Chores

No one's exempt from chores; everyone has to do their bit. As you can see, some of us enjoy our chores more than others: the dogs love chasing the young pheasants home. I never look this happy when I'm cleaning the bathroom.

The weather is dictating chores at the moment, pushing some to the forefront and moving others back. It's muggy, foggy, and drizzling - I expect to see Sherlock Holmes walk out of the mist or hear the Hound of the Baskervilles howling. It might be romantic or ethereal as a setting in a novel, but in reality it's very wearing.

I've had to do a chicken re-shuffle, pairing some and re-housing others in appropriate groups. We have limited chicken housing and need to make optimum use of it. It's taken a week to get everyone re-arranged. Our meat chickens grow so fast you can nearly hear their joints creak. Subsequently, they outgrow their housing and require clean ground regularly. The boys pitched in this morning and we carried 27 meat chickens to their new home in the aviary. In the next few days I will put some poultry netting around it and let them onto grass. They should all be in the freezer by Christmas.

It could be chicken for Christmas dinner now as the wild pig I shot went to London. The stalker offered the pig to Lady S who sent it to her butcher in London, where it will fetch top dollar (pound). It's complicated on an estate. Although Paul buys the right to the stalking, a certain amount of meat is 'expected' by Lord and Lady to go back to the house. Like a tax.

This highlights a issue with eating locally in England. We live in the south west, where a lot of England's food is produced. We have weekly Farmer's Markets where we can buy what local meat and produce. However, luxury items such as buffalo cheese, sheep's milk/cheese, and certain wild meats fetch much better money if sold in London. Farmers (and estate owners) want to maximise their profits. That means a lot of local foods go to London to sate fads and fashion. When it's fallen out of favour, it will show up in local markets again.

But I'll try and focus on what we have, not what we've lost. I'll concede to the weather and be glad of the the produce I do have, which is still abundant and varied at this time of the year. I started some wild plum jam this morning, and I will go harvest more today between showers. Making jam is certainly one of the more pleasurable chores.

Speaking of varied and abundant harvests, I found this website. The author moved to Cape Cod with her husband to live a self-sufficient life, and she has challenged herself to eat something they've grown, hunted, or harvested themselves at least once a day for a whole year. In the spirit of camaraderie (or commiseration, I'm not sure) I'll try and keep up with her. Check out "What's for Tea then?" in the sidebar of this blog to see how we do. And definitely check our her progress, it's very inspiring.