Tuesday 3 April 2012

the chicken dilemna and life in the woods..

Well ,as we enter april after the glorious end of march the weasther is very indecisive, frost one minute and blazing sun the next, got the polytunnel straight, all dug and ready for the tomatoes , cucumbers, aubergine, lots of sweet peppers and herbs. Cleared out the shed , got loads more room now, the chickens have settled in beautifully, just going to stick to 3 for now, they are  laying perfect eggs everyday and are starting to become attached to us and us to them, i personally dont eat meat, only fish, my wife is a cold blooded meat devourer!, because of our winter routine of surfing abroad for 5 months, the chickens will either be re-housed or as originally planned my wife expects to be eating them but she is getting very attached to them, although we talked last  night and she still says she wants to eat one of them at least so she is not the hipocrite i claim her to be as i wont eat anything i am not willing to kill, she wants to prove  to herself as much to me that she can do it, its an old debate and maybe i should toughen up a bit and stop being so sentimental about the birds but id find it difficult to see them come to a tasty demise, i jokingly called her a murderer,she licked her lips and replied,yes..delicious murder....anyway...
My cucumber, kale ,beetroot,and calabrese seeds have all pushed through the soil and looking healthy, just waiting to thin them out , choosing the healthiest looking`peppers and toms taking longer as expected..
Lots of pheasants roaming on the land at the moment,havent seen anymore deer for a few days.
Weve been washing with the stream water, id like to get it tested really,it looks clean and lots of life around the stream but you never know, we use it for washing up and washing us, we use fresh tap water from town for cuppas and drinking generally at the moment.we  still havent seen the need for a generator,we love living by candlelight and headtorch, with the late nights of our summers this really isnt proving a difficulty.
All cooking by propane in the caravan and the toilet is now a humanure composting bucket using straw and leaf mould, no problems.Heating is supplied by propane heater,it heats up the caravan lovely, even when there has been frost outside it takes minutes to get the place cosy, we would have a woodburner if it was worth it but it would just get too hot in there and we are only here for the warmer months its just not worth it, shame as weve got 6 acres of trees!! well have lots of fires anyway and the potash will go lovely on the plants.

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