Getting Chooks - a warning about an ebay seller!

Hi Guys!

I just wanted to warn you about a chicken coop supplier and his apparent methods of trying to sell his products for higher prices than he lists them for!

We recently took the decision to get ourselves a chook house and run for xmas, and found the perfect one on ebay, winning the 2nd auction we bid on. Great news, but only the start of a saga which has left us both deflated and the prospect of getting chooks has now lost some of its shine!

A week later after hearing nothing we emailed the seller, to be told they were having delivery problems, as their courier wouldnt deliver as the item was 10cm too big (hmm, not really my problem, but more a case of it was going to cost him more for delivery than he had allowed, which I also offered to pay half of any difference if he used another courier), but his son was going to Scotland and would deliver it sometime on the Tuesday, great we replied, one of us will be in and have a brew n mince pies waiting!

Tuesday I finished work early (I was owed some hours back) to go and relieve Lee so he could go to work on time, then at 8pm we got an email saying the van had been broken into and the dashboard damaged, so it wouldnt be coming, and he didnt know when it would arrive.

I replied, thats ok, as long as we get it in the not too distant future, along with a list of dates and times when we would be in.

Next morning I got an email saying sorry for messing you around, I've cancelled your order and refunded your money as I dont know when it will be possible to deliver. I replied saying that we didnt want to cancel, and that we hadnt agreed to cancel, that we wanted the goods specified at the price we won the auction for, and if the delivery was such a problem, then he should immediately remove all of the other 57 of the same items (that were at higher prices) that he was still selling on ebay that were with delivery (these have now been ammended to state that only local delivery is available).

He then emailed us back saying he didnt need difficult customers, and that if we wanted it we could collect, as that was the only way we would get one from him. I replied that as we both work full time and have small cars it wasnt possible, hence the reason we had bought from someone on ebay who said they were able to deliver.

And since then I've heard nothing more from him!

He has been reported to ebay, negative feedback has been left and has also been reported to Trading Standards, who are looking into a 'loss of bargain' claim for me (potentially he could be liable for the difference between what he was supposed to sell the item to me for and what I would have to pay to get an equivalent item from another seller).

Thanks to this guys lack of customer service we are now both very disappointed and upset, with our only xmas prezzie to each other now no longer being delivered, all because it appears he doesnt want to sell to us because we won his auction and he cannot deliver for the price that was agreed!

Xmas is now ruined and our hopes of getting chooks in the next few weeks are sadly disappointed!

Please, please, please spread the word, feel free to post it to your blogs and other forums to get the word out there about his poor customer service!

Now the harvest is nearing its end, but the new growing year begins anew!

Now is the time to begin clearing the plot and to plant the overwintering crops for spring harvests, and so we've got Garlic and Onion sets, broad beans and overwintering peas ready to go in, along with some winter salad to go into the greenhouses, spring onions and spring cabbages! Lee has been doing a great job of clearing and mucking the beds ready for next year! My bad back has precluded me from helping him, but as it continues to improve with the effects of the accupuncture I am hoping to be fully fit again in the not too distant future!

Still coming are more of the autumn raspberries, leeks, carrots, parsnips, more squashes and pumpkins, broccolli, cabbages and sprouts, plus some more sweet potatoes! There's still a few tomatoes, chillies and peppers growing on, we'll see how many more ripen before the first frosts, but we've had a reasonable harvest from them this year and have 50+ 1 1/2lb bags of tomato pasta sauce in the freezer to see us through till next year!

Blight has hit us hard this year, the spud harvests have been reasonable, but not quite as good as we'd hoped, however, we should be ok for spuds until February!

Anyhows, onto the balance sheet!

Total Costs 2009

Rent + subs for 2 plots £85
Debris Netting £70
Seed Spuds £20
Compost £20
Seed Compost £5
Seeds £20
Plant feeder / feed £12
Growbags (4 for £5) £15
2 Apple trees £30
Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40

Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009

Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50
Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £20
Lettuces £15
Radish £10
Peas £25
Broad Beans £90
French Beans £55
Runner Beans £90
Cabbages £35
Cucumber £20
Courgettes £105
Marrows £10
Broccolli £40
Caulieflower £16
Turnip £18
Strawberries £50
Raspberries £100
Blueberries £10
Blackberries £14
Potatoes £145
Tomatoes £100
Peppers £30
Chillies £15
Garlic £50
Onions £50
Apples £30
Plums £15
Mange Tout £10
Sweetcorn £40
Squashes £25
Sweet potatoes £5

Total Harvests 2009 £1303

Thats a profit of £986 for the year so far! With the rest of the crops still to harvest over the coming months we should hit a total harvest figure of approx £1500-1600, down on last year (thanks to my bad back and us both being ill with swine flu), but still not a bad haul for the year!

Hope your crops are producing and you're having a bumper year!

As the nights begin to draw in and the weather starts to turn.........

........... so we find ourselves bringing in the harvest once more!

The plot is now at its most productive, the toms are turning, lots of passatta is being made to freeze (to see us through the year until next years tomatoes are ready), still more courgettes are growing, loads of runner beans to harvest and freeze, more peppers and cucumbers, the first batch of sweetcorn is ready, broccolli still being harvested, more brassicas, the maincrop spuds are ready to lift (possible 100+lb if indications are right), beetroot are ready, late peas and mange tout are producing well, all in all a bumper harvest!

Still to come and just starting are the autumn raspberries (looks like a bumper crop), the pumpkins (looks like 30+ squashes and pumpkins, some of which are ginormous), the later sweetcorn, more tomatoes to ripen, more brassicas, parsnips, more turnips, chard and spinach, chillies, the celery we've grown for seed (to make celery salt from) is drying nicely and the jerusalem artichokes look to be really strong this year!

Unfortunately it looks like we've either a thief amongst the plotholders or someone is getting onto the plot and helping themselves, we lost the complete pear harvest from the pear tree and another plotholder has lost her parsnips, beetroot, gooseberries and redcurrants! I'd love to catch them at it, they'd soon realise the error of their ways!

Anyhows, onto the balance sheet!

Total Costs 2009
Rent + subs for 2 plots £85
Debris Netting £70
Seed Spuds £20
Compost £20
Seed Compost £5
Seeds £20
Plant feeder / feed £12
Growbags (4 for £5) £15
2 Apple trees £30
Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40
Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009
Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50
Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £16
Lettuces £15
Radish £10
Peas £20
Broad Beans £90
French Beans £55
Runner Beans £60
Cabbages £24
Cucumber £15
Courgettes £95
Marrows £10
Broccolli £35
Caulieflower £16
Turnip £12
Strawberries £50
Raspberries £85
Blueberries £10
Blackberries £10
Potatoes £145
Tomatoes £70
Peppers £25
Chillies £10
Garlic £50
Onions £50
Apples £30
Plums £15
Mange Tout £10
Sweetcorn £22
Squashes £10
Sweet potatoes £5
Total Harvests 2009 £1133

Thats a profit of £816 for the year so far! Hope your crops are producing and you're having a bumper year!

Beekeeping Update

Well, of the 3 hives we currently have, 2 are really doing well!

Hive 3 (the National type Hive) is now filling its 2nd super, it may even need a third one in the next few weeks!

Hive 2 (Smiths Type) gave us quite a scare, the Queen disappeared, leaving 10 queen cells behind her, fortunately one of these hatched fine and the new queen has been successfully mated, so shes now producing eggs, grubs and capped brood, and this hive has almost filled 2 supers, we're probably going to give them a third super to fill this week!

Hive 1 (Smiths Type) is the worrying one, the queen is still laying in a chessboard patern, and only on a couple of the brood frames, they've filled the rest of the brood frames with stores, so we gave them a super 2 weeks ago but they havent touched it as yet! We may even have to give them a super full of honey from Hive 2 to help feed them through the winter!

If we get 3 supers of honey each on Hives 2 and 3, then we may be able to harvest some for ourselves this year, but if not then we should be able to have some next year! Cant wait!!

Once we've finished growing for the year and the beds are empty, then we will be starting to build the new Apiary on plot 1, then for Yule we'll be buying ourselves a couple of hives so we'll be ready to take a couple of splits from the existing hives next year!

Harvests are a coming in!

Ok, no updates for a while again I'm sorry! Although the swine flu has now gone, my bad back is still not right, tho the accupuncture is helping greatly!

We've been harvesting quite a bit recently, lots more of most of the crops are now harvestable, and lots more still to come yet, although we've also had blight hit the spuds and tomatoes (tho currently the toms seem to be doing ok, even if they arent going to be as good as last year) and have lost a lot of cabbages to slug damage (that'll teach Lee not to plant them in batches of 12 of 3 varieties each at a time! Lol), but the broadies and most of the other crops have done really well, hence the harvesting figures are shooting up rapidly!

In addition to eating lots of ultra fresh organic fruit and veg we've also now begun preserving some of the crops, lots of dried peppers, the first batches of tomato n courgette pasta sauce are in the freezers, there's lots of broadies, runners, mange tout and fruit also in the freezers, lots of jars of jam, the first few jars of pickled onions and chutney's are maturing in the cupboards, and lots of onions and garlic are drying in the garage! Hopefully there will be more processed in the next few weeks, as the harvesting reaches a peak and I've got a week off from work to process it all in early September!

Anyhows, onto the balance sheet!

Total Costs 2009
Rent + subs for 2 plots £85
Debris Netting £70
Seed Spuds £20
Compost £20
Seed Compost £5
Seeds £20
Plant feeder / feed £12
Growbags (4 for £5) £15
2 Apple trees £30
Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40
Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009
Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50
Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £14
Lettuces £15
Peas £20
Broad Beans £90
French Beans £55
Runner Beans £40
Cabbages £20
Cucumber £15
Courgettes £90
Marrows £10
Broccolli £30
Caulieflower £15
Turnip £10
Strawberries £50
Raspberries £85
Blueberries £10
Potatoes £145
Tomatoes £60
Peppers £20
Chillies £10
Garlic £50
Onions £40
Apples £30
Plums £15
Mange Tout £10
Sweetcorn £8
Squashes £8
Total Harvests 2009 £1028

Thats a profit of £711 for the year so far!

Hope your harvests are bumper ones this year!

I have always had a Dream..........

As a child of the seventies (and thus being exposed to brilliant drama such as the original series of 'Survivors', 'The Day of the Triffids' and of course the classic 'The Good Life') and as a member of a family where it was seen as the norm to build or rennovate your home to a large extent (grandparents self built over a 10 year period a 5 bedroom farmhouse after buying a 2 up 2 down farm in the moors with no water or electric (living in a small touring caravan whilst they did it), my parents bought and completely rennovated a 1920's bungalow, doubling its size, and my aunty rebuilt a 17th century cottage from a derelict condition), I have always dreamt about living a self sufficient lifestyle, not just growing our own food (which we are currently doing to a large degree), but keeping our own livestock, providing our own low impact home and the means to heat and power it.

The more that I find our modern society with its consumer based lifestyle leaving me cold, the more I yearn for my dreams of living in a sustainable low impact way with the land (rather than off it) to become a reality!

Life in the modern world has now become totally detached from the world around us, greed and the pursuit of more 'things' has become the driving force for most, yet without the next 'fix' of what is new, it is an addicts lifestlye that leaves us all finally unfulfilled and jaded with society. As a society we've lost our spiritual connection with the land, in many cases we've lost those skills that would allow us to survive were we deprived of all our modern tools and gadgets, yet anyone that harks back to a simpler and more fulfilling way of life is at best seen as odd, and at worst criminalised by the state!


Given the chance I would love to take on 4 or 5 acres of varied land, containing a piece of woodland (that could be coppiced for building materials and for wood to provide both heat and a crop that could be bartered or sold to help provide those items we are unable to produce for ourselves!), a field or two that could be used for rearing animals and growing feed for their winter eating (chickens for both eggs and eating, a couple of pigs for bacon and pork, a few goats for milk, a housecow for both milk and beef, possibly some sheep for both wool and meat), an area where we could have a large veg patch (not only to feed ourselves, but also to provide income via a possible veg box scheme), an area for a small orchard that could house our bee hives and perhaps the chickens and pigs (another few possible sources of income) and a place where we could build our own low impact earth sheltered home.

Kind of like a River Cottage kind of life, but with the added attraction of a self built eco home, heated by wood from our own woods (with hot water from a back boiler and solar water heaters to augment one another depending on the season), cooking done on camp fire in the summer and in a solid fuel aga in the winter, solar panels, wind turbine and possibly a small waterwheel to provide electricity (for the few mod cons like computer, low voltage lighting, freezers to store produce, etc). Perhaps we'd even consider having a few Yurts that we could rent out for holidays to those who seek an escape into the wilderness, or even run a few courses for those interested in a similar type of life, or even a few pagan camps where likeminded folks can get together.

Sounds idyllic doesnt it? Yet I know that both Lee and I are no fools, we know just how hard work such a life would be, how unlikely it would be to gather enough income to support ourselves in a 'traditional way', but if we were able to succesfully harvest enough to live on, then the need for actual cash would be minimal (some clothes, a few things we cant produce for ourselves (sugar, salt, medicines, etc), a few luxuries, council tax etc) and could possibly be found from selling crops via a veg box scheme, renting out yurts, holding courses and possibly even a part time job or two!

If we were to sell up, get rid of all our possessions and our home, then we could probably net about £25K, enough to buy about 5 acres of agricultural land, kit it out with the livestock and tools we would require and allow us to build a house along the lines of the one in the picture at the top of this post (http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm), allowing us to acchieve our dream and assume the lifestyle we want, living in a sustainable way with minimal impact to the environment! Sure it wouldnt always be a comfortable life, and certainly not an undertaking to be contemplated lightly, but certainly its something that we would both love to do!

"Great, problem solved, lets go and do it!", you may say, however, there's just one tiny problem!

In the UK even if you own the land, you cannot live on it unless you have planning permission, and although there is talk of sustainability at all levels within society at the moment, this does not fully apply to planning laws!

The problem is that the UK planning laws were put into place with laudable intentions of preventing the land being overly developed, in many places it is almost impossible to get residential planning permission, even if you have a case that shows that you need to live on the land to farm it efficiently. You can easily buy land without planning permission, but you cant live on it, which then means you have to either then also buy a place to live or rent somewhere, with the costs that are associated, meaning the plans for a low impact small holding become financially unsustainable!

'Ok, then why not buy somewhere with planning permission then?' I hear you ask? Great, we'd love to, but as the price for land with planning permission is extreme when compared to the price for agricultural land, then this becomes impossible with the current level of funds we could realise!

So, we find ourselves stuck in a catch 22 situation, we know what we would like to do about it, but cant currently proceed due to UK planning law, hence the reason I set up the petition on Number 10's website to create a new class of Low Impact Development Land to allow those of us who wish to live in a different manner to do so!

Please sign the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/LowImpactLiving/


To add some more food for thought, take a look at the links to the right under the Low Impact Living heading, definite food for thought, especially as peak oil, global warming and global population rise start to have an impact and global resources start to rise in price!

Update for 5th August 2009 - Mahoosive courgettes, bad back and swine flu!

Once again I find myself playing catchup with the blog, my sincerest apologies for the lack of recent updates, but in addition to the sciatica I've been suffering with (for which the accupuncture is doing wonders, especially since finding Dr Li, a fabulous and very experienced lady Dr at Dr & Herbs), I've had a skin flare up (after 2 weeks back at work), Lee has had both the flu and a chest infection (which he thankfully seems to be recovering from now) and I've also got/had a dose of the flu thats knocked me off my feet this week!

The piccies on show here were taken on Wednesday the 5th August, after my accupuncture session I felt great, so went to the plot to harvest some of the crops and to assist Pat and Colin with doing the bee inspections on the 3 hives, since then I've not had the chance or energy to process and upload them until today, I've still got the flu, but mercifully my health now seems to be improving and hopefully I'll be back at work for the weekend! Still feel completely drained in energy and with lots of congestion and a very sore throat, but breathing is much easier, my eyes dont hurt as much as they did and the headache seems to have lessened!


The first piccy shows plot 1, with more onions and broadies needing harvest and other things growing on really well! Unfortunately I did find that the large crop of pears we had ripening seem to have disappeared, there's no evidence of any bird or insect cause, so all I can assume is that they have been taken by someone else, the same fate fell on another couple of plotholders, one who lost a large crop of plums and the other who's lost all her gooseberries!

The second piccy shows plot 2, again lots growing on really well on here! We got notification the other day that once again our plots have not been deemed 'good enough' by the powers that be to even be granted a 'commended' in the allotment judging, so in the eyes of the council our efforts are not worthy of mention at all and of a similar standard to other plotholders who dont even seem to grow anything at all, but as our motivation for growing is the connection with the land, the fab crops we get, the peace and fulfilment that comes from working the land and the great taste of fresh organic food that we've grown ourselves, then it doesnt really matter that much to either of us!


Anyhows, onto the harvests! This pile of courgettes was one days worth of harvests from the 9 plants, some of the courgettes were almost 3' in length! Some have gone to friends, some eaten and some processed into sweet pickle along with some of our other harvested crops!


The first of the toms, chillies and peppers! Very tasty indeed!

Mange Tout and Turnips, both crops doing exceptionally well this year!

Salad, spring onions, lettuce and beetroot!

3 types of dwarf french bean and the first picking of the early planted runner beans!

Brassicas! 2 caulies, 1 romanesco broccolli and lots of other broccolli!

Once again the year is looking to be a reasonable one as far as our harvesting is going, further updates in the near future as we harvest more!

As for the bees, all 3 hives seem to be doing well, hive 2 is going great guns, hive 3 now has capped brood, so the new queen is laying properly, and hive 1 is still laying, if a bit slower than the other hives! More updates about the bees in the near future!

So, onto the balance sheet!

Total Costs 2009

Rent + subs for 2 plots £85

Debris Netting £70

Seed Spuds £20

Compost £20

Seed Compost £5

Seeds £20

Plant feeder / feed £12

Growbags (4 for £5) £15

2 Apple trees £30

Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40

Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009

Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50

Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £12

Lettuces £12

Peas £15

Broad Beans £60

French Beans £45

Runner Beans £10

Cabbages £8

Cucumber £10

Courgettes £70

Marrows £10

Broccolli £25

Caulieflower £10

Turnip £3

Strawberries £50

Raspberries £85

Blueberries £4

Potatoes £85

Tomatoes £20

Peppers £10

Chillies £5

Garlic £50

Onions £20

Apples £5

Plums £5

Mange Tout £5

Total Harvests 2009 £697

£380 more in crops than was spent in growing them, not a bad haul at all, especially as we've lost produce due to my bad back and the flu we've both had over the past 2 weeks!

Hope you are in good health and harvesting plenty of wonderful fresh tasty fruit and veg!

About time for an update methinks!

I went back to work on Monday, my back is still not quite right, but too few staff at work for me to stay off any longer, rest assured tho I am taking it easy!

Had another session of accupuncture yesterday, Lee tried making me laugh whilst I had 20 needles stuck in me, I'm gonna have to get my own back on him now! Lol!

Lee harvested the next batch of spuds today, another 55lb of lovely reds, not bad from 10 seed spuds!

Lots of things growing on well, methinks we'll be harvesting lots in the near future!

Total Costs 2009

Rent + subs for 2 plots £85
Debris Netting £70
Seed Spuds £20
Compost £20
Seed Compost £5
Seeds £20
Plant feeder / feed £12
Growbags (4 for £5) £15
2 Apple trees £30
Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40

Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009

Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50
Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £10
Lettuces £10
Peas £15
Broad Beans £55
French Beans £35
Runner Beans £3
Cabbages £6
Cucumber £8
Courgettes £62
Broccolli £15
Caulieflower £5
Turnip £1
Strawberries £48
Raspberries £80
Blueberries £4
Potatoes £85
Tomatoes £10
Peppers £2
Garlic £50
Onions £20

Total Harvests 2009 £587

So, we're definitely in a profit situation as for the balance sheet, up £270 so far, we may even possibly have enough of a surplus for us to include the £400+ costs that setting up the apiary has cost us this year, even if we dont manage to get a honey harvest this year!

Hope your harvesting as much as we are!

Harvesting update!

Well, I'm still off work, had accupuncture on Wednesday, which seems to have helped, have another 5 sessions booked, and hoping to go back to work on Monday, even tho the Dr wanted me to take another week off, will just have to see how I get on at work! I'm still not able to get to the plot, tho am going to go down there tomorrow and see how I get on, I'm free of pain when laid down, and can walk for 10 to 20 mins before it gets painful, but can only stand still or sit upright for 5 to 10 mins at a time, tho this is getting better!

Lee has been busy harvesting, the toms are ripening well now, the overwintering garlic and 1st batch of onions are now drying, some really good bulbs of both too! The turnips are approaching harvestable sizes, as ar some of the peppers and chillies! The courgettes are cropping like mad, as are the french and broad beans! The second spuds will be coming out tomorrow, as we've just about finished eating the 1st earlies! The pumpkins and squashes have set fruits, looks like another reasonable year for them again this year!

The bees are doing well, I'm told Hive 2 is extremely busy and doing really well, with 10 frames of capped brood being present, tho they havent yet drawn out many of the frames in the super that was put on last week! Hive 3 is getting busier, but no sign of the queen having started to lay yet, and Hive 1 is doing ok, still not as busy as Hive 2, but we'll see how it gets on!

Ok, onto the balance sheets!

Total Costs 2009

Rent + subs for 2 plots £85
Debris Netting £70
Seed Spuds £20
Compost £20
Seed Compost £5
Seeds £20
Plant feeder / feed £12
Growbags (4 for £5) £15
2 Apple trees £30
Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40

Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009

Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50
Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £9
Lettuces £10
Peas £15
Broad Beans £45
French Beans £30
Cabbages £5
Cucumber £6
Courgettes £53
Broccolli £15
Caulieflower £5
Turnip £1
Strawberries £45
Raspberries £80
Blueberries £4
Potatoes £35
Tomatoes £6
Garlic £50
Onions £20

Total Harvests 2009 £494

We're in a profit situation on the plots of £177 for the year so far, with the vast majority of crops still to be harvested! Hope you're growing year is going just as ell and you are reaping bountiful harvests!

One days worth of harvested crops!

Well, I'm still off work, the Doc told me I may be off for another week, so I'm still resting up (and feeling mighty bored with being housebound), but Lee has been working hard, not only doing his paid work, but looking after me and going to the plot to weed, feed, water and harvest! I just wish my back was better so I could go and help him, hopefully another week and it'll be better, but til then I gotta rely on my fab hubby!

The piccy above shows just what he harvested on Wednesday, just 1 days harvest!! Another 4lb of rasps, another 6lb of broad beans, 1lb tomatoes, another 1 lb of french beans, another bunch of spring onions, another large iceberg lettuce, another 1/2lb of peas, 2 large caulies, several spears of PSB and 1 large head of broccolli plus 25 more courgettes, of between 1 and 3lb each! Just about ready to harvest now on the plot are the overwintring garlic, the first batch of overwintering onions (about 100 onions), the second early spuds, more broccolli, more caulies, more cabbages, more toms, the first of the peppers, more broad beans and french beans, more radish and spring onions, lots more raspberries, more strawberries and of course, lots more courgettes!!

Total Costs 2009

Rent + subs for 2 plots £85

Debris Netting £70

Seed Spuds £20

Compost £20

Seed Compost £5

Seeds £20

Plant feeder / feed £12

Growbags (4 for £5) £15
2 Apple trees £30
Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40

Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009

Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50

Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £9

Lettuces £10

Peas £11

Broad Beans £35
French Beans £25
Cabbages £1

Cucumber £5

Courgettes £38

Broccolli £13
Strawberries £40
Raspberries £70

Potatoes £35

Tomatoes £5

Total Harvests 2009 £349

So, we've now reached the point that we've broken even for the year! On fact, we're now already £32 up for the year in terms of what we've spent on the plot!

Beekeeping News!

Well, Lee, Pat and Colin did the Hive inspections on Wednesday, Hive 1 is still fairly quiet, the queen is laying, but not in any great qunatities, but they have stopped taking the feed and have now drawn out 8 frames, hopefully we'll be able to put a super on there soon! Hive 2 is going great guns, there's lots of brood, lots of bees and half of the super has now been drawn out, so no worries with this hive! Hive 3 is busy, the feed is going down at a tremendous rate, they've drawn out 8 frames and the queen is present, although not yet laying! Hopefully she'll be mated soon and start laying in the very near future!

As to the costings, well, we did add it up the other day, and if we include the honey extractor and the materials for building the apiary, then the total costs between the 4 of us is approaching £800, we're definitely out of pocket on the honey front, and will probably remain so for a year or three, but thats not the point, its something we're enjoying and is playing our small part in ensuring the survival of the honeybee in the uk, plus we'll (hopefully) soon be self sufficient for honey and overall we will still end up in a 'profit' situation from the plots despite the outlay for the beekeeping! Next year we've another apiary to build (on Plot 1 at the back corner where the walk in plastic greenhouse is) and probably another 3 or 4 hives to pay out for, so we wont be recouping much next year, but longer term it should become (at least financially) a self sustaining hobby, and one that is giving us a lot of enjoyment!

Hope your growing year is going as well and that your harvests are going well!

Bad Back stops play & Mr D is having to do it all!

Firstly an apology for the lack of updates, its been 10 days since I've posted anything, 10 days since the last piccies or updates, and I have to apologise for the laxness, unfortunately I've not been able to get to the plot, sit at the computer or do much of anything as I've had an extremely bad back, most of my hols were spent resting it and even after that it wasnt getting better, so after seeing my GP 2 weeks ago, he diagnosed another case of Sciatica, a bad one this time, and I've been litterally laid up for the past 2 weeks! Its slowly getting better, perhaps another week or resting it and I'll be able to get back to work, but until then I'm housebound n bored stupid!

Fortunately for me, Lee has been an absolute angel, not only nursing me, but also going to the plot, harvesting, weeding, looking after the bees (with Pat and Colin) and doing a bit of tidying, in fact he even took these piccies for me today so I could see how everything is coming along, and boy does most of it look fab!! (Ok, there's some weeds n some tidying up to do, but nothing too serious and mainly at the path edges)

So, Plot 1, the celery is flowering like mad, looks very pretty, cant wait to see how much seed we get, them its a case of making our own celery salt, cant wait! The broad beans are cropping like mad, we're taking a few lb's every couple of days, lots being blanched and frozen! The Garlic is just about ready, it'll be harvested after the judging (this week or early next), as will the fabulous overwintering onions (behind!) The strawbs are producing, as are the french beans and the runners arent far behind!

Celery flowering!



The Dwarf French Beans are cropping heavily, about 2lb every couple of days at the moment, the late broadies are almost ready and the early runners are flowering well!


Maincrop spuds are looking fab, as are the turnips, tho the neighbouring swedes look like they've been had by something, looks like we'll have to get them netted asap! The later planted peas and mange tout are coming on really well, as is the chard and spinach, and also the carrots and parsnips!


Plot 2 is also going great guns! Desnt seem possible that its grown so much in only 10 days, but the proof is in the piccies! The courgettes are cropping like mad, Lee brought 14 large courgettes home yesterday and says there's loads more coming on! The sweetcorn is really growing well now, as are the pumpkins and squashes, and the brassicas are looking amazing!

Biggets head of broccolli, looking great!

Another large broccolli!

Large Cauliflower, just about rady for harvesting! Looks like we'll be processing and freezing lots of things in the near future!

Finally, a quick piccy of the herb / flower bed we put in next to the pond only 2 weeks ago, tis looking great!

Altogether I'd say that we're looking at (touch wood, fingers crossed) our best years crops since we've had the allotment, its quite possible that we're going to end up with more than the £2000 of organic fruit and veg we did last year!

So, onto the balance sheet!

Total Costs 2009

Rent + subs for 2 plots £85
Debris Netting £70
Seed Spuds £20
Compost £20
Seed Compost £5
Seeds £20
Plant feeder / feed £12
Growbags (4 for £5) £15

2 Apple trees £30

Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40

Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009

Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50
Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £7
Lettuces £9
Peas £10
Broad Beans £30

French Beans £20

Cabbages £1
Cucumber £5
Courgettes £28
Broccolli £12

Strawberries £35

Raspberries £60
Potatoes £35
Tomatoes £3

Total Harvests 2009 £305

So, just out of pocket to the tune of £12 so far, but that is definitely changing!

Hope you're growing and harvesting year is going well!

Beekeeping News!

Well, the hives now seem to have settled themselves down, Hive 2 is as busy as anything, we've (Lee, Colin and Pat) removed the feeder and put on a super, so we'll see how they are getting on with filling that this week, Hive 1 seems to have settled, they arent taking much of the feed in there now, so after this weeks inspection it may be time to remove the feeder and put a super on here too! Hive 3 now has a Queen, she was seen by Lee, Pat and Colin at last weeks inspection, all we need now is to et her mated and laying, which only time will tell! This Hive is taking feed like mad, perhaps cos they are using it to draw out the comb in the other 5 frames, wednesday we should know more!

Beekeeping - another colony homed, 3 hives on the plot! Plus a bit more info!

Well, once again a beekeeping update!


Our 2nd hive (the first one that we moved to our apiary) is doing really well, the girls have drawn out 9 frames of foundation to produce comb, the queen is laying well, with 6 frames now having eggs or larvae in them, and next week we will be removing their feeder and giving them a super to allow them to start storing honey stores for the winter! If we manage to get more than one super filled up, then we may get to harvest some for ourselves, but not if it leaves the colony short (if we leave it in place and they dont eat it all through the winter, then we can still harvest it in the spring, so no loss there!)



We did our inspection on Hive 1 the other day, with Dave being present, and it now appears that the queen in that hive is also laying both worker and drone, though not as quickly or as many as the queen in hive 2, but this then meant we were ok to move her hive back to the plot, which was planned for last night! (Hive 1 is the one on the stand to the left of hive 2, the brood box and super inbetween them are spares that will allow us to put any frames we remove whilst doing an inspection into them on a temporary basis, the other brown supers and brood boxes in the right hand corner are the stack of spares filled with frames, ready for use!)


We then got a phone call from Dave, asking if we had any spare hives, as he had experienced a swarm, and had 2 nucleus of bees to house, (as seen in this piccy) and unfortunately only had 1 spare hive! Fortunately Colin had ordered a National Hive to keep as a spare, so we decided to get it built and were able to successfully house the nucleus in there, and also bring that hive back to our apiary at our allotment.


This hive will be labelled as Hive 3 and has 3 queen cells in it, so now we need to wait for a queen to hatch and hope that she can get properly mated and start laying before we will know whether that hive will be fully viable! So we've now got 3 hives on the plot, more than we'd planned for this year, but hopefully it will allow us a good chance of at least 2 of the 3 to survive the winter!


Ok, after a few emails from various folks asking for more details of what beekeeping involves, I thought I'd post a bit more info on exactly what a hive consists of, both the physical parts, how they are made and also about the bees themselves, along with a bit more info on why beekeepers carry out inspections and what exactly is involved with being an apiarist!

So, whilst Lee and Colin were assembling the single type of National Hive that we have (yes, there are more than one type of beehive, the brown ones we started with are known as Smiths Hives, which use the same type of frames as National Hives - but with shorter lugs - but are a slightly different construction) I took some piccies showing the basic components of a hive. You can buy Hives fully assembled, but they cost a lot more, so its usually better to buy them as a flat packed kit, which you then glue and nail together. A National Hive Kit (complete with floor, brood chamber, brood frames and foundation, queen excluder, 2 'supers' (smaller chambers like the brood chamber but not as deep, filled with smaller frames and foundation that the bees use for storing their honey in), crown board (with porter bee escapes) and roof) costs somewhere in the region of £125 flat packed, so beekeeping isnt something that is cheap to start or going to make lots of money quickly, but is something that is interesting, will eventually financially break even (local honey costs about £5 for a 1lb jar, and tastes sooo much better than shop bought honey) and improves pollination of your crops, so although not something that everyone will wish to do, is something we find enjoyable and rewarding, quite apart from the (admittedly small) part we are playing in helping to conserve the declining bee population in the uk!


So, to start with then, what are the parts of a typical beehive? This piccy shows (from top left to right) the stand, a super (filled with 12 frames which already have their foundation fitted), the roof, then in the front row (left to right) the queen excluder, the varroa mesh floor and the crown board. Not shown in this picture is a super (which can be seen in the next picture, where Colin is assembling it!


So, what exactly is a 'super'? Why do we need them? What is a queen excluder and why do we need one? Ok, many years ago it was discovered that the bees needed a gap of 3/8" (any bigger and they will fill it with honeycomb), so a moveable frame system was created by a gent of the name Langstroth. He noticed that the bees stored pollen and honey in one part of the comb, and the brood (the eggs and larvae) were sited in another part of the comb. He reasoned that by excluding the queen (by using a mesh that the worker bees could get through, but that the larger queen could not get through) from a portion of the hive, then it would allow the beekeeper to keep the brood (the next generations of bees) seperate from the honey stores that the colony was building, this would then allow the beekeeper to remove the stores without loosing any of the developing brood, so the system of using a brood chamber (where the queen lives and is free to lay her eggs) capped with a queen excluder and then 'supers' above for the bees to store honey in developed.



So, what are frames? How are they used and why? Frames are basically a way to provde the bees with a place to build the comb without it being totally random, by providing a frame and a sheet of foundation (a thin sheet of wax with a comb pattern already marked on it), it encourages the worker bees to 'draw out' the comb within the frame itself, allowing the beekeeper to remove the frames from the hive to inspect them. The frames are constructed from wood, as can be seen in the piccy of Lee above! Brood frames are deeper, allowing the queen to lay as many eggs as she wishes, whereas the super frames are smaller in depth, making it easier for the beekeeper to remove a super full of stored honey (a full super weighs in at about 30lb in total, a full brood box could be up to 50% heavier!)

Once the frames are constructed, a thin sheet of foundation is fitted to grooves in the frame.....

.................... then the foundation is secured with strips of wood which are then pinned into place. Once all 11 or so frames are assembled they are put into the brood or super ready for the bees to draw out! Once this and all other parts of the hive are built it is then time to assemble the hive ready for the colony to be introduced!

First comes the stand and the floor, the stand lifts the hive to a comfortable working height and prevents the hive floor from sitting in water which would lead to dampness and rot. The floor pictured here is an open mesh 'varroa' type floor. One of the biggest problems that honey bees are currently facing is from a parasitic mite, Varroa Destructor, more commonly known as the Varroa Mite. This nasty little beastie was accidentally introduced to the uk in the 1990's from asia (where the bees have some resistance to it) and has proven to be deadly to a bee colony of steps are not taken by the beekeeper to manage varroa infestation, it is this parasite that is believed to be responsible for the death of virtually all wild honey bees in the uk, the only honey bees that are now surviving are ones that are cared for by beekeepers, and considering how much of our food crops depend on honey bees for pollination, then it is absolutely vital that beekeepers are there to look after the bees! Managing Varroa is done in several ways, there are many ways to combat varroa, some using chemicals, some which encourage the bees to groom themselves (such as dusting the colony with icing sugar, encouraging the bees to clean it off themselves thus dislodging the varroa) and some (such as the open mesh floor) that are passive (if a varroa mite falls off a bee, then it passes straight through the hive floor and cant get back in), none of them on their own are enough to ensure that varroa is kept under control, so a combined strategy has to be adopted to ensure that numbers of varroa are kept to a level that the bees can handle, otherwise the colony will not survive!

After the stand and floor comes the brood box, complete with its frames. This is where the queen lives and where all the brood is raised. A healthy colony of bees will consist of a single Queen (whose job it is to lay all of the eggs) some Drone bees (the male bees, whose only job is to fertilise a queen when she takes her mating flights) and (the vast majority) the worker bees, which are immature female bees who are unable to reproduce. A nucleus (or a newly captured swarm) will normally consist of 5 brood frames of bees, including nurse and forager bees (both worker bees, but at different ages), some capped worker brood, a few capped drone brood (the cappings are more domed so it is possible to tell them apart), a frame or two of eggs and larvae (to develop into the next generation of workers) and a couple of queen cells! Once a virgin queen hatches she will usually kill her sister queens, then over the next few weeks she will take several mating flights (can be up to 12 mating flights in a 2 week period - this is the only time in her life that she will normally leave the colony and certainly the only time she will be mated!) after which she will begin laying eggs. If she has been properly mated then she will produce both worker and drone brood, if the matings didnt go well, then all the brood will be drones and the colony would need to be re-queened to stand any chance of surviving.

Next comes the queen excluder, which stops the queen from getting any higher into the hive and laying eggs into the frames in the supers, which means that the worker bees will fill them with stores, enough honey and pollen for them to survive the winter and hopefully enough spare for the beekeeper to be able to take some for themselves!

Next would normally come the 'supers' although we havent got one in the piccy here, filled with super frames (shorter frames for the bees to fill with stores), then a crown board (a lid with a porter bee escape (a one way door for the bees, it allows them to go down through it but not to come back up), which can be moved below a super to allow it to be cleared of bees in order for it to be removed by the beekeeper. This is normally only done once there are 2 supers full of honey on the hive! As this hive is going to be used for a nucleus, we are going to be using the crown board under a super, with a feeder above the central hole to allow the bees to feed on a strong sugar solution, in order to give them an incentive to stay in the hive and also to provde fuel for them to draw out the new foundation!

Above all ot this comes the roof, which is rainproof to keep the colony dry, and has ventilation to prevent dampness from condensation from the bees themselves!

So, there you go, you've now a much better idea of what a hive consists of! The weekly inspections we carry out are to check on the colony, to check for varroa infestation, to do a weekly icing sugar dusting, to check how much stores the bees have laid down (and whether there is any honey ready for us to harvest) and finally to check for queen cells, which can be made if the bees feel that they have a chance of making a new colony by swarming! Generally this happens if the hive becomes overcrowded and no action is taken by the beekeeper. Swarms are not something that any beekeeper likes to see happen, for if they are not caught and the colony tries to go 'wild', then it almost certainly wont survive, thanks to varroa, so its much better if you find queen cells to artifically split the hive, removing the frames with queen cells and rehousing in a new hive along with some of the worker bees and stores, thus removing the overcrowding and removing the need for the colony to swarm!

So, a basic intro to basic beekeeping there, I hope some of you found it interesting!

We'll keep you updated with whats happening in the hives as things progress!

Early start to a disappointing day!

Well, we're now into the second week of our holidays, yesterday was just too darn hot, so apart from putting up Fester (our scarecrow - something we've been meaning to do for a while but never quite got round to) and making some new wooden bed labels (with whats in the bed and the varieties on them, ready for the allotment judging in the next 2 weeks), we didnt manage to get much done apart from a little bit of sowing, weeding and harvesting (3lb of first early spuds, 3 courgettes, 3lb of rasps, 1lb of strawbs, 2lb of broad beans and 1lb of peas), so we decided that today we'd get up extra early and get to the plot whilst it was still cool to give everything a good watering and then get some serious weeding done!

We got to the plot for 615am, lovely and cool, but also overcast, and we then spent the next 12 hours dodging rain showers, attempting to get as much of the plot weeded as we could, giving everything a really good watering (it takes 1 1/2 hours to fully water now with the hosepipe - yes, it did rain today, but none of the rain was heavy enough to properly water our crops, so we still had to water) and once again harvesting for tonights tea!


By the time we called it a day (6pm) we'd managed to weed the garlic, 4 beds of onions (the ones in this piccy), the carrot bed, the courgette bed, 2 beds of sweetcorn / pumpkins and 1/4 of one of the brassica beds, so still lots left to weed before the judging starts this coming monday!

Doesnt look like we're going to make it to Shell Island this year unfortunately, but we should be able to get a day out on Thursday, though we may be moving the other hive from the apiary where its colony was from, down to our apiary on Thursday night!

Plans for the rest of the week then are shopping tomorrow morning (Wednesday), followed by the afternoon on the plot and then doing the weekly inspections on the 2 beehives (the girls on our plot have been mad busy, lots of bees coming and going, mainly collecting poppy pollen by the looks of things!), Thursday will be a day out, followed (we hope) by moving the other hive, Friday will be a full day on the plot, then Saturday also will be another day on the plot, though we will be helping out with the allotment tidy up before the allotment BBQ later in the afternoon! Then Sunay Lee is back at work, so hopefully I'll be able to finish any weeding and tidying ready for the judging, then back to work on Monday for me!

Last picy for today, Fester and Lee, can you tell which one is which??

So, onto the balance sheet!

Total Costs 2009

Rent + subs for 2 plots £85

Debris Netting £70

Seed Spuds £20

Compost £20

Seed Compost £5

Seeds £20

Plant feeder / feed £12

Growbags (4 for £5) £15
2 Apple trees £30
Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40

Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009

Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50

Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £5

Lettuces £7

Peas £8

Broad Beans £15

Cucumber £3

Courgettes £8

Broccolli £3
Strawberries £15
Raspberries £22

Potatoes £5

Total Harvests 2009 £141

So, still out of pocket to the tune of £176 so far, but that is definitely changing! Hope you're growing year is going well!

I'll try and get another update done tomorrow, on the Beekeeping we've been doing, hopefully with a bit of info about how a hive is constructed and what beekeeping actually involves!

What a difference a week makes!

Well, 1st week of our holidays, weather has been great and everything on the plot is growing on at a tremendous rate! All of a sudden things seem to have started to grow by inches a day, tis fab!


The celery we've been growing for seed (to make our own celery salt) has just begun to flower, tiny but oretty white blooms! The Broad beans are absolutely covered in bean pods, and generally its looking like we could be in for a bumper year!


A pano from the top left o the plot looking back across both plots! We've chopped back the first growth of comfrey (it now composting nicely for organic tomato feed) to allow the second growth to come through, the brassica tunnels are looking amazing, the pumpkins are beginning to set fruit and the sweetcorn is now taking off!


Second sowing of peas n mange tout is coming thru, as are the turnips and swedes in the bed next to them!

Courgettes are now romping away and producing some very tasty courgettes!

Early Maincrop spuds are looking fab, as are the brassicas behind!

Dont think we'll get bored of the broad beans, but they are looking like a bumper crop this year!

The pear tree is absolutely dripping with pears, cant wait for them to ripen, think we may even have enough to make some pear cider with this year!

As you can see, the fedge is dripping with rasps, looks like we're gonna be making plenty of raspberry jam this year too!

Friday we decided to sort out the areas under the fruit trees and 1 bed at the edge of plot 1, by filling them with flowers that we know the bees like, so we took a trip to 2 local garden centers (I know we dont usually buy in plants, but its a bit late to be sowing some flowers for this year, so as we wanted to have some impact for the allotment judging in the next week or so we thought we'd cheat a bit! Lol!) to buy some herbs, verbennas and salvias plus a few bedding plants, however we spotted 2 more apple trees, gala and bramley, on offer, so ended up buying them and squeezing them into the MINI with us, as you can see, it made for an interesting drive back to the plot!

This area (behind the french bean and runner bean / pea beds) was one of the three we wanted to sort out, hence all the plants on the path ready for planting!

And afterwards, 2 more apple trees and lots of herbs and flowers to fill it up! The soil is very dry and lacking a bit in humus, so we top dressed it with some well rotted FYM (farm yard manure) and are going to keep on top of watering and feeding these beds!

The other 2 areas beneath the existing fruit trees, after clearing and planting!

So, overall we seem (so far, touch wood and fingers crossed) to be having a good year, crops are looking good, plot is relatively tidy and everything (apart from the parsnips) is growing! It'll be interesting to see how well we do come the end of the growing year!

So, onto the balance sheet!

Total Costs 2009

Rent + subs for 2 plots £85
Debris Netting £70
Seed Spuds £20
Compost £20
Seed Compost £5
Seeds £20
Plant feeder / feed £12
Growbags (4 for £5) £15

2 Apple trees £30

Herbs and Flowers (for underplanting 3 beds of fruit trees) £40

Total costs so far £317

Harvests 2009

Rhubarb (£1 a stalk in Sainsburys) £50
Spring Onions (£0.99 a bunch for organic) £4
Lettuces £6
Peas £6
Broad Beans £9
Cucumber £2
Courgettes £5
Broccolli £3

Strawberries £10

Raspberries £10

Total Harvests 2009 £105

So, we're out of pocket by £212 so far this year, but that is starting to change! Hope your growing year is going well!

Still growing this year............

Herbs

Parsley, Marjoram, Chamonile, Lemon Balm, Lemon Verbenna, Coriander, Basil, Rosemary, Mint, Chives, Sage, Thyme and Peppermint.

Fruit

6 crowns rhubarb, 65 Raspberry Canes (in fedge) (Possible Bumper Crop!) , 2 pear trees (Possible Bumper Crop!), 3 eating apple trees, 3 cooking apple trees, 1 cherry tree, 1 grapevine (trained up the front of the shed, we've plans to build an arbour type extension to support it a bit better, hopefully this year), 160 strawberry plants, 40 in the plot, 100 in planters and 20 in hanging baskets!

Maincrops

Garlic 3 varieties (Looking fab!) 140 plants

Onions

140 Sturon from set (overwintered (Possible Bumper Crop!)), 140 Red Barron from set (overwintered), 120 White onions from set (spring planted (Possible Bumper Crop!)), 100 Ailsa Craig from seed, 25 Bunyards Exhibition from seed, 50 red barron from seed. 60 spring onions (so far) Total 575 maincrop onions!

Leeks

Musselburgh, 120 seedlings growing away nicely to be planted once the first early spuds are out!

Spuds

40 first earlies (Possible Bumper Crop!), 40 second earlies, 20 early main (Possible Bumper Crop!) and 20 late maincrops! Total 120 tubers!

Sweet Potatoes, 3 tubs full, 9 plantlets in total!

Brassicas

20 brussel sprouts (2 varieties), 20 broccolli (2 varieties) 20 caulies / romanesco broccolli, 60 cabbages (3 varieties, golden acre primo, red drumhead and greyhouse, 20 each) - All Possible Bumper Crops!

Beans n Legumes

Broad Beans 70 plants (3 varieties)(Possible Bumper Crop!)

Runner Beans 48 growing, 2 varieties!

Borlotti beans, 26 planted!

French Beans 50 plants of 3 varieties!

Kentucky Climbing Beans 24 growing!

Peas

2 x 10' rows Klevedon (approx 120), 1 x 10' row Twinkle (approx 40), 1 x 6' row Mange Tout (approx 30)!

Cucurbits

Courgettes 9 plants (2 varieties)(Possible Bumper Crop!)

Cucumbers Marketmore (1 plant, we lost 2 others of another variety!), 2 Telegraph, 2 Melonie, 2 Burpless Tasty Green

Roots

Jerusalem Artichokes, 1 bed full!

2 x 14' rows Swedes (2 variety, approx 60), 2 x 14' rows Turnips (2 variety, approx 80), 5 12' rows parsnips (3 variety, approx 100), 10 x 12' rows carrots (5 variety, approx 300)

Sweetcorn

80 plantlets of 3 varieties in total, poor germination this year! (Possible Bumper Crop!)

Squashes / Pumpkins

50 plants from 8 varieties

Celery

60 plants (overwintered) Lathom self blanching (for seed to make celery salt) + 60 seedlings planted on the plot!

Salad

25 beetroot seedlings, 12 lettuce salad bowl, 20 lettuce little gem, 8 lettuce iceberg.

Radish, 4 varieties, interplanted with parsnips + 2 x 8' rows!

Tomatoes

38 in the 3 greenhouses, 32 outdoor toms, 12 varieties! (Possible Bumper Crop!)

Peppers

36 on the plot in greenhouses, 14 planted up into pots in the back yard greenhouse, 21 in the plastic walk in greenhuse + lean to, 16 outdoor on the plots! Total 87 plants of 7 varieties!

Chillies

54 plants of 9 varieties in total!

Aubergines
10 plants, 3 varieties!

Flowers

Nicotiana, Foxgloves, Sweet Peas, Salvias, Verbennas, Marigolds, Asteria, Fuschia, Lavender, roses

Hope your growing year is looking as good (if not better) than ours!