Rabbit Proof Vegetable Patch
We are very excited that at last we have the start of our vegetable patch! If you regularly follow out blog you will know that the Wildlife likes to strike back, so we have had to create Fort Knox to stop the fluffy bunnies (!) thinking we have created them a handy larder-cum-restaurant.
Willow Coppice Planted
Woo hoo! We have finished planting all of the Willows. In total there were 198!
In theory this means we should (in 5 years!) have our first seasoned wood to burn. Who knows, by then we might even have a wood burner or two to burn it in 
Willow Coppice Planting
At last after weeks of hard work and slog, and contending with snow and ice we can finally start planting up the Willow Coppice!
It was as ever a family affair and the kids loved pushing the willow ‘twigs’ into the holes and sinking in the cane beside it to hold up the rabbit guard. My Mum was also on hand to help dig and plant so we managed quite a production line, and got over half of the 200 trees planted.
Van Crash
Thanks to blizzard conditions yesterday we had an unusual visitor to The Farm, attempting to arrive through our hedgerow! Fortunately no one was hurt, and it was brought to my attention by a queue of vehicles forming where usually you don’t see any.
It caused a few problems for passing traffic, with a coach and lorry having to reverse and take alternative routes. Eventually someone arrived to tow the van out. The van appeared to be un-damaged, shame I cannot say as much for the hedgerow! They did not hang around to ‘exchange details’.
Short Rotation Coppicing - Rows
We have always aspired to recycle as much as we can and ideally be self-sufficient. We seem to have made a slow start on the latter, but at last our plan to create our own coppice to sustain us with firewood has begun!
Today, following Tam’s careful plan, we marked out the 12 rows varying between 12 and 16 meters long. Not as easy as it sounds as we first had to shift tons of sand/soil etc which was in the way! Now the rows are marked out we need to get the turf/meadow cut so we can strip it off.
