Farming Friends

How many pairs of novelty socks do you have? Since moving to the farm a few years ago, the number of novelty socks I own has increased. Every Christmas and Birthday my mum and dad make sure that amongst my pile of presents are the novelty socks. Now my novelty socks are no ordinary novelty sock, they have a theme - they always have a farm animal motif on them.

So why am I telling you this? Well I was up very early one morning two weeks ago because the guinea fowl keets were hatching out and whilst suffering with very little sleep as any new parent can sympathise with, I reached into the sock drawer and pulled out a pair of novelty socks with yes you guessed it……an animal motif. Both socks did indeed have a farm animal motif on them but they did not have the same animal motif. It was at this point that I began to wonder just how many novelty socks I have with a farm animal on them. Hence a post is born. It’s amazing what you ponder over in the early hours of the morning!

Anyway, how many pairs of novelty socks do I have with a farm animal theme? The answer is……..9.

Here is the washing line of my novelty socks with a farm animal theme!

So how many novelty socks do you have - let me know how many and what motif’s your novelty socks have on them?!

I thought it would be interesting and useful to have a virtual tour of the farm. So here is a slide show of the farm - I hope you enjoy the tour.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the farm - come and visit again soon.

Where is the best location for the compost bin?

• Place the compost bin onto bare soil or grass so that the worms can get in and the moisture can drain out.
• Ensure that the ground is level and drainage is good.
• Ideally place the compost bin in a partially sunny position as the heat helps to break down the waste. (A shady location will still produce compost but at a slower rate.)
• Place the bin where there is easy access to it.
• Ensure that there is enough room around the compost bin to mix the compost and get the finished compost out.

Click on this link to find out what to put in your compost bin and click on this link to find out how to make compost.

Click on the link below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

As a teacher your mind always seems to be on duty even when you are not at work. When out shopping you might see a book that would be good to read to the class, when on holiday you might find a postcard or a picture that would be good to share with the class or when you are gardening you might think of a good use for the grass cuttings that are spread across the lawn. The latter was me yesterday.

After my husband had cut the lawn (he’d got tired of waiting for me to cut it!), I was out in the garden checking that the blue tit eggs were still being looked after by their parents, when I noticed the grass cuttings all over the lawn. In a flash I knew what I could use them for. It came as a great relief to me because I recently organised for the year 6 children to make rot pots but it wasn’t until Tuesday night that I found out what the children would need.

I was emailed a list which stated that the items needed to make rot pots include;

• A 2 litre plastic drinks bottle.
• Grass.
• Soil.
• Fruit & vegetable scraps.
• Labels.

As any teacher will know, it is best to be prepared well in advance. I only work Mondays and Tuesdays so finding out on Tuesday night was leaving it late for good preparation. I phoned the school to make sure that the children knew that they would need to try to bring in the items listed above. As I had somehow managed to become responsible for organising the event I didn’t want the teachers involved to have to worry about collecting the items themselves. Wednesday afternoon was therefore spent raking the lawn and collecting the grass cuttings my husband had kindly left on the lawn.

One skill of a teacher is the ability to turn any object into a teaching material and this is a case in point!

The rot pot making is tomorrow so I have delivered the grass cuttings (bags full of the stuff!) to the school and I will now just hope that there is enough and that the children enjoy the activity and the teachers do not find it stressful. I will provide an update on the rot pot event and how to actually make the rot pots when I have this information.

My family are coming to stay at the weekend with the intention of helping me with jobs on and around the farm. I have decided to compile a list of jobs that need doing which we can work our through.

1. Deweed border infront of kitchen.
2. Plant sunflower seedlings opposite kitchen.
3. Plant marigolds in between the sunflowers.
4. Dig over new vegetable area and remove large stones.
5. Deweed onion area.
6. Plant more onions.
7. Deweed garlic.
8. Plant out two varieties of lettuce.
9. Plant out radish plants.
10. Pot on radish seedlings.
11. Plant out beetroot plants.
12. Pot on beetroot seedlings.
13. Thin out carrots.
14. Plant out purple sprouting broccoli plants.
15. Plant out cauliflower plants.
16. Pot on courgette seedlings.
17. Plant out spinach seedlings.
18. Plant out butternut squash plants.
19. Pull up last year’s purple sprouting broccoli.
20. Plant sweet pea plants.
21. Relocate self seeded tomatoes.
22. Relocate self seeded lemon balm.
23. Plant out night shade.
24. Plant out delphiniums.
25. Pot on delphiniums.
26. Plant out pansies.
27. Cut down over-grown weeds in second veg garden.
28. Move old chicken huts from the orchard.
29. Relocate and clean larger brooder.
30. Set up the large brooder in preparation for the 2 week old guinea fowl keets.
31. Clean the small brooder ready for second guinea fowl hatch.
32. Sow more lettuce, beetroot and radish.
33. Clean out poultry hut.
34. Find and gather eggs.
35. Deweed 2 flower beds.

As you can see I have just one or two jobs waiting to be done. It will be interesting to see how many jobs get done this weekend with 5 adults and a 3 year old. I will keep you posted!

The swallows are back and nesting in the “cat” barn.

I noticed a couple of swallows had returned around the end of April, but it wasn’t until the last two weeks that I began to notice more of them circling the sky around the yard.

Last year the swallows made a nest in the roof of the millhouse and I even caught a glimpse of the swallow chicks.

The swallows appear to be entering the open window to the barn that I call the cat barn (it’s where I feed my cats!) but although I can hear cheeping, I cannot see the nest.

The swallows flying patterns are amazing to see as they circle round and round the yard and neighbouring fields searching for food. Their movements are so graceful as they seem to glide through the air. At times they will rest on the telephone wires before they are flying off again in their circling movements. I even saw two of the swallows on the ground sipping water this morning - a sight to behold.

It’s great to see all this wildlife so close up. I lead a priviledged life on this farm. I will try to capture the swallows flight patterns on video so that I can share them with you. So watch this space for swallow flight details!!

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

Yesterday it was all hands on deck or should I say floor, to help with the delivery of the concrete we had ordered for the floor in the new grain store.

I was drafted in to help as my father in law had gone to a horse sale to try to sell his race horse. Anyway, the first load of concrete arrived at 8 o’clock and was placed in the large holes at each corner of the building as well as all along the outer edge of the building. The second load arrived at 9 o’clock and was used to fill one outer length of the building which is four bays long. The final load of the day was used to fill the opposite outer length of the building.

In typing the events of yesterday I am making the job sound extremely easy, however it was anything but easy. Concrete sets fairly quickly especially when it is a hot day like it was yesterday, so we had to work very quickly.

The work involved greasing the metal girders that hold the concrete in place (this was my job which was easy), then when the concrete arrived we had to rake the concrete into the holes at each corner where the steel girders hold the building up.

On the outside of the building the concrete needed to be raked evenly into the space ensuring that the bottom of the walls were sufficiently covered, before the concrete was then smoothed over to create an even surface.

On the inside flooring the men used a large motorised machine called a tamper (I think!) to level the concrete out and then another machine called a floater was placed over the concrete surface to smooth and even out the surface. This is important because the floor needs to be as smooth and as bump free as possible inorder for the grain to be gathered up easily.

Today two loads of concrete have been delivered and placed in the centre of the building. The same process takes place again - with the tamper and the floater being used. I was not needed today as my father in law was back. (No news on the race horse - I don’t think his son’s have asked and he probably daren’t bring up the subject as he was really needed on the farm yesterday.) Today my job was to make bacon and egg butties and homemade lemon curd tarts. Alot easier than raking tonnes of concrete I can tell you!

We have more loads of concrete to look forward to tomorrow - so I’ll keep my ear to the ground (concrete of course!) in order to bring you more floor updates.