Yesterday morning I woke to this view from the bedroom window
wow what a view, in the distance I can even see the Alpaca shelter, before waking I had to get through the night and what a night, I woke with a start at 11-30pm, with a niggly thought, had I left the iron
plugged in down in the cabin, now with a thought like that you cannot
get back to sleep, on with the dressing gown and wellies, heading down
the garden by torchlight, battling through hail stones, yes I had left it plugged in, that could have been waking up to a very different morning, once back in bed, the thundered started followed by lighting, a fantastic show across a snowy background. I pulled the curtains back and watched the light show from my bed.
One good thing with snow, you can see who your night visitors are,
these are fox tracks, the circled around the chicken house then headed off across the field
Sol loved the snow and had a mad moment rolling in it and chasing around the field while I got on with the morning feeds.
More tracks
These are from the Alpacas, very similar to deer with cloven hoofs, but bigger.
With the growing season upon us, I bought a new grow light, the other I bought a couple of years ago is OK but did not have a good red, blue and white light ratio, this one is a 300w set up and has a built in fan to disperse the heat produced by the bulbs
A bit dearer that the other one, this one cost £55
The light is fantastic and covers a growing space of 3ft x 3ft
I
have popped my bay citrus trees under it at the moment, but in the next
few weeks, they will be be moved off ready for the first sowing's of the year,
Why
do I use a grow light, well even though we have nice deep window ledges
ideal for seed trays, our windows are small, therefore seedlings become
very leggy, my solution is to provide them with an overhead grow light,
to encourage nice sturdy growth, I have set up a pulley on the unit yet
so it can be lowered and heightened as needed according to plant
growth. I have one of those you use for hanging baskets, but its out in
the shed and yesterday in that freezing wind I didn't fancy another trip
out there, so will do that today.
Once
we have electric set up outside I will have the grow light set up in
the potting shed, at the moment it just has to stay indoors.
I
might even look at having some solar panels on the shed and see if I
can run it like that, but at the moment there is other things to be
getting on with.
We
have ordered another field shelter that is going to become a nice big
roomy goat house, with a separate area for kids, it will be here in a
couple of weeks, more building and concreting for Martin.
Things are really shaping up outdoors now, with proper buildings for the livestock, next is the new poultry area's.
This
year will see a lot of out side changes, I keep saying I don't know
what Martin is going to find to do next year at this rate.
Right must move myself we are moving pigs to new pastures today. 😃
Love your top photo, it's handy using the snow to track night visitors. I have citrus plants on my windowsill, I am growing them for a friends son who is 8, to show him where lemon and oranges come from. I have been wanting to start another lime, but I keep getting limes without pips which is annoying.
ReplyDeleteGosh, not nice to have to pop out in the snow in the night, but better safe than sorry as you say! Hope there is not too much snow for you now.
ReplyDeleteMy view was much the same and despite the rain much of it is still there. Tomorrow is forecast as being warmer so hopefully it will melt. I don't like seeing it waiting for more to join it.
ReplyDeleteDawn - we worried about coyotes, or coy-wolves as they are called here for the past few years. we hear them sometimes at night but we have only found their tracks on our land a few times. they really don't like humans - which is a good thing when you have 4 stray cats, all of whom are way overfed and who let birds land on their heads - that's how lazy they are!
ReplyDeleteteehee - kev alviti just put up a post about being outdoors at night in his boxer shorts and wellies!
glad everything is ok up there for you. sending much love! your friend,
kymber
You're very brave going out in the dark to check on your iron....good job you did though.
ReplyDeleteThankfully our snow is gone now but it is perishing cold today-x-
Oh snow! How glorious!! Hope it's not causing problems for any of you there. We're still having a nice strong hot summer here down under...only tracks in my garden are snail tracks.....grrrrrrr.
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted a grow light, think my seedlings would do better...but they seem very expensive here!
I am glad you remembered that iron in good time. Mine shuts down if it is not moved for a couple of minutes, which is a blessing. We had grown-up foot prints in our back garden the other day, some stranger must have been wandering around in the night... not happy about that. Growing lights sound like a good idea in our darkish climate. Best to give the seedlings a good start.
ReplyDeleteOoh better safe than sorry with the iron! Your new light IS fantastic. Good luck with the piggie move.
ReplyDeleteWe are forecast snow for Wednesday I'm quite excited about it as it's the first time since I was a child that I won't have to ride my motorcycle to work in it!
ReplyDeleteWell remembered Dawn, our minds never stop!
ReplyDeleteI have seen the grow lights before but never used one. Interesting - thank you for sharing.