pork sausages

We’ve been sausage making again.  This time using one pork hand, one slab of pork belly, and all the bit and pieces saved from the butchery day.  Delish.
We also set aside enough sausage meat for the chestnut stuffing for that winter festival thingy, and another lot for sausage rolls.  Homemade sausage rolls are always so [...]

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mud

Torrential rain. Always makes me laugh when people tell me how the raising of meat uses so much more water and therefore it’s not environmentally sound to eat meat (they say,tucking into their palm oil whatever..). Water, in this part of the world, is in plentiful supply.. and we live in one of the rainiest places in [...]

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november

It just seemed to sneak up on us – I suppose the good weather making us forget it was autumn, then suddenly it’s November.  And blustery and raining.
I’ve stripped the last of the tomato plants, and picked my last tomatoes – a few more batches of roasted tomato sauce for the freezer, and some jars [...]

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mackerel sky

It’s been unseasonably warm lately – I’ve been doing loads of drying laundry  outside – and am constantly surprised by how early it gets dark – as it does not fit with the weather.
I’ve been out cutting up logs today; a slow are arduous process with a bowsaw, but think of the money we save on [...]

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clocks change

And I am disoriented once again.  I must be getting older…
Actually woke refreshed and raring to go.. which was unusual, and probably indicative that I mostly don’t get enough sleep – an extra hour went down well. But of course all things outside went on at the normal times, and the animals looked askance at [...]

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autumn proper

Suddenly, I noticed whilst trudging down the hill to visit the sheep, the leaves are coming off the trees in armfuls, and it is autumn for sure. The sheep, bless em, are usually lurking in the field shelter, and like to look up nonchalantly as I peer in to makes sure we do actually still have [...]

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half hour hard labour

What a glorious sunny day.
We dug, cleaned out animal housing, stacked logs, fixed drains, cut grass and socialized.
We have a new technique for getting the never ended grim jobs done .  Half hour slots. So we have been dragging the last of last year’s hedge trimmings out of the field, cutting off the bonfire material, [...]

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is it worth it?

When raising animals for food, and eggs, or growing veg, it always has to be questioned whether it is actually worth it, financially and effortwise.
Well I think it is on many levels.
Financially, it is. But it depends what you take into account – I have seen so many times the question on a forum; “how [...]

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