With the weather warnings for the weekend we decided not to go to the allotment but to pot up seeds at home and place them in the propogator I have in the dinning area. The girls it turns out are both scared of worms - a bit of an issue as I am using the soil from the wormery instead of compost. Still after a while Jean began acting brave to calm Mary down and they both seemed to get into it as long as I removed the larger, wigglier worms!
We potted up so many tomato seeds that if they all grow I will be looking for homes for some of the plants! There are a few funky varieties and yellow and red cherry varieties as well as normal tomatoes. Then aubigine, chilli, pumpkin and courgette. I was hoping to get the beans in but alas I a) ran out soil, b) rain out of childrens conceptration spans and c) rain out of room in the propogator. If spring is late and everything germinates I could have a slight problem but I will deal with that when I get there!
My current plan is to get some window sill propogators for the remaining seeds. I am running slightly behind schedule as I normally do the potting up outside and wasn't expected the weather to be so rough! I dare not have the little propigator outside for fear it would take off!
I also got round to soaking the shiitake mushroom block I have - it has fruited for industry once but should have another 3 fruitings in it! I got excited as it has instructions in welsh. So hopefully we will soon have our first crop! Jean also found some bean sprouts and alfalfa and instantly wizzed off to find some jars, so we have them soaking under the sink!
I'm going to re-arrange under the sink so that I can grow the mushrooms that need the dark and the bean sprouts in there.
I am very excited about the potential of Cheltenham having a comic book convention in 2015, so really really hope this kick starter works out!
They need 5500 by the beginning week of March and are over the 1500 mark. You can by your tickets to attend on the kickstarter or like me buy a stall. Kickstarter only takes your money if the target amount is made so if they don't the extra money I'm not going to have a stall to sell my things at.
Of course I would have loved a pair of the shoes they are offering as a reward but alas and alack, I am not rich!
There are some funky peeps from the comic book world down as guests (as you would expect!) and there will be professional stalls etc...
Apart from the fact that this is a social or community venture, I am excited about this because it gives me a deadline. I have stuff that can go on the stall anyway - namely The Little Books but I would like to run a save the Wiggly Pets campaign and/or get the first part of the Punk comic / graphic novel out there.
So yeah that's the plans 🙂 London peeps etc... you would be welcome to stay at our house if you came up for this - as part of the kick starter you can buy tickets - did I mention that already? 😉
Also cosplay stuff!
This weekend we have put more bark chippings down in the chicken run as it had again become water logged, there has just been so much rain! Then we set about emptying the compost bin to take to the allotment - or rather I did whilst Alaric cut stakes for the pitch markers, out of scrap wood. I filled up both our wormeries and had a good chunk left over, which had to go into our green bin (we are not currently putting the green bin out though and are using it as an extra composter.
However this was all I managed for the whole 2 days of the weekend. I was so tired from being ill 🙁 Al had to go to the allotment with just Jeany. He said it was even more flooded so he put the compost bin in place - weighted down and marked the boundary and that was it!
Also part of me wondered if it was really worth the work as the compost bin had cost me £20 (it was on sale) but I only want wormeries in the garden as the compost bins simply take too long for the rate of chicken bedding production!
On the plus side, the chickens are producing epic numbers of eggs and we now have two regulars, which we are selling eggs to, each week.
Yep it is that time of year again when the poets get writing! I am once more in charge of the WoPo site this year for the WoPo poetry a day writing challenge.
The sign up is now open so come and join us (me and Alaric will be doing the challenge, as will Jeany).
Also I have had a request to round up some of the writing ideas and hints on WoPo and The Monster Blogs so I will attempt to get some sort of ebook out there for you guys, can't promise it will arrive before the end of the month as I have an exam and course work but we will see!
Anyway I have some exciting guest bloggers set up for the month a head and some lovely images for the writing exercises and then there are the give aways 🙂
Last year I foraged and grew stuff and was given apples and green tomatoes and so on and I even bought reduced pumpkins after Halloween (which we are still getting through!). I made pies and crumbles and cooked soups, I even made bramble butter for the first time.
And there was still left over food... so me and Al preserved stuff!
We now have a cupboard full of chutney, jams, crystallised and pickled things! We didn't get the drying rack up in time to dry things but that is now in place.
I also now have an empty freezer which I am to fill up with cakes over and fresh produce over the year.
Chickens are laying a stupid number of eggs at the moment so we are selling a couple of boxes a week 🙂
This sort of stuff makes me happy - once I am better I plan to sort out the wine making stuff so I get crack on with that over the coming year.
Also we gave a load of preserves away at Christmas and we were eating them through out the year as well 🙂 Though I did swap some with a friend for different jams and with the neighbours for their cherry syrup!
Mon 10th Feb 2014 2:29 pm | 
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