the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Blackberries and black bunnies

There's not much better in this life than getting something for nothing, and at this time of year that something is brambles, or wild blackberries. Yesterday morning while walking the dogs I noticed that this year's crop was starting to ripen and ready for picking, so this morning, armed with a suitable container, the dogs and I set off to forage along the field margins. We filled the tub with ripe fruit, and tonight it will join our windfalls in an apple and blackberry crumble.

It means for the next couple of weeks the dogs won't get their usual walk, but neither of them seem to mind much. Meg brings her tennis ball along, and as long as it's thrown or kicked every 5 minutes or so she's happy. And given our local rabbit situation Tess is in her element, sniffing, watching and chasing (but never quite catching).

There's one bunny that gives Tess the willies though - a wee, jet black chappie (or chappess) who shows a lot less fear than the rest of the warren. Who knows where it came from - an escapee from a garden perhaps? Tomorrow I'll take my camera with me to see if I can catch the wee blighter on film. Not quite the Beast of Bodmin Moor...

Poor Homer

We've had a bit of a scare with Homer this weekend. For those who don't know Homer's background, we rehomed him from the Cat Protection League in December 2003. He was very depressed in the shelter, had been a stray a long time and was very nervous of people. He was "10 plus" years old then and shortly after we got hime, he was diagnosed with FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). He's come on great since then - he used to live under the bed in the guest room, but now he's comparatively sociable and will sit on the sofa with you and get a stroke.

Anyway, I noticed towards the end of last week that he seemed to be drinking a lot and seemed a bit off colour. I took him to the vet on Friday and his first reaction was that Homer had a tumour on his kidney, which was hugely enlarged. I was in bits. When we got him, we knew we probably wouldn't have him long but it was very upsetting just the same. Anyway, Homer was kept in for tests and an X-ray. Dan and I discusssed what we might do and decided that we would not have him operated on. If it was a tumour, and he was in pain, then we would have him put to sleep, at home.

However, all was not as bad as it first seemed. Homer is in chronic renal failure. This is the most common cause of death in old cats - if a road accident or other disease doesn't get them, the kidneys will be the organ to pack in. He's been on a drip and medication all weekend and he's now home and looking pretty good. He's got a special diet and pills that he will have to take for the rest of his life. The nurse said she knew he was getting better when he started hissing at her when she went into the room.

We've taken his bandage off tonight, where the IV drip was. The pill giving will be fun, although it might do Homer good to be handled. In retrospect, maybe we should have forced the issue more, in preparation for this. Who knows?

So we will be taking each day as it comes. We'll be watching his condition carefully - any deterioration, and he'll be back to the vet pronto. As long as his quality of life seems fine, we're happy.

I've even lit the fire for him tonight, as a little treat. He deserves it.

Windfalls

3 years after planting, our orchard is finally bearing fruit this year. Last year I rubbed the blossom fairly ruthlessly, allowing the trees to put more energy into growth and less into the intensive process of creating fruit. This year I was more circumspect, since a good few of the trees are now well-established and should support a small crop. The Victoria plum produced a grand total of four plums, but they were very tasty!

It's a wee bit early to be picking apples, but we've had blustery weather the past couple of days, and this morning I found a few windfalls from the Sunset (eating) and Dumelow's Seedling (cooking) apple trees. We'll make the most of them and cook something nice to eat, and it's a sign that we won't have to wait too long before harvesting and enjoying the rest.

ADDW Review

I'm just back from Dundee, where I was attending the 'Accessible Design in the Digital World' conference. It was a great event, with speakers and delegates from academia, business and government, and even though a few of the papers presented went straight over my head it was great to see so many people from such diverse backgrounds so clearly enthused by accessible design. I had the privilege of speaking at the conference, about my experiences adopting web standards and accessible design at my work. I always find public speaking something of a nerve-wracking experience, but with Jim Thatcher in the chair for my session I was always in good company.

The conference was sponsored in part by Yahoo!, and I had the pleasure of meeting (and sharing dinner and a few snifters with) technical evangelist and senior web developer Nate Koechley. The company's adopting a much more open policy on its technology and developers, and it was great to hear about some of the very cool products they've got in the pipeline, including a killer release of Yahoo! Mail due to go beta very soon.

So a big thank you to David Sloan and Lorna Gibson and the rest of the team at DMAG who conceived and organised the whole event.

PS: I'm working on getting a tech-related personal site up and running so that I don't need to clutter TAS with this boring stuff, and don't incur the wrath of 'er indoors.

Hillfoot Cafe and Gallery

This is a plug for a new cafe, owned by a friend of ours. It's called the Hillfoot Cafe and Gallery, it's at 17 Hillfoot Street, Dennistoun in Glasgow (G31 2LD) and it opens the first full week in September.

Mike Thomson, the owner / manager, will be serving bagels, omelettes, salads, home made soups and baking and pasta dishes. The emphasis will be on organically produced, fair traded and locally sourced food.

The gallery has both prints and original art work for sale.

Mike's probably going to be plagued by visits from former colleagues - we'll all be a bit jealous, I think, but we'll all be wishing Mike the best of luck with his new venture.

Full review to follow!!

It's a dog's life

As part of the "Grassroots" programme, we wanted to "show" a meal that was all home produced. Tonight, that meant roast pork, "Red Duke of York" potatoes, courgettes and carrots.

We duly roasted the pork - Nancy recorded the sound of it sizzling as Dan took it from the oven. It was a magnificent roast with lovely crackling, succulent and juicy. The house was full of the warm smell of good meat. We all tried a bit - it was delicious.

After Nancy left, Dan popped into the study and I popped out to get some potatoes from the garage.

Meg popped onto the worktop AND STOLE THE ROAST. By the time we found it, she had had her fill and Tess was finishing it off.

I cannot tell you how gutted we were. The veggies were nice though (sob, sob).

Table birds and replacement laying hens

Well, we've finally bitten the bullet and ordered our incubator, brooder and despatcher. This is the first step towards raising our own layer flock replacements and raising our own table birds. We have ordered a kit from Ascott Smallholding Supplies.

We intend to buy fertilised eggs - the incubator we have bought takes 24 hen eggs but we might start with 12. Once the equipment arrives, we'll spend a few days playing with it (we might even read the instructions) and sussing out what else we need before we start.

We're going to use feed from the Allen and Page Smallholder Range - Baby Chick Crumbs, followed by Poultry Grower Pellets. The chick crumbs come in 5kg bags as well as 20kg bags, so that's quite helpful. The crumbs are coccidiostat free.

The plan is to put the incubator in the guest room (I suppose they are little guests and they won't dirty the ensuite). Once hatched, we plan to move the chicks to a round pen (so they can't get trapped in the corners) in the garage with the brooder light above. Once feathered and ready to go ouside, we will move the layers to the wee ark and the young poultry to the big ark with the extension run. There should be plenty room for them and they will be moved to fresh grass each day.

That's the plan, anyway. We'll keep you posted of developments.

TAS on air

Well, we had our first (and probably last) foray into the world of media today.

Nancy Nicolson, from BBC Scotland, came to record some stuff for "Grassroots". She was really nice and made it all seem easy - I suspect that there will be a lot of skill in the editing, though.

The hens took stagefright and skedaddled when Nancy tried to record some hen chatter. Cassius came and sat on my lap while we were recording but had to be removed when he started to throw up. No wonder it's said that you should never work with children and animals.

In the wrap (that's the technical term for "the end"), I got to say "This is Rosemary Champion for the BBC, Alloa". It will probably be cut but for a moment I was right up there with Kate Adie.

The programme will go out on Saturday 27th August at 6.30am, if you want to listen in.

TAS On Air

Next Tuesday we're expecting a visit from Nancy Nicolson, presenter of BBC Radio Scotland's Grassroots, a rural affairs and community programme. She's going to interview us for a programme about smallholding to be broadcast on Saturday 27th August (you can also listen on line, live and after the event).

To be honest we don't really know what to expect. I've been on the radio before, when ClacksWeb won a national award in 2002, but that was a brief 5 minute interview in a studio. So we'll just play it by ear, be ourselves and no doubt cringe when we listen in. I always said Rosemary had a good face for radio...

Paradise on Earth

Not related to smallholding, but what the heck! This is a shameless plug for the website Paradise on Earth which I've just completed for my friend David Morin. It's a collection of his poetry, illustrated with loads of photography from the excellent stock.xchng.

David's got a level of enthusiasm I envy, and he loves to receive feedback, so anyone who visits the site and enjoy it, please drop him a message - he'll be stoked. Or even better you could donate to one of his nominated charities and let him know - that really would make his day.