Sustainability and a missing cat

 

Over the last couple of years I have tried to be mindful of the impact I have on the earth. (gosh doesn't that sound "noble" ?!) Being  a facebook user. it hasn't taken long to find groups of like minded people and I have picked up quite a few ideas and bits of information that I can apply to my own particular circumstances. I do find some of the folk go a bit far for me. I'm an advocate of "good enough" (achievable) parenting and reckon its a good place to start in attempting a sustainable lifestyle. Obviously as a smallholder, who aims to be as self sufficient as possible I'm in a pretty good place to start and have indeed been practicing some of the ideas for years. However, these have been mostly for our- own- little- world -type stuff. Thinking beyond this to the wider good is something else. So my word/ mantra is now Sustainability with a view to to decreasing the amount of waste  and/or pollution we make.. I've always been a bit of an eco-warrier, but there are aspects of being environmentally aware that I hadn't considered .

I don't know how many folk are interested in this but I thought I would share my "journey" on this blog. Just in bite sized bits so as not to bore you too much and if you aren't interested just scroll on by to the rest of the dross I post!

Easy bit first. For a couple of years now we have had our milk delivered in glass bottles. Thus really has made a difference to the amount of plastic that goes into our recycling bin. The milk is from a Derbyshire farm, thus cutting miles and supporting local farmers (and milkmen!) There that wasn't too preachy was it !?

This weekend our cat Baloo went missing. Now I'm not too fond of Baloo as he is half Bengal with full Bengal trait of fizzyiness. He is prone to the odd bite if you approach him from the wrong side, which David calls a love-nip (it isn't!) and has been known to suddenly get hold of your face with his long claws, which David says is holding you close (it isn't!) I decided that he hadn't been stolen as they would have returned him within a couple of hours and would be identified by the scratch marks. He went missing at tea time on Saturday and though I am not fond of the boy I wouldn't wish him harm and really wanted to know if he was well. I don't think we thought of much else but him throughout Sunday and I visited neighbours to ask them to look in their sheds etc.  At 7.15 this morning a cold cat a wailing banshee walked across my face. He was home! Given the time I suspect he had just been let of a shed or garage by someone on their way to work.  Here he is the little love. Incidentally he is a great mouser

Enough for now

Back soon

Gillx

Lockdown for Family, Chickens and Santa

 

Hello Again

Here is a pic of our first great grandchild. She was born mid August and we have only been able to hold her a couple of times, but have seen her on several occasions outside. We are really struggling with this aspect of lockdown and all the Covid restrictions, though we do follow them properly without "cheating". She is wearing her Christmas Elf costume and looks a little serious here.  

Since the new lockdown David is back to shielding again, though in truth he has kept safe throughout the whole time. It is really more of the same for us.

What IS different and not in any way welcome is the Lockdown for the hens! There have been several outbreaks of Avian Flu and now all birds must be kept in such a way that they do not come into contact with wild birds or their droppings. This means we must ensure that they are covered overhead, not an easy thing to do when you have a 40+ free range flock! Apparently this lockdown will be until April. I question the welfare issues with this. Looking at how some people are going to have to keep their birds I suspect they will have issues with pecking/bullying and possibly chest/lung issues.You can explain to humans why they have to stay in with restricted horizons but not chickens! I'll try to get some shots of our set up to share with you.

David normally does several charity sessions as Santa. Obviously this couldn't happen this year, so to give his cossie an airing he sat on our front wall on Christmas Eve and waved at anyone passing. He received many shouts, cheers and tooting of horns. We hope that some children on their way to bed might have caught a glimpse of Santa before he set off on his busy night. For some reason it inspired a couple of blokes from the village to join David with a  socially distanced beer  😉 Here he is..

Enough for now I reckon or will become one of my rambling posts. 

Looks like I'm getting my blogging mojo back.

Love Gillx

Loofah (luffa) Update

 Hello

Update on the loofahs (luffas) before I start the whole process off again

This first pic is taken slightly later than the one in my last post. You will note that there are two different types. To the left the fruits are marrow-ish shape and plain green. The plant to your right is longer, thinner and has black stripes down it.  I wasn't able to get them to the brown, dry phase, when you are suppose to hear the seeds rattling, so I went back to the good old internet and found that you can still succeed with green fruits so long as they were fairly mature.

This next pic shows how I peeled the fruits.In the stripey plants the seeds were black. The plain green fruits had pale brown seed. These peeled fruits I put in a bowl of water . I squeezed, rinsed and teased off any flesh, while changing the water daily, for about ten days. During this time the seeds kept floating out, these I fished out and dried. I saved an awful lot of seed this way, which I am hoping will be viable next year. 

When all the seeds had floated out and the ;last vestiges of flesh had gone I gave the loofahs a final rinse, dried them and....Tah Dah !!...

I harvested twelve from two plants. Three are ,missing from this picture as my daughter has snaffled them.

 The scrappy bits I have tied together to make splendid pan scourers.

If anybody wants to have a go growing some next year from my (not guaranteed viable ) seed I am quite happy to send them some for them to try. I started mine off on the 9th February 2020. so allow for a longish growing season.

 All for now. Just off to search for a picture of my first great grandchild to bore you with !

Love Gillx

 Well Hello It's me!!!

It is many weeks since I wrote here. I completely lost my blogging mojo and have been somewhat overwhelmed with keeping on top of things here on the smallholding.

I confess to not even visiting my favourite blogs, apart from one day when I found out that Sue from Suffolk had sold her house and I didn't even know she was wanting to move. I realised that it had been so long since I visited blogland that I would never be able to catch up so fresh start here both writing and reading as we move into 2021.

I'm going to have a go at blogging (and reading blogs) on the same day each week and see if I can get back into the swing of it.

So for now dear bloggy friends, if indeed there are any left reading my ramblings

A VERY HAPPY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR TO YOU

Love Gillx

Clunk Click every trip

  I bet many of you remember the campaign to get you to belt up when you were in the car.

At the time of this campaign I was working for a market research firm. We were tasked with engaging with divers who were pulled into a layby by police officers. While asking them how many miles they were expecting to travel, how often they drove and other such mundane questions, we observed if they and any passengers were wearing a seat belt. We returned, I think a month later, to do exactly the same exercise. Between these two sessions the Jimmy Saville ( yes I know!) campaign had hit the TV. This had followed other campaigns with Shawn Taylor, but it was considered that the saying "Clunk Click Every Trip" might be super catchy. Indeed it was, and in the second session we noted many more people wearing seat belts. Over the next year it was demonstrable the decrease in deaths and serious injuries from collisions and this was attributed to the campaign. If you wonder why I have suddenly thought of this it is the number of people on the TV shouting about having to wear a face mask, how uncomfortable they are and that it is an infringement of personal liberty. Sometime after the CC campaign the wearing of seat belts became compulsory and people were then saying they weren't going to wear them because they were uncomfortable and it was an infringement  of their personal liberty blah blah blah ... just saying!

Back to the smallholding and my luffas!. Oh my have they grown. I am SO excited about them. I have now stopped the two plants in the greenhouse and they have 6 luffas each. I have been showing them to everybody I can and most have been impressed. Several have said they are going to have a go next year. Here they are. All I have to do now is try to get them to ripen. I guess that might be the most difficult part.

All for now, a few more photos to load and will be back soon

Look after yourselves out there

Gillx

Growing Loofahs (luffas)

Hello All
I wanted to share my experience with Luffas, or Loofahs, depending on what you know them as.
Last Christmas, my younger daughter bought me some Luffa seed. She, like me, is very keen on minimising her use of plastic and thought I might have a go at growing loofahs to replace plastic bathroom sponges. I am having so much pleasure from growing this crop, which is an entirely new venture for me.
Guessing it would need a long growing season I started the seeds in early  February in a heated propagator. Germination was not one hundred percent, but I ended up with three viable plants. The two strongest I planted in my large (tomato) greenhouse, while nurturing the weaker in the small (cucumber) greenhouse. The plants were slow to get started, but once a tendril or two took hold they raced along. What I wasn't prepared for was the beauty of the flowers! They are sort of Hibiscus -looking. It is easy, as with all cucurbits to tell the difference between the male and female flowers and I have been going to them daily with my soft paint brush to ensure pollination. I probably needn't have bothered as any flies, hoverflies or bees that have found their way into thee greenhouse have made a "bee-line" for them.
The early stem growths are very fine and look as though they wouldn't hold anything, but they soon strengthen up to hold what looks like being a generous crop of loofahs. One of those very fine stems has  wheedled its way through a small space in the apex of the greenhouse roof and escaped outside. I can see one thin tendril reaching for one off the wires that supports the hops. I wonder if it will catch on, and if so will we get outside luffas too.
 Here are the male flowers which are in bunches of six or so, which open and then die on different days

 Here is a female flower.

 I planted one lufffa either side of the greenhouse and they have grown towards each other to form an arch. I think I shall be knocking myself out on those luffas soon, the biggest are already a good six inches long

 Can you see that cheeky little tendril escaping from the greenhouse. You can just see the hops to the extreme right of the picture. one of the supporting wires stretches from those to the apex of the greenhouse and this is what the cheeky tendril is aiming for.

I am unsure how many fruits to allow before I stop them. So far I have 9 fruits over the two plants. I am also not sure how much to feed them. I know I mustn't  over water. If anybody wants to chip in with advice please feel free.

A quick word to bring you up to date with the bees, We have had six swarms this year and managed to box four of those so not too bad. A couple of the hives are very full of bees and we have had to give them extra room as bees were hanging out of the hive all the time. They often beard like this in extreme heat, but because they are short of room they are also short of breathing space. They now have another box of frames to move around and we will soon be taking homey off hive No 6. Hive No 1 was a swarm that landed in the blackberries this year. It is very strong, already having a super on and now it has two. Do you like my posh numbers? I cut up a couple of ice cream tubs and used sharpie pen for the numbers and fixed them with a drawing pin.

All for now. Back  soon with what we have been doing around the place and probably the odd opinion or two!

love Gill x

 

Life still going on

Hello folks.
That posting a couple of times a week didn't last long did it?!
  Busy here gardening mostly, trying to make up for two years of just managing while David was ill and letting stuff go that didn't seem essential at the time. Well it wasn't really as I felt that keeping the food production going as best I could was more important than weeding and pruning and tidying the "ordinary" garden at thr front of the house
  I just about kept the bees going too, managing to get them ready for winter, catching and boxing swarms, taking some honey off etc, but not going through them properly really and forgetting the mouse guards last year and other such sins!
 My kitchen has a tall stack of supers ready to go on the hives this week. The bees have been really busy and we captured a prime warm last week that might need a bit more space. I would love to put the honey signs out but don't really want to encourage strangers to the door, so will wait a little longer before taking the risk.
There is still quite a bit to plant up in the garden. I usually wait until 1st June before putting my frost tender plants out. However the weather forecast looks pretty good for a week or two really, so I am going to take a chance and put them out over the next few days. This will be outdoor tomatoes, sweet corn, beans, courgettes and the like, celery quinoa, sunflowers and dahlias. The frost a  couple of weeks ago blackened our potatoes and took all the leaves and shoots from our three walnuts, vines and sundry other trees. A bit of a disaster. The potatoes will come back but be set back a bit, but the trees stand no chance for this year. On a positive note the hardy veg and those in the greenhouse are coming along well. The only food coming out of the garden at the mo is Spring Cabbage, which is exceptional this year.
 Four weeks ago we took a cade lamb from someone we know, expecting to buy another one or two to keep it company. Hah! I have trawled just about every Facebook page and farming groups I know and have been unable to get one! So little Covid ( I know, I didn't name hime) is all on his own. He is now out in the paddock all day and in the office at night until he can completely fend for himself. Presently he thinks he's a chicken and usually gets along well grazing the paddock with them. They are less than impressed when he has boingy moment.
As David is sheilding he is super careful about not having anyone in the house and neither he nor I have left the holding for 10 weeks now. However, there have been occaisions when folk have had to come here to collect or bring heavy stuff and it has been quite difficult sorting everything from the front gate, which is approx 12 feet from the road. So we now have a system that works pretty well for us, especially as folk are now allowed to go to the park etc. We open the front gate and then further down the drive, the gate to the field and folk drive straight down into the field and park at a distance where we can shout at each other. Considering our field is bigger than the village park and there is only us in it we reckon it is pretty safe. This way I have also been able to see a couple of members of my family for a little while. Fortunately we have an outside loo, which I have had to fettle as it is usually the man's loo and we all know what that means!
 I think some things will be different for us when all this business is over and goodness knows when that will be. The other day we took delivery of animal food, David's medication and a small flagon of local  beer and I think we may carry on with these deliveries. We have always had our milk and newspapers delivered so no change there.
Talkng of deliveries, we have had all sorts of pressies delivered to the gate. Sometimes I know they are going to be there and other times I just come across them. That I can remember so far we have had several bottles of beer (some home made) bottles of wine and vodka, box of veg, loo paper and paracetemol, box of purple sprouting brocolli, veg plants and a bag of pork fat and chops!
 It is now time for babies' bottle he is now on 3 feeds a day and extremely unhappy about it. We have just seen a swarm come out of hive number 4 and it has settled high up in a large damson tree. There is absolutely no way we can capture it, so we have just set up a bait hive on an accessable roof nearby. Sometime that works, but usually not, but has to be worth a punt.
 Back soon
Gillx