The goose is getting fat...

Home made mince pies

      Another week or so of not much activity in the garden. I have raked up a lot of oak leaves and dug out the celery but that is about it! In the poly tunnel I have pulled the remaining beetroot, cooked them and pickled them. So for after Christmas day to accompany the cold cuts we will have home grown and home made pickled beetroot, pickled onions, sweet chutney and pickled eggs!
   There are lots of tidying up jobs to do but the days are short and by the time I get to get outside the day seems to be all but gone. I know, excuses excuses, however, it is time to turn to planning next years planting and sowing. I will be looking for something different to try to grow and there will be the usual - potatoes, onions, shallots, leeks, beetroot, haricot vert, runner beans, squash, pumpkins, courgettes, cucumbers and umpteen varieties of tomatoes to mention a few.
   In our animal world all is well. Geese are looking good, ducks look happy and contented The rams are still showing too much interest in the ewes but the ewes are now tending to stay away, thank goodness. The chickens are now looking like they have finished their molt and the average lay is six eggs a day.
   It is unlikely that I will write a blog entry next week so a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers where ever you are in the world.

Little done, little to say...

Sunrise over Champeau 061215

      The weather has been reasonable this past week. Mild, cloudy and the odd bit of sunshine. Ideal you would have thought to be getting on with tidying up the garden. Oh no fate had other things in store for me this week. So little gardening done, in fact really virtually no gardening done. 
     The sewerage from my house is dealt with by what the french call a fosse septique (septic tank) and the "grey" water, that is water from the sinks, washing machine, showers and bath is fed into a reed bed. Unusual. Normally it is fed into a sand filter bed. Well, luck would have it that the pipe leading from the water trap to the reed bed got clogged up and grey water became backed up. So I have spent all my spare time with a hose pipe stuck down the pipe clearing the blockage. Thank goodness the weather was mild. I would not have liked to have done this if it was really cold. Fortunately I eventually managed to clear it. 
  So what gardening job did get done? I cleared the reed bed of leaves and nettles.
   In the animal world all is fine. The hens are laying well again and even had a couple of days when eight eggs (out of 11 hens) were laid. The geese are getting fat, the ducks are being ducks. Soon be time to dispatch the geese.
   Hopefully over the next week I will get out and about doing gardening stuff. You watch the weather will change and it will be cold, wet and miserable and I will once again get nothing done! Watch this space!