Brrrrrr....

It's been b****y cold just lately.
The Farm ended up with a good layer of snow, and under that a good layer of what might be likened to permafrost. I couldn't get a garden fork more than about 1 cm into the soil - thus scuppering any chance of achieving anything on-site over the period.
To give an idea of the weather take a look at this picture of the road outside the front of my house.
And it stayed like that for 6 days!
My parents got stuck in Tolpuddle and we ended up spending Christmas there instead of in Dorchester. No cars were getting out of their close so we parked at the top of their road.

The team hope you all had the sort of Christmas you wanted and wish you well for the coming year.

Ian

Dig This!

The Duchy folk have come good again.
Kevin's offer of a digger to form the pond was honoured yesterday (Friday) and we now have the basis for the pond. Mike and Glenys were instrumental in settling on the final layout. All thanks to them too. All we need now is a rather large butyl pond liner!

They're just starting to dig. Mike and Kevin are stood in the midlle of the site for the pond

Ian

Scuppered by the Weather

Hmm.
What can you say? We turned up last Saturday with all good intentions. At least it had stopped snowing on Friday so there was some hope some work could be done - but no sooner had we brewed up and supped our tea in preparation to get busy, it rained! Light at first but within 1/2 half an hour it was 'stair rods'.
The rain did hold off for a while so I got set to fill in a hole where there had obviously been a test scrape some time earlier. About 1 cubic metre of earth had been put to one side. Well, I tried stabbing the spade into the earth pile and promptly jarred my wrist! The earth was still frozen solid! Almost permafrost (I exagerate a tad!). I think that was the time we decided to abandon for the day, all cold and wet and some requiring a pee due to the tea!
We did discuss what the Duchy had offered to help us with. Kevin (God bless him) agreed to call in a digger to excavate the pond and Mike, with the help of Glenys, will be on site when we get word the digger be there, just to make sure its in the right place. That will save us some serious work.
Also outside the gate I noticed a huge pile of topsoil put there for our use. This for the raised beds and anywhere else we can use it. When Steve is free we can get set to form the beds then start importing soil.
If the Orchard is your thing then this Saturday is an Orchard Workday. PLEASE wear strong footwear - particularly hard soles (souls?) are required. We convene at 10 am. See you there.
Ian