Home grown food

We had a group of Dutch tourist staying five days on our farm and camp site. They tasted several of our products; cheese, vegetables in the goulash we made for them with our own lamb meat and at their last evening our smallest pig was served roasted. However most didn't (want to) know that.

Bacon, sausages and pork chops?

Our pigs are doing great on organic (-camp site-) waste and apples. The bigger one (white with black spots) will become bacon and sausages this winter, the smaller one will be sold as roasted pig at a group of Dutch people from a mobile home club (beginning september).

Hot and dry summer

Good times

It is high season.

No time for anything else but work... but our guest have a great time at our farm-and-camp-site.

A new season

Camping season 2013 has strated. Nice weather, great guests so we hope that this will continue till the end of September.

Pests and plagues

Pictures taken this morning through our kitchen window - breakfast with a view!

If you farm you always have undesired species feeding on your crops, growing on your fields or contaminating your livestock. Most are just called pest, plagues or weeds. We enjoy all kinds of wildlife roaming on our fields. Big herds of different kind of deer, wild pigs, foxes and pheasants. A great experience for us and also for our campsite guests. When food becomes rare they start attacking the winter feed from our sheep, goats and horse. Electric fencing has failed to keep deer away ... they broke it down and finally even carried it away. In the snow you can see that many tracks go in the direction of our alfalfa silage. We now leave the lesser quality for our hungry wild friends - cheaper than renewing fences ever second day.

Rural campsite

With 14 occupied pitches by 44 satisfied guests - camping season is going great. And since we have 100.000m2 land every body has a super large place for his tent or campervan.

Water

We got a new well drilled. We now have the highest quality clean spring water. Great for our camp site and Katinka's swimming pool.

Farm?

We grow a lot of tourist! They do eat our vegetables, eggs and cheese - so we still do farm (not only tourist).


We also grow trees ;-) and weeds :-(

Working the twig

We would like to have a second source for water since we use a lot with our campsite. Our neighbour knew a good dowser, mr. Guten, a man who has the gift to work with the twig in search of water. This is the method still used to find subsoil water sources. We also worked with dowsers in Africa. I still find it amazing to withness!

Mr. Guten could indicate water sources, but also their depth and expected output. To my big surprise he told me that I also might have this skill - since I am of blood type O. But I did not tell him my bloodtype! When I tried to estimate the dept with a water bottle on a string it swung the other way around - logical since I am rhesus negative........

At the last picture you see Katinka practising it with some wooden sticks :-)

morning duties

We get up at five; to feed our sheep and put then on a new field, milk our goats, clean the camp site toilets and showers (with out being in the way of our guests), walking the dogs, doing some household duties and than, finally, coffee!






to be milked (urgently)












the young ones















sleeping campsite
































our horses says 'good morning' - we have started training him again, he will be lovely with camp site kids this summer!






















sheep have breakfast

Camping season

Camping season has started so no time to take pictures or to post anything on this blog....... because we also have a tree nursery to weed, goats to milk, milk to make cheese of, sheep to take care of, a horse to train, and a lovely girl!

just some impressions;



This is our own bedded tent (rent-a-tent) isn't it a beauty?

Very busy

With great wether, camping season to start soon, gardening season started and lots of young live on our farm we are rather busy!


However we got help from our new electrician, if she is not too busy playing in her sandbath, she assembles the elctricity for our campsite.


Lambs are doing well, eating, growing, getting used to their new environment. Goats are less happy, they have lost complete freedom till at least end September. We fenced a field around our pond for them.


The garden is, although it is very dry, doing fine. Potatoes are sprouting, peas have germinated, spinach too and was then eaten by a chichen :-(, red beets, lettuce, onions have surviced chicken attack.


And last but not least - our road is about to be finished! We have been scooping many cubic metres of gravel on the stone-filled tracks.

Gardening season 2011

The gardening season has started. I am digging (again), spreading manure on the future vegetable beds and I did put a new fresh layer of compost in the cold frames. Two scoops have already be broken, our friend Stano will of course weld them for us. It is nice to see how the soil is improving every year thanks to adding organic matter, minimum tillage and no tractors compacting the soil.
This year's crops will be more oriented towards the needs of our campsite guests. A common joke is that Dutch tourists always travel with a sack of potatoes in their caravan. Because they are afraid of not finding the right potatoes for a decent price abroad. No need for this when they come to our campsite!