Wet and windy weekend

Well we haven't had a weekend like this for a while. The sky is at best a murky grey and at worst resembling the depths of night time. We're dashing out between downpours to feed the animals. The horses are inside a barn so I am dry when I am working with them however yesterday was soaked and filthy from putting them in and out of the field and taking their rugs on and off. The ducks and geese aren't bothered by the weather of course!
Friday night we braved the cold (but thankfully not wet) to go to Sunderland illuminations. It took us around 40 minutes to get there and we then used a park and ride to take us into the main event. It was a pleasant evening but bitterly cold as it is by the coast. The kids enjoyed themselves and we headed home. A late night for the kids means they would be tired Saturday.
Before we left on Friday I checked the sheep who was poorly. She had a really runny tummy, I'll spare you the photos. I cleaned the muck off the ground just in case it was diseased and it means I can keep an eye on new ones to see if they are runny. On Saturday we picked up some coarse mix feed for them and she came over and ate it which is a great sign. She seems so much better so let's keep our fingers crossed for her.
The place we got the lamb/ewe mix from sells chicken and horse feed too, so I am pleased we've found somewhere else in case our current supplier is closed or whatever. The sheep were happy under the tree (puzzle tree?) staying out of the bad weather.
Jack and I took the puppies out for a walk when there was a break in the weather and coming back we saw the most stunning rainbow. Typically, and very unusually,  I did not have my phone so when we got back I ran in and got it, dashed back out and got a few pics as it was starting to fade. Here's a photo of Jack in front of the house too, for a nice memory for us both. It really was beautiful and so vivid.
Also our Vorwerk hens totally free range and of all the places to lay an egg, she chose to do it on top of the empty bedding bags!
In the picture of the ponies in the field, you can just make out the brave chickens wandering in and out of their legs. Brave? Or stupid? I'll let them decide :)

Heating went on and plans for the weekend.

This week has been peculiar.  Not necessarily in a bad way, but having the Halloween party Monday, then the kids had school discos on Tuesday meaning we didn’t get home until late, then Wednesday was the first night the clock change affected us as by the time we get home from school, it’s drawing in meaning we have limited time to get the horses out and do jobs that need daylight.  It won’t be long and we’ll have to do things by torchlight.  However it is lovely to have the daylight back on a morning.  I can’t believe how much more I notice these things now that we live here.  The weather and environment play such a big role on a smallholding.

The temperature dropped to 2C overnight earlier this week meaning that I put the heating on, to come on for a bit on a morning and when the kids are taking a bath at night.  Takes the chill off.

I have a sheep with a bad tummy to look after and a goose to be dispatched this weekend.  We’re also going to a local farmer’s auction as I’m after a tiller/rotivator, another incubator if there’s any on offer and whatever else they may have that would cost a fortune elsewhere.  My parents are coming to visit tomorrow night and we may have a little bonfire going for Guy Fawkes night that we can sit around and enjoy, but no fireworks obviously.  I’ll pick a few sparklers up for the kids so they can enjoy that safely and we'll roast some marshmallows after our homemade curry that my Dad's made.  Then Sunday we have some people coming for load of muck.  We’re invited out to lunch on Sunday so that will mean I don’t have to make Sunday lunch and clean up the kitchen afterwards – I’m not complaining.  I do love a Sunday lunch, time spent round the kitchen table with family, catching up, taking time out, looking at each other.  That’s sounds strange to say that but I think life sometimes ends up in a whirlwind, where we might be together but it’s the quality time together that’s the key.  You can’t beat a roast beef with Yorkshire pudding (google if you haven’t heard of them) dinner with bright green peas, carrots, cauliflower and roast potatoes!

What’s people’s thoughts on the traditional Sunday lunch, do you have a roast every week, or once in a while, or not bother at all? 

Getting the balance of what self sufficient means to us - the balance

I've been thinking more and more about self sufficiency and how it applies to us, or rather how we apply us to it. There are some very strong views out there on it, but I'm just throwing some thoughts out there which aren't getting down to the nitty gritty just yet so please bear with me.

I’ve had a little thought, which many people have had before however for us personally, it will help us on the road to being less reliant on supermarkets and more reliant on ourselves.  Thinking ahead to 2017, we’re not going to start having home grown items available on January 1^st even though I’ve been planting through Autumn/Winter to make sure some things are available as early as possible.  I plan on tweaking my 2017 growing plan (as much as my experience and knowledge allows me) to ensure once we start producing food in 2017, we don’t stop.  I’m researching all of the time and learning so much through the experience of others via blogs too.  Making notes along the way to ensure I remember the following year what to do and what not to do.

With these thoughts running through my head, the other thing niggling at me is having to go to Tesco (or wherever) for household items.  I’d like to reduce the amount we go.  So I’ve started making a list of things we need such as toilet roll, soap, shampoo etc and the list was ever expanding.  Then I made a list of non-perishable (or very long life) foods that we have such as tinned tuna, cereal etc.  I appreciate people will say, you could make your own soap and shampoo and you could poo in the woods (ok I’m exaggerating) but we need to do what works for us on our self-sufficient journey.  We both work full time, meaning that I need clothes that I can wear in the office – that’s the kind of balance I’m talking about.  So whilst we’re mindful about those areas and we certainly only spend what we need to there, I’m going to focus on the food and wellbeing. 

I mentioned cereal amongst the other things, this is something I could make at home, yes.  Granola and muesli, so that’s one thing I am going to change.  I can’t make coco pops though.  The kids aren’t allowed them a lot, but they do enjoy them when they are.  So I will buy those in.  However the kids don’t eat enough eggs (for my liking , given how many chickens we have) so they can have those more.  We are getting pigs in March, so maybe by November 2017 ish, we’ll be self-sufficient in pork/ham/bacon/sausages etc. We’re not buying a cow though, so I will still buy beef as I enjoy beef.  We might get one in a year or two though, who knows.  We don’t have goats or dairy cows, so I will buy milk - that’s something we use a lot of.  I can freeze it if I buy it in bulk.  We have some chicken in the freezer of our own but it won’t last long.  We should have our home grown chickens ready early April 2017 so from then on, I shouldn’t need to buy more chicken.

This is a snippet of the thoughts I am having for 2017’s budget and lifestyle.  Can you imagine how full my head is right now J  I’m off to think more about how we can shop less and grow more. 

Halloween 2016 round ours

We spent a lovely Halloween with neighbours and family.  We invited our only neighbours round, there’s one family from over the fields and the other 2 lots live close to us.  My lovely parents came too.  I cooked for everyone and those who wanted a drink brought some booze and nibbles.  I made pea soup (witches brew), Thai pumpkin soup (seasonal of course), pumpkin and chickpea curry, chilli con carne, sausages (20 glazed, 20 plain) with jacket potatoes and a wholegrain mustard mayo, plus a whole host of breads, salad and sides.  It went down a storm and I will be doing the sausage glaze and soups again.  I’ve yet to try the curry and I wasn’t overly fussed on the chilli, even though everyone else loved it.  The kids ate all of the plain sausages as expected.  Steven painted faces (adults too!), he has a fantastic creative side.  I made sure everyone was fed and watered and I took great pleasure in looking round our kitchen, warmed by the Aga, decorated in Halloween items and knowing that friends and family seemed to be really enjoying themselves in our “new” home.  It really does feel such a cosy, welcoming house.  So our first Halloween was a very happy one.  It’s an excuse to get together if nothing else…..as Steven did point out that we didn’t used to celebrate Halloween in the previous house haha!

Here's some pics which we'd love to share with you.

 

The front of our house (which we never ever use normally!)

 




Trying to be a serious vampire

Matching spiders.  3 generations, me, mum & Grace

We also had some potentially very exciting news which we’re hoping to know more on soon….watch this space J

Thinking of next year (again)

I haven't been on everyone's blogs for a day or two but I will catch up this weekend and am looking forward to it. 
This week has gone by quickly, looking back.  My mind has been wandering into next year again thinking of the things I'd like to get done on the smallholding.  There's the easy sounding, but more than likely a pain in the butt jobs of putting automatic drinkers into the fields and stables, maybe even the poultry and the preparing for the pigs. 
Starting the incubator in February, we need to get our table bird stocks up and have decided on a specific breed to cross with our big cockerel to hopefully produce some nice big birds. 
I'm hoping to have a poly tunnel by April time frame and that means agreeing on the area it is going to live but we think we've decided.  Preparing the ground for the poly tunnel won't be an overnight task (if we put it where I think we will). 
We hope to really get to grips with heading in the right direction for being self sufficient in veg at least.  Eating seasonally will be on my mind all year.
If we don't manage to this year, next year we need to put some sort of hard standing at the field gate entrance as it has turned to a quagmire already.  There's more fencing to go up for the horses and stock fencing to keep the sheep in.  There's gates to make to keep the ducks and geese separate (the geese beat the ducks up sometimes) instead of the pallets we have resting there at the moment.
Inside the house, I'd like to get the kids bedrooms done as my daughter at least, will be too old to enjoy the kids side of it in a year or two when she turns towards the dreaded teenage years.
Hopefully next year something will present itself in offering us more land too.  I'll work on that by inviting all of the neighbours round at Christmas and cracking open the mulled wine!
These are my rambling thoughts for the day, not a great post for you guys as readers, for which I apologise, but useful for me.  At least you all can keep tabs on my progress ;)
Have a lovely weekend all.

This is the goose shed!  The sheep are inspecting it....

See the difference?  The horses are on the left side and this is only after a couple of days.  The right side is resting.

The hard standing would need to be on both sides of the gate I think

My night

Today I have felt off, having gone to bed with a niggle of a headache that was still there when I woke up. I felt quite short tempered all morning which isn't normally me. So when I got home, I got in with jobs thay I knew being in a bad mood is good for. Cleaning! The kitchen got an overhaul and I started to feel better. I then took the puppies out for a lovely long walk. Despite it being a really blustery afternoon, we had a lovely walk out. The dogs found fox holes and something large has been wandering through the previously 3 foot high grass. I then put the ponies in the field for an hour, put the potatoes in the Aga for jackets, went back out and mucked the ponies stables out. Steven and I caught Barbara,  one of out sheep and checked her feet as she's developed a limp. There wasn't anything obviousl so I iodined them and she was free to go. She seemed easier on it just 30 mins after so whether the iodine worked I don't know. Fingers crossed she's fully ok tomorrow. Once the ponies were mucked out, I fed the chickens and got the geese their tea. In between this, Steven had to go for an appointment and we had tea when he got back. After tea I went back out to finish the horses and Ste went to his boxercise class (rather him than me). I collected the eggs and noticed there was a chicken egg in the duck house. I think they're trying to confuse me.
I'm all finished until the morning now, in the house in my own which is very strange. The kids are at grandparents tonight so I am having a shower and washing my hair before I have to work 8 to 10. I do my evening work from home and it's not hard, so I won't complain.
In the photo with the chickens. Can you spot the odd one put?  Our cockrel isn't supposed to be in here! Cheeky.

Onions and garlic and the weekend

Where's the weekend gone? I know people say that every weekend but this one has left me feeling like I really need another day to get my stuff together.  We have got lots done so it's not wasted of course.
We planted onions and garlic, I just make a note of their names. We tidied up some of the veg plot, still lots more to tidy and dig over.  I'm hoping to get my hands on a tiller to reduce the physical burden of turning all of the beds over.
I've sectioned off part of the field to put the horses in. We're calling it the sacrifice paddock as we're sacrificing it to the mud bath that it'll become. The horses are living in their stables now and just having the odd hour out in the field but we're riding them 4 times a week to keep them entertained.
I did ask the farmer next door if he'd rent or sell us a bit of his hundreds of acres but in what seems to be true farmer style, he said no. Of course the seed is planted  now and time will hopefully work in our favour but I'm not complaining if it doesn't.  I wouldn't swap what we have for   the world.
It's been a strange weekend weather wise, we've had lots of rain which has kept the temperature up. It's not as cold as I expected it to be. The wood burner has been on though.
We've had the eggs from the chickens that have just started laying. They were rather small ha but the kids enjoyed them.
Here's the view from my stairs window. The trees are all changing colour. Lovely to see. Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. Back to work for us tomorrow. Looks like a very early start for us. Up at 4.45 but I'm just not tired yet (despite getting up early).

Using the Aga

More often than not you can fine Steven's overalls drying on the Aga, keeping warm for him putting on the next morning to go to work. I can't dry everything on here as we have too much but it is very handy. Nothing better than warm overalls to put on when it is a chilly morning going to work at 5.30am!

My son has just made me smile. He went outside to collect a bag for Steven as he's stripping the wallpaper in the dining room and needed an empty feed bag to put the rubbish in. He didn't put any boots on to go out and his socks were soaked when he got back in, he took his socks off and put them on the Aga to dry. Of course he should have just worn boots! However the fact that the Aga is an integral part of our every day lives after just 9 months here make me feel all warm and cosy inside.

Elderberry wine

A big part of what I wanted to achieve and sustain when we moved here was to start to incorporate living off the land into our lives. Steven has been busy pressing apples for cider and I'll update on that shortly, however the other day I finally got round to getting the Elderberry wine ready. By ready I mean sat in a demi John fermenting. So after gathering the elderberries last week, I weighed 2 kilo and gave them a bit of a press with a masher then popped them in a sterilised bucket with some water as per Hugh FW's recipe and left them a few days. Then I made a sugar syrup and added orange and lemon juice and zest, yeast and got it all ready for the demi John.  So now it is busy fermenting away making us the most glorious (I'm keeping positive) wine. Apparently if you can, you should wait 5 years. Can't see that happening. We'll make it each year and then there will be a continuous supply. Having said that I rarely drink lately, so it'll probably come out at Christmas etc. Not this one though! Happy Friday everyone. 

Pantry special

Pantry special!! Some time last month I started harping on about the pantry.  After much deliberation, I decided to go with plastic containers for my pantry over Kilner Jars.  Firstly, my children help with a lot in the kitchen (my kids are 9 and 6 for those who don’t know) and glass, kids and an extremely hardwearing farmhouse tiled floor are not a great combination.  Secondly, the Kilner jars were just too expensive to even make a start on.  We do already have a few Kilner jars but I think I would like to use these for the homebrew alcohol that we’re trying out.  They look very pretty lined up and the colours of the fruit in the alcohol do them justice.  I researched online for the plastic tuppawear type boxes, yes I am that sad, and settled on Tesco’s Klipfresh.  I have 'free' next day delivery with Tesco so they were ordered and turned up as expected, plonked in the greenhouse by our kind postman.

Now, they aren’t cheap either.  I do however manage to easy my conscience with that knowing that they are an investment (I can hear my husband’s comments in my head as I type this).  I think they are an investment anyway.  Remember my comment about flies a few weeks ago?  Well these containers keep their contents fly and bug free (think weevels in flour) and moisture free too.  If items that are decanted have a specific cooking time, I will take a photo of the instructions but to be fair, I don’t tend to follow packet instructions when using the Aga.

Here’s what the pantry looked like, unedited, on the day that I ordered the containers. 
I spent a long time, with the help of my daughter, sorting the pantry out so that it now looks like this.

Anything that was open in terms of cereal, flour, sugars etc, were decanted into a container of suitable size and a label on to remind us what it was.  If an item was not open, it was stored with other like items for when it was needed.  I did notice the self-raising flour was coming to its use by date and given that we now have a freezer with lots of space in it, it would be criminal not to bake some cakes and freeze them sliced ready for unexpected guests and packed lunches, wouldn’t it now? So that's on the cards for the weekend.

Overall I am rather pleased with how it turned out.

Veg box scheme

I haven't posted for a while about the veg box scheme that I signed up to a while ago. Probably as they are doing so well at it that I've just taken it for granted. Of course I shouldn't.  So when this little freebie turned up just for being me, I was proud as punch. It's really good quality and I have already used it on tonight's carrots from the veg box. I'm making cottage pie for tea as I type. The weather is a bit cool and rainy so it feels like a comfort food night.
I can't recommend Riverford highly enough for their produce and service. They are fabulous. I'll be sad to leave them when we are self sufficient 😉.  In the mean time they are plugging the gap nicely.
I've managed to do something to my thumb joint. The ball of my hand so to speak. Not sure what but I can get hold and pull anything without a shooting pain. Paracetamol and ibuprofen isn't taking it off and it's been a few weeks now so I may need to pop to the docs.
The Vorwerk chickens have started laying,  bless their socks.