Days of sweat and hard work!

Finally sitting down to catch up on the weekend and what we got up to in the Fens!

This large piece of garden ground is to the side of the house, and had been separated off for some time, and was littered with wooden chicken houses.  The band of chooks has been reduced and so there is no longer any need for so many houses, although some of those had been redundant for some time.

I have arranged for a friend with a rotavator to come this evening to turn this land over so that I can sow grass seed, and we had to get all the chook houses moved, so that is what the EFG and I did on Sunday afternoon.

We heaped all the old huts on the driveway, and from there, we aim to get them recycled into firewood!

For the rest of Sunday afternoon, I cleaned the conservatory out!  Had to put a dust mask on, because it was rather dirty out there, having been left to its own devices all winter - and there was quite a heap of cat hair accumulating in places too!  Now that the floor is clean, the lids of the freezers wiped down, and the seating area spruced up, it was just right to welcome my dad and MB for a Sunday afternoon cup of tea and visit when they arrived at 4.30pm.

Shadow the cat was a little bemused at all the activity in the conservatory, but she is happily settled back in there today!

The EFG planted out the white strawberry plants that she grew from seed last year.

Delighted to find that the raspberry canes that the FH's friend brought are shooting up from the roots and producing new growth.  

And the ones we already had are in full leaf and looking glorious in the sunshine!

Monday morning the Head Coach came over and gave us a hand to clear another piece of garden for the rotavator!  This used to be separate chicken pens for the pop holes in the shed, but these are no longer used, so we want to turn this into useful growing areas again - I think pumpkins, courgettes and runner beans will thrive in such heavily manured ground!  It took well over three hours to clear the pens' structure, and the FH even came down to help - he didn't do a lot of walking around, but he did man the table saw and cut a lot of the wood up for the fire!

We have also got some seeds sown at last, and this morning, we have continued with the demolition of the chicken houses, and I have also applied weedkiller for the front lawn - I use Verdone every year, and can really recommend it for killing the pesky plantain, dandelion and other rubbish that grows but doesn't harm the lawn.  

Now I am struggling to find the energy to wash up, and the FH has gone back to bed for an afternoon nap!