If you keep livestock you will always have dead stock
S told me this a few months ago. The livestock part is great and the dead stock element is always upsetting. One of the most satisfying things for us is to raise our own stock. The bond between you and the young is much stronger. You have waited impatiently through the gestation period to marvel at their first faltering steps. Each small life becomes part of your life. We are not commercial producers and our diminutive flock insures that each member is cherished. Dixie Chick seemed to recover well from her bout of chestiness but two days ago...
read moreHoliday romance
I’m babysitting a smallholding that belongs to friends. I’m not staying there, just stopping by morning and evening. For half an hour each day I can immerse myself in their world. It’s a beautiful spot. Set amongst trees, their house was built in the 1930’s, complete with cosy nooks and an old fashioned walk in larder. The door handles in houses from this era are set quite high so when I stretch to open the front door I feel age eight again. The house is enchanting, filled with animals – pictures, sculptures and the real...
read moreDelicious budget meals for frugal entertaining: Honey glazed gammon baked with star anise and tamarind recipe
Ham is generally superb to cook and eat. Gammon can be a bit disappointing with its rougher texture and stronger taste. A few weeks ago a good friend gave us two small joints of gammon, bought from the back of a lorry at a Bank Holiday market. The first one was simmered very slowly in the slow cooker and Danny gave it the thumbs down. “It tastes piggy.” The dogs didn’t agree. This weekend I spotted the other one, nestling in the freezer. Loathe to give the dogs another treat, I remembered Smart Wife’s deluxe budget dish. “I’m...
read moreUpgrading the software on the Cottage Smallholder site
Last night and early this morning we upgraded the site to the latest version of WordPress. It took a long time and there are still a few glitches that we need to iron out. We have now installed Bad Behaviour as spam comments and trackbacks are still causing problems. In fact last week the overload of spam hitting the site made it impossible for genuine users to access the site for a total of three hours last week. We are still experiencing a bumpy ride with the site. Many apologies if it was down when you tried to access it today. Hopefully...
read moreThe brain is a muscle
In my later thirties I returned to college to study computer animation. The information overload was intense after years of making wooden toys and leading a relatively simple life. I also had never used a computer before. This was a bit of a disadvantage. Sometimes I could feel my brain almost “sweating” as it struggled with the new concepts and ideas. A lot of information went straight over my head. Having been quite an able student at school and university I discovered that the slippery slope to the bottom of the class was short and...
read moreMourning the death of our favourite shop
There are many things that send a rippling chill over us all at the moment. But there is one event that devastated us months ago. Back in April, Fred Fitzpatrick sold his butchers shop. Locally, people gossiped and I couldn’t bear to tell you that we’d lose this wonderful resource. It’s the butcher rather than the four grey walls that makes a shop special. Deep down inside I suspected that this scenario wouldn’t work. “Well what’s this guy actually like?” Fred was twisting sausages deftly into threes and gave me a cool...
read moreBlogroll
Every blogroll is special. Even the ones that have over a hundred names. Mine holds the blogs that I visit regularly. If I don’t have the time to drop by, I often think of posts that they have they have written – ideas that have touched me. Even though I have met only one of the authors, I count all these bloggers as friends. Sometimes , late at night, we wonder about these ‘friends’ and plan a party for the boggers that we like and have never met. One day this will happen. The hugs will be enormous and the gossip afterwards will...
read moreTagged for a Meme: Six random facts about me
I’ve been tagged by Jane over at The Winds of Change. This is a interesting blog and worth a visit. The rules of this Meme are: 1. Link to the person who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Write six random things about yourself. 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. 5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. Six random facts about me I feel the cold. I often wonder what horrors that I endured before I could speak. Although my...
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