Blog – Page 15 – Small Plot, Big Ideas

Re-homing for Christmas

I’d spotted that the British Hen Welfare Trust had some hens to re-home in our area and last Saturday was collection day. I’d been considering doing this earlier in the year and decided against it but now the time was right – particularly given that our existing flock haven’t laid any eggs for quite some time!

Following the instructions provided, a cardboard box was quickly adapted and after the short journey they all arrived safely in their makeshift chicken transport. A little ragged right now perhaps but they’ll hopefully soon get back to full fitness.

These hens were intended to provide some company for our solitary remaining “pet” hen – Adele – who has had separate quarters ever since an incident with our other white chickens which resulted in losing the use of one eye. She has been quite happy sleeping in a coop on her own and during the day she will simply hop over the stone wall to visit the other chickens when she feels like it.

The new hens soon found the layers pellets and were eagerly tucking in but I’m not sure their company is as welcome as we’d hoped. There has been a few instances of pecking and a little blood drawn but nothing unexpected. Mostly I find that Adele wanders off on her own and ignores them a lot of the time!

My master plan seems to be working though and after just two days they must be settling in well because they’ve come up with the goods already. That is a life saver as we needed some eggs for Christmas morning and I couldn’t bear the thought of buying some when we’ve got so many other hens!

Freshly laid eggs! — Happiness is a freshly laid egg!

Making plans for 2015

Since the second half of 2014 has been disrupted by the day job and other distractions, it’s gratifying to now make a start on plans for next year. There are so many ideas and possibilities that it can sometimes lead to a sense of paralysis if I’m not careful.

Here is a rundown on the most likely possibilities for next year but I provide no guarantee that any or all of these will actually happen – that’s the beauty of planning ahead, there’s plenty of time to change my mind!

Pigs

After some memorable experiences raising two sets of weaners since the middle of 2013, the next step for us is to get a couple of gilts with a view to using them as breeding sows. These might also be accompanied by a couple of weaners just to provide some more pork for later this year.

The theory goes that if we raise the breeding sows from a young age then we should be completely at ease with them (and vice versa of course!) when they reach maturity. A full size adult pig will be a new experience for us so I hope they will be at least slightly friendly by then!

Cattle

New for 2015 will be a limited and hopefully gentle introduction to keeping cattle. The plan is to get a Dexter cow and calf but that depends on the available stock from local breeders as we’d rather buy privately and fairly local if possible.

I’m still not convinced that I will be able to look a calf in the eyes and then still take it to slaughter when the time comes but there’s probably only one way to find that out for sure!

Growing

The plans for vegetable growing during 2015 are coming together slowly but surely. There was a brief moment when the idea of getting a polytunnel was seriously considered but that is probably not a good idea just yet. I have to recognise that there is only limited spare time with all the other activities planned around the day job.

The emphasis this year will be on increased quantities but from a more limited range of varieties. I’m particularly interested to investigate ways for storing the harvest either through freezing, drying or simply packing away in a cool, dry place.

Machinery and Equipment

Of course introducing larger livestock will mean much more heavy work is needed so that could prove to be the tipping point to convince me to get a compact tractor. Perhaps even a brand new Siromer if I can find the money – at least getting a new one should mean that it lasts for years

Obviously the tractor will need all the usual attachments – whatever they are – so I foresee many happy hours browsing the websites looking for bargains!

New Year, New Opportunities

There’s a lot to think about and lots of money to be spent if all plans go ahead so it’s definitely wise to do some proper planning before going ahead.

Finding the balance between planning things and doing things is not as easy as I first thought but I like to think that I’m getting better at it over time.

Running repairs to a chicken house

For several weeks now, the roof on the original chicken house has looked the worse for wear. As far as I can tell this is partly down to the passing years but I suspect it’s not helped by bored crows pecking at it while waiting to pinch any spare chicken food.

Finally I got organised to buy some more roofing felt as the remaining amount on the roll we had was really not going to be enough to complete the job. There were plenty of roofing tacks/nails left from a similar job on a storage shed from earlier this year so now there were no other excuses left for me to use.

Partially stripped and very tatty chicken house roof — Partially stripped and very tatty

Taking advantage of the cold but generally good weather it didn’t take long to get the job done. This is especially sobering when I consider how long it’s taken me to actually get around to it.

This is not necessarily to a truly professional standard but I think that it’s certainly good enough for those lazy chickens because they aren’t laying any eggs at the moment!

Finally finished the new roof before the daylight fades — Finally finished before the daylight fades

Unfortunately the tidying up efforts were slowed considerably when I dropped the half full container of roofing tacks. It turned out to be a very fiddly job picking up the nails when they’re mixed in with the damp grass and crusty chicken muck!

Let’s hear it for wonky veg

Why should your carrots all look the same shape or colour? I grew purple carrots last year and they tasted just fine but I still prefer the orange ones for some reason… Whatever the colour they never grow as straight as you see them in the shops

Why should a parsnip be straight and pointy? This year is my first attempt with parsnips and I was quite impressed with this first one. Very tasty and really easy to grow once you can get the seeds to germinate!

Do all swedes have to be round and look the same? Another relative success story in my first year with growing them. Why would I be bothered what shape they are if I’m going to boil and mash them?

So let’s hear it for home-grown, wonky veg …

There's nothing wrong with wonky! — There’s nothing wrong with wonky!

New neighbours soon?

Having been given a very nice nest box some weeks ago, the local owl population have made quite a fuss lately because I hadn’t got around to putting it up. This was finally done last weekend and the results look quite good.

A suitable tree was picked out which wasn’t too close to the buildings and (with the aid of a ladder) I soon proved that you’re never too old to climb a tree!

I had hoped to put this up with absolutely no damage to the tree at all but this was not to be.

My original idea was to run some strong wire through a length of old garden hose around the tree trunk to hold it in place while also resting the nest box on a handy protrusion. Unfortunately once I’d done this it soon became clear that no sane owl would move into such a wobbly house and remedial measures were called for.

You can fix quite a lot of things with a hammer and a few nails!

Where did September go?

Almost without my noticing, the time has just shot by with no blog updates for quite some time. The various demands of the day job and the associated travel have become more of a priority. On top of that, more time is needed to process the pork from our pigs into bacon and sausage then distribute the results to friends and family.

It’s already October and autumn is well underway – at least it is in our part of the world. The success from the relatively small collection of leaves last year has provided some lovely leaf mould so there are plans to increase these efforts this year.

Given the lack of updates recently, this seemed a good time to bring together a few pictures to illustrate the recent results of this years growing season.

The purple podded peas proved to be very productive but for some reason the dwarf beans didn’t do as well as last year. The leeks and carrots were slow to get established but the beetroot performed well as usual. The biggest surprise for me – apart from the crop from the existing strawberry plants – was the swede which I grew for the first time this year. It’s doing very well and proving to be very tasty!

There are hopes for more to come over the next few weeks particularly from the new raised beds. But it won’t be long before thoughts will have to turn to planning for next year!

Spending some time in the woods

After many weeks of procrastination eventually I decided to crack on with a couple of jobs in the woods. It was a nice weekend which helped but mostly I was starting to get bored with my own excuses for not making a start.

Tree felling

For some time now, one of the pine trees in the woods has been leaning at a precarious angle. However There didn’t seem to be any real risk of it falling on its own because it was propped against another tree.

Finally the time had come to deal with it, partly for safety but also because I’ve had a plan forming which will use that part of the woods for pigs in the future.

It didn’t seem sensible to put in new fencing when I knew that eventually the tree would have to come down. Knowing my luck, it would probably have fallen on the new fencing just after it had been finished!

I had hoped that once the trunk was cut, the sheer weight of the tree would dislodge it from the supporting tree. Unfortunately that didn’t happen but using some spare rope and a little ingenuity I was able to dislodge it with only a couple of blisters to show for the effort.

Now all I need is to get organised with chopping and splitting the wood into logs ready for storing in the wood shed.

Home-made Bench

Having recently had the electricity poles changed in our area, I made sure to keep the old one that was replaced on our land. Some of it has been kept for possible future use as gate posts but I set aside a bit to knock up a simple bench to put in the woods.

It may not look very fancy but I’m pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results. Especially given the fact that despite having only just installed it in the woods, it looks like it has been there for some time.

The pigs are ready and I think I am too

The traumatic exercise of ear tagging has been dealt with this morning. Although if I’m honest it was only traumatic for me in the end as the pigs barely noticed it.

All the necessary paperwork in in place and the movement has been registered through the relevant website. I mustn’t forget to take a paper copy with me though.

The trailer has been readied and loaded with straw for the journey. I’ve not had enough practice with reversing it as usual but I’m sure it’ll be alright. I even managed a dry run with one of the pigs so we know that loading shouldn’t be a problem.

We’ve managed to arranged things so that we finished the last bag of pig food today as well so there’s none going to waste. We still have something to put in the bucket to help entice the pigs into the trailer if they won’t go in of their own accord.

There was just one last job this evening but now the final weigh-in has been completed and the results are in…

2legs
1.08 * 1.02 ^2 * 69.3 = 77.9kg

Lefty
1.06 * 1.04 ^2 * 69.3 = 79.5

Righty
1.07 * 1.0 ^2 * 69.3 = 74.2kg

The first pair of weaners differed in weight by 10kg or more but this time all 3 seem to be much more evenly matched. A little harder to photograph perhaps as they didn’t want to stop moving for their picture to be taken. They were either following me around too closely or chasing each other.

The larger one last time was around 80kg so they appear to be about right on schedule given the rough estimated weight. I had hoped to book them in a week later but the abattoir was too busy on that date so it’s lucky that they’re at a reasonable weight.

As a parting gift, here is a short video clip from a few weeks ago which shows how entertaining they can be… Despite the fact they sneak up behind you when you least expect it!

General summer update

After some poor early results the new raised beds are looking a little more respectable these days. There has been a surprisingly low success rate with some of the seeds I’ve planted which has meant some extra later planting to fill in the gaps.

This is a little annoying but I enjoy sowing seeds so it’s been good to get some seeds in while there is still time left this year.

There were some small instances of problems with chickens, birds and other wildlife helping themselves but that wasn’t the biggest issue for me.

I still haven’t decided whether the seed company I used this year are to blame for dodgy seeds or if the problem is with the “dumpy” bags of compost I had delivered to fill these new raised beds.

My suspicions are that the bulk compost prices are a false economy and this is supported by the fact that a fair percentage of the seeds do germinate.

Courgettes and peas

After a promisingly organised start to the year I’ve realised that lolly sticks are just not up to the job of labelling where seeds have been sown. The writing gets dirty or fades too quickly so for a while I was left with small squash and courgette plants but no way for a beginner like me to tell them apart.

Luckily as the plants get bigger the difference becomes more obvious but I’ve learnt that lesson now. I recently bought some proper black plant labels which come with a white pen – just like the professionals! I’ve been very impressed with the prompt delivery from Harrod Horticulture but I’m not sure they are always the cheapest for everything.

It seems that peas do well here but the results would have been even more impressive if I had spaced the plants out a little more and provided some better support while they were growing. This variety has purple pods which I really like as it helps with finding and picking them when the time is right.

The pod may be purple but don’t worry inside the peas are green just like normal…

Sweetcorn

And last but not least, the sweetcorn is looking quite good at the moment. If I’m honest though this is the only plant which is this advanced!

Hedgehog rescue

There are 3 raised beds in a corner of the garden which were already in place when we moved to the house. This year I’ve just put a few squash or courgette plants in there and left them to their own devices other than the occasion weeding or watering.

This morning I happened to check that area and found what I initially took to be a dead hedgehog caught in the protective netting which was intended to keep the sneaky chickens off the beds.

Luckily on closer examination I found that the hedgehog was still alive so I set about untangling the netting which quickly proved to be almost impossible. Eventually some careful snipping with scissors was needed but in the end the hedgehog was free to wander off again.

There’s no such thing as a dull moment in this place…