Repairs to the Henhouse

Alan has been busy recently, both in his workshop and doing the day job, which he now does from home, but last week he found time to do some running repairs to the henhouse.

The house has sat there in all weathers and in constant use for the last few years, and the thing that gets used the most by lots of little feet and sits there in all weathers ... usually rain ... is the ramp the birds use to get into their house.  It had started swelling as it absorbed more and more of the rain we get here in not so sunny North Wales, and basically it was about to fall to pieces.

So using the old one as a pattern, he used wood he already had to manufacture an exact copy and last weekend, after it had had many, many layers of varnish to weatherproof it, he fixed it in place on the henhouse. 

Here he is on the way out carrying the old ramp in his right hand and his kneeling mat in the other.

I don't know if anyone has noticed but we have also added a corrugated roof to the henhouse ready for this Winter as the wooden one, even though treated, was starting to let in rain.  The new corrugated one was put in place over the original to give the birds an extra layer of protection from the elements.

It has proved a godsend over the last few days.  As you can see from this photo the snow sat on top of the roof, meaning that the warmth that the birds generate themselves overnight by huddling together, stayed in the house keeping them warm rather than dissipating and melting the snow on the roof.

I don't know about you but I hate to see houses, whether they be henhouses or human houses, with no snow on their roofs during a cold spell ... it's a sure sign that the occupants are paying to heat the world instead of keeping themselves nice and warm.

Sue xx

What We Are Doing With Our Car Boot Earnings This Year.

At first we couldn't make up our minds what to do with our earnings from this years car boot sales,  what to do with over £700 requires careful consideration, then over a coffee and a slice of cake we hit on the perfect thing.  Two Winters ago we had a lot of water ingress into the house, last year it was sorted out and the exterior painted and we've been waiting ever since for things to dry out so we could sort out the internal damage

All above this window was originally a sodden mess, now at last it is dry, so Alan's first job was to patch things up, then we carried on and redecorated the whole room, which is pretty easy to do when your colour scheme is white ceilings, white walls and white woodwork.

Of course we needed a flash of colour on the chimney breast to keep things cheerful and that's where our two rolls of bargain wallpaper came in.  We thought a brick effect would look good and as we are going for a slightly 'older' look for the room it fitted in nicely.

Tomorrow a carpet will be fitted, we have had enough of the laminate flooring that was here when we bought the house.  The dogs are skidding round the living room for the last time today and hopefully by tomorrow we will have a cosy warm carpeted floor with no need for rugs that slide around to try and keep things warm underfoot.

And then next week the final piece of our living room makeover will be delivered, a brand new sofa and chair to add a real flash of colour to the room ..... and no it's NOT green  ;-)

The good thing is we have lots of the paint left over to redecorate our bedroom which is directly above the living room and suffered even worse damage above the window.  But that can wait a little while.

Our car boot sale money has done us very well ... paints, wallpaper, curtains, a new lightshade and almost all the cost of the carpet, the sofa is our Christmas present to each other.

While I was busy cleaning the floor ready for the carpet fitting, I spied our regular little peeping chicken at the door ....  

... Suky spotted her too and went over for a closer look  :-)

Sue xx

It's October

It's October ... September has gone ... and WOW what a month.

It started off with us having no water for almost two weeks, then we had a weekend in bonny Scotland and went to one of the nicest weddings we've ever been to, when our niece Erin married the love of her life, Darren in the greatest of style. 

Yes,  my lovely hubby scrubs up very well  :-)

I was stocked up with lots bargain vegetable seeds for next year and somewhat of a change for me ... lots of flower seeds too.

I did an Approved Foods order, something I've not done for ages ...

... and saved myself a shed load of money

We managed to get a couple of rolls of the sort of wallpaper we've been looking for for ages in the bargain bin in B&Q, ready for decorating the living room later this month.

We dressed a sheep!!

She's now doing much better, she's still with us and healing nicely .... although once again she's naked apart from her own now growing woolly jumper  ;-)

I filled the freezer with meat of every description for my carnivore of a man.

Got back into menu planning.

Processed homegrown vegetables ...

... in bulk!!

Bought a new book.

It's strange that this should stand out but I really have stopped buying books like I used to .... who would have thunk it,  haha  :-)

We put some of the raised beds to sleep for Winter.

And weeded those that we are still eating from. 

Before ...

... and after.

And now to round off the month nicely I have pulled something in my back so am having to take it easy ... really easy. Not something I find easy in any way.  Although chasing one of the Lavender Pekins off the main road first thing this morning is doing nothing for it's recovery!!

Naughty Jill.

So I'm going into October with a whimper and a whine ... and luckily a still live chicken thanks to a nice man who passes daily and recognised it as one of ours and knocked on the door to let me know.

I'll probably be back tomorrow with another post, as the office chair is currently the most comfortable chair in the house  :-)

Sue xx

Keep Fit Chicken

Remember me .... I now come in on a regular basis.

I've discovered my people have exercise equipment ...

... I'm really getting the hang of it  :-)

But I've suddenly realised that if I build up my leg muscles too much, the man of the house might start seeing me in a whole new light !!

I'm off.

Mabel xx

Chicken at the Window ....

Chicken at the window  ...

... chicken at the door.

You can almost hear Mavis shouting 'hey Mum there's a chicken at the door' can't you  ;-)

Ten minutes later there was a chicken in the house ... cheeky madam!!

Going this way and that, she obviously liked the feeling of the door mat under her tootsies.

Mavis was peering outside to see if any more are on their way while Suky watched on in amusement.

Even posing for a photo ...

... before eventually going back outside.

Strolling nonchalantly passed the old Belfast sink ...

...while over in Chicken World the rest of the flock watched with interest.

"Has the chicken gone yet Mum?"

Just another day in our mad house  :-)

Sue xx

Chicken Stocktake 2017

I try at least once a year to do a Chicken Stocktake, mostly to fix in my head the numbers and types of our ever changing flock of chickens.  The old girls die, youngsters are born or accidents happen like last weeks and we lose a girl suddenly.

Some good news to share with you all is that we got one of our stolen girls back :-)

She had been chucked over the hedge into a field of sheep and one of our neighbours spotted her fending for herself and let us know.  It took Alan literally two minutes to catch her and bring her home ... where she got stuck into the Layers Pellets like a thing possessed.

So with her return to the flock it seemed like a good time to do this years stocktake.

Heading his harem of lovely ladies is Jack, the Lavender Pekin Bantam cockerel,  who is now a magnificent mature specimen of miniature manhood.

Once again, thank goodness, we have four 'Green Girls'.

We have four 'Blue Girls'. they are named as such from the bands on their legs, so we can remember when we bought them, although in this instance the purchases were only two weeks apart. 

These are all Calder Rangers.

We have one Light Sussex cross.

We have two older Calder Rangers.

Our older girl is Harriet the Light Sussex, she's approximately six years old now.

There is Jack's sister Jill.

We have one remaining Skyline, our blue egg layer.

We have two of last years 'Welsh Girls'.

We also have Poppy, another Lavender Pekin Bantam and one of our original girls, born way back in 2011.

There is one Large Black Maran left from 'The Gang', and she is feeling very sorry for herself with her sister and best friend gone.

And last but not least, there is Ebony, the Black Pekin Bantam, usually to be found in the nesting boxes ... she not particularly broody, but just likes her own company most of the time.

And that completes this years stocktake -

1 cockerel

3 Pekin Bantams

16 large chickens

(of which 12 are regular layers)

And after munching their way through lots of spinach leaves while I got these photos, the chickens all then trooped back off into the woods to carry on with their chickeny business for the day.

Sue xx