Monday 16th December 2019: I feel that this blog deserves a full date as it will be the last one for this year. I was going to do a round of pictures and I will if I can but the upload times are probably going to be very long so I may abandon it 😜
Yesterday I made the cranberry sauce and today I did a quick blog post with because I figured if I left it until next Sunday it might be a bit late if anyone wanted to give it a go.
Friday was supposed to be Johns last day but obviously there were things to organise which ate into the working week so he has had to go today and then hopefully that’s it until early January. Meanwhile after having the weekend off from doing the daily outside routine it was back to me doing it today. The turkeys have been confined to quarters after they were out on the lane yesterday when we came back from a bit of shopping 🙄 I am worried that they might ‘disappear’ at this time of year, rural crimes of this sort have sharply increased over the last couple of years and I don’t want them to be a statistic, besides, one of them will be our Christmas dinner, though I admit I have had difficulty thinking about that particular deed!
Do you believe in coincidence or fate 🙄 I just had the most timely encounter with a chap who knocked on my door looking for something that I didn’t happen to have BUT he had something that I need at this particular time, knowledge. It turns out that he is visiting from New Zealand and back there he had been a butcher for 40 years so not wishing to pass up an opportunity I asked him about doing the Turkey. I had been in discussions online about when to do it because it seems that you hang turkeys like you do for game or red meat and I was really dubious about the process, anyway he gave me the answers I had been looking for and some great tips for other birds including surplus male quail. I know it may sound mad but I can’t help smiling from ear to ear thinking ‘oh my days how timely was that’ 😀
Tuesday: A mixed bag of a day starting with the rounds, then a hour or so with the Chaplin discussing the arrangements for the funeral, then into Witney to get a few bits of Christmas shopping, back home get the Rayburn lit, I made a batch of mince pies and I just had a discussion with John and neither of us can remember what else we did!
Wednesday: Another mixed day but most of it on the farm. Straight after breakfast I gave the quail cage a proper clean out and checked the horses. Then we had Florence for an hour after that we went out and John dug the holes for the two apple trees while I collected up the stakes and ties plus some mycorrhizal granules and some well rotted manure to put in the hole and give the trees a good start. We decided in the end to plant the trees in the small back paddock, the front paddock would ah e been nice but the ground there is not very good as it is where the MOD buildings used to be and the top soil is non existent and there are foundations all over the place. The small back paddock already has a plum tree and beam let apple tree and a chestnut so now with two more apple trees we have the beginnings of a mini food farm 😀 Trees planted and back filled I left John to put wood chip around the base to mulch and put up pallets around them so that nothing has a nibble of them. Fingers crossed they will take and do well, while he was doing that I went inside and got the Rayburn lit. Once it was going and bedded down it was time to do the deed of the year, now I’m not gonna lie I was not looking forward to doing this and all it would have taken was for John to waiver as well and we would be eating beef or lamb on Christmas Day. John reminded me though that this is what we had got them for and so it was off to the turkey pen to select the roast 🙄 I pulled up my big girl pants and we got on and did the job in hand, it went very well, it was a very quick, clean dispatch and I was happy with that. Then I spent the next hour plucking it before it will be left to hang overnight, I think I made an error in cutting the head off to let it bleed out, it should have been left on to hang for a week and now I’m thinking I will have to dress it and put it in the fridge rather than hanging as it is open to bacteria, you live and learn.
Sam, Mia and the twiglets popped by late afternoon then it was time to get the dinner, go for some Bowen therapy and get my eyebrows done at Shelleys.
My job load is obviously halved when John is at home as he tends to do the rounds but it’s still a busy day.
Thursday: One of the jobs on Johns holiday list was the boot room floor, I have been stepping over the soil pipe for five years now and rather think that’s enough, it’s right smack bang in the middle so there is no escaping it. The plan was that Martin would be booked in for two days to build a more suitable cupboard and seating with a lid to store the hats, gloves etc plus some hanging for the coats. In order to do that the floor needed doing, I was under the impression that it would be done between the Christmas and New Year but no John has decided that today is a good day 🙄 So my kitchen currently has the entire contents of the boot room in it, not exactly how I had planned the run up to Christmas as I haven’t even got the tree up yet. The contents of the store cupboard are what is bothering me most, we have that much alcohol in there it’s ridiculous, you can tell we don’t drink much as it just all gets put in there, and that’s not all of it, there are two fridges full of various bottles of cider, wine etc as well. At this point I have a battle with John as he is the epitome of Scrooge when it comes to giving stuff away, we don’t need it or use it but he doesn’t like giving it to someone who will, go figure, anyhow I have won the battle and various bottles of spirits will be given to people leaving us with a more reasonable amount (that still won’t get drunk) but at least we can offer it 😂 Then there are the preserves and chutneys to sort out, some with a well past best date have gone into the bin, some with acceptable dates will be kept and hopefully once I can get into a cupboard I can see in I will start to use some of it up. There are jars of jam in there and John keeps buying it at the shop, we will be using those up in future, they just are not his favourite flavour 😏 which is strawberry but I think he can manage blackcurrant and raspberry flavours if he tries hard enough 😬 Meanwhile, I am cleaning dust off the jars and bottles and wondering what to keep and what to bin, and allocating those precious bottles of alcohol to various people 😜
The floor is half down which was the plan as the other half involves moving the washing machine and fridge out which would push into another day and that can wait until after Christmas.
Friday: I haven’t mentioned the rain lately, it has been raining constantly for days, I have never known such a wet start to the Winter, the fields were already saturated after the last stretch of wet weather and this will just compound the problem. Luckily apart from the water sitting in the fields it hasn’t really affected us massively although I am now thinking that getting the horses in might be a good idea, they won’t like it but we probably need to get their feet dry for a short while. There is not a cold snap in sight but as John pointed out, it’s better than being surrounded by everything burning, such a contrast going on in the world at the minute.
I had bloods first thing and it looks like my white cells have come up so that’s good news. Back home to clean the living room and bathroom, I still haven’t got the tree up yet but I have other stuff to do first like the horses and sort the turkey, I still need to get a couple of presents, I was hoping I would be done by now but plans change. John has gone to Witney to do a few errands and a bit of present shopping, and it’s still raining 🌧 🌧 🌧 so I need an absolute plan for the horses.
I went out and got the stables ready for them to come in, at least they will be able to get dry feet for a couple of days and not look so forlorn stood under the hedge like they are at the minute 🙄 Biscuit will probably like coming in, Jack will hate it and will kick the door every time he sees anyone passing but it will just be for a day or two then I will turn them back out for the Christmas days and if it’s still raining get them back in after that, this may be the new routine for a while 😜
I hadn’t planned on having to deal with the horses in such a way as it’s usually frozen some of the time around now but this year is different, this has a knock on effect to my ‘to do’ list as I have to prioritise obviously and anything living and incapable of looking after themselves (animals) have to come first, living and capable (husband, children, family) come next and non living at the bottom, by that I’m talking about garden, fencing, hedging, trees etc etc.
Saturday: ‘Twas the day to get stuff done, that was the plan and it was fairly well executed lol. John did the animals and the only problem of the day was when Jack got out of the stable as I was trying to skip it out, there he was charging round the place in his stable rug (basically his pyjamas), I managed to catch him eventually and get on with the rest of the day. This mostly involved finally getting the tree and the decorations up and wrapping the last of the presents.
The egg sales have gone berserk today, in fact all week it has been brisk and I think we will probably sell out early tomorrow but that’s good, better than them hanging around.
Tonight we have a Christmas get together with a neighbour to go to, looking forward to that, it will kick start the festivities 🥳
Sunday: Solstice 😀 the turn in the year back towards the Spring, very happy about that lol.
We did the animals that included turning the horses back out which they were very happy about and spent 5 minutes running around like they had been locked up for weeks 😜 Then we went off to get the last bits of shopping done and called in to see Josh for his 4th birthday today.
All that is left for this year is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, enjoy every moment, have a great New Year and I will be with you on the other side when it will be 2020! It sounds like a sci fi date doesn’t it!
frieslandfarm (flowers) 