To keep our home warm we have 2 multi-fuel burners. We use wood as much as possible mainly because it’s a sustainable fuel. We obtain felled trees and we plant new trees to replace them. This is one of our long term stores. In this store we have wood for burning in 24 months time.
Author Archives: English Country Life
Our Cheap Fruit Cage is Paying Off!
Over this last winter here in the UK we were required by law to keep our lovely chickens either indoors or in fully netted enclosures due to Avian Influenza Restrictions. We bought three 3m x 6m polytunnel frames that we connected up and covered with bird netting. It was much less space than they wouldContinue reading “Our Cheap Fruit Cage is Paying Off!”
Sometimes it can be Overwhelming…
Our home is our wonderful sanctuary. It gives us so much joy and our move to the smallholding lifestyle has been amazing, but…. yes, there’s a “but”. The work on the smallholding is dictated by the seasons and sometimes balancing this with earning money as well as supporting friends and family can be overwhelming.
An Unexpected Chick
We breed Buff Orpingtons chickens here on the smallholding and we love this friendly and animated breed. Each year we buy in a small number of hatching eggs. This is so we can select an unrelated cockerel from the chicks that hatch as our breeding cockerel for the following year. This helps keep our flockContinue reading “An Unexpected Chick”
Strawberries Everywhere!
I love strawberries. I really, really love strawberries. To feed my love of these fruits we’ve planted 300 square feet of them in our field. At this time of year we spend LOTS of time picking them and processing them so that we (OK, I should really have said “I”) can enjoy them all yearContinue reading “Strawberries Everywhere!”
For the love of Elders
This week we have been making elderflower cordial and its made me think about the underappreciated Elder tree. We have lots of elder trees on our smallholding and we make maximum use of their flowers and berries in season. There are so many uses for the flowers, berries and wood too it’s baffling that theseContinue reading “For the love of Elders”
The June Cottage Garden
We love our home. It’s not a stately mansion nor large but we constantly look at this beautiful cottage and wonder how we got so lucky to be here. For both of us, the two flower beds at the front give us so much joy. Every month is different but June is by far theContinue reading “The June Cottage Garden”
The loss of a star
This week has been difficult. We’ve lost the last of our original Orpingtons and she’s left a little ginger hole in our lives. Our chickens are livestock as we are a smallholding/homestead but as I explained to one person this week on social media the difference between how we treat pets and our livestock isContinue reading “The loss of a star”
A Good Year for Fruit and Fruit Wine
We grow lots of our own fruit here on the smallholding. We preserve it in lots of different ways so that we can enjoy all year round, but in season we get to eat it fresh and straight from the tree or plant. I’m getting excited because our fruit is forming and it’s going toContinue reading “A Good Year for Fruit and Fruit Wine”
A delayed growing season and LOTS of weeds!
There are reports that the weather in May in the UK is on track to be the wettest on record and the coldest in 25 years. We grow as much of our own food as possible here on the smallholding and the growing seasons are dictated by the weather so we’re having to adapt! InContinue reading “A delayed growing season and LOTS of weeds!”