6th October...Autumn is here...
Autumn is here - very wet and windy this week! Our bench (at the front of the house) will not stay upright, and one day I found it halfway down the bank. The wind and rain mean inside jobs! I've been in the loft - insulating it. It's 140m2, and involves taking the boards up (some take 15mins or more because of so many nails), then laying 200mm of insulation, then a spaceboard (polystyrene worth 100mm), then re-boarding it. I reckon this job will take me 30 years. I found some money today for the 1st time - a coin much larger than a 2p piece; an old 1p.
Turkeys doing ok. They went free-range after a week or so, and generally understand that they should stay in the orchard (top paddock). But, I do spend some days chasing them about and yesterday broke our broom doing it! Generally entertaining the walkers as they go by.
The orchard is about to grow in meaning - Mum has just ordered our 40th birthday present: trees. Includes sweet chestnut, hazel (a cob and a filbert), a cherry and another apple.
Chain-sawing goes on and on. Then splitting and sawing. My favourite jobs! Almost finished clearing the 13 trees we had down, and stacking them in the bottom paddock. And the wood bins (at the house) are very nearly full.
The plum harvest is over, and the apple harvest went far too quickly. A handful of cookers only, but some tasty eaters; something like a cox.
Veg garden doing well - winter cabbages, spinach and garlic planted up. Harvesting seeds from courgettes and beans. Eating lots of greens! And reds (tomatoes and chillies).
But it's not all a bed of purple sprouting... it really v hard today, including a 20 minute hailstorm. One drainpipe did not cope and the guest bathroom flooded. And the floor is rising mysteriously in the lounge.
But its almost time for the Archers; taken (as it's now Autumn) in the lounge in front of the log burner. They have decided to imitate an ongoing Ellson saga by introducing a community orchard!
Sarah goes to work, but still volunteers to get up half an hour earlier (ie at 6am, sometimes even earlier) to help plum processing, feeding turkeys, weeding the rose garden (just finished our 3rd major weed and mulch this year!) or generally enjoying the mayhem that is our smallholding!
I almost forgot the Hayfield Sheepdog Trials and Show which we went to with Lizzy & Sam, Jack and Joe. Sarah was picked up by the world's 5th strongest man. I'm not suggesting that she needs to go on a diet; he used his teeth (see photo)!
Turkeys doing ok. They went free-range after a week or so, and generally understand that they should stay in the orchard (top paddock). But, I do spend some days chasing them about and yesterday broke our broom doing it! Generally entertaining the walkers as they go by.
The orchard is about to grow in meaning - Mum has just ordered our 40th birthday present: trees. Includes sweet chestnut, hazel (a cob and a filbert), a cherry and another apple.
Chain-sawing goes on and on. Then splitting and sawing. My favourite jobs! Almost finished clearing the 13 trees we had down, and stacking them in the bottom paddock. And the wood bins (at the house) are very nearly full.
The plum harvest is over, and the apple harvest went far too quickly. A handful of cookers only, but some tasty eaters; something like a cox.
Veg garden doing well - winter cabbages, spinach and garlic planted up. Harvesting seeds from courgettes and beans. Eating lots of greens! And reds (tomatoes and chillies).
But it's not all a bed of purple sprouting... it really v hard today, including a 20 minute hailstorm. One drainpipe did not cope and the guest bathroom flooded. And the floor is rising mysteriously in the lounge.
But its almost time for the Archers; taken (as it's now Autumn) in the lounge in front of the log burner. They have decided to imitate an ongoing Ellson saga by introducing a community orchard!
Sarah goes to work, but still volunteers to get up half an hour earlier (ie at 6am, sometimes even earlier) to help plum processing, feeding turkeys, weeding the rose garden (just finished our 3rd major weed and mulch this year!) or generally enjoying the mayhem that is our smallholding!
I almost forgot the Hayfield Sheepdog Trials and Show which we went to with Lizzy & Sam, Jack and Joe. Sarah was picked up by the world's 5th strongest man. I'm not suggesting that she needs to go on a diet; he used his teeth (see photo)!
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