The snow has had a huge impact on our progress this week. Lots of our usual outdoor activities have become impossible as the ground is too frozen to dig and there's a limit to how long we want to be outside. Unfortunately the snow has also caused some problems with the chicken enclosures that we built to ensure our birds could still get some fresh air while in quarantine from the bird flu.
Fortunately we've been able to use the polytunnels to make a start on some of our early planting and as always we've been taking the opportunity to reuse and recycle. Sharon has been planting broad beans that were saved from last year's crop using old toilet roll tubes as plant pots and polystyrene boxes from some of our deliveries as insulation. Despite the snow we've also had plenty of sunshine so hopefully it will be warm enough in the tunnels for the beans to germinate, ready to be planted out in beds in the next couple of months.
We're also delighted to announce that thanks to the kickstart programme we'll be taking on four new apprentices in the early spring. They'll be working with us in the garden and the posts have not yet been filled so if you're aged between 16 and 24 and are unemployed, why not ask your job centre advisor to refer you for an interview?
Finally we've had some sad news this week. The weather has been too much for our oldest rabbit Lucky who passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of eight and a half. Lucky has been with us all his life both here at Kirkleatham and at our old Beechwood site and will be sorely missed by everyone here.
