Tag: turkeys

Posted in Friesland Farm

Rain, snow & sunshine all in the same week🙄

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Minor mishaps, more rain & a jobs list 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st October: We are rattling through the year now, always seems slower at this end than the warm end 😜

Weekdays mean I’m on the duty rota for the feeding and letting out of the birds. I do it slightly differently to John and prefer to keep the birds shut in while they eat their feed and go back and let them out after. This is for two reasons, 1, they eat the feed otherwise they are off out to play and the feed is left meaning they are not getting the nutrients they need to be healthy or to lay well, reason 2 is that they are then not all under my feet while I am going from pen to pen, John lets them out as he goes.

When I have finished I look forward to a cup of coffee and I usually sit down and take the time to try and learn something new by reading up a topic that has caught my eye or ear over the weekend. Today though I am having an in depth look at quail, their natural habitat and feeding. Our quail seem a bit unhappy at the minute, they were fine until I introduced new males to the females and now the ladies have stopped laying 🙄 Potentially this is coincidence as the light levels drop and the temps drop but I want to make sure I am not missing anything vital. Having read up I am going to up the amount of seed in various forms and see what happens, I will also pick them up one of their favourite treats of mealworm for extra protein. If that fails to get them laying I may have to bring them in under a lamp as they may just be too cold and using all their energy to keep warm.

I did a trial growing of amaranth, millet and quinoa this year to see how they did, the amaranth was fine and grew well although it didn’t ripen, the un ripe seed will still get used to feed the quail probably, the millet was less successful producing only one stem though I think that has more to do with how I grew it (a trial bed was too small an area and got crowded with the amaranth and tree spinach) the quinoa was totally unsuccessful and nothing grew, again I think a larger area would have been more beneficial. If it taught me anything it’s that the amaranth can indeed be grown in a garden setting while the other two need more agricultural conditions I would say and that’s what trialling is for 🙄

A great spotted woodpecker landed on an oak tree bough outside the kitchen door with a beak full of grubs/caterpillars, I wondered if it had young somewhere nearby which would be completely the wrong time of year, I couldn’t find any information other than they lay eggs March to May so hopefully he was hoarding for himself otherwise any young probably would do well at this time of year. Having said it’s the wrong time of year one of my clematis have also reflowered? This one is an early flowering variety and had already flowered once back in April, further proof, as if we needed it, that the seasons are all over the place 🤔

I did a few hours outside including moving more wood chip 😜 I also moved the torts hut into the greenhouse where they will spend the winter in hibernation, I had to cut a pop hole a bit bigger as Billy was trying to ram himself through it without much luck. I potted up a couple of kiwi that had rooted in the pathway and a Japanese honeysuckle, I cleared some dead stuff and pulled some weeds for the rabbits/guineas.

Sam came over in the afternoon with the twiglets and Mia, we made some gingerbread men although I might find a different recipe next time as this one seemed to have a lot of molasses in it which overpowered the ginger so I guess they were actually molasses men 😂

Oh and I was really surprised to see the garlic I planted only last week has already begun to shoot 😀

Tuesday: It looks promising for a fine, sunny October day today 😀

Every morning when I come in after doing the rounds I make coffee and stand at the stable door in the kitchen for a bit having a look out, and everyday for the past few weeks I have been having a conversation with Cyril 🐿 A one sided conversation obviously 😜 not that far gone yet! ‘Morning Cyril, what are you collecting today’ at this point he either stands stock still hoping I can’t see him or he shoots off up to the top of the oak tree faster than the speed of light lol.

When I first went out this morning I could hear the Lions roaring really loudly today, I got my phone out to try and record it but by the time I had done that they had stopped. It must have been breakfast time for them or something and I thought, crikey if it’s that loud here (approx a mile away) how loud must it be stood right near them 🤔

First major job on the list was to put up electric fencing in the next paddock for the horses to eat off, we did put them in there last week but they bust through into the large paddock so they went back to the side paddock until I could get it sorted. Jack has been charging at me for the last two days so I’m guessing he is hungry. A few minor hiccups, the electric sockets in the stable block still don’t work so had to work out how to get the cable to the other side of the field and still get power. While doing this and feeding the cable along side the paddock, I got to the field gate pulled the cable and the plug end caught the top of the gate, flicked up and smacked me clean on the forehead, 😣 Next plug in the fence charger and make sure it works, yep clicking loudly, move the box so it can be covered from rain and doh second whack from the electric pulse 🤬 have I earned the rest of the day off yet 😜 probably not but I am going to find something pleasant to do 😀

So I spent a good few hours in the garden weeding and clearing, spreading wood chip, the asparagus bed was the main target, it was lovely out there and I have dirty knees to prove I did indeed do a bit 😀

Last year I did chop and drop but I’m not doing that this year lol, I found it was too messy come spring so this year I’m clearing but I have left a pile of asparagus fern choppings where the rhubarb is so that anything that needs a winter home has got one available.

You know when you think 🤔 ah well the day will get better I’m sure, nope, so after my two minor mishaps this morning I had a third (hopefully we are done now) I was doing the feeding and collecting eggs, I stopped to take a photo of the cat, Benny, drinking out of the horse bucket, I thought it would provide a little amusement 😜 I carried on with my rounds and tripped over fresh air, yes fresh air, well there was nothing else around and I hadn’t had any wine it was only four o’clock! That wasn’t the end of the mishap, oh no because if that wasn’t bad enough I put my hand out to stop my face from hitting the dirt and it went straight into the bucket of eggs I had just collected 🤬 and faster than a Kit Kat disappears at a weight loss meeting Benny was in the bucket snacking on broken eggs 😭

My thoughts went like this ‘ffs I’m done today’ ‘I want to cry’ ‘have I broken anything’ ‘nope, better carry on then’ My knee hurts and I have a bit of a headache, hoping that isn’t the head injury this morning 🙄

I am actually going to blame varifocals, I would like a formal inquiry into the correlation of varifocal wearers and minor accidents like mine 😬 I can’t see clearly without them but my spacial awareness is not as accurate as it used to be when I’m wearing them, hence I’m always bumping my head when I have to duck under something, seriously I think there is definitely something in this, either that or my glasses are just crap 🤓

Wednesday: I thought it was going to warm up today but the sun never actually burnt through the mist and by lunchtime I decided I should light the Rayburn. It’s dry though so I am not complaining 😀 Apart from the usual I haven’t actually done much today 🙄 I have done a fair bit of reading up on various topics, cut flowers, autumn gardening jobs and how many sexes there are 😜 a random one that but something came up on my news feed and I just had to look further into it lol, scientists have a blob that is neither a fungus nor a plant/animal and it has 720 sexes, what, how, those questions and more are what I asked myself so I had to find out. I actually didn’t get very far as the explanation was beyond my understanding so I’m leaving that particular topic alone for now lol.

Thursday: It’s 11.45 and it’s raining 🌧 fear not though it has been pretty dry all morning and I have been very busy 😀 After the rounds I went straight out to the veg garden and got stuck into clearing one of the beds. This one is behind the fruit cage next to the brassica cage and I have decided that this is where I will grow flowers, a strange choice maybe as it can’t be seen from the seating areas but there is method in my madness. The beds at the far end are difficult for me to manage, they get the first lot of sun in the morning and then all day until the sun goes down, I very often can’t get out there because it’s too hot and there is no shade. So my plan is to plant perennial flowers on most of it along with some annuals, this will be my cut flower bed 💐 I cleared the bed which had beetroot and fennel still growing in there and then a good few barrows of well rotted manure went on top, I didn’t weed because I then put on a weed membrane and secured it with pegs. By the time I got to the end it was beginning to spit but undeterred I then tackled the other end of the bed, this end I have decided to try a thick layer of wood chip, as I have plenty, and see how that turns out compared to the membrane and manure. It will be a good comparison, it might work better, it might not, only time will tell, the winter weather can now do it’s work and hopefully under the membrane all the insects will be doing their bit as well. Just as I had finished it started to rain heavily so that was good timing. One thing I realised this morning, in fact all this week is that I am only limited by the Lupus, by that I mean I can still do a good mornings hard graft, I was beginning to think I couldn’t and would maybe have to give a lot of it up but no, it seems that if and that’s a BIG IF, if I can keep the disease on an even keel I can do the jobs I want to get done. I have repeat bloods again tomorrow to see if my white cells are going back up before I go back on the meds but I am wondering now if the meds are too much as I keep see sawing on them, might be time to have a conversation with my consultant about the dosage.

This part of the garden by the way is where I was trying out the permaculture and I had my first guild, the comfrey did fantastically every thing else not so, the apple tree eventually died but it had been moved once already because it was failing so I’m guessing it just wasn’t meant to be. Never be afraid to admit when things don’t work out and you have to start over 😏

Friday: By the time I’d finished the morning rounds of feeding watering and letting out it was raining 🌧 hmm I was hoping for a dry day but it’s not to be so I turned my thoughts to chutney. Remember the basket full of green tomatoes that I was hoping would ripen, well they haven’t lol and so chutney making is on the cards. Luckily I had picked a bucket full of apples from the front tree, these are eating apples but they will be fine in a chutney as they are keeper apples and are pretty firm. I surveyed the tree while I was picking and it really needs a good prune and I’m wondering if John and I are up to it or if I get the chap who did the cooking apple last year to come and do it. It’s a case of money expenditure versus strength/energy expenditure, I will see what John says. It needs doing because most of the apples, around 60/70% were tiny and in clumps, a fair few were a double apple so an apple with an extra lump and out of the rest which were all ok there were quite a few with maggot.

Bloods this morning before I can decide what to get on with.

I didn’t get anything else done lol as Shelley and the children came back with me then Sam and the children came over, just as well as it wasn’t a very nice day out, Sam and Mia did the feeding and egg collecting in the afternoon so I didn’t even have to do that 😀

There were a large flock of long tailed tits in the oak tree today, I always say they arrive when the weather is about to get very cold (snow even) so we will see over the next few days if I am right.

Saturday: It was a filthy night last night, rain, wind, orrible, and it’s not any better this morning though not as windy. We did the morning stuff then John went off to get some feed and I sorted some bits in the greenhouse, beetroot and swede I had pulled up when I did the bed ready for winter. It doesn’t look like we will do much outside at all today but that’s fine, we need to get a list sorted of jobs that need doing eventually such as the greenhouse leak and the electric sockets in the stable block. I have messaged the chap about pruning the tree as John decided he didn’t want to do it and we have some beef arriving from a smallholder this afternoon.

I ordered a baby burco so that we can scald these chickens and get them done and in the freezer, I have got to an age where I don’t want to be doing it and I don’t mean because I’m getting too old but I am getting too soft 😏 It’s always been a fine line that you tread when raising your own meat and the older I have got the more I dislike doing the deed but I also am not ready to give up eating meat yet and so the option is meat from the supermarket or from another smallholder. I can easily get lamb and beef, we don’t really eat much pork except bacon and sausage, but chickens are more difficult to get unless you get them from a farm shop and then they are pretty expensive. The expense I have to say is justified as usually they are quite big chickens and you can get three meals out of it and of course they are much more tasty, not pumped full of water and not bleached either so worth the spend but not when you can raise your own.

It turned into an busy couple of hours in the afternoon, John decided to clear the drain that runs across the driveway because the water was not getting away, the rain has not let up at all and now we have the river and lake back in the side paddocks. My nephew and nephew in law arrived with a lorry full of wood for the Rayburn, it has to be cut up yet but it’s old oak from a roof and so it will burn nicely. Then my beef delivery turned up, we ordered from smallholder Emma’s Ewesful Acres ://www.emmasewesfulacres.com/news she does lamb as well but we already have some, I made some rock cakes as a treat and got the Rayburn going, then there was the feeding and eggs to do so rather than sitting down doing a bit of reading like I planned I was busy as a bee 🐝

We have a nice grass fed steak for dinner tonight 😀

Sunday: Clocks went back. A pleasant, sunny morning after a cold night and a frost bit at least no rain 😀 John did the morning rounds while I cleaned out the Rayburn flues and did some hoovering.

Yesterday I made a list of jobs that need doing and this morning we have got on with some of them, disconnect the water pipes from the veg garden before we get a big freeze and a pipe burst ✅ Put the horse box up for sale as we don’t really need it ✅ John has added a few of his own jobs and of course prioritised those 😏 so at the moment only one of the jobs on my list for him has been done 🙄

I am a little bit excited to tell you that I have booked a workshop for myself at a local organic farm and I will be learning about sustainable floristry, I am not planning on going into floristry in a big way lol but I would like to know a bit more about sustainable cut flowers and arranging them so I treated myself 😀

After identifying yet another job that was not on my list I managed to steer John onto one that was 😂 We have a 6ft wide gate by the side of the house that has a smaller 4ft one as well, in the spring the posts rotted away and the small gate post got done but not the bigger one, we don’t open it much anyway but when we do it has to be lifted off the ground so that post needed doing which I have managed to get him working on, he has also loaded up the wood store so he has earned some brownie points today 😬 Meanwhile I have been barrowing wood chip to the paths in the veg garden 🙄 I still have plenty left to do but I have managed to cover a large part of it already.

Sam, Luke, Mia and the twiglets came over and took Biscuit for a walk up the road and Mia had a sit on her back while she was led around the school. Biscuit was exceptionally good once we managed to get her away from the field, I think she thought she would never see Jack again, they have become firm friends.

Light the fire, get the dinner sorted and it’s dark just after 5pm 😏 roll on to the shortest day 🙄

Have a fabulous week everyone 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Lots of rain, passata & baked beans 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 30th Sept: Oh don’t you just love Monday mornings 🙄 I wanted to get on but the gremlins are at it again, half way into feeding the electric trips again 😏 Our electric consists of 4 fuse boxes each one reaching further out into the farm, so the main box is in the kitchen, then we have another in the outer building another in the stable block and then one in the hay barn. This means multiple trips backwards and forwards to discover which fuse is actually causing the problem, I unplug everything and turn everything off and go through a process of elimination backwards and forwards, plugging back in as I go until I am left with the stable fuse box which is knocking out the main box in the house. Eventually I find the individual fuse that is causing the problem so now we have everything working except the sockets in the stable block, everything is unplugged but it’s still not staying on so I’m guessing it’s actually a socket that is the problem but which one 🤪 The problem is that this ring of sockets are the ones out to the electric fencing in the side paddock so I’m hoping the horses and the chickens don’t work it out until we get it sorted 🙄 At least I can make a coffee now 😀

I spent the rest of the morning out in the veg garden, it is supposed to rain later so I’m taking advantage of the dry morning. First some weeding and tidying of the small poly tunnel and then onto some small raised beds, all the weeds went to the rabbits and turkeys who were happy to have some greens. I’m covering beds with weed membrane as I clear them, it will save me a whole heap of time in the spring and I did a couple of beds last year and it worked well, besides if I don’t get round to planting into them they will stay manageable. I squished a few caterpillars in the brassica cage, mainly on the sprouts, John loves them and so I grow 2/3 plants each year for Christmas. Then onto picking a few things, I still have plenty of tomatoes, a few courgettes, some peppers, the odd cucumber, thousands of hazelnuts on the floor 😂 so I’m still gathering in the harvest so to speak. I picked a few raspberries then some blackberries and by this time it’s lunchtime so I made an almond milk, banana, raspberry and blackberry smoothie and had a quick sit down before starting on tidying the house 🙄

The rain came on cue as I was hoovering 😏 so I spent some more time tidying up and sorting out tonight’s dinner, then out to do the afternoon rounds and collect the eggs.

I saw Cyril the squirrel tip toeing across my lawn, I said ‘I can see you Cyril’ at which point he stood stock still lol, then I said ‘it’s ok you can have the rest of the nuts I’m done collecting’ 😜 and he scuttled off towards the walnut tree.

John came home and we deduced that is one of the actual sockets that is causing the electric to trip, we now have to figure out which of the sockets it is and what’s causing it. As they are all inside at a guess something has got inside but that’s the best guess we have at the minute. The electric fencing will have to be plugged in the back here instead of the stable block and it needs doing before the horses realise it’s not on so that is Johns job later as I am going for a massage 😜

The lady and little girl that we got the pony from came over to see how she had settled in, very well so no worries there. We were in the field when a VERY LOW FLYING Chinook came right over where we were standing, you can imagine how the horses reacted not to mention the chickens flying everywhere. That has to be the lowest I have seen one fly and it’s bloody dangerous for both the horses and people when you are in the field and that happens. I sent a complaint via the website e-mail but it was returned as undelivered, typical, I have complained by phone in the past and found it doesn’t make any difference anyhow, so in future if I hear a helicopter I will get out of the field quickly!

Tuesday October 1st 😮 We are trying to get up earlier, we have been getting up around 7.15 which is quite late really. Last night I set the alarm but apparently did not turn it on 🙄 so again today it was around 7.15 before we got up. I like to think it’s the natural body clock and that it’s something we should follow and perhaps if we were both working here we would but John has to be at peoples houses before they go to work so that’s out of the window, for him at any rate 😜 I got the morning rounds done and it was already spitting with rain, by 9am we had a full on downpour and I think it’s set for most of the day so I haven’t made any plans to go back outside until necessary at feeding and egg collecting time later this afternoon. I have plenty I can turn my hand to indoors, some very outstanding paperwork, making some kind of sugar free goodies, checking thoroughly through the cctv to see if I can find out what actually happened to the cat. The more I think about it the less I think he just took off, I think he would have returned by now if that was the case, so I’m left with an accident of some sort or he has been taken, by what or who I don’t know and maybe the cctv can help, but there are nearly 100 hours of footage to look through 😏

I just had a quick look at the forecast, heavy rain right through to 9pm 😮

So rather than wall to wall rain, the sun actually came out ? By that time I was knee deep in paperwork 😏 but on the plus side the farm accounts are up to date, just need to do the plumbing ones but that can wait for another day, my eyes are tired, not used to doing a days paperwork anymore lol.

I felt the need for some stodgy food for dinner so we had a beef slice with homegrown mash potatoes and broccoli and then I made a sugar free pudding, basically I made a fruit sponge pudding with stevia instead of sugar, we had a small amount of ice cream with it and felt very full and satisfied. I know there are many people moving to a plant based diet but I wonder how many of them do a proper physical job, heavy lifting, digging, carrying 20kg sacks, lugging stuff about all day, working outside in the cold, I would bet not many, you really need some excellent fuel when you are doing jobs like that I think. Not one to write something and then carry on regardless, I looked it up, it seems you can do manual labour but supplements are mentioned and careful balancing of the diet is a must.

Wednesday: I had finished the morning rounds and was just finishing my coffee when Mum arrived to do some work 😀 I’m sure she has more than enough work of her own but she comes over to help when she can, love her 😘 Rather than work on the veg garden which is sodden we decided to sort out the plants directly in front of the house. When I put them all out there I had a definite idea of how I wanted it to look, which never really transpired due to one thing or another and now it’s looking, frankly, a muddle at the very least. So we moved pots around and took things out and put other pots in then got some of the weeds out of the gravel until it looked more structured and less cluttered. The sun was shinning so it was a good location to be working in.

John came home for lunch and a cuppa then after he left I cleaned out the rabbit which Josh has named Rosie and she is doing really well he even held her on his lap yesterday 😀 Then I went out and planted a few of the tulip bulbs in the driveway grass area, a bit of cheer for spring, we planted some crocus under the apple tree a month or so ago so it should be nice and cheery in the early part of the year. It’s getting near to (but not quite time for) feeding and so when I go out at this time of day I have stalkers 😋 the pitter patter of tiny hens feet and sometimes they are not even that subtle, launching themselves on a bucket if I happen to have one in my hand no matter what is in it!

By the way it’s a fab day, the sun is shinning and it’s not cold a real boost after the last week of rain.

Thursday: A frost again this morning, that’s two in a row and so the high water content veg will soon be showing signs of going over, the courgettes and outdoor tomatoes especially, the rhubarb leaves which were already wilting will fall off, the leaves on the trees will begin to brown and fall quicker 😔 There is no stopping the march of time into Winter 😜

Cor blimey that is a tad chilly out this morning, I came back in and put my wax jacket on instead of my gillet and even the ends of my fingers were feeling it inside my gloves 🙄 I flicked the electric fire on in the living room to take the chill off the air. John and I discussed lighting the Rayburn but it’s a difficult time of year to get it right, the building does not take much to heat it up so having the Rayburn on would make it too warm in here but without it it’s decidedly chilly in the evenings and early morning especially when it’s a cold night like last night. The temps today are forecast to be up to 13c but that is even through the night which would then be too warm and we would be sweating lol, ideally once the Rayburn is lit it wants to be kept going so it’s game of wait and see how long we can tolerate the chill for. The lucky thing is that the year before John cut enough wood for two winters, this will be the second one so he will have to cut more next Spring, lucky because he hasn’t felt well for a few months and so would never have got it done and we would have had to buy in. The good news is that he is feeling and looking much better, he is getting the hang of a healthier diet and rarely has cake, choc or biscuits and has cut down to around 5 cups of tea a day, anyone who knows him will realise what a big change that has been 😜 But he is much better for it 😀

I am having a coffee contemplating what jobs to do today, topping up bedding straw in some of the sheds/huts is a definite, especially as it’s got colder and wetter, the torts need to be monitored closely now to watch for them closing down towards hibernation. They need clean straw packed into their hut which they will spend more and more time in, when they no longer come out they will be packed away and put in the shed until next spring. There are the tomatoes of course lol, I will probably have a go at the Passata today, the last of the walnuts need cleaning up and drying ready for use and there is plenty I could do on the garden, some self set potatoes that need digging up and always at this time of year clearing of dead or dying stuff ah decisions decisions 🤔

I decided that first off, as I have been talking about it long enough and besides it was still a tad cold out, that I would make the passata. As I was doing it I was still thinking that I would freeze it but I have taken the plunged and put it jars and then in a water bath whoo hoo go me 😜 I will put two jars in the fridge just to be on the safe side but the other I will put in the dark preserves cupboard and leave it a while to see how it stores. I did the traditional Italian method (almost) but I think I would change a couple of things next time, the Italian way is processing the fresh tomato so no blanching to remove the skins as a lot of the flavour is in the skin apparently. I used some overripe toms and some just ripe but I would always use overripe in future as they are much easier, the bigger toms I used had a lot of flesh so they were fine but the smaller ones probably should have been scooped out and the middles put to the side, only small changes but things I think would make it better, the Italians by the way do scoop out but these were cherry toms so a bit fiddly. I kept the pulp pure so no basil or garlic because I may use it for chilli which won’t require basil. Not having a mooli 🙄 I used, firstly a steamer pan and squished them through the bigger holes then a sieve and the back of a wooden spoon to get as much as I could from them, a bit of effort required but not too bad with a small batch. I didn’t weigh the tomatoes but I ended up with three 1lb jars which I felt was a good ratio for the tomatoes I used. The pan has a clean tea towel in the bottom and wrapped round the jars to stop them moving about and as a bonus my tea towel gets a good boiling, win win I say 😀 It smells like a Chinese laundry in the kitchen with the tea towel boiling away, I know the smell because pre children I used to work in one (not a Chinese one but I like the saying) it reminded me of the hot washed sheets as they went through a huge roller machine that would dry and press them at the same time, funny how smells can bring back long ago memories.

Well I got the jars out of the water bath and the passata has separated 😏 nothing was ever mentioned in anything I have read so I did some further research and it seems that blanching the tomatoes is a very good idea, I didn’t do it remember, it’s a good idea because it destroys an enzyme that cause the separation of tomato and liquid, so in future I will definitely be blanching, apparently it’s still fine to use, it just doesn’t look good in the jar lol.

This is what I found:

‘During storage, pulp and juice in home canned tomatoes may separate, especially in sauce or juice made with crushed or puréed tomatoes. Separation is caused by an enzyme, Pectose (Pectinesterarse), found in high concentrations in tomatoes. The enzyme is activated when tomatoes are cut. To reduce separation, heat tomatoes quickly over high heat to 82 C (180 F) to destroy the enzyme’

We decided with the weather forecast for this evening, windy and wet, that we would light the Rayburn and so not one to waste the use of free cooking I cooked the first dinner of the winter on the top 😀 It will be nice to have warm dry towels and a overall warmth in the house.

Friday: I did the morning rounds and then mostly had the day off 😜 I went with Shelley, Josh and Flo to soft play where we met Sam, Mia & the twiglets as they have become affectionately known. By the time we got back in the afternoon John was already home and had lit the Rayburn, he went and got a few bits of shopping and then did the afternoon rounds while I did some tidying and hoovering. Shelley, Martin and the kids came over after tea and picked up Rosie the rabbit to take back to theirs and then early evening Charlie came over and we had cheese, wine and a proper natter, day done, bedtime 😴

Saturday: We got the rounds done had a coffee then went off to a local tractor spares jumble sale 😀 not just tractor parts there I should say but plenty of old and interesting bits and pieces too. I bought some lovely old tools, the craftsmanship is so much better than today’s stuff, a lovely old back hoe, I have been wanting to get one for ages and a lovely old fork, nice and light, little and beautifully made, no doubt it was a much loved tool for somebody. I also bought an old galvanised paint bucket, yesterday I went to the garden centre looking for something to plant into and everything is so expensive for what it was. This cost me a fiver, a bit of time cleaning it up and making holes in the bottom and voila a lovely planter for a splash of colour, happy as a pig in poo this morning 😀

When we returned John went to power wash the POL pen and I went into the garden, the outdoor tomatoes have blight which is a shame as there are loads of fruit on them, some beefsteak and some cherry but none of them any good so I pulled them all up and took them to the burning pile. I watered the poly tunnel, I keep forgetting that it needs doing now that the rain is doing the job outside 🤪 and I weedkiller the pathways, they are just too weedy to hoe and I’m not sure what else to do with them, I need a whole load of wood chip delivered ideally then I could use that to smother the weeds perhaps.

I still have plenty of tomatoes ripening I the tunnels and greenhouse but there are also a lot of green ones as well, that’s where green tomato chutney recipes are useful. I do though have a lot of very small cherry tomatoes that are ripe but smaller than average, I think I might do a ripe tomato chutney with these 😀

Sunday: Up and out to do the rounds, I was doing the orchard when I heard John chatting away and wondered who he was talking to, I suddenly remembered that the lads with the ferrets were coming this morning to do a bit of rabbiting lol. John went off to visit his Mum and I took a coffee out to the greenhouse, the sun is shinning this morning so it was a nice place to be for an hour or so. I spent my time, potting up some Chinese lantern that I had grown from seed but not yet divided and they were becoming a bit crowded in the one pot. The rest of the time I spent shelling beans and this is where the baked beans come in, they are haricot beans which I trialled and they did very well considering the few plants I grew. I also did a few kidney beans which also grew well, they have both been drying in the greenhouse waiting for the moment for me to shell them and now they are done. There are not many of each but it just shows that I could plant plenty more and they would be a good crop. I don’t think we use dried beans and pulses in this country as much as we should, me included. There seems to be divided opinion on wether to soak your dried beans prior to cooking or not, I think I may have to excitement with the soak and no soak methods and see which I prefer. I think I would err on the side of caution for the Kidney beans mind you as they contain a toxin that needs to be extracted before eating apparently but I shall still look forward to making a chilli with them at some point in the future, provided I remember to soak them prior to thinking, I’ll have chilli today 🤪

I let the turkeys out into the orchard pen today and the first thing they did was fly over the top! So they are currently grazing in the front paddock, turkeys are quite sweet birds, much more gentle than I thought they would be and quite timid, the chickens soon see them off and tasty morsel lying around.

With the daylight hours ever decreasing the egg numbers are dipping drastically too, I think currently we are feeding twice as many birds than are laying 😏 The last new lot have never got up to speed with only 38 eggs out of 50 and now they have dropped down to around 28. We have tried leaving them in until lunchtime to make sure they are not laying elsewhere, they have a light on for a few extra hours in the evening but it’s not helping much. They have been a ‘rouge’ batch from the beginning, the first day half of them flew over the electric fencing and we have not been able to keep them in despite multiple attempts at various things including heightening the fence, a lost cause is what they are I think.

Posted in Friesland Farm

A fledgling, a rat, hopscotch and turkeys 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday again! 15th July: A pleasant enough overcast morning so great for me to get some stuff done. I mostly did picking and weeding, courgettes, French beans, broccoli , a pepper 😀 some cucumbers, raspberries, a few strawberries and blueberries and some flowers for the kitchen. I potted up a few strawberry runners for next year and pulled up the onions and garlic. I have no idea what I was thinking was with the garlic as there are only 6 lol, that won’t keep us going very long. I only have about 15 onions but that’s fine because I have welsh onion, which is perpetual and babbington leeks which are also perpetual. The welsh onion and the bab leeks have seeded so I collected those to grow some more next year, with the welsh onion you just pull what you need and they grow like bunch onion so more will grow and the leeks you just cut off at the base and they will regrow 😀

Then I decided that before the sun made an appearance I would cut back some grass areas with the ride on mower, well it started fine and I got it out of the stable block to where I wanted it, engaged the cutter and it stopped 😜 I couldn’t get it going again so I sat for a while waiting for it to do whatever it was thinking of doing and hoping by resting it that I could start it again, suddenly I heard patch yelping and some squealing (which I knew was a rat) I went round the corner, patch had a bleeding nose and the rat was dead 🙄 I took patch inside, cleaned his nose with, dettol, then hibiscrub then I sprayed it with purple spray, moved the rat to the burning barrel, went back to the mower and it started 😀 Patch 1 rat 0, Dawn 1 grass 0 I call that a successful morning.

The Sun appeared so that will do outside for now unless it clouds over again.

Tuesday: John was up late! That meant I was on my own this morning and the Sun was already out 🙄 I didn’t mind though and quite enjoyed myself, making sure everything was well fed, watered and clean and tidy as I went. I did a bit of watering in the tunnels and that was pretty much it as the skies were blue and not a cloud in sight. Sam and Mia came over and we went to visit Charlie and Macca who have a week off work, then we met Shelley, Josh and Flo at the shake shop before coming back here for the afternoon.

Did a bit of grass cutting in the evening and watched the partial eclipse of the blood moon.

We also had a very tiny chap appear right by the back door late evening, seemed too small to be out but we couldn’t find any sign of a parent bird so I put it in a box in the greenhouse and will let it out first thing in the morning, hopefully it will make it, I think it’s a baby goldfinch judging by its beak and a tiny flash of yellow on its wing.

Wednesday: First job of the day was to let the little bird out, I put it back where I found it, went in to make tea and when I came back out it was gone 😀 The general advice if you find a fledgling is to leave it alone, this was late in the evening and it was at ground level so I was worried it wouldn’t make it alive through the night so I did what I thought was the best thing for it and hopefully it will thrive.

It’s overcast but muggy this morning, it meant I could get on though so I did a bit of hoeing, raking and tidying up. Then I put up a temporary fence between the orchard and the garden so that I could let the younger light Sussex out into the orchard to scratch and forage which is what I had always intended they should do. We had a temporary fence there before but eventually it fell over so I took it up and it has taken me this long to put one back 😜 The weeds have grown high in there so I might as well make use of the birds to clear it, save me doing it.

I picked another load of courgettes 😝 I gave most of them to the young birds to peck away at but kept some as I intend to use them for cake and jam.

I had the best of intentions to make cake and jam however I used all the sugar I had in the jam 🙄 so no cake today, I made flapjack instead and that nearly didn’t happen as I had no syrup but I substituted maple syrup and treacle instead. The maple syrup was too runny on its own so I figured sticky treacle would help, its cooking at the minute I will let you know how it tastes later. The jam smells amazing, that’s the grated lemon rind that goes in but I’m thinking this will be a lovely light flavoured jam, it has to sit for a few hours for the courgette to absorb the sugar and lemon flavour so I will boil it up later on and see how it tastes.

I made bread as well today.

So I have boiled the jam and jarred it up but even though it reach the right temperature I can’t see it setting somehow, we will wait and see.

Thursday: It rained a little overnight, not much but enough for a wetting and again it will liven things up a bit plus keep the dust down. The jam didn’t set, I followed the recipe but I kind of knew it wasn’t going to, I couldn’t t see it being thick enough I should have followed my instinct and not added the water, courgettes are wet enough as it is. I have some added pectin sugar and may try boiling it up again with some of that in and see how it goes, if it doesn’t work that’s a bit fat fail 😜

I have Mia today while Sam goes for a scan and to see the consultant, she is now 36 weeks and huge, poor girl, she is only 5ft 1” so it’s quite a weight for her to carry around, although she is looking very well apart from that and swollen feet. Hopefully they will give her a date today as she is having a section due to the lowest baby being breech. It will be ‘all hands on deck’ when the time comes, one baby is enough to look after especially when you already have a toddler but two, that’s a whole new ball game 🤪

I showed Mia how to play hopscotch 😀 and we watched a caterpillar crawl and crawl and crawl, Mum came over and did some bits in the garden 😀 Once Sam had picked up Mia I went out and collected the eggs etc and then I went to water the polytunnel. The minute I had turned on the hose and walked into the tunnel the Sun, which has been absent most of the day, decided to blaze 🙄 it was boiling in there 🥵 and I had to crouch and hide behind any available foliage I could find 😜 You may wonder why I was watering so early (4.30) well I am going out for dinner with my girlfriends tonight (yes I have friends lol) and won’t have time later I also need a bit of time to make myself look acceptable for a rare public appearance 🤪

Friday: It’s raining this morning 😀 not a downpour but steady enough to get you wet which is very welcome. John did the animals so all I had to do was get some feed for the rabbits and torts, job done by 7.40 lol. I have a bit of paperwork I can get done today and also have a haircut, it’s got long and driving me mad so I think I will get it all chopped off.

Finally some proper rain, grey, cold, depressing looking day, lovely jubbly, I’m not a killjoy it’s just that the ground was in desperate need not to mention the water tanks 😜 The dogs have confined themselves to the boot room and I shall be doing indoor stuff like paperwork, filing, freezing produce, possibly some cooking and some cleaning without feeling guilty that I should be outside working lol.

I had the hair cut and blow dried and I did say ‘you know it is probably the only time it will look that good’ as I am not very good at blowdrying lol anyhow before long I was outside doing the animals it started raining and boom frizz bomb hair 🤣

As the weather had already ruined the look I carried on outside, this time of the year is the best time to dig up the ragwort, it stands out splendidly and is easily spotted. We don’t have much of it, I pulled about 20 lots over the whole 5 acres, it’s biennial so it grows the first year and flowers the next, it doesn’t spread fast unless you let it go to seed, failure to prevent the spread of ragwort is a criminal offence and can land you in court, I would say that the local councils seem oblivious to this ruling though as they never seem to clear their verges 🙄

Saturday: Up fairly early, John did the animals while I sorted out clothing for today I am off to the Fantasy Forest Festival 😀 I have to pack for every eventuality 😜 find loose but cover all clothing 🤪 pack sunscreen, uv clothing and umbrella in case it’s very sunny, and all the other usual stuff too. John meanwhile will be busy on the cement mixer concreting the hen shed in the front paddock ready for the arrival of new hens. We did contemplate concreting it when we first converted it and decided not to but we should have as now we are having to do it anyway.

The fantasy festival was fabulous what more can I say, the costumes on some were amazing, real labours of love and we loved the eclectic mix of people that all mingled with a happy disposition that gave the festival a great feel.

Sunday: Exciting day today as we pick up the turkey poults 😀 6 x 6 week old Red Bourbon turkeys, we have always talked about getting some but never have and then the opportunity arose this year so we jumped in with both feet. Before we went to collect them the animals needed feeding and letting out and I did a bit of picking as well, French beans and some tomatoes plus a basket full of courgettes 🙄

Turkeys collected and we housed them in the spare rabbit pen for the time being, there is plenty of room in there, it’s under cover so hopefully they will be very happy for a few weeks until we let them out to free range.

The temps are set to climb pretty high next week, 34c oh my goodness that’s hot for this country lol, I will be planning to get up very early and get done so that I can hide inside in the cool for the rest of the day 🥵🥵

If you have never been to the UK and live in a much hotter country than ours I apologise if I sound like a wimp lol I guess it’s just what you get used to 😀