Morning all,

A bit too much excitement this week although all sorted now. That breeze early on Monday was certainly a bit stiff. By the start of work the worst had passed and we could survey the damage which didn’t look too bad at first sight. We fairly quickly spotted one wind turbine had stopped with its wing tips being deployed. This is a safety feature to stall the blades if they spin a little too fast and they have a tendency to occasionally pop round if we have a power cut in windy conditions, which we did. We phoned in to report it to the maintenance company and awaited their response.

The next adventure was to find two of the tunnel covers had come adrift which always looks and sounds quite dramatic i n the wind. They are getting increasingly expensive to replace so it was a relief to see that there was a chance that we could resc ue and re-fix both sheets. Luckily the wind reduced slightly during the day and we were able to secure them again and finish patching the holes and rips on Tuesday. We had a few challenging moments through the day when the breeze returned to throw one of the sheets over our phone line but the clever use of steps and brooms we rescued it again We were lucky that we had the remains of an old roll of plastic that had been looking for a home for years. We used this to make a series of patches which were successfully secured over the worst of the perforations. Then on Wednesday we spent the day tidying up the other more minor damage and by the end of the day we were back in shape with just the three days lost. In the end a satisfying recovery.

Caroline fell back into her hero role again this week, sometimes I think she is just showing off! The turbine folk had turned out to be a bit busy so when a lull in the wind was spotted late on Monday afternoon ‘we’ decided to have a go at resetting the wing tips ourselves. We had bought the harnesses and all the climbing kit a few months ago but hadn’t actually found an excuse to try it out. We also already had a special lightweight 12ft pokey stick to reach out and push the tips back into position, so no excuse not to give it a go. As the keenest volunteer Caroline harnessed up and ascended the ladder and after the long vertical climb and a bit of pokey stick practicing, managed to get the tips reset quite easily. Hurrah. Luckily we had watched the professionals do this before so we had noted down some of the techniques involved. The two ground crew were of course very supportive and hardly mentioned the shaking knees we could feel vibrating down the little base ladder as she climbed off the main one! Quite an adrenaline rush I think. This was all very reassuring as we now don’t have to wait for the pro’s to pitch up, just for the wind to drop enough to climb safely. So far we haven’t been charged for tip resetting but as luck would have it we received a letter today to say that in future we would have to pay£150 for a reset, on top of the electric generation lost while you wait for an engineer. So I reckon that just three resets will cover the harness cost, although we will need to budget for the celebratory curry’s required if Caroline does them all.

Meanwhile back on the nursery we are still clearing up after a tricky year, although all the potting is done and the stock for next year is looking fab. We have just a few more tunnels to clear ready for the loads of spring and summer potting to come in 2014. Can’t wait. Considering how tricky things have been and the reduction in working hours, the nursery is going to be looking it’s best for years. The effects of the lean management training we did last year are still creeping along and gettin g all sorts of stuff better organised and tidier. We still have a few projects to look at over the winter to get it right but I’m really quite proud of the progress we have all made. My ‘new’ pallet inspired wood shed is a particular favourite of mine despite it not apparently meeting Kevin McCloud’s up-cycled ‘manshed’ credentials.

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 the m 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 box es 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