Category Archives: Uncategorized

After the great chainsaw event of last week where the berberis, Stan and Olly and some others met the wrong end of Geordie Smallholder’s chainsaw, we decided to tackle the front garden, or Jurassic Park as it turned out. The pictures below look innocuous enough, but it turned out that 80% of the flora hadContinue reading “Jaggy trousers”

This week we put some seeds in the propagator. We are trying to stagger the planting to minimise the gluts we had last year and to produce enough for 6 households per week so that we can start supplying a few customers. We are going for interesting varieties and things not normally found in supermarkets.Continue reading “First Planting”

This week, the Assassin has been gathering support for her dark plans. First, she tried to get the dog on board, but Doofus is too literal thinking for her subtle plotting. Having not got far with the dog, she set her sights much higher…the GSM!!! We later found GSM knitting camouflage jackets for herself andContinue reading “The Assassin’s Plot to Take Over the Farm Continues”

I’m going to start this post by showing you how much of a grip winter still has on us. The wind chill was at -5’C yesterday, but those hardy snowdrops, first sign of spring were suddenly out in abundance. The hellebores have stared to flower too. I’m learning about herb growing just now and weContinue reading “Signs of Spring”

Burns’ Night celebrations are international, and with GSW being from the land of Burns, we decided to have a Burns Night, Geordie style. Main course was haggis, ‘neeps and tatties, accompanied by a dram or Irn Bru for those who don’t like whisky so much (not saying anything, but both those people not so struckContinue reading “Geordie Burns Night”

For once we had dry powdery snow so GSM got togged up to inspect the preparation work in the poly tunnel. I took the opportunity to get the horses out. They loved making snow horse angels by rolling about in the fresh cool whiteness. I don’t put them out when it’s slippy because Cushy hasContinue reading “GSM Gets Her Skates On”

1. Grey Squirrels Since the chickens are on lockdown, we’ve noticed they are going through a lot more food than we expected, even with us supplementing their rations with corn, fruit and veg. So the mystery was solved when we found a grey squirrel helping itself to hen food in the coop. GS tightened upContinue reading “Pest Prevention”

It’s so cold during the day and night (-3’C day/ -5’C night) that in deference to the horses’ advanced ages, I got out their stable rugs to keep them cosy. We keep animals under cover in the winter to protect them from the elements, but this reduces their ability to walk around to keep warm,Continue reading “Horse Pyjamas”

It’s our second Christmas time at the farm. This year we couldn’t have family to visit, which was a shame. The photos below are of our New Year’s Day walk. It was minus 3 degrees Celsius in the afternoon so we went down to inspect the river and found long icicles at the edge, brrrr.Continue reading “Happy New Year”