My Life In Poo

I wonder if I should use this the title for my memoirs or perhaps, Manure for the Memories?

The day started, as what has become the norm for a Saturday, by collecting the poo trailer at 9am. Chris was about today so we had a bit of a chat about nothing in particular. Chatting about nothing in particular is a special bloke skill.

During the week, on a day I finished a bit early, I thought I would spent a few minutes pondering my navel at the lottie. I should know better. I thought I will just move a barrow load of poo from the my bin onto bed 1 just to see how far it would go and check the quality of the manure. I had a rush of blood to head and ended up shifting the whole bin and completing the manuring of bed 1. The next few worth of trailering will be going in my newly emptied poo bin. I can not see the trailer out the rear windscreen so I have no chance of reversing the trailer down the path to my plot. I have to unhook it and walk it. Fortunately it is down hill so I only have to make sure it does not run away with me. I done that before! Then it is just a matter of shovelling the poo into the bin. The bin looked really full with just one trailer load. The thought crossed my mind that if the bin so full with one trailer what I am going to do with a trailer full a week until Christmas. Since I had wellies on I jumped into the bin and stamped the poo down. I reckon I could get ten trailer fulls in the bin with a good stomping on each fill.

I had another appointment for a lesson in pottering so I had to go home after the poo wrangling. After cup of tea and a change of clothes it was off to Ashby for the next installment. However, before tea and clothes and whilst waiting for Miss L to grace us with her presence I had a strong urge to dig. The front garden at home has been under half a ton of manure all winter. It is starting to turn green. I have put off turning it over for a few weeks but I could resist no longer. I got busy with the fork and within twenty minutes it was all dug over. The end near the house is still just sand. Thirty odd years after the house was built and the sub surface is still a builder yard. Later in the day I was able to bring another couple of buckets of manure home from the lottie to bolster the sand pit. Another few bucket fulls are going to be needed to make the area viable as a garden.

Young Miss L needed a lift into town to see her mates and in the spirit of saving the planet one journey at a time H and I went to pottering lessons and L to meet her buddies. L was charged with get something for her Mum's birthday. After major negotiations I was relieved of a quantity of cash and L was sent of with instructions. I managed to slip away to get H a birthday card and a small prezzy. I do not think this was a very successful lesson. I was distracted by the itch to get back to the lottie and barrow manure on to bed 4.

One of the plot holders has access to manure as well. He built a big corral at the back of the car-park at the top of the plot and has been filling it since autumn last year from his four pony source. It is ready to use. We also have a small poo corral at the bottom of the plots. Dave G, "Roundup" as has been affectionately christened, has started filling that bin whilst we empty the top bin. It took fifteen barrow loads to complete bed 4 and a long walk. My plot is as far away from the top poo bin as it is possible to get on our lottie.

I had another result this week. I was on an errand to the post office in Ashby which takes me past Woolies. Woolies had a new lot of plants in boxes. I spotted they had Sauvigon Blanc grape vines and at half price, just £2.49! Four please missus. Don't wrap them, I'll take them with me.
The vines had already started to sprout. As soon as I got home I potted them up. The planting stations are not ready at the lottie. A few weeks growing on on the greenhouse at home will be a great start. I now have all the vines I need for the lottie and at a fraction of the original estimate of £120.

One of L friend's Mum is a primary school teacher. She came round to asked me about seed potatoes. The conversation lead into what they do at school and why they do it. The resources available and the limitations. They have had a series of raised beds made and no one to work them. Whilst I did not volunteer out right I did promise to do her a crib sheet on easy to grow vegetables. Whilst writing up the crib it is amazing how many plants are easy to grow, will stand neglect and yet perform well. I think I might ask if I can set it out. If it is big enough I could do a potager if not, I could use the square metre gardening principle.

Everything is growing in the greenhouse despite the cold snap we have had. Next week I might tackle the back garden. It is probably a days work to prepare the salad bed and weed the fruit beds. then there is the fun of trimming the Willows. I have some prep to do on a new bed and the Sweet Pea screen. More about that when it happens.

It is H birthday on Monday so as a treat tomorrow we are off to Leeds Armoury followed by lunch at Pizza Express. H has got interested in development of weapons and the history of the people who used them in the context of English history. I think this is in part due to my introducing her to the works of Patrick O'Brian. O'Brian wrote a twenty book series on the adventures of Midshipman Jack Aubrey and his rise to Admiral Aubrey of the Blue and his "particular friend" phyiscian & spy Stephen Maturin. The action takes place all over the world during and after the Napoleonic wars. H has always had a strong interest in history but mainly from the Industrial Revolution. H would assert that it is the recent history that shaped us. I lean to the shaping of a people from the development of England as an entity since the Dark ages. I read a very interesting book by Melvyn Bragg called The Adventure of English. It is biography of the English language and therefore about its people.

Time to go. We off out tonight with our friends the Peter's to sample the delight of The Chequers