Thursday: Yes it’s Thursday before I even realised I hadn’t written a single thing for the blog 🤣 Thats because I ha e been so busy I haven’t even had time to think about it at all.
Most of the early week was wall to wall blue sky and it was pretty hot so that meant the usual scrabble round in the mornings and get done what I could outside. Picking and some watering, all the usual feeding, watering, cleaning out jobs. I did remember to take some photos mind you so something ran through my mind at least 🙄
This time of year is very busy with picking and harvesting and prepping everything ready for the winter, mostly chopping and freezing but it takes up a fair amount of time. I have made a couple of soup bags up as well, I was really happy with this one as it was very colourful.
Runner beans, tomatoes, carrots, beetroot, onion, garlic chives and celery leaves, should make a tasty, healthy soup in mid winter 🥰
This morning I picked some elderberries but I had to wash them and freeze them as I dont have time at the minute to make some syrup which is what I want to do with them. I also chopped up windfall apples and bagged and froze those. I cooked sweetcorn in the microwave, still in the husk, which is a fab way to do them. When they are done, cut the bottom off and peel of the leaves, easy and quick. I then vacuum packed these so they will last a long time in the freezer without getting frosted. I still have not quite got fully to grips with the vacuum sealer but I am getting the hang of it and it’s a great gadget. I weighed up the pros and cons of the fact that it uses plastic but it does keep the food in a better quality for longer and I can always re use the bags for smaller quantities another time.
This weeks blog will be short and sweet as I have forgotten to do half of it and I will not be around to do the other half of it 😜 We have Charlie’s hen weekend this weekend, so Friday I will be busy getting ready for that and then the weekend itself. John will be in charge here, I will be enjoying myself 😁
Friday: An unbelievable coincidence has occurred and I am very excited about it. My neighbour messaged me this morning about a watercolour she had seen on another site, she recognised it instantly and blow me down if it wasn’t our paddock with the old hen huts in and Jack grazing. It is beautiful and in a style I love. I am in touch with the artist, he has agreed to sell it to us and it should be here shortly, so chuffed, it’s brilliant and I love it so it will go for framing and hang in my kitchen 😁 Happy Days 😁
By the time this is published on Sunday eve, Charlie will know all about her hen do so I can safely write this on Friday 😜 The reason I can’t write much about the Smallholding is because this week especially we have been working absolutely flat out to organise a hen do extraordinaire, I asked ‘can we do this’ the reply was ‘with bells on’ and so we have pulled off a boho bell tent, hen do village, with a hundred and one little touches that Charlie will hopefully love, everything we have organised and arranged was with her love of these things in mind 🥰 no doubt there will be plenty of pictures coming up very soon. High fives 🙌 to everybody who helped, spending hours with planning and building the hen weekend, you are bloody awesome 🤩
Monday 30th August 2021: Bank Holiday Monday, it’s nice having an extra day at the weekend, shame we can’t do it every weekend. We set the alarm for 6.30 this morning even though it’s a holiday, better start practising for the working week ahead, John has jobs to go to and I have plenty to be getting on with here.
After doing the rounds John went out to get a bit more of the driveway done, by the time he finishes it will be time to start again 🙄 I had plenty to do in the garden and started off with a fair bit of picking, it’s fast and furious at this time of year and I picked courgettes, cucumbers, peppers, chillies, tomatoes, runner beans, a couple of apples that were ready, some pears and a couple of melons. While I was picking the runner beans I noticed that John had not recovered the cauliflower and cabbage plants I put in a few weeks ago. They are on the area he has been putting new boxes in and we had to work around them, when I was helping him the day before I had said we need to make sure the cover goes back on to stop the butterflies laying eggs. He worked on his own yesterday and took the cover off but didn’t replace it 🤬 I called him a few choice names and then had to carefully look over all the leaves and get any eggs off, they would be ravaged if I didn’t, weeks of growing almost ruined by being completely thoughtless 😤 He was contrite enough to say sorry but I don’t think he fully gets it 🤷♀️ I will have to check them daily for a while just in case I missed any. I also spent a good bit of time covering the other boxes with membrane to stop the cats using them as a toilet block. I dug in some soil conditioner that I already had and also some biochar that I ordered at the beginning of the year which I also dug in. Biochar is organic material that has been burnt at extremely high temperatures without oxygen, it helps with soil structure, it can hold onto to water and therefore water soluble nutrients, it’s beneficial for soil micro organisms, reduce nutrient leaching, basically it stabilises the soil and it will remain in the soil for 1000 years or more so they say. It captures carbon and holds onto it so it is very good from and environmental point of view as well, let’s see if it makes any difference, I hope it does, all the science says it works well.
It was one of my nieces birthdays today and so we went for a BBQ late afternoon and into the evening.
Tuesday: A housework day today so not much else going on other than hoovering polishing and cleaning.
Wednesday: I did a few bits and pieces this morning, then Shelley arrived with Josh and Flo for a visit. John called in mid morning in-between jobs and had a cup of tea with us all. Once everyone had left I went into the small tunnel and spent a good while cutting back all the leaves on the tomato plants. All that is left are the stems and any trusses that still have tomatoes of any decent size on, I will leave them on to ripen. Any fruits that were slightly on the turn from green have been picked and placed in the kitchen window to carry on ripening. I also picked some French beans and watered the greenhouse. A bit tired today so had a couple of hours sit down and catch up with some favourite programmes before sorting out dinner. Then mid evening it was time to go along to what I hope is going to be my new hobby, flower arranging 😁 It was the clubs first meeting since the beginning of the pandemic and there was a good turn out. I knew a couple of members slightly and made the acquaintance of a few more, they were a friendly lot and I came away with a list of what I need for next months meeting where I will be doing my first arrangement 😁 I have done arrangements a few times before for things like Christmas but I want to learn about techniques and form. It’s nice to have a new hobby especially one I have wanted to do for years, finally got there.
Thursday: A busier day today so far. Once the morning jobs were finished I set about processing the produce I had lying around waiting to be sorted, there were a few windfall cooking apples from the front tree so I made apple and raspberry (only had a few, bee rubbish weather for later fruiting) crumble for dinner later, chopped up peppers and French beans to open freeze along with some lemon slices which will be put into a tub and used when needed. I was saying to Shelley about not buying lemon as they get left in the fruit bowl sometimes, she said she slices hers and freezes them so I thought that was a sensible idea and decided to do that as well. Then I went out and did some picking, plenty of cucumbers this morning, eating apples, tomatoes, swede, a banana squash, carrots, celery leaves, garlic chives and a small amount of basil and coriander. The last four I have literally just frozen them as they are in tubs for use through the winter. The swede and carrot I cooked together and mashed, that will be frozen, the banana squash will keep for a few weeks so no need to sort that just yet, the tomatoes are on the window sill with plenty of others ripening and I am thinking I might make some tzatziki with some of the cucumbers, I was just researching to see how well it freezes. I also had to pick a couple more bunches of flowers as the one out front sold and I harvested some lemon grass to put out for sale as well as putting some lemon plants up for sale on social media.
I had to go and pick up a parcel that got delivered to next door instead, it was live plants so needed picking up fairly quickly. On the way I thought I would just have a quick look in the shed and found that someone had taken some of the jalapeño peppers from the carton they are sold in. This made me cross as they had left four in there, I weigh these out so that everybody gets a fair deal and just to take some but not all is annoying to say the least. It could be that they only wanted a few and paid for all of them but even so that’s not helpful. It could be that they just took them and didn’t pay at all I have no idea 🤷♀️ We run it on an honesty system and I think 98% of people are good citizens but some can’t help themselves 🙄 I don’t want to be watching all day just to make sure people are being honest, that’s not good for me and not good for the customers. I try to sell the produce as eco friendly as possible, in paper bags, loose and also cardboard cartons, the only thing I have to use are plastic cartons for fruit and things like tomatoes but they can be returned and washed so that’s not too bad. However in light of this discovery (not the first incident we have had very recently) I have found biodegradable, clear, zip seal bags and as long as I buy 500 they are not so expensive that I have to put prices up. It will be better really because I can then put out bunches of fresh herbs which I couldn’t before as they go limp quickly and I can seal the produce in the bag which will be better from a hygiene/Covid perspective, so in a roundabout way it has helped but still, why would you do that 😕
I have been following the build up to an interesting experiment, eating only what you grow, forage or barter (goods for goods) for the month of September. It is more difficult than you think, when I first listened and watched I thought, well that would be easy enough, but actually the more I thought about it the harder it became, as you will see it is things like salt and coffee that are irreplaceable lol. Although salt can be foraged from the ocean obviously, it is very time consuming process for very little return. Below is the link to the you tube channel if you are interested.
Friday: Started of with the same weather as the last couple of weeks, grey, overcast and a tad cold but the sun came out at lunchtime 😁 I did a fair bit of picking to begin the day which included a good load of plums, the Victoria’s on closer inspection seem to be mostly good, I also picked greengage and damsons. I tidied the kitchen and planned to make jam or chutney etc but the postman arrived with some plants and as I have a busy couple of days ahead I thought I better get them in the ground. They are kale plants, I didn’t sow seed in time and so had to order 10 plants, 5 different types so it will be interesting to see what they all taste like. Then as I was out there I decided to organise another raised bed and plant up some bulbs (allium of various types, tulips, and ranunculus) phlox, geum and knapweed, these are the first of my planting for cut flowers next spring. I dug up a few other small plants ready to divide, they are resting in a bucket of water for the time being as the sun was a bit too strong for me to stay out (Sod’s law 😂)
Kale planted for the winter, always good to have some tasty fresh veg in the colder months. These have now been covered so that the butterfly’s don’t lay eggs on them and the cats don’t scratch them up 🙄This is all the greenery that is left of the tomato plants but even since I stripped them the remaining fruits have been ripening 😁
Saturday: Spent the day away from the Smallholding leaving John in charge, I went shopping for my Mother of the Bride outfit 😁
Sunday: Been super busy today, cutting back, dead heading, mowing, watering as it’s really dry everywhere 🙄 The sun made an appearance, finally right at the end of summer it decided to come out in full force 😂 I will probably do some watering this evening as well just to keep things ticking over. Some nights are cold enough for a good dew which will suffice at this time of year but with the hot day like today extra watering might be needed so everything doesn’t keel over.
Monday 22nd August 2021: Well we had the best weeks holiday 😁 the weather was just right for me, the sea was as calm as a lake all week long, the food was out of this world good and we rested and relaxed a lot, job done now back on with the work 😂
Shelley has looked after the farm beautifully, everything was in order and then some as her and Sam had done some mowing and weeding and clearing, it all looked lovely on our return. In order to keep up the good work we have not been idle since arriving home and have been trimming the front hedge, hoeing, sweeping and tidying, still a fair bit more to do but it’s looking loved again. Hopefully we can get quite a bit achieved this week as John has another week away from his plumbing and we can crack on here with tidying, strimming, cutting back, mowing, weeding, lol it’s never ending 🤪
We were up early and ready to crack on, I got some picking done and checking over everything to see what needed doing. John got busy with the morning jobs and then back to the front driveway which he has gone to town on, really pulling out and raking up all the stinging nettles and weeds. I picked another lovely bunch of flowers for the kitchen, beautiful pink dahlias this week 😁 We worked until almost lunchtime then John took me over to Sams to look after the kiddies while she went for her second vaccination. John was supposed to come back home and do some work but he made a cuppa sat down and had a sleep instead 😂 Once he had picked me up and we came home it was my turn for a quick kip, I was exhausted after and early start and grandchildren sitting 🤪 John went out and cut the middle paddock and gave the back paddock a better cut while I had a sleep. Once awake I picked some raspberries and blueberries, I still think birds are getting in the fruit cage as there is not a red raspberry to be seen, normally there are loads, I think I will definitely grow more yellow ones next year as the birds don’t touch them 🤷♀️ I picked a cucumber, tomatoes, garlic chives, celery greens, and carrots for dinner this evening, John has chicken with runner beans which I had already picked, plus the home grown carrots and potatoes while I have chicken with salad and baked potato and some home grown fruit with yoghurt for dessert including a home grown melon 🥰
Shelley did some daily recordings for the podcast if you are interested in listening to that, I do a weekly round up on a Thursday and then on a Mondays I cover a topic of one type or another, https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/our-smallholding-life-warts-n-all/id1574503311 or it can be found on Spotify. I am really enjoying doing them, I think it is a completely different perspective when you can hear me talking about things rather than reading them.
Tuesday: We got off to a flying star with all the usual morning jobs and then John continued with the driveway, it’s hard work but he is doing a great job and it looks fab. I picked some flowers this morning to go out with the produce and eggs, I definitely want to be doing more flowers and plants for sale. With that in mind I collected some seeds from a lovely soft pink snap dragon I have growing and I took some cuttings from some pinks, if I do a little bit every day I will soon have plenty of plants to put out next Spring. I have a large order of tulip bulbs arriving in September, most will go into the garden but a lot will be potted up and hopefully ready for Easter next year. I picked courgettes and lots of tomatoes this morning though the tomato plants are coming to the end now as they definitely have something wrong with them, I think it is from spray watering, I really need to get set up to water at ground level really. The lads from Wildpoint arrived to take some photos, they are working hard to get the website off the ground and have already had a piece in the Guardian and have been approached by a main tv station to do a bit on one of their daily programmes which is great for them. Exciting stuff and they were very enthusiastic about our little Wildpoint campsite 🥰
Mid morning we went to the garden centre for a mooch around and some lunch and then round to Mums for a cup of tea or two before returning home. As the sun was out we decided to wait until later in the day to carry on outside. Once it was cool enough John went out to put some things in the skip, it was changed over this morning and we always have plenty to fill a new one up 😂 I went out to pick some plums, the greengage and Victoria’s are ready and I think I will make jam with those. While I was in the vicinity I did all the water bowls for the animals in the orchard, rabbit, quail, light Sussex and turkeys plus the guinea pigs. Sadly I found one of the pigs in the last throes of dying, I have no idea why as it was fine yesterday although he is the one I had to separate because the others bullied him. Maybe they knew there was something wrong, animals have the instincts to detect things we can’t even see and I’m guessing this was something internal as there were no external signs of anything 😢
When we were driving to Mums I spotted a compost bin that had been put out on the pavement ‘free to take’ yay, I had been looking round the farm for something to use in the front area so that I didn’t have to keep taking it round the back and so that little find was perfect 👍
Wednesday: Busy day today, it was overcast so I made the most of being able to be outside all day 😁 Mostly I was weeding and clearing, the peas have finished so I took down the canes and cleared away dead foliage, weeded the bed and I will cover it to stop the cats using it as a toilet area and keep new weeds at bay. There is plenty of weeding to do, it’s amazing how much time it all takes lol I spent most of the day doing that. Meanwhile John was finding things that needed to go in the skip and burning the hedge clippings and all the weeds he has been digging up. It doesn’t sound like we did a lot but we really did 😂 we were tired by 3.30 so went in for a sit down and a cheeky nap 🤪 After I had cooked dinner and we had finished eating I used the tomatoes I picked yesterday to make some quality tomato soup. I used a BBC Good Food recipe as it does not have any extras such as flour as I don’t think it’s needed. Most of the ingredients were home grown, tomatoes, onion, carrots, celery and bay leaves, just the addition of vegetable stock, tomato purée and a pinch of sugar (which reduces the acidity of the tomatoes) were needed to finish it off, lovely jubbly. That will go into some pour and store bags ready for the winter.
Home grown ingredients for tomato soup, I love making this and then getting it out of the freezer on a cold winters day 🥰 I also strung up the red onions to store, these were a good crop unlike the white onions which won’t store and those have been chopped and frozen instead.
Thursday: Had a busy morning, first up after the usual stuff then onto blending up the tomato soup, I left it to cool down overnight so I could do it this morning and then freeze it in four portions of approx 500ml each in pour and store bags. Then straight onto making 4lbs of Victoria plum jam and 3lbs of garden chutney plus a ‘compost cake’ 😂 I found a lovely site with both these ‘formulas’ rather than recipes, formulas because she just talks about the basics and the ingredients are whatever you have. The garden chutney this time had courgettes, onion, apple and runner beans in it and the compost cake had banana, kiwi, plums and a satsuma as the ingredients. Basically it’s a cake that uses up fruit that is probably about to go into the compost, as long as it’s not mouldy or dry as a bone it can go in, the banana was black on the outside but still useable inside, the kiwi was a bit squidgy (it was one from the fruit bowl on holiday lol) the plums were the cherry plums I picked before we went away and so needed using up and there were a few grapes that went in as well. Makes a lovely, fairly heavy cake with is almost like a bread pudding texture, I had mine with some yoghurt when it was still warm 🥰 The chutney has a basic chutney base (sugar, vinegar, apples, onions) and then whatever you have to use up which in my case was some wonky courgettes and some tougher runner beans, I threw in some sultanas for good measure and I added some powdered allspice but you could use any combination of spices that you prefer.
Meanwhile John was very busy tidying up the stable block, over time lots of things had got put away (dumped) in there and now everything has been put away neatly and it looks great, he then went on to start cutting up a huge pile of wood that we still have. We decided to keep the wood and use it on the fire pit, should be enough to last about 5 years 😂
In the afternoon we had a rest, did a bit more late afternoon and then some dinner, out to get a bit of shopping and a bit more when we came back. Watering the greenhouse, feeding the cats and dogs, putting the birds away etc etc, feels like the jobs never end sometimes.
Cheeky little Anna cat playing hide and seek, she will go to Shelley’s once they are back from their holiday, no doubt she will keep them on their toes 😂
Friday: Another busy, busy day today, got to make the most of John still being at home 😉 He started off with the feed rounds and then went off to get a feed load, meanwhile I did the usual morning things and then set about picking which was a big session 🙄 Cucumbers, courgettes, beetroot, tomatoes, sweetcorn, jalapeños, all went out into the Little Shed along with some plum jam and garden chutney. Then I got started on covering an area that I cleared yesterday where the peas were, I don’t want the cat using it as a toilet so I have put down membrane to also prevent the weeds growing until I decided what to do with it. Then I was looking at the old bean bed, we moved the runner beans last year and it has been successful (with a modification) and now this bed needed repairing and tidying up, cue John 🤪 I called him over to help decide what was the best thing to do and we spent until gone 2pm taking out the old sides, digging in pallet collars and tidying the whole bed up. It will now be a one of these collars, which make great raised beds, instead of one long bed. It will be easier to cover individual boxes when they are not being used and also easier to make frames to put netting or environmesh over. We did have to leave some things in situ as I have leeks growing at one end and brassicas growing halfway down but we have put in four new collars and will do some more tomorrow. I am thinking that I will use some of the beds for some of the cutting flowers for next year but the decision has not yet been finalised.
Late afternoon we went round to water Shelley’s plants while she is away and then drop some veg off to Mum and have a quick cuppa. Back home for dinner and a restful evening (well except the putting to bed stint)
Saturday: A bit late up this morning, we have our daughters dog while they are away and it howled all night long 🤪 Once we were up and about and had got all the morning feeding and letting out done John cleaned out the ducks while I prepped some dwarf beans for the freezer. Mid morning we went out, there was a carnival on in the next town so we went for a mooch about, I won a nice ha dang, a hatching dinosaur egg and a bottle of wine on the tombola stall 😂 I also pledged to go along to the local flower arranging group which is starting up again on Wednesday evening, I am really looking forward to that, I have wanted to do it for a few years now and so I seized the opportunity to have a chat with them and said I would go along, the lady said I will probably be the youngest one there 😂 the way I see it that just means there is a lifetime of knowledge I can glean information from 😁 When we got back we decided to mostly take the rest of the day off as we have been working so hard this week, and we are tired from not getting a decent sleep during the night 🙄
Sunday: After having a more relaxed day yesterday we got on with it again this morning, after all the feeding and letting out was done John did another of the raised beds in the garden, I did a lot of dead heading and cutting back on the flower garden. Shelley, Martin and the children came over to collect the last little kitten who is called Anna and then we went to the DIY shop to get some bags of compost. On the way back we called in to see my brother and his wife for a coffee and came back mid afternoon so up to that point we didn’t actually get much done at all 😂 John continued with that theme by having a sit down but I got on with clearing some of the bed in the veg garden that will make way for more lawn. It has all the herbs in there but also some plants left from when I used it as a nursery bed before the flower garden got finished. My plan was to dig up all the seedlings and plants that were left in there and pot them up ready for next spring either to use or sell on. So far I have potted up 79 plants 😲 of one type or another and there are plenty more to do. I have hundreds of strawberry plants and runners to dig up, some I will save, some will be given away and some will be potted up for selling next spring. The same goes for all the herbs I will be digging up and dividing. John did come back out eventually and did two more boxes/beds, I think he said there will be 11 in all so that is 13.2m long (approx 43ft) by a metre wide, each box is 1.2m x 1m and I think it will be much easier to cover the boxes individually with different things depending on what is growing and what stage they are at. I carried on digging bits up and potting them until I felt I needed a sit down 🤪
Bank holiday tomorrow, it’s always nice when the weekend is extended, then job is back to the day job on Tuesday and I will be back on me tod again 🙄 Things get very busy in the garden at this time of year, harvesting everything that seems to be coming in fast and furiously, taking cuttings, collecting seeds, dividing plants, planting bulbs, cutting back, pruning, planting winter veg, prepping, freezing, drying, jams, chutneys, sauces, syrups, yep it’s a busy time for sure but it keeps me out of trouble.
Monday 2nd August 2021: It is actually Wednesday morning as I type this, I have missed a couple of days due to external matters that needed my time. On those days I have done only the necessary basics here, feeding and watering animals, picking and sorting veg and household bits so there was not much to report anyway. I did move the horses from the restricted paddock which is all but eaten off now, they are in the side paddock but at some point I need to put the electric fencing up in there so that they don’t gorge themselves.
Today I can get on and as yet I haven’t quite decided what I will do although the cloud looks quite thick at the moment so I should be able to get out for a good part of the day. I had been feeling down and disillusioned with everything as well as very tired, some of that was due to other things going on and some of it just whatever is going on in my body at the minute but today I feel I can bounce back a little bit and focus 😁
Wednesday: A did a really good stint at weeding the veg beds, most of the morning in fact. When we go away shelley will be living here and although I can tell weeds from the veg it’s not so easy for anyone else 😂 so I have made it easier to see what things are and what needs to be picked hopefully. I did a bit of picking, runner beans and some blueberries and Loganberry and then the grandchildren arrived at lunchtime for a couple of hours. We saw some deer in the field beyond ours which was nice for the kiddies (and adults) and the weather was pretty good, not too hot. After they left John arrived home early from work but I still had a lot that I wanted to get done. I needed to cut the lavender before it rains again as I want to dry it off for later in the year, I did some more weeding and then picked tomatoes ready for putting out tomorrow.
I forgot to let the ducks out this morning and didn’t remember until mid afternoon which is really bad of me and I’d better not do that again 😕
Thursday: Weather started off ok but by lunchtime it had turned cold and started raining quite a bit 🙄 First thing I did some more picking, courgettes, jalapeños and peppers, the jalapeños are growing thick and fast and I really need to find a good recipe for them as I don’t really eat them as they are. Once I had done all I needed to I sat down for a quick coffee and publish my weekly round up podcast and then Josh and Flo arrived as I was looking after them for a couple of hours. I love 4/5 year olds, the conversations you can have with them is priceless as are the things they come out with, under that age it’s a bit more basic and over that age they obviously know a lot and don’t need to ask you any more 😂 I think I would phrase it as the ‘conversation gold’ part of early childhood 🥰
Shelley arrived back and we had some soup for lunch before they left to get on with their day and I got on with mine. By this time is was raining heavily and I needed to get some paperwork sorted so an indoor afternoon.
Spent a ridiculous amount of time on the phone (with a very pleasant lady mind you) getting some holiday insurance and all the extra Covid cover we need this time round, but it’s done now all I have to do is think about packing, sort out the farm ready to leave it and not catch Covid beforehand 🙄 Oh and try and find some flat shoes as the ones I ordered are too small 🤪
It carried on peeing down most of the afternoon and into the evening so I found plenty of indoor jobs to be getting on with 🤪
Friday: It started off with rain first thing which cleared up but we still had these blustery winds with some pretty strong gusts at times 🙄 One thing I am glad of is that last year we changed how we grew runner beans as each year the winds would blow the ‘wigwams’ down when the plants were full of foliage and heavy with beans. John built a better permanent frame and this year I have not had to worry about them going over. These are the kind of modifications I am trying to get in place each time to make life easier. I did all the usual morning jobs but no picking this morning as I thought I would leave it and do a bigger pick tomorrow. That gave me time for a more leisurely shower and smoothie morning 😁 Mid morning Sam came over with the children and we went out for lunch to a local child friendly pub. There were plenty of toys to keep the children occupied and active and we ate outside, all part of re introducing the children to social activities that have been lacking, certainly for most of the twins 2 years of life, crazy isn’t it?
Later after returning home I had a quick nap, still feeling tired at times but not as much as before and no blips on my blood tests, well I haven’t been contacted so I assume there aren’t 🤔 John came home early again today and so after a cuppa and catch up we got on with afternoon feeding rounds, poultry, cats, dogs and humans 😁 Popped out to visit Mum in the evening but she wasn’t in so we went up to see my sister, while we were there my sister, John and my nephew fixed the car door. The passenger front door would not open from the inside or out and we couldn’t work out how on Earth we were going to fix it but between the three of them they did it. I have had to sit in the back for the last month so it was nice to sit in the front again. However when we got back home I couldn’t get out 😂 it wouldn’t open from the inside again, luckily it opened from the outside. We keep talking about getting a new car but John loves this one and although it’s old it is a really good car (apart from the door)
I had a notification from WordPress that 67 people now read the blog 😲 oh my goodness that is crazy, that is just on WordPress I know a fair few others read it straight from the Farm Facebook page or my personal page. I would just like to thank anybody that has ever read it, I think it has been going about 10 years now, it has only ever been about sharing the journey with anyone who wanted to come along. When I began it I didn’t have Lupus, life has changed in various ways time and time again, I have got older, grown an extraordinary amount of fruit and veg in that amount of time, probably baked tons of cakes, made hundreds of jars of jam and chutney, tried out a book full of new recipes, laughed, cried, been knocked down and got back up numerous times, I have enjoyed doing it and will keep blogging for as long as I can. I have recently dipped my toe into the podcast pool which I am enjoying as well though sometimes I wonder what on Earth I think I am doing 😂 but it’s just a different way of sharing this life.
Just listening to the late night news and weather forecast 🙄🤪 rain, thunder storms and blustery winds, are we sure it is actually August?? Time for bed and mull over tomorrow’s jobs before I fall asleep 😴
Saturday: Had to crack on this morning and get some picking done, tomatoes, cucumbers, pepper, chillies, French beans, some to go out for sale some to sort out for the freezer. I picked about 1kg of tomatoes 😲 and put a few punnets out in the shed, some are continuing to ripen on the windowsill and some I have frozen whole on trays to bag up once they are solid. I have done the same with the jalapeños, they will be fine for adding to soups, stews and sauces, I will probably make some tomato soup to freeze with the rest, I have made sauces in the past but I rarely use them, soup is more my thing. After picking and sorting I did a bit of slug hunting in the greenhouse, found about 15 of the little blighters, then it was indoors to clean the spare room, strip the bed and get that all washed before laying out the suitcases ready to fill for our holibobs 🥰🥰 I spent a large part of the afternoon trying on clothes and making piles of what to take. It’s been such a long time since our last holiday I had almost forgotten what we need so I’m just packing everything lol.
John has been to collect some hay bales today ready for winter feeding, I like to have in some of the small bales as well as the big round ones, they are easier to move around for the smaller animals, not much hood for the horses as they would it them in one sitting lol.
The red onions, I am pleased to say, did not succumb to the alium leaf miner so they are now pulled and drying off, they will store unlike the white onions which I have had to chop and freeze.
The rain just couldn’t help itself today and there were some pretty sharp showers at times, it is supposed to settle down after tomorrow with some warmer weather on the horizon. It has been the weirdest of summer seasons so far who knows what else is in store 🙄
The turkeys have been laying well, one more and I will be able to put them out for sale 😁
Jalapeños Tigerello tomatoes
Sunday: Bit of a busy day off the farm today, after all the morning jobs were done someone arrived to collect the first of the kittens to go, I have had an update and she is settling in well her new home 😁 As soon as she had left we went to Witney to get a few bits of shopping for the holiday (did I mention we are going on holiday 😂) then back home again just after lunch to let the dogs out and do a few bit before going off to my brothers for the afternoon into early evening for his birthday celebrations. It is the first time that so many of us have been together and not everyone was there but we all had a lovely time. Once back home there was a bit to sort out, I took some hay to the Guineas and rabbit and got them fresh feed and water, and the quail. My main aim in the orchard was to separate the lonesome light Sussex hen that leaves with Ted and his ladies and get her in with the light Sussex flock. I watched her the other day and she has been plucking out Teds feathers that were newly growing through after his moult 😲 I managed to get her out but had to leave putting her in with the others until it was nearly dark. We had some other hens that have been in quarantine, they were also moved to the main flock once it was nearly dark, then on to do the water for the horses, feed the dogs and cats and then on to do another slug hunt in the greenhouse. The slugs are flipping getting to every pepper but I was able to see them by torchlight and get them out, probably still plenty more but if I keep doing it I might be able to sabotage their efforts.
Another week over and onto the next one, it will be a short blog as I am going on holiday (did I mention that 🤪) Only one obstacle to overcome and that is the testing centre at the terminal, fingers crossed 😁
Monday 24th May 2021: Starting the week after being out last night and a beer sounds like a recipe for disaster luckily it was at The Harry Potter Studios and it was Butterbeer 😁 so I am ok this morning 😂 All I can say was it is epic! I didn’t really know what to expect and it exceeded expectations by a mile, just realising the amount of work and talent that went into producing these films is mind blowing, the detail and the scale is incredible. As for the physical side of the the road trip all I can say is 😳 The traffic was so heavy it took us and hour and a half to get to stokenchurch (which normally would be approx 40 mins) let alone the rest of the way to Watford. Coming back at 10 was even worse but not because of the traffic this time, it was the horrendous rain, seriously it was like driving in a monsoon!
This morning started off with the sun shinning in through the window but that soon disappeared, from the looks of the forecast this should be the last day of crap weather. I think the jet stream is on the shift finally, for two months now I have been thinking, along with everyone else I’m sure, it will be better next week, next week arrives and nope it is no better and sometimes worse lol.
John had his 2nd vaccine on Friday and has not had any side affects this time round which is good. In my opinion vaccines are the only way out of this and if you are a non vaccine person well that’s your choice as well, historically though vaccines are what safeguard the population, I doubt there would be many people walking round on this planet without modern medicine and I for one am very grateful.
I think it was last Monday that I was deciding between baking and housework, well I chose baking last time so I figured I’d better do housework this time. Hoovering, cleaning, polishing, in the hopes that as the week progresses the weather will get better and more time will be spent outside 🙄
One of my aims this year is to have much more dried produce, I want to rely less on the freezer to be able to keep the produce I grow throughout the year. Obviously jams, chutneys and fermenting are one way along with bottling (canning) but drying is also a method that is underused, by me at least. So today I picked some herbs to get started, I want create mixes as well as individual dried herbs, an Italian mix being the most useful to me alongside the traditional mix that you would use for stews and casseroles. I also am going to aim to create dried veg stock mixes, I think meat ones might be a bit too far but you never know. I began with the picking, actually I began last week with cleaning the dehydrator, and once the herbs were picked it it just a case of arranging them on the different shelves and turning it on. I will give you a quick overview of dos and dont’s just in case you want to have a go : Do pick your herbs before they start to flower, this is when they are at their best. Ideally dry the same herb on all the racks but if you don’t have enough to do that you can dry mixed batches. This has a couple of minor problems, the thickness of each herb is different so the drying times will be different. I generally put the thicker stalked of leaved herbs near the bottom and the finer ones at the top, that way they will hopefully all finish at the same time and you won’t have to waste electric on empty racks. The main thing to remember is that herbs all look similar when they are dry and green 🙄 so do try to remember what went in which rack (write a list to remind you) also as they dry they get very small, teeny tiny some of them, if they fall through the gaps they will fall onto the next layer of herbs. If you don’t mind then that’s fine but if you wanted a pure blend then it will matter. You don’t have to use a dehydrator of course, you can use a very low oven or you can hang to dry, the problem with hanging is dust, it gets everywhere and it will get on your drying herbs lol. I intend to pot them all up separately to begin with until I have enough of what I want and then I will blend them accordingly. By the way, what looks like a huge bunch when you pick it will probably only fill a tablespoon or two when it’s dry so if you want a lot then pick a lot! This morning I have picked, lovage, fennel, oregano, chive and parsley to get going with. I mentioned the Italian mix I want to make but also I think something like dill with dried lemon zest and black pepper will make an excellent mix for chicken, fish or pasta. The vegetable stock mix can be an assortment of whatever you have, just make sure that the pieces are all roughly the same size for drying. I am thinking, onion, celery, carrot, leek, garlic to start with and whatever is to hand maybe sweet potato, turnip, parsnip. Once they are dried they get whizzed in the processor and they will be ready to put in a jar and store, you can add salt and pepper or even chilli flakes if you want, just go for it and experiment. All of these things can also be dried separated of course, you would be surprised how handy a jar of celery or onion powder is and I will be making mushroom powder again this year as a flavour enhancer. The dried herb world is my oyster 😁
Drying herbs, a word of caution, make a note of what is on which tray, once dried they can all just look like dried green stuff 😜
Made some rhubarb and orange jam in the afternoon, the rain showers just keep appearing and it’s a tad cold out there, ridiculous for the end of May.
We lit the Rayburn again the other day when it rained all day long but I can’t ever remember having it going this late in the year before. We are at the stage when, if I light it the house gets way to hot but without it the house is a tad cold and feels damp in this weather. We do have the radiators in four rooms now but I don’t really want to be turning them on 😂 they are set low at around 16/17c so if it gets too cold they kick in but at this time of year, seriously 😐
It was my one of my brother in laws birthdays today so we went round saw a few other family members and had the best laughs, so good to be able to get back to some kind of normal and enjoy ourselves again.
Tuesday: I started prepping for this mornings main activity yesterday afternoon. Out of the freezer I got a lamb shank, two packs of chicken thighs, minced beef and a lump which I thought was stewing beef and luckily it was. Overnight I cooked the lamb shank in the slow cooker while everything else defrosted and so this morning I have been batch cooking. I fried off a large pan of onions, garlic and celery first and then got organised with various dinners a ready for the freezer. I am waiting for some to finish and one lot will be in the slow cooker again today but so far I have four shepherds pies, three lamb and sweet potato curries, three chicken casseroles and two chicken in lemon and garlic plus probably four or five portions of slow cooked beef stew as well as a lamb casserole for Johns dinner tonight. 18 meals all cooked and ready to freeze which will save me a lot of time over the summer months, I have used up bits from the freezer such as turnip, swede and spinach as well as pulled a few leeks from the garden and I have used some of my freshly dried herbs, I could have used fresh but I wanted to try them out. It will save cooking time and it will mean that I have something I like as well, normally I just cook and eat what John likes to save time. I realised while I was cooking that I am going to need a lidded casserole pan suitable for the hob, this will be useful because it means I don’t have to turn the whole oven on just to do Johns dinner, it can be done on the hob which is more energy efficient. I am aiming for efficiency, not because I have to but because I want to for the sake of the planet and our bank balance 😜 I use the foil dishes with the cardboard lids but I also have small plastic containers with lids, it’s a toss up really over which is better for the planet. The plastic ones can be used over and over again but they are plastic and they can get fragile in the freezer. The foil and cardboard ones are one use and so less cost effective but recyclable and in that respect better for the planet. I haven’t really come across a complete answer yet, obviously the best thing would be not use freeze anything and use everything fresh but that is a tall order in today’s busy life. Once I have used up the freezer contents in one freezer the plan is just to have a single freezer. Until now we have run two large chest freezers but we no longer have the need, we don’t rear our own meat much any more and I plan on being able to store anything I can in the store room that is yet to be built. Mostly for me this is an exercise in ‘let’s see what is possible’ let’s see how much I can preserve/store without the aid of electric and always in the back of my mind is the rest of that sentence ‘because one day we might need to’ 🤔 Never say it will never happen, this last year should have taught us that much at least.
Yesterday was the first day of the Hazel, trees have important roles in ‘lore’ of all kinds, country, Norse, Celtic, pagan, Druid to name a few. The Hazel is no exception, it is a sacred tree, divining rods are often made of hazel, it is a tree of protection from all manner of things, a tree that is a gateway to spring and the bounty it’s brings with it including birth, plenty of catkins, plenty of prams was a well known country saying until a few decades ago 😁
Popped over to see Charlie and Macca in the evening and when we got back at 9pm the first thing we heard when we got out of the car was a fox calling. John said he heard it last night as well so good job we came home well before dark and shut the hens in.
Wednesday: The sun made an early appearance this morning, 4.50 I woke up thinking it must be later and the daylight was already streaming in through the curtains. Although the sun continued to make itself seen there was a lot of cloud as well which lowered the temperature at times. After doing the eggs, dogs, cats, milk bottles, breakfast, shower, stretching exercises, I went straight out to get something done in the garden. To be honest it’s overwhelming, it’s like a jungle out there and I really had no idea where to start, but start I needed to so I picked watering the tunnels first. Then I went onto covering a large bit of weedy soil that is behind the big tunnel, I have used weed membrane and pegged it down. This will kill off the weeds and keep them controlled until I get round to planting it up. Then onto weeding the beetroot and swede rows, actually I ended up just pulling off the tops as there are so many, I am really trying to just slow them down until I have time to get on there for a good hour or more. Sam arrived with the twins mid morning, she has no electric today due to some work in the village and it’s not much fun without electric all day and two toddlers. Shelley came over with Florence after lunch and we all went for a walk along the local lane. George was fascinated by a spider he found on the ground and trying to jump in puddles, Lucy and Florence were happy running along picking flowers (dandelions) and looking at the horses and sheep. I know there is a whole gender neutral movement but the difference is something that is within some children quite naturally and that shouldn’t be neutralised for the sake of over thinking or over compensation which is what happens in some society circles today in my opinion 🙄 They can be whatever they want to be but let them be what they want not what society thinks they should want. I am quite glad I never grew up with all the pressures that the media (in all forms) force upon today’s parents, I am glad that rightly or wrongly, I knew my own mind and I wasn’t reduced to a gibbering wreck when trying to make parental decisions, even if I say so myself my girls turned out to be amazing adults so I must have done something right 🥰
I did a bit of weeding before dinner, the peas needed doing (as does everything else really) and then after dinner I walked over the lawn and decided it was dry enough to cut. No mow May was almost achieved but really the lawn has got way too long and besides we are only a few days off 😜 I cut half of it and John cut the other half, Sod’s law the sun came out full on and we were sweating buckets trying to mow foot tall grass! The weather as always is unreliably British, half the day I felt cold especially when the sun went behind the clouds, the second half I was boiling trying to work in the evening sun 🌞 Not complaining though it’s nice to see it and we are getting more as the week goes on, but then……..there is another cold front plunging in from Scandinavia according to the long range forecast, goodness knows what weather June is going to bring us and I still haven’t got some of the veg planted up yet.
Thursday: Oh what a lovely morning, wall to wall blue skies first thing and warm sunshine 🌞 John had a couple of hours work to do after he had done the birds and I went almost straight out into the garden. First off I have covered some more bare soil with weed membrane, I intend to plant the sweetcorn there but until I do I don’t want hundreds of weeds popping up all over the place. I watered the plants in the greenhouse hopefully they will get some warmth today and shoot up a bit more, it mostly peppers, chillies and aubergine left in there apart from some smaller squash plants that are just coming on. Then I opened a package that had arrived about four weeks ago and I hadn’t had chance to use it but oh my it’s a game changer for me. I don’t know why I didn’t buy one years ago, it’s a UV pop up gazebo and today I have spent 3 hours on my hands and knees weeding in the sunshine and get this bit, in a short sleeve t-shirt which is unheard of! I had the best three hours lol, the only problem with it is that I can’t easily move it to a new area by myself, today John was around but in future I will need to plan a lot better to maximise the use I can get out of it.
I spent the three hours weeding the asparagus bed which is also interplanted with strawberries, three rhubarb plants grown at the end of the bed and the herb area is at the top. The weeds are insane , the constant rain didn’t slow their growth at all so it was good to be able to get down and really clear them out. The strawberries that grow there probably won’t get harvested, I have other beds in the fruit cage that shouldn’t get eaten but these are out in the open and it won’t take the blackbirds long to figure out they are there. At least I can see where the asparagus is growing now I have thinned it all out a bit, it was like looking for needles in a haystack before.
At 2pm we had a delivery of POL hens, most of these are our own new stock but there are 20 that have been pre ordered by customers. John dealt with the unloading of those and the feed delivery and around 2.30 I came in to get some lunch. We have the twins today while Mia goes to her swimming lesson and I have a massage booked early evening so I needed to eat before chaos ensues 😂
The twins came, we played a little bit and then it was ‘unch unch’ after that we went outside to feed the torts and play in the sunshine. Sam dropped me off for my massage on their way back home.
Friday: Dull today, no sun, but the temperature is just fine 😁 I stripped the bed and put that onto wash, went out an freshened up the roadside egg board and then into the garden where I have spent the rest of the morning. Finally getting somewhere with the veg planting, I have sown all the sweetcorn, I kept a few back in case of losses. They have been sown in a block because they are wind pollinated and I have cut into the weed membrane to plant them as this bed is tricky, very heavy clay and very weedy. I am doing all I can to minimise the weeding and enable me to concentrate on the growing and harvesting when the time comes. I covered them in environmesh because animals and birds like to eat young corn greenery 🙄 After that I had a search to find something for a hack I had seen on you tube, this again is a game changer for me. The plastic weed membrane is awful, but I already have it so don’t want to waste it, when the wind gets under it shredding occurs, I have pegged it down with the raw ends tucked under so this doesn’t happen and then implemented my hack for planting. You use a weed wand or similar burner, find a metal circle though you can use a wooden template, I used a cylinder spanner, the diameter is about 6” then place it on the membrane and use the burner to burn a hole. This is hugely effective because the heat seals the edges of the circle so no shredding 😁 and a lovely little circle to dig and plant into, the membrane stays in place to keep the weeds down and again it’s hugely time saving. I have planted dwarf French beans the other end of the sweetcorn bed and butter nut squash and spaghetti squash behind the big tunnel. I also planted banana squash with the French beans as they can ramble on the ground through the beans and sweetcorn, also a couple planted near the runner beans, making full use of all the space available. I planted some courgettes near the rhubarb bed and I still have more of those to go in as well as more dwarf French beans but they are not big enough yet. So as it stands I have most things planted, I just need to get the hundreds of pumpkin and other squash plants in the ménage and the remaining courgettes in the garden once they are big enough to transplant. Feet hurt now so time for lunch.
John came home just as I was hoovering mid afternoon, at least I wasn’t sat down 😉 he was waiting for a floor to go down before going back to he job to put the toilet in, we had a cuppa and then Shelley and Flo came, they were going to help in the garden but it had started spitting with rain by then. John went back off to work, Shelley went to collect Josh from school and I went outside to water the small tunnel and then did a bit of weeding. I came in and re made the bed before going out to do the egg collecting as John will be late back. It has tried to rain on and off but not really amounted to much at all.
There is talk about June 21st and if the full reopen will go ahead or not 🙄 the Indian variant is transmitting at a rate of knots but the vaccine programme is also romping along its a race between the two at the minute. Mostly it feels as though everything is pretty much getting back to normal, it would be hard if we had to go back a step now, I have booked a couple of days out and a hair cut plus we have a holiday booked along with most of the rest of the country. We are looking forward to being able to see people on their birthdays and maybe a couple of bbqs, fingers crossed we keep going forward.
I went out and did the egg collecting and afternoon feeding rounds, then I went back and cleaned out the guinea pigs and the quail, I also cleaned out all the water buckets in the orchard pen. I need to get that lot all sorted out, we have a hen and a cockerel living with Ted, a cockerel and four hens living together then a single cockerel living out in the paddock with the flock. Two of the cockerels need to go so that I can let the others back out, at the minute they fight like billio if they get near one another 🙄 And Ted is not happy living with them, I had found him some ladies but the chap had a problem with his phone on the day we were due to meet him and collect and so far I haven’t heard anymore from him.
Saturday: Overcast this morning with spitting rain but nothing much. John did the animals and then got ready to go out for the morning with Macca to get suits for the wedding 😁 I told him not to fall over at the price 🤣 been a long time since he bought a suit! That leaves me here to potter about which is what I have been doing in the garden, I bit of tidying up rubbish and broken bits, putting the squash plants in the trolley to take to the ménage and moving over plants outside to the cold frame. It was not until I started moving the squash that I realised how many I have 😜 if they all grow there will be a squash mountain here, banana, spaghetti, butternut, pumpkin, crown Prince, de musque, and some cute little ones that I can’t remember the name of. I have hedged my bets when putting them in the ménage because I can see something has been digging. If it’s fox looking for worms then that’s not too bad but if it’s rabbits then that’s a different story, the larger plants I have just sunk the pots into the ground, I figure that way they don’t get a growth check, the roots will still continue to find there way out of the pot and into the ground and they may not get damaged. The smaller plants I have planted properly, we will see what the difference is when they start growing, they all had a good feed and water beforehand. I hope it works well, if it does I may think about using that space again to grow things, the weeds are still there in force and I thought that I could get a couple of Pygmy goats to put in there next year and they would do well at eating it all or pigs but they would do a lot more rootling around which may be detrimental, I will ponder on that one. The plants I have now been able to move outside are garden plants I have grown from seed, I have some lupin, rudbeckia and a yellow daisy that seeds everywhere, I did have it labelled at achellia but I realise it is not that even thought the leaves are very similar.
Yesterday on social media someone was giving away some padron peppers they had received in a veg box but didn’t want, I said if no one else wanted them I would love them, in return I offered a jar of rhubarb and orange jam which was gratefully accepted. When the lady turned up with the peppers today she also bought an aubergine and a butternut squash that she didn’t want either so I did well with that swap. I just need to decide what I am going to make with them now 😁
Growing your own gives you the best ingredients for your meals and they don’t have to be complicated affairs. This lunchtime I popped out to the tunnels and picked some baby spinach, some pea tops, lettuce, dill and coriander, chopped it all up and added chopped baby tomatoes, grapes and blueberries, and a thinly sliced baby bel cheese, no dressing needed (I am not keen on dressing anyway) because it was packed with flavour, fresh, flavoursome, healthy what could be better than that 😁
Popped round to Mums for a cuppa this afternoon and did the birds when we got back. On Saturday evenings we have fish and chips with my Sister and Brother in Law, today it was nice enough to sit outside. We had finished eating and were sat chatting when Shane looked across the paddock and said bloody heck (or words to that effect 😜) a fox has just grabbed a chicken. John got up and ran across with the dogs but he was long gone with his supper, we settled back down and then could hear the fox calling out the back. John got up and ran off in that direction and a large dark fox went running down the paddock and into the next field. When John was putting them to bed he noticed that about 4/5 hens have been had, feathers in the paddocks in various places. That all took place around 7pm, two hours before the hens go to bed and he kept coming back.
Sunday: Lovely sunshine first thing this morning then it disappeared behind thick cloud and hasn’t come back as yet and it’s 11am. We got sorted and then went to get a bit of food shopping first thing, Sam and Luke are coming over tomorrow, Luke is going to help John get a few things done and we will have a big picnic 😁
I was thinking of going out somewhere nice today but the foxes have scuppered that idea, we can’t go out for a few hours and leave the hens unsupervised, we wouldn’t have any left when we got back probably. That’s the problem with a free range flock and predators, we are kind of tied to the place daily. We may start to think about winding down the egg sales altogether over the next couple of years, things have definitely slowed right down here anyway. We may keep a lot less birds that can be penned to keep them safe if we want to go out for the day 🙄
A friend told me it’s national hedge week this week, hedges are hugely important to our insects, birds and wildlife, they provide much, much more than people realise. They are an ecosystem in their own right especially hedges of a decent age, they provide shelter, protection, food, soil stability, flood control, wildlife homes for pollinators, pest predators, pests themselves (valuable food sources) they keep livestock in or out and are of course a carbon sink. When humans want to rip out hedges they are only thinking of themselves and not what else shares this world with them. Most of it is because they don’t understand fully the detrimental effect it will have on the wildlife, usually the wildlife they have moved to the country to see, I find it ironic that people rip out hedges to get a better view of the surrounding countryside, um, that is part of the countryside 😂 The times people have said to us ‘you should take that hedge out so you have a better view’ of what? fields without hedges 🤷♀️ I would rather build a platform to get up higher. Replacing hedges with garden centre plants that are not even native does nothing at all to help, it’s like sticking a plaster over a hole in the side of a ship. Thank goodness there are folk out there who are rewilding though I doubt they can keep up with the ones that are destroying, it needs a whole mindset change, education is key, understand how your actions impact your environment. I talked about managed hedges as well, anything that is managed is purely for human benefit and control. Though managed hedges look good (to the human eye) are they really beneficial? A hedge if left will grow, get old, break down and regrow, it’s a cycle that we no longer allow, we feel that we are doing the best thing for the hedge keeping it tamed and in ‘good condition’ but there is more to the cycle. The deadwood is vital to ground dwelling insects, which in turn are vital to airborne insects and birds and guess what the hedge will regrow by itself if left. We have a classic example down on the far side of the bottom paddock, once there was a stone wall, I guess the hedge wasn’t there when it was erected by farm hands many many years ago. A hedge has grown up over the years (by itself mostly) and now it has got old and is dying, there is a lot of dead wood and the wall is falling down. Trying to get John, or any bloke (sorry for the sexist remark but this is my experience) for that matter, that stands and talks about it, to see beyond clearing it right out completely and starting again is like pushing a stubborn elephant uphill! Why, why would you want to clear out an established multifunctional wildlife habitat that is thriving, there are companies that charge a small fortune to replicate that 😂 I stand there and point out the obvious, the hedge is regrowing from the ground by itself why scrub all that out and start again, better to leave a tumbling down wall, dead wood and let the hedge sprout up naturally surely, it’s not rocket science is it 😜 But no, humans seems to need to ‘tidy’ everything back to a clean area and then fill it up again with something no where near as useful 😬 Put it this way if the human race disappeared tomorrow completely the wildlife would carry on and thrive without us ‘managing’ everything in fact it would probably be much much better off, sad but true.
How weird is this after I wrote about thinking along the lines of winding down the chickens John came home from getting fuel and said ‘I think we might start winding down the chickens and egg sales’ lol, seriously. Now we are other completely in tune with each other after so many years together or, which is more likely, we are both astute enough to see the situation as it is. At times over the years we have been so rushed off our feet with all that comes with egg sales that we haven’t had time to stop but lately it has completely slowed right down, I am pushing them but the response is not there. There are two reasons I think for this, one, we sold a lot of chickens during the lockdown last year, some of these were egg customers though not all that many, two, the farm shop next door has taken off really well and they are also selling eggs. If someone is going to call in to get bacon for their breakfast they might as well get eggs while they are there, they sell a lot of other things too and again you may as well pick up eggs while you are at it. This will be sad for our loyalist of customers and we do have some very loyal ones but we can’t keep going at something that is not making any money much as we might enjoy it. It will free up our time hugely, the time spent looking after the birds isn’t even in the ‘profit’ entry because I am here anyway but if it was we would have been running at a loss for years 😂 It was never our intention to sell eggs we just kind of fell into it, have enjoyed it but the time has come to start thinking about giving it up. We have just had a new lot of hens delivered and so will be running for at least another year yet, don’t panic, but gradually we will be winding down that side of things.
I am not sure yet where that will leave my blogging, it probably won’t affect it, I will still keep blurbing after all it’s more of a life diary than anything. It is a way of getting things out of my head when necessary (see hedges above 😂) It’s a written record of day to day life in rural Oxfordshire, not very exciting but it is a snapshot of real life.
Late afternoon early evening we were down in the big paddock taking out a fence, this is one of two cross fences being replaced, it also meant we were down where the foxes (there were two different ones) were seen last night. Once we had finished that we had to stay on patrol for the rest of the evening, taking it in turns to come inside and get something to eat before swapping back over, John is still out there now. No sign of anything today but they are known as cunning for a reason, they will be watching and the minute you are not that’s when they strike 🤪
Enjoy the bank holiday, hopefully the sun will shine, if it does you will find me eating my picnic in the shade 😂
I thought I would do a quick round up of the photos of produce I took over the 2020 growing season in date order so you can see how the year progressed. I love how vibrant the colours all are and can’t wait to start harvesting again this year. What I really should do is weigh everything to see exactly how much I get, the photos represent probably 1/2 of what I actually harvest so it would be interesting to have an accurate record.
Monday 7th September: We’ll here we are again back round at Monday, the children have either gone back or are going back this week. Seems like life is returning to normal except the daily reports of the virus numbers which in some countries are scarily huge 🙄 Cases are rising here, well they are going to with everyone moving around more freely but the deaths are not as staggering as they once were, though that’s not much consolation if it happens to be your family member 😢 Life hasn’t really altered much at all for me in particular, never been one to go shopping or to the pub or do much socialising at all really 😂 life is pretty much as it always was except that now I can see the children, grandchildren and wider family members which is fine by me. I must admit that I was wondering when we could go to a live music event or theatre again but in all honesty I doubt we will be going anywhere before next summer. We have got to make the most of what we do have, it’s the only way to get through this whole episode 🤷♀️
This morning I have been doing a bit of hoovering and polishing and listening to tunes while I do it. My teenage years were the second half of the seventies and I have some music on the iPod from the ‘Jackie’ album so I was listening to some of that. They were good times, the youth club discos would consist of ABBA, Showaddywaddy, The Jackson Five, Paul Nicholas, The Rubettes, Hot Chocolate, Barry White, Status Quo, T. rex, Slade, Suzi Quattro, Lief Garret, Mud, The Osmonds, Bryan Ferry to name a few, a real eclectic mix totally representative of the seventies 😀 We wore platform shoes and Oxford bag trousers, layered skirts and cheesecloth tie up blouses, we used the phone box down the road to call friends or we went round and knocked on the door. We spent weekends staying at mates houses, going home on their school bus instead of our own and we listened to the Top 40 run down on a Sunday night on radio Luxembourg I think it was. Yep they were great times to grow up for sure 😀
I picked some Autumn raspberries, this is the first time I have been able to pick a decent amount and now they will produce this everyday so I shall be freezing some of them. I cut down on the amount of bushes I had by about 2/3 because I couldn’t keep up with picking lol maybe I should have just done a third 🙄 I stewed some cooking apples and made a batch lot of apple and raspberry crumbles for John, for me I froze some batches of stewed apple unsweetened which I can add other fruit to or cinnamon and maybe a sprinkle of truvia until I get used to no sugar at all lol. John has cut out his one sugar in tea and is now a no sugar tea drinker but I can’t quite let go.
Autumn Raspberries
Tuesday: Not a bad weather day, overcast but warm enough for only one layer 😀 Apart from the usual bits and pieces I have been chopping and cooking down tomatoes ready to purée. This will then go into the freezer as a base for soups, slightly different to the passata as it’s just tomatoes. I have begun to stress my tomato plants, I do this every year and all it means is less watering, much less, this then tricks the plant into thinking the season is over and will hopefully ripen what fruit is still on there. You still end up with some green tomatoes but not as many.
Went for a walk with Sam, Shelley, and the grandchildren this afternoon, we walked round the village which was lovely. Plenty of nice looking apples on some of the trees, might have to go and raid some, the ones on the roadside of course, my scrumping days are long gone 😂 In a village I lived in when I was about 10 there was an orchard over the road from where we lived (now a housing estate 😏) but we would often go over the wall for an apple or two. I am not sure who the land belonged too but they didn’t pick the apples so we helped ourselves lol. It’s funny is t it that people go blackberry picking but you don’t see people picking apples or nuts 🙄
Wednesday: Well it’s happened and the country is back on restrictions, gatherings of people are down from 30 to 6 and no more than two households indoors or outdoors, I think 🤔 Anyone who is surprised by it must have had their head in the sand, the groups that have been gathering in bars, certainly local ones, have been ridiculous and there seems to have been no policing of the rules either by the bar staff or the authorities. Most of the pubs and restaurants I know of have been sticking to the guidelines but the micro pubs and bars have had large gatherings outside on the pavement which is indeed difficult to police, hopefully these new restrictions will stop all that and still allow the pubs and restaurants to continue providing the excellent service that they have been.
Meanwhile I have been doing a few bits this morning, picking some apples I missed on the last look, some courgettes and a couple of pears. Watering the poly tunnels and picking the tomatoes, I have had a good haul of toms this year and there are still plenty on there, I just hope we get the weather to keep them going and ripen them, especially the indigo ones which are always slow to ripen I find. I watered all the plants in the new bed out the front and the ones in pots and tided up the front a bit as we are expecting the wood delivery today for the cladding.
I picked a few blackberries this afternoon from the hedgerow lining the back paddocks, there are more but I’m pretty sure the horses will start mugging me for them if I go into their paddock. Then wood delivery arrived and I called John to let him know as he was coming home early to do some of the work. That’s when we found out that our phone number (new one) comes up on the receiving phone under the old owner which was a business in Carterton under the name of fitfigures! Great so when I phone out if someone has caller ID they may not answer it, bloody unbelievable that this saga continues. On the funny side John quickly quipped ‘I’ll know it’s you darling’ 😂
I had a small accident, John was on the house phone in the kitchen calling the wood yard as the delivery was short, I was in the kitchen and going into the boot room. You make a very fleeting assessment of the path you are going to take without even realising it and that’s what I did, the pathway was clear and I walked toward the boot room door, at the same time John got up from the chair with the phone still in his hand up by his ear, finished the call, turned round, went to put his hand down and bang it caught me on the corner of my left eye, worse I had my glasses on which seemed to clout the corner of my eyebrow. It all happened in a split second. How the glasses hit the eyebrow I don’t know as I have tried to manoeuvre the glasses to see but they are rigid so it must have been a heck of a clout, I ended up on the floor as the stop was so abrupt and I reckon I will have a black eye tomorrow 👀
Oh a had a wander and looked at the bees in the tree, loads of bees going in and out so they are definitely thriving, no sign of honey oozing out yet though 😂
I made dinner, John worked on the front of the building, after dinner he carried on doing some more. Meanwhile I fed the dogs, why is this relevant I hear you ask, well John has been doing it but I kept telling him he was over feeding them. Every time I looked at their bowl it was FULL of biscuits, we feed them a decent dog feed which I researched thoroughly and they only need a third of what he was putting in there. Naturally being dogs they were eating it all but I could see that Mia in particular was putting on weight. Despite being asked (told) he still kept over feeding and so now I am in charge of doing it 😜
My eye hurts, I have a small, hurts to touch, lump on the eyebrow 🙄
Diesel still hasn’t appeared that’s a week now, not having much luck with cats at the moment. He has been here ten years mind you and been more and more absent lately so either found himself somewhere better or met his demise 😏
Thursday: A lovely morning, warm but mainly overcast, I had already decided as I was falling asleep last night that I would get out and tidy up the fruit cage. One of the support wires had snapped and there were quite a few weeds that needed pulling. So that’s exactly what I did, a very pleasant couple of hours of weeding here and there as well as the fruit cage. Then I watered some things because the ground is very dry again, luckily there is plenty of rain water in the storage tanks at the minute. I picked a few ears of corn, might have to have one for lunch 😀 I am going to try the microwave method, you leave the corn in the husk (un shucked is the term) and microwave it and apparently the husk is then easier to remove, we will see 🙄
The corn was delicious and very easy to do in the microwave, I was impressed with the ease in which the husk came off and the tenderness of the corn, winner 😀
Lunch, freshly picked corn on the cob, hard boiled egg with mayo and home grown salad 🥰 life is good 😀
My eye didn’t blacken thank goodness and it is less tender today but still a lump there and a little bit sore.
I did a walk around the perimeter of the paddocks just for a bit of exercise and picked up some walnuts. I can tell the squirrel is fearing on them already this year because there are peelings and bits of shell all under the tree, occasionally he must drop one that he has peeled and that’s a bonus for me as it means I don’t have to do that one 😂 Hulling walnuts is my least favourite job, there is no easy way to do it and I have tried multiple methods over the years. The main thing is to wear gloves otherwise you have brown fingers for weeks afterwards. As with the hazels this year, I am not planning on gathering all of them, just enough to keep me going, we have them growing so might as well use them in cakes etc.
Shelley and the children called late afternoon and we went up to the back paddock and picked a good haul of blackberries 😀
Friday 11th Sept: I put the date in today because of course it’s a day that we can never forget. Long before we bought the smallholding a terrible day unfolded in the USA and the whole world watched the events as they happened, not something I will forget in a hurry, I remember exactly where I was sat and how the room looked as I watched the news reports of the Twin Towers being attacked and the horror as I watched live when the towers began to fall 😢 RIP
I started the morning with that Friday feeling 🥰 and got on with some picking, cucumbers, sweetcorn, runner beans, beetroot, hazel nuts and walnuts today. You can tell what time of year it is without a calendar by the shift in what you are gathering in, early Autumn is a time I love.
I have a couple of marrow and I decided to make a marrow cake, they are the same as a courgette just bigger. I sort of followed a recipe, this is a healthier version of what I found, it’s still in the oven so hopefully will taste just as good as a version with fat and sugar in it.
Marrow cake: 300g Marrow, grated 2 eggs 150g whole wheat flour, 150g SR flour 100g coconut oil (melted if you are in a colder climate 😂) 1tsp baking powder, 1tsp cinnamon 1tsp vanilla extract 3tbls Maple syrup (or to taste) put it all in a bowl and mix thoroughly, bake at around 160c for approx 40mins or until you get a clean knife. I figured it would be about 12 slices from a loaf tin and so each slice is around 200 calories a slice which is not bad when you ‘NEED CAKE’ 😜 You could add nuts or chocolate chips or even add cocoa powder if you want a chocolate version but obviously that increases the calories. I think I will mix up a little icing sugar and lemon or lime juice to drizzle on top as an extra treat.
Saturday: Busy day today, we started off with the usual rounds and I did a few bits while John started on the second half of the front of the building. He pulled off the cladding and horror, the main timbers at the bottom were rotten through and through, I mean crumbling rotten and some of the timber that goes going under the building 😏 He kept saying ‘oh dear this doesn’t look good’ no shit Sherlock, I was starting to panic a little and to be honest felt like crying. I came indoors and had a word with myself then went back out, ‘right then, instead of being negative how about we look at it properly and see exactly what is what and then decide what we will do about it’. So John went underneath the building as there was space (just about) for him to get under and assess the situation fully. Turns out that only the first couple of foot of the timbers were gone and the rest was fine which meant we had something solid to attach new timbers to 😅 thank goodness for that. Martin arrived to help and as Shelley was working I looked after Florence and Josh while they got on with some work. Me and the kiddies went and picked raspberries, had a good look at the pumpkin patch, I think they were impressed with my efforts, which is good because that’s who I grow them for 🙄 we fed the guineas and the torts, went for a walk in the paddock to look at the bees nest, picked some walnuts, had some snacks and some chit chat and then it was time for them to go home. Martin came back in the afternoon and carried on helping John and now we have half the building sorted and the first layer of ply has gone on. John and I couldn’t decide (agree) on the colour to stain the cladding when it’s finished I wanted a brown shade, John wanted grey which I wasn’t keen on. He bought home a tin of the grey anyway (to my disgust 😂) but actually now he has done a sample I quite like it and think it will look great. There is a first time for everything and John was right, which is a first 😝
You can just see Johns foot as he scrabbles about underneath to assess the extent of the rotten timbers 😱
Sunday: Lovely sunny day, John did the animals and then got on with the front of the house. Luckily the rest of the timbers are not as bad as that lot yesterday and so he was able to get on well. I did some watering in the greenhouse and tunnels and then decided to clear one side of the small tunnel. There were a couple of tomato plants that have all but gone over a sorry looking parsley and a large cape gooseberry in the bed. I had decided previously to take out the gooseberry as it’s got too being, I don’t get many from it and it casts a lot of shade. Once cleared I had to top up the beds with some fresh compost and then I sowed some forcing carrots, I have no idea if I will get any but it doesn’t cost much to give it a go so I have nothing to lose. They are Amsterdam forcing carrots, quick maturing and so I might be lucky enough to get some for Christmas.
One filled the other waiting to be filled then sown with carrots for a Christmas crop hopefully. There is parsley growing right in the middle too lol.
It’s twilight and I went out to collect a delivery that just arrived, I can hear an owl in the hedgerow between us and the next field, twit twoo 🦉🥰
Monday again! 27th April 2020, not a year we will forget in a hurry, a worldwide pandemic that has had massive impact on the way we live. There have been negatives but I’m hoping there will be some real positives that will change the way we do things both for the benefit of the environment and for our metal wellbeing. Time will tell but one thing is for sure we are living through one of the biggest historical events that will be written and learnt about for centuries to come.
Meanwhile I have been busy this morning doing a bit in the greenhouse, there are always plants to water and move round so they get a fair share of the sun, I potted on the peppers, they will continue to grow in the greenhouse as they did so well in there last year. I did a bit of hoeing to keep the weeds down on beds that are waiting for plants to go in and mulled over where things will get planted, I think I have a good idea of where everything will be going now. The sweet corn will be planted and underneath them will go pumpkin and butternut squash, they grow entirely differently, the sweet corn straight up and the squash will sprawl so double up the use of space. The same applies to melon and cucumber in the poly tunnel, the cucumbers are happy trailing along the ground, the melons like to climb so they will be planted together, the trailing plants will shut out the light and prevent weeds, another bonus. John has done a sterling job of clearing and cleaning out the back area which had yet again become a dumping ground, at least we have a space to dump everything I suppose but a lot of it is again stuff that we have collected and never used so it’s gone in the skip.
I feel like I’m just marking time, anyone else? I am trying to read articles I wouldn’t normally get the time to do and I really need to get back into listening to some podcasts, I think that would be a good idea. We are forecast a few days of rain so maybe that will be the time to chill a little.
Tuesday: Today is Dads funeral but before that we have the usual jobs to do and today because it is raining and likely to rain all day I am getting the horses in. Two reasons, one it’s not nice standing all day in the pouring rain and two the rain will make the grass ‘flush’ this is not good for them as the sugar content in the grass will go up and this could cause laminitis. If the horses were in work this would not be such a problem but because they are not using up that energy it would cause issues. I had a few other jobs to keep me busy, paying the end of month suppliers bills, John went to the chemist to pick up my prescription and then it was time for the off.
The funeral was a simple affair and I did reflect that Dad would have loved it, a few songs that were right up his street and a short eulogy and prayers, then we had a whisky toast at the grave side and said our goodbyes, we shared a few memories in the churchyard after the event and then it was time to come home. What is sad is that we could not have that all important wake after, a time to chat and remember with family and friends, many of whom lined the route but when the time is right we will have that get together as I suspect will may families around the country.
It has been raining all morning and when we got back we lit the fire and took the rest of the day off, well until feeding time later that is.
John did the feeding and egg collecting and I sorted them out ready to box up. The eggs sales are steady now, not manic like before thank goodness.
I had a lovely FaceTime session with all my brothers and sisters but mainly spent time just relaxing until it was time to go and and top the horses up with hay while John put all the birds to bed. Then I did something I never do and that is come back in and get into my PJs, normally I wouldn’t do this as you never know what will occur after dark but today I am making an exception and besides it will save time later when I can fall into bed and hopefully get a good nights sleep as last nights was a bit restless.
Wednesday: Raining again, good for the garden, that’s what I have to remind myself although it’s a tad chilly with it after the hot days we have had recently. This morning I turned Jack back out into the paddocks but at the moment Biscuit is still in and we will be making her a pen so that she does not gorge on grass once it starts growing. I then fed the rabbits/Guineas, turkey, light Sussex and quail and I was supposed to let the geese out but forgot and only realised after we returned from getting my bloods done, ooops schoolboy error. I did a bit more seed sowing in the greenhouse, some strips of peas, sweet corn and dwarf beans these will be for putting out for sale when they come through. I potted on some cherry tomato plants that Shelley had grown as well. Then it was time to go and have my blood test and on the way back pick up a few essential items from the shop. We probably won’t do much more than the usual today we have got into the habit of watching the lunchtime news and then the afternoon easy watching programmes 🤣🤣
This morning I noticed feathers under the hen coop and said to John that a hen must have been out over night and the fox had got it, when he went to clean them out later he discovered that actually the fox had chewed the legs off of a hen that was inside the coop. There are slats which let the poop fall through and onto the ground and normally the hens roost up on poles but this one obviously sat on the floor of the coop and that is what can happen. The mains electric was on but we need to watch out as this could be a problem fox.
I turned Biscuit out to be with Jack overnight and tomorrow Sam is coming to set up a strip for her to graze in.
Thursday: I had a bad night again last night and I just can’t figure it out at all, it starts off with me feeling the cold which turns to shivering and I can’t get warm all night, I get up in the night and take ibrufen and then I’m sweating. The doctor called with the results of the blood test and my platelets are still low, they have come up ever so slightly but nowhere near enough so I’m still off the methotrexate and still on the steroids bit a lower dose. I did say to her that it’s not like a normal flare up and that’s the difficulty of this disease it doesn’t really follow patterns, it’s different for everyone and even for the same person the flare ups can be different and random.
Sam was here bright and early and used the stakes and tape to set up an area that Biscuit will have to stay in for most of the summer now, she has a field shelter and some trees for shade and we can get in and out of the gateway without having to go through any other paddocks which is useful. If you have ever had a pony or horse you will know that they are on the whole not very respectful of fences 😂 but Biscuit is a real sweetheart and when Jack breaks out she will just stand there knowing she shouldn’t be following so I don’t envisage too many problems there.
It’s mid afternoon and it’s been peeing down all day, I have been inside cleaning the kitchen and doing a bit of baking and John has been in the stable block giving that a tidy up. I had some melon plants arrive which I had totally forgotten that I had ordered way back at the beginning of the year.
Friday: Mayday 😀 the beginning of a new month, a month of plenty to do and this morning I have been planting tomatoes and melons in the big tunnel, I did a bit of weeding in there and then a bit of watering, the strawberries that I put in last year are doing really well with plenty of fruit setting on them, I will look forward to eating those. With the rain comes plenty of weeds bit I can’t hoe until the ground is dry again and it’s supposed to be dry and warm again next week.
Meanwhile we caught the fox and had that dealt with and John has been edging the last bit of the lawn that needed doing (for about 5 years 😂) Then it hammered down, hopefully it will blow over and we will have a nice afternoon, fingers crossed🙄
Sunday: No idea what we did yesterday but it was probably similar to every day! Today has been pretty productive, we have cut a few areas of grass before it gets too long including the front paddock. We also spent a good couple of hours digging out patches of nettles that have sprung up in the front paddock, I don’t mind nettles but not when they begin to invade the middle areas, the edges they can stay as long as they don’t encroach too far. Nettles are probably one of the most beneficial plants you can find both for humans and wildlife, they support a huge range of insects and are supposedly good for many human ailments including chronic inflammation but as yet I have not tried them and of course you can make string and clothing from them though the process is long and hard going, but if we ever find ourselves in a situation (and never say never 🙄) nettles are the one thing you do want growing 😀
We have done plenty of other jobs inbetween, some hoeing/weeding, sorting out more plants lol, I have also weeded an area in the front that is looking scruffy and I have popped a few plants in to brighten it up a bit. It’s in the front compound area and the weeds tend to get a good hold so I have put a few thuggish plants in, if there is an area that is difficult then thuggery is the answer, the shasta Daisy is one such plant, things like periwinkle and lemon balm, borage, calendula, they will all grow no matter what you do to them and hopefully smoother out the weeds plus give a bit of colour against the drab fence. I always wanted this area full of lavender but the dogs we had when we first came trampled everything so I gave up on the idea, the dogs we have now are not so clumsy but still they do manage to tread on stuff and break it so lavender just won’t cut it.
John spent an hour or two metal detecting again and no we can’t retire on his findings, a few bits of twisted metal isn’t going to get us anywhere lol.
I found some duck breast in the freezer this morning so we have had those pan fried with crushed potato, purple sprouting picked fresh from the garden and a red wine gravy, tasty 😋
I am beginning to see and feel the steroids working albeit slowly, I do feel better than I did this time last week so hopefully it will be onwards and upwards, that is always the plan sometimes is jumps track 😜
John has gone back out after dinner to move the chicken fencing in the side paddock so that the hens are on fresh ground. We have another delivery of chickens tomorrow but we will be keeping some of these to add to our laying flock as the demand for eggs has not eased much, it will be good to be able to provide eggs for everyone that wants them.
Gosh, reading back it’s hard to believe that Dads funeral was at the beginning of the week it seems a lot longer ago, time feels like it’s dragging somewhat now but I guess we all have to hang in there and hopefully there will be light at the end of the tunnel. A customer said that her elderly Dad had died of the virus but actually that is the only person I know of, we don’t seem to have been hit too hard here or maybe once we get back out in the wider world we will hear of a few more 🤷♀️
I am sorry about the lack of photos, I keep saying that I know, must try harder Dawn, I can tell you that the fruit is all beginning to form, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples, pears, cherries, there are tiny broad beans on those plants and plenty of foliage on the potatoes, the carrot tops are getting bigger so hopefully underneath is as well and the garlic I planted last Autumn is huge. The root veg seeds I sowed at the beginning of the week are already up (well some of them) so all in all the veg garden is coming along nicely. I did think about planting out the more tender stuff this week coming (sweet corn and squash) but we are due to have a temperature dip next weekend so I will leave it, there is nothing worse than nurturing plants for them to be ravaged by the cold or the wind so I must be patient a little while longer 😀
The topic this week has to be water in its different forms, firstly because we spent a lovely weekend by the sea, courtesy of our daughters for our Pearl wedding anniversary. We went to the Cary Arms in Babbacombe, Devon, a five star boutique hotel and if you ever get the chance or the inclination I would certainly recommend a stay there. The setting is picture perfect, you couldn’t actually get any closer to the beach without being on a boat, the room was large and comfortable, the food was superb, the staff were efficient and friendly and the private terrace overlooking the bay was a treat each morning when I got up early to watch the Sunrise. We took a stroll along the quiet, pebbled beach on the first morning before breakfast and you could have been in the Mediterranean it was that idyllic!
The next batch of water was the rain, we desperately needed it and so (unlike me, I know) I am not going to complain, not about the downpour watering the garden and the fields at any rate. My complaint came when water started pouring through the kitchen ceiling this morning, great we have a leak in the roof, I went over to the stable block and the internal guttering is leaking, great, we have another leak, right outside of Jacks stable making the dirt floor a soggy mess, I turn to go to the bottom of the stable block and I am not sure yet if its another leak or if the guttering was just not coping, either way there is water gushing in and another soggy mess on the floor, the to do list for Hubby is already written!
Apart from the animals and birds all looking a little bit wet, they are much the same as normal, we have some new additions, three little piggies called Alvin, Simon and Theadora, they are Oxford Sandy and Blacks, a rare, traditional breed, so we were lucky to find them. The main reason for having pigs at this time of year is to use up the windfall apples and gluts of vegetables, they have been greedily tucking in to the fresh produce and when you watch them eat you know why they are called pigs, fighting over a piece of apple or banana is common. At the minute they are in one of the stables, they had not been outside at all since they were born although we will be transferring them to an outside run when Hubby gets to that particular job on his list!
Since I went away on Friday I have not yet had time to look in the veg garden, there is probably plenty of produce waiting to be picked but I was reluctant to get soaking wet doing it this morning, now at least I know I can easily feed the surplus cucumbers to the piglets instead of trying to find recipes for them. I did pick a few bits this morning very quickly, sweetcorn, celery, potatoes and an onion, to make a sweetcorn chowder for a friend who is visiting tomorrow, I hope she likes it. The egg number is slowly increasing from the laying stock but not back up to full production yet. We have been selling plenty of the point of lay hens and wont be buying any more in until Spring now, so whatever is left will go into the laying pen with the others. I don’t think the new ducks have started to lay yet, they will probably all go at once and I will have more than I need, that’s the time to do some batch baking for the freezer.
I have heard that we are in for an invasion of hornets! I hope that particular rumour is untrue, we seem to go through stages of insects, the flies were an absolute pain during the sunny days, always a loud buzzy one flying around and dive bombing you while you were trying to watch the news. Then there are the wasps, you need close inspection before picking up a windfall or plum off of the tree, they might have got there before you and give you a nasty surprise, luckily I have not been stung yet, even though each morning when I am picking beans I am surrounded by the Bumble Bees searching for nectar. Spiders, of various hugeness, are now rearing their ugly little heads indoors as the days get cooler, Hubby was waiting for a scream from the general area of the toilet roll holder the other day when a one the size of a football (nearly 😉 decided to roost there, very mean of hubby not to remove it I thought, but I didn’t cry out, I merely gave the spider my best, bugger off back to where you came from stare, and lo and behold he was gone by the morning. After that lot we now have the invasion of the earwig, they are on everything, I just had to eject one from the crawling up the inside of my trouser leg, to be fair, none of them are dangerous unless you are allergic, but I will be glad when it is too cold for them to bother coming out to play.
The Cary Arms, a delightful little bolt-hole by the sea
frieslandfarm (flowers) 