Goslings are Growing

I finally managed to get some pictures of our camera shy goslings - usually they run off into their house as soon as I come anywhere near them with a camera. As you can see, they are nearly fully grown now and have proper feathers over most of their bodies - it's just their tail feathers that are still fluffy baby feathers.

We are thinking that when they are fully grown we will give them full run of the garden. Hopefully, they might help keep the grass down - although I know they can be quite messy!

Loads of Redcurrants...........and Escaped Goslings!

We have been harvesting some of our fruit, and we have had mixed results.

First the good news:

• Lots and lots of redcurrants - best crop ever! Have had some in muffins, the rest are in the freezer.
  
• Lots of cooking cherries (must pick them this weekend).

......And now the bad news:

• Not nearly as many blackcurrants as we have had previously (enough to make some juice anyway).
• Not many gooseberries.
• About four dessert cherries!! The tree produced hardly any and the birds got most of the few that were there before we did!
  

The dessert cherries are particularly disappointing. The tree is one that we rescued from near death - it looked pretty much dead so I cut it right back and amazingly it flourished. In the past it has produced decent crop of delicious cherries, but the last couple of years we have had hardly any.


Still to harvest are the white currants which were not yet ripe when I last checked them. I'm never actually sure what to do with them though - I have made them into juice before, which tastes OK, but looks pretty disgusting!

The blackberry crop looks hopeful, although we must pick them before the birds do, although the bush is in danger of taking over!


Escaping Goslings

Tonight was a rather unplanned escapade due to the goslings escaping somehow from their pen. We knew nothing about it until our neighbour (yes, we have only one neighbour) knocked on the door to say that he had seen them in the ditch in the field. So it was a case of dashing out to fish them out the wet and muddy ditch (it has been raining all day today). Fortunately they came willingly and were happy enough to be carried back to their house - I think they had frightened themselves and looked petrified.

Tomorrow I think we will have to keep them shut in the house as I can't risk them getting out while we are at work. Then at the weekend I will have to try and make their pen more secure - I can't figure out how they are getting out!

Housing the Goslings

A while ago a friend of a friend agreed to hatch some goose eggs for us. We used to have some geese previously - being as we are vegetarians they served mostly as lawnmowers and "guard dogs". There are the eggs as well of course, although I am never really quite sure what to do with them - we have eaten them scrambled a couple of times and that worked out OK. I wouldn't really recommend keeping geese if you are particularly keen on keeping a tidy lawn as they are quite messy! Sadly, our previous geese were had by a fox.

Although we knew roughly when they would be ready to come here, we were still caught unprepared (as ever) when we had a call saying that they really needed to be collected. We had decided that we were going to use the duck house that I built a few years ago (unfortunately the ducks went the same way as the geese), and I knew it would need some repairs, but I wasn't really prepared for how much. It was in a rather forgotten corner of the garden, in what we rather grandly refer to as "the orchard". In fact it is spot, about 10 metres square that is planted with fruit trees. Unfortunately, recently it has become rather taken over by nettles. So, when I went to see what state the duck house (soon to be goose house) was in, this is what I found...........



This meant that we had to rapidly rescue the house from the nettles and do some quick repairs. The roof was completely rotten as was much of the floor. One of the doors needed some repair and several of the side panels needed nailing back into place. Actually, given that it has been completely neglected for a couple of years, it wasn't too bad I guess. I have just done a temporary repair to the door for now, so I will have to do a better job when I can.

This is the house mid-repair..........


The goslings have now arrived and seem quite happy in their new home. Unfortunately, they are quite camera shy, so I have not managed to get a decent photo of them yet - they tend to run into their house whenever I get anywhere near them with the camera. I will have another go over this weekend and will post some pictures if I succeed!

Summertime, and the Sneezing is Easy........

Well, summertime is here, and while the fish may be jumping and the cotton may be high, I, along with millions of other hay fever sufferers, am sneezing! After a few weeks of not managing to cut the grass due to rain and being busy, I finally cut it at the weekend. It was about a foot high in places. My allergy is primarily to grass pollen, so by the end of it my nose and eyes were streaming.

It always feels that my enjoyment of this part of the summer is severely compromised due to suffering with hay fever. I always feel much less motivated to get on with the garden when I know that within minutes I will be hit with fits of sneezing and my eyes will be itching so much that it takes a great deal of willpower not to rub them, which I know only makes them worse. When it is really bad then the only relief is to get into the shower - for those few minutes standing with my head under the shower I am almost symptom free. Of course as soon as I step out it starts again.

I am currently taking Flixonase which the chemist recommended, but does relieve it a bit, but no good for when I am out cutting the grass. We had quite a bit of rain yesterday which dampened down the pollen so that helps.

Anyway here are some other hay fever remedies. If anyone finds something that works then please, please, please let me know!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...........

Yesterday was a very frustrating day. I have had a couple of busy weekends visiting family so I have not touched the veg plot in a few weeks. As a result, the weeds are starting to take over and I am severely behind on my planting schedule. What's more, I haven't mown the grass in about three weeks which means that it is about a foot high in places - yes, literally!

This weekend I had a busy Saturday, but, I thought, on Sunday I would get out of bed early and spend the day catching up on jobs in the garden. Leaving aside the fact that I failed on the getting out of bed early part (as usual), my chances of doing anything were completely scuppered by the weather. I had expected a few rain showers, but this was more than that. Thunder, lightning, hailstones and heavy persistent rain with barely more than a few minutes break! I did manage a short time in the greenhouse, but our greenhouse is rather rickety and has sprung several leaks, so as the rain became heavier I had to retreat back into the house.

Today, of course, when I am back at work, the sun has been out all day, not only making me frustrated at not being outside making my veg plot nice and tidy again, but also helping those darned weeds grow even more after all that rain!!! Agggghhhhh!

I am hoping for a few fine evenings this week so I can get out and do a few things anyway. I couldn't do anything tonight as the OH is out teaching a workshop at a patchwork and quilting group, so I have had the kids to sort out and referee! Maybe tomorrow......

Book Reviews and Recipes

Back at the beginning of March, I announced that I would be doing regular book reviews and recipes on a Smallholder's Diary - alternating every Saturday. Recently I have found this to be just too onerous a task with everything else I have got to do at the moment. Besides which I was beginning to feel that they were taking over, especially during weeks when I did not manage to write any other posts. So from now on, I will continue to write occasional book reviews and seasonal recipes, but they will be less frequent and more ad hoc. That way I feel I can concentrate on writing more useful posts about self-sufficiency and sharing tales and pictures of how my own efforts are progressing.

Parsnip Experiment Update 2

Well, it has been a few weeks now since I planted out my parsnip seeds that I sprouted on kitchen roll, so now seems like a good time to review progress. I planted out three rows and just two seedlings have come up! This is very disappointing. I think there are a couple of things that I did wrong.

1. I did not water them enough. The first few weeks of Spring were unusually dry here and, although I did water the seeds, I think on reflection I should have watered them more just after I planted them out.
2. I planted out the sprouted seed singly as I was confident that they would come up. I should have planted out several together to increase chances of success.

Last week I bought some more parsnip seeds and, although it is a bit on the late side for sowing parsnips, I sowed them directly into the rows. The soil is warm and moist now, so you never know!