The brink of new things

Having felt like progress was slowing in the last couple of weeks things are starting to come together now. As I speak men are digging up the drive installing pipework to connect the soon to be installed biomass boiler to the house. We have also arranged for a new kitchen.We have our name on a couple of piglets that are at present about five weeks old. We are going to see them on Sunday. They are cross breeds between Gloucester Old Spots and Tamworths. They should hopefully be with us in a week or two. Just now got to get a pig run up and running and sort out all the associated bureaucracy. Can't wait to have them with us. They will be ready for eating at the end of November so perfect for Christmas dinner. That's going to be the hard bit.  As you can see I had started fencing but after a days work I think we need to rethink where they are going to go.

The polytunnel has also been delivered. As you can see there is a bit of work to do to get it into the required shape. That should keep us busy for a couple of days.
The tomatoes are growing well which is good. Chickens are not laying much so I have left a few eggs (including a rubber one belonging to the kids) in the nest box in the hope that one of them might go broody so we can put some fertilized eggs under her and get some chicks. I think we had better get eggs in as we would end up with a weird cross between hybrid chickens and a half sized cockerel. I am not sure the outcome would be pretty or very productive. Six eggs should give us a few new layers and a few cockerels for the pot. Yesterday I did some brewing and so today the house is filled with the semll of brewing beer as it is fermenting in the utility room. I am much appreciating the beer aromas gently spreading around. I am not sure anyone else is though. The herbs arrived today too so I'll get them planted up shortly.

Suddenly everything seems to be coming to a head and getting sorted


"I love it when a plan comes together"

Driffield Show

Clearly here in East Yorkshire the Driffield show is the highlight of the Agricultural year and one I felt compelled to take part in. I dropped the kids at school and arranged them to be picked up so I could stay late and headed to Driffield. Of course my main area of interest was the pig show. I wanted to see the different breeds of pigs and talk to the breeders about selling me a couple of weaners (piglets).

As you can see there were some pretty cool pigs. These were all bigger than we would get, but gave me an idea of what we would be getting. With them living outdoors we need to be careful to get ones that aren't prone to sunburn. When I wasn't chatting to the breeders about pigs they were out in the ring showing their pigs, which was quite a sight to behold. They hand a board and stick and tried to guide a relatively uncooperative animal around a show ring. Some were a lot more successful than others and it made a great spectator sport. See below for the sort of idea (not my picture).

To get in the spirit of being at the agricultural show I also bought myself a waxed jacket and tried to show an interest in combines and other large agricultural machinery, although I did find the Barley to Beer educational tent a more interesting place.

On the smallholding it has been more of the usual strimming, building, clearing etc. I need to start on clearing the pig area and getting that prepared for pigs. They also need huge amounts of water so I need to start some sort of plumbing project linking the spring in the cellar to a big tank in the field that can then water the plants, pigs and chickens. I am hoping to be ready to have home grown pork for Christmas dinner.

We had our first fire over the weekend. So the Fire pit in the centre of the field was christened. We had a good one as I found it still going strong the next morning. I am still working on setting up the smallholding as a place where other locals can come and join in and grow things and care for the animals with us. I have been building a website that outlines our plans so those that are interested can join us. That is nearly up and running (I need Zoe to do some proof reading). Once it is going then I'll start putting leaflets up in the village and local area and see who is interested. So plenty to do for the week ahead.

Building and craft barns

Well another week gone by and some more slow progress made on the road to self sufficiency. I spent a lot of time last week building little brick walls. At the back of the house we have the old farm yard. In it are some nice herb beds, Since last week I got all of the lemon balm up (except for a little for use). I then had to go about rebuilding at least 50% of the wall that made up the bed as it had, or was about to fall down. Having done a little brick laying before at Embercombe and building a pizza oven I did manage to get it roughly straight and all at about the same height, which amazed me.

 Above is the finished one and below is the next one. It looks better than it really is at it contains loads of loose bricks that need to come out.

 I am now looking for inspiration for which herbs to plant next while I get the next bed ready. Do let me know if you have any that you think are really good and you want to recommend, add it as a comment  at the end of this entry. I'll have a look before I go to Jekka's herbs to get therm.

The saga of the chickens continues:

 Bluebell (on the right in the photo) is now much better, not limping and with the rest of the flock. Duke (cockeral on the left) is slowly moving up from being at the bottom of the pecking order. He now no longer gets chased away from the food. It seems now he is doing the chasing trying to get to the ladies (not sure if he has actually managed to catch them though). To show off his masculinity he has taken to attacking our legs when we go in the run. For a small chicken he puts up a good fight and has a sharp beak. Poor Harriett it getting worried about going into the chicken run. She did get nipped the other day and it drew blood. I think the cockerel has too much testosterone.

There are now actually some vegetables in the field

We have three small beds

Yes if you look closely there are plants growing in them. After a morning of heavy strimming they are now no longer surrounded by 6ft docks and nettles as they are in the photo.

I must mention the "craft barn" which is now ready and Zoe's pride and joy. I can now get on outside and stop spending sunny days in a barn as it is about done. It does look good though. I am just hoping my DIY damp course does the job with the damp wall.

Clearly the door needs a little more work, but apart from that It's about finished. Once that's up and running we'll have nearly all of the boxes unpacked.

I'm back to Kings Langley at the end of the week for the last few days of term, so just a few days to make some more progress this week. Today has been heavy strimming, I think there may be more of that to come.