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Ten Years into a Five Year Plan: Part Four |
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Written by Sandisam
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Tuesday, 14 August 2012 22:12 |
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PART FOUR
I’d like to tell you a bit about my tools and equipment, if you please. I’ve built up quite a collection over the years. Some I’ve bought new, some secondhand. Just as many I’ve inherited, as parents have become too elderly to use them, or from friends who have no need of them. Whilst many of these are still of great use to me, the taking on of ‘land’, even just a couple of acres, takes one into a whole new world of larger scale apparatus! Now I should mention that Husband works fulltime in order to pay for all the stuff we can’t grow, so the tool shed is mine!! Husband refers to all this stuff as my ‘Man Tools’. All, that is, apart from the ride on mower which is his domain (except when it breaks down, and then it’s up to me to figure out what’s wrong with the damn thing this time and call out the man from Kaberry’s).
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 09 October 2012 11:55 |
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Ten Years into a Five Year Plan: Part Three |
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Written by Sandisam
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Friday, 03 August 2012 09:57 |
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I apologise for the lack of illustrations, but after hours of trying to format the article to fit the website, and despite Chris’s endless patience, I still can’t get it to happen! When I figure it out, you will be the first to see the flourishing paradise that is my plot. Hmmm! Dream on!
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Our first vegetable patch was in a nice little area fenced off by the previous owners for their dog breeding business. Too dry, too shady and too much competition for moisture in one of the hottest, driest summers for goodness knows how long, with soil that appeared to consist of sand and dog pooh, it was pretty much a disaster apart from a few pounds of scabby potatoes and the odd courgette. If it hadn’t been for the greenhouse tomatoes, aubergines and peppers and a bountiful harvest of elderberries and apples our first year of self sufficiency might have been hugely embarrassing!!
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 August 2012 08:43 |
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Ten Years Into A Five Year Plan |
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Written by Sandisam
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Tuesday, 17 July 2012 11:18 |
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Ten Years Into A Five Year Plan
Part 2
I should tell you that Husband and I are vegetarians, so there will be no tales of animal husbandry disasters. I hanker after my own colony of bees and a small collection of those lovely hens with frilly trousers just for eggs, and possibly a sheep or two for wool. This is a war of attrition which I am still not winning, but one day…! (Can you see a theme developing, dear reader?) We have, however, created a large allotment in a corner of the paddock. This has given us many moments of satisfaction and many moments of utter despair, as each year we vow to learn from our mistakes. One such lesson, that I still find hard to grasp, is that leaving some crops for the local wildlife to feast upon will not stop them destroying everything else, unless you encase all your crops individually inside the smallest mesh you can find, surround it with razor wire and run around the plot 24 hours a day flapping yours arms and shouting!
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Last Updated on Thursday, 19 July 2012 19:59 |
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Ten Years Into A Five Year Plan |
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Written by Sandisam
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Thursday, 14 June 2012 18:27 |
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I write this not to educate or inspire you, but to give a little insight into the joys and pitfalls of one woman’s dream of self-sufficiency. I am, by nature, something of a dreamer, and whilst this in itself is not a bad thing, it does enable me to see past the piles of ‘things that will come in useful one day’ and gaze upon the fences and sheds that will one day rise from the ever increasing number of pallets next to the house.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 July 2012 10:50 |
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Written by Sharron Harris
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Friday, 08 June 2012 12:40 |
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We are taking a break from quailkeeping at the moment but I wanted to share our experinces with you
when I began my foray into keeping Quail the most common question I have been asked is , Why? For me it was all about breeding, I live in a residential area and had I started incubating chickens my neighbours would soon be complaining about all the early morning cock-a-doodling. Keeping Quail made it possible for me to raise my own birds without upsetting the neighbours.
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Last Updated on Friday, 15 June 2012 08:00 |
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