January 2023

Diary

Rain / Raspberries / Polytunnel

Monday 2 January, 2023

by Rosemary at 5:29pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Wednesday 28^th December

Bit grey, but no wind and not frozen, which is good. After the morning chores – feeding and mucking out the cattle and feeding the ponies – and after feeding ourselves, Dan took the dogs for a walk down the Buddon and I had a happy couple of hours in the garden.

I'm trying to see the potential.

winter-garden Winter garden.

Leeks / Gracie and Bronte / Polytunnel

Monday 9 January, 2023

by Rosemary at 8:56am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 2^nd January

Spring cleaned the feed store. With no hens or sheep, it’s emptier than it’s been for years.

feedstore Nice and tidy.

Tuesday 3^rd January

Tom loves the fire. This isn’t an action shot – he’s been lying like this for ten minutes. Channelling his inner Gwenna.

Hedges / Leaves / Fire

Monday 16 January, 2023

by Rosemary at 7:07am in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 9^th January

Bit dreich this morning. I was away first thing for hay – one bales is doing the cows about eight or nine days. Not sure how long a pony / bull bale is doing but I’ve marked the opening date on the board in the feed store.

Monday Dreich Monday.

Duncan was here doing the hedges. Nice tidy job –five men, so it didn’t take long. He’s going to come back in February to take down about twenty trees that are surplus. Andy and Dan will process them for firewood. We’re going to fill the gaps in the orchard with smallish, nature friendly trees rather than more apples.

Ladybird / Teacosy / Rhubarb

Sunday 29 January, 2023

by Rosemary at 3:56pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 23^rd January

No diary for last week; sadly, Dan’s Dad died last Thursday, so I wasn’t in the mood, to be honest. Although he’d been poorly for a while and we thought we were prepared, we weren’t as prepared as we thought we were. He was a lovely man, and he will be sorely missed – this place is full of memories of him – and he’s left us with so many good ones.

Last week was very cold – the water to the cowshed was frozen most of the week, but it’s been mainly dry, and the standing water has almost gone from the fields. Yesterday, it thawed so Dan and I were able to get out in the polytunnel, get all the wires down and finish the edges, and do a bit of general tidying.