Sorting the wood store, making a duck yard, growing squash

Making kindling bundles, July 2025

The husband took this action shot of me, making kindling bundles from the last of the hedge trimmings we cut about a year and a half ago.  At the time we'd piled them up and just left them to dry;  the son and I spent a couple days sawing the larger branches into stove lengths and breaking up the small sticks into kindling.  I don't know how many bundles we made in total--maybe 50?  They're great for starting our wood stove in winter;  since that's our chosen source of heating, collecting as much free fuel as possible is a priority.  True, it's time consuming to make these bundles, but there are times when I just want to sit out in the sunshine and enjoy the garden.  As the son and I were doing this each day, we also supervised the chickens' free ranging:  multitasking!  

Where that pile now isn't, we are constructing a new duck yard.  Recall that the two ducks have a large yard in the Perennials section, which is about four times the size of the chicken yard (for 11 chickens!).  Well, the ducks will share a wall with the chickens;  the two yards will be a similar size, under the shade of our big horse chestnut tree (they need separate yards because Boy Duck is a bit of a jerk to chickens).  As the ducks already get regular unsupervised free range, I hope this move isn't too much of a shock to them.  The husband and son have set in the posts--and an old bathtub--and I've ordered some new wire to enclose it all.  I look forward to having use of the Perennials section again--it'll need a full renovation I think.  

I accidentally left the gate open and the squash escaped!  July 2025

Above is the chicken yard at the allotment, growing squash vines like crazy.  At least five squashes have been spotted, both in this and another bed (not pictured).