sommer pictures

'the season now is all delight,

Sweet smile the passing hours,

And summer's pleasures, at their height,

Are sweet as are her flowers;

The purple morning waken'd soon,

The mid-day's gleaming din,

grey evening with her silver moon,

Are sweet to mingle in.

How sweet the fanning breeze is felt,

Breath'd through the dancing boughs;

How sweet the rural voices melt

From distant sheep and cows.

The lovely green of wood and hill,

The hummings in the air,

Serenely in my breast instil,

The rapture reigning there.'

Clare

I have not that much time to writhe right now but I like to share some pictures with you. I made the pictures a couple of days ago and actually I should have taken some new ones. Everything is growing so fast! But it gives you an idea how the kitchen garden looks  right now.

Two weeks ago arrived some new livestock on the homestead! Seven small wyandotte chickens. They are so cute

The haying season has arrived again. How strange it feels that it is more than one year ago I wrote about haying and making haystacks and now where doing it again. Look how the hay is drying on the field!

How to get aphids away

It's  half June already. After a very dry May month, rain has come and everything is growing fine.
Now we are preparing for the haying. Sander is already mowing with the scythe on the lawn between the house and the barn. Also needed he to cut  all grass away under and around the electric fencing. That is now done.

Every day I work a bit in the garden, for not only our crop is growing nicely, the weeds also....
In the broad beans I discovered some aphids. They sat in the young top leafs. It's very common for broad beans to get aphids, unfortunately. To get away with them you can just pick of the top, the rest of the plant is not tasty to aphids so they will stay away then. But my plants were not that big yet, so I was looking for some other methode to get away with them. I find a methode by squirt them away with water but we don't have running water and therefore also no garden hose, how can I do this?? While thinking about it I went on with some other chars and I needed something from the barn when I spotted a high pressure spray bottle. Maybe that will do the job. I cleaned it and filled it up with water and it does the job excellent! I'm very happy now!

surprise, surprise! Getting new livestock!

Ever since living here on our homestead we are thinking about how to get so self-sufficed some possible. So our vegetable-garden is growing every year, to grow enough food for us. We have enough hay land for making hay for our livestock but we have also thought a lot  about dairy-animals. Dairy products are expensive to buy, especially when you buy organic. It could save some money when we keep our own dairy animal and made the most products at home.  But is it best to keep a cow and get enough milk to feed the whole neighbourhood? Or should we start with keeping dairy goats, which are a lot easier to handle and to hold than a cow. I read a lot the past years about both animals and last winter I read about to keep Nigerian dwarf goats as milk goats. I did find that very interesting because I always have loved these small goats. But buying some new livestock would not be in the near future I thought then.....

Until a week ago.... We get the opportunity to take over two lovely dwarf goats, two sisters, and we said yes! and so last week these two girls moved to our home. The grey doe, we called Milou, is the boss. She loves to come and get some attention but her sister Klara is still a little shy. This autumn we will arrange a date to both and next spring we will have some very cute little lambs around here. 

Except the new goats we where and are working in the garden a lot. A lot is growing. Unions, carrots, cabbage, beets are popping out the soil. The strawberries are blooming, in the poly-tunnel are the tomatoes and paprika plants growing.  But the nettle-plants, grass and other weeds are growing too! Every day we weed a bit. 

blooming rhubarb

We try to work one ore twice a week with Berry the Shetland- pony. He is now comfort with getting on the harness,  he is not scared about noise behind him, so in the next view weeks I think he can pull something for the first time! Pictures about that will follow!

glimpses of the spring

The first of may, the time is flying! April was very cold with snow fall and not that good weather for gardening. Last year I did sow a lot of seeds in April, but now it was still to cold.

27 april....

Today it was very fine weather, so I sowed som lettuce, radish and turnips. I hope the weather stays fine for some more days so I can plant my potatoes also this week. In the poly tunnel are the radish almost ready for eating and my strawberry plants are selling very well.

Yesterday we did eat our first rhubarb pie of this year, yummie!  

Last month we bought a pear tree. For years we talking about to buy one, but I don't know why but there never came one.... But now we have! Because we have many deer and rabbits around, we made a protecting cage around it. Until now it works very well....... I hope this tree will produce many pears and live a long and healthy life!

The best time to buy a fruit tree is 3 years ago.... and the next best time is NOW. 

and in the evening hours I finished my new coat. 

The pattern is original published 1858 a "spring paletot" and the fabric I used is hand woven by a friend. The fabric lay already for 2 years in my sewing basket. It was a very special fabric and I want to use it for something special. I think it fit very well to made into a coat.   

Building and repairing garden fences

Now it is spring! Or it would be according to the calendar. Maybe the spring is in the air but the weather outside is telling something else. Today it was cold, windy and even a little ice storm. Not the  best weather to be outside and work in the garden or work with the horse to pull some firewood. Fortunately we have a lot to do inside also. A lot of vegetables we do for grow inside. For example paprika, I sowed them in February and now they needed a larger pot. That I did today in the kitchen. 43 paprika plants I have now….. I have also sowed celeriac, tomato, celery, artichokes and some weeds. I love to look to the seeds every day, to see if they already sprout. Sometimes it's after a view days, sometimes you think they are dead all untill the next morning a little green is showing. It’s a wonderful time.

Every hour it was nice weather the last view weeks, we where busy outside. To hack in the garden, pull firewood for next winter, saw and split the wood, and repairing the fences.

We build our garden fences out of branches. When we bought our home there was a lot of deferred maintenance. A lot of small trees and bushes where growing everywhere. We cut them all down and made a garden fence of it. These type of garden fencing is easy to build. That’s is just what you need when you have a lack of time. But its also a nice and comfort place for a lot of animals and insects. For toads and frogs who find a save and little soggy place underneath it, but also for wild bees who love the dead wood. 

The only disadvantage is that you need to fill it up at least every other year. The branches underneath rot and the wall is sinking down. Last year I had so much to do that I didn’t take the time to repair it and now it is really time! All the posts where rotten and now my husband made new posts out of hazel. I put them all in the ground and made a begin to fill it up in between.

We even had a lot of work with selling our berry bushes. We had over 50 and now after 3 years they where ready to sell. I placed a advertisement on Facebook and WOW what a reactions. In 3 weeks we where sold out! That is a nice income too! I love it. It’s a great fun to meet new people and they are all exited about the new plants they bought, most of it where young people. Just great! Let’s see what’s coming next!

Breaking in the young horse into the harness

Since I was very young I was in love with everything about horses and ponies, and still I love them very much. I was 4 years old when I first ride on a little Shetland pony, Ronny, was his name. He was owned of friends of my parents. When I grew up I cycled 6 days a week to care for him and ride on him. He was a really old fashioned Shetland pony. About a 1m tall, large head and strong legs. He was so sweet but also frolicsome, just like a shetty should be.

Ronny a year before he died

When we get married we get him of them, and we also take him (and the other horses) with us when we moved to Sweden. But in September 2014 my little friend died 35years old…

Our welsh pony became very lonely when he died, so after a while we decided to look for some new Shetland ponies, not only for I fell in love with that breed but also are they just exactly what we need on the homestead. They are strong enough to pull a little hay wagon or a little plough but they don’t eat so much and they are easy to handle.

So came these two little fellows to our homestead in 2015. Brommy, the youngest one was only 8 months old and Berry 1 ½  years old. Our welsh fell in love with Brommy on the first sight! So lovely!

Brommy and Berry, just arrived

The last years they have been on the meadow just to grow, but every day we get them in the stable on the evening and lead them out every morning. So we checked them every day and every day they learned a little better to being lead on the head collar. This year is Berry celebrate his 4^th birthday and Brommy his 3 ^th . Last year I learned Berry the commands I use. Like, walk on, stand, back etc. etc. and also lunging him a view times. But now he is old enough for the real job!

Yesterday it was nice weather and a perfect day to get started. The first thing I want to learn him is to wear the back band with the girth and the crupper beneath his tail. Just after a view times get it on and off he was really relax, so I fasten the girth and the crupper and we just go for a walk. He was so relax and he did it very fine, like he have done it for a live time! I’m so proud of him! Now we do this for a lot more days before we move on to the next step!

Maybe you have noticed on the pictures that I don’t use a bit. I have a some reasons for it, I find there mounth to little for fitting in such a large bit, they understand a bitless bridle much better and I don’t need it J

Planning the kitchen garden, part II

Last Friday I received my seeds! I love to get post and I love even more to get a large package! Even if I ordered it myself J.

Almost all the seeds I use come from the same shop. It is a post order shop, which sell a lot of organic seeds and have a good service and a quick deliverance. Most of the seeds they sell have they tried on there own garden first so you’ll know that the seeds can grow in Sweden.

Only a view seeds where not available there and them I ordered somewhere else.

This year I will change the plan in my garden. The last 4 years my garden has grown every year a bit.  I had the garden divided in 5 parts and every part had 4 seedbeds of 120cm wide. At one long side a had a small long bed 1x6m with strawberries.    

And so we have the second kitchen garden, that we made last year. It’s there I have my small poly tunnel also.

It worked fine with 5 beds but a lot of the area is used for paths between them. I also decided that I will use our work pony to hoe between the rows and that goes a lot better with seedbeds some are only 60-120cm wide and go over the hole length. So I will have a lot more area for my seeds and as an additional benefit al the beds will be in the north-south direction. All crops will get same quantity sunlight and hopefully grow even better.

For a couple day’s ago I measured both pieces of land and noted where the berry bushes and other fixed elements are. Yesterday I make a drawing of each piece of land and made plans where to grow which crop. Only a couple of square meters have not been planned yet, we’ll see what we can plant there, maybe some extra lettuce or maybe some herbs….

I will explain my drawing, I hope you can read the figures in the drawing.

 1. The well                                                         2. red and blackberries

 3. strawberries                                                   4. cabbage

 5. carrot and union                                             6. beetroot and union

 7. beans and peas                                              8. lettuce

 9. herbs and flowers                                          10. plum tree

1. summer and winters quash                              2. pumpkins

3. corn and broad beans                                    4. pickle plants

5. potatoes                                                        6. poly tunnel

7. herbs and flowers                                          8. red and black berries

9. apple tree