A week of smallholding

Well I am now a week in to being a full time smallholder, and life seems pretty busy. We are gradually making small inroads into the field. As you can see below there are at least a few paths appearing. This photo is a few days old and there are also a couple of planted up veg beds there too now. As one would expect the slugs have already worked out where it is and are starting to munch. I always find this time of year the thing that keeps me up the latest is waiting for it to go dark so I can go out with a torch and kill of the slugs eating all the plants.

The chicken run is up and running and Duke (the cockerel) is now going to sleep at night in with the hens. I think he's still bottom of the pecking order, but he is manning up a little day by day. His calling is getting louder I am sure. Bluebell (one of our hens) now has a limp and is isolated in the barn. Harriett is very worried in case she doesn't make it through, however in the last few days she seems to have got a bit better so that could be a minor crisis avoided, fingers crossed.

I've been trying to sort out a herb bed for the yard at the back of the house and got the chickens in to help, where they happily dug the soil and grubbed around for ants and woodlice. I was a bit upset at them turning their nose up at the snails though. I am amazed how hard it can be to get up very well established lemon balm. It is nice but I don't need a large bed full of it.

Decorating has also been intruding on my smallholding time this week, I won't bore you with the details, but it's going quite well and quickly, chickens and dogs aren't so helpful with this though, although children seem to be.

I am finally here full time. No more commuting down to Kings Langley during the week. I am here to stay and it is great. The sun is shining, Duke is crowing, all is well. Duke our new cockerel is fine but being a bantum (small) and young he seems to be struggling to let the ladies know he is in charge. In fact they know exactly who is in charge and keep him in his place. I am not sure we are going to have any fertilized hens eggs any time soon.

I must clip their wings later as the chickens this morning all made an attempt at escaping over the fence, and most of them made it. So much for meters and meters of chicken wire and electric fencing. Duke and I had a lovely drive up from Kings Langley with the M1 shut and the A1 having most of it's lane closed. He kept crowing at me from time from time to let me know he was OK. I had to climb in the boot with him after a while (I did pull over first) and try and get some water in the carrier with him without him escaping. Luckily I managed that and I didn't have to chase him around the car. 6 hours later we finally made it.

The first vegetables are now planted which is wonderful and thanks to everyone in Kings Langley who gave us all the extra seedlings. So one tiny corner of the field in cultivated. More importantly for the children we have knocked down the nettles in the hedge so the kids can now get inside the hedge where they now have a large den. We all had lunch in there on Saturday. Sunday we went to the beach. 30 minutes and there we were on the sand and having a swim. Harriett managed to surf a couple of waves in so she loved it.

Well I must go and get the rest of those seedlings planted. Being a smallholder calls!

Starting to settle in

We've now had 2 clear weeks at the Grange and it is already starting to feel like home. The boxes are confined to just a couple of rooms, we've found most things (though very worrying my River Cottage Booze book is still missing!) and are settling in. Ted now feels like he lives there and is making himself right at home. He has a new trick at the moment of lying in the middle of the road blocking any traffic from passing.

The kids are loving the new school and settling in beautifully. We all went to their assembly on Friday where they were both given awards for settling in so well. Harriett now has a huge list of friends that she would like to come over and play.
I am on my last week of commuting back down to Kings Langley, and it will be great to be up in Leconfield full time. Monday mornings starting at 5am and involving four and a half hours of driving are not that fun.
We are starting to make an impression on the land. The chickens now have an outdoor run where they are fenced in and protected from Mr Fox by some electric fencing. It is all ready now for the new Cockerel "Duke" to join the brood later in the week.

Fingers crossed with the integration of a cockerel with the chickens.Hopefully he won't harass the ladies too much. Once I get up there full time hopefully we can get some things planted and a polytunnel up. I suppose I ought to look at what needs to happen in the house too.

So we have arrived here at Leconfield Grange. I now open my window every morning to look over our field, and a stunning view it is.

It has such possibilities, but for the moment it is just a load of long grass and weeds with a few trodden down paths the kids have created to get to the tree house and go exploring. I am itching to get started, dig some vegetable beds, plant some fruit trees and get up a polytunnel, however for now more practical things lay ahead. The boxes littering the house need to be unpacked, the electrics checked over and a string of other jobs done before much of the fun can begin. The chickens are here with us and enjoying the farm yard. They seemed to have no problem with the six hour journey up here (They were clucking and laying happily on the journey in their box) while Zoe and Harriett sat stuck in the fallout of a shut M1. Of course my time is also limited at the moment by having to spend four days a week teaching down in Kings Langley.

I am planning to keep a blog here about how we are doing and what we get up to. Do pop by and stay in touch.