Right, let's have a few cheerful posts, shall we, after such a maudlin run of woe? A few days after we'd taken Skippy & Daisy to their new home, we took ourselves off to the seaside for a couple of days. This was the first time we'd been away for more than one night since 2017, so quite something. The weather was glorious, and we didn't do very much at all, just wandered between hotel and beach and cafes. It was great, and being somewhere else, even just for a couple of days, was just what we needed. A couple of weeks later, we went on another trip - our first proper holiday since 2016. We only booked it the day before, and were delighted to get a little holiday flat overlooking the sea in Scarborough. We slowly remembered what it was like to be on holiday. We rarely do anything dramatic, so it was a lovely week of wandering along the beach, ambling around town, pottering between cafes. Perfect. We travelled about a little bit while we were there - a day up in Whitby, and another day in Bridlington (and a trip to the dentist, but we're trying to forget about that one). It was only a few days, but it was so restorative. We were lucky with the weather - it wasn't sunny for the whole time, but it was warm and dry and the sun made an appearance. It was just so nice to be somewhere else, well away from everything that needs doing at home.
I'm not sure we'll manage another holiday this year, although we might take a couple of short trips to visit friends in various places. I've missed being able to do that.
1 Comment
This is my last chicken memorial post, and the hardest to write. Bessie Chicken was special. Bessie came to us way back in February 2019, less than a year after we moved here, and only five months after we started keeping chickens. She'd arrived with two others, Rusty and Beaky, and all three had spent the first 18 months of their lives in cages. I wrote about them when they first arrived here. We put Bessie on the ground when she first arrived, and it seemed she couldn't quite believe it. It took all of thirty seconds before she started pecking and scratching the ground, trying to flick the earth into her feathers, her first ever dust bath. Bessie was pretty lively from the start, picking fights with our older chickens, Mildred and Maud. But she was affectionate, and was the first to jump up onto Peter's knee, and that remained her favourite spot. Young Bessie was curious and eager to explore, but she was always fond of a nice comfy sit down, and always appreciated a blanket or a cushion. After we'd had her about 18 months, Bessie got ill. Our local vet didn't know what to do, and in desperation we found a specialist chicken vet, quite a distance away, and they brought her back from death's door. She ended up with a hormonal implant to stop her laying (which was causing her all kinds of problems). She had several implants over her life, and quickly became our most expensive chicken, although we didn't begrudge her one bit. She even had a home visit from the vet, when they got caught in an avian flu restriction zone so we couldn't travel in. Bessie, Beaky and Rusty were a happy bunch, and I'll always remember how much time they spent hanging out under the swing seat together, lying in the dappled shade on a pile of hay. We lost Beaky in July 2021, and then Rusty in November of the same year. Such a sad time. Bessie and Rusty had a special bond, and Bessie even had a special little noise she made sometimes when Rusty came to sit on a knee with her. Bessie lived to be almost six years old, and it almost seemed like we'd have her forever. Several others who arrived after her died before her, but eventually, her time came too. So that's the end of chicken keeping for us. I don't think either of us will forget Bessie as long as we live. Well, we won't forget any of them, but Bessie was with us for four and a half years, and she was so special.
She lived for another 18 months after we lost Rusty, and she never made that little noise again. I like to think of them reunited now, along with all their other beaky pals, in the Great Dust Bath in the Sky. The start of May was grim, and I barely took any photos at home at all. We were reeling from the loss of both Sunshine and Budgie at the end of April, and in early May, Bessie became ill. Bessie was almost six years old, and in the four and a half years she'd lived with us, we'd brought her back from the brink of death several times with antibiotics and hormonal implants. This time was different. She didn't seem to have an egg-related problem, and we'd already decided that, given her grand age, we didn't want to put her through another week of catching her twice a day and feeding her tablets, traumatic for all of us. She seemed to have had a stroke, and we made the difficult decision to have her put to sleep. I'll do a special memorial post for her separately - she was such a special chicken, and we are very sad. We'd already decided that, once Bessie died, we'd pass the two younger ladies on to another home. Yet another hard decision, but chickens are much happier in a flock and I really didn't want to end up with one on her own. We'd only had Skippy and Daisy for a few weeks, and while they'd started to calm down after their horrid early life in the battery cages, they hadn't fully settled in here yet. I put a call out in a hen rehoming group, and found them another loving home to go to, with a small flock of rescue hens and a family that will dote on them. Driving them to their new home and leaving them there was not a fun experience. The family was very kind, and I have no doubt they will have a good life there, but giving away a pet isn't something I ever want to have to repeat. So that's the end of chicken-keeping for us, for now, at least. We've said we'll reconsider next spring, but personally I don't think this is something I can go through again. The pain of losing them, and the distress of months of avian flu lockdown each winter, is too much. But we'll see when the time comes. In other news, I finally finished building my greenhouse shelves, including a low bench that I can sit on when the weather is a little inclement. This was the perfect idea, and I've spent a lot of time out here already (in fact, I'm out here right now, typing this!) Right at the end of the month, I managed to plant a few seeds. I have no idea whether any of them will have time to grow properly, but I did want to try.
There's no other homestead news to report for May, and no other homestead photos. The start of the month was spent mourning the end of our chicken adventures, and then we abandoned the homestead to go to the seaside for a while, which I'll post about separately. There was also IronMay, a charity exercise challenge which took up a lot of time and energy - but again, a story for another post... Sunshine and Budgie came to us in November 2021, along with Poppy, who we lost last year. They were rescues, rehomed through the British Hen Welfare Trust. Sunshine was enthusiastic and boisterous, with a pecking technique like a small child playing Hungry Hippos. Budgie was a calm, cheerful presence, always in the middle of things, never pushing and shoving. Sunshine loved digging, and was always quickest to spot a worm. She was usually first out of bed in the morning, and always came to inspect my work when I cleaned out the chicken house. Budgie was fond of all treats, but was the only one of our chickens to have been fond of a banana. They both had longer with us than they had in a cage, and I'll always be grateful for that, although they still went far too soon. Losing them both within the space of a fortnight was heartbreaking.
I'll think of them now, up in the Great Dust Bath in the Sky, reunited with Poppy, and Bunty, and Bonny. Miss you little beakios. Yes, I know, it's June. Things have been rather traumatic around here of late, and with one thing and another, I've never quite gotten round to writing a post. Still, can't put it off forever. There might be a flurry of catch-up posts before I try to get back into posting more regularly. So, April. The chickens April was a dreadful month. I mentioned in my March update that Sunshine Chicken hadn't been well. It looked like she was on the mend and then she died on the way home from seeing the vet. A couple of weeks later, Budgie Chicken got ill - different symptoms, so we don't think anything contagious. She didn't respond to medicine, and we had to have her put to sleep. I'll do proper memorial posts for them later, but in the meantime, here they all are, enjoying some freedom after the avian flu housing order was finally lifted. By the end of April, we were just left with Bessie, and the two youngsters we'd rescued in January -Skippy and Daisy. We were heartbroken at losing Sunshine and Budgie in such quick succession, and weren't sure how much more we could take. Bessie was almost six years old, a vast age for a rescue hen, and we knew we didn't have that much longer with her. We made the difficult decision that, once we lost Bessie, we'd rehome the younger two. It wasn't something we wanted to do, but we didn't want to ever be in the position of only having one chicken, as they do much prefer to be in a flock. Anyway, maybe you can imagine where this sorry tale is going... but I'll keep the rest of the story for May's post. The garden The garden was largely neglected in April, between a flurry of chicken illness, several work trips away, and various other life happenings. One thing I did do was clear out the greenhouse - a much-needed task. What a mess! I turfed everything out, and dismantled the shelves, which were originally part of our old plastic greenhouse, and which didn't really fit properly into this one. Then I started building new shelves from an old pile of pallets. It was a good plan, but the first one was difficult to get through the door, and I realised I wasn't going to have to start building them inside the greenhouse. Tricky. I didn't quite finish in April, and therefore I also didn't sow any seeds. The rest of the garden was ignored, although the apple trees put on a good show of blossom, and the willow dome started to fill out. Christmas Two Er, yes. We celebrated Christmas in April, having largely ignored it the first time round given various illnesses. The Christmas tree was still up, as I refused to take it down until something more cheerful happened, and we invited some friends round for Christmas dinner. They gamely turned up with a chocolate chicken and some festive Easter eggs, and a jolly time was had by all. All told, I was pretty glad to see the back of April this year. Still, amidst all the turmoil, the weather turned, it started to feel like spring, and everyone had at least one good dust bath.
Goodness me, March. You really were quite the rollercoaster. I'm not really quite sure what got done in March. No big DIY jobs, that's for certain. But then we were rather at the mercy of the whims of the weather. Let's have a look. The weather March didn't start off too badly, and I even spent an afternoon tidying up the front garden in a t-shirt! A few days later, though, it was quite a different story. I went to work one Wednesday, and didn't get home until Saturday. So many roads were closed with drifts of snow and fallen trees, that there just wasn't a route I could take. Fortunately, I was holed up all cosy at my very accommodating friend's house. Eventually enough roads were opened, and the snowplough came down our drive, and I finally got home to this. It melted quickly, and then snowed again, but gentle, pretty snow this time. Pretty, but cold, and we're very glad that the boiler has at least waited until April to break... Preserving and batch cooking I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen in March, stocking up the freezer with meals and pressing the dehydrator into service. It always feels good to have a few meals ready and waiting in the freezer. It's so tempting to just eat toast or porridge when I get in from work, and that doesn't help me feel good longer term, so having meals on hand is really important. I don't always manage it, mind you, and I'm down to my last two, so best get cooking again. Other inside sorting I also took advantage of the cold weather to do some sorting - in this case of clothes and shoes. Honestly, who needs this many pairs of shoes?! Good grief. It's not like they're all fancy-pants designer showing-off shoes either. Many of them are charity shop finds - and if you find a decent pair of walking boots in a charity shop for £8, you buy them, even if your old ones aren't quite worn out yet. But then you start wearing the new ones, because they're new and exciting, and don't throw away the old ones, because there's still some life in them... and multiply that by many years of walking boots, work boots, sandals etc, and you end up with a pile like this. I'm pleased to say some of them have actually gone in the bin, and some back to the charity shop, and the pile is looking somewhat more respectable now. All this sorting was because we're finally in a position to turn the spare bedroom into my craft room, which is very exciting. I decided to paint it before we put any more furniture in, and I did that in March, although I don't seem to have taken any pictures. Proper pictures in April's post! Adventuring March wasn't really much of a month for adventures, unless you count getting snowed in (or rather out in my case), but we have done a little bit of pottering, and I spent a weekend attending an event and staying with a friend. Obviously, there were the usual round of cafe trips, and looking at these pictures, it's no wonder I can't fit into many of my clothes. The chickens The chickens are doing nicely, and we were delighted to spot the new ones having their first dust baths. Needless to say, we still haven't finished the extension to the chicken run, but we have at least got the posts into the ground and some of them cut to the right length. Getting there (very slowly). Towards the end of the month, Sunshine's comb started looking a bit off colour, so she had her first ever trip to the vets. Fortunately she's looking a fair bit better now, thank goodness.
Overall, there's been quite a bit of upheaval in March. I've been on strike for some of it, the weather has been all over the place, and things have generally felt quite unsettled. But we've got some painting and some sorting and some pottering done, and now the weather has (mostly) started turning, it does feel like we're finally heading towards summer. February felt quite spring-like round here, which was nice, as we have since retreated back into winter again. I even got a few things done outside. The chicken run Poor neglected chicken run. We've been meaning to build an extra extension for at least 18 months, and somehow it still hasn't quite happened. Still, in February we had a few dry days and I did at least get a few holes dug. I bought ten foot posts, because I originally planned this as more of a fence, without a roof. However, the bird flu situation means that the chickens are likely to be in the run for six months of every year in the future, so I want them to have as much space as possible. I've dug all ten holes now, as deep as I can. Now I need to figure out much to cut off the posts, and how to fit them all together. It's going to involve acquiring more wood, but we're going to have a a good root round in the garage to see what we've already got first. The chickens themselves are doing well, and the new ladies are growing in confidence. I'm pleased with how we split an area of the run off for them this time - it's far less ramshackle than we've done before, and it's really easy to use. We started a bit of supervised mingling in February too, letting the new ones into the main part of the run for an hour at a time. The older ladies were NOT impressed with the newcomers, who were boisterous and very enthusiastic about food. The older ladies didn't fight back, but rather retreated to a corner, sulking. Slowly, they're all learning to live together, although there's still some caution when it comes to food. Sunshine had to come into the house for a bath as her backside was a little grubby, but after a wash her bloomers have returned to their usual glorious state. In the garden I wasn't planning on doing anything much with the garden in February, but some friends arrived, and their small children expressed an enthusiasm for digging, and I wasn't going to turn down free garden help. We stayed out in a light drizzle for an hour or two, weeding and digging, and cleared far more than I'd thought we would. A lovely start to the season. Elsewhere in the garden, the rhubarb was starting to grow. The weather was still mild a few days later, so I grabbed my secateurs and a pruning saw and tackled this coppiced sycamore, which has been encroaching on the footpath for a while. It's not really clear from the pictures, but it looks much better now, and there are some long, straight branches which are potentially useful as beanpoles or similar. It felt good to make progress. Often in the garden, as with housework, I feel like I'm doing something that's just going to need doing again in a few weeks. Of course this will grow again, but this is the first time I've cut it back since we moved, so I'm hoping I've got a few years til I have to do it again. Clearing and restocking the pantry We also tackled an inside job in February - sorting out the pantry. This isn't a separate room, it's just the area by the back door - we call it 'the offshot', but it's kind of a utility room, and it's the main way we enter the house. These shelves house the bulk of our food store, and they'd got into rather a muddle. We cleared everything off, wiped and reorganised, and did a bit of a restock. I love looking at the food stores of homesteaders, particularly in the US - some of them have such a glorious array of canned ingredients and meals. We're never going to have that, and our pantry certainly isn't pretty, but if necessary, we could probably eat for a few weeks from it (although we'd have to get rather 'creative' with our meals towards the end, and I'd definitely miss cheese). We didn't get anything else significant done to the house in February, and I'd definitely like to change that in the coming weeks. Tree guards Our little woodland is starting to grow again, and it's lovely to see the buds poking out of the top of the tree guards. Some of them haven't made it, and I didn't want to leave the guards standing in the fields unnecessarily. I've been asking around for a while, and finally found a community project who would take a few. As it happened, they weren't quite the right fit for the types of trees they had, but with a bit of alteration they did the job. I spent a morning planting trees with the group too, which was lovely. It was nice to be outside, and to see a new bit of parkland I'd not been to before. Other than that, February was the usual round of work and cafes. We had a few days of being on strike, so my goal of working fewer than half of the days in each month was fulfilled, albeit not in the way I intended...
It was good to see some sunshine though, and to spend some time in the garden. Slowly, it feels like summer might eventually appear on the horizon. January has been a funny month. I didn't go back to work until the 9th, but we'd both been ill over the new year, and that dragged on well into January. It felt at the time like nothing was being done, but when we got to the end, I felt like we'd achieved quite a bit. Let's see... Chickens First of all, the chickens. We picked up two new ladies, of course - Skippy and Daisy. They're settling in nicely, gaining more confidence and loudly demanding treats along with the others. The older chickens were very shouty for a couple of days, but soon got used to the idea of the newcomers. They're still separated at the minute - we did try a little supervised mingling today but that's a story for February's post... The other chicken story was that Bessie started showing slight signs of being unwell, and as she is pretty elderly for an ex battery chicken (five and a half!) she was carted off to the vets very speedily. She had a rattly chest and an inflamed reproductive system, but after a new hormonal implant and a week of twice-daily antibiotics (neither of which she was pleased about), she seems to have made a full recovery. We would probably have mixed in the new chickens by now, but didn't want to make her more stressed while we were catching her every day to give her tablets... DIY progress Despite both human and chicken illness, we did manage some DIY and house sorting progress in January. I (finally) painted the second coat of yellow on the kitchen walls, we had a good sort out, got a few of the new thermal blinds finished up, and we rebuilt the bed and properly moved into the new bedroom. Very exciting. Making things I started making a few things again in January too. The thermal blinds are an ongoing project, of course, and I finally got round to making soap, and making a start on finishing a rag rug that's been sat in a box for years. The soap was a new recipe for me, but it seems to have worked better than the previous one I'd tried, and should be ready in a few weeks. Plotting and scheming The festive season is usually my favourite time for plotting and scheming for the current year. As I was ill, all this extended well into January. I made plans for all kinds - house and garden projects, work, excursions, meal planning etc. I love planning and making goals - it makes things far more likely to happen. I like it even more if I can do it in a cafe with a piece of cake, of course. Outside Not that much happened outside in January, aside from tending to the chickens. We've had a few snowy days (nothing too disruptive), a load of drizzle, and a bit of sunshine, but overall it's been pretty January-y and mostly the weather for staying cosy indoors, apart from an occasional brisk walk. My mind has turned a little towards the garden though, and on the list for the year is doing something more interesting with this space outside the house. That's about all there is to report for January I think. The usual round of house and car insurance comparisons (YAWN - but I did save us almost £200 so always worth doing). I do feel refreshed after a long break, even though I was ill for quite a bit of it. And it's nice to have a more regular supply eggs now we have two younger chickens again. February is already proving to be more outdoors than January, and some of my plans are coming to fruition (although never as quickly as I'd like), so let's see where that takes us...
We've had a bit of weather this week round here. Not too drastic, but it disrupt travel somewhat. I had to stay over near work one night, and miss a family visit that would have taken me over the very high routes, but the heating and electricity stayed on throughout, thank goodness. It's been cold, but beautiful. Aside from a couple of snowy walks, we've mostly kept cosy inside. We've taken the opportunity of being stuck inside to get a few things done. We finally got round to rebuilding the bed, which has been dismantled since before Christmas, in need of new slats. I also dug out the seeds and started planning the veg patch, as far away as it feels from being able to plant anything right now. I finally started cleaning the dried on, splattered plaster from when the builders were here. They left over a year ago - I've cleaned the floor in that time of course (even I'm not that bad a housekeeper), but I'd never got down on my hands and knees with a scraper to chip off the rest. Not an exciting job, and one that will take several more hours I fear. I tried a couple of new recipes, and put a few meals into the freezer. I've started ferrying things upstairs into what will be the new craft room (eventually). In the process, I came across this half-made rug, started I think by my sister, many years ago. I'd always meant to finish it, and now I have just the place it will go, so I've dug out some old fabric and started cutting it into strips.
So not really an eventful weekend, but a little bit of progress was made. All you can hope for sometimes. This has been a restful weekend, the first one I've felt reasonably well in a while. I've tried not to overdo it, and spent plenty of time just sitting around with a nice cup of tea. The big event of the weekend though, was new chickens, and so most of our activity has been focused on that. We spent Friday afternoon building a partition in the run to keep the new chickens away from the current ones. The current chickens watched all this activity with indignation. On Saturday, Peter stayed at home to finish putting the final touches to the run, and I drove to collect the new ladies. We're still under bird flu rules, so there were strict biosecurity precautions in place. I wasn't allowed to get out of the car, so I didn't see the new ladies until we got home. I talked to them all the way back in the car, telling them about where they were going, and the beaky footsteps they were going to follow in. Skippy is smaller - she came out of the box curious, and it didn't take her long to start digging, scratching, and pecking everything in sight. It's such a lovely sight, knowing these ladies have never seen soil or the sky before, to see them scratching around and staring out of the window. Daisy, on the other hand, was quiet, subdued, and if one of our current chickens had looked like she did, I would have been carting her off to the vets. But rehoming day is always traumatic for these girls. They're pulled out of their cages, put into crates and into a van, driven to the rehoming centre, out of the crates and briefly into a barn, then into boxes, into cars, and driven to their new homes, all in one day. I know I'd be tired and subdued after all that. She does seem a lot brighter today after a good rest. We're keeping the old and new ladies separate for a few days, so they've got their own little house to sleep in, but of course they don't know that's what it's for, having never had a separate house to sleep in before. Last night, we went to the run just after it had gone dark to find Skippy on top of the house, and Daisy up on a perch. We tucked them in nice and cosy. Tonight I went in to find them both on the perch together, cuddled up next to each other. I'm hopeful that tomorrow they'll find their way into the house. The older ladies are, of course, unimpressed. Sunshine and Budgie did a lot of shouting, and even Bessie, who's usually quite placid, joined in the chorus for a while. Things do seem to have settled down a little today - possibly they're reassured that their own treats supply won't be diminished by the intruders. Poor things. We've never had any that had lost all their feathers, but they do usually look pretty moth-eaten and ragged when they arrive. The story is that they're moulting, and that may well be the case, but ours have moulted every year and yes, there are feathers all over the run, but they never look like this. I can't wait for them to start preening and dust bathing. Anyway, this weekend hasn't all been about chickens, although the majority of it has been. I've finally got round to making soap, for only the second time since we moved here - I'll report back on the new recipe once I know it's properly worked. I've finally finished painting the second coat of yellow onto the kitchen walls - I started the first coat in November 2021 so this is quite an achievement! It's not quite felt like there's a hint of spring in the air, but my thoughts have started to turn a little towards the garden (in between torrential downpours), and I managed to plant out the hellebore my sister gave me for Christmas. And yes, a cafe trip or two, and a bit of plotting and scheming and letter writing. All in all, a most satisfactory weekend.
|
Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
All
Archives
February 2024
|