Morning all,
Good to be here, the world didn’t end after all.
Yet another flat tyre started the week but managed to get it to the menders for a replacement valve so it worked out ok in the end. After that things got more exciting as the week went on, culminating in a couple of hours off yesterday to do the supermarket run and have breakfast out!
We had a very welcome splash of rain overnight, but it’s now sunny and very windy so it’s all evaporated again. We have been topping up the puddle in the yard for weeks now to help out the house martins building projects and the water bill is mounting (we do use a bit on the nursery too!) I wouldn’t mind as much if all the wind was pushing our turbines round but all I can think is that all the wind for the year will have been used up by the time they are up and running. I’m not sure yet how much this very dry weather has affected the farm cereal crops, certainly the barley is in ear already which is very early and the hay crops are very poor. Could be another year of hay and straw shortages which is bad news for we donkey fosterers.
On the brighter side the wind turbine project got active again this week with at least some dates being set (see below) and the chicken enterprise has kicked off. We are now proud owners of a chicken run and a small batch of rescued free range chickens. No eggs yet but they are a surprisingly entertaining gang making very pleasant contented chicken noises. We have never kept them before so I could well be wrong on the contented interpretation but it sounds very therapeutic to me. Hot news straight from the horses mouth, or should that be the hens bottom, we have our first egg!
We put in our order for a table of tickets for the local business awards dinner next month. We are in the final of the green award section and selected for the final of the overall business of the year. I’m not sure we press enough of the right buttons or tick the appropriate boxes to win but it is nice to get some local appreciation of our efforts and a good opportunity for the staff to see that at first hand. It is a black tie event, so it will be quite exciting to see how some of them scrub up, smart dressing is not something we see much of on the nursery!
Eco news
This week I have been organising all the different suppliers and installers of the turbines as we received a date for the foundation installation. They are starting on Tuesday 31st May and expect it to take all week for all three to be prepared and concreted in position. Then it’s several weeks for the concrete to cure enough to put the masts up, a date was set for 24th of June but that has already been postponed now until w/c 4th July due to a delay in mast making. There is quite a bit of sorting out to do before then anyway, with cables and poles to come down, trenches dug and cables to come in and be buried, substations to be installed and various electricians sorting out each end. Then there is also associated water works to accompany some trenching. Work starts on Monday with the digger man coming to remove the top and subsoil on the three sites, each 5 meters square. This work needs to be started ahead of the foundation installation so that the archaeologist can check we are not digging up anything ancient and if we do, they can take appropriate action. I now need to go and set up the protective fence around the nearby hedges to prevent damage before all this starts. Tension mounts!
Nature notes
We are getting round to clearing a few tunnels now and it’s great to see the number of frogs and toads hopping about, they must be doing some good. The long native hedge/windbreak we planted 11 years ago is not only doing a great job as a windbreak and natural habitat site but looks fantastic at the moment with waterfalls of dog-rose cascading out.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Showing posts with label chickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chickens. Show all posts
Monday, 23 May 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
Morning all,
What a lovely week on the weather front. Great for getting out there and watch spring springing. Despite the forecast not being as good for the weekend it has been fine here, lots of sun and warm again. I have packed away my fleece lined trousers for the summer and look forward to taking my hat off soon. The fleece lined trousers were a revelation in the coldest weather of the winter, replacing my rather scary ‘two trouser’ fashion of earlier times. They came via a catalogue company called Chums which had loads of very useful bits of kit specially selected for those no longer in the first flush of youth. Slightly frightening was the pamphlets for mobility scooters and special pants that came in the parcel, but hey, the trousers did the job and I’m now old enough not to care!
Anyway talking of safety pants, I attended an open day run by the HSE at a local farm this week. It was mainly agriculturally based but did have quite a few good reminders of some of the most common safety issues associated with smaller outdoor enterprises too. Ladder safety, manual handling, safe handling of chemicals and vehicle use were all there with some sensible advice and a few scare stories to accompany it. It’s really a bit dull and negative to focus on this sort of stuff but it is something we all have to bear in mind every day. Keep it safe, check stuff regularly, and watch out when you get tired, irritable or lazy. It’s all ok until an accident happens, then it’s too late. Luckily we don’t have quite the risks associated with farms, there were some truly horrendous tales of accidents over recent years which certainly makes you focus on things, but we all face risk, so be careful out there.
Availability list - Spring is here so if for some reason you lose your list you can now download it from the www.kirtonfarm.co.uk website.
Star of the week the week is Fritillaria meleagris in flower, we have a few, but they won’t be there long.
Eco news
An engineer from the National Grid came in this week to check out the site for the installation of a new pole mounted substation for the wind turbines. Everything was fine and he reckoned it should be done in 8 weeks if all goes well, although I was quite surprised that he knew nothing about why the installation was needed. I suppose as long as the right kit goes in it doesn’t matter what it is for. Once the dates are set for that then we should be able to work all the trenching, cabling and foundation installation in over that 8 weeks, ready for construction once the power is in place. I still can’t really believe after all this time that something is going to actually happen.
With Richard off at the end of the week we are losing our nursery egg supply so we are currently looking into a small production facility to compensate. We have a good local source of second-hand free range chickens to stock it but are still trying to tie down the accommodation. Chicken housing isn’t cheep! The current favourite option is to adapt a redundant cat pen although I’m not sure myself how well they would cope with the cat flap. The other decision is how many to eat, or will that just be too traumatic? I love a hot bird on a Sunday but can we get through the pre-roasting stage without a fuss, I suspect not. I bet it won’t take long before they all have names and all hope of breast and stuffing evaporate. Visions of ‘Chicken Run’ and the decision of which one for the pie come flooding back. How much easier it is to pick up a plastic wrapped bird at the supermarket, with none of the associated angst. But at least it would be real, it would have had a good run and we know where it’s come from.
Nature ramblings
Tiny tadpoles are swimming about already, it doesn’t take long in this warm weather.
Ordered our wildflower seed mix for sowing our patch of ground down by the new hedge as per planning conditions. We do have a bit of unused ground next to the hedge strip, so I ordered a bit extra to do that too. It’s a mix of annuals and perennials so hopefully will be effective from the first season and mature over the years.
Saw our first Red Kite of the year this week, soaring in the sun with a couple of Buzzards. Hopefully they will continue their spread as they make such a dramatic addition to the skies. On the subject of birds of prey I keep an eye on the bird sitings in and around St Ives, just to see what I’m missing, and all this week they have been reporting a Golden Eagle over several sites. Now that is a spot.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
What a lovely week on the weather front. Great for getting out there and watch spring springing. Despite the forecast not being as good for the weekend it has been fine here, lots of sun and warm again. I have packed away my fleece lined trousers for the summer and look forward to taking my hat off soon. The fleece lined trousers were a revelation in the coldest weather of the winter, replacing my rather scary ‘two trouser’ fashion of earlier times. They came via a catalogue company called Chums which had loads of very useful bits of kit specially selected for those no longer in the first flush of youth. Slightly frightening was the pamphlets for mobility scooters and special pants that came in the parcel, but hey, the trousers did the job and I’m now old enough not to care!
Anyway talking of safety pants, I attended an open day run by the HSE at a local farm this week. It was mainly agriculturally based but did have quite a few good reminders of some of the most common safety issues associated with smaller outdoor enterprises too. Ladder safety, manual handling, safe handling of chemicals and vehicle use were all there with some sensible advice and a few scare stories to accompany it. It’s really a bit dull and negative to focus on this sort of stuff but it is something we all have to bear in mind every day. Keep it safe, check stuff regularly, and watch out when you get tired, irritable or lazy. It’s all ok until an accident happens, then it’s too late. Luckily we don’t have quite the risks associated with farms, there were some truly horrendous tales of accidents over recent years which certainly makes you focus on things, but we all face risk, so be careful out there.
Availability list - Spring is here so if for some reason you lose your list you can now download it from the www.kirtonfarm.co.uk website.
Star of the week the week is Fritillaria meleagris in flower, we have a few, but they won’t be there long.
Eco news
An engineer from the National Grid came in this week to check out the site for the installation of a new pole mounted substation for the wind turbines. Everything was fine and he reckoned it should be done in 8 weeks if all goes well, although I was quite surprised that he knew nothing about why the installation was needed. I suppose as long as the right kit goes in it doesn’t matter what it is for. Once the dates are set for that then we should be able to work all the trenching, cabling and foundation installation in over that 8 weeks, ready for construction once the power is in place. I still can’t really believe after all this time that something is going to actually happen.
With Richard off at the end of the week we are losing our nursery egg supply so we are currently looking into a small production facility to compensate. We have a good local source of second-hand free range chickens to stock it but are still trying to tie down the accommodation. Chicken housing isn’t cheep! The current favourite option is to adapt a redundant cat pen although I’m not sure myself how well they would cope with the cat flap. The other decision is how many to eat, or will that just be too traumatic? I love a hot bird on a Sunday but can we get through the pre-roasting stage without a fuss, I suspect not. I bet it won’t take long before they all have names and all hope of breast and stuffing evaporate. Visions of ‘Chicken Run’ and the decision of which one for the pie come flooding back. How much easier it is to pick up a plastic wrapped bird at the supermarket, with none of the associated angst. But at least it would be real, it would have had a good run and we know where it’s come from.
Nature ramblings
Tiny tadpoles are swimming about already, it doesn’t take long in this warm weather.
Ordered our wildflower seed mix for sowing our patch of ground down by the new hedge as per planning conditions. We do have a bit of unused ground next to the hedge strip, so I ordered a bit extra to do that too. It’s a mix of annuals and perennials so hopefully will be effective from the first season and mature over the years.
Saw our first Red Kite of the year this week, soaring in the sun with a couple of Buzzards. Hopefully they will continue their spread as they make such a dramatic addition to the skies. On the subject of birds of prey I keep an eye on the bird sitings in and around St Ives, just to see what I’m missing, and all this week they have been reporting a Golden Eagle over several sites. Now that is a spot.
Have a good week, from all at Kirton Farm Nurseries
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)