12 sleeps until my
2 weeks off begin, well 11 but I have to be in work on the Friday so it doesn’t
officially start until Friday 3pm. I can’t
wait!
4 weekends have now past since I announced we wouldn’t be
having any more takeaways and I am super pleased to be able to say, we haven’t! We have had a meal or 2 out at a local pub
however I don’t see this as a problem.
For me, that’s getting out into the community and supporting local
businesses. Although buying a take away
is supporting a local business, I don’t think the food is generally very
healthy and it’s certainly not good for the grocery
budget. Whilst we’ve had a day or 2 off
work, we’ve enjoyed being able to get out and about together. Sunday night was a tester for me though, I was tired
from the weekend and didn’t fancy making a Sunday lunch, so I did homemade (there’s
that word again Louise!) pizza instead and it was delicious. I
made the tomato base from the greenhouse tomatoes that were ready and I haven’t
tasted a tomato sauce so lovely before.
Next year I want to grow even more so that I can fill the freezer up
with it for all year round “go to” tomato base.
On Friday we all had the day off together that we hoped
for and took the kids to a theme park for the day. They had so much fun and made the most of
it. We managed to get a discount voucher
so it wasn’t too hard hitting, though those places aren’t cheap!
We sold 2 of our top grade chickens over the weekend,
they’re only 15 weeks old so not laying yet.
It was a pair, boy and a girl and the family seemed nice so off they
went giving us £25 in our pocket towards the next lot of feed. I’m sad to say that one of our female ducks
was attacked by our geese on Thursday and she’s still limping however
they’ve had another go at her, so I’m bringing her inside into the dog crate
for some TLC. I’ll post an update on her
soon. She doesn’t look too good.
Both Saturday and Sunday we had family over visiting for
one reason and another. It’s nice that
people take the time to visit us, as we rarely have spare time to visit others
but we do try as it shouldn’t always be on them.
I also found 3 cherry trees that I didn’t know we
had! The black ones are laden however
they are so high up and out on a limb that I couldn’t pick them all. We’ll figure out a way to get them
though. For now I have half a tub waiting
to be weighed and turned into something delicious. I’ve also got lots of the white currants
stripped off the bush and I am going to make jelly from them to go with
meats. I also discovered a huge supply
of sloe bushes when I was out riding, there are a ridiculous amount, so I hope
we like them! There’s bramble bushes a
plenty too all along the bridle routes (which, selfishly, I’ve not seen anyone else
use). Our pantry will be overflowing with
goodies and I hopefully have the start of the Christmas hampers. Cherry brandy is apparently a real treat, so
I’ll get a few small bottles to decant them into if I make some.
I can’t tell you how excited I am about the free food I
keep finding!
I’ve also got some late season purple sprouting broccoli
to put in. It may be too late but we’re
behind people here anyway, so I’ll give it a go and put some in asap. I’m right in the middle of sorting one of the
fields, so I will try and spend at least an hour in each area a few nights this week. I am realising how much I really need to look
after the small fields we have otherwise they will be no good in a very short
space of time. So taking out the horses
muck is a daily task now.
I managed to get the raspberry vodka made too, it was
very easy and I hope it tastes as delicious as it looks.
Finally, I am pleased to say I learnt how to use
the manual lawnmower at the weekend. So
now I can crack on and get that done instead of adding it to Steven’s
shoulders. 
