Baking With Little Ones

There are few better things that you can do with a little one than baking.

In my experience they love it. The youngest was so proud of her cake and loved telling her mum that she'd helped with it.

Also a raspberry cake like this is a great way of using up some of the raspberries! 

Really easy recipe, just a standard sponge mix with 200g of raspberries added in at the end and a couple teaspoons of vanilla essence., tastes amazing though!  

For The Love Of Baler Twine - A New Pen

I managed to get the tow bar fitted on my van last week, so hopefully I'll be selling some lambs soon! In the meantime I'm trying to find as much grass as I can for them. I got offered an extra 2 acres of grass last week but as they're digging some of it up in the next week or so (they're building a house) it won't be available until next year, so I'm trying to make sure we make the most of what we have.

The over grown pig pen - no pigs till next year though!

 One patch of land that's been underutilised is the pig pen that I fenced off. We didn't get any pigs this year so it's been sat there just growing grass, it's a good size, under the oak trees. So I've made a path out of gates, an off cut of wire and plenty of baler twine. 

The track between the fields - this little pass was planned so it can be an easy pen for the sheep

Make shift pass for the lambs to get in the pig pen 

Didn't take long for the lambs to find their way in! 

It gives them an extra bit of grass and keeps another area tidy, hopefully next year we'll get some pigs and they'll keep it tidy instead. 

Anyone else go mad with baler twine to block off areas? I'm not happy unless every gateway has at least a bit of baler twine on it!

Juggling Fields

Still trying to juggle the grass we've got left. I've had to keep the lambs longer than I thought as I've had no means to get them to the abattoir or to market.

 So I've moved the lambs back to where the sheep were last month. Ideally I would have liked to leave it a little longer to let the grass grow back but they've got nothing left where they were. Trouble was I had to get the lambs through a field with the sheep in, I decided to shut them in the neighbours shed briefly and run the lambs past. It worked surprisingly well.

The lambs are better off near to the house as hopefully next week we can start to lessen their numbers, some killed for us and some sold at market. I managed to fit the tow bar on the van yesterday so there's no excuse now, just need a trailer!

Camera Troubles - What Compact Do You Have?

Sorry I've not been posting as much lately. I'm finding it really hard since my little compact camera died.

I've got three different ways of taking a  picture, either with my phone, which is rubbish quality (an Iphone wouldn't last five minutes with me), with my SLR, which is great quality but too big to keep on me at all times, or with my compact camera, which I normally keep in my pocket.

The compact camera has to put up with a lot of abuse, I take it everywhere with me, and I take around 500+ photo's a month (much to my families annoyance!) but a few weeks ago it gave up the ghost and went the same way as my previous one, the lens stopped coming out and it would bleep in defiance at me. 

I've gotten through two Panasonic Lumix cameras in the last six years or so but I still think they're a good camera for what they have to endure, they take good pictures with a wide(ish) lens and the batteries last a long time.

 I think I'll buy second-hand this time as I'm not bothered if I have the latest model or not, but I was wondering what other people used and how you rate them for the type of abuse I subject my things to?

Porch Progress - Fascia, Felt And Batten

Progress with the porch has been slow to say the least. Taking on too much work over the summer and starting other jobs has meant that I've not had much time lately to tackle it . Luckily my mum has come for a few days to look after the children (and do a bit of weeding) whilst I try to get a bit further with my projects. 

 The last time I did a post about the porch it was when I put the timber work up for the roof. Since then Dill has finished the brickwork and I've added the fascia & barge board and sofit as well as felt and battening the roof to make it almost waterproof from the top (I still need to add the lead flashing against the wall). 

 I splashed out with the timber for the barge and fascia and brought rough sawn Accoya that I planned up. This wood is meant to be some of the most durable out there due to the way it's been treated and I have very little intention of redoing the timber work on this porch anytime soon! 

The detailing takes the time

Hopefully things should move a little faster now. next I need to get the windows ordered and tiles for the roof, fit a new front door, insulate the ceiling and clean up all the reclaimed quarry tiles I've got for the floor. 

Breaking something like this into little jobs is the best way in my head to make it seem manageable.