My 2014

Sorry not many post over the last week or so - We've been busy with family and I've even managed to get some work in.

It's the last day of the year so I guess it's traditional to look back at the last year and see what we've achieved.

Children and family
The first major positive for this year was me taking over the full time childcare. I wasn't sure what to expect or even if I'd cope with it.

Making bread

 It's been amazing and I've loved the opportunity to spend more time with my children than I ever thought I would. We've done loads of things together, from days out, lot of baking (which has become a new hobby of mine), loads of time in the garden and visiting playgroups. Playgroups were tricky at the start as I was just the token dad in a room full of mums, but I've made some amazing friends with like minded people.
the children seem to have enjoyed the time with me as well (or at least I hope they have!) and this summer they were both sun kissed youngsters from spending so much time with me!

Lots of time spent messing around

We've also managed to spend time together as a family which is really important to us, having a great holiday in the summer and still managing to find time to do other things together like swimming and going to friends houses.

Work
I've done the least amount of paid work since leaving school this year but luckily interesting and varied work has come my way to fill up my weekends and school holidays. Only working part time can be tricky for customers to understand but luckily I've got a few good ones that keep putting work my way and are willing to work around the limited time that I can give them.

I've already got a lot of work booked in for the new year to keep me out of trouble and to bring extra money in. It seems that work comes my way a bit easier now so hopefully it will keep coming in.

Homemaking
This has been my best year ever for learning and using homesteading skills. I've had to get to grips with doing the housework and trying to keep on top of washing clothes and cooking dinner every night (and not messing around and ruining it). I've preserved lots of food, experimented with new ingredients and cut right back on the amount of meat we eat, increasing the number of vegetarian meals to make the most of the veg that we grow. I've also got into the habit of baking with the children a couple of times a week and that's something we all enjoy (plus I love cake).

Garden

This has been my best gardening year as well. Not only have we had a great summer but I've also been in it a lot more than usual to take advantage of all that good weather. 

We've grown the majority of our own veg and I've started to experiment with new and usual fruit and veg. I managed to get the new greenhouse up just at the right time so we had a bumper crop of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, cucamelons and chillies, I also managed to divide the garden up making planning, rotating and managing the veg garden much easier and making it look much smarter. We control was pretty good as well, next year I need to gain better control of the weeds around the fruit bushes and increase my growing area for unusal crops.

Animals
Well we didn't increase much on this front. I didn't manage to finish the fencing early enough so we've just stuck with chickens this year but I've been told by one little girls that she wants piggies next year so I'll have to try hard on that one! The chickens have been great though and except for a fox attack we managed to keep the numbers fairly constant, although eggs haven't been produced much this autumn. We hatched out five chicks in the summer which is a great thing for the girls to be a part of and keeps steadily replacing our stock.

Fields and trees
I managed to plant a lot of trees this last year, with a new 42m hedge being planted on one of the first days of the year. I also started a willow coppice (although growth hasn't been great) and grafted over a hundred apple, pear and stone fruit trees to either be planted here or sold to help cover the costs of my hobby.
I've managed to get all the fencing up (although I've still got quite few gates to hang) and we made some nice hay in the summer, as well as keeping the grass in good condition. Hopefully we'll get some stock next year to help with this.

Major projects
Well in short the one we need the most didn't happen - the extension! By doing private work this year instead means that we should be able to better fund it but it hasn't pushed the project on. I'm hoping that we'll start in the spring once the ground dries up a bit, getting the porch built and then starting the main extension, plus we've got many drainage issues to deal with as well!
I did do a few minor project to the house that I'm really happy with, I finished the living room by putting up shelves and a mantle piece and I did a few projects to increase our amount of storage in the house.

Summary
It's been a brilliant year and I've really enjoyed having this blog to document it, the good and the bad, and all your (the readers) input as well, plus I've loved reading everyone else's blogs. The comments never disappoint me, when I have a question or want advice I get just what I was looking for and normally a new avenue to explore, plus reading other blogs gives me new ideas and things to try and it's nice to know that all over the world there are people out there who are just as bonkers as me!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you continue to do so in the new year! 

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Sorry I've been off the blogs for the last week or so - I've been very busy in the workshop finishing presents - there's been some late night but it was all worth it when I saw their faces! They seemed pretty pleased with their new house! 

Yesterday was a mad day of putting it all up. I even sheeted all the windows on the one side of the house so they wouldn't see it. I managed to get it all finished before it got dark so we could put the children to bed together and leave out a can of beer and mince pies for father Christmas - it's magical at their age.

The windows sheeted up! Wonder what the neighbours thought!

Some of Christmas dinner fresh out of the ground.

Today has been a much more laid back affair, opening presents, watching kids films on TV, enjoying a beautiful Christmas dinner cooked by my gorgeous wife with six veg, five grown here, and then trying to stay awake on the sofa all afternoon! 

Hope everyone had the day they wanted and are surrounded by the ones they love.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Making Vanilla Extract

We don;t really buy cakes or cookies in this house so if I wan them we have to cook them. I normally want them! So the girls and me bake a couple of times a week, normally a cake and cookies, I've been messing with a cookie recipe for a month or so now changing it every week to get it perfect. One ingredient I've been using with them is vanilla extract and although it's not terribly expensive from Lidl I decided to make my own.

Lidl vanilla extract

 I went on eBay and found some "extract grade" vanilla pods for sale, 50 for £4.83 - bargain! The "extract" grade just means they're a little drier than normal but fine for what I wanted.

 I then had a hunt around the cupboards and found some half full bottles of vodka, from a life before children, untouched for probably 5 years! These would do nicely though.

 I then split 40 beans in half and had my two year old helper push them into the bottle of vodka. Topped it up, shook it and put it on the top shelf in the pantry.

All I need to do now is wait a couple of months and I should have a large bottle of vanilla extract ready to use. I'll let you know how it works out!

Anyone else made their own vanilla extract?

More Unusual Seeds Ordered And Thoughts On Hybrids

I know I shouldn't be buying things for the garden so close to Christmas but I decided that there was no way anyone was going to buy me these - Yacon, Oca And Fat Baby Achocha! Tubers and seeds to get planting next year. 

I'm blaming James Wongs book and Dawn's blog the other day for showing me her Oca harvest (view Dawn's post here) for buying these and a few more!

I found a small seed growing company on the internet that sold Oca and after reading a bit about them decided I really liked their ethos. They're called the The Real Seed Catalogue and they've got loads of interesting and unusual seeds for sale and none of it is hybrids or modified. In fact they send instructions with every pack so you can save your own seed and not have to buy from them again! 

They don't sell a large selection of each type of vegetable, just ones they grow and know work well for them and ones they think taste good.

Their site is really interesting and I think you should all check it out regardless of where you live. There's instructions on there for saving all sorts of seeds, how to stop cross pollination or to cross pollinate to create new stains (for squash and others) and how to build a seed cleaner with free plans.

They also talk a little about the terminology used by seed catalogues and how to read between the lines. Phrases like "Good For Freezing" mean that it all ripens at one time so it can be mechanically harvested and we'll be left with a glut, the other they picked out was "straight long shanks" usually means 'bred to fit the packing machine".  I had a look in a seed catalogue as I was writing this and found one straight away "excellent fruit uniformity" not much use for me but the seed producers have bred it for the supermarket where uniformity counts and taste is a secondary concern. 

Up until a while ago I guess I always thought that having F1's (hybrids) seeds was a good thing but the more I think about it the more it means we're being controlled by someone else, and having to buy new seed year after year. I will post about my seed swap soon to anyone that's still interested, I haven't many types to offer but they're tasty! 

What does everyone else think about F1's and hybrids?

Quick Kiss?

When I was a child we hung mistletoe from the beams in the utility room of my parents house (it's the first room you walk into). The tradition being that you have to kiss someone if you're both stood under the mistletoe. A great little excuse for a smooch!

We've got a clump growing here, so I decided to put a sprig above the door in the hope of extra kisses and to pass the tradition on to my children. I'm sure it goes back a long way in history and will carry on a bit longer here yet, where I grew up is also the last place in the UK to have a mistletoe market for the Christmas trade.

Bloggers around the world - do you have this tradition? Or if it doesn't grow where you live do you have something similar?