Review of the Year - Part One

And here we are...almost at the end of our second year on the farm. It has been a year of expanding, and developing, of moving forward and best of all.....getting more new animals.

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January (the top picture), nearly got off to a sad start with Molly the White Star being found by me frozen in her nesting box. With an absolutely blue comb and rigid feet, she truly was a 'frozen chicken' and not the sort the supermarkets sell all neatly trussed. With a lot of TLC and a few days in the house, she was soon back to health, and when she started stealing the dogs dinners and chasing the cats we knew she was well enough to re-join the flock.

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February saw us up to our knees in mud, and the trusty JCB that towed all the other stuck vehicles clear of mud was itself finally swallowed in the yucky brown stuff.

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March saw the polytunnel really earning its' keep with the beds groaning under the weight of pots and seed trays all holding our veggies for the coming year. We had an amazing 99.9% germination rate and things literally grew inches overnight.

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April saw us moving the big pigs back from their Winter quarters in the barn. What we thought was going to be an easy walk back turned into a three hour piggy tour of the farm. With the pigs putting their heads in chicken houses for a nosy, touring the ponds a couple of times and generally doing exactly what they wanted while we followed with wry grins on our faces, and even at one point retiring to the patio for a glass of cider to watch the goings on from a comfy seat.

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April also saw the arrival onto the farm of two little girls who won our hearts, Lulu and Lottie. Shown here in a picture so reminiscent of this morning when Lotties' piglets peeped out to greet us.

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May saw my eldest son, Simons visit to the farm, he mucked in helping with strimming, wood cutting and fixing the JCB when it ground to a standstill and generally doing all those jobs that a genius with motors thinks so easy and the rest of us (me) just sulk at.

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May also saw all the raised beds in full production, with potatoes, peas, beans, kale, spinach and lots of other veggies growing well, protected from the chickens with mesh and tunnels.

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June, the halfway point of the year was celebrated with the arrival of the 'Cow-avan', surely the

most original pig feed store in Oxfordshire.

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Back tomorrow with the second half of the year.

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Sue xx

Would you vote for me........

I entered this photo in a little photographic competition over at Tinned Tomatoes (an absolutely brilliant vegetarian foodie Blog), under the heading 'Snowy Days on the Farm'. We are now into the final day of voting, so here it is....a plea......will you vote for me? (Just click on the words Tinned Tomatoes to get there.)

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In the interest of fair play, if you do pop over there and see a photo you prefer you do have my full permission to vote for that instead!!

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Sue xx

Suitable footwear for chicken farmers?

When my wellies sprung a leak over Christmas, it was time to treat myself to a new pair. When we got to the farm supply shop due to the snow and ice there had been a run on wellies and the choice was extremely limited.

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But guess what they had, in my size and covered in chickens....pink wellies....result!!

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Sue xx

Musical pigs.......

Hello, says Pipsqueak........ ~

We have spent the last couple of days moving pigs. It truly has been like a giant game of musical pigs.

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Now in their final resting places (for this month anyway), we have Lulu, Lottie and the Piglets in the orchard, all sharing one ark out of choice. (We had a sad event over Christmas, when all Lulus' piglets were born dead, so she has been helping to Mother Lotties babies to take her mind off it.)

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Jack has his own batchelor pad in the Orchard, with Liz and Maud in individual pens next door awaiting their arrivals in the next couple of weeks. If our sums are right it should be Maud on the 6th Jan and Liz anytime after, but you know what our sums are like!! And lastly Monty and Martha living together in the large part of the orchard.

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...you seriously think I want to live out there, when I currently live in a centrally heated bedroom!!

The chicks are now off their heat lamp permanently and learning to sleep in a big bundle of warmth during the dark hours of the night. I am in the process of clearing a space in the polytunnel so I can fit the Eglu in there. This should give them an extra degree of protection from this cold weather when they move outside in the next couple of weeks.

They are now getting very big and the boys are starting to play fight. Soon they will be looking for new homes. I have three girls and four boys (I think.....going off their combs and behaviour), the boys would make a brilliant addition to anyone who already has Bantams and would like to breed from them. Bantam cockerels are very protective of their ladies and make wonderful guards for your chickens, they also have no problem living with larger hens, although they do sometimes get a bit 'hen-pecked' due to their size. I hope I will be able to sell the three girls together if possible, they could go with one boy if someone wanted a ready made family as it is not the end of the world for a first family of brother and sisters in healthy Pekin Bantams.

They are now five weeks old and can go to suitable homes at eight or nine weeks, depending on the housing. So if anyone would like to have the prettiest, most productive pets possible get in touch at my email address above. This is a first opportunity for Blogging pals they will be advertised for sale locally in two weeks.

Now I'm off back to the polytunnel to make the space needed. Hope you all had a brilliant Christmas, I'll be back in a day or so with my Review of the Year.

Sue xx

Happy Christmas

Thank you to everyone who has been leaving all the lovely comments this week. We have been a bit busy on the farm and Blogging has taken a slight back seat for the last few days. The baby piggies are doing spectacularly well, they are boisterous and independent and enjoy living with their Mum, Auntie and step-Auntie. The chicks are now like 'proper' little birds and are off the heat lamp during the day.

The big pigs have all got used to the snow and venture out for slightly longer to mooch about on 'the white stuff''. Although Jack is having a 'big boy sulk' at his new batchelor status. The dogs are in seventh heaven, loving the walks and flushing out the pheasants from their cosy hidey holes. The cats.....well they are just sleeping, on and under the radiators for the most part of the day, apart from an odd forage outdoors on Archie's part to catch a bird for dinner (keeps us busy trying to save the poor little things and return them to the wild!)

Us, well in-between trough thawing and feeding all the above animals we are catching up on paperwork, reading and a bit of television watching. We are new Midsomer Murder addicts, well it is filmed in and around our area, so we play spot the location. Good game!!

Lovely Hubby has also requisitioned the kitchen table, so we are a tractor-part paint shop. I am in the process of sorting out my stock in my little workroom, ready for a slight change of tack in the New Year and gathering together all my recipes, torn from magazines into a useful scrapbook to keep me on the straight and narrow in my vegetarian adventure.

The next couple of days are going to be complete days off (if we can), apart from the obvious duties with the animals, nothing of any description will be done apart from lounging and relaxing ....... I'll let you know if we manage it.

In the meantime I would just like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers, old, new, regular and irregular,

A Wonderfully Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

May Santa fill your stockings, sacks and other receptacles with your hearts desire, and may you and yours enjoy this lovely family time together.

So a Very Merry Christmas from us all here on the farm.

Sue xx

Alan (Lovely Hubby)

Sophie, the Border Collie

Rosy, the Jack Russell

Toby, the Black Cat

Archie, the Fluffy Cat

Molly, Big Lovely and Jemima, the White Stars

Bourneville and Fudge, the Welsummers

RoadRunner and Speedy, representing the Speckledys

Dainty and Fluffy, representing the Hylines

Norman the Rooster

Caldwell, Isabel, Prudence, Alice and Little Lucy, the Lavender Pekin Bantams

Jack, Lottie, Lulu and Liz, the Large Blacks

All the Piglets

Monty, Maud and Martha, the Middle Whites

and last but not least

Iris, Fern, Pipsqueak and the chicks

Snowy Days on the Farm

The snowy days on the farm are merging into each other in their sameness. We start each day by filling the animals water troughs and drinkers with hot water, this mixed with the ice already in there gives them a warm drink to wash down their breakfasts. ~ The chickens hate to venture out for their breakfast and some refuse point blank. Staying resolutely in the houses while I clean them out, sitting on the perches chunnering to themselves about the unfairness of the conditions they are expected to live in. By mid afternoon they have usually all braved an expedition outside for food and water, and then they hang around in little groups, feathers fluffed up to trap any warmth they can muster ~ The snow lies deep, covering all manner of things in its beauty. The trees are spectacular at the moment and everything takes on an alien beauty. ~ The light on the horizon slowly filling the sky with the promise of a watery sun about to appear. ~ In the pig ark Lottie and her babies are safe, secure and warm, all four babies are thriving. They have stopped the constant shivering of their first day in this cold world, and now with tummies full of their Mums' milk they are filling out and sleeping contentedly. ~ And then after a second round of water thawing and feeding, the darkness falls rapidly from about 4pm onwards, and the animals tuck themselves up again, safe with each other from the frosty night ahead, cuddled deep into beds of straw, warm bodies filling their houses with a glow of warmth that will see them safely through another night. ~ Then it's time for us to retire indoors, peel off the many layers of clothes, warm our frozen fingers and toes, and settle down for an evening in front of the fire. Happy in the knowledge that we have done the best we can to get everyone through another snowy day here on the farm. ~ Sue xx

Piggies in the snow.....

We had the shock of our lives yesterday morning when we went to feed the pigs. Where we had left four sleeping piggies in the ark last night, this morning there were eight.

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Lying side by side like four giant black sausages were our four Large Blacks, and in the middle suckling off their Mum Lottie, were four little hours old babies. All warm and cosy with their family.

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Unfortunately, this can't continue, so as the big pigs slowly and carefully picked their way out of the ark for breakfast the door had to be closed to keep Mum and babies safe. And for a young first time Mum she is doing a brilliant job, taking lots of time to lie down so she doesn't crush her lovely little daughters in the confined space. Of course there is always one who seperates herself from the others and makes this more difficult...

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...so honour of Dads' birthday yesterday, the little headstrong, independent girl is called Cyd.

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Mum and babies, warm and cosy in the ark. ~ The others have their ark to retire to after breakfast, although fingers crossed we will be able to re-locate Jack to his own enclosure in the Orchard today. Lulu will be due any day now and we can't have a boar near so many babies. ~ Hope you're keeping as cosy as the piglets in this snowy, snowy landscape. We are now watching the weather and weather bulletins avidly as Lovely Hubby is due to fly to Scotland to visit his Mum for her birthday tomorrow. We'll see.

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10.10 am - Piggie update - Jack has now been successfully moved to his 'batchelor pad' and Mum and all four babies are warm and cosy after a night of -5 degrees.

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She had a total of 7 piglets, one was a little runt and died naturally, and we think 2 were born outside the ark as we have found two little frozen bodies.

~ Sue xx

The Boy in the Red Velvet Suit

Remember last year......the little boy in the red velvet suit......well this year he's EIGHTY.

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He's a man that's been through lots of experiences in his life, from being (very briefly) evacuated during the 2nd World War, my Nana couldn't bear to leave him and his sister, so she brought them straight back home!! To doing his National Service and then settling down in civilian life in an office job.

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He met and married my Mum in the late fifties and has looked after her and his family ever since.

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We presented him (and my Mum) with a great big learning curve when we came to the farm but he just got stuck in. From helping to fill polytunnels, to being chased by giant pigs....he's coped with it all.

~And the best thing is he's coped with it all with a great big smile on his face.

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At every family 'do' and every restaurant we go to, ours is the noisiest table, full of laughter and happiness, that is why it's so sad I can't be there today to help him celebrate this special day. We are completely snowed in and the roads between here and my Dad are impassable. But the link we share as father and daughter is never impassable, is never ending and can never be broken.

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Since the days he came to meet me from brownies and we walked home chatting away, the day he taught me to ride my first two wheeler bike...I pedalled and pedalled and he said "don't worry I won't let you go".......and then suddenly I looked round and he had let go, way back down the street, a Dad sure in the knowledge that he had instilled in me enough confidence to carry on, on my own down the street on my bike, and then years later off on my own in the big wide world. ~

Everyone deserves a special Dad, and I have mine. I am secure in the person I am because of the way my parents raised me. They are always telling me how proud they are of me, and of the woman I have become. I wouldn't be that woman without them and their love.

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I love you Dad, have a wonderful birthday.

Sue xx

My 'new' man.....

My new man is temporarily clean shaven........

...extremely shocked at how cold his poor little chin is getting...

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....upset that the dogs didn't even notice the difference...

...but happy to hear that I still love him lots, even though I do keep slapping his chubby little cheeks!!

Sue xx

My old man......

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In a minute we are off out to the shops. Not too much shopping needs to be done, in fact the main shop we are visiting is the Barbers!! Ever since I have known him (and for the 22 years before I met him) Lovely Hubby has sported a full beard and moustache. Not unusual for a submariner who was used to spending months at sea, they all looked pretty similar after time away at sea on water rationing, but now very distinctive and in my opinion very sexy!!

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However, this Christmas his present to me is a glimpse of his face. So now that he has 'broken up' from work for the Christmas holidays and can get away with not looking like his security pass he is having it all shaved off, a proper shave with a cut throat razor. So sometime in the next couple of hours I will be getting a whole new man for Christmas.

Could he have picked a colder time of year to lose his insulation....lol! Let me know if you would like to see the results....and also if you'd like to know what my Christmas present to him is in return!!

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And for those of who who wanted at peep of the goodies in the hamper..... ~

....there were lots of lovely things to eat and drink.....including biscuits in a musical tin!!

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Sue xx

Ooooh.....it must be Christmas!!

Every year the company Lovely Hubby works through, send us a little gift in appreciation of his hard work, a food hamper from Fortnum and Mason, I must say I'm always impressed.

This year he must have worked even harder than usual....we have the bigger version.....I'm very, very impressed.

We haven't unpacked it yet, it's sat beside the Christmas tree, we were going to last night but we both fell asleep on the sofa while watching the Edwardian Farm...zzzzz!!

Tonight we will investigate what goodies it contains, very appropriate as Lovely Hubby breaks up for his Christmas holidays today and we will be together on the farm for the next couple of weeks.

Sue xx

Chick Flicks

Our gorgeous little Lavender Pekin Bantam chicks are now 4 weeks old, and they have turned into little balls of mischief and feather. The fluff is almost all gone and their wings and feet are fully feathered, now you can see all the under feathers all appearing.

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They can eat for England and have learnt how to take dust baths (in their food dish!!).

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They recently had their first tast of 'greens' in the form of baby salad leaves and they loved them.

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Yesterday, for the first time, I turned off their heat lamp for a couple of hours (the central heating was on in their room) and I forgot all about them, until I looked up at the spare room window when I was putting the big girls to bed for the night and saw that the room was in darkness. I felt SO guilty it was the first time they had ever been in the dark.

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When I went into the room and put the lamp back on they were cuddled together in a mass of feather and looked just like one adult Pekin, well that is until 7 little heads popped up with a reproachful glare at their forgetful 'mummy'.

Sue xx

Simply.........Christmas

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We have thought of many names for our challenge next year, Naturally Frugal, Living Naturally, Continuing the Good Life, etc etc....

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Then on Friday evening we went to buy our Christmas tree. We went to a local farm where they had trees galore, little tiddlers, tall elegant trees and trees with little cones on....in short every type of tree for every type of family.

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Lying down against the fence and looking nothing spectacular was a green bushy tree and when Lovely Hubby stood it up, it's branches fell into place and it was.... Simply the Perfect Christmas Tree.

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It was ours, duly paid for and swaddled in its netting it came home with us, we took one look at the tree and pushed aside all thoughts of tinsel. It has been adorned with the hanging baubles collected over the years, with sweet smelling cinamon sticks and with the minimum of twinkly lights.

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It's the symbol of our Christmas and also of the coming year -

Our Year of Living Simply.

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Sue xx

I've been warned......

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I've been warned that over the Christmas holidays my kitchen table will be required for the maintenance of tractor parts, or to be more precise plough parts. Lovely Hubbys' pride and joy is to be stripped and cleaned. The plough being sand blasted (not on the table thank goodness) and then repainted in that most fetching of colours.....John Deere Green.

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In the meantime we have a whole folder of photos of the plough in it's current state, so that it can be re-assembled and re-photographed all lovely, shiny and green. I wonder if it will be ever seen in this format again or will it remain a heap of scrap metal!!

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Sue xx