Moving hay

 16 big round bales of hay, from the field at Saxmundham  have been moved to their new home this morning.
 17 big round bales of hay, from the field up the road have gone to the same place this afternoon which just leaves 10  to be shifted tomorrow.

I had to drive the jeep and trailer to and from Saxmundham this morning so that C could take the tractor  there and back but as he's only up the road I wasn't needed this afternoon and I spent some time putting some more of the huge tomatoes into the freezer and did a bit more housework.

I see Ilona at Life after Money has a lovely picture of blackberries and someone at the car boot last Sunday had lots for sale, yet around our field where we have plenty of brambles that were covered in flowers, there are NO blackberries - and this is for the second year running. I may have to get on my bike and see where I can find some. Tonight while I was searching for a wasps nest I came across a small pile of hazelnut shells, so the dratted squirrels are after them already. The shells were under the walnut tree, they'll probably have them for dessert!

Kev at An English Homestead has asked everyone a question.

What book changed you most?

I thought I knew the answer to that one - John Seymour's Complete Self Sufficiency, but then I thought again and now I'm not sure. Did it change me? or was I already heading in that direction? What about the Magazine called Practical Self Sufficiency that appeared about the same time or maybe Hovel in the Hills and Garden in the Hills by Elizabeth West. I wanted to live somewhere quiet and remote  and grow our own fruit and veg but then we had 3 children so it wasn't practical to be halfway up a mountain and we eventually ended up here (NOT quiet - the B* great big combine was running on the fields around our plot until midnight last night! and combining and baling nearby all day today) Or maybe it was even earlier - Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons, that's about being self sufficient and doing things for yourself too.
So I give up - no idea is the answer to the question.

Has anyone else heard the dire weather warnings for the weekend or is it just for here? Hail and gales have been forecast,the tail end of a hurricane  we've been told and we have 5 caravans and 2 tents booked in. Oh dear.


Thanks to everyone for comments yesterday.
This is post number 480, twenty to go until my giveaway.......counting down.........

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Day 6 of Haymaking and nearly finished.

Only a few spots of drizzle yesterday evening so no harm done and good and hot again today, still with a little breeze, thankfully.

 First load of hay bales from our field going into the hay shed. It's so easy when we do our field, no roping the bales onto the trailer, just pile them on and two minutes later unload. (One of the reasons for having a 4WD Jeep, we need something to pull a trailer load of bales over a bumpy field)

Here is our Very Old Tractor pulling the Not Quite So Old Baler, with the Decrepit Old Bale Sledge at the back. This machinery is about quarter of the size of newer stuff which is why we can't do the big round bales ourselves - our tractor would never manage it.

And just to prove I was there, either driving the jeep with the trailer on or helping to unload.

You wouldn't see many old farm workers in shorts and a vest top, but I find Hay gets everywhere whatever you wear, and blimey it was hot! I had the air con on in the jeep but I think that made getting out feel even hotter.
I'm wondering what the upper age limit is for old women shifting bales, I think I might be reaching it!

Our field produced exactly 150 bales. The field we rent in Saxmundham had 16 giant round bales and the field we rent just up the road had 27 big 'uns. ( There are roughly 11 or 12 small bales in a big round one)

We have to pay out for two lots of rent, plus paying for cutting and round baling, but hopefully we will make a good profit when it's all sold. C's next job is to help load and shift the round bales for the man who's bought them and then bale the barley straw we are buying in a couple of weeks time. I guess it will then be my turn to help bring them all back here and unload. Another thing to sell at a profit during the winter.
 

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday.
Janice asked about the second home up the road. It's the next house to us on our side of the road but two fields away and is owned by a couple from London ( as are so many round here) who only come to Suffolk for weekends. When a small field came up for sale behind the house about 4 years ago they bought it so that nobody else could buy it! Then they didn't know what to do with it and asked C to cut it. C said he could either top it every now and again in which case they would have to pay him or we could make hay from it and pay them rent, that's what they decided on. Guess who got the better deal? They think country people are gullible. Ha!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

And another one bites the dust + Haymaking Day 5

I was reading a new blog called Pennywise and now it's gone, that's about the 6th that has started and stopped in just the last few months - how odd.
Thank you to Chickpea, Sue, Frugally challenged, Hilary, Julee, Mamasmercantile, Em, Jean, Rupert, Janice, Karen, A Suffolk girl and Shirley for comments yesterday.

Meanwhile here on the Simple Suffolk Smallholding we are  onto day 5 of haymaking. C went and fetched the small baler from our farmer friend W, although it actually belongs to another farmer. It's so handy having friendly people around who share machinery, in exchange we own a pasture topper which spends most of it's time down the road at the farmers being used by a few different people.
He turned our hay here and then went off to turn and row up the Saxmundham field and the field behind the second home.We saw the man who is doing the big bales for us as he went by on his way to Saxmundham.
Later C turned and rowed up the small bit over the road and got that baled. We soon loaded the bales onto the trailer and brought them back to the hay shed, that's 52 bales safely stored, by which time it was nearly 6pm.
We wondered about baling here but C looked at the weather forecast which said tomorrow will be even hotter than today so he decided to wait another day. At 7pm a bit of sea mist  rolled in, and then it started raining, b****r and double b****r!! As long as it doesn't get any heavier or last too long, hopefully it will soon dry out tomorrow.

It was an odd-job day for me as I cut some brambles that grow through one of the low spreading conifers, picked up some fallen apricots, cut off the bruised/wasp eaten bits and cooked them for  a crumble. I then discovered we had no crumble mix in the freezer so I whipped up a box full. There were some large pointy red peppers that had got damaged so they were sliced and frozen and finally I took the skins off and put the first of the huge Andine tomatoes in the freezer too. I must do a big freezer sort out this weekend, I know what's in there but it's in a right ol' muddle.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Gooseberry and date chutney ,haymaking day 4 and apologies

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday, I specially liked dc and the predictive text which turned Bolthardy beetroot into Bowl Tardy, that's how I shall think of it from now on.

Apologies for misleading everyone as I made a mistake the other day because I said the giant round bales that you see on fields waiting to be picked up are called Hestons but actually it's the massive oblong ones that have that name and the big round ones? no idea what proper name they have. Just Big Round Bales. I think farmers bale different shaped bales depending on whats going to happen to them next. A lot of the straw baled here goes off on big lorries across the country to places where they don't grow as much wheat and round bales are often wrapped in plastic for silage.  I prefer the old fashioned small ones that can be picked up and moved by hand. We will do our 2 acres into small bales and they will go in the barn and be ready to sell to Kate for her goats.

Because they are a rare occurrence  we want to put lots of apricots in the freezer but the freezer is getting rather full so I thought I would get the big bag of gooseberries out and make some chutney.

Gooseberry and Date Chutney

2lb gooseberries, topped and tailed
6oz dates, chopped
12oz chopped onions
1lb soft dark brown sugar
1tsp mustard seed
pinch cayenne
4 tsp salt
1 pint malt vinegar

Put everything into the pan and bring to the boil slowly, stirring to dissolve sugar.

 Boil gently  uncovered for approx 1 and a half hours. The gooseberries should be thoroughly pulped and the mixture should be thick and pulpy but not dry.

 This makes a lovely dark fruity chutney, I did a double batch in separate pans and then tipped them in together just before potting up.
A good way to check on a chutney being ready is to quickly pull a wooden flat edged jam  spoon across the bottom of the pan, if you get a glimpse of the metal base then probably enough liquid has been cooked off so  the chutney is thick enough to pot up.

I had to get C to take this picture as it's impossible to stir and click at the same time!
Chutney usually thickens up a bit as it cools.

Day 4 of haymaking was the same as day 3. C turning the hay on all 4 fields. He got a puncture in the small wheel of the hay turner so had to come home and fix it, but luckily he was only up the road. He says the field at Saxmundham is ready to bale tomorrow. It's on a south facing slope and gets very hot.

It will take a bit longer here at home.

Much warmer here today, not such a strong Easterly wind, in fact you could say the heat was

Intents!


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Haymaking Day 3

Perfect weather for getting the hay dry, with sunshine and a breeze all day. C was working here this morning, then went off on the tractor with the hay turner on the back to do Saxmundham and the bit up the road behind the second home. He then turned our bit and our neighbours. He has decided to get our farmer friend to bale the two big fields into large round bales which he will be able to load with the front tractor forks straight onto the trailer of the man who is having them. Our field and our neighbours will be done into small traditional size bales. After taking so long to pay for the hay they had last year ( they still owe us about £60) the people who keep their ponies at our neighbours will only have the hay from her field. They have too many ponies, no money and keep being turned off every bit of land they rent either because they over graze or don't pay their rent. So this year we will not have all the hassle of asking for our money and then being fobbed off with a sob story.

I spent quite a while in the kitchen doing 2 loaves of bread and a double sized batch of our  favourite tomato and herb rolls. Then a bit of weeding, housework and sorting out the stuff we brought back from the car boot sale.
 I've put most of the left over books out on the campsite information room, there's plenty of choice for reading for our visitors now although at the moment the campsite has gone very, very quiet. Only 1 tent here last night after being busy all last week. Our bookings diary still has plenty of spaces for August too.

Thank you to everyone for comments about our giant  beetroot yesterday. They are a variety called Cylindra and most of the seed companies have them for sale but I got them from DT Brown which must have been the cheapest. We grow them every year as well as the more normal round ones - like Bolthardy. Beetroot has become a staple part of our salad lunch and C has a plan for trying to have them available all year round. He tried last year but they were in the poly tunnel that was damaged in the December gales so were lost to the winter weather. He'll try again with a late sowing and then an early sowing in February which gave us beetroot in late May. We will save as many as we can in a sand box for winter. Although I don't want to think about winter yet!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Haymaking Day 2

Things looked a bit worrying this morning when we had a grey misty start, but the sun came out and the hay is drying. C got the hay turner sorted and just before dinner time he turned the hay here and at our neighbours to make sure it was working properly.

We had our 5-a-day all in one meal this evening. Our home grown veggie curry had onion, courgette, green beans, potatoes and a couple of apricots thrown in just to see what they were like, a bit too sharp was the answer to that question, I won't do that again.

You know how small beetroot are in those supermarket vacuum packs, well here we don't do small beetroot, we do VERY LARGE.

The variety is Cylindria and they are on a dinner plate!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Now we need 6 days of dry weather please

Hay making.
The weather forecast yesterday looked good for the week so C decided to cut the fields, or rather to get our farmer friend W to cut the two big fields that we rent for hay making and to cut our smaller bit of about 2 acres and an even smaller part of a paddock over at our neighbours. But our old mower broke down- terminally this time- without even getting round our neighbours acre. So W ended up doing almost everything.
Now we've seen a new forecast which says storms on Friday - oh b****r!

Yesterday evening we did a bit of fruit picking, it looked so luscious I had to take a picture.

We are coming to the end of the raspberries, I doubt we will get this many again this year. Most of the red currants have been picked and sold  and just look at those apricots.We will make the most of them as it's likely to be another 3 or 4 years before the weather is just perfect at the right time for the fruit to set to get such a good crop.
I made 8 jars of apricot jam this morning and C halved the rest of this picking and open froze them for winter. The trees are still laden. Great Joy!

Back tomorrow
Sue