Gutted

Well I have some bad news in which I want to get out of the way. I have been suffering with light back pain for about 2 weeks, however in the last few days it has got signifacantly worse! I went to the doctors on Friday and they said I need to be off school until it gets better and I also must miss the school trip to Paris from Thurday to Monday! So I'm quite upset. However Paris will always be there whereas you only get 1 back. As I am writing I just recieved a phone call from a friend, and he seems a bit dissapointed that I will not be able to go!

Not much else happening, I haven't been able to do anything! However I have sold 2 boxes of eggs this week. A nice little income of £3.20! Not to bad for 6 organic, free-range eggs!

Yesterday at regular intervals I struggled out of my chair to see the Lunar eclipse. It was difficult to get a picture myself but lookly somebody from the Omlet forum caught this stunning picture of it when it looked as if the moon was red. Here it is....

Well that is about it, I've got a week off from School but I have to go in to do my Maths Exam on Thursday morning.

Thanks for visiting,
Martin

Flippin Heck!

Back to school this week, but I was only there for 3 days because I had 2 school trips in the same week. I went on a Business Studies trip to Cadbury World on Thursday and that was really fun, the marketing lecture was really interesting and there was lots of free chocholate which kept us motivated! The day before I was part of a group of people who were representing our school in a regional competition to promote eco-friendly living. Unfortunately my group did not win, but nevertheless I still won a £10 HMV voucher and a coolbag!

After school on Tuesday I was meant to have Italian lessons but the teacher was ill so it was cancelled. At 7o'clock my parents and I went back to school for the French Trip Meeting. In two weeks I am going on a french trip to Paris for 4 days. You can be sure of a long blog when I return. Tuesday was also Shrove Tuesday, referred to many as Pancake Day. My family and I went to my Grandma's for a feast of pancakes, I stayed later than the rest of them to watch the football! Today however I made my own pancakes for the very first time, I was completly unsure of what to put into the mixture, and I was complety unsure about how much of which ingredient. So I chucked half a bowl of flour, a glass of milk, a duck egg and a pinch of salt together gave it a wisk and hoped for the best. I certainly got better than what I expected! They were delicious but slightly salty. Here are a couple of my picutres.

Today was carling cup final day, but instead of writing a report I'm going to leave you some pictures in order. You will see what happened!




















Goodnight,
Martin

Almost at an end, but I feel I've only just started.

Half Term is what I am refering to in the title. Sean and I go back to school on Monday, after just over a week break. It will be shattering to get up at 7am again, and not 11o'clock which I feel I am getting used to! Thankfully, I haven't had any major homework to complete over the period, just a bit of Technology coursework, but that's it, so I suppose I'm quite lucky, even though I haven't even done that yet. It's due for Wednesday, so I may either do it all tomorrow or do a bit each day.
Today I was up at 7.30 am to get ready for the local farmers market. My friend Mat slept at my house last night and he decided he would like to come too, however he was very scared (understatement) about meeting my friends from the Omlet Forum. They're all lovely, informative people. I'm so glad I have met them through the forum. Today was an extra special day because Buffie had come all the way from Buckinghamshire to visit, it's always nice to see Buffie, Mikey and Jazz, just like the rest of them, really. I had breakfast with them all, in the usual cafe, I had my usual omelette and cappucino. The good thing about this Cafe is that all of the food and drink are ORGANIC! The cafe is run by several fairly young people, and they are always very welcoming. After much chatter and natter, we finally proceeded onwards to the market. I bought some Water Buffalo Steak for my Dad and I, I bought some buffalo burgers last time and they were delicious, a really unusual but delicious taste, I can't wait to tuck into the steak. I also bought some Traditional Pork, apple and cider sausages, from one of the many local pig farmers in the area. They were a very good price too, which is even better. My Dad and I are going to have them for breakfast tomorrow with one of the duck eggs I bought from Lesley. Talking of purchases from Lesley, I also bought some coloured egg boxes. They look fantastic, they certainly make a box of eggs more interesting. I'm thinking of designing some labels and sticking them on the top, with a fact, suggestion or tip stuck onto the inside lid of the box. I'll let you know how it goes with that. I bought 20! 6 x Yellow, 6 x Green, 4 x Blue, 4 x Pink. Here's a quick picture that I have just been to take.

I am now able to sell 1/2 a dozen eggs, I'm going to be selling 6 eggs for £1.60 and 4 eggs for £1.20. I have 14 hen eggs in storage at the moment, so I'm ready for my 1/2 dozen sale. I'm hoping my nan will buy some tomorrow, and hopefully my auntie, because it's my cousins birthday party, so we're going for a meal at a local pub/restaurant near Evesham, which shall be fun!
Today I also managed to packet up the potting shed seed swap ready for postage. I'm really sorry to those who are waiting, it is unfortunate that I was ill for a while since I've had it and then up to my ears in coursework!
Talking of pots and seeds, today I also learnt how to make a pot out of paper, I'm really proud, and I'm going to plant something in it when I get chance.

Well, thanks for visiting. I bet you weren't expecting a posting so soon after the last one!

Thanks for reading,
Martin

Almost a month! Not quite!

I suppose I owe you all a lovely post all about the happenings here on the farm.

I've been up to so much, I've been sorting out my seeds ready for the new growing season. I hope to get my allotment in April, which I am really looking forward to, so I hope there is room for me on the site. As I'm not up the lottie yet, I'm going to have a bash at growing small vegetables such as, minitaure carrots, raddish, herbs and spring onions in things such as jam jars, butter tubs, yoghurt pots! It will be quite interesting to see the results!

Lesley and Carly are fabulous! They've really been enjoying themselves recently, gobbling corn and destroying the garden. Lesley has been a non-stop laying machine recently, supplying plenty of eggs for making curds, cakes or just scrambled egg on toast! Whereas, on the other hand there is Carly, who untill today hadn't laid in a few weeks! Carly eats the most corn, the most grass, and does the most damage and gives nothing in return! Typical! Good job that we love her!

Last Thursday was SNOW DAY, this meant a day off school, just before the beggining of Half Term anyway! Sean and I had fun in the snow all day, building two huge snowmen, making snow angles and of course the unbeatable snow ball fights. The animals weren't too impressed with the snow, but on the Friday, when the sun was still at large, I lured the chickens out of the eglu and into the snow to play, using a few handfuls of corn as bait! They fall for it every bedtime too, chickens aren't very intelligent if I'm honest! :D
Here are a few of the pictures that my father or I took whilst we were in the snow.

The first snowman was the smallest.

This is Sean and I supporting the second ball onto the first ball.

]Strange footprints in the snow. I swear my shoes don't look like this...

So this explains it, a gingernut and a pepperpot eating corn in the sand.

Today Grandma, Grandad, Paul, Sean and I had planned to visit the RAF Museum at Cosford in the West Midlands. They've just opened a new exhibition about the cold war and we were looking forward to going there, when we arrived the gates were shut. The people in front of us were being told something but we didn't know what, then that car turned around so we anticipated the worst, the illuminous figure aproached the car and told us that the museum was closed due to a technical failure, IT'S ONLY BEEN OPEN A FEW DAYS! So that was our day spoilt, we then went to Telford Shopping Centre and had lunch, and I also bought a football magazine! When we returned home, I watched the episode of "Grow your own Veg", from Carol Klein's latest series, I find it very interesting and unfortunately it was the last in the series! However talking of Television I'm very much looking forward to "Dragon's Den" tomorrow on BBC2 at 8o'clock. It's a programme where budding entrepenaurs take their ideas to the "Dragons" (successfull entrepenaurs. Duncan Bannontyne, Richard Farley, Deborah Meaden, Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones) trying to secure funding to expand their business, with the Dragons obtaining a certain percentage of shares. It's a good watch and I would highly reccomend it! :D

Well that's all, Sean's pestering me over my shoulder, so I better go. Take care of yourselves and I'll hopefully log on soon. I'm in the process of a website, so hopefully that will keep us more in touch.

Best Wishes,
Martin

A whole month..

I knew it had been a while since I last posted on the blog but I didn't know it was a whole month! So it look's like we have a lot to catch up on doesn't it.

I had a really great christmas, I got everything I wanted. I recieved almost 20 books. 4 of them were cook books, I also got 5 Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall books, It's not easy being green, and "The allotment book". I also got a new _____. More of that later....

On boxing day I went up to watch Tottenham vs Aston Villa at White Hart Lane. We were at Villa Park for 8 because it was an early kick off so we left this early to allow time to stop on the way to London too. I had a really nice pie at half time, one of the best I've ever had. We lost the game 2-1 in the end but it was a really good day out. I returned home that day to a repeat of Christmas dinner. Endless veg and the meat from Lesley's home-reared organic, free-range chicken. It was delicious. The stock made a scrumptious gravy! Yum Yum!

On 27th December I decided to have a play with my main present, here it is......

There it is all set up and in it's glory. It took my dad and I about an hour to dis-assemble the green eglu and then prepare the ground and then set up the purple eglu. I was a bit reluctant to let the chooks free range because the ground was practically waterlogged. But I did and they enjoyed it.

On 28th December we set off for our winter break to sunny Lanzarote. It's such a beautiful place, and really interesting too. There are over 100 volcanoes on the Island, compare that to Great Britain's 1. We stayed in a Villa near Playa Blanca, it was really nice. It had a big, deep pool which was good fun. The break also gave me some time to do some reading. I read Jimmy Doherty's a taste of the country and HFW's Meat Book, both of which were very interesting. On new years eve we stopped inside, and watched the fireworks from the Villa. New Years Day however we went out at Lunchtime to watch Liverpool vs Bolton at the pub, and in the evening we went out for a chinese at a really small, but nice restaurant, it was delicious. On the 2nd January we went to the pub in the evening to watch Aston Villa vs Chelsea, a 0-0 draw was a good result. My highlight of the holiday was on the Tuesday. We decided to visit the Timanfaya fire mountains. At about 11o'clock we pulled up to see hundreds of camels taking people for rides up the mountains. I had a ride too it was so fun, a bit bumpy but it was a great experience. It's such a shame that the camera battery ran out. It would have been nice to share the photo. The fire mountains themselves were so pretty, there were so many shape and colour formations that it was almost untrue! I also saw the world biggest man made babeque, a huge whole in the volcano floor with a grill over it, barbequing the food with it's natural heat. It was a shame to come home on the 4th especially with school only around the corner.

I didn't do too much for the rest of the holiday, I went to the farmers market on the saturday and bought some lovely sausages which I had with eggs in a sandwich. I also planned to get some more chickens but unfortunately the weather was horrible so I had to postpone.

The only other big news is that I've had my brace taken off. I'm back at the orthadontist tomorrow though for a check up and to have a support fixed in.

I'm up to my head with maths coursework and technology homework, so this post was a bit of a welcome break.

Thanks for reading,
Martin

Just a quicky!

Not alot today.

The Jam went well and it's probably the best set I've ever had, so I'm pleased!

Sorry it's short,
Martin

A lot to tell!

Wow!

I haven't posted in ten days! If you carry on reading you'll know why!

On Monday I have my French Speaking Exam which counts as 12.5% towards my final GCSE. It's very nerve racking. It's taken me 3 weeks to write and now I only have until Monday to learn it by heart. I'm really nervous, I'll definately be practising non-stop this weekend. I also need to shorten it because we have 5 minutes to do it in and it takes me 4 minutes 44 seconds to read it off a sheet. It will be natural to fumble, mumble and panic so I want to leave at least 45seconds to allow for that.

Last Friday we travelled down to Ipswich as a Family, and we stayed in the travelodge. On Saturday Morning we had Breakfast at the Little Chef (who now serve all their products with free-range eggs and outdoor reared British Sausages aswell, bravo!). After breakfast we met up with some people from the Omlet Forum at Jimmy's Farm. It was his Christmas Market and I had a great day working for the BHWT (Battery Hen Welfare Trust). I was shaking my bucket and shouting "Save a Hen this Christmas", the BHWT also had a stall in the Market which was run by the Omleteers!
I have selected a few photos to share with you.





The view of Jimmy's Farm from the nature trail. You can see the derilect Farmhouse in the background along with some stalls and plenty of chicken arks.






I met Dolly, he was wrestling Christmas Trees into nets, but he was more than happy to talk and pose for a photo.





I also had my photo taken with Jimmy. He is so kind, and he signed my book for me which was really nice of him.

On the day I was also given an official letter of thank you from the BHWT, who had aknowledged all of my efforts throughout the year. I'm going to get it framed.

When I got home, it looked like someone had been in the garden and moved some things about. Don't worry. It was only Roy the Omlet delivery man who left my Christmas present on the doorstep!





How cool is that! A purple eglu!
Lesley and Carly move in on 25th December! They also have some space to rent out to other chooks, and they hope to move some more in with them in January!

It's great getting back to basics. I'm making Strawberry Jam for the first time in about 2 or 3 months.

It's good to be back on the blog. See you tomorrow...

I promise!

Thanks for reading,
Martin