Easter coming and goings

Well how did your Easter go i must say mine went quick i did manage to get most off the things i needed to do done all the carrot stations are now set ready to plant up and most of the remaining digging was completed before the snow came still about half an hour will see that finished. I set a trap for that mole that's has been bothering me since December and this morning we got him i think he had invited round some mates for a party lately so i'll just leave a couple of traps in the ground to see if i can round up some more, last time i mentioned mole catching i got a telling of from some one from the mole liberation front so if he's or she's reading this tough luck as far as im concerned they are o k in woodlands. city parks, churchyards, roadsides and the like but when they pop up in my ground they have had it. I might try and plant up some carrots in the barrels if the weather picks up a bit just to see if i can get some decent long carrots by late August but i'm not in to much of a rush to plant anything in the veg plot as my ground is quite heavy and cold in a spring although it does grow well once it warms up, i suppose i need a bigger and probably heated greenhouse to start things off sooner but that's not an option at the moment so we just have to make the best of what we have got, i was looking at Liams blog at veg4show.blogspot.com now that's how to do it if you want to be a winner i'l keep watching and learning as the season goes on.

On the farm we are getting into lambing so if i dont' blog much in the next 3 weeks or so you know why, it's a lot of long hard days coming up but we need to get lambing right as it makes or breaks our year and you don't get a second chance. All our breeding Hoggs (last years female lambs ) came home from there wintering ground by the coast today so we have had to sort them up and send them of to to our high ground for the summer we like to get them away to easier kinder ground for their first winter to give them a chance to grow out and fulfill their full potential.

On the football front United seem to be clicking into top gear with a good away win over Leyton Orient followed up by a 2/0 win at home to Northampton Its put us 5 points clear of Doncaster in our promotion push and closing in on Swansea at the top. Dare we dream 0f promotion.

A bit of all sorts

Have had a slow weekend, been down with a sod of a cold, by the time i'd done my work on the farm that was enough for me. I have watched a bit of sport on television ie Wales v France there will be no peace from the Welsh now, mind they did look a good side. It could have been a diffrent story if in their match against England, England had not fallen asleep in the second half. On the football side United had a decent draw at Swindon and when you consider both Doncaster and Swansea lost it looks an even better point.

This week work wise we are trying to cram in quite a bit of work so as to be able to have some spare time over the Easter weekend, today Tuesday we marketed our final 40 2007 born lambs and the trade was 144 pence a kilo and i was pleased with that when you consider that when we were under gov controls during foot and mouth we had to take 76 pence a kilo it frightens me to think how much DEFRA incompetence cost us in the August to December period when the vast majority of our lambs (about 600) are marketed and even though the inquiry into it blamed management incompetence and complacency at Pirbright no one seems to being held to account never mind sacked from their cushy well paid jobs personaly i'd jail the useless gits for pollution.

Hopefully by tomorrow night we will have given all the breeding ewes their pre lambing vaccination and multivitamin dose plus a parasitic Fluke and Worm treatment as they should start lambing in ernest from the 2nd April. If all goes well and we catch up with work and the weather is fair i might be able to get some jobs done in the veg plot during the Easter break i do need to get some final digging done and my carrot soil mixed and put in the barrels plus get a couple of mole traps set, what i can't fit in before we start lambing will just have to wait till late April as it just gets to hectic in lambing time .

Bird Nestboxes and all the rest

Just like most of the country we have had some fairly severe winds to contend with, luckily we have avoided too much damage just the odd tree blown over and a couple of wall gaps blown down where they are next to trees that have been rocking in the wind.

Last night (Tuesday) managed to get to see United play Luton we won 2/1 but saying that Luton put up a good show especially in the second half when the wind seemed to play havoc with Uniteds play, as they say decent teams grind out a result and that's what they did. Following on from wins away at Crewe and Nottingham Forest it keeping promotion hopes well on track.

Tonight i planted my first lot of potatoes in a barrel in the greenhouse just to have a few just that bit earlier than the main batch, very seldom do i grow potatoes in open ground i prefer to grow them in barrels as they seem to have a lot cleaner skins and i don't have to bother lifting them in the autumn i just cut the tops of end of August time and lift them as i need them when the weather gets a bit colder and we might get a frost i just pop the barrels in the greenhouse and put some old sacking over them it's a bit like having new potatoes from June to the end of February the main thing to do if growing them this way is make sure you water them a lot and i mean a lot.

The council have started resurfacing the main road this week near to my home and never wanting to miss a bargain i have managed to get about 20 Tonnes of the plannings that were being removed prior to resurfacing to provide some hard standing base it is really good stuff if you can get hold of it because it packs down like the original road surface in about a month but as it is planed and relaid also free draining.

I have spent most of this afternoon putting up some bird nest boxes on the farm we have a couple of small wooded areas and as part of our effort to help the local environment this years plan has been to try and help and encourage more of the local wild bird population. We tend not to use any or very little sprays or fertilizers in habitat rich areas and so are hopeful that they will soon move in, the species that are most likely to take advantage are Chaffinch/Flycatchers/ Robins/Blue Tits etc plus one box for the local Tawny Owls. (see pics)

Back to business

Just arrived back from a short holiday in Tenerife and blimey does it feel cold, still we will soon get used to that. The Dahlias that i set up before i went have sprung into life with quite a good few strong shoots coming through when they get to about 3" long in about a fortnight I'll take them as cuttings then divide the original root when it regrows which should give me enough stock for planting out once the last chance of frost has past.