Friday, 5 September 2014

Polytunnel almost there





I am begining to feel that it may have been a smaller job to rebuild the house than build a polytunnel. It may seem to the untrained eye to be a fairly simple task. The instructions may give this impression aswell with such helpful sections such as "prerparing for the big day". I am wondering which of the many big days involved it is referring to? Was it the big day (or two) of foundation digging?. The big day (or two) of erecting a lot of complicated metal work or the big day or two (still in progress) of attaching the plastic sheet to the structure. I think we have used every tool in the workshop and hammered in at least a thousand nails. However after all of this work it is almost ready. I am hoping to be planting in it by the weekend. However I am not sure the end door will actually be finished by then. I just hope it is worth all this effort. On the positive side I am hoping to get lots of salad through the winter, get new potatoes for Christmas without flying them in from Mexico and be able to grow Melons. So on the whole my week and weekend has been dominated by trying to get this huge construction project finally finished.
I have had some time for other things. The pigs have got tamer and tamer and bigger and bigger. They now get very excited when ever we visit. They are still however not very good about eating their greens. A bit like the kids they prefer pure carbohydrates. That is with the exception of apples. They love them. Our apple tree has suddenly gone mad and loads of apples are ripe. The pigs are enjoying the benefit of the wind falls. Linked to the pigs I have started to look for an abattoir. We wanted to make sure we got the correct one with so many horror stories of huge industrial set ups. However I managed to find a really small one near York. It seemed to be about 3 slaughter men and a butcher working in an old barn in a farm. I saw them dispatch a pig and it seems to me a very quick and stress free process. The pig was on it's own in the pen . One of the guys stood next to it and then simply placed the electric shock tongs on it's neck. From that point it doesn't move again. It seems to completely knock it out. Another man then quickly ties up it's leg to a machine which hoists the pig up and it's throat is cut, so it is then clinically dead. It was very quick and seemed to have no stress or struggling. I am not quite sure it is so neat in the giant industrial abattoirs.
Well I am off to try and finally get this polytunnel sorted and ready for planting. See the video below for just how effective the pigs rooting really is

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