Self-Sufficiency in Style
may 2003 diary
White Passionflower
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Self-Sufficiency in Style may 2003 diary
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White Passionflower |
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As always around this time of year things get behind.
The animals get priority, the garden neglected and writing, including this diary, left 'till last. |
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But the compensations are there, the weather has been quite good - and the
landscape looks at its very best.
Green fields and children's clouds. The call of the cuckoo and the buzz of the bumblebee. |
Sunshine and "painting book " sky. |
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The cow, Gladys, had a calf, a breech birth.
It was a bull calf, healthy, strong and very nice looking too.
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That same day, we welcomed another new member of the family, well he is
not actually ours, but our son's.
He will be coming to live with us, when his master and mistress go globe-trotting, so he has to be trained. Not to chase lambs, calves, piglets, ducks, chickens...and the cat. Not to cock his leg in the walled garden and not to commandeer the armchair. Not to squabble with Star, our Rottweiler and not to chew logs in the drawing room. Buster has to be trained, his parents are reputed to be the largest Rottweilers ever seen by an experienced Mrs P - and he was the largest in the litter. |
A world of "stop that!" |
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A pleasant job in the meadow in summer. |
So milking is under way again, twice each day.
Cheese, butter and cream production too. This is her third calf so there is plenty of milk, for calf and for us. |
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The sheep relax in the water meadow.
Most of their feeding is done morning and evening. They have already been shorn, so the main job is tending any lameness and keeping an eye open for the dreaded "fly-strike." Sheep are easy outside lambing so long as you have good fences and water supply. You do need to keep an eye on them though. |
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The sow spends quite a lot of time asleep in the sun too. She needs little
attention. That's a good job too, she is usually smothered in mud.
You do need to make sure they can get some shade and provide enough water for a wallow - and a shower in hot weather. Some types can get sunburn too, although not this one. She is an outdoor model much given to sunbathing. |
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Even the cat takes time off from rat catching and rabbiting for a quiet
snooze in a very hot tunnel.
He is not always so welcome around the polytunnel, he has developed the habit of running up one side, craws outstretched and sliding down the other, claws still outstretched. |
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The piglets do plenty of sleeping too, but in dry weather they find time for a chat with the dog. |
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So apart from milking the cow, the animals are little
work. Good fences, good water supply, enough space, somewhere to shelter
from rain and sun - these, apart from food, are the essentials.
Every animal is checked at least twice every day and their welfare takes priority over everything else. Which is why the garden is well behind this year. It has nothing whatsoever to do with spending the days writing. |
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The writer is not proud, he just got behind.
The lawn is not striped, it is not even short. We would put the sheep on it, but there are one or two plants... |
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In disgrace. |
The citrus have been evicted from the conservatory in disgrace.
They have acquired some transatlantic disease called "cotton somethingorother" and have leaked sticky gunge all over the floor. Mrs P says they can't come back in until they have learned how to behave. It was all the writer's fault for inadequate supervision. |
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The gooseberries and redcurrants have been attacked by
caterpillars. We counter-attacked by picking them off.
The blackcurrants, all four varieties, have picked up a virus and look very sickly. But the raspberries look very healthy and we have just finished picking the asparagus for this year. |
Healthy neighbours. |
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Blackbird Defences. |
The netting has arrived for the strawberry cage. The Rottweiler chasing
the marauding blackbirds around the garden posed risks for the greenhouse
- unacceptable risks.
That dog has a doubtful braking system. |
| Nevertheless things do get done, a bit late and not so well organised. |
The tomato tunnel has tomatoes ripening - unusually early. |
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The new potatoes planted in pots in the greenhouse have done well. Each
has yielded well and the bucket and compost reused for a non-related crop
- like peppers.
Five buckets have given us ten meals and helped close the gap between the last of the old crop and the new crop becoming available from the potato patch. |
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Anyway, who cares if the lawn is a little long, when you can lunch and dine
al fresco on potatoes and asparagus picked less than an hour before.
The smoked salmon was a cheat, but the trout last week was caught by a neighbour. There has to be time for living too. |
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Behind the times at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
