What's better, shredding ("mulching") grass cuttings finely and spreading them over the surface of the pasture in an even windrow for the ants and worms to incorporate, or, to cut the grass near the base and let the long stems fall on top of the sward, to dry, and slowly decompose, to be incorporated into the ground over a longer period of time?  The goals, probably for all soil, but for our land in particular, are to capture carbon, build quality top soil and encourage indigenous wildlife.

The former option, provided by a flail mower or rotary blade mower with 'mulching plug' (essentially a plate which blocks the outlet to the grass collector, meaning that cuttings are kept within the deck for longer, to ensure that they are fully comminuted),  provides 'easy to digest' finely carbon-rich fibre.  The

Spring Clean Queen

My skirtings they have never known a moistened cloth's sweet damp caress.
A special brush for radiators I'll admit I don't possess.
My sideboard can endure many months without a dust.
Beneath the mud I suspect my car is mostly flakes of rust,
but, when you walk into this life, this poor excuse, this stupid mess,
you light it up, you beautify, you fill with joy, you inspire, you bless.

Contents

•  Hazelnuts - picking, storing, making delicious 'Monmouthshire tella', served with pancakes made using our 'pastured eggs'.
•  Sycamore syrup - tapping, collecting, serving with homemade streaky bacon and more homemade pancakes.
•   Charcoal - this could be a full on wood collecting, storing, splitting, chainsaw using, economics etc. etc. The grand finale could be a grand barbecue with homemade sausages, chops etc. etc. 
•   Cider - orcharding, apple collecting, cider making, bottling etc.
•   Christmas - Goose, sausage, Christmas trees, all the lovely things Jo does at Christmas, Mistletoe
•   Easter - Easter tree, all the lovely brilliant things Jo does, hatching eggs, making chicken housing, pastured poultry Chickens might sensibly be another post
•   Pigs - weaners, paperwork, housing, fencing, feeding etc. etc.
•   Foraging - Sloe Gin, nettle pesto, 
•   Jams & Preserves - Damson Jam, 
•   Composting - Positives, Indore Method, Sir Albert Howard, Methods, Results
•   Country Wine - The patent dark fruits method (Elderberry, blackberry, sloe, plum, prune) to make 35 bottles of cheeky red wine for £2.

Self Abundance

Self Abundance

•  Literature review
•  Key principles  - synthesis of literature and own thoughts
•  Regaining (in fact creating?) a positive sense of self worth, importance and role (father, husband, son, brother, key family supporter, provider, community builder, teacher, leader (!))
•  Happiness
•  Reality check - lifestyle, retirement, children, legacy
•  Insight:  Reducing consumption, supplying our own needs if possible, bartering producers or sellers is easier and generates less financial friction (tax) than an enterprise which relies on selling stuff.  Cash will always be needed to some extent therefore a way of making it is essential, for us it would be brilliant if that didn't mean hard selling.
•  Articulating what our needs are.  Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
•  Vision for the land and it's people.  Sustaining several generations in the future hopefully.
•  Strategy
•  Action
•  Results, evaluation, analysis, prediction, course correction.  Plan Do Check Act.
•  Try to make the blog accessible by presenting it as an alternative financial case to a pension / other investment?  This would also be helpful in articulating the long term nature of some of the ideas.  Explore and challenge what is reasonable in terms of payback, IRR and NPV.