On the subject of eggs and milk

....on the subject of eggs and milk: we have none, although the supermarket has plenty, so we could go and buy these necessary items, but we were producing our own, which has spoilt us for massed produced food, and now the eggs are disappearing down the throats of the local predators (including our dogs) at a time when the hens are having a rest from laying eggs so are not producing many in the first place.

Message to the self: we really need to get a proper hen house sorted out.

As for milk: Lissie is now looking like a balloon, as she continues to expand sideways (her calf is due at the end of August) Lester has been milking her for a year now, so time to let her have some rest from udder manipulation. Meanwhile, our best milking goat died a while ago, and the other milking goat is a b*******r so Lester has given up milking her. So no goat milk either.

So, no milk coming into the kitchen, and what a gap that is leaving in our larder. No pot cheese (which I use in everything), no milk for cooking or for putting in tea/coffee (although we are getting used to black tea/coffee), and no cream (although most of that was made into butter, and that we do have plenty of because it is stored in the freezer).

And that is a problem with providing one's food. No produce coming in, nothing in the larder. I hope this thought will ignite me into protecting the last of the cherries. I canned this produce last year, and they turned out fabbo. But hay making intervened when I was given a big pot of cherries and they went rotten before I could get them canned, so the pigs had them (nothing wasted here), and now our cherries are ripening but disappearing because I have not had the time, nor the energy, to get bird protection sorted out.

And neither has the mint been picked, although that can wait a day or two. And then there are the potatoes to earth up. And the veg plot to weed because we are having warm and wet weather which encourages everything native to grow rampantly. And then there are the seeds still to be planted. And we have no eggs. But I did freeze some so can still make cakes. And we have no milk. But I do still have a packet or two of goats milk in the freezer, but that is only for drinking because goat's milk tends to curdle when heated.

Apart from that, we have been busy with The Bollards, (our band) which is taking too much of our time, but seems unstoppable. I did make the decision to disband because I didn't think that the quality of the band was good enough to play in public (we are playing on the 9th June), but the other members of the band rallied, and pulled out a creditable performance at the last practice session. We do actually make a reasonable sound for amateurs when everyone concentrates. So.......onwards with the band.

We lost another goat last night....it was a youngster who went berserk, jumping madly here, there, and everywhere, when she should have been coming in from the field with her mum. Unfortunately she chose to do that in the courtyard. The dogs were also in the courtyard. A chase ensued. She broke her leg. She has now been put back to nature in the woods. Goats and us seem not to gel. Of all the animals we have had, and still do have, the goats are suffering the most mortalities, are the worst behaved, and are the ones which try our patience the hardest.


Off to do farm chores now. There is a heaviness in the air today. Makes it hard to find any energy. The urge to lie down is strong. But need to save the cherries.

Hope you are up and doing. Hope you are well.

Vx