And there was life!!

I can’t believe that it has only been a month since my last blog as so much has happened.

Using some of the scrap wood from around the place we have constructed a raised bed. It was filled with soil from around the garden and then filled with some of the many onions waiting to be planted out. This is part of my cunning plan to confuse the rabbits by masking the smell of other plants with a ring of onions. We aren’t really expecting many rabbits in the polytunnel but as the weather warms up, the huge sliding end doors seem to be more open than closed and it would only take one opportunist rabbit to devastate all our hard work. We have since added tomato plants, beetroot, radishes and spring onions to the bed. But of course, once you start planting things you need to start watering them too. We always had planned to have water in the polytunnel so that seemed to be the obvious next job to do.

The First Tunnel polytunnel came with an overhead spray water system which is fed by the mains. This is a necessity as we need good water pressure to achieve a good spray coverage. Pipes run along both side via the cropping bars and each quarter has an isolation valve to control which areas receive water. So we fitted the sprayers over our new raised bed. This is when we found the spray shadow is rather bigger than the bed and very quickly pots and containers populated the area in the middle of the tunnel. Two more raised beds have been created from some very nice wood purchased for the job but we now have the problem of finding enough soil/compost to fill them with.

Light Sussex and one Legbar egg

Now I don’t really think we can call ourselves smallholders without livestock. We have had chickens for seven years now but were looking to expand our flock. I was fortunate to receive an incubator for my birthday in March and the very next day it was filled with some fertilised eggs which we sent for in the post. I fancied Light Sussex hens so six were duly deposited into the incubator along with a blue Legbar egg from our girls, fertilised by Henry the cockerel. We waited, we candled and after 21 days three of the seven eggs including the blue egg hatched out. One of the fabulous things about Light Sussex is that they are auto sexing which means you can tell what has hatched out by the chickens colouring. 

Chicks in the brooder

We had another two cockerels. More excitingly, you can do the same with Legbars and the blue egg had produced a hen, which we have called Henrietta.  After a brief spell in the incubator, they were moved to the brooding cage which we created from a dog crate placed in one of the spare bedrooms. They have now moved onto outside in one of our spare chicken runs and are big and very white.

Lambs in a dog crate

Around the same time, we had an exciting email from the Essex Smallholders Group that Kit Speakman would have some orphaned easy care lambs up for grabs. Now this was an opportunity too good to miss. I phone Kit and placed an order for three lambs. I also ordered bottles and ewe replacement milk to arrive all in good time. It was around the Easter weekend  but the postal service let us down horrendously with the delivery of the order for lamb care items. Kit was very understanding but we came to a decision that we would drive to find the necessary items for sale and then pick up our lambs. This all happened in a bit of a blur and we were suddenly in charge of three lambs!

Lambs enjoying some company outside

Memories of bottle feeding babies came flooding back with Kit’s words still echoing in my ears that you don’t need to feed them at night as you could get them into the habit of expecting a night feed. It also soon became clear that I couldn’t feed three by myself and the family were recruited as extra hands when it came to feeding times. We collected them and then subsequently kept the lambs in yet another dog crate (very useful things) until it became clear that these lambs were growing fast. I purchased a heat lamb in case we needed it but also purchased an indoor sheep pen from Solar Recyclables. This is a clip together pen made from recycled plastic. It came with a heat lamb fixing and it all very cleanable. Superb! The lambs were moved from the crate to the pen and seem much happier. It also soon became clear that we were going to need straw, lots of straw. Luckily the homestead already receives a hay delivery from a local supplier and an order was placed for twenty bales of straw. Sorted!!

Ronnie the lamb meeting Petra the cat

All of this seems ages ago now. The lambs have consumed 20kg of ewe milk replacement. They are too heavy to carry around and are walked to their outside space using dog harnesses and leads. I think we may have found the new sport of lamb racing!Their tails have fallen off and testicles have been found dotted around the place. We have created a safe enclosure for them outside and they are now spending hours outside although they haven’t managed over night yet. We recently discovered that at night we have a predator entering our land. The hen house took an attack which resulted in two dead hens. The back door of the house had been ripped from its hinges and bits of bluebell were left strewn around the area. One of the legbars was completely gone. We would like to think that Henry the cockerel was on hand to fend off any further attacks but on further investigation, our attacker was most definitely a badger who only attacked hen houses for food. The bluebell had been partially eaten and he had taken the legbar for his young. It’s all part of the circle of life etc, but still annoying. The hen house was duly fortified and the electric fence, which was in place, is now fully operational.  All this said, I am reluctant to leave the lambs outside until they can defend themselves.

We have also had our first harvest from the polytunnel and a very proud moment it was for all concerned. It was two long pointy radishes which didn't go very far but were a welcome addition to the menu, but from small beginning ...

  

And then one Monday morning ...

Door frames and base rail fitted

Things have moved along apace since my last blog. Only working at the weekends, you find that you are restricted by the weather and being in such an exposed site, it was invariably windy. We managed to get the door frames up and secure at both ends and the side and base rails fitted. The rails work as a floating system being fixed to brackets on the rib poles.

Side coverings on a not so windy day

Suddenly one Monday morning, hubby returned from his usual pilgrimage to the train station as there weren't any trains for the next few hours. Coincidentally, there was also much lighter wind. After a few phone calls to work, he arranged the day off and suddenly we were fitting coverings to the polytunnel. First up, the side plastic was fitted to the rails on both sides. Next green ventilation netting was fitted over that, again to the side rails. It was getting exciting! Finally the huge piece of plastic was unfurled on the grass, 48 x about 30 feet. We fed this up and over the ribs where it was fixed to the side rails on both sides. Next came the easing of the fullness around the doors, something which is usually done when fitting sleeves to a shirt, but it is basically the same thing. We had a polytunnel ... although it was more like a wind tunnel by the following weekend.

Main cover on but not trimmed 

With the brisk North wind whistling through the tunnel, the next job was to cover and fit the doors along with finishing the plastic on the north and south ends. The floating side rails were movable to provide some tension in the main polytunnel plastic. Clever but hard work as you had to undo the clamps holding the rails to the ribs, push the rail down and do the clamps back up. At one point that was taking three of us, two pushing and one doing. The excess plastic was trimmed back to the side rails, neating it all up.

So much better with doors

The side ventilation system comprises the netting and a neat roller system. The bottom of the plastic was attached to a 48 foot metal pole and then rolled up at one end.  I was amazed that it worked so well. This lets the air in through the netting which acts as a wind break. With the bottom of the side plastic being attached to a base rail, this system was installed on both sides. And there we have it ... a polytunnel  - completed ... well nearly.

The poly tunnel rises!!

When we left our house of 15 years in Tillingham, we left behind a very nice greenhouse and an equally nice shed. It was a conscious decision based on the fact that they had stood firm for most of that time and removing them would probably seen them fall apart during the move so we decided to leave them for the new owners. Both the greenhouse and the shed had fitted their space well and were the biggest that we could get, so when it came to thinking about something to have at our new space, thoughts turned towards a poly tunnel. Burnham marshes are very exposed and its virtually always windy. Whatever we had would have to stand whatever the weather would bring but would also provide us with a 'controlled' growing space. A lot of research was undertaken into poly tunnels and we decided to get a 16 x 48 foot poly tunnel from First Tunnels. It is the smallest of their commercial tunnels but it is engineered to a higher standard than the domestic tunnels. The order was placed with as many attachments and gizmos as were available because we are probably only going to do this once. Shortly afterwards the 'poly tunnel of a thousand pieces' arrived. 

The site was cleared and the position of
the poles measured and roughly marked.

Having had some experience of flat pack building, the first thing to do is familiarize oneself with all the parts .... or at least their existence. There were straight poles, curved poles, fat poles and thin poles, brackets, bags of bolts, wood, pipes, polythene, netting, screws and nails. The first thing to be done after the site had been cleared and made as flat as possible, was to measure, measure, measure the positions of the 18 foundation poles. These were just shoved into the ground at their approximate position ready to be dug out.

One of the 18 foundation poles and plates being buried.

Each of these had to be dug out and a pole complete with brackets and fixing plate buried into the ground. It was much easier to say then do and it took several back-breaking weekends to complete. The position of each was measured and checked over and over again to ensure they were in exactly the right place. We also checked that they were the same height as all this would affect whether the rest of the components would fit together or not.

The rib poles are finally up and fixed to the foundation poles

One exciting day in February we were finally ready to start erecting the curved part of the poly tunnel. Nine ribs were slotted into the foundation poles and fixed together. We could finally see just how big this structure was going to be. It was much taller than I have envisaged but then there were many more poles still be added. One of the really clever things about the way these poles go together is the fixing screw with starts life as a drill bit but once it has penetrated the metal become a screw to hold the poles together. Genius!

Triple ridge poles, crop bars and storm braces to give rigidity

Did I mention that this tunnel was over engineered? The next poles to be deployed were the three ridge poles which connect the ribs together. These were aligned visually as they would be seen from inside the tunnel and would be a constant irritation if not straight. Stretching across the top of the each of the internal ribs were added cropping bars and storm braces, giving the structure more rigidity and places to hang baskets. These were connected to the ridge poles with even more poles and diagonal poles added to the front and rear sections. 

Staging down the right hand side, but no top

We had the option of staging along the right hand side and now was the time to add that. We didn't fit the end pieces as we felt that would impede the construction of the doors and can easily be fitted later. One of my criticisms of this tunnel is that the top of the staging is not supplied ... why not? Whatever you find to put on top of the staging will have to be 6 foot long to reach from pole to pole. They do provide brackets to fix the top to the staging supports, whatever one chooses to use. 

Working with wood now to construct the doors

With most of the poles now used, we have finally come to the doors. The tunnel runs north south so we have opted to have sliding doors (its very windy) at each end. The doors come as packs of pre-cut wood and each one had to be joined with long bolts and the joints strengthened with nail plates. There were four to do but it did mean that we had the luxury of working in some shelter for a while. Once these were constructed, the next job was to construct the door frames. 

Door frame added to the North end 

These did require some cutting of the lengths of wood with more digging as each door post was concreted into the ground and supported by more clamps and cross beams as metal met wood. We started with the north end doors as these will be probably opened less as the access will be through the south end doors. 

Two more beds outside the tunnel

Whilst all this has been going on, two additional beds have been measured, marked and dug from the ground to the left of the tunnel. These are my rabbit experiment. The site has a rampant rabbit problem and I am trying to deter the rabbits by growing onions and garlic to hide the fact that cabbages are growing in the beds. They don't like onions and I am hoping that the smell will put them off. I am pleased to say that today, all the digging has now been completed and the planting of onions continues in earnest to get them established before the cabbages come out. Without the poly tunnel being ready I have had to adopt the 'table by the window in the lounge' method for propagation of seeds. The red flags mark corners and other hazards.

Next job in the poly tunnel construction: south door frame and side ventilation netting

We have our reasons

In this blog I want to look at the reasons for wanting to start a smallholding. 

It is a dream I share with my husband, although it is probably more like a passion, that we have become more and more reliant on someone else making our food available for us to buy. We have very little control over the food other than a choice of which sort to buy and from which shop but it is technically all the same, with organic available at a premium. Whilst we are very lucky in this country to have the Red Tractor logo to help us be aware of the origins of our food, it isn't on everything. I always try to buy locally produced food and then British. As a kid growing up in Stevenage, food came from Tescos, bacon came from Holland and lamb came from New Zealand. It was something we were told and it wasn't until much later that I began to ask, but don't we have pigs and sheep in this country? It was a very effective marketing campaign. I was disgusted much later to find that beef routinely comes from Uruguay. Really?? How can that be energy efficient? I have become aware of food miles. We are fortunate enough to be awake at 5.45am, listening to Radio 4, Farming Today and a constant barrage of stories from struggling farmers who have to compete with lamb from New Zealand and pork from everywhere, tumbling dairy prices, horse meat in burgers, pests and diseases plaguing their very existence. Instead of making me want to steer well clear, it has made me want to find out more.

Growing up in the 60s in a new town was far removed of the war time childhoods of my parents. They were both from London and evacuated to the countryside for their own safety. Looking into the lives of people during the war, I was fascinated with the Dig for Victory campaign whereby people were encouraged to grow vegetables wherever they could as a source of food. We were an island under siege as much of the food we imported was being attacked by the enemy. People did what they could. In the 70s the Good Life appeared on our tellies. Our household were regular viewers as Tom and Barbara dug up their suburban garden to become a smallholding. It looked completely insane at the time but it was all setting the seed of things to come. My parents duly dug up the lawn and grew potatoes and tomatoes for a year or two before it was turned back to lawn.

During our first residency here 18 years ago I did have a go at growing some vegetables, beetroot and onions I seem to recall. It was good and I also remember it being the time of my first attempts at jam making, which were very runny. It was a poor attempt but it was a start. There was also a problem with rampant rabbits something which we plan to address.

Our sheltered garden in Tillingham with
greenhouse, abundance of fruit trees and covered chicken run

When we moved out to Tillingham one of the first things to fall through our letter box was a Flower Show schedule. It was early February and July seemed an age away. When the day grew closer there was a flurry of organised activity as huge marquees were erected and plots marked out on the village playing field. I found a few handicraft items to put into the competition being held in one of the marquees and to my astonishment, I won .... half a cup!! It was more of a cup than I had ever won before but I was hooked. In the subsequent years I never had to share a cup again and won most of the cups available in the handicraft marquee from cooking to photography, handicraft and wine making. In the other marquee were the veg and flowers ....... I managed to win the vegetable cup a few times but the flower cup was to allude me. 

Also during this time Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall started his River Cottage series. It was the modern day Good Life. Here was someone who knew nothing about the countryside turning his back on city life and attempting to scratch out an existence, in front of the cameras, with his only skills being as an excellent chef. It was all very contagious. The Jimmy's Farm a little later was pretty much the same thing. The Victorian Farmer, Wartime Farmer and Edwardian Farmer were three series which fascinated me more, especially the Wartime Farmer as it wasn't that far removed from where we are today with the main change being machines to do the hard labour, rather than heavy horses. In these series three historians attempt to live out a year in the life of farmer set at various times. Superb.

About two years ago we heard of the East Essex Smallholders Group. Their meetings were fairly local and monthly. It was at a crucial point for me as I was also thinking of joining the Womens Institute but unfortunately, the meetings clashed on the same day, so we opted for EESG. They are a friendly bunch with a few familiar faces so I felt immediately at home.They have been a constant source of inspiration with Apple Days, venison butchery, pig and lambing talks, farm visits, country shows and an excellent supply of Norfolk Bronze turkeys. 

So we were set. We decided to create a smallholding ... somewhere we control what goes into our food, what kind of life our animals have and what they eat. We have had chickens for a few years which have provided us with eggs. They have been hybrids, ex-batts and pedigree birds. They have been free from fox attacks (thus far) and  

diseases. We can do this. I can grow vegetables, turn them into wine, jam, chutney and cider. We can keep chickens. We visited the Suffolk Show for several years checking out breeds of sheep and goats and I have been on courses about keeping sheep and goats. Brilliant. Where? Fortunately my inlaws were still living in the remote farmhouse just outside Burnham on Crouch. They have spent a lot of time and energy making the house more energy efficient and lower maintenance over the years. They also have 2.5 acres that they were prepared to divide. They have two horses and the space has been divided so that they still have grazing. I have no interest in horses as I find them a little scary and having had a few incidences with horses, tend to keep my distance. With their advancing years, it seemed the obvious choice to move in with them and use the space to realise our dream.

Our first step is to recreate what we can do already but in our new space, on a much bigger scale. We have our Mission Statement ..... to be self-sufficient in food and energy, and to have as little impact on water usage as possible. We had photo voltaic panels at our old house. Luckily at our new house, they were installed around the same time as ours so benefiting from the higher feed in tariff. Also we have from a small wind turbine at our new space. It is always windy here so that's paying its way. To cover the water aspect of our mission statement, we plan to add rainwater tanks to every down pipe. With a huge demand from the fruit and veg we hope to cover this using rainwater. Phew!! Lots to do. Better get started.

From small ideas ....

I have been blogging for a short while about knitting and weaving and such like, when we were fortunate enough to move house to live with my inlaws. They had moved to a remote house just outside Burnham on Crouch, Essex nearly 18 years ago and at the time, we moved in with them too. Things didn't work out then. We had two children under 5 and two dogs which didn't get on with the inlaws dogs, etc. and after two years, we moved out. But now we are back. The children are now much bigger, the two dogs have passed away and been replaced by one dog, four cats and six chickens. The oldest of the cats was a young cat when we moved out so he has returned too. 

Henry the light Sussex cockerel

So this blog will be about our plans for the space we now have. During our time away we have learned how to make sausages, bacon, cheese, wine, cider and butter. We want to use our space to graze animals for milk, fleece and meat. We are blessed by a small orchard to which we have already added 12 cider trees. We have also been given Henry, a light Sussex cockerel who has sent the girls running each morning. They were starting to look a bit fat but he will get them trim and fit.

During our time away, we joined the East Essex Smallholders Group who have been and constantly are a great inspiration and support for us. These are like minded people who are themselves at various stages of smallholding. I would suggest anyone who is looking to do something like this to seek our their local group.

Plans are already afoot for the erection of a polytunnel. We have a large space to play with and so we opted for a 16 x 48 foot polytunnel from First Tunnels. This is a commercial sized tunnel but it comes with industrial fittings - something we will need in our exposed, windswept location. More of that in future blogs. 

So follow me on a journey of blood, sweat and tears to our smallholding dream. There will be laughter, there will be mistakes and there will definitely be sausages and bacon.