WORMING....
Today the neighbour gave us ther pig, they are moving on and had no where for her in there new life, She is about 3 yrs old and a bit thin compared to our pigs, also been indoors in a small space like the pig crates in size...
She seemed friendly enough and as a youngster she had lived on our farm, so after giving her a good feed in the trailer so the others wouldnt confront her over food, we locked the others in there bedroom whilst we put her in the piggy field, she was quite wobbly on her feet as hadnt been out for a while, she just ate and ate.... before we let her into the field we obviously wormed her and checked her over..
Whilst my lot were contained, I went in armed with a bottle of red nail varnish and a hyperdermic!! Worming time!!!
The piglets were not too difficult to do all but 1! As we wormed a piglet we marked them with a red dot.... Farmers would use a spray can of marker, but we improvised....
Babe who is quite a huge beast didnt want to be dne and as she has no fat just pure muscle being a Pietrain, it was an extremely dificult day, I next time I think I will be getting an alternate method for her, oral adminisration, she really didnt like me after that....
Pig introduction....
Well the new pig was really quite aggresive even at half the size of babe, they had 2 confrontations, sadly she bit Babes ear in one but Babe, remains top pig, it quite scarey when you see there emense power, scuffulls over, the pigs just gave the new comer a wide birth and Babe did her usual trick of banning her from the comunal bedrom, that is her ritual for 2 nights and on the 3rd she allows the newcomer to join them all, So she had to sleep in the spare pig bedroom on her own, Shes ever so wobbly on her feet and very vocal, but she will be fine when she builds her muscles up again and gets fitter...
More tidying!!
The rest of the day was spent tidying up preparing for the snow I feel sure is on its way!!
Dinner..
BEEF of course.....
I defrosted a lovely fillet of beef, unsure how to cook it I rang Chris my friend from the caravan park, she is desperate for me to bring round some Dexter beef for her...
She suggested Beef En croute, mmm thought I .. I love it with salmon.. so I quickly made a batch of pastry, with my secret ingredient.. Atora suet, its so easy then and sparkling water... with a bit of mustard powder for added taste...
Then, the pepercorn sauce, out of a packet, well no ones perfect.... I remebered I had a tool for making lacey pastry, lattice I think its called...So after tipping my cupboards upside down, off I set making pretty tops.
So rolled out pastry and tops seperately, with a dollop of sauce, place the beef fillet on top, then, A little more sauce, top it off with the lattice, paint with some egg and in the Rayburn, After running out of beef I decided to make Joe a Brie cheese one, which looked good.....
Half an hour later, wowI decided to make another batch of pastry and made some beef sausage rolls.... Perfect...
So that was the end to another perfect day in happyness, or so I thought....
I recieved a phone call from a friend....
I was full of how perfect life was and how much I had in life and how lucky I was... He just said oh if your happy with nothing,, and if you dont want anything else in life,,, and how I have nothing worth owning, that I had nothing, and how I was waisting my life and would never have anything and would never make a farmer....
mmmm....
well the old me would have been devasted and upset,
But, no.... I'm happy living in a caravan with no running water, Soon to be fixed, With a lean too with my lovely Ray living in.. thats the Rayburn... a Jacuzzi bath that I collect rain water for and boil up on Ray..A small holding with loads of jobs to do, A blossoming writting career.... Perfect hubby and wonderful kids, the life I want.... How dare people who call them selves friends try and put me down and make me feel so worthless... how dare they!!!!
Plus I have no morgage and own my own home, I have a very small carbon foot print, I'm nearly totaly self reliant, have no debts, No major worries, and live in my own self made paradise... RANT over ... Well... the cheek of some people....
Friday 21 January 2011
Monday 10 January 2011
What a Lovely day with my son.. down on the farm!!!
A Horid job....
I seriously had a wonderful day doing a revolting job with Andre's help, he such a good boy he will be 11 this July time does fly...
The pigs have been getting out so I eventually tackled the electric fence, armed with rubber gloves, water proof trousers, awarm clothing, I set about fishing the electric tape out of the slurry, yuk!! the pigs as the eat and poop make the mud move like a great wave and it start engulfing things... they are very good at flattening out land using this process in winter, My next task was reinforcing the fence with extra posts and highering the wire as the piglets are now 30 odd weeks so much taller, I also had to pull out the spare fence that they had trod into the snow and mud that had frozen solid into the ground... not nice, Whilst there We decided to have a general tidy up, after all of that the fence still wasnt carrying any electric, even though there seem to be no reason, no earthing out, a clear perfect run for the fence, conected properly , as e problem the elecric conector had fallen out of the crocodile clip which clips onto the wire, easy to miss in the snow, reconected the pigs started screaming, I couldnt help but laugh as I thought I really shouldnt but... it did prove it worked.. we got the tester out and the wore held a good 3000 to 5000 volts which is the higest you could ask for..
Working with Andre made it easier and fun I do love him so much..
We next tackled a tidy up operation, picking all things up that had been hidden by the snow, next we decanted the last of the pig food into a dustbin and put a tight lid on... We also moved onto the chickens collecting all the wire we could together so that soon we can build them a huge area, I feel mean not letting them freerange at the moment, but there are so many foxes aout and we have had such heavy losses to them...
I might even put an electric fence around hem to upset Mr. Fox...
We also collected some logs and as a treat I took Andre off into the forest on hs quad for another lesson, I like to make sure he knows how to drive safely and efficiently so his petrol will stretch as far as it can....Dotty and Sasha had a great run with us and are getting on so well...
EBAY..
I've spent all night buying veg seeds on ebay after chatting with Sarah about her veg plot, I need to get a riggle on by the sounds of it, she is so organised and digging her potatoe plot already.. I shall eave mine to the pig power a little longer, but it has made me think about getting my poly tunnels sited!!
I spent abuot £60 on thousands of seeds, no flowers just veg... I'm worried now that I wont have enough room, I definately need to sell some veg boxes this year to help with cash flow...
I seriously had a wonderful day doing a revolting job with Andre's help, he such a good boy he will be 11 this July time does fly...
The pigs have been getting out so I eventually tackled the electric fence, armed with rubber gloves, water proof trousers, awarm clothing, I set about fishing the electric tape out of the slurry, yuk!! the pigs as the eat and poop make the mud move like a great wave and it start engulfing things... they are very good at flattening out land using this process in winter, My next task was reinforcing the fence with extra posts and highering the wire as the piglets are now 30 odd weeks so much taller, I also had to pull out the spare fence that they had trod into the snow and mud that had frozen solid into the ground... not nice, Whilst there We decided to have a general tidy up, after all of that the fence still wasnt carrying any electric, even though there seem to be no reason, no earthing out, a clear perfect run for the fence, conected properly , as e problem the elecric conector had fallen out of the crocodile clip which clips onto the wire, easy to miss in the snow, reconected the pigs started screaming, I couldnt help but laugh as I thought I really shouldnt but... it did prove it worked.. we got the tester out and the wore held a good 3000 to 5000 volts which is the higest you could ask for..
Working with Andre made it easier and fun I do love him so much..
We next tackled a tidy up operation, picking all things up that had been hidden by the snow, next we decanted the last of the pig food into a dustbin and put a tight lid on... We also moved onto the chickens collecting all the wire we could together so that soon we can build them a huge area, I feel mean not letting them freerange at the moment, but there are so many foxes aout and we have had such heavy losses to them...
I might even put an electric fence around hem to upset Mr. Fox...
We also collected some logs and as a treat I took Andre off into the forest on hs quad for another lesson, I like to make sure he knows how to drive safely and efficiently so his petrol will stretch as far as it can....Dotty and Sasha had a great run with us and are getting on so well...
EBAY..
I've spent all night buying veg seeds on ebay after chatting with Sarah about her veg plot, I need to get a riggle on by the sounds of it, she is so organised and digging her potatoe plot already.. I shall eave mine to the pig power a little longer, but it has made me think about getting my poly tunnels sited!!
I spent abuot £60 on thousands of seeds, no flowers just veg... I'm worried now that I wont have enough room, I definately need to sell some veg boxes this year to help with cash flow...
Friday 7 January 2011
Snows back....
Am I the only one who loves seeing that white stuff arrive???
Life on the farm is so much easier, cleaner, faster.... the pigs bedding stays cleaner, there moods are better they jump and play so much... theres far less mud, and us having no water is not a problem, we take our shovels outside and buckets, if we want a bath we half fill the bath with snow then boil up saucepans full of snow or hand picked iciccles, boiling them up on my rayburn, its so clean for the dog, she pops out and brings in no mud, its just perfect......
Just imagine if snow was a murky colour, everything would be so dark, how lucky we are that it bright, sparkly and gleaming, a friend says " Every bodys farm looks the same in snow," not oh thats a dirty farm, and so and so's is so clean, all are bright and beautiful, the crunch under foot, the play in the air.... bring it on,
We have a 4x4, six months of food in store, plenty of loo rolls, and no visitors as they cant get up the hill, no stress about what the postys bringing you, as he cant, I control bad news days, as I go get the post when feeling brave enough!!!...lol ..
Well I say no visitors, lol I couldnt believe it when we climbed up our hill under 2 foot of snow the other week in our trusty landrover discovery, to fing the post hadnt been ... yeah suprise ... not. but the Jehovahs Witnesses had, we had a copy of there Watch tower and Awake, which I read and found very interesting...(I used to be a J.w as a kid and always found it a huge chore to read the mags...)
I'm still not sure I want to go back but see no harm in such a peacable, loving people ... I dont like the outside world and feel being snowed in is my security blanket and protection from it....
The Dexter has landed!!
Had a call from the abotoir, I need to go pick up her, at a cost of £255 for butchery, killing and BSE testing, I feel a little expensive and shall be shopping around next time...
So tomorrow I will be bringing the bounty home...
Life on the farm is so much easier, cleaner, faster.... the pigs bedding stays cleaner, there moods are better they jump and play so much... theres far less mud, and us having no water is not a problem, we take our shovels outside and buckets, if we want a bath we half fill the bath with snow then boil up saucepans full of snow or hand picked iciccles, boiling them up on my rayburn, its so clean for the dog, she pops out and brings in no mud, its just perfect......
Just imagine if snow was a murky colour, everything would be so dark, how lucky we are that it bright, sparkly and gleaming, a friend says " Every bodys farm looks the same in snow," not oh thats a dirty farm, and so and so's is so clean, all are bright and beautiful, the crunch under foot, the play in the air.... bring it on,
We have a 4x4, six months of food in store, plenty of loo rolls, and no visitors as they cant get up the hill, no stress about what the postys bringing you, as he cant, I control bad news days, as I go get the post when feeling brave enough!!!...lol ..
Well I say no visitors, lol I couldnt believe it when we climbed up our hill under 2 foot of snow the other week in our trusty landrover discovery, to fing the post hadnt been ... yeah suprise ... not. but the Jehovahs Witnesses had, we had a copy of there Watch tower and Awake, which I read and found very interesting...(I used to be a J.w as a kid and always found it a huge chore to read the mags...)
I'm still not sure I want to go back but see no harm in such a peacable, loving people ... I dont like the outside world and feel being snowed in is my security blanket and protection from it....
The Dexter has landed!!
Had a call from the abotoir, I need to go pick up her, at a cost of £255 for butchery, killing and BSE testing, I feel a little expensive and shall be shopping around next time...
So tomorrow I will be bringing the bounty home...
Monday 3 January 2011
My new love....The RAYURN
I havent told you all what I've been up to in my new kitchen, we've added a little lean to to the front of the caravan, after some large piece of metal sheating hit the side of the caravan and ripped a hole through it.. so we decided to use the old lorry back that we used as our patio, turning it into the base of our new kitchen, using fridge lorry panels we built the walls up and some rejected roofing sheets, a couple of old windows, some old caravan lining sheets for the internal walls, and a kitchen we bought o ebay for £60 hey presto my new kitchen....
There was one thing missing, which I didnt know about till we went to the last Coed y Dinas farm sale.. A Rayburn, I bid £65 and couldnt believe I was the winning bidder.....
Before I had paid for it a man offered me £250, I was tempted and told him if he gave me £350 I would deliver it, luckily after thinking about it for a while he decided not to go for it... So we brought it home and built a heat retaining wall, or heat safe behind it and 2 slabs under it, and there it sat, whist we tried to ebay the flu pipes, imposible.. then we looked at Welshpool Coed y dinas farm shop, and Derwas' but each pipe started at about £40, too much for us to afford, so clever old Joe went of to the metal man, Jermans of Cyfronydd, nice old boy, known him for ages and he cuts the steal too. .. For £30 odd. Joe had bought all the pipe he needed and a lovely bend one too, he welded it all together, and hey presto one perfect working flu pipe....
Years ago, in Shrewsbury we spotted a skip with some fancy stainless steal flu pipe and cap cowel thingy in , so after asking the gent, he let us take it, to the disgust of the local scrap man driving past, who slammed on his brakes and tried to take it from us but to no avail, it was ours.... its been sitting in the useful one day pile and now its come in... we popped the cowel on the top of out flu pipe and it works just fine,
We've been struggling to get our head around the plumbing, but maybe we will get there, we have recyled old radiators, copper cylinder and expansion tank to make it complete, but so far we are using it without finishing the job...
There was one thing missing, which I didnt know about till we went to the last Coed y Dinas farm sale.. A Rayburn, I bid £65 and couldnt believe I was the winning bidder.....
Before I had paid for it a man offered me £250, I was tempted and told him if he gave me £350 I would deliver it, luckily after thinking about it for a while he decided not to go for it... So we brought it home and built a heat retaining wall, or heat safe behind it and 2 slabs under it, and there it sat, whist we tried to ebay the flu pipes, imposible.. then we looked at Welshpool Coed y dinas farm shop, and Derwas' but each pipe started at about £40, too much for us to afford, so clever old Joe went of to the metal man, Jermans of Cyfronydd, nice old boy, known him for ages and he cuts the steal too. .. For £30 odd. Joe had bought all the pipe he needed and a lovely bend one too, he welded it all together, and hey presto one perfect working flu pipe....
Years ago, in Shrewsbury we spotted a skip with some fancy stainless steal flu pipe and cap cowel thingy in , so after asking the gent, he let us take it, to the disgust of the local scrap man driving past, who slammed on his brakes and tried to take it from us but to no avail, it was ours.... its been sitting in the useful one day pile and now its come in... we popped the cowel on the top of out flu pipe and it works just fine,
We've been struggling to get our head around the plumbing, but maybe we will get there, we have recyled old radiators, copper cylinder and expansion tank to make it complete, but so far we are using it without finishing the job...
Every one should have a rayburn, I have decided to have a savings fund, every week I will put some of the money it, that the ~Rayburn has saved me, as I want to buy a much bigger Hungarian ceramic, self build fire kit, they are beautiful to look at and you can build them to what ever design you want, mine will encorperate, a huge oven, a slow oven, a cooking plate, a smoke chamber for curing sausage etc, a clothes drying area and an in built, wood drying unit which will blow warm air around the logs so they are lovely and dry before you burn them, thats my design, the output on our rayburn at the moment, running on just tick over not roaring away, with wood, not much coal etc. we measured at 80 degrees c.. now thats amaizing..... Every day Joe goes and cuts 6 or 8 logs splits them and puts them in the rayburn oven to dry, so its so easy to maintain and not at all dirty....yipee....
Ive just been sitting in frot of it reading my slef sufficient books deciding how lucky we are being able to have the chancce to feed our selves from our land... We are going to become Tom and Barbara Good in mind set.... We will produce everything we can and I'm making plans for a compost loo.... this is going to be such a good year for us....honest...
Sunday 2 January 2011
Lucky the cocerals truly lucky day!!!
Well I decided today we would have a nice chicen soup... My son Louis had incubated some Rhode Island eggs last spring and well the incubator was faulty and out of a huge clutch, he hatched 1 and called him lucky!! Joe & I had decided before the snow hit to move the chucks to a sheltered area in the forest, using building site fencing as a temp home, so its been a while since I had a good luck at the birds as the boys have been looking after them, well today I went to take a look to see who would be for dinner.... Lucky was the one I was planning on, when I had a good luck I realised the cockeral was no longer, he has matured into a beautiful hen.... and he really was a cockeral last time I looked... honest.. So after looking around, I found we only have 1 cockeral left as we have given some to friends to start there flocks off as we had decided to be sensible and not feed too many birds over winter as here it is a harsh winter, we had also been desimated by a fox before we moved them into the forest, so there we have it it was Luckys, lucky day!!!
Well how about a recipee???
It for BONE SOUP!!!
Its not that bad honest….. my mother in law is Hungarian and I learnt this from her…. its tasty and frugal.
What ever bones you have put a pile of them in a saucepan full of water,(I use my jam kettle as you can fit a whole chicken in there, or a load of bones..)
When its boiling, turn down to a simmer,
Start taking the skum off....With a spoun or a Tea strainer... when you have finished you should have a clear water base, with the bones,
(The meatier your bones the better, when butchering I always leave more on the bones knowing they are destined for soup… well thats my exscuse any how and i'm sticking to it!!!)
you could also have added any offal , heart, kidney,
Add the veg, at least, 2 carrots, 1 parsnip, a whole onion, spice and seaoning… Celery sticks or celeriac… and whatever else you have around,
I some times add star aneise, 2 cloves, one dry chilly, bay leaves, mustard seeds and a selection of store cupboard herbs or a bouquet garnie….
Simmer up till all cooked through, add in small potatoe cubes and when they are cooked serve….
Joe whos Hungarian prides him self on his chicken soup, its perfectly clear with a golden tinge, he puts in the onion with the skin on, which gives the gold colour… after he has stolen the chickens flavour he removes it and puts it in the oven to roast, (at least half an hour in the soup with the veg before you remove it) this with a home killed bird, helps tenderise the meat and is the only way to cook home reared chucks as otherwise we find ours have a tendency to be tough….
Little funny story..
In Budapest I ate the most amaizing chicken soup my mother in law had ever cooked, On stating this, my mom answered me.. saying "you dont want to know whats in it!!"
On looking in the pot I saw 2 sets of chickens feet floating and the whole head including the chickens comb…..euuw!!! Next my sister in law started knawing at the feet…. almost too much for me…..lol….. But it was tatsy…
So as I said put as much offal in as you dare!!!!!!
Oh and serve with fine noodles floating in the soup….
Yum yum….
Dottys training...
Dot's doing so well, shes walking on the lead to heal perfectly and listens intently to you, so off Andre and I went in the forest today, I've been giving him some advance quad driving lessons, how to use the gears properly, judging hills, careful driving means more miles out of limited petrol reserves... and emergency driving technics, if bike rolls or tips What to do.etc. but best to drive so carefully that you never need to get to those points....lol
Any how I have been training Dotty the dalmation to follow her roots, they were originally carriage dogs that would follow under the carriage or just behind it, so she's learning to run by his side on the left, and how she enjoys it, her tail never stops wagging, when you get in she pops on her bed and thats it shes out for the count... shes such a happy dog and definatly becoming one of the family.. I think we shall have to consider teaching her to be the only spotty sheep dog in the area.....mmmmm
Any how I better go, I still havent finished my wishes, wants and needs lists.....byeee
Well how about a recipee???
It for BONE SOUP!!!
Its not that bad honest….. my mother in law is Hungarian and I learnt this from her…. its tasty and frugal.
What ever bones you have put a pile of them in a saucepan full of water,(I use my jam kettle as you can fit a whole chicken in there, or a load of bones..)
When its boiling, turn down to a simmer,
Start taking the skum off....With a spoun or a Tea strainer... when you have finished you should have a clear water base, with the bones,
(The meatier your bones the better, when butchering I always leave more on the bones knowing they are destined for soup… well thats my exscuse any how and i'm sticking to it!!!)
you could also have added any offal , heart, kidney,
Add the veg, at least, 2 carrots, 1 parsnip, a whole onion, spice and seaoning… Celery sticks or celeriac… and whatever else you have around,
I some times add star aneise, 2 cloves, one dry chilly, bay leaves, mustard seeds and a selection of store cupboard herbs or a bouquet garnie….
Simmer up till all cooked through, add in small potatoe cubes and when they are cooked serve….
Joe whos Hungarian prides him self on his chicken soup, its perfectly clear with a golden tinge, he puts in the onion with the skin on, which gives the gold colour… after he has stolen the chickens flavour he removes it and puts it in the oven to roast, (at least half an hour in the soup with the veg before you remove it) this with a home killed bird, helps tenderise the meat and is the only way to cook home reared chucks as otherwise we find ours have a tendency to be tough….
Little funny story..
In Budapest I ate the most amaizing chicken soup my mother in law had ever cooked, On stating this, my mom answered me.. saying "you dont want to know whats in it!!"
On looking in the pot I saw 2 sets of chickens feet floating and the whole head including the chickens comb…..euuw!!! Next my sister in law started knawing at the feet…. almost too much for me…..lol….. But it was tatsy…
So as I said put as much offal in as you dare!!!!!!
Oh and serve with fine noodles floating in the soup….
Yum yum….
Dottys training...
Dot's doing so well, shes walking on the lead to heal perfectly and listens intently to you, so off Andre and I went in the forest today, I've been giving him some advance quad driving lessons, how to use the gears properly, judging hills, careful driving means more miles out of limited petrol reserves... and emergency driving technics, if bike rolls or tips What to do.etc. but best to drive so carefully that you never need to get to those points....lol
Any how I have been training Dotty the dalmation to follow her roots, they were originally carriage dogs that would follow under the carriage or just behind it, so she's learning to run by his side on the left, and how she enjoys it, her tail never stops wagging, when you get in she pops on her bed and thats it shes out for the count... shes such a happy dog and definatly becoming one of the family.. I think we shall have to consider teaching her to be the only spotty sheep dog in the area.....mmmmm
Any how I better go, I still havent finished my wishes, wants and needs lists.....byeee
Saturday 1 January 2011
Reflection & Inspirations
Well lets just reflect a little on the last year.... What have we achieved??
Well we under went huge stress' being harrassed by over zealous planning inforcement officers, even if he was sweet and quite cute, he still made my life hell... but we won we went through to the end all the way through the appeal and won....
We have been severely threatened and harased by the lovelyest of neighbours, having pipe bombs let off in our entrance, when it got out about our success in the planning appeal...
We achieved a great deal on the farm, we fenced off large fields, we processed useless land into beautiful grass fields, using only the power of the pigs nose, tons of organic matter processed through the pigs stomach, which produced tons (literally) of wonderful manure to fertilise out soil, we drained, and leveled the soil, with the help of the digger and our family of five armed with rakes each, and hand picked huge amounts of pesky stones, planted up flower beds, bordered with said pesky stones...
Erected the barns metal frame work, cleaned the farm and yards of lots of Joes scrap, leftover remnants of his inventions and creations.....
Rescued and rehomed a number of animals including some dogs that really needed help on the path through life...
We planted 30 odd fruit trees, and a lovely little orchard of indiginous species, required by planning, re dug the old pool and created the chicken garden....
Found a wonderful poly tunnel to re build our beaten up one, note not built up here on site yet...
Successfully reared, 3 litters of piglets, butchered them and created the most divine, charcutery, pork, ham, sausages, bacon....reared and ate our own chicken, I now know how to humainly kill a chicken and dress it, and no longer feel screamish about the process, I dont know why it was, I could Kill, butcher and dress a pig, without any quarms but ask me to help Joe kill a chicken and I couldnt look.... I must have home killed 6 or 7 pigs this year for our own consumption, and the others went to the abotoir for customers. ..
Oh yes we also tasted our own beef from our Dexter, and await the return from the abotoir of the 2nd.... cant wait we shall be making beef jerky and all sorts of specialities will be indulged in!!
I certainly wont be sharing too much of this prime meat with outsiders, it is the most devine wonderful tasting beef ever, and those I let taste the odd morcel agreed... nothing like supermarkets finest....
We bred a litter of Rotty puppies to help fund the farm improvements and shall always be in debt to Sasha for her help in the fund raising stakes, we have kept in toush with many of the offspring and they all have wonderfull homes, which is great to know...
The Veg garden was a farce, it looked good for the planners but never came to anything the land was still to hungry in that area, the grass fields we planted had had the pigs nose and bum working on them for 10 years, the veg patch maybe only 4 years, so this year we must endevour to correct this, we have had 15 pigs on the veg site from late July, we have fed them tons of veg and fruit, maybe 2 ton a week at the peak, and they go through upto a ton of barley and wheat per month, less now thank goodness, so theres a lot of input there now concentrated... Jim my lovely sugar daddy figure has brought me in loads of muck well rotted, which the pigs have been turning in, too....we need to work hard on this field, fix the drains and put in maybe another 30 ton of muck, oh yes must not forget Sarah here.. one of the pups moms, her hubby got me a good lot of soot from wood fired chimneys so thats gone in too, and all that our rayburn can produce in ash also goes in there too. . its never ending this soil improvement, the coucil say we are too slow to improve site and get things done, if only they read this and would appreciate the amout of work we have put into the site.....
So thats the reflection now the Insperation.....
Well whilst all of this has been going on I have been beating my self up as couldnt get on with the plans for the challet build, just couldnt settle on the layout, now I realise why its just is not right for us, yes it's recycled .. but just not right for our family, so Insperation from Hungary hit, Whilst out there staying in my sisters house we fell in love, it is a mud or rammed earth construction, of L shape design, well whilst out there we have always said it was perfect in shape and lay out.... Another thing, years ago Joe had a dream that there was something special on the land here that would do something big for us......so what do we have loads of under our shallow useless soil???? CLAY Tons of perfect CLAY..... I wonder shall we build a L shaped rammed earth grass roofed ECO house??? Well shall we???? I THINK SO!! What do you all think?
We shall ..So the plan is... L or U shaped, single story, eco rammed earth or cob house. With a Hungarian ceramic fire, built to our own design with a cooking hob, 2 ovens and a door to feed the fire from the outside as in the Self sufficient Seymores bible... he discribes the perfect small holders fire place that you can cook on, smoke food in and service from out side to reduce the dust in the home, we shall bring in floor tiles and marble from Spain and oak from France all these contacts we have made over the years on our Gypsy travels. We shall also have an old fashioned bread oven and buttery, Everything inside shall be recycled other than the afore mentioned. Fixtures and fitting will all be from the internet, recycled....Where possible Joe will use his wood working skills aquired in Austria when he was a refugee, he calved and built hand made stair cases, so together we shall build all the wooden items our house shall ever need.
So theres the plan... all we need now is to convince the planners, we also want to have a house cow, rear more fowl for meat and egg production, defenately need to keep bees and the garden and the poly tunnel have to work this year ..
This year we SHALL be TOTALLY SELF SUFFICIENT..... Pig in mud will live and we shall prosper wih the rich abundances that our hard labour and land can give us , we shall continue eating richly like kings, we shall spend less and live more, we shall stay home and make every moment with our kids count..And we shall continue helping lost and struggling animals find the journey and path through life easier......
Well we under went huge stress' being harrassed by over zealous planning inforcement officers, even if he was sweet and quite cute, he still made my life hell... but we won we went through to the end all the way through the appeal and won....
We have been severely threatened and harased by the lovelyest of neighbours, having pipe bombs let off in our entrance, when it got out about our success in the planning appeal...
We achieved a great deal on the farm, we fenced off large fields, we processed useless land into beautiful grass fields, using only the power of the pigs nose, tons of organic matter processed through the pigs stomach, which produced tons (literally) of wonderful manure to fertilise out soil, we drained, and leveled the soil, with the help of the digger and our family of five armed with rakes each, and hand picked huge amounts of pesky stones, planted up flower beds, bordered with said pesky stones...
Erected the barns metal frame work, cleaned the farm and yards of lots of Joes scrap, leftover remnants of his inventions and creations.....
Rescued and rehomed a number of animals including some dogs that really needed help on the path through life...
We planted 30 odd fruit trees, and a lovely little orchard of indiginous species, required by planning, re dug the old pool and created the chicken garden....
Found a wonderful poly tunnel to re build our beaten up one, note not built up here on site yet...
Successfully reared, 3 litters of piglets, butchered them and created the most divine, charcutery, pork, ham, sausages, bacon....reared and ate our own chicken, I now know how to humainly kill a chicken and dress it, and no longer feel screamish about the process, I dont know why it was, I could Kill, butcher and dress a pig, without any quarms but ask me to help Joe kill a chicken and I couldnt look.... I must have home killed 6 or 7 pigs this year for our own consumption, and the others went to the abotoir for customers. ..
Oh yes we also tasted our own beef from our Dexter, and await the return from the abotoir of the 2nd.... cant wait we shall be making beef jerky and all sorts of specialities will be indulged in!!
I certainly wont be sharing too much of this prime meat with outsiders, it is the most devine wonderful tasting beef ever, and those I let taste the odd morcel agreed... nothing like supermarkets finest....
We bred a litter of Rotty puppies to help fund the farm improvements and shall always be in debt to Sasha for her help in the fund raising stakes, we have kept in toush with many of the offspring and they all have wonderfull homes, which is great to know...
The Veg garden was a farce, it looked good for the planners but never came to anything the land was still to hungry in that area, the grass fields we planted had had the pigs nose and bum working on them for 10 years, the veg patch maybe only 4 years, so this year we must endevour to correct this, we have had 15 pigs on the veg site from late July, we have fed them tons of veg and fruit, maybe 2 ton a week at the peak, and they go through upto a ton of barley and wheat per month, less now thank goodness, so theres a lot of input there now concentrated... Jim my lovely sugar daddy figure has brought me in loads of muck well rotted, which the pigs have been turning in, too....we need to work hard on this field, fix the drains and put in maybe another 30 ton of muck, oh yes must not forget Sarah here.. one of the pups moms, her hubby got me a good lot of soot from wood fired chimneys so thats gone in too, and all that our rayburn can produce in ash also goes in there too. . its never ending this soil improvement, the coucil say we are too slow to improve site and get things done, if only they read this and would appreciate the amout of work we have put into the site.....
So thats the reflection now the Insperation.....
Well whilst all of this has been going on I have been beating my self up as couldnt get on with the plans for the challet build, just couldnt settle on the layout, now I realise why its just is not right for us, yes it's recycled .. but just not right for our family, so Insperation from Hungary hit, Whilst out there staying in my sisters house we fell in love, it is a mud or rammed earth construction, of L shape design, well whilst out there we have always said it was perfect in shape and lay out.... Another thing, years ago Joe had a dream that there was something special on the land here that would do something big for us......so what do we have loads of under our shallow useless soil???? CLAY Tons of perfect CLAY..... I wonder shall we build a L shaped rammed earth grass roofed ECO house??? Well shall we???? I THINK SO!! What do you all think?
We shall ..So the plan is... L or U shaped, single story, eco rammed earth or cob house. With a Hungarian ceramic fire, built to our own design with a cooking hob, 2 ovens and a door to feed the fire from the outside as in the Self sufficient Seymores bible... he discribes the perfect small holders fire place that you can cook on, smoke food in and service from out side to reduce the dust in the home, we shall bring in floor tiles and marble from Spain and oak from France all these contacts we have made over the years on our Gypsy travels. We shall also have an old fashioned bread oven and buttery, Everything inside shall be recycled other than the afore mentioned. Fixtures and fitting will all be from the internet, recycled....Where possible Joe will use his wood working skills aquired in Austria when he was a refugee, he calved and built hand made stair cases, so together we shall build all the wooden items our house shall ever need.
So theres the plan... all we need now is to convince the planners, we also want to have a house cow, rear more fowl for meat and egg production, defenately need to keep bees and the garden and the poly tunnel have to work this year ..
This year we SHALL be TOTALLY SELF SUFFICIENT..... Pig in mud will live and we shall prosper wih the rich abundances that our hard labour and land can give us , we shall continue eating richly like kings, we shall spend less and live more, we shall stay home and make every moment with our kids count..And we shall continue helping lost and struggling animals find the journey and path through life easier......
HELLO AGAIN!!!
I know its been a long time since I blogged, have been having a hard time of late.... lots of bad things have happened.. any how what have we all been up to??
Well we took to the abotoir 2 pigs we had bred on the farm here ourselves... young mother of one litter and the father of the same litter. We had them made in to sausages, ham and bacon... I was prepared in the freezer, got all my customers ready, but the one thing I wasnt preparred for was the cost £288... I'm still in shock, we managed to cover or costs and leave some over for us, also on the same day we also took our black Dexter in too, she had quite a journey, firstly I neglected to contact DEFRA in time for a special movement license as the farm she was on was under restricton. There TB test was cancelled by the vet due to his ill health, panic!! I rang Defra after we had loaded the pigs and they said it would take at least 5 days to get it though, I begged and grovelled, gave them all the details CPH number, ear tags, passport ID etc addresses where she was from and where she was going to, and with in 1 hour they actualy did it, they faxed the papers through to the fax office in town and as we loaded her I had confirmation, Well stress over I thought....yeah only just started..
Oh I forgot to mention that the pigs had to be transfered to my friends trailer which is larger and had partitions in so we could then load the WILD, KICKER that she, the Dexter had become known as..... she was really bad tempered dangerous girl, she took some pushing in, after we had put her in the cattle crush to put her new ear tag in, I then chased her up the barn and in the trailer and promptly had a huge asthma attack.It was so cold it got to my chest it was actually -16 that morning, it dint rise above -6 all day, any how we got to the abotoir eventually.... pigs off loaded and we were told how good they looked and yes hey did look good fed our way... they were just about to ask us to unload the Dexter when he asked how many months was. She 60 months old, oh he looked relieved, thanks goodness he hadnt said unload, as if we had they would have shot her and burnt the meat they aren't licensed to kill over 30 months I think it was, just stupid, so we then had to drag her miles off in the freezing weather to another abotoir who was prepared to kill her... she is still hangin now as we like our beef hung for a good 28 days, she will cost us £250 not cheap but wow what meat it shall be.....
Now what else, well since the pigs were dispatched we changed our feed we are now buying in bulk, it costs us £160 per ton, so instead of £7 to £8 per bag, we now have an equal amount for £4 its 45% barley 45% wheat and 10% soya beans, they are fattening so well, if not too well one piglet looks obese, we think Babe the Belgium Blue is in pig from the young boar too....
The Welsh Smallholder site is born on face book I set this up to share ideas likes and info with fellow small holders in the area to share surplus produce and advertise farm stock... promoting local quality produce.. We shall have to see if it takes off....so far there 4 that use it...
DOTTY THE DALMATION.
Well yes I've done it again I've taken in anther dog in need, She is or was a red zone dog suffering from severe dog aggression, not safe with kids, and quite nervous, nutty and not well adjusted, her ex owners were going to put her down as they had tried everything they could to fix her.. well straight away she mixed with our pack, showing good behaviour, she groweled at a couple of dogs a tiny bit in town, but nothing too bad.
The first night she slept by the side of my bed and screamed in terror in her sleep, the next day she seemed fine, after that she got better and better, I just treated her like a normal dog with no problems, expected her to do as told and behave well, which she did, shes so perfect, and loves me to bits, so far so good... another success story, I think her old master worried too much about what she was going to do as she had behaved aggressively in the past, she is confident most of the time, and giving up screaming, the more she walks and is exercised the better she feels about her self, she is always by my side and into what ever we do...
Joe had an acident and cut through his knee with a circle saw, had to have 1 hours plastic surgery, we had upto 2 foot of snow that day and I was at the abotoir, so he rang me and calmly asked me to come home as he realy needed o get to the hospital, after he told me exactly what he had done well he had a 8 cm gash by 1 cm wide by 3 tp 5cm deep, he had realised what he had done andbefore he passed out with shck, he put a peice of kitchen towel n it and celotped his leg together, I rang the docs and they said he needed an ambulance, i calmly explained that he was up a huge hill under 2 foot of snow and that no ambuoance could get to him, he was home with 3 kids, I had to get home to him as I had the 4x4, it took me nearly 3 hours to get to him, Andre and Louis 9 and 10 years old knew what to do, Andre let me know how bad his leg was and then set to feeding all the pigs chickens dogs etc, then packed a bag for themsleves as I was leaving them at a friends on the way to the hospital, they also helped Joe pass the time and get him ready, They paked Lilys stuff to and nappy incuding there meds, I'm so proud of them, eventually I got close to home the weather conditions were getting worse, 2 cars span out in front of me, then the road was closed after me there was no use in tryinh to get back out on that road.... We dropped the kids off with friends who had to walk down a hill to get to them, then eventually after visiting 2 hospitals he was treated...Next, well... 2 days ago I thought I would have my last cadburys Whisper bar and start my diet, I sooo wished I hadnt bothered..... It had some foriegn object in it and broke half my back molar off and below the root, you could bury a baked bean in there......aaarrrggghhhh. thats a few of the bad bits.....
I'm off to write our Wish Want and Need list for next year... will post it on here for you to see later on... byeee! Have a really good celebration and I hope you all have an easier and better year than the last..
Well we took to the abotoir 2 pigs we had bred on the farm here ourselves... young mother of one litter and the father of the same litter. We had them made in to sausages, ham and bacon... I was prepared in the freezer, got all my customers ready, but the one thing I wasnt preparred for was the cost £288... I'm still in shock, we managed to cover or costs and leave some over for us, also on the same day we also took our black Dexter in too, she had quite a journey, firstly I neglected to contact DEFRA in time for a special movement license as the farm she was on was under restricton. There TB test was cancelled by the vet due to his ill health, panic!! I rang Defra after we had loaded the pigs and they said it would take at least 5 days to get it though, I begged and grovelled, gave them all the details CPH number, ear tags, passport ID etc addresses where she was from and where she was going to, and with in 1 hour they actualy did it, they faxed the papers through to the fax office in town and as we loaded her I had confirmation, Well stress over I thought....yeah only just started..
Oh I forgot to mention that the pigs had to be transfered to my friends trailer which is larger and had partitions in so we could then load the WILD, KICKER that she, the Dexter had become known as..... she was really bad tempered dangerous girl, she took some pushing in, after we had put her in the cattle crush to put her new ear tag in, I then chased her up the barn and in the trailer and promptly had a huge asthma attack.It was so cold it got to my chest it was actually -16 that morning, it dint rise above -6 all day, any how we got to the abotoir eventually.... pigs off loaded and we were told how good they looked and yes hey did look good fed our way... they were just about to ask us to unload the Dexter when he asked how many months was. She 60 months old, oh he looked relieved, thanks goodness he hadnt said unload, as if we had they would have shot her and burnt the meat they aren't licensed to kill over 30 months I think it was, just stupid, so we then had to drag her miles off in the freezing weather to another abotoir who was prepared to kill her... she is still hangin now as we like our beef hung for a good 28 days, she will cost us £250 not cheap but wow what meat it shall be.....
Now what else, well since the pigs were dispatched we changed our feed we are now buying in bulk, it costs us £160 per ton, so instead of £7 to £8 per bag, we now have an equal amount for £4 its 45% barley 45% wheat and 10% soya beans, they are fattening so well, if not too well one piglet looks obese, we think Babe the Belgium Blue is in pig from the young boar too....
The Welsh Smallholder site is born on face book I set this up to share ideas likes and info with fellow small holders in the area to share surplus produce and advertise farm stock... promoting local quality produce.. We shall have to see if it takes off....so far there 4 that use it...
DOTTY THE DALMATION.
Well yes I've done it again I've taken in anther dog in need, She is or was a red zone dog suffering from severe dog aggression, not safe with kids, and quite nervous, nutty and not well adjusted, her ex owners were going to put her down as they had tried everything they could to fix her.. well straight away she mixed with our pack, showing good behaviour, she groweled at a couple of dogs a tiny bit in town, but nothing too bad.
The first night she slept by the side of my bed and screamed in terror in her sleep, the next day she seemed fine, after that she got better and better, I just treated her like a normal dog with no problems, expected her to do as told and behave well, which she did, shes so perfect, and loves me to bits, so far so good... another success story, I think her old master worried too much about what she was going to do as she had behaved aggressively in the past, she is confident most of the time, and giving up screaming, the more she walks and is exercised the better she feels about her self, she is always by my side and into what ever we do...
Joe had an acident and cut through his knee with a circle saw, had to have 1 hours plastic surgery, we had upto 2 foot of snow that day and I was at the abotoir, so he rang me and calmly asked me to come home as he realy needed o get to the hospital, after he told me exactly what he had done well he had a 8 cm gash by 1 cm wide by 3 tp 5cm deep, he had realised what he had done andbefore he passed out with shck, he put a peice of kitchen towel n it and celotped his leg together, I rang the docs and they said he needed an ambulance, i calmly explained that he was up a huge hill under 2 foot of snow and that no ambuoance could get to him, he was home with 3 kids, I had to get home to him as I had the 4x4, it took me nearly 3 hours to get to him, Andre and Louis 9 and 10 years old knew what to do, Andre let me know how bad his leg was and then set to feeding all the pigs chickens dogs etc, then packed a bag for themsleves as I was leaving them at a friends on the way to the hospital, they also helped Joe pass the time and get him ready, They paked Lilys stuff to and nappy incuding there meds, I'm so proud of them, eventually I got close to home the weather conditions were getting worse, 2 cars span out in front of me, then the road was closed after me there was no use in tryinh to get back out on that road.... We dropped the kids off with friends who had to walk down a hill to get to them, then eventually after visiting 2 hospitals he was treated...Next, well... 2 days ago I thought I would have my last cadburys Whisper bar and start my diet, I sooo wished I hadnt bothered..... It had some foriegn object in it and broke half my back molar off and below the root, you could bury a baked bean in there......aaarrrggghhhh. thats a few of the bad bits.....
I'm off to write our Wish Want and Need list for next year... will post it on here for you to see later on... byeee! Have a really good celebration and I hope you all have an easier and better year than the last..
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