Mud-dling along

Saturday 6th January 2018

A few dry days would be good so the water has time to drain

There is a fine balance between muddy and not muddy at this time of year. With the colder temperatures most moisture does not escape upwards but needs to drain down. Our land is not too bad compared to many, but well trodden routes can still churn up a bit.

So far 2018 has seen rain every day. Bizarrely Storm Eleanor did us a favour as the winds drove the moisture off the surface, but daily downpours since then have topped it back up.
On very well trodden areas, such as the entrance to the chicken feed shed, I have laid down paper feed bags so we are not splodging around too much.
The moles are doing their best to help with the drainage which is a good thing.

I still haven't got my garlic in. I am waiting for a frosty morning so I can turn the soil. It will still be a muddy job, but the sooner it is in the better. It needs to experience some low temperatures in order for the cloves to split later in the year, so I can't delay much longer.

Pekins here we come!

Friday 5th January 2018
Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck! Duck!
I received a lovely message in my inbox today. A company who supply hatching kits for schools and care homes contacted me as they obviously end up with rather a lot of unwanted young birds. It seems someone who takes their meat strain Pekin ducks off them has let them down so I have arranged to take some off their hands at a very reasonable price. This presented a great opportunity to share this fortune with fellow members of Fenland Smallholders Club. I whacked a message on Facebook and, as I write, I have orders for over 100 ducklings. We will take a dozen or more with the aim of rearing some for the table and possibly some to keep, as long as they don't get so fat that they can't waddle! They will keep the slug population down and maybe give us meat strain birds to hatch out in the future.


Meanwhile, do you remember we were given some commercial chicks to rear? Well they have been lovely so far. They are very tame and run over to see us when we go in the chicken enclosure, though I think this is more greed than affection. So far we have seen no signs of problems caused by their breeding. They are now about 9 weeks old. I suspect that would be that if they had stayed on the farm. But living with the other chickens and allowed to roam their growth has been good but not ridiculous. They will be around for a while longer yet.