Spring is coming and we’ve been outside

The weather this week has been beautiful here at the farm. Cold and crisp but mostly dry with lots of sunshine-does that make me sound like a weather presenter?

Anyway, dry weather means only one thing down on the farm. Outdoor play.
I feel like we’ve had a very productive week.

Mummy painted bunting on the chicken coop. It is very open where we live and while I would have preferred to put up real bunting the painted variety is a good alternative to the fabric variety getting blown away.

With the chickens so close to the house, I thought it would be safe for Boo to feed the chickens while I prepared meals.
It was going well (so I thought). She is very, very mean when it comes to the size of the crumb she breaks off the bread. Think the size of a grain of sand.
The mean mum in me thought this didn’t matter as it would take her longer to finish and give me longer to cook uninterrupted.
One time though it went very quiet. I nipped out to check and was met with this.
Did you eat any bread Boo?
No Mummy. What do you think?

Then, after my last gardening post, with Boo going to nursery for two mornings a week (to prepare her for the free Early Years entitlement after Easter), I had a minute or two to myself and guess what I did? Have a relaxing bath? Catch up on TV programmes that are not Peppa Pig?
Don’t be silly, I painted one of my wooden tubs.

I am going to use them as planters and I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

I then drilled got Hubster to drill holes in the bottom (he doesn’t trust me with power tools, I don’t know why) and Boo and I set off to find rubble to act as drainage.

I found a wheel barrow lying around-the joy of living on a farm is there are all sorts of weird and wonderful things just lying around to use.
Boo has her own wheel barrow so was quite happy to follow mummy around ‘helping’.

I found some rubble but who knew spading things into a wheel barrow was such hard work? I could feel it working my waste and arms-who needs a gym?

After taking said rubble pack to the container, I felt a bit down beat. My two wheel barrows worth of rubble barely covered the bottom. I knew my compost wouldn’t fill it so guess where we headed next?
You guessed it-the muck heap.

What an experience that was. Boo’s wheel barrow got stuck on a stone while I was holding my breath, literally shovelling poo and no matter how many times I told Boo that even though the ‘thing’ being shovelled ‘looked like straw’ it was actually poo, she was fascinated by it. Cue the wipes when we got back to the container.
I couldn’t wait any longer. I wanted to put the compost in. So I did.

Gutted. Even with a layer of rubble and horse manure, the compost hardly touched the sides. I need at least another 25kg bags to get it anywhere near plant worthy.
It was tea time and, by this time, Boo was cold and had, had enough so the next episode the best bit (the planting) will have to wait.
We did have a good week though. Doesn’t the sun make you just feel better?

Please note I am not sure the horse manure thing was right. I have since read on the internet that ‘organic matter’ (the polite term) should have rotted down for at least six months before you put it on your garden, so let’s see. I never professed to be a gardening expert. The whole point of this exercise is trial and error. I imagine it will be more error but let’s see. I’m not laying down my trowel yet.