Circle Of The Year

Sunday 17th Feb

It was the week end of the winter gardening event, an event that was on for 3 days and I finally managed to get along on the last day for a quick visit

 

 The event is organised by Farmyard Nurseries local to us who specialise in Hellebore's along side lots of other plants

 The display they set up on the stage was stunning

 A real winter woodland walk.

 I did buy a couple of plants and I am on the look out for tree stumps to add to the garden.

In the afternoon we brought the sheep down and I scanned them with the sonic scanner 

This only gives us an indication of pregnancy, and it looks like the ram did his job, and inspection of ear ends and udders shows that a few are imminent, we were late getting the raddle on him and  it looks like he serviced a few before hand.

Monday 18th Feb

I was clearing bits and bobs from the freezer, 2 big bags of chopped onions, went into the dehydrator 

 then ground down to onion powder

Along with mixed veg, pumpkin, kale, broccoli and courgette, these can easily be added to soups and stews and freed up some much needed freezer space.

Tuesday 19th Feb 

Martin was back off to work, so me and Tess were left to hold the fort,feeding the buffalo has just got so much easier

 

over the week end we collected some new feed troughs for them

and Martin got them put in place now I can just pour there feed in without watching out for horns and battling to get muck covered feed bowls back. 

Wednesday 20th Feb

In preparation for the new kitchen extension  I now have a temporary food storage area in Martin's workshop, the freezers have been in lace for a few months and Martin put me some cupboards up

All the jars of canned goods

 That have been stored in various locations around the house

are now moved in there

along with jams pickles and chutneys

the chiller that gets used for curing meat has also been moved in there. Its great to have it all in one place.

Thursday  21st Feb

 Happy gotcha day Tess, two years ago today, a lovely sunny day and Tess came down the fields with me to the orchard and we checked on the bee hives

 very pleased to see both hives had made it through winter and there was plenty of activity.

 I had noticed bees out foraging hence the reason for checking. Also planted another 4 fruit tees while we were down there, two apple 1 pear 1 plum, and found our first frog of the year 

Friday 22nd Feb

Today the bacon pig was collected from the butcher

we were really looking forward to this, lots of lovely bacon, three different sausages, Cumberland, Leek and plain pork, gammon steaks and bacon joints,

we had to have bacon sandwiches for lunch and it was lovely.

We don't have enough space in the freezer for it all so another small freezer has been ordered. 

Stanley the Turkey is doing lots of showing off and a few times I have seen him trying to mount the girls ad falling off, It did take Compost a good few tries before he mastered it. 

I do enjoy having the Turkeys and ducks wandering around although at times they are a bit noisy

a short video of them all vocalising.

Saturday 22nd Feb

Another glorious day saw me working outside

 clearing out the last of the carrots and parsnips

so the beds can be topped up and prepared for re seeding.

The second poly tunnel has been cleared down ready for a good wash and topping up the beds, the aquaponics tank has run all through winter, and we still have some crayfish in there, after we lost all the fish during that hot spell last year. 

 The last of the Oca tubers have been taken up

and the last of the sprouts have been picked.

Plenty of new seeds are on the go ready to take there place.

Its the life circle of the year.