A very plesant pheasant

Had a nice suprise on Sunday. Went to the shed to check on the chicks and found these hanging there. No they did not commit suicide. A friend shot them and left them for us. I was waiting to try some pheasant for ages and that night we had a pheasant salad. It was nice - a bit dry (like turkey) but it did not really taste like anything - not even chicken although my wife thinks it tasted like pork! Will definetly have some more.

All on the small-holding is quiet. The fencing of the field is finally getting finished this week which means some sheep very soon! I think I am going to go for some Wiltshire Horns - they look nice, lamb quite easily and best of all you don't need to shear them in spring/summer. Their wool just drops off by itself and any little thing to lighten my workload is appreciated. All I need to do now is find someone with some good stock.

On Friday night we went rabbiting - I seem to have rubbish luck with rabbits. Either there are none or when I see one it legs it so quickly that I miss. I will bag one one day.....

So many jobs, not enough time

I am finding these shorter days a bit of a pain in the bum. By the time I finish work it is pitch black and nothing ever gets done! At the weekends you have to juggle your family with what needs doing outside and most of the time the family wins. My list is getting huge now - on top of that the garden area outside is a neglected mess. I have no idea when I am going to have the time to do anything.

I got in some replacements on Saturday. Drove over to Exmoor to pick 12 more chicks up. Don't they look sweet - give it 6 weeks and I will hate them! I just hope they don't meet the same fate as their forerunners. I was hoping to get a poultry area made but someone gave me a quote for it today and it looks like either I have to do it myself or scrap the idea. They shall live their happy little lives in my shed for at least the next 8 weeks. After that, Fort Knox style poultry area permitting, they shall spend the last 4-8 weeks outside.

One thing I did manage to do this weekend was start getting my winter's supply of fire wood. I bought a whole load of a farmer which I have been chainsawing and chopping. On top of that I had a pine tree and an ash tree felled in the garden as they were not needed. I am trying to apply the prinicple of thrift to everything I do, so with the pine I spent an hour or so going through all the branches and cutting off the tiny bits to leave with me the branches. These I can use for kindling wood.

For the ash tree rather than burn the lot I did the same thing, but thought the cows may enjoy something other than grass. I stuck the whole lot out in the field and sure enough they gobbled all the leaves off the branches. This was thrift at its best! I was then left with nice clean branches to saw into little pieces, again which I will be using as kindling wood.

When looking at energy resources good old fashioned fire wood has a lot going for it. A few logs a night keeps our house nice and warm. On top of that it can also be used to heat water, cook your dinner, etc. Firewood is also one of the best renewable energies around. A growing tree absorbs as much as carbon dioxide as as one in firewood releases - if we planted more trees than we used, we would be laughing. Instead we are doing the opposite which isn't too bright. In fact we were saying the other night that eating beef is actually bad for the environment because farmers in South America are clearning acres of forest to allow cattle to graze. This led to me to think whether Muslim scholars should start looking into these sorts of questions? i.e. what is our position on things like global warming, factory farming, etc? As Allah's representatives on earth do we not have some sort of responsibilty to protect creation?


My (very neglected) veg patch is, well, neglected. All it has going at the moment are some spring cabbage and some kale - the latter is doing OK. I planted it too late though so I think we'll be eating midget kale. The spinach seems to have given up, the radishes are fine but I never have time to pick them and the butternut squash are begging to be picked and eaten. As you can tell, I need help!



One thing that I did come across was one of my marrows I left to grow - I wanted to see how big it could get and then use it for archery practice. It reminded me of that photo you see all the time of that tree in Australia that is apparently making ruku to Allah. What do you think? Shall I start inviting people from the Muslim world to come and visit the miracle of the prostrating marrow? I could make millions!

Guess not - the fact that it is a marrow doesn't make it too appealing, on top of that it is not really prostrating and lastly its not even facing Makkah. Stupid marrow - it could have been a star and will now be smashed into lots of pieces by arrows.

The Abattoir

Did anyone see The River Cottage treatment last night? It was fantastic. Mr Whittingstall took his group of townies to an abattoir to show them where their lamb comes from and how they are killed, etc. It turned out to be the abattoir I use! Was quite funny to see all their faces on tv.

If anyone hasn't watched this yet, then try to. He basically takes people that live on ready meals and rubbish food and shows them where meat comes from, the difference in taste organic food gives you and those sorts of things. I'd love to do something similar with Muslims as they have really lost touch with food and its origins. Traditionally food was a way of understanding the relationship between you & God - i.e. the Sustainer and Sustained. People cared about what they ate, where it came from, etc. Now its "what is the cheapest stuff out there and let's pile it into our gobs".

One of the women that went to the abattoir actually turned vegetarian because of it which I think is fantastic. If you don't like what happens to animals you should stop eating them.

Big up to the Whittingstall - smallholding gangsta!

I wish he was my mate....