wintery colds and new ideas...

Eurgh!! Yet again I am full of this horrible cold that is going around, its grim and I just find I'm staying indoors keeping warm. Equally the weather this last couple of weeks has been so cold, with ice, snow and really cold winds, its been hard to hibernate!! The hens have no interest in coming out, they maybe mooch for 5 minutes then go back into the warmth of their under cover.

Our (not so lovely) tabby cat had to be put down this week.  He was about 14 and just had a massive stroke.  (I know what you're thinking 'all that girls animals keep dying'! But we rescue them at an older age) There's no denying it, he wasn't the most pleasant cat and attacked pretty much every visitor as well as us and the other animals in the house. But we got him 2 years ago and have no idea of his previous history, so he had a good couple of years here:

       Sargent Tazbo the bad ass cat who needed an ASBO

This is my last week at work!! I start my new job on the 10th February, I'm so excited for new challenges. It also means I have a few days off so I'm going to make good use of my time.

On friday, I went to b and q with my birthday gift voucher (from September) and stocked up onon a few seeds for the new planting year:

In that lot I bought some fennel and asparagus, two things I've never grown before, but always wanted to try. I'm sure there will go more purchases as time goes on, but these will keep me busy for now.

I was going to take them over to Papa O's and plant them up in his greenhouse, I do have windowsill propagators but they take up loads of room, so I was going to take the seeds and propagators over there, then, I had a brilliant idea!!! 

Below is a picture of our back garden:

It was taken a few years ago, but its pretty much the same (minus the pink house) Anyway, the structure to the right of the picture used to be the rabbit and hen run:

As Hugo rabbit lives in the house, we have no use for the rabbit run anymore, so, in the few days I have off at the beginning of February I'm going to make this into a greenhouse, using clear plastic!! Then I'll have more planting space on the plot.  Also, it means things can get watered everyday in the height of summer because its easier to get to, I'll keep you posted!

Bye for now and happy planting xx

"Do you even know how to dig........

...you feckin' gobshite?"

The above question (insult) is just one of the many I've had to endure from Papa O on the allotment today.  To be fair the answer was no (the best bit was when I spent ages getting soil on my spade so proud of myself, went to throw it in the wheelbarrow, hit a piece of wood and it all fell off back to where I'd got it from).

Give me a track to run round any day or a rowing machine in the comfort of an indoor gym and I'm away, but actual full blown hard labour - its not for me (and for a further excuse, it was weights day at the gym yesterday!)

Honest to good god hard graft was performed today  (as well as some serious swearing from an Irish man!), in a stinking, wet, muddy chicken pen.

The rat has been getting in to the back pen and not only eating all the food but because its been burrowing, it's caused uneven muddy ground.

So myself and Papa O have been down today trying to stop it from getting in.  We've firstly had to take everything out, which in itself is hard because the top only comes off on one side as you can see. Then the other side you only have 3ft of height to work with:

We had to take everything out though to see the extent of the burrows:

These two picture were taken from right at the back normally not accessible when everything else in there. The top picture, you can see there looks like there's a little nest been made and you can see just how much soil its kicked to the back.

So, we've had to mesh the entire floor of the pen.  Now personally, I don't like the idea of hens on mesh,  but the mesh is well covered with earth and to be honest I'm at a loss as to what else to do.  (other than rat poison and that's not really a route I want to go down. 

We've overlapped panels to create smaller holes, nailed them to the wood on the bottom, added more mesh and tiles and anything really that will stop the rat getting through.  I asked Papa O to get a picture of me grafting - he got one of the phone case (he couldn't figure out where the lens was) and one of my bum (- I wont put you through that!)

So three muddy, cold hours later, there's no after picture I'm afraid because well it would just be mesh covered by mud, but - I did pick these to make some leek & potato soup later

A note from Papa O (in an Irish accent):

 "..and you can tell whoever reads yer blog,  If I find out that the little bastard rat is back in 'ere, I'll come down 'ere and damage the little fecker.  I don't give a shite about animal rights and all that malarkey"

Bye for now & Happy planting xx

Chicken keeping - not for the fair weather allotmenteer!!

In winter you can always tell who are chicken keepers on an allotment, because whilst everyone else is having a nice warm lie in on frosty cold Sunday, the hen parents are  the ones who are wrapped up carrying bottles of warm water down to their allotments unfreezing water feeders.

On a Sunday it's not so bad, you can have a little lie in but during the week, my god, it's hard work but absolutely neccesary.

The night before I check the weather to see if it's going to freeze overnight, if there's a slight chance, I then start preparing.

I set alarm for half 6 get my work clothes ready and my allotment clothes ready and fill the kettle.  Then in the morning the alarm goes off, I jump onto the bed look out the window to see how frosty it actually is. If not, I can get back into bed for a while, but if so, its all go!

I make a brew for the journey fill empty milk bottles with warm water and go out and de-ice the car in a ridiculous amount of layers so much so I look like the marshmallow man off Ghostbusters!!  Its still dark and honestly it's not a part of chicken keeping that I ever anticipated!

A quick de-ice of the hen water and then back home to get ready for work.

And it should be noted there is no return for your hard work in winter, no eggs are laid!!

This morning I went to the hens at about half 10 and it was reading 0c on the car thermometer and there was frost everywhere:

To be perfectly honest they would have been OK to not go this morning but I also wanted to make sure the water in their feeder was changed. Obviously, though with the cold weather last night the hose pipes on the allotment from the farmers house are likely to have been frozen. Not taking chances:

The good old camping water carrier has to come out of storage! It holds enough to completely fill the water feeder.

Here's is the chicken set up in winter:

Yes that's my finger at the bottom of the photo *rolls eyes at my amazing camera abilities*

The back part of the pen is completely covered, their house is in there as well as their food and the main water feeder. Even in heavy rain and wind they are sheltered and a little warmer at nights. The other two pens as you can see are just open at the front, though in summer I can take the cover off the end pen.  It still gets very wet in there but not as bad as it could get.

So there you go, chicken keeping is not for warm weather allotmenteers, you have to be prepared for many things and cold weather is just one of them!

This week I will be mainly taking my Sign Language exams (fingers crossed please) and researching celeriac!

Bye for now & happy planting!!

Allotment Days

Hello!! I hope you all had a great Christmas?

I'm really looking forward to the new year, I've got some big changes in hand which I'll post about at a later date :)

I'm still full of a cold and now I have a nose that could rival Rudolph's!!  Today, I decided to get wrapped up, and go down to the allotment, though the thermometer on the car said it was 4C (relatively warm compared to the last few days) it was mighty chilly even with several layers on and hat, scarfs and gloves.  I let the hens out and sat in the shed with my books, my brew and radio and planned what to grow this coming year:

I also like to refer to this little invaluable treat:

I always get to this time of the year a bit annoyed with my self that I've not achieved as much as I would have liked on the allotment - and its my own fault, it through lack of being organised.  Obviously this year has been different after having my foot operation but still, if I'd have been better with the hen security I would have had some veg as opposed to none because they ate it all!!

This year is going to be different!

I've drawn out the allotment, and started to plan where things are going.  The strawberries, just next to the hen pen can stay there another year.  They've been in that spot two years now so one more year and I'll move them.  Last year and the year before, there where onions and peas where I think I'll put the cauliflowers this year and where the parsnips are there have been carrots the last couple of years.  Maybe I need to think about putting something completely different in that trough this year - I'll ask Papa O.  I've tried to grow garlic the last couple of years, neither years they have taken well, so this year instead of putting them in a bed I think I'm going to try them in planters, maybe on top of the table near the shed, its gets great sun there all day.

As you can see the from the plan, there are a lot of empty beds both small and large, I need to be proactive about what to grow, and grow things I know we are going to use.

Half of (if not a full) one bed this year will be for 6 Brussel Sprout plants, each large bed is approximately 12 x 5 foot.  I had a ridiculous amount of sprouts off 12 plants a couple of years ago, so 6 will be plenty this year, if I do decide to just plant them in one side I'll maybe put beets in the other.

I want to try and grow celeriac this year, but I've read it needs to be planted in I think a trough or ditches?  I need to check that out for definite.

In terms of flowers, which I love having on the plot, I think I'm just going to go for good old sweet peas again.  I love sweet peas and they look so pretty growing up the side of the hen pen:

One of my favourite pictures of this year of Martha Hen.

Once all the sweet peas flowered, Tracy and Papa O kindly took all the pods off for me (I was laid up after the foot op) and then I shelled them all and got new seeds for next year:

First things first though for the entire of January and February are get the beds prepared for planting this year, clear the weeds, put good manure in and most importantly fence off the ones I'm using so the hens cant get into them!

Finally, Mimi rabbit sadly died on Christmas Eve, I do feel a tad awful after telling her she belonged in a cooking pot, but to be fair after my post about her trashing my entire house, she went all out on the christmas lights!!!   

We were all very sad,  and to be honest, I have enjoyed having a house rabbit around, so I went out and got another.  

Meet Hugo:

I mean its not his best picture,  I was slightly drunk whilst taking it (hahaha).  Hugo is a 4 month old Giant French long haired lop eared rabbit (trying saying that drunk!).  He is enormous and still not fully grown!

Anyway I hope you all have a fabulous New Year whatever you decide to do.  

Bye for now & happy planting xx

Have yourself a merry little Christmas....

It's one of my all time favourite christmas songs.  I love Christmas, not so much the excessive spending, but being with all the family is when I'm at my happiest. However, Christmas in our household is always tinged with sadness. My wonderful parents in law are no longer with us, and as in my favourite Christmas song:

Through the years we all will be together

If the Fates allow

This Christmas it will be 3 years since my lovely, very stubborn, (sometimes grumpy) father in law died. If it wasn't bad enough that the (excuse my language) bitch that is cancer took my beautiful mother in law after a long battle, 6 weeks after our wedding, it then took my father in law 2 and a half years later on Christmas day (and for extra sorrow the old family dog too). 

It was one of the most surreal days of our lives, that started at midnight on the 25th in the hospital, coming home hours later pretending to the children everything was perfect and happy to Mr husband going back a few hours later, until well...

So, everyone, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, I hope you have a fabulous day, and to everyone who is remembering someone (people) this Christmas, raise a glass to them. Xx

The lovely Jean and Jim x

tis the season for coughs and colds

I've been taken down, by the common cold!! Obviously my hypochondria clearly has it pegged as something else and I'm unlikely to make it 'til the new year, but in a nut shell, my germy child has been playing with her germy friends and given me the lurge!! I'm coughing like a beast and have a delightful little odour about me namely called eau du les vicksvapourub!  I've been off work for the last three days because its been that bad, yesterday however, I took advantage of feeling sorry for myself and crocheted these little boot cuff treats:

Give it another couple of days of self wollowing and pity I may have the gloves to match....

(Oh...the germy child was fine after about a day!)

Mimi the house rabbit is single handedly trying to ruin Christmas as well as my house. I could show you the photos of the damage she caused but it would be boring and you'd think I live in a hovel so here's a brief run down:

Christmas lights - one lot has been repaired - twice. The  tree lights eaten beyond repair...out of the colours red works.

Christmas tree - various branches have repeatedly pulled down and then put back on by the ever suffering Mr husband accompanied with various expletives and threats of rabbit stew.

Wallpaper - why would people put wall paper on the walls with a house rabbit.... Clearly according to a rabbit wallpaper shouldn't be on the walls

Net curtains - just eaten

Surround sound speaker wire - chewed - the right side now doesn't work, not good when a person with balance problems thinks they are on the starship enterprise and only the engines on the left are working.

Internet and TV wire - thankfully we caught her eating that one and repaired the damage before the internet was totally down.

Walls - turns out rabbit enjoy eating plaster!

I wouldn't mind she has chew toys that clearly don't taste as wires!

And now the plot.  Its sopping wet. This time of year is the worst because it doesn't have good drainage (even with drainage put in).  This weeks tasks are to put lots of sawdust down in the hen coop to dry it out.  Ive had to put pallets in one part, I don't want them standing in the mud.  The hens are winding down for winter so not many eggs.

A bit of a worrying moment when I went last week, the door was wide open!! I had boo with me, I immediately thought fox and how I didn't want an 8 year old witnessing er, chicken carnage (SORRY!) But no they were just mulling around the plot, quite happily pleased with themselves.  I don't know what had happened, it looked like someone had let them out but I can't think of would.

There are probably lots of things I should (could) be doing on the plot but to be honest, I tend to go, take my studies (I have my sign language exams in January) and just let the hens mull around and honestly, who would want to do that when you have views like to contend with:

Honestly, I sometimes think, the best thing you can do in life for your own sanity is sit, rest and take in the magnitude of your surroundings.

Next year (after my exams) I want to make a good go ofthe plot.  It starts with the fencing of the beds so the hens can't get in. Creating new smaller beds along to be side and getting planting plans and schedules in place.  I think we can all agree what with one thing and another, I've been pretty lax this year!!

Merry Christmas you lovely lot and happy planting (and eating!) Xxx

Happy Halloween!!

I love Halloween!! Its one of my favourites.

It starts with pumpkin carving one or two nights before:

This year we were a bit disappointed we didn't get to grow one like last year.

Miss boo enjoys having more and more responsibility each year, she's already excited that she'll get to use the drill next year!

And she wanted to do hello kitty this year, she didn't have  that much responsibility though, this design involved various knives (and some very bad swear words when boo want in the room!)

Then on Halloween we all get dressed up:

(This is me (the white rabbit) and my lovely bestfriend. We've known each other since we were 4)



We get loads of trick or treaters coming to our house and we ply them with various E numbers equally we (myself, mr husband and our friends) go out trick or treating with our children - 6 of them last night and they spend the entire evening as giddy as kippers (it's the only night in the entire year they are allowed to gorge on sweets, I half expect them to eat far too many, feel ill and regret their decision, but it never happens, equally the line "don't get to giddy you'll make yourselves ill" not only falls on deaf ears, but never happens). We seem to have a good unwritten policy on our estate (maybe it's like this everywhere) where if you leave lights on trick or treater's are welcome. The kids are really good as well, they respect that if there are no lights on people don't want to be bothered.

After trick or treating we all come home and enjoy pumpkin soup or corned beef hash or both! (Just not together!) I found a delicious pumpkin soup this year and modified it slightly:

All the pumpkin innards (of two pumpkins)
Olive oil
1 onion
1 leek
1 sweet potato
2.5 pints of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
1/4 point of double cream

Thinly chop onion, and slice the leek and fry in the olive oil until soft, peel the sweet potato and chop into small cubes add to oil. Fry until soft for 5 minutes and the cumin and add the pumpkin, add the chicken stock. Bring to boil, then turn down and simmer for 25 minutes until veg is soft. Then take of the heat.  Because I like soups to be quite thick I strained the veg from the stock and blended it, then add a bit of stock at the end to get the right consistency. Stir in the cream, and add salt and pepper. I served mine with the chilli flake grinder, in case people wanted an added kick!

So there you go!

I'm aiming to get to the allotment tomorrow!!! And this week will be about making plans on what to plant next year. And I might even look at getting that greenhouse up over winter!

Bye for now and happy planting! Xx