wet weekend

I went out Saturday with the dogs wrapped up in my water proofs on the way back we came through a village where the trees where over the lane I had to stop as in the middle of the road were 3 pigeons well I thought they were all pigeons but when i got near i realised it was 2 pigeon's an a hawk.
The hawk was pinning down 1 pigeon and the other was pretending to be injured to distract him from his mate the hawk managed to get to the side of the road with his catch and I drove on and left nature to get on with life. Now some people would have intervened but I felt that was wrong.

On Sunday we were down the drain (river) and I had my camera with me when some plane were flying down a long the river and when they were near they banked off towards the Lincoln direction it was the red arrows so by the time that I had got my camera out of its case they were like dots in the sky. so no photos but it looked great in formation.

Monday I had to be up at 5am to catch the transport from Sleaford to Leeds for work it was a long day by the time I got home .

Barbara has bought me a new book called The complete Guide to edible wild plants,Mushrooms, Fruits,and Nuts. By Katie Letcher Lyle

It looks a good book I will let you know later.

Jam making in a bread maker

I have been busy since my last post I have harvested plums,Blackberries, Apples, Elderberries,
and Pears, then turning them into Jams and chutneys, Wine,syrups, cordials and freezing any spare in the freezer.
The freezer is now full so it will have to be Wines,syrups,jams, chutneys,and dehydrate and store in airtight jars.

We have had shelving put up in the back toilet so we can see all the jars and bottles as when we had them in a cupboard we could not see what we had and some got over looked.

The jams in the picture below are from left to right Nectarine and mango, Strawberry, both made in the bread maker, and finally chili pepper jelly made on the stove.

To make jam in the bread maker I put in 2 cup full of Fruit which has been squashed with a potatoes masher or food processor the colour stays and doesn't go dark like it would when its been cooked on the stove.

recipe for making jam in a bread maker.

Fruit 2 cups full of fruit mashed or blitzed in the food processor.

3 cups of sugar with added pectin.

If you cant get sugar with added pectin then use 3 teaspoons of lemon juice.

Put in the bread maker and set to jam program. my bread maker takes 1hour 20Min's.

Still picking the odd Field mushrooms when out with the dogs but not enough to dry in large lots.

Barbara is at work tomorrow so I will take over the Kitchen after taking the dogs out in the morning and wine bottling in the afternoon.

I have a recipe for tomatoes jam from a friend I have lots of tomatoes so I may have a go at making some.

I hope not to leave it so long before I post.

The kitchen beckons

I have been busy in the kitchen in the last 2 weeks this weekend I had the steam juicer going and made 4.5pints of Apple juice I bottled 4pints and put the .5 in the fridge for breakfast.
It keeps well if you leave the bottles on the side and put in the fridge when you open.

The steam juicer I have was made in Sweden and i use it to make juice it is easy to keep in bottles and saves room in the freezer.
apples, blackberries, any fruit that is spare you can always add apple and blackberry and sugar to make a jelly, Blackberry will make a nice syrup if sugar is added.

The basket will hold 11pounds of fruit just wash and chop apples leave the cores and pips and all you are left with is a cooked pulp.

I found my first field mushrooms of the year this weekend and tonight I found a lot more it may be a good year this year.

I had a day Bottling wine 18 bottles of Dandelion flower and 11 bottles of Parsnip of course I tried the half bottles just to see if they would pass the test and they did.

The parsnip is on the left and the dandelion is on the right.

These are dandelion I made 3 gallon this year and i must say its very good. these six bottles are the first to be bottled.

For a simple life I find it hard to find the time at the moment with making things in the kitchen and wine and things but it will get better when I start to fill the freezer.

on the way out of work tonight Kaz gave me what i thought was 1 marrow but it turned out to be 3 so Barbara will have to see it her dog walking friends will take 1 each.

Combines are working overtime to bring in the harvest

The walks have seemed to have run into each other just lately the last 2 weekends and a few nights the combines have been working long hours where ever you look the fields are alive with the farmers hard at work they have been working day and nights with the lights flashing away on the combines.

I went down to the wind turbines last Saturday for a change the sunshine reflected on the turbines.

This is what it looks like standing under the blades of the turbines above your head massive lumps of blades coming round and they don't look very high above the ground when you stand still.

The combines are no sooner out of the field and the balers are baling up the straw ready for the crew yards for winter bedding for the cows.

The fields will soon be ploughed ready for the next crop.

The river board have been out with the weed cutters these 2 were moored near the new concrete steps that were built in the spring.

Mind the teeth toffee as they will cut dogs as well as reeds and weeds.

One is a cutter the other has a scoop for clearing the weeds each one is man by one person.

The dust rises as the combines work away to bring in the harvest.

The other Saturday as I walked the dogs 2 men in a boat passed I never got the name but it looked so relaxing and later when we came home the 2 gents were just coming back from lunch at the pub.

They looked happy and relaxed what a life away from the rat race it will be better when this credit crunch ends. Ha ha

Tonight when we went down the drain bank the hares were running along the track they must have come out of the fields because of the work going on with combines and balers I counted 6 on the track .

On the way back a muntjac deer came out of the long grass and wandered across the track and into the woodland and near the farm yard small rabbits as well as hares were running all over the place.

woodland ways weekend 23rd july2010

I have struggled with time since I came back off holiday and last week end I went on a woodland ways week end It was like a survival course.

We had to be at the White Swan at Walton on Trent to meet the Instructor at 7.00pm he then took us to a wood just out side the village. to meet up with the other instructors.

We met up with Martyn who was just the sort of guy you would expect to be an instructor Full of energy and rearing to go.

the other instructors were Kevin and Ruth.

Look out Ray Mears here we come .

After a talk about Knifes and saws and toilet facilities and where the spade would be left.

We were given a fly sheet or tarp and 4 bungee straps to put up our shelters as below.

After Putting up our shelter we all went and dressed a wood pigeon and cooked sweet and sour pigeon with rice for tea.

The kettle was on the fire most of the time so we could brew tea and coffee any time of the day.

On the Saturday we were shown how to build a shelter and set to work building our own the one above was my shelter as you can see it just looks like a heap of branches.

at lunch time we were shown how to bone a trout with your hands and leave no bones in it and cook it on the fire with new potatoes in butter done in the dutch oven.

The front of my shelter after completion we spent the night in our shelters it was well insulated and in the night I was sweating and when i took my arms out of the sleeping bag the mossies bite me.

Anne and Rob made a different shelter it looked very good more room than the one I built but they said there shelter was hot as well.

As you can see it was a tight fit.

Saturday night we had Rabbit Stew and we had to skin our own rabbits I have done that before so I watched Emma and Ben Skin a rabbit and cut it up for tea we had a bag of flour and seasoning put the rabbit in and shake about so as to cover the rabbit meat.

I then cooked it in a small drop of oil in a hot dutch oven until brown then added water and veg carrots Parsnips, potatoes to make the stew.

We had a foraging afternoon and we found some cherries and Ruth the instructor made cherry crumble which was Delicious.on Saturday we did a sit and watch in the woods and learned how to Light Fires with fire strikers and rubbing sticks and all sorts of ways to light fires.

We had to put the site back to how we found it on the Sunday before we left.

Sunday morning we had a talk on water By Kevin and how to find it and look after it Filter water for drinking.

After which Martyn gave us instruction on setting Traps for fish, Crayfish, and rabbits and squirrel.

At about 12.00 we left for home tired and feeling like a bath so when I got home the first thing was a bath and 4hours sleep in a soft bed.

Thanks to Kevin, Martyn and Ruth for a great week end and to all the others on the course.

It you want to try the woodland weekend have a look on the web site below.

www.woodland-ways.co.uk

It is an experience you may learn something to help you in the future but if not you meet some nice people.

I went down the drain bank tonight and got wet through it rained hard so the dogs and I were wet in minutes.

I will get round to telling you about my holiday when time permits.

Young Barn owls In July

I took the dogs down the drain bank late tonight after it had been raining and on the way back at the pumping station the baby barn owls were out.
The adult Bird was flying about and came back with a vole.
The young birds never bothered about the dogs or myself they just sat and looked across at us.

The nights are pulling in its about 9.30pm and the sun is setting.

If you Click on the photos the owls are on the owl box and the sign post below it.

Owl returning home to the box

The owl sitting on the sign is one of this years babies.

Friday so I had the day off went into Boston Shopping with Barbara and we had Lunch it makes a change for us to eat meals together.

Bought some camping equipment for next week end I am going on a wild camping weekend.

I will tell you about it later I have still got to do my blog about my holiday yet.

Hope to go down the ponds tomorrow with the dogs to cut the grass walk ways.

Catching upafter the holidays

Sunday night I had a walk down the drain bank with the dogs late on as you can see by the photo it was late a pair of swans with 2 signets were near the car park.

sorry I have not told you about the holidays as I have been trying to catch up with every thing you have 2 weeks away and the garden looks like a jungle.
work is not going down very well I have just about got back into things as I had someone looking after my jobs I do seem to be back on track.

I have just been on a course for 2 days with an over night stay in a hotel so not a lot done this week on site today meetings tomorrow and Fridays I don't work . well only on the ponds and garden.

This is the cabin or shed down the ponds the wasps have been eating the paint and wood off and making nests with so it looks really tatty but it needs a coat of paint over it and it will be okay.

The dogs love it down there I aim to stay down one week end to see what wild life is there.

Toffee just chills out when he is there he looks hard done by.

This year the weed seems to be taking over i will have to drag some out before the winter.

This is what I call the old pond it was the first one to be dug so I have been told by the guy who owned it before me.

A side view of the old pond with bird feeder (empty this time of year)..

Blue is still swimming he does all day he sleeps well at night.

Below is the new pond with the island new (last one dug).

The other night I took the dogs down the drain and forgot the camera as the cows were half way down the bank we started to come back when the other side of the drain 2 foxes came out of the long grass I watched them for about 5minutes and then 1 nipped back in the long grass the other one sat and looked across at the dogs running about straight apposite me and me with no camera.

There has been some Polish lads Fishing down in one place for 3 nights with the kids.

It seems to keep them happy I don't know if they do any good most time they say only small ones.

The owl has some young as most times when we go down he has been hunting and is on his way home with a vole or small bird.

I will call it a day now maybe I will catch up with the holidays Friday.