Allotment. Getting ready for Winter

Covering

The runner beans ran away with me this year, getting to the top of eight foot poles and producing so much.  But today (29th October) it was time for them to come down.  I cut them off the poles and mixed them into rotting wood chip and have covered with black plastic for the winter.  Later on if I have time I may spread some farm manure.  This should all rot down nicely for spring planting.  You can also see in the picture the Chard is still doing well and will provide winter greens for us.

Next year I shall grow less, as although I like runner beans, there comes a point when I can't face yet another meal with them in.  I also learnt the hard way this year that you have to pick them young or they go stringy very quickly.  I will also try a stringless variety rather than a heritage variety next year.

First Nuc sales

 I have always enjoyed queen rearing and building up new colonies, so I suppose it was a natural progression to start selling Nucs.  This year we have four spare nucs for sale.  The first two went without any advertising!

The first buyer left me a correx box which I managed to squeese the colony into.

I put a thick Nuc roof on top to stop the sun heating the small box too much.

Rosemarie's Quilt

Rosemarie's Quilt

My grand-daughter has out grown her first year clothes, so a quilt made up of them seemed a good idea.

First I cut a five and half inch template.  The size seemed to fit most of the clothes while preseving patterns and pictures.

Of course it has to be square!  After sewing together this should give me a five inch square.

Next was cutting out.  A lovely day to sit out in the sun and cut with the aid of a rotary cutter and cutting board.  This is by far the easiest way of cutting out.

Well what a nightmare putting it together was! Different materials and thicknesses led to lots of machine snarl ups and Brocken needles. I ended up hand quilting sections as it was too difficult for my machine.

Anyway its finished.

Hot day at Tavistock Fishery

 Hot Trout.

With the bulk of the fishing season ruined by Corvid, I have endeavoured to make up time on the lifting of restriction.

Mid August, high pressure, and hot, everything was against this being a good day. However I had promised to take Nic so she could enjoy the tranquility of the place.

It proved surprising with two fish landed three lost while playing in. A long Cast and steady retrieve with a white gold head fished a foot or so down was the killer method today.

Willow Fencing.

Willow Fencing

One of the frustrations of moving every two years is the expense of making a new garden, again and again.  I have finally hit upon a good way of forming raised beds which last about two or three years and can be easily dismantled/  (We have to return the garden to truf when we leave/)

This year I bought willow from Somerset Growers at £10.00 for 10K quick delivery time meant ti was here in a couple of days and still green enough to bend for fencing. My first attempt was not pretty, but I learnt a lot.  I am always better trying soething out first and leanrning as I go; howver the end result while not pretty was functional.

I tried a basket weaving techneque on the top but it failed and I had to improvise by wrapping withies round the top to hold it down.  I put the uprights too far apart and made the corners too sharp.  Lessons learned I tried again in the front garden.

This time I made sure the uprights were long and that they were about 10cm apart.  I put aa curve in using a hose pipe to follow.  The red T bar made putting in the withies a piece of cake.

I used two withies at a time and put a twist in after every upright this made a solid wall and looked a lot better than just the in and out I tried on my first bed.

This is after three, layers, its already looking fairly neat.

The finished article.  On the top I used a basket making finishe called 4 behind 2 in front.  There are lots of different ways to fininish but I like the siplicity of this one.

Now all I have to do is fill it with compost and fill it with plants.

Gas cylinder forge

Gas cylinder forge.

After acquiring an old gas cylinder, I burnt of the remaining gas took the top out and filled with water. This ensures no gas is left in the cylinder, quite important if you value your limbs! I then cut a hole in the top.

The next job will be to cut a hole in the top to take the lance. In the third picture you can just make it out on the top of the cylinder.  I had to drill small holes around and then cut with a small dremmel disk as I didn't have a big enough drill.  Below is the lance and the fitting which came from Devil Forge, by way of Amazon.

A fiddly job next; putting the ceramic wool on the inside of the cylinder.  I had to be careful with this stuff as its fibers get in your lungs, so full mask and gloves on for this job.  I then applied a hardener to stiffen up the blanket.  This came in a gallon tub and I just painted it on and then to dry for a week.

Next was a layer of refractory clay, this came in a large bucket, with enough clay to do about four of these. or maybe a pizza oven!  This took an age to dry and in the end I had to bring it into the house and put it next to a radiator.  The lance was fitted through and I ensured that the end of it was clear.

Almost finished the legs welded on to stabilise it.  Below is a video of its first light up.  Some blistering in the refractory clay. But it got really hot very quickly.

I think I will add a door to the front to keep heat in but all in all quite pleased with the result.

Sanding block.

Sanding Block.

First found a spare bit of Oak and some pine.  The pine for the pad bit as it has some give and the sand paper works better on it.  The Oak, becaus it looks good and I am going to hollow it out with the Fosner bit to take the wing nut so it need to be strong.

Ready to start.  A side point; my bench is made up of movable boxes with draws in, each one can be picked up and moved with the tools inside.  I move a lot around every two years so I need to be able to quickly dismantle my workshop and move it on my own.  This was the solution I came up with.  It does however make the work bench slightly shaky.

Its a very simple design, but very effective, and better than finding a scrape of wood everytime I want to sand something.