My Landgirls

Hello All
I have just realised that it is over a week since I wrote a post. I have been so busy, the time has flown!

Before I forget,welcome to Karen Hymen on Blog lovin. good to have you here.

Spring is definitely springing here, with trees in bud, frogspawn in the pond and two broody hens.
While the weather continues to be dry we are spending all of our time outside, mending things, digging gardens, splitting plants, pruning trees, having a huge 2-day bonfire and generally wearing ourselves out..in a good way. We finish as it gets dark, have our main meal of the day and, if we are not going out, collapse!

On Sunday, as is usual, the family came for tea (roast lamb..again!) While I was attacking the evil blackberries, ED said "What would you like me to do? " I suggested she have a go with the rotivator at the middle veg patch. So off she set, but it was not too easy as the blessed thing kept cutting out "Give me a spade" she said. So after moving some slabs with her dad, who set about re-laying them elsewhere, she started digging with gusto. Now ED is in a managerial position at work and it wasn't long before she demonstrated her management skills and  encouraged (press ganged, nay forced) her daughter and niece to grab a spade and give a hand. (meanwhile YD is in the kitchen getting our meal ready)
Here they are putting their backs into it, with help from some of the hens, who didn't have to be encouraged at all! The guy at the back, who looks as though he is wearing a white woolly hat is my husband. He really does need a haircut doesn't he?
 Lots of thanks and love to the three landgirls in the picture !

This is a quick post for me tonight. We are just back from the Canal Society Evening and I need to be horizontal.
I have also received my book from Amazon by Leigh Tate called  "5 Acres and a Dream" and I'll have to have a little peak before I settle down

Goodnight dear friends, be back soon.
Gillx

Cookery classes, Grandchildren and pruning

Hello Bloggy Friends.
Sorry I've not been around for a few days. Fine weather makes us busy!

I'm catching up on other blogs. I was particularly interested to see that Frugal Queen has been offering a Roadshow giving lessons on cooking etc. I think this is commendable and an idea that should be available to more people. Thing is.. how does this work? The more I think about it the more difficult it seems. Over the years I have been asked by people if I could offer sessions on preserving, smallholder cookery etc. But where ? In my kitchen? The village Hall? Neither of these could be seen as approved food rooms nor offer the room for more than a couple of cooks. Would my simple hygiene certificate suffice?  Any ideas Folks? have you thought of starting a cooking group?

After this weekend I'm feeling particularly proud of my granddaughters.
 My youngest, aged 8, stopped overnight on Friday. She is an early riser and whereas when she was younger this meant several hours of concentrated effort (in no way resented) keeping her occupied. it now means several hours of useful and interesting jobs. She is studying the growth of plants at school and wanted to discuss seeds and plants in a more informed way than usual. She usually has a small piece of garden to grow vegetables each year, but has worked out that if she is to grow all she wants to she will need a larger plot. We decided on an area she could have, measured it (300cms by 130cms in new money) and plotted it on some graph paper. With the aid of a couple of seed catalogues (smallholder's pornography)  she decided what to grow and I advised her what was possible and what might be too difficult. We agreed that she could use whatever seed I had and fortunately I had everything she wanted. She then proceeded to sow the early seed into pots and trays, labeling and watering and transferring to the warm greenhouse completely independently. She also started some cucumbers off for me and has negotiated for some plants that I have already started.
She was particularly keen to help with the "shop", rushing to the front gate to serve egg customers. There is an honesty pot, but this is not needed when YGD is here! People are usually happy to wait while she sorts out the right change or works out how many boxes are need for one and a half dozen.
Lastly, she tried on her Egyptian costume today. They are studying Ancient Egypt and she keeps asking her Grandad questions as she knows he loves a good quiz, hoping to catch him out. It really seems to have caught her imagination.
Here she is..

My eldest granddaughter is to start a new job and will need to take a packed lunch. Over the weekend she did a large bake of cakes and cookies to freeze and take out daily for herself an her partner. She chose some clever cost-effective recipes and posted a picture of the bakes on the Facebook site " Fill my Family on a budget"and had 88 likes and 30 comments, many of them asking for the recipes. Not bad for a nineteen year old ! 

Here is the picture she posted

Today she and I went into town to do some banking and popped into Lidl for some milk, there she bought two fruit trees for her garden. They looked good strong plants in large pots for £7.99, which is a very reasonable price if you are in the market for fruit trees.

Right! I promise not to brag about my grandchildren again for a week or two! tee hee

We have been pruning the wisteria today. It is huge and covers two sides of the house and there is also one on the front of the barn. So while D. is up the ladder I'm standing on the bottom rung "footing the ladder" and trying to duck the branches and twigs as they rained down. We have also pruned the front hedge which is made of pyracathus. D. thought it would deter anyone who might want to enter the garden, as P. is VERY spikey. Methinks that the only person deterred is me! Gosh, those spikes hurt!!

All for now folks. Lots more planting of seeds tomorrow. ooh don't you just love spring?
Gillx

better weather and Foot and Mouth

Hello Everybody !  Especially Ellen and Brandi on Blog Lovin.

The sun has got his hat on; Shout hip hip hooray !! ..Come on then  sing along. It has been cold but bright today, suits me weather-wise and I'm feeling positive.
The hens are loving it too and they are starting to lay. Twenty eggs today and rising. I've even put the "Free Range Eggs for Sale" sign out and await people seeing it and starting to come to the door again. I think I will put a few jars of honey and jam out on the stone slab outside the door too, just in case someone fancies treating themselves. The cost of honey is embarrassing, but we undertake to charge the same as all beekeepers and not sell our honey for less. Thus,we charge £5 per jar !! I know! It's a lot isn't it? My preserves are more reasonable at £1.80 a jar.
 Our friends came for the afternoon and after the ubiquitous cheesy beans ( a Tuesday favourite with the shared lives guys) the guys went outside to try to get our ancient ride-on mower to behave itself for one more year and C. and I set about a mammoth seeding session. In trays, pots and tubes we sowed parsley, sage and basil, five different types of tomatoes, celeriac, parsnips, round and pointed cabbage, cauliflower and calabrase. We also pricked out some Snap Dragons, onions and some early Shirley tomatoes.

We have been eating out of the freezer this week again and having some pretty "interesting" meals. I think the word my daughter used was "weird" on Sunday when she was here for tea. What's wrong with lamb chops, roast potatoes, brie parcels and shallots a la greque and peas ?!

I have joined a couple of facebook groups recently. Firstly, the Farmgirl chat group, which is great fun and about  all sorts of smallholdy and crafty stuff. The second, I joined at the weekend and is called " Fill my family on a budget" This a a very busy, lively group and seems to have a quite a few young people (mostly women) who are asking for ideas or passing on interesting information. It is a very interesting Frugal site, that I suspect is reaching the people that really need help to make ends meet.

I said that I would write about our experience in the Foot and Mouth crisis.
  We only have two acres. It is good land, but we are mindful to rest it often and not to overstock it. Since moving here in 1981 we have kept half a dozen ewes (mostly suffolks) and bred from them each year, rearing the lambs for meat and the occasional replacement. With a couple of smallholding friends of limited acreage  we rotated our grazing. In the late winter of 2001 our pregnant ewes were at our friends' whose smallholding was the other side of Derby.  Foot and Mouth was announced and we planned to bring our ewes home. The disease was to the north of the county, while the south seemed clear. We then heard that there was an isolated incident to the south and only a few miles from our friends. So Lock Down for them! Nothing on or off their premises. We were asked not to visit our sheep, which obviously we concurred with. Over the next few weeks as their grazing disappeared they had to feed them pellets and hay and then she had to lamb our ewes for us. It was such a difficult time for them. Eventually, we gained permission to bring them home, leaving our friends with no grazing and without the financial means to send her sheep to graze with us or anyone else. So ours came home, but what a palaver ! We had  to hire a particular trailer and special disnifectants for the trailer and our clothes and /footwear. The Ministry man sealed the trailer and accompanied us home in his car, then the ewes and lambs were unloaded in his presence and the trailer was then disinfected+++ and had to be returned to the hirer. Forms were filled in at every stage. This little journey (12 miles) cost us nearly £300! The Movement restrictions then placed on us small flock keepers made it impossible to keep the sheep economically and when our grazing started to suffer we had to take the ewes to market, which was a buyers market and we received a fraction of their value.
At no time did we suffer in the way that Weaver of Grass did. We didn't have to see our animals slaughtered and burned and our financial losses were not remotely like those who had large herds. But comparatively speaking we did struggle emotionally and financially and still do. As everyone knows the movement restrictions are now, quite rightly, strict and the smallholders' way of feeding his animals with scraps, kitchen waste and the waste from  the bakers etc is now illegal . This continues to hurt us as we used to feed our chickens and rear the occasional pig with burnt loaves etc from the local baker and cauliflower outsides from the hospital kitchens for our goats and rabbits. We used to borrow a ram and chuck it in the back of the van and bring it home. (Yes I know Adam from Countryfile does it...but it is Illegal !)
 The legacy of this is that we now buy  orphan lambs in the spring and rear them to weight and take them straight to our lovely kind butcher. We don't keep the occasional pig anymore as you can only really feed them processed pig food and very little else. John Seymour's Self Sufficiency should be re-written I suppose.

 Sorry, that was pretty down beat for me wasn't it?

Enough of this as I must to my bed.

Back Soon
Gillx

Sorry Froogs!

Hello All!
Firstly. a grovelling apology to Frugal Queen.
 In my last post I was talking about  viewing numbers and said that FQ had between 1000 and 2000 views a day to her blog. Obviously this isn't correct (der!) and she actually has between 10,000 and 12,000 views a day to her blog. ! Sorry Froogs, didn't translate my notes correctly.
Phew! Glad that's out of the way. it has been bothering me.

Welcome to new followers Jane and Lance at Hattatt and to Lottie of Blog lovin. Nice to have you along.

 Linda at Greenhaven asks me to expand on the use of mesh floors in the bee hives. We stand out hives on stands about 8 inches off the ground or concrete blocks of similar height. The mesh floor is open to the ground at this height. Mesh floors allow any varroa mite that falls from a bee to fall through the floor and out of the hive. A moveable floor, with white sticky paper can be placed below the mesh floor to enable some sort of count of the mites, thus giving an indicator of the degree of infestation.. Some people also claim that a mesh floor decreases the risk of condensation. in winter. As with all beekeeping, as the saying goes "If you have a beekeeper in the room you already have two opinions" (or some such) so this view will set some beekeepers hopping up and down with ire, while others will nod sagely and say "true true"

D. finished cutting and chopping the trunks he has saved for the rest of this winter and well into the next. He feels justifiably pleased with himself. In case he thinks feels he can now rest on his laurels, and talking of wood, here is another stash of pallets that arrived at our place. Lots of burning and several fences, chicken coops and other such projects. I know there will be some of you that will be green with envy at the sight and others who think "Thank goodness I  don't have to deal with that lot!"

Project-wise, I have finished ALL my mending, made another peg bag, sewn a new cover for a sofa and have finished the Egyptian costume for YGD. I will take a picture of her in it when I see her next. I believe she is staying overnight next friday, so I will try to remember then.

I am very busy with the Civic Society stuff at the moment, with some planning issue we wish to comment on, getting ready for the AGM next month, more work on the oral history book we are writing, collecting more information  for our next exhibition and making preparations for a special commemoration of the war memorial,  with the 100 yr anniversary of the first world  war being this year. It is going to be a busy year!

I often talk about Hugh our Buff Orpington Cockerel and comment on what a sweet lad he is. Here he is last autumn helping to look after chicks with Mummy Buff. Have you spotted something? mmmmm don't think he is the biological father of that black chick do you?!

Off to rustle some tea together now. D. has gone to fetch Adam for an overnight stay, so I will probably sit down with him to watch "The Voice" as he likes that sort of programme. Later on it is his all-time favourite "Casualty" though he is pretty dischuffed that Josh isn't in it anymore and always asks me if he will be in in it this time?
I still haven't written about our experience in the foot and mouth epidemic. I will put something in my next post.
Until next time dear bloggy friends, thanks ever so much for reading.
Gillx

PS It has been pointed out to me in the comments below, that I had written second world war instead of first. I have now corrected this, as it was getting on my nerves once I knew ! Thanks Kev and Cro for spotting it.x

Bee update and meal plan

Hello All
Firstly, a big Hello to Linda at Greenhaven ( we have a lot in common) who has just popped up on the side bar as a follower.
I notice that Frugal Mummy has rejoined us. She has been having terrible problems with her blog. So if you usually follow her (or even if you don't) get on over to her blog. She can be found at  - frugalmummytwo.blogspot.co.uk

Talking of followers etc. I listened to Frugal Queen's latest Vimeo and she says she gets up to two thousand views a day of her blog! Simple Suffolk Smallholder tells us that she gets one thousand. I take it that this is pretty much the norm (not for me you understand). A few weeks ago I suddenly got a HUGE increase in views and after a spot of detection, realised it was because Rhonda at "Down to Earth"(Australia)  had named my blog for suggested weekend reading. After my initial pleased surprise I started to get a bit panicky! What have I got to offer all these people? Of course the post that people viewed initially, through Rhonda's link was a particularly inane offering, just one of the loads of tripe I come out with occasionally (only occaisionally?!) because I am interested in it, but probably of no interest to anyone else. I then started to worry about how to keep people's interest and then I remembered that I started this blog for me and to join in the band of frugellers and smallholders whose blogs I so enjoyed. So I relaxed again and felt relieved that thousands of people aren't waiting to read my next pearls of wisdom and just happy that just hundreds are happy to read this drivel !

This morning I tied myself to the kitchen and while a goodly load of bread was rising I prepared and planned the weeks meals, mostly out of left overs.
 I often make leftovers on purpose by boiling more potatoes and veggies than I need or making twice as much sauce . Out of the freezer I took a portion of pastry from goodness knows when and six pancakes that I had made extra last week when YGD was here overnight. (she usually asks for pancakes for breakfast) I also hiked out a piece of yellow sticker belly pork and some frozen bread crusts. In the fridge are 4 rashers of Sainsburys "cooking" bacon and I have plenty of eggs now.
 Yesterday's dinner was boiled ham -I bought two joints, one smoked and one unsmoked from Lidl @£3.99 each, with onion sauce and cheese sauce (to please everyone) After the meal I sliced up much of what was left of the ham and put it aside for sandwiches for lunch (other lunches will be eggs in various forms)
From this little lot, the evening meals for this week are -
Monday - Home made chips with savory pancakes (ham and peas in onion sauce filling) with reheated brocolli
Tuesday - Roast Belly Pork with stuffing (made from those frozen crusts, our own onions and our own dried sage and thyme) roast potatoes and reheated cauliflower and brussels.
Wednesday - Bacon and eggs and bubble and squeak
Thursday - Ham and cheese pasties with mashed potato and frozen peas.
Friday  - Fish ( line caught by D. last year) with cheese and potato croquettes, Green beans in tomato sauce (frozen last autumn - last of our french beans)
Saturday - lamb chops with mashed potato, brussels from the last few plants and fried onions.
I haven't needed to think what we will have for Sunday yet as we are going to ED's for that meal.

It's not often I do a meals break-down on the blog, but I always plan for the week in my notebook, which usually works out well. As we are pretty busy this week, I have made most of this weeks' meals already and I'm feeling pretty righteous about it!

We were given an old rotavator a few weeks ago, which D. has finally managed to get going. Yesterday and today, amidst much muttering while he got the timing right, D.has rotivated the first vegetable patch (the other two are still too wet) we are expecting some cold air at the weekend and a good frost will break up the newly turned ground. While he was doing that I weeded and mucked the first strawberry bed, which should have been cleared up last back end and never got done. I also planted some early peas in drainpipes and put in the cold frame - don't want them coming on too quickly, which will make them too leggy and not hardy enough.

 As I reported a couple of posts ago all six hives are flying. Today we decided to feed the  two weaker hives (Nos 3 and 4), using a fairly strong syrup, ratio- two parts sugar to one part water - which will not freeze if we do get a frost. We had a worrying moment a couple of days ago with hive No 3. At least once a day I walk round the hives just to give them a look. No 3 seemed to have a very damp entrance. I told D and we left them for a day for it to dry, but the damp didn't seem to be lifting. So D, gave a much closer look and realised that the hive was leaning backward ever so slightly because the slab that the hive was sat on had sunk a little, probably because of all the rain we have had. He carefully hefted it forward and a good couple of pints of water ran out !! Those poor bees, thank goodness we realised, as it would have probably eventually proved fatal to the colony to be virtually sat in water.
We have started to put mesh floors in the hives. No 5 has one already and Godson made a couple for D. for Christmas. As soon as we have a warm enough day we will put one of the mesh floors on No 3 and one on No 4. The mesh floors are not for drainage, but as part of a system to fight the Varroa mite that has killed so many colonies world wide. However, after the experience with No 3 it is clear that mesh floors can have a secondary quality of drainage. Meanwhile D. had put a thin piece of slate under the back hive legs to straighten out the hive until we can do something a little more permanent, when we don't risk breaking the cluster of bees.

 Lastly, thank you to everybody who gave their views on the Lowry painting I blogged about in my last post. I'm  pleased to say that so far everyone who has voiced an opinion seems to think we should keep it and not sell it. This was not a foregone conclusion in Frugal land as some might think that the money could be better spent elsewhere.

That's it for now, Weaver of Grass and I have been having a bit of a chat about Foot and Mouth and how it affected her ( See her comment on my last post). I hope to continue with this subject next time to tell you how it affected us ( like Weaver) forever!

I wish you all peace
Gillx

Derby's Lowry

Hello Frugal Friends
I've just dropped D. and a friend off at the train station ( one mile away) They are off to the Beer Festival at the Roundhouse in Derby. This venue (where trains were turned on a huge turntable) is actually adjacent to the train station and a wonderful venue it is too. I remember as a child visiting the "Loco Works" open day  with my best friend, whose father worked in the workshops there. The turntable was working then. Later on, as an art student, I visited the Roundhouse (by now an empty, dusty building) to sketch the interesting shapes made by the beams in the ceiling. Now it is an annex for Derby College and a venue for all manner of things.
 In truth, Derby is not known for keeping it's treasures and is known by some as "Knock-it-Down Derby".   Recently, a Lowry has been bought up from the bowels of Derby museum and art gallery. It has been there since the 1946. I was born in Derby the same year, to a father who painted, went to Art College in Derby and regularly visited the Museum and Art Gallery from childhood and I had no idea we had a Lowry and a good one at that!  Apparently the painting  is one of many paintings by diverse artists, languishing in the archives. There is not room to show them all. So what to do?! I bet you know what I'm going to say next ! Yes, some people want Derby to sell the Lowry, which is worth an estimated £1 million. We could do with the money for all sorts of things,  people are starving,  care homes are closing, public buildings need renovating. There are many, many reasons to sell the painting. HOWEVER...Once the money is used it is gone and in public services one million pounds would be swallowed up in seconds! Why can't we use it to generate money?. Why can't we rotate the paintings that we have so that we can enjoy them all at at new exhibitions, which will attract more people to the city ? Why can't the painting be shown, in turns, at the museums in the smaller towns in Derbyshire, giving them a boost?
Agree or disagree ? Can we afford the "luxury" of paintings when services are stretched and the money could be used elsewhere?
     Here it is.....

It was our wedding anniversary on Thursday.... 48 years! Do you think we might make ago at it? Time will tell I am sure!

All for now. Off to bake a cake or two to feed some volunteers who are coming to work on "our" stretch of the canal tomorrow. (weather permitting!)

Welcome Jane Fearn to Blog Lovin. Hope you enjoy visiting my blog and join in when you feel like it!
Gillx

Derby Doris

Hello

Welcome  to Vada Wetzel, Sandy Humphreys, Lesley Jourden and Lucy on  Blog Lovin. Glad to have you on board.

I told myself that this year I would do a daily blog and use it more like a diary. As you know, I haven't done any such thing, rather it's usually 3 or 4 days between blogs. I suppose that's enough anyway, considering the rubbish I come out with. I was discussing my posts with YD and she agrees that it is better to do one interesting post every few days, rather than do one each day, with many of them starting "Nothing to write about today" I read enough of those without adding to them! So what you get from me is a longish post that has a heading that doesn't always reflect the content of the post, as it is littered with other random issues!

On Sunday D's Nephew- I'll call him Horace ( you'll know why in a minute) Popped in for a cup of coffee with his wife, whom he calls Doris - NOT her real name! and his mother in law and brother in law. Horace and Doris were married  a couple of years ago and are rubbing along quite nicely.
They are planning on getting chickens for their back garden. They have decided on three, which should be just right. "Have you got an idiot's guide to keeping chickens?" ( clearly for Horace we joked) I found a small book on backyard chicken keeping that I bought from a CS years ago and also lent them my John Seymour, which is not really the best book for backyard keeping of anything, but a jolly good read and hopefully will make them think of a bigger picture re. food production.
Doris is one of my Facebook friends. A couple of weeks ago she put up on Facebook "What does porridge taste like?" D. thought she was joking (she wasn't!) Several FB friends answered with ideas and then someone mentioned Heston's snail porridge. "Who is Heston?" Doris wanted to know! I need to state here that Doris is a bright, intelligent girl, but you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise!
I was showing them my blog and D. says You'll have to put this on your blog and as she comes from Derby, you'll have to call her Derby Doris - so Derby Doris it is then.
The reason I have called D's nephew Horace is because I had an aunt and uncle called Horace and Doris (long dead) and thought they sounded like a couple of mice!!

Anyone who knows me will realise how fond I am of this couple if I lent them my John Seymour . With all it's faults, it is still one of my favourite books and will be in my top ten books that SimpleSuffolkSmallholder was posting about a few days ago.  I have nearly assembled my list (in the manner of desert island discs for books) to share. Gosh, it is so difficult to choose. Do you think that there should be some basic books that are a given as well as the ten of choice? say a faith book like the Bible or the Koran , and The Lord of the Rings and the complete works of William Shakespeare

Now of things vegetable -
  Jerusalem Artichokes -I see in the recent post by Leigh at 5 Acres and a Dream that she is fermenting her jerusalem artichokes. Now while I have many many jeruslaem artichokes and am always looking for recipes for them.. I have always been cautious about fermenting, as in sauerkraut, as I understand that if the process is not followed correctly, there is a risk of spoilage at best and contamination, that could lead to illness at worst.  What are other people's thoughts on this? Has anyone tried making Sauerkraut?
Shallots - Because I grew last year's shallots from my own "seed"  I have bought fresh seed to grow from this year. This has meant that I have quite a few shallots left. If I do not use these soon they will either sprout or dry out, so I will need to process them . I have decided that I will do a couple more jars of pickled onions, some onions a la greque and some to freeze ready for casseroles.
Carrots - Yesterday I bought a bag of carrots (approx.20kg) for £1.50. I have put half aside for the rabbits. Of the remaining half  My friend C. and I have peeled several pounds today, some were cubed and open frozen for stews and some grated for the Carrot cakes I intend making tomorrow. I gave a bag to C. to take home with her and gave a bag to YD for her dog, who loves carrots as a treat.
Onions - There are about 4kgs of onions left in a basket from last years crop. They are starting to go a bit soft now. I will peel and slice this and put them in the freezer. It is always useful to have prepared veg to dip into isn't it?
Gosh what an exciting life I live!

Today, though it wasn't too bright, it was warmer than usual. Bees were seen flying from all 6 hives ! It was lovely to see them. So far so good.

YGD has just arrived to stay the night (it is half term) So we are in for a spot of cooking /drawing/ crafting/ scrabbling and rabbit cuddling. I'm looking forward to that!
All for now
Back soonish
Gill