Homestead Ways and Sunny Days.

This week I tried something a bit different with my bread making. Sunflower and pumpkin seeds with pine nuts, mmmm yummy when toasted in the heat slightly.

On Thursday morning I baked this yummy blueberry breakfast cake, mainly for Alfie, the recipe for which I saw on Pinterest - here is the link; easy to bake and very tasty.

Just to being me back down to earth I cleaned out the chickens later on before any rain looked like it was starting - a great job as I love seeing it all cosy for them - call me daft! 

On Friday morning I planted out most of the beetroot, still a bit to go, then after lunch baked a lemon cake to use up some eggs and changed beds. We decided to go to Aber in the late afternoon as the weather was just glorious. We also thought we would get a Chinese takeaway to have with the boys as they would be going away to the Gramps at the weekend for a week. They had been so good tidying up inside whist me and Jon were busy and even made us a cafetier of coffee! 

We drove to the seafront and instead of going second class we turned left and headed to the harbour for a change, walking up as far as we could. Check out my photos and the fab, bluer than blue sky.

I think this is where the river Ystwyth meets the sea.

 Looking back toward the sea front.

Alfie has had the lucky sea gull poo drop on this a couple of times and this one seemed to be circling him!

There were a few people on the beach and the lifeguards were on duty.

Today, Sunday, and this was the collection of goodies first thing in the morning from the hen house, Poly House and outside - our first tomato! Courgettes and sugar snap peas are still steadily growing, too, and there was another egg later on.

The boys are going off shortly when Grandad has done helping Jon with a project I will share at a later date. Their little backpacks are packed and they will hopefully be back next Saturday in time for us to go to a vintage show being held in Aberaeron.

Jon is back to work tomorrow so I will be keeping myself busy with various things, but also watching some of the Olympics depending on the times which are a little crazy here and there because of the time difference.

Right I'm just rambling now so hope to have some stuff to share with you later in the week.

By for now.

Lou.xx

Wet And Warm, Top Soil And Tyres.

Well, Ta Da! We have top soil!!! Bet you're glad I'll stop going on about that now!

Jon fetched it last night and I was so very much hoping for a sunny day today but instead we were outside in the rain, at least it isn't cold, from just after 7am for nearly two hours putting the soil here... (obviously there is still some weeds which need to be gotten rid of!)

...and here. I'd been saving cardboard to use as mulch for the tyres so I put that in first.

It was time to go in for some breakfast and the boys made us bacon and egg butties, with a bit of help from Jon, and a pot of coffee. After breakfast I made the bread, did a few admin jobs and after a lunch of fish fingers and salad the boys helped Jon tidy his shed and I headed back to the veg patch.

The thing I really wanted to transfer was the Squash plant which was running amok in its much smaller planter; I think it will be much better here.

The fruits are looking great, not quite twice the size of a goosberry, look a bit like them too!

I then set to planting out some of the beetroot. I did one row and then left it because the soil was too wet for me to kneel on but I made some progress - if you can just about see them!

I also finally got around to planting out the leeks. I really hope they take; I followed the rules by putting them in the hole then watering it and lightly putting the soil back into it. Fingers crossed. I have a whole new level of anxiety now wondering if things are going to grow properly outside.

A couple of things from the Poly House. Does anybody else who is growing something simialr to Dwarf Beans have them growing with tiny black blemishes on them? These have, but cook and taste just fine. Just wondering.

Then you may just  be able to see that the tomato in the middle of the picture is not quite totally green anymore. Eeeek!

When we had finshed all our jobs and were just about to come in Jon said about letting the chickens out of the enclosure for a while. They took a while but gingerly stepped out.

I hope we don't find one of them beak down in the pond! I was worried, too,that they would head for something I didn't want them to eat but they were quite happy scratching around at the greenery near the fence. We think we will do this late in the afternoon now and again and, hopefully, they will take themselves back into the enclosure, especially when it is winter and gets dark sooner.

Nearly forgot, another little job we did this morning was to cut this budlea down which was making a shadow over the Poly House. May seem a bit severe but that is how it goes sometimes. You can see the strawberry patch in the foreground. We have not done well with these at all this year. We are not going to stress but build a frame for them ready for next year and hope for a much better harvest.

Well I think that is me caught up. Jon is still off work, this is his second of two weeks. Tomorrow we have a trip to make to the tip and we are going to collect a door for the end room to keep in stock until we are ready for it - a bargain at £15 - and as it is near Borth I really hope the weather is good enough for us to take a look at the beach.

Oh, egg yield for this month was 139. Only one down on last month so we have covered the cost of half the initial lay out for the chicken project.

At the end of the week Jon's dad and his wife are coming to visit and we expect they will take the boys back with them for a week at the caravan. Realised today that I will be on my own in the day time next week as Jon will be back at work. Never mind, I am sure I will keep myself busy with this and that!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Eggs And More Eggs.

Hello

Greetings from sunny, not, but very humid and slightly soggy, Bronllan.

Anyhow, on Tueday I decided to give pickling eggs a go in my continued effort to preserve the things we raise, grow, etc.

I used plain distilled vinegar and in a little muslin pouch I put half a cinnamon stick, black pepper corns, mustard seeds, fresh basil and a star anise. 

I steeped the pouch in the vinegar and left it to cool for a couple of hours then poured it over the hard boiled eggs. 

They are now sitting on my shelf for a month until we can taste them. Very excited about that little project!

You may just be able to make out that the eggs are standing on a copy of John Seymour's Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency. I was encouraged by a post from Bovey Belle to purchase it and so glad I did. 

Wednesday morning our little harvest looked like this. A good sized courgette, five eggs, susar snap peas and our first ever dwarf beans. Eeeek!

We have acquired 200 small slates and Jon fetched them that morning so they boys were helping them to be unloaded and put into one of the sheds. Such looks of determination.

I made the decision the other day that as the swedes had not done very well in the veg plot I would leave the few which had, dig over the ground again, weed and then plant the turnips and so I have. The turnips had grown very well in the Poly House and I hope they grow without too much trouble.

Happy with the result as this end of the patch is full with the turnips, few swede and you can just see how the onions are coming up well.

We went into Aber today for some lunch as Jon's mum is staying a couple of days and wanted to treat us. I took a quick gander in Craft and came across this in the 50p box. It could be used as part of one of my seasonal vignettes or I could use it for crafting. I already have a lot of sheet music I use for papercrafting so I think I will keep this one as is, and maybe next year Alfie will be able to play some festive tunes for us!

 I also went to Aberdashery and bought a meter of muslin. I think this will be very useful for things such as when I make soe cheese which I intend to do in the next few weeks. (The recipe is something I found in the John Seymour book.)

And one more thing on the egg theme, my girls are on track to lay just as many as they did last month, even though we had some lean days where we only got two, because we have had six every day for the last week or so. Go girls!

Well, I have written this post whilst the boys are playing upstairs and both Jon and Nana are having 40 winks. Will just take a few more minutes to see what other delights I can add to my bucket list of new things to try from Mr Seymour whilst I have the chance.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Only Four- Day Gap?

Wow. I just checked and it is only four days since my last post but it seems so much longer. 

Anyhow, what has been going on at our end?

The people who sold us Bronllan went away last Sunday so we said we would look after their horses every other day or so. Alfie had a bit of a bad experience with them when we first got here but he is better now and loved feeding them their carrots.

The boys have been good at going outside whilst the weather is good and snapped them sitting on the trailer and having a chin wag the other day.

On Friday I baked a Victoria sandwich cake and when we had been shopping on Saturday I filled and decorated it, unfortunately not with our own strawberries. Suffice to say it did not last very long as we had had a big fried breakfast and did not want lunch so this was snack!

On Saturday morning I was chuffed to see the girls were back to 6-a day and I picked our second cucumber and more sugar snap peas.

On Saturday I also made a vegetable lasagne; I had two small aubergines that I bought last week and thought I should use them up. I mixed some red lentils and kidney beans together and I had grated some sweet potatoe ready to make some fritters and had a bit of red pepper, two of our own but small courgettes and half a red onion to use up so fried these whilst I lightly baked slices of the aubergines. (Wish I'd taklen pictures as I went along!) I layered the lentil mix then the pepper and onions followed by the sweet potato and toppped with the aubergines keeping going until it was all used up. Topped off with four slices of cheese and popped in the oven for a little while it turned into this.

Can't wait to have it for my lunch, I am home alone today until tea time tomorow as the boys have gone on a trip to see Jon's parents; two locations and bringing his mum back for a short visit. Going to get today's jobs done after this then I am going to continue with this.

This is my papercrafting C word December Daily project! Check out here for examples of scrapbooking/mini-albums on acid! It is something I have wanted to do for a couple of years but you have to be a bit organised and get the base album finished before the rest of the festive organisation starts or you never get it done. Here's hoping I manage it this year, although most people don't tweak the finishing touches until the new year, final photos etc.

This is some of my Christmas crafting stash which I rummaged for in one of the outbuildings where we are currently keeping the decorations etc. Amongst other things I'm using up pages from an old festive planner I made a couple of years ago, why not...

then Tunnocks tea cake wrappers are one of my very fav things to use for decorations and papercrafting at C.

This is the start of the cover; sorry I'll stop now, but you know how I love C!

This morning I went to do the watering in the Poly House; we have had rain so most things outside have had a good soaking. My broccoli which has been attacked by some nibbler of sorts seems to have perked up a bit so really pleased about that. I collected the eggs and thought I'd take a few photos. Apologies but no time again for Pic Monkey.

Bush variety coming on loads on just one side?...

and the beef tomatoes better in bigger planters.

Nearly had a disaster with the cordon plant the other day as the bunch of toms was so heavy it nearly broke the stem off! Sorted it with more twine and canes!

THIS is the sweetcorn?

Right, well I have to get the chooks cleaned out and then I can do what I want and any other household chores, apart from one load of washing, can DEFINITELY wait until tomorrow.

Yay! Domestic freedom, just for the day, not that I am not the happiest bunny making a family home for me and my men, but it will be fun. I'm NOT be wearing my watch, I'm doing what NEEDS to be done and then the world is my oyster. 

Ooo, the post lady has just brought this union jack bunting I ordered ready for the Olympic celebrations - the boys are so excited, especially Alfie. It has a vintage, faded white look!

Right I'm off but I'll be cheking in to see what everybody else is getting up to, of course!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

The World Has Indeed Gone Mad - Possibly.

Somebody mentioned the other day that the world has gone mad.

I am beginning to think this is true. By this morning more people had registered to be a member of the Labour party than the total membership of the Conservative Party to possibly vote for a man who has lost the confidence of most of his fellow politicians.

News states that a serving soldier was possibly almost abducted on the street in possibly a terrorist situation.

You note the frequent use of the word possibly.

All things in life and the world are possible -good or bad it seems.

This is a similar conversation kick started by Ilona of Life After Money.

What can you do if things around you are seemingly falling apart? I came to the conclusion that, as selfish as it seems, I am so pleased we live where we do because we seem quite removed from a lot of things. Plus, we are removing ourselves from a lot of things trying to be self-sufficient and self-reliant where we can.

I have for a while since the Brexit thing, and I really am not a very political person but it made me think, decided that you really have to look after number one and if that is not the train of thought of others then frankly I'm sticking my head in the sand for the sake of me and mine and just getting on with my own *hit. Rant over.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Holiday Happenings.

Today is the first day of the school summer holidays so I have made my type face colour a little more summer like, just coz I can!

I have been quite leniant with the boys for the first day but I always do my best to keep them off screens for some parts of the day so we are able to do things as a family. This morning they had a lie in, no doubt watching too much tv, and I got them downstairs at 10am after I had eaten my breakfast, collected the first eggs, weeded some of the veg patch and did the Poly House jobs.

After their breakfast we took Jake for a walk and I photographed a few things in the lovely sunshine.

The weather is glorious again today and Jake always likes to cool off by having a roll in the grass.

Along the cycle path are tonnes of blackberry bushes so cannot wait to get some picked for pies!

We also came across a raspberry bush and had a couple of them to nibble on and we hope there will be more there and one I have spied across the road near a neighbour's building.

We meandered home enjoying the sunshine but knowing we would all enjoy a cold drink a little bit more!

When back at home Alfie asked if he could do some 'school work'. Call me pushy but I have always used the internet to provide things for the boys to do to keep their brains working during hoidays. They like to do their own newspaper articles, I print off word searches and book report pages etc. I hope to find some Welsh quizes they can do, too but I will need to make sure I have the answers in English, too!

Alfie loves keeping a scrapbook so we will be buying a new one at the weekend. He has asked if we can do Art on a Friday like they do at school. As I said I do my best to not have them on a screen and when I encourage them I love that they want to do stuff. Alfie is currently doing his newspaper front page with articles which include the hot weather, and him selling his cheese block door stops at the school faete but he is including the Olympics as he can't WAIT for them to start. 

Harry has 31 day Lego challenge and is already on about day four!

We also plan on going to the river to swim, weather depending of course, cooking, some crafting etc. visit the beach etc. I wouldn't describe myself as a helicopter parent as they need to play on their own so I get some time for myself over this long holiday.

We are planning on joining the Aber library so we can take part in the Summer Reading Challenge summer reading challenge which is based around Roald Dahl, who they both love.

So, Day One seems to be going ok. We have egg mayonnaise made for lunch sandwiches to eat outside, in the shade of course. One down 46 to go!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx