Projects, plants and progress.

Hello!

Before I start I hope everybody is still staying safe. Thing seem to be changing quite rapidly in the outside world just now - not really affecting us to the point that I sometimes don't know what the new rules are as I don't intend to do anything much changed since lockdown began. However, thinking of everybody as people start to get used to the new normal in whatever part of the country you find yourself and in whatever form it is found.

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Today is Sunday. It's blowing a bit of a hooley out there just now but this is the view that greeted me at the cellar back door this morning.

I have a list of things to do but a lot of them are outside jobs and that is why I'm ducking out of most of them today, to do with what I'm posting about just now. I have however planted out the two dahlias which came as my fab swap for a bag of unwanted brown rice and my first time multi-sown leeks a la Charles Dowding but I am done with the wind now.

First thing yesterday I took a look in the veg beds and came inside with some Arran Pilot first early spuds which we had for lunch with mint from the garden, some herbs, salad leaves and radish, Pinks flowers and a couple of eggs. As it was Saturday I fetched one of my loaves up from the cellar freezer; we tend to use my bread as the family prefer sliced bread in the week with mine delish with our own eggs and butties for brekky on the weekend!

My handy hubby completed a job we've been talking about for a while. It got done because he'd already started an improvement job on our septic tank soakaway and, because he needed materials for that, he brought home what was needed for the other job more close to my heart. Have to say chuffed with our two boys as they have helped with the job by doing some digging of the trench during the week - not fun for them but definitely went towards some well earned pocket money.

Job number two was finishing the path in the poly tunnel and making the outside a little more presentable, along with stopping it getting swamped due to being at the bottom of the garden on an ever so slight slope!

I won't provide you with photos of the septic tank job😁... but here is the poly tunnel before and after.

I can't WAIT to pitch my pink and blue stool outside and enjoy my little patch of paradise, check on jobs to be done, feel chuffed with myself when things go well or commiserate with when they don't quite come off as I had expected! - pretty much a reflection of life in general. I do hope gardening is still helping you keep mentally healthy and giving you the chance to get outside in the fresh air, between the rain showers.

As we looked around the garden yesterday we talked about other projects and plans we have. We don't plan on having any Airbnb guests staying with us until 2021 so will take the time to get stuff done! Our calendar is blocked off and we don't anticipate welcoming any new guests before next February. I recieved this from a previous guest just this week in the form of a post card via Airbnb - 

Hi Louise,

I was really looking forward to coming back to Ystrad Meurig to stay with you again (during the Eisteddfod) but hopefully we can do so next year. I spent the wet winter recalling my daily cycle rides during the hottest week of July. Fantastic! I hope you’ve all be managing during the lockdown and have stayed well. Let’s hope some kind of normality returns soon! Best wishes, Neil.

So very, very kind. Apparently guests have asked for ways to send support to their favourite hosts.

Now please don't be offended by the next photo. This is the frame of my beloved poly house built by my husband not long after we moved here. It has been through two covering projects but the last one we decided was THE last one as far as polythene goes. So here is the poly house as is now....😒

We have a separate job to be done first, this summer with all things crossed for its completion, which will allow us to do this one pretty much for free - always good! That job is a new roof on the conservatory. I am not a fan of conservatories in general, however on wet days I can dry clothes, dry herbs, garlic as I am just now, there is a pool table in there, it works as a boot room and we have the door we use to come into the house - anybody else not use their front door apart from for some guests, the post and other deliveries?

This is the conservatory, taken from the garden.

So, the process will be to clad up the sides of the poly house to a total of about three feet then take the Perspex - like material off the roof of the conservatory to add to the roof and sides. This will be fantastic as right now I don't have a potting shed/ building in the garden to do bits and pieces in and have to wait for good weather to use my outside bench.

Regarding the conservatory, once the Perspex roof is off it will have boarding and waterproofing etc topped off with some FREE tiles we have had "in stock" for a good while; the sides will also be clad with room left for a window on each side, too; this will make the room more usable all year round.

As we wandered around the garden yesterday I took a look at a few things and some photos. The sweetcorn is now just over 2ft tall. It's doing better than a couple of years ago because of me planting it in the same spot as the very first year I grew it - outside the poly house where it gets great sunshine.

I did a plant swap a while ago and one thing I was given was a pumpkin; not sure of the variety but I do know it is white! I've been thinking where I can plant it so it has enough space. I've decided to put it toward the back left as you look at the poly tunnel. 

I took a quick look in one of my compost bins and I hate the sight which greeted me. Rather stupidly I put some rogue spuds out of the veg beds in there and look what happened?!! I could really kick myself as I am going to have to pull them all out when I give the bin a turning over.😖 REALLY mad with myself.

Whilst meandering we talked about the trees in the garden. The previous owners planted a LOT of trees during their time at the house, but as we've gone on to do different things with the outside space they need taking back and even removing.

This tree is just enormous and will need some work as it worries us at time when we have had some really windy weather that it made head toward the house!

Then this collection, including a couple on the left of the photo, over shadow the poly tunnel a little so will need some work.

So onto today, I went to feed the chooks and had a look at any wind damage from over night - not too bad; I had to re-stake the broccoli netting and saw that the maincrop spuds in the tyres had taken a bit of a battering but I'm sure they'll survive. 

These next photos show one of my cucumber plants, teeny tiny cucumber just now?! plus some I've sown to grow outside which I might need if the ones in the poly tunnel don't buck up their ideas!

Here are the PSB which I've potted on until their final resting place is ready. The caulis in the bed behind the poly house are looking very healthy. Keeping an eye on them in case they need to be netted.

These are a very welcome sight, my dwarf beans in the poly tunnel. Earlier in the week I was having a bit of a panic as some of the beans seemed to be going mouldy; this I am certain was due to me not ventilating the poly tunnel enough - rookie mistake with being a first time poly tunnel owner. Things seem to be improving which is great.

These two photos are of opposite sides of the poly tunnel, gaps which I really need to do something about. On the left is a solitary aubergine, next to the fig tree, which I think is really struggling. On the right to the right of the planter housing a butternut squash Butterbush are three pepper plants which, again, are struggling. I did use the plastic bottles as mini greenhouses and they seemed to help a bit; I think we need a bit more warm weather to help these plants along a bit. 

So, I think that covers everything for now. Please do accept my apologies for the ever changing colours and typeface, just getting used to a faitly new laptop... 😒

#Staysafe, look after yoursleves and bye for now.

Lou.xx

Back Into The Swing Of Things

It is wonderful to be home and since we got back we have wasted no time in getting back into our preferred routine.

We have had two bookings in the Airbnb room, one in now with more due and hopefully extra bookings, too. I didn't mention that before we went on our holiday Airbnb awarded us 

Super Host Status!

We were awarded this due to responding very quickly to bookings, our location and the facilities we provide. All this is shown our reviews  We were chuffed to bits!

Anyhow, onto other things. There are various jobs that need doing around our little Homestead, as always, and one thing is the conservatory. We are going to refurbish this into being another room and not a glass house. We cannot use if much in the summer time as it is so blinking hot. Therefore we are planning on putting a proper roof on it and removing some of the windows and cladding a lot of the outside.

Materials for this sort of job do not come cheap but if you bide your time something always turns up. We love to recycle so we have managed to acquire windows from Jon's cousin who was having some of hers replaced - we don't mind second hand - and Jon found on a Facebook selling page some FREE Marley roof tiles.

This is almost 200 which he fetched from just down the road last night and we all helped to pile up from the trailer. He is going back for another 100 tonight and that will be enough for the job. This has saved us about £600 which is flippin' amazing!

Another money saver was the small chest freezer we had in the cellar store room. Well, we haven't used it for ages, we were going to have to move it to make room for a large chest freezer by Christmas but weren't going to get much for it if we tried to sell it. Therefore I had a bit of a brain wave; we were on our way to town to buy some clip top bins for the chicken feed when I said why didn't we reuse the freezer.

We got home and Jon put a dividing wall inside it so now houses the pellets and corn. Mint!

In the Poly House I managed to tidy up one of the benches, a little, as I had no space for sowing which I got round to yesterday. 

These are some of my peppers, looking like all of my peppers! 

Not sure if they have bolted?! There are lots of little flowers on them but they have not turned into anything of note yet - really hope they do.

The boys and I went to the library in Aber yesterday and to do a couple of jobs in town. I picked up this preserves book as I love Dick Strawbridge and have his book of self sufficiency - Jon bought it for me some time before we moved her knowing what our life was going to be like, with any luck! 

The other book is by Elizabeth Luard and I have her European Peasant Cookery book. Only after reading the introduction did I realise she lived very close to us on a large estate in a gorgeous pink house which went up for sale around the time we moved to Bronllan. In the introduction she talks about the river Ystwyth,Tregaron and lots of other places nearby which is lovely. I am on a mission to find a copy of it to buy a little cheaper than the retail price of £25 as there are some lovely recipes in it. (The gloves were on sale at 50p from the £1 shop; I need a stronger pair of gloves for when I am pruning the roses at the front door and searching behind the bamboo for eggs the chickens have decided to lay outside!)

Since getting back I've got some preserving done and pickled some gherkins and beetroot; I have more to do today. (I accidentally deleted some photos which included the gherkin pickling process...)

These are the things taken from the garden yesterday. I hope to use the salad blue spuds to make veg crisps. The peas have been added to the bag in the freezer and we have some of those every other day or so which is lovely. 

On Sunday we had roast pork with our carrots, the salad blues mashed, roasted Maris Pipers which Harry declared to be just like big round chips and both the boys thought they were delish along with some of the peas added to bought sweetcorn. Wonderfully satisfying!

The toms are coming on very well including some of the beef ones - even though I have had to ditch a couple which managed to grow very gnarly and wrap themselves around the stems!

Right must dash. The bread is on first prove, chooks are fed but need to go water stuff and maybe catch the guests before they leave for the day incase they need anything. Taking the boys to the Rec to play tennis after lunch if the weather holds.

Catch you later.

Lou.xx