Cider # 6 - Prototype Orchard Plans

I've been thinking further about the design of the 'Barn Orchard'.

We would like Plums, Damsons, Blackcurrants, Redcurrants, Gooseberries, Raspberries, Mistletoe and a ground cover of Oats and soil-improving legumes.  The area will be stock-fenced to keep the sheep and alpacas off it when the trees are small, and later to train the Raspberries against.

The ground will be well covered with large rocks to try to retain heat from the sun and also to provide inviting habitat for worms.

This year the focus will be on preparing it for planting - the soil is heavy clay, so I'll be trying to add lots of organic matter through heavy mulching, chicken scratching, green-manure growing and pig-ploughing.  I may also try a bit of primitive drainage with the long, heavy bar that I use to make pilot holes for fence posts.

In the drawing below each square is 1m x 1m.  The top of the page is North, and the prevailing wind here is from the West.  The key to plants is:
1. Blackcurrant
2. Redcurrant
3. Plum Tree on St. Julien A rootstock (half-standard size tree).
4. Damson Tree on 'Pixy' rootstock (small tree).
5. Gooseberry
6. Raspberry

The North boundary is the wall of the hay barn, which in due course I'll paint a smart white.  The other boundaries will be stock fence, and there will be a wheelbarrow-width gate on the Eastern side (I've learnt my lesson with the various chicken runs / enclosures etc. that I've made - "Always make the door wide enough for a wheelbarrow!").  I'm hoping that the rasperries could be climbing varieties on the barn side, and, another possibility that has just struck me is that we might be able to train Hops up the barn side too.  Beer made from Oats and Hops?  Sounds like it might be possible, if not particularly delicious!

Chickens # 12 - Laying Data Update

		New	Old	Brown
	No. Hens	6	6	1
	Age in Weeks at start	34	102	?
06.01.2013	Sunday	6	4	0
07.01.2013	Monday	6	4	1
08.01.2013	Tuesday	5	3	1
09.01.2013	Wednesday	6	6	0
10.01.2013	Thursday	4	3	1
11.01.2013	Friday	6	6	0
12.01.2013	Saturday	6	4	1
13.01.2013	Sunday	5	5	1
14.01.2013	Monday	5	6	1
15.01.2013	Tuesday	5	4	1
16.01.2013	Wednesday	5	4	0
17.01.2013	Thursday	6	5	0
18.01.2013	Friday	5	4	1
19.01.2013	Saturday	6	5	1
	Mean	5.43	4.50	0.64
	Median	5.50	4.00	1.00
	Mode	6.00	4.00	1.00
	Laying Efficiency	90.48%	75.00%	64.29%

Cider # 4 - Prototype Orchard

Not strictly cider related but on the subject of fruit trees anyway.  I'm in the process of clearing an area against the South face of the hay barn to create a mini fruit plot.  If I paint the wall white I thought it would hopefully create a warm, sunny and neat-looking spot to experiment with fruit trees.  The barn is 24 ft long, and the rubbish-filled area which I'm clearing extends about 10 ft out from the barn, giving 240sq.ft of potential growing space.


The Site!

In order to clear the site I've been clearing some steel A-Frames from a long-forgotten project, partially completed and for the last 10 years or so slowly becoming part of nature again.  Its mostly been a case of angle-grinding them into wheel-barrowable sections (say 100kg) and then Polo'ing them to the scrap yard.

Taking down the A-Frame on the left of the picture above was an interesting experience.  It was attached to the main frame of the barn by two U-bolts which are normally used to hold leaf-springs onto commercial vehicle axles.  On the other end the frame was literally balanced (not attached in any way) onto a steel upright which, not having been placed correctly in the first place, had been extended with a flat plate bolted to the top.


"Old Tymawr" Engineering!

I'm quite glad that I never had a picnic underneath it!

Anyway, after angle-grinding the lower U-bolt through and leaving the frame supported by the top U-bolt and the flate plate above, I knocked the frame off the plate with a sledge hammer, leaving the whole frame (250kg) pivoting off the top U-bolt.

A final angle-grind through the top U-bolt dropped the whole frame fairly neatly onto the ground.

Frame on the ground

Ex U-Bolt

I've been reading Sepp Holzers's "Permaculture" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sepp-Holzers-Permaculture-1-Holzer/dp/1856230597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358629337&sr=8-1.  He has some really interesting techniques for fruit tree growing which I'll try to emulate here.  Main points are:

1. Grow green-manure crops around the base of the trees before and after planting.  Grass is too strong a competitor for the shallow part of a fruit-tree root system (see also http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agricultural-Testament-Sir-Albert-Howard/dp/8185569185/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358629637&sr=1-1 for a full explanation of this phenomenon).
2. Place large rocks around the planting area to absorb and slowly radiate heat.  These have the added benefit of encouraging worms to congregate underneath them.
3. Use pigs to turn over, plough in the green manure and add their own manure to the area prior to planting.
4. Use pomace left over from cider making to seed the area to produce root-stocks for subsequent grafting (a good idea I had which might improve this further would be to feed the pigs the pomace and let them manure and seed the area simultaneously!).

If possible I'd like to grow soft-fruit bushes around the fruit trees and amongst the green manure crops (peas? beans? mustard?) to maximise the use of the space.  Finally, we've got plenty of mistletoe around the farm at the moment, it would be great to deliberately encourage it into the fruit trees too.


So, once we're cleared up I think I'll put the chickens on that area to scratch it up, then spread compost and sow some green manure.  This will start the slow process of preparing the area for tree-planting this time next year.

Chickens # 11 - Laying Data

We have two mini-flocks: The Old Flock, consisting of 6 Light Sussex Hybrids which we bought in May 2011, and The New Flock, consisting of 6 Light Sussex Hybrids bought in September 2012, cohabiting with 1 random brown layer and 1 tiny all-black cockerel, both of which arrived a fortnight ago when a lady arrived at the door with them in a pet-cage asking if we would 'take them in'.   Never look a gift chicken in the mouth I say!

The Old Flock, after a hugely productive first 18 months or so with us, moulted this year in November and more or less stopped laying (well, 1 per day between the 6 of them) for nearly two months.  The New Flock arrived with us as 'point of lay' pullets at 16 weeks old and started to lay erratically at about 20 weeks, but have now (at 34 weeks) settled down to the 'usual' super productive cycle.

I'm planning a chapter in The Book covering some useful maths, statistics and analytical techniques which will hopefully be of great benefit to Farm business leaders.  I don't have enough data for the first 'worked example' yet, but here's a quick preview:

		New	Old	Brown
	No. Hens	6	6	1
	Age in Weeks at start	34	102	?
06.01.2013	Sunday	6	4	0
07.01.2013	Monday	6	4	1
08.01.2013	Tuesday	5	3	1
09.01.2013	Wednesday	6	6	0
10.01.2013	Thursday	4	3	1
11.01.2013	Friday	6	6	0
12.01.2013	Saturday	6	4	1
13.01.2013	Sunday	5	5	1
14.01.2013	Monday	5	6	1
	Mean	5.44	4.56	0.67
	Median	6.00	4.00	1.00
	Mode	6.00	4.00	1.00
	Laying Efficiency	90.74%	75.93%	66.67%

Laying efficiency is the mean divided by one egg per day per day per hen which I think is a simple, easy metric (not strictly accurate but useful nonetheless).

I'll update the data over the coming weeks and when I've got 30 data points per flock I'll do some analysis.

Charcoal # 2 - The New Rig!

When I get these together we'll be producing 85kg of Tymawr-Farm charcoal with each burn!

Pigs # 21 - Pastures New

Until yesterday the pigs were still in their 'barn', which, although I wouldn't have chosen to keep them inside like that, has actually provided them with warm, spacious accommodation.  I've tried a few times experimentally to 'lead' them either with the bucket, or in one miserable failure, to loop a rope around their middles and to 'put them on a lead'.  Easier said than done with two now quite hefty, stubborn and still-wary girls.  So, having given up on leading, I had really resolved to keep them as 'barn' animals until the time comes for them to 'go' at the end of January.

I wasn't really happy about this situation, but couldn't readily see a solution that I could feasibly implement.  The pigs' outside enclosure is about 100ft or more from the 'barn' and I my heart sinks every time I think about their last escape.  I didn't think I could take the risk.

Reflecting on this problem, I kept half-remembering something I read about pigs eating soil (which after some research I discovered was Lady Eve Balfour's "The Living Soil" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Soil-Lady-Eve-Balfour/dp/0571107133/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357244978&sr=8-1)).  After refreshing myself on this I thought that if I couldn't bring the pigs to the outside, then the least I could do was to bring a bit of the outside to them.  I shovelled a nice, dark, humussy (?!) load of soil into a barrow, and mixed their 'tea' into it, then dumped it into the barn.

What fun they had!  They carefully rooted through each particle of soil, eating plenty of it I expect, and also finding every grain of food.  They grunted ecstatically, noses down, tails up, happily curled!  Within ten minutes I had made up my mind - by hook or by crook I would get the pigs outside for their last month with us!

The next day I surveyed the route and my materials.  The route actually has the house along one side for perhaps 30 feet, which could make up one side of a secure path.  There are a few other opportunities of this nature - the side of their barn, the great bonfire heap that I am hoping will eventually dry out enough to burn, the 'white container' which I use to store firewood.  Using these natural advantages on one side I would then use the materials which I had on hand to make the other side of the secure path, and then, simply and easily lead the pigs to (relative) freedom!  The materials consist of: various corrugated iron sheets salvaged from hedges and fallen-down buildings, a roll of stock-fence around 30ft long, lots of barbed wire, a VW Polo, some sad, rusty and mis-shapen sheep hurdles, lots of MDF shelves donated by my father in-law from a surplus-to-requirements warehouse and finally a bath-panel which I took from a '"free" - help-yourself' box outside our local branch of Homebase.

A few hours later the route looked like this:


First few yards: Barn on the left and sheep hurdles on right

Next section: house on the right, pig fencing on the left

Homemade Hazel fence post cable tied to pig fencing

Coming into the 'corrugated iron' section

Corrugated iron on the left, more homemade Hazel posts
Note use of Polo and bath panel on the right!

Sectional wooden boxes supporting MDF sheets, then bath panel

The weak link? Bonfire / tree stump / plywood barrier

 

After walking the route again and checking the fence one last time I mustered all my courage, and, armed with 2 saucepans of pig feed, opened the gate to their barn.  It started reasonably well, the pigs were fairly interested in following the food (note to self, don't feed the pigs in the morning before you attempt this again!), but not overly keen.  They were however, madly excited to be outside, and in particular to see the grass in the garden, which they galloped up and down rooting up as they went.  One thing they were not interested in was moving towards their outside run, and in fact, after a short while, they both went back into the barn.  At that point I decided to try to 'herd' them instead of trying to lead them.  This worked really well, and the bravest of the two rushed all the way down the 'secure path' and into the area next to the bonfire where she circled around excitedly before noticing the gate to the enclosure and running in.  The second followed her sister, a little more warily, but within a few minutes she was securely in the outside run and I was leaning on the gate, relieved, with knees still trembling a little!


In their natural habitat at last!