FROST

    Four out of seven mornings this week has seen a frost on the ground. Tad cold in the morning! Another week slips by and not a lot done! Do not get it! Where does the time go? Carrots dug up and  repairs made the the two Hugelkultur beds made after chicken raids! I have been putting their dirty bedding on the beds and there is some grain/chicken food amongst it and chickens being chickens this food is far better than the stuff in their feeders! Also there is a layer of leaves on the beds and once they have been down for while the chickens love to scratch and look for bugs and worms. Finally managed to arrange for the three cockerels to be despatched. Two went in the freezer and a small one became the foxes dinner. Sorry to see them go but peace now reigns in the garden once more. Egg production is well up with an average of 6.1 eggs a day being laid. That is more like it!

   There will not be a blog next weekend! Its Christmas! Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New. Lets hope 2022 is a lot better than 2021.

My Christmas tree 2021

Damp, just damp!

      What can I write? I look at my log and what do I see? Blank entries! Well, almost. On two separate days, clean out the wooden chicken coop and lifted some BF-15 potatoes! Talking of which nearly done with lifting them now. One more lot I reckon. But it has been a very quiet week. Why? Do not know. Have not been anyway, done anything in particular. Three days of morning frost but not really cold enough to stop doing stuff. Must have done something! Lol!

    So this blog will be more about the chickens than the vegetable plot. There are still cabbage, carrots and swede in the beds and there are onions, garlic, squash (butternut and another) and kilos of potatoes in the pantry! In the freezer broad beans, chili's,haricot vert and haricot buerre. The chickens. Well, they have come back into lay with a vengeance! Total of twenty four eggs this last seven days making a daily average lay of 3.4 eggs! Well done chickens! The excess cockerels will dealt with next week and readjusting of the flocks will need to be done incorporating the new hens into the other flocks. That is probably going to be a challange!

    Two weeks to Christmas day! 

Home made short bread

ANOTHER QUIET WEEK

    It  has been dark, damp, cloudy and miserable! Not a very good combination to try and do some work in the garden. Those conditions and short daylight days do not make to encourage one to get out and do some stuff. Very little done this last week. Some BF-15 potatoes lifted (another four kilograms!) and a little forking and weeding. There are now three chickens laying although not every day and the average daily total is now up to 1.6. A significant improvement!

   Yes there is lots to do but the conditions are not good and I am happy to get on with Christmas preparations/decorations. First batches of mince pies made and some short bread to accompany the glass of sherry while decorating the tree. Here is hoping for a drier week (I should be so lucky!) and being able to do some work in the garden.

QUIET WEEK

     Yes a quiet week. Lifted some BF-15 potatoes, did a little forking and weeding. Cleared the small Hugelkultur bed which is now going to receive the soiled chicken bedding when I clean out any coop. This will act as mulch and manure over the winter. The ground is getting too wet to do much and the days seem to be so short!

     Chickens are being chickens as usual, however, the youngsters are now finding their feet especially the cockerels. Egg laying is improving with the weekly average going up to 0.4 eggs per day, however, things are on the up with two eggs laid on Sunday (28/11/21). So that means two hens are now in lay.

First snow of winter 281121

Eggs return..

    Yes one hen has started laying this last week. Two eggs! Hopefully a sign of things to come! 

    It has been a quiet week in the garden not for any particular reason. The weather has been reasonable but the days are short. Lifted some BF-15 potatoes which I must admit are showing signs in their cooking of getting a little long in the tooth for second early potatoes. Pulled some excellent carrots and cut what was left of the pointy summer cabbage as they too were showing signs of being past their best. Grass cutting done mainly to gather leaves but given some dry days the rest of the grass will need cutting too.

   Nothing to do with gardening but the 21st November 2021 is stir Sunday. It is the day when Christmas pudds are mixed and stirred by the family with everyone making a wish.

2021 Christmas puddings

FROST! Brrr...

    Another week of no eggs! That is now four weeks without a single egg being laid. I do not think we have ever gone this long without them laying. Oh well they will come good eventually.

     As per title there have been frosts this week although the day temperatures have not been bad. A little rain but nothing serious. This time of year is clearing up time. Last of the chilli's and tomatoes removed from the poly tunnel. The leeks have been weeded which was if I am honest with myself was over due. Some leaves mowed up (easier than raking!) and off course grass cut! Will that job ever end I wonder? I have started to lift the last of the BF-15 potatoes but comparing with what I have already lifted form this area I reckon there is still some twelve plus kilograms to lift. Broad beans are up and there is the odd garlic poking its head above the soil too. It is time to start thinking of next years sowing and planting.

   So on with tidying up as and when the weather allows and of course my enthusiasm for doing it!

Sprouting broad beans

Dried haricot vert for making baked beans

Still no eggs

    Another week of no eggs. There are still several hens growing new feathers and in my current flock I have a lot of new/young hens. Hopefully they will start laying soon! Coops cleaned out and the one wooden one moved to fresh ground as there is lot of activity from critters underneath it.

    In the garden the last of the tomatoes and chilli's have been picked. Cabbage cut and I even got a couple of reasonable sized cauliflowers! The last of the BF-15 potatoes which were grown in a large bed have been lifted. Still some more yet to do in another small bed. Finally got round to cutting hedges, well, at least some of them. One good thing about having a ride on mower is collecting fallen leaves! As long as they are dry using the ride on mower to gather the leaves is far easier than raking them up! These are going to be used in the construction my latest no dig bed.

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