15th January

Last year we blocked winter Lettuce and Chinese cabbage and planted them in the two tunnels that we had free, the other tunnels have broad beans and spring cabbage in them.

We have tried in the past to do lettuce and Chinese cabbage, but we do need a mild winter for them to survive.

But Tamar seeds assured me these would survive hard winter frosts.

Mmmmm I was not very sure.

Well, I am glad to say I have been proven wrong.

They are looking good.

So along with the spring cabbage, broad beans, and the last batch of over winter Cauliflower in the field, we now have lettuce and Chinese cabbage and leeks still in the field, so we should not have a gap this year.

Its always hard to fill the gap from the over winter crops finishing and the new crops starting.

But this year is looking good.

One new project I am about to start is making a tunnel out of old tunnel hoops.

This will be just for laying out plants after they have germinated.

I will cover the tunnel with bird netting, and have irrigation, form here we can take plants out of the tunnel earlier freeing up a tunnel for planting earlier than usual.

Each year we use two tunnels to bring on the plants, with the tunnel I am making with the net, we should only need to use one tunnel.

We have never used the old tunnel hoops because they are bent from wind damage, and couple never have polythene over them, but with net, the wind will get through, and will not put any pressure on the hoops.

This year we must replace one van, again I have been looking at electric vans.

And yet again milage at the most is 160 on full charge, we need double that.                             After loading the van and winter driving, heaters, lights and stop starting 100 times delivering, it drops down to nearer 100 miles after full charge.

So, there has been zero advances from three years ago.

There must be a solution and I have a year to come up with an idea.

What got me thinking was, there was a couple from Aberdeen drove an electric car from the Artic to Antarctica 18,000 miles on solar power, I do not need to go quite that far.

So, the question is why are vans not fitted with solar panels covering the whole roof, recharging the battery as it goes, increasing the range.

Campervans are set up so they can use the solar energy for supplying power for cooking heating etc. why cannot this be done and the solar power going to the battery for running the van. Any ideas electrical engineering is not my strong point.