Hello me again 
 Time has flown and I see it is a long time since I posted.

There don't seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment. I guess it is that time of year. The gardens seem to be  all consuming, either weeding, tying up, pruning or , laterly, gathering in and proccessing.

My daughter and her husband have moved in here while the roof is taken off half of their bungalow and services disconnected as part of the extention/ renovation work to make it comfortable and accessable for her husband.  Fortunately I have just finished cleaning and decorating my large lounge ( We had problems with the fire and chimney and there was some smoke damage, so I have had a multi fuel burner installed. David and I had already discussed this just before he died and I was able to use his ideas/knowledge to make choices. So we have ramped up to the door of this lounge and son in law  access to the outside loo too. He is able to shower at the gym and swimming pool, which he visits almost daily for rehab, so all good there. He also now has an adapted car so can take himself to appointments and has returned to work for three days a week/. He really is remarkable!

Today I am on my own for the whole day, a rather unusual occurance! so I am ticking off some silly little jobs that are less easy to do with  others in the kitchen. SO I am sitting here typing instead of finishing the mending/alterations, marmalade making,  leek proccessing, apple wrapping for storage and bean and herb drying.

It looks like I shall not be able to dry the loofahs mnaturally this year. Mind you, I have only managed to do that once in the last five years, so no surpirise. I am told that Monty Don's Loofahs havent done so well. This is no surprise to me, as when he was sowing their seed back in April time I was shouting at the TV that he was far too late and that I start mine of in early february and still the season isnt really long enough.

They are just starting to go a little paler. I wil pick them next week and process them by peeling and soaking in water as I have done in previous years.

Aren't these soft toys lovely? My younger daughter made them for the great grandchildren and our  youngest grandchild. They are made from David's shirts. I believe some people call them memory bears.

Well as you can see I am keeping on keeping on. Somedays I feel overwhelmed and some days are a piece of cake!

Back soon dear bloggy friends 

Gillx

Ticking Jobs off

 Hello Again

Well here I am keeping on keeping on.

We (the family) have been tidying up David's sheds. He was quite a hoarder and it has not been possible to get into, never mind do any work, in his sheds for some time now. So my eldest daughter A. and her husband P.  have started on the big workshop. The inspiration to start on this particulart shed has come from the need to make some space for the contents of their garage. If you remember from my last post her husband  was in a serious motor cycle accident late last year and his life could only be saved by the amputation of his leg and hip . They have now moved into a bungalow in a Derby suburb. The bungalow has much to be done to it which includes the demolition of the garage, hence the need to store the contents elsewhere ( here). I had forgotten how large the workhop was and remember how I used to be able to work on the beehives in there. When we have finished clearing it and their stuff goes to their bungalow I shall offer it as a temporary work space to those who have nowhere to work on individual projects. There are workbenches, electric points and even a field kitchen to make tea.

A and I have made several trips to the local scrap merchants with all the defunct, dangerous and broken metal scrap. The money we made I invested in the hire of a huge shredder. A small work party got together a couple of weeks ago and we proccessed for fireword and mulchings the fallen branches and diseased trees from around the property. There remains a couple of dangerous really large trees to be attended to, but I have asked a tree surgeon to attend to those!     

 

P. was our maintenance man,  servicing the chain saws and keeping the mower and strimmer going.

A. with Charlie the dog, who was no help at all.

 I feel the garden is getting away from me somewhat, but others are struggling too with the weed growth from all this rain. I am however , starting to reap a veggie harvest, which make all the work worthwhile.

 After the visit from the fox and with two new, virgin, sisters from a local chicken farm arriving to keep her company, the lonely little black hen has gone broody. As the new hens " know not a man" and our cockerel Hugh serviced Blackie some time ago, she was rather wasting her time sitting on their eggs. So after a plea on facebook, she is now sitting on 14 fertile eggs. This will mean a new flock with fresh blood. Which is not a bad idea really. I have had several offers of cockerels, but have refused as I don't know how they will be with new chicks. Some are great and others can be quite nasty.

This Gal ain't budging!

 I guess that's all for now.

Back soon

Thanks for dropping by

Gillx

Friends for the hen and U Tube is my friend

 Hello All

Well I'm bumbling on here in the smallholding. Nearly all the veggie planting is done. So far its been a mixed bag of successes and failures. For the first time ever I am having problems with pigeons. They have stripped my peas, so I will have to net them from now on. The slugs are pretty bad this year too and the mice have taken all my sunflowers and beans from the greenhouse. Still time to start again methinks. On the other hand the onions and potatoes are looking good, as are the squashes, cucumbers and tomatoes.

 Quite a lot of things have broken down or given up the ghost too, so in the absence of he who was super good at mending things and keeping them going forever I have found that U Tube is my new best friend! I have mended the dishwasher, re strung the strimmer, unblocked the drains and sort of cobbled the toilet cistern so far. Usually my go-to person, after David to mend things is my eldest daughter's husband P. He is an immensely practical engineer who is useful to have on the team. However, late last year he was involved in an horrific motor cycle accident, that left him in a coma for some time. He also lost his right leg up to and past the hip and his right arm badly compromised. He is now recovering , but has a way to go yet, though goodness knows he is working so hard and already has a new leg he is wearing for longer and longer sessions.

 He and my daughter have bought a new house ( bungalow) as theirs is virtually unaccessable for him and they are moving much closer to me, which I am delighted about. They moved in this week and will be virtually camping for a few weeks while builders make it an even better living space.  Concurrently, my grandson, his partner and their daughter are moving house too. As often happens their buyers want them to vacate last week, while those they are buying from  can't move for  another few weeks. SO.. they are living here for now, with their furniture piled up in the goathouse and our largest lounge. So all change and never a dull moment. (and it's lovely having  an 18th month old cutie around )

 No mow May is going to change into no mow June soon if I don't get the paddock cut, but difficulties with the mower and scarcity of folk it is what it is. Hopefully it will be done next week.

After being wiped out by the fox last month . I was left with one traumatised and lonely black hen. Last week I bought two hems to keep her company. We put them together in their new hut, after dark, hoping they would settle together and they have been fine. I have cordoned off a small section of land next to the orchard that my hens used to live an and with the help of a friend have made it fox-proof ++. I shan't get any more for the time being while I settle into my new role as crazy old single smallholder!

Is anybody else here members of vegetable growing/ allotment etc facebook groups? These groups are so useful for sharing ideas and for new veggie growers to ask for advice. So far so good, but I have to say I am amazed at  how little some folks know about the most basic things that are to do with nature etc. What do they teach in science/ biology nowadays? " Shall I cut the flowers off my apple tree so that it can concentrate on growing the apples?" is the sort of thing I mean. I find myself shouting at the screen. I asked my three and a half year old granddaughter what would happen to the lovely blossom and she said it would turn into apples. 

Anyway this is more mundane than usual. I am having trouble loading photographs atm. I shall ask my youngest daughter this weekend what I am doing wrong. A picture tells so much more doesn't it? She is back from Jersey for a few days. It will be nice to see her.

Back soon, Thanks for reading

Gillx

The best laid plans.....

 Hello All

Just back from a few days in Jersey visiting my daughter who lives and works there. David and I bought our tickets in the new year, timing them so that we would be in Jersey for Liberation Day. shortly after he said that he thought he wouldn't be able to manage the journey and after the last few times when he was using a wheelchair and we had to have assistance and with his deteriorating health I was inclined to silently agree, "We'll see how you feel nearer the time" I said. Clearly, when he died in early March it was never going to happen. Everyone asked if i would go on my own, but I must confess that this feisty old bird is an absolute scardey cat when it comes to flying/ travelling and so I wasn't going to go on my own. Up steps eldest granddaughter, who bought a ticket for her three year old too and ensured I wasn't going to chicken out. So off we set to have a 4 generation get away in Jersey.

One of the issues I have about travelling is leaving this place, the chickens need to be fed, watered and let in and out. Same for the cat. The bees need keeping an eye on for swarming and the gardens and greenhouses need constant attention. Up steps the daughter of two of our dearest friends ( sadly no longer with us) who also had a small holding. This incredible woman is also an experienced gardener and a close friend of my daughters. So I have absolutely no worries when all is in her capable hands.

I made up some waterglass to preserve my excess eggs. I don't have many, but they can be put in the mixture as and when I have them. Here is a picture of a corner of my kitchen dedicated to my frugality and self sufficiency.

So here I am all prepped to get ready for the egg shortage next winter.

Yesterday I went out to the hens just after lunch to check on the egg laying as the Jackdaws have been sneaking into the chicken house and stealing eggs. All good, I collected a couple and returned after tea to lock them up for the night... Carnage! The blasted fox had been and the orchard ( which is enclosed a and suppose to be fox proof)  was strewn with feathers and a couple of headless birds! Goodness knows where the rest are. I couldn't see how he had got in nor carried the hens out. One traumatised little black hen was high up in an apple tree. I went out later when it was dark and rescued the hen and placed her in a small run, Because He will be back! I couldn't really face anymore so I came back in the house and poured myself a large scotch.   This morning only one body was left as the fox had been and cleared up after him. The little black hen is still safe.

Won't be any eggs going in the waterglass will there?!

All for now, back to planting

Gillx

First "milestone"

Hello

 Firstly , many thanks for your kind comments to my last post.

Well , first milestone of "will I manage this place or wont I?"

As the sun came out late yesterday morning I looked down the garden and spotted a lot of activity on the front of a hive.

 

   So I'm wondering if the relatively rare 2024 sun had excited them or were they thinking of swarming. It's quite early for a swarm, but not unknown.

   Half an hour later they swarmed onto the small greenhouse. They were in three lumps, so for a while i couldn't make out if I had a prime swarm and a couple of casts (small secondary swarms) or a large swarm that had split as it landed. I  already had a hive set up and ready for a swarm, but if there were more I had nothing ready to use. I spent the next couple of hours having a sprockle through my gear  to see if I could cobble something up. Anyhow, two hours gave them time to make their mind up and they gradually started to merge into one.

 I have been the main beekeeper for a few years now as David hasn't been able to do most of the physical actions needed and a couple of years ago had an allergic reaction. However, he and I have kept bees together for over fifty years now and always discuss each situation and how it is going to be approached.   So this year I am on my own. I am perfectly capable of getting organised and catching a swarm independently ( Mind you when they are high up a tree it helps to have someone to foot the ladder or hold a box for me to drop some bees in - it is usually my youngest daughter, though many have been dragged in to help here)

SO, big girl pants on and off I set. I decided to talk to myself as I got ready, which helped. 

I took a couple of short videos that I thought might be of interest to a couple of women friends who are about to start beekeeping. ( I have tried to load these on here, but failed) This swarm is to to be one woman's first colony ..  enjoy Rissa! They are lovely dark bees and very friendly.

 You may have noted that I am observing No Mow May, which can be difficult when your neighbours have such tidy gardens . However, this year I will not have to wait quite so long to mow as the dandelions are early this year and the lady smocks have been out some time too.

   My vegetable patches are about ready to plant. Here is the top patch. Much thanks to my friend Helene who loves to dig... How can I refuse?!

So there we are, There will be much to do with the bees as the year progresses, but I reckon I will be okay. The trick is  " talk to yourself". So I guess I will look and sound even more like a crazy old woman as the year goes on.

If you read all through these ramblings , many thanks. If not no one can blame you!

Love Gill x

A BIG Decision

 Hello All

Well it's blowing a gale and hailing out there at the moment. I was going to do a Tip Run but it really isn't the weather for loading up the car with the pile of wet stuff piled outside the garage and then un -piling it several miles away, when I could be sitting in my kitchen cleaning up some bee frames and potting on some seedlings. And let's face it I'm not even doing that now as I am sat at my laptop.

Looking around me, my kitchen is a typical  smallholder's space. The fire is on, with a couple of supers of honey keeping warm to the side, a clothes horse of washing to the front and washed plastic bags, a bunch of dried chillis  and baskets of onions on a line above. 

This reverie is not without purpose.

My husband of 58 years died last month. He had fought several life threatening illness over the years, Being a big strong guy, with a healthy lifestyle and being extremely bloody minded he had fought them all. The last year or two had seen him struggling with that fight and the last few months saw him doing very little other than worry about what he should be doing.  He hated that I became his carer and that he "couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding" While we knew he hadn't long, he passed away suddenly. I am SO pleased for him. On the day he died he said " I've had enough Gilly" and so he had.

So here I am, sat in the kitchen of the  family home of 43 years, thinking of where I go from here. I shan't make any decisions for some time yet, in fact I am going to give myself a year ( four gardening seasons!) to see how I manage. I really don't want to give up the only lifestyle that makes any sense to me. 

If you will  bear with me I will use my blog to chart those seasons and weigh up the pros and cons of a crazy 78 year woman staying on her two beautiful Derbyshire acres

Gillx

Yogurt

 Hello

I'm going to start  off with a recipe/method which some of you probably already know, but I have come across only in the last few months. I love learning new things.

 Not only is this a very economic yogurt, I think it is the best tasting, thickest one too!

Slow Cooker yogurt

Place 4 pints of milk in your slow cooker and put on high for 2 to 3 hours until temp is 180.

Turn off the cooker and leave for a further 2 to 3 hours until temp is 110 to 115

In a bowl add a little of the milk to a live plain yogurt I( I used a basic live Greek one) stir and then pour back into the rest. Stir gently up and down, don't whisk in a circular motion.

Take the bowl out of the casing and wrap it in a towel

Leave overnight ( or 10. to 12 hours) at room temperature

Strain into a cheesecloth and leave several hours to remove as much of the whey as you can.

Decant into a bowl and refrigerate.

This is when I go to the freezer and fish out those silly cartons of a few plums, raspberries etc that I couldn't possibly throw away last autumn. A tin of strawberries mixed in  also went down well with the great- granddaughters

Don't forget to save a pot to use as the next culture. 

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If this blasted rain would stop I could get more planted in the veg patch. Goodness know what the farmers are going through.

All For Now 

Gillx