May the catch-up be with you.

SO, yet again it’s been a long time since the last post. Reason for this is simple. Life has got in the way, a wedding, livestock, good weather, DIY, Game of Thrones, work and planting have all contributed to a general amount of laziness when it comes to writing posts for the blog. Due to mounting pressure (Hopwood!! Might get her back by getting her to play Russian roulette with some Correzienne mushrooms in October!!) I’ve finally given over some time to do a bit of a catch up as far as life here at Chez Powell is concerned. I’m afraid it’ll take, yet again, the form of a list and I’ll stick in some photos where I can.

Things we’ve done since Feburary.

Staring with the one that’s taken up most of our time. We’ve planted/sown the vast majority of the garden, including ...flowers. This is unusual as I’m a bit of a plant Nazi. If it doesn’t produce food or directly contribute into the production of food then normally it has no place in my garden. However, some flowers have been planted including some that have no apparent use what so ever other than to look nice. Perhaps I’m going soft in my old age. Less of a plant Nazi and more of a VNP (Vegetable National Party) member. Although I have also planted up some anti insect plants near the door to deter the little buggers from the house. In addition to the “normal” veg there is also some experimental perennial ones in this year. I’ll write a separate one for them if/when they start producing. Lots of experiments in companion planting happening this year as well so I’ll post on that when the pictures look more impressive!

Anti insect plants, geraniums, tansy and rue in pallet planters.

Increased the animal stock. Six ducks, one rabbit litter of six, for new chickens with some eggs currently waiting to hatch in an incubator lent to us by some very nice people who also sold us two new pigs.

This years first rabbit litter.

Some of the new birdies.

Charlotte and Babe

Built more animal housing from pallets

Built a planting bench.....from pallets.

Built more fencing including a little picket style fence for the front of the house (from pallets) as well as pig fencing.

Strengthened up the polytunnel. It took a bit of a battering this winter in the wind so I’ve used, you’ve guessed it, pallets to reinforce some the side supports/hoops.

Acted as vet. Since the arrival of the baby chickens the weather’s been rubbish and they keep getting colds so barely a week goes by without one spending a couple of days in the kitchen under a heat lamp!

A hot chick under a red light!!

This little chap now lives with the guinea pig as he ran away and we couldn't find him for 4 days so he can't go back with mummy.

Lots of work away from the “farm” as well for both of us, which is good as it means we can pay our taxes!!

Yet again I promise to AIM to have less of a time lapse between this and the next post but time simply slips away. Perhaps I’ll fill the time with nice pictures of flowers.

Pallets 101

Today we got a garden/porch chair. It didn’t cost us a thing, bar some screws. I made it from pallets. Lots of this going on at the moment and the internet is full of spectacular things made from them. Some big some small but all great. I even found a man who had covered his allotment in them then used plastic bottles to increase his production space with vertical gardening. Whilst there are lots of ideas there isn’t a lot of info on how to get from pallet to creation. I’ve put some of my creations on before and I’ll try not to repeat too many. Rather than set of instructions on how to make something I thought I’d go for general things I consider when thinking about a pallet project.

Today's creation

Rabbit run in progress

       Quality of pallet. Is it even worth picking it up? If it’s smashed to bits, rotten and generally falling apart then my advice, unless you’re planning a bonfire, don’t bother. It will simply sit in your garden/shed rotting further and taking up space.

       Treatment. Some pallets are treated with some unpleasant chemicals to preserve them. Don’t use these indoors or for chairs, play equipment etc. Use them for gates, fences and things people won’t be spending a lot of time on. Look for heat treated ones for “people used” items. You should be able to find a HT on a spacer to tell you if it’s been heat treated.

Seating area. Looking for a fire pit for the center

       To cut or not cut. Can I make what I want without cutting it up? Pallets are generally very strong. Think about their original purpose. If you start butchering it will it loose its integrity? If you go for cut, where will you cut? I generally try to keep the spacers on if I’m going for this.

      

Dining Table. No cutting required.

Work top. Butchered another pallet to fill in gaps.

  Pull it apart. The trickiest part of adapting a pallet for further use. Sometimes they come apart like a dream, leaving you with 10-15 planks of wood where what you make is limited only by (in my case) skill and imagination. There are several videos on you tube. I go for a combination of masonry chisel, hammer and crow bar to “gently” prise apart rather than the smash the end technique as it leads to more splitting. Sometimes you simply have to give up on a pallet and cut it instead and use smaller pieces joined together.

No right angles allowed mirror.

Window boxes. Ready for summer.

Chicken house.

Number one rule. You need to be adaptable. You probably won’t be able to make the item you’ve found on the net. You won’t have the same size and/or type of pallet.

Bathroom mirror

Pedestal 

 Yours will split when you try to screw them together. The planks will break when you try to pull it apart. Yours will bend and warp. Believe me I’ve had all these problems and more, sometimes resulting in tool throwage! My biggest problem is forgetting the number one rule. But, this is the joy of pallets. Your creation will be unique. No one will have one quite like you. If you want one like everyone else, go to Ikea! Who wants to be the same as everyone else?

What have you made from pallets? Share in the comments below.

Bright eyes, shining like fire!

This blog is inspired by several conversations we’ve had about keeping rabbits for food. Also by an excellent post in a new found blog http://lifeonpigrow.blogspot.fr/ where their most recent post talks about the reality of self sufficient living and how so many give it up. I was going to keep ranting off this blog but I have a feeling it will become one, so apologies! Those of you who know me will probably expect nothing less!

Western society is becoming increasing detached from the realities of food production. Be it super farms in East Anglia or poultry factories across the world. Although this has be highlighted and made fashionable by TV at the moment (Not that that is a bad thing, the seeds of interest were sown for us by the likes of River Cottage and Jimmy’s Farm) but as the life on pig row guys talk about, this lifestyle has become a bit of a fashion statement rather than a actual lifestyle choice. For me personified by the sort of person who; eats in a”green” cafe on a Friday lunchtime, feeds their kids organic yoghurt  and grows some “toms” in the garden but drives around in a 4x4, shops at the big blue and white supermarket and works for BP,  who then will lecture you about how it’s cruel to keep animals for  meat. I’m not going to rant too much (the other blog is for that!) and I don’t want to repeat what the other guys have already put in their blog, so go on over to it to see what they think. However when it actually comes to the nitty gritty of producing your own food everything else gets in the way. I think that we (Western society) need to get back to the reality of food production, crops, dairy and meat. Even if you don’t do it, we should make ourselves much more aware of what goes into it. I'm also not saying we are perfect. It's just something to think about. We give it a lot of thought and try our hardest.

Mum

Dad

Rabbits. We keep them to eat. Yes baby bunnies are cute. It’s great fun to watch them hopping around on the grass in their run (A revelation over here!) and it’s really good to watch them grow up, sex them, make them new runs and so on. But ultimately they are destined for the table.

Day old

Exploring

To us this is a thousand times better than buying a cellophane wrapped chicken from the supermarket. Even the free range labelled ones don’t get as much space and interaction as we give our livestock. 

Our philosophy is to give them as comfortable a life as we can whilst they are alive. There are no additives in their food and they are moved every other day on to fresh grass. Lots of handling and cuddles to make the end as stress free as possible.

Saying hello

As far as dispatch is concerned, no stuffing into wagons to drive miles and miles to be killed in a factory line style operation. A nice cuddle to the house, keep them calm and kill as quickly and painlessly as possible. (I use neck dislocation which is regarded as the most humane). Afterwards we use as much of the animal as possible with only the head,  gall bladder and reproductive organs going in the bin.

As I see it I’ve killed that animal so I can eat it so to not use as much as possible is a waste of a life. Many would argue that being a veggie is better morally. But I’m not one, so I need my meat to come from somewhere. We do buy some meat from the supermarket as we're not fully up and running yet. We are very lucky here that the supermarkets sell very local beef and even give the address of the farm on the counter, how many English supermarket butchers can tell you the field that cow grew up in? The abattoirs are all in the region as well. Other than the beef we are hoping to be pretty much completely self sufficient in meat by this time next year. Goats are on the way this summer for milk and the babies will again be for the table. This means that, yes, we have to deal with the killing bit. Perhaps if more people were involved, or at least aware,  because not everyone has time and space, in the rearing and dispatching of the meat on their table then the respect afforded to livestock would be higher.