Loraine is now using her workshop in preparation for the coming season.
It has been a few weeks since our last update and things have been moving on but with a little twist to the proceedings.
Paul’s health problem has now been identified and a remedy is penciled in to solve the little devil. Paul has an intussucepting Colon, that’s a colon turning itself inside out. Think of a telescope fitting inside itself and your are nearly there. He has to go in for keyhole surgery to sort it out and as such will be unable to do any heavy lifting for a while due to this.
The shed is nearly finished now and the outside is done with just the internal concrete floor to lay when Paul is able to start work again.
It has two large water butts at the side of the shed to use for the polytunnel when that is built sometime in the summer or autumn.
This week we have a few chores to prepare for and the first job is to plant the last of the trees that arrived, two more cherry trees, and another walnut tree which brings our total number of trees in the orchard to 21.
All of the soft fruits have been planted in the field and they consist of four redcurrants, three blackcurrants, three king-sized blackberries, and ten raspberries. More will be added later to boost these numbers. The blueberries will stay in their large tubs until we have purpose-built acidic beds for them where they should thrive.
We have been spotting some unusual animal activity over the last month or so and have spotted a fox on our trail camera as below.
Fox caught on our trail camera during the night.
I also found a copy of the pony that caused all of the damage to our newly planted orchard and here is a copy of the culprit below.
The pony being led out of our fields back to its own area.after damaging our orchard trees.
It is now seven months since we moved in on July 16th and there have been quite a few setbacks in that time as follows;
1: Leaking roof in the stable block had to be renewed to make it watertight.
2: We found the drive was only 8ft wide which meant we could not get big trucks to deliver materials up to the sand ring.
3: Paul’s continuing problematic health issue delayed many of the works.
4: Escaping animals into our fields damaging many of our trees.
5: Wetter than usual autumn and winter which has waterlogged our paths.
It certainly has been more than we bargained for but we have laughed at the mishaps and got on with the works as best we can. Once Paul is fit and well again we can speed up the progress of the gardens again.
We shall post some pictures and videos of what we have achieved during January 2020.