Just a quick reminder free seed season starts soon. We have just had our first packed of free parsnip seeds in the post, they arrived with the new DT Brown's catalogue http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/
Keep an eye on the freebie section of Money Saver Expert forums for any free seed deals and watch my blog I will link them as I see them so we can all becomes as self sufficient as cheaply as we can.
I hope you are saving your egg cartons and toilet rolls ready to use with your seeds, this saves you money on seed trays.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Frozen pond
Hello all
Well another lovely looking day today, until you step foot outside the door that is. I went to do my morning rounds and I swear I nearly lost my toes it was so cold. Ok I am exaggerating slightly but it was cold. he ground has gone from mud soup to over frozen ice cream overnight. Its great! I can walk without falling face first and my boots do not need to be fished out of my previously ever growing mud swamp.
Well today was clean out the ducks and chickens day. I was mucking out and throwing more of the waste over me than in the wheelbarrow. I got there in the end though and they now have nice fresh hemp/woodshavings/straw floors. The ducks are very happy but the chickens have decided to try and scratch as much of it out as possible. My animals really have it in for me.
No eggs from the ducks today but I did have 2 chicken eggs this morning. Hopefully that is the start of them laying properly again (I keep saying that, it might come true). The guineafowl were going to have their light turned off today but it was so cold I have decided to let them keep it another week. I am such a soft touch.
Anyway that is all for today, stay tuned for more madness!
Well another lovely looking day today, until you step foot outside the door that is. I went to do my morning rounds and I swear I nearly lost my toes it was so cold. Ok I am exaggerating slightly but it was cold. he ground has gone from mud soup to over frozen ice cream overnight. Its great! I can walk without falling face first and my boots do not need to be fished out of my previously ever growing mud swamp.
Well today was clean out the ducks and chickens day. I was mucking out and throwing more of the waste over me than in the wheelbarrow. I got there in the end though and they now have nice fresh hemp/woodshavings/straw floors. The ducks are very happy but the chickens have decided to try and scratch as much of it out as possible. My animals really have it in for me.
No eggs from the ducks today but I did have 2 chicken eggs this morning. Hopefully that is the start of them laying properly again (I keep saying that, it might come true). The guineafowl were going to have their light turned off today but it was so cold I have decided to let them keep it another week. I am such a soft touch.
Anyway that is all for today, stay tuned for more madness!
Monday, 30 January 2012
Rain Rain or is that Snow Snow
Well another day another mud battle. We had a dryish week and I thought yes! I am going to get some of the bog dried up, but no the heavens started falling again yesterday and another day of wading through mud.
Anyway in other news, a new polytunnel went up which means we will have more early veg to eat...wooohhooooo. It looks great and I am so excited I just want to get in there and start digging.
Our chickens have now gone on strike, I am getting 1-2 eggs a day out of 22 chickens. I have thretened them with the pot but they all looked at me and went "yeah yeah we know your game, you always say that". It does not seem to have worked this time round.
Big dada Cayuga duck has started shooing my 2 male runners away, I think he is trying to get all the girls for himself. I love watching the head bobbing and dancing that goes on this time of year.
Anyway thats all for now, I shall sit here and watch the rain pour down my windows wishing it would stop.
Anyway in other news, a new polytunnel went up which means we will have more early veg to eat...wooohhooooo. It looks great and I am so excited I just want to get in there and start digging.
Our chickens have now gone on strike, I am getting 1-2 eggs a day out of 22 chickens. I have thretened them with the pot but they all looked at me and went "yeah yeah we know your game, you always say that". It does not seem to have worked this time round.
Big dada Cayuga duck has started shooing my 2 male runners away, I think he is trying to get all the girls for himself. I love watching the head bobbing and dancing that goes on this time of year.
Anyway thats all for now, I shall sit here and watch the rain pour down my windows wishing it would stop.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Strawberries, Strawberries Everywhere!
Well another day in the land of mud puddles and mad ducks.
We potted up 300 strawberry plants the other day all ready for the new season. They are already showing signs of life and new little leaves are popping out. They are all in the polytunnel and I must say it does look neat with rows of pots.
We did try to dig over some ground ready for the hardier plants but the ground was laughing at us and we gave up. Not before I went face first though. Men are there to help you when you fall face first not laugh at you while you struggle to stand and fight the mud for your welly back at the same time, not my man, he would rather laugh. Typical!
Duck the chicken is doing well. She is asleep next to me at the moment. I still do not know if she is a boy or girl but I am going to continue with my wishful thinking and call her a girl.
Well that is it for now, I hope you enjoyed reading.
We potted up 300 strawberry plants the other day all ready for the new season. They are already showing signs of life and new little leaves are popping out. They are all in the polytunnel and I must say it does look neat with rows of pots.
We did try to dig over some ground ready for the hardier plants but the ground was laughing at us and we gave up. Not before I went face first though. Men are there to help you when you fall face first not laugh at you while you struggle to stand and fight the mud for your welly back at the same time, not my man, he would rather laugh. Typical!
Duck the chicken is doing well. She is asleep next to me at the moment. I still do not know if she is a boy or girl but I am going to continue with my wishful thinking and call her a girl.
Well that is it for now, I hope you enjoyed reading.
Monday, 16 January 2012
Welcome to Bedlam
Welcome to my little corner of bedlam, you have joined us at a really good time of the year. We are in the process of preparing the ground and animals ready for spring.
This morning consisted of me chasing chickens around a small field trying to convince them their fenced off part of the smallholding is wonderful and no they really do not want to trample all over the scary mud that eats wellies. Did they listen? No! so now I have 22 chickens running around my field and I swear they are laughing at me, I keep hearing this very loud noise from them and it all goes quiet when I look in their direction. Maybe they are plotting their next great escape for tomorrow.
Anyway the boss man is going to make me a larger gate for their run and hopefully they might stay in tomorrow.
In other news I had a "duck" hatch 5 days ago, a lovely little thing except "she" was 7 days early and a chicken! thats right my duck egg hatched as a chicken. How lucky and I! This resulted in me running around for a while going "brooder brooder quick! I have a duck.............chicken, why do I have a chicken, it should be a duck". Her current name is duck and she is spending a lot of time in my pocket until the duck eggs that were incubated with her (please let these ones be ducks) hatch in another couple of days. I will keep you posted!
And here is the famous Duck the chicken
This morning consisted of me chasing chickens around a small field trying to convince them their fenced off part of the smallholding is wonderful and no they really do not want to trample all over the scary mud that eats wellies. Did they listen? No! so now I have 22 chickens running around my field and I swear they are laughing at me, I keep hearing this very loud noise from them and it all goes quiet when I look in their direction. Maybe they are plotting their next great escape for tomorrow.
Anyway the boss man is going to make me a larger gate for their run and hopefully they might stay in tomorrow.
In other news I had a "duck" hatch 5 days ago, a lovely little thing except "she" was 7 days early and a chicken! thats right my duck egg hatched as a chicken. How lucky and I! This resulted in me running around for a while going "brooder brooder quick! I have a duck.............chicken, why do I have a chicken, it should be a duck". Her current name is duck and she is spending a lot of time in my pocket until the duck eggs that were incubated with her (please let these ones be ducks) hatch in another couple of days. I will keep you posted!
And here is the famous Duck the chicken
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)