Wine # 1 - Disaster!

Major disaster today - we're having a major clear up, and during this I happened to glance at my stock of homemade alcohol.  I'm down to my last 2 bottles of country wine and 6 bottles of cider!  In a state of panic, I rushed back into the house and consulted our recipe box, looking under 'W' for wine and refreshed my memory on how we made the last batch.

We made 2 varieties: the 'Welsh Black' made from Sloes, Elderberries, Blackcurrants and Blackberries, and the 'Pimpernel' made from Blackcurrants, Redcurrants, Blackberries and Elderberries.

Unfortunately I haven't recorded the exact recipe for the Welsh Black, but I faithfully recorded the method for the Pimpernel as follows:

Equipment:

•  Juicer.  I bought a juicer for Jo when she was pregnant with Ben, as we had visions of lovely healthy fresh juice every day.  Predictably we used it a few times and ever-after it has gathered dust in a cupboard.  It found it's true vocation in the manufacture of country wine!
• Demi-Johns.  In a local amenity depot whose exact location will remain nameless to protect the individuals involved, the following incident occurred:  I arrived in a battered Polo with a bootload of rubbish, and dumped most of it; out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of 6 Demi-Johns, in perfect condition, placed near the base of the white glass recycling bin.  I hesitated, amenity depot protocol means that one must ask the manager's permission to remove any item from the depot.  With a sense of righteous duty I walked towards the manager's hut and asked the manager whether I could take the Demi-Johns.  The manager dutifully toed the Monmouthshire County Council line and replied in a loud voice "I'm sorry Sir, but it is not allowed for any individual to remove any item from this Amenity Depot and it would be a breach of protocol for me to allow you to do so."  With a heavy heart I walked back to the car and continued to unload the rubbish.  The amenity depot was now deserted.  The manager walked past me purposefully, obviously intent on inspecting the TV dumping area, on his way past me he whispered conversationally 'Further to our recent conversation, I'm going for a walk in a few minutes, and cannot be responsible for any events which occur in my absence.'  This sentence was delivered with a large wink.  After he ambled away, I loaded the Demi-Johns into the boot and drove away, singing a happy song!
• A Big Bucket.  I use a fermentation bin, which I think back in time I bought from Wilkinsons (http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/home-brewing/wilko-fermenting-bin-and-lid-25lt/invt/0022555/?htxt=CqRsbJu%2FutV8PO2VUe7M5tbw0eF0%2BgiZGsyhRiL%2FA7J%2FD5ckTwx4gGk9NGxRQ2HoBcTxJmxJa8Ar%0AIS49VztZhg%3D%3D) and which does the job well, at a reasonable price.

Ingredients:

• Blackberries:                   1350g
• Elderberries:                    900g
• Red & Blackcurrants:      918g

Method:

Using the juicer, I obtained the following results:

	Berry Weight (g)	Juice (ml)
Blackberries	1350	700
Elderberries	900	400
Red & Blackcurrants	918	600
Total	3168	1700
Ratio	54%

To be continued!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Compost # 2 - Application!

Over the last 18 months I've been rotating the chickens in a 5 x 5 metre pen, with full 'free ranging' on the weekends.  The rotation consists of 8 positions, in a 4 x 2 grid, covering an area of 10 x 20 metres, or 200 square metres, or about 1/20th of an acre.  I started composting when we got the chickens, see Compost # 1, and this evening I started to apply it to the chickens rotation area.

I spent about 45 minutes, applying 1 shovel load per square metre and then raking it to try to even it out, and covered 40 square metres in total.  Each shovel-load weighed about 2 kilogrammes, and lets assume (a big assumption at this stage!) that I perfectly hit the 'sweet spot' ratio of 1 part Nitrogen to 30 parts Carbon that Joel Salatin (www.polyfacefarm.com) refers to in Salad Bar Beef (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salad-Bar-Beef-Allan-Nation/dp/096381091X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346017237&sr=8-1); and, then using Stackyard's (http://www.stackyard.com/news/2009/04/fertiliser/01_eblex_farmyard_manure.html) figure that there is 0.6kg of Nitrogen in a tonne of Farmyard Manure (FYM); and, then using Salatin's data that FYM is 18:1 Carbon:Nitrogen.  Not sure I've thought this totally through, but it seems to me that the Nitrogen content of my compost per tonne should therefore be:0.6x((18+1)/(30+1)) = 0.367 kg.

On a per-acre basis I've therefore applied:

(2kgs x 4050 sq.m x 0.367kg) / 1000 = 2.97kgs of Nitrogen.

Having a general read through the web a modern farmer might think of a 'light dressing' of nitrogen on his grassland as 50kg per acre!

The good news is that clover (of which, currently buried under tonnes of buttercups, we have plenty), also acts as a very efficient nitrogen fixer.  I'll be observing the effect of the compost on the experimental patch, and trying to calculate what we should do longer term as we start to keep grazing animals of our own in due course. 

In the meantime its back to the shovel!

Camping # 2 - Lads and Dads weekend!

Now rearranged for 8th September, which is shaping up to be very exciting: Lads & Dads camping with me, Ben, Charlie, Huw, Owen & Thomas (Mums & girls having a civilised time having pizza and watching DVD's at home!), Usk Show, and the arrival of our 10 new Light-Sussex hybrid hens! 

I can't wait!

Chickens # 7 - New stock imminent!

With the general busyness of work and life we haven't been able to put the plan of buying day old chicks and raising them to POL into practice yet.  However, we do need to get more stock urgently - Jo has been really successful at farm-gate sales and I could definately sell more at work; to solve the problem in the short-term I have ordered 10 more hybrid Light Sussex from Stewart at www.salspurebreedpoultryinwales.co.uk/ and I can pick them up on the 8th September.  They'll be around 16 weeks old at that point, and based on our current 6 chickens, it will take another 4 weeks or so before they start to lay regularly & a bit longer before they get really productive.

So, by mid-October we should be at a pretty decent production level!  Typically our little flock produces 5 eggs between the 6 hens, so if we assume the same level of productivity we should achieve:

16 hens x (5/6) eggs per day x 7 days per week = 93 eggs per week

That will leave around 14 half-dozens for sale and 9 eggs for use at home.  Our sales target will be 10 boxes for 'in-work' sale and 4 boxes for 'farm-gate' sale.  If we can make this level work, we'll step up to a higher level.  You can keep up to 50 chickens without any kind of registration  http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Smallholders/DG_189309 so I expect that will be the next level for us.  Looking forward to it!

Pigs # 15 - The Tymawr Pig Company!

We're full of enthusiasm now, having had great success in the last week with 'farm gate' egg sales, we're missing the pigs and their area is greening up nicely after the application of 'green-manure mega-mix'! These three factors combined mean one thing: we need to put together a plan to buy a LOT more pigs, get organised with our marketing and production and go for it!

There is around two and a half acres of woodland here at Tymawr Farm, and we plan three uses for it:

1. Woodland pigs
2. Yurts / luxury camping
3. A firewood supply (the low capital, high efficiency solar solution!)

We aim to improve the woodland whilst using it, by which I mean: clearing brambles and dead wood to allow air and light into the canopy and the tree-bases, feeding the soil and improving it's texture, and, gradually improving the demographic of the tree species, eliminating any softwood or 'weed trees' like elder or hazel, and increasing the proportion of high-quality timber and firewood trees like Ash, Oak and Cherry.

The Woodland pig element will consist of small paddocks, each containing three weaners, of around 200 sq.m size, and with a pig house of approximately 3 sq.m in size (internal space), with a roof size of 4 sq.m. Each pig can drink up to 1.5 gallons (6.81 litres) water per day http://www.thepigsite.com/articles/3/feed-and-nutrition/1610/). As we don't have mains water in all areas it would be great if the pig's water could come from the roof - we have an abundance of rain water in this part of Monmouthshire!  Using data from the met-office (see below), and assuming an 'opening stock' (IBC?) of 500litres of water, 'self contained' pig-paddocks like this are definately possible.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/datasets/Rainfall/date/England_SW_and_S_Wales.txt
Accessed on 03.08.2012
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Days	31	29	31	30	31	30	31	31	30	31	30	31
2008	181	60	133	72	93	61	158	167	125	155	107	86
2009	155	61	63	74	72	63	220	77	42	117	260	138
2010	98	78	91	40	46	35	106	111	116	98	131	47
2011	135	98	28	19	59	103	76	80	99	114	87	172
2012	104	44	30	176	58	182
Av.	134	68	69	76	66	89	140	109	96	121	146	110
All above in mm

Water consumption of 3 pigs, assuming 1 gallon per day per pig
Con.	422	395	422	409	422	409	422	422	409	422	409	422
Above in litres

Water capture based on roof area of 4sq.m
Cap.	538	273	276	305	262	356	560	435	383	485	585	442
Above in litres

Cumulative net consumption (capture less consumption), with 500 litres opening reserve
Net	616	494	348	244	84	31	168	181	155	217	394	414
Above in litres

Each acre has 4050 sq.m in it, assume 20% is lost to pathways, that leaves 4050x80%/200 = 16 pens.  Therefore if we can turn 1 acre of the 2 1/2 over to pigs, leaving another acre for luxury camping / yurtage, we can keep 48 pigs in relative luxury!  As we aim to buy at 10 weeks, and slaughter at around 30 weeks, we should be able to process 2 batches per year in our woods.

In each paddock I'd like to fell 30% of the trees, logging them up for firewood, and after the pigs move on, having left lots of lovely manure and urine, I'd replant them with high quality replacement trees.  The aim would would be to eventually create a surplus of wood for sale, ideally as timber for carpentry and joinery.

Chickens # 6 - The Shop at the farm gate!

We don't have much passing trade at Tymawr farm, being the last but one house on a no-through road with four houses on it!  However, there is a footpath which runs through 2 of the fields, and the lane outside the gate connects a few footpaths and bridle paths, so we thought an 'honesty box' might be worth a try.  After a late flash of inspiration during children's bathtime, I rushed out after bedtime stories and made this:

The sign was inherited - found amongst my late great aunt's things - it's reversible - the other side says 'LAMB' - would be great to use that side in a few years too!

We've been making egg box labels and an honesty box this evening, so tomorrow morning I'll stock up the "Egg Shelter" and see what happens!

We're now full of inspiration and enthusiasm, jams, chutneys, etc. etc. are being discussed with relish (sorry!).

The Land # 3 - Green Manure

In the pig's former area, I planted a 'green-manure mega-mix' about 3 weeks ago, consisting of :

• Mustard
• Rye Grass
• Alfalfa

I mixed approximately equal quantities of each seed together and hand broadcast it over the pig's area. 

Within a few days the area resembled the 'mustard & cress' of childhood memory!  Now, 3 weeks it's starting to grow nicely.  I've clearly missed some areas, and I'm pretty sure it's only the mustard which is growing (I will update as things progress!), and that's one of the brilliant things about learning!

Photos and further green-manure discussion to follow!

Compost # 1 - Success!

I'd read "An Agricultural Testament" by Sir Albert Howard (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agricultural-Testament-Sir-Albert-Howard/dp/8185569185/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345238154&sr=1-1) without realising that it is probably the seminal work on composting, and tried to follow it's advice as far as practicable here on Tymawr Farm.

So far, we have 2 'bins', as can be seen below:

I've constructed them from old doors, which can be had from various sources for nothing, or next to nothing and are ideal in terms of dimensions & strength for the job.  I roughly drill 2 holes in each corner and connect them with cable ties - cheap, strong and easy to mend if they ever break.

All the compostable waste we generate goes into these bins: Alpaca manure, chicken manure (including sawdust and hay bedding), grass cuttings from the lawn, food waste (including any bones / meat waste), all cardboard, some paper waste and leaves (predominantly from the 'Great Oak').  Every foot or so I try to add a thin layer of wood-ash, to try to neutralise the acidity caused by the carbon-dioxide created by the breakdown process of the nitrogen-rich manures.  In very wet weather I cover the heap, otherwise leaving it open to get watered by the rain, and my 'yellow gold' when I go and shut up the chickens.  The heap on the right of the picture is about a year old and in that time I've also turned it twice, trying to get some air into it.

I was very pleased the other night, having not looked at the 'composting' heap for a while, I decided to dig into it and found that it had composted brilliantly;  it was thick with healthy looking red worms ("just like worms used to be"), nearly black, smelling pleasantly concentrated, a little damp and airless I think, which should be easily addressed by turning more regularly next time, and perhaps adding a bit more carbonaceous material.  Overall verdict; Not bad for a beginner!  I'm very happy with that!

I lightly sprinkled a shovel-full over perhaps half a square metre of ground 3 days ago and it's nearly all been incorporated into the grass.  A job for one weekend soon is to spread the first bay of compost over the 200 sq.m of field in which I fold the chickens.

I hope we'll see a continued improvement in this area, we've already seen a fairly decent improvement brought about by having the chickens in the area, and trying to 'top' the weeds before any seed can set (and basically trying to exhaust the weeds by cutting them down every time they have a spurt of growth!).

Vision # 4 - Enterprise List

Jo & I have just finished brainstorming our ideas for the land - we appreciate any thoughts or comments that anyone might have!......

1.  Rare breed pigs - in the 1/2 acre or so of scrubby woodland / bramble.  We've loved keeping pigs, and if we can make a little money and also work towards being self-sufficient for pig food (not happy about the idea of feeding grain-based feed which has probably come from a farm many miles away from any animals and coaxed begrudgingly into life with artificials) it would be a massive bonus.
2. Controlled grazing of rare breed sheep, followed by mini egg-mobiles (by which I mean little chicken fold-units).  Adapting the Joel Salatin plan to sheep (www.polyfacefarm.com).
3. Pastured poultry - another Joel Salatin, probably in our case split around 50% free range eggs and 50% table birds including chickens, geese and turkeys.
4. Quarter acre farm - our rotation of pigs, chickens, ducks, vegetables and grass, aiming to rehabilitate our tired permanent pasture.
5. Holiday let - with some work our 'annexe' would become a great holiday let for a couple or small family who wanted to explore beautiful Monmouthshire and beautiful Tymawr farm!
6. The Craftroom - a large outbuilding within which we could run courses on small business skills e.g. Project Management, Finance for Non-Financials, Strategy, Marketing, Lean Thinking (www.lean.org.uk) etc. etc.
7. Firewood - with more than 2 acres of hardwood woodland there is enough scope to be entirely self-sufficient for heating, and have enough left over for some small sales of firewood and wood-chip.
8. Cider Orchard - we have a West-facing field of around 2 acres which would make a wonderful orchard, in my mind I see a building housing the cider making equipment and vats, and a tasting room with a great view of the reservoir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llandegfedd_Reservoir).  I would also love to produce Apple Brandy!
9. Christmas Trees - in the season I see a magical walk through the narrow woodland path, probably illuminated with Christmas lights, then out into the Cider Orchard for a glass of hot mulled cider, and then into the Christmas tree plantation to choose your own tree.  We could then upsell home-grown Mistletoe, Oak-logs for the fire, Cider, Apple Brandy, meat etc. etc.
10. Yurts / Holiday Cabins in the woodland - it would be a wonderful area for a family holiday - surrounded by native British woodland, Rare-breeds to see and feed, a Cider orchard to wander through, and the lovely Monmouthshire countryside to explore.  We're also located on the edge of the Brecon Beacons which are beautiful!

We need to make enough money to pay the mortgage and to keep ourselves and our children in a modern and generous fashion (which I articulate as 'self-abundant') - with all these ideas I'm sure it's possible!

Firewood # 5 - Polo Poor Tractor!

Our W reg. Polo is our tractor for the time being

Water # 1 - Water water everywhere!

The average person in Wales uses 150 litres of water per day (www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/beinggreen/117266.aspx).  It rains a lot in Wales!

The roof on our house is 265m^2, and the average rainfall in rural Monmouthshire over the last 5 years has been: (www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/datasets/Rainfall/date/England_SW_and_S_Wales.txt)

(mm)	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Days	31	29	31	30	31	30	31	31	30	31	30	31
2008	181.3	60.4	132.9	72.2	93.2	61.4	158.3	167.1	125.4	155.4	107.4	86.2
2009	154.9	61.1	62.7	74.1	71.8	63.4	219.8	76.8	42.1	117.3	260.4	137.5
2010	97.9	78.4	91.1	39.6	45.5	34.5	105.8	110.7	116.0	98.3	130.7	46.5
2011	134.5	98.0	28.0	19.1	59.0	102.9	75.8	80.4	99.0	113.7	86.9	171.5
2012	103.8	43.9	30.0	175.8	58.2	182.2
Average	134.5	68.4	68.9	76.2	65.5	88.9	139.9	108.8	95.6	121.2	146.4	110.4

Taking the average, and multiplying by the roof area, we currently have the potential to capture the following amount of water:

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Volume (m^3)	35.64	18.12	18.27	20.18	17.37	23.55	37.08	28.82	25.34	32.11	38.78	29.26
Volume / day (l)	1149.59	624.67	589.33	672.75	560.26	785.11	1196.13	929.64	844.69	1035.85	1292.76	943.96

Our family consists of 2 adults and 2 little children currently, but I guess in the future, when we're considering the required capacity of this house, we should think that we might have 4 big children, plus the equivalent of several adults staying in our holiday cottage.  A reasonable design capacity might therefore be: Family = 6 people, Guests = 2 people = Total 8 people = 8 x 150 = 1200l per day.

Putting these elements together gives a balance of: