DOING IT FOR OURSELFS

Meet Bent Nose

2011-10-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

A few ago we came across young hedgehog in the garden that we have named Bent Nose, because he has a very distinctive bent nose, he has become a firm friend of hubby, who dutiful feeds him every evening with dog meat, cat biscuits and mash poatoe, we are trying to get him up to 500grms in weight, which according to the reasearch we have done is what he has to be to hibernate succesfully, when we found him he was a meger 125grms, next weigh in he was up to 300grms, then crept up to 400grms last night he weighed in at 480grms so is almost there, it seems that Bent Nose has now been joined by a friend for dinner, his friend is bigger so we assume is a good weight to hibernate, so far the weather has been holding and so he wont be scurring off to hibernate just yet, and there is a good chance he will make the target in time.

Talking of the weather we are picking our second crop of strawberries and have had a good dozen or so each day, a nice welcome if not unexpected bonus this time of year, we still have peppers chillis and a few tomatoes to pick, there are loads of figs on the trees but I dont think they will ripen in time, we have had some during the summer but it would be nice to get a second crop, never mind cant have everything, got one of the greenhouses cleaned out and insulated ready for winter, just got the other one to do when we pick the last crops from it, and I have started moving in tender plants, we had a mild frost the other day, but I am not going to risk losing plants this year I lost so many last year with the harsh winter. Time to sign off will be back soon with news from the kitchen.

Bees Have Done It

2011-10-04T01:39:00.000-07:00

The bees are earning there keep and what a great job they are doing as well, our first crop of honey is on sale in my shop and is selling fast, we only have a few jars left, I decided to packed the honey in 250g pet jars, rather than 1lb jars, as a lot of my customers are elderly and on there own they dont like big jars and to make it easier and less chance of damage I went for the pet jars rather than glass, made up some blocks of beeswax as I have had a few people asking after that as well, bought a mould from Thorne when I put my order in for jars, the mould makes love ingot blocks with the word Beeswax embossed on it, so well done bees keep up the good work, the money from the sale of the honey and beeswax, will help subsides the costs of the varroa treatment and winter feeding the new swarm that dose not have enough food.

Next year all being well we will have lots more to sell.

its time for me to start preparing for Christmas, so I am making a start today on those pressie that I am making for the grandchildren, and to make a start on my christmas pud, we are spending christmas at home this year, hubby has been filling the wood store, so we will be toasty warm, the stor cupboards and freezer are full to busting so we will be all ready to huncker down for the holiday together.

I have finished knitting my jumper and plan to start on some socks tonight, I love hand knitted socks they are so comfy and warm and very hard wearing, also need to get the aprons embroidered for the shop, we have decided we need some sort of uniform that the customers can identify us with, so black aprons with our names on them and the shop name Homespun Crafts, has been decided upon, will also save me getting glue and paint all over my clothes which tends to happen in workshops.

Housework is done have hoovered through, cleared up the kitchen, washing on the line, chooks are fed so I am spending the rest of my day off playing with my sewing machine, so off to enjoy myself.

Welcome Sunshine

2011-09-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

Its my day off and the sun is shining, brilliant not something that happens very often on my day off, so its out in the garden working away getting all hot and bothered, so i have come in for a bit of a cool down, first thing this morning I got started with some crab apple and chilli jam, hubby cooked the apples on Sundayand left them to drain through the jelly bag, suppose to be for 24hrs, then he was struck down with the dreaded MAN FLU, I spent last week battling a cold that knocked me for six, but battled on going to work, cooking cleaning all the usual, he starts with it and cant even finish his crab apple jelly, so this morning I got it done out of the way, it looks a lovely colour, added some of the chillis we have been growing, it has set great and is now ready to be consumed. As we have had a glut of tomatoes and not wanting them to go to waste, I also set about making some Tomato Ketchup, a fairly simple recipe

2lb tomatoes 8oz shallots 3/4in root ginger

1/4 pint cider vinegar 11/4 oz sugar 1tsp paprika

1tsp salt 2 garlic cloves

roughly chop up the tomatoes, shallots ginger and garlic, throw into a large saucepan and slowely bring to the boil, reduce heat cover and simmer for about 20mins, until the shallots are tender, blitz the mixture with a blender or food processer, push the mixture through a sive into a clean saucepan, bring the puree to the boil then simmer until the mixture is reduced by half, add the vinigar sugar, paprika salt to the pan stir and simmer until well reduced and thickened, it will thicken more as it cools. pour into bottles or jars, store in the fridge when cool makes about a pint.
mine was made with a mixture of red and yellow tomatoes, tastes very yummy and has a kick to it. While pottering about the garden and house I am waiting for a very important delivery, Ambrosia Fondant for the bees, even though they seem to have plenty of food to see them through the winter, I am not taking any chances this year, as we have lost bees through the last two winters, I am going to feed them up and make sure they have more than enough stores.

Now as you can see from the photo there is a well established colony of bees, let me tell you about them, last Tuesday I get a phonecall from my son in law who works for pest control, about a swarm of bees, SWARM IN SEPTEMBER, I dont think so, he said its just a small one about 50 bees, (me thinks he cant count) so UI went and had a look, the photo shows what I found, so we suited up, cut the wax comb dropped it in abox and I took it home, we are trying to keep them settled in the nuculus box and hope soon to move them into the spare hive, but they have very little winter stores so they will need feeding, another reason for getting the feed, so please hurry mr delivery man, as I need to go out.

Goosey Goosey Gander

2011-09-04T00:30:00.000-07:00

Whats for dinner tonight? How about Goose, Martin came across dinner on his way to work at the side of the road, not unusual in this household to have road kill, but this time we struck lucky, it wasnt road kill, it had been shot and come down in the road, Our freezer is usually stocked with the usual road kill, venison, rabbit, pheasant even the odd hare, the occasional squirrel pidgeon and duck but we have not had a goose off the road before, so we are looking forward to this one.

Things have been really busy here again harvesting fruit and veg, the chickens have gone into overdrive pushing out eggs like there is no tomorrow, and we have had a real glut of tomatoes that Martin has been making into Salsa and taking it with him on drill night to share with the boys, he has at last managed to get some pizza trays that will fit into the brick oven so he is going to hold that pizza party he has been promising for the lads very soon, but at the moment we have a very full calender.

Honey and bees are very much on the agenda at the moment, our first swarm we got has been doing fantastic and we have managed to take some honey off, unfortunatly, the second swarm that was only small have flown the hive, you cant keep bees locked in so you cannot stop them from leaving if they decide to go they go. We are having a visit from the bee inspector later on today, so we are hoping she will give our bees a clean bill of health, we are very much novice beekeepers, just bumbling along on our own, so it will be nice to know if we are doing it right or are we making a complete hash of it all, will let you know.

The sun is trying to break through a murky sky as I write so I am going to take advantage of a day off and decent weather and get some work done in the garden, also must get some baking done, and there is veg waiting to go into the freezer and honey waiting to be put into jars, so there is another full day ahead so I better get started on it.

Getting it for Free

2011-07-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

Just lately there has been a lot of adverts around from companys offering free electricity, who dosent want free electric, Martin has been in touch with one of these and has been looking into it, it seems they instal the solar panels on your roof at no cost to you, in return you get any electric produced that you use free of charge, any surples is put back into the national grid and the solar panel company get paid for the surples electric, so it cost us nothing to have the panels installed we benifit from free electricity and the maintanance of the panels is soley down to the supplling company,whats the catch there has to be one, the only issue is they rent the airspace above your house for a term of 25 years, if you dont own your property outright and have a mortgage like us then the company has to get permission from your mortgage lender, which it seems is not a problem, we have had the paperwork through and hopefully in a few weeks I can let you know if we have qualified and are getting free electricity, saving us approx £1,000 a year. Now what can I spend that on, it would go very nicely towards an Alpaca, I think that is a fair exchange.

Its Been a while

2011-07-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I have visited my blog and such a lot has happened, brick oven is now all completed and and it has been a bit of a learning curve using it but we got there in the end, unfortunatly we lost all our bees over winter, very sad and frustrating but on the flip side we managed to get a swarm back in May got them established in hive number one and they have been going like the clappers, we had to add an extra super, (thats the bit were they make honey) so the hive is now running with two supers, yesterday we had a shuffle round with filled frames put in a crown clearing board and we hope this evening if the weather is decent to take off our first frames of honey, I bought an extractor so we are ready to go.
at the start of June we got a second swarm a lot smaller I think it was a cluster swarm and popped them into hive number two, they are into reproduction but being a lot smaller we wont be getting honey from them this year, next year tho fingers crossed they will be established enough and both hives will be in production.
Veggies and fruit and have been doing great this year, tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes so far have been over producing and there has been lots of give aways, beans have had a slow start but are now romping away, garlic and onions are fine, turnips and swiss chard have been good and the first sowing of peas were fab and most are now in the freezer, I sarted off some more peas in modules and yesterday we gotr those planted out so providing the pidgeons stay off them we will fingers crossed get a good second crop.
I am going to sign of now and should be back tomorrow with a further update and some photos, day off work tomorrow.

Clay Oven and BBQ

2010-07-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

We have decided to add a Clay Oven and brick BBQ to the garden and somehow incorprate a smoker that bit we havent yet decided how to work it in but I am sure it will all come together, the area we have chosen was original were the swing seat was homed but now 10 years on it has a serious case of rot and is no longer safe so it was time it went, hubby has made a start today on digging out the footings for our new outdoor kitchen, and I am hoping it wont be too long until it is functional. We have ordered a book from Good Life Press all about building and cooking in your clay Oven, I am hoping it will soon land on the doormat so we know a bit more about what we are doing. Home Farmer are running some courses on building your own clay oven but unfortunatly we cannot make any of the course dates.
Tommorrow we are off to the small holders show in Ardingly should be a good day out we have been going for several years now and learn something new each time, tommorrows trip will give us a chance to stock up on some more supplies for the bee hives and I hope to get some info about ducks as I fancy keeping a couple.

A Year has gone by

2010-07-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

I cant believe its been over a year since I last posted on my blog, well I can really and what a year it has been, firstly an explanation for my absent, April last year I fulfilled a life long dream and opened my very own craft shop, called Homespun Crafts the shop is based in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, its open from Mon-sat so takes up most of my time, as well as running the shop on a day to day basis, we also run craft drop in sessions were you can walk in off the street and take part in a craft session for £2 on Monday's we do do jewellery Wednesday is a card making day and Friday is scrap booking, so there are always timetables being put together and samples need making, on Tuesday afternoon's we run a knit and natter session which is a free sociable get together, once a month on Thursdays we run a stamping club, and every Saturday afternoon we have workshops on, once a month we have a lace session were lace makers can meet and have a natter also new lace makers can come along for lessons, so it is a very full on very busy shop, we rent out Cricut cartridges, run a saving scheme, have lots of charity makes on the go, I have had to move premises three times in the first year of business to accommodate our growing crafting community and products and have recently taken on a partner to help me out with the running of it all, and whats next well we are expanding the shop either further to accommodate quilting and patchwork.

As well as the shop life continues much as normal at home, we have still got a growing family of chickens, we now have two bee hives up and running, both green houses are bursting at the seams, we have a new addition of a poly tunnel and the fruit and veg plots are all in full swing.

so that is my excuses for not having been around much, but now things are settling into a routine again i will make the effort to post more.

Beeeeeeeeeeees are coming

2009-03-23T02:21:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I updated my blog, I just don't know where the time disappears to, so I will try and keep it more up to date now things have settled down again here.

Hubby bought me a bee keeping kit for Christmas and a few weeks ago the hive arrived, we have pondered and had many a discussion as to the best place to site the hive and a place has been decided reached.

It may not look impressive from the photo, but I am so excited, hubby built a platform above the little shed in the side passage, and we have put

the hive up there, it is out of the way of everyone, he has fixed a ladder in place so I can access it, now I am not good on ladders and terrible with heights, so how I will fare we will have to wait and see.

The Bees should be ready for collection mid April, it will be great having them in place, and hopefully seeing them at work in the garden and in the hive, I still have join the bee keepers association so I must get a move on with that, I have read a few books but putting that into practise will be another matter.

Right I'm off things to do, I will try and get back tomorrow with an update of what is happening in the green house.

The humble Mushroom

2009-01-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

The humble mushroom, perhaps not so much humble but secretive, or blooming mysterious, while eating lunch today, bacon eggs and mushrooms, we got on to the discussion of using the little shed at the side to grow some of our own mushrooms, we have had a go with the odd mushroom kit before and successfully grown and harvested a few mushrooms and had a good success at growing some oyster mushrooms in a bag of straw, but I would like to grow more than just a handful of mushrooms, so I have been scouring the Internet for information, and its very lacking unless I want to grow magic mushrooms or grow them on a commercial scale, all I want to do is grow a few trays at home in the shed.

I have taken the plunge and ordered some spawn that promises to come with full details and instructions from www.seedsofitaly.com so we shall see when they arrive, I went for

King Mushroom. This mushroom can be sown onto wet straw in dustbin sacks with a sponge in the neck of the bag held in place with an elastic band.

Pleurotus Cornucopiae or Golden Mushroom in English. For sowing onto clean straw only.

Pleurotus Ostreatus (Oyster mushroom). Like the Pioppino, can be sown onto straw or logs

In Italian it is called CAPPELLONE and small Portobello mushrooms are called CRIMINI. Dried spawn sown onto grains which should be sown onto horse manure.

Cultivated (Button) Mushrooms. Many uses for this versatile fungi. First make the compost with 5kg of Horse manure compost mixed with 20% wet straw

I was nearly tempted with a few truffle trees but as they take 4-6 years to start producing truffles and we aim to be moved by then it wouldn't have been a good buy, so they can wait until we are in in a more settled place.

I hope the instructions are all clear when they arrive as it would be lovely to be able to crop our own mushrooms.

The chooks are back to laying now yippee, they only took about 6 weeks off so not bad going, I am waiting for all the bantams to come into lay, some-one mentioned to me it would be around valentines day but cannot remember who said it.

I got another plum and pear tree planted this week along the new back fence, I think that area is now full, its my mini orchard, with apples pears and plums and not forgetting the climbing fig and cultivated blackberry, also got some spuds on the go in the greenhouse another few weeks and the planting season can start properly, I keep going through my seeds cant wait to get going.

we are still using up parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, red cabbage and Swiss chard, there is still salad leaves growing in the greenhouses, but its starting to get a bit mundane so it will be lovely to get out teeth into something else.

Making a start with growing

2009-01-11T04:28:00.000-08:00

I have been down in the greenhouses this morning, doing a bit of watering, here is a picture of how the sweet peas and lupins are coming on I sowed in November, I pinched out the tops of the sweet peas and they have bushed out really well, the lupins have started getting there true leaves now, I am trying to grow all my own plants this year and I have lots of areas in the garden to fill, I took lots of cuttings at the end of summer and they seem to be doing alright as well, I have loads of seeds so in the next few weeks I am going to start sowing them mainly the seeds for hanging baskets. I divide up some plants in the autum as well so I am hoping there will be plenty in flower this year and it wont have cost me the earth too do it.

I had some potatoes sprouting in the basket so they have now been planted up in buckets in the green house, there are not many of them but fingers crossed we will get a few early spuds, I must see about ordering some seed potatoes as well, I seem to have everything else apart from those.

The chickens have started laying again yipee, a sure sign that the days are getting longer, I am looking forward to my youngsters coming into lay for the first time, as they are paired off I am hoping for some fertile eggs to be able to offer for sale.

We went chicken shopping yesterday for my daughter and granddaughters, we made them a chicken run and house for there Christmas and promised chickens for there birthdays in January, the usual place we get chooks from is only open school hours and we had said the girls could choose there own chooks, so I looked up a breeder on the Poultry Breeders web site, we arranged to go over there at 4pm, BIG BIG mistake, this person was not what I would call a breeder and defiantly not a reputable one, he only had 7 chickens 3 bantems 2 west sussex and 2 orpingtons, the garden was like a junk yard and he had to move loads of stuff just for us to get in, the chicken run was in an abysmal state, the feeders were empty and full of mud, he used a plastic paddling pool for water and it was frozen through he tried to say it had frozen again during the day, very doubtful the ice was about 4 inches thick, it hadn't been defrosted at all there was slices of bread all over the run and you couldn't help but walk on them, I felt really sorry for the chooks so we took 3 of them, 2 bantems and one west sussex just to give them a better life, the kids were over the moon with them, but then they are too young to realise the conditions they have been kept in, he also breeds dogs and the place was filthy, all you could hear was puppies yapping, I am making a call to RSPCA as I don't think the chooks have access to water and food, so goodness knows what conditions the puppies are kept in. He said he doesn't keep cockerels, he buys in fertilised eggs hatches them and then sells them on when they reach POL, I asked what he does with the cockerels his reply was dog food.

It makes you wonder doesn't it, I know the chooks will be well looked after at my daughters and I think we have done them a favour, I wish I had the space myself to take the others but I don't. I just hope the RSPCA will take them and find them good homes.

First Snow of the Year

2009-01-06T01:04:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone, here we are with the first snow of the year to throw the country in even chaos than it is already in, in the photo is Bingo and Gizmo my two baby Silkies, 10 weeks old now, they didn't know what to make of the snow when it arrived yesterday, but are now old hats at it, they have been outside for a couple of weeks now, I was a bit concerned how they would cope with the cold but they seem to be fine, I moved them from the conservatory to the unheated greenhouse, they were starting to smell a lot, then after a few weeks in the greenhouse when the weather was mild they got moved outside into a small run with a small house, they had a week or so of mild weather before the cold snap arrived, they are growing really fast now and have developed there own personalities, I am starting to think they may be both cockerels that will be a shame.

From chickens to bees, I got the most wonderful Christmas pressie from hubby, a complete bee keeping kit, all the tools, the suit the hive arrives in a few weeks and we collect the bees at the start of spring, we have sorted out a location for it and I am going to join the local Bee Keepers Association I cant wait, another big step closer to living our dream.

There wasn't much doing over Christmas very quiet time it was lovely, although I did managed to grab a couple of days to have a tidy of the greenhouses and shed, all ready for the big planting season to start, on the mild days I was amusing myself in the garden with a bit of leaf collecting and weeding trying to get a head start on it all.

This year the big economy drive starts, I had a dabble at the end of last year, so now I know I can do it, its time to do it on a serious note, so every penny I spend gets logged down in my little book, and I am not drawing money from the bank, hubby will pay all the household bills but the day to day running of the house is down to me, I am having £30 a week housekeeping and I have the bits i earn from the auctions and card sales, I have canceled all my magazine subscriptions except one Home Farmer I love that magazine, and after falling off the wagon with the smoking while hubby was away in Nepal I have been to the doctors to give Champix another go, today will be the day I buy my last packet of cigs, I am looking forward to becoming a non smoker again.

Being Wiped out bugs

2008-12-15T00:49:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I was totally knocked off my feet with this flu/cold bug that's going round, I was feeling so rough, but kept dosing myself up with tablets, Vit C and lots of hot ginger drinks, today I am feeling a lot better I have the sniffles and little sore throat but apart from that compared to yesterday I feel great.

Got loads done this morning, washing, ironing, cleaned the oven, stripped down the hob and extractor all the bits are in the dishwasher, of course because I use the hob to boil my kettle after running Grand son to school I found I couldn't make a cuppa because all the bits are in the dishwasher, then I remembered the good old microwave, it took a couple of mins to boil the water, but it did the job.

Going to get dinner on now, we seemed to have accumulated a lot of venison in the freezer, so I am sticking a joint in the slow cooker with a load of veg that need using up from the fridge, I am going to try and use the slow cooker a lot more that I do, I came across a great blog full of slow cooker recipes http://crockpot365.blogspot.com

so I think I am going to become a regular visitor.

Well its Christmas next week and I still have a few pressie to finish off so I better get a move on .

Christmas is a coming fast

2008-12-14T01:03:00.000-08:00

Yes its just round the corner now and I am up to my eyes in finishing off pressies, who's idea was it to make everyones pressies this year !!!!!

This week has seen the kitchen turn in to a choclate shop, as the handmade chocolates got into full swing, these are to add to the hampers that the adults are getting for christmas, it was great fun making them, there are still a few more to do, so far I have done, Cherry brandy kisses, Mint Crunch, Nut Cluster, Chilli chocolate, Truffles, and Hazlenut truffle.

They all taste rather yummy and the kitchen has chocolate everywhere, just lots of boxes of the stuff covering every surface.

Also got the freezers deforsted this week and sorted out in preperation for our half a veal calf, we are looking forward to that arriving.

We are in full throws of moving young chicks into there adult accomidation and its starting to look like chicken city down the garden, were ever you look there is another chicken house.

I have sent off a few requests to rent some land this week, and if we manage to get some locally then Chicken City will be moving there, along with a couple of beehives then we can expand into other poultry and keep some for meat eating.

I think I am starting to come down with this Cold/flu thingy that is going round, got up this morning feeling really rough, taken a couple of pills, had a hot shower and feeling a bit better but there is definatly something lingering in the background.

Right off to pop some more pills, and if need be crawl back into bed .

TURNING WOOD INTO MEAT

2008-11-15T01:03:00.000-08:00

They claim in the bible that Jesus turned wine into water, well we must be blessed as we have turned wood into meat.
With the help of some good old fashion bartering, we have barted the odd thing before with friends, but this is a real biggie, we have access to an unlimited supply of wood suitable for kindling, so we got some of those big netted onion bags, (thank heavens for e-bay) bagged up kindling and took it along to our local farm shop Fowleys and Wally he has offered to sell it in his shop and instead of us having cash we are having meat, all very simple.

Since hubby went away I set myself a task well more of a challenge not to draw or spend any money from the bank, so that the money in the bank just pays household running expenses, but anything else must be generated at home cash and that is what we have to live on for food, petrol chicken feed, entertainment clothes etc
Not an easy task but is is surprising how you do it, that s how the bartering came into being with the butcher, veggies we grow and I have just had the arrival of a new batch of veggie seeds for next year from Victoriana Nursery Gardens they have some great varieties and some real good old fashioned varieties, this year I grew there climbing peas and we had a great crop, I grew them over some arches in the garden, the climbed to about 7ft and the peas were gorgeous, I did intend to get a second crop in but the weather has been disastrous this year, but there was plenty to freeze so we are still using them.
so back to my plan, so far so good it all seems to be working well and I haven't touched any money in the bank, it has meant I have to be really carefully with using the car and think twice about it, if I can I walk or cycle, but we still need cash so I have been doing lots of little things to generate cash coming in, selling all the junk I have accumulated over the years on e-bay, its great to have a good clear out, I have also been selling some cards and hand made soaps its all bringing in little bits but the plan is working. It is surprising how little cash you can manage on and it makes you think twice before buying. The aim of course is to save and save so we can carry out our dream and buy a small holding, I did some calculations and I think I can save about £10,000 a year doing this, we will just have to see what happens.

Today we are building a new chicken house, now hubby has returned from his jaunt to Nepal we need to get new accommodation built for our growing family of feathered friends, The Hamburghs have now started laying really cute white bantam eggs, and my teenage chooks who are now 17 weeks have been moved down the garden next to the adults, the Silkies are growing fast and it looks like they both might be cockerels which is a real shame after all the problems I had with them.

Encounter with a Hamburg

2008-10-26T00:03:00.000-07:00

This handsome trio are Speckled Hamburgs, I went along to the East of England Autumn show, and fell in love with these lovely bantams, so bought them, I have never planned to have a cockerel, but he is a bantam cockerel so smaller than the average. They have been called Spit Spat and Spot.

Having got them home and not having a house and run for them they were temporally housed in a big rabbit cage I knocked up a house for them that evening and put them to bed, next morning they had to back in the rabbit cage until I got there run built. Now hubby is away climbing mountains in Nepal so I am having to manage everything on my own including run building.

I thought I did very well I even had a gate with hinges on the run, I installed them and they set about settling down.

Come bedtime (chicken bedtime) I start on my rounds shutting up various chickens, when I come to the Hamburgs no sign of them, the run and house were empty !!!

Upon hearing a rustling above me I investigated they had all decided to roost in the tree !!!!

So I was there in the dark with a ladder and torch retrieving chickens from the tree, next day I netted over the top of there run and around the tree, that night they were in the tree again they had found a gap !!!! now I am not being unreasonable here but I do not want to be going through the same performance every night when there is a perfectly good chicken house for them to go in.

Day three I decided wings had to be clipped not an easy task by yourself as you have to hold a feisty chicken that is not used to being handled spread the wing and then clip off the ends of the last five feathers, I caught the ends and got then done But Spit the cockerel had different ideas and didn't fancy the idea of a free haircut, he put up a fight, got hiss talons caught under my ring and dislocated my little finger, PAIN!!!! like I have never know before, I had tears. I caught him again clipped his wing and went off to console myself, I strapped my finger to the others thinking at the time it was broken. it was swelling rapidly but I didn't want my mum's wedding ring cut off so I stuck with it. That night one of the hens got really tangled up in the netting and I had to cut her out with scissors. this wasn't going to work.

The next few nights as soon as I saw them trying to roost I put them in the hen house hoping they would get the message, but no they were not having it. still being in pain with my fingers I just couldn't carry on every evening like this.

I sought medical advice found out the finger was dislocated so had it put back in, then set about building them a new run away from trees, moved there house and them into it and that first evening they went to bed no problem.

Our one cockerel looks like its turning into three, my 4 young bantams that I hatched August are growing up really fast, we ended up with 2 Plymouth rocks and 2 Sumatra's well we defiantly have a Plymouth rock cockerel, he has been trying to crow, bless him but he sounds like a chain saw trying to start up. and one of the Sumatra's is developing a rather long tail so it looks like we might have a cockerel there as well. if they turn into couples we may well keep them in there pairs we will have to see.

Clocks went back last night so it was an early start today, but it will also be an early finish, now winter is just round the corner I have been preparing for it, will catch up again tomorrow.

Where do I start

2008-10-24T00:25:00.001-07:00

Sorry seems to a good place to apologise for taking so long getting round to posting again, it really has been a very busy

time since I last posted and it may take several postings to bring up to date what has gone on.

Firstly hubby has gone off to Nepal, he is climbing Mount Pumori so I left to hold things together by myself for 6 weeks, the longest time we have been apart, so now I have to get out of bed in the morning at some ungodly hour and let all the chooks out, a job he did as he was always up early to go to work, a few days after he left our Silkie eggs in the incubator were due to hatch, the first egg started pipping and 24 hrs later there wasn't much progress at all, so following Katie Thears advice I peel back some of the shell from the top end, several hours later still no more progress and it was noticeable that the chick was get weaker, so I took the plunge and helped it out of its shell, it was very weak and a lot of the membranes had dried on to it, what a sorry state to be in, I left it in the incubator over night expecting to find it dead in the morning as it was very weak barley moving, next morning it was still alive to my surprise !! it was a bit fluffed up but not making any attempt to stand, when I picked it up its little legs just dangled there! oh dear knowing it wouldn't be fair to keep a weak chick if useless legs, the kindest thing of course is to dispatch them, but I popped it in to the brooder to decide its fate, and also coming to terms myself at what I was going to have to do, the reality of keeping your own livestock is making life and death descions and having to carry out unpleasant tasks. As much as it pains you to do so,.

I noticed another egg had started to pip, so I consoled myself with the fact this next one might be ok, I went through to the brooder to check on little Gizmo, so called because he looks like one of the gremlins, and there he was trying to stand up, I am so glad I didn't make any rash descions earlier, he seemed to be getting stronger cheeping away and trying to stand and walk, by the end of the day he had almost mastered his skills although very shaky and weak but he was getting stronger, unfortunately the 2nd egg stopped making progress and the next day very much the same so once again I helped but this little chick didn't survive, the other eggs were left until the end of the week, three were only part formed and the fourth the chick was dead, it was big I don't think it could turn itself into the hatching position, that egg was chock a block with chick.

so now I had a predicament one little black silkie chick who was now capable of running around, that was feeding fine but on its lonesome, not a good position to be in, so I popped up to Thrift farm its council owned and run for people with learning disability's to see if they had any young chicks that could keep Gizmo company, Bingo they had a white silkie a week older than Gizmo runt of the flock so it seemed as it was the smallest, so after parting with £2.50 I took Bingo home in a tiny box to be a new friend for Gizmo, popped them in together and Gizmo objected so loud you would think some-one was trying to murder him, of course he had never seen another chick, Bingo just sat quietly in the corner, so I left them too it, a few hours later they were the best of friends and are now inseparable, the pic shows Bingo Gizmo the day after they were introduced, that was three weeks ago, they are growing up so fast and getting there adult feathers, I am just hoping they don't both turn out to be cockerels.

On the subject of cockerels I will update you tomorrow on the Cockerel incident.

The Joy of Scoops

2008-09-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

Well who would have thought something as simple as an empty milk bottle could bring so much joy.

Every time I went down to feed the chucks I thought to myself I must buy some scoops for there feed, so when I was going to re-stock up on feed I reminded myself to look at the scoops, well look is all I did, at nearly £5 a scoop and I was looking at getting 4, no way could I justify spend that sort of money on plastic scoops.

Then the idea came while making a cup of tea, why not make my own from plastic milk bottles, they already have a handle made it is only a case of cutting the end off at an angle leave the top screwed on voila a scoop, so now I have scoops for everything in a couple of different sizes too.

Each of the feed bags has a its own scoop, I a couple of different sized ones for compost, one in the grit bag, and if one breaks I can replace it free of charge.

Down the garden at the moment I am busy clearing and prepping for winter, brassicas are all planted and the garlic arrived the other day so that's a little job for this week-end, then it will be time to get the greenhouse insulated. I like sitting in the greenhouse when it has its winter coat on, everything is muffled and cosy.

I have been working for a few days this week covering as courier my regular fella is off sick so I am doing his round for three days, its enjoyable but doesn't leave me a lot of time for other things, just as well its only for three days, but the pennies will come in handy for some more fruit trees that I want to plant in the front garden, the front garden is such a waste as its only used for prettiness, so I want to incorporate some fruit trees then under plant with pretty things, it is a large area out there mainly hard standing for parking, I have a fig tree that I am training up the front, but I think next year I might do some strawberry baskets in amongst the flower ones as well.

All thoughts and plans a sure sign that winter is on its way and its time to start mulling over the seed catalogues in front of the fire.

HALF A MELON

2008-09-19T01:16:00.000-07:00

This is the second half of the first Melon of the season, I ate the first half and it was fantastic, we have two more melons in the greenhouse not ready to eat yet, this was the smallest one.

Its not been a brilliant year for the Melons I usually manage to get a good dozen or so.

Its been a busy week so far, the weather has been fairly good, nice and dry so I have been outside clearing and weeding, another week I think then I will start insulating the greenhouses, a sure sign that Autumn has arrived. then it will be big haul of starting to move things under cover that need protection for winter. In preparation I am giving everything a good feed this week end and start tidying them up.

I have been making sausages this week and more planned for later on today, I want to get a least 50-60 packs done and in the freezer, we do like sausages and you can put anything in them and they are so easy to do.

Our lovely butcher gave us a load of Hogs Casings for free, our sausages are more of a chipolata size, rather than the big fat ones. So far I have done, Pork apple and Mango, and Spicy Beef, the cost is very favorable compared to shop prices. The pork ones were £2 for 16 sausages, yes I know you can get those cheap cheap ones but have you actually tasted them and worse still have you read the list of ingredients. FRIGHTENING.

Our new batch of hatching eggs arrived the other day so they are in the incubator doing what fertile eggs do I hope. We have six eggs in total this time, 4 black silkies 1 lemon cuckoo and 1 Peking partridge so it will be interesting to see what hatches out.

I was a bit shocked at my shopping bill this week, I checked and re-checked the receipt but it was correct, it came to £29, I bought two big bags of bread flour, bag of sugar, some meat for the sausages, some kit kats they were on special offer and hubby likes a kit kat, I did buy a big tin of chocolates as I have some friends coming to stop for the week end in a few weeks so I thought it would be nice to have a sweetie, mushrooms, milk, orange juice and I really cant think what else I might have bought oh some beansprouts as we were having stir fry that evening for dinner. but it is still a lot of money for only 1 and a 1/2 carrier bags. £10 was on meat and the chocolates were £5 that still leaves £14 on basics and very basics at that.

There is a new magazine out called Hand Crafted I have added a link to this page, it looks brilliant, and you get the things with each issue to make something, it also covers making gift/items from things around the home. With issue 1 you get the stuff to make a soap, and issue 1 cost 99p it is a part work and each issue is £2.99 but so far it looks worth it.

They grow up so fast

2008-09-10T09:02:00.001-07:00

The young bantams we hatched out are growing up so fast, they are now 7 weeks old, they moved outside a few weeks ago and a few weeks ago they came totally off heat, yesterday they moved onto growers food. I took this picture while I was cleaning them out this afternoon, they have done really well, considering it was our first go at hatching, we started we 6 Bantem eggs, 3 Plymouth Rocks and 3 Samutra's all we had was a little incubator that came with minuscule instructions.

Everything we read on incubation seemed to contradict what the other said so we really didn't

know what we were doing, we tried to candle them but didn't know what we were looking for, 4 looked different to the other 2 but were they a good 4 or bad 4 we kept them all just in case.

we were turning them twice a day then we were told we should be turning them 4-6 times a day then were read they should be turned every hour, we went back to turning twice a day and stopped at day 17 then on day 19 one of them started pipping I was so excited, over the next couple of days 4 hatched out we moved them into an indoor brooder that hubby made, the other two eggs just sat there and didn't do anything, eventually we threw them away.

Our babies have continued to thrive they started eating and drinking no problem then on day three I noticed a problem with one of the Samutras his eyes were not open and he kept bumping into things, we bathed his eyes he kicked up such a racket but his eyes opened and soon he was running around with the others, then the same chick a week later developed a very messy bottom that was starting to dry up and compact, so once again with cotton buds he was succumbed to a clean up operation.

They have remained relatively trouble free, again moving them outside there was lots of conflict advice, Hubby built them an outside brooder, and out they went we have done it by instinct it has been a very wet wet wet summer so we have left them with there light at night until a few days ago when it went off and stayed off but they have been fine and we have had a few dry days this week as well.

So now they are on the way to growing up fast i have taken the plunge and ordered some more eggs due to arrive next Tuesday.

This time I have gone for White Silkies and fingers crossed I will be a bit more clued up as to what I am doing this time round.

We wont do anymore then until the spring then we are looking at some Sasso birds for the table I also fancy some Quail but we will have to see, a lot could happen between now and next spring.

End of the Month already

2008-08-31T04:53:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like August is going out the same way it arrived, wet and grey, I can only remember a couple of days of sunshine this summer, in fact I am so cheesed off with the weather i have had a massive de-clutter of the wardrobe and out went all the summer dresses to the charity shop, thats two years running the weather has been awful during summer.

On a better note we have continued to harvest and many things are coming to the end now, I took out the peas last night as they have finished and the sweetcorn needs harvesting as well I had hoped to do that today but rain started again, I will have to get out there later and harvest it though otherwise they will be past there best and only fit for the chickens.

Toms have done well this year in the greenhouse, we have now got to the stage were we are pulverising them freezing in containers in portion size ready to add to casseroles etc, courgettes that we are usually unindated with have been in managable numbers soups fritters and stir frys baked grilled and the occasional courgette cake has ment we have worked our way through them, we have given away a few although not as many as we usualy have. Mini cucumbers have been great after the initial flush when I was picking tons of them they slowed down to a nice steady pace, and between the tortoise the in-laws and ourselfs we have kept on top of them again.

A big dissapointment this year was the yard long beans, they are only just starting to put on loads of growth so I dont think we are getting anything from them unless we have an indian summer, I will try them again next year.

Squashes have been very slow at getting going this year so once again I think it is a loss on the squash front, cranberries have done altright though and we have three lovely melons coming on great in the greenhouse .

after such a wet start to the day I have consoled myself with a baking session indoors, a couple of loafs of bread to see us through the week, some choclate chip cookies and I have done a Simmer Fruit Cake, from the home farming mag, so I will try that later with a cuppa.

Taking the plunge

2008-08-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

Yes taking the plunge in more ways than one, I have decided to set this blog up to record our adventure at the bottom of the garden.

For years and years long before I met my husband in fact I have memories from school days of wanting to live in the country grow fruit and vegetables and keep farm animals, but here was more to it than that, it wasn't just the food side it was all the other things that go along with day to living, I want to make our clothes and knit big woolly jumpers, stitch patch work quilts, bake bread make jams and preserves, I wanted us to do as much as we could for ourselves but still have a good comfortable life style.

I don't want to go back to living in a cave and having to make to and mend all the time, if we want to go out for a meal then still do so, I don't want to go back to horse and carts, I like my car, I still want us to have a television and a computer still want to have a phone and be in touch with the world, I want the best of both worlds I suppose.

We are getting there slowly although its not a race we are on a steep learning curve but the dream is becoming more of a reality every day.

To bring you up to speed, half of the garden has been turned over to fruit and vegetables a couple of greenhouse and a chicken run housing so far three chickens.

This time of year we are totally self sufficient in vegetables, which is great a lot of the time we have more than we can deal with and end up giving them away, although this year we have stopped the giving away process and now try to barter our surplus.

We also have four baby chicks three weeks old that we hatched out in an incubator, since day one we have said any males are for the table and the females we keep for eggs, we hope after these have moved outside to get some more eggs this time for table birds all of them.

We don't have issues with collecting road kill, Deer (venison) we have a lot of this in the freezer at the moment, we have the odd pigeon and squirrel in there that we have killed our self's and a big stock of crayfish, hubby has been getting from the local river, they are the American Signal Crayfish, for the past few weeks we have pulled the trap in as we were becoming a bit over run with them.

When we do go and buy meat we go to a local butchers who stocks locally produced free range meat, if we are going to eat it we want it to have lived a good life first.

so that covers the basics of meat and veg, bread I have been making for some time and I have always had a bread machine although I am now on my third model I have changed the way I use it, I was never altogether happy with the bread that the machine produced so just lately I have been using it to make the dough then I cook it the traditional way in the oven and now I am happy with my bread.

I make jam, chutneys and pickles, bake cakes and biscuits and I have just started doing fudge.

Hubby makes wine and beers and a few liqueurs and he made his first batch of champagne this year and its fab.

I do also knit and sew make jewelery and soft toys this year as a step closer to our dream we have decided that all Christmas presents and birthday presents we give are to be made hand made so I have just made a start, at the week end I made my youngest grandchild a patchwork cot quilt for Christmas, and I made another granddaughter a Mrs Golly doll for her birthday, I am part way through knitting my daughter a cardigan for Christmas and I have knitted a good supply of socks, there is a long way to go as we have four grown up children and eleven grandchildren so I better get my skates on.

so this brings you more or less up to date on were we are in our dream, over the week end we had a major de-clutter in the garden sheds the one nearest the house is going to be demolished next week end, we have a hot tub we want to site there. also hubby has to build a cover over the wood store so he is going to use the shed roof, we have been stocking up on logs ready for winter, we plan to use the wood burner as much as possible so we can cut back on using the heating.

I hope to be able to update this blog on a regular basis so you can follow our adventures at the bottom of the garden, right now I am eyeing up a pigeon that strolling around the veg patch like it owns it. The phot I have put up today shows the productive end of the garden and the field at the back that we would like to rent if only we could get the owner to agree.