With 12 days at cricket, including 5 in a hotel at Tunbridge Wells, life has been a bit of a rush round. Tunbridge Wells is a lovely ground surrounded by Geranium bushes in full bloom at this time of the year, plus it was an opportunity to chat with Yorkshire and Englands Darren Gough and Umpire David Shepherd who lived up to expectations with all his eccentric mannerisms out on the field.
The chickens have all gone completely mad and last week we got 67 eggs !! Not bad as 13 of them are ex-battery hens. I think the answer was that, as I was bringing lots of food home from cricket, I may thought they wouldn't need the layers pellets supplement with their mixed corn. I re-introduced the pellets and within 3 days they were up from 3 / 4 eggs a day to 9 / 11 eggs a day. Just shows you how we live and learn !
For some unknown reason, they seem to have gone off the idea of eating the eggs.
Lots going on. We have a new cat from the Cats Protection. He's a ginger / white 2 year old and was found very uncared for in a drug addicts house. He's so friendly it's uncanny. Mimi though hasn't taken too kindly to him, so he's confined most of the time to the spare bedroom. I'm sure with a bit of patience both will settle OK. Already she's down to just spitting and not howling and growling.
The big house over the Lane have put their two breeding barn owls in the stable. The 'Owlman' has put wire netting over the entrance and I feed them every evening. Once their first egg is hatched in about 5 weeks, they'll be let out and should 'home' alright. I'm a little worried about the bats as we have a good population round here, but I guess the law of the jungle always lets some get away - it's us humans which are pretty good at making creatures extinct. Barn owls are endangered, so good work all round I think.
The recent rain, sun, dry, damp has galloped along the veggies. I marked the poles on the runner beans on Bank Holiday Monday and two of the plants have grown six feet in just 14 days. The Sweet Corn has not really happened and I've only 8 growing from 24 seeds - too late to sow more now I think.
Everything else though is in abundance especially the beetroot, tomatoes and onions - lots of Chutney this year !!
I must swot up on natural vegetable storage. Since we lost all our vegetables in October 2001 due to the freezer packing up without our knowledge, I'm paranoid now !!
Some month's ago I applied online to 'Zoo People' to do some mystery shopping and out of the blue this week came two small merchandising jobs in local DIY stores. Only a few hours worth, but maybe the source of some more work coming up fr winter. I still do the mystery shopping with 'Gapbuster' but I'm 'on rest' at present as I was going to the same restaurants quite a lot and it may become obvious if a cunning Manager worked out the dates he / she was visited and noted I was always there at that time.
Doesn't time gallop on though. Because I started at cricket in March, I'm over half way through the season. On 29th.June I will be doing the International between South Africa and Zimbadwe, looking forward to that. Regret to say Kent have not yet found their form this year, but the win against Yorkshire on Sunday should give everyone a bit of confidence and the start of a comeback.
In that sense, I am now planning autumn and winter work wise. I shall look around for a part time job in August, say two days a week (and inside), perhaps retail. This will at least give me regular income. There should still be lots to do over the Lane though. I'm very blessed with how things have panned out, although money wise, it's very, VERY tight ! Maybe I've a distant great Uncle somewhere who I've never heard of and he'll leave me a house, five acres, 50 chickens and about a hundred thousand quid !! Dream on !
I've received my copy of the River Cottage Year book. At first I must own up to being a little disappointed, but as time goes on and more recipes are read, there's some good frugal recipes in it.
On the frugal front, I've acquired a De-humidifier, about 40 CD's, a table and a load of chicken wire. Must get round to having a boot fair soon, I need some money to have a little mountain break with Leo in August.
Well I'm off to install a fountain in the pond opposite, after that cut the grass (one acre) and assemble some shelving. Then sort the chickens, sort the cats, feed the owls and have a lager !!
11th. - 25th. June 2003
Our new cat 'Ginger' is settling in very well. If she was on them, Mimi would be on about four Valiums a day by now though ! Ginger is a bit of a character; usual thing - half an hours complete lunacy and lack of respect of anything or anyone, then utterly crashed out for two hours getting ready for the next onslaught. No way is he two years old, one at the most I reckon.
Anyway, he's a fierce hunter - butterflies and spiders are petrified !!
We're eating lettuce like rabbits and starting on the Spring Onions and Beetroot. Looks like evrything else is going to be early this year. There was a 'rogue' potato plant in the Chicken enclosure and I dug it up today. There's enough there for two meals, so this evening we had Sausages with the potatoes sprinkled with the onions - lovely !
It's probably the kiss of death, but there aren't many slugs around. As I previously said, I have been encircling everything with two year old soot - so I hope this is the reason as I also saved last years soot for next year.
Blackfly hit one of the runner bean plants and one broad bean plant, but I sprayed those with the stinging nettle spray and they disappeared overnight as well.
So I'm pretty happy with the natural remedies at present. I read on 'acountrylife.com forum' that planting sacrifice nasturtions close by takes the blackfly away.
There's a lot to be said for companion planting. Sowing the carrots in with the main crop onions seems to have worked and I'm pretty pest free at the moment.
The chooks are still laying well so sales are in full swing. A chap came round the other day to look at some farm machinery our Landlord is selling and he said he was pleased to see my 'If you can afford it - don't buy eggs with from caged birds' car sticker. He said he kept free range chickens. Turns out he's got 20,000 !! He says he just can't produce enough of them, with most going to London Restaurants and Catering Companies. So I proudly told him all about my 16 and off he went quite happy.
I managed to attend a Poultry Auction Saturday before last without actually buying anything - quite an achievement. But it was a more 'pedigree' sale and the prices were over my wallet anyway.
There's another 'normal one' one next Wednesday. I'll probably take pity on some poor old scraggy dears, buy them, then spend a couple of days making the enclosure bigger. Can't afford to, but can't help it !!
I'm doing the South Africa v Zimbadwe game on Sunday and really looking forward to it. It's on T.V., so if they show a balcony scene and you see a young looking, tall, handsome Viking Sun God kind of guy wearing the Kent Kit - it's me. Well, the tall skinny old bloke, going grey with cat scratch marks over his face reading The News of the World.
Over 8,000 people came to watch the new 'Twenty 20' game at Canterbury on Monday night. Great new concept, loads of action and a fabulous atmosphere. I love the classical 4 day game, but there's room for everything in Sport and I believe this will bring many new people into watch the game. Regret to say, Kent lost. So, as the football saying goes, "We can now concentrate on the League" !!
I had a peep in the Owl House earlier and noticed the mum-to-be was sitting on two eggs. I thought they just had the one - I must swot up on this.
There's already an Owl which often flies past the front room window just after sunset. The dark shapes of the Owl, the bats and late to bed blackbirds is a wonderful sight.
I've strimmed out our camp site in the wasteland at the back, Leo and me will be trying out the new tent at the Weekend. It's a lovely spot and I've cut away a hidden pathway to it so it can't be seen from the Lane (not that many come down here anyway). We've a camp fire area and on a warm summers night, it can be very nice. Once or twice during the night I'm awoken with sniffing or scurrying sounds; foxes ?, Badgers ?, Rats ? Don't know, but don't usually poke my nose out to check ! - Could be the Panther that's reputed to be roaming around these parts !
So, summer in full swing, life is good.
25th. May - 11th. June
12th - 25th. May 2003
My chickens are playing up. They reason for my egg yield being so low is they developed a liking for their own eggs. Being home for a while led me to catching them in the act, like savages ! as soon as an egg was laid, all hell broke lose as they fought over it.
I tried the mustard trick to no avail (piercing a hole in the egg, emptying the yoke etc. and filling it with really hot mustard - yummmm, they loved that !!!
So, I've had to re-build the nesting boxes with the 'roll down' method; a sloping floor which the eggs roll down and enter a hidden gutter at the bottom. My first effort successfully got the newly laid egg to reach a speed of approx. 120m.p.h. thus producing instant scrambled egg at the bottom. By reducing the slope and lining the gutter with carpet underlay, I think it's about right now.
It's just a case now of them getting used to it. Some are laying outside (which the others seem to leave alone) so I'm just having to live with it for a while.
Besides digging a pond for someone and some grass cutting, life has been fairly presentable over the last two weeks. It has allowed me some time to get on with the garden here.
I brought some poatoes a while back and they refused to chit. In the end I just put them in and hoped for the best. Four weeks later and they're appearing through all over the place - so is the 'wait for them to chit to about one inch before planting' always right ? I guess the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
I've encircled all the vegatable sections with soot to distract slugs and thus far this seems to be working, although a little early to tell. The main thing to watch when doing this is, if it's fresh soot, not to get any on or immediately around the plants or they could get poisoned by it. The soot I'm using is last years. You can also try this method with wood dust mixed in.
Chris, my old school mate, spoke to me last week and pointed out that, as a lot of this sites visitors are from America and other countries where they don't play the game, some may not know what Cricket is.
The parrot I used to sit for has now gone and is to be replaced by a pair of Owls. These are to be homed in the old Stables. So 'Owl Sitting' is next on my job agenda.
The bats which live in the eaves of our house are now out and about and it's great seeing them dart past the window just after sunset.
I'm contemplating getting another cat. I think ours needs a companion. Her two sons live on the other side of the fields and come down everyday to scurry around the windmill, but mainly to beat up Mimi.
My other option is to take on a couple of feral cats from the Cats Protection League and house them in the sheds (as they suggest). This would assist in keeping the rat population down, but I worry about Mimi not being allowed out the house through fear !
I think I'll visit the League and see what they have to say.
True to form, the Pool Team at The Golden Ball won the final game of the season to avoid the wooden spoon. We did the same last season ! Played 16 - lost 15 - won 1. I'm not saying we're bad, but the opposition have the winning drinks before the matches start.
A four day game starts on Wednesday at Cricket, then another 11 days before a very hectic June including 5 days away in a Hotel . After a few away defeats we need a good run to get us back into contention and the position we should be in - top !
Finally, to link into the launch of his new book 'A River Cottage Year', Hugh Fearnley Whittingshall has created a web site www.rivercottage.net. Like the book, it is mainly centred around food and interesting viewing for seasonal recipes etc. It also has a Forum which is well worth a look at.
1st - 12th. May 2003
19th. April - 1st. May 2003
My prediction of Kent winning their first two matches didn't quite happen - we drew in the 4-day game and won the 1-Day game (if it hadn't rained, we'd have won both !).
It's good to get the season proper under way, there are some extremely nice people amongst the spectators and we all have a lot of friendly banter. I'm out the house from about 7.30 am and don't get back til about 9 - 9.30 pm, so it's a long day, but worth it for the friendship and meeting so many interesting people.
I went to Ashford Poultry Auction yesterday and to my surprise, didn't buy any chickens ! I did bid for a couple of pens, but didn't want to spend too much. I did kick myself though for not bidding for two Black Rocks which went for only £4 the two.
My chickens seem to have gone somewhat sparse on the laying front. For 5 weeks I was averaging 34 a week (from the 9 which were laying), but the last two weeks have been 22 and 24 respectively.
I bring home all the left over food from the Cricket and that pleases them - pasta, sandwiches, Lasagne, jacket / roast potatoes, salad, chocolate cake etc.etc. It all goes !
Only problem is that half the birds in Ashford know about my back garden now and the rat population is exploding.
Somehow, I've also found time to extend the pen a little more.
Yesterday, I gave the chicken shed a complete spring clean. I clean once a week and every couple of month's 'do the big one'. This entails all the crooks and crannies, walls, ceilings, the lot. The neighbours find this one quite amusing in so far I wear baseball cap, goggles, scarve around the mouth/nose, wellington boots and plastic gloves. Hopefully they don't see the final part which is where I have the bath ready, strip naked outside the back door and jump in ! They'd need strong hearts to see that one out !!!
All the interior walls have been pulled down in the renovation work of the cottage opposite and the wood from this has supplied me in kindling to last the whole of next winter. The roof will be coming off sometime between now and the winter, so some medium size stuff will also be travelling accross the Lane. The Electricity Board have also helped my quest by cutting a lot of trees down in the field at the end of the Lane - so, that's October through to March next year sorted - and it's only Spring !
I haven't any Cricket until the 14th. but there is much to be done in the big house up the Lane; gardening, shelf making and finishing off the wood panelling. Plus, at some stage, I'm to return to France to do some more work over there. So my time is very occupied at present.
In the garden, everything is happening. The onions, broad beans, lettuce, spring onions, tomatoes and other salads are all doing famously. Next week I shall be planting out the carrots, Sprouts, Cauliflower (hoping for my first ever successful crop) and Courgettes. I shall also start off the Sweet Corn. The only worry are the potatoes which don't seem to be doing anything.
The rain in the last few days following the hot spell has made the garden gallop - especially the weeds. At least the weeds and nettles are growing well against the chicken pen corrugated fencing, so this won't be such an eye sore.
I 'acquired' from a Skip some of those bamboo curtain blinds and they work really well hung over the guttering of the greenhouse. They let the light in but stop the plants from getting sun burnt. Other good finds this month have been 4 old sash windows (cold frame), plastic floor lining (ground cover for winter) and 6 x 25 litre plastic cans (chicken food).
My daughter and family are doing well. Hopefully, the next cricket match will finish a little early and we can get down to Southampton for the day of the FA Cup final. I thought it would be nice to watch it down there and see the open top bus go through the city centre the day after (win or lose - not that we will lose).
If anyone has e-mailed me and I haven't replied, this is due to a major problem with my 'accounts' in Outlook Express. So if it was important, or you think I'm just plain anti-social, please send again. I think I've got it sorted now, but don't use the Freeserve address.
Be busy, be free.
3rd - 19th. April 2003
Well, my second grandchild arrived in typical family dramatic style last Wednesday. My son-in-law Cyril phoned the Hospital to say they were on the way, My first wife Helen went to get her overnight gear, but in the mean time the baby thought differently !
Helen came back to find head on the way and Vicky on the Loo !!
Vicky had the delivery leaning over the WC on the bathroom floor with Helen doing the "push, pant" bit and Cyril doing the rest !
The Paramedic and Midwife turned up to find a perfect Mum and Baby all done and dusted !
The name is Emily Louise and weighed in at 8lbs 4ozs.
Leo and I got down there on Friday before he went to Italy - a busy chaotic weekend.
Squeezing it all in at the moment is quite an Art. Luckily I've had a few half days at the Cricket and got home to extend the chicken run, obliterate a hedge, cut the grass, dig some more garden, look after the Mill House parrot and go to feed Leo's cat and rabbit.
Beside all the 'pet sitting', I'm trying to get a couple of full days off this Easter weekend. When I say 'off', this means pulling down an old corrugated iron shed and building a new wooden one which has been kindly donated by someone taking pity on me !
The first national league cricket match starts next Wednesday at Canterbury (against Leicestershire). Both our captain and vice caption have injuries and will miss at least the first 4 weeks of the season, but spirits and confidence are high.
Last week we had a couple of friendlies against Surrey and Gloucestershire, so I met the likes of Jack Russell, Graham Thorpe, Mark Ramprakash, Mark Butcher etc., and co.
Being a life long fan of the game, could I ask for anything more !
I watched the lunch time news on BBC1 today. They did a bit on downshifting. Apparently there are 15,000,000 of us in the EEC alone ! It was quite an accurate view explaining the goods and the bads (the bads being mainly financial) and I especially liked the shot of the ex-Exec going into an Oxfam shop to buy some clothes. This brought home the point that downshifting is so closely linked to frugality and there's no harm in it.
People have never looked down on me, made fun of me or criticised me. Most are quite respectful and once they know you're 'not proud' will offer you so many things they don't need any more (like greenhouses, sheds, cupboards, hi-fi's, pots, pans - even the kitchen sink).
I think that underneath, the majority of people would like to do the same. Most though are tied down with excessive mortgages and families to take care of. This is quite understandable and shows in that most who take the plunge are those from mid forties upwards.
I've found that in single people, women are braver and more likely to downshift.
The new ex-battery hens are looking really good and fattening themselves up well. The dry hot weather has given them some nice dust baths, so one and all are happy.
Our cat has a 'find freshly dug earth, will dig' syndrome at the moment and I'm having to cover all the sowing areas and baby plants with chicken wire.
We have a resident pheasant roaming around making those lovely squaky calls. Another welcome visitor this week was a Woodpecker - beautiful blue. My my, nature has given us so much diversity in it's creatures.
By the time I next write, Kent will have won there first two matches and Southampton will be a couple of weeks closer to winning the FA Cup. Til then, take care.
9th. March - 3rd. April 2003
Cor blimey folk's, what a change of plan from the last Diary entry !
I went to Kent Cricket Club on Monday thinking I'd be there a few days here and there until the first game proper at the end of April, only to find out I'd be full time until then ! The Team are training and there's a fair few friendlies.
So all change, no decorating job I had planned, no further trip to France and very little time to do all my own gardening work.
So be it, I really love the hustle bustle and atmosphere of the cricket team and all colleagues. It's great to see them all again albeit that I endlessly hear about winters in South Africa, Australia and just about everywhere else where the hot sun shines !
It's also good to enjoy the atmosphere of the Canterbury ground itself, steeped in history, legend and ghosts of cricketers past.
(If you don't like cricket - sorry !).
My 8 new ex-battery hens are doing famously, they have increased in size already, losing their unwanted 'half feathers' and not taking so much nonsense from the senior members of the flock. I'm looking forward to the first egg from them.
The other 9 are doing well and laying between 4 and 6 eggs a day now.
My patience and showing them the Paxo packet has obviously done the trick !
I couldn't sleep the other night and as it was fairly mild, I sat in the garden at about 1.00 a.m. I could hear some scratching and thought it was the rats. After a while I thought I'd creep up the garden and found a fox chewing away at the side of the shed. He had no chance of getting in as I'd re-inforced the door with chicken wirw stapled to the back. But it shows the determination they have.
I got some empty egg boxes yesterday, obviously cheap battery eggs. I looked up the referring web site. On the site it explained they use battery hens etc. and said their policy is not to indicate they are anything else by not using the word 'Farm' on the boxes and show no chicken illustrations roaming freely. Well, on their box they are called 'Country Choice' and there's a picture of a farmhouse !!!
On Sunday last I sowed carrots, beetroot, spring onions, chives and leeks (directly outside) and sprouts in the greenhouse. The tomato plants and coriandor are growing well on the window sills and we're eating the rocket from the greenhouse.
The only concern at present are the potatoes which seem to be taking an eternity in their chitting - but can't rush nature I guess.
In the next couple of weeks I'll be starting off the sweet corn, squash, courgettes and a few other goodies.
Someone said they thought I was doing everything early, but all the packets and books state 'March / April' for the outdoor sowing above, but we're in the south and the weather seems just right. Also, I have a theory that if you sow just early enough, if anything goes wrong, you've a chance to get in another sowing before it's too late.
Last year I left thing's late and a number of veggies didn't come up, or those that did were not all that spectacular.
I'm still awaiting the arrival of my second grandchild, she was due three days ago, but seems to like it where she is ! Hopefully she wil arrive before next weekend and I can get down to see her with Leo before he swans off to Italy for Easter two weeks.
Back to the garden !!
7th. - 19th. March 2003
I've been meaning to do this entry since Sunday, but I haven't been able to get on line due to something in the exchange which slipped ??
Much to do, I'm off to France on Sunday to do some decorating in a Holiday Cottage over there. Should be back on Thursday night or Friday morning. I haven't driven abroad since 1981 so I'm a little nervous about this. But it's only about 20 miles on the other side, so I'm hoping they all know I'm coming and won't go out onto the roads for a few hours.
Grass cutting is once again on the agenda. I cut mine last week and was surprised how it didn't clog up the lawn mower this year.
I've sown the Broad Beans and 196 Onion seeds. With the onions I used one of those trays with tiny compartments and spent a very patient half an hour sowing each individual seed one by one !!
The tomatoes have shot up on the window sill and the Rocket we put in the greenhouse in January has also come up and should be ready to eat in about another three weeks.
After France, just about everything will be sown. I'm still digging the garden, one hour every day. The potatoes are chitting in the bathroom and they take up space. I'm only growing salad potatoes. At the end of the day, maincrop can be brought fairly cheaply at the farm shops around here.
We're trying some Squash for the first time and different varieties of courgette. The courgettes seem to grow just about anywhere in any soil.
One of the advantages of being south is we can get going a bit earlier than some.
I start at Cricket on 20th. March. Only a few days in March, but a very busy April with all the practice and friendly matches.
With the net down for a few days I got time to sort out things on my PC and have added yet another page to the Poultry section.. This tells some of the thing's I've come accross from buying ex-battery chickens. Please take a look at a new photo on the Battery Hen page showing the underneath of a cage - frightening.
Any feedback on these pages is greatly appreciated - good or bad.
I think now is the start of a busy Spring and Summer for me. I learnt a lot last year, though not til December when I realised I wasn't getting enough money in !!
Last year I worked at the cricket and that gave me a break even on spending etc. However, this maybe made me a little lethargic over doing work over the top and I didn't have enough surplus to see me through.
So this year I have to go for it a lot more and try to spur up the motivation stakes.
Saying that, I was working hard on my own little projects.
Tomorrow, I shall be 55 years old and believe me, I don't look a day over 60 !!
I shall get my two cards and the cat will probably be ill over the carpet. Besides that, just any other day !
Once again, thanks to those who are purchasing books etc., through my Amazon links. This is really helping me a great deal, most of all, it keeps the chickens fed !!! (Buying another 5 when I come back)
Fortnightly Diary 2003