February has been a very long and rather cold month round here, and I have been very grateful for some signs of spring. From my pictures, it looks like our last snow was around the 9th, although in my head it feels like it was much later. So what's been happening on the homestead, aside from all the snow? Preparing the greenhouse The greenhouse had become a bit of a dumping ground for pots, and I was using the floor area to try to dry some soil for chicken dust baths (not very effective). Early in the month I gave it a good clear out, and sorted all the pots that had accumulated down the side of it as well. I reduced the height of the shelves, which means they can now push right back against the walls, giving me a teensy bit more space. I didn't sow any seeds in February, but I did lay all my pots out ready. And there were some signs of life - a rosemary that I'd grown from a cutting from my old house is miraculously still alive, as is my fig tree. Some friends gave us some potatoes, so they're chitting away in the greenhouse too. I've never deliberately grown potatoes before - just occasionally planted some supermarket ones that I've left in the bag for too long. It'll be quite exciting to see what happens to this lot. The veg plot The veg plot has been largely uneventful. There are still a few leeks to harvest, and quite a bit of kale, although that's starting to yellow round the edges now. I finally got round to moving the raspberry canes - they were right in the way of the compost bins, and also far too tempting for a passing chicken to snaffle any available raspberries. They're safely within the veg plot fence now. Signs of life started emerging elsewhere on the plot, with some of the fruit bushes showing tiny buds, and the rhubarb persisting through the snow. Chickens Sadly, the bird flu housing order is still in force, so the chickens are still confined to their run. To our surprise, their temporary extension has held up well in the winds, so they do have a little more space. I don't think they're distressed - they don't even try to escape any more - but I really hate having them confined. Hopefully they'll be out before too long. We're getting three eggs pretty much every day now, which has been a bit of a job to keep up with, since we've not seen anyone to give them away to. Still, we're just about managing, and I've not yet resorted to any of the egg storage methods I've been reading about. Inside Inside the house there has been some progress - mostly on the kitchen ceiling, which is now roughly half way to being finished. We've now made a rather momentous (for us) decision to pay a builder to do the rest of the work. It's been dragging on far too long - we've been without a proper kitchen for about 18 months, and we're both tired of having half the house as a building site. We've finally found someone, and he's hopefully going to do the work in July. Not too long to wait, and once he's gone, we'll have a fully functioning kitchen, dining room, and giant bedroom, which currently looks like this at one end... And like this at the other... This was originally two rooms, divided by the chimney we removed a couple of years ago, and with a small hallway running down one side. As there are only the two of us here, there's no real reason to separate it back into two rooms, so we're going to have one giant bedroom instead. There's another normal sized bedroom upstairs (which we currently use), and my study downstairs (which has a sofa bed), so there will be plenty of room for guests, when we're allowed any. I was telling myself this room 'just' needs plastering, and I can do that myself - except I didn't, because there are all kinds of weird cavities to fill, including a massive hole in the ceiling where the chimney was. The two original rooms were on slightly different levels, so there's a step in the middle of this room, which makes things awkward. Anyway, the builder reckons all these issues are solvable (with the application of enough money, of course), and so we're handing the whole lot over to him. I have mixed feelings about this - there is part of me that wanted to have done it all ourselves... but there's another part of me that wants to do other things too, and also recognises that we *haven't* done it, which means we'd probably dilly dally about it for another few years. Time to move on. So there we are. I'm glad to be rid of February for many reasons, but looking back here it does seem we've made a little bit of progress.
And what will March bring? Well, currently it's bringing howling winds and a hint of snow, which has come as a nasty shock after a week or two of fine, dry weather. My garden pottering is currently on hold, and attention is turning back to the rest of the kitchen ceiling (can't ask the builder to finish off my No More Nails plasterboard/glue experiment). We're allowed to socialise with one person outdoors now, so I'm meeting a friend this afternoon - although given the weather I think we'll be sat in separate cars waving through the windows. Later in the month, we'll hopefully be allowed to meet another household, and I am SO much looking forward to seeing people again. Sadly our garden shelter has blown down in the recent gales, so we may spend some of March rebuilding that (if it ever stops raining). Hopefully the chickens will be released from their own lockdown very soon, and we may even have some seedlings to report by the end of the month...
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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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