We were hoping to repeat last year's success in lambing by not having to bottle feed any of this year's lambs. Alas, it was not to be. This lamb - named Crystal - by some local children, was rejected by her mother so we are having to bottle feed her. She gets 3 feeds a day, polishing off 2 bottles each time. Fortunately she has started to eat grass and leaves, though it is early days at the moment.
Self-sufficient in Suburbia
We grow our own food in a suburban village in the North East of England. Follow us as we keep up the battle to be self-sufficient.
Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Eating the trimmings
One of the local residential homes cut back their hawthorn hedge recently and phoned me to ask if I wanted the branches and trimmings for the goats. I'm not one to give up an opportunity for free fresh food. The goats enjoyed the feast.
Monday, 19 May 2025
Egg curry
The egg glut continues. Egg curry was a useful way of using up some of the surplus. In this meal we went further. We had egg fried rice as well!
Saturday, 17 May 2025
Sheep shearing
In previous years we have sheared our sheep ourselves. It has normally taken us a week to get the job done. This year we decided to buy in the service. A friend (who is also a professional sheep shearer) offered to to the shearing at a competitive price.
So, on Friday evening we rounded up the sheep into the goat paddock (see video above) and this morning we set up a pen and got the sheep into it in time for the arrival of the sheep shearing equipment. It took less than 45 minutes to do the shearing. With the current dry, hot weather, the sheep no doubt were pleased to be relieved of their coats.
Sheep shearing video below.
Thursday, 15 May 2025
Chicken liberation day
Today the avian flu restrictions that required birds to be caged came to an end. At last the chickens can go free range. I filmed this video this morning. Notice how some of the birds headed straight for the compost heap, rich in bugs and worms!
Tuesday, 29 April 2025
The egg battle continues
Our hens are continuing to lay eggs at a rate faster than we can use them or give them away. So we have continued to have egg based meals. We've also trawled through cookery books looking for interesting recipes. Anyway here are three more egg dinners we've had recently. Above - scrambled eggs on toast.Yorkshire pudding with baked vegetables.
Egg curry with egg fried rice.
Saturday, 26 April 2025
Tractor envy!
We have been using a rotovator recently to plough up the top of field one so we can plant a potato crop. It is a long and arduous task. Imagine the envy we felt when we looked over the hedge to the next farm where a giant tractor was ploughing up in seconds what was taking us hours to do! Here's the video!
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