A Morning On the Farm

I needed to collect some eggs for my breakfast, and I thought I'd take you with me....

First we see Floss, always waiting to do a job, she's always so pleased to see me!

Next we see the cows as they are on the lawn for the next few days as there is so much grass there, and I can't mow the top bit. They love that long grass and clover.

This brown and white cow is Dot. We hand reared her a few years ago to be raised to sell for meat, but she decided when she was only little to jump two fences with elecric outriggers, and an electric tape to go and see the bulls. So we had to keep her.
I milked her last year, and she reared a lovely calf. She is due to calve again in about a month, you can see her udder growing again. I still don't have anywhere suitable for milking, but she's going to need it as she was producing 12L at the very start which is too much for a tiny calf.














Next are the beautiful Devons and their babies...





Into the hen orchard, the Bramley apples are looking good...













We are greeted by the hens, I hope there are some eggs!
The geese walk away, as they know Floss will try to round them up if they are too close. They used to peck her, but then all of a sudden everything changed in that relationship!









They have made their own nest, on the floor and there is one hen sitting, and one waiting. Why don't they use a proper box? Silly chickens!
I reached under her, but no eggs yet! I'll have to come back soon....

Walk at Moon rise

There was a full moon this evening. 

I went with Floss for a walk around the farm to check on the bulls as I hadn't seen them around today. They were fine, resting by the brook, enjoying the cooler evening air.

Even walking at that time I was very hot.

As I walked past the bulls I heard a little sneeze, followed by some rustling in the dry grass, then some crunching and another tiny sneeze. It was a young hedgehog!

Apparently here I'm supposed to kill them, as they eat kiwi eggs, but there haven't been any kiwi around anywhere near here for generations thanks mainly to more aggressive predators such as wild cats, dogs and stoats and weasels. And I think there was some concern at one point about TB, but we are in a TB free area, and all our cows are tested. I just keep quiet, and feel really honoured to see a hedgehog! In fact I rejoice when I see one, and like tonight hear one crunching on snails or crickets or grass grubs and beetles that destroy the fields.

I'm so pleased to know they are doing such a good job!

I managed to catch a photo of the surprised looking hedgehog...

Bye for now!

Round the farm

I had a quick break from flooring today to appreciate the wonderful fruits on the young trees I planted a couple of years ago.

This pear tree seems to have ripened first.

It is a Jargonelle tree, which I found quite by accident at a garden centre in the bargain area. It was quite old to be stuck in its black bag pot, but I liked the shape and the look of it.

The first recording of this tree was in a scottish monastary in 1649 or something. So to have made its way from France up to Scotland it must be much older.

It has a crazy mind of its own about growing, and we had no flowers or fruit last year. But this year we have been blessed with a beautiful crop of small yet perfectly formed little pears...

I was going to make perry with them, but all my kit is in the container and so I shall just have to eat them this year!

They are superbly flavoured, with a slightly crisp, juicy flesh, and none of the grittyness that sometimes I don't like in pears.

Tinsel to keep the pesky birds away.

This is a picture of the bramley tree, and they are growing nicely, but didn't fall when I shook the tree, so I'll have to wait a bit longer.

Then there is this little tree, a Kingston Black. Lots of small fruit, like baubles all over it. This should be a good cider tree, and I will have to find my cider makng kit for this one, as the apples are too sour for eating.

And I was joined by some little friends in the orchard. The grass is so long that I loose them sometimes. The geese were supposed to eat the grass, but they can't keep up.

Humid day on the Farm

Wow, such a humid day today.

Yeaterday and last night we had very heavy and much needed rain. The drive has suffered though. I took Floss down to get the post this morning and to turn on the water pump and what a mess! Deep grooves in the drive.

I'm carrying on with Edward's jumper today. It feels good to be back knitting.

Since we moved here almost four years ago, I really haven't felt myself. All the renovations, the clutter, and having to make do whilst always wondering if we'll have money to finish it has been hard.
But I really do feel we are making progress. The floor is going down slowly.

Shoving our stuff into the container on the drive has helped clear my mind too. And having heard about Marie Kondo, and her methods I am so pleased to have found a method to guilt freely chuck loads of rubbish out!

And I'm back knitting! Hurray!!

I've felt guilty about wasting time knitting before, but I think I have turned a corner and can carry on now!

So I'm over the belly zone now.
Its a coloured romney hoget fleece I bought unwashed, and washed carderd and spun it up.

I love the way the colours change as I knit it up...

Collecting cicada shells

Yesterday afternoon we went collecting cicada shells from the big oak trees near our home...

We ran down the field to the trees...

Through the shade listening for where the cicadas were loudest...

I think they prefer oaks in the sun...

There they are!

Holding tight to the tree bark where the cicada crawled as a nymph for the last time were their empty shells.

There's one up there!

And three up there!

Oak trees are one of my favorite trees.

This one had a hole near the roots that made it look like a little doorway...

We collected lots, and took them home to the nature table.

I like this time of year. Lots of baby spiders are finding new homes, and the grass is shrouded with their tiny transport web strands.

Joy....

Exploding bread dough...

A new loaf tin. 

Most of the kitchen stuff I own is rubbish I bought when we first moved here. Cheap and nasty from the supermarket or somewhere, but yesterday I bought a proper loaf tin. It was quite expensive, but luckily there was a quarter off the price yesterday.

I'm just waiting for the loaf and some bread rolls to come out of the oven...Smells nice.....

I used shampoo today. First time in ages, and now I'm cross as my hair is all fuzzy. He wanted a picture of the back of his head too. So soft...

In the garden we found a pumpkin..

It would appear that most of the chicks will be cockerels. The white one is "Charlotte", and is the first to cock-a-doodle-doo. There were tears.

I liked the light streaming through this pumpkin leaf, and the pumpkin growing under it.

Buns are done, and that loaf tin is really good. 

Garlic Harvest Time

Today was the first day in ages that it didn't rain.

Thomas the sheep sat on a bit of the garlic patch last week, and with all the rain, the rest of the patch started to fall over, so we decided to harvest them in the good weather.

I was so pleased to see so many large bulbs!

Two years ago I bought the garlic from the garden centre ( very expensive, and extremely tiny bulbs ), and planted the lot. Last year I saved the large cloves from the large bulbs to plant, and we ate the rest, and ran out! This year our garlic is all our own, all organic and chemical free just as it should be! And I think we have enough this year to save lots to plant, and still not run out.

Braiding the bulbs to hang to cure and dry.

Thank you good soil! There were so many worms in this patch of earth, they must have loved the soil too. 

I planted the cloves in pure compost from our heap which I laid on top of the soil after chopping up most of the weeds.

We ended up with 9, 4' braids, and several little braids done by the children.

Now all I need is space to hang it.

Saturday Musings

The wool I started to spin is coming along nicely, here is the first skein being played up..

The color seems to show its softness, it is a blend of white and natural dark merino.

Also, the coriedale shawl I was knitting for myself, then decided to shelve it for a while because I was disappointed with the fibre, has a huge fan!

So I cast off just where I was and here she id modeling it. It fits her just right!

At the moment it is closed with a duck nappy pin from many years ago, but soon I may put a button on just for her..

And someone got hold of the camera and took a picture of her special dolly I made her when she was about 2. Can't explain either hairstyle!

Later on today I discovered that i could stick the roving onto the lazy kate that came with my wheel as I was spinning it. Much better.

I also made a skirt out of a dress that was just terrible on me, and it looks lovely on her too!

Thanks for looking!

A Rainy Day

There have been heavy rain showers here for the past week, and it is making the laundry a bit of a problem.

Anyway, it was a good day for spinning, and this beautiful big wheel of mine has been calling out to me....

It has taken until now to feel at one with her! I have felt quite guilty for spending the money on myself, silly, I know, as good things for all our family will be made with her, and she will go on probably longer than me!!

So I've been wanting to make myself a sweater for some time now, and I finally decided now is a good time to start.

I used some merino I bought last year and kept on a shelf. I've made one of my friends some booties for her new baby with it and it is so soft!!

The color is silver...

Its is so buttery soft, and I hope it will look that way once spun up.

I have decided I don't like that corriedale. It was really soft in the bag, but once spun I thought it was too hard.

That's the trouble with merino, once you spin it, there's no going back.

So while I was doing this, the children were outside playing, and bouncing in the rain.

It is looking so lush out there now,we'll have to mow soon, if the rain stops. I might try to turn the grass into hay.

There was also some lego-ing

And when the rain stopped a bit we went out to eat peas...

He doesn't like to eat them raw, but he likes to feed them to Mamam..

they were yummy!