Tag: shilton

Posted in Friesland Farm

Gardening, cooking, clearing out, a little bit of everything this week.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 14th January: Another non weather morning, slightly cold but dry, I keep waiting for some ‘weather’ to arrive and am keeping my eye on the long term reports. Not from the press as they are always predicting some major event that never happens but from the met office, there has been some ‘catastrophic’ event in weather terms but because of ‘blocking’ they are not sure if it will reach here or not, so not much info there either! It’s just wait and see I reckon 😛

Well it was so mild out there I decided to get stuck in to a bit of gardening so I moved a few barrows of muck into the fruit cage, planted up the rhubarb I had divided back in Autumn and cut down and shredded the Autumn raspberry canes. I also cut back the thornless blackberry and then dug up and potted some raspberry runners, the thornless blackberry had also layered itself into the ground so another free plant there 😀 I got so warm I had to come in and take a layer off!

I actually can’t remember a January like it for years to be honest, this time last year it was ‘the beast from the East’ causing chaos this time it’s just so mild and dry that it’s been a pleasure so far.

I spent the afternoon confirming and finalising paperwork for our upcoming holiday to Norway, we are good to go when the day arrives 😀

Then back out at 3pm to do the feeding and egg collection, the bonus with hens living inside is clean eggs so no washing them, though it may have more to do with the dry ground outside than anything else, I guess once it rains I will find out 😝

I have cold pork, baked potato, salad and lashings of homemade chutney for dinner, John has bubble and squeak, his favourite after a roast dinner 😀

I have finally ordered our SmartWater pack, this is a long lasting traceable liquid that has a unique code visible under ultraviolet light, basically you splatter it on high value items and equipment and if it gets stolen and recovered its traceable back to you. The village as a whole has registered and within that registration each person that signed up gets their own code, hopefully it’s a deterrent if nothing else.

Tuesday: I have Mia today so whizzed round and get the feeding done quickly, the guy turned up to start putting the base down for the greenhouse. Gramps biscuit tin was empty much to Mia’s disappointment so we made a batch and shared them with Josh when he came over with Shelley and Florence 😀 I made a loaf of bread, pretty good one today if I may say so myself.

Wednesday: I am clearly feeling much better and fitter and have clarity (one of the things about Lupus is brain fog) lol, this morning I have done the feeding etc then moved a few barrows of muck onto the veg beds, then onto sorting stuff out. Must be a Spring/New Year thing because I am finally getting round to listing stuff for sale/free that has been lying around for ages, or chucking stuff I no longer need.

I made a bit of a boo boo as I had a delivery yesterday and it was three boxes that said ‘live plants’ now as I am expecting some plants I naturally thought that’s what they were and so left them out overnight. When I looked this morning, bearing in mind it was a damp drizzly morning, it was the cardboard egg boxes I had ordered 😛 luckily two of the three boxes had them wrapped in plastic as well and only the third box was soggy which also luckily hadn’t affected the contents, good job it wasn’t pouring down!

We have so much clutter that I am determined to shift one way or another so I have a box for the charity shop, a pile of textiles for the recycling, various items up for free on social media, fingers crossed I go on as I have started 😝

The chap doing the base has come back to concrete it today, yesterday it was set it out and fill with some hardcore, tomorrow or probably the next day he can begin the dwarf wall and then it will be over to the boys for the timber work when they have time 😀

I checked the post box and the smartwater had arrived so I went round with my little swab, dabbing items with the forensic coding 😀 we don’t really have items of high value but they are all things we use regularly and collectively any theft would stop us getting on with jobs around here.

And the random thoughts are happening again 😛 When we were at school (back in the dark ages 😝 seriously my first teacher had a mortarboard and cloak and must have been 100) why did the teacher ask a question, the watch half the kids put up their hands to answer but always ask someone who hadn’t put up their hand? I would have been one who didn’t put up her hand, it didn’t mean I didn’t know the answer just that I wasn’t confident enough, nothing has changed there either so it’s not confidence building I still wouldn’t put myself forward in most circumstances, and if the person who hasn’t put up their hand didn’t know it what was the point of singling them out? You can learn a lot just as easily listening to other people’s answers and thoughts, back in the days when it was fashionable to sew patches over the holes in your jeans (and yes I am from the double denim era) I had one that said ‘help me keep by big mouth shut until I know what I’m talking about’ I’ve pretty much kept to that my whole life, with probably the occasional slip up 😝 I don’t take part in debates unless I have a clear idea of what I want to say and even then there is much to be learnt from the other persons point of view.

I didn’t light the Rayburn until about 1.30pm by that time it had started to rain and the air temp had dropped noticeably, according to the met office we have a couple of coldish nights ahead, a bit more like Winter ought to be, a couple of frosts would be good to break down the muck on the veg beds.

Some comfort food is in order so we have cottage pie tonight.

Thursday: I was expecting quite a hard frost this morning going on the forecast but we didn’t have one, the ground is wet not frosty, good for us as the concrete base has been curing overnight and it’s better if it didn’t freeze. I find our weather can sometimes be a bit of an anomaly here, we are approx 350ft above sea level according to an app, and the paddocks to the west slope down a fair bit. When we moved here Dad did say to me the best place for a veg garden would be the far right/top corner and if I had been a more experienced vegetable gardener then I would have paid attention, it’s only 10 years later I realise how right he was and that where we eventually chose to site it is a frost pocket! However it is a central location and I can keep an eye on things from there whereas the other position would have been too far out of the way to answer the bell or keep an eye on things.

I did the morning feeding and letting out, put some fresh bedding in for the geese, I want to move these soon to a stable, they will begin laying soon and also it will make life easier while we are away. Then I cleaned out one of the stables with the hens in and put in fresh bedding for them.

Later on I washed the car because I was sick of it looking so filthy, I don’t drive it, I don’t drive, I passed my test about 20 years ago, drove for a couple of months, absolutely hated it and so never drove again not on public roads anyhow, but John never washes it so I figured I had better do it.

Friday: A frost this morning, not a hard one but at least it will help to break up the soil a little bit. My plan today is cleaning 😛 and sorting stuff out so not much will be done outside apart from the necessary.

Well it’s lunchtime and I have sat down with a cuppa, I haven’t actually got any cleaning done as yet but I have got plenty of sorting out and throwing away achieved including the airing cupboard 😝 I have added to the charity shop box and got a large bag of textiles for recycling. I did eventually get round to cleaning and I bought a new polish a while back, the ‘Method’ wood polish, it smells fab, it has almond oil in it, one of my favourite smells in products and how sad is this, I washed all my dusters and cloths last week, it was great getting out a clean duster to do the job with 😂 I am not a manic cleaner, not anymore, I used to be someone that had a regular cleaning routine and bleached/washed/polished everything even scrubbing the kitchen floor by hand but eventually I realised that life is too short to worry and these days as long as I do it once it gets on my nerves then that’s fine after all there are a million more interesting things to do in life 😀 Having said that, once I have done it I do feel more relaxed and clearheaded so maybe I haven’t quite let go entirely 😝

Saturday: I’m a bit tired and things ache today 🙄 not sure why, it started late yesterday afternoon and my right arm was pretty uncomfortable, hopefully it will pass quickly. A wet drizzly morning and the temperature has dropped quite a bit over the last couple of days too, I had planned a list of things to get done but John has had to go into work to finish the job he was on after a cock up by the suppliers so they will now have to wait 😡 not happy, I have wait all week to get the jobs that I can’t manage on my own done and then I still can’t get them done!

The concrete base for the greenhouse has cured nicely so hopefully I will get some walls next week. The base is more than just a floor it is part of the thermal mass that will help to absorb the heat of the sun in the daytime and then release it overnight, of course this will only be needed during the cooler parts of the year but considering we never know exactly what kind of weather we will get it may be useful all year round. I have changed the position of the new greenhouse to run a NW to SE direction so that I get maximum use of the sun down the left side of it for cold frames, before it was in a East to West position which left a north facing side (outside) that you couldn’t put to good use. I’m so looking forward to this new space I may have to put a chair and a radio in there and get a billy can to make tea 😀

Sunday: John had done the animals by the time I got up at 8! Very nice, thank you 😀 he then went onto clean out the flue and the Rayburn as it’s not burning very well. Meanwhile I potted up some lavender plants I had ordered, these were Monday 14th January: Another non weather morning, slightly cold but dry, I keep waiting for some ‘weather’ to arrive and am keeping my eye on the long term reports. Not from the press as they are always predicting some major event that never happens but from the met office, there has been some ‘catastrophic’ event in weather terms but because of ‘blocking’ they are not sure if it will reach here or not, so not much info there either! It’s just wait and see I reckon 😛

Well it was so mild out there I decided to get stuck in to a bit of gardening so I moved a few barrows of muck into the fruit cage, planted up the rhubarb I had divided back in Autumn and cut down and shredded the Autumn raspberry canes. I also cut back the thornless blackberry and then dug up and potted some raspberry runners, the thornless blackberry had also layered itself into the ground so another free plant there 😀 I got so warm I had to come in and take a layer off!

I actually can’t remember a January like it for years to be honest, this time last year it was ‘the beast from the East’ causing chaos this time it’s just so mild and dry that it’s been a pleasure so far.

I spent the afternoon confirming and finalising paperwork for our upcoming holiday to Norway, we are good to go when the day arrives 😀

Then back out at 3pm to do the feeding and egg collection, the bonus with hens living inside is clean eggs so no washing them, though it may have more to do with the dry ground outside than anything else, I guess once it rains I will find out 😝

I have cold pork, baked potato, salad and lashings of homemade chutney for dinner, John has bubble and squeak, his favourite after a roast dinner 😀

I have finally ordered our SmartWater pack, this is a long lasting traceable liquid that has a unique code visible under ultraviolet light, basically you splatter it on high value items and equipment and if it gets stolen and recovered its traceable back to you. The village as a whole has registered and within that registration each person that signed up gets their own code, hopefully it’s a deterrent if nothing else.

Tuesday: I have Mia today so whizzed round and get the feeding done quickly, the guy turned up to start putting the base down for the greenhouse. Gramps biscuit tin was empty much to Mia’s disappointment so we made a batch and shared them with Josh when he came over with Shelley and Florence 😀 I made a loaf of bread, pretty good one today if I may say so myself.

Wednesday: I am clearly feeling much better and fitter and have clarity (one of the things about Lupus is brain fog) lol, this morning I have done the feeding etc then moved a few barrows of muck onto the veg beds, then onto sorting stuff out. Must be a Spring/New Year thing because I am finally getting round to listing stuff for sale/free that has been lying around for ages, or chucking stuff I no longer need.

I made a bit of a boo boo as I had a delivery yesterday and it was three boxes that said ‘live plants’ now as I am expecting some plants I naturally thought that’s what they were and so left them out overnight. When I looked this morning, bearing in mind it was a damp drizzly morning, it was the cardboard egg boxes I had ordered 😛 luckily two of the three boxes had them wrapped in plastic as well and only the third box was soggy which also luckily hadn’t affected the contents, good job it wasn’t pouring down!

We have so much clutter that I am determined to shift one way or another so I have a box for the charity shop, a pile of textiles for the recycling, various items up for free on social media, fingers crossed I go on as I have started 😝

The chap doing the base has come back to concrete it today, yesterday it was set it out and fill with some hardcore, tomorrow or probably the next day he can begin the dwarf wall and then it will be over to the boys for the timber work when they have time 😀

I checked the post box and the smartwater had arrived so I went round with my little swab, dabbing items with the forensic coding 😀 we don’t really have items of high value but they are all things we use regularly and collectively any theft would stop us getting on with jobs around here.

And the random thoughts are happening again 😛 When we were at school (back in the dark ages 😝 seriously my first teacher had a mortarboard and cloak and must have been 100) why did the teacher ask a question, the watch half the kids put up their hands to answer but always ask someone who hadn’t put up their hand? I would have been one who didn’t put up her hand, it didn’t mean I didn’t know the answer just that I wasn’t confident enough, nothing has changed there either so it’s not confidence building I still wouldn’t put myself forward in most circumstances, and if the person who hasn’t put up their hand didn’t know it what was the point of singling them out? You can learn a lot just as easily listening to other people’s answers and thoughts, back in the days when it was fashionable to sew patches over the holes in your jeans (and yes I am from the double denim era) I had one that said ‘help me keep by big mouth shut until I know what I’m talking about’ I’ve pretty much kept to that my whole life, with probably the occasional slip up 😝 I don’t take part in debates unless I have a clear idea of what I want to say and even then there is much to be learnt from the other persons point of view.

I didn’t light the Rayburn until about 1.30pm by that time it had started to rain and the air temp had dropped noticeably, according to the met office we have a couple of coldish nights ahead, a bit more like Winter ought to be, a couple of frosts would be good to break down the muck on the veg beds.

Some comfort food is in order so we have cottage pie tonight.

Thursday: I was expecting quite a hard frost this morning going on the forecast but we didn’t have one, the ground is wet not frosty, good for us as the concrete base has been curing overnight and it’s better if it didn’t freeze. I find our weather can sometimes be a bit of an anomaly here, we are approx 350ft above sea level according to an app, and the paddocks to the west slope down a fair bit. When we moved here Dad did say to me the best place for a veg garden would be the far right/top corner and if I had been a more experienced vegetable gardener then I would have paid attention, it’s only 10 years later I realise how right he was and that where we eventually chose to site it is a frost pocket! However it is a central location and I can keep an eye on things from there whereas the other position would have been too far out of the way to answer the bell or keep an eye on things.

I did the morning feeding and letting out, put some fresh bedding in for the geese, I want to move these soon to a stable, they will begin laying soon and also it will make life easier while we are away. Then I cleaned out one of the stables with the hens in and put in fresh bedding for them.

Later on I washed the car because I was sick of it looking so filthy, I don’t drive it, I don’t drive, I passed my test about 20 years ago, drove for a couple of months, absolutely hated it and so never drove again not on public roads anyhow, but John never washes it so I figured I had better do it.

Friday: A frost this morning, not a hard one but at least it will help to break up the soil a little bit. My plan today is cleaning 😛 and sorting stuff out so not much will be done outside apart from the necessary.

Well it’s lunchtime and I have sat down with a cuppa, I haven’t actually got any cleaning done as yet but I have got plenty of sorting out and throwing away achieved including the airing cupboard 😝 I have added to the charity shop box and got a large bag of textiles for recycling. I did eventually get round to cleaning and I bought a new polish a while back, the ‘Method’ wood polish, it smells fab, it has almond oil in it, one of my favourite smells in products and how sad is this, I washed all my dusters and cloths last week, it was great getting out a clean duster to do the job with 😂 I am not a manic cleaner, not anymore, I used to be someone that had a regular cleaning routine and bleached/washed/polished everything even scrubbing the kitchen floor by hand but eventually I realised that life is too short to worry and these days as long as I do it once it gets on my nerves then that’s fine after all there are a million more interesting things to do in life 😀 Having said that, once I have done it I do feel more relaxed and clearheaded so maybe I haven’t quite let go entirely 😝

Saturday: I’m a bit tired and things ache today 🙄 not sure why, I started late yesterday afternoon and my right arm was pretty uncomfortable, hopefully it will pass quickly. A wet drizzly morning and the temperature has dropped quite a bit over the last couple of days too, I had planned a list of things to get done but John has had to go into work to finish the job he was on after a cock up by the suppliers so they will now have to wait 😡 not happy, I have wait all week to get the jobs that I can’t manage on my own done and then I still can’t get them done!

The concrete base for the greenhouse has cured nicely so hopefully I will get some walls next week. The base is more than just a floor it is part of the thermal mass that will help to absorb the heat of the sun in the daytime and then release it overnight, of course this will only be needed during the cooler parts of the year but considering we never know exactly what kind of weather we will get it may be useful all year round. I have changed the position of the new greenhouse to run a NW to SE direction so that I get maximum use of the sun down the left side of it for cold frames, before it was in a East to West position which left a north facing side (outside) that you couldn’t put to good use. I’m so looking forward to this new space I may have to put a chair and a radio in there and get a billy can to make tea 😀

A chap called round to discuss some pest control on the farm, we already have someone controlling the rabbit numbers but he is going to control pigeon and rats, rats are not too much of a problem we are not over run but it would be good to get a few taken out without using poison and the pigeon numbers have also shot up, he eats pigeon so nothing wasted there 😀

Tonight while putting the birds away we had the torch with us so I thought I would just shine it across the paddocks to see if foxy was around, what I saw were about six pairs of eyes looking up from the field behind, as they walked away I could see the white rumps so I’m guessing they were fallow deer, certainly they were large enough. We have three big ash trees at the back there and John and I talked about building a platform around one of them, somewhere you could sit in the dark and see what is going on around you without being seen yourself, great idea I think.

Sunday: John had done the animals by the time I got up at 8! Very nice, thank you 😀 he then went onto clean out the flue and the Rayburn as it’s not burning very well. Meanwhile I potted up some lavender plants I had ordered, these were ‘misshaped’ plants from a Nursery so reduced considerably, they worked out at £1.39 each and I bought 10, they are great, a good size, good root system on them and they should romp away come spring, very pleased 😀.

We have duck legs for dinner tonight so I have been looking at various recipes, I will probably take a combination of a couple and mix them up according to our taste. I wanted to do these legs justice so I chopped up finely, onion, garlic, celery and mushroom then some thyme, rosemary and flat leaf parsley, softened them in butter and black truffle oil then seared the legs quickly on both sides and put into a pot that I added chicken stock and tomato paste to. Most of the recipes call for alcohol like wine or beer, which we hardly ever have in and I did consider apple juice but I tasted the liquid and it was sweet enough, apple juice would have made it too sweet, I want this to be more earthy. We will just have to wait and see how it comes out, I’m planning on mash potato and peas to go with it.

It tasted great 😀

It would be worth getting up early tomorrow morning to look at the Super Blood Wolf Moon: total lunar eclipse, a rare event, weather permitting, about 5am though the eclipse will last about an hour 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Random thoughts, tree pruning, and fox v hens.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 7th Jan 2019: A whole new year to start planning for 😀and we are already well under way with the plans for the new greenhouse which I am very excited about, I do sometimes think if I had my time all over again I would have liked to work in the walled garden of a big house with a Victorian greenhouse, I’m sure the fantasy far outweighs the reality but there you have it 😜 There is just something about greenhouse work that I love, it’s by far my favourite bit of gardening.

As you know for a large part of last year I wasn’t up to much and John had to take over doing the birds before he went to work, well now I am feeling fit again I have taken the plunge and told him I will do it 🙄 I am going to be knackered by the end of each day I reckon but it’s good to feel well enough to have a go.

Well I managed the morning rounds with ease although John did go out and put all the buckets of feed in position for me bless him 😀 I watched big bird soaring above me for a while until the crows came and saw it off that is.

I put some fresh bedding the the stable for the hens in there, then scrapped and cleaned the pen at the back and put fresh bedding in then indoors to hoover the fire flues and get it lit, hoover the floors generally, give the bathroom a quick clean, strip the bed and wash the covers, hang up previous wash load to dry, wash up the breakfast dishes and sit down with a cuppa for an hour before starting again 😜

The first part of the afternoon rounds begin at about 3 which takes about an hour then just time for a quick cuppa before the night draws in and it’s time to go and shut everything away for the night. I have done lots of other little things in between all this so I am beginning to see why I tie myself up in knots trying to do it all! For instance at this point in the day I have not made any bread and I have not organised any dinner for tonight, and there were a few more jobs on the ‘mental list’ that didn’t get done, ah well, we have to get a bit of shopping tonight so I will buy bread and pick up dinner, I do have something out for tomorrow already so I’m not doing too badly 😀

Tuesday: I had Mia today so apart from the morning rounds and letting the hens out at lunchtime we didn’t do much other than playing, until she became ill that is! I say became ill, I should have known something was amiss as she normally eats for England but not today and she was unusually cuddly, then in the afternoon she started saying her head hurt and her temperature went up ☹️ luckily Sam finished work early and came home to find her baby cuddled in a blanket on the sofa.

I fed the birds and gathered the eggs to put out for sale and then thought about what to have for dinner, I got some chicken out yesterday so John will have that with potatoes and runner beans. I am trying to be good with eating, not on a diet but more mindful so I am stir frying my chicken with garlic, mushrooms, and noodles all tossed in sweet chilli, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and wine vinegar. I made a quick crumble with pears from the freezer and as an added precaution to any illnesses going around some elderberries as well, load it with vitamin c lol, I have no idea what it will taste like, I’ll let you know later 😛

It was yummy totally different but totally yum.

Wednesday: A dance around the Mulberry Bush morning 😀 I am not complaining though as in a month we are off to Norway for a holiday (seemed like a good idea at the time 😂) so we have been out and purchased appropriate clothing, merino base layers, fleece layers and warm coats and boots. Mornings like this give me the ideal opportunity to do a try out and to wear my boots in, everything is very toasty except my face 🙄 not sure what you do about that, I will have to look it up.

Went outside and did a bit of tidying up and putting away, Johns Mums house is up for sale as she has gone into a home and they have been clearing stuff out. There was a lot of gardening stuff which we bought home and needed somewhere to live until I can sort it all out. I did some litter picking around the front of the place, it’s amazing how much gets blown about, I just can’t reach right under the hedge with my litter picker gadget so I need a long pole to oik it out then it will look tidier. It’s is tempting this time of year to start cutting back dead stuff etc, especially now the sun has come out, but I’m resisting so that the beneficial insects still have plenty of places to hide, I guess there will more than enough time once spring gets here 🙄

With my apparent need to tidy I decided to tackle the cupboard under the sink, that dark place where things get shoved, never to see the light of day again lol. It wasn’t too bad and didn’t take as long as I thought it might but I do wonder why I have so many dusters 🥴 and I found things in there that I had bought, forgotten about and bought some more! A large bottle of Castile hand soap, light bulbs that we couldn’t find so had to buy some more, half used rolls of bin liners, you know the kind of things. I have a fair few cupboards like this to tackle, the airing cupboard is so rammed that I dread opening it to get a clean tea towel out, maybe that’s the next one on the list 😜

The snowdrops have made an appearance 😀 always a pleasure to see their little white heads bobbing away, oh and the grass is growing! It’s an oddity in January, I first noticed it at the beginning of the week when I took over doing the birds in the morning. The goose water bucket has little bits of grass in where the geese have been grazing and washed off their beaks in the water, this does not usually occur during the winter months as the grass is not long enough, reading various online posts confirms that others are agreeing, the grass is growing 😜 that’s good news if you have grazing animals but not so good if you have to cut the lawn a lot earlier than normal lol.

Night time rounds done, I reckon it’s gonna be a cold one tonight.

I am going to have a shower tonight, why do you need to know that? Well you don’t really but it’s a change from my usual routine, I have decided if I don’t like something just change it, I always shower in the morning but it’s usually a tad cold as the fire has gone out overnight, so instead of not looking forward to it I’ll change it lol, I did similar this afternoon, the sun, which was lovely, was shinning in and showing the dust so I shut the blinds 😂 small things but they make life more enjoyable.

Thursday: Before I’m even dressed this morning John comes back in from outside to tell me we have lost a chicken to the fox overnight, worryingly this was inside the electric fence. My fault as I shut them away last night and one must have been under the hut but I hold up my hands and say, I didn’t check 🙄

I was scrolling through social media and saw this quote:

‘A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit’ ELTON TRUEBLOOD

It’s appears I have started the journey to discovery 😀 I said to someone one day that I was going to plant Sweet Chestnuts and that they would take at least 60 years to get to full height and spread, what is the point, you won’t get to see it they said, well that is the point, to plant it, enjoy it growing and leave it for someone else to sit under. If everybody thought that first thought we would never have huge beautiful old trees to marvel at and we certainly would not have a few large estates to wander round and admire, after all Capability Brown, and the landowners that paid him were NEVER going to be around to see his amazing landscaping come into it’s full glory. The more I mull it over the more impressed I am with his vision, he must have had an inbuilt CAD going on inside his head.

It’s random thought day today 😝 I have no idea where this came from but I started wondering about the term vegetable, applied to a humans actually, I thought, that term is hardly fair on a vegetable lol then I thought, these days we call it a vegetative state which is more appropriate but not quite:

Definition: A vegetative state is absence of responsiveness and awareness due to overwhelming dysfunction of the cerebral hemispheres, with sufficient sparing of the diencephalon and brain stem to preserve autonomic and motor reflexes and sleep-wake cycles.

Of course that definition strictly applies to the human form, I am certain that a perennial vegetable has an ‘awareness’ and its core workings are not ‘dysfunctional’, they are just doing what they need to do in order to conserve energy and be ready to ‘wake up’ when the conditions are right.

🤣🤣 I told you it was random, just a little insight into what goes on in my head when there is no one about to talk to 😜

I went out to do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting and discovered two bodies in the paddock hut, I phoned John to ask if he had looked inside this morning or just opened up without looking, turns out he just opened up, at least this is not a daytime attack then but these poor hens have had their legs chewed off and consequently died. We will now spend the evening moving them to somewhere safer, into a stable, because the fox is getting over the electric fence and he will just keep going until he breaks into the hut. Another thought is that it’s possible I didn’t leave one outside but he has pulled one through the wooden bars from the inside, the huts have narrowed spaced bars so that the poo can fall through onto the ground and then you move the hut to clean ground every now and then, that’s the theory anyway, we tried boarding it out but it’s difficult to clean and ends up in a mess. Back to square one, I have never yet come across a small scale system without problems of one kind or another.

So tonight when John got home from work it was straight outside to make another stable secure and then move 52 hens in the dark once again, these are a different lot, our younger more prolific layer hens, that took us about 2 hrs 🙄 We also set up the wildlife camera to see exactly what is getting in as the rabbiting boys had told us there was a stray ferret in the copse the next field along from us so it could be that and not a fox. The two bodies I had put by the fence had gone by the time we went out to start moving the live hens though and they were big, heavy birds so fox is my first guess.

Friday: My first job this morning is to check the footage on the wildlife camera and yep it’s a fox, yes it’s going over the electric fence which is on the mains so we are going to have to do something about it but for now the hens are safe in the stable block. The second job on my list is to prepare the front drive and paddock as I have someone coming to give the cooking apple tree a good prune, it has got so big and intertwined that it’s difficult to pick the apples now. It’s too big a job for John and I partly because he doesn’t know what he is doing, I do but I can’t do it 😜 so easier to get someone who knows and can do it. I have had to shut the front gate to egg customers so as not to put them or the workers at any risk, I also needed to move some electric fence so that the geese don’t attack the workers lol.

I made bread, it seems like ages since I last did it, then mostly I did bit of paperwork that needed doing or bills that needed paying, the insurance is always due in January 🥴 that’s public liability and product liability as well as all the usual insurance cover. I also ordered some white clover seeds, we have plenty of grass seed left to over-sow the paddocks in March but I wanted to add in clover. We have it growing in the back paddocks both red and white but not in the front and I will plant a patch somewhere to feed the tortoises on, if I can wean them off of their favourite snack of peppers that is 🙄

I am onto a new piece of loofah for washing up, the last bit lasted ages but it’s had its day, if you are trying to reduce man made items then I would recommend swapping your washing up sponge for a piece of loofah they work really well and if I ever manage to grow any you can buy it locally too 😀

It’s lunchtime and the tree pruning is going well they have reduced it hugely, when I look at it now I wonder why we hadn’t had it done before and I am also looking at the other trees that need doing lol, John and I will be able to manage those it’s just that I need that particular tree to continue to be productive whereas the others don’t matter quite as much.

Saturday: Milder than of late so a good day to do a few jobs, John and I had discussed what we wanted to achieve the night before but come morning he had forgotten so instead of getting some temporary fencing up to stop the chickens and ducks wandering next door all the time he went ahead and let them all out meaning that job could not be done 🥴 Onwards and upwards, instead I cleaned out the front hens and the geese while John moved some more manure from the heap to the garden. Then I cleared the bean bed of dead bean stalks and sticks and both John and I (more John it has to be said) barrowed muck to the bed until it was done. Everything seems like flipping hard work lately, not sure if that’s because I haven’t done it for a while or I’m just getting too old for this malarkey! We didn’t do the veg beds last year so they were in dire need of some nourishment but we need to look at ways of making it easier, hopefully everything will romp away in the new season.

We have someone coming to put the base down and build a dwarf wall for the greenhouse next week, I’m looking forward to it getting underway. We went to chose the bricks this morning a nice cream colour that we both instantly agreed on, it’s funny because we are such opposites in so many ways but when it comes to choosing stuff we are exactly the same.

We had two events to go to tonight, one a family birthday, surprise, surprise, we must hold the record for family birthdays I reckon, the second was a BBQ at a house in the village, it may seem like a strange time of year but as long as you wrap up warm it’s good fun, it is still quite mild at the moment so we didn’t feel the cold at all.

We got home about midnight and could hear a fox screaming, we had taken a torch with us in case we decided to walk home, John shone it down the side of the house and there it was, he went up to the back paddock and when he came back he said there were three of them up there 🥴 we are really up against it at the minute.

Sunday: This morning we got the temporary fencing put up that I wanted to do yesterday, it seems to have done the trick especially at keeping the ducks inside the farm boundaries, the hens will probably eventually jump over but for now they are staying put as well. Then we dispatched three of the drakes, we have nine excess drakes altogether and at this time of year they relentlessly hound the females, it can be quite distressing to watch, these were drakes we had hatched out last year and ended up with too many. John then did a few bits of tidying up and wood cutting while I cut out the duck breasts and took off the legs, plucking them without any mechanical aid at this time of year when they are fully feathered with a double layer is a long job so I have just taken the best bits to use. I saved the feet to roast for the dogs to eat and I saved a liver from the last duck, I just forgot to do the other two but duck liver may come in handy for a recipe sometime. We aim to do three more next week and the ladies should be a lot happier, seriously they try to hide in an effort to get away from them lol.

We had an easy afternoon, well you have rest sometime 😋 we have got roast pork in the oven and I really fancied a good old fashioned syrup sponge and custard for pudding.

I forgot to take any photos at all this week 🥴 so here is one from roughly the same time last year of the garden, it looks pretty much the same this year 😋

Posted in Friesland Farm

Creations, Christmas decorating and Cruella de Vil

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday evening: We moved 74 hens in the dark lol, each crate takes 12 hens and we have two crates, the last crate we squeezed the extra in as it’s not very easy pushing the loaded wheelbarrow through the wet mud 😜 They are now in the back pen which is fox proof, just as well as the little sod was out there at 3pm this afternoon, we also moved the garden ducks to the stable just until the weather changes again. Most birds are now on dry ground for the nighttime, after a couple of days they will be allowed out to roam, they will know where they belong by then hopefully.

Monday 10th December: Up early and got everything done ready for my trip out 😀 It was a beautiful sunny morning driving through Gloucestershire to Stroud for my morning of wreath making with The Cotswold Flower Company at Miserden Nursery, a gorgeous little nursery, we were welcomed with coffee and cake, I had a cappuccino with chocolate and cinnamon just to add to the festive feel, beautifully presented cakes, with gluten free and vegan options and two lovely ladies running the morning. One grows the flowers and the other is the florist, a perfect combination and add to that the provenance of being Prince Charles florist for ten years and you know it’s going to be good 😀 Learning something from an expert is always going to be fun, informative and educational, I was pretty pleased with the end result and it smells divine so I have hung it indoors where I can relish the fragrance. The girls were all here so put the tree and decorations up 🎄

Tuesday: Noticeably colder this morning, a low fog hanging about, the sun was very bright today mind you.

I had Mia as usual and Shelley came over with Josh and Flo but poor Josh was sick on the drive before he got in then sick again so they didn’t stay very long.

I had a tub of double cream in the fridge that I bought back from the family feast, as we won’t use it as cream I sat and shook it into buttermilk and butter which we will use. John is a bit disappointed as I just have not had time to make mince pies yet! Normally I start making them the first week of December.

Wednesday: Today we went to do a bit of Christmas shopping in Swindon, it was gloriously quiet lol and we had a nice few hours wandering around with ease.

Thursday: A colder morning today, John did the animals first thing then went to work, he is not supposed to, he finished Tuesday, then I get, I just have to do a few small jobs 😏 I need to clean out the quail and rabbits so that is on my agenda and lighting the fire a bit earlier today, yesterday because we were out it never seemed to get warm enough in here by lighting it later on.

Looking out of the stable door this morning I could see that the long tailed tits have made a re appearance which made me smile, of all the little birds we have, those and the wrens are my favourite although the long tailed usually only return when bad/cold weather is on the cards so we shall see. I had a phone call yesterday from the chap who is coming to do some rabbiting, weather permitting he will be here first thing Sunday morning to keep the rabbit numbers in check as they are a bit out of control at the moment.

I had to come back in and get a second pair of gloves on this morning the nip in the air was noticeable though the sun came out later. It’s a good feeling to get cages/runs completely cleaned out and all fresh new cosy bedding down, the rabbits/Guineas also had a good handful of chard and big pile of hay and some twigs to chew on, they should be happy bunnies today 😀

I think I need to start looking for a new farm cat, Mollys eyesight is not so good now and she is quite an old lady approx 15 this year, Diesel keeps going awol I think he has found someone to feed and fuss him lol. The problem is that a farm cat needs to have been raised semi feral by that I mean only had the minimum of interaction from a human, born to a farm mother would be ideal. I have had recuse cats in the past that are labeled as feral but they usually tend to be just very frightened, kittens that are born and raised in a household are not ideal either as they have usually had lots of cuddles etc and want to come inside. Don’t get me wrong the cats have somewhere warm to sleep, in fact I just found Diesel deep inside the hay pile, they get fed once a day, they are wormed and fleaed but they don’t come inside and they don’t have lots of lap time lol, they have to earn their keep, finding a cat like this is quite difficult.

The peas plants finally arrived so I planted them straight away in the small tunnel along with the broad beans, roll on next spring when I can harvest them. I could probably do with about 3 or 4 times as many really especially peas they must be the no 1 favourite vegetable and so good for you. I find growing them overwinter avoids the pea moth getting at them then I usually follow them with mange-tout which also avoid the moth as they are picked before they swell and attract any insects.

Friday: Very cold this morning brrr, John did the outside jobs while I did a few bits inside, then Shelley Josh and Florence came over and we had pancakes with berries, Florence had to go to hospital last night as she has been unwell since last Saturday but after checking her over and giving her some fluids they let her back home again.

I have been in contact with a group re homing cats and we are going to see a six month old with the right criteria (semi feral) tomorrow morning, then they will come and give us a home visit and hopefully we will have a new cat for the farm.

The frost has not lifted much today.

I finally made a batch of mince pies.

We went to Mia’s Christmas play and then to visit Johns Mum who has now moved to a nursing home.

I had a go at needle felting and made a hare, I did buy a kit because I have some wool that came as packaging and I wanted to see how easy or difficult it was to do. It is a very forgiving medium to work with and my hare is not bad, now I just need to use the other wool and see what I can make with it.

Saturday: Cold again this morning the hoses are frozen and there is a forecast of snow later 😜 I lit the fire early as we are going out to have a look at and potentially bring home a new farm cat, she is semi feral so I may be able to get a photo of her or maybe not 😝 I think the timing is good as Molly is behaving oddly especially the last few days and today she has come into the boot room and taken up residence on patch’s cushion which he is none to happy about. In my experience cats either run off to die or seek you out more which is what Molly is doing, she is very thin and as I said her eyesight seems to be going either that or she has just decided ‘sod the stable block, I’m off indoors’.

We went to see the new cat and bought her home with us, she is absolutely semi feral in that gloves are needed to handle her 😝 they called her Cruella and I am giving her the full title of Cruella de Vil as I feel she fully deserves a grand name. She is not a cat that can be rehomed to a family so a place like ours is ideal for her, she can have as much or as little contact with people as she chooses and hopefully will ‘work’ for us as well.

We built the fire up in the Rayburn and hunkered down for a couple of hours in the afternoon, it’s perishing out there, even the geese had their heads tucked away under their wings today.

Normally at this time of year I would be knee deep in cooking preparations for the big Winter feast but this year we are not hosting so it’s over to others lol, I already had some jars of mincemeat in the cupboard which I made last year, I have plenty of chutney and pickles etc and even got pudding that I made for the family feast. The only things I will buy extra is a ham, various cheeses, crackers a few other bits but not much at all, we have all we need 😀

It has been and continues to be a vile day, it’s cold and wet and disgusting lol, half the hens we moved the other day keep going back to the old hut so we decided we would move them and put them in a stable where they will stay shut in for at least a week this time so that was the plan for the evening. I took some hay up the back to Jack but I could see that as he came across the paddock he was lame so I needed to get him in, I grabbed his head collar and one of the hay nets and just as I was about to go in the field and get him I spotted the fox! Shouting fox as loud as I could I dropped everything and ran down the yard, the dogs were in the back but came out when they heard me, John was sat indoors, get your coat on the fox is out here 🦊. Eventually we got the horse in got the hens captured and in and we were done, cold and wet time to go back in to the warm for the evening 😀

Sunday: Up late and totally forgot the chap was coming to do some rabbiting today 😝 As I opened the blind he had just arrived with two colleagues plus a Harris Hawk called Ethel, a ferret and a dog. By this point we would normally have been up and let all the dogs and birds out but we hadn’t done any of that, so quickly let our dogs out for a wee and a stretch then got them back in. They flew the Hawk but she didn’t catch anything and then they used the dog and the ferret, they got six, quite fat rabbits so they were happy with that and will be back in the New Year. They were off home to make rabbit curry, excellent, that’s how it should be, hunt and eat what you hunt, and only as much as you need to keep you going. By sheer coincidence Missi the Hawk was being worked by her owners on the farm over the back, fantastic, I love it, I wish I had come to this life a lot earlier and maybe it would have been me with the Hawk and the ferrets but at least there are people around who still do it.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, mud and rabbits and rats 🤪

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday: Had Mia today

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Daffodils planted ✔️ trees planted ✔️ and a bucket of twigs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday November 12th: A pleasant November morning, sunshine, not too cold, a little bit of mist hanging low over the fields.

John did the animals and birds and I did a bit of early morning tidying up, we had coffee then he went off to work and I sat down to order some lightbulbs for the kitchen light fittings. You would think that would be a straightforward fairly easy task wouldn’t you, it used to be, years ago, can I have a 40 or 60 w light bulb please with bayonet fitting, not any more. Bayonet, skinny screw in, fat screw in, LED, halogen, Edison filament, 5, 7, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60w (I’m making these up 😝) candle shape, vintage, globe, spiral, warm white, winter white, coloured, colour changing, dimming, non dimming, WiFi smart, I JUST WANT A BLOODY LIGHT BULB THAT LIGHTS UP THE KITCHEN WHEN I FLICK THE SWITCH, life has become far too complicated, I blame interior designers 🤪it’s as complicated as ordering a coffee these days!

Light bulbs now ordered, they look a bit like the one I took out with practically the same numbers so fingers crossed 🤞

I made another coffee, milk, one sugar, hot water, simple 😀

I prepped Johns dinner for later, he is having braised beef, I fancy beef and broccoli stir fry, then I got the Rayburn lit, a bit temperamental today so had to have two goes at it, then I went outside to feed the rabbits etc and check the traps. The rats traps have not caught anything yet but the mouse trap in the poly tunnel has its first victim, I do feel sorry for it but I need to grow peas and beans in there and not have them feasted on by mice 🐭 there are plenty of other places it could have set up home but no, it chose my raised beds in the tunnel, I guess it though it would be safe and warm in there 😝 I didn’t come out of resetting the traps without pain mind you so a bit of karma maybe, not that the trap got me but they are very sensitive and go off easily, while I was trying to place it, keeping my fingers firmly out of the way, it sprung, flipped up and smacked my little finger. This is one of the fingers I had trouble with back in the summer when I had a flare and it is still highly sensitive to cold and pain! It took about twenty minutes of deep breathing until the sensation died down, I am going to have to be very aware of it in the Winter months when the extremities get cold, I might need an extra ‘finger jumper’ under my gloves 😛

I need to start sorting out the ducks, well drakes to be precise, we have far too many, 5 Welsh Harlequinns and about 4 Khaki Campbell’s, I have put them up for sale on various duck sites but if they don’t go then I will have to process them for the freezer. We have the rescue ducks which are doing a great job in the garden, they are safe from ‘any further action’ and I have decided to invest in 12 new point of lay Campbell’s next spring as ours are getting past their prime laying age now and so we are only getting 5 eggs a day at a push from about 20 females.

Tuesday: I signed a letter today and emailed it to my local MP, it is to ask them to look at Agroecology in the upcoming Agriculture Bill, for the life of me I can’t see why local, sustainable, is not at the top of the list anyway but it’s hasn’t even been included.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agroecology

Each Winter I usually make up a spice mix to add to the chicken feed for a few weeks, previously I followed the ingredients that are in a poultry spice ready mix, buy them individually and mix it myself as it’s much cheaper that way. This year I am going to try a few different components, kelp and brewers yeast as well as the usual stuff like garlic, turmeric, and fenugreek just to see if it makes any difference. I don’t think it boosts the egg numbers but I do think it helps with their overall health in the colder months.

You will have noticed that we didn’t mention the red mite very much this year and that is down to the using the cardboard traps and regularly cleaning them out weekly and burning all the bedding and cardboard, it really is working a treat as we have not had the ‘boom’ that the warm weather causes, really pleased with this method.

We have plans to move the hens but John wants to increase the enclosed area first just in case they need to be kept in for any reason, the back muck heap is in the way at the moment so that needs all shifting first. One day we might just get it right lol. On days like today, when I feel ‘normal’ I really want to make plans to increase what we grow, but then on other days, when I am not much good for any work, I give up thinking about it as it all seems like too much work. I would like a few ‘normal’ days in a row really then I could make a bit of a difference, maybe eventually this disease will go back into remission and it will be full steam ahead again 🤔

Wednesday: What a fabulous day, sunny, mild and made all the better for getting all the daffodil bulbs planted. Mum and Ken came over, Ken on the tractor with the back actor digging the trench, about 100ft of it and Mum and I putting the bulbs in and covering the, back over. It really was the most pleasant few hours work I have done in a long time, glorious, I look forward to seeing all the little yellow heads next spring 😀

Thursday: Another half decent day and more planting to be done, this time trees, the ground is just about perfect, although it seems a little late, the weather we have had and are having has made the conditions just right for planting. I have planted a cherry tree (Stella) in the front paddock corner, a pear tree (concord) and an apple tree (Braeburn) in the veg beds and then a plum tree, a brambly apple, a sweet chestnut and a small leaved lime tree in the small back paddock that we planted the daffodils in yesterday. The trees at the back have tree guards on the trunks so the rabbits don’t eat them, the trees in the front areas have mesh around the base so the chickens don’t dig, the easy bit is digging the holes, it’s keeping everything off them that is hard work. I am not too worried about getting fruit from the two at the back they are more for the birds and the bees and to create a little copse, eventually of course the lime and the chestnut trees will be huge but that is very many years away and I probably won’t be around then lol. It will be nice to leave trees behind though for future generations to climb and forage on.

I divided two of the rhubarb crowns, one I will leave and do that next year, now, I can’t decide wether to plant them and have even more rhubarb or not, I think I will definitely plant at least one.

Set some more mouse traps, so far I have caught two in the tunnel and two in the pallet stack out the back, they definitely like peanut butter!

John has chicken casserole tonight and I have korma, rice and peshwari nann, I used to make the korma from scratch when the girls were all living at home but this one is a 1,2,3 packet, I think I will go back to making it and try freezing some of the sauce. Shelley made homemade nann bread the other day and said it was easy to do so I would like to give it a try and as my favourite is peshwari I will def be making the filling 😀

Friday: Mild again, I let the dogs out before it got light and stood outside in my PJs thinking, I’m not even cold!

John did the birds before going off to work and I ended up doing the housework, I hadn’t intended to but I got a bit tired of noticing the dust 🤪 so now I have a sparkly house, well clean enough anyhow.

Saturday: Turned into a lovely day, bit chilly first thing but the sun came out eventually. John did the birds while I put some washing on etc then we went into the garden to move some of the muck mountain onto the veg beds.

I also cut all the tops off of the broccoli plants and fed them to the rabbits, I am going to leave the stalks and see exactly what happens, they may rot away or they may sprout again who knows but there is nothing to lose by trying. They have already been good value because first came the broccoli heads, then after they were cut came the sprouting stalks which went on for ages, now greenery for the rabbits 😀 After that I went on to prune out the gooseberry bushes and the blackcurrants, just thin them all out so that I can pick the fruits more easily next year. I also lifted the canopy of the Mulberry tree, I found it difficult to get into and pick the berries this year as there were a lot of foliage and branches in the way, hopefully I will be able to get under and work upwards next year. All of the woody cuttings from the blackcurrants, mulberry and a few apple branches, I have cut up into smaller pieces for the rabbits, it may look like a bucket of twigs but it’s actually good fodder for them over the winter months.

Sunday: Definitely getting chiller by the day, Josh stayed over last night and so John did the animals this morning while entertained and breakfasted him 😀

Due to various reasons we didn’t get much else done apart from the usual, in the evening Charlie came to pick me up to go to the cinema, just as we walked out the back door she shouted FOX. It was in the front paddock so we sent the dogs off round to chase it away, John had said that a hen had been got inside the electric fence in the side paddock ☹️ that is hooked up to the mains and supposed to keep it out, the battles are never ending. We seem to have a lot of undesirables at the moment both animal and human, theft in the village is rife at the moment with a notification every other day coming in about sheds broken into or number plates nicked or car windows smashed to get at belongings, what’s wrong with people, I despair 😩

Posted in Friesland Farm

A week to reflect and remember

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday November 5th:

Remember remember the 5th of November

gunpowder treason and plot

We see no reason why gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot.

And why not, it’s a very good excuse for a big bonfire and some amazing pyrotechnics, soup and hot dogs 😀

Years ago we used to do ‘penny for the Guy’ probably not politically correct now on soooo many levels 🤣🤣

Another morning of getting the paperwork in order and now it’s all ready to go so I can stop thinking about it, I also managed to get this years paperwork up to speed as well, go me 😀

Got the dinner sorted for later and watched the new season first episode of Outlander 😀

Then Sam and Mia arrived and we were so busy chatting I nearly forgot to light the fire 😝 it is much warmer today and so it didn’t really register.

Putting the birds tonight and one of the cats, Diesel was a proper pain in the rear, for some reason he decided I needed his company on the rounds, all very well except the birds are not used to him making an appearance like that and so were all of a twitter. He ran off in front of me to the front paddock then a cross it, then back again unnerving everyone, well one chicken wasn’t haven’t any of it and started chasing him across the paddock, never seen anything so funny 🤣

We have returned to putting a light in with the hens overnight, it’s rechargeable and runs out of battery early in the morning so they are not under light the whole time but just enough to keep laying enough eggs.

Tuesday: The morning after bonfire night and true to form it’s misty out, not as bad as I have seen it in previous years but still misty. It is also damp and looking at the forecast that will be the theme of the week 😕 rain 🌧

I have Mia today so not much will get done in the way of grown up stuff lol.

Wednesday: A rather dull and drizzly morning, temps are on the warmer side though. It was pretty windy overnight but that has settled this morning.

Once I had done a couple of indoor jobs I went out to get some bits done, in between rain showers and sun bursts, I collected a bucket full of weeds for the rabbits and moved three wheelbarrows full of muck onto the raspberries in the fruit cage. Three lots is just about all I can manage at the moment, it’s not pushing the barrow that’s the problem it’s digging into the heavy compacted pile that is hard work for my hands, so, little and often is what I will be doing until I can get John to help at the weekend. At least all the muck is now in the garden even if it is in a huge pile!

I am still working towards the forest garden and must admit that chopping and dropping is quite satisfying 😀 even chopping the tops off of the nettles and thinking, that’s a good bit of nitrogen for the soil, I am quite chuffed with how it’s all looking, to the untrained eye it looks messy 😉 but in reality it’s all good stuff for the soil with minimum effort, win, win.

Well it’s hammering down now so I abandoned outside, sat with a coffee and ordered a couple presents for the upcoming Winter festivities, I refuse to say the word until December 🤣

On a day like this I don’t really want to be getting a soaking unless it’s absolutely necessary and I need to come up with something for dinner tonight so after a rummage around in the freezer we have lamb pie. A pack of shop bought flaky pastry that has been in there for a good while, some saved, cooked lamb that would have been leftover from a roast, some swede, leeks, onions, celery, mushrooms (finely chopped, we are seeing how this goes with John, so far so good) pepper, lamb stock, a touch of mint jelly, Rosemary, 2 tomatoes (flesh only) and a dash of pontack sauce, smells fab and will hit the spot for a warming supper tonight. At this point I probably should have made something for pudding or a cake for the week but instead I thought I would have a go at something different and something I love, toffee 😀 Toffee, for me would be my last meal choice I think lol, and while I still have teeth that can chew it, I will. I used some walnuts and white choc chips and some sea salt, sprinkled it into a lightly greased oven dish then made the toffee to go on top.

I am waiting for a delivery today and get an e mail saying sorry we missed you, what! I have been here all the time, I check the crappy photo they send to prove they we here, that’s not my hedge, I check the cctv, no sign, I check for the card they left, nope, so they were in the wrong place, I email them through their website and it comes back with the dreaded demon mailer notification, bloody delivery companies, well not all but this one in particular is rubbish, thanks DPD for your great customer service…..not, and there is no other way to get in touch with them 🤬

Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and we were going to go out but it absolutely hammered down so Josh made chocolate fairy cakes instead.

Just as I literally put my wellies on to go out and do the feeding it started raining again, oh happy days, only a couple of days into winter and I’m already fed up with it, it got worse when I caught my foot in the electric netting and fell down in the mud, not a happy bunny this evening ☹️

The lamb pies were delicious 😋

Thursday: I always think it’s Friday on a Thursday, that is since Sam changed her job and my days for Mia changed, I wonder how long it will take for my brain to register it correctly again 😝 A damp but otherwise ‘non’ morning, the temps remain higher than last week so no need for early morning fire lighting. I did clean the flues out this morning though, I like to do it as regularly as possible at least until it’s lit nearly all the time, I made some bread did some hoovering, John had done all the outside and even washed, dried and put away this morning, as dinner was late last night I couldn’t be bothered to do it so left it lol. At this point I should have said well done or thank you, or should I because it’s his washing up too and so what I said was, ‘about time you haven’t done any all week’ and gave him a cheeky smile 😊

Went out to clean out the ducks in both pens and the light Sussex house, I found a round hole chewed in the bottom of the main duck shed, rats, no wonder we are not getting many duck eggs! I have decided this year to go back to old fashioned sprung traps, they can’t become immune to them 😝 like they can to the poison, besides they don’t then poison other wildlife and as long as they are placed sensibly they won’t hurt any other bird or animal. They are definitely under the shed as patch was sniffing and digging around, he is pretty good at getting them if we moved stuff and they run out, I have had a look in the stable block and they have been there also, so I have opened up one of the doors in the hope that the cats will get them, my plan was to move the ducks into a stable tonight but I will have to wait. Luckily we have a spare hut in the duck pen which I can put them in tonight, there are signs of rat activity there too as it’s only a few feet away but I will need to tackle one hut at a time. Even a concrete floor doesn’t stop them, in the end they chew through that as well!

I have ordered multiple traps 😀 and mouse traps too as the one in the poly tunnel is too big for the mouse, it stole the Camembert and didn’t set the trap off ☹️

I also spent an hour researching heated propagator tables/cables/mats etc to hopefully have more success with germinating more difficult things next year. I did think about building a table but that would be bulky and heavy, so then I thought I would look at the mats that you can use on the bench with polystyrene under, I thought that would be a better way to go because it can be put away once the weather warms up and stabilises. Then you have to be careful about what kind of plug it comes with, European or UK and what sort of wattage it puts out and if it comes with a thermometer or not, lol lots to think about. In the end I went for a UK manufactured one with a thermostat, though I have no idea what the wattage is as it did it say but I’m guessing it’s going to be around the temp I need so I will work with whatever it is. All the while I have been on here I have had the company of a tiny ‘money spider’ its keeps on walking round the edge of the iPad, then occasionally on my hand, I flick it off, it comes back round, do you think it’s trying to tell me something 😀

The wind has picked up a bit, that’s good it might dry out the wet mud and reduce my chances of slipping over again later 🤪

The spider is busy spinning threads 🕷 it’s quite fascinating to watch, it attached a thread to the iPad from somewhere in the air, I broke it, it went to collect the end and re attach it, so I broke it again and off it went to do it all over again.

John was at the hospital last night so it was me putting the birds away, normally this is pretty easy as they all know where they are going, except tonight because I shut off the duck shed to put the traps in there and opened up the other shed. They have been in there previously so you would think that as that was the only option available to them they would meander in there easily………nope, I tried for more than half an hour, with the daylight slowing slipping into darkness. The problem was they kept splitting off into multiple groups while I was trying to gently herd them towards the open door, well I got crossed and crosser lol, in the end I phoned John to see how long he would be as it would be easier with two, he was just coming up the lane, so I carried on trying and literally just as he got through the gate the buggers went in 😛😛😛

Friday: Gale force winds and rain forecast for later today, lovely 😕 Not bad this morning though, slightly colder but not too bad. The rat traps didn’t catch anything overnight but then I did it really expect them too, rats are cagey about anything different so it might take a while.

Did a few bits indoors then went out and fed the horse and the rabbits, checked the traps again (nothing yet)

I brought all the remaining seeds in from the greenhouse, I will keep them indoors over winter so they don’t get damp, I sorted them out and actually have a long list of seeds I already have, either left over, saved, free from magazines or bought in this year and not used, looks like I won’t need to get many more at all.

Well not sure what weather I was listening to when I picked up on gale force winds but it obviously wasn’t for our area 🤣 thank goodness because I hate high winds, everything creaks and groans and bangs about and it’s always at night!

Did the feeding and egg collecting a bit early as Mia is coming to stay overnight while Mummy and Daddy have a weekend away for a birthday treat, I only have her one night as she will go to her other grandparents for the next night.

Well the wind did pick up and it was quite gusty, it bought a tree down in the later further along from us.

Saturday: John did the animals this morning while I sorted Mia out with breakfast and dressing etc.

The sky came over very black midday, looks like it’s going to hammer down John said, and it did, it looked like someone was just throwing buckets of water at the window lol.

Yesterday I discovered black and white feathers in the garden, my light Sussex, and I am well peed off to find that there are only 7 out of 10 there grrrrr, they will have to be confined to the orchard for a while now, I don’t want to lose any more 😤

I haven’t checked the traps this morning I will do it later and I have more traps to bait and put down.

John goes off with a list to get some shopping while I lit the fire, no point doing anything outside might as well cosy up and hunker down. I had literally just got the fire going well when the electric went off, ffs 🤬 is nothing ever straight forward round here! I tried resetting it twice, well first I had to climb on a chair with the torch, then get back down as I needed my glasses to see, no luck so I put some wet weather gear on and go check all the outside fuse boxes and unplug/turn off anything that might have tripped it, yep a plug to the pump connected to the rain collectors, at least I worked it out. I am getting tired of the things that don’t work as they should round here I think it’s either time to move or time to build something more substantial, I can’t decide which at the moment 🤪

And then John comes home and asks me if I have been having a sleep 😬 he is always the positive to my negative, just think on the bright side he said, some people don’t even have electricity…….true. It’s not the lack of electric that worries me, I could manage easily enough but the fire needs the pump to take the heated water away from the boiler, the fire is lit, heating the water hotter and hotter and there is nothing to move it away, that’s the problem, it has plenty of safety features on it just in case that happens but still I have heard of people who have ‘cooked’ their rayburns like that.

Sunday: November 11th, The week started with a Remember, Remember and fittingly it ends with one, after doing the feeding etc we went out for coffee and pastries, then joined a couple of hundred people for the Remembrance service, last post and two minutes silence at the Town Hall. Good to see that many people turn out to honour those that fought for our freedom, I think they would feel humbled to know that we still honour them 100 years on and all those who fought in conflicts since then too. We also should not forget the huge numbers of animals, around 16 million, that also served in various ways including, Horses, donkeys, mules and camels, cats and dogs (to keep the mice and rats down in the trenches) pigeons and canaries.

To all those who served and especially to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, WE REMEMBER YOU AND THANK YOU

Posted in Friesland Farm

Winters here ❄️ Samhain & a disappointing sweet potato haul.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The car passed its MOT 😀

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Organising, fruit bread fail & hibernation time.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday evening: We had a young lad come up and get some muck for his Mums roses on his old tractor which promptly broke down ☹️ but he sorted it out and got it going again, I think it’s fabulous to see a youngster working with old machinery otherwise it will be a skill that is lost to the past like so many other skills.

Monday 22nd Oct: A crisp, sunny morning full of promise for a lovely day 😀 I put the wildlife camera up last night, outside the back door hoping to catch a glimpse of the hedgehog but there was no sign, however I did get some footage of foxes eating the crab apples that are on the ground, definitely two different foxes judging by the tails as one has a crooked tail.

Having emptied and turned off the smaller freezer yesterday I will be cleaning that out and turning it back on this morning ready to load it back up later, hopefully in some sort of order though that is more difficult than you think because it’s basically a big box that everything gets thrown into! I do have some large sacks that I separate fruit and veg into so that’s a little helpful, I will do my best and maybe make a list of what’s in there so that I have a reference for future use.

A quick look through the other rammed freezer and I got out some steak for dinner a bag of plums and a small bag of pears. My quick go to recipe that John will eat is crumble and I thought the pears would add something different to the plums. I would prefer something like a plum and custard tart but such is the cruelty of life, I who would eat all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff would pack on the lbs at an alarming rate and John who only eats plain food can eat for England without gaining an ounce. What I am saying is there is no point experimenting or indeed cooking elaborately just for me unless I want to be buying a whole wardrobe of the next size up 😜 Those recipes have to wait until I am feeding others as well. I did find a cake wrapped in foil in the freezer, no idea what it is lol it looks as though it might be ginger or something so I got that out to thaw. When we went shopping the other day John tried to put a jar of strawberry jam in the trolley, I refused, it’s not that I don’t allow him to have jam it’s that I have plenty of homemade jam in the cupboard, all flavours but he only likes strawberry which we ran out of months ago, I am trying to force him to try blackcurrant or apricot but it’s a battle 🤪

I have been trying to organise my kitchen cupboards, and failing miserably! The cupboards I keep the ‘food’ (tins,sugar, ketchup etc) in requires kneeling on the floor to see what’s at the back which is no good really so I swapped it for a cupboard I keep all the daily cooking paraphernalia in like mixing bowls, jugs, food processor etc, so far so good except I can’t fit all the ‘baking’ (dried fruit, nuts, ) ingredients in with the food cupboard and so it’s not organised at all, more scattered, I either have too much stuff or not enough space can’t decide which 😜 I do use it all, thats the problem, but sometimes only now and again and you know that as soon as you get rid of something you wish you hadn’t 🤪 In-between sorting I made a batch of chocolate fairy cakes for the grandchildren.

Late afternoon I started getting the other freezer emptied some of it into the freezer I had defrosted yesterday but it was obvious it wouldn’t all fit so I had to quickly turn on the small freezer and cram whatever I could into there until tomorrow when I can get the second freezer cleaned out and turned back on. At least I have a good idea of what is in there now, a small amount I have thrown away just the odd bread roll or some bits that had frosted badly, some I have got out and will have to cook tomorrow including a tub of blackberries where the lid had split but most of it is away for now. Once the other freezer is cleaned I will have lots of room to sort it properly and I have pork arriving tomorrow as well, we actually don’t need to buy meat/fish for months on end and I have enough gravy stock to sink a battleship! Why I keep making crumble mixes and Yorkshire pudding batter to put in there is anybody’s guess, definitely time to start using it all up instead of making more to put in there lol. Oh and I have a bag of corn on the cob which I absolutely could not fit in anywhere that will need to be eaten in the next day or two 😜

Tuesday: I was up early in order to sort out the second freezer which I thought would take about an hour but as luck would have it although it had begun to defrost the ice was still on the sides of the unit. This meant that it just fell off in large lumps which I was able to get out instead of a watery mess in the bottom to soak up with cloths, done and dusted and switched back on to fast freeze by 7.30 😀

Got the eggs done (I put the sack of corn cobs on the floor, more about that later) then made a crumble and a jar of jam with the blackberries I had to get out of the freezer, then Mia arrived for the day.

Shelley, Josh and Florence came to visit and had to pop out the back for something and discovered that I had forgotten to pick up the sack of cobs and put them back in the sink and the dogs had decided they were a tasty snack 😖 they had shredded the sack in the process as well.

When Mia had her nap I quickly got everything out of the small freezer and put it back into the big freezer along with my pork delivery which had arrived earlier, I kept out some chops for dinner and some sausages for the fridge 😀

This evening I am going for some Bowen therapy to help with the sciatica, which has actually been fine the last two days so hopefully this will help with the healing, if you have never heard of it don’t worry neither had I until about a year ago, look it up and see what you think and I will let you know how I get on. The massage therapist I see is amazing, very knowledgeable and positively radiates healing so I am looking forward to a bit of Bowen and maybe some massages over the next couple of months. I personally think that a regular, good massage would do wonders for a multitude of ailments it’s a shame it’s not available on the NHS it might save them a fortune 😀

Wednesday: Sunny morning, the sunset last night was amazing though I didn’t get photos. I felt like I had been in a fight this morning after the Bowen, that’s to be expected it seems 😂 I took some paracetamol as instructed and feel fine now. I needed to get a few bits tided up indoors, stuff that has been sitting round for ages all now put away. Shelley rang to see if I wanted to go to the country park, yep, everything stops for grandchildren I far as I am concerned, just like it did in my Mums house, they are small for such a short time so almost anything else can wait 😀

My Nan always gave you a warm welcome if you popped in from school, I have been lucky really and had a well nurtured life which I am passing on to the next generation hopefully 😀

The country park walk was fab, I have not been there before even though it’s been in place for about 10 years, it’s on the edge of a large housing development in the next town and I have to say I was really impressed with the thought that had gone into it. We even found a spindleberry bush, a rare find, that had been planted along with all the other shrubbery, we collected some seeds and I will see if I can manage to grow one. There are two huge sculptures of horses which are pretty magnificent to come across, Josh named his favourite one Jack lol.

Thursday: Overcast not to chilly though but no sunshine today. I have had a productive morning which I am pleased about, it seems ages since I was able or had the energy to do much more than the necessary. I started off by burning some of the tomato vegetation because I don’t really like putting it on the compost heap in case it’s harbouring disease, the last of the toms are ripening on the windowsill. I did a bit of tidying up in the small polytunnel and had a root about to see if I could find any sweet potato tubers growing, there is plenty of foliage but I couldn’t find anything else unless they are deeper down. It will be disappointing if there are none at all. Then I picked off all the broccoli sproutings that had flowers on for the rabbits along with some chard and a few weeds. Then I dug up a few self set potatoes, there were some whoppers that will be ideal for baked potato, I dug up the rest of the carrots as they are beginning to get holes in them from various pests plus once the soil starts to get damp they will begin to rot away. I have tried storing carrots in various ways but it’s easier to prep and freeze them. I gathered all the bean pods that I have left on the plants ready to dry the bean seeds, some for planting next year and some to use in soups and stews over the winter. I have seeds from the spaghetti and butternut squash drying on the windowsill as well, I am hoping to save as many seeds as I can from the veg and flowers this year, it will save money but it’s also good practice to begin a good programme of saving, closing the loops 😀 and I planted some broad bean seeds to plant out as soon as they are up. I was going to plant peas in the small tunnel but a tell tale hole in the compost tells me I need to put a mouse trap in there first 😝 otherwise all the seeds will get eaten.

I had a little look at the tiger nuts and found one, I’m sure there are plenty more but they are not ready for harvesting until later in the year, it’s about chickpea sized and nutritionally packed with minerals and vitamins, you can eat them raw but they are better cooked it seems. There is a recipe I will have a go at when they are ready called horchata https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/horchata

I processed a pan full of carrots using the mandolin to slice them, it’s very sharp and you have to be carful not to get too carried away near the end of the carrot as I have taken a chunk of my finger off before now and it 🤬 hurts!

Sam came over as the farrier was coming to do Jacks feet, her car is off the road and she came by bus, I didn’t even know there was a bus service but she was able to get from the top road in Witney to the top road in Shilton, fair bit of walking to do each end mind you as she had to walk from her village about 2 Miles, then once at our end it’s about a mile from the other end, at least it’s not raining.

Friday: A different morning altogether, I was surprised to hear a short burst of rain first thing and the temps are set to fall drastically this weekend. I want to make a Guernsey Gache which is basically a fruit loaf, it takes 3 hours for first prove so I need to get my timings right as I have blood tests/flu jab this morning as well. I also need to get the torts moved they have decided to dig into the ground in the greenhouse but I will be moving them back into their hut, packing it with straw then moving them to the shed, that needs doing before the temps drop too low and today seems like a good day for that.

You may ask, why didn’t I leave them to naturally dig into the ground? well I would have except that the greenhouse lets rain in and then the ground would get wet and freeze on cold days and that would be game over for them, so I have to intervene.

Tomorrow we are going to a ‘Watcher of the Old Ways’ ceremony to celebrate Samhain at the local standing stones and I need to make some biscuits or something similar for sharing, it will be a good opportunity to get an mot on my broomstick 🤪 and then Sunday we are off to the Spellbound exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, a magical weekend all in all, when I say we, I don’t mean John, I am going with my sisters, it’s not Johns type of thing lol.

I have taken some pictures and you can see, just about, how they had ‘dug in’, especially Billy I had to prise him out lol, anyway they are now safely packed away for the long Winter sleep, I will check on them from time to time and put more insulation round them depending on the weather. I’m glad I left it though as this year has been unseasonably warm.

Once the torts were done I got started on the Guernsey gache (pronounced gosh), I followed a recipe but this did not quite go as I expected, the dough kept creeping up the sides of the bowl instead of coming together like a dough normally does, I had to keep stopping the mixer and pushing it back down, eventually I added extra water and that did the trick although the quantity of fruit seems too much but we will see what has happened after 2/3 hours of proving! As long as it’s edible that’s the main thing.

Pants, I get back from having bloods and the fruit bread is not rising at all……..google gives various answers all of them contradict each other so I will try what I think might work which is to knead it a bit by hand then put it in a very low oven and see what happens.

I got it out to knead but it was obvious it was far too dry so I added some luke warm water and knead again, turned the oven on to heat at 50c for five minutes then turned it off again and put the mix in there to prove, this is taking up far more of my day than it ought too 😜

What with blood tests, the fruit bread not going to plan, making a batch of cookies, the egg shed selling out and needing replenishing and the dogs barking constantly I’ve not had a minutes peace today and there was me thinking I could maybe make something more technical like a layered cake, chance would be a fine thing!

I lit the Rayburn mid day, I’m thinking that warming the kitchen might help with the proving 🤪 at least the cookies turned out ok 😀

I’m still looking up reasons and remedies, it’s not the yeast being too old as I use it regularly and made bread with the same packet the other day, it can only be the temperature I think.

So it’s past 2 and I have been trying to get this fruit bread going since 8.30! It has a little raise but not much so I have put it in the oven that is off, now the biscuits are cooked, but still warm, oh my days who knew it would take up most of the day 😝

The wind has picked up outside it’s supposed to be coming down from the north but at the moment it’s squalling around in all directions.

Ok this loaf shows no inclination to rise whatsoever and I’m running out of daylight hours so I’m going to bake it, def not expecting a Paul Hollywood handshake on this effort 🤣🤣 and that’s one recipe I won’t be using again! Total disaster, after an hour baking it was still doughy inside and burning on the outside, I will chalk that one up to experience……..☎️ ‘darling, could you pick up some fruit bread from the supermarket on your way home’ 😂

The eggs sales have been rapid today, cleaned out before afternoon pick up and every egg we have in the place is now out for sale.

Saturday: Cold this morning, much colder in fact the front paddock tap was frozen! It’s warm in the Sun now though.

John did all the outside while I hoovered, polished put washing on etc, made a loaf of bread, which went well and restored my faith in my abilities 😜 I also made a quick batch of candied walnuts to take out with me later. They are so easy to do, walnuts, brown sugar, butter and a bit of water, all in a pan on high heat and stir until the liquid is pretty much gone, then cool and sprinkle with salt or you could use cinnamon, nutmeg whatever really, you could put a dash of vanilla in the mixture or any flavouring you want I suppose, easy peasey, crush it up to use as a cake topping or on top of ice cream the possibilities are great 😀

Well we went to the Samhain ceremony with the ‘Watchers of the old ways’ it was uplifting and energising, even though it was first raining, then sleet, then snow! Afterwards we went to the pub for hot chocolates 😀

Clocks go back tonight.

Sunday: Sunny but cold morning, we had an extra hours sleep 😀 The phones and internet were not working first thing, I have a feeling this happens whenever the clocks change but never really taken much notice before, I will try and remember next spring and see what happens then. John did the outside while I sorted the phones/clocks etc, the Rayburn was still active so got that going again, no point letting it go out and re lighting it later besides we have plenty of wood 😀

We sat down with coffee and watched the news headlines, well that was depressing, we don’t normally watch any daytime tv probably won’t again, why people can’t just live in harmony is beyond me, surely no matter what religion, colour, creed, nationality they are, being a good person is what is most important, too simple I guess 😢

John is off to the hospital later to visit his Mum

We went to get a few bits of shopping this morning, just random bits like butter and icing sugar, mushrooms etc, we don’t need much and I couldn’t believe how busy the supermarket was, I mean heaving 😝 Everyone is gearing up for Halloween, in my day you were lucky to get anything except short shrift if you knocked on a neighbours door after dark lol, except if you went to the American married quarters, then you would be rewarded with Reece’s pieces and other stuff we had never seen before 😀 Nowadays everyone is in on it and why not on the whole it’s a good bit of fun, my favourite time though has to be Guy Fawkes/Bonfire night, with toffee apples, homemade soup and awesome pyrotechnic displays, Winter is upon us and the various celebrations begin 😀

Spent the afternoon at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford at the Spellbound exhibition, ice to do something a bit different.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Two days on ice, an irritated Jay & moving day.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th October: The year seems to be racing past now! Yesterday afternoon while just straightening cushions on the sofa my back twinged and now I am suffering with lower back pain, ffs does it never end 😝 It’s not massively painful, I can move but it’s a constant nagging even when I have taken numerous pills for it so today’s progress will be slow 🤪 This went from bad to worse through the day and eventually I couldn’t sit down for longer than a couple of minutes, luckily standing/Walking is fine but I hope after a nights sleep this has gone!

We need to sort out the duck situation, we have a lot of free loaders at the minute, the drakes that we hatched out, some older ducks that no longer lay and some who just refuse to lay no matter what we do.

I made a batch of ‘use it up’ soup which is basically anything that looks like it needs using, veg some chicken even 1/4 tin of baked beans, along with some herbs, mushrooms and tomatoes and that’s what is for dinner along with some freshly baked bread and an apple crumble.

Tuesday: Ok so this is sciatica I think! Very painful to sit down for more than 2/3 minutes, luckily standing, walking and bending is fine and mostly lying down is ok except it woke me this morning with lots of pain 😝 I have done some stretches and taken aspirin which has taken the edge off of it and I have contacted a fabulous lady that does massage and Bowen, hopefully she will be able to help sort it out. I have Mia today and tomorrow this week so that’s going to be a bundle of fun 🤪

Yesterday I got fed up with the hops that were in the kitchen drying on an oven tray, I have been waiting for about a month for some cotton sacks to put them in, no sign of them so I threw the hops away as the potency would be gone by now and guess what turns up today, yes, the sacks 😤 never mind I will keep them for the lavender harvest next year if I ever get a decent amount lol. I wanted to make slumber sacks with hops and lavender, maybe I still will I can probably order some online, mine did not seem to have much of an odour to them anyhow so maybe they were not quite ripe enough or overripe, who knows?

Thursday: I have spent two days with an ice pack on my sciatic nerve, oh my goodness how painful is sciatica, at times I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I asked for tips and was amazed at how many sufferers there were out there. After trying various things I settled with ice packs and anti inflammatories, plenty of lying down or walking around as I couldn’t sit up at all. Luckily in our waste not want not life I had ice packs from when the fish was delivered that I kept for just such an occasion lol. Poor Mia wondered what an Earth was going on when instead of sitting down with her I had to lie down, still we entertained ourselves by me pretending to be her baby, I have seen every episode of Baby Joy Joy, that’s a new one on me, and somehow we managed to get through the two days 😋 Consequently I have done nothing else, John even had to do the orchard lot.

Today it is so much better, just a small nagging which reminds me to be a little bit careful, I doubt I am going to be sitting down for long periods anyhow as I have plenty of catching up to do.

Charlie and Macca should, fingers crossed, complete on their new house tomorrow and so it will be moving day for them, their excitement is palpable and hopefully it will all go according to plan and by the weekend they will be in their own house and I will have a spare room back again 😀

I ordered some haricot beans which have arrived, 500g, I will use some of them for cooking and then save some for planting next year, that’s the plan anyway, now all I have to do is learn to make good baked beans 😝

The geese have finally discovered that they can get into the side paddock, it’s only taken them about three months! When the grass was scarce we opened up the rails for them to go through but they wouldn’t pass the tape that was up on the top, any other barrier we don’t want them to go through seems fair game but when you want them to do something they won’t, go figure, anyhow they are now wandering in there but seemed obsessed about getting into my garden as they linger, looking longingly through the fence for a large part of the day, there is no logic to a birds thinking I have learnt over the years 🤪

I wanted to let the ducks out of the duck pen to forage around under the crab apple tree but I needed to secure a few areas into the veg garden first to make sure they don’t get in there, the veg garden will be for the orchard ducks when I have finished harvesting everything. After that I set about harvesting some of the veg that needed picking, butternut squash, courgettes, some tomatoes, spaghetti squash and a token aubergine! I always have trouble growing aubergine and this year was no different really, I keep trying but for some reason they don’t like it here, except for one plant which is thriving, in fact it’s still flowering, I have only had two fruits from it mind you.

The butternut squash are all different sizes from very small to large but they will all be used one way or another. One of the things I love about growing is being able to bring it in and make something fresh with it, today it’s butternut squash soup, and I am proud to say that every ingredient bar one is Home produced, onions, garlic, carrots, sage, rosemary, and of course the squash itself, the only thing that wasn’t grown here is the celery, not bad and definitely from farm to fork or spoon in this case, with a freshly made loaf of bread that will do nicely for lunch 😀 I had a thought that I could put together all the items needed for the soup and sell it as a package, I wonder if it would sell?

While the oven is cooking bread I might as well make good use of it so I am roasting tomatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, and basil in olive oil and butter, this will probably be the last batch of tomato sauce for the freezer, It’s all chunky or whole as it will be sieved when it’s done.

Also made a quick fruit cake 😀

While I was mixing it I heard a noise that I haven’t heard before, a kind of squawking, a bird, I looked out and in the Oak tree was a Jay, I have never seen one before certainly not here, I was pretty sure it was a jay though and googled it to make sure, yep definitely a jay and to check the call it was making I Googled that as well, I found a video that was titled ‘irritated jay’ lol yep that was the noise it was making, obviously irritated about something, we seem to have a few animals and birds that we haven’t seen before, not sure if it’s the weather or something else but they are welcome additions.

Charlie cooked dinner for us tonight as a thank you, she moved back in with Macca in Feb in order to save a deposit for a house and tomorrow is the day they get the key to their new home 😀

Friday: Moving day 😀 you forget how much waiting around there is on moving day, packing everything up has mostly been done over the last few days and waiting for the go ahead seems like forever 😝

Ground frost this morning and it is a chilly start to the day, John did the main lot and I did the orchard lot then he went off to do some small jobs while I helped here and did a bit of cleaning, then we had a phone call to say that an ambulance had been called for Johns Mum, all the best laid plans and all that.

The move was smooth 😀 they got the keys around lunchtime and with the cars and van loaded up everything was in by about 4pm, we all helped with putting things away and getting it liveable.

Fish and chip supper at the new house.

Johns Mum is staying in for tests we will have to wait and see what the results are.

Saturday: Foggy, quite chilly this morning.

I knew it was coming and it finally arrived, I now have Johns cold 🤒 I think I will write this year off as far as health is concerned, it would be easy to just give up but I will chalk it up to experience instead and carry on regardless 😜 Besides the year is winding down now as far as the veg garden is concerned, and I have already decided not to tidy it too much but to leave it to nature and the ducks to process weeds and debris 😀

The torts have not been out of their hut for a week or more so it will soon be time to pack up the hut and move it to a winter location and leave them until March time.

John had to work first thing but when he got back we got the tractor out to spread some wood chip that we had delivered last week on the ménage. I had been burning some rubbish and some scrap wood and thought I would have a go at spreading it with the shovel, I soon discovered that it had built up heat and was starting to decompose so spreading it will stop that and using the tractor bucket is more efficient than a shovel. After that we went to pick up a sofa from Shelley as we had been using and storing Charlie’s and now she has moved we didn’t have one, a bit of shopping on the way back, then John went to see his Mum in hospital and the day is done.

Sunday: Foggy and chilly again today, I lit the Rayburn quite early, around 10 as it was noticeably cool and low and behold the Sun came out, it turned into a very warm afternoon. There are ladybirds flying around all over the place out there, confused by the warm weather I think. We popped out to collect a set of bedside drawers for the now spare room, when we got back I ordered some pork and a bit of goat meat from a fellow online smallholder which will arrive Tuesday. That made me think I better empty one of the freezers to defrost it so that I can sort them out, we have two large chest freezers and now one of them is rammed full, there is so much good stuff in there and once it’s all sorted I can a) see what exactly is in there and b) start using it to make some great things 😀

I also stood and shelled quite a few walnuts this morning and put them in a jar ready to use when needed or to snack on as and when, with all that going on I can feel a cooking sesh ahead 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Autumn jobs, Autumn food & Autumn weather, must be Autumn 🍂

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 1st October 🎃

I made a batch of tomato soup last night ready for my lunch today, it simmered slowly on the Rayburn hob, lovely. I got thinking about the green tomatoes and looking at something a bit different, enchilada sauce seems like a good way to go, not that we eat enchiladas but the children do so I will give it away, and invite myself for dinner when they make them lol. I also made another batch of granola, with walnuts, almonds and maple syrup this time and a pinch of cinnamon 😀

This morning is one of those beautiful sunny mornings with a hint of mist early on so it’s going to be another lovely day. Just as well because the first job on my list apart from animals is to get my bedroom cleaned, yes kids, even adults have to do their bedroom 😝 For some reason that we have never fathomed it gets very dusty, very quickly and drives me mad, so strip everything, wash everything, Hoover everything, polish everything, job done, almost, because the windows need a clean. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not someone who is fastidious about smear less, sparkling windows but I do like to be able to see out of them 🤣🤣 especially this time of year when the early morning sun beams in through them. The extra blankets go in the wash then it’s out to collect eggs and remember the price increase from today.

I made a lamb hot pot for dinner tonight, we have quite a few bits of lamb breast to use up so it may be a favourite on the menu this winter, for this one I actually used a small shoulder and from the writing on the packaging it looks like it was one of ours, in fact it will be mutton so should taste amazing. It was going to be a cobbler but I don’t have any GF flour so just in case Charlie wants some, I have done it without the ‘cobbles’ if she doesn’t I can’t easily knock up some dumplings and pop them in halfway through cooking 😀

Had a bit of flour to use up some I made some batches of crumble mix for the freezer and a few dumplings hopefully to use later.

My body, at last seems to have caught up with my mind and I am finding I can work easily and without swellings and ache and pains at the end of the day, having said that I can feel my thumbs starting to ache but a couple of ibrufen should sort that out.

After my delicious tomato soup for lunch I got on with sorting out the greenhouse. When we decided to get a new one I cleared it all out and stored the stuff I wanted to keep, throwing out anything I didn’t want. Moving it all back in again was lovely, it felt comfortable and familiar so I’m not in the least bit disappointed. I had got rid of the mish mash of staging I had so I need to sort something else out, we have plenty of wood so it shouldn’t be hard, I started looking at greenhouse interiors to give me ideas and that led onto looking at passive solar and now I’m looking at ways to achieve that! With almost everything out it’s easier to begin again with what I really need to put in, black water tanks for heat storage will be a definite and gravel or slabs on the ground to increase thermal mass & insulate the North facing lower panels, we need to remove some of the tree branches that are blocking out the sun rays on the South side and Bobs your uncle, it should be a whole lot better😀

Tuesday: My day to have Mia so out early to get the feeding done, I wonder how many customers read the memo about no egg collections on Tuesdays 🙄 there are plenty of eggs out there from yesterday though so it’s ok if a few still come.

We watched the BBC 1 programme ‘Drowning in Plastic’ , I am not easily shocked but it’s horrifying, what have we done to the world ☹️

Wednesday: Lovely day with an even temperature, quite pleasant. I have been working in the garden, more tidying and hoeing etc, I pulled up the rest of the outdoor tomatoes and put all the green ones in the poly tunnel, they may ripen, they may not but at the temps are set to dip at the weekend I figured they were nearing the end anyhow. I weeded the brassica cage and that was two jobs in one as the rabbits had a feast of weeds and now the ground is clear. They are still producing loads of florets and the leaves are still nice and green, mostly, I am going to see how long they keep on producing for. I cut back (hacked actually) the kiwi in the fruit cage as it has got a bit out of control, as yet it has never produced a fruit but it adds a good bit of cover and foliage for the time being, maybe one year when all the conditions are right it will surprise me 😀 The torts are still awake though not eating much at all now, the daytime temperatures are pretty warm so it’s no surprise they are still awake but that should begin to change over the next couple of weeks and when they no longer wander around I will put them into a straw filled hutch and then the hutch will go into the shed. I know these are used to fridge hibernation but I have never done that before and was worried about it so decided to stick to what I know. I cut the lawn which will probably be the last cut this year, I also got round to putting some pieces of wood along the barked area so that the chickens don’t keep scratching it out onto the lawn, every time I cut I have to rake the bark off the lawn first and have been meaning to put up a small barrier for a couple of years, job done finally.

I ordered myself some screws, they will be hidden along with my screwdriver bits so that I actually have some to hand when I need them instead of sorting through buckets of old, knackered, rounded off, screws, John says, ‘you can have these’ yes cos they are no bloody good that’s why, cheers for that 😝

Quick rest at lunchtime then back out to plant a couple more shrubs and a tree, then time to pick up and sort eggs, even though they have gone up the sales have not declined in the least!

Then I ran out of steam 😜 at this point it would be mice to sit down with a cuppa and a slice of cake but I haven’t made any for ages so it’s a banana instead 😋 My foot is giving me jip today, the upper surface of it, when I had the flare. Apart from my two fingers that went numb so did the skin on my left foot, it seems to have started to go back to normal feeling but it’s stinging in the process. My little finger is still not quite back to normal yet and the nail beds have also died back about 1/3 from the top of my finger, I tell you the body can do some pretty awful things to you that when it wants to.

I keep meaning to tell you about the ‘loofah’ washing up thingy, the first bit I used has only just gone into the compost bin this week, I can’t find the original blog but it must have been around June time so it lasted approx 4 months, pretty good going I think, I have now cut a new piece 😀

I made an Eves pudding as a treat, I was going to do crumble but thought that was a bit boring, it’s similar ingredients just a different set up 😀

Lovely evening with a super pink sunset 🌅

Thursday: A pleasant enough morning, one that doesn’t need a coat, the sun is not out but the temps are not cold. ‘what jobs are you doing today’ John asked this morning, we’ll pick a job, any number of them really but while the weather is kind I’d better chose an outdoor one so this morning I will be cleaning out the pens/huts in the orchard, washing out water and food bowls, raking the floors, 5 huts and 2 rabbit pens.

Mum came over early morning and did some gardening while I carried on with the cleaning out etc, I let the light Sussex out for the very first time, it’s all bit new for them and there were a couple of scraps but they settled down eventually.

We sat and had coffee about 11.30 and ate some wet walnuts as a snack, delicious, I am still picking them up despite saying I wouldn’t, I can help it, I don’t want to see them going to waste, sometimes I stand on a few so the chickens can pick at them.

Just as well I keep collecting them because I had to throw a tray out, the bottom tray of the stack had mould, probably due to lack of airflow so I have put an empty tray underneath to stop it happening again, mould and nuts are not a good combination and even though it only looks like it’s on the outside it will have got inside so better safe than sorry.

We have had a couple of reports of a drone flying over the village on two separate occasions this week, one was yesterday near me but although I was outside all morning I didn’t see or hear anything. It un nerves people because this is the criminals latest way of finding out what is on a property, and as we are in such close proximity to the air base both the police and air traffic control are keen to find out who is flying it.

Friday: Overcast but pleasant. Occasionally I set to a job that was never in my plan for for the day, not that I ever have much of a plan but a vague idea of what I want to get done. Today on a whim I decided to get the ménage sorted, normally throughout the Spring and Summer I weed killer it to keep it tidy but this summer I had not been able to and it’s out of control. I did weedkiller it about a month ago but it needed doing again and it will need another go in a couple of weeks or it’s just going to end up as waste land. While I was about it and the creosote was to hand I thought I might as well start creosoting the timbers as well, this is no small job 🙄 and I have managed to do one whole end, inside and out and it looks pretty good, just another three sides to go 🤪 I have definitely go some of my mojo back or I wouldn’t have even attempted it. It is due to rain tomorrow and hopefully Sam will be over later to drag the fields if not I will have to coax John into doing it tonight!

Sam did come over and we managed to get the drags on the back of the tractor so that job is done. Shelley, Josh and Flo came over and Josh bought over an apple crumble made with his own hands (Mummy assures me he washed them first 😝)

Spoke too soon about the mojo though lol, my legs are aching like crazy, a cuppa and some inbrufen is in order.

When John came home he had to get the drags back off the tractor as Sam couldn’t undo them, they are very heavy chains and once they have been bouncing around the field they are difficult to undo!

We had Josh’s crumble for pudding, delicious, he loves his food and more than that he loves home grown and home cooked food, he is always delighted when I ask him if he wants to take some tomatoes or cucumbers home, ooo yes please Nana lol. Mia on the other hand will try stuff but usually spits it out 🤣 ah well as long as she tries, that’s the main thing.

Did a quick bit of shopping this evening and stood chatting to a neighbour outside the shop, I couldn’t believe how mild it was at 8pm on an October evening.

Saturday: It’s peeing down, can’t say we weren’t warned and looking at the forecast it’s in for the day, we do need it though, I can’t tell you how dry everything is, I’ve never know a year as dry as this one. Tomorrow looks to be dry though, so it’s not the ‘once it gets here it never leaves’ scenario we usually have 😜

John did most of the animals this morning, I did the orchard lot as usual, when the clocks change it will be my turn to do the lot as it will be dark when he leaves in the morning and dark when he gets home at night. It will be rainy day jobs today, I have plenty to choose from, apple processing, cleaning, chutney making, John will probably tackle the end bay in the hay barn or the back area which needs a quick tidy. This afternoon we are off to have drinks and cake with a 90 year old Uncle who is still very spritely, in fact I think he still swims on a daily basis 😀

Well John didn’t pick a job in the dry in fact he didn’t pick a job at all which didn’t really sit well with me but I guess time off now and again is needed and tomorrow is supposed to be dry so hopefully he will do something then 😆 I did a batch of tomato purée for the freezer then a bucketful of apples.

A good evening to light the Rayburn but it seems she is not having any of it today either! It took three goes at lighting to get her going and now she is busy crackling away, I think my longing for the flick of a thermostat is getting stronger each year 😜

Digging about in the bottom of the freezer this morning I found an aitchbone joint of beef which has been in the slow cooker for quite a few hours, what a treat, will probably have it with mashed potato and some carrots from the garden.

Sunday: Bright and dry but chilly this morning. We had a hot air ballon over us this morning, normally they are a bit further in the distance but this one was right over the field next door and then landed in the field over the road, John said he saw about 3 of them when he was driving back from his Mums so it must have been the perfect weather for them. I lit the Rayburn mid morning to take the chill off the place, she went first time today 😜

At the minute John is up the back burning some of the debris from tidying up the wood pile, there is quite a bit still to burn.

I am suffering a bit today as bits of me ache all over and I have no idea why?

So the sun came out and now it’s boiling indoors with the Rayburn going as well 😂😂

John cleaned out the chickens in the afternoon and I moved the tortoises to inside the greenhouse where I can keep an eye on when they slow right down ready to hibernate. Then I decided to get the area ready that they will go into once they wake up again in spring, it needed a couple of things planted in there and some low fencing around the outside so they can’t escape. We have plenty of wood 🤣 so I set about re using some of it, I need to build a couple more pieces before we set it in place next week, then it will be ready when they are next year. It’s quite a big area under the crab apple tree next to the decking, I have put a hut in there for them and some paving slabs so they can heat themselves up, planted a shrub and some herbs for food and shade, I just need to get a deep enough dish for water which will have big pebbles in it, put in a couple of hiding places and maybe a tree stump or two and then it should be tortoise heaven.