Tag: soup

Posted in Friesland Farm

Winter jobs, winter food, winter weather.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 18th January 2021: I like typing 2021 it feels very futuristic 😂 Monday morning again and the weather is ok, you can tell when the weather is just ok as the English don’t mention it, we tend to talk about extremes, isn’t it hot or it’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, we mostly always mention the rain though, we state the obvious, wet today isn’t it 😝 We are definitely weather obsessed as a nation and that’s because it is usually all over the place, you can’t guarantee that Spring will be spring like or that summer will be warm and dry you have to wait and see what comes our way and we can change it but what we can do is use it as a conversation starter 😀

John has had to go and change a set of taps for an elderly disabled lady this morning but first we did the morning feeding and watering. Once he had left I did some household bits plus get some bread on the go, since the beginning of this lockdown we have not bought bread at all I have made every loaf.

I did contemplate going out to the front and cutting back dead foliage on the flower bed by the front gate but I think I will wait, there will be plenty of insects hibernating still and although I am keen to get tided up I don’t want to disturb them just yet.

We need to decide what job we are going to get sorted next, the side driveway is on our radar but that will be weather dependant, when it’s dry we can get on, if it’s pouring down (and there is rain on the radar) then there won’t be any point as it will just make more of a mess than necessary plus who wants to get a soaking when you don’t need to.

I am on a roll this morning, whilst having bread on the go I have also got some bits of paperwork done, Bill paying, filing, sending out invoices etc and lit the Rayburn and got soup on for lunch. One of the things I did last year for the first time was the bags of frozen mixed veg for soup and I am so pleased I did they have been great and will definitely be doing them again for next Winter. This mix has courgettes, celery, turnip, onion, carrot and runner beans in it, mostly they were odd veg that I couldn’t do much else with and so I chopped them and open froze then put them all in one bag to use as a soup mix. If you have the odd carrot or stick of celery in the fridge do the same, you will soon have a soup bag ready for when you need it, anything can go in even the odd potato. I tend to cook mine down until the veg collapse then whizz with a hand blender, add stock of your choice and voila lunch is ready in no time, we have ours with freshly baked bread today which is a bonus 😀

We got lots of little bits done in the afternoon, the door stop and door handle, I have a fold up table that we have hung neatly on the back of the door, that’s for when I need extra room for crafting or sewing etc. The next radiator got delivered and that was put up in the spare room. I know it is a little thing but I am loving the heat from these radiators, it’s hard to explain but the room feels all over gently heated rather than what we have now from the wet system 🤷‍♀️

Dinner tonight consists of left over roast lamb so John has a throw it in the pot dinner with lamb, potatoes, carrots and mixed veg plus stock and cornflour, throw it all in and put it in the Rayburn until cooked. Not sure why so many recipes faff about with preparation when these dinners always come out smelling delicious 😋 I on the other hand am having a healthy version of lamb korma made by marinating the lamb in yoghurt and a korma spice, I will add ground almond to it when I cook it, having that with whole grain rice, a cucumber and grape salad and a wholemeal pitta bread, together with a diet Cherry coke I can almost kid myself I have had a lovely takeaway 🤣

John did the afternoon rounds while I got the dinner ready and that is Monday almost done and dusted, just the evening to relax and enjoy, this lockdown lark is quite enjoyable really 😜

The vaccine rollout is well under way and over 4million people have already been vaccinated, they are vaccinating a higher number than those that are testing positive so that’s a great thing. They have started to call in the over 70s as well now, hopefully it won’t be long until we get ours. As I said before Shelley has been a volunteer at the local vaccination centre and she said people are very emotional about receiving their jabs, for some of them it has been their first trip out since last March 😔

Tuesday: Busy again today, it’s much easier to keep busy while the days pass than sit doing nothing though I appreciate some don’t have the choice. First up John did the morning rounds, I had a shower and then did some hoovering, fed the cats and dogs, put out the rubbish those kind of jobs. Then onto the main events of the day and we had two, John was on concrete duties, we have an areas just outside the double doors in the back bit, for some reason the paths ends before it reaches the doors and so I wanted to get it extended to keep the mud down when we come in from the yard. Meanwhile I spent an hour in the greenhouse sowing broad bean seeds and some peas, the peas will be for harvesting the shoots as I am rather partial to pea shoots in my salad. After that I decided the big poly tunnel could be done, the garden itself is too wet but the tunnel is perfect for working in at this time of year. I spent a good couple of hours, weeding, pulling up anything that was still growing, salad mostly, and then putting barrowfulls of mushroom compost on the beds. Last year I left things to grow on but I feel that was a bit of mistake as I never really had a starting point, I was always trying to work round everything, the salad leaves went to the chickens in the stable, judging by the scuffles they were very happy to have something to peck over. I have beds in there because after we sited it I discovered it was on a clear seam and a big one at that, year after year I tried growing straight into it but it was hard work with little return. We cobbled together beds out of what we had lying around and the difference was amazing, I get good crops now, the left hand corner near the doorway is fine, that has lovely soil and so does not need any type of bed, funny how the soil type can change within centimetres 😜

It’s mid afternoon and I haven’t lit the Rayburn yet, it’s positively balmy at around 11 degrees today 😜

I discovered that the kittens or at least one of them is as much use as a chocolate teapot 😝 I was digging mushroom compost from the big tonne bag when a couple of mice suddenly appeared. No sign of the cats outside so I went into the boot room and picked one up and took it back with me (Jack) I put him in the bag and he jumped straight out without even looking. I the tried to catch him again but he wasn’t having any of it so I caught the mouse, I put it down on the floor, the cat was looking, the mouse ran, the cat looked and only once the mouse had disappeared under the fence did the cat venture forward and sniff where the mouse had been 🤣 I said to John I am going to have to train them I think!

John had covered up his concrete as it’s right outside the door but as I am always telling him your defences are only as good as your weakest point, the dog went out and stood on the tiny bit that was not covered 🤣🤣 which caused some swearing 😜 To be fair he has been lucky with the weather today as storm Christoph is battering the UK and until about 4pm we hadn’t really seen any sign of it at all. As it is at the minute we have a bit of rain but nothing much, it may progress through the night mind you 🙄

I realised after looking through my seeds that I didn’t have any peas, I had a few, those I sowed this morning but nowhere near enough to grow a decent amount of peas for the year. I ordered, mangetout, snap peas and a dwarf early variety which I will probably sow in pots and then transfer to the tunnel. The carrots I was hoping to have in the small tunnel never got very far, they sprouted but something and I suspect that is a mouse, keeps eating the greenery so not much chance of anything developing underneath. I also ordered some lemon grass seeds, I really loved growing it though I didn’t use much of it and need to rectify that. I love the smell of anything lemony, the lemon verbena has survived the winter so far and it smells amazing even in the depths of the dormant season.

The onions, garlic and shallots are doing well as I said last week, I got a photo so you can see how they are coming along.

Onions, garlic and shallots, I thought it was a lot when I planted them but will probably find it’s not enough 😂

Broad beans sown, the others are plants I have had on the heat mat through the winter which seems to have worked well 😀

The weather took a turn for the worst during the evening, heavy rain and high winds, hopefully it will have blown over by the morning 😀

Wednesday: Ewww storm Christoph got going overnight, I think I was woken three or four times with the wind or the rain making a racket and all today has been nothing less than a washout with constant rain. John attempted to dig a hole for the first post of the fence that will run down the side of the new driveway but he gave up, too wet, who wants to work in the rain. Apart from the necessary we didn’t do much else.

We did spend a fair bit of the day watching CNN, the outgoing President and the incoming President, how different the two ceremonies were 🙄 I hope the USA manages to heal the differences that have set them so far apart from each other ❤️ 🇺🇸

Thursday: OMG excuse my language but that was fucking awful out there doing the animals this morning! After around 36 hours of constant rain and gusts of wind battering the place, it was wet, soggy, windy, raining, blowing a hoolie and bitterly cold to boot, one of the worst mornings so far. At one point it looked as though the sun was coming out and it was clearing up but just as I left the stable block to go and do Ted I did an about turn and ran back. The sky turned black, the wind whipped up from nowhere and the rain lashed down for all of around one to two minutes then it was gone again but I still got wet and windswept. I am so over winter already lol, we have the usual lake and river in the side paddocks, that is becoming a much more frequent feature as the years go by. Early on it was an occasional thing, eleven years later and we get it about four to five times a year, every year 🙄

We had decided to go into town this morning, the local market is on a Thursday and I wanted to get some fresh fruit and a few bits of veg. I got leeks, mine are still in the ground and still rather small, potatoes as I didn’t grow enough to last us and then fresh fruit for snacking on. We saw Shelley, Josh and Flo down there so we bought some cakes and went and got a takeaway coffee to stand and drink. I haven’t seen Josh and Flo except when they are in the car or on messenger so it was lovely to interact with them 😀 We went to the butchers where I got some chicken breast and then to the supermarket where we bought more than we thought we originally needed 🙄 I dropped off some leeks to Mum on the way back and a bunch of flowers , great news she had her jab yesterday and Ken had his today. Then it was back home to a warm house as we lit the Rayburn before leaving, I didn’t want to come home to a cold house on a day like today. It had stopped raining by the time we went out mind you but it was still a cold day. By the time we got back it was early afternoon and so not much point starting anything, I have chopped up some potatoes, leeks and celeriac and put that in the slow cooker for tomorrow’s lunch, it will cook the rest of the afternoon and all evening then I will turn it off overnight and turn it back on in the morning ready for lunchtime.

That will probably be it for today except for the afternoon rounds which John is doing as I type, an evening snuggled up in the warm either reading or watching a film maybe. Tomorrow is supposed to be dry and Sunny although still quite cold, I will spend some time thinking about what job I can be doing in the garden or polytunnels.

Friday: A sharp frost this morning. We went out to do the rounds and discovered that Jack had bust out of the field, the electric still had not been turned back on, big mistake 😜, and he had worked it out. He has had a good wander round the place and broken into the hay barn 🙄 We got him back in the paddock, sorted the fencing, turned it on and hopefully he will stay there for a while. They have finished their big roll of hay so I will have to get some more delivered, I doubt very much the grass will start growing anytime soon. In the meantime I will have to fill up sacks and drag them out to the field. John did most of the birds and I went over to do Ted and the Guineas, in with Ted are the two light Sussex that hatched first last year, the female has laid her first egg today 😀 it’s always lovely to get the first egg from a pullet (young female) no matter how many times you have seen it. I went into the small poly tunnel where I set the mousetrap yesterday and result, two in the trap 😀 I will have to reset it, and I tried but it kept going off, there are bound to be more around eating all my veg, these two are the ones that have been nibbling the carrot tops all winter long.

I came indoors to do the washing up, hoovering and get the Rayburn ready for lighting later, meanwhile John carried on with digging the holes for the side fence and he has now gone off to get cement to have a rest from the digging lol. I have a bit of a headache this morning, hopefully nothing but I can’t seem to shake it off, normally I guess, nobody would worry but at the minute you never know what you have picked up even being very careful on the limited times you go out 🙄

The pea seeds I ordered have arrived and so have the seed potatoes, I will get the earlies ready to chit and they will go in the big tunnel, also I will start of early peas and grow them on in the big tunnel as well I think. I have some garlic chive seeds that can be sown anytime so I will go and get them done later. The sun is shining beautifully now and the greenhouse will be a lovely place to be working in about another hours time I reckon 😀 It might even be warm enough in the to pretend it’s spring 😜

We have the leek and potato soup for lunch today so I do t have to stop and think about what I need to be doing for that.

I did go out into the greenhouse and sowed a few peas, I also tided up the small tunnel though it didn’t need much doing but it was still very cold on my feet and my toes began to hurt so I gave that up. Instead I set about fixing the egg board which usually sits out on the front of the driveway. It got blown over during one windy night a few weeks ago and the leg came apart so I fixed it back together re wrote it and put it back out.

Saturday: I have been feeling a bit urgh the last couple of days, can’t put my finger on it but I think it’s to do with the Lupus, I have tiny red hives on my fingers and toes and they hurt if I knock them against anything. I feel tired and lethargic and have a borderline headache, I actually didn’t realise that there is such as thing as a ‘Lupus headache’ and what I need to watch for is vasculitis, oh joy another thing to keep an eye on and not so easy at the minute when the doctors are really busy with a pandemic. It all seems a bit trivial to bother the doc with but if it gets worse I will have to get it looked at, of course with Lupus it can sometimes just clear up and go away of its own accord which is what I am hoping it will do.

It’s cold and frosty this morning, because I have been feeling sluggish John left me to sleep in and did the animals this morning 🥰 I am grateful that I have someone to pick up the reins if needs be. He then went out and started on the fence again while I did the usual household tidying bits, rubbish, recycling, milk bottles all those little jobs. I had just made coffee when he came back in, his feet were too cold working out there so he drank his coffee and went off to the merchants and the bank, hopefully the sun will have warmed the ground by the time he returns.

According to some news reports a hospital in Kent is trialling elderberry as a treatment for covid, I imagine it runs alongside other more conventional treatments but finally the medical world wakes up to alternative treatments. I make plenty with elderberries, pies, syrups and Pontack sauce, I will definitely be picking them and putting them out for sale this year lol.

I have had a lovely day, I have been in my little room designing cards for Valentine’s Day, I can’t make them yet as I am waiting for the recycled card to come but they are along the same lines as the button Christmas cards I made. It’s very therapeutic and just what I needed today when I don’t have the energy for much else.

I did go outside mid afternoon and attempt to fill the water buckets up at the back the the hosepipe was still frozen so I took buckets of water up. I also put down some clean bedding for the geese and the ducks. I am hoping the geese will begin to lay very soon, it’s a short season for goose eggs and like duck eggs you either love em or hate em and luckily we do have customers that love em 🥰 I also lit the Rayburn quote early and have been keeping that going all day as well as getting in a couple of loads of wood from the store, we are due snow tomorrow so best to keep it all topped up.

It’s a fish and chip supper tonight from the chip shop, I am really looking forward to it, one day when I don’t have to think about what to get for dinner 😜

Sunday: got up and had a look out of the window around 6.30am, nothing to report, went back to bed, got up at 8am and we had a good layer of snow and it was still snowing 🌨 The forecast says we will get around 5 to 8cm 🙄 and it will snow most of the day. So we donned our snow gear and went out to do the animals, I love pristine snow but the dogs always get there first at least it will clean their coats nicely. Then I made John go for a walk in the side paddock, a couple of snowballs thrown and we went back in. Snow days mean no days for us, we can’t do a lot outside and I am wondering what on Earth people do all day long 🤷‍♀️ it will a marathon tv watch or reading which I will be so bored of by the end of the day 🙄 I lit the Rayburn, John got some bacon sizzling on the hot plate and that will probably be it for us until the animals need doing later. In normal years the kids might have come over but this year the at is not an option sadly, we did get the sledge out but I couldn’t pull John on it 🤣 Years ago when we lived at a different house the kids had plastic ones and when they came in to warm up, someone nicked them so my dad made them a wooden one but we never really had any decent snowfall for years after so it never got used, we got it out today but it has woodworm 😝 it is still sound enough but too small for either of us to use, maybe one year it will get used by children again.

Afternoon rounds done and dusted, the snow is still on the ground only slightly melted and the forecast is for a very cold night possibly -5 so we made sure we filled up water buckets ready for the morning, we will have to break ice but at least there will be water. Dinner is in the Rayburn, the curtains are now shut and the house is nice and warm. Have a great week, stay safe and stay warm x x

Posted in Friesland Farm

I’ll give the sourdough a miss 😝 butternut squash soup and indigo rose tomatoes 🍅

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 12th October 2020: The pandemic continues though I have to say it seems like it is happening elsewhere and I hope they don’t end up being famous last words 🙄 Seriously though we seem to be in a bit of a bubble here, the last outbreak before and during lockdown didn’t really seem to hit our rural area very hard and hopefully the same will be said for this second wave. Today the Prime Minister will announce new measures to try and curb the virus, we wait to see what those will be 😏

Meanwhile life is as normal as is possible and today I have VIP’s coming for tea, the grandchildren are coming after school for sandwiches, cake and jelly and ice cream 😀 I busied myself with getting things tidied, put away (always seems to be things to put away) getting some washing on, sorting the kittens, then making jelly and cake.

The sourdough starter seemed to have a life of its own overnight, it grew so much that it leaked out of the sides, that’s a good thing 😀 I guess it was due to the heat from the Rayburn in the kitchen as this morning it has calmed back down again although it still has life (bubbles) so I have fed it again. The sourdough dough I had in a bowl which didn’t seem to rise was showing signs of activity this morning so I baked it to see how it came out. I can tell you that if I was about to attack a local castle keep I would consider using it in the catapult 😂 it’s a bit solid, however I cut it and it smells like sourdough though heavy in structure, I tasted it and it has that sour taste so I’d say it’s about 70% successful, just need to improve on the technique now.

The measures have been announced and we are going into a three tired system of medium, high and very high risk with various rules for each of those but not a complete lockdown, I’m not sure if any of this will do any good the numbers still seem to be climbing and climbing 🙄

Tuesday: A cold but dry morning this morning. John did the morning rounds before going off to do some proper work 😂 I spent the morning organising food by various means, first I got some butternut squash soup on the go for my lunch today, that’s basically a butternut squash, onion, sweet potato, chicken stock, black pepper and a grating of nutmeg, I will taste it later and see if it needs a sprinkle of anything else such as curry powder or my new fav thing to use smoked paprika 😀 Then I ordered a box of beef from a local smallholder, hhttps://www.emmasewesfulacres.com I have had it from her before and when she delivers I will probably have a look to see what lamb she has on the van. That will keep us going through Autumn and Winter, we have our own chicken and duck in the freezer already plus some venison, goat meat and fish that I still have to use up. Once I had ordered that I sorted out dinner for this evening which tonight is salmon, I will have mine with a honey, sesame oil, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar marinade, then orzo, bell pepper, broccoli, garlic and ginger stir fry while John will have his with potato and veg, we are worlds apart when it comes to food. In light of the fact he will hate having salmon (but will eat it) I got tomorrow’s dinner underway as well (go me) a hearty oxtail stew in the slow cooker. Oxtail isn’t something that many use any more but it has great flavour, it has gone in with carrots, potato, onion, tomato paste, black pepper, beef stock, Worcester sauce and thyme, again I will give it a taste test to see if anything else needs adding. I will slow cook it all day, turn it off over night and then turn it on again around lunchtime tomorrow, stews taste better if they are made one day and eaten the next, so they say anyway, certainly gives it time for all those flavours to mingle.

Butternut squash soup (no filter) lovely vibrant colour packed with vitamin A, C, E & beta carotene, also contains many important minerals 😀

I have let the kittens out this morning, up to now they have only had the run of the boot room but today the door is open to the back undercover area. To begin with they went out and I couldn’t see them anywhere but the next time I went out, there they were and they came in for some dreamies so that’s a good sign that they will stay close by (for the time being) even if I don’t know where they are. Eventually they will get more adventurous and go further afield but hopefully always coming back for some food.

I have come to the conclusion that the sourdough starter does not do very well in our house because we don’t have a stable constant temperature, it gets warm in the evening after we have lit the Rayburn mid afternoon but we let it out mid evening so it doesn’t get too hot over night. The starter seems to be reacting to these temps, first it grows well during the evening but by morning it’s flat again because it’s much colder. I have fed it again this morning and will see what happens later, I thought about making the bread in the evening but again sourdough takes longer to prove than normal bread so that may not work either. I don’t even eat very much bread of any kind so I’m not sure why I am doing it to be honest 😜 just because I wanted to have a go, I may give up on it though and buy the odd loaf now and again 🤷‍♀️

I have also been busy over the last week or so ordering Christmas presents, who knows exactly what is going to happen over the next few months, might as well get ahead just in case it all goes haywire. It’s crazy when you really think about it all, weeks in total lockdown, who ever thought that would happen, now we are all wearing masks when we go out into town, we can only meet a few people at a time, some places have tighter restrictions than others, as I have said before I can’t wait to see the blockbuster film that will inevitably be made about this lol, not quite as scary as The Walking Dead but just as unbelievable (well it will be when they look back in history) Yes indeed we are living through some very strange times 😏

After lunch I went out to the post box and realised it was nice and warm in the sun, it’s often colder indoors than outside here, so I decided to get my gear on and do a bit of garden work. I spent a happy couple of hours cutting back dead stuff and pulling up veg that has now gone over, digging up comfrey (as it’s seeded everywhere) I did stop short on one patch when I spotted ladybirds, probably trying to find a place to hibernate for winter, better make sure I don’t tidy too much 🙄 Back indoors for a quick coffee and a sit down before the afternoon rounds begin. I have seen no more signs of snakes and also sadly I have not seen any frogs all summer, even in the dank areas, I think the snakes have eaten them all 😢 either that or they are hiding well.

While I was working away I was also pondering on what I had learnt this year in the garden, no matter how much you know there is always more to learn. I learnt that yacon are pretty easy to grow here and that they taste very good, I learnt that often when you think a veg plant is ‘spent’ it surprises you with more offerings (I’m thinking about the loofah here) I learnt that the weather can throw you curve balls ( actually I know that but this years was the biggest yet) and that I need to do more to prepare for weather anomalies. I learnt a bit about myself, I like to grow things in order, I am not good with what seems to be chaos in the veg garden but I know I need to learn to cope with it as it’s a better way of growing 😂

I am hearing more and more worrying reports of people who have had COVID for a second time, that’s just plain unlucky and I think we were hoping that if you get it once you won’t get it again. The ‘Long COVID’ is also a worry, people dealing with the effects of it long after they have recovered from it, maybe this virus is every bit as bad as they say it is, I hope we never find out.

I have just googled to see if there is a general trend towards panic buying again, not on the same scale as we saw before but it is there it seems. This would tie in with the increase of egg customers we have had, there have been weeks when we didn’t have a single customer for two or three days and now suddenly we are inundated again, I have seen customers wearing masks again which had all but stopped so there must be some unease out there. Unfortunately it’s the time of year when we have less eggs than usual due to the shortening of daylight time so there will never be enough eggs to go round 🙄 John and I discussed what we would do if we went into another lockdown as the gate sales were crazy and of course we had people who had never been before and haven’t been back since which was really unfair on our regular customers but we were unable to stop it as it came upon us pretty swiftly. It’s a difficult one to determine because although we do know most of our regulars especially the ones that have been coming for years, there are some that we couldn’t readily identify. I think we would initially just shut the gate and have a think about it 😂

Wednesday: Is it only mid week, seems like it’s been a long week already and we are only halfway there 😏 The sun was shinning beautifully this morning but by 9am when I went out to put the rubbish out the sky was looking moody and five minutes later a rain shower appeared, I think that is how the day will unfold today. I thought that perhaps today was not going to be an outside work day so I set about cleaning out the fridge, not a massive task but it’s amazing how many things get left from week to week and before you know it they have been there months. So out went anything that looked well past it’s date, I will keep and use some things that have gone past the best before date especially if they are still sealed but today was a clear out day. Out went a half jar of mincemeat probably used last Christmas, a half jar of plum sauce I made last year and a half jar of pickled onions also probably last used at Christmas, none of them showing any signs of mould but time to throw them anyway. There were the usual culprits in the bottom drawer, soggy cucumbers and shrivelled apples, any thing half decent will go to the geese and guineas the rest will go for composting. Amazing how satisfying it is to see a clean tidy fridge 😂 I also made the decision to abandon the sourdough starter 😭 things were not going well with it and so time to admit defeat, I think if I want sourdough I will buy it 😂

Another thing that occurred to me was that you may be wondering about Ted’s fate as we move closer to Christmas, rest assured he will not be joining us for dinner 😜 he is now part of the smallholding family and has a name so will continue to live freely here. He is totally oblivious to the fate of his fellow turkians though and as a result is not in the least bit grateful still making John walk him back to his pen each night 🙃

Well it didn’t rain in fact it was very pleasant out there and consequently I have had a very productive morning. At first I had no idea what to do, to be fair we have so much to do that it can be overwhelming at times, in those circumstances it’s an idea to pick a starting point and work from there. Did I do that, nope I flitted from job to job BUT I still made progress , or at least I feel like I did. First I tidied up the egg shed area where I put out plants for sale, then I took down some fencing that was screwed to other fencing that will be coming down eventually. I went to put the plant shelves (that were out by the egg shed) away and the shed they go into was a tip so I cleaned out the shed and threw away a wheelbarrow full of ‘crap’ and now I can walk into the shed easily 😀 After that I had a walk round the veg garden and started clearing some bits away, I picked a few tomatoes and then moved onto the big tunnel. I cleared away the cucumber vine which all but spent, there were about five small cues on there so I picked them first, the skins are toughening now and so I could have kept the vine going but the cues would not be very nice. Then I cut back and pulled out the cape gooseberry plants which have turned into triffids over the last two years and I decided I don’t want them in there any more. I must be in a ‘cleansing’ mood at the minute as it feels good to get it all sorted. At times with many diseases but especially Lupus you get ‘brain fog’ this is a real thing just in case you have ever wondered. Brain fog takes away the ability to be able to focus and think clearly hence the standing there wondering where to begin on many occasions 😜 I never used to be like that, I always had a definite plan of attack and some days I still do but others I just have to muddle through as best as possible and hope for a good result 😀

I collected some seeds while I was going about my jobs, some morning glory, which have been splendid and some Sarah Raven California poppies which are just the most beautifully delicate little poppies (must remember that those are still in my jacket pocket 🙄) Seed collecting is one of the pleasures of gardening and an important part of self sustainability, buying the seeds just once should ensure a lifetimes supply of that plant unless something goes horribly wrong. The same can be said with perennials, once you have them they can be divided over and over and you never need to buy it again. Many vegetables will produce seed if left long enough and again collecting those ensure you will have a crop next year, something I need to make more of an effort to do especially after this year when everyone was buying them and suddenly they were scarce. With that in mind, at my trip to the garden centre I bought some seeds that I had not been able to get hold of this year just in case. Red cabbage was one, I tried and tried to find the seeds but I couldn’t get any, the other seeds I picked up were for an indigo tomato. I bought a plant this year and it has been amazing, you may find this in shops but they would have to be niche I think. These toms are delicious and again because of their colour they are packed with vitamins and antioxidants, they have more flesh than a regular tomato and so do not go to mush when they are cut.

Indigo Rose tomato, a superfood 😀

I need to go through my veg seeds and see what I have left, what I have collected so far and what needs to be ordered. I have some little gem lettuce that are going to seed at the minute so I will be collecting those hopefully. The French beans are drying in the greenhouse and the runner beans are still on the plant, when they look ready I will get them in to dry, I have pepper seeds drying on the windowsill and there are some chick peas to be harvested which grew from just three seeds, I have trebled them this year 😀 In theory I need never buy seeds again but where is the fun in that 😜

Thursday: A bright, sunny morning but a bit of a chill in the air, so far this morning I have just pottered about doing various household tasks. Sam and the twins are going to come over today so we will probably go out for a walk round the village, got to make the best of the good days while we can and also spend time together while we can as who knows what this winter will be like with Covid lurking round every corner.

I hatched a plan last night, in fact it is something I thought of doing this year but didn’t so I am definitely doing it next year. I will use the ménage to grow pumpkins and squash and to make sure I do I have already ordered a good selection of squash seeds. Butternut, spaghetti, banana, acorn, and a selection of pumpkin varieties, this year because the ménage has not been used the weeds have taken hold, if I use it to grow sprawling veg that will at least lessen that problem. It’s a massive area for growing roughly 40 x 20 metres 😮 the surface has always been woodchip and it constantly breaks down so there should be some good loam under there, probably the best growing site on the Smallholding 😂

Just had a news update come through and London is moving to tier two on the restrictions 🙄

Went on a walk around the village with Sam, George and Lucie, on the way back we stopped and saw Grampy (John) who was in the village working. Sam fed the kids their dinner when we got back and she had literally left when Shelley and Florence arrived 😀

They said it was going to be warmer today than yesterday but I don’t think it is, there is a definite chill in the air even when the sun is out.

Friday: Dry, overcast and not too cold this morning. Just stopped for a coffee, we are total creatures of habit aren’t we? I was working outside and thought, time for coffee, without even looking at my watch I find that it’s exactly the time I would have a coffee if I was indoors 🤷‍♀️ This morning I have meditated, had a shower with a blast of cold water at the end, fed the quail, the horses and the Guineas extra rations, put clean bedding in for the ducks and the geese plus all the usual routine jobs. The horses are being given extra feed now as the grass is getting sparse, you can tell by the way they start to hang around the gateways that they are getting hungrier. We are trying to give biscuit a mix of cod liver oil, turmeric, black pepper and ginger as she is getting on a bit and it might just help her with her old bones. The problem is Jack (greedy git that he is) I feed them and have to guard her feed as Jack scoffs his quickly and she takes a lot longer, he is then trying to get to hers 🙄 I spotted one the kittens up a tree while I was out there, they are getting more adventurous but luckily they do come running back if I appear. We see Diesel every couple of days, I have no idea where he disappears to but he eventually comes home, not much good at keeping the mice down round the farm though if he is off wandering.

The garlic, onions and shallots I ordered a few weeks back have arrived so I need to think about getting those in, hopefully I will do that today.

I have been listening to a pod cast that is very funny, it’s Lee Mack and his friend ‘I can’t believe it’s not Buddha’ it’s a hilarious chat about a path they are both following with serious intention, if you see me laughing out loud with my headphones in, that’s what I will be listening to 😜

I spent a wonderful two hours weeding and clearing the bean bed. The top quarter I had already done as that’s where the cauliflower are now planted but the rest of the bed needed doing. At the beginning of the year I had some self seeded yellow daisies growing in there so I let them carry on but I had forgotten how big the plants got as a consequence they over shadowed a lot of the peas I had growing so I won’t let them stay there next year. I pulled out the remains of these daisies, a Swiss chard ( I dug that up and gave it to the guineas) that had self set, hundreds of weeds of all types and the dead foliage of bean and pea plants. I had intended to put the onions, garlic and shallots in here but the side of the bed has collapsed and needs re doing (cue John 😜) so I will wait until I get that sorted before planting them. I am glad I have cleared it all as there were a lot of white fly probably settling down to overwinter, they tuck themselves right down in the foliage near to the roots ready for a comfy sleep I suspect, not any more 🙄 I say a wonderful two hours because it was lovely, the weather was just right, warm enough, no sun, no wind, no rainy bits and the ground is dry enough to work on without getting very dirty 😀 I still have plenty more work to do out there but that will be enough for today, time for lunch and a sit down before getting on with the afternoon jobs.

The healthy eating is going well (most of the time) I have lost a stone and a half! Impressed, yep me too 😀 I amazed actually 😜 Many years back I started WW and got to goal then spent about 10 years clerking for them but gradually the weight crept back on and then some. I know what to eat I just didn’t know why I wasn’t doing it even though I wanted to shift the ‘back fat’ and the third boob, the girls will know what I mean by that 😉 So when I started seeing ads for Noom I was intrigued by the psychology aspect it was presenting, two weeks free trail, what did I have to lose 🤷‍♀️ The two weeks came to an end and I thought might as well carry this on, so I did, I am. There is no miracle to losing weight, it’s mainly persistence but I think the Noom app helps an awful lot with that, there are lessons and information every single day digging into your own psychology (sometimes you dig so deep you surprise yourself) learning the best food balance for you and your situation, it’s not a diet as such more the re-set of your mind when it comes to food choices. I am obviously not affiliated to them nor do I suggest you rush out and join, just telling you my experience of it, I think it’s a great thing to follow, it took me a while to get my head around it, I thought I knew all there was to know about dieting but it seems not 😝

I babysat Mia and the twins although the twins were already in bed so MIA and I had fun taking photos, dancing and singing 😀

Saturday: Another dry, reasonable day today, John did the animals and then had to go off to do a quick plumbing job. When he got back he began to dig out the last bit of the path, but I needed his help fixing the side of the veg bed that had collapsed. So we sourced some wood, dug it out and put in new sides, I got on with back filling the bed while he went to finish what he started. I raked and riddled the bed, took out as much bindweed root as I could find and then I needed Johns help again 😂 and I wonder why he takes so long over jobs 😝 I wanted to bury the soaker hose in the soil, it was partly buried but over time had come up, it was also too long and curled around on itself in places, first I had to cut it to length which meant the end now had no stop. The stop on the original bit had failed (I always wondered why there was a puddle) so I asked John if he had anything that would work, being a plumber I was pretty sure he would. It did mean filing down the outside of the soaker hose though so the bit could be fitted, once it was done we tested it and voila it works well. He went back to his job (again) and I got on with burying the pipe down the centre of the bed, this will give me a more even watering than I had before. After that I planted all the onions, shallots and garlic bulbs, 20 shallots, 16 garlic and I lost count of the onions after 40 but I think there are about 50 in total. That’s not the end of the job because of course I then have to cover them so that the chickens don’t scratch them all up which given that they love freshly turned soil, is a dead cert. I got some lengths of environmesh and pegged them down this will also stop the birds thinking the tops of the onions are worms and pulling them out, it won’t stop the worms pushing them up and out though 😂 So that’s all done and I probably won’t have to do anything to them until next spring unless it gets very weedy between now and then. Environmesh is great stuff and well worth the investment, don’t use environ fleece as that just breaks up, the mesh lets the light and the rain in but keeps the birds off it also creates a micro climate by trapping any warm air a bit like a string vest 😜

Hopefully there will be more days like these when the weather is favourable enough to be able to get the rest of the beds under control and prepared for next spring. I have done that bed and one third of another bed only four and two thirds more to go 😣 In total I have the fruit cage, the two tunnels, the brassica cage, five very large beds, one long thin one, a separate raised bed and the birds, bees and beer bed, I need to start pulling my finger out I think 🤔

Sunday: Man o man I am knackered 😜 I have spent all day from about 9 this morning, it’s now 4pm, burning wood 🙄 The cladding that came off the front of the building needed burning so that was today’s job, there were a few branches from some trees that had been there a while as well. First I had to sort through the pile as it all just got dumped there, there was a pile of painted stuff that needs to go in the skip, a pile of wood that was ok and would come in handy at some point and a pile of gravel boards. I then sorted the wood into smaller and longer bits, the smaller bits I started off in the burning barrel but about two hours in the side started to give so then I started a pile on the ground. The reason I didn’t do this in the first place was the wood was too close to where I would be burning and I like a controlled burn, John, like most men I suspect, would have just had a twenty foot pile of wood and set fire to it 😜 Also he would not have thought about the insects and any small animals that might be under the wood whereas I do so if I move it then they have a chance of getting away first. In fact I was stood there and a little mouse came creeping out of the ground, saw the fire and high tailed away elsewhere 🐭 Meanwhile John was busy creating next weeks burning load, he has given the hedge, where we had the trees cut down, a good pruning both the top and the sides as the branches had got long and straggly. Come spring they should bush out really well as well as grow higher, they have good big roots on them so that will help.

Next weeks pile of burnings 😜

Charlie and Macca called in for a cuppa before go out for the afternoon, we should do something I said to John but in the end we carried on working 😂

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lavender oil, a lovely walk and plenty of walnuts.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 28th September 2020: Would you look at that, we are back round to Monday again 🙄 Some tasks just happen without any planning of them and that’s what I have been doing this morning, an unplanned task, still one that needed doing just wasn’t on my radar. The cleaning out of the greenhouse, two reasons for doing it, one, the season is coming to its end and lots have gone over and need adding to the compost heap, second reason is that the tortoises will need to begin hibernation soon. They hibernate in the greenhouse in a hutch over winter but they need to wind down first, they are already beginning to ‘dig in’ in the outside run, a good sign that they are ready for the long winter sleep. They will probably spend the next three weeks awake and I will slowly withdraw food from them although they are pretty good at regulating themselves. They can’t go into hibernation with food in their stomach as it will either ferment or freeze, neither has a good outcome 😏 On a warm day in the greenhouse they will still be active but as the temps drop they will become less so until they are fully hibernating and then we wrap them up until I can hear them shuffling around next spring.

I spent a few hours in the greenhouse moving things, sweeping down, cleaning and throwing stuff away, discovering many spiders but luckily no mice 😀 There are still a few things hanging on in there, chillies, although I picked most of them this morning, a couple of peppers still growing and again I picked the bigger ones already this morning, I have a few plants that are overwintering in there ready for next spring and there are walnuts, hazelnuts, lavender and tomatoes all either drying or ripening off. I also have some thermal foil ordered to put on the North side to help reflect the heat/light back towards what is still growing. At this time of year it’s easy to lose plants to the cold in the greenhouse so I am doing everything I can to keep them going including standing them on celeotex to stop cold drafts at the base of the plants. I may even make a thermal shelter out of the foil and a cardboard box to protect anything really vulnerable. I did think about heating it but in all honestly it’s a waste of money until the growing season begins again in Spring.

After a spot of lunch I went into the big tunnel to finish tidying up after pulling the tomato plants. Plenty of weeding in there, despite the fact that I put black plastic all round the edges the weeds crept through. I almost got one side finished and decided it was time for a sit down, I spent so much time on my knees each time I stood up I felt dizzy 🥴 that’s not good is it. I also found a clutch of eggs while I was tipping stuff onto the compost, we found a clutch in the straw in the stables but the minute you find them the hens move quarters and it’s hide and seek until you locate them. I can bet my bottom dollar that once I pick them up later they won’t lay there again and it will be back to hunting for them. I said to John we were loads of egg down in the daily count 😂

John came home and set about shifting all the wood we had taken off the front of the building and there was a lot of it. That left me to do the egg/feed rounds, pick some runner beans, pick some raspberries and get the dinner sorted. By 6pm my back was aching and with the washing up done it was time for a sit down thank goodness 😅

The animals we picked up on Saturday in case you hadn’t already guessed were two little black and white kittens. Yes I know I said I was done with cats for a while but we really need them to keep the mouse and potentially rat population under control. So we collected Jack and Jill (original I know 😜) and they have been settling in well. Today for the first time one of them came to meet me when I went through to the boot room which is where they are, sometimes locked in a cage because the dogs also have free range of the room and sometimes the dogs are locked out and the kittens get to stretch. It didn’t take them long to start climbing and finding hidey holes.

Tuesday: I started off the day by burning a bit of rubbish, paper feed sacks and cardboard boxes etc, then I had half an hour to kill so I thought that would be a good time to infuse the lavender I have been drying. I have used almond oil as a base, stuffed the jar three quarters full with lavender heads and covered it with the oil. That will sit on the window sill for about three weeks with the occasional shake and then be ready to bottle, a lovely soothing relaxing oil for all kinds of uses. I finished that and my cup of coffee and went out to the paddocks to bring in the horses ready for the farriers visit. Sam arrived with the twiglets, after the horses were sorted and back out we had some lunch and then went on a walk along the local downs. Again the scenery was beautiful, there was plenty to admire, spindleberry and flax, plus a bonus snack as we saw some great looking apples growing on a tree in the hedge, they were the best apples we had tasted for years 🍎

Spindleberry and flax two of my favourites to see while out walking.

When John came home we took down a chain link fence to the side of the building as we have someone coming to take the trees down tomorrow hopefully, as the weather is supposed to be terrible 🙄 It will be great once they are down as we can finally move the access to the yard, at the minute you drive past the front of the house and round in a big C shape which can be tricky when towing a trailer, this one will go straight up the side and the turning/reversing point will be much easier than it is now. Then it will be a case of a new fence and gate, the jobs are piling up lol.

Wednesday: Today is the day the remaining trees come down at last, I was a bit worried as I hadn’t heard from the people doing it and I hadn’t contacted them but they turned up as planned so that’s brilliant.

The weather is supposed to be awful later this week, high winds and rain urgh I think summer is done 😏 It’s going to be a long Winter what with all the restrictions as well as the long dark nights but I’m sure we will get through it. Funny how spring and summer seem to go faster than the autumn and winter 🙄 I do love autumn mind you, I love Halloween and bonfire night though I don’t think there will be much going on this year, we will have to make it the best we can in the circumstances, maybe a hot chocolate and a scary film (not too scary 😂) with the fire going will help.

I stayed indoors out of the way of machinery and trees being felled 🙄 mostly I did a fair bit of sorting out, things to go to the charity shop, things to throw away, old paperwork to burn. Mid afternoon I lit the Rayburn, it started raining around lunchtime and I think it is supposed to get worse later, might as well have a warm cosy house especially as I will be doing the feeds rounds later and likely to get a soaking 😜

The trees are down and we now have a huge pile of woodchip and tree trunks, it was surprising how oppressive the trees were even just the four that were left.

Now you see them, now you don’t 😀
All this from just four trees, though they were huge 😜

Nice and toasty indoors with the Rayburn going, we will only have it lit for a few hours and then let it out or we will be sweating buckets tonight 😂

We are into the second wave of the virus now, they said it would come, we hoped it wouldn’t but here it is spreading rapidly I expect more restrictions will be added over the next few weeks.

Thursday: After the torrential downpours last night we woke to a beautiful morning, sunny, warm, delightful 😀 I seem to have my clearing out head on at the moment and so went out into the back area and started tidying up and clearing any rubbish, putting things away properly, that sort of thing. Then I got distracted, the daughter of someone I know has started a business transferring old vhs to digital. We have a few that I would like to get done so I went searching for them, our wedding video is the main one and then there are Christmas and holiday videos. Plenty of them have nothing written on them so I needed a player to have a look, I found one in the caravan which must have been dads as it has been here since we first bought the place. No plug on it 😂 this is typical as, like John, Dad probably robbed the plug for something else, however John also takes the plugs off defunct electricals and keeps them so I found one in a drawer. I am of the era that were taught how to wire a plug, I have no idea if they still teach that or not but it was one of the more useful things I ever learnt 😜 and so I put on a new plug and voila it works, I say works, it lights up and turns on anyway, the next phase is to hook up to a tv and see if it actually plays. Oh the fun I am going to have watching all these memories 🥰

After doing that I had to sort out the POL pen as we are expecting a delivery of hens this afternoon, it just needed sweeping out and some weeds pulling, that took me up to lunchtime and time for a half hour sit down I reckon.

I decided to rig up the video recorder and see what was on some of the tapes, the quality is not too good now, well they have been sat there for nearly thirty years (some of them anyway) but they are watchable, I just need to go through all of them and see what is what. It’s a long time since I hooked up a video player to the tv and had to google it 😂

John came home just in time for the arrival of 50 hens and the feed delivery so he sorted all that out

Josh wanted to come over after school and be left here on his own with us so Mummy and Flo had to push off 😂 not quite like that but you get the gist. He helped Grampy with the egg collecting and then he helped me gather some walnuts, I thought the squirrel would have most of them but there were loads on the floor so we picked them all up. Then things got hectic for a couple of hours as we had people arriving to collect hens and some people arriving to collect wood, what with that and answering messages about the wood it was all hands on deck, Josh even helped me load some wood in a wheelbarrow for someone. Eventually everything was done and sorted, Josh went back home, John put the birds to bed and that’s the end of another day 😀

Friday: It couldn’t be a more different day compared to yesterday’s sunshine, it’s been raining through the night and this morning it’s grey, dull, breezy and constant rain, yuk. Luckily I don’t have to be out and about in it at the moment, John did the rounds this morning before going to work, I stayed inside with a cup of tea 😂

I whizzed round and got a few household jobs done and then it was time to go and have my blood tests done, and get my flue jab, after that I went for coffee and cake with Shelley and Flo and then onto have a routine mammogram 😏 Just my luck that the software wasn’t playing ball and had to have one side done three times! If you have never had one before they compress your boob in various positions and it’s pretty uncomfortable so to have to have it done three times is not very nice at all but very necessary 🙄 Back home and light the Rayburn as it’s cold and rainy, if I can get it lit and settled before I have to go out and do the feed rounds I don’t have to nip in halfway round to check on it. Apart from that we have someone coming to pick up hens at 4pm and a cosy night in the warm is in order I think.

Saturday: Wet and rainy overnight, still drizzling this morning, a rather dank, dull day 🙄 John did the animals and then went off to pick up the tractor part that needed repairing, hopefully he will get that fitted today. I pottered around indoors sorting washing, drying, various other tasks, I am thinking of all the jobs to get done outside so that I am not wandering around wondering what needs doing. When it’s raining it’s best to have a clear itinerary that way I don’t end up either coming in and out of the house or standing round outside getting wet and cold.

Yesterday the world was informed that Donald Trump had covid, this morning we were told he has been hospitalised. From his actions and sentiments I don’t think he really believed it was a threat, I hope for his sake that he can overcome it 🙄

Nuts! I haven’t gone nuts but I do have a good haul of them, hazels and walnuts. The hazels are easy as you pick them and put them in a basket, they just keep like that all year. The walnuts though are a different kettle of fish, they need washing and drying successfully, if you just leave them they grow a mould in the outside which permeates inside and that’s not good. I have tried various methods over time but this year I have washed them off and because the Rayburn is lit I have put them in pans on the warming shelf to dry gently. I tried selling some last year but to be honest because you don’t what’s inside them until you crack them open it’s not really fair on customers especially if they get a few with nothing inside. I guess the industry xrays them or something like they do with eggs for cracks or anomalies. I try just picking up what I will use but seeing them on the ground the urge to gather is too strong so now I have quite a lot 😜 I was. Reading that you can freeze them though or even keep them in the fridge so I might have a ‘cracking evening’ soon and then they will be on hand to use quickly in cakes or for snacking. I have no idea how they don’t go rancid in the packing they are sold in 🤷‍♀️ if anyone has a clue let me know.

Lots of walnuts 😀

I decided to have a go at doing something with the nuts so I made some snacking nuts, a Keto recipe to be precise, whatever that is, it uses granulated sweetener instead of sugar. I cup of hazels, 1 cup of walnuts and 1 cup of cashews that I had in the cupboard. 1/4 cup of water, 1 cup of truvia, 1tsp cinnamon, 1tsp sea salt, 1tsp vanilla extract. Put everything except the nuts in a saucepan on medium heat, heat until dissolved then add nuts, keep stirring until the mixture crystallises, cool, eat, but I portioned it at around 15 portions which works out at 165 calories 😂 not for an everyday snack but as a treat it will be well worth it I reckon. It will store for a couple of months in an airtight jar or freeze, can be chopped into smaller pieces to top yoghurt or an apple crumble as always you are only limited by your imagination 😀

A word or two of advice (warnings 😜) don’t leave it in the pan to cool tip it out onto a tray, it’s difficult to get out of the pan once it’s set 🥴 if you like nice flat pastry when you roll, don’t use your rolling pin to bash the bottom of the pan it ends up with dents 🤣 and it’s very moorish so put it away in the cupboard or that will 500 calories gone before you know it 😝

The wood is nearly gone, we have had a couple of people come and cut it up and take it away, actually one bloke has been back three times already 😀

Sunday: Oh my days we have had nearly 48hrs of constant rain some of it pretty heavy at times. I woke about five times in the night and each time I could hear it pouring down, consequently this morning we have our usual river and lake in the fields. My aim was to get the horses in so I got the stables ready, John went off to pick up some hay bales as we haven’t got any in yet and I also bought the quail inside as they were looking rather glum. Biscuit was happy to be coming in, Jack however was a total prat and was adamant he wasn’t going to play ball until I got him a bowl of chaff feed that is then he decided it might be a good idea after all 🙄 we were a bit soggy after the morning out in it all. We came in and lit the fire and then popped round to see Mum and Ken and drop some videos off that are going to be converted to digital. When we got back, Shelley, Martin and the kiddies had dropped round for a cuppa and a chat. Then it was time to do the feed rounds and egg collection, the day has whizzed past today despite the depressing weather.

That’s another week done and dusted, I feel like it was a bit of a bitty week and nothing really consolidated, I don’t know why, it just feels like that. Hopefully next week I will feel a bit more in control, who knows what the week will bring though 😂 Have a good one whatever you are doing 🥰

Posted in Friesland Farm

Harvesting, soup making and a trip out of the shire 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st Sept 2020: You may remember, but probably not lol, that I bought a tea bush (sapling actually) Camellia Sinensis, well it’s been steadily growing and although it’s still not very big it does have quite a few leaves on it. Hopefully it will get big enough to make both green tea and black tea, wouldn’t that be an achievement ‘grow your own tea’ I can’t wait to try, maybe next year 😀

Another sunny day ahead and I had been doing a bit of cleaning on Mondays but the weather is set to break quite hard around midweek and so I wanted to get some outside housekeeping done. Firstly though start the bread making process, while the first prove was happening I watered everything out the front and everything in pots in the main garden. Then during the second prove I cleaned out the guineas and quail. While the bread was baking I put together a new feeder we have bought, I did get it for the chickens but am trying it out in the duck pen. After the bread came out of the oven I put clean bedding in the goose hut and cleaned the water bucket refilling it with fresh water, I cleaned out the duck hut and put in new bedding and I cleaned the floor in the chicken hut out the front.

I came in and tried to catch up with the briefing on the virus, it’s not good news as we kind of knew it wouldn’t be 😏 Cases are rising and the government is keen to get control of it, it’s not looking good. But what is annoying me is that we have been really good, doing all the right things during lockdown and the easing measures. We have only socialised with family, we haven’t been out and about at all really except food shopping and the garden centre 🙄 and yet it is going to be the likes of us that are penalised I think and by that I mean families. You can go to work, school, pub, restaurant, swimming, sport activities, even get on a bloody plane and go abroad but you probably won’t be able to have family over for dinner, I am guessing here but if that ends up being the case it’s really going to piss me off 😏 We wait with baited breath for the next update!

It’s quite a depressing outlook what with Winter literally on the doorstep and the possibility of further measures. I am usually the one that says ‘it could be worse’ and of course there are much, much worse situations to be in but still the thought is a gloomy one. I see a few pod cast and box set catch ups coming 😜

Early evening Charlie came round to help paint the cladding, we are getting nearer to the rain coming and it would be good to get it all done before then. I did some bits of clearing up and making the cups of tea, one of my jobs is to tun the magnet over the ground and pick up and old nails or new screws and nails that have been dropped (plenty of those as John is not the tidiest of workers 😜) I ordered some sparrow flats which have arrived, I could have used the bird boxes I made but some nice new ones will look better. Sparrows like to nest and roost in colonies and these are three boxes all in one unit, I bought two of them and am just hoping they are delighted with them. The old boxes will still be used somewhere else, they did use them and so hopefully they will again 😀

Tuesday: Autumn equinox, equal amount of day and night, a time for celebrating the harvests 🌾 and the turning of the wheel, The feast of Avalon, Mabon, blessed be 🥰 It is a lovely sunny morning and so first thing I picked raspberries and then went up the back to pick blackberries. I love the fact that I can pick blackberries from our own hedges, I know they have not had anything sprayed on or near them and they are as good as you can get, full of vitamins and minerals, potassium, magnesium and calcium as well as vit A, C, E & B vitamins and of course they are great antioxidants 😀

I spent a good couple of hours in the garden. Firstly in the big poly tunnel, the tomatoes in there have succumbed to blight so it’s a case of save what I can and pull up the rest. They are now ripening (hopefully) in the greenhouse, any green ones I will probably make chutney from. Then it was onto picking anything that will get hit by frost, we have had some fabulous weather but any day now it will turn. The first frosts will affect anything that has a high water content such as courgettes so I might as well pick them now. I also harvested the pumpkins, again I don’t want the rain to affect them and I don’t want the birds to start eating them once they get ripe enough, they are now stored in the small tunnel. I only got four butternut squash and they were tiny 😜 bit of a disaster as far as they go but hey ho there is always next year 🙄 There were a few cucumbers to pick, they are much smaller now and the skins get tougher but they will still taste good. I picked runner beans and pulled some beetroot and the last of the corn cobs. I then came in and got straight onto sorting it all for the freezer, mostly soup mixes today, I’ll look forward to cooking and eating those in the colder months.

There are a couple of other things to harvest but not until the frosts come, they are Oca and Yacon. I had a little look at the yacon, I found one tiny tuber under one plant 😏 however, I did taste it and it’s lovely, sweeter than I thought it would be so definitely something to try and bring on again next year I think. The Oca get left until after the frost kills off the top growth, I am not expecting great harvests from them though as it has been so dry. I could leave them in the ground and they will be fine and grow again next year with maybe a better harvest.

I need to tidy up the poly tunnel now that I have cleared the tomatoes but I thought it would be better left as a rainy day job. I have basil that needs cutting and drying, some of it I am going to leave to go to seed and hopefully collect that, the more seed you can collect from things the cheaper and more sustainable growing your own becomes 😀 I will give it a good tidy and take out things I don’t want in there, like the cape gooseberry, and then see what I could sow for winter use.

Wednesday: It rained overnight, not much but the weather has definitely broken this morning. Last night we went out (out, out lol) that is the first time since the beginning of lockdown way back in March. We went with Charlie and Macca, Maccas Mum nad her friend Jackie, it was a tasting evening at the venue Charlie and Macca have booked for their wedding next year. The healthy eating went out the window 😜 as canapés were followed by starters, main course and pudding, all the choices on the menu and a taste of all the wines to go with them. The food was amazing, the wine was a treat to try, so many including Prosecco and champagne, the venue is delightful and we had a great time. I only hope that all those that have booked weddings next year will get to have their day 🙄 That will probably be the end of our nights out until next year 😂 The world felt normal (well apart from the one way system) for a few hours 😀

This morning even though it was very fine drizzle, I decided to get a bit of clearing done on the veg garden. First I tided up the compost area so that I could get in there to put more stuff in and then I set about the area with the sweetcorn. Although I had a few cobs, I didn’t have as many as I usually get and I also think that the baby corn would be a more versatile option next year. I found another butternut squash which takes the total to five 🙄 I pulled up plenty of weeds and got stung by stinging nettles and dug up some self set potatoes. We planted some red (Duke of York I think) about four years ago and every year any small tuber left in the ground produces about half a large bucket of spuds, no work needed, brilliant 😀 I have cleared it and piled the compost heap high, I just need to go back and pull any weeds that are left but it started raining a bit more heavily so I decided that was enough.

On the sunny days when there is no cloud cover at all, John has been coming home early to feed the hens and collect the eggs but yesterday and today I have done it as it’s overcast and I can easily move around outside. Yesterday I found a hen with her legs chewed off from underneath the hut which must have happened overnight. Today I suspect we have lost some more, we had four broody hens that get turfed off the eggs each day as they are not viable eggs, today there is no sign of them and the eggs were a mess. It takes ages to break brooding and so I can’t imagine that all four have suddenly decided to stop 🙄 That means a daytime fox which is always bad news.

Thursday: It rained heavily last night for a short while and then again this morning but the sun is out, it’s a cold breeze though. John did the morning rounds and I have spent the early part of the morning prepping lunch and dinner. Tomato soup for lunch, tastes amazing and shepherds pie for dinner this evening.

Fresh tomato soup: 1 onion chopped, 3 carrots chopped, 1stick of celery chopped, 5 good sized tomatoes chopped, I tsp olive oil, black pepper to taste, 1/3 of a chicken stock cube. Sweat down the onions in the olive oil, add the other ingredients and cook on low until soft, then blend. At this point you can sieve out the seeds and any bits of tomato skin if you want but I leave them in. I have been precise with the measurements because if you are calorie counting this is for two people and 1 portion is 111 calories 😀

Fresh tomato soup, easy, nutritious, low in calories 😀
I added a teaspoon of low fat black pepper cream cheese 😀

Home made soups are the easiest thing in the world, they taste much better than tinned soups, you can put almost anything in them but the best three ingredients to start of any soup are, onion, carrot and celery call them your base ingredients, if you can’t have onion (I know peeps with IBS struggle) use leek or spring onions instead, then add whatever you have, a great way to use up stuff in the fridge even half tins of beans/hummus etc. Normally it will be veg I use but bacon is a lovely addition, cook it crispy and sprinkle on and of course chicken bones often have very tasty bits of meant firmly stuck to them, just simmer the bones to release the meat. The soup season is nearly here so get experimenting, it’s a great way to get some or all of your five a day 😀

We have new measures in place to limit the spread of the virus, the rule of six indoors and outside also extends to restaurants and bars with table service only and they have to close by 10pm. Apart from that I think it’s much the same, again people have been asked to work from home if they can and hand washing, the social distancing and face masks are all still being encouraged. A new app was launched today for track and trace, how many people will download it is yet to be seen, there are plenty of conspiracy theorists about warning people not to do it 🙄 I wonder about their theories especially the whole ‘the virus isn’t real’ one, I mean what government in their right mind would pay everyone to stay at home and governments all over the world are doing the same, doesn’t really sound like something they would do unless they had to does it? I would also ask any of them ‘what is the ultimate aim if what you say is true’ because I can’t see what they would gain from it personally.

Urgh it’s that time of year where you put the washing out and suddenly a downpour arrives, which is exactly what happened today 😏 I toyed with the idea of putting it in the tumble dryer but decided on the line would be better, wrong 😝

This years failures are next years compost, I was listening to a pod cast when I heard this, it’s fabulous and I love it, so true and a reminder that nothing is wasted except maybe some of your time 🥰

Friday: You can feel the temperature drop even though the sun is out, it’s a cold wind today. Some days I know what I am going to be doing and some days I have to think about what to do, today was a ‘What shall I do day’. I don’t want to waste the day but I don’t feel like getting outside to do any gardening (even though I really should 😜) I went for a walk, good for the mind, good for my health especially as we live at the top of a pretty steep hill 😂 I took a few photos on the way round, it’s a typical Cotswold village full of creamy stone cottages, very pretty even on a day like today, very quiet though I didn’t see a single soul in the thirty five minutes it took me 🙄

When I got back I set about making some bread and cake, two loaves of whole meal bread, one for now and one for the freezer and two wholemeal flour sultana cakes again for for eating this weekend and one for the freezer. I have switched to using wholemeal as it’s better for you, organic, even better and if you can find organic stoneground flour that’s the cherry on the cake so to speak 😀 luckily for us we have a local mill that does.

Saturday: We went out, not just out but out of the shire out 😮 We were supposed to go to Wales for the weekend but that had to be cancelled so we decided to go on a road trip. We went to Stonehenge, haven’t been there for well over twenty odd years and it’s all different now, not the stones obviously they are still the same but the visitor centre has moved. When we last went you could park right next to them now you have to walk a mile to see them, you can get a shuttle bus but it was a dry day so I made John walk 😂 We did get the bus back though as it was incredibly windy and although the sun was out it was cold. Then we were going to go to the coast but we went to Marlborough for lunch instead and had a walk round, after that it was time to go to Goring on Thames where we had a couple of animals to pick up, more about that in a couple of weeks time 😀 Not quite the weekend we had planned but it was nice to get out and about and see some different countryside. We see a lot of country side because if I am navigating I avoid the bigger roads, John likes to go from A to B in as little time as possible, me I like the scenic route 😜

The iconic Stonehenge 🥰

It’s getting much colder now, almost October so we will have to think about lighting the Rayburn soon, it’s tricky to get it right, we don’t run it all year like some people do as it would be way too hot in here so it will be a case of lighting it mid afternoon for a few hours to build heat then let it out. This is not ideal for this kind of boiler but needs must, eventually it will be on all the time.

Sunday: We went out for breakfast, I know, we only went out yesterday you are thinking lol, but we were supposed to be away for the weekend so I thought a good cooked breakfast this morning would keep John going as we have plenty to do today. When we got back John started on the last leg of the cladding and I got on with cleaning Rosie the Rayburn. She has sat patiently all spring and summer getting covered in dust, had baskets of veg and fruit dumped on her and now it was her turn to shine. Shine she does, she looks as good now as when she was installed all those years ago, mind you it has taken me a good few hours, the flue had to be swept, all the grate taken out and cleaned a general hoover out, check all the fire ropes, replace the ones that were no good, replace the rock wall where it’s needed and finally give the outside a good clean.

Looking good Rosie 😀

I took some photos of the road we go along to get to breakfast this morning, how amazingly lucky are we to live somewhere so beautiful 😍

This green and pleasant land 🥰

In the afternoon we were busy tidying up the front area now John has finished the cladding although we have more to do, we need to find some metal flashing for the top and then put in a row of slabs along the front of the building to make it easier to clean the windows etc. After that another flower bed has to be built and planted up, I bought some new sparrow flats as they like to live in colonies hopefully they will begin to investigate them soon, the satellite dish had to go back up and the security light as well. We have a mountain of wood to move which we will hopefully get done tonight and then on Wednesday we have someone coming to take down the rest of the big conifer trees. We can then start on the side of the building and the new driveway that will go along the side, as well as a new fence and gate, so much to do 😜

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, homegrown passata and a broken tractor 😕

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 24th August: Rattling through the weeks, I think like most people I will be glad to see the back of 2020, while not wanting to wish my life away it’s been a tough year by anyone’s standards 😜

It’s just gone 2pm and I am all plummed out I reckon, I spent the first part of the morning doing some cleaning whilst listening to some tunes, haven’t done that for ages so it was good to have the music blasting out 😜 After that it was plums again 🙄 I have just processed another 4kgs, 2 of them as more jam and the other two for the freezer, there are plenty more on the trees but seriously I think I have enough in reserve 😂 come this time next year if there are no plums I may regret that decision but it’s one I will have to live with. What is left on the trees will keep the birds going hopefully, that’s if the wasps haven’t had them all by then.

The weather is changeable, I went out to hang the washing, the minute I walked away it started to spit then got a bit worse, I got it all back in again and it stopped, it was like a bloody comedy sketch! The sun is out now and I’m tempted to try again but we are running out of good drying time and you never know at the minute if it will stay dry long enough. Update: it didn’t and now it’s in the tumble dryer which I try not to use very often but needs must.

John is working today but then has the next three day’s off, I would be chuffed but the forecast is dreadful so I can’t see us getting much done on that front border which was the plan.

I managed to get a photo of the hens and their chicks this morning, it’s not a great one but it is cheery 🥰

Popped round to see Mum and Ken for a cuppa before dinner then afterwards we did a little bit on the front border. It’s quite hard going because it was mostly shingle and hardcore lol, taking a while to get it up together before planting up.

The nights are drawing in, it’s getting dark at 8.30pm 😏 Winters coming lol.

Tuesday: It rained pretty heavily during the night and was still raining this morning, not a good start to Johns days off to do the border 😏 We got the animals done and a few other random jobs and then John went out to do a bit out front. Luckily by this time it’s only fine mist rain so he was able to get on a little, not sure how long for as the forecast is terrible today, rain and high winds again, I definitely think Autumn is upon us already 😕 Meanwhile indoors 😜 I made some fresh bread and got some vegetable soup on the go, all from the garden so it’s good and wholesome, free of any nasties. Veg soup is a great way of getting plenty of goodness, in this pan there is potato, onion, garlic, chard stalks, courgette, turnips, lovage and sage, you cant really go wrong putting whatever you have in the pan as long as there is a selection 😀

The weather didn’t get any better, it ranged from awful to worse, storm Francis you can do one it’s supposed to be late summer 🙄 As the weather was not favourable I spent some of the day sorting through Dads stuff and seeing who wants what. Bits and pieces he had collected or been given, nothing of great value but all things typical of him, harmonicas, brass ornaments, penknives, he always had a penknife and they had been sharpened away over the years but that’s what’s makes them special. I kept a couple of pruning knives that he used and in the garden 😀

I hope the weather is nicer tomorrow 🙄 We have BT coming to supposedly reconnecting us, I won’t hold my breath 😂 and I have a bloods appointment in the morning.

Wednesday: So today was the day for the big BT cock up correction, I am pleased to report we now have a landline again albeit a new number for the time being, we also have full internet access once more instead of a ‘here you are this will keep you off our backs’ mini hub which incidentally doesn’t do anything ‘wired’ only wireless 🙄 go figure. Anyhooo as I said we are now able to function fully though it did take the engineer from 8am through to 3pm to get it sorted, again, go figure, I don’t understand how it can be that hard but then again I’m not qualified in that industry 😜

Meanwhile John and I have been getting on with the front border, I ordered a good few tonnes of topsoil and we are almost ready to put it down. I was pleased that we have been able to progress without using weedkiller which was a task in itself and it’s basically compacted earth and shingle. We have raked and weeded the perennial weeds and have now put down a layer of cardboard which will block out the light from remaining weeds, that with a deep layer on top should do the job. I can’t wait to start planting it up, I think I have decided on just the flowering shrubs and then cast seed from things like love in a mist, verbena, red flax and whatever else I fancy. My biggest worry is keeping the hens off it.

Thursday: It’s 1pm and started raining about 20 minutes ago, up to then it had been dry and overcast and we had been busy. After the morning rounds John got on with the front border, we have a few tonnes of topsoil coming but he has been using the tractor to put manure in the bottom of the bed and moving a lot of stones as the ground dips away quite a bit at one end so it needs making up. Meanwhile this morning I got Biscuit the Shetland in from the main paddocks and into a smaller one. She has done really well all summer and not had any laminitis but with all this rain the grass is flushing and that won’t do her any good so for the time being she is confined. I took a walk around the paddock edges and ate a few blackberries as I went, I will endeavour to get out there and pick some as soon as I have time. I picked a few things this morning, runner beans and lots of tomatoes. The runner beans have not done so well this year I think the weather has been all wrong for them. There are beans but they were late and instead of young, long beans there are shorter fatter beans which are normally what you would get at the end of the season. They will still get used though, I chopped some of them along with a few cauliflower heads I picked (these are quite small too this year) and some carrots, these will be open froze ready to bag up. The cauliflower stalks don’t get wasted as I chopped them up along with patty pan, turnip, runner beans and carrots for a soup bag mix. I also picked a punnet of soft fruit, raspberries, the last few blueberries and plenty of hybrid blackberries. At the moment I have bread on the go and have just taken some roasted, tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil and oregano out of the oven, I will wait for it to cool and then put it through the mouli for passata, it smells amazing 😀

The passata tastes seriously good I’m really pleased with it, its the river cottage method but tweek it however you want with whatever you have 😀

Rain stopped play for the rest of the afternoon really, the downpours were heavy and thundery and more of the same tomorrow I think 😕

Friday: A soggy morning and more rain forecast for today 🙄 John did the animals and went off to work for the day and I did some bits and pieces around the place. I got the milk in and then realised that I hadn’t put the dustbin out and the cart was going past 😏 I put it out anyway in the hopes that they would stop on the way back, they did 😀 Some people complain about their binmen but I always find ours accommodating, I went back down the drive to thank them. Then I burnt some paper rubbish, when I eventually found something to light it with that is, a one time I always had a handy lighter but not these days, I need one of those everlasting matches I think. I checked on the horses, they were fine and then over to the orchard pen to check things there. I found a dead chick, it had got stuck behind the hut and died 😢 but the other five are fine, there are always ways animals find to get themselves killed no matter how careful you are. You wouldn’t believe some of the predicaments we have found animals in over the years even in a seemingly innocuous paddock. Sheep are the worst as they move forward, a dog or cat will move backwards to try and untangle itself but sheep go forward often making the situation worse. We had one once wedged under the Cambridge roller, it has a triangle of iron angle bars to hitch it up with. The front end lays on the ground when not in use and why the sheep decided to get under it I don’t know, how it managed to get under it I don’t know either but luckily you can just pick it up and release the sheep which is what we did. That was an easy one, we have had one firmly stuck underneath the hen coop and one that had got its head stuck in the stock fencing (which is fairly common) they were much harder to release when you are doing your best not to hurt them in any way. We had a horse that managed to roll and find the only piece of old barbed wire in the field (not our field) and slash open his face, cats stuck down gaps we didn’t even know were there and hens wedged behind drainpipe, animals get themselves into all kinds of scrapes from time to time.

I hoovered the boot room and the kitchen and did a bit of putting away and then went into the garden to see what could be done out there, it’s very soggy so I decided not much! We are still waiting for the delivery of topsoil so I can’t do that either, I will have to find something to do indoors I think, coffee break first though 😜

I have been thinking a lot about the weather patterns, hard not too when they are all over the place. A news item this week was about the shortage of wheat due to the conditions and so the knock on effect on bread and cakes etc and how farmers are going to have to look at their growing practices. The same can be said for veg growers, I have been saying for a few years now about how the seasons seem to be shifting, very warm spring, wet summer, early autumn, that has certainly been the case for the last two years. I need to work out how to change the way I garden to fit in with the weather changes. I am thinking that making more of under cover growing helps to stabilise the conditions as they can be controlled (to an extent, obviously I can’t control the sun) I can control the amount of water and I can protect crops from these high winds which are becoming more frequent in summer, I may need another tunnel 😜 The forest garden is coming on but obviously it’s a slow process, the trees and shrubs I planted have not got to a size yet where they are beneficial to the plants around them although the roots will be helping to stabilise the ground, it’s looking more like a jungle than a forest at the minute out there.

The topsoil arrived, it’s pissing down with rain I’m not moving it in this 🤪 I have spent the morning doing various little jobs that have needed doing, it’s still raining, crap day.

John came home and got the tractor out, the rain was intermittent with a bit of thunder thrown in for good measure. He moved the fist bucket load of soil onto the bed, went to lift the second load and disaster, a tractor malfunction 🙄 worse than that there was now hydraulic fluid pouring onto the top soil 🤪 all the efforts we have gone to making sure that we are doing everything the eco friendly way and bam contaminated soil 😡 luckily the tractor was stationary and that bit (about a wheelbarrow full) can be thrown into the skip but not what you want on a Friday afternoon 😟 I called Ken, he came and had a look and the ram (arm thingy on the bucket) had broken so they undid it and John went off to the local hydraulic place to see what they could do. They will have a look at it on Tuesday (I forgot it’s a bank holiday) and let us know how much it will cost 😏 Meanwhile it’s shifting 8 tonne of top soil by hand this weekend 😭 and it’s still raining on and off, some days are just sent to try us, today is one of those days 😂 Oh yes and I had a phone call to say stop the meds the white cell count is down again 😕 back to weekly blood tests, I wish this damn disease would stabilise or at least the meds would stabilise it 🙄 Update: Just had another phone call from the doc and now I don’t have to stop them, it seems rheumatology have a lower threshold count than the standard one 🤷‍♀️ so keep taking them and bloods again next week. I don’t actually mind because as always when my count is low, I feel much better, maybe that’s my level, who knows as it was never tested before I had the disease!

Saturday: I spent today looking after Mia, Lucie and George while Sam and Luke went off to look for a new car that can accommodate three car seats, a double pushchair and a dog easily lol. Charlie was with me for most of the day and I have no idea how Sam does it on her own 😂 We went on a walk, just a short one Charlie said, 3k later and Mia was crying, Lucie was crying but we were nearly home again. To be fair Mia did very well and we had a lovely time most of the way round. We picked blackberries (which she ate later with cheese for lunch) and we stood ‘at the top of the world’ well it must seem like it to a four year old when you can see for miles around 😀 We stood at a five bar gate and saw a ‘magic wood’ all these things you have to tell toddlers just to keep them going lol. I didn’t get back until 4pm by which time John had filled the front border with topsoil and done the birds and eggs.

Sunday: Today seems to have shot past probably because we had a lie in until 7.30. Once we had done the rounds we went off out to get some breakfast (another reason why time seems to be flying past) the morning journey was beautiful, the sun was shinning and coming back along the top road you could see right across the shire, there is nothing better 🥰 Once back we had to get on, John went off to get a bit of shopping, I told you I was sending him in future 🤣 and I did some picking. Every last thing sold in the egg shed yesterday and so I needed to replenish it, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, marrow, chillies, beetroot, runner beans and French beans all picked and put out for sale. I did pick some blackberries and raspberries for us that are now in the fridge. I picked a few more eating apples and watered the tunnels and the greenhouse. It has been an odd year for growing veg here, the courgettes that normally appear so fast you can’t keep up have been sparse, the patty pan never materialised at all, the French beans seem to have given up already and the runner beans just went into seed setting mode, I didn’t have a very big crop of those at all this year. I did pick another batch of rhubarb though, it really struggled earlier in the year but has now produced some new tender stems, it’s all arse about face. Everything seems to indicate Autumn already and it’s only the end of August 🤷‍♀️ I still have a few things coming on, butternut squash, pumpkins and sweetcorn but none of it really doing as well as previous years, I can’t say I blame them the weather has meant they have no idea what season it is 😏 John then topped the front paddock, the grass has got longer than we would have liked but with all that rain and not being able to get it cut it’s not surprising.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Hot, hot, hot, wet, wet, wet & work, work, work 🥵 ☔️ 🏋🏻‍♀️

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 10th August: Monday again, it comes round with prompt regularity 🤪 I set the alarm for an early morning as it’s been so hot and I really need to get a few jobs done. I did hit the snooze button three times before I finally got up at 5.30am. The air was deliciously cool outside so I know I made the right decision. A quick breakfast and then straight out into the garden, I spend such an amount of time picking and processing at the moment that little time is left for maintenance aka weeding 😀 I cleared out plants from the greenhouse that were not doing well or that I hadn’t had time to pot on, mostly veg plants and I don’t really need any more veg than I have now. Then onto the weeding, the bean bed first, I got sidetracked on the way to the compost heap and ended up weeding random areas. I really wanted to have a methodical approach so that the results were obvious but it dose t really matter as long as it gets done. I spent an hour and a half at that before onto some picking, a small batch of petit poi, some runner beans, mange-tout and courgettes. I spent a good couple of hours last night watering so I didn’t have to do that this morning. Processing next so back into the kitchen and pod the peas, chop the beans, put the courgettes and some cucumbers out for sale, de stone some Victoria and greengage plums for the freezer and peel, chop and cook down some cooking apples I had been given. Once that was done I took the Apple peelings up to the geese and the other peelings etc went onto the compost heap, nothing gets wasted round here, if the animals don’t it eat it goes back into the soil system 😀

I need to have a good think about the veg garden, I feel it’s too big for me to manage (or at least to keep in good order) I thought about cutting out one whole bed and laying more lawn but that would mean moving the asparagus and it’s only halfway through it’s productive life so maybe not. I’m sure I will come up with some idea eventually 🙄 At this time of year I always think ‘what a mess’ but come Autumn when everything is spent or cut back ready for Winter it dose t seem so bad, maybe it’s an attitude adjustment I need 😜

We have point of lay hens arriving today, as with previous batches since lockdown, these are all sold before they even arrive and most of them will not be on the premises for more than a few hours. In more normal times we buy a batch of forty in at the beginning of summer and gradually sell them on, this summer we have sold 180 in various sized batches and the turnaround times have broken all records here!

I haven’t mentioned the pandemic for a couple of weeks, that’s because most things feel fairly normal or at least the new normal. It’s amazing how quickly we can change and adapt, I am avoiding the shops as much as is possible and everything else just seems like the usual thing to do. If we meet up with family it’s mostly outside because the weather is favourable, if we go out to eat, it’s a little bit different but everyone quickly got the hang of it and now it feels normal, yep I’d say we are definitely comfortable with the new normal lol. The cases are rising again slowly but then with more people moving around that is obviously going to happen, it’s just something we will have to get used to living with unless they find a vaccine.

I cleaned out the fridge, soggy celery, buttermilk I forgot was in there, a dribble of cream in the bottom of the carton. There is now room to put fruit in there because the fruit flies around the fruit bowl are doing my head in. I know they are only around for a short while but the little wafts of them every time you pick up a banana is annoying lol.

The chickens arrived and that meant an evening of people arriving to collect which in the blazing sun was hot work, for John anyway, I stayed in the shade 🤪

Tuesday: Is it only Tuesday lol. I have no idea what the temps are out there at the moment (9.45am) but I am already sweating. Up and at it, not quite so early this morning, I suspect like most people last night, I didn’t get a lot of sleep as it was so warm. As I said it’s 9.45 and I have already first proved the bread I made, it’s now on its second prove, I have sorted dinner for this evening and it’s in the slow cooker, made a plum sponge and cooked that in the oven so we can just reheat it later, put a wash load on and hung it out to dry, gone round and made sure all the animals have plenty of water, fed the torts and the Guineas some high water content bits such as cucumber and apples and slung the hoover round. I am just waiting for the bread to finish proving so I can put it in the oven for 25 minutes and then I don’t need to turn the oven on later when it gets very hot 🥵. I am on my third glass of water, got to keep hydrated especially as I seemed to have picked up a summer cold, fabulous, nothing more sinister than that as far as I can tell 😬 it’s all nasal and sinus. The plan for the rest of the day is to stay as cool as possible indoors. I do have jam to make but I am not even going to attempt that today 😋

The phone line saga: lol you thought it had gone away didn’t you, nope, we were expecting to be connected this Friday but I’ve just had a text to say it’s delayed until 26th August, are you f**king kidding me 🤬🤬 angry does not even come close to how I am feeling now and I have just emailed them to tell them. Bloody joke, if that’s what you get for being a loyal customer of thirty years plus you can shove it where the sun don’t shine!!!!! I went onto the BT Facebook page and I despair at ever getting the correct connection judging by the complaints on there 😏 at least I have the mini hub with unlimited data at their expense I suppose 😋 although we can’t connect the tv or Alexa buy hey!

The thermometer is registering 26c in the kitchen that’s with the windows closed and the blinds shut 🙄 outside a thermometer that is just outside the back door but under a sun umberella says 35c 🥵 We officially have tropical weather, apparently that is when the temps remain above 20c overnight for five days in row or something like that, most peculiar to us Brits no wonder we can’t cope, this time next month we will be moaning because it’s freezing 😂

We had our dinner early as we were both hungry, glad I made the slow cook decision. I had cooked the plum sponge earlier too so just needed to reheat in the microwave, do we have any ice cream left? I asked John, as he has been eating it all week. Yes there are two tubs, one nearly empty and a new one, have you started the new one? I asked, there was a look of horror on his face and he said, NO! that’s more than my life is worth 🤣🤣 37 years of training and it’s starting to pay off finally 😜

Wednesday: Well that was a hot night as far as the air temps go anyway 😜 Apparently there was an amazing silent lightning storm but it seems we were looking out of the wrong window, we have windows on the East and south side not the North and on the west side we would have to go out past the trees to get a view. The North was where it was all happening it would seem 🙄

Again the temps are set to climb and climb 🥵 Most of the birds freely roam around the place and so can find their own shade. The new arrivals that are waiting to go to new homes however are in a pen and most of the day there is shade but late afternoon and evening there is none so I have made a temporary shade shelter for them. Chickens are descendants of jungle fowl and so while they are used to heat, it’s shaded heat not blaring sunshine ☀️

I picked some tomatoes this morning and some cape gooseberries, you may be familiar with these as a ‘flourish’ on top of your dessert but they can be grown in good quantities even in the UK under cover. I say under cover as I haven’t tried them outside, I guess in a year like this they would be successful but they have a long growing season and I’m not sure if they would ripen in a ‘normal’ year. They can of course be eaten as they are or they apparently make good jam 😀

My goodness that got hot today lol, 37c was recorded in the south, we are south east by definition but right on the border of south west, so any way you look at it we are south 😜 Shelley, Sam and the children came over to sit under the shade of the trees in the garden. Who knew you could have so much fun with two washing up bowls of water and a sprinkler 😀 The twins had a mighty time splashing themselves and everyone else and thought it was incredibly funny 😂 Needless to say I did not do anything else except sit in the garden, keep hydrated and trying to keep cool. By mid afternoon it was too hot to stay out any longer, the girls went home and John arrived home and evening indoors was like a sauna, hot and muggy.

The weather finally broke with thunder, lightening and rain, it was so nice we actually went out and stood in it lol, the only time I am happy to be rained on 😕 It was still uncomfortably hot indoors though so I kept going outside to cool off!

Thursday: It’s cooler this morning but I don’t think it’s going to stay cool as the day goes on. I have no idea how people in hot countries deal with this on a daily basis 🥵 and working in it, well that’s unfathomable. I guess developed countries have air con, not many places have it in the UK and generally speaking we don’t need it 😂 I have observed there are two types in this country, those who like it hot, the hotter, the better and then those who don’t, there don’t seem to be many inbetween. There are still thunderstorm warnings for the next two days and some places have had torrential downpours, it’s all very tropical at the moment. The one thing I am glad of is that I don’t need to water the garden 😀

I picked a few courgettes and then sorted out veg and fruit I had already picked before it got hot, I needed to process it all before it spoilt. I made some more Victoria Plum jam, always useful for giving and then plenty for the winter stores. The next lot of plums are looking ready and I haven’t finished picking the Victoria’s yet 😬 it’s been such an abundant year we will be sick of plums by spring lol.

I really need to get back a healthy eating regime, like large percentage of the population during lockdown my habits have slid down a slippery slope 😏 I am trying to re educate myself, I don’t really need to do that, I know what I should and shouldn’t be eating 😂 Two of the biggest problems I have is tiredness, when I cant be arsed to sort something good out and so reach for the easy things which are usually carb heavy 🙄 and the fact that I grow such a lot of my own. You wouldn’t think this was a problem would you but even though I grow a lot the selection is limited (to my mind at least) and I won’t buy anything lol. Things are not always ready at the same time, so a chopped salad of tomatoes and cucumber would look great with sweetcorn but it isn’t ripe yet, do you get where I’m coming from, and sprinkled with nuts, that are also not ready yet, now you are getting the picture 😜 I don’t do myself any favours by being such a purist I know! The other problem is that things come in such gluts they need to be frozen and that’s not much good when you want fresh stuff. I just need to get my head around it a bit I think. As a result of moving in that direction I have some Greek yoghurt on the go, freshly frozen berries and yoghurt make a great breakfast or pudding 😀

I took a photo of a plant I have grown, I grew it because the seeds came in a multipack with morning glory which I wanted to grow for the bees. The other seeds in there were something called Spanish Flag, Ipomoea lobata, I have never grown it or even seen it before but it has turned out to be one of my most favourite little flowers 😀 It is a climber and not a very strong or dominant one, it’s rather delicate, but it is exquisite especially when the sun is shinning on it. It reminds me of festival flags and its one of those that makes me smile when I walk past it.

Friday: I have just done a good mornings work, the weather is soo much cooler and we had heavy rain in the night but it’s not raining now. I cleaned out the quail and then the guineas, then spent ages looking for the animal nail clippers as one of the quail has grown a long bendy nail so it need soy come off. I couldn’t find them anywhere and so I have had to order a new pair and we all know what will happen once they arrive don’t we 🙄 the other pair will miraculously turn up somewhere unexpected 😂 After doing that it was into the jungle, that’s what I have been calling the poly tunnels for the last couple of weeks. The foliage from tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and cape gooseberries has gone mad and I could barely get into the big tunnel. I spent the rest of the morning cutting back long tendrils from the cucumbers/melons and lots of bottom leaves from the tomatoes, I also snipped off the tops of the plants so that they can put all their energy into the fruits that have already set rather than new ones. I thought I didn’t have many tomatoes but once I cut it all back I could see plenty 😀 I don’t hold out much hope for the melons, they seem to have tiny fruits which then die off and the same with the loofahs. It’s a shame as this was the year I was hoping to grow my own washing up scrubbers 😜 I may give them one more go next year but after that I will quit, I have spent far too much time on them already. There are quite few things I will scale back next year I have decided, I just need to remember that I had decided that come seed buying time 🤣 I am going to concentrate on things we eat a lot of, for instance carrots, beans, peas, potato, brassicas, leeks, onions, garlic, root veg and also things that the torts eat, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers but things like chillies, aubergines, globe artichoke I won’t do at all and courgettes I will just buy one plant, pumpkins I will still grow for the children but I might give the sweetcorn a miss as it’s only me that eats it, these are my mullings anyway, we will see what happens next year.

Do you ever think things have a way of finding you, John always says animals will find you if you are meant to have them lol. Anyway this ‘finding’ regards my previous paragraph and the wobbles I have been having about growing my own, if I was waivering about what I am doing and why a pod cast I came across has slammed home the message good and proper. GMO’s Glyphosphate and gut health, some of it I knew already but some I didn’t and it has given me a much clearer picture of how one affects the other. It’s and hour and forty minutes long but if you are remotely interested then do listen, if you are not then you should be because as the saying goes your are what you eat’ quite literally as it turns out 🙄 its The Rich Roll Podcast you can find it on you tube but I couldn’t paste a link sorry 😜

Saturday: A damp overcast morning but despite yellow warnings we hadn’t had any rain by lunchtime. John did the feed rounds and then finished off the last bit of fence. The whole job is not finished by a long shot as the rest of the old fence needs to come down and then start on the shrubbery that will go in front of the fence. He then went on to clean out the ducks and dig up the last few bits of ragwort before nipping out to get some guinea pig food.

Meanwhile I started some picking, beans courgettes, cauliflower, turnip, swede, beetroot and the more Victoria plums and some damsons which are not ripe yet but someone I know wants some and I had a bit of time to do it so I did 😀 Indoors then to sort out bits for putting out for sale and processing the rest. I have two trays of beans peas and cauliflower plus five purple carrots (that’s all that grew from a whole row) all chopped and open freezing. The turnip, courgettes, swede, beetroot, some carrots I already picked along with an onion and a stick of celery have all been chopped and bagged as soup mix for the freezer. Then I chopped loads of veg to go with some locally reared mince beef in the slow cooker for dinner later and finally I put the sage I had been drying into jars for storage and winter use 😀 Morning done sit down and have a couple of hard boiled eggs for lunch and a coffee 😜

Listening to that podcast has really sharpened my thoughts on what we eat and although generally speaking it’s good as far as home grown goes there is considerable room for improvement. I have decided not to waste anything and by that I mean eat even the things we don’t really like very much, hence the soup mixes, they will be a permanent feature as you can disguise the bits you don’t like but still get the goodness.

Sunday: Although rain was forecast it never really arrived and so in the morning we got plenty of work done. John has finished off the fence and we started clearing g the old fence and giving the bushes a bit of a trim. We debated about taking them down as they re very old and parts of the multiple trunks are rotten, however the bees and butterflies love them , the birds use them to roost in the winter and the decay is great for the insects so we decided they can stay 😀 We had the afternoon and evening off apart from doing the eggs, to recharge our batteries for a new week.

You can see the new fence that John has put up and now the job of creating a border begins 😜
Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, snow & sunshine all in the same week🙄

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 11th Nov: On the 11th hour of the 11th Day in the 11th month We will remember them.

It’s another cold November day, it rained heavily overnight again but this morning the ‘lake’ has shrunk, it disappears quickly it’s just a case of too much volume too fast and it collects at a low point of which our paddock happens to be a part.

I am having a coffee before I venture out this morning 😀

Did the rounds, checked on the ‘spring’ and even though the water has receded from there it’s still bubbling up? Took the rabbit/guineas a big bag of hay to make nests in or eat, then the egg shed needed a bit of attention. I found water sitting in one of the boxes of duck eggs this morning, where the rain has blown in I presume, so found a piece of Perspex to line to back wall with and hopefully that should stop it. The duck eggs are useless for sale now so they will have to go to the dogs for their breakfast.

I had decided while I was out that some pancakes would be a good idea for breakfast when I got in, I was so busy with an online discussion while I was making them that I forgot the flour 🤪 so in effect they were sweet omelettes lol still tasted ok though with a mug of coffee 😀

The sun is out but it’s cold, the crazy thing is that while it’s cold and flooding here, in Australia where my brother and his family are, there are bush fires all around, there are wild fires in California, there are storms wreaking havoc in Europe and plummeting Siberian temperatures reaching further than ever before, one thing is for sure were are in a climate emergency, wether its man made or not it’s very real 🙄

I did some hoovering and polishing then lit the Rayburn, then gathered together a load of vegetables from the freezer to make a pan of soup, might as well make good use of the heat. Most things in there, potatoes, leeks, broad beans, turnip, carrots, cauli, are from the garden, just some celery & garlic that isn’t. Veg soup is a very good way to get some of your 5 a day in you though I do wonder how much goodness is really left after cooking, still something is better than nothing 🙄

I observed the silence at 11am, I’m not sure if it was 1 minute or 2 these days but even though I am here by myself and it’s silent anyway, I stood still and quiet to reflect and remember those who have given their lives so that we can live ours, not forgetting of course all the animals that also perished for different reasons during the world wars especially.

Another text from the Doctor telling me that my white cell count has still not gone up enough 🙄 this is a bit of a worry to be honest, I have had it before but it usually comes back up pretty quickly but not this time 🤔 It means I am more prone than most to infections and that the symptoms of infection may not show up 😏 I have the consultant on Wednesday so I will have to wait and see what he has to say about it all.

Putting the animals away tonight I went up to the back paddock to do the geese and noticed Biscuit just stood in the middle of the big paddock and I couldn’t see Jack anywhere. I shut the geese and hens away and she was still stood there so I wondered if she was ok as Jack was not there and it’s unusual for them to be very far apart from each other. I went into the field and most of the way down, I walked into the field adjacent which is also open to the horses and looked in the field shelter for Jack, nothing, at this point I’m thinking we have lost a horse 🤔 I walk over to Biscuit to see if she is ok and Jack moves out from the shadow of the hedgeline I feel I must explain that at twilight it’s very difficult to spot a bay horse lurking in the shadows 😂

I had a massage tonight, amazing as always, sometimes I have Bowen therapy and sometimes a massage depending on how things are going and as I have no aches or pains at the minutes a lovely warm, soothing massage was just the ticket. I love a bit of alternative therapy and if a monthly massage was given on the NHS I reckon there would be a lot more people in a healthier state of mind and body 😀

Tuesday: My first thought when typing this was, is it only Tuesday’ lol seems as though it should be later.

The sun was shinning this morning and I set to doing a few extras after the feeding rounds, clean straw for the geese and for the ducks, then move the quail to a cage that is in the back area as they seem to be unhappy at the moment. The cage is smaller but it’s in out of the wind, a little warmer and I have plugged a heat lamp in for them just to see if that helps. They have stopped laying altogether and maybe a change of address will help get them laying again. Then I made coffee and went into the greenhouse to have a bit of a tidy up and sort out, some of the plants in there can go out for the winter but I was just giving them a bit of a head start first. I do have some plants left in there that I am trying to nurture, peppers, tomato, ginger, to see if they will make it through the cold and into Spring.

Back indoors to light the Rayburn, just as the weather did a complete turnabout, rain and wind turned the day very wintery but it only lasted for half an hour or more, weird.

I got the slow cooker going this morning with braised beef and vegetables in there so I don’t need to think about dinner until much later today, although it’s the kind of day I rather fancy a pudding so I might make a quick jam sponge later 😀

Sam thinks it might be a good idea to bring the horses into the stable for a day and a night and I’m inclined to agree, just to get their feet off the wet ground for a while. They are not standing in the water but the ground is constantly wet at the moment, they won’t like it much but it’s for their own good lol. My outlook on animals is to let them be just that, animals, don’t project human feelings and wants/needs onto them, I don’t feel it’s right but that’s just my opinion obviously. Our horses live out in all but the worst of weather and they are just fine, they grow a nice woolley coat to deal with the cold, they have access to shelter to get out of the wind and the rain should they choose to and they have space to wander so they can keep warm and supple. We have just had bonfire night (which goes on for days) and we don’t bring them in they stay out in the paddocks, they are fine, horses are flight animals and I feel confining them in a stable while fireworks are going off makes them more nervous than leaving them out. When they are out they can see and hear what is happening and deal with it in a matter of fact way. The same applies to our dogs, over the years we have had six dogs and only one was afraid of fireworks, (he came from a rescue centre so I had no idea of what he might have been subjected to in that dept so it’s understandable) but all the others have been well adjusted and are not bothered by the noise, they also don’t live indoors mind you so they don’t have access to a sofa or god forbid the humans bed 😝they have all had and do have access to a warm dry area to sleep but it’s definitely a dog area not human 🙄

At approx 6.30 we had a power cut 🙄 it’s not unusual in fact I have said that living here I have never known so many power cuts since the 1970’s miner strikes! John was in the bath when the lights went out so that leaves me to determine wether it’s our power or a bigger problem, the torch is in the fuse board cupboard so I quickly find out that there is no power coming in meaning it’s the electric board at fault somewhere. Next move is to find the telephone number to report or find out about a fault, John shouts from the bathroom ‘can you bring me the torch’ ‘are you getting out’ no but I can’t see’ then no pal, I can not, I need it to move around the pitch black house and find the number in the office, you just lay there in the bath and relax…in the dark 😝 I call the number and a recorded message tells me we have no power in our area (yeah I knew that) and hopefully it would be back on by 9.40 but may be later! As it was it was back on less than ten minutes later 😀

Wednesday: Slightly different morning this morning, for starters Johns first job was cancelled due to the wrong parts being delivered which meant he was here to help and that gets the jobs done twice as fast 😀 Secondly I have a hospital app at 3.50 in Oxford today 😏 that is a difficult time due to a number of factors, the school run and although we don’t have to do it there will be plenty of cars on the road that do. It will also mean that we are either still in Oxford or trying to get back when it gets dark so we are not here to shut the animals away, the Fox only needs one opportunity and it will wipe you out. It’s not possible to ask the girls to do it as it’s right at the time when the kiddies will all want their dinner and so for today the birds will remain shut in, all except the ducks in the pen and the geese because they will be easy to round up before we go. The ducks and hens in the stable, the side paddock, the front paddock and the turkeys will remain safely shut in as they would be impossible to round up while it’s still light. All have feed and water inside and it will be a minor inconvenience for them for one day and peace of mind for us.

After doing the morning rounds John got on with bringing in some wood loads, we are going through it more rapidly now, and I cleaned the flues and the ash pan and hoovered the kitchen and the boot room, put some washing on etc. John went off to the bank and to pick up some sawdust and rabbit feed and I looked at the clock to see how much time I had to do things, it was only 9 o’clock lol, I thought it was later than that!

Woody the woodpecker has been very active here the last few days, as with Cyril the squirrel I always say good morning but unlike Cyril who stands stock still when he hears my voice, woody just carries on climbing up the oak tree. I started feeding the garden birds again at the first sign of frost so a week or so now, I don’t feed them all summer as there are plenty of pests for them to feast on in and around the farm especially the veg patch but as it gets colder I want to encourage them to hang around so feeding them is a good way. They are still loving the dead hedges, I can’t believe that something so simple can attract so many birds, it’s wonderful and I will definitely have more of these when we have the next apple tree pruned.

I have lit the Rayburn early, again because we won’t be here from about 2.30 I need to get the place warmed up as we won’t be able to keep it going when we are not here it will probably go out. Ideally the Rayburn should run 24/7 but John has insulated this place so well that if we did that we would be living in a permanent sauna, I’m not complaining about the insulation we need it but it means that we can’t run the Rayburn as it should be really. You can run it on coal but we have free wood so there is not much point besides when they say multi fuel it doesn’t mean you can run it on wood and coal at the same time, it has interchangeable plates for different types of fuel so we stick to wood and that is a bigger commitment daily lol.

I still haven’t planted the tulip bulbs and there is a good reason for that, I have been trying to do a bit of research on tulips. Most modern advice is that they are treated as annuals so the whole tulip is harvested along with the bulb and the bulb then discarded 🙄 Well I understand this because if you take the flower and the leaves there is nothing to feed the tulip bulb so that it can restore energy BUT there must be another way which is what I have been trying to find out. It seems that tulips only do well in their first year after that they are not so good even if they don’t get picked and are left in situ, I can’t quite get my head around that because how then would they multiply/naturalise and if they didn’t then we wouldn’t have any? My thinking is that this is a modern answer to solving a problem in the flower industry, but it’s not a very sustainable one so more reading up is needed to find the answer which must be out there somewhere hidden in the archives of time. Maybe it’s just modern types and I suspect old types are better at producing each year though probably not as striking.

The traffic was epic in and around Oxford I’m glad we don’t have to do that very often 😜 Just when I thought I understood this disease of mine I’m thrown again lol, I thought that logically the meds I am on to suppress the immune system had been too high a dose which is why the white cells dropped but no it seems that the Lupus can do that all by itself 🤔 regardless of the meds, so at the moment I am no further forward as more blood tests at the hospital should reveal wether it’s the meds or the Lupus that is causing the drop. The consultant thinks its the Lupus as normally coming off the meds would rectify the blood count, it’s a waiting game now for the results and the action they want to take, meanwhile I feel pretty good, no aches and pains, no tiredness to speak of just more than normal hair loss🙄

Thursday: Oh my word what can I say about this morning 🤔 It rained heavily last night and we are predicted rain all day today but when we woke up and looked out we had snow! Yes snow lol, not a massive amount but a layering although it quickly began to rain again so then we had slush. I got sorted and went out, it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be but I had dressed appropriately and felt toasty. I fed and let almost everything out, not the turkeys as I have a feeling today will be troublesome enough without having to get them in from the driveway every couple of hours so they can stay put, they have a big run and plenty of room. The next job on the agenda was to get two stables ready for bringing in the horses just to give them a bit of relief from the rain and constant wet underfoot. After that it was to try and address some areas that are holding water, I honestly haven’t seen it this bad for about 7 years, the hay barn floor is flooded that’s the second time in a week, luckily everything is up off the floor on pallets and we concreted the feed room floor way back after the last serious flood issues. I say serious flood of course it’s not affecting the house (yet) and it shouldn’t because we are on higher ground however the paddock next door is slightly higher than us and as a result it runs off of there onto us and then continues down the slope to the lowest point. But it does affect the barn and the stables because where the floor gets worn over time dips are created and the water finds its natural course and gets in there. The lake and the river are back again and I spent a while digging small ditches to get water that was sitting to run downwards, behind the stable block we have a 5000ltre water tank which is full to capacity and overflowing causing problems in one of the stables so I have opened up the tap to let it all go and dig out small trenches towards the duck pen where it will collect in the pond before overflowing and carrying on down to the river/lake. As long as I can get the water to move downhill we should be fine and it’s only spitting at the minute if we have a deluge I’m not sure any of the measures will cope at all 😏 We do have some small issues each year but this is definitely the worst for many years and winter has only just begun that the worrying bit 😔

I couldn’t get the Rayburn lit, typical when you want it to dry out your coat and gloves, so I abandoned that and made some pancakes to go with my coffee instead 😀 Typically John is working pretty far away today so if we have any disasters I’m on my own, normally he would be in the next town or village so I can call him if needed and he can arrive quickly but not today 🤞

I gave Mia the dog a haircut this morning as she has ‘mud locks’ a bit like dreadlocks only much muckier 😜 she is fairly low to the ground and long haired so gets messy in weather like this.

Sam came over with the twins and got the horses in for a bit of respite care 😀 Luckily the forecast rain has not materialised giving us and everyone else a bit of a break from all the water standing. The rest of the days jobs passed without incident thankfully.

Friday: Forgot to jot anything down and no idea what I did apart from the usual and then going with Sam, Shelley and the kiddies to soft play for a couple of hours 😀

Saturday: Just sat down it’s 5.30 pm oh my days what a day of hard graft we have had but also a very positive one getting jobs done that have needed doing for a while. We started off with the normal rounds and then gathered up the ex laying ladies from the stable and put them in the point of lay pen. The reason being that we are selling off any birds that are no longer out with the laying flocks both chicken and duck. Normally they just retire and are free to wander around but it doesn’t really make much sense feeding and housing them over winter, it’s just more work than necessary, so I put them up for sale. We had a pretty quick response and managed to move 10 hens and 5 ducks on before lunchtime so that was great. We moved one of the Campbell drakes in with the laying ducks in the vain hope some may produce a batch of ducklings next year 🙄 We have fixed the rabbit run roof which had a hole in it and the rain gets in, the run is pretty big mind you and it was only wet at the door end but even so it needed doing. John cleaned out the hens in the front and I cleaned out the turkey run. We moved the water tank from the back of the stable block, this holds around 5000ltrs which I had to empty out the day before in order for us to move it to inside the duck pen. This was no mean feat, it’s not particularly heavy but it is large, round and awkward 😜 plus it wouldn’t go past the fir tree trunks so we had to man handle it up a slope (the ladder) and get it over the five foot fence into the duck run and then get it into situ on the other side so that John could reconnect the pipe work to the guttering that feeds it. After all this we had a sit down for about half an hour before I lit the Rayburn, fed the birds and collected the eggs. Meanwhile John got the tractor out and he turned the compost heap, I was convinced this was where any rats would be living but not one appeared so they must be elsewhere though I’m stumped as to where. The compost heap is an amazing little miracle of mother nature’s, you put all your prunings, old plants, clippings in there and voila it turns back into some wonderful soil that goes back onto the garden in Spring, we found a few potatoes in there which is always a Brucey Bonus 😀 A friend turned up with some pumpkins for the birds, they are from a local farm and so still whole which will be great for the hens as the seeds are supposed to be good for worming and in return he had some duck eggs, love a bit of bartering 😀 We had planned to move the geese back to the front paddock as they have now eaten the small back paddock down and I want them out before the daffodils begin to come up as their big feet will flatten them, but by the time we had finished chatting it was dark and they had put themselves to bed, this never happens 😂 so we will move them tomorrow instead.

Our egg sales are down this week, I’m guessing because the road was flooded and the rain was relentless, typically the egg numbers have begun to go up. It’s never a balanced thing with the eggs, in summer sales are brisk in winter no so much but still good normally so where is everyone 🙄 Where are those customers that audibly tut or huff when you have sold out (most don’t, just a few) and I still smile pleasantly and apologise 😜

I have to say that the weather today was glorious for a winters day, sunny, not windy and no rain, not even cold really, it was a pleasure to be out there and those are the days I feel a very lucky person indeed.

I know I should have put something in the slow cooker first thing but I had a hankering for some good old fish and chips tonight so that’s what we are having 😀

We finished our fish and chips and I thought that was it, cosy down for the evening until John went to lock up his van and couldn’t find his keys 🙄 It’s ok he says I have a spare set never been used, they don’t work 🙄 We go through the day to figure out when he last had them and then he goes out in the dark with a torch to try and find them. I went out the back and thought ooo it’s a bit cold I will stay in here in case they suddenly present themselves 😂 Eventually I decided I ought to go and help as he still hasn’t found them, two sets of eyes are better than one especially when one set belongs to a bloke 🤪 No offence but in our family we call it a ‘man scan’ you know, when you ask them to get something out of the cupboard and apparently it isn’t there and you go and look and it’s right in front of his eyes 🤔 I go round to all the places he has been today, the hay barn, the rabbit run, the back area, the van, I find them on floor next to the van 😬 I am always telling him not to just chuck stuff down on the floor perhaps he will listen from now on 😝

Sunday: I had planned on having an easier day today with a good few hours of doing not a lot BUT it hasn’t turned out that way lol. We were woken by Johns phone ringing and someone having water all over their bathroom floor, turns out they had had some heating work done the day before and it had disturbed the flush pipe on the toilet which is why water was all over the floor! So that left me doing the rounds this morning on me tod. Then we had the barefoot trimmer arriving to do the horses feet, that was a bit of a last minute thing as we couldn’t get hold of the usual farrier and their hooves were getting longer than is acceptable🙄 Meanwhile John had tried to start the tractor to finish the last bit of the compost heap but the battery was dead so he went off to visit his Mum, when he got back the battery still wasn’t ready so we popped out to get some bits of shopping, including ingredients for stir up Sunday next week. We get back I unload the shopping and get the Rayburn lit while John manages to get the tractor started and finish that job off. It will then be time for a bit of dinner, then do the feeding and egg collection, round to a relative for some birthday cake back to put the animals all to bed then we are out on a rare evening to the Theatre in Oxford, no rest for the wicked and we certainly must be pretty wicked 😜

I still haven’t got round to planting the tulips and haven’t moved any wood chip (nearly done) 🙄 I am also a bit tired and can’t see a gap for a power nap, I sure hope the I don’t fall asleep during tonight’s show lol.

Dawn Pearse over and out for this week 😀 have a good one 😘

Posted in Friesland Farm

Procrastination, lots of rain & leftovers.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Captains Stardate 7th October 2019 😜 Monday again already, I’m pretty sure that along with the rest of you, I’ve no idea how time flies by so fast so enjoy every day, enjoy the little things that make you smile, a favourite tune with the volume up, take a few seconds to really feel the sun, rain, wind on your face (this might not make you happy but they are a confirmation that you are alive and well, which should) put your wellies on and jump in a puddle, go on really have a good splash around, look around on your journey and take note of something you have passed by a million times and never really seen before, life is precious and can change in a split second so make the most of everything.

It’s raining this morning 🤪 I procrastinated a little by cleaning the area around the hob where the piece of kitchen fell down, it’s now back up but the area needed tidying and the dust wiping down. I should have gone out and done the rounds first though as by the time I did it was raining much heavier 🙄 A quick round, as John had already topped up all the water buckets last night, and back inside to have a coffee and a think about what to get done today.

I picked up some garlic bulbs yesterday when we went to the garden centre to get some more compost, I need to divide up a few plants and pot them ready for spring time. The circle of the year constantly turning never ceases to amaze me as already the saffron crocus and the muscari are pushing up some tiny shoots of green, spiderwort tips are also beginning to emerge though of course they will all slow right down in mid winter it’s nice to see they have hope lol. The sunrise this morning was a vibrant pink, though if you had only looked out of the front windows you would have said it was grey, different aspect gives a different outlook.

I rather feel I am procrastinating again sat here typing away so I’d better get on with something useful 😏

So firstly I set to making the red tomato chutney:

2 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes all sizes cut the bigger ones

7floz red wine vinegar, cider vinegar if you don’t have red

6oz muscavado sugar or any sugar will do you just get a different colour result

4 small onions chopped

4 small cloves of garlic chopped

1 cooking apple chopped

A couple of handfuls of sultanas, I used the ones I made from the grapes

A sprinkle of ginger powder

A sprinkle of paprika

Put it all in the pan bring to the boil then reduce and simmer for approximately 1 to 1 1/12 hours, put into sterilised jars, they will store for at least a year if not longer.

Did you know that 24 million slices of bread are wasted every single day in the UK! This house is no exception when it comes to leaving the crusts, generally I throw them out for the birds but today I have about 4 crusts, a hunk of bread and a couple of flatbreads that should have been eaten over the weekend and weren’t so I made a bread pudding. I’m am not keen on the traditional looking pudding with slices of bread, the edges always seem to end up hard so I did it the other way. The bread was whizzed up into crumbs, we had a seeded loaf but that’s fine, all adds to the flavour 😀 I added milk, sugar, sultanas, egg, mixed spice, melted butter and let it all soak in so the mixture is soft and then bake it for a delicious pudding or as a cold slice with a cup of tea. You could doctor this anyway you want to, orange, lemon, cinnamon, ginger, cherries, dried fruit of any type, even chocolate chips whatever flavours you have or fancy. The basic measurements were, 250g bread, 300ml milk, 50g melted butter, 1 large egg, 70g brown sugar, the rest is up to you 😀 John doesn’t like bread and butter pudding he says, my guess is he has never had it and I won’t tell him what it is just leave on the side until he asks if he can have some lol, I’ll let you know what happens, if he really doesn’t like it all the more for me in the freezer 😀

I have been taste testing the chutney as it reduces, I think this one is going to be one that needs to mature, the temptation is to add more sugar but I’m going to leave it and hope that after a couple of months in store the flavour has deepened.

I’m on a roll now with the whole ‘making’ things, especially with leftovers today, next was the vegetable box at the bottom of the fridge 😀 A few sticks of celery, some wrinkled mushrooms, and I am on my way to making vegetable stock for soups over winter. We all have those bits that need using up and there is no better way than throwing them all in a pan with some herbs and seasoning, simmering it for a couple of hours to end up with a useful pan of goodness that can either be drunk as a gut healer or used in winter soups like leek and potato. When you peel your veg put all the scraps in a bag and pop it in the fridge until you have enough, nothing is off limits here, peelings, provided you have washed them, from sweet potato, carrots, swede, parsnip, etc, anything remotely vegetable like that is lurking and unlikely to get used otherwise, add a chopped onion, some garlic, a tomato or pepper, brassica, literally anything (except beetroot unless you want a red stock 🙄) You will get a different result each time probably but all will be tasty. Separate the veg from the juice and either use the juice or freeze it, don’t discard the veg, whizz them up and use them in your soup recipes as well. You can of course just whizz up the whole lot at the end of simmering and use that but if you want a separate stock for any reason that’s the way to do it.

Tuesday: I got woken up at 5.30 by a peculiar noise a bit like someone trying to shoulder a door in but it wasn’t, I got up and looked out but it was pitch black and I could see anything or hear anything more, it’s a mystery. The next odd thing was Benny wasn’t around, he is usually there miaowing away in the morning for his breakfast, by the time John had gone he still wasn’t there. I went out and called him and he came running from the haybarn, phew, I guess the nice comfy bed of hay is a lovely place to sleep 😴

I am also buzzing this morning with an idea given to me by a visitor yesterday. Kellee is over from the USA and she used to live here on the farm with her Mum (Sue, my Dads partner) and her sister Robin. She loves to come and visit as it bring back childhood memories, she mentioned Airbnb experiences where people get a unique experience in the things they are interested in. I have looked it up this morning and am thinking, yep, I could easily do that here, gardening, grow your own, smallholding, chicken keeping, any number of things really, it’s all buzzing round in my head now lol but it definitely something to think seriously about.

I did a stint in the big tunnel, weeding cutting back getting the dead stuff out then picked a few raspberries, the Autumn ones are doing well if you can get them before the rain spoils them. After having a good few days of feeling quite able, by lunchtime today I was flagging. Being able to recognise the fact that I am feeling tired is helpful because I no longer push myself to the limits and end up much worse, these days I go and have a sit down and maybe even a short nap 😀 to recharge my batteries.

It hammered down in the afternoon, just as well that Shelley, Josh and Flo called in after picking Josh up from school. After the left I did a bit of hoovering and then sorted the walnuts out again 🙄 I had washed them and dried them all then put them on a rack, from the apple storage, but some of them still developed a mould so I wiped them all over with a dry cloth and I have put them in the oven on 50c probably for an hour to try and dry out the shells better. I don’t want the nut inside to dry too much though I want that to dry naturally. I did think about shelling them now but the not meat is still too soft and it’s a bit of a mission just to get one out.

Wednesday: It rained quite heavily in the night and so it was a bit soggy this morning 🙄 I did the morning rounds and I’m keeping the stable birds I for a few days as they have become freeloaders 😜 actually, I have no idea where they are laying and we could do with the eggs. I then went into the greenhouse and picked all the remaining peppers, the foliage is starting to fall off and so that’s pretty much the end of those. There were plenty to pick, mostly small but they will still be useful, I then thought I may as well do the same to the courgettes and cucumbers, if we get a sharp drop in the overnight temperatures they won’t be much good after so pick them now while they still have a bit of substance to them. I also cut some lemongrass, that has grown really well and I would definitely grow it again, it has such a wonderful smell 😀 if you like Thai cooking I would encourage you to grow it or even if you just want to make limoncello 😀 I need to find out what other things I can do with it.

I had quite a few smallish cucumbers so I have begun to make some cucumber relish, ideal for hot dogs, at the moment they have been finely chopped along with onion and red pepper and are sat in salt to draw out the moisture, I can then make the relish tomorrow.

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this before so apologies if I have but going back to the peppers, I have never had much luck with them, I usually end up with one tiny pepper lol, but this year in the new greenhouse, wow, they have done really well and they didn’t even go in there until quite late so I’m excited to plan again for them next year, maybe even a few chillis and I may even try an aubergine again 😜 Just goes to show that the right tools for the job is the way forward.

I also pulled a few ‘mooli’ radish, these are the round ones, accord I think, I got free seeds and thought I might as well give them a go, well they taste great and they grow bigger than a French breakfast radish (size of a golf ball or you can grow them to tennis ball size) but don’t ‘blow’ so they don’t get hollow and woody, these will be a definite regular from now on, they will replace the more familiar red and white radish.

I am off out to Sudely Castle tonight for a audience with my favourite author Phillipa Gregory, very much looking forward to that and we are having Tudor tapas, the mind boggles but I will let you know what they consist of tomorrow lol. In the meantime I have got shepherds pie ready for an early dinner and I will be doing the rounds earlier than usual.

I am hoping that we have a couple of dry days in store so that I can get out on the garden and give it a good tidy, plus I need to dig up the self set potatoes before they rot in the ground.

This afternoon we were sat having a cup of tea in the living room when I spotted a Hummingbird moth on the Verbena which was bobbing about in the breeze, amazing little moth, though I had to have a look at a picture online as they don’t stay still long enough to see what they actually look like lol.

This is a pic from the internet not mine 😬

Thursday: A lovely sunny morning, slightly chilly but hopefully it will warm up a tad over the course of the day.

Last nights outing to hear Phillipa Gregory was fabulous, a talk on the hidden women in history, which was most of them as they were only recorded either through their husbands, through work they may have done and thus recorded in household journals or through crime, was riveting and I could have listened to her for hours. The Tudor tapas were venison sausages in onion chutney, kipper on top of bruschetta and a veg option of avocado on bruschetta followed by a lemon posset/parfait type dessert, fab evening 😀 I do have her new book (signed 😀) to read but I shall resist the temptation during the daytime unless is raining in which case I think that’s allowable lol.

I have bloods this morning and my flu jab 🙄 I have had varying reactions to the jab each year, sometimes nothing at all, sometimes a very sore arm that flared up every few weeks, sometimes decidedly unwell, however I think the alternative doesn’t really bear thinking about especially if there is an epidemic, we have all seen how it can move through animal populations rapidly (bird flu especially) the devastation it would cause in the human population doesn’t bear thinking about, so off I go.

Friday: Ooo what a terrible morning, it’s raining, sometimes hard and it’s blowing a hoolie. At first I thought urgh I don’t want to go out in that but then I had an attitude adjustment and figured at least it will be refreshing and might wake me up a bit lol. We have a long wait until Spring so I am going to have to make the most of what Winter brings, dark mornings and dark evenings, wet weather, cold weather, freezing weather, ice maybe even snow. It also brings the opportunity to get things done indoors, a bit of crafting maybe, reading, catch up on films I have missed over the summer, planning for next years veg. There are also a few of my favourite times of year to celebrate, All Hallows Eve, Bonfire night, Winter Solstice, a few winter birthdays and of course the great Winter Feast that is Christmas.

I started growing pumpkins the year before the first grandchildren were born I think and now it has become a must grow item for me to be able to carry on the tradition lol. I tend to grow small ones that are also suitable for eating but might have to move into the realm of giant pumpkins later on 🎃

I procrastinated a little until the weather looked more acceptable then went out and fed and watered everything letting them all out as I went. It was actually quite mild out there and I wanted to get a couple of jobs done, the first was to divide up my hardy geranium and get some small plants on the go ready for next spring. I got 11 in total, I won’t need most of them so they will go out for sale next year providing they take and make through the winter. The next job was to dig up some self set potatoes, these particular ones come every year in the same place, they are from a batch of Red Duke of York that I planted about 5 years ago. Each year they grow back, strong, healthy plants, no sign of blight no scab they just do really well and they are mostly growing in old manure! It just goes to show that you really don’t need to faff about with some veg they will make it anyway and without any problems. They produce whopping big spuds, ideal for a hungry worker who wants a baked potato 😀 the only problem that does occur is slug damage to some of them because they are growing in something that holds moisture which is why I wanted to get them dug up sooner rather than later. Those were the two things I really wanted to achieve today and so job done ✅ I had a few more walnuts in the greenhouse that I cleaned the outer cases off last week so I bought those in and gave them a wash in some white vinegar and then dried off the shells in a very low oven for about an hour. It should be air drying but I found that because we don’t have constant heating, mould starts to appear on the shells so properly drying them off is a must.

Went out with Sam, Shelley and the children for coffee and cake in the afternoon.

Got a hammering from the rain when the heavens opened at feeding time 🌧 I was trying to find the turkeys who had wandered off, the rain was pouring, splattering onto my glasses which were steaming up, the wind was blowing wet hair onto my face despite having my hood up, urgh hate times like that lol times like that I think what the actual ‘bleep’ am I doing 😜 Came indoors and went straight to the kettle for a nice hot cuppa ☕️

Saturday: Wet, nothing more to say about it than that! John did the morning rounds which gave me a chance to catch up with all the bits indoors that needed doing, the usual mundane stuff such as hang up clothes, put the rubbish out, wash up, a plethora of small jobs that all add up to an hour or two of busy 😜

I had a phone all from the doctor last night about my blood results and no wonder I have been feeling tired, my white cells have dropped too low again 🙄 great, there never seems to be an even keel these days, at least I know why I haven’t been up to speed I suppose but it gets me wondering about exactly how to handle this disease 🤔

We didn’t do a lot more today other than go and get some bits of food shopping and visit Mum and Ken, the afternoon rounds when we got back and light the Rayburn.

Sunday: Oh my days it has been raining heavily all through the night, there hasn’t been much let up for a couple of weeks now so you can imagine what that brings 🙄 I woke up at 6.30 that was not the first time mostly due to the noise of the rain on the tin roof, I got up and made a cuppa then went back to bed and did a bit of reading. I couldn’t sleep because I was wondering what we would be greeted with out there come daybreak and what to do about it. The horses have been grazing a large paddock all summer but it has no overhanging shelter apart from trees at one end, there is plenty of windbreak from the hedges but that doesn’t help in these conditions, we had left the other paddocks to work as standing hay hoping that by the time we needed it the grass would be exactly that. But needs must when the weather drives and this morning I need to move them to a field with a shelter, I couldn’t bring them in as they are already soaking and would get cold standing in a stable, we don’t have luxury features such as a dryer lol. When I first went out to the paddocks the water that is standing came over the foot of my welly by the time I had got the hay nets and gone back out a river had formed down through the middle of the all the side paddocks and the rain is not letting up 😏 I moved the horses and they seem happy to be in a field with grass but they can’t gorge on too much grass all at once, I don’t have an alternative at the moment though.

Delighted that I just managed to secure a load of wood chip from a tree surgeon next week 😀 that will go on the veg garden paths, they are in desperate need of doing especially with all the rain.

The rain eventually eased off though how long for is anyone’s guess.

My brother went to a garden centre that was selling off all its stock ready for a refit, he picked up some packets of seeds for me at 10p a packet, I think I need to plough up a field 🤣

Posted in Friesland Farm

Courgette soup, new hens, stormy weather & Tussie Mussies.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Sunday eve: I took a couple of ibrufen and as John was watching the F1 I decided to go outside and do a bit of pottering. Firstly I watered the tunnels and was delighted to see that the cucumbers and melons have begun to grown quite quickly, then I potted in some plants, blackcurrants, lupins and a few other bits, they will all be left to overwinter and hopefully be good strong plants next spring.

Monday 5th Aug: I feel like s**t 🙄 no other way to put it lol, I have a cold, I think, I can’t breathe, well obviously I can a little or I wouldn’t be here typing this but I can’t breathe through my nose at all, it’s blocked which makes my head feel thick and heavy. I got up had a shower had my breakfast laid down and went back to sleep for a short while, got up had coffee, put some chicken, bones and veg in the slow cooker to make a broth. My throat gets dry then I start coughing away 🤧 sneezing, the works, urgh. The insult to injury is that I can’t take cold and flu remedies due to other meds so the broth mix contains garlic, turmeric and ginger along with chicken, veg and herbs, hope it helps 😜

Tuesday: Feeling a bit better today so I cracked on outside with an early start. I thought I would concentrate on flower gardening so I started with the front area, weeding, deadheading, cutting back and digging up any self seeded things and anything that is struggling. I had a happy time listening to the radio in the greenhouse potting up foxgloves, huechera and a couple of struggling lavenders. Then onto cutting the lawn and hoeing the paths around it, a bit of weeding and taking out the borage which has gone over and a few weeds from the herb bed. Sit down and have coffee and a bagel 😀 Going well and it’s only 10.30!

Shelley came over with Josh and Flo and picked some runner beans, Josh and I dug up potatoes and then Shelley made courgette soup which was delicious and I would definitely make it again.

500g courgettes (we used yellow)

Garlic chopped or minced

Olive oil

450ml of chicken stock, could use veg stock

Fresh parsley

Fresh basil

Salt

Pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

Chop courgettes and soften in olive oil, add stock and cook until soft enough to blitz or mash, add chopped parsley and basil and the pinch of nutmeg. Serve warm with Parmesan cheese and crusty bread 😀

Simple and good for you.

We popped over to see Sam, Mia and the babies.

Rain on and off all afternoon and into the evening but we have to get the fencing up ready for the chickens arriving tomorrow 😜

John finally got the strimmer working, I had sprayed the carburettor with cleaner but couldn’t start it, John had a go then he cleaned out the end of the pipe going into the fuel tank and voila it now works 😀

Wind is predicted for Friday, my first thought was ‘oh no’ that won’t be good for the runner beans, nor the fruit and nuts on the trees 😏

Wednesday: A bits and bobs day, flitted about doing various things but not one big job. First I burnt the paper feed bags and any paper rubbish we had lying around, then I put sawdust and feeders in the POL for sale pen, then I collected a few eggs, washed out and filled up Jacks water trugs, got the mower out and cut some areas that needed doing ( I tried starting the strimmer but I couldn’t get it going 😤) weighed out some veg to put out for sale, picked a few cucumbers, hoed an area that was getting overgrown, weeded the carrot bed, watched the kittens catch their first mouse, fed the rabbits/guineas and torts with the weeds all before noon 😀 Quick sit down before the afternoon begins.

I am trying to get my head around Instagram at the minute lol, not much to figure out I am sure but I never have more than a few minutes to glance at it #clueless 🤪

The new hens arrived in the afternoon, John gets a bit cocky with new arrivals and puts them outside saying ‘they will go in when it gets dark’ well nine times out of ten they do but not this lot! We had to catch all 50 in the front pen and put them inside on the perches, once we had done them we separated off to do the others, I went up the back and John did the side paddock and the duck pen. The other new lot (20) were in the sale pen up the back but they had all collected on the floor near the front of the cage, we have had this before and the fox can nip at them through the mesh, I called John to help but he had already buggered off indoors 😲 Eventually he came looking for me, just as I picked up number 20 😜

Thursday: We have had weather warnings for a storm, quite a big one by all accounts, they have actually cancelled some big events by the coast so they are taking the threat seriously, and so am I. I have been picking as many runner beans as I can manage because the wigwams will be the first thing to be blown down if the wind is that strong, I’m hoping that inland we won’t get hit so hard. With the runner beans I have made some chutney, I will freeze some beans, sell some and give some away to family. I have picked more courgettes 😜 and I’m contemplating having another go at jam, I reckon it would taste really nice but I don’t want another non set disaster, maybe I will make half the quantity as a test run.

At the moment the weather is lovely outside, sunny, calm, not too hot just pleasant, and great drying weather for the washing, I figured get it done today as the next couple of days don’t look good lol.

Despite having plenty of other things to do I did decide to have a go at the courgette jam, 1/2 quantity just in case, it smells amazing as it has lemon zest in it as well and I picture a vanilla sponge with the jam and some whipped cream in the middle and a dusting of icing sugar on top, 😋 I also had a go at another recipe I came across, sugar free caramel sauce, I had a can of coconut milk in the cupboard, it’s been in there for ages and all you add to it is 7tbls of some kind of syrup like agave, or in my case maple, boil it and reduce it down, easy, it tastes good and I think if I had used full fat coconut milk instead of the reduced fat which is what I had, it would be thicker but it’s still a nice pouring consistency.

The new hens went into the hut early today because it was raining so it was an opportunity to shut them in and not having a repeat of carrying them in one by one 😂

Friday: Rather boring but I did the cleaning today, you know when it just starts to make you feel uncomfortable seeing the dust and dirt kicking around lol. I am sat typing this up and it smells lovely, in fact sometimes I just open a door to a room just to take in the fresh clean smell 🤣

We have had three people this week who were supposed to come and collect stuff they had asked for, chickens and veg, all of them no shows 😏 I’m sure people think we have nothing better to do than wait for them to finally decide they might bother, it is one of the reasons that on the whole I do not save eggs for people. Many have asked in the past but I won’t do it, firstly sometimes as above, those people don’t turn up and secondly we have many customers who have been coming for years and take their luck on wether there are any available or not and I feel I owe them that loyalty back.

While I am getting bugbears off my chest the other one is when we have sold out of eggs, in the past I have had huffs and puffs because the ‘sold out’ sign isn’t displayed, this is because I don’t have time to run out every five minutes to see if the last customer took the last box of eggs! While I am on a roll here….we are not a supermarket, we have what we have and when it’s gone, it’s gone 😜 Hopefully, very soon, we will have an abundance of eggs but until then they are a bit thin on the ground. One last small tiny bugbear 🤪 we have plenty of fair weather customers who come in the summer but again the loyal ones come all year long but it’s always the summer ones that complain lol.

The courgette jam, although it smells and tastes amazing, is a soft set and that’s using the term loosely 🙄 I may incorporate it into a cake recipe I think.

Went out for tea and cake with Shelley, Josh and Florence this afternoon, the weather today has not been as bad as I expected but apparently there is worse to come tomorrow 🙄

I have made enquires today about getting some more quail, hopefully I have found some I can pick up at the weekend, that will please the quail egg customers.

Saturday: Windy this morning but as yet no rain. We started off well got the animals sorted and then John got the tractor out and moved loads of muck from the pile at the back to the pile at the front lol. One of the reasons we decided to do this is because two mornings running there have been duck egg shells enroute from the stables to the muck heap so I am convinced there must be at least one rat in there, John thinks not but then he never believes that we have rats about even when the dog kills one 🙄 No rats appeared so maybe he is right about them not being in there but they are living somewhere round there for sure. I did a bit of picking, cucumbers and tomatoes are coming thick and fast now, I picked a few French beans and I planted out some more that will hopefully grow pretty fast and we can get a harvest at the end of September. I also put some in modules in the greenhouse just in case the outdoor ones get eaten by mice though I am hoping the kittens are onto them 😜 I have some cabbage and some winter spinach to sow at some point as well. I went to Mums last night and came back with a seed pod from a peony, I read up about growing them from seed and they can take up to five years that will be a long wait 🙄 I had a walk around the boundaries to see if there were any blackberries ready, nope still small, I have heard people saying they are picking but I don’t know where as round here they are not ready yet.

I clipped back the lavenders and made a few bunches, one each for Sam and Shelley, Charlie has lots of lavender in her garden so I picked some of my precious freesias and a few other flowers to make a Tussie Mussie (small bunch of flowers or aromatic herbs) for her.

Sunday: It’s 3pm and we have had a busy day and I need to sit down as my legs are feeling wobbly 😜 We started off doing the usual rounds and then an early morning trip to Bicester to buy some laying quail, a good journey and we made a great contact there, a butcher with a smallholding 😀 On the way back home we called I to the DIY shop to get a solar powered security light for the front, recommended by my brother who has some, quick pit stop for a takeaway coffee 😀 Back home and straight to work, John put up the light and then got on the tractor to move the last of the muck pile. Meanwhile I worked in the garden, flitting about between indoors and outdoors with the on off rain showers and cloud cover. I potted up some willow that I had taken cuttings of (very easy to strike) I intend to grow them on into trees to use around the place, I cut back the sage, it’s getting old and gnarly so I gave it a hefty prune, there were three pieces that had taken root so I dug those up and potted them. The high winds yesterday have caused a bit of damage but not much, a big bough has come down from my weeping birch tree and 4 lots of runner bean wigwams are down. I have picked all the beans I can from them as they probably won’t recover from the whipping 🙄 I picked cucumbers which are now coming thick and fast and a couple of courgettes lol. John picked up the eggs and fed the birds and I sorted and boxed them, that’s when I felt the need to have a sit down.

Later I went up the back where John was clearing and burning some wood, we heard a rumble of thunder then the heavens opened, proper thunderstorm 😀

We have been out then in then out then undercover, then out then in and have now abandoned trying to tidy up at the back, the bonfire is still going well but it’s so wet out there now I doubt it will go anywhere it shouldn’t !

Posted in Friesland Farm

Snow, ice, rain, fog = Winter 🥶

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hot chocolate was definitely the order of the day today 😀

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

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