December has been a surprisingly eventful month on our little homestead! Let's start with the most exciting thing... Our new woodland! This happened surprisingly quickly. I rang the Woodland Trust in the autumn, they directed me to the national park. I spoke to a nice man who said they would probably run out of money this year, but he'd come and look round, and then all of a sudden, our trees arrived in the first week of December and were planted by one man in five days. Gosh. The weather was pretty varied in those five days, and I didn't envy him one bit, out there in the snow and the cold, especially as the national park had sent much bigger tree guards than expected, so everything was rather more difficult than he'd anticipated. Still, he did a epic job, and all 1000 of them are in the ground now. Now we just need to keep them alive, which is going to involve fixing a couple of dry stone walls to keep the cows out, and possibly mulching. A lot of mulching. Chicken lockdown Less excitingly, December also brought Avian Flu, and a national housing order all poultry. This is essentially a beaky version of lockdown - all hens, even small backyard flocks like ours, are to be kept in covered runs, with no access by wild birds, until further notice. When this happened four years ago, the bulk of the restrictions were lifted by the end of February I think, but some areas remained shut in until April. This came into force on 14th December, and our feathery friends have been shut in their run ever since. We're lucky - our run itself already met the requirements (solid roof, mesh too small for wild birds), but other people have been rushing to create something suitable. We're building an extension for ours, but it's been rather put on hold by the snow. As you can imagine, we're visiting our ladies several times a day, taking multiple treats, checking food, keeping them clean, and changing their environment so they don't get bored. Apples on sticks are a big hit, we've given them three dust baths in big plant pots to dig around in, and each day we take them a couple of bowls of warm porridge. I'm rather sad that they're shut in, but they seem to be managing just fine. Woodchip With the chickens shut in all the time, the run was getting rather muddy. It was quite difficult to find somewhere that would deliver woodchip without using pallets - our lane isn't big enough for a lorry. Eventually I found a friendly tree surgeon, and was delighted when he delivered an entire truck full - four times the amount I needed, for just £100. The chickens love it - it's full of woodlice - and I've been taking them a new bucket every few days, which they're slowly spreading around the run. I've managed to cover all of the paths in the veg patch too, which I'm thrilled about, as they were muddy and weedy and I wasn't really sure what to do with them. Now they've got several inches of woodchip, and should remain weed free (ish) for a good while. There's plenty left over, and I'm contemplating mulching some of the new trees with it (and maybe ordering a second batch to do the rest). That might wait until the spring though. The veg patch Not much has been going on in the veg patch, except the woodchip. There are still a couple of turnips to pick, and plenty of kale and chard which we're slowly getting through. The leeks are looking good, and we'll start eating those soon. And the green manure that I sowed a few weeks ago has started to emerge. The seeds I ordered in November have arrived, and I'm going to sit and plan out what needs planting when. I'd love to have a beautiful, productive veg garden this year - it's all been a bit haphazard so far, although I get better at it each season. As this year ends, the veg patch rests under the snow. DIY Ah, poor neglected DIY (I wonder how many times I've said that over the last few years?) I have managed to make a little progress on the kitchen ceiling though, and now half of the spaces between the beams have battens attached, ready to be filled with insulation and plasterboard. Getting there, albeit rather slowly. So we didn't manage to have Christmas dinner at our kitchen table this year - in fact we didn't even manage to bring a table in out of the garden, and ate Christmas dinner sitting on the floor. The weather I might have this as a standing 'on the homestead' feature in the future. We've had such a mix this month, from glorious sunshine to fog to snow. My absolute favourite had to be Tuesday night's clear skies and full moon, casting magnificent moon shadows onto the snow. Yes, I was outside in dressing gown and wellies at almost midnight and I don't regret a thing. So there we are, the end of 2020 on our little homestead. Plenty of progress in the garden, not so much on the DIY.
And what will 2021 bring? I'm hopeful for a finished kitchen, and even a bedroom. A beautiful veg patch is within my power I think. Fingers crossed our beaky friends will be released from confinement soon, and that the rest of the world will slowly get back to normal as well. We'll see.
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Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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