Progress in the orchard and polytunnel fever

Last night whilst I had a bonfire, partly to cremate poor Mother, (gosh she was a chicken, don't panic if you're a first time reader or a member of the police force!!) and partly to clear the barn of excessive rubbish and cardboard, Lovely Hubby and Jason got stuck in, in the orchard putting in the fence and gate posts for our pig pens.

The three Pig Arks were delivered as arranged and are waiting to be maneuvered and assembled in the enclosures. Two enclosures have all the posts and hopefully LH and Jason will be able to complete the third tonight. Once the Arks are in place we will be able to get all the wire on and our little 'piggy paradise' will be ready.

And now the pictures I was going to show yesterday for my lovely Mum to see.

The poly tunnel is proving is worth as crops are bursting forth left right and centre, as you can see from the pictures some are still growing, some we are eating on a daily basis and some we have even sold, dipping our toes into the plan for next year of selling surplus veggies at markets and car boots.

The beginning of cauliflowers.

Carrots and parsnips.

Two lemon trees, now just starting to bear fruit.

My lovely Red Chilli bush.

Green Peppers, with a Dwarf French Bean in the background.

Celariac

Limes, bearing fruits already.

Glorious radishes, yummy and HUGE!! (And a good seller.)

Spring onions and carrots

Melons and Cucumbers

Brocolli at the front and Purple Sprouting Broccoli behind with Lime bushes and Kiwi plants in the furthest bed.

Rocket and Sage and other herbs with a couple of green peppers in the middle.

Winter leeks, planted yesterday.

So as you can see I have been busy, made a whole lot easier with all the help from Mum and Dad, to assemble the beds and fill them all. Yesterday it was very hot here in Oxfordshire, but soon it will be getting cooler and then it will be time to cover the mesh currently on the PT doors with a layer of polythene to keep in what warmth I can in, I am not going to heat the tunnel, but the warmth gathered from any suns rays during the day and the trapped atmosphere should be enough to keep my plants growing long past the time they would outdoors.

If we are lucky, and with the right planting we could be picking fresh food right through the winter. This year may be a bit hit and miss, but I am willing to give it all a try.

Sue xx

RIP Mother

Mother (eggactly 2yrs old) RIP

We are sad today here on the farm. The girls are wandering aimlessly not quite sure where to go or what they should be doing. The Welsummers are bemused they have never seen the White Girls like this.

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It seems I named this chicken well 'Mother', she held the flock together, not the leader like Cappachino, who warns of real and imaginery dangers and chases the dogs, but the glue that banded the girls together. Where she went, they wanted to be, if she went to get a drink they would go and get one too, if she laid an egg in the Broody House, they would queue to lay in there after. When she made a nest they would take it in turns to sit on it.

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I should have guessed something was up. She was trailing a wing slightly yesterday and took herself to sit in the main henhouse an hour before the others, she normally sleeps in the Broody House with one other chicken. When I went to put the side on the house at bedtime she was in the nest box with two of the girls that usually sit on the perches next to her all cuddled together.

Seems they had the feeling it was to be her last night.

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I miscounted the girls as they came out this morning and thought all was well, but when I took the side off, there she was. Laid out on the floor, eyes closed and at peace. I've never really seen my girls with their eyes closed they are all so alert, I hadn't realised that until that moment.

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After a few tears I placed her in a box, cleaned out the house and then took my grief out on the bloody Red Mites, every inch of that house has been doused with Poultry Shield, just let anyone hurt any of my remaining girls and they will be sorry.

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The dogs are quietly sleeping and everything seems still, not for much longer though we are expecting two major deliveries today, the Pig Arks are due here this afternoon and a massive order of wood is to be delivered this morning. I think I will go and make some bread whilst I am waiting.

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The nice post I had planned in my head about the Polytunnel will have to wait until tomorrow.

Today is dedicated to Mother, truly a Lovely Lady.

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Sue xx

Eating Better

Just recently we have noticed the standard of our food improving, at first in small ways and then suddenly with the availability of our own crops with huge leaps and bounds.

Food that is grown in good soil, harvested and then cooked simply is well........gorgeous. I have even eaten green beans, and as my lovely Mum will tell you I HATED green beans with a vengeance!! So with this in mind I have been slowly adding to my basic stock cupboard, all the dried ingredients that go so well with our fresh crops. I buy the best, usually organic and always with an open mind to trying new items, especially grains and pulses that I have up until now avoided. I have suddenly become an avid reader of cook books and watcher of cooking programmes on the television. And maybe more importantly I try the things I read about and see on the TV instead of reading and watching about them and then sticking a ready meal in the microwave (as I did in a former life!). Little tips and hints seem to be sinking in because I find myself cooking in a more natural and spontaneous way, adding extra ingredients here and there that I seem to instinctively know will improve the taste of the finished dish. Last night we dined simply on a first course of home-made leek and potato soup, followed by salmon fishcakes (flaked salmon, mashed homegrown potatoes and a free-range egg all rolled in breadcrumbs) and home grown New Potatoes. Filling and satisfying in many ways. Then we settled down and watched our best TV friend, the lovely Hugh FW teach ready meal fanatics about the beauty of home grown, home cooked food. Seems we're on the right track!! Sue xx

Next bit of improvement...................

After we have finished the pig enclosures and the building of the Pig Arks we will be concentrating our efforts on this little patch of land.

The wood is due to be delivered next week and the flagstones are already here. On the left just out of shot is our raised bed nearest the house (the one the chickens decimated) and on the right our shed, holding all the gardening implements and the chicken feed. In between we plan to have three more raised beds edged on the right hand side (where I stood to take the photo) with the flagstones, this will give me a stable surface on which to stand whilst I peg out the washing. At the moment I have to wibble wobble along on the builders rubble and jump up to reach the clothes line, it was put up to the height of the old surface and of course Lovely Hubby has now had that all scraped away.

Today LH is busy putting in place the huge gateposts for the orchard gate and I am having a blitz on the kitchen cupboards, now Jason has picked out what he wants to take to Uni I am having a good sort out of what is left. The unwanted and duplicated items will be going with us to tomorrows Car Boot Sale. LH is coming with me, it's the only way I can make him have a sit down and a much needed rest. It will be nice to spend a couple of hours together, him reading the Sunday papers and (hopefully) me making lots of money. Sophie will come too, as she loves to socialise with all the dogs that frequent car boot sales in this area, little Rosy will be staying at home, she still finds too much attention so tiring, and she gets loads of attention wherever we go, just one of the drawbacks of being so cute I suppose, I wish I had that problem!! Oh well, that's enough chat for now, back to work.............. Have a lovely weekend. Sue xx

Changes

Sometimes until you stumble on an old photo you don't realise how far you have come. The photo above was taken this morning (it's a lovely day here in Oxfordshire) and the one below was taken at the end of March.

In between the two, we have built the fence around the tyres, built all the raised beds and harvested from them all, acquired the chickens, chicken houses and the shed, fenced off the orchard and fenced our side of the paddock.

We are about to plant 200 Leylandii trees (don't do it I hear you cry!!) we have to unfortunately. It is impossible to drain the orchard properly so we need some REALLY thirsty fast growing trees to go along two side of it! We will keep them trimmed to a managable height with the tractor hedge trimmer, but we need to get some of the water from the orchard so our little piggy wigs will be comfortable.

And thats the first brilliant news, our pigs have been ordered. Two Middle White gilts born on 27th June will be ours in a couple of weeks and one Berkshire sow (Betty), ready for AI will be ours just after the weaners arrive.

Lovely Hubby has gone to work today in the van, so he can tow back our new piggy trailer and some more good news my new chicken house is also coming today. I feel more before and after pictures coming soon.

Have a good day, hope your weather is as nice as ours at the moment (after yesterday this is SUCH a relief).

Sue xx

Blustery Day

Blustery day............... that would be the understatement of the decade!! Today the winds have blown, seemingly from every direction. The sky darkens and then clears with alarming speed and to top it all the power went off for a couple of hours, why do we forget just how much of our world relies on electricity? I filled the washer, then realised! I went upstairs to fetch the hoover! In the end I cleaned the bathrooms, just good old elbow grease required.

Now the power is back on and I have lost the urge to hoover, the washer can still go on though, as long as I remember to empty it after tea!!

The chickens have spent the day hiding from the wind behind the shed mostly, as it changed direction they swapped sides, the Welsummers have spent a lot of the day hiding in the White Girls house, they like to roost on the perches during the day, something the White Girls have never done.

Tomorrow the new chicken house arrives, with room for all the girls to live together, will they? Only time will tell. One thing is for sure it will be well sprayed against Red Mite before any chickens get to move in.

Sue xx

Strange but peaceful morning.....

The house is quiet, the animals have all eaten their breakfasts, the chickens are fed but not out of their runs yet, Lovely Hubby is at work and Jason is snoring gently in his bed, (seemingly you need a lot of energy build up to prepare for Uni!!).

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Me, I'm on my second coffee and chilling nicely at the computer, catching up on some of the glorious blogs that are on my Blog List.

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There is a real sense of Autumn in the air today, the sky is grey, and apart from the swooping of the Red Kites and the flypast of the Buzzard there is little activity here on the farm, even the chickens are quiet, usually there is an array of noises, ranging from Cappachinos mock crow to the soft chirruping of the Welsummers.

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The chickens are all tucking themselves into bed earlier and earlier these days, last night they were waiting to be locked in at 8.15pm and this morning didn't get up until 7.15am, so short days. Days that I try to fill with tasty treats and companionship, they are truly lovely ladies, running to greet me incessantly, I need only go out of eyeshot for a minute and they are still pleased to see me when I come back into view.

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They follow like little lost sheep, eager to see what I'm up to, although since LH's last manure pick up from the stables they are frequenting the muck heap for hours. They looked completely different yesterday with their snowy white bodies and jet black legs from wading through the manure.

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Our days are long and busy at the moment doing all the planning for our next challenge. The orchard fencing is nearly complete, LH has been busy digging holes for the huge gate posts and adding 2 runs of barbed wire to the top and bottom of the stock wire. Our Pig Arks are due to be delivered either late this week or early next, we spoke to a pig supplier last night and seemingly we should be able to have our New Girls sooner than we thought.

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So after this lovely quiet start to the day I have to get on, still sorting for Jason's return to Uni and catching up on weeding in the Polytunnel (what happens when you pick radishes for tea one day and leave them on the worktop in the PT by mistake - you get dried up flat, dessicated radishes that's what!!).

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Have a good day.

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Sue xx