Endless Days that Pass to Fast

The last three weeks has had some long hot summer days that feel endless but at the same time the three weeks that my daughter spent here have passed in the blink of an eye. We had a wonderful time and I can’t wait for her return.
My elder son is here with his girlfriend for another 5 weeks which sounds ages now but I guess will pass far too quickly as well.

As well as days out to places like Rocamadour – my daughter needed to get some more of the room spray that she got there last year! We had time for a visit to the Gouffre de Padirac, which I love, that provided a lovely cool interlude to a hot day– there were frequent shopping trips with a very successful clothing trip to Sarlat market. We’ve also got nearly one field of posts in. The heat has not only made it very difficult for us to be out in the field for long periods but has also made the clay/soil too hard to ram in successfully so we need a decent shower of rain to wet the ground again.

Another highlight of her stay was the water pump failing again leaving us without water for a week. The probable cause of the failure was the pump being partially submerged every time it deluged with rain. Over the next few weeks, while it’s still dry, I have to figure a way to raise the pump; the hose from the well stops about 15 cm (6 inches) above ground level and the pump house is a tight fit around the pressure vessel with the pump situated near the back, requiring anyone trying to work on the pump to be a contortionist. So the hunt is now on for suitable above ground, drinking water grade, rainwater tanks here in France. The below ground ones are easy to find but not the above ground ones of reasonable size – I’m thinking of around 15 000 – 20 000 litres split between 2 or 3 tanks. The lack of water had one positive benefit as it meant a trip to the local swimming lake happened, we meant to do it last year but never got round to it and as well as a small monitored beach and snack bar there were also showers.

The latest batch of chicks has not been very successful with only one chick remaining from the 8 eggs. The two broody hens fought over the eggs and I think that resulted in eggs being left uncovered as well as one of the eggs being crushed and one of the chicks being squashed. I tried separating the hens, there is a divider in the hen house, once I realised they were stealing the eggs from each others nest and also both trying to nest in the same place but the hen that was moved abandoned her eggs and spent all her time trying to get back to the other nest site. Next time I’ll move the hen as soon as one gets broody.

The first set of chicks are doing well and now about half the size of mum and are now out and about with mum leading them round the garden. Two of them are the same size while the third is noticeably smaller. I’ve seen the two larger ones chest up against each other so I guess that they are likely to be males (chicken dinner) while the smaller one may be female. Whist the silver laced Wyandottes are very pretty I’m not so convinced about their egg production, I’ve had no eggs for around 5 weeks now. Mum number one was my best layer so I’m hoping she will start again soon and then the next two to go broody were my intermittent layers. The remaining hen doesn’t lay at all so I think I will have to get some different hens, but not the bare necked variety, in order to ensure a good egg supply.

Edit: When I went up to feed the hens the remaining chick could barely walk and I thought it had a broken leg. The poor thing was being trodden on by it's two mums, which left me with the dilemma - do I take it away from the other chickens and risk it dying because it hasn't got other hens around it or do I leave it and risk it being killed by the hens. One of them was taking the occasionally peck at the chick if it was in the way. In the end I've brought it into the house and have rigged up a small box with a light over it for warmth, and am hoping it will survive the night.

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.

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.