Patience exhausted, polytunnel loaded. 🍅🍈🫑🌶️🍆🥒

Pair of wild ducks has taken to visiting the last few days, and the female appears to have some kind of unusual black-and-white feather pattern and a dark bill. She's wild duck size rather than chunky like our domestic Orpingtons. Anyone have any idea what variety/breed of duck she might be?

Teenage chickens have finally acquired enough feathers to be evicted from the house (phew! 🐔💨🤢) Minds were duly blown at the discovery of sky, grass, weather etc. These have the honour of being the first animals living on our field. Minds will be blown further when the geese arrive.

Goose lodge kit arrived today. Quality looks great pre-assembly (build is for a day with another pair of hands available!) But got the wheels on the base, so could use it as a massive dolly to heave the weightiest sections uphill to the field. Pleased to have that done. 🥵

Tomatoes, cukes and chillies being introduced to the concept of "outside" today. Hopefully toughening them up for when my patience runs out and I inevitably get them in the polytunnel too early...

April dramas continue with an escaped duck, taking full advantage of my focus on bees this afternoon. 🙄 Now retrieved, and escape route identified.

Had I not been somewhat distracted yesterday I might have considered that a 20°c day in April might induce swarming. 🐝 Very weird one this, as the cluster formed underneath the hive.

Chick growth continues. Almost a month, and the last few days their necks have grown significantly. They are now very lanky: almost a full covering of small feathers on the body, but a fluffy chick head. The pace of development is amazing to watch, and these are a "slow-growing" traditional breed!

One of our Bramley apples has died. Not particulary old, but lots of rotty bits & always had low vigour. My attempt at topworking it last year was obviously the final indignity, and it gave up completely. So, got our fencing contractor to push the remains of it over with his digger.

April. Time to kick my little potted calamondin out of the conservatory, and get that small handful of Maris Piper maincrop spuds in the ground, to complete this year's trio of classic Cambridgeshire potato varieties.

Nice little army of plants growing on well on my propagation table. They will be shifted into the polytunnel over the next month.

Field fencing is finally complete! It has taken a fair bit of clearance to get robust boundaries in place, but we can now rebuild habitat in sensible places balancing our use of the land and nature's! First step: species-rich grass seed chucked around on bare bits/former bramble thicket.

Another couple of pallets of logs shifted down to the house and stacked for final drying and (as this afternoon) a bit of logburner to take the chill off early Spring nights. Mostly ash, so top quality stuff. 🔥

Nothing to do with smallholding really (apart from the duck eggs used to make it) but I am rather proud of this black forest gateau I've put together this morning. Really must get some cherry trees planted- maybe in the field... 🤔

Lovely spring day here. Pear blossom, daffs, euphorbia and primroses all having a fine old time.

Chick HQ has received an upgrade. Lots of pin feathers coming through now. Full of energy, lots of chest bumping and cheeping.

Put cat out as she was being annoying. Cat came back in through window, then posed by the door I exited her through, looking outside with fake surprise, then at me: "I thought you put a cat out there, human. Where's that cat now, eh? eh?"

Spring equinox seems like an auspicious day to get my first and second early potatoes in. Maris Bard and Maris Peer, not grown either before so let's see how they like our plot.

Beans and sausages for dinner. Fantastic homegrown/dried Czar beans. Give us a couple of years, we'll be making the chorizo too.

Our kindly smallholding has self-set lots of hawthorn and cherry plum seedlings which are ideal for adding to gappy bits in the hedge I planted a year or so ago. Quick lift and shift, job done.

Sunny and warm today, so beesuit on and a bit of hive-wrangling. We've lost one colony over winter (as suspected), so removed that one to clean it down and worked out the logistics for shoggling the spare bees we have in nucleus hives around to fill the gap over the next few days.

Morning housekeeping done; food already being thrown around.

Chicks have pretty much doubled in size and growing wing feathers (and they know it!)

Creme Patissiere. Custard is a useful recipe for the smallholder with too many eggs, as is the fatless sponge it is destined to go inside. Rhubarb roasting in the oven too, of course.

Crown Prince squash have stored particularly well this year. Harvested in October, my final 2 are still sound 5 months later. Roasting some up today. 😋

Leftover gammon joint became risotto. Leftover risotto became arancini. There will be no leftover arancini.

Entering the positive sort of poultry-related lockdown tomorrow, as our first batch of incubated eggs is due to hatch this weekend. Quick candle this evening: definite movement visible in some of them, so hopefully chicks will be with us by Monday! 😬🐣

Final day of clearing for fencing project done today, after a hiatus due to soggy ground. First new posts going in tomorrow! Has been a long time coming/in the planning so really exciting. 😊

Also peach, almond and saffron cake. Knew it was a good idea to freeze some of our peaches.

9 and a bit litres of rhubarb wine, in its second-to last vessel.

Veg area shenanigans today, reusing some of the non-rotted tops of the old half-round fencing removed from the field. Also, a 1m long metal tunnel for beans or squash, done on the cheap with three of the cheapest arch kits I could find (£12 each), connected with cableties.

One sunny day yesterday and look what happened to the tomato seedlings which were scarcely visible the day before! Fortunately they can be potted on (today!) a touch deeper.

Mr Fantastic is getting into the spring spirit, which, alongside stomping all over the hens, seems to involve pecking our feet at every opportunity and demonstrating his strength by violently picking up small twigs.

Superb news: my backup crown of Laxton's #1 Bedfordshire rhubarb has a shoot! Was kindly provided with this rare variety by a national collection, so was gutted when drought and a misjudgement of how much watering was needed did for the first crown I put in. Will be watching this one like a hawk!

As the ash from Bonfire, Devourer Of All Things, originally created 10 or more days ago, is still relightable by a little waggle with a garden fork, I have been getting some other big orchard pruning/clearing bits done, as clearup is currently somewhat easier than usual. #twistedfirestarter 🔥🔥🔥

Started seed potatoes chitting today, although these look good to go already. Shame it's February! Growing a Cambridge Plant Breeding Institute duo this year: Maris Bard (first early) and Maris Peer (second). If I grew maincrops, I could have done the excellent Maris Piper to complete the set!

Rain has temporarily stopped play on Operation Fence as, after a month of it, bits of our land are holding so much water they are basically swampland. Expected land to get a bit churned, but there are limits! Need a few days for everything to drain out a bit before the heavy machinery returns.

Rainy day today, so setting up Robochicken for - hopefully - our first batch of chicks in 21 or so days' time.

Also, few weeks off this, but before I get onto my poultry supplier, any smallholder types happen to know of surplus rare breed geese in need of a new home (with a brand-new savings-busting fence system 😬💷🔥)? Particularly interested in Brecon Buff, Pilgrim, West of England or Czech breeds.

Day 2 of field clearance, and we have entered a world (1) without boundaries, (2) with bonus mud, and (3) with the Mega-Bonfire, Devourer Of All Things. Has been a blast working alongside an experienced groundworker and fencer. Timber has arrived, kick off for getting it in is Monday!

Last push on the field before digger arrives tomorrow. Managed to dismantle 90% of the large willow which was perilously leaning at 45° over where we need to fence. However may also have broken my much-abused pole-saw. 😔 Wasn't able to check due to dusk and heavy rain forcing a quick retreat!

More field-bashing this afternoon. 4 elders, innumerable damson saplings felled, and some of the old posts removed. Bases so rotten, they just needed a gentle push, but top bits sound for reuse as bed edging or similar. Bit more tidying up tomorrow, then should be kick-off on the project... 😬

Sowed this morning: Malaga F1 melon, Aisla Craig, Blue Beauty, Dívčí Prs and Roma VF tomatoes, Ohnivec and Paper Lantern chillies. Backup De Monica broadies, as overwintered ones haven't enjoyed the sogginess. Also, outside, onion sets Karmen, Pink Panther and Stuttgarter Giant.

Judging by the ridiculous state of sogginess our cat Kali was in when returning this morning, suspect she may have fallen/jumped into the pond. 🤦 Cats can, of course, swim, but hope it was an accident rather than a new habit, as there are now wet cat-shaped marks on various bits of furniture...🙄😼

Getting serious about chillies, peppers aubergines, melon and toms this year. Heat mat and plastic box propagator is go!

More bramble whacking today. Basically done now, but have encountered a further challenge in the form of a large leaning willow over the last brambles, with its trunk at 45° & questionable anchorage. Likely to need dismantling, as appears to be upright only due to three unconvincing branches. 😬

"Time to get on with it", said the cherry plum.

Marmalade morning, followed by a heavy afternoon of bramble clearing and canopy lifting in the field, getting it ready for fencing. Hopeful that the evening might include beer.

Not homegrown, because, as looking out of the window at the wet sludge will demonstrate, here is not Seville. But, tis the season, so time to do a bit of marmalade, perhaps even some honey marmalade, given that is one homegrown ingredient we do have. 🐝🍯🍊

Advice sought from fellow veg growers: looking for a truly excellent standard-sized (i.e. closer to golf ball than tennis ball) red tomato variety to grow this year. Flavour more important than yield. Suggestions welcome!