Up, Up and Away

Wednesday 24th January 2018
Turkey escape

High winds forecast again so I stayed at home to keep an eye on the place. Good job really, for Boris woke me up barking. He often barks at nothing in particular, but there was meaning in his bark this morning. I threw on some clothes and rushed downstairs just in time to see five turkeys heading past the kitchen window on a mission!

The girls were clucking excitedly.

I herded them back up the land and eventually back into their cage. The heras fencing was jumping around and had gradually jolted the bolt loose on the door. The door had swung open and the turkeys seized their opportunity.
I did my best to secure the fencing but the howling wind made it an uncomfortable task.

Twenty minutes later the turkeys were out again!!! Much as I wanted to retreat inside, I had to make some adjustments to the latch arrangement. I secured everything with baling twine just in case.

Then it was time for a retreat indoors. Arthur agreed.

Up, up and away - the first seeds of the year

I made the most of my incarceration by sowing the first seeds of the year, some rather early tomatoes. Sowing them this early will mean they need a lot of nurturing but if I can get them through they will hopefully be producing tomatoes ahead of the rest and I might get an acceptable harvest before blight strikes. 

On the other hand, the later sown plants might just catch up and overtake. Nothing ventured...

One tray contains seeds scooped straight from Sue's favourite Tesco Picollo tomatoes. Online forums indicate that they are likely to come true.

I've also put some potatoes to chit. These are destined for the polytunnel and should give me a crop at least a month before those which have to brave the big outdoors.

Saturday 27th January 2018
Rainy day filing
Rain all day. I'm not just a fair weather smallholder, but there's no point trudging through the mud doing more damage than good.
So I busied myself sorting the seeds. They are filed by date. For successional sowing, I simply move the envelope to the second sowing date once the first have been sowed.
It's a great system which means that nothing gets forgotten.

It also did my Big Garden Birdwatch, recording every bird that came to the feeders or onto the lawn during the period of an hour. A sharp frost would have made the list more exciting, but I ended up with a fairly representative list of the birds which are regular in the garden.