Pennsif's Progress - The Days are Numbered // Day 955 : It started with a haircut
Some days you don't get much done.
Other days it just rocks.
Today it rocked.
It started with a haircut.
It's always good to start the day with a haircut.
My wife has cut my hair ever since we were married. I've always been a short haired terrier so it's not a big job and we must have saved a ton of cash over the years.
I have offered to cut hers but after a couple of hair raising attempts she has passed up on my kind offer since.
Hair suitably shortened I hit the coach house. This has been our 'storage room' since we moved here nearly 20 years ago. We've had a couple of partial clearouts along the way but now it's reached tipping point - I can't get in there.
I've got plans for the coach house so I really want to get it cleared out. I recently got my amateur radio foundation licence so I'm hoping to set up my little radio shack there - once I can get in.
All sorts of stuff, stuff, stuff has been dumped in there - old toys, VHS videos, a spare shower, broken printers, picnic sets, wellingtons that don't fit, books that were never read, gifts that weren't wanted and even a Doctor Who Tardis wardrobe.
We made a start and filled the car with a first load for the local recycling centre. I only managed one run there today as they close early on a Sunday.
That place always amazes me. People throw out so much that looks like it still has a good life.
That's a problem for me. Taking junk to the recycling centre always means I find some good things to bring back.
Today it was 8 nearly new ceramic pots - not a scratch on them.
In the past I've 'scored' carpets, antique chairs, egg boxes, wood... There's always something worth having there. And you just take what you want for free 😊
After the clearing in the coach house it was on to the cleaning out the chicken coops. Along with the ducks, geese and rabbits we have seven places on the cleaning roster at present. Luckily my youngest 'volunteered' to help me so it only took an hour or so.
We currently buy bales of wood shavings for bedding but I often find various contaminants in there so I'm not convinced about its origin.
I would love to find some sort of bedding material from the homestead but we don't grow any cereal for straw nor cut any hay fields. I have heard dried bracken can be used but we don't have much of that now. Suggestions welcome!
Our motley housing collection dates back to our very first coop that is now 15 years old. It's now rather the worse for wear but some of the hens still chose to use it.
Time and funds permitting I'm hoping to build some new houses for them before the winter.
After clearing the poop from the coop it was on to the daily harvest.
As well as four beds of potatoes this year I had a few overflow potatoes in 30 litre tubs. I've seen various YouTube gardeners get massive yields from tubs but I don't have the same success. I only got about 3kg out of the four tubs. Now I have more growing space I'll give up on the tubs next year.
As well as the spuds we are still going strong on cabbage, lettuce, French beans, carrots, onions, peas and of course courgettes (zucchini).
You can never have too many courgettes 😉
My wife has been scouring the internet for exciting new ways to use courgettes. One of the best ones so far has been a sort of courgette and parmesan crisp.
We've also recently got a dehydrator and we have been experimenting with drying the courgettes in that.
It works well - it's even got our daughters to eat a few more courgettes.
I've really been keen on succession planting this year to extend our growing and harvest season. With a few more raised beds and the polytunnel coming on stream I've been able to start on second crops and autumn/winter crops.
I got in more sprouts, cauliflowers and broccoli a couple of weeks back. Also another sowing of carrots and lettuce. I had one mainly empty bed available just in front of the old greenhouse so I popped in some more carrots and turnips this afternoon.
Even though that bed has been largely empty for a while there has been very little weed growth.
I am bit worried about a suspect batch of compost on that bed so I used some of my new super compost that I got recently to trench and cover the seeds.
The compost is Martin's TLC and it's excellent.
It's made from coir, horse manure and worms by a local chap who runs his own little compost business. I met him recently and it was really good to hear the story of how the compost is made.
Like the wood shavings I am always anxious about bringing compost of unknown origin on to the homestead. So it is ideal for me to use this local compost until we can produce enough ourselves. And it's good to buy local and eat who you know and all that.
The only job on today's list that I didn't manage was to finish filling the new greenhouse. That's one for tomorrow now.
But it was a good day of work, nicely rounded off with an evening meal of homemade pizza and salad and vegetables from the garden.
Tomorrow we're pruning.
Night all.
[all images taken by @pennsif]
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I think I need a break after reading of all your hard work. ;-)
It's back at the desk in front of the computer this morning. The effects of the magic juice have worn off now 😞
Same here, my friend. :)
This is a really good read. I also went out to visit the recycling centre here today, it's probably for the best they were closed honestly there's barely room to move here at the moment! I was looking for some old pickets to make a trellis, they are much harder to find than I'd expected...
Your beds are looking lush how far do you usually grow into the cooler months? Also it's hard to go past the odd homemade pizza, yummo.
Normally we keep stuff growing til September / October. I'm hoping with the polytunnel this year to go on into November maybe.
OK, wow that is a significant difference. Good investment.
Great post! You are a busy person! Keep up the good work! I really need to get my fall garden started!
Yep , I have started another round of planting for the autumn - more carrots and onions so far.
nice pictures those planters are shiny and ya can't beat free stuff :) I would love to see this tardis cabinet or what ever you mentioned :) I've only ever seen it as a phone booth :D thanks for sharing and great blog style it's different from others :)
Hi @freakygeak, yes free is always best 😊
The tardis wardrobe is all packed up in a box at the moment. I had wondered about putting it together again and putting ALL the junk in it. I assume their will plenty of space inside 😉
sad to say there can only be on true such tardis :D lol but nothing wrong with wishful thinking ;)
I'm the same way. I go to get rid of stuff and bring back more. I love treasure hunting but my wife calls it junk collecting. lol.
I think I just about take more to the dump than I bring back... but sometimes I just can't resist.
Lol sounds like me. One time I had to go just outside Washington DC and had my wife with me. I saw a lot of people had items at the curb to be picked up for large trash pick up that day. I noticed what looked like a brand new outdoor patio chair. It was flat black strong tubular steel with what looked like black canvas cloth on it. I stopped to look while my wife was yelling in my ear not to stop. haha.
I jumped out while she was ducking in the truck from shame because someone might see her. The chair was absolutely brand new. Don't think anyone ever sat in it. It was from Ikea furniture and looked like it was just assembled. I looked to the left and there were some boxes. The boxes held more surprises. Come to find out the were throwing away a whole set and some were not even assembled at all. There was another chair, a couch and a coffee table still in boxes. I was blown away and couldn't get the stuff loaded fast enough. I got it home and assembled it all for my back porch. All matching stuff. Top quality furniture that lasted us years and years. I love finds like that.
My wife had no problems sitting in it at all. No shame. lol
The chairs were very much like this with matching couch and coffee table but had solid black thick canvas. What a find!
Excellent find!
HI I just found you and have started following. I spent most of my childhood homesteading in Wales so was naturally drawn lol. Your garden looks awesome. Always lots to do from dawn tis dusk but it makes for healthy hearts and souls! Good luck to you and I look forward to reading more.
I myself am in Costa Rica right now... taking photos and sowing and planting fruit trees into the jungle!
Always on the hunt for cheap bedding myself. Wood shavings can be so expensive. I bought a cheap document shredder a few years back and we replaced the rabbit bedding with shredded documents and newspaper. That then gets composted via the chicken run. I take carbonaceous things where I can get them. Problem is getting enough paper to do it on a larger scale. The neighbours don't pick up their free newspaper, so I do that for them. Another neighbour sometimes brings us theirs. Perhaps you could be a drop of point for paper recycling! 😄
Whew! That made me tired just READING it! Lol! Looks like you accomplished quite a bit!