Morning all,

Autumn wind and showers here in abundance this weekend although it is very warm. Turbines whizzing round making up a bit for the quiet weather in September, which turned out to be the quietest month this year on the wind front. Although I always used to think the autumn was the windy time of year it isn’t actually that good. On average June, July and August are the quiet ones but a month or two either side can be slow. I suppose the Autumn storms stay in the memory but between those we tend to get the other classic autumn fare of the quiet spells of damp and fog. The winter months are usually the peak output which is handy as it is also the time of peak demand.

I wonder how much time around the country is lost to Candy Crush? Haven’t actually received or made a call on the new phone yet but loads of useful apps installed. I am assuming there is an app for everything as all everyone seems to do now is stare and fiddle with their little screens. I’ve already had a quick search to see how easy it might be to get my own app up and running. Not sure what it will be yet but there must still be some areas of life not covered. Any suggestions?

Still bowling along on the nursery getting a few chores and repair jobs cleared up before winter steps in. Recovered the roof on the top half of the despatch tunnel as it was 13 years old and struggling to stay in one piece. We had the plastic in stock having done the bottom half last year. The warm temperature and low wind on one day looked good so we whipped it on quite quickly. It will need a small tweek in one corner on the next still day but looks good for another 10+ years.

Had a bit of a hairy time adjusting the height of our portacabin coldstore on Friday. It is pretty ancient and has suffered a bit of old age sagging, you know how that goes, no of course you don’t. Anyway we had to get a trolley jack under one corner at a time, lift it a bit and slide a slab under the main support floor support struts. Unfortunately these buildings aren’t very keen on this process and there was a lot of twisting, creaking and groaning and not just from me. All went well until the last corner when we had a bit too much movement and the whole side wall bowed out quite dramatically. We quickly lowered it again and the wall returned to near its original position. After checking the doors etc still all matched up and opened ok we decided to leave well alone. We fitted a brace to push in and hold in the mobile wall in its correct position but it did bring home the need for more investment if we are to keep the infrastructure of the business together which in the current climate is a bit scary. Best turn a blind eye and hope for the best!

Looks like it’s brightening up here so I need to get out there and get on with my new construction. I am converting our old outside plastic tray store into a wood store. Since we put in the brilliant wood burning stove I have struggled to find a big and dry enough place to put all the fuel needed and have been using this open fronted lean-to construction as a rather damp low volume store. I spent yesterday morning sorting out old pallets suitable to make my new walls and floor and working out the design. Obviously there will be a certain special charm to a pallet built structure so I was trying to sort out some matching

strong ones to at least give it some sense of togetherness. Naturally this went really well, I needed 12 identical lighter weight ones for the front, but could only find 11 and 8 heavy solid ones for the floor but only found 7. Out of all the piles of old pallets I couldn’t believe the conspiracy put up against my lovely plans, just how many different designs and sizes of pallets are there?

Box returns

Lots of boxes have been successfully repatriated so thanks for the great response to the appeal I sent out for their return. I know there are still quite a few out there so please do let us know if you have any ready to collect and we will schedule them in for collection when we are next close by. Alternatively if there aren’t too many we may elect to pick them up on the next delivery in the up and coming spring rush!

Please feel free to continue to keep what you need to keep our stock on display, but a gathering of our boxes used for other displays would be appreciated. If you do love the display boxes and you desperately want to keep up that image for other parts of your plant area then why not consider getting in your own stock of trays. Our supplier is C. Jackson www.cjackson.co.uk/plant_trays.htm and they can make you your own plain or branded/printed trays at a very reasonable cost.

It is really very important we get these boxes returned or accounted for, so we can maintain a good looking and sustainable delivery and display system. Please do drop us an email to update us on the current position if you haven’t already done so.

Cheers.

Have a good one, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries