Monday 12th March: Monday morning and not a very inspiring one at that, the rain hasn’t stopped since late last night and everything is sodden this morning, the paddocks are mostly puddles of dirty water, the yard is turning into a stream and the veg beds, well let’s just say not much point even looking at those yet! On the bright side the reservoirs will be filling nicely 😀 the ducks are very happy 😀 and it’s not cold 😀 I was really hoping to get stuck in to a job or two outside today but I would just be wasting my time I think, I can’t even give the stable a tidy as the rain is making a mess in there too. I just looked at the forecast for the next few days I shouldn’t have bothered lol, rain right through till 11pm tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday are dry (both the days I have Mia) then Thursday and Friday pretty much raining all day, I think it will be a long week, hopefully our new granddaughter will put in an appearance at some point as she is due any day 😀
I am waiting for the pea seeds to sprout and then I could transfer them to the poly tunnel but only one has appeared so far, I’m hoping they are still there I did cover them so they would not get eaten by mice but they may have rotted away with the cold, I shall investigate later. I feel chuffed that I have at last seedlings on the window sill and the aubergine are obviously likening the warm as they have perked up beautifully. I keep thinking if we ever build I will have a special seedling room built on the front of the house at the same time and make use of the south facing aspect.
I went out to the greenhouse in the vain hope of getting something done but the temp is only just over 10c so there is not much point sowing seedlings besides that the compost is in a ton bag at the front of the drive getting soaked, the poly tunnel was next on my agenda but it actually has waterlogging around it and it’s seeping inside, this is very unusual but again means the ground will be too wet and cold to do anything in there. So I came back in the light the Rayburn and that wouldn’t go at the first lighting either, it seems I am destined not to get very far today at all 😐
The onions and garlic I planted back in the autumn are doing well despite the weather and the broad beans and peas that are either in the greenhouse or in the tunnel are both doing well so it’s not all doom and gloom, however the pea seeds I sowed have indeed rotted away during the cold snap, so I will have to put some more in.
Not to be outdone I decided to go back out and see just exactly what I could get done, so I bought in a couple of buckets of compost to dry out in the greenhouse, sowed some more pea seeds, did a bit of cutting back dead herbs, sowed some lettuce seeds in the poly tunnel after I took out the pepper plants I had left in to see if they would continue growing (they didn’t) and that was about it but at least it was something.
Tuesday: It’s not raining, not yet anyway 😝 that’s a bonus for the morning, did the rounds, all seems normal, had a bit of housework to do and some appointments and paperwork to sort out, feeling stressed however as one lot of paperwork is for HMRC and it doesn’t seem to be simple to get it done, e mailed the accountant to see if she can sort it, I can feel my blood pressure rising just at the thought of it all 😩 It’s old paperwork from the wrapping up of the plumbing company so I will be glad when it is done and dusted and I can consign the boxes to storage 😜
Three goes at lighting the Rayburn and I’m still not sure if it’s just going to go out! Eventually got it going and when the sun was shinning in the afternoon I had to open the back door as it was so warm lol, can’t win. Seriously though the sun was a more than welcome event after the past couple of weeks as there was definite heat in the air, we need a lot more to start drying up the ground but I will take today as a good sign 😀
Wednesday: Everyone was up and gone by 7 this morning, I also had an early start and the morning rounds, plus a few extra jobs, were done by 8.10 😀 I even filled up the wild bird feeders before I got dressed, need to look after them since I have provided them with plenty of homes to nest in, there is evidence of one of the new boxes being used as it has a piece of string hanging out of it, nesting material I presume. I also bought the quail some mealworms as they have stopped laying since the cold snap, sometimes they need a bit of extra protein to get them going again.
It’s dry in the sky at least, the ground is still wet and soggy, still slipping on the wet paddocks but getting better all the time.
Out of interest I had a look back at the blog from this time last year, the weather was definitely better, there is hardly a mention of rain and no mention of mud lol, I also appear to have got on a lot further with jobs than I have this year.
Had a productive morning after feeding, I weeded and put weed membrane on the long bean bed, it has been open to the elements all winter to help break it down, cut some evironmesh for the small raised beds, then covered most of one of the bigger beds in weed membrane, 3 reasons, obviously the first is to stop weed growth while it’s not being used, secondly to help warm up the soil and thirdly because the darn cats decide there is not enough room on 5 acres to do their business elsewhere!
Filled up one of the small raised beds with last years compost that we grew potatoes in, disturbed a mouse that was living inside the tonne bag as well, it was a wood mouse, it’s stash of hazelnuts was also in the there, poor thing didn’t know which direction to flee in so tried all directions lol. Then Mia arrived and got suited and booted as it is an ideal day to be outside, she had rides in the wheelbarrow, talked to the worms and chased a chicken round and round the garden, meanwhile I cleared some debris, dug up some bindweed roots and picked up some bits of rubbish. When we came in the fresh air had obviously done her good as she was hungry and ate a good amount of lunch 😀
Thankfully the Rayburn was playing ball today but the fire stick wasn’t! Why is that important, because it has pepper pig on it and I needed Mia to be occupied while I lit the Rayburn, in the end she settled for paw patrol on normal tv so at least I got the fire lit and the washing up from this morning done 😜
Thursday: Our newest granddaughter, Florence, arrived early hours of this morning 😀😀😀😀 Mum and Baby doing fine.
As you can imagine apart from lighting the Rayburn, feeding the hens and some cleaning, today has mostly been about the newest addition to the family, she is bootiful 😍😍😍
Friday: 🤪
Saturday: Cold with snow flurries today, John did the morning stuff then went off to get feed while I got some stuff done indoors, in the afternoon Dad and Sue called in for a couple of hours before making their way to Suffolk tomorrow, Shelley, Martin, John and Florence popped over for a visit later in the day as well. The AA had to be called out for Sue’s car as it wouldn’t start, that does not bode well for the journey ahead and I said it’s because they stopped here, all our rubbish luck for things rubbing off 😂
Sunday: Well wouldn’t you f**ing know it, snow ❄️ bloody snow ❄️ cold temperatures just what we don’t need, I feel like we are getting nowhere fast 😜 Bad moods all round especially after I told John that no matter what the weather he will have to clean out the front hen house, it wasn’t done yesterday and if it didn’t get done today then tomorrow he would be back at work and I would have three days of it to shift and my hands are not up to that at the moment, so off he went to do that while I cleaned out the duck shed which also needs doing. The dog bath had the shower head broken in the last cold snap by someone, can’t remember if I mentioned that but John put a new second hand one on yesterday and that is leaking so no good, coupled with the fact that the repair he put on the hole that appeared has come away and the bath filled up with leaking water then emptied it in the back 😡 ffs nothing seems to just go smoothly at the moment, it’s like skating uphill.P.s sorry it’s late 🤪
frieslandfarm (flowers) 