Eggs for Breakfast

 

Now that our hens (2 of them) have started laying again, I've been able to have fried egg and potatoes for breakfast. Unbeatable!

Christmas trees on the move

 

Following our appeal in December, people have been giving us their Christmas trees. For us, the trees are a resource, to everyone else they are waste. The goats will eat the twigs and bark, the branches will be turned into mulch and the trunks will be dried over the summer to be used as firewood next winter, keeping our house warm and cozy. The first tree arrived on 27th December but we are expecting the surge this weekend.

Mucking out

 

Cleaning out the hen and duck houses at the moment is like painting the Forth Bridge. This unending task is not helped by the current requirements to keep all poultry houses until such point as the avian flu outbreak is under control. We are generating a large amount of muck. At the moment we are giving it all to the Whinnies Community Garden for their raised beds but we will soon start shifting some to the farm for our own raised beds.

Bath time

 

With all poultry confined to runs because of the avian flu restrictions, there is a danger that the ground gets churned up and birds get muddy. For ducks this can be fatal so when we spot any looking mucky, we bring them home and put them in the bath where they can clean themselves in clean water. These 2 came back home over the weekend but have been returned to their runs.

Eggciting

 

Our hens and ducks stopped laying in September. On Christmas Day, in one of the henhouses, I found 2 eggs. A rather nice Christmas present! 

How to make a mock full English breakfast

 

So much of what we practice in the world of self-sufficiency can be learnt from history. In this video, I demonstrate just how important allotments we to Britain during the Second World War. This mock full English breakfast was made entirely from produce from an allotment, other than the pigeon used in making the sausages. With war now in Europe resulting in rocketing food prices, learning from history has never been so important.

Give me your Christmas tree

 

On Boxing Day we put out an appeal for people to give us their Christmas tree rather than throwing it out. We have done this for a number of years. The trees are fed to the goats. They eat the bark and the twigs. When they have finished with them, the branches are stripped off and shredded to make a mulch which we use in the chicken runs or donate to the Whinnies Community Garden. The trunks are chopped up and dried for firewood.

The first trees (see above) this year arrived on 27th December. The peak will be the next 2 weeks.