Things are just rolling along like they do at this time of year
The little Ross Cobb table birds have moved into there new home and foster mum has re-joined the flock
They are not so little anymore, but I am keeping on top of there feeding so they don't grow too fast and go off there legs.
The teenage egg layers have also joined the main flock.
I have made a start getting wood chip down on the pathways around the raised beds
It is very heavy work and difficult to move those dumpy bags full of wood chip.
I finished getting membrane down in the fruit cage and managed to get another load of wood chip down
one more bag should finish the fruit cage, there is one sitting not far from the door that big blue one in the photo, I might manage to get it emptied today but I have a couple of things on toady's agenda
A bit of experimental growing is taking place
with sugar beet, a little late in the season, the packet says late spring early summer so I hope they will still come on, I don't even know if they will grow here, I have never grown them before
I set three long rows in the feed growing area, I want to use them for animal feed if they grow.
Now there has been a disaster in animal feed area, the pumpkins and squash I planted got battered and broken by the high wind and heavy downpours we had just after I planted the out.
There is one lonely squash tying to grow, all is not lost, I have found a local nursery who has some plants and they are sending them out to me, I so want to grow a field of pumpkins.
On the animal feed front
I have been harvesting nettles and laying them out to dry, the plan is to chop them up and add them to the goat feed over winter, I plan to keep collecting nettles to get as many as possible.
I did get a bit of baking done when it was too hot to be outside.
A couple of sticky Malt loaves.
I have a bit more baking on the list for today.
I have to make an apology,
I seem to missing out on a lot of new blog posts from those I follow, I am going to set up for email following then new posts will pop into my emails, they seem to fall off the page on the blogger reading list and I then miss them.
It'll be interesting to see whether sugar beets will grow in Wales - I've only heard of them in E/SE England. I remember mangel wurzels being grown in fields for animal feed, although I don't know if they have been replaced now. I was also wondering if spinach leaf beets (or golden beetroots) would be any use for goat feed - they both make massive beets very quickly, will survive in the ground into winter & can be sown until late in the season. (Thanks to this post making me search, I discovered a site about animal food crops called Feedipedia!!)
ReplyDeleteYum said the animals...nothing like some iron rich nettle fodder in the dead of winter...mind you those malt loaves don't look half bad either!! Makes my gardening effort all look a bit feeble though it's been darn hard work. x
ReplyDeleteIt seems strange to be readying stuff for winter feeds in June but then I expect organisation is very important.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you keep up with it all-x-
Organisation and planning aa always. Shame about the pumpkins so hope the nursery plants work out well.I need to do something similar around our fruit area. Good luck with the beat. Looking forward to tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to provide it at least subsidise the animal food, it will keep your cost down.
ReplyDeleteDawn, the same thing for me. Summertime is busy time and I'm missing out on blog posts. I can only seem to catch up on rainy days...and only after I've cleaned the house lol...my wee little pumpkin patch isn't doing so well here. It was my experiment actually. The plants that I grew from seed in my window seem okay, but haven't seemed to grow much bigger yet. The 6 seeds I planted...well, one seems to be growing. We are just having too much rain and cold weather this summer so far. I'm hoping the growing is simply stalled and things will improve soon. Your birds look wonderful!
ReplyDeleteDawn - from the look of that photograph you certainly bake a delicious looking malt loaf.
ReplyDeleteI could have written this post - we've got similar things going on here with ross cobs, animal feed and woodchip paths! Excellent to see. I've have the same issue with keeping up with blogs, but as and when, life is busy these days :)
ReplyDeleteA busy time of the year isn't it ? Nice to drop in and see what everybody's up to now and then though . It has been a bit like that here too :) Yummy looking cake !
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