Wind

Over the past few days and nights the wind has been relentless. Fortunately, unlike many we haven't had the accompanying heavy rains, but nether the less it is becoming tiresome.

The continuous back ground noise gives me a headache, it's too windy to open any windows, doors bang, it's a waste of time trying to hang out the washing and it winds the dog up !

The poultry hate it, especially the hens who struggle to walk in a straight line. When cleaning out the houses I seem to end up with more straw outside than in.

The garden is a mess. Normally I prefer to leave the seed heads and the bare stems of plants over winter. They provide food for the birds, look attractive on frosty mornings and protect the newly emerging shoots in the Spring, but this year they have either been blown over or are just a black soggy mess. I did start to cut them back at the weekend but seemed to be doing more harm than good to the grass bordering the garden, so now half done it looks worse than before I started.

On the positive side, the ground is slowly drying out and it will be so peaceful when it stops!

Back into lay

After a complete break from egg laying during her moult, one of the Cream Legbars today came back into lay. I am expecting the second to do so shortly, as the two are like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee following each others every move.
Once again I now have a lovely mix of coloured eggs. The Welsummer all lay very different egg colours, ranging from very, very dark brown and terracotta to very speckled and fairly light brown. The Cream Legbars' are of course blue, one light, the other with a greenish tint. The Dorkings lay lovely large pure white eggs and the Sussex pullets eggs are tinted. Yesterday we had an almost pinky plum egg from one of the pullets at the yard, I'm not sure whose yet.

With the Legbars coming back into lay and the pullets just beginning we have a plentiful supply and eggs are on the menu almost everyday in one form or another.

Last of the pork

Today we collect the gammon, the last meat from this years pigs. Hopefully it will look and taste good, as at least a couple of joints are ear marked for Christmas, both for us and as part of a Christmas meat parcel. I do feel slightly guilty having all the processing and packing done for us by the local butcher, but for now it suits us best and maybe in the future we will do more ourselves.
We timed the pigs departure just right, the recent heavy rains have turned their pen into a quagmire. If they were still with us we would certainly have needed to move them onto fresh ground.
The remaining livestock are coping well with the weather. All of them have places to shelter from the wind and rain and other than the turkeys make full use of it. Turkeys have absolutely no sense at all, rather than shelter from the elements they just stand in the centre of the paddock seemingly bemused as to why they are getting soaked through. So during the worst of the weather we keep them in indoors.
As the ground is free draining we have little mud, other than in the pig pen. It is getting slightly sticky in the gateways and around the nest box area of the hen house but thankfully that's all.

We still have Fred. He was supposed to go soon after Alfie...but.....

He is growing! !

We don't know if it is
1: Because he is getting more nutrition now that he is on hay and a little amount of concentrate and with his undershot jaw can cope with this diet better than grass.
Or..
2: If he did have coccidiosis, as was suggested by a couple of local sheep farmers, the time he was scouring, that his gut has now started to mend and his nutritional intake is improving.

Either way we shall now give him a couple of months before making a decision. If it's due to his undershot jaw he will have to go, as next summer he will only go down hill again unless he is always given additional feed.
If his weight loss was due to damaged intestines that are now repairing themselves, he has more of a future, all be it a pet one, either with us or someone else.

Recipes and remedies

Due to the rather inclement weather I spent this afternoon pickling eggs and making chutney. One of the recipes was from an old hand written book we found amongst my mother in laws belongings. It makes fascinating reading, everything from jams and chutneys, cakes and pastries, wines and preserves for meat to tips on household chores and natural remedies for common ailments.

Here a just a few that caught my eye......

Under the title of handy hints:

A lighted candle keeps the air clear when many people are smoking.

After baking a cake and taking it out of the oven place the tin on top of a cold wet cloth. Leave it for a few minutes, then turn the cake tin upside down and out pops the cake.

Ants:

Remove the top of a tin of condensed milk, pour out nearly all of the milk and leave in the pantry. In a few hours, every ant will be trapped and dead.

Natural remedies: ( Not recommended !! )

Throat trouble:
Mix 1 teaspoon of powdered borax and 2 tablespoons of honey and warm the mixture in the oven in a cup. Stir it until quite smooth. When it is cool apply repeatedly with a camel hair brush to the throat and roof of the mouth.

Whooping cough mixture:
Equal quantities of Castor oil and Syrup of rhubarb. ( as my husband said you wouldn't dare cough after taking that ! )

Embrocation:
Beat thoroughly 2 eggs, then work in a wine glass of turpentine, a wine glass of vinegar and a wine glass of linseed oil. Work these together until they are the consistency of cream.

A whole new world

I have just discovered a whole new world...Fungi !!
Yesterday I found this.......growing on the stump of a pittosporum.


(click on image to enlarge.)

Top photos taken 11 Nov. 09

Bottom photos 12 Nov. 09
1. Top view 2. Underside 3. Side growing against the wood 4. On mass









As someone who always needs to find out about something rather than just admire it, I made a few enquires as to its identity. A few ideas have been put forward ( The most likely Giant polypore ) but like many things definitive ID is always difficult by photos alone.Hopefully over the next few days as the fungi develops identifying it may become easier.

There is so much to learn, so many fungi are very alike. Colour, texture, smell, spore patterns, location, time of the year etc. all help in correctly identifying a species.

I guess in a way it's no different from learning to identify birds, trees, flowers, insects and the like it's just I've never really 'looked' into fungi before.

I think I'm hooked.

Last trip of the year

Yesterday was the last trip of the year to the abattoir and we are both relieved. I don't know why we dread it so much. It's not having the animals killed, as heartless as that may sound, the slaughtering is the final stage of many months work. Having to make a really early start isn't any trouble ( although I must be getting old because I'm shattered today) and although I get anxious about the journey it has always gone without a hitch. The staff at the abattoir are always friendly and never make you feel inadequate, the paperwork has always been correct and the carcasses have always turned out well, yet every time I get wound up....daft really.

Next year, by not rearing any weaners, we should only have to make the 'dreaded' journey once.

Alfie the lamb walked into the trailer yesterday morning as if though it was an everyday event for him, yet he then proceeded to holler the whole of the journey, startling many early morning joggers!. He has always been quite a vocal lamb with a tendency from a very young age to just stand and shout rather than go to look for the others.
We arrived at the abattoir just as it was opening. The gentlman there seemed surprised when I said I had a lamb, mind you there was no denying the fact with the noise coming from inside the trailer.
Despite being reassured by my butcher that Monday was the correct day for lambs (I always understood Monady - pigs, Tuesday- lambs ) he failed to tell me that they take lambs in from 1 0clock for 2.0clock onwards. We were 6 1/2 hours too early !!
It didn't seem to present too much of a problem, a freshly bedded down pen was made in the corner of the yard for Alfie to stay in until his time was up and whatever the gentleman may have been thinking he promised us it was fine, but as we left with Alfie still shouting I'm not sure he really meant it!

Freezer crisis

We appear to have seriously misjudged the amount of space needed in the freezer for two rather large Tamworth pigs !! Yesterday we collected some of the last two pigs to go. We still have all the bacon and gammon to collect and this week the lamb is off to slaughter as well.
Yesterday evening and today was spent open freezing and packing the sausages and jiggling 'things' around to make everything fit. I think an emergency shopping trip might be in order.
Mid week the remaining turkey will be taken out to free up a little more space but other than that we are stumped. In a blond moment I remarked 'no problem,we'll take some of the meat out and make up various meals to freeze' .....'and then ???' was the reply.

This morning in a rare few hours of reasonably dry weather we managed to start sorting out the pig run, removing the ark, water troughs etc. and levelling out the ground. Now it will be left over winter to dry out and break up in the frost, before we tackle it next year for reseeding.

The showers gradually built up during the day and just as we left to settle the animals down for the night the heavens opened- hail, thunder and lightning. We could barely see to drive, there were rivers of water running down the hill and lane and the pig pen looked like a swimming pool, it was lucky we worked on it this morning because we would never of been able to remove the ark after tonight's rain..
All the animals had the sense to find shelter, all except the geese who were happily splashing about in their pond.
Soaking wet and I mean soaking wet, the rain had even started to run off my trousers into my boots, we came home changed and sat by the fire with bowls of hot chilli made with minced pork.......well we do need the freezer space !