Tag: snow

Posted in Friesland Farm

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

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

The beast from the East and all that goes with it!

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 26th Feb: It is cold this morning but not as cold as I was expecting it to be but time enough for that. Did the morning stuff had to break all the water buckets and was glad we filled them yesterday, though prolonged cold will obviously bring problems further down the line.

Made a shepherds pie with the left over slow roasted beef we had yesterday, I used the meat juices for the gravy and even fried the onions in the beef fat, just what you need to keep the cold out, I also made an apple and blackcurrant crumble again lots of vitamin c and a good stodgy pudding works wonders on the soul 😀

The rest of the day was mostly spent stoking the fire to keep the temps up inside and it’s nice and cosy so bring it on beast.

For the afternoon feeding and egg collection I dug out my duvet coat, a splendid if a little dusty affair, that came from a mountainous, snowy part of the world and is perfect for sub zero temperatures, only it wasn’t that sub zero lol, I found that the hosepipes were flowing freely so it can’t be minus anything just yet, a good opportunity to again top up the water buckets, a little snow flurry added to the ambience but that soon passed over and so we wait and see what happens next.

We are ready for most things except a loss of electric, still not got the generator sorted, the idea is to be able to plug the pump into it so that we can still run the Rayburn, I’ve got a feeling I will be cursing John if that happens and we still can’t do it.

It’s 4.30 and I’m looking out fo the window at the lovely sunshine wondering if this is all going to be something and nothing!

Made some oat and blueberry bars as I had a few oats to use up, trying to gradually use up store cupboard stuff and I will then replenish, anyone have a recipe to use up a tin of refried beans 🤣

Tuesday: Still cold although no sign of the snow that northern parts have had as yet.

Water buckets frozen solid, they take a good hard heeling to break them 😜 all the birds seem quite content and not showing any signs of the cold affecting them. Mia arrived early so it was lucky I had already got everything done except for lighting the Rayburn so I got that done quickly.

We have had snow flurries on and off all day mixed with sunshine!

I am slightly concerned for the aubergine seedlings on the window sill, although it’s warm during the day, during the night time the temp drops and where they once were thriving they are looking a little sad, I have put a clear polythene tent over them so hopefully they will recover, I only need two or three plants any way so it will be the strongest that pull through I guess. There are two melon seeds that have sprouted and they seem fine and strong, hopefully the other 4 seeds will sprout soon.

Putting the birds to bed this evening with a layering of crispy snow that looked blue in the moonlight, pure magic 😀 already -6 at 6.30 though, goodness knows how cold it will get overnight!

Wednesday: Goodness knows what the temps went down to last night I’m guessing about -10! So this morning I lit the Rayburn before going out and I wrapped up properly, my duvet coat, two pairs of gloves, one fingerless pair under the thermal gloves and my iso therm wellies. The only part of me that got cold was my face and a few gurning exercises when I came back in soon thawed it out 🤪 The water buckets were the most difficult thing this morning, as expected they were frozen solid, right to the bottom on the smaller buckets, I broke what I could which was most of them, just the one at the back that was too hard, luckily the sun is shinning this morning so it should melt off a little bit, the hens are free ranging so they will find the other water buckets soon enough. I checked the egg shed and one of the eggs had frozen and split, the others were fine but if the temperatures stay low we might have to start bringing them in over night. I have put plenty of bird seed out for the wild birds, I moved the feeder so it is now in the oak tree outside the back door which is lovely because I can see them all feeding and there are lots of them 😀

So far the ‘beast from the east’ has been more of a ‘cub’ but plenty of time left in the arctic blast to get bigger. The snow flurries are on, off, on again but the temperature has remained low all day. Went out for lunch with Shelley, Josh and Mia as it’s Shelley’s 30th Birthday today, the kids were in ‘full on’ mode, well behaved but hard work lol, luckily Mia was tired when we got back so I put her down for a sleep and went out to do the feeding and egg collecting. While I was out there I filled 4 wheelbarrows full of cut wood and bought that in and also quickly skipped out jacks stable, put some hay and water in for him so he can just be bought in later. I think tonight might be when it hits us if at all.

Thursday: The ‘beast’ was grumbling all night here, the winds never let up from 10pm till 7am, I was surprised that we didn’t have a blanket of snow. It has been steadily snowing since 7.30 now and the sky looks full, the warnings have been issued, schools and offices are closing from lunchtime, I wonder how bad it will get and I wonder if I will be the only one here tonight if the others can’t get back! As for the morning rounds, they were difficult especially watering, the buckets are frozen solid, the taps are frozen solid, I took out some cartons of water with me for the smaller animals and a bucket for the ducks. For the chickens I have moved the buckets inside, as the hens won’t come out I figured their collective body heat will melt at least a top layer of ice otherwise they will have to eat the snow which is what I guess wild animals would have to do.

From the weather reports I am expecting a white out blizzard I just hope the electric stays on! In preparation, as I have been caught out before I have charged everything up, torches, phones etc. I have learnt from previous episodes to keep an old plug straight into the phone line phone, as the ones that connect via a pod to the electric as well won’t work, all the little cogs in my survival wheel lol.

I have a beef stew in the slow cooker and I’ve made hot cross buns, without the crosses 😜

This was a recipe from the River Cottage Bread book, actually they were so easy I wondered why I had never made them before.

I have been looking at the forecast from RAF Brize Norton as it’s less than 2 miles away and the wind chill factor is -12 in the day time!

Well the afternoon round was a fun event……..NOT! The snow is coming down it’s f**king freezing in the wind and I had to spend the time carrying buckets of water from indoors to the outer reaches, they are heavy let me tell you, at least everything has had chance of a drink but my arms are hurting, pfft I know, weakling, there are times when I can easily carry stuff and times when I can’t, this is a can’t time and it’s not much fun. My blood tests came back from last week with high inflammation markers so that is the reason I am struggling with carrying. I filled up the wild bird feeder as they have gone through a fair bit of seed today, ready to hunker down no doubt.

There has been a red warning issued for tonight in the South, joy, still at least it gives me something to write about, the next few days possibly a week are going to be flipping hard work. While most people are thinking whoo hoo a snow day, I am thinking why the hell would you want to play in it 🤪

Friday: Well most people managed to get home last night and it didn’t look too bad this morning from the window but John went off in the van and came back an hour later after trying two roads out of the village both blocked by cars stuck in drifts of deep snow, he had to leave the van and walk back. So that meant with Charlie not going in either there were plenty of hands on deck as it were, good job because the girls couldn’t get here to do the horses as they were stuck in the lane for well over an hour. The stable block was full of drifted snow and so was the feed room and the hay barn, I have never seen it like this before. We fed and watered everything, cleaned snow off of the top of the poly tunnel, then I made some bread, Charlie did the cleaning and John decided he would sit on the sofa and watch tv. The livery girls got picked up and bought here, the same chap then knocked and asked John if he wanted him to tow his van back with him which he did, an egg customer came for eggs in his tractor lol, a load of sausage rolls in the Rayburn and a nice cuppa, a sit down for a while until it’s time to go back out later.

Just finished the final shift of the day putting everything to bed, it’s cold and snowy, I am sooooo over winter now it can shove off, lots of lovely pictures of people playing out in it bah humbug not me not these days 🤪everything is snuggly tucked up in stables, coops, shed, huts annnnd relax 😀

Some snow patterns lol

Saturday: In terms of the weather it’s quite pleasant this morning lol, the temperature is above freezing and I even went outside without my coat on to put out eggs after some customers came on sledges 🛷 John was here first thing to help with the water though that hopefully will be the last time we have to bucket it across as it is beginning to thaw. His phone has been going as frozen pipes begin to thaw and have burst, I went out and about 20 mins later I saw him coming back and trying to get out another way as cars are still stuck in the lane and village, eventually after going a long way round he managed to get to someone who had been stood with their finger over a pipe for two hours! The thaw will bring different problems including mud but hopefully spring will not be far away 🤞 It seems like we have been snowed in forever but it was only two days lol.

The weather has dominated everything we have done over the last few days and to be honest inbetween feeding and some wood cutting etc we did a lot of sitting on the sofa lol

Sunday: As I sat down to write this in the afternoon the heavens opened and I mean opened, hard, fast, heavy rain lol when will it ever just be normal weather again? The snow is now pretty much slush or it definitely will be now. We went round to Johns Mums first thing then down to the shop to get a few supplies, good job we didn’t need much because there was no fresh produce on the shelves!