Time rolls by!

   Ok so where did the last week go? This week I am  going to start with the animals. We knew we had too many sheep. This week fifteen (fourteen ewes, one ram) went to a new home. Homes for four more ewes, one ram and lamb have been found. This will reduce our flock to a core of eight ewes, seven rams and one lamb. Homes for more rams are on the cards so that in the end we will only have our two bottle fed rams left and  the eight ewes and one lamb. That is a more manageable number.  On the chicken front four new generic brown hens have joined the flock. Also we managed to get hatched out using an incubator five  Ixworth chicks. Long way to go though. I would be happy to get two or three to sixteen weeks of age, that is, point of lay!

First to hatch! Ixworth chick 110518

Three out of four new arrivals

Peas and mange tout

Batavia Blonde lettuce

  In the garden it has been busy busy busy. Nothing new there then for this time of year. Pulled rhubarb, lettuce and radish and cut asparagus. There has been a handful of peas from the poly tunnel. These were an over winter experiment which has proven to be more successful than I expected. This winter I will make sure I give them something to climb up. More Batavia blonde lettuce plants purchased and transplanted in and out of the poly tunnel. More weeding and tidying of border edges completed. Always more of that to do! The last of the leeks which were going to seed have been removed and the bed prepared for tomatoes. Transplanting tomatoes is going to be the next big job. This will be undertaken after the 15th May the last frost date for this part of France. New experiment for me. I have sowed Haricot Buerre and Borlotti beans into modules, one seed per cell. When I was at the local market I saw one plant stall holder had done this and the I saw the light and am giving it a go! 
   The weather over the week has varied between hot and cool but mostly very  good for gardening. On Saturday 11th May it rained. That was welcome as it will refresh everything and away it will go again!