Early Winter Bits and Bobs.

[tigerburnie]

Evening all, (flexes knees a bit like Dixon of Dock Green) rained all day here too, the rain is not a problem, but the lack of daylight is, we need a light on in the front of the house all day as it's north facing, useless light for filming wildlife too. No sign of any onions growing yet, impatient...................................me?

[Clive.]

After yesterday when the cloud was to the floor. This morning it is amazingly clear visibility. The Norfolk cost outline, across the Wash, is in very good view, as I look out from the kitchen window..

...cleaning the window may have helped..but it really is very sharp light.

C.

[oldherbaceous]

Clive….

Done the muck….getting a good heap over there now, so there will be some happy people, as they have it for free….
It’s so wet over there, not sure when I will be able to start the Winter digging…..need some cold, drying winds to dry things out….not that I really like them.

[Primrose]

OH, your allotment chums must be delighted at their free manure. Mine nearly always had to be brought home in bags in my husband,s car boot and needless to say it never ended up being a very clean or happy transaction!

We'll draw a veil over the time I collected some freshly dropped manure on the road, shovelled it into a bucket, put the bucket on the back seat of the car and then drove round a sharp corner a little too quickly! I was in the dog house for a long time over that accident.!

My non gardening other half could never really understand my fascination with manure. The original stuff is often so hard to get hold of and i would go out of my way to obtain even small amounts. I,m sure this is one reason why our vegetable growing beds have always given good yields (adverse weather conditions apart of course).

[Clive.]

I'm thinking that I might get another strip of digging done later today, lucky, at digging time, that under the well improved top soil is a layer of green sand.

The beet lifter is purring up and down the next field. Loads still to lift with beet growing in fields that I have never seen it grown in previously. The lifter is I think a Ropa brand of machine, huge great thing, 6 wheel and articulated. It can run with the rear set of wheels offset to the line of the front wheels. I'm assuming this can be used to spread the load across the field and not run ruts ? although I noticed they were also offsetting the machine when the trailer was running alongside the other day.

C.

[Primrose]

Clive I.guess farmers are lucky weather is still mild eniugh to harvest with machinery.
I,ve read that in the terrible prolonged winter of 1947.when snow was on the ground for weeks farmers were using pneumatic drills to dig parsnips out of the ground as food was still in such short supply.

On a rather different food & drink topic, over Christmas I noticed an unopened bottle of vodka at the back of our drinks cabinet, which has lurked there since being given to us on a visit to Russia.nearly 30 years ago!! It,s not our choice of drink and I!m wondering if it's likely to have improved with age ?

[oldherbaceous]

There’s not hardly any Beet grown around here anymore….they used to grow a lot, many years ago! I used to dread harvest time, as I used to big into my motorbikes and the mud that they carted out on the roads was a real danger…..

Dear Primrose, regarding the vodka and improved with age, do you mean the vodka or yourself….

[Primrose]

Well maybe I should lock myself away in a cupboard for 30 years OH and see what I look like !, Would probably earn myself a key role in a Halloween drama! Puzzles me how some ancient wines become greatly prized while others just become disgustingly "corked" and what causes the difference.

[Stravaig]

Most types of drinks, eg whisky or wine or whatever peak at a certain age. Some are best drunk young, others are better aged.

Did you know you can make gin out of vodka? Maybe you like gin better. Also, a lot of cocktails are vodka based.

By the way my plastic party plates did show up eventually. Dunno where they were meanwhile.

[Stravaig]

Hydroponics are doing great. I know it's not the right time to be planting/growing but my new plants are thriving. I even have a couple of cornflower buds.

[Westi]

I was pleasantly surprised with todays visit with the car. We went straight in, they found the funnel thing straight away in the car not underneath & filled it up & didn't even charge us. In & out in 20 mins so loads of time on the plot. Finally finished weeding & thinning the raspberries by the fence line & also the main bed, so everything looks tidier even though the burn heap is getting higher, but who knows when it will be dry enough on consecutive days to really get cracking on that job, but hopefully before I start on the apple & pear tree pruning.

Going to set up the propagator tomorrow just to check the electric consumption as I think I will be happier with the peppers & stuff starting off in there rather than moving trays around the house - especially with the critters in the mix! =^.^=

[oldherbaceous]

Yet another wet day here….

[peter]

Same here OH, done two allotment viewings with prospective tenants, one yesterday evening, light drizzle, one this morning heavy drizzle.
Third prospective tenant hasn't yet replied to text invite.....
Three plots to let, one of 2.5 Rod full of fruit bushes, which both prospects would probably uproot, at least this time of year they can be moved, so might have a bit of

"If you'd like a blackcurrant, gooseberry or rhubarb for your plot and can dig one up without leaving a muddy mess or bomb-crater, then contact your site agent."

[Clive.]

Not a good day for my progress in the back garden..

I did get 20ft x 6ft further digging done yesterday plus cut out and tied in the blackberry 'Loch Ness' and then dug 20ft x 2ft along the south fence side.
I am working my way across the plot and the next bit isn't very nice. Gooseberries to prune, which is ok, but it has nearly grassed over under them in one part and then there's escaped strawberries and a dose of hieracium, hawkweed, that has leap frogged in...

The beet lifter was running late into the evening yesterday, still on the same patch, maybe ceasing for 7pm, with a set of lights that any UFO captain would be proud of, out again first thing this morning.

This morning they were loading straight from lifter onto the articulated lorry, that was able to stay on the farm road. The lifter really is huge, it made the artic look like a Dinky toy.

I was thinking back to how they used to grow the sugar beet round here, they often used to grow it with several rounds of barley surrounding it. I'm assuming the barley stubble surrounding the beet would have given a cleaner passage for the equipment of the day to work with.

..and further, there used to be a mat in the hallway here that was a green rectangle with gold/yellow surround....that was my beet and barley field in my toy tractor farming days...except at the time Britains toys didn't make either beet lifter or combine harvester... So my combine harvester was wrong scale, a Claas from the Matchbox KingSize range. My cousin though had the larger scale Corgi Major MF 780 special

C.

[Westi]

Blimey Clive I think you have done a brilliant amount. I did chuckle at your 'with a set of lights that any UFO captain would be proud of, out again first thing this morning'. I was down really early one morning as looking after the neighbours chickens & plot & mine. I was really baffled about the lights in the field beside us, not behind but it was also quiet as a bit away.

I ruled out UFO's but was wondering if the company that got the permission to build the 800 houses on this land had started, as did the other couple of early birds down there. It was the time when we were at risk, but when the council merged this was put on the back burner & our plot was given to a small council that merged to look after. They had a public vote a couple of weeks ago & it appears we remain safe without development for the time being.