Lovely sunday at the lottie untill......

It snowed, stopped and then rained. Bah. Anyway this years bean bed/next years aspargus patch has finally been dug. Just need to take all the loose soil out and then start breaking up the subsoil. Hard work but it will be worth it.

It all looked a little sad down there today but thats allotments in february. Once they are dug thats kinda it untill mid march.

Mrs N bought a nice looking apple tree from Wilkinsons today. Self fertile granny smith, unknown rootstock which concerns me. They have a couple of others so I might invest in them too.

Plastic for covering Lotties

Quick tip if anyone takes the time to look in. You can get virtually as much black plastic sheeting you want by finding your nearest roof truss manufacturers. Timber comes with nice wrappings that you can put down. All very free as we simply dump it.

Http://www.tra.org.uk for the best list I know of. You can get further ones off the links to system owners websites.

Booking holiday tomorrow at 9am. China no less. How exciting is that!! Some time off the plot though but it will be september and just in time to get rested up for the autumn digging season.

Took a look at someone elses blog tonight. They have just got a half plot - 7m by 42m!!!! In Boston thats more than a full one.

Oh for some warm sunshine.

PDA and things

I`d like one. Why you may ask, cos I simply do. Thats gadget freaks for you. Got my eye on a Acer N50. Ebays your friend as they say.

Chickens have laid well, dozen today.

Pottery went nicely, making agate style stuff with different coloured clays. Very interesting. Looking forward to the results.

I wish the weather was better, get outside a bit more. Still need the rain for the lottie. Digging this weekend.

Pool - Shunters at home

A loss, first of the season 4-3 to them. 2 players short though so wasn`t too bad. Should have been better though.

Poorly tum

Well its been a while since my last addition. Unfortuatly, health wise has been a bit poor. A right stinker of a migraine last friday and yesterday a double dose of the D & S! Off work today just to get something out of my system. I loathe a dose of the shits more than the devil himself as I cannot bear to be anywhere but home.

Mrs N is working hard on some knitting. Mum has tried to get her interested and I think finally she is cracking it. Trick is to work on big needles and chunky wools. Mrs N has poor patience so needs almost instant results to keep her happy.

The seeds and spuds are gently working. The onion seeds are frankly pathetic and have not inspired confidence at all. Have`nt been to the lottie as its been far colder than I like. I`ll make up for lost time, Nothing was built in a day. Besides the winter olympics is on and thats one year in four! We seem to be doing well this year. 1 silver in the Womens skeleton. The men could have done better but at least we had two in the top 10. Ladies in the 2 girl Bobsleigh looking good. Hopefully they can pull out all the stops and crack a medal. Ladies curling blew out but the men are in the semis. Chemmy Alcott did a reasonable time in the super G which is frankly more positive than a position (working on the basis of not being too far behind).

Wembley is`nt going to be ready on time. SURPRISE!!!! I went to Cardiff when Millwall played Man U. Organised to perfection and no problems at all. Why they have to build a new stadium was beyond me. Oh, and its 300 million over budget. That could pay off the debts of the entire league 2 and pay for a staggering amount of training for kids.

And finally, chickens are laying like mad. Getting ready in case we have to put them indoors.

Site visits in the sunshine

Lovely bright sunshine but very cold. As usual the bad head thing has reared its head cos of driving in bright sunshine. Taken migralieve, hopefully that will sort it out. Pottery tonight and then its the weekend again.

Mrs N has tomorrow off, lucky devil. Hope she has a lovely day with her mum and dad.

Tomatoes and Chickens

This is the first year of trying to grow tomatoes from seed. First batch have died. Bit early methinks in January so will be having another go.

Chickens scored 11 again today. They just keep on laying. The old girls are looking a bit straggley cos of the neck moult but it does'nt seem to be stopping them.

More Links

I have put links on for Boinc and Rivercottage.

For those that don`t know Boinc is a program you download and does various computations whilst your not doing anything with your computer. Great for helping mankind with disease.

Rivercottage is Hugh Fearney-Whittingstalls website. My inspiration to getting my chickens and a lot more with regards to food. You have to try the stuffed goose neck from the River Cottage Year.

Chickens ended on 11 eggs for the day.

Heard an odd thing on the radio about the Muslims and the aftermath of the cartoons. Now I aint seen em and have no desire to. I'm not at all religeous and I think that an awful lot of the worlds ills are down to it. Christians have been pretty shitty over the years and the most dangerous man on earth is a Christian fundamentalist in charge of the big button!!!! I`m afraid that in many peoples eyes the near riot in London has just proved the stereotype. Such a shame that the people with the loudest voices tend to have the worst to say.

Chickens

Came home to find one chicken desperatly having a dust bath........shame theres no dust!!!!!

10 eggs, maybe another before end of play tonight. They lay in the morning as a rule so don`t expect any more.

I see the big post arrived. That was about 14 hours after sending. Not quite how I thought it would go. Changed the template so I can have Links on the side. Better. Come and see where I work now. Will put up more as I go along.

Allotment and chickens

Allotment

First time I've wrote about this. Well, we have had our allotment for 3
years. Been one hell of a struggle because of the amount of rubbish left
in it. We have dug out anything and everything including a van radiator
(I kid you not). Anyways its finally getting under some kind of order.
We have the usual suspects of semi-permanant crops. Raspberries,
Strawberries, Rhubard and Asparagus. We have a Black Bute Blackberry to
go in but thats the wifes. We are also the site reps too, no-one else
wanted it and we thought someone should do it. I am NOT responsible for
the site itself, thats the councils honour. Our site is quite small only
47 plots and at the last allotment reps we found out we have a waiting
list!!!! Only 1 person but hey its a list. Thats the background.

Yesterday, I got my salad potatos. A rather small variety called Mimi.
They are Thompson and Morgan stock but were bought from Johnsons Garden
Centre just outside Boston. They have a huge variety of seed potatos
down there. I am not going to be doing maincrop potatos as I just don`t
think they are worth the room or effort. We can buy a bag of organic
spuds round here for a fiver straight from the farmer. We don`t eat that
many (still got the single bag of maincrops going) so not sure its worth
it. Salad ones are different. Mimi is particularly small, bite size one
would say. I am going to grow them in boxes made up of seperate planks
of wood. Simply lift the boxes off and pick your tates. Growing medium
will be the councils leaf mould from the cemetary. Free and plentiful.

Todays task was digging more out for expanding our asparagus bed.
Doubleing it in size as we eat loads of it and its worth freezing too.
I`m clearing the patch down to the subsoil, then going to add as much
compost, manure, anything else organic that I can to make up the soil
level. Grow beans, peas and some courgettes on the area this year and
put the asparagus crowns I grow this year into that bed. The existing
crowns have given plenty of seeds. So no problem with plants. The
variety is Connovers Colossel.

Thats enough of Allotments for now, apart from a slight incident of
parking problems with the neighbours. I got the heads up so I am kinda
expecting the phone call any time.

Chicken update.

11 yesterday and same again today. Spend some money and give your chooks
the best food you can get, I am sure it makes the difference.

Missing Presumed Dead

Thats last nights post. Sent it via email. Has`nt been put up. So heres a quick synopsis.

22 eggs over the weekend.

Bought potato mimi for the allotment. A salad variety. Not going to do maincrop, too much space and not enough harvest.

Back at dinertime for more.

Chicken update

6 more eggs today.

Question.
Do Rabbits actually make a sound, as in a bark from a dog. We have 2
rabbits and have'nt ever heard anything. Answears on a postcard please.

Note to architects. If you put on the top of a drawing "do not scale"
then for gods sake put dimensions on the damn thing. Are we all supposed
to guess?

Its the weekend and I wont think about roof trusses till monday.

Moans, groans and happiness

Roof Trusses

Why oh why have the design rules been made so ambiguous. Surely, an engineered product like a roof should have clear guidelines on issues such as girder fixings on site. Do i bolt all round or just bottom chords even though it may not be the only loaded chord.
Its left to enqualified people to make judgement calls on something they may
not completely understand.
But don't worry unduly about your roof its still approx 4 times over
designed. <G>

Chickens

Out of the 13 chickens, we got 10 eggs this morning (some from yesterday as I did`nt collect at dinnertime) so considering 7 have been laying for over a year they really are good layers. At only 3.95 each from a place in Leasingham, nr Sleaford. You can't argue their value either. We sell the eggs to friends and family for 55p a half dozen. Covers their feed and thats all I care about. I did'nt get them to make a fortune but to be a little more self concious over what I eat. Have not quite made it to broilers but I am considering it. Just cannot find meat birds at a reasonable price.

Email test 2

Trying to see if this works still. Another method than before.

Cryptic or what?

First One

A new blog, well everyones having one so why not me?

Musings, all about my allotment, rants and raves. Thats probably all that will be on here.

A diary of life.