October 2012 – Gallifrey Forest Farm

basically, all the animals

2012/10/17 Danielle 0

I’ve been looking at different breeds and varieties of livestock, planning which ones we’ll get eventually. It started small, looking at cat breeds (I know, not really livestock, but I’ve wanted a kitten since I was six years old, and it’s pretty exciting that I can finally get one when we move into the new house. Once it’s built). Then, after a lengthy sidetrack into cat genetics, which is absolutely fascinating, I started looking at chickens. And ducks. And geese. Perhaps an alpaca, or even a llama. And fish, of course, in an aquaponics system. And goats. And turkeys. And […]

A failure of marketing

2012/10/05 Danielle 0

In a dry(ish) climate like ours, water is life. Where there is water, plants grow and animals (and people) thrive. This is fairly obvious to anyone who’s experienced our baking hot summers. Gallifrey isn’t on mains water, so even if we wanted to use the output of the dams and the desalination plants, we can’t. The water in the deep aquifer is fully allocated for agriculture in the area, so we aren’t allowed to sink a deep bore or well. We are allowed to sink a shallow bore, and according to our neighbours the water isn’t saline, but drinking water […]

Tick season and the bee enclosure

2012/10/05 Danielle 0

The bee people at Bees Neez Apiary near Chidlow have said that the breeding program for the year is underway, and we should be able to get our baby hive by the end of October. We’ve laid a small concrete slab for the hive to sit on (it will also have cinderblocks or similar under it to keep the wooden hive boxes well away from the termite infested ground). The hive will be surrounded by a hedgerow, which will form a bee enclosure. I’m thinking roses, bottlebrush, lavender, rosemary, apple and possibly hazelnut trees. You see, Gallifrey has ticks. It’s […]