Month: February 2017

  • Clearing the brash from the pond

    In between dodging the heavy showers, we have had a few hours armed with a billhook and some loppers to begin clearing the felled overhanging branches and brash from the pond. It is slow work and hard graft plodding through the mud to get at the fallen willow branches and even harder work dragging them…

  • Planting Hawthorn in the hedge gaps

    I try and plant up at least a few gaps in the hedges each year but this season has been so dominated by tree planting nothing has happened yet and there is only a couple of weeks before the supply of bare rooted plants ends. Having seen todays forecast for inclement weather moving in from midday…

  • Restoring our farm ponds

    On our fields at Hesketh Bank we seem to have a comprehensive selection of different farm pond types: A derelict natural pond that has never been cleaned out for ages and is full of rubbish, general detritus and the odd bit of scrap metal. A ‘ghost’ pond where a natural pond used to be but has…

  • First lambs of 2017 turned out

    It is always nice to see new life on the plot and today was the day that the newborn lambs started to leave the lambing shed and arrive with their mothers to be turned out onto grass. They are in a small paddock that is very well sheltered so they settled in very quickly. More…

  • Growing Firewood – 2017 Update

    February 2017 Our annual update on the progress of our firewood growing trials. All have made very good progress but the Eucalyptus seems to be doing the best at the year 3 point. The hybrid willow would normally be harvested now and it is a perfect size for making wood chunks. August 2017 I’m beginning…