Taking down the runner bean frame

Our WWOOFer Manon taking down the runner bean frame

Wwoofing with a baby

Here is a picture of our wwoofers Anouk, Damien and baby Anae.

As you can see children are no obstacle to wwoofing! Our experience of small familys wwoofing is very positive.
More information about WWOOF here WWOOF UK

Sowing begins

Jerome our wwoofer learning to split

Sowing nuts (in January not May!)

Now the shortest day is past and the chickens are beginning to lay again my thoughts turn towards the spring!
Sowing seeds this week - Pak Choi, lettuce and cut and come again salad in the polytunnel.  Tomatoes and peppers in the propagator to plant out later in the green house (we are still picking tomatoes from the greenhouse so I haven't made the difficult decision to clear out the old plants yet!
Coppicing is going ahead in earnest in the wood with the help of our wwoofer Jerome and Shawn and  Barry (trading labour for logs)  We are starting with the Hazels this year and going on to sweet chestnuts later.   The last storm brought down a dead birch and large dead oak so there is lots of wood to use this winter.
The new solar PV is working well - happy days!

WWOOF helpers are great!

We have just had a family from WWOOF http://www.wwoof.org.uk staying with us to help in the wood and smallholding - a great week with very nice (highly skilled ) people.  WWOOF is a great idea, people stay with us (usually for a week ) living as part of our family and trade their help 5 hours a day 5 days a week for board and lodging. No money changes hands and we have made several good friends in the process.

Nessa, Christoph, Gabe and Alma removing bracken in the wood