Our snowy world.

Our world continues to be a snow bound one. We are holed up in the house keeping warm today, catching up on jobs and admiring the snow from the windows. The animals are all fed and have gone straight back to bed.

The way ahead.....

Before we came in and stripped off the many layers required to keep warm outside feeding the animals we took the dogs for a long walk to the mail box, but, naturally, there was no post, no postman can get through at the moment. We were invited in for a coffee with our neighbours while we were up the lane and warmed our hands for ten minutes.

and where we'd just walked.

The dogs loved the walk although little Rosy got quite tired as she has to leap along, bouncing like 'Tigger', walking through 10 inch deep snow when you're only 14 inches tall to the tip of your ears is difficult!

Waiting for us to catch up.

Once home we harvested some carrots from the polytunnel and some leeks from the raised bed, both were as frozen as if they had been in the freezer, this will form our lunch, leek and potato soup and our main meal a nice warming beef stew for the boys and a veggie version for me.

Keep warm and safe wherever you are.

Sue xx

Snowed In!!

It's official...we are snowed in!

The snow is lying a good eight inches thick, and still falling, the vehicles are buried and world is a white magical place.

I fed the chickens and tried to persuade them to leave the henhouse for a few minutes whilst I cleaned it out for them, but they refused to go, so they sat on the perches while I changed the newspaper lining the floor.

Two of the Welsummers were brave and took to the air, but on landing refused to go anywhere else so we carried them back to the house and in they ran to tell the other of their adventures in 'the white stuff'.

The pigs are cosy in the barn, and returned to their bedroom immediately upon finishing their breakfast. We set off to walk the dogs, Sophie's fur soon filled up with little snowballs, and we had to remove Rosy's collar in the end as her name tag kept turning into an icy snowball that weighed her down unnecessarily.

Alan threw many snowballs at me, but the dogs soon chased him off!

Little Rosy was up to her back in the snow and did her best Meercat impression, standing up on her hind legs to see where to go next. The world is white and looks set to stay that way for a couple of days, Lovely Hubby is working from home and I am staying indoors preparing for the Farmers Market, in case it can go ahead on Sunday. We are fully stocked up with food for us and the animals and our only concern is getting Jason back to University on Friday, but that may have to be delayed!! Keep warm and have fun! Sue xx

Getting colder........

The sky was an almost scary shade of red as the night turned to day this morning, although the picture above was taken after it had taken on a more gentle hue. It originally looked as though the world surrounding the farm was on fire. It made the world seem somehow threatening and I'm thinking maybe it's a warning I should take seriously.

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I will be thawing out the car and going to the shops later, although we have things over from Christmas, we are running short of essentials here on the farm. I need bread making supplies and milk.

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While we are there we will be re-stocking Jason's University larder ready for our trip up the motorway to Preston at the end of the week. It has been nice having him home but the time has almost come for him to return to his studying and hard work. His Masters course is so much harder than his initial degree course and he has to put in many hours of research and work, so I think he has welcomed the brief respite that was Christmas here on the farm.

As I type it is 8.20 am and I have left the chickens in their little house for longer than usual this morning. They will be warm and cosy in there, snuggled together on their perches, once out they will be busy looking for food around the farm, getting colder all the time.

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Yesterday I left the shed opened for them, silly, soft old me.....they found a hole in the bag of layers pellets made by a mouse and gorged themselves. Lovely Hubby will be looking at them in a whole new light if they put on too much weight, he is always joking about putting one of them in the pot......at least I think he's joking........!

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Sue xx

Brrr........

The raised beds at the back of the house.

It's cold here today, so very cold. The chickens are having a meeting in the shed, I left the door open for them as their little feet were sticking to the ground and they looked so sorry for themselves. So they can have a day nipping in and out of the shed cleaning up the floor of the dropped chicken food and discussing life in general.

Rosy heading back to the house over the frozen puddle.

Lovely Hubby worked hard for the last few days of his holiday, preferring to bang the uprights for the raised beds into frozen earth over wallowing in the gritty mud that is usually at the back of the house. So now we have six of the nine raised beds installed, and some of them even have a layer of hourse manure in already from the local stables. Nice to see some progress in these slow days of Winter.

The pigs are warm and cosy in the barn. They are not being allowed out today the earth is too furrowed and hard, they could slip and break a leg. Me, I am catching up with Blogs and then retiring to my work room to make my latest creations for the Farmers Market at the weekend.

Sue xx

Review of The Year 2009 - Final Part

Hi, this is me in September, obviously I've just been tangoed!! A rare sight is the 'lesser-spotted Sue', take it in while you can!

September was another busy month, kicking off with the delivery of our new chicken house, the sad (natural) death of Mother, our head chicken and a visit to River Cottage to meet our hero Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. We spent a day there for the Autumn Fair and then a day in Lyme Regis. We got back and then delivered our main farm hand, Jason, back to his real life at University. He's now studying for his Masters in Document Analysis.

Another delivery landed on the farm in the form of 200 Lleylandii trees, destined to drink up the excess water in the orchard.

The pigs arks were assembled in their positions in the enclosures in the orchard, now we were starting to look like serious farmers.

After all that hard work what is a farmer to do but curl up with one of his favourite little ladies.

The Welsummers were showing their fantastic plummage now and really coming on in confidence, Sophie spent her days herding them together, something they didn't seem to mind too much!

We were amazed by the polytunnel, I planted lots of seeds expecting only a percentage to come up, but everything did and we were snowed under by crops. Things seemed to appear and then double in size overnight. The radishes were especially amazing, growing to the size of tennis balls with a glorious flavour. We couldn't eat them fast enough, so lots were sold bunched up and tied with rafia at local carboot sales along with our free-range eggs. The money made by the radishes more than covered the cost of all the packets of seeds used in the polytunnel (for ALL the veg)!

October saw the apple tree we had inherited with the farm literally throwing apples at us. The dogs thought it a great game and spent many happy hours chasing the apples around the farm. The chickens saw it more as an attempt on their lives and stopped hanging around under the tree. Me, I saw it as a chance to fill my cupboards for winter and had many afternoons making apple puree, chutneys and crumbles.

October also saw the arrival on the farm of Maud and Martha Middle White, followed one week later by Betty Berkshire. Their 'surnames' are their breeds, both rare breeds, pigs that need saving so we can learn to savour once again the way bacon and pork used to taste. We are using all our lovely ladies to breed from, with their babies being sold as weaners for others to take to meat.

They quickly made themselves at home in the orchard turning a weed filled area into lush fertile soil.

November saw the weather change, the rains came and everywhere turned into a muddy quagmire. Indoor jobs were the order of the day and a twice weekly bread making session started. The paperwork was suddenly caught up on and the house started to be tidied and straightened. Feeding the pigs was a foray into a muddy world never seen before. The chickens were bedraggled and looked like huge grey budgies.

Towards the end of November my beautiful Betty suddenly went down, literally overnight she was off her feet and unable to stand. The scare this gave us was the worst thing ever. The vet was called and injections administered. I dripped water into her mouth, tried to tempt her with her favourite foods, Lovely Hubby injected her once a day and then suddenly she was up again and back to normal. Phew!!

December came with a flurry of Craft Fairs and Farmers Markets, we acquired a (new to us) Landrover to help pull the trailer, after LH nearly killed the van pulling it out of a muddy quagmire.

The dogs both visited the vets, Sophie to have her paw looked at and her teeth cleaned and Rosy to be spayed, both recovered extremely quickly. The mud rose to new levels, with the texture of the orchard turning to porridge, the pigs wandered around looking like they had no legs and feeding them was a challenge (to put it mildly). And then, thanks to a fellow Blogger, a solution was hit upon and our barn was turned into a Piggy Paradise.

The pigs moved in just before we hit the road on our Christmas travels, making it easier and safer for the now returned Jason to feed them in our absence.

Christmas has now been and gone, our farming year has been a huge learning curve with much fun and laughter along the way.

The only sad bits of the year has been the death of three of my ladies, first Lovely, killed and taken by a fox, Mother from natural causes, (in the sweetest way, looked after by her closest friends right til the end!), and lastly Mona, killed by a Red Kite strike, a single beak stab through the back of her neck.

So, all in all a good year. We've learnt a lot, met a lot of brilliant people who have helped us with advice and time. We've spent a lot of money setting up this lifestyle, and this year with the framework in place we should start to recoup some of our outlay.

We have big plans for the year ahead which may involve a move and a huge growth of what we have started. But we do know that if you have the people you love by your side you can achieve anything, enjoy yourself along the way and if you look forward instead of backwards the future is bright, sometimes orange but always filled with love and laughter.

Sue xx

Thank You to -

Jason - for his help in starting our future.

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Simon - for his driving and strength helping in our initial move.

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Mum and Dad (Joan and Syd) - for their expertise, physical labour and encouragement.

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Jessie - for her help on the farm and her company.

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Robert and Jill (our landlords) - for giving us this opportunity.

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The villagers and farmers of Great Haseley for their friendship and advice.

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The Blogging community - for moral support and the interest shown in what we are doing, especially Max in Brittany for his help and advice.

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And lastly, but never leastly, my main man, Lovely Hubby, Alan, who has gritted his teeth every time I publish a less than flattering photo. Who translates my sometimes wacky ideas into usable and helpful ways forward. Who lights up my life and makes each challenge achievable. This is something we wouldn't (and couldn't) have done apart but have achieved together. We are building our future one step at a time, with love and laughter always.

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Forward into 2010 Our New Life in the Country will go, please join us on our journey, you are so very welcome!

Sue xx

Review of The Year 2009 - Part Two

LH 'weighing' a pig!

The month of May came up on us fast, we had full diaries and so much to do. We started the month setting off for the village of Chitterne to do a pig course and dip our toes in the waters to see if we could be pig farmers. The day long course was brilliant, meeting lots of like minded people. It was a full concentrated day of learning to look after pigs, marketing your pigs and it set us on a path we are enjoying thoroughly.

The week after this we jetted off for a well earned holiday to Alcudia for a week of sun and relaxation, we knew we had to make the most of this, there would be no more lounging around when we got back. Jason held the fort and continued the work on the farm. It was slightly surreal to be lying baking on a beach discussing the merits of pigs for bacon, pork or just breeding, but this gave us the sudden realisation that we were turning into farmers! Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to build a chicken house I go!

Then it was back to work, with the building of the chicken house to fulfill the next part of our plan. Work went on right up to the wire, and in fact the chickens arrived before the house was finished.

New arrivals being inspected by Sophie and Archie But we mucked in and they became part of our family in some very unexpected ways! June was a lovely month, we had eggs from the chickens every day, nasty Mr Fox tried to run off with Latte but my Hero (Lovely Hubby) and his sidekick, Sophie gave chase and rescued my lady from the jaws of death. We helped organise a surprise party in Manchester for my parents 50th anniversary. And on the 10th our Welsummers hatched from their eggs in the little pet shop in Thame (I visited them every week, not really knowing they would be mine, but hoping). We sold our first eggs - result, and built ourselves a shed.

We harvested beetroot and early potatoes and then to finish the month of June we picked up lovely mum-in-law Jessie from Luton airport to spend a fortnight on the farm. Although registered blind and almost 80, she mucked in and helped with household chores to free us up for outside work and washed and sorted our hundreds of harvested potatoes. Truly a country girl at heart.

Alan went to Thame and bought me the last four Welsummers whilst I was out doing a Farmers Market, so I came home to a lovely surprise, at first they lived in our new little Eglu and formed the tight little band that they are today.

And right at the end of the July a very special little girl arrived - Rosy. Followed one day later by my parents for a one week working holiday.

And work them we did, during the first week of August we erected the polytunnel, with LH virtually singlehandedly putting up all the framing and supports and then they helped to fill it with raised beds, manure and soil.

Almost complete - just needs doors.

Then the 'piece de resistance', they moved in the tomato plants.

We spent the rest of August planting out the polytunnel and putting in some late crops in the outdoor raised beds. We went to Derbyshire for a family wedding and turned it into a little mini break, thanks to Jason's farm-sitting skills. The only low point of the month was the main chicken house getting infested with Red Mites and a battle to eradicate them was begun.

We ended the month churning out jars of damson jam from our inherited trees, the first of our preserves for the winter months to come. All our veggies were from our own land and the thrill of eating our own crops has never diminshed. Every meal contained mostly home-grown food and our tastebuds could tell!

Part Three will follow tomorrow.

Sue xx

Review of The Year 2009 - Part One

Resourceful sea-dog (Engineer) and hard working city chick (Retail Manager) (Married) wishing a radical life style change, seek 3 bed property with space to live the ‘good life’ (veggies and chickens), ideally in a rural setting or on a farm in the Oxford, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hampshire area. Willing to upgrade and refurb property in return for a realistic rent. Contact the old sea-dog (Alan) on ----------- or e-mail -----------

These words, printed in the Farmers Guaradian in October 2008 changed our lives forever. The advert ran for 2 weeks and was replied to by our lovely Landlord and his wife and the rest, as they say, is history......

We arrived on the farm during the last week of January 2009, driving up this farm track with our cars ladened with all our worldly belongings. We brought with us just three animals, our two cats Toby and Archie, and Sophie our Border Collie dog. February saw us deep in snow at the beginning of the month, decorating the house, exploring our new landscape with the dogs and then after the thaw, with Jasons help we sprang into action digging out the first of our raised beds, tidying the area around the house and generally making our presence felt on the neglected land.

The animals settled in well, with Toby choosing to live in the barn and Archie sleeping on top of the kitchen units. Sophie arrived an unfit ten year old 'townie' dog and gradually after lots of long runs, free to roam wherever she chose, she developed into a fit, athletic proper Border Collie, she learnt to laugh and roll on the grass, feeling the freedom and loving every second.

March saw us doing the first of our Farmers Market stalls at the Village Hall, making new friends and joining in with village activities. We cleared around the ponds and planted flowers and vegetables. We went on the first of our Chicken Courses with the delightful Francine Raymond of Country Living fame, and decided that this would be the way to go. We planted the first of our fruit trees in little pockets around the farm.

And we took a step back and surveyed what we had accomplished in two short months of hard work.

The sun shone in April and the tyres we had filled and planted during March flourished and we ate the first of our own crops, mixed salad leaves that grew SO quickly. Alan won the Easter Bonnet competition at the Farmers Market and we had planted out three raised beds of potatoes.

We used an old swing frame and climbing frame as a bean and pea support and planted and netted them both. Our chimney was swept out as I had lost my battle with the rooks that built an enormous nest in it. The month ended with our new planted apple trees bursting forth with the buds of blossom and the promise of what was to come. By the end of April life was getting more organised, we had unpacked all the main things in the house the living room, bedrooms and one bathroom were decorated, the veggie crops were growing and the animals were settled. Time then to start on the next stage................. Sue xx