, watered the citrus trees and sowed some peas in a tray, emptied the mouse trap and reset it. In the soil before sowing I mixed in some mycorrhizal fungi for good measure 😀 it was blooming blowy, I mean seriously blowy out there this afternoon!

Then an afternoon of rugby, we don’t do rugby but Dad and Sue do lol, Sue did shell some hazelnuts for me inbetween games 😀

Set the wildlife camera again tonight as last nights failed, no idea what I did wrong but fingers crossed tonight it will pick up something.

Sunday: It is VERY windy this morning, I don’t think I ever seen it so bad in the daytime before, the wind is literally ‘roaring’ through the tops of the trees. John was filling the water buckets from the tanks and the wind was blowing the water sideways completely missing the bucket! My anxiety levels are always high when it’s windy just waiting for something to happen 🙄 I got the sd card in from the camera, caught the fox on it a few things times plus diesel but not Cruella ☹️ We did the birds and caught up one of the drakes to dispatch as Dad is going to take it home and pluck it then dine on it 😀

Dad and Sue left about 10 to return to Wales visiting my Aunt on the way, I cracked on with the cleaning as I haven’t been able to do it all week. I’ve booked a weekend near Dads birthday at the end of May, I booked through Airbnb on a smallholding 😀 very excited about that 😀 John stacked wood, he was going to cut the hedge but it’s so windy it’s not really safe to do.

The son in laws are coming round to measure up for the top of the greenhouse later so I have a roast to prepare for them all and hopefully that will be the end of cooking for a while as I have plenty of leftover portions from the meals I have been making all week 😜

I am booking tickets for the Malvern Spring show, we decided we would go on the Friday when it’s not too busy, if I don’t book things we never go so that’s my plan this year.

Went out and got a bit of food shopping and for after the roast beef later I have made a traditional rice pudding.

March:

‘The Anglo-Saxons called the month Hlyd monath which means Stormy month, or Hraed monath which means Rugged month.’

Very apt!

Poor Mia asked where Molly the cat was, when we explained she had gone to sleep she completely understood and promptly burst into tears 😢

Posted in Friesland Farm

A moment to cherish, plenty of jobs & visitors.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back inside now to get everything shipshape 😝

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

The Artic, home to sunshine and fresh oranges.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

We are back from our Artic adventure, it was epic, we had force 11 seas 🤢, hurricane Eric blew in blizzards and cloud cover which meant we didn’t see one single scrap of the Northern Lights ☹️ but we had an amazing time. The scenery was fantastic, the temperatures were not too low except for one night up in the mountains it was -17 and the toes got a bit cold after a couple of hours, the places we visited were fabulous, even Alta which is just about the last outpost before treks to the North Pole😲 The Norwegians carry on regardless of any snow fall and if they come up against mountains they just tunnel through them 😂 they even have a roundabout right in the middle of one tunnel. The food was amazing especially their pancakes and sour cream 😀, the food on the ship was epic especially the lobster 😀 the people are friendly and very hardy lol, all in all a fantastic time away.

When we got home we were straight back into it, piles of washing, shopping, blood tests on the Friday. On Saturday, because the weather was so lovely we spent the day outside sawing up wood and clearing debris and stood burning it until 7pm and even then we didn’t need our coats on.

I discovered around 20 goose eggs, they obviously started laying while we were away and as they bury them quite deep nobody realised they were there. We lost quite a few hens, I think they were being picked off during the daytime as there were no nighttime disasters, I was reluctant to tell Shelley but I did in the end, they were mostly the older hens though as I counted all the younger ones and they are still there. We have made a plan to get some more in March, the quail have started laying again so that’s good news and the light Sussex are laying well so I will be saving those eggs to hatch some more out.

Sunday was again a glorious day with very unusual temps for the time of year, pretty sure this is going to hit back at us hard later on lol. We carried on with tidying the front, this time the hedge in the driveway, it’s the last few days we have to get it cut before the birds begin to nest, we didn’t quite finish it off as we had a lunch appointment at Upton Firehouse and after that a quick visit to Mum and Ken who have just arrived back after a few months in Spain and France in the caravan. When I knew they were coming back at the end of Feb my first request was for some fresh oranges from Spain 😀 Southern Europe oranges are in season now, I know we can get them all year round in the shops but they are often in cold storage for a long time and fresh, unwaxed, in season oranges are something not to be missed, juicy, sweet, just delicious. She also bought back some lemons, limes and almonds 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Snow, ice, rain, fog = Winter 🥶

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 4th February: It rained in the early hours and has taken some of the snow with it but there are still large bits of ice underfoot! It’s been a busy couple of hours already, we discovered that Molly had managed to pull down the door where the quail are and had two of them for her breakfast 😡 Partly due to the fact that John had left the dustbin, we keep, the dog food in, out a little way which has given her a way up, guess who is in the dog house 🙄 The hens have been getting everywhere including in the back area and they knock everything over so I have been tidying up that and burning some rubbish.

We have had some success on the larger pest front over the last week and have reduced the numbers by three, there are still a few more around though, apologies to anyone this doesn’t sit well with but when you are inundated like we are at the moment something has to be done, after all our birds are just going about their daily lives as well and we need to protect them. We do as much as possible in terms of making sure that they are locked away and in a secure area but this doesn’t stop predators finding any way it can to get at them including daytime marauding 😫 And believe me the irony is not lost on me as far as the cat is concerned for a split second I considered dispatching her as well 😲

I still have a mouse coming in, it ate all the bait without setting off the trap and judging by the tiniest of cracks I think it’s getting in, it must be very small indeed, I will keep trying though I don’t want a family setting up in the house!

It is much milder today and it is not going to change for a couple of weeks so that will make life easier in terms of getting water to everything though it’s already muddy out there and that will just get worse with the rain that’s forecast, hey ho always something, can’t complain really, up to Christmas time we had a smooth ride into Winter.

We have plenty of eggs to push this week what with the lane being impassable for a couple of days the numbers soon mount up, egg for tea tonight as well 😋

I went for a massage in the evening, I have been looking forward to this for ages 😀 normally I will have a Bowen treatment but opted for a relaxing massage today.

Tuesday: Mia day, some of the conversations we have are so funny and of course very precious. Before she arrives I get the morning stuff done, set the Rayburn for lighting, organise what’s for dinner and get some washing on, I have to get this all done as she likes my full attention lol.

I have been having some inflammation issues over the past week partly my fault as a few times I have forgotten to take my evening medication 🥴 so after talking with my massage therapist who is a fountain of knowledge I am going to have a serious effort at eating anti inflammatory foods, I do this on and off but find Winter is harder to stick to it. Soup is a good way of getting what I need and yesterday I made a lovely vegetable soup and today I have made a specific soup with ginger and turmeric it also contains broccoli and leeks. The leeks I have growing in the garden but the broccoli is from the shop, note to self grow much more broccoli this year, I did grow a fair amount last year but it’s all gone. With a bit of salt and pepper and some chicken bone broth, hopefully it will taste good. I also took the time to set some beans and pulses soaking in water for a few hours, I keep meaning to do this then forget, I want to start using the butter beans I grew, that will be soup for tomorrow.

Going back to the tree theme, I read something the other day that intrigued me, in America studies have shown that trees are moving west, obviously not the trees themselves but the seedlings/saplings, this has baffled scientists as they expected them to move North due to climate change, they don’t know why they are going west. Just proves one thing to me, we don’t know everything even will all the science that we have, at one point in history they thought the world was flat 😝 ‘that’s all I have to say about that’ 😉

Wednesday: A soggy, foggy morning lol, it rained heavily last night and the moisture is hanging in the air this morning. I have blood tests early on so whizz round and get everything done before popping into town to get those done. Picked up a bit of shopping in town and then got some packing done for our trip next week, packed everything but the kitchen sink and probably still will think, I should have packed that lol, I tend to pack, then add to it and then come home with a case of stuff we haven’t worn! Forgot that the farrier was coming so dash out to get Jack into the stable and that seemed like a good time for a coffee break. We have plenty of jobs on the list to get done and make life easier for Shelley who will be living here and Sam who will be helping her. I have been trying to keep my nails nice but it’s just not happening especially when everything is muddy outside and constant washing of hands makes them dry 😝

I had the pulse and beans soup at lunch, pretty tasty actually, the last time I ate those was when I lived at home and Mum used them to make meals goes further, the butter beans probably needed a lot more cooking so I only ate the very soft ones.

It’s very mild out, pleasant after the recent low temps, I didn’t light the Rayburn until 2.30 as the house was warm enough but we do need hot water 😜

Went out to do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting then had a stroll up to the small paddock to see, with my glasses on, if I could see any daffs poking up, I went the other day and couldn’t see any and was wondering if they were being eaten. There are a few not many yet fingers crossed they are still ok under there and waiting for the right moment 😜 On the way back down I stopped at the hay barn and tidied up the few straw bales that are left, the chickens have scratched them all about so I put the straw into some tonne bags and covered them with old horse rugs. I found a few eggs that had been laid and fallen down the side of the pallet floor so I threw them into the hedge, no idea how old they are.

I’ve noticed the ducks are all trying to separate off into pairs and one pair has gone up to the back paddock, they go everyday I just hope they are not laying out in the open as there will be no chance for any eggs they are trying to amass. One of the rescue ducks keeps trying to sit on a clutch in the stable block, I have marked three duck eggs with big black crosses and will leave them each time to see if she continues to sit, she buried them well so it’s a sign she wants to. Still waiting for the appearance of the first goose eggs.

Thursday: It was pretty windy overnight and the rain hammered down again, normally the wind keeps me awake but I must have been pretty tired because I hardly heard it. I unexpectedly had Mia early this morning so John went out and let all the birds out, it’s now 9.30 and I haven’t been able to go out and collect the eggs yet but that’s fine they will be ok, I’m not sure if he has fed them but as they are all free ranging they will find food somewhere! Meanwhile I have some indoor jobs I can get on with.

Friday: A filthy morning 😜 wet, windy just yuk. I had a phone call from the Dr last night about my blood tests, rather than inflammation like I thought it was it seems my white cell count has dropped too low so I am to stop the meds. I explained I was going away as initially he wanted them stopped for one week but I’m going to have to stop them for two weeks, I have no idea how this is going to affect me I’m just hoping its not too much and then we will see what’s happening when I get back 🙄 UPDATE, I have spoken to the Dr again and there should be no adverse effects, things should just go back to normal so my mind is at rest now 😀

John was up early this morning and was in the kitchen when the mouse sauntered across the worktop, he tried to catch it but it ran off the worktop and fell into a plastic bag hanging on the end that has recycling in it, he took the bag out the back and emptied it out but no sign of the mouse, there is a hole in the bag, so goodness knows where it is now 😝

It really is horrible out there, just windy now and I’m hoping it will dry up a lot of the wet but working in the wind is hard work, I want to get the animals cleaned out, moving straw about in this is a recipe for disaster 😂

Well I went out and did a bit, cleaned out the nesting boxes and put fresh sawdust in, I think I will leave the fresh straw until later and do it just before they go into bed, the wind already caught the bucket of sawdust I was carrying and blew half of it down the yard 🤣 I just didn’t want to leave ourselves too much to do tomorrow.

Hot chocolate was definitely the order of the day today 😀

Saturday: So this morning it was supposed to be all hands on deck to get the jobs done and sorted except that John hit himself in the eye yesterday with a piece of plastic pipe and this morning couldn’t open his eyes! I did try to persuade him to go to minor injuries last night but no, this morning he is walking around hands out in front of him trying to feel his way round the place oh ffs. Right that’s it, either we get this eye bathed and open or we are not going away tomorrow, I did try to get him to put an ice pack on it last night but also nope, well not very long anyhow. So we bathe the eye and at least it’s open long enough to get the jobs done outside, but now after a coffee he needs another lie down 🙄 we still have the flue and fire to clean out, get the house straight and finish the packing, or at least I will be finishing my packing, he may be staying here at this rate 😜

Ok well things have improved a bit and we have got everything done and are as ready as we can be so, and I’ve waited an age to say this, we are off to the Artic Circle, arrrggghhh, see you on the other side 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seeds, Snow and Stars

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

This is what I have already:

GRAIN:

Millet

Quinoa

Wheat

Amaranth

BEANS/PEAS:

Haricot beans

Dwarf French beans – purple

Dwarf French beans

Ying Yang beans

Red kidney beans

Pea

Broad beans

Chickpea

SQUASH

Spaghetti squash

Butternut squash

Pumpkin

Luffa

Courgette – round

Banana squash

SALAD:

Mixed salad leaf

Spinach

Radish

Cucumber

Tomato

Pepper – Hot

Pepper -sweet

ROOT:

Carrot – Early Nantes

Beetroot

Parsnip

Celeriac

BRASSICA:

Cauliflower

Broccoli

ONION:

Leeks

Spring onion

HERBS:

Coriander

And this is what I ordered:

Turnip

Courgette – long

Fennel

Melon

Swede

Potato

Brassica plants

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Mixed weather, a unexplained death and a bit of baking.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st Jan: I was up early to get a look at the Moon, sadly it was too cloudy and I couldn’t see anything at all ☹️ Today is labelled as Blue Monday, it’s a Monday morning in January they are all blue 🥴 The upside of the last nights cloud cover is that it is not frosty this morning which makes the morning water rounds much easier 😀 And hopefully it will mean our man will be here to do some brickwork on the greenhouse as he had said weather permitting, I don’t know much about this subject but it looks like ideal conditions to me 😀

I didn’t do much worthy of writing about for the rest of the day except the normal routine stuff really. When I did the afternoon feeding I made sure all the water was filled up and extra hay in for the rabbits as it’s supposed to be very cold overnight.

Tuesday: It was not cold as I was expecting it to get and the sun is shinning this morning so although there is a frost it’s not that hard and should be quite a pleasant day. The moon is huge and still out it’s a shame I couldn’t see it yesterday 🙄 I have Mia today so as usual on a Tuesday I won’t be doing much more than entertaining her 😀

I did do one thing today 😝 I signed up for an online learning course and to become a citizen scientist, it’s about understanding soil and exploring global environmental soil issues, climate, food growing, technology, and the environment, it begins in February I will let you know more about it then.

Although the weather is not up too much I can still think and plan for the growing year ahead, the fruit bushes and trees need some sustenance and I have asked Shelley to save the ash from her fire, we can’t use our ash as it has all kinds of things in it but her are logs so are ok. Ash is high in potassium and so will encourage flowering which is what you want from fruit, I will sprinkle it about and lightly fork it in. It does make the soil more alkaline though so not near the blueberries which prefer acid soil. I am also waiting to cover up the bean bed that we mucked up the other week but while it’s cold and dry I am letting nature do its thing, as soon as it turns wet I will cover it over.

I already have broad beans and peas growing but this is the time of year to get them underway if you want to. Chillies, Aubergine and sweet peas are started off indoors now as well, I will probably do some sweet peas but I haven’t decided wether to just buy a couple of chilli plants this year instead of raising from seed. I don’t have much window sill space so being selective is the way forward. I saved the sweet pea seeds from last years display a lovely very dark purple called ‘dark knight’ I think. I have had a look through the seed catalogue and probably marked off far more than I really need, I will go through what I have saved and thin the order out a bit 😜 One thing I do need to order soon is the seed potatoes, last year I was late and couldn’t get the varieties I wanted as they were sold out, there is quite a decision to be made with which potatoes to go for, mostly wether they bake, roast or boil and if they are waxy or floury lol, I prefer a floury type and they have to be multi purpose 😀

The tips of the daffodil bulbs are just beginning to push through the soil in the back paddock, remember the 950 Mum, Ken and I planted 😀 well they are still there and doing ok much to my Dads relief who has been asking me every week if there is any sign of them yet lol.

Wednesday: We had a dusting of snow, just like icing sugar 😀 it’s cold and frozen but the sun is shinning. I had a busy couple of hours, firstly lighting the Rayburn, sorting the eggs and washing up, then out to feed the birds and let them out, break the water buckets etc, on my way round I found the smaller Guinea pig dead, back indoors to keep the fire going, make a quick coffee and just as I made that the hay delivery turned up😜 I leave the coffee go out open up the gates and direct Micheal as to where I want it, one reel was going straight into the field shelter as Jack is waiting. That takes about 15/20 minutes and luckily when I get in my coffee is still warm enough to drink lol, sort the fire out, get something in the slow cooker for dinner tonight and get some bread made up to the first proving.

Now back to the Guinea pig, it has no signs of injury and it does not have rigor and considering how cold it was over night it is not frozen either, a conundrum? Well I have seen something like this before so my plan was to bring him in and place him somewhere warmer just in case it’s hibernation, I must add that he is not curled up but fully stretched which is the only reason I am in doubt. We had a hamster that we thought had died so I put it in a bag and out in the shed to wait for the burial ceremony for the children, unfortunately it poured with rain for two days and by the time it was dry enough to do it, the hamster was sat on the mat looking at us!! You can see why I am reluctant to bury it just yet 😜 The other pig is fine so I don’t know what has happened to this one, although a quick bit of research tells me that they do not hibernate but I will keep him there for a day or two anyway.

Thursday: Another cold and frosty morning but it quickly thawed so it must be warmer than yesterday as the ground in places never even thawed.

I did the morning jobs as well as putting clean bedding in for the front hens and the geese I also moved the separator in the goose hut, his just divides the laying area in two as hopefully it won’t be long before they begin laying.

As it did not feel so cold today I delayed lighting the Rayburn and did a bit of baking instead, I made a cherry pie, a batch of pear and plum crumble, some for the freezer and a batch of buttermilk scones. The buttermilk was what I saved from turning pots of cream (reduced in price) into butter and the left over liquid is buttermilk. It gives the scones a distinct sour smell but they taste wonderful 😀 At that point I ran out of butter and milk so any more cooking will wait for another day. Last year with the fruit produce I made the decision to freeze it whole and then get it out to cook it down and use it but in reality it didn’t really work so I will go back to cooking it off then it is always ready to get out and make into pies/crumbles etc, if I batch make pastry and crumble too then I can quickly make a pudding in no time at all.

While I was cooking I noticed out of the window that one of the geese had got stuck in the poultry fencing so I picked a convenient moment, put on my coat, hat, wellies and gloves and went out to rescue it, by the time I got to the front fence it had freed itself 😝

Lit the Rayburn at lunchtime and sat down to enjoy some crustless quiche that shelley bought over for me yesterday, it was packed with different things, mushroom, tomato, bacon, sweet corn, cheese, very tasty.

Friday: I love Friday, no idea why really as work is done seven days a week here lol but it has a different feel about it maybe it is the palpable relief of all those who do have Monday to Friday jobs who knows. It’s weird because I was saying to someone the other day that having done this for 10 years now I would be able to tell (almost) what day of the week it is without a calendar, Fridays, Saturdays and definitely Sundays all have a different feel about them, Monday has it own feeling, only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday would be hard to distinguish between, the time is also something I can roughly manage without looking at a clock, even in the middle of the night.

Morning jobs done, I have opened the side opening between the two paddocks to try and encourage the geese to move out a little as they keep getting behind the poultry netting, this probably means they are running out of nutritional grass so encouraging them to move to pastures new will be better for all of us 😜 I topped up all the wild bird feeders, we have a lot of garden birds here and I want to keep them around, they are part of our little ecosystem now 😀 I know that pigeons are too but the numbers keep growing and I want to keep a good balance so for that reason some will be dealt with.

It’s much milder today just as well as I am popping out for coffee and cake with Shelley mid morning so the fire won’t get lit until lunchtime.

This fox thing is getting beyond a joke, we put the hens in barricade stables, it has tried digging in under the stable doors so we barricaded them more now I discovered it has been trying to dig in from the outside wall. I thought I could see daylight so I went round the back to have a look and it has been digging away, I called John to see when he would be home so that we could move a whole load of hardcore into the hole it has dug, it’s getting very tiresome 😞 On the upside I did get a glimpse of Cruella De Vil through the tack room window, I am going to set the camera tonight to see if she is actually coming out at night or not, we need to encourage her to venture a bit further as life will be very boring for her otherwise.

Saturday: A dreary morning, milder again. John got up and did all the outside jobs as well as getting in quite a few barrows of wood for the fire then went off to get the feed. I did the eggs and stocked up the egg shed and then had a look at the footage from the camera which I set up last night. The cat does come out which is good, I could also see that the fox hangs around ALL night, there are captures of it from 8pm right through to 5.30am, even going in and out of the tack room through the cat hole. That means I’m feeding the fox cat biscuits as well 😛 poor cat, I wonder how much she is getting?

I am off to Winchester today for an afternoon tea hen do with our future sister in law, i am looking forward to a little road trip and some tea and cake 😀 John will hold the fort and hopefully do some of the jobs on the list 😀

Just as well I don’t have to do much today, I’m quite tired and my hands are a bit swollen and hurt so a day off is needed.

The egg sales have ramped up again this week we have sold all yesterday’s by lunchtime today and have now put out today’s 🙄 if they all sell this afternoon there won’t be anything for tomorrow 🥴 It’s not something you can gauge at all, one week it will be very slow, the next we can’t keep up!

Sunday: WINDY! Very windy, all night and today, talk about getting a buffeting, did the morning stuff then went for breakfast locally 😀

Cleaning out the stable that has had 45 hens in it for a couple of weeks was on the list today, we let them out and barrowed out 6/7 full barrows of straw and poo and now it’s all nice and clean with fresh straw back in.

Trying the keep the Rayburn on an even keel has been a challenge today, the wind is making it draw too much so it’s burning away quickly but if you shut it down that’s not ideal either as it just dies off, the struggle is real people 😂

And that is pretty much the end of another week, one step closer to Spring 😀