Tag: christmas

We wish you all a very Merry and Peaceful Christmas.

I have put on five new photographs on the photo page. Scroll down to number eleven. The first three are from Elsie and the last two were emailed to me from Julia.

This was taken at Tor Cross Devon. Duck on it’s nest. at Golden Acre Park. Some kind of Eagle taken at The Great Yorkshire Show. It is from a Bird of Prey Sanctuary.
Elsie

Hello Mr. Farmer,
We were driving Mum to visit some relatives on Thursday afternoon and when I saw these trees I just had to stop to get some pictures! I had to use my phone, not my camera, but I’m quite pleased at how well they turned out! The frost on the trees was amazing!! Julia.

We are getting to the end of the photographs that have been emailed to me. Surely some others of you have some good photographs, that we could use.

The Computer was reinstalled at the Lock of the Lowe’s this morning, but unfortunately although the webcams were streaming at the Lock, they were not connecting to the Servers. Although it is not a major problem and I know that attempts are being made to get the webcams going before Christmas, we may be unlucky. They will be going as soon as poss.

After hours of messing about with our Aga I finally got it going late last night, so we are able to cook our Turkey in one piece. Although I can cook reasonably well I very rarely do any. The exception is the Christmas meat, that I have been doing for as long as I can remember. Mind you if I say so myself, it is always good. It would have been a good idea if we had some of the ways that you all cook your Christmas Dinners. Every year I hear a lot of people say that they have had a dry Turkey. We never have. No secret, and I should think that many of you do the same as us. We always cook out Turkey breast down. We firstly cover the bottom of the roasting dish with very fatty bacon covered in butter to lay the Turkey upside down on. We then cover the top of the bird with the bacon and butter. If we use stuffing in the bird, it is very little. We then cover it in foil to cook.

We usually have three meats for Christmas, Turkey, Beef and Pork. We cook three so that it will last the week, not needing to do any major cooking. The Butcher hangs our beef for a couple of weeks, and it is then traditionally roasted. The Pork we get is milk fed and is very tender. Most family Butchers can source it. If you have never had any, give it a try. I first had it before I moved to Denbury, a Farmer friend introduced it to us. He got it from a Farmer in Devon, who produced Pigs close to the Ambrosia Rice Manufacturers, from where he was able to get the surplus milk, cream and whey to feed his pigs with. That pork was even better tasting and tenderer than what we get now. We stuff our pork with home made stuffing with crushed hot red and black peppers and bay leafs. Depending on the size of the leg. we score slots in it about half way in and three inched long quite close to each other. We then smother it in salt, tightly wrap in foil and cook at a very low temperature, ours normally takes from six to eight hours.

Breeze has made a new friend. Not that she initiated the friendship, it was imposed on her, initially to her irritation. But the friendship matured to what now could well be lasting. Breezes new friend is the Ewe that we have been unable to catch, way back since the beginning of the Summer, when the Sheep were shorn. Since we managed to catch the Ewes two lambs a few months back. Over time she has been getting nearer to the Horses. Ewy as she has been named, has been hanging about in the Horses field getting closer by the day, until now she eats the hay with the Horses, that we put out every night in their field. When ever Breeze has been going off on her own, Ewy has been following her, she has recently been trying to come in from the field with the Horses, when they come in for their feed morning and evening time. She sometimes manages to get to the stables. Being not very trusting, as soon as there is any noise she has it away so fast that a Greyhound would have trouble catching her. More often than not she wont even pass the fields gate. Today the friendship between Breeze and Ewy was made official. This afternoon Breeze attempted as she often does, to get Arnie, Lady and Willow to follow her. They were having none of it. Breeze then went up to Ewy, who was laying down and nudged her bottom, Ewy obediently got up and followed her. The idea was to catch Ewy and send her off to Market. It looks as if she has now got a home for life.

We recently watched a television programme about a flock of Geese being herded. It has started a conversation that maybe we should keep some on the Farm. We have thought about it before but haven’t taken it any further. What we have got to think about is that would we be able to send them off for slaughter Christmas time. We haven’t managed to be able to send much else off, once they have been ready. When we keep a type animals, we are unable to eat the same species. One of my favorite foods is Lamb Kleftiko, but we have been unable to eat it since we got the Sheep. A Greek Restaurateur fiend gave me the recipe when I lived in London. If you remind me I will give you the recipe in the New Year. Even if you have eaten Kleftiko before, this will be the best. If we do decide to try to keep Geese next year, we will have a small amount, maybe twenty, with a couple of Turkeys. Another thing that we have got to consider is the Fox, just one forgetful moment, leaving them out of a night could cause loosing them all. I will let you know what we decide.

I cant believe how dry the weather has been. This is the first year that we have still been able to leave the Horses out until this late in the year. We are hoping for it to stay dry through the Holiday, to save us a lot of work and be able to have a rest. We will still have about four hours of essential work to do a day through the Holiday period. If we have to muck out the stables it will be six hours, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.

I wont be doing a Diary on Christmas or Boxing Day. Here’s wishing you all a very Merry and Peaceful Christmas. And thank you all those who kindly sent us Christmas Cards.