Well it was 2 men and 2 women, the hedge laying Hollands were here yesterday to help Tim and I scythe down the grass in the area we call the orchard. It's down a steep bank and then onto a small flat area, which when we moved in was packed with conifer trees and a very overgrown hedge. The hedge has been laid and the conifer trees taken out leaving 2 old apple trees and 3 very spindly plum trees. The plum trees had to be removed as they got blown over the first strong wind we had. Now the light can get in, the weeds have taken over. After our little scything party, the "orchard" is now looking a lot tidier, and hopefully if I can keep the weeds cut down, the grass should start to recover. Come the autumn I shall look at getting 2 new plum trees to replace the ones we had to remove.
This week we also went to pick up the 70 bales of straw we need for the winter, (50 for us and 20 for a fellow smallholder). We've been ready for over a week to pick it up, but as always, we've been waiting for the right weather.
There is a bit of a disaster in the veg garden, my main crop potatoes have blight. So I'm going to have to chop of the helms and either burn them or put them in a bag and take them to the tip, but they will not be going onto the compost bin, as this will spread this dreaded disease around the veg garden, something I don't want to do.
I've had another worm count done this week, this time for the ewes, and the results are quite encouraging, though we have a medium worm problem, it's not drastic, and we could get away with not worming the ewes until October, but the vet's advice is to give them an oral wormer now, just to keep on top of the worms, and then worm as normal in October. We were going to worm the ewes today, but after yesterday's exercise of scything on a mild and very windy day, which saps your energy and makes you dehydrated. Hence wrestling with sheep did not appeal. But the main reason for conserving our energy is that the Hobbits arrive next Saturday for a week!!!!!!!!!
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3 comments:
Noooooooo, not the Hobbits! Has your chosen food supplier had the articulated lorry booked for the daily food deliveries?
My outdoor tomatoes have blight, my mother maintains that it's nothing but I've seen it before on my potatoes and this is one time where I do know better. It's an awful sight so I know just how sad you feel.
I wish I had a meadow to mow! I know all about waiting for the right weather. Very miserable here :o(
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