Hedge-laying

Well, we've had a busy and productive weekend off - none of this lazing around malarky!  We decided to try our hand at hedge-laying.  All along the field (which we are still in the process of buying one end of) is a very neglected and overgrown hedge.  We have photos from the 50s of a very well kept thick hedge, but it hasn't been touched for 30 years or more and so is now made up of very leggy trees.  We have done a little bit of hedge-laying and know the theory, but have never tackled anything quite as unkempt as this.  The theory of laying a hedge is that you cut almost all the way through a trunk - ideally about as thick as your your forearm and about eight feet tall.  This doesn't kill the tree as long as the bark is continuous and it then shoots from the cut base and all along the trunk which you lay down at an angle of about 30 degrees.  So, you then have a good thick hedge as each subsequent trunk is laid down on top of the previous one.  This needs to be done in the Winter and it will all shoot back into life in the Spring.  As you can see from this picture, our 'hedge' doesn't meet any of the ideal measurements!  On closer inspection it appears that something (probably sheep or rabbits) has been nibbling the bark in years gone by.  The bark is the means of getting water and nutrients to the rest of the tree and the easiest way to kill a tree is to cut a small ring of bark away all around the trunk.  Just a small amount of continuous bark will keep it alive though and so you can still lay it.  Trouble is, most of these had been barked on the wrong side and we found ourselves trying to twist them gently after cutting them on the wrong ide to keep the bark. 
Now that would actually work and be quite easy on a tree that was only eight feet tall, but these were about thirty and so not so easy to control!  Quite a few just snapped off as we were gently trying to cajole them into place . . . . well, that's more firewood I guess! So, the finished thing looks a bit sparse (it always looks very drastic when a hedge is first laid), but each stump will sprout loads of new shoots even without an attached trunk and we found some baby hazel and holly growing around and have put them in the gaps.  Just have to wait now until the Spring to see what happens.  We only dropped one tree on the workshop by the way which I don't think was too bad going!  Our method was to tie a rope as high up as possible and then Bob did the chainsawing while I hauled on the rope to persuade the tree to fall the way we wanted.  That worked well most of the time, but this particular one was a bit on the big side and as Bob cut I could feel it falling away from me and there was nothing at all I could do except pull like mad to one side to try to stop it falling straight on to the ridge of the shed.  It fell to one side with the heavy bit between the shed and the retaining wall behind and so didn't do any damage except to pop the stop end off the gutter (and that just clipped back into place), so I think we got off lightly! 

It took a while to cut it up and get it out of the gap between wall and shed though.  As you can imagine, there is quite a lot of twiggy rubbish at the top of the trees . . . . actually, there's a wole lot more than you would imagine!  So today we thought we'd have a bonfire to get rid of it all.  I guess it was all just a bit too fresh and green and it just didn't really get going and so we had to abandon that plan.  Maybe  we'll try again in a couple of weeks - unless it rains incessantly of course.

 

So, instead of a bonfire day, we got on and redesigned our composting arrangements.  We now have a two bin system - one we keep filling and then when that's full we move onto bin two.  As you can guess, we have made it from stuff we have lying around - namely wriggly tin from the old barn we took down to build the workshop.

It looks a bit rustic doesn't it?  But it'll do the job for sure.  We transferred the stuff from the top of our old bin to the right-hand side and the stuff from the bottom which is ready to use, to the left.  Must say, the ready-to-use stuff looks luvverly . . . . delicious!  Very friable I think is the term, but that always seems a little odd to me as I can't think why you'd want to fry it, but that's what they say.  I guess we end up with quite a good mix with chicken bedding and poo, green garden waste and kitchen scraps - I think most people end up with too many grass clippings and then just get slime.  Without a lawn, we don't have that problem!

Other things we've done in the last couple of weeks are:
Very nice dinner at Phil and Ann's
See a comic poet at a pub in  a nearby village - very funny, in fact the young lady behind us had to dash out in the middle because she was closer to wettting herself laughing than she'd ever been before
Mystery guest - turned out to be male
Work at M&S
Proper shopping trip to Shrewsbury - even bought clothes and everything!
Make scaffold board furniture
Bought a new microwave
Pub
Sainsbury's
Knitting
Yawn
yawn
yawn!

All one happy family

The chickens appear to have stopped fighting (thank goodness) and Lottie now follows Horse around all day.  If you were to put it into human terms, I get the feeling that Horse views her as a pesky, annoying little sister.  Lottie still thinks she's in charge, but as she doesn't know her way around it doesn't really work very well as once she's bustled up to the others in a bossy way, she then has to wait for them to show her what to do.  Quite funny really.  A few days ago, when the others were still very wary of her, Bob went up to check that they were all tucked up in bed.  They were, with Horse and Peggy squashed at one end of the perch and Lottie at the other, but surprisingly Dot was down Lotties end looking sleepy.  She woke up when Bob opened the door and looked horrified to find herself on her own at Lottie's end and very quickly shuffled to the other end.  They are funny.  Anyway, they all tolerate each other now and Lottie is learning the ropes and seems to be quite enjoying her new home and friends.  It has been quite hard to get a photo of her because she is quite well camouflaged against the mud and fallen leaves, but here she is with her giant friends:

Finally, finally, finally after asking for ever, I have had an extra day added to my contract at M&S which is good . . . . . isn't it . . . . . extra money, always useful . . . . no, honestly, I am pleased . . . . really!  So, I will now work four days a week which I really need to do, but to be honest I wish I didn't.  At least I won't have to rely on the very unreliable extra hours at their whim and I should be able to just do my contracted days and know where I am, so it is good really - I just can't get that excited about it. 

We have a mystery guest visiting this weekend.  My friend from a million years ago is coming for the weekend - we had our first babies the same night and made friends in hospital, so not actually a million years, but 27 which is nearly as long!  It will be lovely to see her and catch up on all the news of the last few years and she is bringing a 'friend', but we don't know a name, boy/girl or any other details, just that they eat anything, so that's the important thing.

Bob has a stall at a craft fair at the local art gallery at the end of November which is exciting.  We have been hunting all around to find all the bits and pieces of stock we have stored ready to sell.  We have found enough to make a good display along with the new chairs he's made and I have made some greetings cards, so it should look OK.  The stall only costs £20 so you don't have to sell too much to cover costs and it's a good first step to getting his name known and a chance to give out some business cards (so long as we get around to making some!).

Meet Lottie

So this is Lottie.  I hadn't quite twigged that she'd be so tiny (bantam?), but she is about one third the size of our others - they look huge next to her.  Apparently, a couple of weeks ago she started moulting - maybe she knew something was afoot to disrupt her happy life!  So she's looking a little threadbare but her feathers are starting to grow back which means she has a 5 o'clock shadow in places.  She has lovely big brown eyes and I think she'll be a very pretty chuck in a few weeks.  It seems her eyes and feet are the same size as a normal chicken it's just everything else that's smaller.  Although she's small and not at her best, she's quite fiesty and the other three are scared of her - it wouldn't surprise me if she ends up top of the pecking order.  There have been a few feathers flying.  For the last two days the others have been shut out of the run and she's been shut in.  They all get shut in together at night of course.  We did entice her out this morning for a few minutes, but she went back in of her own accord after a few minutes.  Maybe she's a bit shy of her appearance in front of new people!  I don't like this part of getting new chickens - it's easy when they all get on with each other, know the routine and come when they're called.  I guess she'll pick it all up before too long.

We survived the massive storm yesterday without any problems . . . . in fact, without much wind at all. Lots of rain, but that's about all. I did toy with the idea of ringing work yesterday and saying that it said on the news not to travel unless absolutely necessary, but I didn't think they'd be too impressed as it was actually a reasonably nice day. Hope you all got away without any problems.

Do you know, we've now lived here for five years - it seems like a lifetime ago but at the same time no time at all (does that make any sense).  We don't usually bother much with anniversarys of things, but decided to celebrate our five years with steak and a beer . . . . on a Monday!  How lavish!  We were sitting down sipping our beer reminiscing about what we were doing exactly five years ago and decided to check my notes on this blog to see when we actually did things and, much to our dismay, found out that Sunday was the actual anniversary and we'd missed it!  We were both sure it was 28th, but checking back on the calendar confirms that the Monday in 2008 was 27th.  Ooops, were not very good at this . . . . . . we still managed to enjoy our fraudulent steak supper on a Monday though!

Our first night in the caravan.  Funny, in all the chaos and with
no fridge, we still managed to make sure we had cold beer and
a couple of bottles of red wine to hand!  Have to get your
priorities right.

We're getting a posh chicken!

We're getting a new chicken this weekend.  It's a sort of rescue-job, but not from a battery farm.  Someone e-mailed our smallholders group to ask if anyone could give a home to their one and only chicken as they are moving house and the new place isn't suitable.  As egg production from our three is pretty bad with only Horse pulling her weight another egg-layer would be welcome.  We're going up in the world with this one as it is a fairly rare Golden-necked Ardenner.  From Belgium (as you may work out from the name) but not common anywhere else.  They are very hardy and would happily survive in the wild and like roosting in trees.  How cool is that?  I had a friend who had a chicken who roosted in a tree and she used to just say goodnight to it as she walked past with the dog each evening.  This one is called Lottie (so at least we don't have to think of something to call her) and comes when you call her name apparently and she pecks on their window if they're late putting her to bed at night!  She also lays her eggs all over the place, so we'll have to ask Horse to show her the ropes here.  Should be interesting.  Hopefully, we'll pick her up on Sunday eveing - in the past we've found the best way to integrate the new one(s) is to wait til the others have gone to bed and then just put the new one on the perch with them and shut the door.  When it's dark they just go straight to sleep and they won't know anything about it until the next morning.  I expect there'll be a bit of squabbling until she's found her place in the pecking order, but that's what chickens do and they soon seem to sort themselves out.  I'll let you know how they get on and show you a picture of Lottie.

Here's another addition to our avian flock.  Laura made this
needle-felted woodpecker for my birthday card and, rather than
throw it away with the rest of my cards, I cut it out and glued it
onto the bare branch we have in a vase in the hall.  Looks pretty
good I think.

Double yolk

So, that huge egg that Peggy laid - I take back my comment about the yolk to white ratio in Horse's eggs.  This one was a double-yolker, so just the one egg was plenty for Bob's scrambled eggs - what a bargain!  That was the only double-yolker and Peggy's not back up to full production yet.  I think it is usually young hens who do the double yolk thing when they first start laying while they get their systems in order, so Peggy's obviously re-living her youth.

Our little holidy in a cottage in the country . . . . . mmmmm, sounds a bit like home-from-home . . . . was lovely.  The cottage was very nice, my only gripe was being charged extra for the electric and extra for heating and extra for towels.  It doesn't set you up well for your holiday I don't think and I'd rather they just sorted their price out so you don't have to think about those things.  The weather was better than I was expecting and everyone had said it was going to turn really cold and wintry.  We had lots of sun and were actually quite warm on our clifftop walks.  It was quite windy though which was brilliant because it made for good crashing waves.  I was really glad the wind was blowing in from the sea on some parts of our walks because they'd have been quite hairy if it was blowing the other way!  We had a real taste of the past one evening with a visit to Bessie's pub.  As many pubs used to be, it was just like a living room (still with its original 50s decor) and you knocked on the serving hatch to summon the landlady who poured your beer from a jug with a choice of one type.  The crisps were Golden Wonder - didn't know you could still get them (wish I'd checked the sell-by on them!) - and there was none of this fancy stuff like food.  The people all spoke Welsh, but not in any sort of 'keep the English out' sort of way and we enjoyed listening to them.  We actually understood a fair bit of it which I expect you are quite impressed by aren't you?  OK, I'll confess, the bits we understood were all the swear words - they seem to do that in English which is funny to listen to.  Another evening we went to a pub that could have been staight from the wild west with horses tethered outside.  It used to be a hotel which was thrown up quickly when the railway came to town and is made from red wriggly tin with sawdust on the floor and hams hanging from the ceiling.  It was really nice with a lovely atmoshpere and Bob had their specialty - faggots!

Yesterday, Ben came with one of his old school friends and we all went up to Liverpool to see another of their school friends play in a band.  It was really good (apart from the horrors of driving round a city which I'm just not used to anymore).  They played in a small club so no-one was far from the stage and, as they are just starting out, they had to sell their own merchandise at the end so we were able to ambush Adam and have a chat.  They get played on the radio a fair bit and seem to be doing quite well - Temples if anyone wants to check them out.  Funny to think he used to play in our paddling pool!

Look, I finished my chunky, snuggle jumper in
time for all the cold weather on holiday.  Didn't really
need it, but I'm quite pleased with it and it is
lovely and cosy.

This is our lastest 'crafting'.  We need some clocks but haven't
seen any we like without spending an absolute fortune.  So we
thought we'd do some 'upcycling'.  This is a piece of the old range
that was in the inglenook in our kitchen.  We have another part-made
which has a wooden stand and a hefty chunk of cast iron as the 'face'.
Trouble is we can't drill a hole in the iron to attach the hands to the mechanism
at the back so we'll have to ask a favour of our blacksmith friend next time
we see him.  I think, given the right outlet, these could sell quite well.
Mmmm, have to work on that one.

This'd make your eyes water!

Do you know, I sat down about a week ago to update this blog but ended up not doing because I really couldn't think of anything we'd done that was worth writing down and I thought it'd end up like I imagine (because I've never actually looked at either) tweets or Facebook entries would be.  Who wants to know what we're having for tea or what colour pants I've got on today?  No-one I'm sure . . . . . having said that though . . . . we're having our first meat and potato pie of the season which I'm really looking forward to because it is such a wet and miserable day . . . . . and my pants are red!  There, you wanted to know really!

Anyway, enough of all that!  I just wanted to show you this: -

Having only had one egg a day for quite a while, Peggy has suddenly started laying again.  Horse has reliably laid her little brown eggs day in, day out while Peggy had a rest while she moults.  Peggy is now fairly bald and looks very untidy, but rather than concentrating on feather production she has outdone herself with oversized eggs.  The one on the left is a Horse egg and would be classed as large by supermarkets . . . . that one on the right weighs 99g!!!  Try weighing one of your supermarket eggs and you'll see how much bigger that is.  Fair makes your eyes water doesn't it?  Having said all that, size isn't everything and I actually prefer Horse's eggs as the yolk to white ratio is better in my opinion.

So, that's all our news really - exciting isn't it?  I have next week off work and Bob has booked time off from his scaffold board furniture production so we can have a lazy week - luvverly.  We have a few days away booked in a cottage on the Welsh coast - hope the weather bucks up!

And then there were three . . . .

Well, what a wet,grey and miserable day it is today - just not used to it after the lovely Summer we've had so mustn't complain too much.  There are plus sides to a day like today too, a good chance to catch up on paperwork, blogging and so on and it does make you look forward to the next season.  I wouldn't like to live somewhere that's hot (or cold) all the time, I love the changing seasons and each has its good points just so long as none of them outstay their welcome.  Woolley jumpers, chutney-making, meat and potato pie, see there's lots to look forward to!  

 A good day to sweep the chimney and clean out the Ironheart ready for firing up again.  Because there is an oven, hotplates and a backboiler, there are all sorts of nooks and crannys to clean out and bits to take off.  Although we have had the lounge woodburner going in the last week, we haven't lit this one yet this season.  Excuse Bob's pants by the way - he wasn't posing for this!

 

So, we've had quite a busy time with visitors again starting with my school work colleagues who drove all the way over from Northamptonshire for lunch and a couple of hours sat in the garden in the sun.  Then Mum and Dad were here for a few days at the same time as Laura and Ben came after they'd gone, but before Laura went.  In that time we also had two birthdays (Mum and Laura) and our wedding anniversary.  We seemed to have a busy time doing nothing much which was nice and it was lovely to see everyone as always.  Yesterday we went over to Northamptonshire to collect another carful of Ben's stuff ready for his return to uni in Aberystwyth.  He should be coming over with the last of it tomorrow and then sorting out what's being stored and what's going with him before going on to Aber on Tues/Wed.  That will then be the offspring settled for a while until Laura leaves Samye Ling next Easter.  She will have done three years as a Buddhist nun and has enjoyed every minute of it and learned so much, but she now feels it's time to move on.  She has plans in Scotland for what to do next - teaching Mindfulness and doing a play therapy course.  She has loads of contacts and friends up there so will be better placed to get on with things there than she would here.  I think she'll have a break here before she starts all the new stuff while her hair grows and she catches up with all the people she's not seen much of over the last few years.  Can you believe it, she had actually forgotten to tell me anything about the plans she's made and sounded quite surprised that I didn't know anything about them!

And then there were three . . . . . during our visitor time one of our chickens departed this mortal coil.  Bonny was one of the real chickens we bought almost two years ago (real as opposed to ex-battery).  She was always a bit of a sickly child with lots of breaks from egg-laying . . . . actually, it would be more accurate to say she had the odd break where she laid an egg!  So, she didn't exactly lead a hard life.  She had been looking peaky and wobbly on her feet for a few days, but still ran to peck at scraps and didn't seem distressed.  It was no surprise though when Bob went to get them up on Laura's birthday and found her in a rather stiff pose across the hen house doorway.  And so that is number six chicken grave in the garden!

While Ben was here with his muscles, he helped us move that huge stone that was too big for us to manoeuvre into place for the steps.  It has now been added to the patio and has just about doubled it's size.  Well, not really, but it is quite big! 

A few weeks ago, I wrote on this blog that we were going to get some little low-growing plants for in between the stones on the steps we re-built.  One evening we went for a walk around the 'block' and got chatting to Ray who suddenly remembered that he had something he had to give us.  Trisha had been reading the blog and had then gone and dug up some plants from their garden and put them in pots for us.  They were exactly the sort of thing we were looking for - isn't that kind of her?  We planted them as soon as we got home and they all seem to be doing well - lovely.

On Friday, we finally got around to looking at that guttering that got damaged by the snow - yes, I know that was months ago, but you can't rush these things!  I don't know about you, but I hate having to mend things you've not long made and that was the trouble we had with this.  It was hard to work up the enthusiasm for mending it when it doesn't seem two ticks since we put it up in the first place.  That and the fact that it is really awkward to get to as someone built an extension in the way!  Anyway, with pieces of insulation to support and spread the weight under the ladder and a sturdy spike knocked in the ground to stop the ladder slipping, Bob on the roof and me running round passing things and helping from the other ladder, we have about done it.  We just need to get another couple of brackets (some were more damaged than we first thought), but they go on the bit that can be reached from an ordinary ladder on the ground, so not so bad.

While Laura was here, she showed me how to do needle felting which is quite good fun and a bit addictive.  Basically, felt is made when wool fibres mat together and you can use a barbed needle to jab in and out of unworked wool to mat it together.  You have a thick bit of foam underneath and aim to keep your fingers out of the way while you're doing it.  Laura has been making cards in her spare time to sell in aid of the charity she works for at Samye Ling.  People make large quite intricate pictures and 3D things - here are my first efforts:



My felt chicken which I'm quite proud of.  The little chicks
started off as some corn on the floor, but were a little too
big for that so transmogrified into baby chicks!

 

A Herwick sheep and its lamb - the lamb actually looks
more like a large mouse or a piglet and Bob says the
sheep has the face of an Airedale dog, but its OK if
you fuzz your eyes up a bit, with the lights dimmed and
at a distance!

Now then, talking of crafty things, how about this for more crafty than a crafty thing:

Yeah, OK its just a bit of knitting I hear you say, but it's not
just any old knitting.  The wool is mega chunky and for that you
need mega chunky needles (12mm, that's nearly half an inch thick!)
of which there were non in the shop.  So guess what?!
These are homemade knitting needles too, made by my good
friend Bob especially for me.  How darned cool is that?
This is going to be one of those snuggly woolley jumpers I've
been thinking about since the weather turned autumnal.

Tis the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness as someone
once said.  It has been quite windy as well as wet today and
the apple tree gave up some of its fruit a bit prematurely.  It seems
a shame to waste them though, so along with some of our blackberries
they went in a cake this afternoon.  The carrots have fattened up a bit
and the green beens are limping along (not too impressive this year).
We had curry last night with homemade garlic in it as well as
homemade chillies!