Cat Imprisoned

The cat has been confined to quarters. He is able to get out of the house via one cat flap into the porch but the flap from the porch to the outside world and his duckling killing fields has now been closed. His litter tray has been positioned in the porch also, for his convenience and pleasure, although he has already missed it once. I swear he does it on purpose! Anyway,so far the plan is working and, despite a few false alarms today, the duckling count remains at eight.
Elsewhere our chickens are starting to lay consistently. We have four at the moment and their names are Biscuit,Shelly,Chucky Egg and Sunday Roast. It took them a while to get going but we have consistently been getting two eggs a day for a week or so and we had four a couple of days ago. We have had them for about two months now and it took them a little while to get going. We have them in the back field in a pen about 5 metres by 3 metres. The fence is six feet tall and one foot into the ground. We have a nice garden gate as the entrance way and a recycled 8 by 4 shed as the chicken coop. I repaired both roof and floor with wood from pallets, re-felted the roof and then let Joanna paint it a nice creamy colour. Keith and I then spent a considerable amount of time designing and manufacturing a chicken hatch and ramp, all very high tech I can tell you! For nesting boxes we have used an old wine case which Father gave me and a Fortnum and Mason wooden hamper with the lid removed. The latter was donated by Allie who had obviously been saving it for just such an occasion. She had wanted to call the coop Bockingham Palace - well it is certainly fitted out like a palace. The hamper is a recent installation so we have had no eggs in that one yet but I am sure it is only a matter of time.
The ancestors went home this morning, Brodie's friend Tom has replaced them as house guest for tonight so much shooting of BB guns and Xboxing taken place this afternoon. The girls have been happily doing a new jigsaw and sewing their first ever line of bunting. They have made one triangular pouch so far which they are hoping to put Lavender in. I say hoping because I don't think there is any in the garden at this time of year but never mind it's the thought that counts. I seem to be rambling on now so I think that will do for today. Bunting update tomorrow, back to the sweatshop girls!!!

Duckling Death!!

Yesterday was a day of duckling tragedy. It is often the same unfortunately. There are so many natural predators when they are very young and the parents do not seem to be that good at looking after them although they obviously try. As we have been through the heart ache so many times before we always have a count up every time we see them. There is always a little flutter of the heart whenever the count is one short but it is always replaced with a feeling of joy and relief when the missing fluff ball turns up from underneath the hedge. Unfortunately yesterday we were not so lucky. The rest of the Old Fox residents,Joanna,Hannah,Brodie and Katherine went out for a walk with the Ancestors,or Grandparents as they probably prefer to be called, leaving me to tend to the fire that we had started earlier to get rid of some of the hedge trimmings that we had dumped in the back garden. About twenty minutes after the walking party had departed I decided to go and get the rake from the garage. I walked through the front garden, passing the ducklings on my way. "Roll Call" I called out to anyone that might be listening and proceeded to count them only to find that we were one short. Instinctively I wondered where our cat was and walked to the porch only to find the little so and so with the missing duckling under his paws. Sadly there was no life left in it so it has now been buried by the well. Even more sadly we have just been outside again and a further roll call has seen the total down to eight. This time the missing duckling was lying on the grass yellow side up next to the bird bath. The culprit this time cannot be immediately identified but,needless to say, the cat is under suspicion again. Unfortunately he is very old and cannot be trusted to be in the house on his own as he regularly leaves little stinking presents in every available corner. Now it seems he can't be trusted to be outside on his own otherwise we will end up with a duckling massacre on our hands. We are formulating a plan now. Death to the cat does seem to be a popular suggestion at the moment as emotions are still raw. We have lost many ducklings and moorhen chicks since we have lived here - the cat is currently being fingered for the lot! Before yesterday,when we all still loved him, his name was Stitch although everyone refers to him as Moochie. Currently he is simply referred to as the cat. You can insert your own expletive. Oh well hopefully we will hatch a cunning enough plan to keep cat and ducklings separated long enough to enable both to survive and live in peaceful harmony at The Old Fox.

The Old Fox Blog Welcome

Welcome to my brand new blog. Apologies if for the first few days,or possibly weeks,content is a little shaky but I am trying to learn how to do this and I am sure that there is a lot to learn. I am already struggling to upload a photograph from my IPad! Maybe I will have more joy from the computer,I will try that later. I have wanted to start blogging for a while now as I think that the place that we live in is very unusual and interesting and there always seems to be something going on,particularly in relation to the local wildlife. The blog is particularly for the rest of the Mee family but I am sure if anyone else finds it of interest they will follow it too. If I get ten followers then I will be happy with that to be honest.
The Old Fox With His Teeth Drawn is an old Thatch Cottage in the middle of a wood called Bricket Wood. Father refers to it as the enchanted forest because as you drive down the lane it does look like the sort of wood that you see in the movies and on the television but then that is probably because it is regularly used in filming for all kinds of TV,film and magazine shoots! Quite often you drive down the lane to find the road blocked by some enormous truck or other. Most recently I drove down the lane at dusk and saw an enormous bright white light shining in the woods. It was so huge that it ought to have been the sun only I knew that the sun was already disappearing behind the trees! What could it be I hear you ask! ET? No! Only the biggest flood light that you have ever seen in your entire life! Now I like to keep myself to myself and not interfere in the goings on in and around the wood so I simply drove past and carried on home. My wife however,who does like to know all of the goings on in the wood, knew exactly what was going on.Apparently Harrods were doing a shoot for their Christmas web page. Harrods I tell you!
Anyway here ends the first posting. Actually before I go I should say that the most recent activity is on the duck pond. The duck pond used to be the actual Bricket Wood village pond in years gone by but at some point it became part of this property and so now we look after it,including getting in it last year to shovel a skip full of rotted leafy mulch out of the bottom! So, there are lots of comings and goings around the pond with moorhens,ducks and even grass snakes at times. The most recent event is that on boxing day one of the ducks hatched ten chicks! Yes I said ten chicks and yes I said Boxing Day. It just shows you what a state of confusion can arise in the wild world when the weather is not doing what it ought to be.
Mother and babies are all doing fine after two days. I will post pictures and possibly a video when I have worked out how to do it or,more likely,when someone else more intelligent has shown me how to do it! Thanks for reading.