Honey harvest preparations

Friday turned out to be another busy day.

After an early morning walk down the lane to empty the dogs, we loaded Hobson and his brother in to the car and headed over the Cheltenham. 

I wandered in to the Motorrad showroom and was promptly relived of a couple of hundred quid. My bike was brought from the wash bay, and I was soon heading back down the M5 towards home.

I then turned my attention towards the upcoming honey harvest, and got the extractor assembled. Then it was a case of preparing the hives.

I planned to take three supers from each of Hives #1 and #2.  Obviously honey extraction is a whole lot easier if the supers are free from bees, so the hives need to be configured to get the bees to move out of them.  The hives were given a few puffs of smoke to calm the bees, and then the three supers were taken off the hive. An empty super was added to hive to give the bees space to move in to. I then added one of my newly constructed clearer boards and replaced the three honey filled supers.

All being well, the bees will move out of the supers overnight and be prevented from returning by the clearer boards ... fingers crossed!

The rest of the day was taken up with watering the veg patch and mowing the lawns at the back of the cottage.

Apparently the forecast for the Bank Holiday weekend is not great, so I wanted to get the lawns trimmed before they got out of hand.

Today was, shall we say, unusual!

 Today can be summed up very concisely.

I got up and got busy. Then I got clean, after which I got stoned. I then got scanned and, after that, I mostly slept.

I you'd like a little more detail here we go.

The "getting up and getting busy" was because I needed to ride the R1250R over to the Motorrad Dealership in Cheltenham for its first service. 30% followed in her car,* so she could give me lift back.

The "getting clean" bit really doesn't need elaboration, but I should clarify the bit about getting stoned.

I am a claustrophobe. I really do not like being constrained in restricted spaces. Shit, I don't even like wearing polo neck jumpers! 

I have an MRI scan scheduled for this afternoon, and, on previous occasions, I have panicked, hit the alarm button and started to crawl out of the damned things, midway through the scan. I really am quite claustrophobic.

In order to reduce the "get me the fuck out of here" urges, I have previously consulted my General Practitioner and been prescribed Lorazepam.  These little pills do work a treat, and I have been known to actually sleep during previous MRI scans.

The downside is that I talk rubbish, see double, claim to be a most excellent driver and have a tendency to fall asleep at the drop of a hat.

So, having dropped off the bike, I showered and, at around eleven o'clock, I treated myself to a coffee and the prescribed medication. Within half an hour I was a little unsteady on my feet and very calm.

Mummy Sheila picked me up just before one o'clock to give me a lift to the hospital and I was definitely very chilled by then.

The scan went well. I didn't panic and, if I am honest, I was half asleep for the entire process.  I kept my eyes shut tight most of the time. I did open them on one occasion, and a mild sense of alarm started to bubble up in my addled brain by the proximity of the scanner tube. 

Anyway, I got through it, got home and was sent straight to bed by 30%. I woke around six o'clock in the evening and was so confused, that I briefly thought it was the following morning.  

It is fair to say that the rest of the evening was spent semi-conscious on the sofa.

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* With Hobson and his brother coming along for a little ride out

A quiet day, with preparations underway

 Wednesday was another quiet day spent mostly in the garden.

Our canine guest has been doing well, and is slowly integrating in to our pack.  He can be, shall we say, a little over possessive when it comes to his toys, and we have adopted a confiscation tactic to calm things down.  Overall he seems to be settling well. 

We took him for a short walk down the lane with the other three this morning and he behaved well.  He will walk to heel on a lead, but he really enjoyed walking on a longer lead, and checking out the scents in the verges.* 

We also took him for a short run in the car, as he will be having a ride out tomorrow. Again, he behaved perfectly and simply settled and snoozed.

Now moving on to the bees.

I inspected my one queen right hive yesterday and spotted the queen for the first time in three weeks ... phew.  The colony seems to be doing well and there are three supers crammed with honey, and ready for extraction.  

I plan to harvest the honey over the coming weekend and will also be removing another three supers from Hive #2. I haven't bothered inspecting this hive, as, if all has gone to plan, it has a young queen in the process of maturing, mating and taking on her regal role at the heart of the colony. There is little point in intervening in this process, so I'm leaving well alone.

The rest of my day was spent in preparing the store room for honey extraction. My honey extractor was dismantled and the interior was given a damned good scrub. It was cleaned after I last used it, but it needs to be spotless for the production of foodstuffs.

I did the same with the uncapping tray,** and then arranged the various stands and tools to create a compact, and hopefully efficient workspace. My honey sieves have been put through the dishwasher and we just need to get the honey storage buckets clean, before we're ready to go.***

The thought that my profit margin will soar when I'm selling my own honey has not escaped me!

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* and adding his own to the mix!

** The honeybees seal each cell of honey with a capping of wax. These caps need to be cut away before the frames are inserted in to the centrifugal extractor. Uncapping can be quite a messy job and an uncapping tray is a worthwhile investment to make honey harvesting a little easier.

*** That is not strictly true. I need to get spare supers and clearer boards added to the hives, and leave them for a day or two. I then need to remove the filled supers, which will, hopefully, be bee free.  THEN I will be ready to start the extraction. DO NOT get me started on the faffing around once the honey is out of the frames! The clean up is a mission in its own right.

He's not perfect, but he's very good!

 Well! The new boy settled brilliantly last night. 

He curled up on the floor alongside the bed and made no fuss at all. He did stir every early in the morning, so 30% did take him out in the garden for a 4 am wee ... just in case. But, other than that, he had the perfect first night.

Today has gone well too. We have spent the day in and around the garden and he has been able to explore and play at his own pace. There have been a couple of occasions when we have had to remove toys, in order to calm down the level of excitement, but overall we couldn't have hoped for a better first day.

In summary he is a little nervous, but he is happy to explore and interact with the dogs and us. 30% nipped out, and at one point he gingerly climbed up on the sofa and curled up on my lap for a snooze. He wants to play, but it is clear that he hasn't been well socialised. We are hopeful that his social skills will improve as he spends more time with us. and integrates with our little pack.

Oh, and he definitely prefers the ladies. This is no surprise, as his owner was a single young woman, so he has definitely shown a preference for 30%'s company.  This is not overly concerning. He is happy to come over and be fussed by me. He will also follow me around the house and garden, but he does seem to want to be by his new Mum.

So that is the dog news. I think I said that this is a trial fostering period, and he will be staying with us, provided that there are no issues with integration and behaviour.  

Based on what we have seen, I will have to decide on a suitable alias for him.

In other news, I spent a chunk of today in the store room, setting up the equipment for the first honey harvest of the year.

The extractor is now bolted to its base and was briefly switched on to ensure that there were no problems with its motor. The uncapping tray has been mounted on a Black & Decker Workmate and various other items have been removed from storage.

It looks like tomorrow will be taken up with making sure that all of the equipment is spotlessly clean, before the extraction takes place at the weekend.

A quick catch up

It's been a few days since my last Journal entry, and I've finally found a few minutes to rectify this omission. If I'm honest the lawn really could do with a cut, but I really can't face wandering around the lawn for three hours, so here's what I've been up to.

Saturday, 17 May 2025

The day started with a wander around the Three Miler with the dogs.  Whiffler is now sufficiently recovered to be exercised, and he really seemed to enjoy this morning's trot around the lanes.

Having exercised the dogs, 30% and I tidied ourselves, and headed in to The Regal in Evesham for a lunchtime comedy gig performed by Chris McCausland. We were familiar with Chris from his panel show appearances, and his triumph in last year's Strictly Come Dancing, but were not familiar with his stand up material. We both really enjoyed his engaging persona and his take on some of the, quite frankly, ridiculous aspects of modern life. It was a well deserved 8/10 gig.

The only downside to the gig was that 30% spotted the parents of an old school friend of TP, and insisted on making contact via the wonderful medium that is WhatsApp.  We hadn't had any contact with this couple for at least twelve years and it was definitely one of those relationships that has been and gone. 

30% refused to go along with my suggestion that we steer clear of them, and the end result was a tedious kerbside chat after the show. As we walked away 30% commended how boring "Trish" was, and I was somewhat frustrated to reiterate that my suggestion had been to avoid her like the fucking plague!

The odd scheduling of the comedy gig meant that we were home before four o'clock, and I was able to spend a little more time in the garden. I thinned out my celery seedlings and sowed a crop of Early Nantes carrots in the other half of the large raised bed.  I am not convinced that the Autumn King seeds sowed last Tuesday will be viable, so these were sown as a contingency against the first sowing failing.

Sunday, 18 May 2025

I am not very good at keeping in touch with friends, but I had managed (in my half-arsed fashion) to semi-arrange an outing for today. 

Over the past couple of months I had exchanged occasional WhatsApp messages with an old Frolleague; Tel,* with the aim of meeting up.  Tel had suggested Westonbirt Arboretum as it is roughly midway between our homes.

A picnic at the arboretum seemed like a good idea, and when 30% discovered that it was very dog friendly we leapt at the idea.

We met up with Tel and his good lady; Deb around eleven oclock and had a fabulous day there. The weather was perfect for a walk around the verdant collection. Coffee and ice cream bars were conveniently situated, when refreshments were needed, and we had our picnic in a lovely shaded glade. Whiffler, Hobson and The Rat had a wonderful time too; racing around, playing, and making lots of new friends.

We had had a fabulous day, and I should also mention the lovely Gloucestershire villages and countryside we passed through on our way there.  The drive was certainly not a chore.

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* I had worked with Tel for many years at The Neat & Tidy Piano Movers,  and we were the inseparable pair of cynical buggers in our team. We keep in touch by text or call pretty regularly, but don't meet up as often as we should.

Monday, 19 May 2025 

As mentioned on Friday, 30% has been in touch with Hobson's breeder.  A young dog from the same litter as Hobson needs to be re-homed. We have the space, the time and a modicum of experience with Poodles, so Hobson's breeder thinks that this young dog might fit in well with our little Poodle pack.

The back story is that this dog was bought by a young woman who thought that owning a young Standard Poodle would fit in quite nicely with a career working away on cruise ships.  The dog was abandoned with her Sister when she worked away for ten months last year, and she is booked for another cruise in a few week's time.

Fortunately she has finally seen sense and offered the dog back to the breeder.

Today saw us head over to the Swansea area to collect the poor boy.  At first sight we were a little concerned as he seemed very nervous and his tail was down, almost tucked between his legs.  We introduced him to Hobson and one of his breeder's bitches and the dog seemed reasonably friendly, but it was apparent that he had not been properly socialised and was clearly lacking in canine confidence.

It was also apparent that his diet hadn't been particularly good as he is significantly smaller than Hobson and much less well muscled.  The boy definitely needs feeding up, an exercise regimen, and the company of some well adjusted dogs.

After a tearful farewell, the young boy was bundled in to the car to sit alongside 30%, and we headed back towards the Midlands.

Now I would have expected the dog to be incredibly stressed. He had just been separated from his owner, and lifted in to a strange vehicle with unfamiliar people and dogs.  In fact he settled down almost immediately, lying  down and enjoying 30%'s affections all the way home.

It almost seemed that the further we got from Wales, the more relaxed he became.

The introductions to our three have gone as well as we could have hoped. He is understandably apprehensive, but there has been no aggression and, again, he has relaxed and settled down to snooze in the same room as Hobson and Whiffler.  He also had a massive dinner.

Let's hope that we all have a quiet night.

Planting

 I finally got my arse in to gear this morning, and got the beans planted.  

I can now report that we have eighteen runner plants and about a dozen French Beans in the veg patch.  The runners are Lady Di. A variety that we have grown successfully for the past couple of years.  The French beans are a variety that produces a purple pod.* 30% suggested this, as she feels they will be far easier to spot amongst the foliage when harvesting.

The bean planting took up most of the morning, and the afternoon saw the obligatory post-prandial nap.

On waking, I returned to the vegetable patch and decided to get a row of parsnips** planted.  I have never grown them before, and have some doubts about how they will perform in our clay soil.  However,  nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I carefully sowed a row of seeds, watered them in, and covered them with a row of cloches.***

Apparently parsnips like a warm, moist , stone free soil, and can take up to two months to germinate.  Warm and moist is not a problem, but the way weeds grow in the garden, how the hell will I spot the seedlings?

So that's the gardening news. I also have to report that 30% has been in communication with a young lady from Wales, who owns one of Hobson's litter mates.  Apparently the young lad needs to be re-homed, and it looks like we will be going down to see him on Monday!

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* Apparently they turn green when they are cooked.

** Variety: Tender and True

*** We bought about twenty of these from a Market Gardener over in Bretforton a couple of years ago.  They are no longer used in the Market Gardens, having been made obsolete by modern horticultural fleece materials. They are perfect for our vegetable garden but quite frightening to assemble.  They comprise four panes of 3mm glass, three wire clips and a single heavy duty wire support.  Putting them together involves juggling the glass, support and clips, whilst avoiding slitting your wrists on the sharp edges. If you get it right they suddenly become a rigid structure as the last clip is pushed in to place.  If you get it wrong, you could bleed out!

A day in the workshop

There was a chilly wind this morning, and I did not feel like planting out the beans.

Instead, I crammed a wooly hat on my head, and took shelter in the workshop.  I spent most of the day in there making a pair of rhombus clearer boards.*  They could have been thrown together quite quickly, but I had the time, so I milled the necessary timber framing from pallet wood, rather than buying it from the DIY store.

The job took most of the day, but I enjoyed every minute of it, and am quite proud of my two hand crafted clearer boards ... Also,  30% was delighted to see a huge pile of wood shavings on the workshop floor.  At her request, these have now been swept up, and will be lining the chickens' nest boxes before the week is out.

This evening saw us head over to the Redditch College restaurant for an à la carte evening with Mummy Sheila. The food was quite splendid. I started with a salmon and prawn salad. My main was a chicken Kiev, served with green vegetables and pan fried potatoes. The dessert was a lovely crème brûlée, served with raspberries and mini shortbread biscuits.

I know that I will sleep well after a busy day in the workshop and with a large meal inside me.

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* If you can bear it, take a look at yesterday's Journal entry. I go on, at length, about clearer boards! 

Preparations

This morning I selected the longest and strongest of our bamboo canes from the car port roof space. I then headed out to the veg patch with them, some string and my trusty Swiss Army knife.

The next hour was spent assembling bamboo teepee frames, which will act as supports for our Runner and French Bean plants.

Having put up the teepees, I really should have made a start on transplanting the bean plants from their pots in to the ground, but I really couldn't get motivated. Instead I watered the ground at the base of each bamboo cane, in preparation for planting, and then found something else to do instead.

That "something else" was to make a start on tidying up the store room. It is in a bit of a state at the moment, and really needs to be clear and tidy so that we can extract the first of this year's honey.  The tidying took a good chunk of the afternoon and I can now report that the floor is clear and the room just needs a vacuum and dusting before I get my honey extractor set up.

Preparation for extracting honey got me thinking. 

 A day or so before extracting the honey, I will need to place clearer boards on the hives. A clearer board is inserted immediately below the supers* that are to be removed from the hive. It acts as a one-way valve. The worker bees will descend from the supers down in to the brood box in the evening. They will pass through the clearer board and, theoretically, will not be able to ascend back up in to the supers the following day.

This means that the supers should be free from bees when they are removed for honey extraction. Trust me, one does not want any bees in the extraction room. Extracting honey is hard enough work, without having frantic, stingy little sods trying to take it back up to the hive.

Now I have had mixed success with my clearer boards. I have removed supers that are totally free of bees, and I have removed supers that are still crammed with the little sods.**

I therefore decided that I should make a couple of rhombus clearer boards. It is alleged that these are far more effective at clearing bees from supers ... we shall see!

I had the plastic rhombus bee escapes, but I needed a sheet of 6mm ply wood to make the clearer boards. It was therefore a quick run in to Redditch to pick up a quarter sheet of ply from the DIY store.

I arrive back and had a while to relax, before I headed in to the village for this evening's Tai Chi session.    The class was very quiet this evening with only six of us in attendance.  It was a brilliant session and we managed to complete all five stages of The Infinite ... It is amazing what can be achieved when the noisy members of the class are away.***

All in all, I think that today was a productive day ... clearly my chi is centred

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* Honey Supers: the sections of the hive where the honey is stored by the bees.

** Each frame needs to be removed, and the bees carefully brushed off it, before it is put in another lidded super ... quickly, before the little sods get back in there!

*** I find it very surprising that one of the attendees still hasn't managed to work out that a Tai Chi session is about mental and physical focus and control. The bloody woman has been going for years and sees it as an opportunity to talk!

Bees and Carrots

Tuesday started with a dog walk.  Hobson and Dog #4, aka The Rat were my canine companions.

Although Whiffler is much improved, we're avoiding walking him at the moment. Part of the Three Miler requires him to be on a lead, and that might aggravate his neck injury.

Next on my virtual list was to weed and dig over the raised beds in the vegetable garden. That little job took me through until lunchtime and they are both now ready for planting.

The afternoon saw me head up to the orchard and carry out this week's inspection of the hives.

I started by looking at the shook swarm that I established last week, Hive #3. 

There were plenty of bees in the hive and ample quantities of capped brood cells. However, I was disappointed to see no sign of the queen, and I think that she may well have died. The reason for this assumption is that she did look rather scruffy when I found her last week. This is often a sign that she is at the end of her life.

 On a more positive note there was a capped supersedure queen cell in the colony, so I shut up the hive and will leave it alone for two or three weeks. That should allow her sufficient time to hatch and, hopefully, have a successful mating flight.

Hive #2 was not inspected as I know it is queenless.  Last week's inspection identified swarm cells, so it will also be left to let nature run its course.

Hive #1 was inspected and seems to be going really well.  The honey in the supers is being capped off and there was plenty of brood, at various stages, visible. I didn't manage to spot the queen, but the sight of young larvae indicates that she is present and still laying.

After finishing with the bees I returned to the veg patch and planted a few rows of carrots in the larger of the two raised beds.  I used some seed that was left over from last year. It had been kicking around in the greenhouse and I am slightly concerned that the heat may have damaged the seed ... I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks.

Last little job of the day was to assemble and fit a new hose reel that arrived in the post this morning.  All was going swimmingly until I noticed that a component did not seem to be present in the box. It's a small spring that is used to prevent the hose collapsing or kinking inside the reel. 

It looks like I'll be calling customer services tomorrow ... or should I just go and buy one?

Another day, another DRE*

I was up early this morning and could see that there had been a shower earlier in the day.

As I wandered out to pen up  the chicken coop, I was greeted with that fabulous smell that follows the first fall of rain after a long dry spell. Petrichor is the name given to this wonderful aroma. Petri comes from the Latin for rock and Ichor is the name given to the fluid that ran through the veins of the immortals... That sounds like Trolls blood to me.

Anyway, it was an early start as I needed to be at the Alexandra hospital in Redditch for an eight thirty appointment today.  This is a follow up to an appointment I had with my GP last Wednesday. It is amazing how quickly the NHS can move when they think there might be something seriously wrong with you!**

The appointment was an examination and consultation and the Doctor was of the opinion that my GP may have over reacted. My relatively young age and recent blood tests do not suggest that there is anything to worry about, but further tests will be scheduled to make certain. 

It looks like an MRI will be happening in the next couple of weeks*** and, possibly, a biopsy, depending on the result of the scan.

Back at home, I finished trimming the turf back from the paving slabs, but didn't really feel like doing anything else for the rest of the day. I did check on the feeder that I gave to my recent shook swarm. It seems that they have now taken down half of the syrup ... I wonder if that bodes well?

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* You really don't want to know!

** By contrast, a friend of ours is a Nurse Practitioner, and recently had a thirty year old demand attention for a lump on his neck ... it was an ingrowing hair!

*** It's actually scheduled for next Thursday. They do move quickly when they need to!

More shit

Sunday morning was spent removing the knackered lights from our trailer, and replacing them with a brand spanking new trailer light board.

This little task took up most of the morning. But I can now report, for the first time ever, I have a totally legal trailer, with working lights and a proper number plate.

The reason for this activity was that we had arranged to pop over to our friends' stables to collect another load of well rotted horse manure.  This took about an hour, as 30% does like to natter while I shovel the manure from the pile to the trailer.

Back at home it was another hour's work to cart the manure to the veg patch and spread it evenly over the earth. My inbuilt estimation function kicked in and I reckon I will need another three trailer loads to get the job finished.

After dealing with the load of manure, I decided that I wanted something a little more leisurely. I therefore wandered in to the greenhouse and sowed some leek seeds into trays.  I may be a little late in getting these in to soil, but it's a Winter hardy variety (Winter Giant), so it should be successful.

Having got the leeks planted, it was still too early to call it a day. I needed to find myself a little job to keep me occupied for an hour, or so. I grabbed a spade and a wheelbarrow and made a start on trimming back the turf from the paving slabs that run across the lawn from the house to the store room. 

It always amazes me how different this part of the garden looks when I do this simple job.

A Garden Party

 Today's big event was Dot's eightieth birthday party over in Oversley Mill.

 As is usual, Dot was blessed and the day was forecast to be splendid; wall to wall sunshine, and temperatures in the low to mid twenties. Just perfect for a garden party.

I spent the morning sorting out a few odd jobs, as I didn't want to get involved in anything complicated, protracted or exhausting.

First task of the day was to fit the replacement number plates to the X3. 

30% could now get on line and get her personalised registration assigned to the vehicle.  I am afraid that it is impossible to leave this subject at that. 

30% has cherished her "personalised" number plate for many years and it has adorned at least four of her previous vehicles.  She swears that this registration is almost identical to her two initials and her surname.

Now I can't see this at all. I will freely admit there there are some personalised plates that are close approximations, or even perfect matches for the owner's names or initials.  I don't, however, think that 30%'s personalised plate is ...  unless you pronounce the digits five and three as the  letters "BA"!

 To end on a positive note, at least we can now both remember the registration when the details in car park ticket machines.

Next little job was to replace the short length of hose pipe from the well pump to the hose reel. This was completed without fuss and I shouldn't need to attend to it again, unless further irrigation disasters occur.

As already mentioned, the afternoon was spent at in glorious sunshine celebrating Dot's eightieth. We had a lovely time and it was great to see everyone. There was a lovely musical interlude when Dave was joined by his grandchildren; Harriet on bass and Alex on vocals to perform a few numbers.

We had a lovely time*, including Hobson, who had come along for a play date with Django**.

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* I avoided Mrs Tweedy for the entire afternoon

** Dot's son's Lagotto Romagnolo.

Should I mention the hose pipe?*

 Friday was warmer and I was slightly more enthusiastic than yesterday.

Whiffler seems to be improving slowly, but he is still not ready for any exercise ... despite his clear enthusiasm when I gathered leads and poo bags for this morning's walk.

The wander around the Three Miler was enjoyable and, in complete contrast to yesterday, no coat or hat was needed.

The afternoon saw The Coven assemble on the patio and partake of tea, coffee and cake. Various characters were assassinated and much cackling could be heard.

After a few minutes of chat, I left them to it and headed in to the greenhouse. I spent the next couple of hours pricking out my tomato seedlings  and thinning out the brassicas. 

I think that I left this year's planting a little late, but there is nothing I can do about it, just wait and see what the harvest looks like.

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* After the Coven departed, 30% decided to switch on the well pump, unreel the hose pipe and fill the water butts. After about half an hour she wandered in with a sheepish look and requested assistance. I wandered out to find the hose reel dismantled from the well pump.  30% reported that the hose had stopped running and she had returned to find water gushing everywhere. Now I am well aware that my wife is, shall we say, a little heavy handed, and I would guess that she had give a hefty heave on the hose rather than return to the reel and sort out the issue. Anyway, she attempted to demonstrate what was wrong and I could immediately see that she hadn't got the foggiest idea what the problem was. The poor girl was attempting to reconnect the well pump to the reel in a way that would have meant that the reel wouldn't wind the hose back in, and the water wouldn't flow.  I worked out what was wrong and soon had it all sorted and operational ... I did notice that there was a pinhole in the well feeder pipe, but that can wait until tomorrow. 

For clarity; my dear wife has many, many fine qualities, but analysis and mechanical aptitude are not amongst them.

Holding Pattern

 The weather today was grey with a cold wind blowing in from the North East.

It was a day when I really did not want to be outside and a complete contrast from the balmy weather in the preceding weeks.

Hobson and Dog #4, aka The Rat, were keen for a walk*, so I donned a hat and coat and took a wander around the Three Miler. There have been many occasions recently when I have made poor clothing choices when walking**, but today's choice of warm outer wear was spot on.

Back at home I made an executive decision, and the rest of the day was designated an indoors day.  I curled up on the sofa and alternated between sleeping and reading.

So that is it for Thursday.

There may be other news in due course, but I'm in something of a holding pattern at the moment. 

I did also bump in to Pete The Beekeeper yesterday and he strongly recommended that I get my current crop of honey extracted before it sets in the comb.***

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* Whiffler was too, but he is confined to home until he recovers from his neck injury

** The Drag Queen look and the back half of a pantomime horse have not been my wisest choices for dog walking.

*** There is likely to be a high proportion of Oilseed Rape (Canola) nectar in the honey, and this will set and crystallise in the comb, making extraction nigh on impossible.

And now there are three?

This morning started with an incredibly exciting job. I emptied a couple of our compost bins. They have not performed well and I was rewarded with a compressed mass of fibrous material that looked nothing like the fine, dark tilth I was hoping for.

This poor performance from the compost bins was expected, as I was well aware that we hadn't been conscientious in layering browns and greens. Neither had we been keeping the bins moist. Todays plan was to restart our composting on a more sound footing.*

After emptying the compost bins, I pulled the lawn mower from the shed and attached the grass box. I then hit the lawns and soon had a large pile of grass clipping piled up behind Rose Cottage.  30% assumed compost making duties and was soon carefully layering the clippings, old compost and chicken coop detritus in the bins.

Hopefully we will have some reasonable compost in a few months time.

I managed to mow virtually all of the lawns, leaving only the verge at the front of the house and the small patch by the garage until tomorrow.

I then pulled on my bee suit and headed up to the orchard to inspect the colonies.

Hive #1 is doing beautifully. The three supers are all filled with honey and the bees are in the process of capping off the cells.  I worked my way through the brood box and, again, failed to spot the queen, but the sight of eggs** and larvae indicate that she is present and laying. I added another super and closed up the hive.

Hive #2 is doing well too. Its supers are good, but not quite as heavy as those in the other hive. However, on checking the brood box I was disappointed to find a capped queen cell. This was a sure sign that the colony is preparing to swarm.

I headed back to my store room and grabbed the components to make up another hive. Basically I created an artificial swarm by locating the queen and introducing her, along with several frames of brood, stores and worker bees, into another hive. Hopefully she will think that she has swarmed and set up a new colony in hive #3.

As for hive #2, I need to leave it well alone for three or four weeks. Hopefully a new queen will hatch, mature and have a successful mating flight, before returning and continuing her mother's fine colony.

Last job of the afternoon was to take Whiffler to the Vets.  He seems to be improving, but is still not fully recovered. He is also classed as a senior canine, as he is now in his eleventh year, so he is no longer as robust as he used to be.  The Vet thinks he has injured his neck and has dosed him up with high strength doggy painkillers. 

The poor boy is now snoozing. Lord knows what he is dreaming with the amount of opioids whizzing around inside him.

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* The shavings and chicken manure from the coop make splendid browns, and we will have plenty of these going forward. More than half an acre of lawns mean that I am never going to be short of greens.

** With my eyesight there is no guarantee they are eggs!

Shovelling Shit

 No, I have not decided to return to the world of work.

But I have spent a good proportion of my day shovelling shit.  Not the proverbial shit that abounds in ever increasing quantities in the corporate world, but honest, authentic, and well rotted horse shit. For clarity, the stuff that appears regularly from the back end of a horse.*

It has been a couple of years since we added any organic matter to the veg patch and I would like to ensure that we maintain both fertility and the quality of the top soil. 30% has therefore been in contact with a couple of her friends that have a stable just down the road. 

They are very conscientious horse owners, and regularly poo pick their paddocks, to keep the pastures at their best.  This means that they have large heaps of well rotted horse manure that is just perfect for laying as a mulch on top of our veg patch. Just to stress, this isn't the clearings from stables; horse manure mixed with wood shavings.  This is 100% horse manure, that has rotted down over the past couple of years.

Following on from yesterday's abortive trip, we headed over there this morning, and I spent an enthusiastic thirty minutes filling our trailer to the brim with this lovely composted material.

Back at home I spent a further hour moving the manure and spreading it on the veg patch. I estimate that I could do with another four or five trailer loads to cover the entire vegetable garden and will be nagging 30% incessantly until she makes the necessary arrangements.

The rest of the afternoon was spent back up in the orchard with The Beast and the brush cutter. I can't exactly say that I have finished up there, but it does look a whole lot better.

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* As opposed to the stuff that regular spouts from the front end of a senior manager or any sales executive.

Have we been overdoing it?

We are a little concerned about Whiffler.

He was fine on yesterday's walk, but has been in considerable discomfort since. He appears to have pain in his left shoulder and is definitely not himself.  The poor boy is currently dosed up on a canine painkiller, and is doing his best to find a comfortable spot to settle, away from any disturbances.  We'll be keeping a close eye on him over the next couple of days and he may well be in to the Vet's on Tuesday if there is no sign of improvement. 

Now on to Sunday.

I wouldn't normally recount my early morning poultry care activities, but this morning I had an unexpected surprise. After refreshing their water, giving them some food and opening the pophole, I wandered around to the rear of the coop  and checked the nest boxes for eggs.  As I closed up the nest boxes I hear a rustle in the long grass behind me.

I turned and was surprised to see a Peahen no more than five feet away from me. She didn't seem worried. In fact she seemed to be drawn to the activities of tending to the chickens. I haven't a clue where she has come from as there are no peafowl in our immediate vicinity ... we would have heard them if there were! I decided to throw her a handful of layers pellets and hope that she would find her way home.*

The rest of the day panned out as follows.

We had a short run out with the trailer hitched to the X3. The plan was to pick up a load of horse manure from some friends, but a communication cock up meant that the gates were locked and we returned sans merde.

I spent the rest of my time attacking the long grass in the orchard with The Beast. I estimate that I have now mowed about three quarters of the grass and I am bloody exhausted.  The ground is riddled with dips and mounds and the grass is at least eighteen inches in length. It is fair to say that it is quite a struggle ... and I haven't tackled the steep bank at the rear of the plot.

I can only hope that it is improving the strength and mobility in my shoulders in preparation for the fast approaching motorcycle tour.

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* 30% saw her later on in the morning heading towards the village. 

Winding down

 Saturday started with a walk around the Three Miler with the dogs.

The weather is still dry and sunny, but the wind has changed and there was a cold breeze.  I was glad I remembered a hat. I do feel the breeze on my scalp these days!

Today was never going to be particularly productive, as I was clay shooting in the early afternoon. I did manage to pop out and buy petrol for the lawn mowers and was amused to see a couple of people doing the same at the filling station.  I guess the bank holiday weekend will resound with the roar of little petrol engines.

Shortly after lunch I headed over to the Cotswold Shooting Ground and met up with Bubbles and Ben. We had an amusing couple of hours shooting clays and my performance ranged from competent to appalling. I ended up with a score of 39/80.  The score really didn't matter, we spent the time ribbing each other and winding down after a busy few days.*

Back at home, 30% and I headed up to the orchard in the afternoon. A Passiflora was relocated from the side of the house to the recently installed trellisses, and a Wisteria was planted at the foot of a tall and spindly apple tree.

Now we need to wait and see if they settle in, and start to grow.

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* Busy for Bubbles & Ben. Actually, looking back at the week, I've been quite busy too.

Shattered

After yesterday evening's gluttony I did not feel my best this morning.

As a result I did little more than potter for the early part of the morning.  An hour was taken up with another solar energy consultation and today's salesman was doubtful that our planned panel locations would actually be effective.  It may be challenging to come up with a solution that will actually work here.

After Mr Solar departed I mortared the downpipe in to place and then had lunch.

After eating I felt exhausted and took a kip on the sofa. I woke an hour later and felt worse than before. I decided another hour might help and took to the couch once again.

I woke feeling somewhat better and decided that I really ought to achieve something today.

I therefore dragged The Beast from the shed and made a start on mowing the orchard for the first time this year. I managed to complete about half of it before the dinner gong* sounded.

I certainly got some exercise this evening!

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* The dulcet tones of my good lady

Packing it in

A few days ago I noticed yet another little job that needed doing.

This is the general theme when you live in a very old house that has had minimal, and generally bodged, maintenance over the preceding forty years.

This little job was the replacement of the downpipe from the gutter that runs around the outhouse at the South Eastern end of the cottage.  It was clear that it had been broken, probably by a lawn mower, several years ago, and "repaired" with heavy duty tape. That repair had failed eons ago and it's rectification had just made it on to my to do list.

First thing this morning I headed in to Redditch and picked up a length of down pipe, a replacement bracket and a bag of ready mixed mortar.

I then spent the rest of the morning removing the damaged down pipe and getting the replacement cut to size and fitted. It should have been a relatively short job, but it was complicated by the fact that the steel screws in the brackets had rusted to the point where they did not want to come out, and I needed to fabricate a fitting to allow me to mortar a 65mm square downpipe in to a 100mm diameter circular drain pipe, whilst avoiding clogging the drainage system ... nothing is ever straightforward here.

The afternoon saw a ride out on the R1250 with Charlie. Our route took in a selection of twisty roads that took us over to Stratford, via Bidford, then out on the Shipston road, before cutting over towards Broadway. From Broadway we rode on to Childswickham, Hinton on the Green and Elmley Castle, before reaching Pershore.  Our return leg took is along the B4084 to Evesham and then back home via a few of the Lenches.*

On our return I had time for a quick drink before I needed to get clean and tidy.

30% had arranged for us to attend a taster menu at Redditch College. We were joined by Mummy Sheila and this evening's International cuisine was Mexican.

I have to say that it wasn't their best offering.  There was plenty of food and it was cooked reasonably well, but I am not a fan of sweetcorn and sweet potato fries and I bloody loathe fresh coriander.** 

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* A cluster of villages and hamlets, each of which is called a Lench e.g. Church Lench, Ab Lench, Sheriffs Lench etc.  I am informed that the name Lench comes from the Old English word "hlenc", which means "hill aside".

** Cilantro