Return of the Blog

This is Smokey.

Smokey has been with us for quite some time and arrived about a month after the very sad death of his predecessor Moochie (or Stitch to give his official title). Smokey is very sociable, friendly and annoying when he wants feeding. We actually got him just before Halloween 2012 and he delighted the guests at our Halloween party by hanging around and looking like a witches cat.Smokey is a very good mouser! He regularly brings a mouse back and announces his return from the hunt with the loudest meow he can muster, which isn't much to be honest. At least he tries and is finally proving my original promise to Joanna when persuading her we should have one that "cats are useful"

We are now back to four chickens, having increased the flock to eight. The remaining chooks are Biscuit and Chucky Egg from the original four and Phantom and Mimi from the second four. The others have died of various ailments, despite our best efforts, but the current four appear to be doing very well and looking extremely healthy. We suffered a lot of feather pecking but that now seems to have passed and Phantom, who was by far the worst victim, now has all of her feathers back! They are laying one or two eggs a day so egg sales have temporarily ceased. We may invest in more production operatives in the summer to get us back on track for the egg sale induced early retirement plan.........

 

Pond life continues as before. We had a successful batch of Moorhen chicks last spring and the parents then had another late batch from which just one chick survived. This was very exciting as we were able to witness the fully grown "teenagers" feeding their new fluffy sibling - very sweet to see. At the moment the moorhen clan is living in the field during the day and coming back to the pond at night and fighting over the one useable duck-house. The second is temporarily out of commission whilst I repair the ramp.

 

Our usual pair of ducks returned today. The bread thrown out of the kitchen window was left by the male for the female until there was only one piece left. This he picked up and carried in his beak (well yes I agree - how else was he going to carry it?) until she decided that she wanted that as well and proceeded to help herself from his beak!! She is now nestled down on the bank and he would appear to have taken up guard duty at the bottom of the one working ramp. Job for tomorrow then - get the waders on, get in the freezing water and fix the ramp. Oh well, its a ducks life isn't it.....

The Moocher R.I.P.

 

 

 

Wildlife Update

Since I last wrote we have seen another full batch of ducklings come and go as well as a batch of six moorhen chicks which all disappeared overnight! We know that ducks are completely useless as parents but the moorhens are normally a little more successful. I think that it is probably important for us to try and keep a much lower profile when the birds have young on the pond. I am sure that the moorhen took her chicks into the woods opposite because we were gardening at the edge of the pond. Sadly they never came back. Just to add to the sadness the swallows that nest in the stables every year have also disappeared leaving their young dead in the nest. All very depressing, especially as seeing animals rear their young in the wild is one of the most satisfying things about living in the country. The chickens are all doing very well, producing at least seven eggs a day, sometimes eight. The size varies more than you would expect between the eggs with some approaching the size of duck eggs!! We had a run of double yolkers, four days on the trot and another one today which Brodie has already eaten for his lunch with some baked beans and toast - piglet! We have had quite a lot of mouse action recently. We trapped one in the snug area with a piece of chocolate. He had been having the run of the place chewing everything in site including Brodie's Xbox controllers. There were also mouse droppings in the dolls house so the little blighter had obviously been having a right nice little time. Anyway, trapped and relocated to the end of School Lane so no more easy living in the dolls house for you my little brown friend. We caught another mouse in the duck food bin. He nibbled his way through the plastic bin lid and then climbed in and out using the sack that the food was stored in. Unfortunate for him I removed the sack so that we he next went in there was nothing to climb back out on, unlucky mousy!! He too has been relocated. A slightly less humane end for one little mouse that Allie found in one of the stables. Unfortunately instead of running away he decided to sit on the floor behind her. A reasonable plan until she took a step backwards without realising that he was there.... Whoopsy mouse pancake! The ducks have become very friendly of late. Joanna's favourite lady duck has been coming on to the "Al Fresco" area and demanding food which she has then been taking from our hands. Very sweet indeed. Her gentlemen friend is not quite so bold and always stays out of reach and doesn't get much of a look in as far as the food is concerned. I am posting this now so that I can start a new one featuring my leg in plaster, yet more chicks and some possible dog news. Keep reading and I promise I will try and keep more regular! You know what I mean.....

Introducing the 2012 Duckling Set

Very tricky to take a decent photo I am afraid because you can't really get close enough and the zoom on our camera is not really good enough. I think we may have to save our egg money and buy a new camera so we can get some really good shots.

Lady duck has hatched nine little beautiful ducklings (despite my disturbing her a couple of weeks ago) so we are now all full of optimism again, hoping that this time she can successfully rear them. We have already had our first safety trauma on day one! Last year I replaced both ramps to the duckhouses with a new length of log roll which I attached a float (empty milk container) to the bottom of so that the ramp would rise and fall with the level of the pond. I have to say that they were working perfectly until the float from the green duckhouse decided to slip its moorings andf float off elsewhere. It has been on the to do list ever since but never been given priority status, until now of course. It was quite obvious that without the float the ramp was far too steep for the newborns and even though the mother was inside calling them, none of them could get up the ramp. So, no Sunday Dinner for me until I had got my waders on and sorted the problem. I couldn't do a full repair because it was getting dusky and I didnt want to disturb mum so much that she would come back out of the house. I managed to effect a temporary wedging arrangment to lessen the angle of ascent just enough to allow all them to get in (hopefully).

After dinner, and now pitch black, I went to investigate only to find two ducklings still swimming about and crying, evidently unable to work out what they were supposed to do. (well it was their first day out you know) Strangely when I shone my torch at them they swam towards me as if I was mum? Using the torch as some sort of guide ( or possibly by complete random chance) one more managed to get up the ramp to mum but the last one just could not be persuaded. Now I do love the ducks, but frankly not enough to get my waders on when it is pitch black and cold and start chasing a minute one round and round the pond. I am sure that could only end one way (me drowning) so I decided to leave the little one to it and let nature take its course. I am delighted to say that the next morning all nine were in tact so, so far so good.

We have decided, as the duck run is still also on the to do list (its a hell of a list let me tell you!), that the best way to keep them safe is to keep them in the water. To this end we have removed the ramp that leads on to the lawn in the hope that they will not be able to get out until they have reached a certain size which will hopefully deter some of their predators. They are able to rest and preen and sun themselves on the floating "island" that we have in the pond so no worries there and they seem to be getting enough food by chasing mosquitos around and literally jumping out of the water to catch them. I really need to video that so you can appreciate their incredible talent considering their youth.

We will keep a close eye and let you know how they get on. In the meantime must get that run built! Any comments please post them at the bottom of the blog so all can see!

Thank you

New Recruits at the Egg Factory

Here are the four newbies. They are settling in well but have not started laying yet. All of them are becoming a little more comfortable with us except for Phantom who is extremly noisy every time we go near and runs like the wind. I think she is firmly established at the bottom of the pecking order and is used to being chased around by the rest of the brood so doesn't want to take any chances.





Honey - Breachwood Blacktail

  
Last weekend was quite warm so I got the waders on for the first time this year so that I could get into the pond and do a bit of duckhouse maintenance. The roofs are covered in felt but the edges have always been covered with black masking tape which doesn't stick more than five minutes and then ends up flapping around all winter. This year I decided it was time for a more permanent solution so I cut and painted some shiplap to fit in an upside down v shape on both ends of the roof. Looks much better and will last much longer hopefully. I did the blue house first and then went over to the green house, not realising that our lady duck is sitting on eggs!! She nearly took my head off on her way out, I nearly fell over in the pond I was that surprised! Suffice to say I did not then do any more work to the house and I am please to say that, despite my most unwelcome intrusion, she has returned and is happlily sitting again. This means that I need to get on with building a run to protect any ducklings that do hatch when they venture out of the pond. Hopefully this bit of assistance will allow them to develop into adults this time round. 


Phantom - Mimram Magpie

  Also on the project list is the building of a new multi compost bin so that we can start upping our production ready for the vegetable patch later in the year. I have a rough design in mind but need to do some proper sketches so that I get the measurements right. I have also done a bit of garden design this week for marginal planting around the front edge of the pond. We have a few plants there already but are considering something a little more adventurous so I have done a nice little colour drawing, with plant names and everything! Just hope that we can make the reality as nice as the vision that I have in my minds eye. I am also going to insert a marginal shelf in the water so we can grow a few varieties that like to be in the water rather than at the edge. I am rather hoping that might also keep the ducks from trampling and sitting on the plants as they do now. It drives me quackers!!


Candy Floss - Hertfordshire Honey White

 

Mimi - St Pauls Walden Sussex

I must publish this blog now as it has taken me so long to finish that I need to start a new one so that all the exciting updates (well they are exciting to me!) can be published. Tune in next time.......

No! Jack Essery, who do you think?

Odd title I know but all will be explained in due course. It is Sunday evening and I can hear the moorhens chirping outside so there must be some sort of predator hanging about that they are trying to dissuade.

The new hens are starting to settle although they have suffered a great deal of pecking whilst the hierarchy is established. Their names are as follows; Honey, Phantom, Mimi and Candy Floss. Their names will make some sense when you look at their pictures. When we went to collect them we were having a general hen discussion which prompted Brodie to ask why some hens were called Phantoms?! Yes we did stop laughing eventually and decided to name one of the new batch in honour of his malapropism.

The new arrivals have necessitated some internal adjustments to the Hen House. They now have a bank of three nesting boxes, an additional wine box having been added. The original wine box, or Trap 3 as it is now known was the preferred laying spot from day one, although I collected four eggs from Trap 2 this afternoon so who knows how they decide where to lay from one day to the next. The Fortnum's box seems to be out of favour now, possibly too close to the door. The new hens are not laying yet but I don't suppose it will be long. We sold all our spare eggs again last Sunday so I am sure that we will have no trouble when they do start to lay.

It has been raining all day today so the whole brood looked very bedraggled indeed this afternoon. I did try and make some drainage holes through the clay last weekend but got absolutely nowhere. The gate way to the coop seems to be the absolute lowest point of the field so most of the water is accumulating there. Our constant coming and going seems to be making the ground sink even lower making the problem even worse. We decided to let them have a bit of free ranging last week so allowed them out into the field where they happily scratched around for an hour or so. Mostly in the daffodils that we have planted around their fence it has to be said. We don't let them roam free unless we are within sight as there are still too many places that they can wander off to at the moment so after a while I decided to put them back in the coop. Obviously I didn't properly take account of the fact that they hadn't decided that they wanted to back in so a merry chase began. The original four are now quite easy to catch as they cower as soon as you go near them. However, as quickly as I put them in they were wandering back out so I decided to close the gate and return them to the coop,by gently lobbing them over the fence. The newbies however were rather more difficult to deal with, being somewhat less accommodating and considerably faster than their fatter and more domesticated colleagues. The last two fugitives were Candy Floss and Honey, the latter of which had given David and Linda the right run around the night before! Apparently it had taken then half an hour to catch her to put her away and that was while she was inside the coop! How on earth was I going to catch the little rascal and her mischievous mate when they had the whole field to run away in?

"Are you coming to bed?" Joanna is calling?
"Who, me?" I reply.
"No! Jack Essery, who do you think?" she calls back.

Jack Essery was apparently the man who lived next door to Joanna when she was growing up and this was the phrase that her mother used to use when presented with the type of stupid question that I asked above. Joanna has now started to use it with our children and whilst at first they didn't really understand what she was blathering on about they now find it highly amusing whenever they are the victims. I actually rather suspect that they ask the stupid questions on purpose just to hear her say it.
"Are you,going to wash those dishes?"
"What these dishes?"
"No! Jack Essery's whose do you think?"

Try it, it's quite fun!!!

Half Term Handy Work

Sorry for the large gap in between posts and thank you all for the feedback on the last blog entry. It was particularly nice to hear from Auntie Joan and Uncle Peter with some useful hen knowledge. Since receiving their email I have also started to wonder about keeping some ducks for egg laying purposes. I have found some called Indian runner ducks which look quite fun as they stand upright rather than flat like a normal duck. They also lay between 150 and 200 eggs a year (yes they do Anne) which is not bad going is it? Joanna has not come round to the idea yet, but she will,she will.

We have not put the egg dispensary out again since the first time because we have sold all our eggs to random visitors. However this week we have managed to keep four boxes back so,it will out again today! The chickens coop is an absolute quagmire still, even worse now that the snow has melted. I will have to get out there today and try and do something or they are going to disappear under the water completely.

The thatcher is getting very close to completion now and I have been painting all the leadwork and window frames black so that they blend in a bit better. It is looking so much better than before. The next job is to get the trees cut back around the house and pond, especially the ones that drop their leaves onto the roof. The leaves tend to get caught in the gullies which stops the water running off and causes rotting of the first layer of reed. If we do not get that done immediately then the leaves will start to undo some of his good work come Autumn.

Bunting by Katherine Alice and Hannah Grace
Fox by Jonathan

Katherine, with a good deal of help from Hannah, has finally finished her bunting. It looks pretty good for a first attempt and we currently have it hanging in the dining room where it looks very sweet indeed! The girls said it was quite easy in the end (don't know why it took so long to finish then! ) so please email,your orders in and I will get them cracking on another batch. They are also about to start making some bath creamers which Katherine has found in her new Kirsty Allsop craft book which she got for Christmas from Auntie Sonya. We picked up (and ordered via Amazon where necessary) the incredibly expensive set of ingredients (thanks for that Kirsty) and we are now ready for the apocathery to begin. I will, of course, provide pictures of the finished results.


Bunting Detail



Last week was half term. Brodie went to Saltzsburg ski-ing for the whole week (yes I am very jealous) and had a great time and says that he wants to go again so that gives me twelve months to convince Joanna that a family ski trip,is what we need next winter. Back at home we received Grandmother and Aunty Anne as overnight visitors for the first time. Granner slept in Brodie's bed and Anne slept in Liz's room and we all had a very nice time indeed. On Wednesday we went out for both breakfast and lunch, very extravagant but very nice! Carluccios for breakfast and Loch Fyne for lunch. I know! How the other half live eh?

Felt Hearts by Katherine Alice and Grandmother
(Yes Anne you might have done a little bit too)

The girls had a lovely time doing crafty things things with mum and Anne. They made some lovely little felt hearts, decorated with lazy daisies and filled with lavender. They also made some paper hearts which I think still need to be finished off (Hannah ....)



Now then,about this feedback request. Having received both good and bad I realise that what I meant to ask for was positive feedback. For those of you that think it is too long please treat it like a long letter from a relative - just skip read to the interesting bits and ignore the rest. Also be grateful for the fact that this "letter" is typed, so much easier to read than a hand written affair. For those of you that said nice complimentary things, thank you, flattery will definitely get you everywhere. In advance of any comments I apologise if this post is too long, too short, too boring, too exciting, all or none of the above and in particular I apolgise for the alleged overuse of the word "consistently" (which I refute I might add!)

Right then, off to the quagmire.....

STOP PRESS: Just before I publish I must tell you that on a total whim we have bought four more chickens! Mostly from the proceeds of a car boot sale that we did last year from which we still had fifty quid in a box and also from egg sales which again went very well today - all four boxes sold! I will show you pictures next time. The pecking order is being established as we speak - ouch!!

Winter Wonderland

There is nothing quite as beautiful as fresh snowfall early in the morning before the children have had chance to get in amongst it. Bricket Wood is absolutely spectacular and looks exactly like Narnia. The Old Fox is a picture postcard (or Christmas Card more to the point) with the thatched roof helping the snow look like a thick coating of sugar icing on a gingerbread house in the middle of the enchanted forest. I was going to show the progress that the thatcher has made with the ridge but that is not possible now and both he and you will have to wait for a thaw before we can see any more. The children are not yet up so they haven't seen the full glory of the snow. I am sure they will be extremely excited and I dare say there will be a new family of snowmen before the day is out.

Egg production has reduced in the cold weather and I think we may have to put a blanket at the window to keep the draft out. The pecking order seems to have fully developed. Last night when I shut the chickens up, Sunday Roast and Biscuit were huddled up in the Fortnum's box whilst Chucky Egg and Shelly were on the floor in the corner. As I write this the cat has walked into the bedroom straight past us both into the en-suite where he is now standing with both paws on the rim of the bath. Now he is trying to climb into the bath! We think he is looking for Joanna,which seems to be his second favourite pastime after eating, but then I suggest that maybe he is thirsty as he is now sniffing around the toilet bowl. Joanna now has him up on the side drinking out of the sink! What a big baby!
Brodie is up and his first thought is that his mum won't be able to take him to school. She argues that she will. Nice try son.
Now I must tell you some history of our cat. Joanna does not like cats, despite much evidence to the contrary, so we had never really considered having one. However, the first summer that we moved here a flyer was delivered asking if anyone could take on three cats as the family who owned them were returning to South Africa and would rather their cats stayed in the lane rather than going to homes elsewhere. I can't remember the names of the other two but one of them was called Snatch which we all thought was a very odd name indeed. No more can be said on that.

I said to Joanna that we should take them on and that it would be nice for the children and nice for her to have some company and that the house needed some animals and that cats were really useful for getting rid of mice and many other sound reasons which now escape me. The answer was a resounding No on all fronts. But,like any man who is turned down at the first time of asking, I persisted. I decided to to pursue the "cats are useful" argument, particularly as we do have the odd mouse family ravaging the cupboards from time to time and cats are guaranteed to deal with that problem aren't they? Eventually after much persisting and a little begging it was agreed that we could go and have a look at them, after all it's just a look isn't it? When we visited we found that there were two young cats who were very lively and sly looking and one old boy who looked like a tiger; this, we discovered was Snatch.

Nothing much more happenned on the cat front apart from some sporadic nagging on my part and some negative expletives on Joanna's part until one day........
She bought the old duffer home and hid him in her office. Ahhhh bless her.

Here he is look, the handsome fellow. We think that he was over fifteen years old when we got him. Judging by the state of his teeth more like one hundred and fifteen! Still, most of his teeth didn't put up that much resistance at the vets although you wouldn't know that judging by the ridiculous enormity of the bill! Not too popular then were you Stitch? Stitch is the name that we wrote on the vets paperwork and labelled up his cat carrier with as we couldn't bring ourselves to to refer to him as Snatch. In actual fact now he has adopted a new name because she who does not like cats, and yet spends endless hours cuddling him like a baby, started referring to him as Moochie. Now this was allegedly because he spends all his time mooching around the kitchen looking for scraps, which he does not get I can assure you, but it has now been expanded to Moochie Snookles or something equally ridiculous which makes him sound like some overpreened poodle about to show up for crufts!

He is probably the most affectionate cat I have ever come across. He is never happier than when he is Joanna's arms being made a fuss of and he follows her up and down the house like a lost lamb. Unfortunately due to his age he seems to have lost the ability to work out where his toilet should be. When we took him on they said he was a house cat and would not go outside so he always used a litter tray. However, in the first few months we weened him off that and persuaded him to go outside which he did. He quite quickly got used to using the cat flap and now has made the boundaires of the Old Fox his territory. He is never seen beyond those boundaries - never! He will walk up to the gate but will not go outside. So, not just a house cat, now a garden cat as well. Anyway a little while ago he decided that the rug would make a better place to do his business, then the door mat, then the other rug, then the carpet in Brodies room, then the girls room, then the upstairs bathroom (slight improvement there I suppose). In the end we decide he would have to go out at night because he just couldn't be trusted in the house. Joanna bought him a nice little furry house thing with a little hole at the front for him to go in and out of and that seemed to be perfectly fine until it got a bit colder and then he spent all night trying to get back in the locked cat flap. Despite feeling a little sorry for him we weren't prepared to risk more deposits on rugs and carpets so we decided that we needed to provide a little more warmth in his furry house. The solution?

Well a Hot Water Bottle of course what else. So now before we go to bed we have to fill up his little hot water bottle and put it in his little furry house and give him a little cuddle and give him a little kiss and say "night night Moochie Snookles, sleep tight, dont let the bed bugs bite" before slinging him out into the cold dark night. Poor Moochie.......

Enough about the cat I think. Egg sales are going so well that we cant actually retain enough stock to put the Egg dispensary out so we are definately going to have to increase the flock, er herd, gaggle? Oh I dont know what the right word is, more hens needed that is the point. Right have to go, I have been summoned to carve the Sunday Roast. No not that one, a perfectly anonymous one from the supermarket. As if we would butcher one of our own. We wouldn't.

Would we?.....