Orchard / Bonfire / Aurora - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Sunday 7 March, 2021

by Rosemary at 4:43pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 1^st March

Paperwork day, so in the office. March seems to be coming in like a lamb.

Blizzard is almost sound. Which is great because I got the bill and the antibiotic was over £50.

Started feeding Roo, the BFL expecting triplets, and Niamh, because she’s old.  Roo is the least friendly of the BFLs, so shedding off the two of them was a wee bit of a pantomime but it got done. I’ve kept them in the wee tup paddock overnight and will feed them again in the morning – hopefully, she’ll realise quite quickly that coming in is a good thing.

Tuesday 2^nd March

Graham the Joiner is finished with the WC for now; Dave the Spark is coming Thursday to connect up the water heater, light and space heater.

Wednesday 3^rd March

Dan emulsioned the inside of the WC – he used watered white emulsion and it’s given it a nice whitewashed look.

WC getting close to finished.

Roo and Niamh getting better at the coming in.

Thursday 4^th March

Dave the Spark here today; WC now wired up. And Dan laid the vinyl on the floor. We’re really pleased with it. Graham’s back end of next week to finish it off.

Our pressure washer had passed away. Picked up a replacement from Screwfix – going to give the brown henhouse a good clean, ready for new arrivals next month.

New pressure washer.

Friday 5^th March

Roo’s lame.

I am determined that our garden looks lovely this year, so I started weeding the two beds at the front of the house. Not that anyone sees them much; only lost couriers go to the front door, everyone else comes to the back.

Before.

One bed done and Thomas was first to the uncovered catmint.

Thomas was first to the uncovered catmint.

One bed weeded.

Saturday 6^th March

Roo’s sound. Must have been something between the cleats that has now fallen out.

The new pressure washer is fierce.  So many bits, though. It was worse than a bag of Lego. I gave the brown henhouse a really good clean – hand and knees and the paint scraper clean – then sprayed it with anti-everything spray.  Took out the perches – no sign of red mite, which is good – and pressure washed them. I don’t think our old pressure washer was this effective.

Perches cleaned.

On a roll, I cleaned the patio; I weeded the beds round the uprights last week and I’m going to put down stone chips of some kind, then put up some hanging baskets and pots. Had a wee bit retail therapy on plants.

A wee burn.

Dan was burning brash from the hedge trimming and the apple tree pruning. The orchard looks a bit dismal just now but will soon be in bloom.

Our orchard.

 

Sunday 7^th March

Dan’s pyromania is burning bright – he spent the morning burning waste wood round by the field shelter, raking leaves and having a general tidy up. I baked biscuits and fruit tea loaf then went shopping. Did paperwork in the afternoon, because it’s a nicer forecast for tomorrow, so I want to be out all day.

And a photo of Blizzard and Aurora, just because.

Blizzard and Aurora.