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Who Left the Gate Open?

Now,  what is wrong with this picture?

Exactly. Hairy MaClairy in with Mama.  Pretending he is not really there! Way too early for that carry on Hairy!

The onions have statted lifting themselves so they are being hung out to dry.  Onions have done very well this year.

So have my Easter Chickens. They still hang together in a gaggling flock. 

In the evening they all come out and do a wonderful job of cleaning up the pigs eating area.

Mama is back where she belongs and look at that lamb. There is always one who will stand IN the feeder. 

Daisy looking restful.

Good morning. The weather is back up in the three digits again. But we are managing.  The fields with good shade do not have much grass left, so I am feeding hay to the animals in where it is cool.  I have a few Heat Wave smoothie popsicles  in the freezer that i eat with my nuts and raisins before I go out to work at three in the afternoon.  I am usually only out for about three hours at a stretch.

I made the most beautiful Tomato and Saffron tart yesterday. Home made Pastry, then a layer of freshly made tomato sauce, then a layer of savory custard  kissed by saffron. Itwas divine.  There was a lovely shot of it cooling, all gloriously golden yellow from the eggs, with the fresh bread on the rack way behind it. Perfect light.  The crunchiness of the pastry sharp in contrast. All very pretty on my black kitchen counter. Mouthwatering. But I deleted the originals before checking to make sure I had saved the edited one, which of course I hadn’t and poof it is gone.  It is a recipe Elaine found for me, using produce from the garden, everything except the flour was from the Kitchens Garden.  And the saffron that Tanya sent from Spain.

Good morning.  Thank goodness I am not a food blog! Isn’t it so wonderfully satisfying to cook from the garden.

Thank you for your wonderful comments and information yesterday. You are awesome teachers. And I have so much to learn. We all need to keep being vigilant about what is being sprayed, what is happening in our fields and what we are putting in our bodies.   Be careful.  There are very few restrictions anymore.

And either we choose to be a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Albeit a tiny tiny part. I think that often people say to themselves “That is not my problem, I can’t do anything abut that”.   And This is why they call it Global Warming instead of  Pollution.  The term Global Warming is nefarious and  is presented to us so that it appears to be on an inexorable course and we cannot make it better. We are powerless they say. But it is a political football.  Actually I believe that there are two issues here. One is the changing weather patterns.   But the greater part of the problem is Pollution.  Pollution is a word we don’t hear anymore. Because it is a personal word. Personal Pollution. A farmer and his spray. Me and my rubbish bin. What we put in the shopping trolley at the supermarket. We CAN do something about our own personal contribution to polluting our air, water and soil.  We can. We can choose not to buy anything that has a Genetically Modified ingredient or has been sprayed. WE can cut down on plastic packaging. We can choose to buy from a company that tries its best to mitigate its impact on the air, soil or water.  There are tons of things we can do.

And like one of you said yesterday, we need to make sure we are informed.  We are powerful, we can take back control of our own food. Little chook steps. OK stepping down from my soap box.

And thank you Sara for your help when I went into a panic about Minty having a lesion in the corner of her mouth which turned out to be a scratch from eating hard dry grass, that has developed a wee infection. We thought it may be a virus called Sore Mouth. Such an old condition with that old fashioned name.  Sore Mouth is contagious though and I have a closed flock. Plus no-one else is presenting with it. So we will see. If you want to see a shot of the area on her mouth for your information, let me know. I will email it to you.

The sheep are getting a bit run down from the endless heat and drying up pasture so it is not surprising that the bottle fed baby, who has the least defenses, would be the one to catch something.   So they are having the special feed with garlic, cider vinegar and flax seed oil every day, for a few weeks, instead of once a week.

Have a lovely day.  You are such a great bunch to have visiting. I do love our letters in the morning! OK Off to work for me!

celi

 

 

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88 responses to “Who Left the Gate Open?”

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  1. I must have had a sixth sense it was going to be hot today, I sent you my favourite hot weather sorbetto. I hope the tart lived up to expectations. And yes Hairy is the odd one out in the photo.e

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  2. I see I have plenty to catch up on – all the animal and farmy carry-ons and now sparying. Poluution is the right word Celi, but I do love that you use a British clipped voice to get your message across! So what’s your next plan, and how do you deal with neighbours that spray crap?!

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  3. Beautiful post in every way – I feel inspired to embark on some new projects on this farm but not yet. I love your phrase ‘little chook steps’ – that says it all!

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  4. Sending a big ‘hi’ all the way from Australia [Southern Highlands of NSW, if you still can place it!]. Just wanted to say a ‘thank you’ for getting on that soapbox and using that word ‘pollution’ which most people do not want to hear! Have quietly been reading and thoroughly enjoying your blog for just awhile. Know Daisy by now and soon will be on ‘talking terms’ with the others! Well, your temps are in the 40s and we barely make the teens, so ‘enjoy’ 🙂 !

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  5. Amen to the word Pollution! If everyone worked on cleaning up their own little corner, we could get it done…
    Hope you get some relief soon…I know you have a date planned for the pigs, but what about the Murphies? Lots of folks around here are taking their animals early, because of the expense of hay and water…

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    • By using the term Global Warming the politicians puff themselves up and say don’t worry about it little people, this problem is much too big for you -WE will fix it for you.. just elect US! What? Um NO. I can get busy in my own little corner thank you very much.. c

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  7. It all looks so calm and tranquil, although iI know the reality is different! The tart sounds amazing and feling very inspired and want to make one for myself! Stay cool celi – you may have to reclaim the pigs´paddling pool 😉

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  8. Great pictures but I’m sad to miss the tart. I’m going to give it a go following your plan and hopefully a picture will appear. It sounds delicious. This afternoon I shall be out in the fields photographing my neighbour testing out his 1960’s Claas combine harvester pulled by his refurbished 1968 Nuffield tractor. As the tractor is British he thought it proper that I should take the pictures.

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  9. The Easter chickens are very pretty, I love their reddish brown coloring. It’s almost as if they are posing for you! Daisy is pretty in the sunset and your tart sounds like it was divine! I’ve done that with pictures too and it is so frustrating!

    Hope you have a lovely day and try to stay cool out there! We are creeping back up into the 90’s but we’ve been having a little storm every evening, which has been very nice.

    ~ April

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    • there is nowhere that is cool now, even the pool is like a luke warm bath.. I find myself working later and later in the evening when it freshens slightly.. how i wish we had your little evening storms.. have a lovely day april..

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  11. Saffron from Spain.. please make the tart again, my mouth is watering:D I hope the weather breaks and you have some lovely rain! My daughter enjoyed your little farmy animals this morning and it cheered her up considerably!! xoxo Smidge

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  12. You’re absolutely right. The whole global warming thing (or Global Warning as one of MY old codgers used to say!) has slithered its way into our vocabulary replacing none-P.C. pollution. As far as I see it, climate change has been around for millions of years, it’s part of the earth’s evolution. But POLLUTION, which makes matters worse, is definitely our fault. Supermarkets are way up there on the main culprits’ list in my opinion, some worse than others and I feel that it’s up to us to put them under pressure to make changes.
    Christine
    P.S.Yesterday I gave you & Daisy a mention on my blog but it was a bit late in the day when I commented on your post, so you may have missed it. It would give a whole new meaning to ‘Driving Miss Daisy’!

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  13. I totally agree Celi, we can all make changes ourselves that will help to heal and strengthen our planet. There are also many organizations online that are fighting the power/political/corporations that we can also become a part of and support. Thank you for your messages like this one, they are great reminders of what WE CAN do. xo

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  14. hi celi! no rain here yet either and hot hot hot. they are saying we will be 76 degrees on friday. i’ll believe that when i see it. try to stay cool!

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