Farm Update - It’s the Farm Life for Us!
- Evans & Moose
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
If you’ve signed up to our #newsletters, you’ll be receiving mini updates from the #farm regularly (if you want to sign up to our newsletter for free, click here) but if you haven’t you might be missing out. So, we thought it was about time we did a little farm update with what’s been going on around the Evans & Moose farm over the last few weeks or so.
Typically, January and February are quieter for us on the farm, the #willow has been harvested and is in storage drying ready for weaving and everything slows down it’s growth. Although having said that, we seem as busy as always, no rest for the wicked and all that… Moose has abandoned his Irish Draught identity and is currently residing as a sort of swamp donkey in the mud that once resembled his fields. Just over a year ago we laid four areas of mud matting from WF Racing and they’ve made such a difference. We ordered two pallets full, shipping was prompt but we did have to unload them one by one as a tiny bit of gravel on the driveway proved too much for the pallet truck. They reckon they’re the weight of a large square haybale so easily movable by one person, if you’ve had your wheat-a-bix then they’re probably right but if you’re not feeling like Popeye then it might be a two person job. We laid ours by three of the gates in Moose’s field, creating walkways and a water/feeding area for him and then the last lot have gone by the entrance to his field shelter. Even with the mats though, the persistent rain of the last few months has made certain areas beyond boggy. So as most people who work with the land are doing, we’re looking forward to some spring sunshine to dry things out a bit!
Having said that, #spring might be closer than it feels as the #chickens once again greeted me with an egg song the other morning, proving that temperatures must be warming slightly, leaving us to enjoy some of their eggs for breakfast once again! Although even the chickens are a little muddy at the moment! To really get into the spirit of spring… I decided last week that it had been far too long since we’d had new additions on the farm, que me ordering a shipment of stunning hatching quail eggs and cracking out the incubator. They’ll be arriving next week and fingers crossed in just under a month we should have some beautiful Sparkly Coturnix #Quail chicks to add to the menagerie. Meaning come summer, we’ll have quail eggs available from our farm stand. We’ll keep you updated on our social media and on here with their progress.
We’re quiet on the #sheep front at the moment as we try to avoid winter lambing due to lack of indoor space, so our flock is still up on one of our top fields enjoying their winter grazing. Their be coming back down to the fields around the farmhouse in a couple of months so we can prep the field they’ve been on for hay. The old girl of our flock, Queen Dot, still enjoys an extra snack each day in the form of a ginger biscuit or some sheep nuts. She’s doing great for her age, and still gets her chest scratches! Woe betide you if forget the chest scratches! We still have a couple of bags of raw wool available in our store if you’re thinking about preparing bird feeders to help wild birds during nesting season or if you’re prepping raised beds and want a sustainable weed suppression alternative, our flock’s got you covered.
Speaking of raised beds, ours are all ready for next seasons crops, with a layer of Moose’s finest manure, aged not fresh as this can alter the nutrients of the soil too much, and a layer of old hay, ideally you want to be using straw so you don’t have lots of seeds added into the soil but as the hay we used is old and had started to degrade anyway we should be ok. Above anything it saved us wasting a bale of hay that wasn’t suitable for the animals. So far in the greenhouse, we’ve got onions, amaranthus, dahlia, blush celery, mangelwurzel, peppers, leeks and tomatoes. It’s too cold form them to start outside yet but they’re currently starting life in our homemade seed trays with our super soil. Starting things like tomatoes and peppers now is a good ideal as they take a while to grow.
We’re also in the process of redoing one of our #ponds, the slightly more landscaped one in an area of the garden. We’re going bigger and better so more space for the collection of pond life that live in there. We’re lucky to have frogs, newts, and fish in our ponds. Our rewilded area at the top of the fields is doing well too. The hazel , pear and oak trees along with the raspberries and blueberries are all dormant at the moment but new shoots will start on them soon, the bug hotel and ponds up there are also doing well. The wild flowers didn’t take this year unfortunately, the hot summer just wasn’t on our side but we’ll reassess this next year and see how we improve the area for all the creatures that call it home!
So, that’s a short little round up of what’s been going on around the farm, as we move into spring everything really will awaken, a beautiful time on the farm!
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