Luck or judgement

We have been very lucky with the health of our 3 chickens and in just over one year there have been no major problems at all. I wouldn’t try to claim this is the result of any expert attention of our part or any deep-rooted animal husbandry skills. At best it’s just a sign that we’ve obviously not been making a complete mess of things so far.

Until recently the most worrying situation we have had was what we call a “jelly egg” where the shell is to a greater or lesser extent missing from the egg. This has been a fairly rare occurrence and usually within a day or two the hen in question is back to normal again so it’s never been a great cause for concern.

Don’t panic

Mealworms as a reward for posing

Unfortunately the other day I spotted some white crusting  which I hadn’t seen before on the comb of one of our hens. This led to an entertaining if slightly disconcerting evening of researching chicken ailments on the internet.

The most likely cause I could find was a fungal infection called Favus which by all accounts isn’t immediately life threatening. As far as I could tell we had caught this at the very early stages so the treatment should be straightforward.

Treating the patient

One of the best bits of information I found on this was this page at the OrganicVet web site. which has treatment recommendations  Another helpful forum post at Allotment.org  also recommended the use of miconazole (as found in Daktarin athletes foot treatment) so off to the chemists we went!

It turns out that chemists keep Daktarin behind the counter and they check with the customer before selling it. I’m not sure I understand why but that’s just the way it is apparently.

Not such a big deal you would think but in the first shop we told them it was for treating a chicken and they wouldn’t sell it to us! We immediately learned that lesson and were more successful at the next shop we tried.

The results

A day or two after applying the cream everything looked to be good but the symptoms were not completely gone. At the same time I noticed some similar symptoms with another hen so we applied the treatment to both birds just to be safe.

This seems to have done the trick and there have been no further signs of these symptoms again but I’ll definitely be keeping a watchful eye out in future.

It’s hard to believe that it is now 2 months since the first signs of growth and my initial concerns that one variety was taking too long to get going. It’s even more odd to think that it’s been almost 4 months since the crowns were first delivered but time has been a little skewed for me lately with all the other concerns around moving house.

The most promising is still the Stockbridge Arrow variety with some good growth plus strong looking stems and leaves. I must confess that I look longing at the stems every now and then but I will follow the advice to leave this alone for at least this year. It’s not easy to resist the temptation but I’m banking on a better harvest in future as a result

Rhubarb – Stockbridge Arrow

Despite my initial concern at the comparatively slow start, the other variety – Champagne – is now looking promising too. I’m not sure whether this is just a later harvesting variety so I need to investigate that further. However the difference between the varieties could be simply down to the use of bubble wrap on the Stockbridge Arrow provided better insulation that the fairly basic garden fleece that was used for the Champagne variety.

Rhubarb – Champagne

My only concern now is whether the plants and pots will survive the best efforts of the removal men when the time comes – I’m not sure that their insurance specifically covers rhubarb damage but I’ll certainly check beforehand!

I even got the jet washer out of retirement for the occasion although that needed a little encouragement before the work could start. Apparently they don’t like working when connected via a long length of hose wrapped around a reel. Connecting the jet wash directly to the tap via a short hose soon solved that problem.

At the same time as doing all this chicken house cleaning it made sense to do a complete change of wood chips in the run and also tidy up the compost bins when getting rid of the results. It may not last but even the compost bins look pretty good.

Luckily the weather was exactly as predicted and, after a short adventure rummaging through a flower bed, the chickens were soon back in their sparkling clean home.

So here it is in all it’s glory. Fully jet washed, powdered and reloaded with straw and wood shavings.

Looking so much better than before and I hope they appreciated the effort

It now seems that, although we have done everything asked of us, the mortgage company do not really want to lend us the money. There is still an outside chance that they will come back with a revised decision in the next day or two but if I’m honest I don’t hold out much hope for that!

The sequence for our mortgage application went something like this:

• Existing customer porting existing mortgage deal – not a problem
• Mortgage affordability – not a problem
• Loan to value – not a problem (less than 50% being borrowed)
• Full structural survey of the property – not a problem
• Mortgage deal offered – No

I wish I could sum up what the problem is with our application but even though I’ve asked a number of times there is never a clear definitive answer. There is some mention of the fact that there are 2 title deeds that make up the whole property and also mention of the agricultural land but according to our solicitor neither of these points should be enough to refuse a mortgage deal.

Unfortunately we had a similar response from our initial enquiries with another high street lender so it sounds like most “ordinary” lenders don’t want to be bothered with any mortgage deals that involve anything out of the ordinary.

The upshot is that in these difficult financial times meeting the lender’s stated criteria for affordability and  risk is just not enough to get a mortgage offer.

So we keep our fingers crossed that Plan B (a mortgage consultant) can find us someone who will offer us a mortgage so we can save the deal. In the meantime, we continue to wait in a kind of “no mans land” where there seems little point doing anything major to our current garden and veg beds – it’s hard to generate any enthusiasm at the moment even for the small jobs!

I’ll just keep reminding myself that the glass is half full and there are plenty of other people worse off than us!

Life is a journey

The journey over was fascinating as (I think) we crossed from Tynedale to Weardale then to Teesdale which was the final destination. I’m not completely sure though as we did end up on a slightly unplanned route.

Going over the tops between each valley quite clearly illustrated the differences between the higher ground which still had some relatively large snow banks left by the ploughs and the greener, almost spring-like valleys.

Walling for dummies

The whole event was very well organised and was run by Peter, a reassuringly competent and knowledgable instructor who really knew his stuff. The fact that there was a small group of only 6 people meant that everyone was able to get some one to one guidance from time to time.

It was quite daunting at the start when we took down the section of wall we would be working on but once that part was done it was much easier to understand the principles behind the construction of these walls.

I won’t go into all the details about wall constructions and the terminology for each part, if you’re interested they are running more walling taster days. I would definitely recommend them to anyone with a slight interest in them and certainly if, as we will shortly, you own some walls that may need repairs from time to time.

We feel confident enough after that one day to think about mending a few small broken sections of our own, at least if that falls down we can just have another go!

By lunchtime the first half of the wall was in place and looking good to out untrained eyes at least. This picture doesn’t really do it justice though due to the angle when taking the photo. It looks quite a short section of wall here but when measured the section we actually worked on was around 4 metres long!

I wasn’t sure that we would finish by the stated time of 4pm, especially when a small extra section fell down of its own accord not long after we had started. Luckily no more collapsed and we were able to safely build up the wall to fit in very nicely with each side of the gap we made.

I’m sure that a skilled Waller would probably have had a fit when they saw our results but to me at least it looked convincing enough. It was clear of the trampled ground which section we had worked on but when I looked up and down the rest of the wall it seemed to fit in beautifully, in fact some sections were much worse than our amateurish attempt.

Knowledge is good

A most enjoyable day out and although I wouldn’t want to try to build whole wall from nothing, I definitely I came away with more knowledge than when I started. I’m looking forward to my next attempt at some walling

For anyone who may be interested, here is a link to the next Walling Taster Day being run by the North Pennines AONB

Chitting seed potatoes

They are looking fairly impressive to my untrained eye and, even allowing for the fact that my small veg garden being roughly at a latitude of 55° North, the weather is getting noticeably warmer lately.

One advantage of living  close to sea level is the difference in temperature  with higher inland areas. This is more noticeable to me of late as we expect to move to a new property in the near future which is 1000 feet up in the North Pennines!

There is another, slightly larger batch of seed potatoes which have made almost no sign of progress. Presumably this is because the first batch were brought into the (centrally heated) house where the others were left on the (unheated) garage window sill.

My dilemma though is whether I can hold off on planting all of the seed potatoes until we move to the new property. Alternatively perhaps I should plant the more advanced ones to save any risk of losing them or damage to the shoots.

This decision complicated partly because I’m always too eager to get things planted but also because we really need to “clear the decks” in preparation for the move so this first batch might well be safer in the ground anyway!

I suspect that the first batch will have to get planted this weekend so that I can get a small amount of planting gratification. Hopefully the second batch will eventually come to life over the next 4-5 weeks so that I can take them with us when we move and plant them as the first job at our new place.

Home Farmer – May 2013

It may not seem like much to some people but my first ever published article appeared in the May 2013 edition of Home Farmer magazine. It was a fairly low-key start but still something that I’m irrationally proud of and if I can come up with some more ideas there maybe there will be more to follow!

Having read through the published article, I am  coming to terms with the many improvements I think I could have made. I’m sure that this is quite common though and I plan to use this as motivation if / when I write anything else in the future.

It is definitely better to spend a little more time writing it in the first place and not agonising over what might have been done differently after publication!

The single best tip for beginners like me seems to be “write about what you know” and that’s why my article was about the decisions and dilemmas of downsizing and buying a smallholding. The whole subject is still very fresh in my mind and we have learned so much just getting to this stage.

It is all too easy to believe that you have nothing to contribute or that everyone else knows more than you. After spending the last couple of years hunting for a property with land to buy I still can’t claim to be a complete property expert but I feel that I have something to say which may help other in the same predicament as me.

Time has moved on since I wrote that article though and we expect to complete our move to a property with lots of land in the next 5-6 weeks. As a result I think my next article might be on topics like “coping with panic attacks” or “natural remedies for insomniacs”.

If anyone has any tips along these lines I would be most grateful…

Hellebores

I am particularly proud of that the hellebores have done so well in recent years. I’d like to take all the credit but I suspect that would be a little greedy even if I was the one who originally planted them some years ago.

Hellebores

Since that time I have occasionally remembered to mulch them and even sometimes trimmed off the older, dying leaves or weeded around them. However my guess is that my limited contribution is only a small part of their success.

More Hellebores

Flowering Currant (?)

We have a few of these in one flower bed and I have spent the last 15 years calling them “Flowering Currants” because I thought they looked like that and never had any berries… until last year that is! Most unexpected but  not the first time I have been wrong about a plant and probably not the last!

Flowering Currant – or is it?

Mahonia

Apart from the occasional prune and a bit of weeding this has been left to itself over the years. It seems to prefer that kind of treatment because it has gone from strength to strength and I’m even tempted to take some cuttings so I can have some in the garden at the new house…

Mahonia

Winter Flowering Jasmine

One of the few plants I have added to the garden that I can remember the latin name – Jasminum Nudiflorum – so even though it hasn’t done spectacularly, I am still happy to see the bright yellow flowers each January / February.

Winter flowering jasmine

And finally…

I think this is some variety of primula perhaps but I’m not always good at remembering the easy names. We must have moved this from another part of the garden into this spare chimney pot but I can’t remember where it was before. Perhaps we actually bought a few of these at a garden centre some time ago and the rest have died (or been pecked by the chickens)?

It has been surprisingly productive though and is still trying to put out flowers despite the cold spell and the apparent damage to some of the older leaves.

Answers on a postcard, please!

Stockbridge Arrow is the first to show

My excuse is that it wasn’t easy to figure out which way was “up” when I received the crowns through the post.

Luckily I had my doubts within a few days of the originally planting them and it was a quick thing to fix with hopefully no adverse effects on the growth and future cropping!

Although i planted both varieties in matching pots with the same compost, it’s the Stockbridge Arrow variety which is looking the best. Perhaps this is the result of using bubble wrap over that pot instead of the horticultural fleece which covered the pot with the Champagne variety?

Champagne rhubarb is not so promising (…yet)

These pictures really highlight the difference and if I wasn’t such an optimist I might have had thoughts of giving up on the Champagne variety.

However it’s still very early days and I’ve never grown rhubarb before so it makes more sense to keep an eye on it and let nature do what it does best.

They can be easily transported with us when we move house and I have no other use for those pots at the moment!

The cheap lettuce seeds I bought in the sales that were planted only last week are already showing promise which encouraged me to plant some more vegetable seeds this weekend. This even included some beetroot and peas in the garden veg beds which had been covered for a few weeks in preparation.

The cloches went straight back on again afterwards as well because the weather is unlikely to be in my favour just yet! I’m also choosing to ignore the fact that with any luck our house move will take place before these reach a suitable point for harvesting – the new owners can treat them as a house-warming present though.

I hope I don’t regret that in the future when I have too many plants and nowhere to put them. I can always give them away I suppose so watch this space in the coming weeks as there maybe a vegetable plant give away!

Promising signs from the lettuce seeds

At first this wasn’t too hard to do especially when we had a couple of spells with a few days of  snow and some very low temperatures overnight. More recently it has been getting harder especially as I’m very aware that March is rapidly approaching – I happily choose to ignore the fact that I live in the North East, UK where spring comes a little later than most!

I had been doing so well but I eventually gave in to the temptation and opened some seed packets yesterday which I had bought over the last few weeks. We have  had a few consecutive days of relatively good weather (for the time of year) plus I had prepared some seed trays which have been “warming up” in the house for the last few weeks.

This was only a very small sowing just to ease me in so only 1 tray has been used and no more than 10 of anything was planted. This first batch includes:

• Onions from seed as I’ve only grown them from sets before
• Beetroot because I’ve never tried growing that before
• Squash because I’ve never tried it before (and I bought the seeds in a sale!)
• Lettuce just because the seeds were cheap and I didn’t want to risk any other seeds yet

There’s not much to show for the effort yet of course but I’ve included a picture anyway and I feel more like spring is on the way at last.. (just until we get the Easter snow of course!)

First sowing of 2013