Tag: wild garlic

Posted in Friesland Farm

Micro veg masterclass, pricking out & the first crop harvests of the year.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 15th March 2021: It’s Florence’s 3rd birthday today 😀 it is such a terrible shame that we have not been able to spend the time with all our grandchildren the way we would want to 😞 hopefully this coming summer we can make up for lost, precious time.

March 15th is synonymous with ‘beware the ides of March’ the warning given to Julius Caesar before he was assassinated on that very day but did you know there is an ides of every month. It is the full moon of the month and in other months falls between the 13th and the 15th, it was also the deadline for settling your monthly debts. So it was a dark and gloomy day for Caesar and anyone who owed anything but not so much these days, we can overlook any foreboding I think 🤔 🤞😂

The weather is not too bad this morning, we had heavy rain during the last evening but the sun is out this morning though the cold wind is still here, it has abated a little today mind you so that’s good. John did the animals and went to work, I did some housework bits and my plan is to go into the greenhouse and sow some flower seeds this morning. It should be nice in there, out of any wind and warmed a little from the sunshine. As with the vegetable seeds I seem to have amassed a lot of flower seeds too, I might as well sow them and either sell them or use them where I can. My favourite time of the gardening year is seed sowing I think, like Christmas Eve it’s the anticipation of wonderful things to come. Once everything has grown it gets a bit manic planting it all and then tending it all so seed sowing is the calm before the storm 😜

I did sew a few seeds, some more broad beans some of which will go out for sale when the plants are big enough and then some flower seeds. I need to sow flowers that don’t need the extra heat at the minute because I need the propagators for the tomatoes and peppers etc. But I did sow some orange poppies, cornflower, red flax and some sweet rocket. I have moved some of the plants that are growing nicely outside to the cold frames, lupins, some cuttings of hardier plants and some broad beans that are already a good size, these will all harden off, which basically means get used to the outside temperatures, before planting. There wasn’t as much to do as I thought I could because the timing is still not quite right for a lot of things. The tomato plants, although some of them have their true leaves, can do with a few more days before pricking them out and moving them to the bigger propagator, the same applies to the peppers and chilli plants. I have got some flower plants to pot on and after a coffee I may well do that job, first I had to replenish the egg shed. I rarely see customers arriving unless I am out there and then I go to the shed and it’s nearly empty 🙄 I forgot to get some garden canes at the garden centre so I have ordered some online, I have seen a good set up for growing peas that I want to try. Peas grow pretty straggly unless you are constantly moving the growth to where you want it to go. This neat little system also allows easy access, well easier than I ever make it anyway, in my mind it will work well, we shall see. The cardboard hack I am impressed with, that works a treat, definitely a keeper, if you are sowing rows straight into the ground you can use lengths of wood which work the same way. I do still have to work out where everything is going to go this year which is not something I have put very much thought into yet, I need to get my skates on with that one. The notebook that shelley bought me I am going to use to write down all the things I want to do with the produce this year, I often have ideas but then forget all about them and then think, oh I was going to do that. So far in the book is mint jelly and drying more herbs, I am sure I will think of plenty of other things along the way.

I did go back out to the greenhouse, I got the bigger propagator in place and then pricked out the tomato seedlings and the jalapeños, the pepper are a little too small at the minute. Once I had a bit of space in the smaller propagator I sowed some outdoor cucumber seeds. I also potted on a couple of the outdoor plants I have left over from planting the beds up and watered the seedling in the poly tunnels that I sowed last week, the spinach is already coming up. I am not sure if I just don’t have the energy today or if I feel the weather in not ideal for working out in the open but I have no inclination to do anything on the beds at the minute 🤷‍♀️

Remember the little red areas I said I have on my finger tips and around the nail bed, well a discussion with my Mum leads me to believe they may be chilblains. I never knew you could get them on your fingers as well but yes that is what they look like so I will look after my hands accordingly and see if they go.

Tuesday: The sun was out for a bit this morning, the wind has dropped and so it felt pleasant enough, when the sun disappears behind cloud it is obviously not so warm but still warmer than it has been in that cold wind.

John had a text from the local surgery offering a vaccine so he has taken that offer as it is for tomorrow and will cancel the one next week on he other side of Oxford, he was t really looking forward to driving back from there after he had it, this is five minutes from home rather than an hour round trip.

The micro veg on the windowsill didn’t go very well but I think I have learnt a bit from doing it. The lettuce seed was too sparsely sown and the peas kept drying out consequently I kept giving the peas water which was soaking up into the compost do the lettuce. The compost got too wet and in the end so did the pea seeds and although some of them grew, some went mouldy. Back to trying to get a balance, keeping different types of seeds in different trays is what I have learned I need to do. I have found a supplier of bigger quantities of seeds and have ordered some more and will keep trying until I can get somewhere near the desired result. You think it would be easy enough but I think there are things like ratio of compost to seeds and then watering techniques to take into account to get a good even growth rate.

I watched an hour long masterclass on micro greens and what I had thought I had done wrong was exactly what I had, plus I picked up a few other tips including this new (to me at any rate) idea of excluding light initially. So now I have set up another tray as per the video and I will monitor it to see how it goes. I had about five packets of half used sprouting broccoli so I have used those seeds for the trial. They are one of the most nutritious micro greens you can have and growing brassica to their full size takes up a lot of room and they have a lot of pest problems so if I can successfully grow them like this it’s a win, win situationist reckon. I have bought them in onto the kitchen window sill which is not necessary it it means I can monitor them more easily and a daily basis. Looking at the lists of micro greens most of them don’t need any extra heat which is a bonus, they are all crops that would normally grow without being under cover. There are so many types you can grow, turnip, beetroot, brassica, chives, nasturtiums, sunflower, peas and of course various lettuce, a whole lot more besides. One of the best things is the tiny amount of space you need to grow a good crop of nutritious greens, a small area of sideboard space and you are away. If you wanted to do it a little more seriously, a small shed so that you could keep them growing on rotation and a cheap led light would be all you needed I think.

I ordered some larger quantities of seed yesterday but looking at the array of micro greens you can grow is quite exciting really, it difficult not to get carried away, first steps first, let’s see how well this trial goes. It will be up to 10 days before I can harvest it but that is insane compared to how long you wait for your big veg to grow. I can see it is definitely the way forward to feeding ever increasing populations, plus as you will probably have seen, they can be grown in disused underground areas but for me there is nothing better than traditional veg gardening, outside in the fresh air, a bit of hard graft now and again and nature all around 🥰

I will just add to what I have learnt this morning, there are a couple of ways to grow micro veg, one way is without soil at all, actually three ways that I can think of. Hydroponically, that is with a pumped water system, they usually use fish in the water as well for cleaning and nutrients, the roots grow in water not soil, that tends to be a larger system than most people have room for. Then there is a soil based system like I am trying, which I prefer, and finally the sprouting type system. Probably twenty years ago or more it became trendy to sprout seeds of all types, a jar or special unit was used and the same principles are applied to the micro veg except that you allow the seedling to grow a lot bigger. Sprouting is exactly that it is the tiny shoot from the seed and you eat the whole lot. Two problems I found with this, one, that you have to remember every day to wash the seeds so that you don’t get a build up of pathogens in the water turning it sour and two which is relevant to me and my disease is that I can’t have Alfa Alfa which is one of the most popular sproutings, it increases inflamation. In a slight twist it’s one of the reasons that John mainly does the morning feeding, the chicken feed contains Alfa Alfa and does give off dust so the more I avoid it the better.

Rubbish micro veg beginner method, then after a masterclass a much better result. I will keep you posted on the process but as you can see after only a few days the seeds are sprouting.

I did go back into the greenhouse (because it’s such a nice day) and sowed some more flower seeds and a couple of small trays for micro greens, garlic chives as I already had them.

I had a few invoices to do for John and get those sent off and tidy up some old files on the laptop which I rarely use any more (the files and the laptop)

John came home just after lunch and we had a new batch of POL delivered at 2pm luckily no one is collecting any today so we went off to get a bit of food shopping. I have said it before but I am not sure how ‘we don’t need much’ transfers to a small trolley full 😂 I guess it’s mostly perishables and then things to stock up on plus we seem to buy a lot of cat milk 😜 Back home and I unpack everything while John goes and does the afternoon rounds, we had already lit the Rayburn before we went out. It is getting to that time of year when it can be warmer outside than in especially if the sun is out.

Wednesday: Not sunny, not raining, not windy and not cold, whoop lovely day for working outside which is exactly what I have been doing. John did the morning rounds and went off to work, I went out and put in clean bedding for the geese, ducks and the chickens in the stables plus topped up the grit and oyster shell. Then on to getting the Guineas some fresh greens, it’s a bit sparse at the minute but I found some sorrel, chard and dandelions plus some hazel twigs so they were happy. Someone came to pick up some point of lay hens. Then onto gardening which I spent the rest of the time doing. First off we have an area that is umm difficult shall we say, it is a triangle in the front but over the year everything had been put there, hard core, gravel, wood chip, if it got delivered that’s where it went and so digging plants in is difficult. Not to be deterred I got the shovel and moved stones and hardcore out and managed to plant the things I was hoping to plant. A forsythia, a buddliea, some ornamental grasses and a few other bits that look dead so I can’t actually remember what they are 🙄 This is not a formal bed and the intention is for it to look a bit wild. Then onto the other garden and I have lots of things that have self set so I have been digging them up and either transplanting them to the beds or potting them up for selling later in the spring. A couple of plants that have got big I have dug up and divided, they will also be put out for sale unless I need to fill a space. I took down the arch area that I put up last year, the metal arches have broken in so many places it’s not worth trying to cobble them back together. I was delighted to see that the mini kiwi is still alive though and have put an ornamental metal trellis there for it to grow up this year, hopefully we can get something else in place by the time it gets bigger. Plenty of weeding and hoeing got done and so I am happy with progress today 😀 A quick sit down mid afternoon

John will be home late afternoon as he has his vaccination today 😀 and I have two more lots of people coming for hens at some point.

I lit the Rayburn, John came home, he did the egg rounds and then went off to get his vaccine. He had the AstraZeneca, although there is controversy in some countries he said he places his faith in the science not the politicians lol, my brother noted that with the numbers vaccinated and the numbers affected by blood clots the chance is 0.0000005% chance of an issue, so the chance of getting covid is far, far greater 🙄 Just after he arrived home the next lot of people came for their new hens and then we just about managed to get a cup of tea before the next lot came for theirs. We still have 14 left to sell, this time last year they would have been sold just like that, I think we sold around 250 hens possibly more I haven’t done the books yet and so haven’t totted it up. Then it was time for some dinner and a restful evening, fingers crossed John doesn’t have any side affects.

Thursday: Up and about early this morning, John did the rounds while I did the inside jobs and then it was off for the first appointment of the day to get my bloods done. Grabbed a takeaway coffee on the way back and on with the rest of the day. Most of the day, until mid afternoon, I spent pottering in the polytunnel and greenhouse. I had some bits to tidy up and sort out in the tunnel, pots with things that had died in them and pull up the radicchio. I tasted it but I don’t like it, it’s too bitter for me and so I gave it to the Guineas, the space is now being used for a big water butt that I will fill from the tap to water any seedlings in there. In the greenhouse I have sown some basil seeds and utilised a rack unit to place over the top of the propagator so that any rising warmth will benefit the plants above it. I picked the first crop of the year, the forced rhubarb, a bunch I put out for sale and some I will stew down with some honey and have that with custard for my pudding later 💕

I know I keep banging on about it but I can’t tell how impressed I am with using this cardboard technique, seriously, the germination rate is nearly 100%, compare that to sporadic germination of around 70% of previous years and you can see why I am cock a hoop with it 😂

Seedlings grown under the cardboard, I took the cardboard off the beetroot on the left yesterday and the night scented stock this morning, tomorrow the stock will be upright and have colour now they are able to photosynthesise.

I was struggling to upload photos to the blog, for the last ten years I have been using the free site, in order to continue being able to have photographic content and not have to delete previous photos, I have had to start paying to use the WordPress site 😂 At the moment I have not engaged with any advertising or traffic payment but I may do that in the future to cover costs, I am loathe to as I personally find it really annoying to have pop up ads everywhere. I may try it and then undo it depending on the annoyance 😜 The blog will now appear under a new domain name of http://www.frieslandfarm.com instead of the WordPress appendage. I do have another website but I rarely use it and so I think I will close that one down and use this one instead.

Apologies if in previous blogs any pictures did not appear.

Friday: Fairly non weather again, to be honest I was expecting a plunge in temps but that seems to have changed which is great. I spent a large part of the morning doing some paperwork, it’s the time of year for renewals, cancellations, updates, mot, tax etc etc, all costly of course 😜 Towards midday I went into the greenhouse and spent an hour pricking out seedlings, dill and coriander. Dill is not something I have used much until last year when I discovered how tasty it is, I even dried some for use over winter.

I have two electric propagators on at the minute and I am thinking I need a third one 😜 I really want to get off to a flying start and quite a few things that could be started early need the heat. We don’t have constant temperatures indoors so another propagator seems the ideal solution. Any plants that get too much for the greenhouse can be transferred to the polytunnel to wait until planting time so I have the space to move them on, maybe I should just do it instead of thinking about it 😂

Tonight sees the long awaited return of Gardeners World and the soothing tones of Monty Don telling us what we should be doing at the weekend, always my favourite bit 😀 I have still been listening to podcasts on and off, mostly garden or environment related, I was astounded to find out that mowing the lawn with a petrol mower for an hour relates to driving 100 miles in carbon emissions, that is a shocking statistic 😱 If we had an electric point out there I would definitely change to an electric mower.

I couldn’t find the motivation to get stuck into anything much in the afternoon, consequently I felt the cold and so I lit the Rayburn early afternoon. I will probably have a busy weekend so I guess a gentle afternoon is allowed. Thought I didn’t do anything physical my mind is constantly whirring, all kinds of things rattling around, things I want to get done when the weather is slightly warmer, this to sow, plant, things I want to do with the harvests I hopefully get, yep plenty going on in my head 😂

At some point though the dates escape me, we will be allowed a little more freedom to see people which will be fabulous, as I say we have booked our spa stay and we have discussed a holiday which we can hopefully book first thing Monday morning. It is exciting to think we may leave the shire in the not too distant future, I can’t wait for some r & r or even just to sit down in a cafe for coffee would be nice.

Another exciting time on the distant horizon is 2022, from a genealogy point of view anyway, it’s the date the 1921 census information gets released. That will mean that I will be able to look up information on my grandparents and build a better picture of where they lived. Back to the now and we have the census this Sunday March 21st, do fill it in won’t you, it makes life so much easier for descendants who are researching you 😂

Saturday: Another non weather day, would have been nice to see the sun though. After the animals were done, John got the water taps sorted out, they get turned off over winter as they freeze and burst otherwise. We may have to watcher the forecast in case the temps dip below freezing but hopefully we should be fine now. After that I wanted him to sort out the runner bean frame, last year he put it up but not quite how I wanted it and consequently it didn’t work as well as it should have 🙄 now he has altered it to the way I wanted it in the first place. Meanwhile I laced back together any holes in the fruit cage netting and some other things though I can’t remember what now 😂 Mid morning someone bought us a shed that was going to be burnt but luckily they recognised it was too good for that. It is almost like new and so we will use it here for something no doubt, love a free shed 😀 John felt tired in the afternoon so he had a rest while I carried on pottering out side. This time of year it’s all about getting reading for the season ahead and so I have put in rows of canes and string for the peas and sat and had a look at the garden to see where everything is going to go. I remember what else I did earlier, I picked more rhubarb and some purple sprouting, the first picking of that.

And today I took the cover off of the micro veg and they now look like this:

Good germination over all, no damping off as yet, I will take photos every couple of days to compare the change but it seems like a successful trial, all I need to do now is sow some more so that I have a continuous supply.

Came in mid afternoon to light the Rayburn, John did the egg rounds, got some wood in, sorted out the rain tank tap and then had to shoot out to a call out.

I had a wander round the front paddock this morning, the hens will be allowed back out on April 1st so I thought I would just check it over. I was delighted to see the wild garlic leaves have made an appearance, I will wait until they get a little bigger and maybe pick a few for a salad one evening.

Sunday: Weather is the same, occasional peek from the sun but not much. Did the usual bits and pieces, went to get some food shopping. In the afternoon I did some weeding a bit of planting and sowed some leek seeds in the greenhouse but apart from that not a lot else really.

One more week finished and one more week nearer to some kind of freedom albeit small, at least the weather should keep improving. We aim to book a holiday tomorrow morning, that’s if the web site doesn’t go down with all the traffic 😂 fingers crossed because it would be nice to have a holiday to look forward too x

Have a good week 👋

Posted in Friesland Farm

Surprise! Mid week interlude 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Asparagus frittata, grapes forming & the ducks are a no show ☹️

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th April: I’m feeling full of positive energy today 😀 The Sun is shinning and before doing anything else other than breakfast and showering, I have been out and cut the asparagus and rhubarb to put out for sale. Some of the asparagus I have kept back and made an asparagus frittata/crust less quiche, whatever you want to call it. I am making an effort to do a bit of clean(er) eating this week and as the asparagus is coming through plentiful and we have eggs I thought this would be ideal for lunch. I used 3 eggs, a bundle of asparagus, a clove of garlic, grated cheese, a spoonful of sour cream I needed to use up, pinch of salt and a shake of black pepper, bake at 160c ish for 30mins give or take and voila, lunch is done for a couple of days before I’ve even fed the chickens 😀

So what have I been doing all morning, well first I wrote myself a list of things I wanted to get done, and then worked through it, nearly all gardening things but a couple of others too boot. Firstly I wanted to feed a tree that is in the front paddock, Cherry, it’s been in all winter but I felt it needed a bit of a boost as the soil is very shallow out there and probably not many nutrients either. While I was out there I wandered over to look at the wild garlic which has now flowered 😀

Burn a bit of cardboard rubbish that has been piling up, sort out plants I am putting out for sale, dig up the last few leeks ready to chop and freeze for later use, one I have left as it’s going to seed so I can collect that at the end of the year. Hang the washing loads out, should dry well today, pay an outstanding bill online, hand weed the carrot bed and sow more carrots. The carrots I sowed a few weeks back have not been very good, it was a shorter, early variety that I was trying but the seedlings are sparse so I have intersown with a more familiar variety (Nantes) and then the other half of the bed with a later variety. I potted on more plants that are steadily growing and starting to put everything hardy enough outside to acclimatise. The more tender plants will stay in for probably another week then I can start hardening them off. I planted a couple of pepper plants in the small tunnel, the other three are still in pots in the large tunnel until I decide where to grow them. I looked up in the large tunnel and was cock a hoop to see the grape vine has tiny bunches of grapes growing 😀

I have seen a couple Pinterest posts with sweet potato slips being grown suspended over water so I am giving that a try to see if it works.

I bought one of those boxes of scatter and sow seeds at the weekend so I have done exactly that and watered them in, I’m not sure these really work, I have tried before with not great results but fingers crossed these just might.

There are still of jobs on the list to do lol but I’m getting through them as best I can 😜 and of course keep adding to the list all the while.

In the afternoon I did some slightly more gentle pottering, last year I decided that I wouldn’t do pots of things as it was bloody hard work trying to keep everything alive but today I changed my mind 🙄 so I have been finding bits to put into pots to go on the decking area. While I was down there I spotted a rat! I thought the torts were eating rather a lot 😝 so I will be giving the rat(s) supper tonight 😜 John had other ideas about trying to shoot it though, I say trying, it was an entertaining hour watching him stalking the thing, he has no patience to sit and wait for it to come out, he is also by his own admission ‘a crap shot’ added to that he kept moaning he couldn’t see through the sight, needless to say I’m still going to ‘feed’ it tonight 😛

Tuesday: Nice sunny morning, looks like a promising day 😁 I had Mia today and roped her in to help pick/cut some food for the rabbits and guinea pig and get some sacks filled with hay for them. She bought a marble painting kit with her that she got as a present for her birthday, it’s a great little kit, well thought out, we expanded the idea a little with splodge pictures and got messier and messier 😆

I received the invoice for the ducklings this morning and suddenly realised that has crept up on me fast 😂 I now need to think about moving the chicks to another pen, they should be able to go outside in the next few days as they are all feathered up now 🙂

I’m glad a did the whole ‘pond’ thing last year although it needs some work again now as the chickens decimated the planting, hopefully I will be rehoming some froglets to add to it so I need to make sure the area is damp and dark for them, natural slug patrol 😁

After Mia went home and John came home, I gave him the job of feeding the birds and collecting the eggs while I went out to water the poly tunnels, feed the citrus trees and pot a couple of things on, by the time we ate it was nearly 8pm 😜

Wednesday: Cooler this morning with a nice heavy dew, good for the garden 😁 Got the animals all sorted and picked a few bunches of asparagus which will go out for sale today.

When I went to collect the post from the end of the drive I could hear grasshoppers 😁 that made me smile 😀

I showed you a picture of a guild last week that I had planted, here is one that has more or less sprung up by itself so I have let it carry on, this is a cherry tree, feverfew, comfrey, some sweet cicely, there are daffodils and violet in there as well as a bit of horseradish, quite a combination! All doing very well although the feverfew is a bit thuggish. One of the asparagus beds runs behind it along the back

I should have been full steam ahead this morning but I’m taking it a little slower, I have been experiencing a high heart rate at times and trying to work out why, obviously it’s to do with the medication and I had stopped the anti inflammatory because I didn’t think I needed it anymore but maybe I still do, so a quieter day back on that and see what happens.

I have mainly pottered about doing bits and pieces, I sowed a couple of rows of beetroot, I need to find out what I can plant along side them to do them some good, I moved a few things around and then I picked some chard to take to the hens in the stable block. As I came out I whacked my head a good un on the closed top bit, why I don’t know because I KNOW ITS THERE and even stooped to miss it but not far enough it seems 🤕 ouch, one those when you just want to cry, I even checked to make sure I hadn’t cut it open, luckily not, just as well I took the anti inflammatory 🙄

It seems that beans and peas can be pretty much grown with anything so I have sowed some more dwarf bean seeds to use dotted around the garden as companions, I sowed some yarrow, potted on courgettes and melons and sorted out plants for Shelley, she has a terrific little courtyard garden which has the potential to grow lots of food as it is sheltered and parts are a sun trap.

I just witnessed first hand the ‘crow’ problem that is causing concerns throughout the countryside. I opened the pen for the light Sussex to get out further than normal earlier, this afternoon I can see about 15 crows in there, the problem (for the crows) is that the wire roof slants upwards and they cannot figure how to get out once they are disturbed. I haven’t been able to see yet if they have attacked the eggs the hen is sat on or if they were drawn in because the eggs have hatched (due any day) or if they were after feed. What I witnessed was two very angry cockerels attacking any crow that came down to the ground, one crow was attacked four or five times, but they are pretty tough as it still got out eventually! And then they all came back but the cockerel got the better of one of them this time though it took a bit of doing, if you are wondering why I didn’t intervene, not a chance I am going in there with a cockerel on a mission like that, and the fact that there are two cockerels in there having a go is a definite no way.

Tonight for my dinner I have chicken with coconut rice and a mango and avocado salsa 😀

Thursday: I got the morning stuff done, then moved the little chicks out to where the quail used to be to make room for the ducklings which are arriving tomorrow morning first thing. Then it was off to Shelley’s for the day to help her with her garden it’s a lovely little courtyard garden but full of weeds and building rubble from their renovations, now it’s all tided up, weeded and pots filled with edibles from patio trees and fruit bushes to vegetables 😀 we forgot to take before and after photos though 🤪

John got the ducks some starter crumb and the chicks some growers pellets on the way home. I cleaned out the brooder this morning so we are good to go with duckies.

Friday: Well it started off well, I was up early, got the brooder lamp on, opened a new bag of starter crumb and was making a duckling proof waterer at 7.30am all ready for the delivery of ducklings, get a phone call at 7.45 to say they are not coming because the hatch was 300 short ☹️ I’m a bit pissed off to be fair 🙄 All that work in making brooders, getting feed in (a 20kg bag which I opened minutes before the phonecall) not to mention the anticipation, all for nowt. They are going to ring back on Tuesday to see what they can do, it may mean waiting for another hatch but I’m guessing they have already allocated those to customers 😕 meanwhile the ducks I have are laying poorly at the minute so not many duck eggs. The last lot I bought in Ffairfach when I was down at Dads and that was a few years ago, we are going down at the end of this month and I may have to see if I can find some in that area to bring back with us, honestly, who knew it would be so hard to get hold of ducks lol.

I did the morning rounds and got everything else sorted all the while thinking about how things look rosy for a while and then bump, down you come with a thud lol.

I spent the morning in the poly tunnel sulking 😝 lol, well potting on etc then I did some planting of perennials that I had split last autumn and overwintered. Sam and Mia came over at lunchtime, ‘do you fancy lunch out’ I said, ‘yep’ then let’s go 😀

Got back and did the feeding and eggs, I have sold 12 goose eggs today 😁

After that I had a sit down and I need a new purse as mine is on its last legs, well we are back to the light bulb saga for choice, it seems these days you really need to have a purse that is RFID blocking to prevent unauthorised scanning 😏 I need it big enough to get a medication card (I have to carry around with me) in it, I would quite like one big enough to get my phone in it if I am not taking my bag with me, and of course a multitude of loyalty cards, (mostly for garden centres 😂), some old one pound notes I was given as a birthday present many years ago and never spent 🤣, I choose one eventually and then found I could get it half price if I buy one in damaged packaging, yep that will do fine I throw that bit away anyhow!

Babysat Florence in the evening while Shelley and Martin took Josh to see Madagascar the musical which he absolutely loved 😁😁

Saturday: A cold North wind this morning, apparently it’s the coldest May bank holiday weekend for however many years, the weather patterns are so up and down this year. John went off to get feed and I did the feeding etc. I had a few larger plants in pots that needed moving to bigger pots and so thats what I did, meanwhile John cleaned out his van which took nearly all morning, I washed it as he was just going to park it back on the driveway and it was filthy! In the afternoon we went over to Cheltenham to visit our niece whose birthday was this week and she has just moved into a new flat there, good to get out and about, back home for an hour then over to Sam and Luke’s for a burger and some pooling of ideas for their garden which is about to have a huge transformation. That’s pretty much it for the day 😀

I have managed to find a couple of kittens not too far away and hopefully will be going to look at them next weekend 😀

Sunday: Brrrr still colder than it should be by now. Morning rounds first then I did some hoeing, the weeds are beginning to sprout everywhere, John went off to visit his Mum and when he came back he got the mower out to do the front paddock. We have kept the chickens off this paddock to give it a rest and get the sward thickened up, it’s looking pretty good although there are still some bare patches. He got bored after a couple of goes round so I took over while he got on with taking out a gate post near the back door that had rotted out and needed renewing. Halfway through that job we decided to go out and get something to eat, came back and he finished the job off while I did some pricking out and potting on lol my favourite jobs at the minute. I have put some runner beans out for hardening off as they will need to be planted up soon, I did put an extra cover of bubble wrap over the top though as it’s unseasonably chilly 😏

We had to light the Rayburn as it’s a tad too cold in the house, come back sunshine 🌞

Mostly garden tasks this week lol at the expense of everything else but I’m loving it so I’ll carry on regardless 😜

Have a good week everyone x

Posted in Friesland Farm

Plenty of sun, plenty of work & plenty to say 😜

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Oooo I’ve a lot to say this week 😀 must be feeling better 😁

Sunday evening: Although I had already published this weeks blog I just wanted to tell you that the rhubarb is coming thick and fast and I really fancied some stewed rhubarb and custard for pudding tonight 😀 Nothing better than popping out to the garden to pick it fresh, and I’m looking forward to the next few months of being able to do that with all sorts of produce 😀

John went out to put the birds to bed and we have suffered yet more fox attacks, ffs😡😡😡 this has to be when we nipped out, in broad daylight because the feathers were not there when John fed them earlier. It’s fast becoming unsustainable and for anyone who thinks foxes are cute furry things I’m here to tell you they f…ing well are not, we paid £400 for new hens just a couple of weeks ago, the fencing is hooked up to the mains power, we are always here to shut them up at night, often missing out on social events depending on the time of year, how much more do we need to do, even John, who is not easily defeated is ready to throw in the towel. We have NEVER had such a problem as bad as this year, it’s been getting worse every year but this is unbelievable. Fuming, depressed, defeated, lost as to what we do next, short of investing 100s of pounds, which again is unsustainable, we may be coming to the end of our tether!!!

Monday 8th April: Getting towards the middle of the month, from then on we don’t expect to have much of a frost and certainly not a hard frost, could be famous last words mind you with the weather patterns these days who knows lol. It’s raining this morning, just what you want, A wet Monday morning 😕 I was hoping to get some pottering in the garden done but unless the sun comes out later it will be a bit muddy, so it will have to be a bit more cleaning yay.

You know how life has a way of coming along and giving you a kick up the arse every now and then well that just happened to me, after ranting about the fox attacks and feeling a bit dejected what with the tiredness and lack of sunshine today, I find out that someone died ☹️ someone only a third of the way through life and suddenly those things don’t matter in the slightest anymore, because they really don’t do they, ok they are annoying and sometimes get to you but in the grand scheme of things they are blips.

I must be feeling better, by 12 I had already done a few bits and bobs and got the dinner ready for this evening. We had a slow cooked leg of lamb yesterday and there is plenty left on it, John has taken sandwiches to work and has lamb casserole for dinner and I made a lamb biryani. Now I have never even eaten a biryani before so I have no idea what it’s supposed to taste like lol, I found a recipe, thought, yeah I quite fancy that and so I made it. The secret to being able to do these things is a well stocked cupboard, I don’t actually have any curry powder but I do have all the separate powders that go into making curry powder, plus I substituted a couple of things, tomato/onion chutney instead of mango chutney for instance, it can’t make that much difference, well I’m hoping not lol.

The chap that was fixing our mower bought that back this morning, it looks all nice and clean not filthy and dusty like the embarrassing condition it was in when he collected it 😜 just need some dry weather and I can top the smaller paddock to keep it under control.

You will remember that we had the big apple tree pruned and the prunings left for us to deal with, which we have never got round to 🙄 we moved them from in the paddock to just over the fence in the front yard, the idea was to eventually shred them. I have watched the birds absolutely loving these piles of twigs, I don’t know if it’s insects in there or if they like the cover but they are having a ball with it so I’m inclined to leave them for the time being, they are not hurting anything, not particularly unsightly and anything that creates that much wildlife interest probably needs to be left untouched for a couple of seasons at least.

Stick pile that the birds are loving

I discovered last night that the glass rope seal on the Rayburn flue has come away, that’s not ideal, the rope on the other flue is also loose and we haven’t changed the door one for a couple of years, we have a bit of rope and glue left but I have ordered some more to get all three of them up to scratch, that will be a filthy job to look forward too 😝 I was hoping the weather was going to warm up bough not to need it for a day or two but it seems not as we are forecast a day of rain tomorrow 🙄

I made a favourite cake, Mary Berry’s orange and sultana cake, the goose I thought was sitting tight turned out not be to be, I collected up 20 eggs yesterday which had to be discarded and today there were four fresh ones but as I picked one up I dropped it onto another and they both have cracks, waste not want not, time for a cake 😀 The other egg just had a chip out of it so I hard boiled it for snacking on 😀 I thought about lots of different things to make with it but mostly I’m lured towards something sweet and with the steroids at the moment that’s best to be avoided 😜

Tuesday: I have Mia today and we have just had a quiet day of films really as I had a bout of double vision last night which is a bit of a worry, never had it before, I didn’t feel unwell and it only lasted about 10 mins but I’m wary today. I will need to get it checked out, probably to do with the first lot of new meds but it wants investigation.

During the quiet day I had a strange visitor, I say strange more odd really, a young lady called to ask for work with horses she said she was living in her car with her dog at the moment 😕 first impressions were that she was a respectable person then I was worried that she may be a vulnerable person or missing person? In the end I reported it on the W Oxon RCRG which is like neighbourhood watch just in case, I listened to my instinct for a change 🙄

The difference between rain in the Winter and rain in the Spring: Winter, it’s cold, wet and grey, Spring it’s not so cold, still wet but everything looks green and lush, definitely a more pleasant outlook lol and we get glimpses of sun occasionally.

Wednesday: Dry, the sun is trying to come out, still a tad cold though we could do with some heat. I spent an hour trying to log into an app, you know the routine, we don’t recognise your username or password, funny that as you are taking my money 😝 please reset the password, the password should be numbers and letter only, they f..ing well are 🙄 this session has timed out please try again 😡 we don’t recognise your username (or the new password you just reset) 🤬 eventually I got in, I love a bit of technology but sometimes it tries the patience of a saint!

I went outside to get a few jobs done, feed the rabbits, torts, etc, water the plants in the poly tunnel, much easier now John has connected the water up, put some clean bedding in with the ducks, round up the geese from the front yard because John left the gate open 🙄 Enough of that, back inside for a cup of coffee and a sit down, I think I am trying to run before I can walk here so recognising the need for rest is vital.

I sit down with my coffee, think, ooo I will catch up with The Walking Dead, oh no you won’t, the smart hub is updating, please try later 😣 Well I tried later and on and off it took till 3pm to get everything back up and running as it should, who has time for all this sh*t, bloody smart tv, not that smart because it fails to recognise the firetv stick which decided that as the tv didn’t want to know, neither did it 😣 unplug it, plug it back in, unplug it again, wait for it to load (forever) then just freeze and do nothing, unplug it, plug it back in and so it goes on, eventually for no reason that I can figure out it suddenly decides, ooo I think I will work now. I am pretty good with the technology on the whole (and when I say good I mean I can find my way around jargon and get stuff downloaded and set up, stuff like free streaming, I can get that up and running so I’m not a technob 🙄) but this has driven me buggy today 😡 Anyhooo all done now at least John will be able to record the F1 this weekend, now he is a technob, he constantly points the wrong remote at the box shaking it wondering why it won’t work, that’s why we now have a smart remote, one remote, many tasks but not many buttons and it doesn’t take much to mess with his lack of tech skills 😜 but he always insists on holding the remote and asking me how to do stuff 🤣

I had a few visitors today, Mum called in the morning and she was going to do some work in the garden but to be honest the wind was a bit cold so we had coffee and a chat instead, Shelley, Josh and Flo came in the afternoon and then Charlie popped in after work.

Inbetween those welcome faces I did the afternoon feeding and the egg shed then spent an hour in the tunnel potting some overwintered stuff on. It was nice and sunny and very warm in there by about 4pm so I took my guilty pleasure with me, a bottle of Dr Pepper, I can’t drink alcohol any more as it doesn’t agree with the meds and mostly I drink defcaf coffee, tea or water so I buy a small bottle when we go shopping and save it for the right time 😁

I have a lightweight cold frame that the top plastic has long since gone on and wanted to put some environmesh on it to stop the hens getting at the plants. A simple enough job you would think 🤣 except that I just wanted to quickly staple gun the mesh on, the problem is that Mia, the dog, does not like the staple gun. She happily throws a ball round Johns feet when he is using the chainsaw, gets in the way of the tractor or any other vehicle, doesn’t mind the hedge trimmer, wood chipper, log splitter or any other type of tool but she does not like the staple gun and takes off when she hears it. I only needed to put about 5 staples in so I took the chance, but as soon as the first one went in she shot off up the back so I had to call her, get her in the back and shut the door. Couple this with hens trying to get in the shed the minute I opened the door to get said staple gun out and the risk of the fox coming because the dogs are not out and you can see how a simple, two minute job, is very far from it 😝 Objective finally achieved, normal service resumed 😀

Frost is forecast tonight, -1, I did go round and have a look at the blossom on the top fruit trees but I have rather too many to cover them all so I figure that nature will have to take its course and hope it’s not too hard a frost and not too much blossom suffers, I don’t know how they manage in commercial orchards, I’m guessing they don’t cover rows and rows of trees so there must be a balance there somewhere.

Thursday: ‘oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day’ absolutely 😀 I spent the morning pricking out seedlings, cauliflowers mostly lol, I seem to have a lot of them 😝 I planted up three rows of onions, covered various things to stop the hens scratching it all up again. I have come to the conclusion that the hens do more good than harm provided I cover vulnerable plants because they are doing a great job of weeding and manure going as they go plus they are eating up insects along the way, probably beneficial ones too but you can’t have it all 😜 Remember the lady who is going to hatch out chicks with the children she looks after, well she collected her eggs today and I’m looking forward to hearing about the progress and fingers crossed a good batch.

Sat having a cuppa at 5pm, I’ve had one of the best days especially of late, no pain, I feel well (famous last words) I have energy to get stuff done, but been pacing myself 😁 just a glorious day for doing stuff in the garden. In the afternoon Sam and Shelley came over with Josh, Flo and Mia and we had a fab afternoon, firstly giving the tortoises a sponge bath to get the winter dust off them, then washing their play car and having a go in it, then up to the small paddock at the back to pick daffodils for the Mummy’s and dandelions, grass and sticky willy (goosegrass) for the rabbits, back down to feed the rabbits, brilliant 😀 After they had gone I collected the eggs, filled up all the water buckets, picked up some bits and pieces to put away and then came in for me cuppa 😀 Loving life today 😘

John came home and I went and mowed the strip between the paddock and the manège as I don’t want the grass to get too long down there, the geese will be able to graze it nicely now and hopefully keep it down a bit. Job done, day done, well nearly, just the dinner to cook 👩‍🍳

Shelley took some lovely photos yesterday, we have a temporary viewing platform on the farm and the views are fabulous, I don’t like heights so I have only climbed halfway up but she went right up and took this:

View across the paddock and beyond, from a platform 😀

It’s Friiiiiiiiiiday 😀: I don’t know why because it doesn’t really make much difference to us we are always working but Fridays still seem like the best day of the week 😀 The sun is shinning this morning so that makes all the difference, although it’s cold and was pretty cold overnight too, we didn’t light the Rayburn as it had been so warm in the day, that was a mistake 🙄 I will be lighting it tonight lol

I have my first lot of blood tests this morning since starting the new meds so am just pottering about before I get them done then I will crack on later.

Another glorious morning working in the tunnel and outside. I was pottering about taking some leaves off of an apple tree that I have already moved once and is still struggling, it has powdery mildew and it’s best to pick off the infected leaves to try and control it, anyway I looked up across the paddock and saw Jack in the field then I saw another horse which looked a bit too close to be in the field opposite. I went into the front paddock and realised that the horse was loose on the road, I ran (I say that lamely) to the lane, by this time a couple of cars had stopped and the occupants trying to find out who it belonged to, not me for a change 😝 the loose horse was charging up and down the lane trying to get back to where it came from, it went up and along to the farm track opposite, I met the young girl who lives there, she was walking back home with the dog and we tried to corale it into a nearby gateway, nope it wasn’t haven’t any of it, eventually it stopped by another gateway and the young lady opened the gate and got it in, good for her, I was pretty useless really as I couldn’t keep up with the horse. It took about 15 mins but any accident was avoided and the horse was safe back behind a gate, not the gate it’s supposed to be behind but still that’s for the owner to sort out later.

I carried on with my day, potting on, covering plants, then I remembered I hadn’t secured the gate I went through when the horse was loose so I went for a wander into the paddock, picked some wild garlic, had a quick look at a couple of things I planted in the hedgerow and wandered back. I’m going to have some pasta, cream cheese and wild garlic for lunch 😀

The flat leaf parsley has done well over winter in the tunnel so I have picked a bunch and hung it to dry, gave the rabbits some of the limper bits that are dragging on the soil, which they loved, hopefully the parsley will flush again now, I have curly parsley too but prefer the flat leaf variety, the smell is fabulous.

Lost my mojo around 1pm, all that running I suspect 😜 time for a nap me thinks 😁

It seems every one has a different plan, egg customers, deliveries, you name they come a calling when I just nod off so onto plan B a cuppa and a piece of cake and see what daytime tv is putting out these days 😝 Find it, fix it, flog it, there is inspiration for all the junk we have lying around here, now where did I put my tools?

Eventually I go out and do the feeding and egg collection, pick some rhubarb for the little shed and then think, I have a spare hour I will mow the small back paddock. The mower worked perfectly fine last night and I was thinking how much easier life is when things work properly (it’s just had it’s service) but no the damn thing does not want to start, the brake is on, the choke is on, there is fuel in in, the cutter is not engaged, all checks done, it turns over but won’t fire up 🤬 why, why oh why can’t some things just be straight forward. There is another way to start it, with the pull cord but that takes two people and there is just me, I could put something heavy on the seat (safety feature, has to have weight on it .i.e my arse) but when I take the weight off it will stop, I swear to god they make these things just to piss people off 😣 ‘Right said Fred, we’ll ave a cuppa tea’ and try again in a moment or two 🙄

Tried again, still won’t start, abandon that job from my head then 😕

Picked a whole bunch of stuff for the rabbits and Guinea pig who seemed very happy with their supper, they had : Dead nettle, Lilac, Raspberry shoots, Hazel, Lovage, Grass,Dandelion, Mint, Comfrey, Groundsel and chard, got to be a whole lot better than the generic pellets and there is an abundance growing now so that’s good. I decided I will let mint, strawberries, dead nettle and groundsel grow wherever it likes from now on as it’s all free food for the rabbits.

John came home, got on the mower and started it first time, course he did, FML😣 he went in and made a cuppa while I went off to mow the grass and ran out of petrol halfway round, yes, this is a real day 🙄 He went off to get some more petrol because of course we don’t have any left while I light the fire, do the washing up, hang up the washing to dry, feed and water the hatchlings and wait for him to return hopefully with some dinner as well 😜

Ate dinner, finished off the mowing, job done ✅

Next door had all her hens and her duck wiped out by the fox late yesterday afternoon, she is very upset and I know just how she feels ☹️

Saturday: Cold but sunny already 😀 John went off to help Shelley and Martin with their bathroom first thing so I did the morning rounds. That’s the first time I have done it all for weeks, I was going round thinking, have I done everything, lol, it was quite nice to have a purpose again 😀 after the feeding, watering, eggs etc I made a coffee and wandered up to the small paddock with my coffee to pick daffodils 🌼 lovely 😊 We haven’t sold loads of bunches but we sold a few and that’s cheered up someone’s day so it’s all good.

Busy morning in the garden planting stuff up and hoeing weeds down, bucketfuls for the rabbits though 😀 We are going to have to do something about the 40 free range hens though, I can’t see me being able to grow much with them all over the place, they are either eating stuff or treading on it and breaking it! I would have liked the front paddock to recover before them going back out on it but it’s looking likely that we are going to have to put them back out there sooner rather than later for my sanity and the sake of home grown fruit and veg 🙄

I am right here with a fork trying to dig over the ground 😂

John came back in the afternoon and we set about starting the brooder for the ducklings, we were given some big sturdy ply boxes (that aeroplane wheels come in) a couple of years ago and have stored them ever since wondering what we could use them for, well now we know they will make excellent brooders 😀 so we got the basic size and shape made up then went to Witney to find some small gauge mesh to make the top with, I accidentally bought a wisteria while we were there 🙄 I have done a full shift today because John then went back to Martin and Shelleys to finish some pipe work, came home and went off out for a drink! To be fair he/we hardly ever go out socially but it is farewell drinks for a company he has been using for over 30 years and they have now closed down, end of an era, he started using them went he was a very young plumber, it was a independent business so you get to know each other well, they know our family, have been in the know when all the girls were born and Sam even went to work for them for a few years so it was a lengthy and personal connection 😀 Anyway it means I put the birds to bed tonight AND I GET THE REMOTE 😜

We have made plans for getting the free range hens into the small back paddock behind electric fencing with added strand fencing, hopefully the fox won’t like that but I do have to get them out of my garden! I know that last night a very mangey fox was shot in the vicinity, it wasn’t in good condition and that’s what happens when they are not controlled, not all foxes are healthy and well, there are a lot out there that are diseased, maimed from vehicle incidents, generally in bad condition, controls are needed to keep the remaining population healthy, not hunting, that’s fine, I don’t necessarily agree with that but culling and controlling, yes that needs to happen for the sake of a healthy population.

Sunday: Not a bad morning a tad colder than of late but the Sun is out. John did the outside morning stuff while I did the inside stuff. Then we went off early to do a few things including a stint at the garden centre as I have some vouchers that were burning a hole in my pocket now it’s growing weather. HOWEVER I could not believe the prices of plants 😲 shocking! I think this is definitely something to get into, it’s money for old rope providing you have the space to bring them on, honestly I couldn’t bring myself to buy some of the things I would have liked (even though I have vouchers lol) I thought ‘I’m not paying that for a bog standard shrub or plant that I could propagate’ 😜 having said that the place was rammed with buyers. I did get a few things and I will definitely be splitting them come Autumn and selling them on next year lol, in the meantime I will be visiting plant stalls at the local fetes where you should still get a bargain or two 🙄

Back home and John is cold so lighting the fire midday, I must admit the wind is a bit cold but it can only get better can’t it?

In then out again to get some food shopping, John thinks if the biscuit barrel is empty we need a full shop 😝 we only needed a few things but spent most of the time chatting to people we hadn’t seen for a while 🙄 I picked up four plants while I was at the supermarket at about an 1/4 of the price they are in the garden centre 😬 crazy.

Posted in Friesland Farm

A moment to cherish, plenty of jobs & visitors.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 25th Feb: Frosty, sunny, glorious 😀 A new week 😀 John has returned to work today I don’t think he is in the best of moods as I made him do some work at the weekend as well 😬 but as I explained we have to get some stuff done while the weather is with us 😝 I am hoping the weather holds enough to get the Hen hut moved a little ready for the new birds and to get the front paddock dragged and rolled, if we miss the window of opportunity who knows what the weather will do and when we can eventually get it done. It is not something I can get done by myself as the chains are really heavy to move, even attaching them to the tractor is an effort, a few years back I would have had a damn good go but these days I won’t even attempt it as it would just result in frustration and tears lol. In a normal year I would get Samantha to help me if I couldn’t do it by myself but she is expecting their second (& third, yes twins!) and so asking her is off limits for now 😀

I walked round yesterday I wanted to get a look at two things, the daffodils, they are just about up, pretty much the same as bulbs down the driveway so that’s good, bulbs in pots are up and flowering so they are way ahead. The second thing was to see if there is any sign of the wild garlic I planted along the front paddock hedge, no sign yet but I am pretty excited for these this year, it will be a real treat to pick some of that and I will probably put some out for sale for the more adventurous culinary customers. I need to have a look in the polytunnel to make sure the beans and peas ok, Shelley said she gave them some water when it got very warm, I need to give the citrus trees a little drink as well, not too much in case the temps plummet again.

The geese are laying 4 eggs a day between them, I’m still convinced the two youngsters are female so we may even get more a day than that, I might have to find somewhere local to sell them too, although social media selling pages produce great results I have found in the past.

One thing I learnt while I was away is that it’s not necessarily the work that makes my hands/feet swell and joints hurt, it happens anyway even while on holiday, I will await the results of my blood tests and see how we proceed from there 🙄

3.30 and I’m exhausted and contemplating a power nap, I have been outside all day trying to secure the area that the tortoises will go into when they wake up which won’t be long. I made some of the fences back in autumn out of pallets but I needed to fix them in place, easier said than done 😋 and then make another piece of fence for the front. Sam and Mia came over at lunchtime and together we hashed up something that will keep them in, I say hashed as we had a box full of useless screws to choose from and a saw that would be difficult to cut a melon with! Even so, we have a sort of result, just one more bit to do and it will be ready when they are and hopefully they won’t escape 😬 Then on to feed the birds and collect the eggs, not many tea breaks and certainly no dinner break today 🥴

Two cups of tea, some ibrufen and a quick nap and it’s on to the next jobs, luckily John was home by 4.30 so we went out and cleaned the two stables that the birds are in and put in barrowfuls of nice clean straw, he also sorted out the rainwater from the tanks as it was blocked this morning. Then John cleaned out the back pen ready for new birds in March while I lit the fire and sorted out tonight’s and tomorrow’s dinner, annnnnd relax finally. A good day, I’m happy with what we got done 😀

I am in the middle of liaising with a lady who runs a childcare group locally and each year she has eggs to hatch out for the children to watch and learn about, this year she will hopefully be having some of our light Sussex eggs, they will be incubated, hatched and reared under a brooder, when they are ready to go outside we will have them back to grow them on, this is a win, win situation for both of us as the children get to be excited by hatching fluffy chicks and we get young birds back to bring on to adulthood 😀

Tuesday: I have Mia today but the weather is great and so we have been outside, walking in the paddock first thing, feeding and watering the rabbits, then letting the birds out and collecting the eggs, playing with the dogs. Even with a broken arm she is a real trooper and nothing stops her trying, it’s amazing how quickly children adapt. Shelley, Josh and Florence came over at lunchtime, a bit of playing in the garden, then it was time for a sit down on the sofa, it’s pretty tiring carrying your arm round in a heavy plaster cast lol.

Mia and I have managed to feed the birds and collect the eggs, not that there are very many at the moment, I keep wondering why we bother really, I’d like the hens to be truly free range but the loses are just too great ☹️

This warm spell is a bit disconcerting, a false Spring, I keep thinking I need to get on and then reminding myself that they are bonus gardening days, the temptation to crack on with seed sowing is great but experience tells me that it is better to wait and so tidying up is all that is needed at the moment 😀

I have been lighting the Rayburn around 5pm because it’s so warm we haven’t needed it all day long but we do need hot water and some heat overnight.

Wednesday: Another lovely sunny, warm day, I had Florence for the morning so went out and did everything quickly before she arrived. She is a pretty laid back baby and so I managed to get a few things in the house sorted while she was playing with toys on the floor, mostly we spent the time playing ‘peek a boo’ or ‘pat a cake’. I don’t often get the chance to spend time with her on her own so we made the most of it. In the early afternoon. I went and got a bit of food shopping in preparation for Dad and Sue coming to stay next week after that it was sit down with a quick cuppa before going out to feed the birds and collect the eggs. By now it was 4pm and so I thought I would have an hour in the large poly tunnel, a bit of weeding and preparing the ground. I got about 45 minutes done and Mum and Ken turned up to collect an item they were borrowing, time for another cuppa 😀 The rabbit were happy with the fresh weeds, I need to get back into the routine of supplying them with fresh greens again. I think the tortoises have woken up as I can hear bashing in the shed, not quite sure what to do with them yet as although it’s been warm enough if the temps dip low again it could be disastrous! I ordered a 100w lamp because now they have woken up they need to come out and rehydrate and begin eating, I will need to find somewhere inside for them to ‘bask’ for a while.

Thursday: There are spots of rain on the window this morning so I think it will be an entirely different day altogether from what we have had over the past week. I have two jobs to sort this morning along with the usual, the first is to get the tortoise house out and find somewhere to set them up, the second is to separate one of the Light Sussex cockerels as he is being picked on and has blood on his head. This is the more dominant cock pecking him on the head to get subservience but it can all get out of hand and end in death so separation is the key. These are the birds we will be eating but at the moment I need them to produce eggs for incubation, however four cockerels to two hens is way too many so I will remove two and fatten them up.

I decided this morning that I will do that good old school experiment with the runner beans in a jam jar that we always did in primary school for Josh and Mia, I think they will enjoy watching the beans grow. It’s simple enough, a jam jar, a bean seed, a toilet roll inner and a bit of water, voila, science at home 😀

I decided that the best place for the torts will be the tack room, Cruella De Ville seems to have disappeared, her food has not been eaten for days and it’s clear there has been some disturbance in there as everything is scattered and there are chicken feathers. My guess is that a Hen has gone to bed in there, the fox has gone in and had her and the cat was terrified and fled, only a guess but judging by the scene and the clues that’s what has occurred 🙄 I will block up the cat flap but leave food water and a dirt tray just in case she is well hidden and set the torts up in there with a uv lamp.

Two of the welsh harlequin ducks have bonded and keep escaping outside the perimeter, presumably to find somewhere to set up home and raise ducklings. Unfortunately at the moment I can’t let that happen not until after Tuesday next week at least because they will need to be kept in all day just for the day, after that I can rearrange everything and fingers crossed they play happy families. The geese are laying phenomenally well and my educated guess was right the two youngsters are female, that means we are getting just over 40 goose eggs a week 😲 I really need to find somewhere to push the sales of these lol.

Meanwhile in the ‘ffs’ race, the sink in the back has blocked up, the washing machine discharging water is backing up into the sink, I’m am nothing if not a plumbers wife though and it’s a job I can manage, just not one I needed today 😝

Out to clean the goose hut out, I need to get all the old stuff out to make sure that I haven’t missed any eggs so far, only 1 so that’s good, I will now know for sure that all eggs are fresh eggs. I filled it up with fresh straw then shut the door, the reason being that the hens will soon find it and oik it all out if I don’t. Let me tell you a bit about hens, they are endearing and exasperating at the same time, endearing when they run and skip in the spring to catch insects on the wing, when they lay you a lovely egg, when they are clearly enjoying dustbathing and soaking up the sun 😀 But chickens are ninjas, they silently follow you and then when you open a door to the shed/polytunnel/tack room, they shoot in-front of you with lightening speed and proceed to wreck the joint. You May think they are light footed but they knock over everything, they scratch up everything and scratch everything out of where it ought to be. They also lay in the most awkward or inappropriate places you could possibly imagine, if it looks like you are going to get cramp or a near death experience climbing over something to get the egg, that’s where they laid it, if it’s just out of arms reach down a crevice, that’s where they laid it, honestly, free range is an obstacle course of egg collecting 😜 The ducks by complete contrast will dump their egg anywhere, oh we’ve been let out, let’s go, ooops laid an egg while I was running to the food bowl 😂

I moved the tortoise hut from the shed near the house to the tack room and sealed up the cat hole so they can’t get out, but neither can the cat if she is still in there so I will put a litter tray down, at least I will know if she is about or not. The lamp is arriving today and I need to put out some water for them to rehydrate and see how it goes from there.

We went out for lunch today as it was Shelley’s birthday, we picked up Josh from school later on and he wanted to help do the animals so he stayed while Shelley went home, Sam and Mia came out to help as well. I had a moment when I felt really blessed as I had a grandchild in each hand walking up to the hay barn, one of them was dressed in a fairy outfit with her wellies on 😂 the other having had a full day at school and helping out in his uniform, both jumping in muddy puddles on the way, that has to be right up there with one of my favourite moments 😍😍

Friday: March 1st St Davids Day I have got a fair bit to get done today, sat having a coffee at 8am having already cleaned the bathroom, put on a wash load and sorted out the spare room ready for Dad and Sue to come and stay on Sunday for a week. The weather is back to its grey, damp look but I don’t feel that the temperatures have gone too low again yet, it feels pleasant enough for the time of year.

Did the morning rounds, I can’t collect the goose eggs yet as one is still laying so I will have to do that later, spotted Diesel sitting on the bottom paddock hedge-line near the rabbit holes, which is good because we haven’t seen him for a few days, obviously out hunting 😀

Back inside now to get everything shipshape 😝

Saturday: Another dull, grey, uninspiring day today but work goes on 😋 I did the morning rounds while John finished cutting the hedge he started last week. When you watch farming programmes on the telly they always have the big equipment to do the jobs but in smallholding it’s nearly always done by hand making the jobs long and sometimes heavy work and most Smallholders do all the jobs themselves, no contractors to do it for them while they sit having a coffee lol.

The horse came in last night as we had our chap here to shoot, his mission was successful. My neighbour had said she thought the fox was coming at around 5.30 and so he set up around 5.15 and lo and behold by 5.45 he had done the job he came to do, he stayed until 9pm and though he could hear more that were further away he didn’t see any more on our land. That gives us a bit of a lull for a while and the hope that no more birds will be picked off. We are expecting a batch of new hens in next week, these will go back behind the electric fence rather than being fully free range, it’s just not possible, they will be free range in terms of the area they get is very large about 1/2 acre to 40 birds and on grass, moving regularly so that will have to be sufficient.

I finally got round to checking the tortoises, I unpacked a bit of straw to find them and there is movement there so they have survived hibernation, I’ve set up the heat lamp and put out water so hopefully they will slowly come back to life 😀

John went off to get the feed and I spent a pleasant hour or so in the poly tunnel and raking up debris in the garden. It was warm in the tunnel and I’m planning to get some seeds sown in there soon (as soon as I get around to it) probably some beetroot and early carrots, I have set a mouse trap just in case there are some living nearby as they will just gobble up and seeds that are sown his time of year 🙄 I went through the seeds I have already and decided on salad leaves, radishes, turnips, beetroot, spring onions and all year round cauliflower, I will also get some more broad beans and some peas on the go and see how we get on. Once the spare room is spare again I can use the window sill to start off some peppers and tomatoes, it’s the only sill I have got that will be useful so may as well use it. I realised I have no carrot seed so ordered some and will sow some of those too, these will only be small amounts just to get something growing but with most we should have something to eat in no time at all 😀 I might give planting/seed sowing with the moon phases a go, nothing to lose I figure and it may well just be beneficial, the idea is the pull of the moon which affects tides will also pull moisture up from the soil and help the plants develop better, with this is mind, leafy above ground crops are good for sowing next Wednesday & Thursday so that will fit in well with my week 😀

Sunday: Dull, drizzly but not too cold this morning, I stepped outside to drink my coffee first thing, heard the Lions roaring and watched the woodpecker fly across to our ash tree then proceed to hammer it 😀 happy mornings. It’s a busy day today, John unloaded the feed while I did the animals, then I needed to get some cooking done as Dad and Sue are arriving later plus we have some other lunch guests as well. I made a gluten free almond and coconut cake, dead easy and looks good, I will let you know how it tastes later on, I have a ham on the stove boiling reading for sandwiches all week, a keto avocado, chicken and bacon salad for lunch, a bit of hoovering to do and a quick wipe round of the bathroom, sort out the Rayburn ready for lighting then we are all good 😀

I walked to the edge of the paddock this morning while I was waiting for the goose water to fill up and there are the first signs of the wild garlic, excited muchly 😜, I pinched tip off just for a taste, mmm delish 😋 can’t wait for it all to come through.

Dad and Sue arrived and I forgot all about publishing the blog 🤣