Wasps, Lard, Pigeons & Stores

Tuesday 15th August

Another working day for Steven and I, meaning we have only the evenings to get on with things.  Steven is incredibly busy at work at the moment, with more and more being piled on him.  I do think it is time to pull a plan together to move him to working from the smallholding.  One to mull over.

Wasps!

When we were tidying up the hedges and trees at the weekend, we came across what we assumed must be a wasps nest.  Turns out there's two!  Well, two places the little critters are going in and out of anyway.  A vegetable bed and an old drum.  Their presence meant I couldn't safely tend to the vegetable garden as they were savage creatures and very unhappy to have us around their home.

After 2 failed redneck style extermination attempts and multiple stings later, we paid an exterminator to come in and do his thing.

Later on the same evening, we went out only to discover there were still wasps flying around.  I think they were on their way out though as they weren't as fast or nasty but still too many, so we reverted back to our original method and set a fire in the problem bin.

Free food - pigeons

Steven and Grace had a successful shooting session for the farmer on Sunday.  They brought home a little over 20 birds for processing.  So last night, Steven and I set about plucking them and taking the breasts off as that's really the only bit worth using.  The remainder went out to the fox as a distraction from the chickens, which it has been pestering.  Below is the set up.  Nice and simple and now we have around 40-45 strips in the freezer which will be perfect on the griddle after a long days work, or to go in game pie in the winter.

Picture perfect

In the below photo, I had to stop what I was doing to get it.  The sheep are enjoying a break from the rain and in the distance you can just make out the pigs.  It's lovely to see the pigs from the kitchen window.  

Pigs and lard

Speaking of pigs, Steven recently brought some leaf fat home.  This is the fat from around the kidneys which is supposed to be in the shape of a leaf.  It's the best fat you can get in terms of quality for baking and frying.  Back fat is another good fat but isn't as white and has a slight porky aroma.

After a few hours in the slow cooker, the fat renders in to a beautiful liquid which you strain and bottle.  Once dry it is an amazing white like below.  Unfortunately, it does make things slippery and on lifting the slow cooker out of the casing to wash it, I launched it across the room obliterating it!

 

Stores progress

Steven and I have also made a start on Stores.  Here he is securing the ceiling boards which were previously held up by the kitchen cabinets.  We need to paint this room again before he can make the frames for the scaffy boards and sink.  The idea is to continue the bar theme in to Stores and then move everything from the pantry in the house that isn't food, out to stores.  All canned items will now be stored in the pantry (which is another project!)

Lastly for this post, I wanted to share the mushrooms we have growing in the garden.  I assume they're field mushrooms but I don't know and I worry about poisoning us!

Brief chilly spot

By gosh it’s been chillier morning than it has been for a while.  Not cold, but still a shock to the system.  It’s due to warm up again though so I am not dwelling on it or making any changes!

Last night I was supposed to ride out but when it started raining I quickly changed my plans to allow me to get into the field and start over seeding it.  It needs to be done when the ground is wet.  Basically I am trying to improve the health of our grazing land as we don’t have a lot versus how much some horses have so as I’ve said before I need to take good care of it.  Combined with the daily task of taking out the muck, over seeding, weed pulling and fertilising all play their part.  So do sheep apparently.  Can you see where this is going?  Tonight we popped over to our neighbour across the fields to see what ewes with lambs they have in the hope that we can come to an agreement to take 2 off his hands.  Sheep are good for walking the grass seed in to the ground to help it root in and they also have other health benefits to horses and grazing land.  I’m being sensible and not asking for 6 or 10 and starting small with 2.  After all, another farmer friend reminded us the other day – that’s how you do it, start small.  I’ll update more tomorrow.

The poorly duck is doing a lot better, she’s able to keep up with her friends when they’re waddling around now so hopefully after a week of restricting their access, we will be able to let them out on Saturday.  I’ll just keep a close eye on the geese so that they don’t make a bee line for her again.  I think they see her as the weakest link now.

Our latest acquired duck, called Richard, has settled in just fine.  He is huge for 3 weeks old, however as he’s an Aylesbury breed, I’m not surprised given that they are a heavy bird.  He reminds me so much of Ryan when he was born and rejected by evil mother goose.   I don't have a photo of him yet but in the mean time, here's Grace with our home grown cockerel youngster.  He's huge and so gentle so far, unlike the previous ones.  He's called Little Red.

Speaking off beelines, Jack my son (6) was stung 5 times by some angry wasps last night.  3 times on his head and 2 on his hand.  The kids were playing near an apple tree, no doubt disturbing the apples and from the screams Jack made you’d think something horrendous had happened, which is what it felt like to him poor soul.  I was in the field so came running as fast as possible and when I got to him the bl**dy thing was still in his hair trying to sting him.  I got rid of it but it kept coming back!! So I ran with him to the barn as it would not let up and I kid you not, it followed us and started at him again.  Steven came to see what was going on as he’d had his earphones in working out, and the wasp turned on him and stung him on the face.  I whisked the kids inside and left Ste to deal with it.   I have never experienced anything like it.  It was in attack mode!  Grace said there were 3 on his head when he got stung and thankfully that was it as I’d hate to think there was a swarm after seeing how brutal they are. 

We will get some wasp powder or such like and if there is a nest, get it dealt with.  I know wasps help pollinate but they have overstayed their welcome after doing that.