EEEEEEGGGGGGSSSS!!!!! :D

So it happend at LAST!! Eggs in the nesting box!!




The first one was laid by Sally and the kids where gobsmacked at how warm it was.
So after Sally came out of the hen house yelling to the world about what she had done I nipped in and grabbed the egg just before Emily/Enemy sat her arse down.
Much clucking later we had another....




SO we have two eggs and I have promised the kids scrambled eggs for lunch...about 2 tea spoons each I think LOL.
But as OH pointed out, so far these eggs have cost £20 each....so they'd better eat it all up!

Sick of the chickens yet?? I'm not :)

The chickens never fail to entertain I'm finding. Why would you have rabbits or guinea pigs or hamsters when you can have chickens instead. The children are still firmly in love with them and I must admit to finding myself wasting time just hanging out and watching their antics. Lloyd is well integrated now and after spending time with Victoria, who loves a quiet life and lots to eat, is now hanging out with the more feisty Emily, or "Enemy" as Alfie calls her, ironically fitting ;)
OH fixed up the orchard fencing so we can now let them range more, something they were very pleased with as it meant plenty of young grass and bugs to eat, although after the humans went in the house I saw them out of the window, panic and hurdle their way back into the small pen like a bunch of steeple chasing old dears...very funny XD
Lots of things growing well now. The hot bed is producing spinach, lettuce and spring onion, the onion sets are planted, as well as a couple of rows of carrots and beetroot. The forced rhubarb is very nice and the outdoor stuff also growing more each day.
Potatoes going in as soon as the rain stops but I'm not complaining, we planted four more apple trees on Monday and are getting even more soon, it makes sense to try and be self sufficient in the one fruit we CAN grow and everyone will eat!

The important lessons of life.

One of the things I feel very strongly about is the education of the next generation.
Many people visualize this as pushy parents pouring over school league tables and running children to endless after school clubs to learn mandarin and Suzuki violin.
They hire tutors and buy CD's of subliminal learning for their kids to listen to whilst sleeping.
My failure to do all this makes me a bad parent ;)
This Easter I have given the boys their own "garden" to plant and tend.





The sad demise of a large chest of drawers (to damp and woodworm) left me with three very big drawers that just begged to be turned into raised beds...if only for one season.
Eldest son was given the job of digging muck from the old-er muck heap and once they where 3/4 full we tootled off to the garden centre.
This is usually a trip punctuated by whining, crying and pouting, but this time OH behaved himself (HAHAHAHahahahahahahahHAHAHAhahahahAHAHAHAhahahah! ah dear...)
The promise of choosing a plant of their own made the trip for once ALMOST enjoyable.
They each picked out a small heather, each a different colour so they could tell who's garden was who's.




They reverently dug their hole and carefully took the plants out of their pots then they sowed carrot, pea and garlic plus the bonus of a leftover strawberry plant each.




It will be interesting to see what comes of this, if they are keen to do the same next year, to stretch their wings a little and plant a little less haphazardly.





The raising of plants and animals can only teach the very important life lessons, patience, tolerance, kindness and the rewards that come with that, but also it teaches them how to handle the inevitable disappointments that come in life, the death of a pet, the failure of a plant.






We owe it to our children and our planet to push these lessons....maths can wait.

Lock up your chickens.....

So last month we ...acquired a chicken.
Its a long story but in short, my neighbour runs an organic, free range**coughmehcough** chicken farm. He has day old chicks delivered then at 4 weeks old they get packed into crates and taken to the other farm for another 3-4 weeks before becoming someones dinner.
Everytime he packs them up he looses a couple...they scape and hide under the sheds then later the fox or the crows or (sometimes) my dog will pick them off.
Way of the wild blah blah blah.
However one lunch time I am sitting chatting to OH when what should I spy but a chicken in my garden, I slept up and set off in pursuit and with the OH's help managed to capture the beast! HAHA!
So I became the owner of a chicken the size of a cooking apple with very sparse feathering and now all alone in the world.
Should we have given him back?
Well, he would have been written off anyway so maybe I didn't technically STEAL him, just....picked him up?
Anyway he now has a run and is a cutie and loves a stroke and to feed out of the kids hands....all we need now are some girl friends and I'm on the case aiming to get some ex-battery girls.
More soon, in the mean time here is a picture of Lloyd the bird (sounds better if you come from Brooklyn I guess? ;)

The Hot bed!! (Not QUITE as much fun as it sounds ;)

Its been a long time since I posted here, there ARE reasons...1) it was Winter and nothing happend and 2) My camera broke and I was putting things off until I could take some pics ...so here I am...and spring has SPRUNG!! In Scotland for the last couple of years we seem to have got our summers at the end of March until mid may, then it rains until September so I am determind to make the most of all the good sunny weather I can.
So the hot bed has been made :)
We used an old concrete trough which for the last 5 years has done sterling service as a normal planter giving me an abundance of courgettes,peas and onions. For the glass top we used part of an old shower which we had aquired from freecycle some months ago and promptly put in the shed and forgot about it. Would you beleive it fitted exactly!
The OH made a wooden frame so the whole thing sat level, and made up the end peices. All that we need to do to it now is run a couple of bungee ropes over the top to secure from high winds.
The filling is made up of a straw and manure mix with @ 3 inches of potting compost on the top.
I'll let you know what I decide to plant in it this year. Next year I hope to have my eye on the ball and try to grow some early spring / late winter salad in it.