This And That - Outdoors and In.

 Hello, I'm celebrating! 

This is because my laptop is now my own again as my youngest has bought himself a new device and therefore no longer needs to use mine for his homelearning, hurrah! This celebration comes in the form of a new blog post.

This is a little ramble about what's happening here on our little homestead, also know as #mylittlepatchofparadise, from the end of last month and into February. February! How did that happen? Also I'm talking about jobs and this 'n' that around the garden in the coming weeks.

February is a wonderful month really. Even though we are still having some wet and chilly days, with it comes the promise that Spring is just around the corner. It's also the time to be chitting seed spuds, if that is your thing. Not everybody bothers as you can see in February's issue of Grow Your Own magazine; Blake and Laura debate whether it's a necessary job to do. I always chit mine, I'm still waiting for my Charlottes to be delivered, as I think those early shoots give them a little kick up the garden path to a good start and a hopefully healthy harvest! 

As for existing plants/edibles and in garden, the frosts in the coming months need to be prepared for so make sure you have your closhes, fleece etc ready; our last frost should be in April, fingers crossed.

In February you may be able to spot Wild Garlic underneath hedgerows and in woodland and be lucky as English Country Life to have been to pick some already. (You can find them on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram plus their YouTube channel here with oodles of help and advice for the smallholder, budding or experienced.) If you are forraging for it always be careful to only take a small amount; we're lucky enough to have a good clump growing in the garden. 

However, last year we lost most of it to the chickens and orphan lambs nibbling away at it. This year I think I will take up and re-locate it to somewhere safer!

Whilst out forraging you may be lucky enough to spot the odd primrose or catkins on the Hazel branches and of course snowdrops are for a lot of people one of the first signs of Spring not being far away - their nick name is flower of hope as they bring that hope of lighter and brighter days to come.

Each month no-dig guru Charles Dowding - find him on Twitter, Instagram and here, too - has a column in Grow Your Own magazine dispensing help and advice so here are a few snippets ready for next month. At this time of the year he says it is too early to start tomatoes and best to sow them in the 3rd week of March to be kept on a warm windowsill then be planted out under cover in May. It is worth remembering that seeds need more heat when germinating than seedlings need for growing; windowsills are a great place for the first 7-14 days after you've sown your seeds.

Lambing is not far off now. We had the lambs scanned and we hope for 26 singles and 17 twins, no empty ones. 

In January Jon refurbished a trailer incase we need to transport ewes from the fields down to the barn should they be in trouble.

We have medecine, injections, tube feeders etc. ready if we have any mums or their lambs needing help. All set but fingers crossed for not too many problems.

Indoors now. I've never made Seville marmalade before - I normally go for a much easier 

all-in-one method which I took from I don't know where! I decided to give it a go and used the recipe, complete with this YouTube video, from Pam The Jam Corbin. I'm going to be honest and tell you I needed to do the dreaded "re-boil" as it didn't set the frist time! Consequently my batch is a good thick preserve but I'm very pleased with myself as we have a jar in the fridge and five more to add to the cellar stores. (An embarrasingly small store but you have to start somewhere.)

I was determined to start the year off with a bang and I will, hopfeully, continue to make and store as much as I can from things I've grown.

My new blog, Put That Light Out, is so much fun. I'm reading my books for research but also enjoy watching some TV programmes, often on the Yesterday channel, plus YouTube videos

to give me more detail for my posts but also just to extend my interest I have in the 1939 - 45 period.

To finish up, the weather here today, Friday, is damp and miserable. We've had snow this month

and the forecast says we can expect more this weekend....It won't make much difference as in Wales we are now into another three weeks of lockdown. We just continue our usual routine; I shopped on January 22 so I won't be going again for a week of more except our local fruit and veg cabin and meat deliveries from the butcher in the same town if we need them.

I hope you are all excited about the sowing and growing season being around the corner. By tomorrow it will be 5pm when the sun is setting so the days are defintely getting longer; before we know it we will be in our gardens, poly tunnels and greenhouses until all hours! My last post was about my own plans for next month and I'd really love to hear about what you have planned for the coming weeks and months. You can find me on Twitter @Goodlifeinwlaes and Instagram @livingthegoodlifeinwales.

Take care everybody and stay safe.

Bye, 

Lou.xx 

Cellar Store Room - One Year On.

Afternoon.

Just a super quick post showing how I'm using my Doomsday Prep cellar store room.

Just a year ago I was so excited that it was finished and couldn't wait to actually use it. Bovey Belle said that in a year I would be running out of space for things so that is why I decided to do a little before and after post.

Here is how the main part of the space looked on completion...

and here is how it looks now. Eeek!

I'm not exactly running out of space but it is definitely VERY useful. The shelves are now home to my spare preserving things along with the goodies I've managed to make this past year. Also I keep coffee/tea etc. supplies for the Airbnb room there as well as spare non-perishable items; I have a few things in stock for Christmas housed on the shelves and I still get a buzz out of going in there!

I've just sorted out a couple of cardboard boxes that were underneath the gingham curtains. They were a little damp, after all it is still a cellar, so as long as non-plastic things are kept off the floor then all is well. I'll soon be bringing up the Christmas decorations as they quite happily live down there now keeping dry in proper boxes.

Such a useful room as I also keep my recycling bags down there in between collections. After Christmas I will give it a good sweep and wash the curtains; I might even take them up a little as they drag on the floor a touch.

Ok, going on about this JUST a bit too much.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Happy Homestead.

Good morning!

My last post was on Wednesday so what has been going on at our little homestead since then? Well, I have to say the weather has been very wet since then, as it is now, so I have not done too much outside. 

The most important thing is that happily our boys came home on Thursday from a few days with the Gramps.Yay! Ready for them coming home baking for the tin was required, almond pound cake - so easy and so delish.

Also this was the day's little harvest. Some wonky carrots, gherkins (the glut has begun!) and some toms and turnips.

I was brought from Grandad's garden the gift of a big basket of damsons and a box of cooking and eating apples. (Attempting to keep the basket!)

We have sold a few punnets of damsons outside along with the eggs and have given some to people in exchange for stuff, always useful to be able to trade. I plan on making damson jam this week. It's something I prefer to do when the kids are not around so I don't have to stop in between the process; I may do it in the evening after a quick put together tea, that is probably a better idea. Apple crumble has been requested so that will definitely be made this week and of course eating apples are off the shopping list for now, yay! 

We had burgers with everything for tea with the boys, a family favourite, and I had one of my Slimming World burgers with gherkins (not mine as they need to sit a little bit longer) and chips made with our Salad Blues and Maris Piper spuds. Mmmm. Gotta love purple food!

We had guests arrive for the the Airbnb room on Friday for two nights, lovely people. Then we were without Harry again as he was taken into Aber that evening for his Sea Cadets summer camp in Llanelli; Alfie was in line to help with a few jobs over the weekend. He is such a different boy when Harry is not here but he does miss him.

O

ne of these was to put some meshed holes in the cellar store room door along with the draught excluder around it; the door was not shutting properly plus flies had to be kept out.

On Saturday I discovered some cucumbers hiding and these are hopefully going to be ready by the end of the week. On Sunday I gave my strawberries a snip on the leaves and a bit of fertiliser and hope they will have a little sleep until the fruit again; not had a great deal of success with strawbs so hope these two plants do ok.

After I said goodbye to our guests yesterday morning I took up some more Maris Piper spuds; getting on for 2.5lbs. I know now to sow more first and second earlies next year as I should really still be harvesting some of them now and not the maincrop quite yet but that is something learnt which is a good thing.

We fetched Harry back from Aber at 5pm last night and he was tired and glad to be home but had a great time shooting, swimming and messing around in kayaks; he has a boating weekend in September, too. We were happy to all be back together, again.

This morning, as I said, we have rain but the forecast is wet and warm for most of the week; tomorrow I have to clean out the chooks so hope I miss the showers for that job - never a pleasure in the rain!

Right, there are beds to change, vacuuming and other mundane stuff to do today so better get on with it. Looking forward to seeing what everybody got up to over the weekend.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

So Excited To Show This!

OK, STARTED THIS POST A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO SO SORRY IF IT IS A BIT HIGDLEDY PICKLEDY (WAS GOING TO SAY ALL TO COCK, LANCASHIRE EXPRESSION, BUT DIDN'T WANT TO OFFEND - OOOPS!)


I am so excited to finally show you the cellar store room! In my wildest dreams I never thought I would get anything close to this.

The shelving came from the shed, some of which Jon no longer needed. I gave them a good scrub and where I couldn't get some sticky labels off which showed flanges and stuff previously being kept on them! I decided to use some of a gingham oil cloth I have to cover the edges.

I hope to find a suitable piece of matting for the floor at some stage. 

As you can see I have moved my preserving jars and bottles down there. (This leaves space in the kitchen cupboard for my Christmas stash.) The large crockery was taking up a lot of space so it is great to be able to move it somewhere else. 

We plan on having bins for the recycling and to store flour, rice and pasta down there, too. As you can see I have my measily collection of already preserved items sitting there proudly!

I am very pleased with the onions. 

The harvest? was just under 7lbs so I have some hung up, love the smell, some are upstairs to use as they grew a bit long like leeks or did not have tops long enough to hang and some in this shopping basket - doesn't look a lot but the basket is huge! 

The beetroot is out of the way under one of the tops and I plan to get it pickled by the end of the month, if all goes to plan! As well as pickling it I have a lovely thing I like to do as an accompaniment to cold meat which is beetroot cut into small cubes set in blackcurrant jelly. Trust me it is lovely and you can make it as thick or otherwise with the beets as you like. 

The curtains were quite simple to make and run on simple wires; great for covering up the less pretty stuff. With my craft bench being out of action at the moment, not for much longer I hope, I had to do the sewing them at the kitchen table.

We have moved the fridge freezer and small chest freezer in which means we are back to more space where the washer, drier and shoe stand is. The chest freezer will not be turned on until we have something substantial to put in it but the fridge freezer will be used for Christmas stock, drinks etc.

On Saturday in Aber I found this lovely letter rack plus some great vintage-looking paper for Christmas projects - zoom in and see some of the great images.

On Sunday morning I started off the mushroom kits we recently bought. This is how it looks before you put on the compost which will be tomorrow. I will post on, hopefully, positive progress!

In other news, during the week I took up the shamefull harvest of two swede, lost most of the seeds to the birds it seems? We had those with lots of butter and milk as part of our roast chicken dinner on Sunday; I also made bread sauce with one of our onions and my own bread!

At lunch time Sunday Jon brought one of the chickens inside as the day before he thought she looked a bit under the weather. Her eyes were a bit milky looking and not very bright and her comb was not the vibrant red it should be. We put her in this box and made her comfy with some water; she really didn't look well.

By the evening she had rallied a bit and we kept her inside overnight.

In the morning she looked quite a bit better so we have given her some laying pellets  but she is still in the kitchen. Jon said something that night which made me laugh; he said is this what we signed up for, chicken in the kitchen?!

POSTED SINCE THIS TO SAY WE LOST THE CHICKEN.

Ok it is now Wednesday evening and going to settle down with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Fireworks and Frost.

Happy Sunday everyone. This morning arrived crisp and bright with a slight frost.

It has been quite a busy weekend which began on Saturday with the boys bringing in the logs, me cleaning out the chickens and Jon getting more of the walls painted in the cellar room. We left for Aber after lunch and took a look in Kraft for the first time in a couple of weeks and and got a few bits for some jobs Jon was planning on doing in the afternoon.

Jon spied this wonderful plate in Kraft for £3 which will probably accommodate our entire Christimas lunch! 

The gingham fabric is for the cellar store room. ( I finished up getting it from Aberdashery; I wanted to make sure I got just the right amount, it was more than I intended to pay but it is great quality and there should be a bit left over for some small projects.)

In Kraft we also found this to use as an egg holder, 

a new handle for one of the kitchen window which needed replacing (wants a bit of filler) then we dropped Alfie off at his Stage School session. 

Oh, random photo from when I made meringues for the first time EVER the other day and I think they came out really well - taste great, too!

We had a few errands to run in town including me popping for my fabric, getting some keys cut, newspaper and stamps etc. then we picked up Alfie. He had a great time again and told us he has started to learn the Charleston for a little Christmas show!

We then went to take a look at the new, big Charlies that has opened and we found these;

we have wanted to try growing our own mushrooms for ages so will give it a try, and then finally we headed to Morrisons to buy fireworks.

Once home Jon sorted out new locks on the front door and the conservatory exterior and interior door leading into the kitchen. Yay!!! This is a god send as it means we no longer have to bring the shopping up the cellar steps as we can park across the road for now and when the work is done outside we can park at the side of the conservatory and come into the house that way.

I cooked off some sausages for hot dogs and some baked potatoes and we wrapped them all up, sorted out the fireworks then dressed up warm and made our way down to the field. It was the best place to have them away from the chickens, Jake and the sheep in the nearby field. We ate our hotdogs and chunks of baked spud whilst the boys painted the night sky with their sparklers. On the way back to the house we walked just by the light of the moon and stars and it was amazing.

This morning, once our Airbnb guests had left, the boys helped chop and bring in logs, I got the meat in the Rayburn and prepped the veg and spuds for late roasted lunch. Jon got on with the last of the painting in the cellar store room and look see!

Jon thought it was a great idea idea to finish the stone table tops in this red floor paint as the whole room white was a bit too much. We're getting there!

All jobs are done and our late lunch will be underway soon in time for us all to eat before Alfie goes to his piano lesson.

Hope you have had a lovely weekend and I'll be checking in this evening to hopefully catch up with all your doings.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Stuff and Such.

Hi!

I don't seem to have had time to write a post since Tuesday but let's see what has been going on. (Sorry no photos.)

On Wednesday I pruned the rose bush at the front door. It flowers all the way until the end of October but now was the time for a tidy up; next one is the apple tree. I haven't done much baking for the biscuit tin lately as I had cookies in the freezer to use up, so I made a chocolate brownie which went down well with the boys after school as it has been a while. 

The weather was really good again so I galvanised myself and got outside; I had made a list of lots of little jobs to do. I brushed off the compost etc from all of the bamboo canes in the Poly House and tied them to the side of the bench to stop them sliding everywhere. I swept out the Poly House and gave it a good tidy. I sat outside and brushed out all the plant pots and trays and weeded the last part of the veg patch where the onions will go. 

In the evening I sat looking for varieties of heritage tomatoes. Does anybody have any experience of growing these? I fancy some yellow and red stripey ones to look great in a salad. I've picked out a couple I like the look of which includes Tigerella but would appreciate any advice. My first tomato growing experience was quite a disappointment, seeing as we eat quite a lot of them. I have got some seeds to grow just for toms only for bottling and I really want some beef tomatoes as mine failed completely to set in the summer. 

Yesterday, Thursday, I made bread inbetween starting the painting in the cellar store room, which was interesting, but both jobs came out well. The cellar needs another coat, especially on the beam and its supports, which Jon will do on Saturday morning I think. It would have been outside jobs that day but we received a text at tea time with a weekend booking for the room. Fab! (I am getting closer to being able to make the ginham curtains to cover the underneath storage in the cellar so will take my measurements to Aber tomorrow and see how the price compares to the internet.)

Therefore today I went to Aber to buy fruit and flowers, local paper, biscuits like you get with your coffee in cafes - after I saw them in Poundland for, £1! - and did our regualr food shop, too, instead of doing it tomorrow whilst Alfie is at his Stage School session. This means we can have a little mooch around town as well as taking a look around the new, big Charlies that has opened. I took a little look today whilst looking for a tea pot for the room.

Our guests should be with us between 4 and 5pm so I have made up the bed, cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed n dusted and prettied it up ready for their arrival. In the middle of all of this I realised that Jake has caught his food on something and was really bleeding, luckily only on the kitchen floor. He wouldn't really let me get too close to it, even when I bribed him with some cheese, so I have put his sleeping blanket in the cellar with his food because I can't have him getting blood on the TV room carpet or upstairs; since starting this post it has stopped bleeding and he is haooy to go outside.

I am writing this with the Rayburn crackling in the background. It is a little chilly today but the blue sky is still trying to peek through. We didn't light it yesterday but had the log burner in the living room going since breakfast; in the evening we had forgotten how fab it is at warming the whole of downstairs and half way up the stairs, too! I read and submitted the meter reading on Tuesday, as I do on the first of each month, so look forward to seeing how the bill is affected now the Rayburn heats the house, the water and takes care of most of the cooking, apart from the odd day here and there.

Right, guests will be here in a little while so will sign off.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Normality In November?!

Morning.

Here, I'm not sure how, we are in November. I decided to take couple of photos from the garden. What an Autumn day it was yesterday, glorious, not at all cold.

The boys are back to school for the last half of the term before Christmas. (At this point I have to admit we were singing the 12 Days Of Christmas in the car on the way back from collecting them on Saturday!)

We had our little Halloween celebration yesterday and the boys had carved their pumpkins, with a little help from Dad, on Sunday evening.

(Sorry, no time for PicMonkey; I know it would look better.)

The beetroot has been taken up!  

With a couple of inches of roots on each, my harvest weighed in at almost 3lbs. 

Not a great amount I know but I am really learning how things look in the patch space wise and I will plant twice as much next year. I have put them in storage in a box of my compost, don't have any sand left over from the rendering unfortunatley, but just for a little while as I don't have time to pickle it at the moment. The box will soon be able to to into the cellar store room with the onions. Harry can't wait; he LOVES beetroot!

Oh, have been meaning to say the following - 

- the garlic I'm growing is called Germidour and I planted two bulbs which had approximately 12 cloves on each I think

- the pak choi is a Green F1 Hybrid and I have planted around 20 seeds I think. Will see how they get on then might start off a few more,

Where was I? I dug over some of the veg patch after I took up the beetroot ready to put in the onions. Can't do anymore today as my back is really suffering - I can't often do two days on the trot. I showed a photo of the sets I had delivered but the vaireties are called Red Cross, red onions, Snowball, white and Tornado, brown. I'm not sure if I can get all the sets in the space I have so will have to see. Has anybody grown any of these vaieties? (I bought them together as they came together in a bundle.)

Oh, Jon found this in the shed; you normally put knives on it in a kitchen but it is just the ticket in the Poly House.

The foliage on the sweet potatoes is starting to die back quite a bit which is very exciting. I ordered some slips for next year but of course they won't arrive for a good while yet. I'll be interested to see how these harvest as they are just three in the growing bag given to me by Dawn.

Oh, this was the temperature in the Poly House yesterday and it said on the news this morning that Mid-Wales was 71 degrees yesterday - weather here was a-maze-ing yesterday, so warm and gorgeous, words fail me, really just a fab day. 

The ceiling and the one required wall in the cellar store room have been plastered and with any luck should be painted by the weekend as it is drying very well. We may use a lime paint on the stone work, not sure yet but we were left lots of it in the shed and it would save buying any more paint.

Look at the sign Jon made me!

If you need an explanation please feel free to ask as I don't think I have mentioned it in a previous post! I have spotted some reasonably priced gingham on the internet so will order that net week. I really miss having an indoor market like we used to visit before we move; nothing like that in Aber I'm afraid. I love Aberdashery but a bit expensive at times.

I have purchased a couple of things for the house/kitchen in readiness for Christmas. I needed a good piping bag so that I can decorate biscuits...

love Tala products.

I LOVED the honeycomb decorations last year but just didn't have quite enough....

There are four 12inch ones - two red and teo green - I have two smaller white ones to come along with two packs of LED lights; the battery run ones are fab as you can put them anywhere.

The Christmas cake in the oven and cooking a little quicker than in the gas oven; keeping a close eye on it as obviously the first time I have baked it in the Rayburn - wasn't confident enough with it last year!  I'll put it away until next week when it will be fed for the first time. I just use Gluvhein, is that how you spell it, but I may pop a bit of Jack Daniels in it as we have a bit left over from a family get together in the summer.

Well, I think that is quite enough of a ramble for the morning. I think I will go out and prune the rose bush around the front door today as it has finished flowering I think. It needs to be cut back so we don't get poked in the eye with a very sharp thorn!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx