ilultham

Last year my veg garden was a massive disappointment. It got over grown and got to the point where I didn't even like going in there in the summer. I'm determined to get it back to it's productive self, so I've set myself the task of getting it ready for spring byt spending half an hour a day in there* *Weather depending I've made a good start with this. I've found that setting the timer on my phone means I do just half an hour. This has worked well as it's not long enough to get bored (I normally listen to a book at the same time as well). I'm going through each bed in turn and digging out any weeds I see. I'm also slipping the slabs as some docks and nettles have got established between them. As I've done this I've been shocked by the number of slug eggs under there as well - I'm leaving the slabs up turned for a few days so I'm hoping birds will eat the eggs (or frost will kill them).  Feels good to make a really good and early sta

 I'll do some proper posts soon - things have been busy with Christmas and I have lots of magazine articles to write as well (not that I'm complaining - I love doing those)  Today was a lovely calm day before my wife goes back to work tomorrow. I decided to start teaching my eldest daughter some axe skills.  Just simple splitting of some kindling. In the end she filled two chicken feed bags, so she took one round to our elderly neighbours and put one in the woodshed for us to use. You could tell she was super proud of herself and also the fact she could carry the whole sack full - my neighbour even messaged me to say he couldn't believe she carried all that!  The main aim of making her do this was to get her used to the axe, which also means she'll be better with a hammer as well, improving her aim. Also some important lessons about safety, using an "Idiot Stick" to keep her hands well away from the cutting edge, a high chopping block so her posture is correct