Rain, rain go away....

Posted By: Paul 08/12/2009 09:41:19

Thanks to all the rain we've been having I have now finished all of the 'indoor' jobs and I'm now waiting for a few dry days so I can spread the last of the manure on the allotments.

 Although the weather forecast seems to be indicating a short cold spell in the middle of December so I may have to pick a dry moment and get the job done as fast as possible.

This week I have given the lawn a final mow which also helped pick up the last leaves and chopped them up into a nice grass/leaf mixture. This will help them break down faster. I am also collecting some fresh horse manure this week to get the last hot bed going. I'm hoping this bed will keep going over winter and provide some early crops in the spring, like lettuce, radish and some early Strawberries in late Spring.

Last week the sheep went for slaughter and after a few days hanging at the abattoir I got the carcases back on Friday. It took about 30 minutes to joint each one and I have now got a freezer full of 'Happy' Lamb. Over the weekend whilst the weather was doing its best to drown me and then blow me away, Steve and I scrapped, cleaned, washed and finally put the sheepskins into a tanning mix. I can't remember if we now have to wait for 7 or 14 days for the tanning process to finish, but as soon as it does we have to wash the skins and then let them dry. The final job is to trim the skins and then they are ready for use as rugs or whatever we decide to use them for.

Lastly, this week I saw the long range weather forecast for winter 2009/2010 and it looks like we are going to be in for another snowy one. They have even forecast a high chance of a white Christmas. Check out the forecast at www.theweatheroutlook.com.

Might be a good idea to check you have enough frost protection, and also if the snow is going to be like last years, change the netting on top of fruit cages from the fine mesh to a much larger mesh to stop the build up of snow.

Have a good week

Paul

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