Early Winter Bits and Bobs.

[Clive.]

I NikWax treated two of my coats on Friday evening and hoped that would bring on a dry spell...not so....14 hours of heavy rain listed on our forecast...and we are on the drier side of the Country...or at least used to be...

C.

[Cider Boys]

Heavy rain here in Somerset today, roads are flooded and my Hamlet is cut off. Royal Mail sent me an email saying that they can't get through to deliver my medicine I ordered. I hope the roads improve tomorrow when it should not be raining. Fields are badly flooded and I should have moved my sheep to drier land, I lost around sixty sheep about 10 years ago when the moors flooded, sheep don't swim very well with their thick woollen fleeces. I will have to move them tomorrow to drier ground. I still haven't planted any broad beans, has anyone else been more organised and managed to plant some?

Hoping for drier weather
Barney

[oldherbaceous]

Rain here nearly all day, so have made my mind up now, to sow the Broad Beans in pots, in the New Year!

[Westi]

OK here this morning, but then the dark clouds moved in but I had already packed up. All soggy beds have had their little channels completed & covered. Couldn't do this in the net tunnel so just dug 2 biggish holes & bailed them out as they filled up - 2 small trug fulls in the end. That has to help, but I note heavy rain is due back on Thursday so will be short-lived.

I was hoping to go down tomorrow until the weather just updated telling me it is not just going to be misty as predicted but freezing fog. I will just judge when I open the back door tomorrow I think!

[tigerburnie]

Dry here but cold, minus 4 just now, quite a bright day today so we went to St Andrews for a pre Xmas mooch round the shops and spent most of our money in the farm shop buying meat, must get my Onion seeds sown this week.

[Cider Boys]

Well, I moved my sheep yesterday morning and took the opportunity to walk around to see the extent of the flooding. I spotted the usual little egrets and herons and then noticed a whitish brown bird in the mist perched on a fence post, it then took off and it was clearly a Barn Owl quartering across the moors like a spaniel. That made my day, I love Barn Owls. Today after my usual walk I lifted some more carrots that I sowed late August and then I accomplished it, I actually sowed a row of broad beans where the carrots had been. The soil was wet, cold and sticky, time well tell if it was a good idea. It always cheers me up in Winter to see broad beans emerging; I plan to sow some more in February. I may follow oldherbaceous and grow some in pots.

Rain forecast here tomorrow.

Barney

[Westi]

More rain down here as well Barney, getting a bit tedious now but I've not got sheep to consider in the mix! Only seen one barn owl in motion & surprisingly in your neck of the woods! We were stopped by the guy at the front with hand gestures & pointing & saw the catch - & no inconsiderate git hooked their horn!

[oldherbaceous]

Had a tough old time in the village this last week, a lovely Lady just down the road, lost her long battle with cancer last week and my wonderful neighbour, Hazel sadly passed away Tuesday night….she was a very special person and always made me smile….she was 97, so a really good age, but still can’t get to grips with her not being here….

[tigerburnie]

Sorry for the loss of your friends OH.

[Westi]

Sorry to hear that OH, very sad regardless of age to loose a good friend.

[Cider Boys]

Sorry to read of your losses Oldherbaceous, I think it is very sad when people we know well die. I especially feel sad when I read of people that I used to work alongside but then lost contact with have died. I just wish that I had made more of an effort to keep in contact with them when they were alive.

Best wishes

Barney

[Westi]

Actually no rain today which was very welcome. Cracked on with the little chores outstanding so I've got the compost bins finally sorted, well almost as still trying to pull the cover out of the one I want to empty, as I put stuff on top of it which I thought was branches & stuff but the depth of soil on it says it was weeds - way too many! Not to worry as a least I have room to manoeuvre now & can always find beds that would like a top up.

No standing water but still pretty squidgy, but heavy rain tomorrow will change that again. A quick look at the long range forecast says I might have several days of nicer weather on the trot from the end of next week. My metal shed has arrived so might be able to make a start on assembling that as don't want it sitting in the tunnel for too long as although the CCTV has been updated with more camera's it won't stop any unwelcome visitors. I still have to do the base for it but should be able to snatch time in between showers to get that done during the week, but my optimism has been getting a right kicking & my back is not too pleased either.

[Stravaig]

Sorry to hear about your friends, OH. That's another problem of getting older. Losing loved ones. I have very few left.

The one positive I can think of is having a nice relationship with those few who are left. On one side of the family there's only my cousin and me left. (He goes to the gym and is quite sporty. I tend to think that a glass of wine is a good breakfast. But at least I stopped smoking a couple of years ago. I started when I was in my early teens.) My cousin is a few years older than me and he had a brother, so we weren't close at all. Now we're the only ones left of our generation.

We're in touch most days via email. And he came to visit us recently.

[Stravaig]

Barney,
I hope your sheep are OK. It reminded me of a time when my parents and I were out in the country. My dad spotted a sheep stuck on a barbed wire fence. He stopped the car and went to release it. Even so, the sheep wasn't 100% well, so he then went to the farmhouse to explain the situation. The farmer was very grateful. I don't know how much a sheep would cost but you'd not want to lose one if it could be avoided!

I've never been a big fan of sheep but they were my job of choice because I loved the sheepdogs. Actually I didn't like most of the farm animals. Scared (terrified) of the coos, scared of the hens, when collecting eggs, unless I had a big stick. And then I went off and joined the army. Gotta go now...

[oldherbaceous]

Been doing a couple of jobs on my allotment this morning, in front of Hazel’s window….really tough not seeing her there after 40 years, of calling out, or waving…..going to take a bit of getting used to.

A lot of standing water about…..