May 2006
The Courtyard Garden
Sunday 7 May, 2006
When we first moved here, there was a pretty scruffy area on the west side of the cottage. It had been a vehicle entrance for one of the cottages and it ran betwen a hawthorn hedge and the house. In due course, we had a wooden ranch fence built at the north end and the area slabbed in grey York stone. A couple of years ago, I decided to do something with it and make it into a courtyard garden.
We put a trellis fence at the south end and lifted some slabs to create a small bed with a pebble pond. We planted climbers on the trellis and the ranch fence, planted up the small bed and lots of pots. All the planting was green and white. I never got round to buying any furniture for it. We decided to do a bit of work on it over the last couple of weekends.
Run, rabbit, run
Sunday 7 May, 2006
On Friday, Dan became the proud owner of a new air rifle, with which he intends to curb the local rabbit population. When he gets time, no doubt he will post something technical. As usual, the web was a great source of information.
Dan never does things by halves, which is one of the things I love about him. Killing things isn't something he relishes but he is determined to ensure that he at least ensures a swift death. So he had sheets of paper with a drawing of a rabbit to use as a target and spent Saturday morning setting up the sights on the rifle and practising. After an hour or so, he was scoring head shots the vast majority of the time. I suggested that we could pin the tattered paper target to our boundary fence with a warning to rabbits "This could be you!". Actually, the rabbits round here are so brazen that he coudl probably club them with the rifle butt and save pellets! (Joke)
Incubator in full swing
Monday 8 May, 2006
Last autumn we bought an incubator, in anticipation of getting a cockerel, or failing that buying fertlised eggs and hatching chicks from then. In the end of course we got Henry, and now that we're confident he's doing his best to fertilise some eggs we've fired up the incubator and stuck half a dozen of our Rhode Island Red eggs in there. We've also put half a dozen eggs in there for some friends whose Marin cockerel pegged it last week, but hopefully his line will continue if the incubator does its job.
The grass is always greener
Monday 15 May, 2006
Despite what you might have heard, sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side. At the weekend we moved the pigs into the second pen, which was full of lush grass and succulent docks.
They had a brief mad moment, overcome with excitement, but soon settled down to some serious eating. We'll probably keep them in this pen until they go to slaughter, giving me time to sow something in the vacant pen which is now almost devoid of foliage and well-manured. That way it should be ready for next spring's weaners.
Tamworth Breeders Club
Thursday 18 May, 2006
The Tamworth Breeders Club, established in 2004, now has a website. If you're interested in the breed, or are a breeder it's well worth checking out. It's a new site so there isn't an awful lot there yet, but there's a stock for sale section which should prove to be very useful in time.
It can be found at: http://www.tamworthbreedersclub.co.uk/
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