Autumn Harvest

Apples in abundance this year has meant loads of picking and boxes have gone to places like Acorn Bank Apple Day . These photos are also Chantarelle mushrooms and beautiful salads from the new poly tunnel

        This is a view of the farm looking down Roeburndale northwards towards Wray

Insect Heaven

The humble knapweed , usually considered a weed, is loved by butterflies, bees and all manner of wee beasties .

The camping barn meadow

Hay Time

This weather may be remembered as the only time we have had no panic to get the hay in......talk about leisurely

Hay what ya  looking at  !

And not a cloud in sight!

The Keder polytunnel

How the Keder polytunnel was constructed:                                                                                   

Laying the foundation for the "hugle" beds

Sheep's wool on the ground

A great way to discard of old fleeces from our sheep

Large chunks of alder added to the wool and compost

The mounds are high-3 ft high

Leaf compost laid on top

More compost is added

Many hands..........

The edges of the bubble wrap slide into the metal tubes

Rod about to tighten the cover

It's finished

Et voila!

Swales on the Fell

A long established method of preventing flooding and encouraging water seepage into the water table is the making of long deep channels called swales---whether Swaledale in Yorkshire is named after these I hope to find out!

  Malcolm (our nearest farming neighbour ) and his digger are a great team . After the trenches came the alder posts

and then the birds sitting on their  new perches!

Ingleborough

                            On a clear day Ingleborough in the Yorkshire dales looks an enticing climb
                            Ingleton, the village nearby has a heated outside swimming pool near
                            the river and a swim or a climb up the peak what could be better than a
                            wonderful  Italian pizza from Pepe's .
                                          

Apricot Greenhouse

More Inventions: a new style of greenhouse for the apricot tree after the gales destroyed the glass-lean-to. A glimpse of the damaged apricot greenhouse can be seen in the previous post about the fallen  windmill .

From this

Bending the frame

To this : the wooden frame has been bent and Keder Greenhouse polytunnel plastic stretched across
Rod is pinned to the roof by a telegraph pole !!!!!!!!!!!!

Windmill Disaster

Our windmill fell down. It wasn't even particularly windy that day....The wooden fence must have ever so slightly broken it's fall because there is no damage other than a slight limp! We looked at the bolts at the base plate and some had sheared off. Rod was able to replace 3 bolts but one is still in the concrete! Just to be on the safe side he's attached a metal anchor arm from the tower to the ground--another Rod Invention!

         

Anchor bolts

It's up and behind are trampoline jumpers!

Please sign the petition urging Owen Patterson agriculture minister to vote to protect our bees sign the petition

Wood Wasp below  Bumble Bee above

Blizzards cut the house and farm off

                                         

Frozen waterfall down the farm track

The stable covered in snow drift

                                   

The bracken on our farm is a real nuisance. It suppresses wild flowers and grasses. We've found a novel way of bashing it, which is the most efficient way of weakening it. A quad, pulling tractor tyres joined with chains, emulates a herd of oxen crushing the stalks.Supposedly in olden times, everyone would have collected the bracken for bedding and animals would have helped to trample it. On our farm the steep slopes pose a problem so not everywhere is accessible. Here you can see green coming through where it has been successful and brown on steeper parts which can't be got at other than heavy tramping! ,