Monday November 12th: A pleasant November morning, sunshine, not too cold, a little bit of mist hanging low over the fields.
John did the animals and birds and I did a bit of early morning tidying up, we had coffee then he went off to work and I sat down to order some lightbulbs for the kitchen light fittings. You would think that would be a straightforward fairly easy task wouldn’t you, it used to be, years ago, can I have a 40 or 60 w light bulb please with bayonet fitting, not any more. Bayonet, skinny screw in, fat screw in, LED, halogen, Edison filament, 5, 7, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60w (I’m making these up 😝) candle shape, vintage, globe, spiral, warm white, winter white, coloured, colour changing, dimming, non dimming, WiFi smart, I JUST WANT A BLOODY LIGHT BULB THAT LIGHTS UP THE KITCHEN WHEN I FLICK THE SWITCH, life has become far too complicated, I blame interior designers 🤪it’s as complicated as ordering a coffee these days!
Light bulbs now ordered, they look a bit like the one I took out with practically the same numbers so fingers crossed 🤞
I made another coffee, milk, one sugar, hot water, simple 😀
I prepped Johns dinner for later, he is having braised beef, I fancy beef and broccoli stir fry, then I got the Rayburn lit, a bit temperamental today so had to have two goes at it, then I went outside to feed the rabbits etc and check the traps. The rats traps have not caught anything yet but the mouse trap in the poly tunnel has its first victim, I do feel sorry for it but I need to grow peas and beans in there and not have them feasted on by mice 🐭 there are plenty of other places it could have set up home but no, it chose my raised beds in the tunnel, I guess it though it would be safe and warm in there 😝 I didn’t come out of resetting the traps without pain mind you so a bit of karma maybe, not that the trap got me but they are very sensitive and go off easily, while I was trying to place it, keeping my fingers firmly out of the way, it sprung, flipped up and smacked my little finger. This is one of the fingers I had trouble with back in the summer when I had a flare and it is still highly sensitive to cold and pain! It took about twenty minutes of deep breathing until the sensation died down, I am going to have to be very aware of it in the Winter months when the extremities get cold, I might need an extra ‘finger jumper’ under my gloves 😛
I need to start sorting out the ducks, well drakes to be precise, we have far too many, 5 Welsh Harlequinns and about 4 Khaki Campbell’s, I have put them up for sale on various duck sites but if they don’t go then I will have to process them for the freezer. We have the rescue ducks which are doing a great job in the garden, they are safe from ‘any further action’ and I have decided to invest in 12 new point of lay Campbell’s next spring as ours are getting past their prime laying age now and so we are only getting 5 eggs a day at a push from about 20 females.
Tuesday: I signed a letter today and emailed it to my local MP, it is to ask them to look at Agroecology in the upcoming Agriculture Bill, for the life of me I can’t see why local, sustainable, is not at the top of the list anyway but it’s hasn’t even been included.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agroecology
Each Winter I usually make up a spice mix to add to the chicken feed for a few weeks, previously I followed the ingredients that are in a poultry spice ready mix, buy them individually and mix it myself as it’s much cheaper that way. This year I am going to try a few different components, kelp and brewers yeast as well as the usual stuff like garlic, turmeric, and fenugreek just to see if it makes any difference. I don’t think it boosts the egg numbers but I do think it helps with their overall health in the colder months.
You will have noticed that we didn’t mention the red mite very much this year and that is down to the using the cardboard traps and regularly cleaning them out weekly and burning all the bedding and cardboard, it really is working a treat as we have not had the ‘boom’ that the warm weather causes, really pleased with this method.
We have plans to move the hens but John wants to increase the enclosed area first just in case they need to be kept in for any reason, the back muck heap is in the way at the moment so that needs all shifting first. One day we might just get it right lol. On days like today, when I feel ‘normal’ I really want to make plans to increase what we grow, but then on other days, when I am not much good for any work, I give up thinking about it as it all seems like too much work. I would like a few ‘normal’ days in a row really then I could make a bit of a difference, maybe eventually this disease will go back into remission and it will be full steam ahead again 🤔
Wednesday: What a fabulous day, sunny, mild and made all the better for getting all the daffodil bulbs planted. Mum and Ken came over, Ken on the tractor with the back actor digging the trench, about 100ft of it and Mum and I putting the bulbs in and covering the, back over. It really was the most pleasant few hours work I have done in a long time, glorious, I look forward to seeing all the little yellow heads next spring 😀
Thursday: Another half decent day and more planting to be done, this time trees, the ground is just about perfect, although it seems a little late, the weather we have had and are having has made the conditions just right for planting. I have planted a cherry tree (Stella) in the front paddock corner, a pear tree (concord) and an apple tree (Braeburn) in the veg beds and then a plum tree, a brambly apple, a sweet chestnut and a small leaved lime tree in the small back paddock that we planted the daffodils in yesterday. The trees at the back have tree guards on the trunks so the rabbits don’t eat them, the trees in the front areas have mesh around the base so the chickens don’t dig, the easy bit is digging the holes, it’s keeping everything off them that is hard work. I am not too worried about getting fruit from the two at the back they are more for the birds and the bees and to create a little copse, eventually of course the lime and the chestnut trees will be huge but that is very many years away and I probably won’t be around then lol. It will be nice to leave trees behind though for future generations to climb and forage on.
I divided two of the rhubarb crowns, one I will leave and do that next year, now, I can’t decide wether to plant them and have even more rhubarb or not, I think I will definitely plant at least one.
Set some more mouse traps, so far I have caught two in the tunnel and two in the pallet stack out the back, they definitely like peanut butter!
John has chicken casserole tonight and I have korma, rice and peshwari nann, I used to make the korma from scratch when the girls were all living at home but this one is a 1,2,3 packet, I think I will go back to making it and try freezing some of the sauce. Shelley made homemade nann bread the other day and said it was easy to do so I would like to give it a try and as my favourite is peshwari I will def be making the filling 😀
Friday: Mild again, I let the dogs out before it got light and stood outside in my PJs thinking, I’m not even cold!
John did the birds before going off to work and I ended up doing the housework, I hadn’t intended to but I got a bit tired of noticing the dust 🤪 so now I have a sparkly house, well clean enough anyhow.
Saturday: Turned into a lovely day, bit chilly first thing but the sun came out eventually. John did the birds while I put some washing on etc then we went into the garden to move some of the muck mountain onto the veg beds.
I also cut all the tops off of the broccoli plants and fed them to the rabbits, I am going to leave the stalks and see exactly what happens, they may rot away or they may sprout again who knows but there is nothing to lose by trying. They have already been good value because first came the broccoli heads, then after they were cut came the sprouting stalks which went on for ages, now greenery for the rabbits 😀 After that I went on to prune out the gooseberry bushes and the blackcurrants, just thin them all out so that I can pick the fruits more easily next year. I also lifted the canopy of the Mulberry tree, I found it difficult to get into and pick the berries this year as there were a lot of foliage and branches in the way, hopefully I will be able to get under and work upwards next year. All of the woody cuttings from the blackcurrants, mulberry and a few apple branches, I have cut up into smaller pieces for the rabbits, it may look like a bucket of twigs but it’s actually good fodder for them over the winter months.
Sunday: Definitely getting chiller by the day, Josh stayed over last night and so John did the animals this morning while entertained and breakfasted him 😀
Due to various reasons we didn’t get much else done apart from the usual, in the evening Charlie came to pick me up to go to the cinema, just as we walked out the back door she shouted FOX. It was in the front paddock so we sent the dogs off round to chase it away, John had said that a hen had been got inside the electric fence in the side paddock ☹️ that is hooked up to the mains and supposed to keep it out, the battles are never ending. We seem to have a lot of undesirables at the moment both animal and human, theft in the village is rife at the moment with a notification every other day coming in about sheds broken into or number plates nicked or car windows smashed to get at belongings, what’s wrong with people, I despair 😩
frieslandfarm (flowers) 