The Woodland - Phase 2

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon and having just signed up again for the chasse meal – gosh the year has passed fast – I thought I had better do some work. I know way back I decided to try and take time out on Sundays but at this time of the year there is just so much to do.


I’d already sorted out the trees required for the first two rows and combined with the ploughed ground it only took a couple of hours to plant the two rows. It was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon out in the fresh air and sunshine.

While moving some of the hazel trees I noticed that along with the wonderful catkins there were also the female flowers; so tiny that you could easily miss them, it's the little red blob on the left of the stem.

Returning to the chasse dinner I've just read this version from Living the Dream, just to give another viewpoint - I love the bambi and babe idea.

Picture Catch-Up

First a couple more pictures of the flooding this morning – the little brook that runs along the bottom of the slight valley just couldn’t cope so water meadows were the order of the day.


There is a mega storm forecast for early tomorrow morning too so more rain plus 70 mph winds – oh joy, I think I’ll keep the shutters bolted, thankfully there are no longer any tall rotten trees to fall on the house. There are also warnings of power/telephone failures due to trees falling on lines.


So what have I been doing during this last week of blog silence? It’s been lots of little things and time-consuming things. I did some baking as I had lemons to use up and the bananas I’d just bought had been in far to cold a place and when I got them home and they warmed up they went soft. So I now have lemon cake and banana cake. If anyone is wondering, there is no added colouring in the lemon cake, just free-ranging chicken eggs.


Time has also been spent going to the tree nursery, ordering and then two trips collecting the next batch of saplings. There are only 166 this time and I’m really hoping that having ploughed the ground I should be able to plant much more quickly than last years.


A rainy day earlier on and I decided to fit the oak workbench. It didn’t need a lot of work, battens on the wall and the other workbench cut back to give it room. Once I got started I realised that I had to cut out a section for some pipes; that was tough going, while the workbench might be made out of bits of oak, they are solid bits of oak, really tough and the bench its self is really heavy. So here’s just a selection of the tools.


The circular saw is on the floor having already trimmed most of the workbench by the sink. It could only get to about 4” from the wall, and then it was the turn of the jigsaw. That got to about an inch from the wall and then it was the handsaw. Having got that done, I set about the small cut-out for the pipes. Thankfully I had a corded drill as my battery one would never have had enough power to drill the guide hole through the worktop. The jigsaw took out the bulk but it still needed rasping and that felt like it took forever especially as despite my very careful measuring I hadn’t realised that the two walls weren’t at right angles.

Why I thought this corner would be a right angle when the other corner that gave so much problems putting up the corner cupboards wasn’t I don’t know. So a little trimming and a little bodging and it finally fitted and had its first coat of oil, just don’t ask how long it took, I really don’t want to think about that.

One Girl Went to Mow

Went to mow the meadows,

One girl and her big red tractor,

Went to mow the meadows.

Yes folks today was get the big fields mown day. Since the tractor hadn’t been used since ploughing a good few weeks back it was a main check over for that, oil, fuel, grease front transmission joints, grease PTO, check hydraulic fluid etc. I also greased all the rotating joints on the lift system. After that I turned my attention to the topper; that hasn’t been used since the end of last autumn. A bit of grease on all of its lift joints and then I needed to attach the lift mechanism so I could lift it up and look underneath and oil around the blades.

Usually this takes me half an hour or so but today it only took a few minutes, I was really impressed with myself. After oiling the blades and greasing the rotor that fits onto the PTO it was time to connect the rotor to the PTO so that the blades would turn.

Would it go on; no way, I tried and tried, I checked the catches were opening but it just refused to fit. I thought back to last year and remembered I had a problem one day but it had then fitted after I had to move the tractor, which in turn rotated the PTO. I started up the tractor and engaged the PTO, disengaged the PTO and turned off the tractor. It still wouldn’t fit so another ten minutes ensued while I fought to get it to fit, all the time getting greasier. Why is it I inevitably pick my lightest coloured clothing to wear on a day like this? I decided to spin the PTO again; start tractor, engage PTO, disengage PTO, switch off tractor. This time it worked, everything lined up perfectly and the rotor slipped onto the PTO really easily.

By now it was mid-day and I was sweating like mad from wrestling the rotor so decided to break for lunch rather than get an hour or so mowing before lunch. The main reason was to cool down a bit. The tractor cab is enclosed with glass and in the sunshine it gets rather warm in there. I find when I’m overheating I make mistakes, not the best scenario when out on the tractor.

After lunch I set off for the 3-hectare paddock; on the first cut I managed to scalp the field in two places. It’s been so long since I’ve cut the field I had totally forgotten that up the first edge there are a couple of dips that are just right to bottom the cutter. You go into the first dip and it bounces you into the second. Never mind, I can seed it again and it’s only two very small areas. I also wear ear defenders in the tractor and I find that I don’t react as quickly to the cutter catching the ground as without because I just don’t hear it.

There were more problems to follow; as I cut the first length along the top of the field I came to a patch that was wet. The reason I know it was wet was because the tractor started to slide sideways down the hill, gouging a channel with the topper, even though the tractor was in 4WD. The patch was only about 2 meters long so I was very quickly on firm ground again.

Before anyone tells me, I know that you work fields up and down the slope to stop tractors rolling over but you do need to cut a border too. There was one other short area that gave a little problem but nothing much. Once the border was in I then started up and down the field at the southern end. View on the way down, the weird line to the left of the front of the tractor is a reflection on the glass windscreen.

The grass there was very tall and also had a couple of areas of rapeseed that I was particularly keen to cut before it re-seeded its self. In total I sprung 3 hares from there, this is the 3^rd one making a dash for the border at the top of the field.

I managed to get the majority of the field cut, it turns out there are quite a few small wet areas and when I started to tear up the field I knew it was time to stop. Once it dries a bit more, I’ll have to go up with the spade and level where the tractor slipped and then cut the remaining area.

Having finished there I headed for the 2-hectare field where I’ve started creating the wood. Last year it had a really good crop of thistles; this year I don’t want to let the same thing happen. Last year I had problems with the tractor and I also was much more nervous about using it. I’m sure my neighbour will appreciate the lower weed seeding in his adjoining field. Whereas he is happy to weed kill his field before planting again I am not so it should also reduce the weed burden in my adjoining 5-hectare cereal field.

I didn’t take pictures of the finished fields until about half past eight so they are a little dark but you can just about make out the uncut areas at the top of the 3-hectare field in this one.

This is the 2-hectare field; the new wood is at the top of the field behind the 3 poplars. The area of long grass to the right of the picture going up to the pond is a marsh area that I wish to keep as a wildlife area. I need to dam the breach in the pond but will channel the pond overflow back into this area. Along the left, between my field and my neighbour’s wood I’ve left a wildlife corridor. I’ve seen a hare in the field and a pair of deer has taken up residence in my neighbour’s wood. I’m really pleased about that as I’d not seen any deer for ages and wondered if they had all been shot during the hunting season. Whether I’ll still be happy to see them if they start eating my new trees remains to be seen.

I really should go to bed now but a day of sitting in the tractor leaves me shaking slightly, nothing to do with fear but just the vibration and the noise. The seat is sprung but older tractors are not known for the comfort of their ride and the noise even with the ear defenders is rather all encompassing. I usually spend the night dreaming and feeling I’m still in the tractor.

A Walk Around the Farm

I took advantage of a break in the showers to don my wellies and coat and take a wander around a couple of my fields. As I set off to look at the trees I’ve planted, I first go past the pond. I’d already spooked the heron as soon as I left the house, they have amazing eyesight, but the coypu hadn’t really noticed me. As I approached he moved out from the overhang at one side of the pond and swam to the middle. He then started humming. Yes coypu hum, it’s a much lower and more reverberation hum than the alpacas. The first time I heard it, they were in their underwater tunnel and I thought it was snoring. Using the trunk of one of the poplars at the edge of toe pond as a screen I was able to approach right up to the waters edge and poke just the camera round the tree without frightening it.

I then set off up the field, which as you can see is still unmown from last autumn. It’s had one and a half years uncultivated and it’s interesting seeing what has started to re-colonise it.

First up are dense mats of yet more couch grass and myriads of thistles. Considering how all the fields here are well and truly sprayed with weedkiller each year, and my fields are at least half a kilometre from any roads, I’m not expecting to have a flower meadow overnight. But here are some of the things I found.

There are lots of teasels, all of them the unhooked variety as far as I could tell last year. These are mainly round the pond, I would think that’s because the area round the pond hasn’t been cultivated to the edge – there is a possibility of collapse with the coypu tunnels – giving time for the biennial to develop.

Here Cid is helping to point out what look like a member of the hypericum family.

There are also large patches of this pretty plant, I think it’s Crosswort.

Bordering the ditch between my field and my neighbours wood is this white Comfrey, either the tuberous or the bulbous, I’ve not dug any up to see which it is.

Further up the field still and there is a large patch of Burdock. I’m wondering how easy it is to make homemade Dandelion and Burdock as I have more than enough dandelions as well.

This view is of the top of the field where I have a wonderfully large nettle patch. Up here it is nicely out of the way so it will stay to provide not only nettle soup for me but also a food source for the tortoiseshell, peacock and red admiral butterflies.

The mint here confirms the water retaining properties of the clay based soil round here. In fact, even though there is a reasonable slope on this field, there were places where I was in danger of sliding down the slope, even though it hadn’t rained for about a day.

From the wood field I cut across to the wheat field. As you can see, I was not alone. Cid is nearly always with me on these walks but this was the first time Hazel had come along. She has the most pitiful meow going and she would drop behind when something caught her attention only to start calling and then race up to be right behind me.

Right at the furthest point of the wheat field, I found this growing by the ditch. I’d seen it on a previous walk and had gone back to see if it had grown enough to let me identify it. The slugs have had a bit of a go at it but I no longer think it’s an orchid, which is what I thought a couple of weeks ago when it was just emerging. I now think it looks a bit like a lily but how a lily got to be here – this is about the furthest point you can get from mine and all the surrounding houses.

A walk back across the wheat field was quite instructive. The soil changes frequently across the field, some places loamy, some much more clayey and some very sandy. The change in soil is highlighted by marked differences in the height of the wheat. In places it is a good 6 inches tall while in others it is barely 2 inches, but throughout, the seeds of last years sunflowers are germination like mad.

We all then crossed to the paddock field where the grass is coming along nicely. In places there are concentrations of the less desirable weeds, thistles and rape but generally it is looking quite good. I would like the soil to dry out well so that I can take the topper through there to deal with the less desirable weeds and encourage the grass to branch a bit more.

On the way back up the drive I spotted more of the barbed wire I found partly buried in the grass and the ditch. It’s now out and I haven’t spotted any more. I really dislike the stuff but the rose pruning gloves I’ve got did a really good job on protecting my hand from the spikes.

The House Progresses

I’m not good at mornings at the best of times and all this week I’ve had to get up early as the electricians have been here. The worse thing is that because I have to be up earlier than usual, I keep waking up to see if I’ve overslept! I think I will sleep next week – but I expect the weather will improve so I will be working outside instead.

But, the new electrics are progressing well; the old wiring was either 40+ years old or DIY and somewhere along the line, the earth wire was omitted to most of the outlets. I’m having all the wiring replaced. It will be surface mounted partly because the house has many different types of walls but more importantly, cost.

In order to place sockets my one piece of kitchen work surface, a tile topped concrete monstrosity had to go. No problem in the grand scheme of thing but as the replacement units won’t be built for a while, I have no work surface. I also had to remove tiles from the wall by the work surface. On one wall they came off like a dream on the other, they wouldn’t budge. Eventually the chisel did its job and I came off relatively unscathed too. One fragment of the glazed surface embedded itself in the top of my foot – yes I know sandals were not the best things to be wearing, it’s just that I tend to forget I’m wearing them, and I only hit the back of my had twice with the hammer, thank goodness for arnica gel.

You can also see in the picture, my new pride and joy. It’s the wood burning range cooker that arrived on Wednesday, it's still boxed to protect it from bits of flying tiles and concrete. It can’t be installed until a radiator is removed – don’t ask me when, this is France! By the time the electrician goes though, I should have a working electric cooker. I should also be pretty close to having hot water too, I’m waiting for the immersion to be sent and then it will be when I can get a plumber here to connect it all together. I also can’t use the wood burner cooker as a cooker until the plumbing is sorted as the back boiler needs to be full of water first otherwise it will be damaged.

So there is very definite progress, I can then get cracking on the rest of the kitchen units once I have the house back. At the moment, some rooms have power while others don’t. The cats have gone into hiding since they are used to just me being here and I’ve not seen Mr Tibbs all week although his food is being eaten overnight.

I’ve also been car-less all week. It went in for a service on Monday and the mechanic at this garage realised that the timing belt was due changing. So it will be an expensive service but it’s cheaper than having the belt fail and forking out for a new engine. While I only just need to go shopping today, I’ve missed having the car there, as I feel a bit trapped. With the price of oil continuing its rise I’ve been wondering about getting a couple of donkeys. While the TV people were on strike (yes another strike in France) the local bulletins were filled with items they had in stock. One I saw showed a couple of donkeys being used to pull felled trees from a wood, and I thought about getting trees down from my wood, and they can also be used to pull a cart to get to town – a possibility for the post peak oil times.

And in the tradition of all news programmes today, this is the ‘and finally’ item.

Most of the peach and nectarine trees in people’s gardens here have bags of eggshells hanging in them. I’m told it’s to counteract leaf curl so I’ve hung a bag into the nectarine tree I have that I know has a lot of leaf curl. Has anyone else heard of this and do you know how/why it should work?

Pink Snow

The weather here isn’t supposed to get cold until tomorrow but when I looked out this morning it looked like pink show had fallen. The multitudes of insects that have been buzzing around the blossom tree have obviously done their job and the tree is now deluging petal with the slightest breeze.

Coming back from the meal yesterday I realise my neighbour had been busy over the afternoon. The first thing I saw was the only tree on the side of the drive was no more.

Down by the alpacas another 5 have been felled too. It’s sad to see them go although it does let more light onto my field. What’s sadder is that over large lengths of the ditches, no replacement trees are growing, I think because the ditches are either sprayed with weed killer or mechanically cut to manage the weed growth rather than a manual approach that would enable saplings to be spared. It make me feel really good about planting a new piece of woodland and I will be seeking out any saplings on my side of the ditch that I can leave for future generations.

Also peaking through the pink snow I spotted my lily of the valley poking through the ground. It will be interesting to see if they too flower earlier than their tradition date of the 1^st May.

No Trees and a Change of Plan

I must give up planning what I’m going to do each day, it’ seems like an invitation for everything to change. Yesterday, as today, was a ‘no tree’ day. On Saturday I’d received a bill from the place supplying my kitchen. As I wasn’t expecting the kitchen until this week and the bill was for only one unit, I was a bit confused so went to Villeneuve to find out what it was about.

On the way I called in to pick up my defunct pump. Needless to say, it wasn’t there so I will be going back next week. On then to the kitchen store and yes that unit was there and it turned out so was all but one worktop. Turns out that there was a worktop in the warehouse but that had been assigned to someone who ordered his kitchen after me so it was switched back to my order. No, I couldn’t pick the kitchen up there and then as the warehouse needed time to collect together the order so I made the appointment to pick it up at 11 tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if the worktop, and any of the other units for that matter, has been switched back to the other person’s order.

That little fruitless trip took up the whole morning. After lunch I then went over to a local village where someone was selling a ride-on mower. While I don’t need one right this minute, I will require one before the grass gets into full swing. This was too good an offer to pass up so I am now the proud owner of 3 lawnmowers of various sizes and the tractor with its topper! No picture at the moment as it’s being delivered here at the weekend. This is going to be an expensive week.

This morning was back at the prunery and this afternoon I’ve been resting my back. Four hours bent over picking up wood has left it a bit strained but nowhere as bad as before so a great improvement there. This evening I’ve spent clearing out the kitchen in anticipation of getting some units made over the next few days. I’m really pleased I got all the bare rooted trees in, the others can go in as and when I need a change as they are all in pots. That said, I’d like to get them in quite quickly.

Over the last weekend, I’ve started watching my Christmas present to me. I’ve now watched the first 2 series of ‘Allo ‘Allo.* It very definitely would not get past the PC brigade today but some of it was so funny I was laughing until tears were running down my face. I am Officer Crabtree and I do so hope my accent improves soon.

* There is no way I could give a brief summary of the characters or plot so here’s the link to Wikipedia.

Sunday Downtime

I was just about to start racing around doing the work I was going to do today when I remembered promising myself that I would take it easy one day a week. That day I decided would be Sunday and I eventually remembered that today was Sunday.

So today I only planted 8 trees, the eight remaining bare rooted ones and pottered for the rest of the day. Due to my back being bad, I’d skipped two day cleaning out the alpaca paddock. I got most of it cleared yesterday and it only took an extra 5 to 10 mins today to get it fully clear. It was no effort as again the sun was shining and it was warm. I then cleaned the water container. The water from the well here is very hard and leaves a calcium deposit on everything. The water also has a very fine silt in it that stains the deposit red brown. I’ve found that cleaning with a vinegar solution quickly cuts through the film on the side and also disinfects the container. I then refilled it with water and a tablespoon of cider vinegar.

Getting the alpacas water sorted inspired me to do the chickens water containers too. Both had a good scrub with the vinegar solution and then were rinsed and refilled. The smaller inside one got a dose of Poultry Drink in it while the large outside drinker got some cider vinegar. It’s so much nicer playing with water in the sunshine than in the frost :-D

I took my afternoon cuppa outside to sit in the sun but I find it far to difficult to sit and do nothing so I made a start on this year’s bamboo canes. I’d cut them back in October/November from the ditch where they grow on the other side of the cereal field.

Last year it was the first thing I did at the house here. It took me ages to clean the canes as I only had a small pocketknife. This year I have the serpe. In the time it took me to prepare one last year, I did three or four this year. The blade of the serpe just slices off the dried leaf covering of the canes with ease.

I did have to take care doing this not only to protect my fingers but also Snowy who decided it was a really good idea to sit underneath the blade. She didn’t seem to mind being covered in the leaf shavings either.

As you can see there is quite a lot of debris doing this but it did produce a nice nest for Snowy.

So here are the first of this year’s canes, they are still green and I will leave them in the sun for a month or so to dry out.

Trees – Day 2

Although my back is still a bit achy from it’s pummelling on Friday it is generally much better today so the tree planting is top priority again. As I walked up to the planting area I noticed that there were still small patches of frost wherever the sun had failed to reach. It was now about 10.30 and the air temperature was steadily rising, the air was still, the sky blue and I stopped by the pond, as it looked so tranquil.

The line across the middle is a fallen tree, I was thinking of removing it but it does provide some shelter for the creatures in the pond. As last year, the pond looks totally devoid of life but over the course of last year I realised it was home to assorted frogs and newts, I found water snails and small bivalves there were a multitude of various coloured and sized dragonflies and damselflies, there were a pair of moorhens that bred a single chick, ducks flew in a couple of times a day and even with the ducks I did spot a shoal of about 6 small fish. There is also my resident coypu family. My coypu have been given an extension on their stay. I did think I was going to have to get them trapped by the local hunt as I was going to farm around the pond. Coypu tunnel into the banks and they tunnel a long way back from the edge too. They pose a danger because if you take a tractor near the edge of the pond, the tunnels can collapse and you and your tractor end up in the pond – very dangerous. However since I have decided to plant the wood at the top of the field, the rest of the field will now be used to plant crops for me, such as sunflower and barley for the chickens. I can give the pond a wide berth and leave it as a wildlife area.

One thing I need to do during the summer is some work at this end of the pond. Either the tree falling or the coypu have breached the end wall, reducing the capacity of the pond. The extra escaped water has created a large marsh area which I would like to keep so I spent a bit of time working how to deal with the two contradictory problems – closing the breach will dry up the marsh but not closing it lets the pond level drop to the point where it is very low in the summer. I think I have a possible solution though. By creating a ditch running from just to the right of the tree and running straight back I can collect the water run off and some that seeps down from the hills around and that should supply the marsh area while at the same time remove the stagnant puddles that form across the field behind. The marsh area is full of mint and wonderful to walk through. Between the tree and the little post you can just see to the right and behind the tree I’ve just planted my willow cutting.

I’d picked a piece off a willow tree at my friends Sandy & Pete’s and have kept it in water for the last 4 months. It had produced some roots but was looking decidedly dead but when I took it out of the bottle it was in I spotted a green shoot sprouting; so into the ground it has gone. I’ve been deciding whether to pollard it or coppice it. In the end I think I will ‘stump’ it (my own description), so somewhere between the two.

I got another 20 trees in this morning and then came back for lunch and to give the chickens their daily treat. After the combine harvester had been through my sunflower field this summer I went gleaning and picked up lots of fallen seed heads. I don’t know how many hours it’s taken to strip the seed off but I have a large box of sunflower seeds (and very sore fingers too). I’ve not winnowed the seed so that’s what the orangey bits are.

During the afternoon I got another 10 trees in before I decided to call it a day as my back, while not hurting as before was beginning to ache a bit. So only 8 more of the bare rooted tree to go and then it’s onto the pots. The weather is set to stay fine for the next few days at least. The temperature hit 25°C in the sun today – so Martin, the hat is back! It’s really hard to believe that it is only the beginning of February.

The New Wood Begins To Take Shape

Most of this morning was spent at the prunery where Ann and I made a start on the second orchard. We’re tackling this one slightly differently. This time we are serping the wood clean and throwing all the brash into the middle. We will then collect the usable wood after the brash has been cleared (unless we think we can get the quad bike and trailer between the brash and the trees). It was a lovely warm and sunny day and it did seem to be a quicker way of working through the orchard.

The only downside was my back, which after four hours more or less seized up. Still my appointment with the chiropractor is tomorrow so with luck it will be fine after that. I still need to plant the 58 bare-rooted ash tree I have as soon as possible so despite the back I set off up the field to make a start and managed to get 20 in. The rest will have to wait until Saturday because I won’t be doing any digging tomorrow although I might be able to mark out a few more planting positions if I take it carefully.

While wandering up to the hen house I spotted this lovely celendine, it’s so large that when I first saw it last year I thought it might be a marsh marigold. They look so lovely and spring like.

Final picture today is the poplar tree after its trim round the edges. I don’t think I’ll save these branches for the fire though as poplar has a high water content and doesn’t burn that well. They will however eventually burn on the bonfire and the ashes will be added to the compost heap.

Even More Trees

I picked up the last of the trees for my wood for this year. 20 Field Maples and 58 bare rooted Ash whips. All I need to do now is get on with the planting. With luck that should be Friday as the weather looks like it will be kind to me then.

I went out this morning to see if there had been any damage from the winds yesterday. Thankfully nothing really. The new greenhouse had been blown over even though there was no plastic on it and there was a small rip in the tarpaulin on the hay which I’ll mend with duct tape on a warm dry day.

Cleaning out the alpacas was fun. We had 11 mm of rain over the previous day followed by another 4 mm just before I went to feed and clean them. The result was akin to an ice rink, except I think there is more friction on ice than in the field. The top centimetre or so of the field was just liquid mud, yuck. Still the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue by then but I did move round very carefully.

The smaller of my two lemon trees has burst into bloom this week, scenting the study for me. Each day I’m there with the paintbrush pollinating all the flowers so hopefully this tree will produce fruit this year. The feed supplement I’ve given it really has made a difference; while it was significantly cheaper than the other lemon tree, it has required a lot more TLC and not yet produced any fruit.

And a final picture for the benefit of my children. I’ve been a fan of the virulent green Pisang Ambon liqueur for many years and while I was shopping I discovered it had a mate. This one is a beautiful purple and it tastes OK too.

Feeding Yourself

Yesterday was a trip to the town day. I’m trying to limit these for two reasons, firstly because I always spend more than I think I will and secondly I find that more and more I dislike the artificial lighting and the overpowering noise of the large shops. Thankfully the shops aren’t generally as crowded as in the UK.

I got most of what I wanted which is always good. It is coming up to Chinese New Year so the supermarkets are full of Chinese and Thai foods and sauces. I haven’t found a Chinese supermarket anywhere round here so have to rely on the main supermarkets for any Oriental seasonings I want. There are usually very few in the supermarkets and they are very expensive for most of the year. For example a bottle of sesame oil (150ml) is a bit over £3.20 (4€50). However this time of year they have special offers so the sesame oil is 1€30 around £1.80 (they were out of stock though). They also had tubs of Thai red and Thai green curry paste that I’ve not seen in store at any other time. So it was time to stock the store cupboard.

I also bought a water butt. This is really an interim measure since at 300 litres it won’t supply the house but it will ensure that the alpacas and chickens will have water for a week or so should the pump fail again. Eventually I will get a larger storage vessel for the house and this one will then be installed on one of the planned field shelters to save me having to transport water over the fields. I’ve started to put it together - that is fit the tap - but a big problem has arisen. I can’t be both inside and outside the butt at the same time (it's about 3/4 of my height) to hold the tap still and be able to tighten the nut on the inside. So I’ll have to wait until Ann comes over sometime to finish that. I then have to fit it to the down pipe. I have one of the those diverter kits and am puzzling on how to fit it and whether it’s worth fitting it. If it only diverts water when there is a heavy rainfall, I’m going to miss the gentle runoff that we frequently get but it will also reduce the debris getting into the butt. If I direct fill the butt, I will collect all the moisture but all the debris too. Any thoughts anyone? The picture shows the new butt and what I cobbled together when without water.

Today’s main work was to spray where the trees are to be planted. I’ve spent quite a bit of time pondering whether to spray or not. I had thought about running the cultivator along the rows instead but the ground is still wet and the clay content would lead it to compact under the tractor. The cultivator is only a meter across but with a planting distance of 2 meters it would still mean that all the land between the trees would have been worked and that would have destroyed the fauna that had built up over the last 2 years. The rows I’ve sprayed are only about half a meter wide to give the trees a head start once they go in.

While wandering past last years vegetable bed I noticed that the spring onions were beginning to mature – I thought they were spring onions because you planted them in spring :-D, so these have been in the ground quite a while and I’d more or less forgotten about them. One rocket plant had also over wintered so I picked a few leaves along with some spinach. So tonight’s supper was homemade goulash including onions I’d grow last year with homegrown potatoes and homegrown green beans and a mixed salad including the spinach, rocket and the spring onion from the garden today.

I know that for many of the people who read this blog, sourcing their own food is the norm but for me, it was the first time I’ve really stopped and looked at the change I’ve made over the last year. Sometimes we do have to take stock and appreciate how far we have come, even if we are nowhere near where we want to be eventually.