What a time for the phone line and internet to go down, 20th of December started having issues with the phone, within 24 hours the phone and internet had died, cutting us off at a time when we really wanted it, with all this lockdown stuff, no contact with the outside world no shopping, the advised date for repair was 4th January, neighbours were in the same predicament.
A little man from BT came out yesterday and by the end of day we were up and running again. The problem we have here is our lines are all over land and run through parts of the forest, branches from trees cause issues with the phone line. They need to get some cutting back done but with COVID causing staff shortages, (don’t understand that one) it has been overlooked this year.
Christmas was very quiet and uneventful we took the dogs to the beach, the place was deserted.
The pigs went off on there final journey, we raised Berkshires this year very placid easy to handle
We had the first back the week end before Christmas, the other two won’t be back for a couple of weeks they are becoming bacon, gammons and ham.
I have been rendering the fat down as lard and I did a mamouth sausage making session
The pesky badgers are back ripping up the field, it seems the only solution is going to be a strong insecticide drench to kill off there food supply, I am so reluctant to create a field devoid of life, but might have to bite the bullet
This week I have cleared out the last of the Tomatillos from poly tunnel number 1 and made up a batch of Salsa Verde
On the subject of poly tunnels we have just ordered number 3, this one is 14ft x 50ft and will go over the area of the raised beds, putting all our growing area under cover, the new poly tunnel will have mesh ventilation sides, creating a cooler growing area.
Number 1 is kept dry and hot, Number 2 is more humid and shaded, I love having ing the different growing areas, The hoops down the side of poly tunnel 2 which are used for growing climbers are to become a net cage , we will only have a few small pallet collar beds that will not have any protective covers.
This will be the last of the big alerterations in the growing area.
While I wait I have plans for the back garden and front garden that I will share in later blog posts.
I hope you have all stayed healthy over the Christmas season and I will catch up with you on the other side of 2021.
