Nancy Reading

Flora Eerschay wrote:I like the idea of being on the move and leaving fertile gardens behind!

To me that would be such an unselfish thing to do; I put so much of myself in my garden. But yes, the idea of leaving a trail of productive gardens as a legacy is an attractive image.

We had a momentous occasion this morning. I opened the kitchen door to find two dogs and a sheep looking back at me!

!!

We don't have sheep and this is the first time that our mastiff has had a close encounter with one. I'm pleased that the dogs were so good. Della came in straight away when I asked her and Dyson tried to help me get her out of the garden, but being deaf as a post had to be put in too.
I think Della was slightly afraid of her - apparently she is pregnant with twins and is quite a bit bigger than the dogs. This is the third time this week the sheep has done this - the last two we just saw her going past the kitchen door and the dogs were in with us, but this time was after breakfast and both dogs were out. She is getting separated from her flock and into the field next door, then as the rest of them go down the road she jumps the fence into our top field to keep up with them. Of course she can't get out then, but is quite happy to go out the main gate to join her friends.
So I'm quite pleased with the dogs and they get special treats then, and this evening. You always worry in sheep country with dogs, and Della doesn't like other dogs on the road, or sheep staring at her through the fence, so it could have been a whole lot worse!

That sounds an awesome idea Leland. When I volunteered at Ryton Organic garden I sometimes helped in the Thrive garden - an area for sensory experience designed for people with altered abilties, and mostly maintained by a group of Thrive volunteers with learning disabilities. There were plants that stimulated the senses by touch, smell and sound, with bright colours and bold shapes. A bird feeder or watering station will attract feathered friends to visit too.
Gardening, and seeing a green area out of the window is known to be good for mental health and physical recovery (patients in hospital who have a view of trees rather than concrete recover faster!). You might like this video from Thrive about 'the cloud gardener' who started his balcony garden during lockdown and finds it helps his mental health.

Nice idea Matt, I wonder if they'd stack...

Now that is a tool I wish I had just now - I'm about to start bundling sticks to make stick irrigation channels for my polytunnel - one of these would be far easier than clamping the bundle between my thighs as I do now. Thanks for sharing Lesley!

Barbara Simoes wrote:no one in the state seems to do this sort of thing.

Sounds like an opportunity for someone then.
I'd be tempted to have a go myself - hire someone with a digger and make a workparty. What's the worst that can happen?

Thank you so much! That does look lovely.
I don't quite understand this:

Douglas Campbell wrote:ii) I used a single sheet of EPDM roofing/pond liner, which is great stuff.  I should have used a separate sheet for the marsh, and 'shingled' it down over the edge for resilience.

Wouldn't it leak if you had a join there?

This is an interesting subject, and I'm sure I have room for improvement.

First the tree is coppiced, de-branched and pulled out into the trackway into a pile.

coppicing in the tree field

It might then be moved nearer to my outside wood drying shelters

Then the trunks are cut to burning length and stacked into the drying shelters. They sit there for up to a year before I need to empty the shelter to get the next year's coppice wood away.

cutting and stacking to dry

I'm tending now to move the wood from the shed up to our main wood shed by wheel barrow. The original intention was to use on of the land rovers, but actually getting the vehicle, driving to where you need it, stacking all the wood in, driving to near the wood shed, unloading the vehicle and stacking the wood away (which might or might not involve a wheelbarrow because of the way the woodshed faces) and putting the vehicle away again is actually quite a bit of hassle. These days as I am down the hill with the dogs most days once, or more times I can take a wheelbarrow with me and just bring a load up at a time. Now it is dry it isn't too much to manage and doesn't take very long to do a bit.
The wood is stacked in an area of the woodshed for up to 18 months - it's smallish diameter so doesn't take much more drying and as it is coppice wood very little would need splitting.

Stacking in the woodshed

The final step is to bring it into beside the stove in the kitchen - I try and do this a couple of days before I run out, so it has time to get to room ambient.

I'm reasonably happy with this amount of handling. I do wish the getting it in the house was easier. We don't need to worry about wildfire so much, but getting a shed closer to the house would be nice. In my four dimensional kitchen I would like a space for the wood that a trolley would go in, and a smooth path from the woodshed to the kitchen....

Douglas Campbell wrote:I did this, more or less successfully, and posted in one of the other threads.

Good description here: https://permies.com/t/142402/knowledge-installing-ft-ft-pond#1124874

More here: https://permies.com/t/275173/ideas-Convert-pool-aquaculture-build#2877703

Douglas Campbell wrote:I got some large feed bags, put them on the bottom in corners to create structure, and filled them with pea gravel.
I used some patio stones to build steps and some other structure.
I got a bunch of people to help drape the EPDM down into the hole, and out over the edges, in one big sheet, over the bottom, the 'structures' and the excavated perimeter.
I refilled with rain water and tap water.
I put pea gravel on top of the EPDM over the excavated perimeter.

I used the old pool pump, on a timer & photocell, powered by solar panels, to circulate water from the pool, through the artificial wetland (there were several iterations, including using some IBC bulk carriers to act as reservoirs for a water fall into the pond, that continued flowing after dark, for awhile.

That sounds great Douglas - I don't suppose you have any pictures still?