Preparing the strawberry beds

This year we are taking the strawberry cultivation to the next level. The strawberry beds seen here have been covered in a special plastic, white on the upper-side to reflect the sunlight and a black underside to block light getting to the soil thus keeping in the moisture and controlling the growth of weeds.

A drip-feed watering system has been installed down the center; circular holes will be cut in the plastic for each strawberry plant.

To the right, a small bed of peas are beginning to sprout. 

As always, our son likes to join in :-)   

Spring has arrived!

The days are growing longer and temperatures reached 24c this week. Time to get the lawn mower serviced. 

Partition wall in progress

Work has began to convert the down stairs garage / storage area into an office - Radio Shack :-)

Preparing the vegetable garden

Spring is around the corner, so I've made a start turning over the soil that was occupied by the runner beans.

CQ WPX contest

Fresh Strawberries

Our strawberry patch still producing several kilos of fruit each week. These beauties freshly picked today!

Ist contact on 6m

I made my first DX contact on 6m this evening! ..... I was tuning around the bands when I noticed a strong beacon signal on 50.019Mhz which was XE1RCS/B, so I put out a CQ on 50.110Mhz, and sure enough a Mexican station (XE1RZL) came back to me almost immediately ... we exchanged 5/9 reports - not bad!