28th September

Last week we started taking down the old wind break, I built a 15-meter-high wind break eight years ago, it was 200 meters in length, and was braced for the strong west winds that we constantly get, and it done a great job in protecting our tunnels.

But the year that we got the beast from the east winter storm around four years ago, brought with it heavy wet snow along with storm force winds.

The wet snow stuck to the wind break, and with the gusting storm force east winds, the wind break broke.

I then planted willow trees for future wind protection, and they have worked really well.

We did take down all the broken wind break, but were still left with around one hundred meters standing.

Over the last few years I have been thinking about putting up a big shed for putting the farm implements in, but they are pretty costly.

So the thought came to me that we could use the old wind break posts that were still standing.

These posts I had been told when I bought them for the windbreak, would out last me, this I didn’t believe.

So we dismantled the windbreak, then started pulling the posts out of the ground, and I couldn’t believe the condition they were in, Yes, they are still perfect.

So last week we made a start on building a new shed.

The first job was, to take down an old tunnel we had put up at the side of the shed that we used to store the planter in, then I put the grubber on do level the ground then disced it to make it smooth.

The area we now have is twenty meters by ten meters, and are using the old posts for the sheds corner and middle uprights, and the roof bracing, for the sides and back walls of the shed, we were going to use old pallets, but I might use the bark cuts from the trees from the sawmill, when the tree comes into the sawmill at the start they cut it square first and the outer bark is usually a waste product, I think this would look pretty good and very cheap.

The biggest expense is going to be the roof, I will need to buy proper roofing for such a large area, I’ll keep you informed on the progress.

This week we are harvesting Uchiki kuri Squash, these are a fantastic roasting squash, you eat the skin, and they have a smooth sweet flavour, and very simple to cook, just cut them in half, scoop the seeds out (again you can wash and roast the seeds), then cut the squash into even sized wedges, give them a wee sprinkle in olive oil, and roast them for around 20 minutes.

They are fantastic.