Spring is coming

Well, I'm improving, it's only just over a month since my last post!!
Today was a beautiful day, and after walking the dogs this morning I wandered round to my pond and was surprised to see an orgy going on. The edge of the pond was heaving with at least a dozen frogs and there was a large amount of frogspawn, so they'd obviously been busy!!
It was too good an opportunity to miss, so I nipped inside for the camera, and they were completely unfazed as I set up a few feet away.

Another year gone, and the rest.....!!

Where did the year go to? It was very dry from the spring up until November, and only then did we get enough rain to raise the water table so that the (still unfinished) pond actually contained water. What it does mean, again, is that probably I will be unable to reprofile and line the pond until the amphibians have stopped breeding and the pond has dried out again in the summer.

Things do seem to be proceeding though, at last. I will be clearing an area by the pond, that is always covered with bindweed through the summer, and trying to establish a wildflower meadow there. The area behind the house will also be cleared, so that I can get the greenhouse erected and get some vegetable beds set up. I also want to move part of the boundary fence back, so that my brick shed is actually on my side of the fence, and this will give me room to construct a garage/workshop and give me some extra storage space. The new chicken shed is almost finished, so when that's done the chickens can be ousted from the log shed, and then I can stock it with logs for next winter.

As for the animals, I now have 2 dogs as my father went into a home before he died and was unable to look after Ruby, who I got from the RSPCA when mum died. I said from the start that if he was unable to look after her, I would take her on, but it was a bit sooner than we'd expected. She's settled in well with Meg, but she needs to be watched as she chases sheep!! The 2 cats are still happily wandering the countryside, and I now only have 2 ducks (the mother and her only surviving daughter) 2 hens (the black bantam and black speckly) and my big cock continues to strut around the place.

I keep getting flocks of finches in the treetops by the orchard, and a couple of days ago spotted a pair of bullfinches with them - my first here, and always lovely to see. I intend to set up a hide soon so that I, and others, can watch the badgers, and I now stock trail cameras so will be setting some up to see what visitors I get during the night and when I'm not here - fingers crossed it won't be thieves again!!

That's about it for now, but hopefully I can get into the habit of adding to the blog more often.

Martin.

Fruit and Fermentation!!

A jolly time was had last week, when a friend came over to help with some fruit picking. We managed to get a load of elderberries and damsons off the trees, and together with a large bottle of vodka that she kindly brought, I now have the start of 2 demijohns of elderberry vodka, as well as a carrier bag of damsons in the freezer. When I can get some more vodka I'll top up the 2 demijohns and hopefully a kind friend will bring me some gin so I can make a batch of damson gin. Unfortunately, the damson gin needs at least a year to mature!!
I'm hoping that I'll get a few more damsons and some more elderberries in a week or two, so should have enough fruit laid in to keep me going in alcoholic beverages until next autumn/winter. It's well worth doing, very easy, and downright delicious. In fact, I think my friends come round as much for the food and drink as to see me!!

The ducklings are getting bigger, so hopefully before long I won't have to cage them overnight. The baby chicken still roosts with its 'mum' on top of the door to their run, so that's quite safe. If it's a cockerel it will find a new home on Anglesey with my good friend Bo and her hens, but if it's a hen I'll be keeping it. As far as the ducklings are concerned, the females will be kept but I can't have more than one male so any males will be for the freezer. I can't believe how easy these Muscovy ducks are to keep, and thoroughly recommend them. If you have a field or large garden where they can forage for food, they pretty much look after themselves. All they need is a safe place to spend the night, and a bit of food every day, and they'll just wander around picking up small beasties and eating grass. They don't need a pond, but do appreciate something to bathe in and drink from. They're also supposed to be very tasty, and I can happily eat them knowing they've had a good life and a quick and painless death.

Martin
Wildlife & Countryside Services

Sooner than expected......

It's autumn, the days are shortening, the nights are lengthening, it's getting wetter and colder, the wildlife and the forager are gazing fondly at the bumper harvest of wild fruit, from blackberries and wild plums, to sloes and hips and haws. And then along comes the farmer with his tractor-mounted flail and trims the bloody hedges!!

No wonder the wildlife around here is so drastically depleted from what it was, when farmers are so ignorant of the effect of their actions, that they don't spare a thought for the wildlife, or indeed Mrs Jones and the kids who want to collect blackberries.

Why, oh why don't they wait until late winter, when the berries have all been eaten, and before the hedgerows wake up and start producing their flowers? Is it just that they'll be busy with the lambs then and would rather get it done now while the ground is (relatively) dry? Probably.

There should be a directive telling all farmers that hedges are to be cut in January or thereabouts, and then maybe we'd have some wildlife in our beleagured countryside. Forget predation by magpies, if there's no food, there'll be no wildlife!! Oh well, who needs small birds anyway??

Martin.

I think I'm improving!!

It's less than a year since my last post, so a slight improvement there!! Must get better organised and keep up to date with the blog!!
It's blowing a hoolie outside, and we had to cut some branches off a fallen tree and repair the chicken and duck pens, that had been flattened this morning. Still the chance of another poplar tree coming down, as there are several in the field, and they do tend to drop branches, or worse! Hopefully the copper beech on the edge of the field will be ok (it has a large crack down the trunk below a major fork).
The saga of the livestock continues. I now have a pair of Muscovy ducks, and a clutch of 14 eggs was laid a while ago. I think 10 hatched successfully, but only 8 duklings were seen subsequently. Then, one night, one disappeared, and the following night the same happened, leaving 6. They were then caught and put in a secure cage (actually a badger cage) every night, but last evening I returned home to find one more had disappeared, so now there are 5. I do hope the mother manages to rear the remaining ducklings to adulthood.
As for the chickens, I have 3 hens remaining, including a black bantam from the original group. My large black speckly hen went broody and was sitting on 5 eggs for a while, but unfortunately only one egg was fertile, and that was from the bantam. So, the large hen is raising a little black bantam chick, whose father is the light Suffolk cockerel who patrols the grounds. As for the other hen (copper-coloured speckly), she isn't doing much at the moment, unless she's laying elsewhere. I get maybe 1 egg every 2-3 days from the black bantam, if I'm lucky.
The vegetable production was much better this year, though most of it was a bit late, for various reasons. I have tomatoes in the porch, runner beans are still flowering, peas are starting to seed, and the carrots and beetroots are slowly growing. Together with a few broad beans and chard in the front garden, and potatoes and onions in various containers and old wheelbarrows, I've not done too badly for veg so far! The mulberry tree is covered in fruit, as is the damson tree, and my little plum tree is doing pretty well too. Together with blackberries in my field, and dewberries, and sloes in the hedgerows, as well as my elderberry trees, things are looking pretty good for a big harvest this year. Just need to buy a few gallons of gin and vodka and I can get cracking on the alcoholic beverages for the next year. Might need to get some more demijohns!!
The garden and field have been teeming with wildlife, especially the pond which now has well-established yellow flag iris and bulrushes, and was full of newts, tadpoles and well-patrolled by broad-bodied chaser dragonflies with their beautiful pale blue abdomens. The boundary hedge has been neglected a bit, so was swamped by goosegrass and nettles, and the fallen tree took the top off one of the field maples. Hopefully next year I can keep a closer eye on it.
It's time to start clearing the front garden of veg and cornfield annual wildflowers, then sort things out for the winter. Will leave the borage to keep flowering for a while, as they're so beautiful and the insects love them.
Anyway, hopefully I'll get the next blog entry done before the end of the year!! ;o)

Where did the time go??

Well, it's been an interesting year or so, and some of my initial plans and ideas have not come to fruition yet, some probably never will, but some progress has been made, honest!!
Since I moved in, I have been burgled, lost 5 years work and lots of equipment, had the Land Rover broken into, and not really made much progress with the house. Problems with the bank were starting to finally be overcome when, guess what?? Yep, we seem to have a recession thingy!! Oh, well, onwards and upwards, two steps forward, three steps back!!
At least I have my health!!
Anyway, I think things are improving, though it's probably a bit too early to say, and I have managed to grow some veg in my field (with a little help from Kev & Sue), I have a few hens and a big cock, and my old Land Rover is almost back on the road - perhaps by Christmas!?!
Last spring/summer saw a profusion of wild flowers as the cornfield annual seeds germinated in my front garden again, despite the fact that I was growing potatoes in it!! In 2008 there were wall to wall wild flowers in my front garden, and lots of busy insects. If you want a quick and easy way of getting wild flowers and butterflies, there's nothing as good as a bag of cornfield annual seeds (apart from our wonderful wildflower turf - check out the website for details!!).
Sales of oak badger gates continue to increase, and they have been redesigned to be better and stronger than before, so (probably) the best wooden badger gates on the market.
The website is currently being completely overhauled and rebuilt, and I hope that it will be online by the beginning of December, just in time for you to buy your Christmas presents from it!! There are whole new sections on books and binoculars, amongst others, so keep an eye open for the change - it will be significant but subtle!!
I continue to work with the Flintshire Ranger Service occasionally, as and when they need me and I can fit it in amongst everything else.
Anyway, enough for now, maybe I'll manage to get another post up before the end of the year!!

Martin.

Moving into the new premises

I have now moved into my new home and office, and finally have some space in which to work and develop ideas for habitat creation and enhancement.
The new property was sadly neglected when I moved in just over a week ago, but has a lot of potential. The land surrounding it, though not large, is more than enough for my needs and the needs of the business, and I intend to enhance its value for wildlife, while at the same time showing how it can be achieved as cheaply and easily as possible.
Plans include the creation of a wildlife pond in the field, a native species hedge as a boundary, and a small wildflower meadow and cornfield annual patch in the front garden. Tidying will be kept to a minimum to retain the existing biodiversity, and I will attempt to increase it through careful planting and creation of new habitats.
Watch this space!!