Autumn has officially begun, and with it has come a sudden drop in temperatures, and a distinctly different feel to the morning air. I love this time of year. The cooler nights bring blessed relief from the baking heat of summer, and we can actually get some work done, instead of hiding from the heat during the day. After the…
Author: Joe
What to make with a whole pig – year 2
This post is a follow up from our first butchery attempts. We learned loads in that first year, and we’ve tried to learn from our mistakes, got better with our recipes and tried a few new things. The first thing we’ve done differently this year has been the timing. Last year it was still really warm in November when we…
A mini break in Trojan
Almost two years and one month to the day since Julie and I started work on this house, we have finally decided that we need a holiday š® A last minute trawl around booking.com, and confirmation from a friend that she can come and house-sit, and we’re off to visit Chiflik, a small village in the hills above Trojan. So…
Gonna eat a lot of peaches
This post is for Michael, you know who you are! Well, we’ve moved to the country, and this year we’re sure going to eat a lot of peaches! We spent a very pleasant day yesterday with our friend, Ivan, preserving his year’s peach harvest, making 42 large jars of peaches in a thin syrup, ready for winter. It started off…
Improving the soil with manures
The transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest pre-occupation of man. man being the chosen alloy, he must be reconnectedāvia shit, at all cost Patti Smith, “25th Floor” from the album “Easter”, 1978 And so it is here on our smallholding. A huge amount of our time seems to be being spent collecting, storing, turning and finally distributing manure and…
A very different May/June
After a lovely start to this year, May and June have had awful weather. Mostly dry, but with huge thunderstorms. It’s been so wet that most of our soft fruit crops have been lost to moulds, and those that have survived are pretty tasteless. So this year we have barely any greengages, strawberries, or cherries. On the plus side,mulberries have…
Ducklings – here’s peeping at you!
We got our first ducklings today. Fifteen of them, just ten days old, and very excited about all the new things they’ve encountered today!
We’ve got them living in a large cage until the chickens get used to them, then they will haveĀ a cosy house to live in. We also want them to get a bit bigger, so the cat isn’t as tempted to try a tasty duckling snack!
Julie and our helper Michael have been busy digging a pond for them to live in, which we hope to have finished by next week. In the meantime, they are getting to play in water under our supervision. Here’s one getting dried off after his swim!
They are eating and drinking well, getting through 2 1/2 litres or water this afternoon, but I guess they have been pretty stressed.
Gathering bees in May
It has long been an ambition of ours to eventually keep bees, but we hadn’t quite anticipated that it would be this year! We’ve spent winter swotting up on bee keeping with two books we got from a friend; Collins Beekeeper’s Bible and The Complete & Easy Guide to Beekeeping. The Collins one has been great, with loads of information,…