The Start of the Week

A new week has started and to kick things off my latest addition of my gardening magazine has arrived .... with yet more free seeds ...

... my little seeds tin for next year is almost full now and there is a good selection in there ready to start us off on a year of eating extremely cheaply.

The walls leading up to the house have been taking shape ...

... on both sides now.

The guys are here today filling in earth behind the new retaining wall which is now at full height. With just its topping stones to go on, it's eleven blocks high, two layers deep infilled with metal reinforcing mesh and concrete, and will now be responsible for holding back the section of hillside that it stands in front of.

We now into a 'tidying' part of the work while we wait for the steels to be manufactured, they will be the framework for the garage and workshop.  The mountains of earth have to be shifted, most of which will be behind the wall, all the large stones will be moved ready to be used as wildlife havens in Nut Wood and as edging stones for the road past the polytunnel to hide the block edging of the tarmaced road that will eventually be there.

In other nicer news, Mother Goose is now the proud Mum to two little Lavender Pekin Bantam chicks.  She was sat on six eggs, two chicks died shortly after hatching, these two little cuties are doing well and she has two eggs still under her.  One of them I really doubt will hatch as she ate one of her original fertilised eggs (hens do this for the nourishment it gives them if they know the egg is not viable for any reason) and replaced it with one she snaffled that Poppy had laid.

I will let her continue to keep these under her for as long as she is happy to have them there, but she is leaving the nest regularly now to give her little babies lessons in eating, scratching in the dirt and how to act like a chicken.  They are doing it very well.

This is their little 'broody house', having them living on their own mean no bad tempered big chickens pick on little inquisitive chicks and it gives Mum and babies time to bond well.

I have run a length of chicken wire underneath it, leaving the roll in place to block any gaps at the side, to give them a layer of protection from mice or rats.  And the thicker mesh from the old henhouse window is under the house part, you can just about see it sticking out in the picture above this one.

Even if the other two eggs don't hatch it is nice to have some fresh little life on the place, our first pair of little Welsh chicks.  This little brood are in complete contrast to her last babies, Harry, Larry and Mo, the Chinese Grey goslings, who grew and grew and grew and developed their liking for water .... much to their Mum's displeasure.

I better get over to the polytunnel now and open the doors, it's starting to get very warm here, with glorious sunshine all over the valley, June really is bursting out all over.

Sue xx