Vegetables 2011

The Pentre Farm being a rural place out of town is home to many species of wildlife. We are situated above Baileyeinon wood which is a wildlife trust site.

Left is a picture of my mae the Buzzard i've named Bernie, I put raw meat out for him during the cold spells and now he comes back frequently. We also have several Red Kite that circle our house regularly too.

Disaster in the Veg Patch

It's been quite a while since I last posted on here. Sorry there were no photos of that garden I promised everyone but to be honest it was a total disaster. I grew brussels, cabbage and broccoli but all of those got eaten by the dreaded cabbage white's catapillar.

The onions were far to small and I don't think they liked the stoney soil too much. Neither did the root veg carrots, parsnips or potatoes. Infact all i've had success with is chard and beetroot, even the peas didn't come to much.

I suppose it's all a learning curve and I can't wait for the spring to come when i'll be trying new stuff. One thing i failed to do which i should've done is write down the names of the species of vegetables that i grew. I expect i'll pay for this in the long run but i'm sure next years veg will be a lot more bountiful than this years. My polytunnel has just surcome to the gails and the end has ripped off!! I've decided to cut it up and make some frames then cover them with the polythene sheeting i'll have saved from the polytunnel. This should give protection from those dreaded cattepillars. I'm going to make some raised veg and fruit beds and put them down where the polytunnel was, as well as tidy up and secure the home veg patch from the animals. It's looking good now since i fenced it off with corrigated sheets.

The photo above left is the original veg patch before any work was done to it, i'm just about to get on with cleaning and digging it for next season, so that the frosts will loosen the soil after digging it.

CHICKENS

We've now got the chickens moved down to the stone pig sty, I've found that it is water tight and quite warm for them, although it lets moisture up through the floor and wets the hey that I put in there in the hopes that they'd lay. Next thing to do is to make some nest boxes and fit them on the walls so the birds are hopefully more comfortable and will start to lay properly, 1 egg last week was all we got! Luckily though I was asked by Andy up the lane to look after his hens and they provided us with 8 eggs in 3 days. Lucky begger!!

Our House (Before we moved in)

Well here it is "The Pentre"

which in English means "Homestead" and Home it is!

We (My wife myself and the kids) have done loads to the place since moving in. Cutting the seemingly thousands of nettles, cutting back the briars, re-painting also staining the balcony on the back of the house, cutting the much needed fire wood (my job) etc...

Left is the view that i awake to every morning. It somehow reminds me of why I live and how lucky i am to be alive!

I'm in the middle of getting the veg patch up to scratch at the moment and I've just ordered my polytunnel (Pictures to come soon of that)

We've also acquired 4 hens and a cockeral (Noisy begger!)Also soon we'll be getting a couple of pigs for fattening up or for breeding(after i sort the paperwork for DEFRA) not quite sure whether we'll eat them or breed them yet!

Oh yes and luckily, I've also got a river i'm allowed to fish (lets hope it provides some nice food for our freezers).

mark's first Rainbow trout

A day out at Llyngwyn and my boy (Mark) showed me up with this 4lb 6oz Rainbow trout caught from Llyngwyn. A day he will never let me forget for more reasons than the trout, I also managed to row the boat back in the wrong way round and had to go back out of the boat house and turn it around!

It was a freezing cold day, and after a couple of hoursout on the water, I asked Mark if he wanted to go home yet? I thought after catching that fish and because he was cold, he would've jumped at the chance to sit by a nice hot radiator but "No" he was gonna catch more and nothing would stop him!