Tag: winter

Posted in Friesland Farm

Foggy, frosty & freezing brrr, Winter has arrived.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 23rd November 2020: An atmospheric foggy morning this morning and it had been cold enough overnight for a frost. It’s almost noon and I haven’t stopped this morning until now. With the mornings getting ever darker I said to John that I would take over the morning feeding etc so that he can get off to work on time so this morning was my first for a long time that I have done everything. Feed and water all the animals, clean out the ducks, fill up the wild bird feeders, put the washing on, get the milk in, take the rubbish and empty milk bottles out, you get the idea. I got a chicken out of the freezer yesterday for tonight’s dinner and so I figured as I was going to have the oven on I might as well make good use of it. At the moment I have bread on the second prove and two cakes in the oven and some fruit stewing ready for the crumble topping I also made, busy busy.

One of the cakes was a simple quick fruit cake the second was a honey and ginger cake which is lovely. The reason I made this one is because it used natural yoghurt and I had some that needed using up, win, win, it’s a River Cottage one and I would definitely make it again. It’s light not heavy, not too much sugar in it so not too sweet.

The only thing I didn’t use was the cloves, not sure I would like that and I know for sure John wouldn’t 😜
A foggy, finger nipping start to the week this morning.

Watching Countryfile last night I was pleased to see a section on hedgerows and how important they are to our wildlife. Trees, we know are hugely important but not many people think about hedgerows, these are wildlife corridors and when they were ripped out for the war effort that was a tragedy, a necessary one admittedly but there should have been provision to put them back in at a later date. I listen in polite horror when people talk about ripping them out to get a better view, of what, the next field, the wildlife and the hedgerows beyond? oh the irony of it 😏 Anyway I am glad that this topic has been bought firmly to the fore and hope that many thousands of miles of hedge get planted in the future. Hedges are great windbreaks, they are micro climates for thousands of insects and ideal nesting and roosting places for our native birds. Someone once said to us when we moved here ‘you should take out that row of trees so your view is better’ that’s a row of hazels they were talking about, its a native small tree/hedge that provides food and shelter for a plethora of wildlife, Humans 🙄

Last night we got two lots of the hens in from the paddock and also moved the light Sussex to the outdoor pen so that made feeding a bit easier this morning. We crated up the first lot just as dusk arrived, 19 in that hut, we then crated up the second lot, 10 to a crate, it was heavy pushing the wheelbarrow with two crates so we left one in the field while we took the other. When we got back they had escaped and we had to load them all over again, luckily when they got out they just went back into the hut as it was dark by this time, there was about thirty of that second lot, can’t precisely remember the number but roughly. The light Sussex we rounded up easily and we have 9 of those well 11 actually but the other two live with Ted 🙄 I counted the front lot this morning when I let them out and there are 36 of them, just over 100 in total and we are only getting about 48 eggs a day, some of them are free loading 😂

Fabulous news of an effective vaccine from Oxford University today, very proud to be Oxfordian born and bred, Oxford University Hospitals are our local hospitals and we are incredibly lucky to have world class services provided by them 😀

Looks like we will come out of lockdown into a tiered system again, still no definite idea of what we are allowed to do for Christmas though but all non essential shops and businesses can now open again so at least they will get their Christmas trade. The numbers of infected people are falling and so are the deaths but that’s because we have been in a lockdown, what will happen over the next couple of months is anyone’s guess, still, with a few vaccines looking promising there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Tuesday: An altogether different morning this morning, much milder and the sun was shinning first thing though it has disappeared now. It was shinning beautifully on the hazel tree outside the back door, the leaves were glowing golden 😀

I did the morning rounds, feeding and letting out, collecting the duck eggs, today I have all three shifts to do, morning, evening and putting to bed as John has a job he wants to get finished, normally he is home in time to put them away.

I went into the small tunnel to water the carrot seedlings, I was hoping we would have carrots for Christmas but something keeps eating the tops off 😏 a mouse I suspect, honestly you think it would be a simple enough thing to do but others have different ideas. I am not sure what to do really, I don’t want to trap it but I do want my carrots 🙄

I ordered some roots trainers for the sweet pea but they took ages to arrive so I potted them up, two days later the root trainers came 😜 so I may start off an early batch of eating peas in them and see how that pans out. Again it’s the little critters that are the problem, they love pea and bean seeds and I think there is a mouse in the greenhouse too as the sunflower seeds I spread out to dry also got eaten 😖 I think I will have to trap as at this rate I will end up with nothing.

I haven’t decided what I will do today but I have plenty of choices, it’s mild enough to be outside working, I have left over chicken to use and make into soup or pie or both and I need to go through the presents I have bought and see what else I need to get, that last one can wait for a rainy day I think 🤔

Lyra Silvertounge is not the only one who wants to know about dust! Apologies to anyone who isn’t watching ‘His dark materials’ as you won’t have a clue who that is but I would also like to know where all the bloody dust comes from! I know the wood burner is probably a big culprit and the low winter sun shining in doesn’t help but seriously 😩

In the end I decided to sort the presents and see what I still need to get and then as I figured I hadn’t really done much I ought to go for a walk and get some exercise. I also spent far too long looking for some new lampshades for the living room online 🤪 I made up for it when I got back as I got the dinner sorted for this evening, lit the Rayburn, fed the birds, collected the eggs, sorted them and put them out and then went back out to put the birds to bed once it was dark. My new book by my fav author arrived hot off the press today so I have that to look forward to reading but first I am part way through another one so I need to finish it, that’s what the dark winter nights are for, that hot chocolate 🥰

Wednesday: Is it only Wednesday 😏 the weather is horrible this morning, raining and wet underfoot, I have already had my first soaking of the day even my knees are wet! It probably won’t be the last time I get wet either if it rains all day I have another two lots of rounds to do later but for now at least everything is fed and watered 😀 I have left the front lot of hens in this morning, I will let them out later, I want to see exactly how many eggs they are laying and if any of them are laying elsewhere such as the hedgerows etc. I will have to repeat this for a few days as they can hold onto their eggs if they are not getting to their favourite laying sites.

Meanwhile I have come in and I am having a well deserved coffee now, I took a photo of the hazel tree outside the back door, it’s the same one that was shinning golden yesterday and today looks wet and forlorn. The three photos are Monday, Tuesday and today just goes to show exactly how changeable our weather is here in the UK and justifies our obsession with talking about it don’t you think?

I really should have done outside work yesterday but I didn’t and so now I have missed that opportunity nevertheless I still went round and checked a few things. The carrots that are having the tops nibbled, the oranges which are still ripening and the onions and garlic I planted. I am pleased to say they all have little green shoots, the shallots have multiple shoots and only about five of them came out of the ground, they are now firmly back in place. The cauliflower plants are also being nibbled, urgh the struggle is real, I am still thinking mice as they are under cover and just the nice green leafy bits have been eaten, I need to rescue those otherwise they won’t produce anything at all 😏

I indulged myself with an hour or so of reading this morning but then I thought I really ought to do something.

If we dont have our own chicken in the freezer I buy organic or high welfare chicken direct from other farms. These are expensive compared to the mass produced ones from the supermarket but I prefer to know that what I am eating has had a decent life. We are probably talking at about £12-£15 a bird, what! I hear you cry, but for that reason alone I make sure I get every last bit of use from it that I can. From the roast chicken we had on Monday John has taken chicken sandwiches two days in a row and there is a bit for tomorrow’s sandwich as well. Last night John had chicken casserole and I had cold chicken with baked potato and salad, today I have taken the carcass apart and any spare meat has gone into a pan with leeks and vegetables, stock and thickener and is basically a chicken pie filling although I am going to put mashed potatoes on the top much like a shepherds pie. We will have that tonight for dinner and there is a spare single portion that I will freeze for another day, the carcass is now in the slow cooker along with celery, onion, garlic, bay, parsley and black pepper which will make a tasty chicken stock that I can freeze for another day. It doesn’t end there though as I peeled off all the remaining skin and this will be fed to the dogs later, all that will be left is the bones. So that is seven portions of a decent sized meal, three lots of sandwiches and stock, if you only counted the main meals that works out from a £15 bird at £2.15 per person, very good value indeed I reckon, but you have to work at it 😀

This afternoons jobs were a bit of a clock watch game, I had decided not to light the Rayburn until late because it was fairly mild and didn’t feel cold indoors. The problem came when the first go at lighting it failed, I had primed it with a natural firefighter, kindling and wood and lit it, left it to get going came back and it had gone out 🙄 This then put me under a bit of pressure because by now it is about 4.15 and it’s starting to get dark and I need to go and shut the birds up for the night. The dilemma is do I go out and do the birds and light the fire when I get back in and not use the oven to cook the dinner or do I light the fire, wait for it to get up to temperature but risk the birds getting caught by any fox that might be around 🤷‍♀️ In the end I decided to light the fire but it didn’t draw very well and took ages to get going. That’s when I end up clock watching and waiting for it to get going, nervous that the darker it gets the more likely it is that something will come along, eventually the flue got up to temp and I was able to shut it down and go out to put everything away for the night, note to self, light the fire earlier next time 😜

It’s been a long couple of days and I will be glad to see the end of this second lockdown. It hasn’t really been a tight lockdown and many people are still going to work, school etc but if you don’t do the school run and don’t go to an external workplace, only go to the shop once a week and don’t see people it’s a very long day and week!

Friday, or is it Thursday? Well this morning I thought it was Friday so I took my Friday concoction of meds, one of which I only have take on a Friday. Any other day I mixed up would not matter but a Friday lot means I can’t sit or stand still for at least an hour after taking it, not that it’s a problem as I have plenty to do 😀

Anyway it definitely is Thursday which I figured out after about an hour 😜 There was a hard frost this morning and even though the sun came out it was still nippy doing the rounds. The goose door I couldn’t even get open to start with as it was frozen to the frame. None of the water taps are working so I will have to do those later, must remember to do them in the afternoon so I don’t have that problem again 🙄

We have a lot of duck eggs at the minute, at one time we were struggling to keep up with demand for them and now that demand has dropped off the cliff edge, typical, over all our egg customers have reduced in number, probably because it’s winter but I suspect that a farm just up the road which is going the way of a farm shop is where some of our custom has gone. I had a think about this and thought ‘Am I bothered?’ and the answer is no not really, I always knew that a farm shop would take off really well here and if I had wanted to do it I would have but I don’t, I am happy tickling along as we are. In the beginning the plan was only ever to be self sufficient, the fact that it increased to egg and veg sales means that I cover the cost of what we are eating and planting which is a bonus and life is not too stressful at that so all in all that will do.

Gosh it was very chilly at 4.30 when I was putting the birds to bed, I reckon it was very near to freezing then so goodness knows what the overnight temps will go down to.

Some seeds I ordered arrived today, I think I have all I need for next year now, I don’t want to get caught out like I was last spring when the virus hit, this time I think it will be more to do with Brexit though so I’m trying to get ahead of the game.

Friday, definitely Friday today: Jeez if I thought it was cold yesterday it’s totally Baltic this morning. I have just come in from doing the morning rounds and my toes need thawing out 🙄 Very glad I did the water yesterday although I still had to break it all this morning. Everything is covered in white and the air is heavy with fog, it is pretty but only if you are inside looking out. I was feeding the horses in the paddock and just goes to show how much warmth they have in their bodies as Jack finished his breakfast he decided on a roll on the frosty ground, his body heat immediately thawed the grass, then he got up and had a bit of a welly round the paddock, lovely sight to see on a morning like this. Biscuit on the other hand was not so keen to move and I had to go across the paddock to take her breakfast, I am wondering how well she can see actually, just a couple of things she does makes me wonder, like not coming for her food, although she could just be stubborn of course, I will monitor more closely.

The new cladding on the front and insulation has done wonders for the indoor temps because normally on a day like today, when the fire goes out overnight, it would feel cold but it is not at all.

First thing this morning we had a delivery of six tonnes of top soil for the raised bed, grossly underestimated that we are going to need at least another six tonne if not eight 🤔

Had blood tests again this morning, hoping the situation has changed a little bit will have to wait and find out on Monday/Tuesday.

Saturday: Had a pig of a morning tidying up and burning the hawthorn cuttings from the hedge at the side. If you have ever handled it you will know the thorns are long and sharp and the branches intertwine, both these things make moving the stuff hazardous. I got a smack on the head from one particularly thick bit, countless scratches on my legs, hands and face, a thwack to the lip drawing blood and as if that wasn’t enough a burning piece of leaf went down my collar, I could smell my hair singe and feel my neck burning simultaneously. I hastily unzipped my coat and threw it on the floor and at that point all I really wanted to do was cry. Said clipping are now all burnt and we can continue to tidy the side up at our leisure 😜

Sunday: It was foggy when I got up, foggy at lunchtime and still foggy at dark, just a foggy dreary day. We did some bits of tidying out side after doing the rounds but it wasn’t at all nice working in the dank weather so we had the afternoon off apart from feeding and shutting away.

There ends another week and at the end of next week at least all the shops will be open again but also it means we will be able to go out for breakfast again one morning 😀 I didn’t realise how much I have missed a holiday until this week, I really could do with someone else doing the cooking, at least when we do finally get away it will seem like a real treat.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Crap weather, Dotty Iron Man rabbit & decisions, decisions.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

A bit late, sorry 😜 normal service will return when I feel better 🤒

Monday 17th Feb 2020: We are back round to Monday again how did that happen 😜 The remnants of storm Dennis have still been felt, lashings of rain, some gusts of winds, to be honest I expected the lake to have become a reservoir this morning but to my surprise it had receded quite a bit instead 🙄 and the river has almost gone too.

I did the morning rounds as per usual, the horses were still in their stables so I took them some hay and topped up the water buckets. I cleaned out the quail and then did a little bit outside, planted the pretty primroses and the miniature iris that I bought at the weekend. It was cold but not freezing, however, when my fingers and toes started to get cold I came back in. Paperwork was calling to me and I really needed to be able to see the top of the desk so I got on with sorting it out, doing some invoices and paying some bills.

Sam, Mia and the twiglets arrived mid afternoon and Sam had a look over the horses before turning them back out, she said they almost ran out lol, they don’t like being in.

I eventually got the Rayburn lit just before it was time to go out and do the afternoon feeding and egg collecting.

In the evening we went to pick up a new member of the pet menagerie, a little black and white rabbit, very sweet little girl and our other rabbit seems to like her, don’t worry I have checked and it’s definitely a girl 😜 The guinea pigs totally ignored her prefering to squirrel away the cabbage leaves I had given them to share lol.

Tuesday: An altogether better morning this morning, it’s not raining that’s a big bonus, it’s not too cold and the sun keeps trying to come out. The ground underfoot is awful, squelchy, sodden, sticky, muddy hopefully we will have a few dry days now.

I’ve just spent and hour and a half cleaning the bathroom 🙄 a proper clean, all the walls, toothbrush and white vinegar in the difficult areas, behind the towel rails etc. This is because we have 5 downlights and two of them had blown, the one in the shower cubicle over a year ago, we replaced them yesterday (long story as to why we hadn’t done it before now) and suddenly I could see all the areas that had got grubby 😮 so I decided to give it a right good clean, just as well I didn’t decide to work outside as the rain returned 😏

Shelley, Josh and Florence came round in the afternoon for a while and in the evening I had a Bowen therapy session booked.

Wednesday: A typical February day, dull, slightly cold and trying to rain. Before going out this morning I got some dinner going in the slow cooker, a rich beef stew if I get time I will pop in some dumplings.

Then out to do the animals, the new baby rabbit has been locked in her cage for the time being, I couldn’t quite believe it yesterday when I went out and couldn’t find her in the run with the others, turns out she is small enough to squeeze through a 2″ square mesh and she was in with the light sussex hens. I would have left her there but that run is not as secure as the other one and there are small gaps she could get out of so for her safety and my sanity she is in the cage which is within the run.

I pottered about for a little bit, putting clean bedding in the duck shed and checking the seed potatoes in the greenhouse. Again they have been nibbled, I thought it was a one off but no, not only the potatoes but the second lot of broad bean seeds have also been eaten along with the sweet peas 😡 I removed the seed potatoes and put them in a dark cupboard indoors and I have set a mouse trap, judging by the droppings it’s not a rat or a squirrel but a mouse which means it has probably set up home in there somewhere so I need to exterminate it 😕 sorry.

I contemplated finding more to do outside but it started to drizzle and as the ground is already waterlogged, tramping about compacting it won’t do much good either so I came inside. I have a stupid dry cough and feel a little under par so I think I will potter about indoors and listen to a few podcasts 😋

Having spent the day inside in the warm I was reluctant to go out and do the afternoon feed and egg collection but it has to be done. It is about this time of year (every year) when I am trudging round in the cold and the mud (which is worse this year than any other) thinking ‘why am I doing this’ and thinking perhaps selling up is a good idea. I know once the sunshine comes and the ground dries up I will think this is the best place in the world to be but right here right now it’s not 😏

Thursday: (and I had to change that as I keep thinking it’s Friday) Another vile day 😕 I got everything done and dusted by 8.30 as I had Josh and Florence for the morning while Shelley had her hair done. She had it cut short and had been growing it to donate her pony tail to the Princess trust who make wigs for children with cancer. We had planned, along with Sam, Mia and the twiglets, to go to Blenheim Palace for the afternoon but the weather was just horrible so we stayed home instead. We made a super hero’s den for the kids in the spare room and set up a picnic blanket for them, then Shelley went off to the shop to buy the kind of goodies you need on a day like today, chocolate, biscuits, an activity magazine and apple juice, while the adults had baked Camembert and chocolate 😜 They played very well together all afternoon and tidied up with the tidy up song while I went out to feed the animals and collect the eggs. The weather had cheered up a bit by then, still a little windy but the Sun had come out, after I had finished the afternoon rounds I went and got the new rabbit and bought it indoors to show the children. What shall we call her? everyone chipped in and now she has the name Dotty Iron Man Rabbit 🤣

Friday: It’s definitely Friday 😀 I went out to do the morning rounds and Jack had managed to get his rug off, a horse rug is basically like a straight jacket with many buckles and belts so how the heck he has done this I have no idea 🙄 On with the rest of the rounds and nothing much to report which is always a good thing 😀 I then spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse, first I set up the heat mat and I put some staging up higher to make use of any rising heat. Then I set up an electric propagator and the tomatoes and cucumber I had growing on the kitchen windowsill have now been potted on and are in the warmth in there. I am trialling this so it may be that I have peaked too soon but nothing ventured is nothing gained as they say. I have also put a couple of tomato plants on their own and a few in bunches as they grew, I want to see if they do better with other plants as company. The next job was to hunt for this damn mouse but I couldn’t find it living anywhere, at the moment I am filling the mouse trap and it is eating it all so it must be quite small and light, I will feed it up until it gets heavy enough to spring the trap 😜

Back indooors to light the Rayburn as I have the twins later while Mia goes for a swimming lesson and some great news on the family chat as my niece had her baby last night 😀 a little boy (well 8lb 12oz, ouch) lovely news 😀

It’s been a bit of a boring week to write about to be honest and I have had a horrible cold coupled with a hacking cough, I am kind of hoping that my bug will do one right about the same time as the crap weather and what a joyful day that will be 😀

Saturday: Another crap weekend with the weather, seriously, the wind and the rain have been going all night long and have not eased this morning. I am weather weary now, feeling so poorly doesn’t help, I can’t breathe through my nose, the cough is hacking, my head feels like it will explode, wake me up when it’s spring.

We ran the feed right out this week, it’s good to empty the feed bins totally now and again, and so John has gone off to get supplies, we can’t do any feeding until he gets back and so no point letting them out either. I also have a hay delivery coming this morning, we are at that stage when the horses are hungry but the grass is non existent especially this year with all the rain. We will be rolling a big round bale into the field and hoping it will keep them going for a couple of weeks until the weather settles and the new grass comes through.

Fingers crossed that the week I have booked for John to be at home is a decent week. It’s a shame really as we could have been getting ahead of ourselves but it looks like it will be all to do at once 🙄

Sunday: Yesterday I felt really ill but it seems to have turned a corner this morning thank goodness. The weather has not really got any better, still blowing a hoolie with rain now and then for good measure, I am so done with this weather stream as are many other people. I know we have a lot to be grateful for as our home is not flooded and everything is intact but even so I have had enough of the relentless wind and rain it’s been going on for around three weeks with hardly a break.

Whinging over 😜 John did the morning rounds and then we measured up for some fencing that has come down at the bottom need of the veg garden, the posts have been going for a coup,e for years and now they have gone and all that is holding the fence up is the wire. We thought about picket fencing and went off to the diy shop to have a look but when we priced it up decided it wasn’t worth it so we bought some more wire with smaller holes to stop the ducks getting in and then went to get some breakfast at a local garden centre. We met Shelley, Martin and the kids there and they joined us, I bought a couple of pots for the daphne and another shrub I got the last time I went. I want to keep them in pots for now as I am not sure where I want them to finally end up and besides they are quite small so need a bit of looking after to being them on. The rest of the day we spent discussing and researching various topics such as solar panels and electric boilers, mulling around ideas of wether to apply for planning for a house and what kind or, as this one is perfectly adequate and just need some upgrading, wether we just upgrade it, we went round and round until our brains were frazzled, we discovered what we don’t like but not what we do.

I will try and do better with the blog next week, hopefully I will feel a little more up to it by then, have a good week.

Posted in Friesland Farm

Back to normal, stuff to sort & Winter flowering shrubs.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 6th January 2020: I have enjoyed having John at home for three weeks but this morning I am also happy to have the place back to myself as he goes off to work early. I think it’s the sense of back to normality and there is definitely a lot to be said for doing things the way I want them done instead of compromise or argument 😜

So what will I be doing with my time? Good question, I always say ‘I never make plans’ they go awry quite quickly I find so a loose idea of what I want to achieve with an indefinite time frame is a much better option lol, it also give me room to completely change my mind 😀 Today’s tasks are to get the morning rounds done, finish setting up the heat pad in the greenhouse now I have found everything I need, possibly move a bit more wood chip (nearly done) a few household tasks such as hoovering, dinner prep, lighting the Rayburn (they all take time) and probably a million other little things along the way. I have a couple of other jobs in mind that need doing such as cleaning out the quail and the ducks and they are the kind of job that are on the list but can be flexible as long as I get them done at some point within the next couple of days.

I did the animals, topping up the duck bedding as I went round, finding the rabbit/guineas some lovely greens and then figured I may as well strike while the iron is hot with a bit of outside work. I chose to do the rest of the wood chip laying in the fruit cage, the plan was to get the wood chip down, weed and mulch the pots of summer raspberries and cut back the autumn canes. I was about six barrowfuls in when I felt decidedly shaky, stupidly I had only eaten a banana for breakfast like I have been for the past couple of weeks but with some hard work on top the banana didn’t cut it 😜 I can only assume it’s blood sugar levels, I have had it before when I haven’t eaten enough to fuel the jobs I’m doing, I went in and had a large bowl of bran flakes, and a couple of shortbreads, 15 mins later I felt better but still a bit shaky so I made a coffee and sat down a while.

Once I had recovered I went back out and got the job in hand finished in the fruit cage, the areas that needed wood chip are all done, the summer raspberries have a mulch layer of wood chip on top of their pots, I have cut down the autumn raspberry canes and did a bit extra pruning of the blackcurrant bushes. I got half a trug of weeds out which will go to the rabbit/guineas for tomorrow’s snack. I secured the posts and canes and then shut the gate, that is all that will need doing in there now until well into spring except a bit of potash feeding for the strawberries to encourage flowering.

A midway through and finished picture of the fruit cage.

Indoors to light the Rayburn, John called in for a cuppa and I will have a quick sit down before a chap arrives mid afternoon to collect some hens.

Just as I am about to get back into working outside the weather is on the turn, the forecast over the next couple of days is for warm temps but accompanied by rain and possible high winds 🙄 urgh. Not to be deterred I have rainy day jobs in mind including getting the big poly tunnel up together and ready to plant into.

And right on cue just as I wrote this, it began to rain 😂

Tuesday: I have enjoyed another great morning outside getting things done, I am really enjoying myself at the minute, the weather is fairly kind and I have the energy and strength, fabulous. First up as always was the morning rounds and this time while I was doing them I cleaned out the goose hut, I have to then close the door all day as the chickens would get in there and scratch it all out again 🙄 Then onto the garden or more precisely the big poly tunnel, I tidied it up a little, pruned the grapevine, tidied up the strawberries and topped up the compost they are growing in. I made sure everything else was tidied up and added extra compost, I have chard and flat leaf parsley growing nicely. The other things overwintering in there are the lemon grass and the Chinese gooseberries, I am hoping they come through the winter ok along with the basil and the lemon verbena. All look ok at the minute so fingers crossed. I cut up some old compost bags and used them for weed suppressant round the edges and then I topped up an empty raised bed and sowed some early carrot seeds. I have covered them with fleece and we will see if they germinate or not, nothing to lose as they are some seeds I found from last year so if they don’t grow it’s not a big loss. I sorted out the potato bags and I need to order some first earlies, I am going to grow these in the tunnel as well, I don’t normally do earlies but it’s good to change things about now and again.

Early in January it’s mostly about preparation for the months ahead, there is not much that can be sown until early next month. It’s a good month to get your crop rotation plan sorted and write down anything you would really like to grow. Sit with a cuppa and order your seeds, onion sets, garlic bulbs and seed potatoes. I have just ordered mine, the plants are despatched to you at the appropriate times for planting so you can’t go wrong really. I have also ordered some grafted plants, water melon and aubergine, two plants I find difficult to get going from seed as a general rule. Often with the amount I order I get a ‘deal’ of some kind, this time I have opted for 36 geranium plug plants for £2.99 I probably won’t keep them myself but what I will do is grow them on and put them out for sale for a couple of quid each depending on size, that way I will hopefully cover the costs of the veg I have bought. That’s what I always aim to do with the veg/fruit I sell at the gate, if I can cover the cost of the seeds, growing them and harvesting what we need then I am doing myself a favour plus providing some tasty home grown veg/fruit for customers, a win, win situation 😀

Indoors at lunchtime to grab a sandwich and get the Rayburn lit, decide what to have for dinner later and prep it.

Wednesday: The weather is holding beautifully which means after doing the animals I was able to get another morning out in the veg garden. I started off tidying the greenhouse a little bit, moving stuff around, sowing a few broad bean seeds then out onto the beds. I lay awake last night thinking about what beds I had done and what still needed to be tackled, a bit sad lol but at least I got up this morning knowing what I wanted to achieve. You may remember last year I tried the ‘chop and drop’ thing, well not this year, I didn’t really like the untidy look and more importantly it didn’t give a feeling of an end and a beginning if that makes sense, I also found that I felt I had a lack of control over the garden which persisted all season long. So this year I am clearing and tidying which is what I have been doing this morning, I am happy with what I have done and whilst doing it I am mentally making a note of what will go where which I felt unable to do last year. As it stands out there I just have two more areas to sort out, I do have to replenish the soil with homemade compost or manure but once everything is cleared I can get that done. Both the compost heap and the manure pile are very wet at the moment which in turn makes heavy work so I will wait a while and hope it continues to dry out some more. I still have a few bits of produce growing, the winter spinach and a few tiny cabbages that the birds have been at, I have now put protection over them so they can continue to grow. There is of course curly kale still in the ground and the sprouting broccoli which I am able to get a few bits off of. The babbington leeks are pushing up through, they are a perennial leek and at the moment I’m not quite sure how that works. With conventional leeks you plant one and pull it when it’s bigger the perennial leeks should keep produce off shoots I suppose but as yet that hasn’t happened. I pulled up some radish, I need to try and find out which variety these are as they are far better than the usual French types. They are white and grow to golf ball size, tasty and more importantly they don’t bolt and go woody, a winner as far as I am concerned and a definite to grow again. Oh and the rhubarb is beginning to grow 😀😀

I have to order some more weed membrane to block out the light on the growing beds so that weeds don’t become a big problem. At the moment I am using black plastic which I reuse each year until it falls apart so although it’s not the option I would like it’s the one I take. The reason being that the thin fabric stuff gets absolutely ripped apart by the winds up here, the thicker stuff is very costly and I need quite a lot of it. I will keep searching, I may eventually find an alternative.

So scrap what I have just written, I am going to trial jute, it’s a natural fabric, it will have a limited life span but it’s better for the environment, hopefully it will do a similar job to the plastic in cutting out the light. I also am thinking I can use off cuts of it as strawberry mats or cut holes in it to plant into, watch this space and I will let you know how it performs 😀

Thursday: The weather is a bit more feisty today lol but despite having lots of rain overnight, this morning it is dry and windy. I had already decided not to work on the garden today there are other jobs that are calling. One of those was my jam jar cupboard, I have a cupboard dedicated to jam jars, bottles, Kilner jars and any other glass container that might come in handy, some have been bought, some given and some had goodies in them made by others so it’s quite a collection. Over time they just get washed and stuffed anywhere that is not in the way and that means that I don’t really know what is in there 🙄 so sorting and tidying the cupboard was a job that needed doing, I can also then see what if anything I need to get for the coming seasons. I made a coffee, went out there and got so engrossed in what I was doing I forgot the coffee and it went cold 😏

That actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would and now I need to find some other jobs to get on with.

I’m not sure what triggered the next job but it took me a lot longer than I had thought 🙄 I think I started off by thinking I will tidy up the office, another area that just gets stuff dumped until you can hardly get in the door to find stuff. My aim was to get some of the things under the bed in the spare room but then I looked under the bed and pulled out stuff that was under there. Stuff that came from Johns Mums and to be honest I have no idea why we still have it, other stuff that we no longer use and have nowhere else for it to go, that all got sorted and out into piles, charity shop, free sites, selling sites. The space was then ready for the things like the travel cot which is stored in the office but can go under the bed. That then led me onto all the other stuff in the office lol, again things we no longer use or that are broken so more piles for recycling or selling on or putting on the free sites. I am not saying the office is now clutter free because there are still things in boxes to be gone through but I have made a dent in it.

Friday: Today has been an altogether different day, Josh arrived early morning to help with the morning rounds 😀 he was all kitted out in mud proof gear and keen as mustard to help me. We fed everything and let them out, collected a few eggs then took some hay to the horses. What made me laugh is that he is a little afraid of the chickens and ducks but no fear whatsoever of the horses. Once we had finished outside we came in for a juice break and chatted about the types of food he likes, then I asked ‘shall we make a cake’ ‘oooooo can we make pie’ he replied lol. I let him choose the fruit and he decided on apple, plum & blackcurrants 🙄 it actually tasted quite nice if a little sharp. He did a good job of rolling out the pastry and even made a pastry triceratops head to go with it 😂 Mid morning, just before Shelley came to pick him up, Sam arrived with Mia and the twiglets, everybody (except the twiglets) had pie 🥧 I looked after the twins and Mia while Sam went off to get some food shopping in peace and then it was time to do the afternoon feeding and egg collection. A lovely day.

When I walk down the driveway at this time of year I always stop when I am halfway back to smell the Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) that has been growing for a few years now. The amazing sweet scent of this otherwise unremarkable shrub is delicious and a real treat at this time of year. It goes by some other rather sweet names such as kiss-me-at-the-gate or sweet breath of spring 😀 I took a few sprigs indoors to put in a pot on the windowsill for a natural room scent and I also took a couple of cuttings, I’m not sure if they will take this time of year but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

At our old place I had a Daphne and really wish I had dug it up and bought it with us as you could smell its lovely scent long before you got anywhere near it. I think sweet smelling winter shrubs are under used probably because by the time people go to the garden centres en mass it’s late spring and they have passed their best and don’t look particularly engaging but they are definitely worth a thought if you are looking for something to fill a gap and the reward is uplifting in the depths of winter.

Saturday: 😀 yay the weekend, great because John does the rounds in the mornings giving me a break from it. I get on with other things and besides the household chores I spent a small amount of time in the garden. A quick job of tidying the bird, butterfly and beer bed, I call it this because it has a pear, apple, cherry and mulberry tree in it as well as Japanese honeysuckle, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes which pretty much feed the birds and hopefully some butterflies, the beer comes in with the hop I have growing there though I have never used it for that purpose as yet lol. It was a quick visit outside because it’s a bit blowy and a tad cold so my fingers soon felt the nip in the air. I had intended laying the jute weed fabric but when it’s windy trying to do that by yourself is a tricky job and John has gone off to get feed.

When he gets back the jobs on the sheet are to brush the flue and clean out the Rayburn and then he is building a gate for a new fence in the orchard as the one I put up keeps falling down. I need to stop these demented hens in the front paddock from reaching my veg garden. At first just a couple made it there then a few and now about 15 of them, most of the wood chip I put down on the pathways has been scratched into piles or onto the lawn 🙄 I want to get well ahead with keeping them at bay so that gardening is an altogether pleasant affair this year instead of an angry one because they have scratched up all my hard work.

The gate didn’t get built but John re loaded the wood pile in the covered area just out the back then we actually had a few hours off before starting again with the afternoon rounds, Charlie and Macca walked over for a cuppa, we went and got a bit of food shopping and called in to see Shelley, Martin and the kids to deliver a tray of eggs. By 8.30 I was asleep on the sofa, feeling tired after a busy week 💤

Sunday: The weather was filthy overnight, lashing rain and strong winds but all is settled this morning. Again, John did the morning rounds while I had a shower and did the household chores. A quick coffee and John went out to power wash the POL pen now that we have moved our ex laying hens on to a new home. I don’t know what it is about that job but as soon as it needs doing he moves it directly to the top of the list 🙄 still once it’s done it can be left until we buy in the next batch of POL for selling probably in March.

The plan for the rest of the morning is to go out for breakfast at a local plant nursery, John gets a cooked brekkie and I get to look round at the plants it’s a win, win 😀

I bought an evergreen shrub at the nursery, only a small specimen, I can’t bear to part with the amount of money they want for things when I can grow it on lol. If I specifically wanted something for a certain space then I would but this will go in a pot for now and be put out the front, I’m trying to get a bit of colour out there as it’s all very dead and brown looking. On the way back we called into my Sisters for a cup of tea, one cup lead to another cup and before we knew it we’d been there a couple of hours 😜 We booked a trip to the theatre while we were there, some sort of interactive ghost show 👻 it is billed as ‘not for those of a nervous disposition’ 😝 it will get the adrenaline pumping and blow away the cobwebs lol.

We got back, I lit the Rayburn, I had to pop along the road to get some natural fire lighters as we only had one left. These are rolled up wood shavings and I think they have a extremely thin layer of wax on them, I was finding it more difficult to get hold of newspapers as we don’t ever have them and so these are a great alternative, they also light first time and are very easy to use. Meanwhile John went and finished cleaning the POL pen then he fed the birds and collected the eggs then he finally got on to making the gate and I got tonight’s dinner sorted which is shepherds pie.

The long range weather forecast shows no freezing temperatures in sight so looks like we are going to have a mild winter (famous last words) I must admit that although we always think we need a bit of freezing weather to break dormancy and kill off any pests, I am rather enjoying a milder season. Though it does means I am really wanting to get my teeth sunk into some sowing, I’m like a race horse that is being held back at the minute 🐎 I have learnt from many years experience not to be too hasty in that department though as it can all go horribly wrong 🤪

Whatever you are doing this week have a good one, do something outside your comfort zone if you can, as I say to Josh ‘put your brave hat on and go for it’ TTFN 👋

Posted in Friesland Farm

A happy and healthy 2020 🥳 to you all.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

New Year’s Day: We have had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. In between the two we have had Johns Mums funeral, an occasion which is always bitter sweet I think, on the one hand you are saying goodbye to someone you will never see again and on the other hand you meet up with relatives you probably haven’t seen for a while, there you have it, the good and the bad all in one hit lol.

The farm has mostly just tickled along, feeding, watering, egg collecting, cleaning out, the occasional mention of what needs doing over the next few months. Planning is just about all that can be done for the garden at the moment, I did go into the greenhouse and dig out the heat pad I bought back in summer. I need to get it set up and then decide what I shall grow on top of it, mostly peppers, chilli and aubergine as they need a long growing season and so the sooner I can get them started the more chance they will produce something at the end of the year.

I am always chomping at the bit at this time of year, raring to get going with seeds and normally I would have to hold off for quite a while but this year with the new greenhouse AND a heat mat I shall be out of the starting blocks early 😀 There are plenty of things to be done in preparation outside, I still have some clearing to do and some wood chip to put down (nearly done 😝) and maybe some changing around, I will see what I am capable of as I go.

John is busy finishing off the boot room floor today and at the end of the week Martin is coming to build a cupboard and a seat/storage in there, happy days, I will be getting much more organised which can only be a good thing 😀

I don’t make New Year resolutions, best not to set yourself up for a fall I reckon 😜 I just make a mental note of what needs changing (and then I usually forget all about it 🤣) Must try harder, where have I read that before 🙄 I do think it’s good to set yourself a challenge though, not dry January as we don’t don’t drink enough to warrant giving it up, and that is not denial it’s a fact lol. We probably have around 6 units a month and most months not even that. I object to being told which day to go meat free so we won’t be doing meat free Mondays, I prefer to choose the day we have eggs on toast for dinner 😂 All that leads me to the 2020 challenge of not buying anything new 😮 yeah, I’m contemplating it and then the first thing I think is what about the sofas 😂 I think I will challenge myself to get what I am comfortable with second hand such as egg cups (we only have one left) and try really hard at limiting everything else. Hmmm now I have said it out loud I’m not sure how this will pan out 🙄

Thursday 2nd Jan: The weather, yes you knew I would get back to it soon lol, the weather, after that horrible wet period which seemed to go on forever, has settled into some unseasonable stability. It’s mild, disconcertingly mild for mid Winter I have to say, but never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I have been outside this morning moving wood chip (nearly done 😝) The fist thing I notice is how unfit I have got from not doing outside work for a while, I managed a measly 5 barrows today and then I was aching and puffed, not good. I need to do something every day to build back up to the amount of barrels I shifted a couple of months back.

Meanwhile John is in the boot room putting the units back together, I say units they are not ready made ones just ply that make up sides and shelves plus a worktop. Obviously as the floor was lifted (to get over the soil pipe) everything else had to be lifted as well and then the sink and washing machine needed plumbing back in.

Martin, who is a carpenter, is coming tomorrow to build this cupboard which will store all the chutneys, jams, homemade liqueurs and a whole host of other stuff. Normally John would have built one but, truth be told, carpentry is not one of his strong skills, he manages with DIY carpentry but I want something robust, he is better off sticking to the plumbing, which he is excellent at 😀

I had to make a small sign to go in the grass under the apple tree at the front. Last year we planted crocus bulbs there and people tend to walk over the grass to the fence to look at the chickens etc, we love that they do that but didn’t think about the poor bulbs that are trying to push their way up this spring, so hopefully a polite notice will keep them off that particular area.

Friday: Just when I talked about how stable the weather was, it changed, last night and early this morning lashings of rain, a cold wind and a definite dip in temperature although still not that low. We got the morning jobs all sorted and waited for Martin to arrive laden with materials to build this storage. I cannot tell you how excited I am to see it getting built, I’m cock-a-hoop about the amount of storage space it has given me. I am definitely going to do much more this year in terms of dried herbs, beans etc plus much more jam and preserves 😀

Once the cupboard was finished I started filling it up, it not only stores what was in the old corner cupboard but I am able to get things out of the kitchen cupboards that have been stored there because there was nowhere else for them, freeing up other space and making life a lot easier in terms of finding stuff. There are bits that you end up with that you don’t really know what to do with but don’t want to throw them away in case they come in useful and I will also now be able to bulk buy should I want to as I never had the space before. Oh the possibilities are endless 😜

I also now have a storage box for hats and gloves etc with a lid at the height that the children (and me if necessary) can be sat to put their wellies on and off which will make life easier too, the option before was to sit on the mucky floor or trapse dirty boots into the kitchen.

While that was going on, John cleaned out all the chicken coops and I cleaned various areas indoors. I also started a to do list for the garden side of things and then a list for the farm side of things so that we both know what needs doing and besides a list is a great way to see what has been achieved 😀

Saturday: Martin came to finish off a few bits, a door on the cupboard that John built under the sink, a shelf over the top of the coat hooks and altered the door between the boot room and kitchen. I was going to have a new door but in the spirit of up-cycling or reusing and making an effort not to buy what we don’t need, we decided to put a wood panel over the bottom half of the door which was glass all the way down, a bit of primer and paint and it will definitely ‘do’.

I am not sure about you but January tends to be a time when I like to go through stuff and have a good old clear out, broken things, junk bits, things I no longer need all get sorted and dealt with appropriately. That’s what I spent most of the morning doing while John did a similar thing outside plus burning odds and ends of wood and paper feed sacks. At lunchtime Shelley came over with Florence and we went to Witney for a coffee and a mooch round. I confess I did buy some new shoes, waterproof pumps actually and a jumper in the sale, the next job is to go through my wardrobe and sort out stuff for the charity shop or rag bin. I don’t really buy many clothes at all and they are usually for working in 😂 but I had a favourite old jumper that is really only good for work now and I wanted to replace it with one for ‘best’ lol.

In the evening we went to a BBQ, yep you read that correctly 😜 an annual event by a couple in the village and it’s more fun than you would imagine in January, food cooked outdoors tastes even better when the temperature is low in my opinion.

Sunday: John did the morning rounds, that will be his last day until next weekend, tomorrow it will be my job from morning till night again 🙄 Meanwhile I got sorted indoors and also put a coat of paint on the door. Then we had Mia and the twins for a few hours, when they got back Sam and Luke had dinner with us and that was pretty much the day filled up.

I took a photo of some bulbs coming up, it’s great to see the wheel of the year rolling on towards Spring 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Snow, ice, rain, fog = Winter 🥶

Posted on by frieslandfarm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hot chocolate was definitely the order of the day today 😀

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

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

Posted in Friesland Farm

Seeds, Snow and Stars

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 28th Jan: Trees, or rather planting trees, is very much in focus at the moment as far as the government and environmental departments are concerned. Do you remember a few months ago I put some cherry pips into the fridge to undergo stratification, a period of cold that will simulate Winter, well it’s time to get them out and get them planted up and hope that they grow 😀 I also put some spindle-berry in at the same time so they will also be planted and fingers crossed they will amount to something. Not all gardens are big enough to plant full size trees but there are plenty of ‘patio’ trees available these days especially fruit trees and all you have to do is make sure they stay watered, so it is possible to have trees and grow your own produce even in a small space, a ‘micro garden’ can be highly productive.

Cold and sunny this morning, I did the morning rounds and then onto a couple of phone calls I needed to make. The second call was to do with water, because we are commercial a different company took over from Thames Water over a year ago, we had notification but as the accountant pointed out we’ve never had a bill. Turns out they had no idea there was a water supply here……doh….. if I had left it we would never have had a bill or would we? Eventually they would have realised I’m sure and then who knows how much we would have owed 😝 as it is we will end up with a back dated bill of probably a few hundred pounds 😲

Today seemed like a good day to go through what seeds I have already got, either seed I have saved or seeds left from last year and yen to order what else I wanted to grow this year.

This is what I have already:

GRAIN:

Millet

Quinoa

Wheat

Amaranth

BEANS/PEAS:

Haricot beans

Dwarf French beans – purple

Dwarf French beans

Ying Yang beans

Red kidney beans

Pea

Broad beans

Chickpea

SQUASH

Spaghetti squash

Butternut squash

Pumpkin

Luffa

Courgette – round

Banana squash

SALAD:

Mixed salad leaf

Spinach

Radish

Cucumber

Tomato

Pepper – Hot

Pepper -sweet

ROOT:

Carrot – Early Nantes

Beetroot

Parsnip

Celeriac

BRASSICA:

Cauliflower

Broccoli

ONION:

Leeks

Spring onion

HERBS:

Coriander

And this is what I ordered:

Turnip

Courgette – long

Fennel

Melon

Swede

Potato

Brassica plants

Now I just have to decide where everything is going to go lol, I’ve decided not to do sweet corn this year as they are quite a lot of faffing about to get them ready, I also decided not to do aubergine, they nearly always fail so I am giving them up as a lost cause, I don’t eat them anyway they were for selling on so I’m better off using the space for something else. Someone once said to me that I should buy in veg wholesale to sell on, um that’s not the point, the point is to grow things that we (or the wider family) eat and to sell any surplus to cover the costs. Firstly, I am then confident on how it’s grown and that it is first class, ripe, freshly picked fruit and veg and secondly it doesn’t cost us or the customer the earth 😀

Tuesday: Mia day so only the basics and playing with stickers, pretend friends and cuddles today 😀

Wednesday: Cold and frosty, no sign of the snow/sleet yet though. I did the morning feeding, watering, letting out, collecting eggs, last week we couldn’t keep up with customers, this week it’s slow again 🤷‍♀️ Before I went out I sprayed cleaner round the bathroom and back toilet, that would ensure that I had to get on with cleaning them when I came back in which I duly did. Having a quick coffee now before I get on with cleaning the rest of the place 😀

The greenhouse walls are nearly finished, it’s unfortunate that we have had some very cold frosty nights and building walls is not ideal as the mortar freezes so best to do it when the temps are up and are staying up, the process is slower but a better result in the end.

A sit down at 1pm phew, I have been busy cleaning, mostly giving the kitchen a good going over, pulling everything out, I have discovered that we have had a small rodent visitor at some point since I last did it. I haven’t heard anything or even seen anything it’s just left a few calling cards behind the microwave 😂 I will move it all again in a coup,e of days and see if it’s still coming or not. The sun is shinning beautifully today and I don’t feel cold, probably all the running around I have been doing, I still have the office and the boot room to do but maybe they can wait until tomorrow 😝

Just in case you’ve been wondering what Molly is up to she can still be found permanently located in a dog bed in the boot room 🙄 She has now taken on that air that most cats do eventually, hooman you are here to serve me 🐈 It is now her job to get under my feet every time I go through the door, she hasn’t worked out that she gets fed twice a day not every time she sees me!

I have lost three ducks now, daytime losses 😞 why do they always take the laying ducks and not the surplus to requirements drakes so bloody annoying, two ducks are from separate trios and the other ducks are quacking and looking for them ☹️

I was just reading about our starry skies and how the light pollution affects the ability to see them, one of the most amazing things about living here is the amount of stars we can see on a clear night, not wishing to keep this all to ourselves if anyone wants to come down one evening and have a look just get in touch or if you want to get a look at a meteor shower when they are happening then let me know 😀

Total coincidence after I wrote this but John came in after letting the dogs out at 10pm and said “I‘ve just seen a shooting star” 😀

Thursday: My goodness that is cold out there this morning 🥶 I don’t know what it went down to but it’s still -6 at 7.30am so I am guessing about -8/9 or possibly lower in the night. I know that’s not cold compared to some areas of the world but it is for us lol, I have decided to light the Rayburn early and warm the house before going outside today, I’m waiting for the Sun to do some of its magic. It might be cold but it is also very beautiful out there 😀

I need to top up the small bird feeders and put some water out in the sun, the little birds are well catered for but I need to find out about the ground feeders like blackbirds, robins and wrens, I threw some scones out this morning but they were gone quickly, the magpies have pinched the lot, I want to be able to feed the blackbirds without the magpies stealing everything. Having a quick look on google I improvised and found a bicycle basket which I have staked down so it can’t be moved by bigger birds and then I have bought a fat block that I cut into four and will place it in the middle hopefully out of reach of long beaks.

The mouse came back last night and I think I can see where it’s coming in so I will be setting a trap in the kitchen tonight and getting John to fix the tiniest of cracks between the wall and the worktop, because the building moves the worktop has come away and somehow this has let it in.

A cold afternoon routine, the water hasn’t really thawed and neither have the outside taps, the ice was pretty thick in the water buckets this morning and although I did manage to break them they are still mostly frozen. With the threat of snow we have topped everything up and put in extra feed/hay etc just a waiting game now ⛄️ I got some shopping in earlier just in case and I made bread so we are all ready for at least six foot of the white stuff 😂

I took a photo I have been meaning to show you for a while, just proving that plants don’t need much to grow, just a bit of determination 🤣 of course they wouldn’t amount to much like that if left and I may try to see if I can plant them and see what happens.

I haven’t talked much about Brexit mainly because well how much can you say that’s not being said all over social media by one group or another and neither can agree. There is a lot of scaremongering from both sides going on but one thing I do think is that if the shelves are barer and food is more expensive, on the whole I see that as a good thing. Obviously not for those struggling already but where we live you don’t see much of that to be honest, it’s an affluent area and for a good few years now it astounds me how much food people buy, do they eat it all or do they waste a lot of it? I think curbing excessive spending on foodstuffs you don’t really need is good and I think a lesson in where your food comes from, how it gets here and how you could/should be buying British can only be a good thing too. So if the shelves in your local supermarket look bare take a trip to your local farm shop & eat seasonably it may cost you more but it’s better quality and learn how to make it go further than you normally would. ‘That’s all I have to say about that’ 😝

Friday Feb 1st: And we had a dump load of snow 🙄 great this will make life fun out there this morning 😝 John has gone to work because nothing stops him going to work 😜 to be fair he is only working in the next village along and he drives very well in snow but that leaves me here in slightly more difficult circumstances today 🥴 One of the first jobs will be to knock the snow off the top of the polytunnels and fruit cage, too much weight would cause a collapse. Then onto the animals, the hens probably won’t come outside all day, the ducks and geese will, the dogs are loving it the cats not soo much in fact I caught Molly peeing on the cardboard recycling as she obviously didn’t want to get her feet cold, she got short shrift! Jack, the horse would probably like to be out in it especially if I took his rug off so he could have a good roll but that’s more trouble than it’s worth so he will be staying in, he came in last night and will most likely kick the door all day long in frustration. I moved the quail indoors yesterday afternoon, mostly because they are not laying so a bit of extra warmth in the back might kick start them. Then it will be back inside and hunker down for the day until afternoon time. Snow days probably would be fun under different circumstances 😜

Doing the animals was pretty easy and as predicted the hens won’t come out, but on my way round I saw that the fruit cage was under a lot of snow and it’s still snowing, so I had to get it off pretty quickly which resulted in getting snow showered for a while (I did chuckle until I started to get cold) 😝 I should have and indeed had said out loud to myself that I needed to get the netting off before any snow but never got round to it so that serves me right really. I’m just waiting for my clothes to dry off before going out and trying to sort it out. The brassica cage netting is too heavy for me to push it off so I will probably have to get a ladder out and do it that way, such fun 😫

After days and days of the Rayburn running in a similar way, today it’s changed and I was having trouble with it just roaring away meaning all the heat is just going up the flue, so I have had to adjust the heat/cook combo normally we just run it on heat and the cooker gets up to temp anyway but it’s now on half and half and has settled down. One thing we discussed if we ever build or move is underfloor heating providing its run by solar panels, I look forward to that day, I am coming to the end of my love affair with wood burning heating and cooking lol.

The long tailed tits have gathered, they always turn up when is snows, beautiful little birds 😀

Saturday: The Sun is out but it’s not thawing the snow very quickly however it is beautiful out there, I took a walk across fresh snow in the paddock, the snow glistens like diamonds and in the shade it takes on a blue hue 😀 John did most of the animals except the horse so I went out and fed him then turned him out into the snowy paddock, he will come back in later as it’s going to get very cold overnight. I took out some feed for the wild birds including the ground feeders, I bought one of those blocks of fat with insects in hopefully it will help during this very cold snap.

With not much to be done outside I decided to make some little chocolate fairy cakes with mini eggs on top, I will be totally honest here and say that I bought the eggs with cakes in mind but ate half the packet before I got round to doing the cakes 🤣

We had Josh to stay last night and the plan was to wait till dark and then go out and look at the stars, his Mummy had packed some cookies for when we came back in. I looked out of the window and said it looks dark enough now, he came and had a look and then said ‘that’s enough can we have cookies now’ 🤣 we did wrap up and go out for all of five minutes, he was scared because it was so dark lol.

Sunday: I was hoping the Sun was going to melt most of the snow today although I’m not looking forward to the sludge that comes after, it melted a fair bit but still a lot left. The temps are set to climb a little after tonight but with it comes the rain 🙄 Josh came out and helped with the feeding though John did most of it, we had great fun using a small hammer to break all the water buckets 😀

That was pretty much it for the day apart from the usual stuff, and that is pretty much it for the week, we are into February so onwards and upwards 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Mixed weather, a unexplained death and a bit of baking.

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 21st Jan: I was up early to get a look at the Moon, sadly it was too cloudy and I couldn’t see anything at all ☹️ Today is labelled as Blue Monday, it’s a Monday morning in January they are all blue 🥴 The upside of the last nights cloud cover is that it is not frosty this morning which makes the morning water rounds much easier 😀 And hopefully it will mean our man will be here to do some brickwork on the greenhouse as he had said weather permitting, I don’t know much about this subject but it looks like ideal conditions to me 😀

I didn’t do much worthy of writing about for the rest of the day except the normal routine stuff really. When I did the afternoon feeding I made sure all the water was filled up and extra hay in for the rabbits as it’s supposed to be very cold overnight.

Tuesday: It was not cold as I was expecting it to get and the sun is shinning this morning so although there is a frost it’s not that hard and should be quite a pleasant day. The moon is huge and still out it’s a shame I couldn’t see it yesterday 🙄 I have Mia today so as usual on a Tuesday I won’t be doing much more than entertaining her 😀

I did do one thing today 😝 I signed up for an online learning course and to become a citizen scientist, it’s about understanding soil and exploring global environmental soil issues, climate, food growing, technology, and the environment, it begins in February I will let you know more about it then.

Although the weather is not up too much I can still think and plan for the growing year ahead, the fruit bushes and trees need some sustenance and I have asked Shelley to save the ash from her fire, we can’t use our ash as it has all kinds of things in it but her are logs so are ok. Ash is high in potassium and so will encourage flowering which is what you want from fruit, I will sprinkle it about and lightly fork it in. It does make the soil more alkaline though so not near the blueberries which prefer acid soil. I am also waiting to cover up the bean bed that we mucked up the other week but while it’s cold and dry I am letting nature do its thing, as soon as it turns wet I will cover it over.

I already have broad beans and peas growing but this is the time of year to get them underway if you want to. Chillies, Aubergine and sweet peas are started off indoors now as well, I will probably do some sweet peas but I haven’t decided wether to just buy a couple of chilli plants this year instead of raising from seed. I don’t have much window sill space so being selective is the way forward. I saved the sweet pea seeds from last years display a lovely very dark purple called ‘dark knight’ I think. I have had a look through the seed catalogue and probably marked off far more than I really need, I will go through what I have saved and thin the order out a bit 😜 One thing I do need to order soon is the seed potatoes, last year I was late and couldn’t get the varieties I wanted as they were sold out, there is quite a decision to be made with which potatoes to go for, mostly wether they bake, roast or boil and if they are waxy or floury lol, I prefer a floury type and they have to be multi purpose 😀

The tips of the daffodil bulbs are just beginning to push through the soil in the back paddock, remember the 950 Mum, Ken and I planted 😀 well they are still there and doing ok much to my Dads relief who has been asking me every week if there is any sign of them yet lol.

Wednesday: We had a dusting of snow, just like icing sugar 😀 it’s cold and frozen but the sun is shinning. I had a busy couple of hours, firstly lighting the Rayburn, sorting the eggs and washing up, then out to feed the birds and let them out, break the water buckets etc, on my way round I found the smaller Guinea pig dead, back indoors to keep the fire going, make a quick coffee and just as I made that the hay delivery turned up😜 I leave the coffee go out open up the gates and direct Micheal as to where I want it, one reel was going straight into the field shelter as Jack is waiting. That takes about 15/20 minutes and luckily when I get in my coffee is still warm enough to drink lol, sort the fire out, get something in the slow cooker for dinner tonight and get some bread made up to the first proving.

Now back to the Guinea pig, it has no signs of injury and it does not have rigor and considering how cold it was over night it is not frozen either, a conundrum? Well I have seen something like this before so my plan was to bring him in and place him somewhere warmer just in case it’s hibernation, I must add that he is not curled up but fully stretched which is the only reason I am in doubt. We had a hamster that we thought had died so I put it in a bag and out in the shed to wait for the burial ceremony for the children, unfortunately it poured with rain for two days and by the time it was dry enough to do it, the hamster was sat on the mat looking at us!! You can see why I am reluctant to bury it just yet 😜 The other pig is fine so I don’t know what has happened to this one, although a quick bit of research tells me that they do not hibernate but I will keep him there for a day or two anyway.

Thursday: Another cold and frosty morning but it quickly thawed so it must be warmer than yesterday as the ground in places never even thawed.

I did the morning jobs as well as putting clean bedding in for the front hens and the geese I also moved the separator in the goose hut, his just divides the laying area in two as hopefully it won’t be long before they begin laying.

As it did not feel so cold today I delayed lighting the Rayburn and did a bit of baking instead, I made a cherry pie, a batch of pear and plum crumble, some for the freezer and a batch of buttermilk scones. The buttermilk was what I saved from turning pots of cream (reduced in price) into butter and the left over liquid is buttermilk. It gives the scones a distinct sour smell but they taste wonderful 😀 At that point I ran out of butter and milk so any more cooking will wait for another day. Last year with the fruit produce I made the decision to freeze it whole and then get it out to cook it down and use it but in reality it didn’t really work so I will go back to cooking it off then it is always ready to get out and make into pies/crumbles etc, if I batch make pastry and crumble too then I can quickly make a pudding in no time at all.

While I was cooking I noticed out of the window that one of the geese had got stuck in the poultry fencing so I picked a convenient moment, put on my coat, hat, wellies and gloves and went out to rescue it, by the time I got to the front fence it had freed itself 😝

Lit the Rayburn at lunchtime and sat down to enjoy some crustless quiche that shelley bought over for me yesterday, it was packed with different things, mushroom, tomato, bacon, sweet corn, cheese, very tasty.

Friday: I love Friday, no idea why really as work is done seven days a week here lol but it has a different feel about it maybe it is the palpable relief of all those who do have Monday to Friday jobs who knows. It’s weird because I was saying to someone the other day that having done this for 10 years now I would be able to tell (almost) what day of the week it is without a calendar, Fridays, Saturdays and definitely Sundays all have a different feel about them, Monday has it own feeling, only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday would be hard to distinguish between, the time is also something I can roughly manage without looking at a clock, even in the middle of the night.

Morning jobs done, I have opened the side opening between the two paddocks to try and encourage the geese to move out a little as they keep getting behind the poultry netting, this probably means they are running out of nutritional grass so encouraging them to move to pastures new will be better for all of us 😜 I topped up all the wild bird feeders, we have a lot of garden birds here and I want to keep them around, they are part of our little ecosystem now 😀 I know that pigeons are too but the numbers keep growing and I want to keep a good balance so for that reason some will be dealt with.

It’s much milder today just as well as I am popping out for coffee and cake with Shelley mid morning so the fire won’t get lit until lunchtime.

This fox thing is getting beyond a joke, we put the hens in barricade stables, it has tried digging in under the stable doors so we barricaded them more now I discovered it has been trying to dig in from the outside wall. I thought I could see daylight so I went round the back to have a look and it has been digging away, I called John to see when he would be home so that we could move a whole load of hardcore into the hole it has dug, it’s getting very tiresome 😞 On the upside I did get a glimpse of Cruella De Vil through the tack room window, I am going to set the camera tonight to see if she is actually coming out at night or not, we need to encourage her to venture a bit further as life will be very boring for her otherwise.

Saturday: A dreary morning, milder again. John got up and did all the outside jobs as well as getting in quite a few barrows of wood for the fire then went off to get the feed. I did the eggs and stocked up the egg shed and then had a look at the footage from the camera which I set up last night. The cat does come out which is good, I could also see that the fox hangs around ALL night, there are captures of it from 8pm right through to 5.30am, even going in and out of the tack room through the cat hole. That means I’m feeding the fox cat biscuits as well 😛 poor cat, I wonder how much she is getting?

I am off to Winchester today for an afternoon tea hen do with our future sister in law, i am looking forward to a little road trip and some tea and cake 😀 John will hold the fort and hopefully do some of the jobs on the list 😀

Just as well I don’t have to do much today, I’m quite tired and my hands are a bit swollen and hurt so a day off is needed.

The egg sales have ramped up again this week we have sold all yesterday’s by lunchtime today and have now put out today’s 🙄 if they all sell this afternoon there won’t be anything for tomorrow 🥴 It’s not something you can gauge at all, one week it will be very slow, the next we can’t keep up!

Sunday: WINDY! Very windy, all night and today, talk about getting a buffeting, did the morning stuff then went for breakfast locally 😀

Cleaning out the stable that has had 45 hens in it for a couple of weeks was on the list today, we let them out and barrowed out 6/7 full barrows of straw and poo and now it’s all nice and clean with fresh straw back in.

Trying the keep the Rayburn on an even keel has been a challenge today, the wind is making it draw too much so it’s burning away quickly but if you shut it down that’s not ideal either as it just dies off, the struggle is real people 😂

And that is pretty much the end of another week, one step closer to Spring 😀

Posted in Friesland Farm

Man down and ‘the hobble’

Posted on by frieslandfarm

Monday 29th January: It’s 10.45 and mission accomplished this morning, after doing the feeding the job was to fully secure the rabbit run and make sure that when the babies start moving about they can’t get out! We have 2inch square welded mesh around the run so the adults can’t get through it BUT baby rabbits can and do or did last time but not this time mwaahaha I have boarded and wired every escape route (hopefully)

I really need to have outside shoes to hand as I had just come in taken off my coat and wellies made a coffee and the bell rang at the gate 😜 even if I nip out in my indoor shoes they get covered in mud and that is the second time in 24hrs I have de robed only to have to go back out.

I had a wonderful view of a buzzard ‘big bird’ as we call him or her, sat on the fence outside the bedroom window this morning, the photo is not great taken with my I pad but I went to get my proper camera and the battery was flat. This bird is the one that is around all the time especially in the early mornings, either in the paddocks or sat on the fence, I will try and get a better picture, I should carry my camera round with me, there were deer in the field to the side of us the other morning it would be great to get some photos of the wildlife around us.

Tuesday: Hard frost this morning and brrr very chilly but the sun broke through so that was nice to see.

Did the usual morning feeding and egg collecting, nothing amiss thank goodness, then did a bit of tidying up outside before coming in to light the fire and make some soup. The long tailed tits have made an appearance this morning, nice to see them back again though I always say they indicate bad weather 😝

Had lots of visitors today, Sam dropped off Mia before going to work, Charlie was here on her last day off before returning to work, Mum, Gill and Zeri came for tea and cake, Shelley, Martin and Josh came round later to pick up some things for Charlie and Luke arrived later to pick up Mia so ‘full house’ today. Lucky I made cake in the morning, I used the orange and sultana recipe except that Charlie had a dried toffee apple/nut concoction that was out of date and she was throwing away so I used it up in the cake instead, smelt amazing and tasted pretty good too 😀 I made some chicken/veg soup in the morning which was also pretty good. John came home early and got some more wood in from outside and did the birds.

Wednesday: Well I am so over Winter ❄️I was trying to get everything done in the house so was a bit later out this morning than usual, I spotted the biggest black cloud and thought I might just be able to outrun it and get the front birds done, nope, bloody hailstones smacking me in the face like someone firing peppercorns through a tube at me. I slipped in the paddock spilling the chicken feed all over the ground, not the best start to a day, please hurry up Spring I am trying to be patient but it’s wearing thin 😝 We have plenty of eggs as the hens have now ramped up their laying, chicken, duck, goose, quail just waiting for the bantams to start as well. Some Salvia seeds I ordered arrived today, White Sage, I am hoping to grow them for smudging bundles, we will see how it goes, the blueberry bushes I ordered also arrived these are early fruiting to prolong the picking season, just need to get some ericaceous compost to pot them into unless I can find the right ingredients to make my own, pine clippings usually does it but not sure how much I would need and how long it would take to bring the ph levels down, apparently, oak leaves and coffee grounds will also work but with the time constraints it might be easier to go and buy some for now 😀

Sometimes when I write these blogs what you read is all about the swan gliding steadily along the river 😜 what you don’t read, because on the whole I don’t write all of it, is the feet furiously paddle away underneath the water trying to get somewhere! Today is one of those days, I have numerous tasks to do including keeping the Rayburn going, looking after Mia, meanwhile the phone is ringing multiple times, the doorbell is ringing, I need to make an urgent phonecall and then wait for a return call, the dog (not mine) keeps jumping the gate every time an egg customer arrives, a family situation that is very stressful, to deal with over the phone and internet…………I have a headache 🤕

Thursday: It’s dry but the wind is cold brrrr. After feeding etc I cleaned out the single rabbit run and the baby boy rabbits, still no idea what we will do with these 😜 and now more of them! After doing that and sorting the egg shed with today’s eggs I did a bit in the greenhouse. Its still very cold in there so can’t do much but I did sow the white sage seeds and the pomelo seeds, they are now indoors on the windowsill as they won’t germinate out there. I made a bit of a boo boo though because there was I gaily putting seeds on the warm south facing windowsills completely forgetting that the glass in them stops the UV rays doh, still they will get light and the indoor warmth so that’s better than outside. I ordered some more blueberry bushes which have now arrived so I unpacked them and they are in the greenhouse until I get them planted up. My old plants struggled last year and I have no idea why, I tested the soil it wasn’t that, I will have to wait and see if they come back this year, they have been fine for about three years so I’m at a loss as to why they failed.

I put new batteries in my small camera and took it out with me this morning, I took photos of the rabbits and the runs and a cheeky hen who is always right under my feet no matter what I’m doing. I also took photos of the greenhouse, garden and large poly tunnel, my thought is to take them on the first of each month and have a round up later in the year to see the progress over time.

Then I came in for a coffee and to warm up my toes, I’ll wait for the sun to warm things up a bit before going out again.

Did a bit of tidying up and lit the fire and then things went tits up about 2.30! I was just going out the boot room door to get some more wood for the fire, put my foot down straight onto a 5”long, 2” round stick that the dog had left there and went over on my ankle with horrible pain, then crash down onto my kneecap with horrible pain and ended up in the dog bed and dog hair in my mouth not that it mattered as I first shouted f***ing dogs, at that point they scarpered, then the pain fully kicked in and all I could do was let out loud primal moans. At this point I could not stand up and proceeded, after moaning for a good minute or so, to drag myself back inside the kitchen and half up to the table to grab my phone and call John who luckily was on his way home anyway. 3 hours later, I have iced, rested, elevated and compressed the ankle, taken painkillers and arnica and assessed that I have not broken anything as far as I can tell, but badly sprained the ankle and bruised the kneecap.

Friday: Not the day I planned to have, the weather is going to be better than yesterday and I had planned on getting the veg garden tidied up 😩instead I am doing what can only be described as ‘the hobble’. Everything takes three times as long so simple tasks like going backwards and forwards to the recycling bin, getting wood for the fire, anything really is slow. First thing is to do the morning routine, John can’t because at the moment he is going round to his Mums to get her up and I can’t load any more stress onto him this week! It is painfully clear my welly won’t go on, nor will Johns which are 3 sizes bigger nor Maccas which are bigger still, so the only option is to wear slip on garden shoes, good job it’s not freezing out there today. The ground is fairly dry and hard though that has its problems because it’s lumpy so having to be very careful where I tread, I did the bare minimum needed and the only thing I couldn’t do was clean the front hens floor because the mud in front of the door is still wet and deep enough to cover my shoes, never mind the slip hazard!

Then it was time to put egg in the shed, well this would be interesting as I needed to carry trays of eggs lol, luckily the eggs and I survived the hazard trip negotiating 3 gates and a shingle driveway. It becomes evident how much you actually do when suddenly you are encumbered and are only doing half a job.

I sat down with a coffee after that and will rest it now for an hour or so before I start again, plenty of resting bits in between and anti inflammatory/arnica and I will be swinging from the trees before you know it. I have ordered an ankle strap and put out a plea to the family for a pair of boots that might be suitable oh my days life is complicated sometimes.

All the birds have ramped up their laying but we seemed to be short on customers, last week the sales were down and so far this week it’s the same, I hope they come back soon lol, it’s typical when you have limited eggs the customers come thick and fast and when you have loads of eggs you are eagerly waiting for them to buy 🤪

Sam and Shelley came over in the afternoon and did some of the jobs for me while I pretty much rested my ankle, then John came home and did the afternoon feeding and egg collecting and got me some dinner 😀

Saturday: The resting did me a whole lot of good as I can walk around fairly normally now, however I still can’t get my wellies on so John did the morning routine and then went to his Mums and I got on with de cluttering and cleaning our bedroom. I had decided January was going to be the month to get sorted and get rid of stuff but never got round to it, so today seems like a good day, a bag full of clothes that i never wear for the charity shop, some for the rag and shoe bin, some stuff for the dustbin and voila it’s done. Meanwhile John is getting barrowfulls of wood into the back area and Macca is cleaning the bathroom, happy days 😀

Sunday: Still no chance of me getting anything other than a slip on shoe on this foot, bearing in mind the mud out there it means John has to do the morning routine again today. Poor John is working flat out at the minute, looking after his Mum having to do what I can’t do and he is not even complaining 😐

I have been doing what I can inside including up dating the chalk board we have out by the egg shed, well I would if I could get the last lot of writing off! I scoured the internet for tips, tried everything from nail varnish remover, hob cleaner, white vinegar, a rubber and plain old water but there is still ‘ghost’ writing. I have ordered a ‘magic eraser’ to see if that helps but what is the point of a board that you can’t re use? I can’t use water based chalk pens because that will just wash off in the rain, ah well there are bigger problems to have I suppose. I made fresh bread, did the washing etc etc, if the ground would only dry up enough I could be outside 😀 I bought some ericaceous compost yesterday for the blueberries but I will have a go at making a batch to see if it’s worth doing, the biggest problem will be getting the ph right and seeing how long the ph levels stay like that because from what I have read without peat it reverts back to neutral after 4/6 months or so which is not a lot of good.

This is fanny, she is a pain in the butt, she is constantly under my feet when I am in the orchard pen, she follows me round (very closely) pecking at my feet, coat, hands wherever she thinks she might get a morsel or two 😝

The little birds that have taken to roosting in our boxes all winter, there are loads of them, they even roost in the vent from the hob extractor hood and behind loose house boards!

Posted in Friesland Farm

Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018 and the bits in-between 😀

Posted on by frieslandfarm

I thought I may as well make a few notes over the festive period, so Christmas went really well, our visitors enjoyed themselves immensely, objective achieved 😀. Most of what went wrong was technology, Alexa crashed on Christmas Day due to the overload of her system with all the new ones I’m guessing, and the day after Boxing Day we lost our landline and internet connection so couldn’t catch up with programmes we had hoped to watch. As you know I am a great advocate of modern technological developments but when they go wrong it’s a big fat fail. To begin with trying to get hold of a human being to report a phone line down is hard work, it keeps directing you to the website, all very well but we don’t have any internet either, the fact that we don’t get much mobile signal compounded the issue further, still I eventually made contact with the outside world, probably India 😜 and reported that we and our neighbours had a problem, an engineer (grumpy by all accounts) is fixing it as I type, thank you 😊

John held the fort outside doing ALL the feeding, egg collecting and putting to bed, while I held the fort inside doing all the cooking and hosting. One of our house guests insisted on doing all the washing up every time there was any to do and I was very grateful for that. We have had 4 family birthdays over the Christmas week as well so have been extremely well fed and no doubt we are all looking forward to the new year clear out of bad habits etc to have a fresh start. I got the ball rolling by clearing out my baking cupboard, specifically the ‘cake making box’ full of out of date food colouring (2011) sprinkles of various descriptions, gelatine sachets and two full tubes of liquid glucose? A bottle of vegan rennet? About 20 half burnt cake candles 😝 I even found a dead spider though how it got in there in the first place is a total mystery. It’s all cleaned out now and at least I know if I need supplies for birthday cakes I shall have to go and buy some and as we are on a septic tank the pretty colours going down the sink might show up in the excess run off and give us a laugh 😂

The weather has been up and down, nothing new there, 11 degrees on Christmas Day, snowing and bloody freezing two days later, lashings of rain and some cold winds thrown in for good measure. Our guests left yesterday and this morning I ventured out to give John a hand for the first time in almost a week, the first thing I did was put my foot down on what I thought was a puddle, it was in fact ice, the foot slipped forward causing me to crash down on the opposite knee looking like I was waiting to take a well deserved knighthood, **#@£&!!? bloody good start that was, heat and pain shot up my leg to my hip and after a few minutes it eased off and thankfully after quickly taking some ibrufen no lasting damage has been done.

Marvellous job, the phone line/broadband has been restored, message on the answerphone from BT thanking me for reporting the fault and that they will be out to fix it and ring me to keep me updated!!! Some serious joining up of thought needs to be done in that company me thinks 😜

It seems like a continuous round of sorting leftovers, some to the dogs, some sliced for the freezer, some to use up as soon as possible and reluctantly some for the food waste bin, I only use that when we have had a ‘gathering’ as most things are processed as above in various ways but once things like pate/dips have been opened and left on the table for a few hours I prefer not to keep them especially when multiple knives with other stuff has been in and out of it!

The next preparation is for NYE, we are gathering with some of the village and eating, drinking, making merry, I shall be making a large beef stew, I hate cooking for other people, just in case it doesn’t come up to expectations, and have never been a natural hostess (or even sociable some may say) type but I am making an effort, it’s the least I can do once a year 😜

I will not be making any resolutions, I’ve NEVER kept one I have made in he past so gave that up as a bad job years ago, what I will do is probably make a list of objectives and see how many I can achieve, I’ll make them reasonable, no point failing before I begin. I have been looking at the seed catalogues, not rushing into buying them this year, I will look carefully at each variety, see what their strengths are and see how well they can be used in specific areas of the garden. After all there is no point having sugar sweet peas that take forever to grow to a reasonable size when we have such exposed conditions here, what I need is something of acceptable taste that can withstand a wind chill, that’s the kind of thing anyhow. On the garden subject the fruit cage or rather replacement of it will need to go on the list and a possible relocating of it if I feel there is a better place for it to go.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND WELCOME 2018

The second day of the New Year, I was busy cooking dinner for the family yesterday and watching films 😜

This morning it’s raining but we still had work to do so off we went outside, I did the rabbits etc while John did the others, then I decided to rake up the leaves from the drive next to the house it been bugging me for ages. I blocked off a particularly muddy bit, that the dogs keep running in, with some sheep hurdles and swept the area clean, very satisfying but I was actually soaked through to the skin by the time I finished.

John went off to the dentist to have a tooth out so that’s him done for the day today and he will probably spend the rest of it in bed, I set about looking for a new waterproof coat! I decided on a wax coat as they are obviously made for lots of outdoor use, I didn’t go for a brand name however, they are extortionate in price but for one about a third of the price. John has had one for years so I know they do the job, I also ordered some waterproof gloves that are intended for cycling but should be just as good for farm work though I may need to replace them regularly as the finger tips tend to wear away quite quickly.

I had Mia for a few hours so got the house warm and we watched The Gruffalo for the umpteenth time 😝 could be worse, could have been Peppa Pig 😩

John got up eventually and probably should have stayed in bed, it’s not easy having to look after someone who has had a major operation like an amputated leg, oh, wait it wasn’t, it was a tooth out, honestly, I had a caesarian section then looked after a new baby and two other children while he was at work, I can see a kick up the arse coming, obvs I will wait till he has healed a little bit 😜

Wednesday 3rd Jan: Storm Elenor is currently roaring away outside, she could be heard all the way through the night here but as yet no damage luckily. John is into his last week of three weeks off, to be honest we are getting to the end of each other’s tether 😝 coupled with the fact he had a tooth out yesterday and hasn’t had a smoke for nearly 24hrs he is getting on my nerves, I am getting on his nerves lol roll on Monday when we will be out of each other’s hair for a good 8 hours a day 😝 It makes me wonder how retired couples get on, badly, I’m guessing, at least to begin with.

My hands were a bit swollen from raking and brushing yesterday, that’s typical of the Lupus and very annoying, I get the bit between my teeth, do a job and then wham there is a price to pay.

Thursday: The winds dropped last night but are back with some force again today 💨 John is off to do some work later but stayed to do the animals this morning first, he did the usual stuff while I cleaned out the goose hut and the ducks. The goose hut has a separator in there for spring use when they start to lay eggs so that they are not all laying in one nest, that becomes a problem when one starts to sit as the other eggs can’t be collected, this way we stand a chance until they all decide to sit. The duck pen is basically a giant muddy puddle and hopefully that’s one good use for the wind it will help dry it up a bit in between rainfalls😝 I tided it up as best I could given the circumstances, it’s a waiting game for a dry or cold period to give us some respite now.

My new coat arrived this morning and I can’t wait to put it on and go out to play lol. The old one has seen much better days, been repaired goodness knows how many times and the zip is at best barely functional and at its worse downright stubborn. I’m not one for throwing things away too quickly mind you so I shall attempt another repair job and use it when the weather dries up a bit, but for now I am happy with my new waterproof, windproof coat, I hope it doesn’t get too dirty too quickly 😩.

I am waiting for a calm, dry day so that I can get in the greenhouse, empty it out and give it a clean ready for spring. I know a lot of people do it at the end of the season but I’ve done that before and had to do it again as the wet/damp weather just creates more green algae so no point wasting energy better to pick the right time.

It is at this time of year gardeners are chomping at the bit to get going and I’m no exception, I have already clocked the emergence of the snowdrops and noted dead stuff that needs cutting back or clearing when the time is right. The seed catalogue takes the main place on the coffee table pile though I haven’t finalised my decisions yet it won’t be long 😀 The broad beans and peas I planted in Autumn appear to have survived and are doing fairly well as are the garlic and onions, I haven’t ventured into the poly tunnels yet but as they are a dry space I really ought to get started on them, I can feel a list coming on 😜 John has a couple of jobs on his list that need doing, the post that holds the big gate open by the back door got ripped out of the ground by the last winds and I am having to hold it open when anything drives through so that’s a priority and the stable bolts all need adjusting again as the water table has gone up and pushed the posts up slightly, we are always adjusting them depending on the water table lol.

Got some homemade veg soup out of the freezer and made some bread, definitely a day to appreciate it, I think more scanning of the seed catalog is in order this afternoon apparently the winds will not die down until tonight and I can’t take a day of buffeting so indoor stuff until it’s necessary to go out again.

Well we must have had a very strong gust of wind, when I was doing the afternoon feed rounds I could hear something banging away and looked over towards the rabbit run, one of the roof panels had come off together with the wood that it was screwed to, phoned John to let him know he had a job waiting for him before dark 😝 We managed to patch it up enough that it should hold overnight and not let the rain in, the garden chairs had all gone flying as well but I have left them where they are until the wind dies down.

Spent most of the evening looking for chickens of certain varieties, they are proving elusive or a days journey away! I am after a utility breed, Large Light Sussex, Ixworths or what would be best of all Le Bresse, these would be to rear the cockerels as table birds, I may have to purchase hatching eggs which is not a problem just takes much longer to get what you want.

Friday: John has gone to work today so it’s down to me to do the morning routine for the first time since before Christmas. My nice new coat didn’t stay clean very long, I let the ducks out, one flapped it’s wings sending mud splattering all over me including my face 😜 After that job I cleaned out the quail hut completely and put in fresh bedding and floor covering plus a nice dust bath bowl for them to play in. They have laid all through winter not as many as in the summer months but that’s to be expected. The egg numbers in general are going back up thankfully just waiting for the geese to start laying and we will have a full range for sale again.

One thing about having someone else around is that I can never find my equipment, the time I have spent looking for something that hasn’t been put back where I left it is nobody’s business, drives me insane, this morning it’s the shovel, the light weight one I bought for myself because the heavy one is, well, too heavy!

I took photos of the silkies this morning, I have asked online for an opinion on which sex they are, I can normally sex chickens easily however these have a full head of fluff and not many obvious features that are different. I looked online for the answers but it’s a bit vague so needs must, or I can just wait to see how many eggs I get or if any start crowing.

Saturday: What a day, 2.30pm and I have only just come inside or indeed sat down since 8.30 this morning! After doing the morning feeding we decided to ‘cut back’ the two big bushes in the front, why stop there we thought, might as well do the hazels while we are here with all the equipment out 😝 we have cut back hard this year, previously we have just trimmed so they are not in the way so in for a penny in for a pound we set ourselves loose. As the hazels were quite tall it was an ideal opportunity to make some bean and pea poles with the debris, so with the billhook and loppers in hand I spent many hours making them. My back, legs and hands are aching but it’s an excellent job done and I will be thankful when I need some supports in the garden I’m sure. I don’t think I will be able to move again for a while now I have sat down lol.

Sunday: Got the usual stuff done then it was on to burning all the debris from cutting the bushes back and sorting out my bean poles into sizes. The wind was bitter, but we kept going, well I did until lunchtime when I came and put some sausage rolls in the Rayburn, once they were done I took them out to John with a cuppa and he suggested I go inside as I was pretty cold. I did a bit of cleaning and some washing and was grateful to be in the warm. The sun has been shinning nicely and with the tops out of the hazels lots more light is streaming into the house, unfortunately that shows the dust 😝 but dust is always there no matter how much I polish and I have better things to do than worry about it too much.

In-between all the other jobs John concreted in a new post to hold the gate open it is much better than the last one so I’m very pleased.

Hazels cut right back this year

Hazel poles for beans and peas

Poles sorted into sizes

John still outside burning the cuttings 😜