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”
It is hard to beat roast potatoes in lard. I usually do it in olive oil as it is healthier and quite tasty but yeah lard brings it to a whole new level!
I love real local olive oil, but it is so hard to find.. i buy californian so I know it really IS olive oil.. lard is healthy too in fact animal facts stimuate an enzyme in your stomach that says ‘I am full’.. whereas the plants and processed fats don’t work together with your body in that way, you just keep eating unaware. However we need to LISTEN to the Stop Eating messages! And it is hard to stop eating crunchy roast potatoes! c
Scary what some “olive oils” contain. Didn’t know about the enzymes, very interesting. I could eat a whole bowl of roast potatoes, not good! 🙂
GOOOD!!! c
😃
I thought of you very early this morning, Celi, as I drove into work and quite literally dodged a peacock lazily crossing a very busy street! He was unconcerned, and drivers were considerate, and I was mesmerized for a few moments. 🙂
You are so creative to think of using the old car as your hay feeder! What an excellent and resourceful idea. As with the use of drippings rather than butter! And I’m definitely looking forward to the bee pictures. As usual, I’m quite amazed at all the intricacies that need to be considered and measured to truly live sustainably. So many different aspects to be learned! Blessings on your fruitful day, my friend.
Morning darling, i think you have had peacocks walking along your road to work before if i remember rightly! What a treat and thank goodness motorists give them a wide berth! c
I put up pics yesterday of my (still green) tomatoes and (barely started) sweet corn!
I’ve also been sharing my morning orange juice with bees, I use a plastic cup and they fly in, walk down the side, have a good drink, then walk back out and fly away. I surely don’t mind drinking after dirty bee-feet!
That orange juice must be sweet!! c
I have a dairy intolerance, but never thought of using duck fat for pastry, I must try it.
Duck fat is great, i think you can buy it here?.. c
Yes, Duck fat is readily available these days in all the supermarkets.
Beautiful post, yummy photos too! Rest when you can it is nearly 100 here today and will be in 60’s soon 😦
hot hot hot.. but will cool off soon.. sad, I like it hot! c
I am so tanned I love the heat too today bad storms then the heat will be gone for awhile 😦
You made me smile today, Celi. Thanks!
You are welcome Lynda! c
Gosh, you have a wealth of knowledge, as must most farmers. Who knew that you put marbles and sticks in the sugar water so the bees don’t drown? I love learning something new!
I got the marble idea from watching chicks learn to drink by pecking at the marbles, plus i love the colours!! c
Same sauce has been simmering away on my stove all afternoon and it smells heavenly! I think lard makes the best crust, and your pie looks delicious. Smart animals know how to beat the heat. It reached 96 here today, and I was picking beans in it. Not so smart, but market is tomorrow and deliveries, and BEANS MUST BE PICKED! soon enough we will be shivering so no complaints here…
This is what makes me so proud of you guys. Picking to feed the masses, no matter what the heat or how bad your back hurts, we all need to keep remembering the ones who grow our food.. c
I wondered how to make the bowl safe for the bees, now I know!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.c
I love that the tarp is such a great hiding place, but not too concealed for TonTon!
Ton can ferret them out!! c
Popped in for a moment and loved it! Who but you would have thought to use marbles and twigs to make certain the hard working bees would not find themselves adrift at sea 🙂 ! Can’t believe how much mass the chooks have put on and Minty and Meadow are no fools!! Oh, spoke to a local ‘farming lady’ [she now has your link] trying to do exactly what you are and she said we call those chicken arcs tractors also and they are supposedly well known 🙂 !
Eha, what are you doing out of bed?! Love that you popped in, you will see some dramatic changes in 10 days. Now, drink, eat and back to bed.. c
Have just eaten, drink as if water was going out of fashion and have no one to do my ‘chores’, so, Milady, guess who is nominated to do laundry etc ere the promised rain my garden would love does arrive!! No one here but me 😀 !!!!!
I’m enjoying your creativity and resourcefulness; making the ark double as a sheep shelter (well I guess it was the sheep’s idea, but you are so good at taking note!), the lard instead of butter (it’s what my grandma and mum did too), and the beautiful bowl of marbles and sugar water for the bees.
Morning Juliet, I don’t mind a sheep teaching me a thing or two!! How is my beach, i will pop over later and see.. c
mmm, I have plans now to make this pie. Great idea to use a skillet 🙂 Mad dogs, Englishmen and cows go out in the midday sun but sensible sheep stick to shade it seems. I’m also going to risk the G.O. echoin gthose moans, and utilise some of his marble collection in our bird baths so the bees have a better chance at getting a drink – our deepest has a rock island but the marbles look so pretty 🙂
The rock garden would work too but you are right, i use the marbles because of all those gorgeous colours and bees like colour! i think! c
Hi Celi! Seeing Minty under the tarp made me think of another blog I follow: Fairhope Farm.
If you visit her blog and search for ‘portable sheep shelter’ she has instructions for a very simple tarp structure. http://fairhopefarm.wordpress.com/ Love your blog! Faith.
thank you Faith, i shall go and look now! c
Enjoyed seeing the sheep, especially Meadow and Minty with the chickens. Adorable! Onions and green peppers smell so good when they are cooking. Yum! Beautiful tomatoes.
Thank you patti, have a lovely day.. c