Latr Autumn in Mid Wales

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One of our members has urged me to do a blog from our smallholding in Mid Wales. (She thinks I am a total NUT and laughs at me in the nicest possible way)

Well the summer was a non event here in midwales…. Potatoes got blight, beans didn’t grow, Broccoli bolted. tomatos did well in the polytunnel as did lettuce, peppers and aubergine also for the first time I grew Fennel..some bolted but i still have a couple of bulbs to pick. Out doors we still have leeks and Kolrabi, swede, and NEW POTATOES!! I planted some Charlotte new pots in Aug. and we have dug the first row this week !!!

The wonder crop of the year was Autumn Bliss Raspberries !! I was picking until the first week in Nov. when we had a frost.. and must have about 12 lbs in the freezer. Blackcurrants did well earlier and some of the strawberries excelled them selves So……when the snow comes I can live on Soft fruit !!!

Chickens are playing a major part in our lives !! I lost my beloved Mrs Thatcher in early Aug. just after I had taken in 12 ex Batts. Mrs T died the day i had to go to a family furnereal…when I got home my beloved other half of 48 yrs had dug a grave….buried her and built a cairn on the spot together with a shrub to mark her passing.

Well of the other 12, we lost two quite early, they can’t always stand the stress of a new life style. BUT we have 10 beautiful auburn fluffy hens who are still in late nov. laying me 6/7 eggs a day. One has decided that she doesn’t like the nest box provided so….she has her breakfast and then races down the track, hops over the fence into the garden and races up the lawn !!!she then climbs into the bottom of a large conifer tree and we can see a fluffy bum wiggling…..later she then Cock a doodle oos to let the world know that she has laid an egg !!!

One has decided that the Cardboard box in the barn is preferable to the nest box and another thinks the Straw bale in the barn is a good place to lay /////////////////!!
That is nothing to the situation a few weeks ago …egg production seemed to drop off ? was it the weather, light levels, something in the feed ?? NO, someone has decided that it was good to lay your eggs under the hedge in the orchard >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> One day I found 22 eggs…all sound.
At least the Geese are behaving well at the moment, but digging in the manure pile on Friday…guess what ?? Four goose eggs.. we think from earlier this year !

Have spent today tidying up the flower beds and planting up some the pansies and violas that i ordered in a fit of madness. other half planted up the 160 primroses that I had ordered.

Two things to mention:
1.if any of you are interested there are 8,000 ex batt hens looking for a home before the end of the year. contact BHWT on line. they are wonderful pets, and provide fun, and wonderful eggs
2 we are producing our own electricity as from mid day on Monday…photovolcaic panels…….. will keep you informed as to how we get on.
Look forward to your comments

Grandmamoy

• 27 Nov, 2011
• 3 likes

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