First of all we'd like to thank Pete, Nikki, Steve, Yuki, Ian, Jill, and anyone else who helped on the farm over Christmas, especially getting the veg boxes out on the 23rd and 30th December.
New Year's Day (as well as Christmas Day) are the same as any other day if you are a chicken or a plant, so life continues on the farm almost as normal. Except that we closed the shop for the day, but stocked up the gate stall so people could still buy our veg and eggs for their post-festivities de-tox.
We have been hit by heavy rain and relentless strong winds since the middle of October, though have not suffered as badly as other parts of the country. The farm is waterlogged but not flooded, and so far the winds have blown down our swinging roadside sign, the mirror at our blind entrance/exit, and ripped a large hole in the roof of the Mothership polytunnel.
We repaired this rip on New Year's Day, which was like standing under a waterfall on a ladder trying to stick two bits of flapping plastic together in a gale. The repair lasted about two hours. In the meantime we had our flock of 300 chickens to care for, including the most extreme shed-cleaning session to date - two people, three sheds, three hours, 50mph winds, and 16 days of poop to shovel.
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| Steve collecting eggs in torrential rain. |
It wasn't all bad however, as we got some nice work done in the shelter of the intact polytunnels.
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| Steve digging over the old celery beds. |
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| Steve sowing trays of sugar snap peas - hoping for an early harvest. |
Many thanks to Steve for keeping me company through the day - and to Ziv from Jerusalem for arriving in the evening to join the team!
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