Ever onward -

After the training on the ground source - realised I need to rethink the manifold box, have to make the site bigger and think about the box. The metal base is fine but need to dig out a bit more earth. on the subject of earth took a real good look at the trenches yesterday and decided one is so bad we need to start again, but the good news is that we can link some of the bad to a new trench - need to mark this out tomorrow. it is may lat day here for a while as work takes me to Bangladesh for a couple of weeks.

Also had the man around about the wood burning stove. We seem to be able to do it - the chimney is missing but we located it behind a wall in the bedroom, spend this morning opening up the chimney and clearing the rubbish from it so hopefully we can get a flue up it and out of the roof. We need this as we have a lot of wood to burn.

Also had a bonfire today - the tractor also sprang into life but did not take it out as felt I needed to read the manual. I have driven bigger tractors then the one we have and done some amazing things with them, such as moving bridges and laying cables but it was late and coffee called, so something to do on my return but good to know it works.

On the subject of machinery  also got the small generator going today as well. This is a fail safe item if ever the electricity goes this gives us independent power. I hope.

Mud & Trenches

No movement here, we have made a tactical decision. The ground is too wet the trench sides too soft, any attempt to dig them out again we think would result in more slippage. So they are on hold till after my sojourn in Bangladesh at the beginning of the month.

On other fronts things are coming along. A new cold/hot bed has been built in the greenhouse, netting around the veg beds has been taken down. They were a good idea but did little to stop any rabbits that got through the high fences and made cultivation difficult. Not at the moment we can plant out anything, the ground is far too wet and damp it would all just rot. The flower bourders are having a make over and the other day we cleared about 20 feet of river bank from undergrowth and had a jolly bonfire. Looks realyly good. Only a couple of hounderd feet left to do!!! Hope to combine this with new rabbit proof fencing. Not that there is such a thing but we can try.

The builders should have been up and running by now but they had a bereavement in the family so were, understandably not able to work. Hopefully they will be back tomorrow. We need to get the house plastered, us to I think!

As I went out this morning I found at least a dozen female grouse in the veg area. Pity the shooting season is over or we could have had meat for a month!!!

trenches and mud

Last week - we had the digger in to make the trenches for the geothermal heating. The weather cleared and it all went well, if not slowly. The next day was cloudy and we were behind time. Day 3 the heavens opened and disaster struck! The trenches began to cave in, water flowed into them and it became a quagmire of mud. I  went out to look at it all today, again in the rain and it was not a pretty site.
Tomorrow we have 25 tons of sand arriving and nowhere to put it as we were planning to put it straight into the trenches. So hopefully we can cancel it. Rain is forecast for the rest of the week so we are in  trench of delay!

Also the builders start tomorrow in the main house - who wants the quiet life!!!!

wellies at thew reary we await tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jams and things

Well we have been making bread for ages, two to three loaves a week, including rye bread and bread made with sour dough, which does not need any yeast - a bit messy but wonderful bread. Last week we also began the journey into jams and preserves. We decided to make marmalade. We had to buy the Seville oranges but I guess we can be forgiven for that as it would be pretty hard to grow them in the UK. After a couple of days we had lovely deep, sweet marmalade - 10 jars of it. One went in a few days, the others I think will go a little more slowly. Now we have to collect more jars for the next production and of course design our own labels.

As we have appricot trees - I guess we may try those later in the year

Energy and rubbish

Well after a 10-day stint in Mexico I am back on the farm. In Mexico I learnt a little about weaving and made a piece of my own yarn. Don’t think I will take it up as a job though,

So back on the farm, more clearing done whilst I was away and that looks good. We have had the final builder down and now have made two very large decisions. We have chosen the builders to do the alterations to the house, but even more exciting, we have now chosen the type of energy we are going to use in the house.

We have, against all odds, decided to go for geothermal energy or ground source energy as it is also known. This is supposed to be better then air, but I am not so sure, but we got a good deal and we are going for air in the other house anyway.

This means lots of work for me. We need to dig 4, 75 metre trenches a metre deep to put the heating coils in. SO I have been busy sorting out a digger to do the job and measuring out the group. It is all somewhat nerve wracking.  We also need 25tons of sand to insulate the pipes, which came today!

So dig trenches, 100mm of sand, lay piping, add 100mm of sand and then infill – then we have the technical bit but more of that as it happens.

On another line I decided to dismantle some staging where I want to build the compost bins. They will back onto a small stream and low ,what did I find? A whole load of rubbish, most of it really bad stuff. Four tractor batteries, old iron and lead pipes, metal sheets, masses of concrete and plastic. I have begun clearing it out but will need a skip and a lot more time to finish. Need to do this before the compost bins can be built as will hinder access to the steam just here.

Anyway this is all in the life of the farm. So hopefully tomorrow will be sunny and we can do more shifting. Await developments dear reader.