Wall / Pipes / Willow

Diary

Posted: Monday 13 June, 2022

by Rosemary at 9:57am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 6^th June

It seems to be a time of “lasts”. This morning we took sheep to the abattoir for the last time; two cull ewes and two wethers from last year. I hope the rest can all be sold for breeding.

It’s cold today and I’m tired. I’ve got the ponies to do for the next three days; I can’t be bothered poo picking today. Will do double tomorrow.

Ploughed through paperwork and random tasks, accompanied by much sighing and yawning.

Put the sprinkler on in the veg garden tonight for the first time.

Tuesday 7^th June

Beautiful day – barely a cloud in the sky, warm, dry with just a bit of a breeze. Watered all the tubs and hanging baskets – took about half an hour, including the polytunnel. The tomatoes don’t look great.

Duncan, our tree man, delivered us a load of sycamore. The wood store is going to look good by winter. Which, given the price of electricity, is a very good thing.

wood Sycamore, for cutting, splitting and stacking.

The abattoir sent me the weights for the four sheep; Molly, six year old Ryeland ewe, 45.2kg (a lot of this will be fat); Bambi, 5 year old Shetland ewe, 28.7kg; Ryeland x Shetland wether from last year 32.8kg and a Ryeland x Shetland wether (3/4 Shetland, I think, and he was a small lamb) 21.6kg.

Wednesday 8^th June

Cool start and rain forecast – bring it on. I did not get elected to the SCHBS Council last night. Quelle surprise.

Friday 10^th June

Dan cut a pile of willow for the sheep and opened up the wee area where more comfrey will be going in due course. I knew sheep were in there because I could see the grass moving. They’ll soon eat it off.

willow Sheep and willow.

Dan escaped his desk this afternoon to get in the polytunnel, trimming the tomatoes and pinching out side shoots. It still looks a bit sad, but it’s getting better. The tomatoes are planted in a single row this year, which should make harvesting easier and help reduce disease. There are eleven plants up the right side and ten along the top.

Polytunnel.

I’m already planning for next year – four cucumber plants, and I’m going to try sweetcorn and peppers again, and maybe some strawberries. But just having two varieties of tomatoes, as I’ve done this year.

Saturday 11^th June

So windy. I find it really exhausting. Other than that, it’s a glorious day – and warm, if you can get out of the wind.

Dan was wall building today, just finishing off this wee bit. If you look behind you’ll see a bit of white and blue pipe. This and a brown waste pipe have ripped my knitting for 12 years. Do tradesmen ever look behind them and think, “does that look OK?” But by the end of the renovation, I just wanted them all to go away, sterling bunch that they were, in the main.

brickiedan Brickie Dan.

After he’d finished the wall, Dan primed these pipes, ready for a coat of black Hammerite.

pipesbefore Primed.

Sunday 12^th June

Still really windy with a few NInja showers, but we had the sprinkler on for a we while tonight.

Woop, woop. The pipes are now black. This makes me happy.

pipesafter Well, that's an improvement.

And the wall is finished.

wall Wall finished.

The farmer we buy our hay from is going to come and remove this muckheap from Sheepfold. We made it two winters ago, when it was too wet at his yard to dump manure on HIS heap. It was supposed to go last summer, so fingers crossed it goes this year. Once we only have two ponies, I'm going to give them a smaller field and take this two acre one back for the cattle. We're borrowing Alistair's fertiliser spreader to spread the fertiliser we bought last year. It'll take a wee while to come back but it will be fine in a couple of seasons.

Muckheap.