What's in the box?

Strange creature in our yard

How does that work?

Chicken tricking

Chicken training

Funny things.

Follow me chickens

Kinda cute but sometimes really annoying

Chicken recall

Let's do the chicken hop

Jam and a celebration

Last year I made raseberry and plum jam. It was the best.

This year the plums all got frosted and the raseberries have been discovered by the birds.

So it was great timing when I discovered huge blackberries. Normally there are sheep in that field, but not this year!

Blackberry and apply jam used to be my favorite so, time to see if it still is, or if plum and raseberry keeps the top slot.

Chopped up and ready to go

Nearly done 

Done. Do I win the prize for the most eclectic jar collection?

And the celebration? Over 1000 views. It seems someone other than me is reading my drivel 😉

Chopping and stacking firewood

An unexciting, but very necessary task, is the constant replenishment of firewood.

We have a lot of wood stacked around the place from two collapsed buildings. It's time some of it was sorted out and made useable.

This is last year's firewood pile; A half used, untidy mess, threatening to collapse forward.

This is a stack of broken or partly rotten wood that's good for nothing except burning. Last week, this stack was twice the size it is now. This stack stands at the end of the firewood pile and it just seemed and ideal opportunity to sort them out together.

So, the first step, last week, was to start sawing it into useable fireplace length "logs". Here's the mound that was created. Why us it that tidying jobs always make things untidier first?

And here's the next lot ready to be cut. It's stacked so that a chainsaw can chomp thru lots of long thin pieces of wood in one go.

Here's the resulting cleared area between the wood pile and the stack. All ready for restacking. 

It's growing...

Yep, it's mostly small sh###y stuff that won't be the most efficient for heating, but it'll burn, it's got to go somewhere, so it might as well gives us some heat while it does.

Move chop stack, move chop stack. Not the most exciting job on the farm.

Garden wonder

Last year my veg growing was abnormally sucessfull (for me).

I put it down to great growing weather.

This year my veg growing has surpassed itself again.

Not in volume - there's only two of us,

But in quality and consistency.

For a first attempt at onions, you can't argue with these.

And for a first attempt at cabbage, this is a healthy looking row.

The sweet potato patch is a riot of green:

The standard potatoes are bigger than last year

And chillies, marrows, tomatoes and sweet bell peppers are coming along nicely.

Courgettes, water melon, leeks, carrots and cucumbers have also been productive.

I think we must be exceedingly lucky in our soil.

The birds have discovered the raseberries, so although the plants are bigger and better, I'm not getting any more than before. And with tha late frost getting the plums, I'm going to have to do without plum and raseberry jam this year. But I've made a date with a huge bush of blackberries up the hill.

Sweet corn never put in an appearance, which will be disappointing for the chickens (who love them)

But hopefully they will be mollified by the insanity of the sunflower patch.

Talking if chicken food, our neighbour gave us a bucket of corn. What do you think? Feed it to the chickens now or grow it next year for never ending chicken food?

Want to know how mulching worked out? Watch this space.....

Enjoy your week.