Been busy collecting more fruit. Loads of plums and a lovely wasp sting!

The turkeys have been naughty i found one on top of the pig stie roof.

Bee meeting and smallholders meeting this week has made a busy week.

Spinning guild tomorrow cant wait.

Im officially shattered and ready for bed!
We checked the bees early as rain was forecast. They are doing well, we saw both the queens! They are finding something to feed on as they aren't touching the sugar syrup we are giving them.

We managed to fit in a quick cuppa and scrambled eggs on toast before our friends arrived and we set to work!

Dad and Marisa made sausages, a South African delight and The Furzedown Fiery Dragon.

Me, Mum, Iain and the boys crushed and pressed 18 litres of juice. Some is fermenting as perry, some was pasturised into bottles so it will keep as juice and lots was drunk!

After a lovely venison stew i put some plums onto extract and now have a lovely demi john of plum wine fermenting.

Gareth has also finally started the beer kit i brought him last Christmas.

Not to mention we aren't alcoholics! But we also started a litre of damson vodka and damson gin.

Night night off to bed before work starts all over again!

I nearly forgot, we gave a new machine. Maurice has a dumper!

I've been trying to write a post all week! Where does time go, the days are flying past and I feel busier than ever!

Well where to start:

Last weekend was our anniversary weekend, again i can't believe we have been married a whole year!

We had booked a long weekend off work to spend quality time together! But no sitting around!

We did have an easy day on Friday, Gareths Mum gave me a lovely preserving pan, and goodness me hasn't it had some use in the last week. I made a lovely partridge curry for the weekend. We took a trip to Farmers Ales to purchase some of their new beer, The Wallet, at over 7.5% they told Gareth to be Careful.

Saturday, Mum and I met Madeleine at the village hall and we made several jars of Damson Jam, Marrow Chutney and Mint and Rosemary Infused Jelly's. They look fantastic. The Marrow worked out a little dearer than i thought but its still ok.  We have made over 100 jars now. Its not just the making its the gingham tops and labelling that takes the time.

They have there first outing this weekend, i hope they sell well!

I collected a lovely amount of apples from the orchard and plums from my Grandparents. As well as some from a house on the way home lovely James Grieves! I feel lots of Jelly Making coming on!

We ventured to the New Hall Vineyard Wine Festival on Sunday, great to taste local wine, but life was just passing me by sitting there in the sun. So i decided to go home and make a plum cake! Far more interesting.

I also made plum cordial, it is delicious i ended up with 2.5 litres that should last me the winter!

Its been a busy week collecting fruit, i managed to get 5kg of Damsons. Some for me to make Damson Gin and Damson Vodka and the rest for East Essex Smallholders Group so we can make Jam. I've also collected a huge amount of elderberries for freezing. We have trialled an elderberry jelly. Its very sweet.

I feel winter is getting closer we brought some of the ewes home last night as they have run out of grass.

We are going to try and make a South African Sausage this weekend with Our Friend Marisa. 

What a lovely weekend! I collected some Damsons for he smallholders group so we can make damson jam. I was also lucky enough to come across an orchard to collect windfalls from and met some lovely people. Hopefully the animals will have a steady supply of fruit over the coming weeks.

Gareth and i popped into the local beer festival hoping to sample Farmers Ales latest addition but it had sold out on the first day! So i tried Dengie Cider and Gareth stuck with his old favorite Dark Horse!

Dad and Maurice arrived home with lots of goodies from the Dorset Steam Fayre..

Thank god they didn't have a bigger trailer!

Maurice had purchased a Trusty Tractor. Another beast to add to his collection of Howard Gems and Iron Horses! I'm sure a use will be found here at Furzedown for it.

Mum and I have nearly finished preparing the jars of jam and chutney for there first outing to raise money for East Essex Smallholders Group. Im so proud of what we have achieved!

Today was time for our first lot of 2013 lambs to go to the abattoir. So am early start as we had to collect them from their summer grazing. We decided that would be the least stressful way to do it.

We are doing something a little different this time. We are sending their skins off to tanned into rugs.

Mum collected the skins mid morning and put them in our fridge. Tonight i have laid them out and salted them. I will do the same tomorrow and post them to devon on wednesday. Where they will undergo a twenty week process. I cant wait to get them back in the new year.

I am collecting our next colony of bees on wednesday night. We are going to call them the anniversary hive as its our first anniversary his weekend. We hope to celebrate with a trip to Wimpole Hall Rare Breeds.

Well all the pork is collected and i hope everyone is happy with it!

I was very pleased how my little runt he turned out, although he was smaller. We had s lovely leg of roast pork on Sunday, with all the trimmings out of the garden. Potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, peas and beans. Such a rewarding dinner.

I can't believe how fat the cows are when i went to check on them! It was lovely i sat with Sally had a wonderful cup of tea and caught my breath!

We have sent another hive off to be filled, although late in the year we have been told it should be ok.

We have started the building works around the fridge so we can make sausages in there.

Well off to work, I have a Smallholders Group meeting tonight. South East Essex Organic Gardeners are coming to talk to us, i hope they can help me with my caterpillar problem!

Three days off last weekend. It flew by!

I am so pleased, after a lot of hard work and paper work, Environmental Health signed off us making Jams and chutneys in our local village hall to help raise funds for East Essex Smallholders Group.

We went to a friends wedding on Friday, it was lovely with a vintage tea party. My bunting had an outing!

I finished preparing the field for the cows on Saturday and we moved them on Sunday they seem to like it up there. They have a very big field for two cows!

We split the pigs up on Sunday. The large blacks went into the barn, as they were off to the abattoir on Tuesday. The Oxford Sandy and Blacks moved into a new part of the wood, I had sprinkled some brasica seed in the spring so they have a lovely carpet of greens to munch through.

We also moved the turkeys into a new barn.

We had a lovely home grown chicken on Sunday, my god they taste so good. Note to self: I must raise more next year!

Our friend Nigel is away on Holiday so i have been left the task of checking his sheep. My god sheep and electric fence. Sunday - three out, Monday two out, Tuesday - Four out! I had to heard them across the field with the car! I can feel come serious cider drinking by the end of the week when i hand them back! The pigs then felt the need to challenge me with electric they escaped last night and have managed to dig up some of the new tree's at the bottom of the wood. All in all a stressful week so far! Maybe a little sloe gin might help!

The four pigs went off well, they are being delivered to Buntings the Butchers in Maldon today, to be butchered ready for peoples freezers.

The garden looks good, lots of Dahilas giving us plenty of colour. I am disappointed by the vegetable garden. Despite netting all our brasicas, I uncovered them to harvest a cabbage and the whole lot are crawling with caterpillars. PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR SUGGESTIONS!

The pear trees are loaded with fruit so i'm sure we will be making lots of perry!