Anglesey Smallholder

Say hello to Kelsey, the newest resident at our small home.  She is here on loan from a friend, and is currently employed in keeping the grass in the field under control.  She arrived last Sunday in an enormous horse lorry.  She unloaded without any fuss and settled in immediately.  At the moment she and Victoria the sheep are in separate but neighbouring fields so they can get used to each other – I will open the gate soon so that they can have free reign over the fields.

She’s a three year old Irish cob, and very well behaved.  She’s been very quiet so far, just a little whinnying to the horses in the fields across the road when she arrived.

The only bother at the moment is horse flies.  They descended on her when she arrived, but they seem to have abated somewhat since then.  The rain has rolled in now, so hopefully that will keep them away.

In other news, I am now starting a second job.  This will help pay for repairs to the house, but it will mean that I’ll basically be working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  There will be no time for me to get outside and get things done.  It’s frustrating, and will be terribly difficult mentally, but it will only be for a month or so.

The polytunnel has arrived!  For the benefit of American readers, you would just call it a greenhouse.  It’s a series of metal arches covered with plastic. We have put the frame up, we now need to dig a ditch all the way around and bury the ends of the plastic sheet in it.  Digging the ditch is going to be very hard work, the soil seems to be quite heavy clay.  The good news is that the field has dried out a lot since the ditch was cleared with a digger.

It has been rather a stressful week.  First Victoria the sheep became ill – it turned out that she had a chill after being sheared, and is now fine.  Once again, I sheared her myself with a pair of hand shears.  This is not the 2-minute job you see on TV!  It took me a full 3 hours of cutting, without a break.  Victoria was very good, and didn’t struggle or try to escape while she was being cut.  I cut her closer and more evenly than last year (which was my first time ever), and again got the fleece off in one piece.  My biggest worry is cutting her because the shears are exceptionally sharp and in places where the skin is loose it would be very easy for it to get caught, however I went very carefully and didn’t cut her at all.

Second, one of the chickens died without warning.  On Saturday, I noticed that one of the other chickens was not looking well.  Looking at her closely revealed that not only did she have an egg stuck, but she was crawling with parasites.  The vet next door was away for the weekend so I went to see the Adrian, our next door neighbour on the other side and the chicken farmer that originally gave us the chickens.  He confirmed what I suspected, that the kindest thing to do was to put her down.  He kindly offered to come around and see to it himself, and thus her life was ended.  It wasn’t all bad news, however, as he brought with him three more chickens!  We really are fortunate to have such knowledgeable and generous neighbours here.  The new chickens are setting in well, and seem less shy than the previous ones for some reason.

One of the chickens was found dead yesterday, lying on her back in the coop. She had no signs of illness, she basically just dropped dead. I don’t know how old she was, but we had her for a year. At least she had a good life.

There will be no sunflowers this year – not unless I plant another batch.  I returned from holiday to find that the slugs had eaten every last one of them.

I will hopefully plant some more, however “real life” has taken a turn that will severely curtail my outdoor activities this summer.  I’ve been offered the opportunity of a second job.  I already have a full-time job, 8:30 to 5:30, and so taking on another job in the evenings and weekends is a real push – however I managed it over Winter and so maybe I can manage it again.  I’m very short on money, and the house needs some expensive repairs.

I am disappointed that I will not be able to spend any time outside this summer – I had been really looking forward to planting some things and watching them grow.  Now it looks as though I will be lucky to find enough time to cut the grass, let alone do anything else.  However, the extra money will undoubtedly be very helpful.  The house needs to be re-rendered, as the render is hollow or falling off in patches.  Re-rendering should help relieve some of the dampness in winter.   Many of the stone walls and outbuildings are crumbling and in desparate need of repair.  I had planned to do it myself but now I will not have time, so I will have to pay for those to be fixed as well.  In spite of this, the freelance work should hopefully pay enough that I will come out on top.

It is a shame to lose another summer, stuck in front of the computer while the world continues on its path around me, however I need the money and so I will have to put my plans on hold for yet another year.  C’est la vie.

My first seeds have been planted!  My inaugral crop is going to be: sunflowers.  If they survive the gale-force winds here, my hope is that they will attract birds and insects.  Once the seed heads are ripe I shall harvest them and store them unti l the winter, when I will give them to the chickens to peck at.  If the chickens don’t like them (which is very likely – the chickens are fussy and just like their special food mix), then I’ll let the wild birds have them.  Or I may just eat them myself – we’ll see.

I have planted two varieties, red and yellow, in individual pots in compost.  Once they germinate and grow large enough, I will transplant them into the garden.  I’m not sure where I’ll put them yet, as they will need a sheltered spot.  Here’s hoping that they germinate and survive the gales.

I’m currently drowning under a tidal wave of bills: house & contents insurance, car tax, service and MOT, water, oil… I’m living from paycheque to paycheque and barely managing.  Hopefully once this round of bills is paid there will be some respite, and I’m also awaiting payment for a job I did a few months ago – when that comes through, it will really ease the situation.

The other thing threatening to swamp me is the sedge.  After being cut by the farmer last year, it has all grown back.  I can’t for shame ask the farmer back (his giant flail mower was badly damaged last year after hitting a telegraph pole dumped at the edge of the field), so I have been tackling it myself.  I tried to cut the bottom field with the strimmer last year and didn’t get very far.  This year I’m trying to cut the top field with the lawnmower.  The only way I can do this is to take the box off and drag the mower backwards over the clumps of sedge, while lifting it slightly so that it doesn’t get stuck and cut out.  It’s at times like this I wish I’d been born a shire horse, but I am making some slow progress.  I’ve spent a few hours and I’m probably not even a quarter way through yet, but if the weather holds then I will try to do a little every night and I’ll get through it eventually.  I hate the sedge – the grass won’t grown, and animals won’t eat it.  I was told that if it’s cut repeatedly then it will eventually die (although it is tough as hell – I had a bonfire on top of a patch and it just grew right back up through the ashes).  I also dug up a few sedge plants near the septic tank, so Victoria’s paddock is now sedge free!

The path from the drive is covered with big chunks of stone, “ankle breakers” as my mum calls them.  She finally ran out of patience with them, and decided that we needed a temporary path.

A quick trip to the local builders’ yard yielded 20 concrete paving slabs at a cost of £1.60 each.  The flags are 45x45cm.

The first step is to mark out where you want your path.  Use a piece of string secured at both ends to ensure that it is straight.

Next, shovel down a bed of sand.  Get it as level as you possibly can.  Lay down the slab and stamp on it to get it bedded down and level.  Continue until you have a path!  The total time was about 2 hours, including going out to buy the slabs.

Remember that this is only temporary.  For a more permanent path, you would want to lay them on cement, and spend a lot longer preparing the base.

With the days starting to get longer, but spring still not quite here, it’s time to begin some maintenance. My first task was simple: to repaint the somewhat dilapidated front gate.

The gate was quite dirty, and the paint was starting to bubble in places where water had got in and caused the metal underneath to start rusting. I decided that to make the best job of it, I would strip the gate right back to the bare metal, removing all the old paint and rust.

To prepare the gate, I used a wire-brush attachment for the power drill. The first drill I used was 450 watts, and unfortunately it seems that I burnt it out by using it for hours at a time. I switched to a 1000 watt hammer drill (with the hammer action disabled, of course) to finish. Remember to wear a breathing mask and goggles when doing this – the dust goes everywhere and is probably quite toxic. I’d also recommend doing it outside if at all possible, because it makes a terrible mess. Getting all the paint off took several hours, and wore the brush attachment down to a stump.

Once the gate was all cleaned up, it was time to paint it. I used Hammerite metal paint. It’s tough, long lasting, needs no undercoat, and is perfect for the job. It also goes quite far – I only used about quarter of a small tin. Painting it is a lot quicker than preparing it. I gave it two coats – the second coat has to be applied within 8 hours of the first so that the layers bond together properly. Once it was all done, I left it to dry overnight, and then re-hung it. It certainly looks a lot smarter!

My DIY skills were put to the test today with the addition of some shelves to the cloakroom.  The cloakroom had started to become a bit of a dumping ground for papers and boxes to be burnt on the fire, stocks of firelighters, loo rolls, and all those things that are useful to buy in bulk but need storing away somewhere.

I had intended to make the “baton” style of support by screwing a long baton to the wall and then having some braces coming out, with a solid wood shelf.  However, it turned out that it would be too expensive, so I opted instead for melamine covered chipboard shelves with metal brackets.

You will need:

• Wood for the shelf
• Brackets
• Screws for attaching the brackets to the wall (5mm x50mm / No10 x 2″)
• Screws for attaching the shelf to the brackets
• Rawl (wall) plugs (suitable for a 5mm / No10 screw)

Tools:

• Tape measure
• Set square
• Saw
• Hammer drill & 6.5mm – 7mm (No12) masonry bit
• Screwdriver

Installation is simple:

1. Measure wall to get the desired length of shelves.
2. Measure the wall again, to make sure you got it right the first time.
3. Measure the wood, and mark with a pencil at the desired length.
4. Use a set-square to draw a line across the wood.
5. Place masking tape along the line, on both sides.
   This stops the melamine coating from cracking, you don’t need to do this if you are using solid wood
6. Cut the wood – I used a jigsaw, but a hand saw will do just as well.  Don’t forget to support it at both ends so it doesn’t split when you get near to finishing the cut.
7. Offer the shelf up to the wall at just below the desired height.  Use a spirit level to make sure it is perfectly horizontal.  Use a pencil to draw a line along the wall on the underside of the shelf.
   The reason you draw the line below where you want the shelf is that you are marking where you want the hole for the bracket to be, not the actual shelf.
8. Decide on the spacing for your brackets.  This will depend on the type of wood you are using, and how much weight you want to put on.  Melamine coated chipboard is weak and will bend, so you may need more brackets than if you were using solid wood.  I opted for 3 brackets for a 1.2 metre span.
9. Mark on the line you’ve drawn where you want the brackets to go.
10. Offer the bracket up to each of these marks, and use it as a template to draw circles on the wall for each screw hole.  Note that the bracket may not be symmetrical, so make sure you get it the right way up.  Use a spirit level to make sure you have the bracket straight while you’re doing this.
11. Drill the holes.  I was drilling into brick, so I used a hammer drill.  Use a 6.5mm or 7mm drill bit.  Wear goggles and ear protection. I didn’t think about ear protection, and everything sounded muffled for the rest of the day.
12. Put 7mm rawl plugs into the holes.  If you’re mounting on plasterboard, you’ll need special a kind that fold out.  If you’re mounting on brick, just use the regular plastic ones.  Give them a light tap with a hammer if they don’t just push in, but be careful not to squash them.
13. Screw the brackets to the wall.
14. Place the shelf on the brackets, make sure it’s positioned correctly, and screw it to the brackets from underneath.
15. Stand back and admire your handiwork.

The hardest part was figuring out which combination of drill bit / rawl plug / screw to use, because they were all a mix of imperial and metric units.  As I said earlier, use a 6.5mm or 7mm (No12) drill bit, 7mm (No10-14) wall plugs, and 5mm (No10) screws.

Today I decided to make a simple slate plaque for my sheep’s house.  The process was very easy.  I will probably redo it at some point with a better picture!  I used an old broken roofing slate.

First, cut the slate to the size and shape you want.  I started off using a hacksaw, then remembered that I have a jigsaw and finished cutting it using that.  Mark the cuts using a ruler and pencile, then slowly cut along the lines.  Use a set-square to make sure that the corners are true right-angles.

If you’re using a jigsaw, make sure you choose a fine-toothed blade, set it on a medium speed, and go slowly and carefully.  When you are cutting wear goggles and a mask – the dust is quite fine and you don’t want to be breathing it in.

When you have finished cutting out your shape, draw your picture on it with a pencil.  Hopefully you have more artistic talent than I do!

When you’ve finished drawing, fit an engraving bit to your miniature drill, and start going over your lines.  An engraving bit looks like a small sphere.  Again, use a medium speed setting.

I found that the best way to use the engraving bit was to hold the drill at a 45 degree angle to the workpiece and drag the bit back towards the body of the drill, not to do sideways strokes like you would with a pencil.

Once you’ve finished engraving, wash it off with water and admire your work!  Make the cuts nice and deep so they stand out.  I might paint in them to make it stand out better.

Use a drill to make a hole for mounting it, and you’re done!