Duck / Greens / Couch
Posted: Monday 1 March, 2021
Monday 22nd February
Lovely spring day again. Linda found a basket of unidentified bulbs in the greenhouse so has planted them in pots. I think some are double tulips, so if they come, they will be lovely.
Picked up two bales of hay for here and a bale of hay and a bale of straw for East Pitkerro, to take down later in the week. I’ve tidied out the area where the ponies tie I and the hay is stored and it certainly looks much bigger. I’m wondering if we should concrete it as we planned or put down some sort of gravel bed and rubber mats.
Tidied out the freezers a bit – we’ve hardly any beef left, just a few sausages. Going to pick up the lamb tomorrow though. Weeded for an hour – one side of bed three (this year’s tattie bed) done. Encountered my first nettle of the year – hand still numb. The young ones seem to be particularly potent.
Tuesday 23rd February
Heavy rain, but mild; to be honest, the rain hasn’t been as bad as forecast. Drove down to Tayearn Meats to pick up the lamb. It’s in the freezer to be sorted out in the morning.
Dave the Spark and Graham here working on the WC and Dave’s going to put better lights in Dan’s workshop and Tara’s workshop this week. We’ll do the barn lights sometime over the summer once the cattle are out.
Got on with the spring cleaning – washed all the windows inside (apart from the Velux, which needs a ladder) – at least my window cleaner, who does the outside, will feel like he’s not wasting his time. And washed down the wooden balustrades of the stairs. Hall and living room tomorrow. Probably. I’ve washed all the vet bed anyway.
Dan thinks he’s lost all his bees. If so, he’s going to have a year off and get the apiary tidied up. It’s hard to work in there with angry bees strafing you.
We provide the local allotments ith manure; today was pay-back time. A load of brassicas for the hens.
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From the allotments for our locked down hens.
And a photo of duck and his girls - they seem to be bearing up fine and egg production is starting to rise.
Duck and his girls and some greens.
Wednesday 24th February
Another nice day. Apart from the kitchen, the Spring cleaning is done. Yay. I did some of the kitchen but really, it needs decorated. So does the dining room. No amount of scrubbing the walls helps. I washed all the pet bedding and now the cats are boycotting their usual sleeping places. Ingrates.
Lights in the looseboxes done and the insulation is now in the WC and the interior cladding started.
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More WC progress.
Thursday 25th February
Glorious morning – sunny with a brisk breeze to keep up the drying! When Dan put up the new nest boxes, he put one on a tree in the front garden, easily seen from the dining room window. We’ve been watching wee birds checking it out – hopefully it, like all the others will soon be occupied. Hopefully the insect box will be used too.
Invertebrate box.
Our back step collapsed – turns out the stone slab was laid over a void. Gave me a bit of a turn – I mean, I know I’ve put weight on but that was a bit much.
Our back step collapsed.
Friday 26th February
Beautiful sunny day, with a decent breeze. Home paddock is starting to look green as the water recedes. Finally finished weeding the potato bed and top dressed it with Remin; gave the fruit bed a quick weed and top dressed it with Remin too. It looks like all the raspberries and strawberries have taken but I think we have lost all bar one of the blueberries.
After lunch, more weeding. This is such a time of hope for me in the vegetable garden. Such high hopes that generally fade to disillusionment by about August. But then I clear out all the mistakes and disasters, the seed catalogues come in and the cycle starts again!
Hope springs eternal in the vegetable garden.
Dan and Andy went for wood – two loads. That should get us started away fro next winter.
Blizzard is lame.
Saturday 27th February
Another lovely day – apparently this a false spring. Well, I’m just going to enjoy it.
Blizzard is still lame, so the vet came out, diagnosed foul of the foot and gave her a long acting antibiotic and a painkiller. Then we (Dan and I, not the vet and / or Blizzard) had to go to East Pitkerro to feed and bed the steers, picking up two bales of hay on the way back.
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l to r Charlie, Archie, Afton and Albie.
Dan went apple pruning and I carried on in the vegetable garden. Five out of six beds now weeded, top-dressed with Remin and the wee brassicas given some comfrey liquid and re- netted! I also tidied up the wee patio – weeded and swept – and replanted the little lavenders that Thomas has dug up from the bed behind it. Top-dressed the lavender bed with Remin, splash of comfrey liquid and netted – Thomas will just have to go somewhere else.
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Our lavender bed.
Dogs are exhausted – they haven’t had a walk for days but they’re out all the time I’m out, “guarding the boundaries” which involves quite a lot of running about and barking. And they don’t sleep much outside. Bless them.
Sunday 28th February
Cooler and damp this morning, but the sun got out a bit before clouding up in the afternoon; mild though. Blizzard is a bit easier in the bad foot this morning. Hopefully she’ll be sound in the next couple of days.
I finished weeding five of the veg beds – the last one has a patch of couch that used to have strawberries in it. I’ve started it but I’ll have to do it in stages.
Couch - what fun!
Dan was pruning again; he’s got seven of the older trees still to do and all the younger ones, although they’re fewer in number and smaller. He’s hoping to get them finished next weekend. That done, he raked up hedge trimmings and leaves on the drive and vegetable garden.
It’s a good forecast for the next week, so I’ll be cracking on outside as much as I can.
