Bad Fox

Bad Fox

Today, sometime during the afternoon, early evening perhaps, a fox entered the chicken area and killed all the 10 chickens. We found 9 dead, and one missing that the fox must have taken away for food, when we went to put them away for the night.

Bigger fence is obviously needed. Learning the hard way.

Garden Birds

Garden Birds

Since the RSPB annual bird watch is next weekend I though that I'd up the bird feed and start to see what can be attracted in preparation. Over December and early January there wasn't much food in the bird feeders and the birds were staying in the field and hedges. After a few days of feeding more, they start to appear in the front garden in greater numbers.

Today, sunny cold start to the day, there were:

2 Blue Tits

2 Great Tits

5 Long Tailed Tits

1 Blackbird

5 House Sparrows

2 Dunnocks

1 Robin

1 Wren in the front hedge

In the field as I am spreading manure there are the following pulling up worms,

1 Robin

2 House Sparrows

1 Wren

2 Dunnocks

2 Blackbirds

If I stop digging and working for a while there is a Pigeon and Magpie that appear. 

The Barn Owl made a brief fly past first thing as it normally does although this only once in a while flies over the field and sticks to the neighbour's field.

Around the house, garden and field there are 3 Wrens, one near the compost heap as there always is, one in the front garden and another near the green house. They obviously have their own little territories. Also the Robin that keeps coming into the front garden is the same one that lives in the roadside hedge and appears on the manure next to the roadside manure heap but another Robin lives on the field side in and around the Hawthorn trees and keeps appearing on the manure that is being spread on the vegetable beds that side. 

The 2 Tree Sparrows that were hanging around with the House Sparrows haven't been seen for a few months now.

Soil

Soil

By looking at the UK Soil Observatory's it is possible to get an idea of the make up of our soil.

Soil Group: Heavy

Soil Texture: Clayey Loam, Locally Chalky

Parent material carbonate content: CaCO3 Content VARIABLE(LOW)
Calcium Carbonate which is defined as :
(Elements & Compounds) a white crystalline salt occurring in limestone, chalk, marble, calcite, coral, and pearl: used in the production of lime and cement. Formula: CaCO3

European Soil Bureau description: Glacial Till

Cadmium Sesquioxide Metal Binding Capacity: Value 4.5 - 5.0

Topsoil Carbon Stock: Value 6.33 (I think %)

Soilscapes: Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils

Native Woodland Model: Lowland mixed broadleaves with dog's mercury

Soil layer thickness: Deep

Nearby Soil depth (points) Base: 1m

Parent material grain size (Grain Size): MIXED (ARGILLIC-RUDACEOUS)
(I think this means course clay?)

Drainage: Impeded drainage

Fertility: Moderate

Habitat: Seasonally wet pastures and woodlands

Landcover: Grassland and arable some woodland

Carbon: low

Drains to: Stream network

Water Protection: Main risks are associated with overland flow from compacted or poached fields. Organic slurry, dirty water, fertiliser, pathogens and fine sediment can all move in suspension or solution with overland flow or drain water

General Cropping: Mostly suited to grass production for dairying or beef; some cereal production often for feed. Timeliness of stocking and fieldwork is important, and wet ground conditions should be avoided at the beginning and end of the growing season to avoid damage to soil structure. Land is tile drained and periodic moling or subsoiling will assist drainage

Texture: Loamy and clayey

This soil type Coverage: England: 19.9%    Wales: 2.4%

England & Wales: 17.5%

Make Up:

NSI Topsoil Silicon: 29.56%
NSI Topsoil Aluminium: 6.1%
NSI Topsoil Iron: 3.23%
NSI Topsoil Calcium: 1.93%
NSI Topsoil Potassium: 1.4%

NSI Topsoil Sodium: 0.41%
NSI Topsoil Titanium: 0.33%

NSI Topsoil Phosphorus: 0.07%

NSI Topsoil Manganese: 0.05%

NSI Topsoil Sulphur: 648.21 mg/kg
NSI Topsoil Barium: 344.38 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Zirconium: 285.88 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Chlorine: 105.09 mg/Kg

NSI Topsoil Iodine: 4.32 mg/Kg

NSI Topsoil Magnesium: 0.71%

NSI Topsoil Cerium: 60.74 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Caesium: 4.3 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Cadmium: 0.2 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Bromine: 7.41 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Bismuth: 0.26 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Arsenic: 18.61 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Antimony: 0.99 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Lead: 50.64 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Lanthanum: 31.04 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Indium: 0.25 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Hafnium: 6.99 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Germanium: 0.84 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Gallium: 10.67 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Copper: 21.96 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Cobalt: 11.18 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Strontium: 116.70 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Silver: 0.24 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Selenium: 0.33 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Scandium: 10.45 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Samarium: 2.49 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Rubidium: 67.34 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Palladium: 0.23 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Niobium: 11.5 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Nickel: 26.7 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Neodymium: 22.98 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Molybdenum: 1.57 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Zinc: 71.75 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Yttrium: 22.87 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Ytterbium: 2.61 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Vanadium: 82.99 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Uranium: 2.33 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Tungsten: 1.13 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Tin: 10.14 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Thorium: 8.68 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Thallium: 0.38 mg/kg

NSI Topsoil Tantalum: 0.75 mg/kg

Comparing the past - January

Comparing the past - January

January 2013

January 2014

January 2013 was a blank canvas.


January 2014 was a busy time, the old chicken house we inherited from the previous owner, was a caravan with a fence around it and a shed or two attached. Along with other rubbish it was all removed, burnt or taken away. The area is now a large vegetable patch of around 15 ft wide by possibly 30 ft long. The old chicken area was on top of a rubbish pit, all sorts of rubbish was dug up, and a pond needed filling in. After digging it all over and removing a lot of nettles up to 4 feet deep of manure has been applied to this area. It has been going on from May. Potatoes and other veg were grown on this patch and when they all finished more manure has been added so it can rot down and become a raised bed.

During late winter we also added another dozen fruit trees and a load of willow (which are hard to see on these photos) as well as a new Raspberry bed along the main path going to the chickens. The chickens have also been given a new home. 

Another big difference between the two January's are extra beds just below the fire. Also the fire area has been seeded with random flowers and bulbs.

The rough grass has been kept longer this year as it is an excellent habitat for frogs, toads and newts, all which have been very numerous this year and between them totalling hundreds.

January 2015

Out of shot on the left, the original vegetable beds have been extended by another 15 ft.

Since May, over 30 tonnes of horse manure has been added to the field, mainly veg beds and around trees although most of it has just vanished and you'd never guess that much had been added.

Manure, Sprouts, Oca and Cape Gooseberries

Manure, Sprouts, Oca and Cape Gooseberries 

Today was a fantastic winters day to be preparing beds for next spring. Because of the clay soil that we have I spread manure 12 inch deep across several beds so it will act as a weed suppressant and can have time to break down. The beds had 18 inch to 2ft of manure added earlier in the year and bit by bit the soil, although still clumps of clay are everywhere, is becoming far more workable. Large amounts of dark humus / compost are now evident throughout the beds.

Fresh Manure

I gave the beds a quick dig over before piling on 60 wheel barrow loads of manure on top and can see that although full of worms the manure didn't get mixed in with the clay by worms, insects and plant roots. Maybe over time the organic material will find it's way into the clay but over the shorter time scales digging is certainly needed to mix the clay with organic material.

Just pile it high!

The first layer of manure added earlier in the year hasn't composted as well as the layer above because it got water logged where the water sat on top of the clay, again another reason to continue digging as opposed to a no-dig method. Digging the clay, no matter how deep leaves a plough pan which water can't easily penetrate and although I have dug fairly deep it is clear that from now on I must raise the level of the soil to avoid the plant roots sitting in water. This water caused problems with the potatoes this year and meant I had to lift them a month or so too early. The crop was small and wouldn't store.

I must have had 30 tonnes of manure delivered since late spring and apart from a decent compost heap most of the manure has just disappeared into the beds without raising the ground level by much and I have agreed to continue taking 3 or 4 tonnes a month for the next year. I'm sure this will all be of great benefit in the coming years.

Areas that I have dug over and not applied manure just compact again under the soils own weight and become water logged so I'll be digging more areas and applying manure this winter even if those areas will ultimately end up as lawn.

Sprouts

Not many but enough

The 3 sprout plants that survived slugs and pigeons have been attacked by rabbits last night so I have harvested what ever I could. The plants had a huge number of sprouts on them, sadly though half were nibbled and one plant was cut in half. Since sprouts are a favourite of mine I'm going to put a lot more effort into them next year although this year we will have plenty for Christmas dinner, shame they couldn't be left for a couple more weeks as now we have to process them and freeze them for a fortnight rather than deal with them fresh.

Oca

Oca

The main bed that I manured today contained 6 Oca plants that had withered due to frost. The tubers are rather small and many are a bit green. I'll need to read up now to see what I do with them. The other 6 plants are in another bed and I'll lift them later in the week. Had they grown a bit better there would have been a good number of tubers. I was given the seed tubers by Anni Kelsey (https://annisveggies.wordpress.com/) and I'll be putting more effort into Oca next year should these taste OK.

Cape Gooseberries

Almost ripe Cape Gooseberries

I sowed Cape Gooseberries last spring and planted them out into a bed, rather late, and was worried that they weren't going to ripen. In November I tried one and it was still green and extremely tart / bitter but today I noticed that some have ripened. The couple I ate were fantastic and if I can leave them another week or so the rest should ripen since they are all almost ready. These are supposed to need a lot of sun and should really be in a green house but despite this year not having much sun, (August was particularly bad), they are going to be a success. Next year I'll be planting many many more and will have one or 2 in the green house. It's the first time I have ever tried them, tasted or grown, and have been extremely surprised how nice they are and can't think why I have never tried them before. They could easily become my favourite fruit and taste like a very very sweet tomato and are the size of a large cherry and orange in colour. The taste has changed so much in a few weeks, last time I tried a green one it made my tongue curl and my eyes roll and I had totally given up thinking about them until today. That's the best surprise I have had out of our food growing attempts!

The Cape Gooseberries alone have now made me long for spring when I can sow some more. It'll be a long wait I think :)

Today's Sun Graph
How sunny today was in Watts per Metre Squared - how much power was in the sun:

Infrared and Visible light readings

The above graphs show patchy sun in the morning but no clouds in the afternoon. A perfect day would look like a semi-circle.

Game of Life

Game of Life

While watching an episode of the Human Universe on BBC iplayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0276p50) the other day, Brian Cox was explaining how life and the universe is built around rules, from rivers to how Leopards get their spots, everything has simple rules. Life and indeed almost everything appears to be very complicated but he was demonstrating how a set of simple rules over time can produce very complex things.

This reminded me of one of the very first computer programs I wrote, or to be more accurate copied from a magazine, back in 1980 or 1981 which was called "Life" and devised by a British Mathematician called John Conway.

Put simply, Conway created a computer model which had a few very simple rules. Left to run for a while it would repeatedly apply these simple rules over and over again. Starting with a few random "cells" each cell would have 4 rules applied to it and over time what started with a random arrangement of cells could, and often did, arrange themselves into both simple and complex patterns. It was fascinating!

We hear a lot now about climate change, nature and our environment, and how scientists can run computer models to predict, or at least try to, the future of our actions. The game of life can be seen as a computer model running rules many times to see how the future may turn out.

The idea of applying rules over and over again is nothing new but with the Game of Life automation we can see how nature can produce complex patterns without the need for design. To me this is an important demonstration that most complex things can possibly or probably be reduced down to some basic rules. How plants grow and why they grow into the shapes they do can be seen as simply following a simple set of rules, does a cell have enough nutrients to reproduce etc. The shape it follows, a stem with a few off shoots and those off shoots split and split seems quite simple really. 

Recently I rewrote my version of "Life" and made a simple video that shows it. The cells are represented by the letter 'O' and to start Life going the program arranges a few random cells on the screen. The following rules are then applied:-

1) Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.

2) Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.

3) Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.

4) Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.

5) Any cell over 40 generations old will die.

The 5th rule I added which is in addition to Conway's original set of rules. The colours are white (no cell or dead cell), black for a young cell, blue for a mature cell, and red for an old cell.

You'll need to view on full screen, and apologies for the video quality as I haven't managed to make them look that good :)

Apart from drawing a random number of cells to begin with the cells and patterns are simply generated from the basic rules mentioned above.

In the videos you can clearly see order coming from chaos and many patterns repeating. Often a symmetrical pattern of cells collides with another cell and chaos ensues. Some patterns can keep going for many generations while other groups of cells die out almost immediately. Some groups of cells walk across the screen as if they have developed legs. During the video I restart Life on many occasions and you can tell when this happens. The program also restarts automatically after 500 generations or when the cell count drops to only a few cells.

John Conway Videos

By starting the game with a different pattern, not random but one pre-chosen and by having a lot more cells  some amazing patterns can be seen. Some of them are absolutely stunning as in the following video...

Comparing the past: October

Comparing the past: October

October 2014

October 2013

Click to enlarge pictures

Lots of changes between this year and last. Firstly, the bonfire eyesore has gone as well as the old chicken shed on the right. New vegetable beds in front of the bonfire have been created and many more fruit trees although a bit small unless you enlarge the pictures.

One of the most notable things for me is the size of the long grass. This year the grass was so much taller and thicker, so thick that it smothered the buttercups and clover. In last years photo you can clearly see the drainage channels in front of the pond but this year they are completely covered.

Another big difference is the runner beans, in front of the bonfire. Last year there were loads whereas this year the slugs got them despite repeated plantings.

This year, while cutting the paths in the long grass many many more frogs and toads have been seen which suggests that the young tadpoles have survived and are flourishing within the pond and grass. Although frogs are supposed to eat slugs the number of slugs multiplied despite the frogs and I have decided that frogs and toads are not the answer to beating slugs. The increase in good habitat for slugs and frogs, more damp hiding places, benefited slugs more than frogs. 

The new hedgehog friendly habitat created by laying down many many dead branches from and old hedge, logs and large stones, placed under the hedge on the right where the old chicken shed was hasn't produced any hedgehogs yet but it's early days I guess. I'm hoping that a family of hedgehogs may deal with some of the slugs as well as add to the diversity of life within the field.

Newts bred in the pond this year, dozens of baby newts were seen upto a month ago although the pond is now covered in duck weed and Canadian pond weed so I can't see if they are still there but the fact that tadpoles and newts were living and thriving in the same pond is good and shows that there is plenty of food for both as well as protection for tadpoles. I've only seen the Common newt this year but hopefully I'll attract some great crested newts as they are far bigger and may eat slugs.

One of things I was hoping for was that the algae would be controlled by the Canadian pond weed taking up all the nutrients but what I have seen is that regardless of the nutrient take up of the very very fast growing Canadian pond weed algae is hard to stop when there is a lot of sun hitting the water. By far the best way of dealing with algae is to reduce the sunlight as is shown by the lack of it around the Lilly pads. The flowers and plants that were supposed to provide shade around the pond simple don't help in this regard because the sun gets too high in the sky and the shading is only effective early morning as late evening. Looks like algae is here to stay since the sun hitting the water attracts many many dragonflies and damson flies and I don't want to stop that.