October was not really much fun around here. The builders were here all month (and still are), I have been back and forth to work, and we have had two poorly chickens - and lost poor Rusty at the start of November (I'll do a separate memorial post about her, she was a special little character). Progress was made though, and I hope by the end of November things will be even more exciting! The building work To start with - the building work. Lots of progress was made in October! The plastering was finished both upstairs and down, and the upstairs lights were switched on. Very exciting! We are delighted with our curved corners on some of the downstairs windows. The radiators were all attached, and after replacing the thermostat, the heating was switched on. Can't tell you how exciting it is to have a warm house at the twirl of a dial. The plaster dried out enough upstairs for me to paint a first coat on some of the walls, before the radiators were put on. We're going for a sunshiney orange, to try and make us feel more cosy over the winter. We also retrieved the sink from the garage and cleaned it up. It's one we found in a skip, but there's nothing wrong with it, and now it's almost as shiny as new. It's a bit sad looking back at these pictures of Rusty chicken, knowing she only had another couple of weeks with us. Chickens After an uneventful September, we had a flurry of chicken activity in October, with both Bonny and Rusty not being very well. Bonny was laying soft shelled eggs, and was given antibiotics - she seemed fine at her check up, but we're still keeping an eye on her. Rusty's ailments were more elusive - she had steroids and anti-inflammatories, and then we thought she might have sour crop, so she had her crop flushed, and antibiotics, but eventually whatever was going on (possibly a tumour blocking part of her digestive system, we think) got too much. At the end of October though, we were still holding out hope. Outside Outside was sorely neglected in October. I did a little more scything, but overall have done nowhere near as much as I wanted to this year. Of course, all the grass is soggy and flattened now, so isn't ideal at all for cutting, but I might plough on throughout the winter when there's an occasional sunny day. I've harvested barely anything from the garden this year. A few tomatoes, a couple of patty pan squash, and three apples, which were technically windfalls and too bruised to eat. Between work, multiple vet trips, and a constant merry-go-round of builders, October felt quite overwhelming and I'm not surprised that nothing much else got done really. I feel a bit like I'm making excuses, but it's tiring having people working in your house all the time - and it's been pretty much every day for over two months now. There are constant decisions to make, issues to raise, problems to solve, and on top of everything else it's wearing me a bit thin.
Still, we are hurtling towards the end now, and maybe November's update will show considerable improvement...
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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
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