Week in a glance

Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 26-09-2009

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  • Wizzy had to be rushed to vets due to crunching sound in mouth when eating
  • Did yet more hours on a project at work for free! that mr nice guy again ;-)
  • Wizzy went into vets and had 10 teeth removed.
  • Work loved my cucumbers.
  • Football was good but I never saved as many goals as I would have liked too.
  • Manu left work friday for a new live in New Zealand.
  • Gemma was sacked, re employed and is back in here old role for a few weeks.
  • Me and James secured some more freelance work to do.
  • More harvested from the garden.
  • Had a nice couple of meals from kebab shop and curry house.
  • Wizzy is alot better and is really happy, think the pain must have been more than we realised.
  • I finally finished the work on HCA.
  • Made a start on DCC.
  • Had a bad week on the premieres fantasy league! lost alot of points moving players about as Tores is on fire and I need more points.
  • Had first pint of cider which just did not taste right.
  • Rose is still going, its doing well.

Well thats a wrap.

First pint

Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 26-09-2009

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Well it was not that good! it had a funny after taste but I used ice cubes that might have made it taste funny or it just might need longer. I am going to give it a few weeks and retry before deciding if its ok or bin time! I have another type and another lot of this type to brew so I wont give up on cider yet. I think I might get the bottles outside clean and do some cider straight to bottles and do some beer and wine to stock up at the same time. The cider was really fizzy so that was really good. I think the cider is a scrumpy which might not be my thing! Will try and find some 100% juices to make fruit ciders with.

first pint 1

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The cider tasted fine but had an after taste, I am going to let this stand for a while and do some more wine and then do another lot of cider in a few weeks.

September garden update

Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 26-09-2009

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This littl post is to let you see what the garden now looks like. What is alive, what is not, what is nearly on the way out and so on.

In summary, tomatoes still going, cherry tom plants doing really well, loads of cucumbers, sweetcorn still going, potatoes are still going and much much more.

See for your self:

back from the dead parsley

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Back from dead parsley with the other hrbs! just cant kill em ;-)

Todays harvest

Posted by admin | Posted in Personal | Posted on 26-09-2009

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Not a huge harvest this week but a nice little lot for this week. There are still plenty more fruit and veg to come so it wont be my last post.

I reckon that todays little lot would have been about £12 in the shops! so that with every thing else makes us break into profit! with more to come, plus all dead plants go in compostor and help me make compost for next years, 80 litres of compost to add to bounty.

Here is what I harvested:

todays potatoes harvest

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These are the few potatoes we harvested today. I recon we have about another 5 harvests this size.

Wizzy all well after trips to vet for surgery

Posted by admin | Posted in Personal | Posted on 25-09-2009

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Well Wizzy had a bit of a sad week this week! He lost 10 of his teeth. Bengal suffer from the runs and thus has spent his 7 years of life on wet food. If he had been on hard foods like treats and dry food then he might have had better teeth. Yesterday he went in for a teeth clean and came out with no teeth apart from the front ones. Mr Wizzy is actually alot happier! not the usual MOG that he is, MOG as in Miserable old git, not Mog as in Moggy (cat nickname).

In fact Wizzy was really excited and happy to be home. He walked around for a few hours drunk and with red eye but happy to say this morning he was really happy and back to his steady swagger. He has eaten two meals since and is really happy! long live the new Wizzy. I just hope that the teeth have not been making him really unhappy.

Will be posting some pics of the cats on here soon.

How much has my gardening made / lost me

Posted by admin | Posted in Personal | Posted on 20-09-2009

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Ok so I thought I would work out what has been spent.

  • Cains £40
  • Pots £20
  • Propagators £40
  • Greenhouse £20
  • Compost £30
  • Seeds £40

So about £190’s to get going. I have loads of seeds left so I think seeds could come down to £20. So £170’s is alot but apart from compsost and seeds they will be usuable for next year! What crops do I think I have got so far:

  • Tomatoes to date: 50 * 12 / 15 (per punet of shop baught) = 40, 40 * £1 = £40
  • Cucumbers to date: 80, 80 * £1 = £80
  • Potatoes: (not yet all picked) 12, 1 bag, £3
  • Chillis: 4, 1 pack, £3
  • Peppers, 8, 2 packs, £4
  • Dwarf beans, 200, 10 packs, £30
  • Runner beans, 80, 8 packs, £24

So without any of my other crops, onions, spring onions, sweet corn, betroot, carrots and loads of all the other to pick we are looking at an income / savings of: £184.

So I have all the equipment, seeds and still more crops to come and they have almost paid for themselfs!

Say ne more.

Urban gardening….

Posted by admin | Posted in Personal | Posted on 20-09-2009

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I love gardening now, its a fact. But when me and Gemma went to do this, I had grass, weeds and Gemma thinking it would not work to contend with. But its easy to do, in the climate we face, once you have the kit, home grown is cheaper, healthier and better for you.

I know I sound like a hippie but its true, the first thing is that once you grow it, you eat it. I hate tomatoes and I now eat them! dont like them much, they taste ok from backgarden but to be honest, if we had not grown them, I would not eat them. The biggest cost is pots, properagators, plastic greenhouses and cains. Once you have them, the cost per yeild will be lower and lower till you break even and even make profit, it will happen. Seeds are cheap if you pick the right places to buy them. I would suggest B and Q for the packets of everything that means you pay 33 pence a packet. That or the pound shop. This year I got plant food for 99pence and wish I got loads more as it works, cheap and most of all every penny counts, these cost alot less than the big chain versions and miricle grow.

Pick the plot, make sure that you give the plot good time to grow weeds, de-weed then carry on till it gets the normal amount if its a really grassy or weedy part of the garden. Then plant away, feed and away you go. There is loads more to it but I am just trying to say, I can do it, it was poor ground and it still works. Just give it love, care and attention. If you dont enjoy it then dont do it again, try it with herbs and potted tomateos first. A little tip, grow the tomatoes in small pots in doors first. Once about 24 inches tall, transfer to a bigger pot, 7 or 8 inches and put outside. Once they grow some more, transfer the plant and pot to the lawn or soil. Use canes to prop up the plant and support with ties as it grows. Dont tie it too tight but enough to hold it up. The roots should go via the pots holes in the bottom, into the ground and blossom without planting them at all. Its what we did with the cherry tomatoes thise year. I did my ones late and they did not grow like the money makers but they are really going some now. Its the mistakes that I do now that will help me and the reader of this blog get better results.

So with all that I thought that some pics from my garden. well more artistic ones in this post will go nicely. I do have loads of other pictures of the crops in my other posts but to be honest these ones are testing out my new camera to see what it can do, plus develop my picture taking skills.

Enjoy:

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Wine making…..

Posted by admin | Posted in Personal | Posted on 20-09-2009

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So, another type of drink for me to drink! I love the stuff! I will be doing, red, white and may be beer too. I have just done my rose wine, it looks like vinto but its really great. Its easy easy easy actually, wine consentration, water both cold and hot, sugar, yeast and a couple of other little packets of magic. It started bubbling yestserday and today its gone a little bit madder but by Friday I can add the other bits to take the wind out of it and then Saturday put it in bottles. Thats right just seven days, I get proper nice wine, home made! Cant wait.

So this is the home brew wine:

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Another weeks picks

Posted by admin | Posted in Personal | Posted on 20-09-2009

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This week has been a mad one,  loads of hours overtime, lots of back and forth and a ton of vegetables. I have got a load of potatoes, still loads to go, a carrot, 2 bowls of tomatoes, green peppers, dwarf bean and runner beans. We have some red perppers growing too, I knew that peppers change color but seeing it happen is really cool! Gemma made chili con-carny from our tomatoes, chillies and peppers so is a true homegrown dish! Lucky work colleges will get a few cucumbers as I am sick of them / cant eat them all!

I have given alot of stuff away but I think its time to work out what we have got back in value so far! my workings out will come soon.

Any way for now here is this weeks offering:

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Cider making….

Posted by admin | Posted in Personal | Posted on 19-09-2009

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This post is just a few pictures or whats happened so far, I will on my next batch do a proper how to. I did start one this time but I have learnt alot since doing my first lot of cider. Cider is hard, well, its not but, if you do not follow the clean, slow, nothing hard and fast rule you will be ok.

So please enjoy my pics and be aware that a rule proof guide is on its way! well, if it works for me its got to be ;-)

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