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Self-Sufficiency in Style

august 2003 diary

 

Flooded out
We've been neglecting things, and are trying hard to catch up now
Family duties have occupied some time - a ninth grandchild has arrived - and we have kept the dog "Buster" occupied whilst his Mum looks after the new baby, Charlotte.

Buster has learned to live with sheep, cattle, pigs and poultry. He is still uncertain about the postman and the cat, and is yet to meet Charlotte.

Yes, it's yet another girl to add to the ever-growing pack.

Still, she will be taught to milk one day, and be used to chickens, lambs, calves and piglets.

She will know the difference between hay and straw - and probably plague her father and grandmother for space in the paddock for a pony.

It is exceptionally good riding country here. We see twice as many horses go by than cars.

A paddock for a pony?

It is also a sad anniversary. Three years to the day from when the English Swine Fever Epidemic broke loose here.

A time when we saw how fragile our democracy really has become.

Trying to fight back against corruption has occupied five hours a day, every day since, which is another good reason why we are behind.

But we feel we did our duty in difficult circumstances. You can read what we uncovered in Stop the World

Then we both got hay fever - well we presume it is hay fever.

Painful eyes and sneezing necessitated a rare visit to the doctor.

The writer is still slightly baffled why the treatment included advice to wear an Australian cricket hat when out in the sun.

It looks ridiculous and to be accompanied by the writer so equipped, will embarrass all the ladies in the family. 

"Mum (or Nan)," they will say, "He is getting worse. Can't you do anything?"

I could get to like that doctor. Don't understand his treatment, but he has his good points.

Australian remedy for hay fever?

Then the new computer broke down, so after speaking to India for hours, we sent it back for repair. It came back late, still broken.

So we had a row with the biggest and best computer company in the world. They "played up." So we "played up" too

...and the writer can be quite good at being difficult with bad suppliers.

We have a full refund - and a nice new computer from another supplier.

So, to celebrate, a new study was organised, on the basis that the "hay fever" was caused by dust and the writer's intolerance of Mrs P's cleansing excursions into my den.

We had a storm and the roof leaked, so the writer became homeless.

So he sulked.

Anyway, life is now back to normal. Ensconced in the new study, with new waterproof roof, it is baking hot. The sort of heat that does not happen in England.

An all time record.

A new "clean" study - unlike the old one, where the vacuum cleaner was banned.

Anyway, fruit and vegetables are pouring out of the garden.

The fact that you could hide a troop of orang-outangs in there is beside the point.

We have had the first apricots and peaches too, blueberries by the bucket. A second smallish crop of strawberries is there now and the late raspberries are just starting.

The plums are ripening and the apples and pears look very good.

The birds got nearly all the cherries.

Rhubarb is there as a standby, but other fruit has been always abundant.

 

Indoor grapes are just ripening now.

 

Too hot by day.

The tunnels are in full production. The first melons just eaten. The cucumbers and tomatoes very good. Both seem to have less disease than last year.

The cape gooseberries are yet to fruit, but we have aubergines (egg plant) and lots of different peppers.

It has been, and still is, very hot. Watering is an unpleasant chore in this weather.

The potatoes, which were planted very late, look not too bad.

A wide variety of squashes are being grown in what was the pigging paddock. They fight it out with the thistles - and every now and again we find a  monster hiding.

The walled garden is yielding plenty of beans, carrots and lettuce.

There are some squashes in here, somewhere...

We have been brewing beer again. The writer thinks that a very acceptable business for a wet day, but wish we had a little brewing shed....with running water, a few books and samples - a soft chair to sit when siphoning. The odd sample from past years for comparison purposes.

Mrs P is very difficult about  the process taking place in her kitchen.
Around the middle of the month, we start to run into real problems with the weather, the unusually hot and dry summer, gets hotter and drier still.
The temperature in England exceeded 100ºF for the first time ever - oddly enough at the writer's birthplace of Gravesend.

Hangman's Cottage might have been a fraction cooler, but throughout the month we have been waiting for on-shore breezes to come in the evening to make life a little more tolerable.

Mud - "Warmwell's" favourite sunscreen.

 The pigs have not been troubled too much.

Tamworths, being an outdoor breed, do not usually suffer from sunburn. They find some shade or use their insulated huts - or, best of all, take to their wallows.

The cattle and sheep take to the hedgerows for shade, and enjoy a nap in the middle of the day.

An ancient feature has its utility, even today.

Complaints are loud and clear.

 The real problem comes with the grazing. Grass is usually scarce in August, but this year the little fields, even the water meadow, are like deserts.

We have to feed hay, and both cattle and sheep are not so keen. They want grass.

The milk from the cow drops as if in protest and the sheep are noisy.

The problem should begin to remedy itself next month, as the autumn flush of grass comes in, but for the moment, we are eating into our winter supply of hay.

The garden is getting some problems too, a plague of caterpillars has stripped the brassicas.

There are two solutions to caterpillars. Do something about them, or live and let live...

Not a leaf left in sight.

Cotton scale insect on runner beans.

 ...and the imported citrus parasite that murdered the oranges and lemons has struck the nearby strawberries and runner beans.

Obviously the unusually hot weather has encouraged it to spread.

It won't survive the winter outside. It might in California, but not here.
Despite all these problems, the animals are fine and the food continues to pour in from the garden.

This particular day, we picked a variety of melons, blueberries, red and yellow raspberries, figs, strawberries, cape gooseberries; yellow and green courgettes and some runner beans.

Meantime, the weeding continues, whenever the day is cool enough.

The soil may be hard enough to break your hand, the plants dying of drought or infestation, but the weeds keep growing - funny that!

The temperature's rising

  at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner.

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