those goals for 2010…

So how did we get on… maintain everything we have already set up Yes – we managed that and more. We only meant to have three pigs, but ended up with four.  And we somehow did ducks and turkeys too!  The freezers, and extra freezers are stuffed with homegrown food. knit a jumper for each [...]

Read Full Post »

gift round up

A hat and mitts for my son.  Our own wool for the mitts, stash for the hat. He has taken up walking in a serious way. He has the boots, the stick, the waterproof coat, the companion, and now the cold weather gear. He can stop borrowing mine now. And least himself should feel left [...]

Read Full Post »

egg mountain

We seem to have developed a winter, wrong time of year, egg mountain.  Easy done. Since their moult, and the egg  numbers dropping suddenly,  I’ve been careful about not using up eggs unnecessarily. We stopped selling them, and I used our stash of frozen eggs for baking etc.  Egg based meals stopped being a priority.  And at [...]

Read Full Post »

snow dyeing and thaw

Finally the thaw has started.  We have been iced in for over a week, though fortunately we can easily walk to the village shops.  Yesterday we dug the car out finally and made a trip out to family for lunch, and it was wonderful to get out and about.  And surprising how little distance made [...]

Read Full Post »

smug is…

.. being snowed/iced in with a house stuffed full of firewood food and booze.  We have had a nice quiet family Christmas, and the dinner all home grown, apart from the spuds. The ham was our own too!.   Apprehensive that the turkey might be tough roasted, as home reared chickens usually are, but it [...]

Read Full Post »

the downside of using newspaper…

… to wrap presents, is you get inky fingers. and distracted by interesting articles…

Read Full Post »

foodie things

I’ve always said the run up to thingymas was the best fun – the making and baking. I can’t tell you much about the present making yet, but some new foods: First off – marron glace de Ardeche. Or sweet chestnut spread – but that doesn’t sounds as glam.  For many years now, I have [...]

Read Full Post »

solstice

and here it is again, the shortest day, the longest night. From tomorrow the days start to draw out again. We had a good day, and had a feast too – we boiled and baked our ham, from our own pork.  And it was lovely.  We drank a glass of elderflower champagne, a taste of [...]

Read Full Post »