Outdoor Space For Seating and Eating.

Hi and good Monday morning to you.

I have just got back from Aber after dropping Alfie off as he is going to be in Cardiff for three days on a school trip. Afterwards I picked up some compost and germaniums; the latter are to bulk up the planter outside one of the Airbnb rooms.

Weather here was not been too shabby toward the end of last week which, as often happens, lead to an Airbnb booking made on Friday for Saturday. 

Another busy weekend in the good weather here at Chez Houghton as usual which began with Friday's delivery of a couple of tonne bags of stones for the outside project that Jon has been working on. In the week he had already put the new sections in to stop the chooks getting in and edged it ready for membrane and the stones. This whole project began, in a way. so we can let the chooks free range without kicking up all the bark around the bbq!

This hunk of timber came home with Jon from the sawmill the same day to be used for one lot of seating; he'd had his eye on it for a while and had it stashed away - as far as you can actually stash something this big -and now he had the perfect project for it.

He also came home with some huuuge disks to use at the base for the seat which needed a bit of a tweak.

On Saturday morning he headed back to the sawmill for the second log to be used for the other seating. He and Alfie had to go a bit Heath Robinson / Egyptian rollers plus a good lot of elbow grease and a ratchet strap, of course, but they got it in position in the end.

Next step was some sanding and shaping with the chainsaw until we were happy with the feel of them.

Then, Jon set to putting down the stones whilst I made sure no weeds were coming though.

The next jobs were varnishing and painting; this I think looks stunning. I can't help thinking what it would cost if you commissioned somebody to create what we know have; I luckily have a Jon!

And eeeek! ta da the final result which I am so very very pleased with.

Ok, 11 am so need to get on with something now, after just one more coffee! I'm without anybody to run after, make brews or snacks for until 4pm today. Woop woop but must not waste the day away - balance a bit of me time and also getting some jobs done now that this post is finished.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Homestead Hub.

Hello.

I've been leafing through my latest old copies of Country Smallholding magazine given to me by a friend. A couple of articles really appealed to me; one written by Debbie Kingsley of South Yeo Farm and one an interview with Mandy Colbourne, owner of pedigree Anglo Nubian goats and breeder of rare breed Berkshire pigs and Longwool sheep.

They talked about things they loved or what was important to them on their smallholdings and this has inspired this new post.

Our kitchen is just about my very favourite room in the house. Because my life is the home and garden, along with the Airbnb listings, this is command central for me!

I sit with my Household Notebook in the same spot at the end of the bench and table, made by Jon when we first moved into the house. From here I can see out of the front kitchen window. At various times of the day I sit whilst replying to room bookings, doing social media bits and bobs, writing my blog and letters (yes I still write letters) and looking out for the postman and generally seeing people coming and going through the village.

We don't own a dog but our elderly friend and sheep-farming neighbour's dog, Meg, often finds her way into the kitchen if the door to the conservatory is open. She always gets a treat of some ham from the fridge! Other animals we have in the kitchen are the orphan lambs for the last couple of years and the Rayburn has been used, as with a lot of farming people, to keep small lambs warm in the throws of Winter.

Talking of the Rayburn, I love it; the original one which came with the house sold the place to me! It now heats our water, heats the radiators and helps cook our food. Because my spot at the table is directly in front of the fire box I'm always toasty warm, a bit too warm in the Spring and Summer when we also have it lit! The dolly airer above dries the smalls - I need to take care if I have visitors - and hats n gloves go on the top ready for when the boys leave for school in the colder months. Nothing makes me smile more than it being in full action throughout the day; breakfast cooked on the top, frozen things defrosting, a bread loaf and a cake baking and something on low and slow for tea.

Autumn and Winter are my favourite months and when I have the fairly lights on the Welsh dresser plus the side lights my eldest says it make it feel like Christmas!

My husband has been know on a number of occasions to carry out tool maintenance on said table. I turn my back for two minutes and the runner has been folded back and the chainsaw is right there in bits. Parts for the quad bike have been cleaned, greased etc right there, too!

I dreamed forever of having a kitchen like ours; slate flags, no fitted cupboards, a solid fuel beast of some sort and an island, also made my Jon when we first arrived, and a big table I could scrub which could be used for everything by everybody. At the time of writing this my youngest is in front of me doing his homework and Jon is taking out links and refurbishing a couple of watches for the boys.

Debbie's article really made me laugh out loud when she said about banning wellies from the kitchen. We often slip and make it into the hall then the living room as we have the kitchen and hall flags then laminate in the living room. I, too, properly sweep then mop using a galvanised bucket. This was my plan to stop Jon mixing cement in previous plastic buckets. I love the floor when freshly mopped but will it ever be properly clean?....

I consider myself extremely lucky to have the kitchen, and house, I love so very much.

The kitchen is the hub of our happy homestead!

Bye for now,

Lou.x

Progress, Plants and People

Hello.

It has been over two weeks since my last post - sounds like I'm at confession!! so settle down with a brew as this may take a while!

Things have been pretty busy recently in all aspects here on our little homestead.

You may see in my left side bar the latest of our Airbnb listings. We are so very excited to finally have this available. The progress of the project was great fun when putting it together because of the theme and we absolutely love it. It isn't like the other two rooms we have as people book those last minute for a night away or a couple of days when the weather is good. Because this new listing is a self-catering unit I think we have to be a little more patient for bookings; we expect people to come and stay with us for a few days which obviously needs a little more planning on their part but are optimistic for a good season once we get some reviews in.

Talking of reviews, we've had fab great reviews from all the guests over the last two weeks; we were busy in the run up to and over the Bank Holiday of the year which was fantastic.

Now, the garden. My little patch of paradise is coming along very nicely thanks very much. Due to the wet and warm weather we've been having recently it seems all the plans are getting what they need.

This is the main patch with the maincrop spuds; (they're actually a bit bigger than this now)

obviously I'm having a bit of a potato panic due to there being so much foliage - praying (back to the confession theme) the spuds themselves come out ok especially after last year's dis-ar-ster dhaling!!

I have to admit that these seem to be doing better than the early ones...

In the background you may have seen the onions..

which I'm chuffed with; they are looking so healthy and I'll be keeping an eye on the tops dying back in the coming weeks ready to take them up, hopefully when they can dry out in the sunshine.

As usual I've planted quite a few courgette plants! This is the first of two outside which are currently flowering very nicely.

Yesterday I took the peas up out of the poly house ready to plant two cucumber and a squash plant. I harvested the last few peas - the plants I had in there gave me almost 1.5 lb of peas which are in the freezer. I have more plants in bed three and the one outside the poly house so hope to get another couple of lbs. I had a nice little harvest to take indoors.

The sweet peas are growing really well, I'm cutting them regularly and I just love the fragrance, 

here are some with one of the front door roses, eeek I love them!

Salad leaves are having their best year yet; I think I've finally got the successional sowing of these figured out. Yay, go me!

The turnips are one things that didn't do well with the wet and warm weather; they had all pretty much gone to seed so I picked one and gave the chooks a treat of the leaves. I've already sown some more in with the cabbages and will probably re-sow the bed.

The cabbages have been a real revelation. These were overwintered in the deceased greenhouse and planted out in about February. These were only about five and some were sold or eaten as Spring greens, some given away and we are still eating them now - just two left. Nothing nibbled them, they have grown really healthily so I think I'll go for them again.

I was given some begonias and trailing plants so I bought hanging baskets to make up for the rooms. I'm quite pleased withe them for my first effort.

Something else not quite so welcome but here due to the wet and warm weather were the weeds. This is the far end of the growing area where the weeds had consumed everything...

and then Jon strimmed it for me...

and NOW you can see the planter I'll be using for the outside tomatoes - I love a before and after photo!

I have two fruit trees and two blackcurrant bushes towards the back as well as the raspberry buses which run alongside veg patch 3 (2nd early spuds on the very right). I'm very grateful the ground elder hasn't spread from near the poly house and if we do our best to keep on top of the weeds and grass it should be ok. Because the far right hand side of patch 3 is stony with lots of tree roots I'd love to see if I can use the area to grow borage.

Ok, I've rambled on enough I think and anyway its lunch time.

Bye for now.

Lou.x