Monday 13th May: Not up so early today, I wish I was as the Sun got hot very quickly giving me little time to get everything done, consequently I was here there and everywhere trying to beat the Sun hitting various areas for watering. I need to organise myself a bit better I think, mulching needs to be done but what to use that’s the question, we don’t have a lot of grass clippings so I’m thinking cut down any nettles let them wilt and then use those, but even they won’t go far. Once everything is growing well the ground will be covered with foliage but while its establishing and the sun is hot the ground dries quickly.
The ducklings needed moving over and cleaning, they are very active little blighters and very rapidly dirty the place up, go through lots of water and food, I may live to regret this 😜
I have planted out the dwarf beans this morning and interplanted cauliflowers as I seem to have rather a lot of those 🙄 the courgettes seemed to survive the first night out in open ground so that’s a bonus. As I said before, any spare plants will be planted wherever I can put them in, might as well have too much rather than not enough, besides the animals will probably eat as much surplus as I get so nothing will be wasted.
Fun in the afternoon, Sam and Mia came over and we decided to fill up the dog bath and let the ducklings have a good old splash about and a wash!
After tea (salmon and asparagus parcels with poly tunnel salad 😀) I spent a good couple of hours watering everything I had planted and all the things in pots, hopefully a good soak will speed them on their way, these hot sunny days are great but make establishing plants a bit of a chore.
Tuesday: Mia day, got the rounds done and then Mia arrived she was full of beans today lol. We moved the torts to the fruit cage because there are loads of weeds in there they can snack on, we ate peas fresh from the pod 😀 we learned how to do a roly poly and later when John came home we had rides in the wheel barrow. We did some of the watering though she watered mostly the ground 😝 and the rest of the watering I did later in the evening.
Each evening we have a blackbird that sits high up on top of the conifers by the duck pond, I told John to listen as in amongst his beautiful songs he imitates a kite soaring up high, clever hey, keeps all the other predator birds (corvids) away I guess.
Wednesday: Sunny again today, the temps are very warm each day so as long as I keep watering everything should be growing well. The morning rounds all went without incident, everything seems happy though the ducks are not laying particularly well, they are just finishing growing new feathers so should pick up soon. The ducklings are doing well, no losses so far 😀 and the little chicks are also doing well. The lady that hatched some out for her home schooled children is bringing back the chicks they hatched today so that’s five more, though they are still under heat as they are only just over a week old.
I have plenty of planting out to get on with, hopefully John will be home at lunchtime so there are a few jobs for him on the list as well 😀
Made the mistake of picking up an egg this morning while I was doing something else and putting it in my pocket 🤪 forgot I had it in there, wondered what it was a couple of hours later, oh a cracked egg lol, luckily it had not seeped everywhere.
Planted out more squash and put some plants out for sale as I have way more than I need. I potted a few more bits on, and am trying to figure out where everything will eventually go! I have pretty much everything (veg) going in somewhere and on top of that I have flowers and shrubs I have been collecting or growing that all need a place as well, I intend to fill the place to bursting with something for all of us, humans, insects, birds, etc.
John only had a small job to do this morning so was back fairly early, I set him to task, first on the front gate which needed adjusting and then a fab job for him, a patch of thistles that needed digging out 😜 only the best jobs for John 😬
The other chicks arrived, they all look lovely and healthy and will eventually go out with the others.
We had the unpleasant job of dispatching one of the rabbits, possibly mitzi, certainly looks like it so it’s possible all the other rabbits will have it too but at the moment they seem fine, we isolated her the minute we saw a problem. It’s a very unpleasant disease and because our rabbits have an outdoor run and wild rabbits can come up to the bars it’s always a risk, they can be vaccinated against it but it doesn’t always work and again because it’s possible for ours to have contact we don’t. If the others end up with it we will have to change the run so no contact can be made, although rabbit fleas can also transmit it ☹️
Another family birthday means we are going for some nosh and cake this evening 😀
Thursday: It was a bit cooler today so I’m not so worried about watering everything, the overnight dew should be enough. I organised the poly tunnel a bit better so that I can get some things planted into the ground in there, melons mostly, I have four plants in at the moment and a few more to go in when I can clear the rest of the equipment out. Sam and Mia came over and then my sister arrived with her little one so sitting and drinking tea was the order of the morning 😀
I gave John another great job, docks this time 😝 a patch of them in the field needed getting rid of, I did tell him just to mow them but he insisted on digging them up 🤪
Another fox attack before dark, this is fast becoming unsustainable 🙄 it is just going over the electric fence and straight in, I might consider a solar powered radio to see if that keeps them away.
Friday: Planting up more veg outside and trying to get this whole forest garden thing going. I am going to try growing cucumbers and loofah up and over using the fruit cage as a top support, we will see how that pans out but it will give me the height of a ‘forest’ and therefore the shade beneath, normally I let the cucumbers just sprawl on the ground so this might be a better way.
We had Josh for a couple of hours in the afternoon and took him back at teatime and stayed for something to eat with them.
When we got back we had two jobs to do, move the hens in the stable to the back paddock and dispatch the two cockerels who have become savage and I can’t risk that with the grandchildren. We used the new plucking machine, need a bit more practice with that as it certainly wasn’t a ‘clean’ pluck, it seems I need to scald the carcass first for it to be quick and featherless. While we were carrying the machine outside I looked across to the back paddock and spotted a fox, so down tools and chase that off, back to plucking and inbetween crate up the hens to move to the back. By the time we finished it was late and time for bed lol.
John saw a baby deer out in the big paddock on its own, but it was gone by the time I got there.
Saturday: Up and about and the first job was to water the plants I put in yesterday as I didn’t get round to it and the forecast rain hasn’t materialised, put the washing on, clean the ducklings and chicks out, have breakfast and then John got up 😜 He did the birds while I processed the chicken carcasses, they were quite narrow which makes it difficult to eviscerate so I spatchcocked one and filleted and jointed the other one. After that we went out to the side paddock to move the hut and the electric poultry netting, we have bought it up closer to the veg garden in the hopes of detering the fox plus it gives the hens clean ground to scratch about on.
An afternoon visit to a local plant nursery 😀 picked up a couple of plants and forgot to get the compost so called into B&Q and picked up a couple more from the plant graveyard lol, a patio rose for £3.50 and a couple of good sized ground cover plants for £1 each 😁 the first thing I did when I got back was to divide them and repot, lots of plants for next to no money 😀😀
Sunday: The weather is still good, warm enough and the sun not too strong just how I like it. I planted 100 freesia bulbs, bit late going in but I wasn’t sure where I was going to put them and I needed the compost we got yesterday to improve the place I eventually decided to plant them. I edged the lawn area and tided stuff away, always something to put away, I planted up a hanging basket with some small plants I have been growing and a dwarf bean for good measure. John has been busy moving wood from one place to another 🙄 to be fair it was wood cut up a couple of years ago and the area it was in gets wet so now it’s in the dry.
We decided as it was a nice day we would pop down to the local pub for a bite to eat and a drink, roast beef was on the menu so that’s what we had and a lovely sticky toffee pudding, delish. Obviously after that comes the afternoon nap 😝 then I cut the lawn as it looked like it was going to rain and yep it did, not quite enough though, just a wetting.
We have had some amazing sunsets and moonlit nights this week
And I have a last gotten to grips with planting with the moon phases so hopefully the plants I have been putting in will benefit greatly and put on good growth, the jury will remain out on that one, I think you need a few seasons experience to be sure if it is working or not.
frieslandfarm (flowers) 