Jan. 4, 2025

It’s been a productive week as we roll into the new year. I planted my box of garlic, which took just a few hours, for maybe 500 heads of garlic? Hard to tell but it was about 2.5kg. I then started on the onion sets, which I likely planting much too late. I think it’s supposed to be done in autumn, but am going with it. I have got my timelapse camera now, which I’m excited to use! I haven’t been back to the field since I’ve got it, so I’ll have my inaugural video next week. 

I tested my new hole makers, one manual spiral auger, which makes a nice uniform hole about 10cm wide and 20-30cm deep. It takes about 20 seconds to make. I also tested the heavy pole bar, which weighs almost 10kg and you just shove it into the ground with gravity. Two punches in the same place makes a hole deep enough, it takes about 5 seconds. Although the hole isn’t very wide, it’s more of a wedge. Both methods work really well and will probably use both depending on the size of the root that I’m planting. Excellent news there! I won’t go back to the large trench method any time soon. 

Summary of time estimates for the new hole methods…

• Manual Spiral Auger: 20 second dig out. 20 second dig in. = 66 mins per 100 plants
• Heavy bar: 10 second dig out. 10 second dig in. = 33 mins per 100
• Trench: 40 minutes per 25 = 160 mins per 100 (2.6h)

Next, I need to finish off planting the onions, another 3 hours of work there. Then I’ve ordered about 150 pioneer trees, the fasting growing variety, and they’ll be coming early next week. Once they’re in, I can get onto the berry shrubs, some of which I’ll buy new and I’ll transplant what have growing in my garden. Ideally, I’d like to get at least one plant of each berry variety.

Since it’s the new year I did a mini exercise in thinking about what brings me joy… I read somewhere it’s good to write your list so you can return to it for reference to remind you what you enjoy in life, and to keep you focused. 

Things that bring me joy…

• Working on my field
• Making things
• Going for a run
• Doing a good weights workout
• Evenings watching TV with chamomile and chocolate and knitting
• My morning yoghurt breakfast and green tea
• Playing with niece and nephews

I didn’t think too much on these, maybe I left some things out, but there we go. 

Woodworking-wise, I finished my drawers, which look great. Quite happy with the way they turned out and how I was able to finish them smooth. They function great and it’s given me motivation to keep working on my skills.

Knitting-wise, I’d been slowing down the progress on my nephew’s jumper and I realised it was because I didn’t have a next knitting project lined up, so I wasn’t so keen to finish this one to start the next one. I had a think and decided I’m going to make a jumper out of my family’s sheep. I have the wool stored and ready to be spun. It will be extremely scratchy so the jumper style will be thick and outdoorsy, but it should be wearable. My last Nordic jumper was scratchy as well and I’m completely fine wearing that. I’ll spin the wool as I need to knit it. How exciting! With that in mind, I finished the nephew jumper in the next two days and it’s looking so good! Washed and blocked and ready to go. 

The next knit pattern is the Dagmar Sweater by Petite Knit. A spin and knit! 

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