2021 Week 1 - Garlic, Willows, Sheep's Feet and... LOCKDOWN

A Frosty Start To The Year

There were no New Year's parties at the end of 2020. Most of the country had been placed in Tier 4. This virus respects none of our traditions. Of course, the chances of me out partying to see in the new year were miniscule anyway!

2021 got off to a lovely frosty start. The whole of the first week saw night-time temperatures at or below zero, barely rising throughout the day. This is ideal for working outside. After a few days my hands got used to the cold and I started to enjoy it. The ground stayed hard and the air was crisp and sharp. 

Winter jobs are not so pressing as the rest of the year, but it's still important to make hay while the sun shines - figuratively at least. More like cut hedges, prune fruit trees, take cuttings and prepare veg beds while the wind and rain hold off.

The Willow Holt Begins Its Second Year

I spent the first three days managing my willow holt. The basket willows had struggled through the year but most had survived and developed from the small sticks I poked in the ground last year. The more successful varieties had grown sufficiently for me to take lots of new cuttings to fill the gaps and extend the holt.

The story was similar with the short rotation coppice willows. These are fast growing varieties to be cut every two years for wood. This will be used for fuel or for chipping. Once established new rods can easily grow 12 foot long in a tear.

This pollard willow stump is only about 6 years old.
It yielded all the wooden poles which are lying
across the picture.

I have been busy cutting back some of the many hedges I have planted around the smallholding too. I cut sections on a three year cycle to allow for maximum wildlife benefit.

Foot-trimming The Sheep

The mud has been hard on the sheep's feet. It gets stuck in the cleft of their hooves and causes discomfort, especially if any small sticks get lodged. For some reason this year their nails have grown longer than usual and they were all in need of a ped-ewe-cure. This was not a job to attempt on slippery, muddy ground, but with everything frozen solid we seized the day, rounded up the sheep and set to work.

Ten years ago I could neve have imagined myself doing this.

Growing Garlic

Traditionally I like to plant my garlic on 1st January. It is now 8 years since I purchased the original garlic bulbs. Each year I save 100 cloves for planting. I reckon that initial purchase has so far given us close to 1000 cloves of garlic. 

LOCKDOWN!

We weren't far into 2021 when things took a turn for the worse. a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading rapidly. But schools went back as normal on 3rd January, so we were incredulous when that evening a national lockdown was announced again. Long overdue, but the timing was bewildering. Back to Zoom lessons at school. Covid seems scarier this time and if i could I would retreat into my own little world on the smallholding.

A Perennial Project

One problem with spending so much time at home is that I keep coming up with new projects. As if I'm not kept busy enough just keeping everything going as it is!

My new project is developing a sizeable bed of perennial vegetables. More on this in future blogs, but I plan to grow the likes of Oca, Caucasian Spinach, Good Kng Henry, Yacon, Tiger Nuts, Day Lilies, Skirrets and Walking Stick Kale.

Mighty Mites In The Apiary

Winter is a risky time for the bee colonies too. Most of last year's adult bees die at the turn of the year, leaving smaller numbers of young bees to form a protective ball around the queen. They circulate and vibrate to keep warm, but warmer winters mean that they come out and expend energy searching for non-existent food sources. 

Strong colonies are resilient though and far more likely to survive the winter. But there is an ever-present threat to them. For lurking in the hives are varroa mites, living on the backs of the bees. If bees were humans then varroa mites would be the size of a dinner plate.

To help the bees, Sue treats the hives periodically with thymol based chemicals. The bottom of each hive is open mesh for aeration and under this is a temporary floor, either correx or plywood. One purpose of this floor is to catch the dead varroa mites as they drop off the bees. It's a good way to judge the mite level in the hives.

Strangely, some of the hives had lots of mites, others very few. 

They really do look quite nasty when magnified.

A heavy mite drop from this hive.
Below, a close-up look

Birdlife

Of course, I am always birdwatching while outside. It has been an incredible period for birds on the smallholding. There are starlings, woodpigeons and winter thrushes in large numbers. Flocks of skylarks and meadow pipits explode from the stubble fields ad gulls, crows and lapwing pick over the flooded fields.

The pair of stonechats are still on the smallholding as well as five yellowhammers and a small flock of reed buntings. There is always something to distract me from my work.

Clear winter days make for some spectacular sunsets.

And finally...

this is the time of year when I am cutting the willows. The branches are a very welcome addition to the sheep's diet. They love the catkins which are already emerging as well as the tips of the small branches, but most of all they love to strip the bark. this is ideal as the willow can the be used as support poles in the vegetable garden. Because it is debarked, it does not root and compete with the vegetables.

A new branch is worth tussling over...
But there was room for everyone in the end

And to put all this into a wider context...

News From The Wider World

American politics took a nasty turn this week with its outgoing president inciting acts of treason by an angry mob who call themselves patriots.

2020 was declared the joint hottest year for Earth on record. Nothing to celebrate.

Covid-19 continues to rip through Europe and America.

Thank goodness for the simple pleasures of the life we have chosen to live here.