This was supposed to be a daily blog documenting what was going on with my homestead and my prepping, but the busy summer growing days have rather overtaken that plan.
So I think Pennsif's Progress, at least for the timebeing, will be more of an occasional update 😊
In the 25 days since I last posted much has been happening here.
The big news is that after 3 years of saving and waiting we have finally got our polytunnel in place.
It's a fairly good size of 18 foot by 42 foot (5.5m x 12.8m) so it should allow us to grow quite a decent amount of food. And most imporantly we should be able to extend our growing season by at least a month at either end.
This photo was taken before we'd put the doors on. I've been so busy I've forgotten to take another pic with the doors in place.
Unfortunately our mountainside soil is too poor and too thin so we are having to plant in raised beds in the polytunnel. We will have four large beds, each 2.2m x 4.8m, in due course. The first two are in place and already filled with sweet potatoes, courgettes, melons and tomatoes. We've also got peppers, sweet corn, aubergines and tiger nuts in large tubs.
A key need for the polytunnel was getting a nearby water supply in place.
The polytunnel is about 300m from the tap in the yard so carrying watering cans back and forth was a bit of a drag.
The polytunnel is only about 3m from one of our streams that runs down the mountain. We had already built a small reservoir at the top to supply the old orchard chicken pen.
There is a drop of about 30m from the reservoir to the polytunnel so a good enough head to get some decent pressure. We laid some 20mm alkathene pipe down the gully of the stream and fitted a standpipe and tap.
Hey presto we have water right outside the polytunnel!
As well as getting the polytunnel in place, we have also been extending our raised beds.
In the old back garden we renovated and recommissioned three 4.8m x 1.2m beds that had become overrun by brambles and willowherb. They are now back in use and planted up with broccoli, cabbage, calabrese, cauliflowers, courgettes and pumpkins.
We've also built a brand new herb bed on the terrace platform where we plan to build a cob pizza oven next year.
I love herbs and managed to extend my collection with this second herb bed. As well as the 'usuals' (mint, parsley, rosemary, sage, lemon balm etc) I've got a few new ones - hyssop, curry plant, dill...
So a lot of time over the last few weeks has been spent on infrastructure projects to expand our growing capacity. Still more to come on this front - but that's for another day. The big plan is to increase the number of months each year that we have 'vegetable independence'. We went for 4 months last year without having to buy in any vegetables. By next year we hope to reach at least 6 months - maybe more with the polytunnel and greenhouses.
We have been harvesting aplenty - beans, peas, onions, potatoes, garlic, herbs, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflowers, broccoli, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes... There has even been surplus enough to start filling the freezer for later months.
And our chickens have kept us well supplied with eggs - and now meat. We dispatched the first two of our broilers last week. Five more to go.
That's assuming the foxes don't get them first. We've had this chap and his friend hanging around for the past week. They must be the great grandcubs of Jasmine the fox who used to help me feed the chickens about ten years ago. It is Jasmine who features in my profile picture.
As there are no fox hunts anymore foxes are quite prolific around here preying on lambs and chickens. Our neighbours regularly shoot the foxes on their land and they are trying to convince me to get a gun to do likewise.
The rest of the family are not so keen. They wonder if we could tame the foxes as pets instead - they really want a dog, but a fox might do. When I was at college my friend had a pet fox that she used to take for a walk on a leash. He was called Maurice.
So we are up to speed now. Lots more to come, but now it's sleep time.
Night all.
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