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Now that we've started harvest the rain has started to pour down. We have nearly finished cutting the oil seed rape, and our oat and spring barley crops are just about ready to be cut as well. The work is rapidly building up but the weather is not playing the game. August should be a really busy time of year for us because as soon as the crops are taken off the fields the work starts immediately preparing the ground for the next crop to be planted.
We have already spread one field with compost to feed the soil and increase the biology in the soil in the longer term this work should enable us to be less reliant on compound fertilisers like Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. The prices of these items have gone through he roof in the last year so we have been looking for alternative solutions. Its not just the price that is an issue with this form of fertiliser it is also the form that it comes in. When I apply any of these nutrients to the soil I would like to be adding more than just Phosphate of Potash, there are a whole host of other nutrients that soil needs to maintain its health. I prefer to feed my soil with Phosphate and potash that comes with other nutrients along side, this benefits the soil by buffering the effect of adding the nutrient, this is called a complex fertiliser, as apposed to a bag of just Potassium (murate of potash) which is called a compound fertiliser.
We are also going to use some sewage sludge which will not be a popular decision amongst the local village of Hannington because it smells. when I start applying the sludge I will get all sorts of phone calls from people complaining about the smell. This puts me in a hard position because I want to use the product on my soil because if feel that it is an extremely useful food containing a whole array of nutrients. It will increase the quality of the soil tremendously and I will be able to reduce the amount of Nitrogen fertiliser that I will need to apply as well as having a good few years worth of Phosphate fertiliser. I am also helping Thames Water with their issues of getting rid of all the waste that it produced in the area, preventing it from being dumped in land fill. On the other hand I still have to live with all the locals, and get on with them. I have chosen to try the sludge this year and have chosen fields that are down wind of the village, I have also made sure that I can have it cultivated into the ground as soon as possible after it is spread helping to bury the smell in the soil. When I get complaints I am going to ask them to refer to this article, and add comments at the bottom this way we can all have an open and frank conversation about the issues so who's going to be first?...
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Back from Honeymoon and ready to go |
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Firstly a huge big thank you from the Misses and Me to everybody that came to our wedding and made it such a wonderful day for us both. We had a great day, but it went a bit too quickly we were thinking of renewing our vows again next week just so that we could get to see everyone again. I've seen a good deal of pictures, and as soon as I work out how to do it I'll put them up in an album on this site.
We went off for a great honeymoon in Italy where we stayed in a friends house in the hills outside Turin. The weather was great and we were able to sit back and take it all in, it was great to stop for a while so that we could get ready for the great harvest campaign of 2008. We came back last Wednesday evening when I carried Shaz over the threshold of our new home which everybody has been busy on for a while now. Its mostly been Mark's job to get on with and he's done really well fitting the bathroom and kitchen as well a tiling the whole lot. Dougie has been busy putting up decking all round the outside as well so now it's set to be a proper home.
We tried cutting a spot of rape today to see what the moisture was and it was still to high as i'd expected so we're going to leave off that till Monday which is great as it means that I can get on with building some bits and bobs in the new house.
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Harvest supper 31st October |
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After many hours of deliberating over black pudding and coffee this morning we have come up with a date and plan for this years harvest supper. Every year I try to get as many members of the local farming community to a social get together we call it the harvest supper. The harvest supper is a long standing tradition among farms, and as an estate we used to have our own harvest supper for just our staff. In the hay day we had up-to 100 people come to our supper, but as we restructured our numbers dwindled. We were left with the choice of having a smaller harvest supper for our smaller staff numbers or realising that we were in a similar situation to many of our neighbours we could all get together and have a joint harvest supper, this is what we did. I think that it has been a great sucsess and I find it really thrilling to hear how all the people that come chat away to each and have made good friends especially as we are talking about people that have been working next door to each other for years, without knowing one another.
This year we have decided that we'll go back to an earlier format with an inter-farm skittles competion a meal and a few drinks. Hopefully we can get a good following to this great event, please save the date and spread the word. the people to chat to about this are Me (in no order), Jim Casson, Ian Margate, Kieth Pegdon, James Hewatson-Brown, Richard Gibbins ans Joe White. Sorry about the spelling! I'll be sending letters out in the next week to our list of farm managers in the area, if you get missed out don't take it personally just let someone know that you want to be included in our list.
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I'm not sure how many people read my little messages, but I'll keep them up any way. If you are an avid reader, then I'd love it if you let me know just by adding a little comment to show you care! At them moment I'm busy, I'm busy for loads of reasons, mainly because of the big day on the 5th of July not too far away, but loads to do. We're moving into a place on the farm once we tie the knot trouble is the place needs completely redoing before I get the stamp of approval. So we're busy up there gutting the place ready for the big face lift to start. the first spot of paint will go on tomorrow which is good news.
At the same time we're busy building a new bit of grain-store ready to take all this extra grain we need to grow to feed the growing population, this is part of our ongoing development plan to modernise the grain-storage on the farm. It will be the 3rd bit of flooring we've put down in as many years. We've also been hoping to erect a few extra grain bins its been on the books for 3-4 years now. While on the farm I'm trying to get the machinery ready for harvest before my wedding so that when I return form honeymoon we'll be ready to go.
Next week Mr T is off to get ready for His daughter's wedding to be held at Pitt Hall Barn of course, so we'll be a man down on the farming front, a bit of a problem with only one man working that side of things anyway! Dad is also going away for a couple of weeks to prepare himself for the onset of harvest, and a wedding.
That's about it really all good fun though! In-case anybody is missing the photo of the day there is a good reason for its demise...
... I ran the camera over with a tractor! So If you have any please send them in.
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Pitt Hall comes to life with a frisky summer fate |
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Oh What a weekend. On Saturday we celebrated Kate's 30th Birthday. Kate is my middle sister, one of three that I've been lucky enough to grow up with! She shared the party with a school friend, they had invited loads of people from all over the place, we had around 150 people turn up to the barn. The theme was Frisky summer fate. The girls did an excellent job of theming the Barn, and the yard in a summer fate style. There was bunting everywhere, along with stalls for tea and cake Jelly and Ice cream, skittles and splat the rat. Most of the guests turned up in fancy dress of some kind from vicars, to WI, and for a while we even had the only gay in the village, which proved a bit of an eye opener!
The Finishing touch however was the catering this was done by my younger sister Victoria who is studying at a fancy catering school in London, and me. The only thing I'm good for is a roast so it fell upon me to cook a roast for 150 people while Vicky to charge in the kitchen on all the green stuff! I discovered the only way to cook a roast for 150 people is on a spit, so that's what I did. I'd built a spit roasting kit for the Hannington country fair last summer so I used that. This is not just any ordinary kit this one is massive I reckon that I could cook 6 lambs on it, and with a bit more welding I could do 12. I was looking forward to doing this as its proper natural instinct cooking with fire to play with and whole animals to cook and carve up. In the end we cooked a lamb and two deer all locally sourced and well hung to get the best from the meat. When it came to serving the food it was too dark to do outside so me and Bandy (Kate's boy friend who was helping me) carried the meat into the barn and carved it up. It looked amazing the DJ played the meat in with "I've got a brand new combine harvester", then he arranged the lighting so that all the food was lit up, the guests just stood back in amazement.
After the food came the dancing and drinking. I had been of to my beer supplier and brought a cask of ale which we ran through the beer pumps on the bar, and we'd set up a water trough so that all the guest could put their drinks in to keep them cool. The DJ had an amazing light rig which worked really well on the white wall of the barn. The dancing carried on till 5 or 6 o'clock. Then came the shock of the big clear up the next day luckily there were plenty of people around to help and the barn was back in order in no time (it didn't feel like that at the time though).
At the same time we had two groups of people using the estate for their walks, firstly was the RSPCA Charity walk on Saturday which apparently was a huge success. Then on Sunday there was the Rogation walk which went around the Hannington parish. I love it when the estate gets enjoyed by so many people, it really make it all worth it.
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