Smallholding – Page 29 – frieslandfarm (flowers)

Courgettes, courgettes and many more courgettes 😜

Posted on July 16, 2017 by frieslandfarm

Monday: It’s cooler this morning which means it’s a lot easier to be motivated as I’m not sweating doing the morning rounds. I did a bit of watering but we are expecting rain tomorrow so I have left most of the garden, if it doesn’t come I shall be watering for hours 😝 Went to Millets Farm with the grandchildren today to see the animals, fell in love with the Pygmy goats lol, definitely would like to get some one day.

We had a bird come in the window again today, this time it panicked and flew into the room then into the kitchen, eventually I managed to get it out of the side window, bizarre, it’s radar must be well off centre. We seem to have quite a lot of small birds especially sparrows at the moment, by my reckoning the bird boxes have had two possibly three lots of hatchlings in each box this year which is fabulous but they must be getting pretty full of debris by now and will need a good clean out eventually.

Tuesday: It finally rained ☔️☔️ just a bit overnight, but hopefully we will get more, the grass will be refreshed with just a bit but the trees and the shrubs need more so fingers crossed.

I have a feeling I am going to have hundreds of courgettes this year lol so I have been looking up recipes, I tried the Parmesan fingers, they are ok but I need to cut them thinner I think, I like them crispy. Also chocolate/courgette cake, I am always a bit wary of these recipes as mostly the veg doesn’t really add anything to the cake but I have found a recipe that uses oil instead of butter so I consider it to be a little more healthy. I am not a great lover of courgette, I add them to stews etc to bulk it out but never really tried much else with them, this is obviously the year to go for it and see what happens.

While searching through Pinterest I found a recipe for something entirely different that I am going to have to have a go at making, banana and peanut butter bread pudding, mmmmm all of my favs rolled into one and useful as a winter breakfast I reckon, I shall be saving all the end bits of bread for this one 😀

The courgette cake tastes lovely, definitely will do that one again.

I glanced out of the door to see one of our rabbits hopping round the garden, I looked over to their run to see the door wide open and also the door to the orchard pen 😝 we had a child visitor this morning who went to see them but didn’t close and bolt the doors properly, I put Mia in the pushchair and under a tree as it was spitting with rain and proceeded to round them up, luckily they were easy to round up and it was done fairly quickly, lesson: it’s worth double checking the gates even if someone says they have shut them 😜
Well it’s has definitely rained and rained good, thank goodness for that, the garden and paddocks were desperate, I mean really desperate, the raspberry bushes were beginning to die back, the fruit trees were dropping their fruit, the paddocks, especially the chicken paddock was bare and dry and brown but it will have a new lease of life after the rain. Normally we could easily go three weeks without rain but not with the temperatures we have had as well, you can spend hours watering but nothing is as good as a rain shower, it’s charged with energy to start with and blanket coverage means every root gets a drink.

Wednesday: Got some picking done, the runner beans are getting big enough to pick now, had Mia so didn’t get much else done apart from playing 😜

Went out into the back paddock in the evening, John missed a bit of ragwort so had to show him where it was, saw the little owl while we were out there and discussed having mains electric fencing instead of post and rail as the wood seems to rot away so quickly, either way we will have to spend some dollar 😜

Thursday: Rained a little over night which is welcome. This morning I am multitasking in a big way lol, I’ve stripped the sofas to wash the covers which will take 4 loads, done the feeding, got the sourdough bread on the go and picked fruit and veg, then on to clean the house.

I picked more courgettes, not quite sure what I am going to do with them all 😝 picked a few runner beans and some purple dwarf beans and a couple of outdoor cucumbers. In the fruit cage I picked raspberries and then some loganberries, these are like large blackberries and they need picking on time as they readily fall off the bush onto the floor. I need to make some jam with them but I also still have ironing to do from weeks ago lol, which activity will win, I’m leaning towards the jam. The sourdough bread is going to take a lot longer to prove than normal bread I think, I have done a fair bit of reading about it all to try and understand exactly what needs doing and why I’m doing it, so far I seem to have got the hang of it but we shall see how the bread turns out before I can say it’s a success.

In the end I did the ironing so I could watch the tennis at the same time lol, thinking about it I could do with a tv in the kitchen then I would never have to sit down 😋

Things were going well, I was getting loads done and then pain struck in the bottom of my thumb joint, you don’t realise how much you use your thumb until you can’t! I must have strained it somehow and it was very painful, took a couple of ibrufen and waited for it to get better which is did but slowly, turning off a tap, lifting a saucepan even doing up your jeans is so much more difficult never mind putting the covers back on or prepping veg.

The sourdough was ok, not 100% but around 90 I would say, I think the mix was too wet as when it was proving it started to spread over the side of the tin, tastes good though and the texture is good, the next one will hopefully be even better.

Friday: whipped round his morning as have routine blood tests to get to. Later in the afternoon my Friday help came and did some picking, the courgette numbers are ridiculous, I have no idea what I was thinking planting that many! We inspected the chick peas and there are loads of little pods on the plants, happy with that. I did a bit of tidying and some picking, then collected the eggs, the pullets are laying really well and we are getting 36 out of 38 birds already which is helping out in the egg shed massively.

I was very sad to hear that our local fencing supplier had died, he was ‘old skool’ and a real character, I shall miss him ringing up for duck eggs and giving me abuse if we didn’t have any lol.

The air tattoo is on his weekend and we have had noisy aeroplanes around all day today, it would be nice if the cloud lifted so we could actually see them and get a free show.

Saturday: Got off to a flying start, John did the birds out in the front paddock while I did the others then he went off on the fortnightly feed run, meanwhile I cleaned the boot room, burnt the paper sacks and rubbish and started tidying up the back covered area, John helped to finish that when he came back. I had put the wildlife camera out last night up the back and checked out the footage, Mr Fox, no surprise there. Did a bit of veg picking while John watched the qualifying and I had a good haul of self set potatoes, they will feed us for a week or two at least. I spotted 10 apricots on the tree, the birds had already got to a few of them but I ended up with six, not bad considering I thought the frost had got all of them, maybe next year will be better (I say that every year, last year they were plentiful but pitted). Such was the success of the courgette/choc cake I have made another two today along with some more sourdough bread and a regular loaf. The sourdough takes ages to prove, I think I may go back to the old way but not until I have used up the starter and at least I know how to do it now even if I don’t!

We have another fly phenomenon in the living room this time, I hoovered up around 30 flies yesterday, we have identified where they are coming from and John has gone to get some expanding foam to fill the hole. The problem is the wooden hollow walls and the rat poison, bad combination 😝 still at least we can fix it, he is also picking up some wasp nest killer as I still have a nest in one of the compost bins and I can’t work near it because they get angry, I will show them who is boss 😉 We have a bees nest in the feed room but I won’t be killing them off as they tend to mind their own business as long as we mind ours and we can co exist quite happily.
Courgette and Chocolate cake recipe

Basically just put it all in a big bowl and stir, then bake at around 160c for approx 40mins or until the knife comes out clean. This make two lb loaf tin size cakes, give it a go you won’t be disappointed I can tell you. I used pecans in the first one and walnuts in the next lot, also olive oil in the first because that’s all I had and sunflower in the second lot. You can buy courgettes in the little shed 😜😜 or actually I have that many that if you are reading this and just ask me I will give you some for free 😀
I have set the camera again tonight, lets see what, if anything, we get.

Sunday: Checked the camera and have more video of Mr Fox, I have tried in vain to transfer it from my laptop to the iPad if I actually succeed then it will be on here fingers crossed. In the end I had to video the video! Nope I couldn’t upload it even then 😔 I will try uploading it onto the Friesland Farm Facebook page and hope that works.

Martin came over to do some more to the play pirate ship, just some finishing touches to go now, the smile on Joshua’s face was a mile wide when he went in, Mia and him will have such fun although I think us adults will have just as much, can’t wait to dress up and play pirates, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Pulled up an enormous swede today, there were a couple more that were quite big and I don’t really want them any bigger so I dug four up and hopefully they will store well until they are needed. A drop more rain this afternoon means I won’t have to water 💦 yay. A common problem this year is tomatoes not setting fruit, mine included, plenty of flowers but they are not turning into fruit at all, it was the hot spell that caused it, the pollen becomes sterile if the temps are consistently high, there are a few tomatoes on each plant so all is not lost but it would have been nice to have had a jackpot load.

Friesland Farm

Stuck duck, hatching ducks and baby ducks (warning cuteness alert)

Posted on April 9, 2017 by frieslandfarm

Monday: Into April we go and a lovely start it is today, if all mornings could be like this it would feel like utopia 😀 Got the feeding done then put on a couple of loads of washing as it promises to be a good drying day. Took some early morning photos and gave the dogs a brush as they are beginning to moult and look ‘fluffy’, all before 9am. Moved a few barrows of manure onto the fruit cage.
Went out to Fairytale Farm with Sam and Mia and decided I would like some guinea pigs lol Watch this space!

Tuesday: Bad mood warning ⚠️ not sure why but everything was annoying me this morning, slow hose filling the duck pen, chooks getting under my feet, must be hormones 😝
Anyhow plodding on is the answer so this morning I have moved the quail to the outside house, they are been off heat for a few days now so should be fine besides the ducklings are due to hatch, cleaned out the brooder cage ready for when they do, fingers crossed. There are five female quail for definite, one definite male and the other four I think are male but as one is a lovely lavender colour I’m not sure about it yet. Watered the poly tunnel and checked the seedlings in the greenhouse which didn’t need any today, hope the sun comes out later to help them along a bit. Had Mia and when she is asleep I peruse Pinterest for ideas, looking at rhubarb, asparagus and slow cooker recipes today.

I bid on some vintage trouser hangers on eBay which arrived today, they are the perfect thing for drying herbs, or anything you need to hang really, I might have a go at juzzing them up

Wednesday: The quail survived the night in the outdoor run so it’s all good 😀 Had a busy morning cutting rhubarb, asparagus, leeks and herbs for sale in the little shed, love it when I can start putting fresh produce out. I also cut some big bunches of lovage, sage and mint to hang and dry for use during the winter months or using in syrups, sugars etc.

We have a rat stealing eggs in the pen with the new chickens who have started laying already, I saw two eaten eggs and fresh rat poo, evidence enough! I need to sort that out quickly with some bait.
Made some bread, real fruit jelly and a cake with fresh strawberries from the freezer and I had a go a some quick cream cheese, which is Greek yoghurt mixed with salt, drained in muslin overnight, why bother I hear you ask, well for one, because I can and two I’m hoping it tastes much better, you can add herbs or flavourings to it and it’s handy to know how just in case you ever need some 😀 The cured eggs got a BIG thumbs up from trial tasters, taking a meal right up to a ’10’ apparently so that’s an exciting thing, though I have not tried it yet lol.

Thursday: Lovely sunny morning, not cold, just right. Got the animals fed then did some sorting out of the muck pile which is colossal at the minute, needs some rain dare I say, to bed it down a bit. Cleaned out the ducks and noticed one of them was stuck in the pond, well usually it’s a pond, it’s fed by the guttering from the stable block, but as it hasn’t rained for ages it’s now a muddy sludge puddle. Looking at the situation I knew this was not going to end well for one of us! I took a step towards the duck hoping it would move, nope, it appeared quite stuck in the mud, so I took another step, nope, by the time I had got close enough it decided to move, wings flapping, feet going and that caused a splattering of thick stinky mud to be flung backwards straight at me 😝 now I wouldn’t have minded quite so much except that I had put on clean clothes this morning 😩anyhow, said duck is now free and more than a little bit dirty, it will take it a while to clean itself up, as for me, thank goodness for washing machines 😜
Ducklings in the hatcher have started pipping.

Friday: Lovely morning if a little cold, I feel crap this morning after a night of feeling unwell, swollen nasal passage and throat, temperature, hurts to swallow, pants I was looking forward to a productive day and now I feel like I can just about drag myself round, good dose of paracetamol might help a bit.
The first duckling is out 😀 and it’s dark, not yellow as I was expecting. He was on his own for around 24 hours so we called him Billy and gave him a teddy to cuddle up to.

We are going away overnight tomorrow so I will be leaving Shelley in charge of overseeing the hatch.

Saturday: I was a bit worried about the timing of the hatch and leaving someone else in charge but I needn’t have been, we had a successful hatch of eight ducklings in total all brown in colour so plenty of Khaki Campbell in them I think. Shelley enjoyed looking after them and watching them hatch, even nurturing one that was looking a bit lethargic until it was up on its feet.
Sunday: Returned home, delighted to see the ducklings doing so well, fabulous day, after a spot of lunch in the garden we took Josh down to the ford for a paddle, water was very cold (apparently lol)

Friesland Farm

Stats, Lovage and ‘the carpenters herb’

Posted on April 2, 2017 by frieslandfarm

When I published last weeks blog I had a quick look at my stats, I have posted 237 blogs, it is mostly read on a Monday (49%) at 9am (32%) and there are 206 followers on Facebook 😀 how about that.Monday: Foggy start, hope it burns off and we have another fabulous day, I put a duck and some veg in the slow cooker before starting my rounds this morning. By 12 it was still cloudy, where has the sun gone 😕 I got on with some major weeding on the bed where the brassicas were last year. Yesterday we picked up and repaired the cage which had been blown down and broken by storm Doris, I don’t have much faith it will last out a whole season but it was free in the beginning and we have had three years use from it so not too bad. I tried a three pronged attack on the weeding, pulling those with shallow roots, digging those with deep roots such as a patch of stingers and hoeing off any others. It will need another hoeing in a couple of days but for now it’s looking clean and ready for planting probably with sweet corn and squash. The brassica cage has been moved to the other end of the bed as you shouldn’t grow them in the same place twice due to the build up of diseases such as club root. The carrot seeds that were sown outside last week have come up and the asparagus is starting to poke through the soil too. I dug up some summer raspberry runners and potted them up along with some strawberry runners hopefully I can sell them at the gate. ( I’ve no idea what I was on when I wrote about carrots, they are not carrots at all but swede!)

We now have 2 geese sitting 😀 hopefully the place will be full of goslings this year.

Gave the big poly tunnel a wash in the afternoon to get the green off and let more light into the plants then gave the dog, Mia, a good bath, being mostly white and long haired she was decidedly grubby looking, patch was looking worried but he is taller and short haired so doesn’t get as filthy looking so he escaped for today 😜

Desperately trying to flog eggs now lol as we have an awful lot! Well putting it on the local selling page worked a treat my Facebook pingers are working overtime and sold seven trays 😀 11 trays sold by 9pm 😀 it’s good because we are getting three trays a day and had a bit of a backlog.

Tuesday: Bit of a frantic morning replying to orders for eggs but good to get them sold, John will be delivering for days lol. A vibrantly coloured cock pheasant casually wandering past the front window and across the yard this morning totally unfazed by dogs, chickens, me, gotta love Spring 😀 Tried to chuck some food in for the two sitting geese this morning as they won’t get off the nests even to eat from a bowl I put just inside the door, next challenge is to get some water near them 😆
Got a skip arriving today so we can start clearing up junk and rubbish like the over ordered bags of cement that have now gone hard as rock 😝don’t ever lecture me about too many pairs of boots Mr Pearse, at least I use my purchases 😉

John did some tidying up in the front and finished off cleaning the back hen pen, then he went off to deliver more trays of eggs, have to slow down on online sales now as there won’t be enough for our farm customers otherwise 😂

Wednesday: Mild but overcast with the threat of rain by the looks of it today. After feeding I did a bit of weeding in the poly tunnel, fine weeds so hand plucked them, some of the seeds I have sown are now sprouting, the beetroot, radish, lettuce and there are one or two spring onions peeking through, when they get a little bigger I will sow the next lot. The chick peas I am trying have sprouted, well you expect this as they are for sprouting but I am aiming to grow them on into full size plants and harvest fresh chick peas. The dwarf runners are also growing but the peas I planted straight into the ground don’t seem to be doing anything so I have sown some in pots in the greenhouse as a back up plan. Picked some more rhubarb for selling and the asparagus is poking its head through the soil so it won’t be long before I’m harvesting that.

Picked some cabbage leaves for dinner later with shepherds pie. If you cut a cabbage leave the stalk in the ground and slice the top of it 4 ways you should get sproutings later on.

Lovage: I grow this as it’s a lovely plant to grow but I never really use it, this year however I am going to make sure I do, it has a flavour similar to celery and the leaves can be used in salads or flavour for soups and stews, the roots can also be use but can cause photosensitivity so I for one will be steering clear of those.

The more I’ve read about it the more I discover, the seeds can be used like you would use coriander or fennel seeds and best of all a cordial can be made and was traditionally mixed with brandy for a winter sup 😀Time to make full use of this herb I think.

Another herb new to me is English Mace, I bought it because I had never grown it before, it’s a member of the yarrow family but on researching it an old name for it was ‘the carpenters herb’ because it was known to stem the flow of blood from injury! It’s not great for cooking unless you use the very young tender leaves after that it becomes bitter however it blooms for a very long time providing something for the bees all summer.

I candled the duck eggs today to take out the duff ones (4 in total) as they are due to start hatching next week. You can see from the photos, an empty egg with an undeveloped yolk and an egg that has developed, the space has filled and has the air sac at one end.

The black and white photo is the one with the embryo inside.

Thursday: Supposed to be a fine day today, no sign of it at 9am but it feels warm already. John was home this morning and helped out with the morning feed and cleaning out, I’m feeling tired in the mornings lately and carrying 20kg of feed around in various bucket sizes is not helping so glad of the assistance. The bathroom company has finished now and he is on his own so can please himself about coming and going, he is enjoying the freedom I think 😀

I decided to spend the day doing the end of month/year/company paperwork 😝ALL day and still not finished some of it.

Got bit to pieces by the evening midges tonight yuk.

Friday: Wet start but clearing up, windy but sunny. It’s beginning to look a lot like spring, the cherry blossom, damson plum blossom and the apricot blossom is all out, the blackthorn all along the hedgerows are blossoming, looking lovely out there. John picked up 25 POL hens this morning for selling on as we have had a few enquiries, they have settled into a nice clean pen this afternoon. Not much else to report really, the seedlings are coming along slowly in the greenhouse and the poly tunnel, I had a look at the asparagus beds today one or two bits that are big enough but not enough to cut and sell.

Saturday: The sun was shining blindingly into the bedroom this morning when I got up and disappeared by 8.30 😕 hope it comes back again. John did most of the feeding this morning and I cleaned out the rabbit cage and hutch, I gave it to the hens to scratch about it as there was a fair bit of rejected rabbit feed in it, just what the hens like to pick over. John also spent some time putting legs onto the outside quail hut, we will need to move them this week to make room for ducklings 🐥 and the legs will hopefully stop rats getting in and worrying/killing them! It’s now high off the ground, I did joke that we probably needed planning for it, it looks huge. Sold the first lot chickens this year 😀

Sunday: A cold windy start but the sun came out and it was fairly pleasant, John did a few minor fixing jobs and then got the tractor out to move some muck into the veg garden, all was going well when suddenly, diesel starting spewing out all over the ground, on further inspection the pipe had come off goodness knows how but it’s fixed with a piece of wire holding it on now 😝We then fixed up the brassica cage again 😖 we had stood it up temporarily and fixed it but the wind blew it over, anyhow this time we have secured it properly and it is all netted ready to go, I also limed the soil as I had a box handy, from where I don’t know cos I wouldn’t have bought it, must have been given it at some point. I will only grow brassicas if I am sure the butterflies can’t get in as there is nothing more disappointing than growing them from seed watching them come on nicely then get decimated by caterpillars 🐛 this means pegging every side down well and making sure there are no gaps at all in the netting. John also got the water connected back up in the garden, hopefully the risk of freezing is past us, though lots of swearing could be heard as firstly the connector was split, so he went and got a new one from the van, then when he turned it on the pipe was split so he had to go and get more connections and cut the split pipe out, he was swearing about the tooing and froing he had to do. Meanwhile I was busy hoeing, mending, weeding and fixing various bits and pieces. Sold some more hens and had an enquiry for some and they are coming back in the week. The long tailed tits are back, playing in the trees and the wrens have been flitting around on the ground all day. Picked some carrots, cabbage and asparagus for tea to go with lamb chops and also pulled some rhubarb to stew and have with custard 😀

Friesland Farm

Soup, ducks and a big hole!

Posted on September 25, 2016September 26, 2016 by frieslandfarm

Monday, felt great, well rested from not doing much at the weekend, decided to get a move on and start clearing the garden and tidy up, it was going well, I took up and old raised bed and moved all the earth to a new bed, dismantled the rotten sides and levelled out the ground, then went onto cutting the bottom stalks of the runner beans, I leave the roots in the ground because they have nodules of nitrogen on them which are released back into the soil as they die, then onto the fruit cage to get some clearing done and tighten up the wires where they had become loose over the summer with the foliage growing through. Most of the morning was a very fine rain but it didn’t get me too wet, and just as I was thinking, I will get a good amount done today, the rain became a bit heavy and definitely started to get me wet, considering there was no rain forecast I was a bit miffed! I came in for some lunch and waited for it to clear up which it did and set off back outside to carry on, I didn’t have to think about getting dinner today as we bought a lovely chicken, ham and leek pie at the country festival and that was on the menu along with the last picking of runner beans. Then some strawberries from the freezer heated up with some sugar and a dollop of ice cream. Went out picked 3 butternut squash, rain started again so I abandoned outside came in to hoover instead. Made Mary Berrys roasted butternut squash soup, delicious, recipe:

SERVES 6

INGREDIENTS

3 small butternut squash, about 1.6kg (3 ½ lb) total weight

about 2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated nutmeg

25g (1oz) butter

1 large onion, roughly chopped

2 large carrots, roughly chopped

2 large sticks celery, sliced

2.5cm (1 inch) root ginger, grated

1.1-1.3 litres (2-2 ¼ pints) vegetable or chicken stock

sprig of fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F /Gas 6.

Cut the butternut squash in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a metal spoon and discard. Arrange the squash halves cut side up in a roasting tin just big enough to hold the squash in a single layer and drizzle over the olive oil. Season each squash half with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Pour 150ml (1/4 pint) water around the squash. Cook in the preheated oven for about 1 ¼ hours, basting occasionally, until the squash are very tender. Allow to cool.

Melt the butter in a large pan and add the onion, carrot, celery and grated ginger. Cook for 5-10 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the stock, rosemary and seasoning, bring to the boil then partially cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

When cool enough to handle scoop the flesh from the squash and add to the pan. Blend the vegetables in a liquidiser or food processor until smooth. (If you use a food processor, it is easier to process the vegetables with a little of the liquid, adding the remaining liquid to the processed vegetables to make the soup).

Taste for seasoning and serve hot with crusty bread.

I didn’t have any carrots so just left them out also used powdered nutmeg instead of fresh

Tuesday, baked more bread, also tried baking a gluten free loaf from flour I had not used before result: Brick! Did a good couple of hours hoeing and cut the grass. Looking forward to my massage tonight, a treat to myself to relieve the aches and pains of work life. Lamb chops with mash and peas for tea. Had butternut soup for lunch with homemade bread.

Wednesday, spent most of the morning setting up the duck area in the front paddock to move certain ducks for breeding, the new electric fence arrived yesterday so set that up, probably won’t electrify it to start with unless we get problems, it’s more to keep the ducks in than anything else, painted the house with wood preserver and made a pallet into a solid base for the water to go on, then they hopefully won’t muddy the grass too much and I can move it around. Going to put the Khaki Cambell females that are getting on for 5 years old with the Welsh Harlequin males who are only 1 the result should be some decent looking layers! Salmon for tea, Got to get the healthy bits in.

Duck eggs are in short supply at the moment and customers keep asking me to save them, this is an impossible task so I refuse to do it, if I had duck eggs for everyone that wanted them I wouldn’t need to save them! Now I have a polite but firm notice telling them first come first served and do not ask me to reserve them 😝 very sorry but it’s not Morrisons as we keep saying! People are too used to expecting the shelves to have what they want.

Thursday: after the usual feeding, watering and letting out routine, I spent a couple of hours cleaning out the birds in the orchard pen. The quail have been looking a bit ropey and ruffled, I thought I would find red mite in the hutch but no sign 😀 cleaned out their sleeping/laying quarters put in a dust bath for them then clean the outside area and put left over poly tunnel plastic around the open mesh sides to hopefully stop the rain driving in during winter and soaking the ground. Will also act as a windbreak although the light will still get through. We have a newcomer in the form of a Pekin Bantam, his name is Aaron, we have taken him in due to his previous nieghbours complaining about his crowing pffffft it’s more of a squeak tbh and a small yappy dog would be more annoying, he spent a day or two in a cage on his own but I have now moved him into the rabbit run. A larger area that has a roof so does not get muddy, this will be a blessing though he does not realise it yet, as he has feathered feet and could end up in an awful mess over winter. I thought he would have a go at the rabbits but turns out he is a bit afraid of them and runs away when they come over to sniff him out. I will probably put a little bantam hen in with him but am waiting for louse powder to come before I do, they all need a dusting before winter. I will also be worming the birds over a seven day period and giving them a home mixture of poultry spice which is turmeric, garlic, and a few other things, when the temperature drops.

I am keeping a close eye on the walnuts, as soon as they look as though they are beginning to split i will do my best to beat the squirrel to it, although I saw him only yesterday afternoon so am guessing the time is nearly here, don’t worry I will leave him a stash

Checked my home made rat trap this morning, nothing yet! Make more bread. A couple of hours end of month paperwork then a delivery arrived 60 cabbage and leek plants, off outside to plant them. Picked some butternut squash they seem to have small splits in them at the top, lack of water in the beginning I’m guessing.

Friday, cleaning, shopping day, egg delivery in the evening, fried chicken night

Sat spent the day cutting back the hazel trees around the drive, high vehicles finding it harder and harder to get past! Shredded all the off cuts for the veg garden paths, cut the front drive grass, made bread, roast pork, hubby got the feed and dug a hole! Moved the ducks, drakes to the stable, breeding group to the front leaving the ladies, one drake and my old man in their original pen. Old boy is very geriatric now probably 7 or 8 years old, lost condition and limps but still eats, sleeps, drinks and poos so is a happy chap

Sunday, spent the day helping hubby, he has dug a large hole to be a soak away near the water butts, we get a lot of run off from the hard standing and the dogs running through the mud make it quite a mess in Winter. It is now edged with some kerb stones that we were given a few years ago and the earth mound levelled off. Unbelievably when he started digging he soon hit clay and a very deep seam of it at that, if you have ever done building work round here you will know that very near the surface is usually brash, no matter where we have dug in the past it’s hard going as demonstrated by the electric board last week, just where we could have done with it, clay turns up instead! We spent the best part of the day doing it, and also decided that the humongous crab apple tree that bombs apples at you and makes a racket dropping them on the tin roof, can be trimmed back quite dramatically once it has shed its leaves this year. It must be at least 40 years old if not older and each day I pick up a bucketful for the geese but there are thousands of them. Baked another loaf of bread and discovered that the strong white flour from Aldi makes a better loaf than other leading brands 😀

The egg sales have been full on this week and hopefully now I have separated the ducks I will get more duck eggs to sell as well.

Friesland Farm

Why?

Posted on October 20, 2015October 20, 2015 by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week 🙂

Friesland Farm

Harvest Moon

Posted on September 16, 2013 by frieslandfarm

I have been writing things down as I go along this week otherwise I usually find I cant remember what I did and write the blog in a haphazard way.

After our weekend away the first job on the list was picking as this had not been done since the Thursday before, there were plenty of beans, cucumbers and tomatoes plus a few raspberries. We also decided to harvest the pumpkins, spaghetti squash and the onions before the first frost catches us unaware, they are now in the small poly tunnel drying off, the skins need to harden on the squash and the onions need to dry so that they can be stored overwinter.

On Tuesday a friend came to visit, remember the one with the bees and lucky me I got a little gift of honey, I have resisted pooh bear behaviour and have not opened it and stuck my finger in, but I can hear it calling me from the cupboard so I am sure it wont be long before I do!

Wednesday was a busy day starting with the usual routine of feeding everything, then I went on to clean out the dog kennels, we have some lovely smelling (bubblegum flavour) disinfectant that we use, I am not sure the dogs like it very much but it makes the chore that little bit more pleasant for me. The dogs had a treat of sardines to help with their coat for the coming months and we were all pretty pleased with ourselves. The pigs are doing a great job at eating up any surplus apples and veg, they have also been given some powdered milk that was left over from the lambs, we also gave some of the powder to the chickens, I mix in some oil with their pellets and then mix in the powder to coat the pellets, they have been moulting and the calcium will give them a bit of a boost with new feather production. I can report that since creosoting the coops the dreaded red mite have gone thank goodness, and we have just been given four containers of creosote so that will keep us going for a while. The battery was a bit low on the chicken paddock and as a result some have found a way out, luckily when they have laid an egg they make a complete racket about it, one was in the front paddock in the long grass laying, one has been in the hay barn laying, I just hope I am finding all the eggs as the numbers are still down, I counted sixty two laying hens and we are getting about twenty four eggs a day, quite a lot are on a free ride at the minute!

We have had a holiday horse for a few days, he was staying in the front paddock, we taped off the apple tree but he soon learnt that there was no electric on there and was helping himself to a free lunch. Our horses have now come off next doors paddock as they are moving, we moved them to the back and decided they could eat of the strip that runs down the side of the ménage as the grass has got quite long, I let them out and within five minutes they had decided the field looked like a better option and jumped the top rail to get to it, we have left them there as it would just be a continuing circle of getting them out and them jumping back in besides that field needs eating off too before the wet weather flattens it all.

A couple of the days were spent having a good tidy up, the other coops that were creosoted in August have now been put away for the Winter, they have been stacked and covered with tarpaulin, when we come to need them again they will have a quick coat applied and be ready to use a couple of days after that. The clearing up included having a bonfire, on a farm it is very wise to pick your moments to do this, obviously it could not be done during the heatwave when everything was tinderbox dry, it is also a good idea to take note of any wind and what direction it is blowing as we have a barn full of very dry hay! It was worrying moment when I had forgotten I had lit it that morning and came out in the afternoon to see smoke, realisation dawned, fleeting moment of panic over.

The temperature had taken a turn for the colder a couple of days ago although it is mild again as I type this, the heater was needed to take the chill off the evening air and so I decided that some comfort food was in order, we had a lovely piece of braised beef with onions, and mashed potato, beans and carrots all from the garden, followed by and apple and raspberry pie, delicious, that’s the only good thing about the winter months, the smell of a long slow cooked piece of meat waiting for you when you come in. I made extra large portions of everything so that some of it could be frozen for those days when I just don’t have time to cook.

I am very aware that there is a lot of picking still to be done, the apples, the plums, blackberries, elderberries, some elderberries will be given to the chickens and they make a nice addition to an apple pie, I also noticed that the sloes were abundant this year, I have not tried anything with those yet but hope to have a go at sloe gin if I get round to picking any. I have a large quantity of green tomatoes still outside, the plants have given me plenty of ripe ones but as the temperature drops they are slowing down, green tomato chutney is delicious with cold ham around Christmas time, if anyone wants any to have a go come and get some. I have been jotting down notes to formulate a plan for the veg garden, what was good, what was not, what needs clearing and mucking and where to plant some winter veg, broad beans can go in soon and the poly tunnel will be used to grow early crops of peas and carrots. I also have some green manure to plant, this grows on a vacant patch and then you dig it back in Spring, it helps in many ways, firstly it prevents any nutrients being washed away by wet weather, secondly it helps to stop any compaction of the soil because the roots are busy finding their way around the dirt and lastly once you dig it back in it feeds the soil ready for the new plants, as long as you don’t forget you planted it and let it go to seed (as I did one year and it spread everywhere) , it is a great help.

Quick update on the leaks last week, the gutter in the stable area was full of debris from the trees and so was blocked up, that has now been sorted and the leak in the kitchen ceiling was caused by Hubby not clearing up after himself when he cleaned to flue from Rosie, he left the deposits on the roof and it caused the rain to back up near a bolt and find its way inside, needless to say he got a telling off and now all is well 😉

The windy weather has taken its toll on the bean stalks, three of them have gone over but I am still picking beans from them as the roots remained in the ground, although with the colder, wet weather the foliage is beginning to deteriorate and it won’t be long before they start to go over. Then the job of tidying up the plot for resting will begin in earnest, I love it when the growing season begins but I also love the satisfaction of clearing it all ready for next time.
Look out for the Harvest Moon this Wednesday 19th, its a bit early this year as the autumnal equinox is on the 22nd, it is just a normal full moon really but I love the fact that it has got a name relating to the time of year in the northern hemisphere.

Friesland Farm

Water!

Posted on September 9, 2013September 9, 2013 by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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