It is dry now. Not unusual for September. So I am watering. 
The first thing I do every morning is load the dehydrator and start the sauce. Oh and here is the link to the tomato sauce I am making today. It is from Tanya in Spain. This is the one that Chg John makes too. It comes highly recommended.
The sheep head for the shade very early in the day, but the cows graze on and off all day. Daisy my big Ayrshire is not bothered by the heat. Oh, Look again at the shot of fat Queenie (the Hereford heifer) – in the background you will see the big car in the yards. Wel,l last night I got John to open the boot up .. I have decided to use it as a hay feeder this winter. I will clean it out very carefully and give it a try today. Saves buying one.
Minty has decided that her favourite shade is in with the broiler chickens. The rest of the flock is under the trees but she sticks her head in under the tarp. Sheep TV. 
The tarp flaps about in the breeze, and it is quite cool in there. Meadow has joined her. Which has led me to begin to design a Chicken Ark that doubles as a shelter for the sheep. I love the idea of multi-purpose structures. And next year my layers will be out in an Ark for the summer as well.
The September Home Grown Challenge has taken another interesting turn. Without the convenience of bought butter, (once again when we make something by hand we are very frugal with it’s use and this summer I have to BUY the raw milk that gives me the cream that makes the butter – I can only buy local farm milk , flour and olive oil)- I have begun to make pastry and roast the vegetables with the strained lard left over from the lamb roasts. This is what my mother used to do. We ate roast mutton once a week when I was young, we were never short of lard. And last night eating our crunchiest of crunchy roast potatoes I have decided I am never going back to roasting with butter.
Dinner for bees. With the dry weather and the time of year, the clover has come to the end of its flowering so I have begun to feed the bees. Last year I did not do this , and the result was hives of bees who had run out of honey before the winter had run out of deep freeze and they died. So yesterday evening I put out dishes of sugar water, with marbles and sticks so they do not drown. These are placed in their flight path to begin and gradually I will move them in under the trees and out of the way, but still close enough to me so I can conveniently feed the bees as part of my general chores in the morning. Now that I have started I need to keep this a regular feed right until the first killing frost. By then they will have huddled into hibernation and can begin to rely on their own stores.
Good morning. By late today I hope to have some photos of the bees collecting their dinner. I never harvest honey when I am feeding sugar water. This is just for the bees. Clever wee fellas.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
your friend on the farm, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
90 responses to “In chronological order, some days are just like that”
Good Morning dear Cecilia, I missed you, how nice of you, you visited my blog. Thank you, as always your farm notes, and especially your photographs fascinated me. I will come back again to catch your farm days… Blessing and Happiness, love, nia
Good morning Nia, i hope all is well with you over there.. c
Totally engrossing post. I wonder if I can feed our solitary bees in the same way, or don’t they need it? By the way, no question that roast potatoes are better with lard….butter is hopeless. Olive oil or goose fat is my option here….even though I have no geese and don’t produce olive oil:)
If you have a countryside with lots of flowers then your wild bees should be ok. They will only take to the sugar water if there is nothing else about though. I wonder if you have a wild hive close by, hope so..c
Enthralled. I wanted to reach out and caress each gorgeous tomato. To hold them cupped in my hands and inhale their fragrance. Oh joy! Oh bliss! Real tomatoes. V.
Nothing like them, shiny and red just like rudolphs nose!! c
Oh, bother, I shall have to try that ketchup, I may never buy bottled ketchup again.