How Nice

how nice is it to just take a day off work, well thats what i did on monday. never taken a sickie before, it felt great & a little bit naughty.

spent most of the day down in the chook yard.

i had dug a new bed on sunday & A' added compost from one of the bays & dug it through.

the chooks went nuts for all those worms & bugs. ended up shooing them out before they spread it all over.

planted out sweet corn & made another row for butternut pumpkin, topped them off with some straw.

in the hen house there has been quite a bit of pecking going on, so late in the afternoon i did a little more fencing & moved Miss White & Miss Brown over to the Green & Red hen house. they have settled in & still sitting. when i went down to feed the chooks that morning there was a little grey chick in the nest but unfortunately it was dead.

sunday also saw two more posts in the ground for the new veggie garden.

rows three & four in the potato garden have now come up, Nicolas & Dutch Creams.

this morning i made a new garden journal, think ill sit outside tomorrow afternoon & fill it in. nothing like a new book for a new season, bring on the lists :o)

In the Chook Yard

Miss Black, Brown Betty Twins & Miss Grey

a new fence with mesh concreted in the trench
& Miss Sally walking the line

Back filled,
we will be joining another lot of chook wire on top

New Gate Posts
we reused the old gate
looking back toward the house

Miss Sally standing guard
waiting for me to come out of the chook yard

Last Saturday i came home with these 3 baby girls
the baby grey is a blue Wyandotte
the white is a white Wyandotte
& the silver grey is a columbian

all three are still in the shed on their own during the day
Miss Black is pretty mean,
all she wants to do is chase them & peck.
hopefully next Friday i will let them out
in the yard for a bit,
in a separate yard & see how they go.

|Eggs

we have EGGS
one of my girls layed me an egg on Sunday the 8th :o)
this week i have had a total of 6 eggs, they may be small like bantam eggs but they taste Devinne i had forgotten how good fresh free range eggs taste.
the first two i had as soft boiled with soldier toast
& the other 4 as scrambled eggs
it is only 2 of the hens that have started laying, one of the Rhode Island Reds & one of the Austrolopes, they are both sporting bright red combs.





























how sweet is our Miss Sally, this was after her nice warm bath on wednesday morning before we went to the vet for her last needles.

Rooster in the house

well its official Big Bertha is a rooster
& doesn't he act like one, strutting around the yard, fluffing up his neck feathers
he is twice the size of the others & hes not fully grown
& at 5am this morning he started crowing
i am hoping to swap him over in a week or so
which is a pity as he is very handsome. if he didn't crow then he would stay but i don't want the neighbours to complain to the council.

Chook pics


this was taken on Nov 1st

& this on Nov 20th
only 3 of them have names, first up is Brown Betty the smallest of the Rhode Island Reds, she is always the last to go to bed, just keeps wondering around {drives me nuts}
next is Suzie Silver the Silver Laced Wyandotte she is the head of the coop, on their first day together she made the pecking order very clear.
then the Blue Laced Wyandotte, Big Bertha she is the biggest of all the birds & not just in height also the size of her feet & comb. i have a funny feeling she may turn out to be a rooster.
the other 3 havent gotten names yet, i will need to spend some more time in the yard watching them .

Big Bertha
they are quite funny to watch, when i let them out in the mornings a couple of them have taken to launching themselves out the door. they stand on the roost & just kind of dive fly out the door & down the run. always makes me smile. will need to clip their wings soon, mind you it will be a fun day, i have not been able to catch any of them since the first week they really are very fast.
one of the other funny things they all seem to do is they will just be standing there then all of a sudden they will run at full speed down the other end of the pen & then just stop.

day 21- Chickens Big Day Out

having a look around, it took nearly 2 hours before they had all left the shed




getting them back in was fun, we pretty much had to corner them to catch them, they are quick & they let me know for about half an hour how unhappy they were to be put back into the shed.

Day 19- Thursday Quick Tips

The Weather Forecast
yesterday was Cold, Snowed down to Lawson
today it is Sunny, Windy & Cold {feels like winter again mmmm}


i have decided to start something new called
Thursay Quick Tips
each thursday i will add a tip could be a cleaning tip, sewing tip or anything really

these tips will be things i have tried or use regularly. if anyone has a tip they would like me to try & then add please email me.
so lets get started shall we.

Thursday Quick Tips

today will take us into the bathroom

to Unblock a Sink or Drain* 1 tablespoon of Bi-carb into drain followed by 3 tablespoons of white Vinegar, allow to fizz & then pour a kettle full of boiling water. this should clear most blockages.

Shower Mould* 2 teaspoons of Tea Tree Oil & 2 cups of Water in spray bottle, spray on Mould & dont Rinse.

Mascara* if your Mascara has gone a bit hard & clumpy, put it into a glass of hot water & leave for a few mins, this should soften it up & make it like new again.

Chicken update

it has been a little cold in the morning & late in the afternoon, so my little hens have been having a warm meal. either bread with warm milk or quick oats with warm milk. they make a bit of a mess, walking in the bowl but they do enjoy it & it fills up their belly & keeps them warm.

Give Away

my blog counter says 1972 hits & as this is the year i was born i think it is time for a little give away. so leave a comment.
if you leave a comment & email me a tip to try out you will get 2 entries
i will draw this on Thursday next week Oct30, all comments in by wednesday 29th

so i hear you saying what is the give away, well as Christmas is nearing how about something Christmassy {is that even a word}
10 different handmade Christmas cards with envelopes
they may not be these exact cards but they will be along the same lines

Day14- The Hen House is Jumpin

The Weather Forecast
Sunny & just a little too warm for me today

so 2 more new arrivals today 1 Silver laced Wyandotte 1 Blue laced Wyandotte they are 7 weeks old the silver is a little larger than the blue & she is very bossy, pecking all the other birds, steeling food out of their beaks & running at them, i do hope this is not a sign of very bad behavior, the 4 little ones are a bit scared of her & running to the corner when she comes near. someone please tell me this is normal & she will settle in with the rest.

Blue Laced Wyandotte


Silver Laced Wyandotte

i also picked up a box of patterns from a lady on Freecycle, will go through them later in the week.

day 13- Fav Friday- Chickies

The Weather Forecast
Fine & Sunny {think i got burnt in the car}

What's one of your favourite songs ever?
mm that is a hard question, so instead of fav song ever how about fav song at the moment
Eagles- Long Road out of Eden
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCf1VpJFXVU

today i came home with 4 chickies 2 Rhode Island Reds & 2 Australorps
they are only 5 weeks old so it will be a while before i get some eggs.
tomorrow i will be picking up another 2 chickies ??????
the Hen House finally has residents