Friday 16 January 2015

Day Out For The Cattle And A Look In The Polytunnel.



 We let the cattle have a day out in one of the fields today.  It was the usual 'cows disco'.  Jumping about and tails in the hair.  They really believed it was turn out time.  I used the opportunity of the empty stall and  cleaned the cows slats and collected two wheel barrows of dung for next years vegetables.

I noticed a puddle in ther field tonight.  Hope it's not a broken field drain.  Very soon the rushes will appear and show us where it is damp.  To quote Stan Laurel:

"We have had a lot of weather lately."
A picture of my Ford 3000 complete with fertilizer spreader.  She's parked next to the veg plot on the boreen that the cattle go up and down to the back field.  I used concrete pig slats for my veg plot paths.  Apart from the grass growing through them., they are very good and great when it's wet and for pushing a wheelbarrow along.
 The Nasturtiums to like the soil filled bath in the poly-tunnel.  I haven't got the heart to dump them yet.
Calendula.s flowering and general untidiness.  I think the wind upturned the watering can.  We left both doors open in the tunnel for the winter and so far it's survived the gales,  We made internal wind break doors to keep the rodents and birds out.
Signs of Spring.  Garlic shooting and sprouting in the compost filled tractor wheel ribs and wheel hubs.
Outside in the veg plot.  My winter onions ("Japs") are growing well despite the gales.

14 comments:

  1. First time I've heard of the Japanese onions, surprised they're no a lot more popular in our inclement weather.

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    Replies
    1. Yes they look great growing through the snow. They aren't supposed to store well though.

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  2. Your cattle look happy to be out and about. We've had a lot of weather here today too :)
    We've had sun,sleet, snow and even what the media have been calling thunder snow, a thunder storm with snow, amazing! All the children in school went bonkers with excitement, must admit inbetween doing the boring accounts I felt quite giddy myself :) Have a great weekend.
    Twiggy

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  3. "It's snowing",

    "Is it?"

    All together:

    "IT'S SNOWING!"

    Can't say I like the snow Twiggy. Perhaps we make sledges and get excited again? Thanks!

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  4. Nice to see the cattle out and enjoying their selves. We've grown the Japanese onions for years and never had any problem with storage until last year, this could be due to when we harvested, Aug, which as you know was cold and wet, not ideal to get them properly dry, we also used a different variety last year, but my bet would be because of the weather. OH has just said that even the other variety which we grew has not stored as well this year, again harvested in Aug, it's also been damper this winter so that might have something to do with it. We store them in one of the barns, so damp air.

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  5. Hi Anne. If it's a wet summer. We have a day peeling and chopping (crying) our onions. Then we put them in freezer bags and freeze them. They are great for stews and casseroles. But you can't really eat them raw because they are soggy but they don't lose any of their flavour. Thanks!

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  6. So nice to see them out in the fields, they must have thought Spring had come! You''ll probably find those nasturtiums are over-wintering lots of important insects which will later keep pest species off the flowers and veg :o)

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    Replies
    1. Yes they like an occasional day out on a nice Winter's day, CT.

      Never thought the nasturtiums could be harbouring important insects - thanks!

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    2. Great as a sacrifice crop around your cabbages Dave cabbage white butterfly's love them so you can just pick the caterpillars of the nasturtiums before they eat your cabbages,
      Back to an earlier post of your, we bought a bag of smokeless fuel to see if we could keep the range in, alas no, were out last night for six hours, stoked up the range with wood and coal before leaving it was out when we got home, and we were freezing!

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    3. Sorry I just found your comment, Anne. Love the sacrifice crop idea. Makes a lot of sense.

      Don't understand your stove problems. Have you contacted Stanley about it? There must be some way of fixing it.

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  7. You put us to shame, because we have no veg growing at all, anywhere. And I think that it is good for the soul to have flowers growing and blossoming in your poly in the middle of winter.....they must make spring seem a little bit closer for you.

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  8. Hi Vera. The poly-tunnel gives us extended seasons, especially with the rainy days. We have swedes, leeks, parsnips, japanese onions and flowers growing at the moment. The tunnel certainly helps bring the Spring closer. Thanks!

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  9. Nice to see a bit of colour this time of year! My garden is looking very muddy with just brassicas and leeks showing some green!

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  10. Hi Kev. I am itching to finish digging and trenching the potato plot with fym, but it's far too wet. At least the tunnel gives us somewhere to cultivated when it's wet. Thanks!

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