Country Shows and Hard Graft

A productive weekend - 13th and 14th August 

On Friday evening, I sat down with a glass of wine in the knowledge that I'd won the War on Weeds.  It may be temporary and there may be more wars to come, but I had managed it.  Here's a little glimpse of how the weeds had taken over the pathways, as well as the beds.

 

I concentrated on the beds as they contain food - the weeds would slow down the growth of the plants and that means less food for us.  So I had to prioritise.  The pathways were unsightly but as the weed seeds would spread from them, they were tackled too.  I've a video here closing the week out.

That freed us up on Saturday to be able to attend a Countryside show.  It was only a 20 minute drive from us.  £20 entry gave you access all day if you wanted, but as it wasn't huge and the rain started, we made a getaway after a few hours of enjoying the offerings.

We took little Rodney too - he had a fantastic time.

 

You can see the rain making its way over in the photos.  A moody sky but an enjoyable few hours.

Back home and there was a tonne of work waiting for us.  We have recently purchased a new multi purpose hedge trimmer come chainsaw, come brush cutter machine.  It's petrol powered and needs a strong hand behind it.  Thankfully Steven was on the job and we worked together, with me on clean up duty, to tidy up the hedges and trees.  It looks so much neater and pleasing to be around.

We did have a few teething problems with it, which I will contact the company about however for the most part, it's a great tool to add to the collection.

After a lot of work, I took the opportunity to have a sit down and cuddle with Annie.  That face!

Light at the end of the Weedy Tunnel

A beautiful week

We have had spectacular sun rises this week.  It's so nice to have typical summer weather instead of the downpours of July and early August.  I had to dash outside to capture this one early one morning.

The evenings this week have been taken up by the War on Weeds.  I'm taking it methodically, a bed and associated pathway at a time.  I've had help for some of it which has been fabulous.  This week, everyone has their designated areas of work on the smallholding so it's not as if everyone else has been sat with their feet up, so I appreciate the help where I can get it.

From each bed that I am waging war with the weeds on, I have been trying to harvest food at the same time.  We have to get something from it all, right?  Above is the before photo on the bean bed and below shows the beans I picked for a mid week supper.

 

I'm actually REALLY enjoying it.

 

An evening of Nettles, Weeds and a Chicken Loss

Tuesday, 8th August

Another day of the paid job followed by a busy evening outside.  Whilst I set about gathering some veg for tea, Steven used a pair of jump leads he has just bought to get the ride on started.  It needs a new battery but this was good enough for what he had planned.  Cheaper too!

 

 

The beetroot (Detroit Dark Red) was absolutely fantastic.  I made a sausage tray bake, one of my favourite meals which can be adapted at any time of the year to what's in season. 

The job for the evening on my plate was weeding another 2 beds, pathways etc to complete the Veg Garden as we call it.  

Here you can see pictures 1 and 2 showing the before and after for the Winter beetroot bed.  At the back of it, there's space for more seeds which will be spinach and radish I think.  However when I went to get my seed packets, I realised I needed more time than I had so I cracked on and weeded bed 3 which you can see here.  This one has the bush tomatoes, leeks, tomatillos and coriander in it that is flowering.  I will sow something else there.  Maybe flowers as no veg grows that well in the shaded corner.

 

Sadly, during the course of the night, we noticed a hen wasn't well.  Grace brought her to the veg garden where she kept her comfortable until she sadly passed away a short time later.

 

Steven worked tirelessly on the nettles that run alongside the car park area, meaning you can actually see through the fence as in this photo, which I took half way through his task.  When I went to see how he was getting on, I noticed the hazelnuts are coming on nicely.

Should you be interested, the night is also documented on  YouTube.

Prioritising jobs and evening pottering

Monday, 7th August 2023 - evening.

With all of the rain that we have had, I haven't been able to get in to the garden as much as I would have liked.  I did a video about it on YouTube.  It can feel overwhelming when the weeds take over so I have committed to a plan to do a bed at a time every night after work, until it is completed.

 

The bed above has beetroot, kale, onions from seed and courgettes in it.  It also has this thriving patch of flat leaf parsley which I am very impressed with and will be sowing much more.  I remember Daniel from "Mossy Bottom" on YouTube saying there's a wealth of recipes you can do with parsley and I would like to explore more.

Below is the second big bed I tackled in my follow on video which was last night, Monday.  It felt very good to get this one done.  I have half a bed of carrots which haven't been covered so I hope they are not bothered by carrot fly.  Where there were gaps in the later sown ones, I have sown more.  It's a bit late for carrots but you never know.

In between weeding, I popped in to make tea as we call it here.  Supper, our evening meal.  I'm making a big effort to utilise only what we have grown here, with as minimal extra as possible.  Tomatoes and onions were the base to a tasty "hash" as I call it.  I need a new name for that kind of meal, as the kids visibly recoil when I say it is hash 😂

 

Steven has a lot on his To Do list right now.  Maintenance of the outside space including both buildings and the land is a full time job.  Be it repairs, new animal accommodation, overgrown bushes or his wife asking for a new polytunnel ;)

  

The hedge had a quick cut back as it whipped you in the face every time you went by.  It needs doing on the top too, but this is a temporary measure as we didn't have the ladders to hand.  Much safer to walk by.  

Steven has given in and ordered a new brush cutter which has extendable poles on it - I'm not sure how that will work but I'll share once we have it as there's so much needs taking down around the land, nettles, thistles and more.

Above he has also cleared the pathway to the ducks, which he was able to do with the hand push lawn mower, so you don't get stung on the butt every time you walk by with bucket of food.

Finally, we headed to the field and weighed the pigs.  You do this by measuring the girth and the length and performing a calculation on it.  It's in an upcoming video.

He also inspected other jobs that are on the list, such as fence repairs.  These kind of things are lower priority, unless they pose an immediate risk.  Knowing what needs doing first helps form the plans for the evenings and weekends, especially now the rain has stopped for a while.

 

The sky was still moody, but thankfully kept it to itself.  We had a lovely night, pottering with other jobs once we had walked the field.  

Store Room Project

Butler's pantry?  The scullery.  Outdoor larder?  

I do love the old fashioned names.  When we visit places like Raby Castle, just down the road from us, I spend most of my time in the stately home's kitchen and associated rooms.  So when we decided to create our own space, I was very excited.

Originally, as we were replacing the house kitchen, we moved the kitchen cabinets to the outdoor store room.  Fondly referred to as "Stores", it created a good space for garden harvests and kitchen equipment such as the pressure canner and so on.

We've now embarked on phase 2 of this project, which sees us aligning the store room to what we have done in the outdoor kitchen and bar area.

Steven will be replacing the cupboards with open shelving, namely scaffy boards and pallets.  This will finish off the design of the outdoor space and we will continue to add special touches in the months and years to come as we visit antique shops and more.
 

Early August - things can only get better?

July has been a difficult month, weather wise. 

The balance between work and weeds hasn't existed. We had a relaxing break abroad during the first week or so and since we came back, it feels like it has rained since! There has been some spectacular storms, one of which I caught on camera when working outside however the camera did not do the noise of the thunder any justice. I described it to Steven as "end of the world loud"!  Of course he rolled his eyes to that.

There are some wins to celebrate. We have harvested onions and garlic which have turned out excellent. There are not enough onions by anyone's imagination but there may be enough garlic – for a year that is.

 

  

You can always rely on the rhubarb to come good and I've lots preserved for the Winter, which lots more in the freezer.  Strawberries were short and sweet, a disappointing harvest. Raspberries are still coming though we haven't had many yet due to the haircut I gave them earlier in the year. Gooseberries were fantastic and are in the freezer awaiting their purpose in life. The 3 colours of are in there currants too.

  

The greenhouse and polytunnel are looking great as I have managed to get in and tidy up the jungle. We do however have a caterpillar infestation in the greenhouse, so I have invested in some BT and a new spray bottle to combat them ahead of the Winter planting. They have completely decimated the brassicas I had in there which were looking so healthy, a real demotivator if I am honest.

 

As I type this, I realise we have had a lot of wins despite the current state of the plot. The weeds are raging, though it’s not just in the veg beds, they aren’t actually too bad. It’s the pathways and hedges. Everything is looking very untidy and unloved and that makes us sad.

Rather than avoid the problem, I’m making a plan to tackle it. Sounds obvious but starting at the beginning, with what you see as soon as you walk in to the plot and work through to the back. After all, you don’t want to be put off and lose your motivation the moment you go out there, do you?

So let’s do this together and make a plan. I’m going to walk around (the whole smallholding, not just the plot) and make a list of things that need doing first to help not feel overwhelmed. If there’s a list to work to, I can tick things off and see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Once the big things are noted and done, I can hopefully get the veg patch back in to maintenance mode which is where I got to before the holiday.

I'm going to grab the camera tonight and share it on YouTube.

Productive Evenings - Greenhouse Design & Getting Tidied

The weather has been crazy hot after a very slow and cold start to the year.  We've seen in the longest day/shortest night now that we're officially in to summer.  The evenings are long and not much cooler than the day time however we have so much to do that needs must.

Steven has been busy clearing the space at the back of the greenhouse.  This is a climbing plant, not sure what variety, that takes over very quickly.  It's stopping a lot of light in the back corner of the greenhouse so clearing it will offer big benefits.  The sun was going down as he finished the task and it was a beautiful night.  

Over the last week, we have worked very hard to get the greenhouse in to a place we are happy with.  Up until now, we have used pots in there every year to grow tomatoes and so on.  This is very time consuming for watering and things quicky dry out.  We've cleared the back greenhouse out and have put raised beds in there - much easier for watering so I hope for a bountiful crop this year!

The contents of the greenhouse were moved to the shed, to tidy at a later date.  Something I've been putting off!  I've finally got round to clearing it out and I am so pleased that it is a useable space again.  I hated not being able to use it, almost as much as tidying it out!

We finally then got some rain.  It didn't last long, but it certainly let itself be known when it was here.  The pigs will make short work of their new ground now it's a bit wet again.