Witch Hazel Hens, Bees, etc

Tilda. Again.

2012-01-31T16:17:00.000Z

The Other Girls won't let Tilda get to the feeders while they are around. This means that she doesnt get to see them operate the treadle and, as she has balance problems, she is taking a long time to learn it herself.

We tried all sorts of things. The latest thing is that I stand her in front of the feeder and then gently, very gently, propel her forwards. She moves her feet, eventually one of them clips the treadle, and the feeder opens. She then stands and eats. If Custard spots her eating, she comes rushing over and pushes her off the feeder. I've taken to standing with her in the morning and, more importantly, in the evening to make sure she gets her pellets.

Once I'm sure that she has worked it out, it won't be such a problem. Tilda will just wait until the others are busy before she goes and eats. It's this learning phase that is tricky.

The new camera stopped working properly, it lost its vertical movement. We'vetaken it out and contacted the supplier and we're trying to arrange for a replacement. It was very helpful while it was working as we could see what the Girls were doing with the feeders (and with Tilda) when they thougth we weren't looking. DH also set it up to record so that we could play back the morning eating to see who had learned to do what.

I'm sure my supporting Tilda isn't doing her any long term favours. I know I'm anthromorphasising the Girls, but I do image that they take their revenge on her when I'm not there, a bit like spiteful girls in an all girls school. (I went to an all Girls school).

Removing the spiteful Custard won't help, as I've seen Florence attack Tilda as well. I have thought about removing Tilda and getting her a companion, but that may not work out either... and I certainly wouldn't be able to reintroduce her/them to the bigger group later once removed.

I've also accepted that I can't introduce any new Girls. Tilda will be pushed even further down the pecking order, and I don't want to put her through that.

Glazing over

2012-01-31T12:48:00.000Z

It's so lovely to be able to wholeheartedly recommend a company.

Eye tests for self and DH last week. DH prescription has changed and he needs new glasses, my reading has deteriorated and the next step for me will be varifocals.

DH ordered new frames,2 for 1 from a well known high street optician (chemist). Cheaper than normal as he decided not to go for Transitions lenses, but did have some coatings put on. I decided to wait, I'll order new specs for me when I have time to let myself get used to the varifocals.

I wanted to try getting DH's older glasses reglazed. It's always been more cost effective to order new glasses when we've enquired before, so I wanted to try one of the many online services.

I did quite a lot of research, and eventually picked a company called Ciliary Blue. DH's requirements were straightforward, and the lenses were going to cost £30. This was for Standard lenses (they also do thin, super-thin and ultra-thin) and included anti-glare scratch resistant coating, and a coating which helps the glasses repel dust. Without coatings this would have been £15.

I needed a bit of help filling in the online form, as the information from the prescription I had been given didn't correspond exactly to the boxes on screen. The chap who answered the phone was very helpful (and he gave me a code to get a 10% registration discount), and so I placed my order on Friday last week. On Saturday, the posting box arrived; I posted it back on Saturday morning. Today, Tuesday, the reglazed specs arrived.

Very happy with the lenses, and the service was fantastic. Once I've made a decision about Varifocals and got them from my optician (as I want the aftercare and the security of knowing that, because I'm switching to varifocals, I can change mind within 30 days if I don't get on with them) then I'll use Ciliary Blue to get my old pairs reglazed with varifocal lenses.

http://www.ciliaryblue.com/index.html

Quick catch up

2012-01-28T11:09:00.000Z

Nothing particuarly eventful happening here.

The butchery equipment was ordered, and arrived by next-day courier from Scobies Direct. We're getting our next half-porker in a few weeks, so we're all ready now. Although I do need to order some more sausage casings - Scobies are a proper butchery supplies place, and they don't do sundries like casings in domestic quantities. As soon as the date for the pork has been confirmed, I'll place an order with Weschenfelder.

We've had our eye tests. DH is having new glasses, and I've also sent one of his three-tests-ago pairs off to Ciliary Blue to be reglazed.   If that works OK then I'll probably get two other pairs of his reglazed as well, as he tends to have pairs (with varying out-of-dateness of prescription) in different places.

I'm on the cusp of needing varifocals. I'm going to wait for a little bit longer and then order a pair through my optician. The reason for waiting is that, whilst varifocals will make it easier for me to read without having to mess about, I will lose some peripheral vision. So, I'll wait until the messing about becomes a hindrance, and then try varifocals. The opticians do them on a 30 day trial, so if I don't get on with them I will be able to get my money back.

I've had (or rather, DH has had) to make some adjustments on my Pashley. He moved the saddle for me so that it was as far back as possible. He didn't tighten it up enough though, which I discovered en route to the Post Office the other day. Luckily it slipped gradually into the upright position, otherwise it would have made my eyes water a bit.   Still haven't got a name for her. I'm hoping the weather will be OK enough to ride her in to town next week, and that should inspire me.   (Mind you, I've heard that the UK as a whole is expecting snow!).

The Girls are mostly gettng on with the feeders. Florence and Roobarb are fine. Milly hasn't got a clue though. We realised - a little ate - that during the accustomisation process, she was eating from the side of the feeder, not treading on the treadle at all. We put cardboard on the sides, and the camera showed us that she was still contorting herself in from the side. We put bigger bits of cardboard on. Now she eats when someone else has the feeder open.

We've put an extra hole in them so that they are open a teensyweensy way, just enough to see the food. When they are in this position, Custard and 'Tilda work out that they need to press the treadle.   When the feeders are closed (overnight), they just haven't worked it out.   Even when the feeders are in the slightly open position, Milly won't step on the treadle. She streeeeeeeeeeeeetches her neck, twists her head on it's side, and pokes her beak in from the side.

So, we've gone back a half step and are leaving then on the new barely open position for a few days. (So they can see but can't reach without pressing the treadle).    We're confident that Custard and Tilda will soon be joining Roobarb and Florence in the being-able-to-open-from-closed club; we have no idea whether Milly will work it out.

Better this time

2012-01-23T15:45:00.000Z

Back to the bike shop today, a much better experience.

They were busy again, but this time it was serving customers rather than socialising. As soon as we entered, the chap on the counter (who was the chap who showed me the bike last week, not the chap from yesterday) looked up, recognised me and smiled, and said Hello Mrs (name), I'll be with you shortly".

When he finished with the previous customer, he came straight round and got the bike, and started fitting it for me.

I cycled home. Took me about a mile to realise that the gears actually have specific positions. For some reason, I was under the misimpression that the gears were sequential (so you clicked one direction to go one gear up, or clicked the other direction to go one gear down).    This resulted in some interesting moments where I thought I had no gears at all (I was cycling downhill, and I now realise I had changed into First by mistake).

The upright position is sooooo much better than my previous bike. I still wasn't 100% comfortable though. To get into a comfortable body position I had to push my bottom right back, so that it was off the back of the saddle. I started to think that I had bought the wrong sized frame, and I remembered all those for sale adverts I'd seen where the bike was the wrong size. I cheered myself up by realising that even so, it was more comfortable than my previous bike.

I got home, DH asked how it had felt, and I told him about the saddle. He told me it was adjustable backwards and upwards, so he had at amending it for me. It's now much better, and I'm a much happier bunny.   I need to go out for a longer ride so that we can do "final" tweaks.

She is a lovely thing, and I'm really looking forward to taking her out again.

Grrr

2012-01-22T12:34:00.000Z

I had decided to buy a Pashley bike. The upright style should mean that it is easier to ride, less harsh on my back. Pashleys are very solid, well made bikes.

I looked on Ebay, I looked in various classifieds for a pre-loved one. Plenty around, none particularly nearby and none particularly cheap. I needed some help in deciding what frame size was suitable and contacted Pashley for advice. They gave me some local dealers who should have a Pashley in stock, and one of them was only a couple of miles away.

This local independent bike shop had one in stock, and I decided to go and take a look. It turned out to be the model I wanted, the frame was the right size, they were having a sale.   The chap was very helpful, let me ride the bike around the car park, adjusted it for me so I could get a good feel.    He explained that if I bought the bike, they would (of course) spend time with me getting it adjusted perfectly for me.   I decided to sleep on it. Not the bike, obviously, sleep on the decision.   It's a lot of money to spend on a bike.

In the end, I decided to go ahead. He'd been helpful, I like to support independent and local businesses, with the sale and not having to travel to collect a second hand bike, the price differential was OK. I'd worked out how to fund the purchase.

I phoned up, spoke to the same chap, reserved the bike and paid a deposit. I said I would be in on Sunday at about 12.00 to collect it, this would give them a couple of days to do their bike checks, and the weather forecast was reasonable so I would ride it home.

Sunday finally dawned, and we went along to the shop to collect it.

I came home without it, very irritated, and wishing that I hadn't paid a deposit so I could just go somewhere else.

What happened?    What happened was the shop is a "proper cyclists" shop. When I got there, it was full of "proper cyclists" having a natter. All were kitted out in "proper cyclists" gear, I presume some club had just arrived after a ride or something.

It was difficult to get to the counter because all the proper cyclists were grouped around there having a chat, along with the chap on the till. I groaned inwardly at the thought of having to get fitted for a Pashley with all these Proper Cyclists looking on. It took a couple of moments for me to realise that these people weren't waiting to be served, they were just socialising. I moved around a little to try and attract attention to get some service. We were the only people in the shop not wearing proper cyclist gear, so we stood out a bit.

The chap on the counter eventually looked in our direction, so I moved forward and said I was here to pick up the Pashley, and I indicated the bike which was still on the shop floor. He looked at me blankly, and then asked me if that was the bike (the one I was pointing to). I said yes. He moved to the till. Fearing that he was just going to treat it as a quick payment and off you go transaction, I explained that it needed fitting - the saddle adjusting etc. He looked a bit confused. He pulled out a folder full of invoices and started leafing through it slowly, most of his attention apparently still on the Proper Cyclists conversation.

I stood waiting, getting mildly irritated. I said to DH that I felt a bit uncomfortable, and that I was starting to get cross. He said that he didn't like buying things from these places because they were often like this. I said, hmm, well, it wasn't like this on Monday was it? If it had been, I wouldn't have bought the bike here.

A moment later, someone popped out from the back of the counter, also dressed in Proper Cyclists uniform, carrying mugs of tea for the Proper Cyclists.   At that point, my patience snapped.    Before I knew what I was doing (it was like I was having an out of body experience, watching myself do this), I'd told the chap at the counter not to bother, I'd come back another time, and then I had turned on my heels and was walking out of the shop.

It's very, very rare of me to get to a situation where my I find myself doing something when my brain is a bit behind what is actually going on. I can only recall 2 other situations when this has happened, and I had been extremely provoked in both cases.   This time I knew I was irritated, but I had no idea that I was quite as annoyed as I obviously was.

DH was very kind. I explained to him that I was really annoyed at the crap service, I was also annoyed with myself for having put a deposit on the bike and that I couldn't just go somewhere else, and I was annoyed that I was letting myself get annoyed. At least I didn't say something rude.

When I do go back, I wonder if they will ask me why I didn't collect the bike on Sunday.   I hope they do, actually. In fact, I'll be disappointed if they don't.    I doubt it's even registered with them that they have an unhappy customer, and I doubt very much that they have the vaguest inkling that (if I hadn't paid a deposit) I would be a lost sale.

I doubt they'd care.

EDITED LATER TO ADD:
That's not fair. They probably would care. Now that I'm calm, I've replayed the whole thing a couple of times, and I know that what it was that actually made me snap.

It wasn't that the shop was busy, with Proper Cyclists. I appreciate that these regulars are the one who provide the bread and butter for the shop.

I know that the Pashley, although expensive for me, is not an expensive purchase in "proper-bike" term.

If these people had beeen buying stuff, then I wouldn't have minded having to wait for service.

I think it was the realisation that socialising with this group was apparently more important than my custom.

Treadmilling, again

2012-01-21T10:52:00.000Z

I've just completed my 7th week of treadmilling, and last week was my best so far. I've been keeping a record on the "Treadmiling" page, but I'm so happy about last week, that I thought I'd post it here.

My target was 5 sessions of at least half a mile each (hey, it's all relative!). In fact I did 6 sessions, and a total of 7.5 miles.

The breakthrough was doing it early in the morning (pre shower), and watching something on the TV...with headphones so I could actually hear the TV over the noise of the 'mill. I can't watch TV for the sake of it, so I picked things that I like to watch but DH doesn't. Recorded them, and then watched them while treadmilling.

Not sure how long it will take me to catch up with Alexis (Girl Rural) and her 2 miles. I ony managed that once.

Feeders are closed

2012-01-20T15:26:00.001Z

Mid morning, we set the Grandpas Feeders to the closed position, meaning that the Girls need to stand on the plate to get the feeder to open.

There was a lot of complaining to start with, so I went out and showed Tilda how to do it. I also tried to show Milly, but she was so shocked at being picked up that all she could do was bok loudly.

They are now shut in their run for the evening. The new camera has been installed, and i've seen that Florence and Roobarb have managed to operate the treadle and feed themselves, so the others will pick it up soon (if they haven't already).

No more getting up early to put out the feeders. DH has done this for probably 11 of the last 14 days, so I'm really happy that he won't have to do it any more.

EDIT:
Just saw Roobarb eating from it on her own. Custard sidled up and started to eat too. Roobarb moved away and I winced as I waited for the lid to shut on Custard. By luck, she had her foot on the treadle, so nothing happened. She moved away, and the feeder shut. Then she came back. She was confused that the food had apparently disappeared. She pecked the lid and the front of tyhe feeder, and then wandered off.

It won't take long.

Silly thing to do

2012-01-20T13:11:00.000Z

I don't drive very often any more - I work from home, so there isn't much need for me to be out and about.

I've caught my car on the brick gateposts as I was reversing into the drive. Paintwork is scratched, but no dents.

Went to the dealership to see what it would cost. Went to another bodyshop for a comparison quote. DH offered to fix it for me too. If it was my old car, I'd have left it, or asked DH to do it.

Decided to try a "Smart Repair" through the dealer.

Custard and Tilda.

2012-01-18T16:10:00.000Z

Custard and 'Tilda are sisters. Tilda is a highly intelligent, friendly, girl; she suffers from a number of physical disabilites. She's bottom of the pecking order. I think there is a link between her friendliness and her disability - she was easier to catch, so she got used to being caught, and she vecame very tame.

Custard is really really horrible to Tilda. Whereas the others might give Tilda a single peck to remind her of her lowly status, Custard actively seeks out Tilda and then attacks her. When they are shut in their walk in run for the night, no matter where Tilda hides, Custard seeks her out, runs at her, and makes her move somewhere else. It's very upsetting.

If the weather was warmer, I think I'd remove Custard into her own accomodation for a week or so. If I didn't know how wrong it was to introduce a lone hen, I'd move Custard down to the Allotment to join the breeding girls.

As it is, I am trying to monitor whether it is only Custard that is persistently bullying Tilda. Roobarb doesn't seem to do anything to her, even when they are foraging in the same place beak to beak. I haven't observed Florence and Tilda on their own together; Milly gives Tilda a peck on the head when their paths cross, but I haven't seen whether it's only done when their paths cross, or whether she is bullying also.

We're upgrading the camera in the run, so maybe that will help me keep track.

Buttering up

2012-01-17T12:53:00.000Z

Ran out of butter at the end of last week, and started to use some shop bought stuff from the freezer. I bought some to make christmas cakes,and bought twice as much as I needed, so I have (or, now, had) 5 spare blocks in the freezer. Couldn't face Costco at the weekend, so we just carried on with the shop bought stuff. It's OK, but it's not the same as home made.

Got the cream yesterday, 8 litres this time, and left the cream on the worktop. Set up for butter making this morning - which means cleaning the sinks and worktops, getting out all my butter bits. When I came to use the cream, I found the seal under the lid of one bottle wasn't properly sealed. I decided I couldn't risk using it (you have to be scruplulous with butter), so I poured it away.

As I put the first 1.5 litres in the mixer, I remembered that I had a new second bowl and rummaged in the cupboards to find it. Last time I made butter, I speculated for about the fifth time that a second large bowl would speed up my "production line" considerably; last time was a bit of a marathon butter session, and I actually ordered the new bowl as soon as I had finished potting, so that I would have it ready for this time. I bought a glass one, which is slightly larger than the standard metal bowl.

My production line today was even slicker than usual. Firstly, I cleaned the empty cream bottles (using the water from washing the butter) as I went. A small thing, but it made a reasonable difference to the workload at the end. And the second bowl was fantastic. As soon as the last of the cream had been churned to cream in the metal bowl, I wiped the blade and then put the first lot of churned butter on, in the glass bowl, to blend in the salt.    While this was happening I washed the first bowl and got it ready with the next lot of churned butter and , and then carried on washing up.

When the first lot of salt-blended butter was ready, I put the second bowl on, and started to pot up the first lot.   This is where the real time saving came in, as usually the machine is idle while I pot up. I did have to give the machine a rest for a few minutes part way through, as the non-stop work was causing it to get a bit warm.

And while the final bowl of butter was blending, I did the rest of the washing up and clearing down. Then, when everything was in the fridge, all that faced me was one bowl, a couple of potting utensils, a tray, and cleaning the splashes from the mixer.

Very happy with it.

A negg

2012-01-14T16:13:00.000Z

Hooray!

Our first egg for aaaages. A blue one, covered in poo (delightful!) from Milly. I had thought she might be laying at some point because she crouched for me a couple of days ago. However, her laying has been erratic for a long time, so it may be that this is our one and only egg from her.

The other girls don't look like they are ready to come back into lay. Custard is still moulting and looks like an ex battery girl;

Roobarb has a lovely new set of feathers, but still has pin cushions around part of her head;

Florence has refeathered beautifully, but her comb is small and pale;

Tilda (our special needs chook) has been sporting her gorgeous new feathers for months, they are lovely and soft and fluffy.... but her comb is very shrivelled and pale, so she doesn't look like she's planning to lay for some time.

I don't mind them freeloading. Even if they've all given up completely (which is unlikely) they've all given plenty of eggs - and enjoyment generally - since we hatched them, and they all entitled to a happy retirement with us.

A little treat

2012-01-14T15:38:00.000Z

Thought I'd let the Girls out on to the back "lawn" (= the bit of grass outside our kitchen window) for a treat. They aren't allowed on there very often as we like to reserve it for the chicks.

As it happens, they weren't very interested in the grass. They decided to investigate some tubs instead

Tried to take some photos, but they were not that interested in posing.
I caught Milly off guard....

The Grandpas Feeders have been put into the next position now, which means that they are patially open. The lids open fully when someone stands on the plate. Roobarb got straight to it, no problem. Custard and Milly have been standing to the side of the plate and craning in. I haven't seen what Florence and 'Tilda have been doing.

Water was frozen today.

Fox!

2012-01-12T10:29:00.000Z

Woke up in the night to hear a dog barking...but it was an odd bark. Not deep enough for a big dog, not yappy enough for a small dog. realised it was in my garden and therefore must be a fox, and I jumped out of bed.

A bit dazed, I wondered if it was on the radio. I have heard foxy screeches before, and this wasn't one of them. I pulled on my dressing gown while trying to see if the radio was on. I realised it wasn't, heard the barking again, and ran downstairs. I grabbed the torch and back door key, opened the door, and ran out into the garden.

I had expected that the fox, if it were a fox, to have run off the moment it heard the door undoing, but it didn't. I managed to catch it in my torch beam as it ran down the grden. Then it stopped, turned round, and ran back to the chooks. Then it repeated the exercise, it ran down the garden, stopped, ran back. I realised that the Fox watces - one by the house and one by the chooks - were probably confusing it.

I managed to open the gate into the chicken area, but I wasn't actually sure what I was supposed to do - or going to do. I wouldn't be able to catch it. As I started to walk ito the run, it turned in the only direction available: the fence to next-door. It leapt over the fence (it's 6 foot high) and away. It was barking a few minutes later.

I opened the pop hole to check that the Girls were OK, and the two who are currently using the nestbox as a bedroom just looked at me sleepily. No sign of any distress.

Any idea why the fox would be yapping so much? The only thing I can imagine is that it was telling his/her family that it had found something interesting.

I found a few audio files on line, and one particular one sounded like our visitor. The poster says it's when his pet fox is expressing curiosity or playfulness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cETa0x0Zfzw

Choosing new bees

2012-01-10T11:04:00.001Z

We've started to look at getting a new Nuc of bees. A few ads in Beecraft and the BBKA magazine, for different strains of bees; looked at posts on the Beekeeping Forum.

Of course, all bees seem to be advertised as having the characteristics one would want: gentle, not too much propolis.... all the good traits. Carniolan, Buckfast, Italian, British Black, whatever the variety, the adverts sing their praises.

The reality is that, to some extent, it doesn't matter what you start with: you have no control over what type of bee the Queen will mate with, and the second and third generation Queen will determine the future temperament and characteristics of the hive.

Having been through a hive loss though, and our angry colony last year, I think I'd have little hesitation in re-queening if we ended up with a bad tempered queen/hive. So I'm not as nervous as I was before we started.

No Bees

2012-01-09T14:05:00.000Z

Well, the worst has happened and we have no bees.

We wanted to take the opportunity of the mild weather to do a routine varroa treatment for the hives. We couldn't risk doing it at th eend of last season, because had brood, and the treatment kills brood.

It was warm yesterday, warm today, and warm forecast to the end of the week, so it seemed like now or never. Time to treat them, and then mild enough weather for them to recover from the hive being opened.

So, today, we suited up. First hive, no bees. Second hive, no bees. Very sad, but not entirely unexpected. At least we know, and we can bring the hives home, sort them out, and get ready to start with a fresh nucleus in the Spring.

We've learned so much, and we'll be better beekeepers next time round.

Feeding time

2012-01-07T16:26:00.000Z

You may remember that the Parish Council cleared the vegetation on the other side of our fence, which resulted in rats making their way into the Girls' run. You may remember that we've been putting down poison, blocking the holes, and bringing in the feed every night.

Bringing the feed in means that it needs to go out in the morning, preferably before the Girls get up. The Girls are used to being able to get up at their leisure, and then take breakfast immediately. It's been this way since they were eggs. They don't like the changes in routine - unless, of course, it's to their advantage, in which case they embrace the change whole heartedly. Some beneficial changes seem to become habits after just one instance, funny that. But I'm digressing.

Getting up in the morning to get the feeders out is a real chore, especially as neither of us start work early at the moment. Poor DH has got into the habit of getting up and doing it. Every evening, I resolve to get out of bed and do it before he does; every morning, a warm bed and a snuggly cat dissolves my good intentions.

We decided we'd switch to a Grandpa's Feeder (GPF). Once they have learned to use it, we can leave it in the un overnight and bring in the other feeders. We can then take out the other feeders when we get up.   So, I bought one. This is my fifth, the other 4 are on the allotment. (Apparently the record is 12 feeders, so I have a bit of a way to go).

It arrived swiftly, and we put it in use. As recommended, we've pegged it completely open to start with, which gives the Girls time to get used to the shape of it, and putting their heads in etc.    Step 2 is partially open so they can see the food and they get used to the clanging when they step on the footplate; and Step 3 is completely closed.    Because we don't want to encourage the rats again, we're not leaving it out until we've achieved Step 3.

To encourage the Girls to use it, we've only got one other feeder out there, and this has only a small amount of food in.     Totempt them to put their heads inside, I initially prinkled a small amount of corn on top ofthe feed. 'Tilda was straight in there, sideways on, and didn't give the others a look-in.

Spying on them from my bedroom (they can see me if I stand by the itchen door), I've seen Roobarb eat out of it. And today, at last, I saw Milly eat out of it. Milly is a crean legbar, has a crazy comb which means she can't see out of one eye, and it takes her a loooooong time to get the hang of things.

Florence acts as though it isn't there. When she's eating corn out of my hand, I lower my hand into the feeder, and she just looks at me as if to ask where my hand has vanished to. She walks past the feeder looking straight ahead, in that "if I can't see it, it can't see me" way that small children - and daft hens - have. Heaven knows what she's goin gto be like when she steps on the plate and it clangs.

It's only been a couple of days. And I know from past experience that, when they get used to it, I'll be wondering what the fuss was about.

Fantastic Camera detail

2012-01-04T16:03:00.000Z

I decided to change my desktop background photo, and I picked a photo I'd taken last year which had 'Tilda in the middle.

This is the original photo:

When Windows applied it to my Desktop, the whole screen was taken up with Tilda's head. I left it like that, as she has such a pretty face.

And then I noticed something incredible. In Tilda's eye, you can see a reflection of me taking the picture!

Look how small her eye is in the real picture! Yet, hidden there, is my reflection. How clever is that?!

The Desktop image is too big, but I've done a screen capture of just the eye bit.

Isn't that amazing?!

Cracks me up

2012-01-04T11:37:00.001Z

I ordered some china from Debenhams sale (60% off, plus cashback through Quidco, and free delivery). A huge delivery arrived in between Christmas and New Year, which surprised me as I had only orderd a few items and was expecting one medium sized box.

It turns out that Debenhams wrapped and boxed each piece individually. The delivery contained 3 side plates and 2 saucers (the rest was "to follow"), and the amount of packaging was unbelievable. 5 large boxes, and a huge bag of bubblewrap.

Today, the rest of my order arrived - 4 dinner plates, 2 cups, 1 side plate - in another huge delivery. Once again, each piece was wrapped in huge quantities of bubblewrap, each in it's own oversized box.

I put the bubblewrap into a bin bag to Freegle.

And, despite the individual packaging, one of the plates is broken in half!

I'm tempted to just send it back by courier, but the plates were such a bargain that I'm going to go to my nearest Debenhams to see if I can get a swap.

Catching Up

2012-01-02T17:19:00.000Z

Sorry, been a bit out-of-sorts for a few days (probably an overdose of sugar) and haven't felt like writing.

Popped round to see DS1, DDIL, and their two children yesterday. Z (who is 4) had been watching The Lion King and came to the front door in floods of tears. Poor little thing. She cheered up eventually and was back to her normal bubbly self.

C (who is 1) was also gorgeous. He's walking now, and he's of an age where I can pick him up with a good chance of not getting baby drool on me. I'm pleased, as I do feel quite self conscious about my refusals to pick up babies.

Today was the day for taking down the decorations. This was done quite quickly, with everything neatly sorted and boxed in what must be a record time. However, trying to move the furniture back showed up dust bunnies, cat hairs, and dust created by having a real fire, everywhere. I spent several hours doing a fairly thorough clean (including under and up the insides of the sofas).

The walls need repainting. I considered - briefly - doing it today as at one point I had the sofas in the middle of the room so I had good access to two of the walls. But I think I'll make it one of my first Spring jobs to do.

The living room looks very tidy; the hall has lots of light coming in now that the ginormous wreath has gone from the door; the kitchen looks a bit bare.

I walked the tree and wreaths round to the recycling point. I always feel very mean discarding the tree and naked wreath. It seems so ungrateful somehow.

Abba-esque

2011-12-30T17:17:00.001Z

DS2, his partner and their 2 lovely daughters came over this afternoon. Haven't seen them for absolutely aaaaaages, so it was great. Girls were very happy and excited and, for the first time that I can remember, didn't "go shy" when they arrived.

Lunch, drawing and playing, small presents, more playing. The Girls got us all playing their games. Then I opened my new Abba Wii game. Great fun. The Girls and DDIL love Abba. DS and DH can't stand them (and neither of them dance at all) - but even they had a go.

Thoroughly recommend it.

How green is your hessian shopping bag?

2011-12-29T11:10:00.000Z

Listening to "In Our Time" today, about Macromolecules.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018grhm

Towards the end of the programme the scientists explained that in order for a hessian (or was it jute?) bag to be truly better for the environment than a plastic carrier bag (taking the whole process into account from growing to decomposing), you have to use it 130 times for every one time you would use the carrier bag.

So if you use a carrier bag twice, you have to use your hessian bag 260 times. If you use a carrier bag 3 times before discarding it, you have to use your hessian bag 390 times.

Life's never simple.

Treadmilling, revisited

2011-12-28T17:15:00.000Z

On the plus side, I'm up to doing 6.8kph.

My sessions have been shorter though (only 3.5 minutes at a time), and I've been rubbish at doing them with any regularity. I blame Christmas, but that's really just an excuse.

I did try watching TV while I was walking, but the treadmill is so noisy that I can't hear the TV. Yes, I could turn the volume up - but it's right at the other end of the double room, and I don't think it would be fair on the neighbours. So, I decided to get a pair of wireless RF headphones.

Found them in stock at Maplin in a nearby town, and went out on Boxing Day to buy them. They only plugged in to the headphone socket on the Amp, and DH had an idea to make them less hassle... which required him to pop to Maplin yesterday to buy bits to make an appropriate lead. Long story short, they are now plugged in to the back of the amp, and the amp thinks they are extra speakers.

Today, I finally got round to using them. I went for a 15 minute "walk" on my treadmill, slightly slower speed than normal and not at any gradient, but I covered just over 1.5 km (about a mile). They worked really well!

Christmas Eve, Good Afternoon

2011-12-24T13:22:00.000Z

So, the potatoes are roasted in the goose fat and are sitting in the tray to cool down. When cool, I'll strain off the goose fat and leave the potatoes in the tray until tomorrow; then they'll be popped in the oven (with no additional fat) for 20 mins to reheat while the goose is resting. I did question how this really saved time - they only take 3omins to cook anyway - and we worked out that it means we don't have to peel potatoes and par boil, and then get the fat up to temperature etc, all while trying to do lots of other things.

The red cabbage smells delicious. I made a huge quantity, and when it's done and cold I'll be portioning it up and freezing it for use in the coming weeks. I'll leave enough for tomorrow (which I'll reheat in a small saucepan) and to provide cold accompaniment to cold meats.

The goose stock/gravy is bubbling away. DH is following Nigella's recipe for a "light" gravy, my choice of recipe so I hope it's OK.

The root veg are cut up and sitting in a bag in the fridge, marinading in oliveoil, garlic, salt and herbs.

I've still got carrot and swede to do, and the stuffing to make.

The girls have been enjoying left over bits of red cabbage (so we'll have blue poo tomorrow), the cores of the cooking apples, the seedy bits of the butternut squashes, and some grapes. I was making room in the fridge and decided to have some for me now and some for the girls now too.

Chrsitmas Eve, good morning

2011-12-24T10:30:00.000Z

Morning!

Had trouble getting up today, so I'm a bit behind.

I've sorted out my list of thngs that can be prepared today, and I'm going to get started shortly.

On my list for making today:

Make goose giblet stock
Braised red cabbage with apples
Swede and carrot mash
Roast Potatoes (Mary Berry gave instructions on Radio 4 for how to cook them the day before and reheat them on the day; we tested this last week and it worked well)
Make stuffing for goose
Prep root veg for roasting, put in bag to "marinate" in olive oil and herbsI

It makes tomorrow's cooking much easier.

I think I'll have a cup of coffee first.

Catch up later xx

Overboard

2011-12-22T11:57:00.000Z

I seem to have gone a bit overboard with hanging things this Christmas.

During the year I picked up a couple of things which I wanted to add to the tree. I seem to have a bit of a chickeny and cat theme going on.

Firstly some teeny tiny little bees. I think they are meant to be card embellishments, but a bit of black cotton and they in amonst the tree branches...

Next, at Easter I found some Gisela Graham chickens, one yellow, one green, one red. Not very Christmassy, but I don't really care - the tree is decorated to make us smile.

Last GD3 made us a special decoration as a Christmas Present, so we've put it on the top of the tree this year

I seem to have developed a Gisela Graham habit, which I don't really understand as "Bunting Cupcake" style isn't really me. I bought two indoor chicken related hangers, and then embellished them to make them more personal to us.

The front door wreath was larger than expected, so it took a bit more decorating than previously. However, the theme is much the same as last year. I thought I had taken a pic but I can't find it, so I'll take another one and post it later.

I've realised I have too many pics sitting on my camera, so I'm going to spend the next little while downloading and backing up.

Talk soon!

It's behind you!

2011-12-22T11:31:00.000Z

Pantomime on Tuesday, excellent. I love Pantomimes. We go every year and, in fact, for many years we went to two Pantos, one with our friends S&K and again with the kids. S and I have been to the Panto together every year for the last 25 years.

Last year's pantomime was DIRE. We saw Cinderella last year, at Windsor. Charlie Dimmock was the Fairy Godmother, and she did well considering she wasn't a trained actor. But the rest of the cast were singers, and the whole show revolved around giving them opportunities to sing. The lines were merely delivered, with no feeling or gusto, as though they were going through the motions. What a waste of money that was.

This year it was High Wycombe's turn. It was Cinderella at High Wycombe, with Lesley Joseph, and it was fantastic. She wasn't high on my list of must-see stars (usually we pick pantos by avoiding people we don't want to see) but the Swan has put on some of the best pantomimes over the years and it's worth the trek.

The story this year was very focussed around the Lesley Joseph role of Fairy Godmother. Buttons was really well played by Matt Slack. Almost, but not quite, as good as Brian Conley that we saw there in 2007. (Brian seems to play Buttons every year, and I'd definitely choose to go and see him againbut hasn't been in the area since then). All the cast really threw themselves into it and seemed to be having as good a time as the audience. There was plenty of opportunities for booing and hissing and shouting and generally participating.

Christmas Cakes

2011-12-22T11:18:00.000Z

Yesterday I finally got round to decorating the Christmas cakes I made for my friends.

First up, Delia's Creole Cake with glazed nut topping. Excuse the vile gold board, the shop didn't have silver ones of the right size.

Next, Delia's Traditional Christmas Cake. This one has a (bought) Father Christmas on the top, with various sugarpaste snowflakes and stars, and some sugarpaste holly. The top is possibly a bit over-busy I think. and I wish I'd used smaller holly leaves. Too late now.

Finally, another Traditional Cake.

I've still got to decorate our own Creole cake. I think I might try cutting it into 4x4 inch cakes and see what they look like when decorated.

Oh rats!

2011-12-18T12:08:00.000Z

The council took it upon themselves to clear an area near the bottom of our garden which had been thick with brambles (a haven for blackberry hunters), ivy, and other overgrown greenery. As a result, the now-homeless rats are looking for alternative accomodation and sources of food, and have decided to try their paws at our Girls' walk in run.

Fortunately, I spotted the first excavations immediately. We baited the tunnel and blocked it up. We started brining in the food each evening, and each mrning we find evidence of a new excavation. So, we're baiting (which is horrible, poor rats) and trapping (which is more humane, but not always possible) to try and discourage them, and blocking. Each day we sweep away the debris of the diggings so that so that we can see evidence of new excavations.

In the current weather, we can only take immediate short term measures. In the Spring, we'll have to concrete the whole area to provide permanent protection. Not great, but probably necessary.

Finally getting into the spirit

2011-12-17T16:03:00.000Z

I marzipanned two christmas cakes this afternoon.

I'll aim to ice them on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. I've got two Creole cakes to top with nuts as well...I might try and get to Costco on Monday (or Tuesday) to get the nuts and a few other bits, and then can do all 4 cakes on the same day.

Maybe. Costco. Christmas. Hmm.

DH knows his onions

2011-12-17T07:58:00.000Z

DH's local has a home made pickled onion contest each year, judged by a local chef and one other. The jars and the onions are provided. The onions are pickled over a particular week and then are stored at the pub. Judges don't know which entry is which.

DH has entered every year since inception in 2003, and has come second a number of times.

DH won this year!

Early planning backfire

2011-12-16T13:05:00.000Z

Last year the weather in the days before Christmas was dreadful, and we were very lucky (and grateful to) our beef supplier and Ocado for battling the weather to ensure everything got through.

This year I thought I'd be Be Prepared. We're having goose, and that arrived early in December and was put in the freezer. So far so good. I've also started stocking up on non-perishables plus the long-shelf life products like chocolates, drinks an nibbles, especially those that are on offer. Usually we get everything in the last couple of days.

I've now discovered that DH has drunk most of the delicious Fever Tree Mediterranean tonic water. I've drunk a bottle of Crabbies cloudy ginger beer. And, most suprisingly of all, we've eaten both bars of white chocolate and I've munched my way through 6 bags of crisps. I think that's probaby happened because I rarely have chocolate and I never have crisps in the house, and the temptation was just too much. And who can stop at one bag of crisps when you have an open six pack sitting there?

So, I've had to re-add those to my Christmas delivery next week.

I need to get back on that treadmill.

Christmas

2011-12-15T14:52:00.000Z

We bought our tree yesterday (14th), which is very early for us. I wanted a Fraser Fir - they are very compact trees, not wide like the more popular Nordmanns - and in previous years we have trouble finding one because we leave it so late.

Well, it's up, it's decorated. I also decorated the wreath for the front door, and enhanced a pre-bought Gisela Graham chicken related wreath for one of the inside doors. D used the spare foliage from the tree to make a plain wreath for the Girls.

Spurred on with the Christmas theme, I made mincemeat today - Cranberry (Nigella's recipe, instead of my usual Delia mincemeat). It looks very pretty, but there isn't a uhge amount of it.

DH started a brie, hopefully it'll be edible by Christmas, and then made ricotta with the whey.

Christmas Shopping

2011-12-13T10:54:00.000Z

We don't exchange pressies at Christmas, haven't done for years, and it makes Christmas so much more pleasurable. We spend extra on birthday presents instead. It started a long time ago when a friend of ours was economising and we areed not to buy for each other; we spread this to agreeing the same with my family; and then the (adult) children. Everyone else continues with the mayhem of spending money on gifts they desperately hope the recipient will love - it's just us that have opted out completely (we don't even buy pressies for each other).

Every year for the past 25 years, my lovely friend S and I have taken a day to go Christmas shopping, getting it all done in one hit. Even after I stopped buying pressies, we've continued with our day shopping. S still buys pressies, it's a pleasant day out together, and I find it interesting watching people's behaviour without having the stress of trying to find gifts myself.

We have grandchildren that we see a lot, and some we don't see very often. Since we've had grandchildren of an age to know what Christmas is, I started to feel a bit mean not buying them something to unwrap (and - frankly - I felt that other people felt I was mean), so a couple of years ago I tried to buy a small token pressie for each grandchild. I find it quite difficult to find token inexpensive presents that don't seem mean they all have so much already). I also struggle to get a fair balance between all of them.

I might get them some chocolate this year. As if they need more chocolate?!

Cheeky boy

2011-12-11T14:40:00.000Z

Our cats have a perfectly functional cat flap, with it's own porch, to permit them free access to the outside world.    They also have a specially designed gap in the trellis by the gate which lets them pass from the front to the back gardens without having to jump or climb over anything.

Many months ago, our ginger ninja pawed at the french window in the kitchen indicating that he wanted to go out. How could we resist such a cute thing? We let him out. Over the months, both cats got in the habit of pawing at the french window when they want to go out. Or when they want to come in, for that matter.    And we got into the habit of opening the door for them.

I can see their point. Why should they go out the cat flap and walk round, when they can see where they want to be? But I'm amazed at how easy we were to train. Now, we automatically go and open the door - stopping whatever we happen to be doing at the time - to let the cat out. or in. Or both in quick succession.    Often it involves us getting up and unlocking the french window, opening the door, letting the cat pass through, then shutting the door, relocking it, and putting the key away.

DH and I laugh at how silly this is. How ridiculous that we've allowed ourselves to be trained this way. But still we do it. We've idly thought about installing a bell to see if we can get the cats to use it.

Today, Washburn took this to a new level of cheekiness. He pawed at the door. I got up, got the key, unlocked the door, opened it for him... he sniffed the air... and walked away, back into the warmth of the kitchen.

Far too cold outside.

Brrr

2011-12-10T08:31:00.000Z

Very cold this morning.

Poo trays full of ginger feathers: looks like Custard is starting to moult.

Roobarb now has some feathers, but not many.

Tradmilling, again

2011-12-08T09:58:00.000Z

I've covered just over 4 miles since Sunday.

I'm now walking at 6.2kph (3.87mph) for just over 6.5 minutes at 3% gradient, with 2 x 100m runs at 9kph in there as well. I'm covering 0.75km in each session now (0.47 miles).

I do understand that these are pathetically short walks to those who love walking (or who do a job which involves walking miles a day, like waitressing), but every minute on the treadmill is a minute's walk that I would not otherwise be doing.

Partially plucked chicken

2011-12-08T09:36:00.001Z

Roobarb now has a few feathers on her side, and a small modesty panel on her back.

The rest of her is still oven ready.

Stolen Lurcher - THORNEY HILL AREA NEAR BURLEY BH25 postcode

2011-12-07T11:39:00.000Z

Do you have any friends who live near the New Forest/in the South west? If so, please ask them to keep an eye out for a stolen lurcher.

I've had this email from my friend Clare:

A friend who lives near the New Forest has had her lurcher stolen while walking there. It was seen being led off into a van by two men; as you can imagine, she is beside herself with worry.

Stolen from Burley, New Forest Hampshire. Near Burbush Car Park (Burley to Bransgore road) HE HAS BEEN STOLEN - WAS SEEN BEEN TAKEN BY TWO MEN IN A VAN HEADING TOWARDS THE THORNEY HILL AREA NEAR BURLEY

His name is Ozzie, he's tattooed and microchipped.

This is the full post on DogLost http://www.doglost.co.uk/dog_blog.php?dogId=35072&status=Lost

If you have any friends who live in the south west region, please pass this information on if you can.

Oven ready to Hedgehog

2011-12-06T12:59:00.000Z

Roobarb now looks like a hedgehog, or spiny anteater, or somesuch.

She has these plasticky quills sticking out all over, and they click together when she moves. She's looking, understandably I think, very sorry for herself. It can't be comfortable.

There are a few odd feathers appearing, having burst out of a quill or two.

Hopefully it won't be long now before she's sporting her glorious new winter coat.

Grandparent Tea Party

2011-12-06T09:19:00.000Z

DGS1 is in year 6 and, at his school, they have an entertainment-and-tea show at Christmas for the year 6 Grandparents. Or, rather, for one grandparent per child. I was really touched that DGS1 decided to invite us, and then I was slightly panic-struck when I realised it was for me not DH.

DD lives a fair distance away, takes a good couple of hours to get there. DH came with me so that he could see DD and DGD while I was at the school. DD walked me to the school and left me there. I felt like a child dropped at the school playground for the first time (which is completely unfair exaggeration as I was actually in the school's reception, but I did have to ask her to "come and collect me" at the closing time).

The 3 classes had held auditions for who was going to be in the show. Not everyone had to audition, so there was no coersion. Of the 90 children in that year, they had 12 acts interspersed with single/pair/or trio comperes (or "compares" as they put on the programme, tut tut) telling jokes.

It was really good. We had sketches, lots of singers, a wide range of musical instrument playing (clarinet, guitars, trumpet, flute), and some gymnasts. The quality was, of course, variable, but each one was fantastic just for having a go. There were 180 people in the audience, plus teachers, so quite daunting.

And then we had tea. Some nibbles, some cakes, some tea. An individual cracker, made by grandchild,complete with gift. There was a bit of a competition to see who had travelled the furthest. I thought it would be me...but I was pipped at the post by a grandma from Portugal. I take my hat off to her.

Then the children were sent to run around in the playground and we were invited to go with. So I did. DGS wanted to play "it" but, as I chased him, I tried (pantingly) to explain that it was inherently unfair because I was unlikely to catch hime and even if I did he'd catch me back within seconds. So we spent the next 15 minutes or so playing jumping games with my DGS.... they have squares with letters in, so we were jmping letters to make words, and then we were doing the alphabet backwards.   They also had a grid with the numbers 1 -100, so we were playing "times table" jumping. In the end DGS decided the Table, did the jumping, and I told him which numbers to jump to. He was most impressed that I knew the 12 times table.    One of his friends wanted to join in (how bizarre is that?!), so for a few moments until the whistle blew we had a bit of a competition.

I was so pleased to hear the whistle. I was shattered, I was cold.    DD, DH and DGD turned up to collect me, we went to the other part of the school to pick up DGS2, and then back to collect DGS1.

On our walk back I walked on the otside, explaining that I needed to keep my sword arm free to protect them.    "What if you're left handed?" asked DGS after some thinking.   I explained that in the olden days, people weren't allowed to be left handed, that my Mother had been forced to learn to write with her right hand.   DH (or DGD in their case) was left handed; DGS2 was left handed; DSiL was left handed.

DGS then said that they didn't have roads in the old days. I explained that they did have roads - how else did people get fromone place to another? - but of course they weren't tarmaced and pavemented roads.

"What about in the desert?" was the next challenge. I agreed that there probably weren't roads in the desert.

Treadmilling

2011-12-06T08:58:00.000Z

The Treadmill has been occupying a large part of the sitting room since Sunday.

I decided I'd start with 5 minute sessions only, and work on building up gradient and speed. This has worked really well. I had 2 goes on Sunday, although the first one was at strolling pace and with no gradient, so I'm not sure it counts really.

On Monday morning, I got up first to make tea/hot lemon. While the tea was brewing, I did 5 minutes. I was on gradient 3 (out of 9, and I suspect that it is a "gentle incline"), and I was up yo 5.8 KPH, which is about 3.6 miles an hour.

We went out for the day (more later) and when we got back, I did another 5 minutes at 5.8KPH.

This morning, I moved up to 6KPH (3.75mph), still on gradient 3. I don't think I could sustain that, epecially when I've just got up and am still in my jimjams, for much longer.

So, .I'm going to carry on at 6kph for 5 minutes - which means I'm doing just under a 3rd of a mile eachtime - and then I might look at increasing the time slightly.

Not earth shattering, I know. But consistent.

Thanks Alexis

2011-12-04T11:20:00.000Z

I was catching up with Alexis' blog a few days ago, and her post about issuing herself a challenge really chimed with me. http://www.girlrural.com/2011/11/issuing-myself-challenge.html I've been thinking for ages that I should try and go for a walk everyday..but I don't particularly enjoy walking for the sake of walking, and I know that I wouldn't keep it up in bad weather.

I thought about setting myself an achievable target. Maybe, walk everyday for a week (I appreciate this probably sounds pathetic to those of you who enjoy walking, or walk anyway).

Then as I read on, I saw the fateful words "on my treadmill". Now, I've never seen the point of treadmills. Too big, too bulky, and likely to just be a dust catcher. We don't have anywhere sensible to put a treadmill - at least, no where where it would also actually get used.

But I kept thinking about it. I looked on Ebay. Lots of treadmills there (mostly hardly used, I chuckled when I read that), and much less than buying one new. I spotted one quite local to me. I decided I'd bid on it. If I won it, I'd put it in my living room for a couple of weeks and use it every day. Then I'd move it into the spare bedroom, and see if I continued to use it. I would set myself an easily achievable target. Maybe, x minutes walking each day, and see how much I covered, rather than aiming to do a specific distance.

And if I failed, I could sell it on Ebay without losing much money.

I raided my Quidco pot, and my birthday money pot, and made my bid.

And I won it.

I haven't told DH yet. I'm going to have to tell him because I need to use his car to collect it. (And, of course, he might notice it in the living room anyway).

Can't leaf them alone

2011-11-30T15:42:00.000Z

A discussion on the Omlet forum a while ago about leaves, and whether it's OK to put them in a walk in run. (I'm getting a sense of deja vu here, have I already mentioned this in an earlie post?).

Anyway, i put a load of leaves in the run back then and the girls seemed happy with them. They (the leaves) made the run look a right mess, like it wasn't cared for. Roobarb then shed her feathers all over the run (on top of Florence's feathers, and that was on top of Tilde's feathers). Today I was sweeping up leaves from the corner of the garden that the Girls don't have access to, and I piled them in the Run. The Girls leapt on the pile in glee. So I swept up some more. And some more. And some more.

I love the rustling noise as the Girls make busy with the leaves.

Glorious

2011-11-30T12:15:00.000Z

What a glorious day!

Yesterday, it was cold, dark, icy/drizzly weather. I had planned to go jumper shopping as Woolovers were visiting a town not too far away from me. I thought I could go and try on a few things, get an idea of their sizing and styles, and then I'd be able to buy online during the winter as well. The weather was so foul I just couldn't face going out in it.

What a difference today. Chiro appointment at 10am, so I was out of the house at 9.15 so I could fill up with fuel en route. The sun was bright, I was inside my car, and outside it was either a glorious chilly Autumn day or a baking hot summer day: only my frozen toes told me which it was. I didn't take a coat (I don't know, it just wasn't that cold going from the house to the car) Everything looked so clean, and green, and pleasant.

Chiro told me my glands were swollen, which means I'm probably fighting off an infection. DH has his latest persistent cough, so I expect I'll be starting on that soon.

Kedgeree for dinner tonight. I had to make some room in the freezer for the spare raviolis, and I took some rice out. DH loves smoked haddock, and he koves kedgeree. During the last 5 years or so of trying to overcome my fishphobia, I learned that I can stomach smoked haddock, just about, as long as I have stuff to mix it with. I haven't eaten kedgeree, so it'll be good to try something new.

I've got some mutton arriving tomorrow. We've been eating through the stuff in the freezer, and the last of the mutton was eaten a long time ago. I'm lookin gofrward to having a decent, full flavoured shepherds pie very soon.

Home made

2011-11-29T15:11:00.000Z

No work today, so I took the opportunity to make some things I haven't made for a while. First up, a batch of pasta dough to make home made ravioli this evening. Second, some focaccia, to eat with the ravioli.
And now I'm thinking about ravioli filling. I have a small amount of roasted squash from Sunday; some ricotta cheese from DH's latest cheesemaking exploits; I've got the last of the belly pork; and some mushrooms which need using up. I think I might start by cooking the muchrooms in garlic butter, I can then perhaps blend them with some pork, and (separately) some of the ricotta. I can mix the squash and ricotta together... hmm. Need to see what this all tastes like, I think.

I usually use a largish ravioli mould, but I bought some giant ravioli stamps to make giant ravioli, so I might have a go with those for a change..

I'll see what inspiration strikes.

Say cheeeeese

2011-11-28T08:49:00.002Z

DH is on a it of a roll with cheesemaking.

He's made a cheshire-type cheese and a gouda cheese this week, and he's turned the whey into ricotta cheese as well. We haven't made home made pasta for a long time, so I'm thinking we might have some giant raviol, stuffed with ricotta and roasted butternut squash. I might also make some mushroom ravioli. I@ve got some tasty portabellini mushrooms in the fridge, and I think I could try cooling them in garlic butter, then chopping them (mincing might make it a bit paste-like) and using it in ravioli as well - with or without ricotta, not sure which yet.

Sunday Lunch

2011-11-28T08:45:00.000Z

DH wanted a roast dinner for Sunday evening, so I got out one of our cheaper cuts of pork. Belly, 1.7kg and boneless. Followed Jamie Olivers recipe for slow pork shoulder (bone out), and it was amazing. As always. I didn't turn the veg into gravy, far too tasty for that, instead I used some of the pork stock we made when we butchered half a pig recently.

I also had a tray of roast vegetables, including some cauliflower. I've done cauli this way before, and it has worked; I've done it before another time and it was burnt to a crisp. This time, it worked well. I've decided that the trick is to add the cauliflower at the same time as I put the Yorkshire pudds in the oven - so it gets a bit less than the rest of the roasted veg.

The tray also included some home grown butternut squash. That wasn't for eating with lunch though, that was to be saved for a bit later in the week....

I made extra swede-and-carrot-mash enough tto freeze 2 lots for dinner accompaniment another time. I've still got some uncooked swede i the fridge, which I'll give to the Girls next time they have to be shut in (their large run)for a while.

Crackling was crispy, pork was moist and tender and delicious. I'm making Chinese style pancakes and we'll have the leftover pork with hoisin sauce and pancakes etc this evening.

Chicken drumsticks

2011-11-25T08:45:00.002Z

Overnight Roobarb has lost her leg feathering, and she's wandering around on chicken drumsticks.

Poor little girl.

Poor Roobarb

2011-11-24T16:00:00.000Z

Poor Roobarb has decided to moult, and she's doing it in spectacular fashion. The poo trays are full of her lovely feathers, and she looks oven-ready down her back sides and bottom. Poor little lovely looks like a cruelty case.

There's a picture of her, in her pre-moult finery, on the right hand side the blog (next to the titles). Well, there is at the moment. I can see I need to do some editing of the pictures. At some point I'll get some pics of the missing girls, and I'll re-do it.

Another Day Out

2011-11-24T15:55:00.000Z

Apart from the trip to tracklements, en route to seeing the inlaws, last weekend, I can't remember when DH and I had a day out together. I'm sure we have done, I just can't remember.

So, my "days out" fund had been in quite good shape up to last weekend, and then I raided it again yesterday as we went to the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC. We haven't been to the GFS at the NEC for some years, we've been to the Real Food Festival at Olympia (or is it Earls Court?) and the BBCGFS (now renamed Mastercheg LIve) at Earls COurt (or is it Olympia) instead. Last year's show was OK, but not great, so we decided we'd try Birmingham again.

It was a very enjoyable day. Much bigger then the London show, more stands, more stands of interest. We had a list of things we wanted to look at and try. We were there from 11 until 3.15, which was plenty of time for us.

I think I'll give the GFSs a miss next year though, as they are a bit samey. I might still go to the Real Food Festival though, as that has a lot of small producers.

A Grand Day out - Part 2

2011-11-21T18:53:00.000Z

We left Tracklements, and we continued our journey.

We planned to stop for a pub lunch. One stop on the trip is a bit of a rarity, and I don't think we've EVER made 2 stops before.

I thought it would be pleasant to stop at Abergavenny, which was en route and is gaining a but of a reputation as a foodie place.   I then thought it might be interesting to visit Matt Tebbut's pub, which was just outside Abergavenny. Matt Tebbut is a chef/presenter on UK TV Food's Market Kitchen. We've been to see it recorded, and he was a nice enough chappie.

When we arrived at The Foxhunter it turned out to be a rather upmarket restaurant, not a gastro pub. It was 2pm and we decided we'd eat there anyway, despite the fact that we were going out to dinner that evening (Typical, We don't go out to eat for months, and here we are out to dinner for the second time in NOvember and twice in one day).

We ordered, deciding to share a starter and picking something we'd never normally have.   While we waited for the food, we wondered idly if Matt actually still cooked here, or whether he was now more of an Executive Chef. We decided that he probably cooked here when he wasn't recording TV shows - after all, he'd need to keep his hand in so that he could continue to say "at the restaurant we...". And I'm sure that the TV sow must bring people to his restaurant. Well, it brought us and I doubt we're the only ones.

Food was good. DH caught sight of Matt, so it was good to know he was there after all. We weren't sure whether he would like to be recognised, and we aren't really the sort to go up to "famous" people.

As we got into the car, I felt a bit sorry that we hadn't outwardly recognised him. I suspect that he probably would have been pleased to be acknowledged, and I could easily have said something non-gushing, like "Will you be back in Market Kitchen soon?".

Maybe another time.

A grand day out - PART 1

2011-11-21T18:42:00.000Z

DH and DMiL's burthdays yesterday, and we decided to suprise DMiL with a flying visit. We arranged for DBiL to tak MiL and FiL out to dinner,and we would be waiting in the restaurant when they arrived.

It's about a 4 hour drive, and we broke the journey after an hour and a half to visit Tracklements, who were having an open-factory morning. It was lovely. We followed the sat nav up a small lane, to an old airfield. There was a small bus waiting to come out - I was shocked. Are they so big that they have had to lay on buses to bring people from the car parking area to the factory?? We turned in. Oh. My, God, the industrial estate was huuuuuge. I thought they were a small company? I've been tricked!

But then we realised that it was an eclectic group of companies, one of which was a coach/bus hire company, on a disused airfield: it wasn't all one big Tracklements factory. I let out an involuntary squeal as we drove past Ascott Smallholding Suppliesas I had no idea they were in the same place.

Very enjoyable short tour of the "factory", and I was pleased to see that they live up to their claims. Everything is mde with ingredients that you would find in your storecupboard at home, the quality is superb, made in small batches etc etc etc. I use their products anyway, but took the opportunity to stock up on a couple of things I hadn't tried. I even bought some green chilli jam, despite having jars and jars and jars of home made stuff. The ingredients in theirs (apart from the chilli) sounded interesting: lime, ginger, fresh coriander. And some Tarragon Mustard, I'm loving my home made Tarragon Vinegar, so I thought I'd see if what it's like as mustard.

All change

2011-11-15T12:05:00.000Z

So, yesterday we said goodbye to 2 of the 3 boys, and 2 of the dinner girls. We kept the Roo x Mrs Roo boy (Sasso on both sides) as he is completely unrelated to the 2 Welsh Black ladies that we will want to breed from next year. He's a lovely lad, spitting image of his Dad. His tenure may be fairly short though, as it's likey we'll want to bring in some new unrelated Sasso blood for 2013. We'll see.

So, as well as taking away his two competitors, we took away the fence which separated him from the Ladies. He was initially overwhelmed and just looked on, dazed. The Girls swarmed all over "his" paddock, which still has (or rather, had) plenty of grass. The boys spent a lot of time watching the girls and not so much time grazing.

He watched in apparent shock as they swarmed around "his" feeder. The food in it is identical to the food in the 3 identical feeders in the Girls' area, but of course this was new to the Girls so tasted much better than their own food.

He looked on as they then took it in turns to sit on the garden bench; they investgated his shed, they ran amok.

Eventually the Girls got bored and returned to "their" area. All except Coco Roadrunner (the chicken of fate) who was so busy stuffing her beak with grass. Left on his own with only 1 girl, Rupert (I have no idea if that name will stick) shook himself out of his shock and pounced on her. Poor girl, it wasn't pretty.    Afterwards she shook herself, and then carried on eating next to him. Rupert shook himself, and preened himself, and strutted around.

I've got a selection of saddles ready to take down with us, in case we see any problems.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they organise themselves at night now. Currently they have all options available (Shed, NUmber 1 coop, Number 2 coop, Youngsters Coop (which doesn't have integral nest boxes, but does have a temporary nest box inside it), or the Temporary Shelter.   We want to remove the temporary shelter soon, so I'm kinda hoping that they will abandon it of their own accord.

Catch up

2011-11-13T16:27:00.000Z

Been so busy with work, I haven't had much time to do anything else.

Florence (Australorp) is continuing her gradual moult, and is looking a bit sorry for herself. Milly (Cream Legbar, oldest hen) is finishing her moult; her little quiffy hair do is all spiky, like she's been busy with the hair gel, and her tail feathers haven't grown back yet. Tilda (Sasso, special needs hen) has finished her moult and is sporting a gorgeous new set of feathers. Her comb is still pink and shrivelled, so she;s not back to normal yet. Roobarb (Welsh Black) hasn't seemed to moult, and her bg red comb shows she's not starting yet. Custard (Sasso, Tilda's big bully of a sister) also hasn't started moulting, and her comb is huge and red.

On the Allotment, we're preparing to cull the last 2 "spare" cockerels and 2 of the dinner girls, so tomorrow we'll be opening up everything into one huge area. The remaining cockerel will be overjoyed, and we've got a number of saddles ready in case we see any problems. Once they've settled down a bit, we'll have a bit of a rearrange so that we can put one area to rest, ready for next year's babies.

We still have some bees. We haven't been in the hives, of course, but we still see them coming and going a bit.

DH has been cheesemaking again, started a "Brie" type cheese and a hard cheese today. He's also planning to turn the last of the chillis into a couple of types of chilli oil.

Dollopey women

2011-10-27T12:17:00.000+01:00

There is one thing that I dislike more than dollopey women, it's when I act like one. (rolls eyes)

I did the Allotment chooks today, as DH was tied up. All fine. One of the Welsh Blacks is running around like a hedgehog, obviouslyin some discomfort. SHe dropped all her feathers in the space of a few days, and now they are all gromwing back at once. Poor love.

Anyway, It was raining. I did the chores, locked up, and left. Several hundred yards away, I didn't remember turning on the electric fence. Now, I've been here before. I do it automatically. But at this time of year, I just couldn't take the risk.

I thought I would save time by cutting across some other allotments to the back of ours, as I had DH's keys which had the fence tester on. It was harder than I expected to get to the back of our allotment. When I got there, the fence wasn't on.

I walked round to the front, and I could see that the energiser was on. BUt the fence wasn't. The bit of wire had that links the energiser to the fence had come off. I said a rude word. Last time I'd made that happen, it had been very serious. There was no clip on the end of the wire. I couldn't get it to stay on the pin thing. I ohoned OC Ohter Chap) to see if he could come and fix it.

As I was still on the allotment, he asked me what sort of screws the casing had, so he could bring the right tools. Nothing for it, I sank to my knees in the mud to try and work it out. And then I realised that I could actually reconnect it myself, it was the previouss energiser that was unfixable when this happened. I told OC that I thought I could fix it. He warned me to disconnect the energiser from the battery. It's turned off, does it matter. Yes. So, I unlocked the door, went in, disconnected the battery. Connected the wire to the terminal, connected the energiser to the fence, reconnected the battery, turned the energiser on - and it worked! Why was I such a dollop that I hadn't just checked it properly in the first place?!! OC just chuckled when I told him.

Several hundred yards back to the car, I couldn't remember whether I'd locked up. I remembered shutting the door, but I could not remember locking it. Botheration.

I had locked it.

Still, the exercise is good for me.

Having a fit

2011-10-24T15:49:00.000+01:00

Did a bit of a long motorway journey today.

Got back, and my bonnet was badly marked by the eyelashes. My heart sank. I gingerley rubbed one of the marks with my finger - it didn't move. I wetted said finger, and tried again. No luck.

DH was on the phone when I went into the house. Got a clean microfibre cloth and wetted it, and also picked up the Fairy Liquid.

The marks came off.

I am somewhat relieved.

BIts and pieces

2011-10-23T11:08:00.000+01:00

Went to the allotment yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks (DH has been doing the duties).

The 3 remaining cockerels are filling out and are now all stunning young men.

The Girls are getting on (reasonably) well together.   Mucking out yesterday I can tell that three coops and the temporary shelter are all being used for sleeping. Can't tell who is sleeping where, so I might pop down one evening to have a look.

Norman has finished moulting and is sporting an absolutely stunning new coat of feathers. She's grown back blonde again, and looks fantastic. Siouxsie, Norman's half sister, has almost finished regrowth; and NotNorman, Siouxsie's full sister, is running around looking like a porcupine.

Ruby, one of the two Welsh Blacks, is moulting. She's lost about half her feathers in one go, and is looking very ucared for.    Rose (the other Welsh Black) and Mrs (original Sasso) have yet to start.

The young girls have all filled out and look like proper hens now.

Coco, as I think we may call the Chicken of Fate, is still running around looking much younger than the others, but she doesn't seem to be getting picked on. We still can't get close enough to catch her, and she won't eat out of our hands She lays very dark brown eggs - not Welscummer or Maran dark, but much darker than everyone else. I'm really happy about this, because it means that when it comes to incubating eggs next year, we will be able to identify hers and decide whether or not to include some.

With the weather starting to change, we want to get down to one flock. This would also mean that everyone could have access to the shed (currently the Boys sleep there), and we can put a feeder and drinker in there in case of bad weather. However, we have to get down to one cockerel to do this, and be ready to saddle the girls if necessary.

So, it'll be decision time on the cockerels soon. And we'll also start having to make decisions about the Girls. Not really looking forward to that.

Logs

2011-10-18T14:10:00.000+01:00

Log delivery yesterday - 2 cubic metres. All packed away now in the dry, ready for the cold weather. I opened the coal bunker to stash some in there, only to find it full of kindling from last year. lol.

Hopefully this delivery will last all winter, but I'm not sure. I've resisted lighting the stove so far, but the weather has been so chilly lately that I can't see it being long. I do love a real fire.

Central heating still off. I want to get to at least November before we start putting it on. Ideally I'd like to get to the end of November, but I'm not sure we'll manage it. DH feels the cold more than I do. Actually, that's not true. I think I just put an extra jumper on!

Quince, yet again

2011-10-18T09:22:00.000+01:00

I'm embarking on my fourth and final lot of Quince related preserves today.This time I am making jelly whith 3/4 Quince and 1/4 Japonicas (ornamental quince)

The Quince jelly is lovely. Clare mentioned that she finds Quince jelly a bit tasteless, and I can see why she thinks that. I think it has a very delicate flavour, and it gets totally lost on robust things like crumpets - but it is lovely on, say, scones.

The Japonica jelly is completely different. A sharper flabvour. Still surprisingly moreish.

The lemon and Japonica "shredless marmalade" (which is actually Japonica and Lemon Jelly, given a name more suitable to the emd resul) is very sharp, and makes a good breakfast marmalade.

I'm interested tofind out what the combined QUince and Japonicas will produce. I'm hoping for the best of both - a slightly less delicate Quince flavour, but without being completely in-yer-face. I'm actually wondering if I should have used less Japonicas? Is a quarter still too much? Oh well, we'll find out in a couple of days.

Dentist time

2011-10-17T16:14:00.000+01:00

Lost a tooth on Saturday. Well, lost the enamel from round a filling. Went to a party Saturday night and had to make sure I didn't do any wide-mouthed grinning.

Phoned for an apoointment this morning. Usual receptionist wasn't there, it was a lady with an eastern european accent. I explained that I'd like to see Mr H. No, it wasn't for a checkup, I'd lost part of my tooth.

She gave me the time for the appointment, and I had to suppress a chuckle. I wish the usual receptionist had been on duty, as I would have shared the joke with her.

What was so funny? The appointment time. 2.30.

I think that must have been one of the first pun based jokes my dad ever told me.

Japonicas

2011-10-14T09:23:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I converted the juice from the Japonica-and-Lemons into jelly. It is no longer murky, it is now relatively clear and a sort of pinky-brown. It's quite a sharp sweet-and-sour taste, so I think I shall cheat and label it as Shredless Marmalade. I'm going to try some on crumpets this morning.

As this wasn't a disaster, I'm going to make some Japonica Jelly, without the lemon. I'll follow the Quince Jelly recipe, and then I will be able to do a direct comparison.

I'll report back.

Busy

2011-10-12T13:30:00.000+01:00

Today I made four Christmas Cakes (2 using Delia's fabulous "Creole Cake" recipe, and 2 using her Traditional recipe). Fortunately the young ladies on the allotment have been busy laying, and a set of scales helped me work out how many of their smaller eggs I needed for the stated quantity of size 1 eggs. In case you are interested, a size 1 egg, without shell, is about 50g - 55g (ish) of egg. I needed just over 250g (not counting shell) of eggs for each of the Creoles, and just over 100g (ncs) for each of the 2 Trads.

They are all in the ovens now, and the kitchen smells very warm and fruity.

Then I started on making Quince Jelly. I'm starting with the pure and proper Quince. It's made and in jars (5 half pound jars, plus a smidgeon extra), and is beautifully clear and set. I'm glad I resisted the temptation to squeeze the bag; I would have got more juice, but it would have been cloudy. I'm looking forward to having some on my breakfast toast tomorrow.

The japonica and lemon juice is looking very murky, so I need to strain that before turning it into jelly. I'll do that later, I'm a bit cooked-out at the moment.

Quince

2011-10-11T16:30:00.000+01:00

This year, the Quince tree produced 9 fruits. That's our biggest harvest ever. I put one into a pie with some apples. Absolutely lovely. DH didn't mind the taste (he drank some of the poaching liquid) but didn't like the texture.

I've used three more to make some quince jelly. It's hanging from the "chandelier" above the breakfast bar, dripping. The liquid is pink and clear, and smells vaguely perfumed.

DH hung the Lonzino up there this morning as it has reached the stage where it needs 24 hours in a warm environment. I decided that hanging next to some steaming quince juice was possibly a little too warm, so I've relocated it. It's now handging from another light fitting elsewhere in the kitchen. Tomorrow it'll then join the ham which is hanging from the light fitting in the spare bedroom, which is cooler (being north facing and uinheated) and airier than anywhere else in the house or garden. We're hoping no one will want to come and stay before the two bits of pork have finished curing.

My lovely neighbour delivered her ornamental quinces a couple of weeks ago, and they have been ripening on the kitchen table. Some of them went yellow, i.e. ripe, others skipped that stage and went straight to brown and wrinkly. I picked out the ones that are ready, and decided to make japonica and lemon jelly. I guess I should have made just jelly, then I could have compared the two...but I didn't. So, that is currently dripping through a jelly bag. This is not pink, and it is not clear. Not really sure what's happened, so I think I'll try straining again before I use juice tomorrow. I might try doing another batch and use my tefal jam maker to extract the juice. Not today though. And not tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be busy. I've got the 2 lots of quince juice to turn into jelly, and I'm making 4 C*******s cakes.

DH has been making curry base for the freezer ("Curry Secret" cookbook. Make restaurant quality curries at home).It takes a while to make, so we make a lot of it in one go. But once it's made, a restaurant-quality curry takes only 20 mins to make. It's been portioned up into tubs and, as soon as they are cold, we'll pop them into the freezer.

Between us we've made a bit of a mess of the kitchen. Still. That's what it's there for.

Wind and shadows

2011-10-11T13:50:00.001+01:00

Very windy fof the last few days, which has become the norm for October now.

In the garden, poor Tilda (special needs girl) is still in full moult. She has got some new feather shafts now, and spends a lot of time preening. Bet it itches, poor love. I was watching them out of the kitchen window this morning, and I saw Milly (oldest girl, cranky cream legbar) peck Tilda on the back. Tilda didn't react, so it obviously wasn't that sort of peck. Maybe I imagined it, so I asked DH if he had seen it. He said it had been very gentle, which to be frank isn't a word we usually use in connection with Milly.

No one else seems to be moulting yet, so I imagine they are going to wait for the really bad weather to set in. Tilda will have the last laugh if that's the case.In the meantime, Tilda gets a couple of spooons of cat food every other day, to help her protein levels.

Custard (Tilda's full sister) continues to bully Tilda, making her move fromwhatever she's doing, whether it's eating (we have 4 double feeders, and Custard has to use the exact spot that Tilda occupies), drinking (we have 2 double drinkers and 1 nipple drinker), dustbathing (innumerable craters throughout the garden plus a man-made dustbath in the run), or just generally rooking. Grrr.

On the allotment, Norman and 2 sisters are in full moult, having gone for the "drop them all at once" method. They are such small girls anyway, and now they are featherless they look even tinier than ever. Norm, who is a bit ahead of the others, looks like a little porcupine at the moment. They get cat food every other day, and we have to stand guard while they eat it up to prevent the others (all much bigger, even the babies) from stealing it.    The other oldies don't seem to be moulting yet either. I seem to remember that Rose and Ruby (the two Welsh Black ladies) were very late moulters last year; Mrs (our sasso, mother of Tilda and Custard) is always a law to her self, and I expect she'll moult if and when she's good and ready thank you.

The newest girl - the one dumped in with ours - seems OK. The confusion caused by putting everyone in together seems to have worked. SHe hasn't really been "accepted" yet, but she doesn't seem to be being targetted.   We've started to get some very small eggs so we're thinking she might have come into lay.

And someone is laying quite dark brown eggs. Not Welsummer or Maran brown, but much deeper than we are used to.   No idea which of the newbies it is, but we'd like to find out as whoever it is might be a keeper. I did wonder if it was the newest girl, but these are large eggs and she looks too young. Apart from the fact that dark brown eggs are attractive in their own right, when you are raising offspring from your own eggs it is helpful to be able to identify the layer of an egg.   For example, our small girls are really too small to produce worthwhile dinner chickens; fortunately we can recognise their eggs, so we don't put them in the incubator. We aren't really able to tell Mrs, Rose and Ruby's eggs from each other, so we never know how many of each we're incubating. (We usually just take all the eggs laid by them over a few days, so we're likely to end up with 1/3rd for each of them, IYSWIM).

On a non chicken note, just heard Apache being played on Radio 4, and found myself doing the Shadows step routine.   I didn't even know that I knew the steps.   I think middle age is catching me now.

EDITED TO ADD: Since posting, they are now talking about the Shadows Walk. How spooky.

Coldish

2011-10-08T11:24:00.000+01:00

Definitely nippy now. Walked to the local shops, cardiganised, and wished that I had put on my coat.

This morning we decided to "winterise" the Garden Girls' run. This meant (a) stripping off the green covers on the Cube part of the run, and replacing it with a clear tarp which covers both sides and the top, and lets in more light; and (b) putting up clear corrugated PVC panels along the side of the walk in run.

The Girls were very interested in what was going on. They spent their time investigating what we were doing, examining our workmanship, and burbling their feedback to each other and to us.    I think we'll need to get some panels for the end, and maybe the door, this year if snow is likely, other than that it looks OK. I'm sure they will appreciate the clear tarp if nothing else, as it will let the daylight in earlier and allow it in for longer, now that the days are shorter.

DH also planting garlic today. This year's harvest was fantastic, and we've already used lots of it with making passata.   Speaking of which, we're hoping to take out the last tomato plants today. One final batch of passata.    And it means that we can clean the greenhouse and use it to store logs for the winter.

Embarrassment

2011-10-03T15:27:00.000+01:00

So, what was it that I bought for my car, that shocked me and makes DH think the real me has been abducted by aliens?

Eyelashes for my car.

I know. I know.

I saw a car the same model as mine with them and I found myself thinking "wow, she looks really cute with those....". ("she" being the car. There is something about the car that makes her very feminine.) "...but I wouldn't have them on mine".

Then I found myself looking at my car thinking "You'd look really cute with eyelashes".

And then I found myself searching for them.

And then I bought them.

And then they arrived.

I've changed my mind several times since they arrived....and today I found myself putting them on. On the car, that is.

She does look rather fetching.

(HIghlight the missing words to reveal my embarrassing secret).

Clean

2011-10-01T12:27:00.000+01:00

Took the opportunity to not only scrub the Cube clean in today's sunshine, but sprayed with Poultry Shield as a preventative.

Waited until Milly had laid her egg, then hoiked everything out. I worked as fast as I could, first power-washing the cube inside and out, then power washing the roosting bars, nest box dividers, poo trays. Couldn't find the Ecover, so I had to use Fairy LIquid - hope I don't come to regret that. Left it all to dry in the sun while I also scrubbed out and disinfected the drinkers.

When it was nearly dry, I poultry shielded everything, and then went off to clean and disinfect one of the wild bird feeders while the disinfectant got to work. By this time, Roobarb and Custard had decided they might want to lay, and were most disconcerted to find the nest box had no door, no wall and no roof. They complained, loudly.

Custard in particular has a loud monotone of a screech. Roobarb's is loud, but it undulates. It's annoying in its own right when she goes on and on, but is very melodic compared to Custard.

I made up a temporary sheltered area for them, using rags (old tea towels) to provide two walls and a roof. My efforts were not appreciated. The duet of screeching increased in volume, reaching a crescendo which nearly had me shouting at them. I may have had a little shout actually. I walked off and left them to it.

They didn't stop.

Milly started. I looked her square in the beak and asked her what she was complaining about, as she had already laid her egg. She squawrked a bit more, turned on her heels (well, if she had heels she would have turned on them) and stomped off, in that clockwork-chicken way that Aardman captured so well in "Chicken Run".

I carried on with other things. Ungrateful girls! I cut down a rather large branch of a very large shrub. It had caught me one time too many, when I was hot and bothered and carrying the pressure washer over the netting and up to the Cube. What made it one-time-too-many is that today I had been wearing a tee shirt so I now have rents across my bingo wings. Perhaps fortunately, I couldn't get to the chainsaw in the shed, so I resorted to using a very large pruning saw. It took a while, but the shrub is now considerably smaller and it won't be catching my arms in the near future. Ha.

I went to the Cube and dried it as best as I could with the rags. It still wasn't dry enough to finish, so I left it open in the sun.

I put the pressure washer away, filled a tubtrug with Aubiose, found the louse powder and the diatom puffer; I put the hose away. Every time I went near the Run, R&C wailed at me.

In the end, I could stand it no more. I put the nest box back together, puffed with diatom, and put some Aubiose in. The Girls climbed the ladder. I quickly put in the poo trays, lined them with Aubiose and put the roosting bars in position. Back on, roof back in place, shut it up, walked away.

Hope it's dry enough.

The Girls are in there now.

Personality transplant?

2011-10-01T08:00:00.000+01:00

I think I've been taken over by an alien.

I just bought an accessory for my car that the real me would *never* have considered.

It arrived yesterday. Eventually I showed it to DH, ainly because I decided he'd be more patient at fitting it than I would. He just looked at me. He'll fit it, because he's like that. I suspect he thinks it's my car, and if I want to accessorise it this way, it's up to me. I suspect he's also adding the caveat "...as long as I don't expect him to ever drive it".

Bit busy at the moment with pork processing, so I'll tell you abit more about the car thing later. Maybe.

Pigging out

2011-09-30T18:00:00.002+01:00

Shirley contacted me a while ago to let me know that she would shortly be sending her last porkers to slaughter, and to see if I would like a half pig this time. I thought about this for maybe 30 seconds and said we would.

To clear space in the freezer, we've been eating up the last of February's pork. Not a chore, as it is so versatile.   We wanted to butcher the pig ourselves and we arranged to do it under Shirley's eye again. Last night we watched the videecam footage I took, which was great at reminding us about the Primary cuts, the belly and the leg - but as I stopped filming at that point to get stuck in, we couldn't watch anything about dealing with the loin or the shoulder.

Today was the day. We took our list of what we had last time, what we'd like more/less of, what we'd like to try that we hadn't before.   Shirley did the primary cuts, then we decided to start with the belly. Discussion on what we wanted to do (compared with last time), and DH started making the cuts. THat was quick, helped by the simplicity of our requirements and watching the video yesterday.   Leg was a bit longer to do, as we had to sort out the ham. Again DH did the cuts, then I started turning the remaining leg into lean dice, lean mince, and offcuts for sausages.   Quite a lot to do, but we were fine, with help from Shirley.

When we got to the loin, we needed more help. We discussed what we wanted, and worked out where to cut.   We made a good team, and we worked well together, with Shirley's advice and tutelage where necessary.

Eventually all was done. We packed the pig into the portable fridge, which was plugged-in in the car, came home, flicked the fast freeze switches on the freezers, and set about vacuum packing everything. The freezable stuff is now i one or other of the freezers (we'll sort then out later when everything is frozen and normal temperature has been restored). We also have a load of stuff in the fridge, these are the bits we are going to process over the next 2 days.

I'll come back and edit the post to put the weights in. I don't want to get partially frozen meat out of the freezer, to be weighed, in this heat!

Pork for Processing

Loin (eye of loin) for Lorenzo 765g
Belly for Bacon 568g (which we decided to de-rind before curing)
Loin bottom for Lardons 828g (which we decided to de-rind before curing)
Loin piece for back bacon (we're going to use Shirley's maple cure)
Half leg for Ham (2.786kg)
Offcuts for sausages
Belly fat for lard
Back fat for rendering into lard
1 pigs liver to be turned into pate

Pork for freezing
Lean Mince
Lean Dice
Lean Shoulder Dice (probably for pork pies)
Spare rib (shoulder) joint 1 for slow roasting
Spare rib (shoulder) joint 2 for slow roasting
Hand of Pork for slow roasting
Belly Pork joint 1 for slow roasting
Belly Pork joint 2 for slow roasting
Pork tenderloin
4 large loin chops 1.5 kg (actually just over)
2 trotters (for gelatin for pork pies)

1 pork hock
Spare ribs
Pork fat and rind for turning into scratchings

I'm a bit frustrated.

2011-09-30T17:45:00.000+01:00

I'm fortunate to be able to work, from home, on a consultancy basis. This means there are long periods of time when I am not doing paid work, and then very concentrated periods when the only thing I have time to do is work. A lot of this work is PC based. I stand when I work at my PC, because I find this puts less strain on my back, but it isn't great.

2 months ago (which was 6 weeks before my next frantic period of work was due to commence), we decided it would be worth spending the money on getting a special sort of sit/stand workstation for me. It was a small and mobile workstation, which means I could use it in the kitchen and wheel it (and my papers) away in the evening. Currently my laptop occupies one of the worktops and, when I'm working, my papers are all over the table.

The item was out of stoock everywhere, and could only be ordered on request. I ordered it with a 2 week lead time, and carried on. The lead time slipped - through no fault of the reseller, I could see it was a problem at the supply end in the US. Eventually I received a notification that it would be delivered today, 7 weeks after ordering.

We were out today (more on that in a separate post later), but we were fortunate that the delivery came after we returned. I was very excited. The box was enormous, and takes up our hallway. We opened the tape, and I took out the delivery note. The item number did not look correct. I asked DH to leave the thing in the box and to see if he could find the destructions. I searched on the internet, and the item number was definitely wrong. I checked my order, my order (thankfully) was correct. I phoned the supplying company. They toool some details and said they'd ring me back. They rang back for more info. I explained that the box was enormous and I would like them to get it removed.

They haven't phoned back. I've emailed them now (couldn't get through on the phone). I really, really, REALLY hope they haven't gone home for the weekend without calling me back. This box is 1mx1mx0.75m. We can't move it into the kitchen. We are struggling to get past it in the hall. I'm going to be more than frustrated if we have to wait until the middle of next week before it is gone.

And of course I'm frustrated that I don't have my desk. I'm concerned that this has been shipped directly from the manufacturer in the US, and that I am going to have to wait for another 6 weeks before I get the replacement.

Grrr.

My head is about to explode

2011-09-28T18:35:00.000+01:00

It's been a trying couple of days.

I posted a number of items for sale on Ebay. I try to give lots of information, and usually use up the allotted 12 pictures (for self hosted pics) to show the item fully.

In my day job, I strongly believe that there is no such thing as a stupid question. If someone has a question, it's because either I, or the material, has not been clear.

With Ebay, I start off with the same premise. After a series of questions (from the same person), I began to wonder if I was having my leg pulled. I always answer politely, fully, and I never make reference to the fact that "if you bithered to read the blooming listing, you would see the answer to your question". I usually post the question and response for all to see. I wish I could share with you some of the things that I've been asked this time, but it's probably best not to.

And then with work, I've had a hellofaday trying to sort out some supposedly simple translations.

Grr.

Making hay while the sun shines

2011-09-28T08:32:00.000+01:00

Another gorgeous day today, like a cross between spring and autumn. Blue sjy already, and it promises to be quite hot when the dew is burned off.

Going to take advantage of the warmth and am going to clean and Poultry Shield all 4 girl-coops on the allotment. We're also doing a bee inspection, and have to be back so DH can take a call early afternoon, so we're organising it with military precision.

Plan is that we both start emptying coops as soon as we get there. When I've emptied my first one, I'll start spraying. DH will continue emptying coops and then he'll move on to feeding and watering, and strimming around the allotment. By that time I will hopefully havefinished spraying all coops (I purchased a large sprayer with a wand, which makes it so much quicker and less painful than the old squeeze-spraying days). We can then leave them to dry while we do the bees.

By that time, the first two coops at least will be dry, and we can put in fresh Aubiose and bedding etc. And then the last two will be dry, and we can do those.

Don't think we'll have time to do the Boys' shed. Will do that at the weekend if the weather holds.

This afternoon, if I can keep up enthusiasm and the weather holds, I might try and do the Cube as well. Would be good to get it all done.

Wish me luck!

Letting the barriers down

2011-09-26T14:16:00.000+01:00

At the allotment our pens are divided with netting. The permanent residents, our breeding girls, have the largest pen and have 2 coops to choose from. They swap around all the time. The dinner girls have a separate pen with 2 coops; the dinner boys (one of whom will be our replacement cockerel) have a separate pen and a large shed.

Our original plan was to wait until we were down to 1 cockerel and the two (maybe 3 at a push) dinner girls we wanted to keep to extend our breeding flock, and then to let them all free range together giving everone the choice of four coops and a shed to sleep in.

The Chicken of Fate has made us bring forward part of these arrangements. Today DH moved the netting which separated the two pens of girls so they could share.

We had discussed this, and I wasn't too keen originally. I was concerned that it meant upsetting the status quo for all the dinner chickens, even those that we weren't going to be keeping long term. If I'm honest, it also makes me a bit....can't think of the word.....squeamish; the physical separation between the Breeders and the Dinners helps me deal with the fate of the dinners, and I'm not entirely sure how I will cope next time some of them are due to go.

The reason we did it in the end is that it should be easier for the Chicken of Fate. There will be a fair bit of confusion, and neither side will know that she is new to everyone. It also means she won't have to go through one set of hen-pecking in the Dinner pen, and then another round of it when we merge the pens.

It's a shame that she will take one of the available places for the Dinner Girls. Still, it's not her fault; and I'm sure I will love her as much as I love the others. Although not as much as I love Norman. No Allotment chook can ever mean as much to me as she does.

Chicken of Fate

2011-09-25T14:15:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I read about people finding a "Chicken of Fate". This is a chicken who suddenly appears or is found abandoned.

We've now had our own "Chicken of Fate", but it's made me quite angry on her behalf.

DH came home yesterday from seeing to the chickens at the allotment.   He told me we somehow had acquired an extra chicken.    Our allotment is surrounded by Heras fencing, and there is electric fencing around that. No way could a bird find it's own way in.

It was in the pen with the young dinner girls, and we guessed that either someone had found a chicken wandering around the allotment, assumed it was ours, and lobbed her in; or someone had an unwanted chicken and had dumped it in with ours. At this stage DH wasn't sure if it was a very young pullet or a young cockerel, the bird was quite upright and he wasn't able to catch it to look.

Today I went down to have a look-see. It looks to me like a very young hybrid pullet.   Enquiries are continuing, and rumours were circulating, about where she had come from.     It sounds like our assumption that she had been dumped was correct and, apparently, she had been removed from her own flock because the others were picking on her. I don't want to give any more details than that.

I can't tell you how angry this made me.   The poor pullet was being picked on, so they "saved" her by dumping her in with another load of chickens! The stupid idiots that did this obviously have no idea about chicken keeping.    It's a damn good job they didn't lob her in with our breeding flock - they are all old matriarchs, and it's likely she would have been mortally injured.

It's a damn good job they didn't lob her in with the 3 remaining young cockerels. On the occasions a cockerel has got in amongst the breeding girls, he has caused a whole heap of trouble, treading everythig in sight and being really rough with it. Just in the few minutes on the loose with the Big Girls has resulted in torn combs and feather stripping. The thought of 1 poor girl being trapped with 3 hormonal boys just doesn't bear thinking about - she is likely to have been mortally injured.

Even in with the young girls isn't great. They aren't chasing her, but they do peck her if she comes close. We'll need to make sure she gets a chance to feed and drink.

What a stupid, stupid thing to do.

And that's just thinking about it from the poor pullet's point of view. What about the potential risk she might pose to our flock?!   If we had been asked and had agreed to take her on (which we wouldn't have done as I don't agree iwth introducing one lone bird) we would have gone through a quarantine period and then gradual integration.      It's too late now. If there is any damage, it'll have been done.

It's a good job I'm not involved in finding out who did this. I'm not sure I could keep my self-control.

Warm days

2011-09-24T11:18:00.000+01:00

Another lovely warm day today. Warm in the sunshine, that is, not so warm elsewhere.

Florence has been broody for about a week now. For the last few days I've been putting her in a dog crate in the run during the day (partly to break her out of being broody and partly to vacate the est box so the others can lay) but, because the weather is so unpredictable, I've been letting her back into the Cube at night.   The dog crate gives her plenty of room, she has food, water, a hanging block, and vegetables.   Today, she was really unhappy about being put in the crate - I mean, really unhappy, even more unhappy than she usually is. I felt sorry for her, so I let her out into the rest of the garden instead while I cleaned out and disinfected the run. She munched her way round some shrubs and then ended up grazing next to the fruit cage, with the rest of the Girls on the inside of the fruit cage. I relented and let her in. Two minutes later, she was back in the Cube.

Tilda is walking around with a less pronounced limp now, but she is still spending a lot of time sitting. Sitting under the benches in the run, sitting under a gooseberry bush, sitting in the pampas.   She seems quite happy, until Custard decides to go and force her to move. Custard is being a real bully towards Tilda, and I don't like it.

Tilda's been in the kitchen for cat food a couple of times.   I've also put a bit of cat food out for the others as they are looking a bit straggly. No one seems to be in full moult yet though.

I started to use some new pecka block treats, one with insects in. Same brand as I used before, just this new one has added bugs. They only last a couple of hours. Milly, in particular, just keeps on and on and on at it as soon as I put one up    So, they're rationed now. I need to get some bug-free ones instead.

Funny week

2011-09-22T16:29:00.001+01:00

It's been an odd week.

Tilda is looking better, but still spends time sitting quietly. She's also spends time sitting under the benches in the run, out of the way of the others. I caught Custard chasing her today. Chickens can be horrible sometimes. I brought Tilda into the kitchen for a while; she had a good look round, ate some cat food, pooed on the floor (we have a solid floor so it's poo proof) and eventually decided to go home.

DH made an enormous batch of chilli jam.   He picked apples, then increased the recipe to cater for the number of apples he'd picked. He didn't notice that the original recipe made 4 pounds of jam, which would last us 4 years probably.   He ended up making over 12 pounds. Tastes good, but isn't very hot. Think it would make a good sweet and sour type thing.   I used a load with some tomato passata and cooked meatballs in it. Very good.

We think we'll have enough tomatoes to make 1 final batch of Passata. I'll count up how much we've made then, it's a lot. The cupboard is stuffed with it.

DH also strained and racked off (or racked off and strained, not sure which way round) my cherry brandy, and I bottled it today. It's a bit....young. Maybe it'll mature and smooth out a bit.

DH made some cheese. He's making a Cheshire-type cheese, and a brie type cheese. We're well out of the habit, and I hope these will coe out well as the last lot he made were delicious.

And then things start to get a bit surreal.

A few weeks ago I'd had some serious problems with my car. I don't use it very much now, and we had decided to delay getting it fixed as it was still driveable and we were thinking we'd replace it next year before the MOT was due. Why spend all that money replacing the gearbox when we're going to get rid of the car?

However, I needed to use it one day and I was unhappy driving it as it was. I either needed to bite the bullet and pay for the repair, or bring forward the replacing. We went to look at possible replacements, and I came home and worked out how we could afford to replace it now. Things like improved fuel economy, cheaper tax, cheaper insuranceetc, came into play. Fortunately I had been saving for the last 2 years towards it.

Although more expensive, I decided to buy from a garage rather than privately. This was mainly down to our experience when we replaced DH's car. The one he bought (from a garage) ended up leaking badly when it rained; because we'd bought it from a garage we took it back for them to sort out. If we'd bought privately, we would have had to sort it out. Buying from a garage also meant I could trade in my car, declared fault and all, and actually I got a bit more than I expected.    So, I now have my new little car sitting on the drive. It all happened a bit quickly. There were 2 cars to choose from and I let my heart rule my head, which is a very rare occurence for me; as a result, I'm feeling a bit sheepish and hoping I've done the right thing. I'm sure I'll feel OK when I've driven her a bit more.

Meanwhile, an old friend emailed me out of the blue. We had originally been really good friends, bff type of thing. We had lost touch some years ago and then, a couple of years ago, I bumped into her at the dentist. We had a quick chat, said it would be good to meet, you know the sort of thing. It took me many months to contact her, we exchanged emails, and decided we'd meet up in the new year (as in new year 2011). Things happened. I didn't contact her, she didn't contact me. Time moved on, and I was embarrassed by the slippage - I had decided to wait until January and contact her then, as we could make a joke about not saying which new year.

She emailed me the other day. I was really surprised and happy to see an email from her. The news inside knocked me sideways. I tried to reply but couldn't, so I phoned her. She was just the same as ever, so warm and friendly. She really is one of the smiliest and warmest people I have ever known. We're planning to meet up in a few weeks - can't really do anything sooner as she's got a lot on her plate right now.   She's amazing, she really is.

Hobble

2011-09-18T18:07:00.000+01:00

Friday morning I noticed that Tilda was sitting beside the Pampas. The Girls often sit in the Pampas, or under the Pampas; they often stand beside the Pampas, but I don't recall them sitting there. That's why I noticed it.

Half an hour later, she was still sitting there. And so it went on. I threw some corn near her, which she ate. Later on we were in the garden and we saw her move, and she was hobbling, badly. With a heavy heart, I picked her up and examined her carefully. No signs of a wound. A very slight grip with her foot, but not much. No weight on her leg. We discussed what to do. We decided there wasn't any point taking her to the vet at the moment, as there wasn't a wound. He wouldn't be able to bind her leg up, as bird bones fuse together too easily to risk it. We decided we'd just keep an eye on her, and see how she did over the weekend. We were out Friday evening, but we went out with a torch to make sure she had been able o get into bed OK.

Yesterday, I saw her sitting in different parts of the garden at different times of day. She was limping a lot, but was eating and drinking.

Today was like yesterday, although she is moving a lot more easily. She keeps out of the other Girls way, as they do tend to try and barge her.

To say that I am relieved is an understatement. I'm not at all ready to lose her.

Pork spare rib roast

2011-09-12T08:56:00.001+01:00

We're going to be getting another half pig at the end of September, so we're finishing up the pork in the freezer at the moment.

I had 2 remaining pork joint in the freezer. One was a large loin of pork (I'm not too keen on roast loin, I find it quite dry), and the other was an enormous spare rib roast. For all the other roasting joints I've done (shoulder, belly, hand) I've followed Jamie's slow roast shoulder of pork recipe, and so we tried that with the spare rib roast. It looked surprisingly the same as the picture on the recipe.

Which turned out not to be so surprising, as "spare rib roast" is shoulder. Wish I'd read my notes earlier, as we could have used some of this this to make pork pies.

It was amazing. Again. Jamie's bone-in recipe is for a 2kg shoulder of pork. My spare rib roast was 3kg. My joint had been out of the freezer on Thursday evening and in the fridge. On friday afternoon it was still solid (efficient fridge), so I put it under a food net on the counter until Saturday morning. It wasn't a particularly warm or sunny day, so I wasn't worried.

I calculated additional cooking time which, in the end, we didn't need. And i put extra veg under it. The veg in Jamie's recipe is for turning into gravy, but it is sooo delicious that I love to eat it as veg.

We invited DB1 to join us, pork was delicious!

On Sunday, I made chinese pancakes (the sort you have when you have Armoatic Crispy Duck). We had shredded pork pancakes, with hoisin sauce, shreddded onion, and strips of cucumber. Fantastic. The remaining pancakes went into the freezer. They can be quickly steamed from frozen for a couple of minutes for a similar meal another time.

Poo

2011-09-08T09:34:00.000+01:00

The young Roos had obviously been spending quite a bit of time on the shed roof, before we did wing clipping.

In recent heavy rain, a large amount of poo was dislodged, down the drainpipe and into one of the water butts. DH spotted it yesterday when he opened the water butt to use it. The other water but was empty, which is why DH had opened this one. He emptied all the water away, and went to the hand pump to get the water for the drinkers.

This morning I had to take him to the station for 6.45 am, so on my way home I went to the allotment and scrubbed and disinfected both barrels While I was waiting for the disinfectant to takke effect, I decided I might as well disinfect all the drinkers while I was at it, so spent the next half hour doing that, and then fetching water from the hand pump to rinse everything and refill.

OC (Other Chap) has an electric pump, so he will bring that to the allotment later today to refill the water butts directly from the pump.

Two of the boys managed to sneak in with the big girls while I was moving between pens.   I managed to catch them quickly enough, and got them back into their area.

Three of the Big Girls are broody.

Everything done, I locked up, walked back to the car and started to drive home. About a mile into my journey, I couldn't recall locking the gate into the allotment. "I must have done it automatically". I drove on for a few yards.   The conversation in my head continued: "But the lock is quite stiff, it usually takes me a couple of minutes to do it".   Hmm. I mentally retraced my steps. I pictured connecting the electric fence, and testing the fence. I could not picture locking that gate. "It doesn't matter. OC will be there later" "It does matter."

Bother. Bother. Bother. I turned the car around, back to the allotment, walked to ours and, sure enough, it was locked.

Never mind. I ate half a box of Maltesers last night, so I need exercise.

Getting Juiced

2011-09-06T09:05:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we pressed apples.

I washed them, DH did the crushing and pressing and filtering.    37kilos of apples, mainly Golden Noble. We have 2 demijohns of juice to be turned into a form of cider; we pasteurised 7 litres in 500ml flasks; I have another litre, which I couldn't fit in the pasteuriser, in the fridge.

Glad we did it yesterday as the weather is filthy today.

Last year we pressed apples in October and did over 100kilos.    This year the apples were ripe much earlier and the Golden Nobles don't keep well.

We had the trees pruned in the spring, so it's still a good harvest.   We've got one tree that isn't ripe yet.

Party time

2011-09-05T17:50:00.001+01:00

Busy weekend. My parents came to visit, first time they've been back for many years, and I hosted a birthday lunch for my dad, with a large number of us from that side of the family. I had planned to invite DSS1 and family, as they live relatively close, but when the number reached 20 including some people I hadn't seen myself for more years than I can remember, we decided it was probably better for my parents if we kept it to the B side of the family. (B side isn't a derogatory term by the way)..

I decided early on in the planning that a cold buffet would be the last stressful option. Military planning, involving detailed lists, made it relatively straightforward. LIsts organised food, chairs, lifts...

I did the non-perishable shopping a week before, including pink and white wines.   I started an Ocado order for the perishables.   DB1 took care of the soft drinks andfruit juice, DB2 took care of the beer and balloons.

The beef for roasting arrived a week before and went into the freezer. The ham arrived a few days before and went into the fridge.

On Thursday, I worked out exactly what dish/bowl/plate/platter would be used to serve each and every item, and wrote a label for it. I then did the last minute shopping for things like M&S apple pie (easily as good as home made), cheesecake (I didn't have the time), and olives.

On Friday, I low-temperature roasted the two joints of beef, one rare and one well done. Ocado delivered, I prepped the veg for crudites and vacuum packed them. I made cakes (an apple cake and a fruit cake) I measured out flours for the bread. Long day

On Saturday, I was up at silly o'clock to start making bread dough. THe breadmaker went on to make one particular batch, but everything else was by hand. Another list (and writing on cling filmed bowls) kept me on track of which dough was at what stage and where, and what time it needed to be handled again.    It didn't start so well, I forgot to put yeast in the first lot of dough I made.

Still, I realised my mistake before baking, and was able to redo. The breads came out well. 2 Partybrot (alternating brown and white-milk-loaf tear-and-share type loaves), 2 Focaccia, 1 walnut loaf (definitely be making that again), and a white loaf. I also made some mini yorkshires to have cold. Yumm.

DB1 arrived with the fruit juice, and was then deployed decanting crisps and salad and so on onto the labelled receptacles, and pricking potatoes for baking. He went off to pick up a couple of Aunts and an uncle. DB2 and his OH and daughter arrived, and started blowing up balloons, putting up banners. DB2's son, my DN (Darling Nephew), and partner arrived and, as usual, brought lots of smiles with them.

We were supremely lucky with the weather, and we put up all the chairs and tables, plus the gazebo with a table for the drinks. I wish I'd taken a picture actually.

I ran out of time, and things like the french dressing didn't get made. But it all came together well, and everyone was fantastic it looked good.   My DC (darling cousin) and his family arrived, and his lovely wife (whom I haven't seen for 10 years or more) brought flowers, potato salad, and some lovely breaded and fried chicken livers.   That was so thoughtful of her, and they tasted delicious.

And it went well. I'm so grateful to everyone. Lunch was at 1.00, and I estimated that people would probably leave at about 5 or 6. At 9pm we were all still there chatting away. Most people hadn't seen most people for years, so there was a lot of catching up to do. DN's partner was busy amusing my Great Neice (who's 3, and so lovely).

Eventually people started to leave at about 9.30/10.00/11.00.    I wasn't too tired on Sunday as we cleared up (and DB1 came over to help with the leftovers) but I am very tired today.

Unexpected bonus

2011-08-31T08:59:00.000+01:00

I was rather tired yesterday, and my legs ached a bit.

This morning, I noticed that my normally-swollen left ankle wasn't as swollen as usual. I was surprised. My main vein in that leg is completely blocked with scar tissue from a DVT and embollism some years ago; it doesn't carry blood any more, and the secondary veins find it hard work. Consequently, blood tends to pool in my left ankle, and it has been noticeably larger than the right for some years.

I got on the scales. I was 3 pounds lighter. Walking 5 miles has really helped release my retained fluid!

Footsore

2011-08-30T13:04:00.001+01:00

This morning I phoned the garage to see when they would be able to tyake a look t my car. They said I could bring it in today, they would look at it, and they would be able to work on it later in the week.

I needed to do the allotment chooks today.   Yesterday evening I spent quite a bit of time online trying to work out bus routes from my home to the allotment, from the garage to the allotment, from the garage home. All sorts of permutations trying to work out how to do both things. It involved a lot of anti-directional travel, but there were a number of options. Thank goodness for traveline's website! In the end I decided that I would go and do the chooks en route to the garage, and then go by bus from the garage home. I looked at the bus timetables, and decided that I would give in and just get a taxi back home.

So, I set off. The universal warning light came on almost immediately, followed a few seconds later by another warning symbol. I'd left the handbook on the kitchen table, but the new warning light looked sort of engine shaped which didn't bode well. I decided to go directly to the garage.

Once there, car dropped off, I had a bit of a think about what to do next. Getting a taxi from there to the allotment, and then the allotment home, was going to be stupidly expensive, and was a real cop out. To get from the garage to the allotment by buses was possible - albeit a bit convoluted involving bussing for 15 mins in the wrong direction first - but the first bus in the series wasn't due for ages anyway. So, I decided to walk from the garage to the nearby town (across fields), and catch a bus in the town for the last couple of miles of the journey onto the village where we have an allotment.

So, I set off. The first part of the walk was fine. The footpaths had been converted to a national cycleway and were broad and easy to use. I wish I'd packed my bike (which I had considered as an option, but I had decided that I would then be trapped into using my bike as I wouldn't be able to take it on a bus. Or in a taxi). I walked. And walked. And walked.

And walked. Fortunately, I had walked this walk once before, 32 years ago, so I knew that it would, eventually, deliver me into the town I wanted to get to. At an intersection, I wasn't sure which way to go. Luckily for me there was a chap cutting a hedge, so I asked him and he gave me detailed instructions.

I got to the town, feeling quite proud of myself, and walked to the bus stop. No timetable. I decided to walk in the direction of the village, keeping an ear out for the bus. No bus. A couple of bus stops later, there was a timetable. The bus wouldn't be there for ages. So, nothing for it, I walked all the way.

I was tired and relieved when I finally got to the allotment, and I sorted out the chooks. I then considered what to do next. I could get a taxi (which I was seriously considering), or I could get a bus back into the town, walk 1/4 mile to an alternate stop and pick up a bus home. I decided to take the healthy (and money saving) option and walked to the bus stop. It had a timetable. The bus, one an hour, wasn't due for another 45 minutes. I considered getting a taxi. I decided to take another national cycle route and walk into the town where I could get a bus.

ow, I have walked this particular route before, a couple of times. I remembered that both times, the footpath disappeared. I walked along the first part of the route, along the road, debating whether to just give in and get a taxi. But now, I wasn't really in a sensible place to stop and wait.   No, I would be fine. I left the road and struck out for the footpath.

About half way between leaving the road and reaching the town, I stopped feeling virtuous. The ball of one of my feet was starting to get a bit sore, and I was quite thirsty. It had been over 2 and a half hours since I had left home, and I was slightly regretting my decision not to just give in.    Eventually, I reached the town, and I tried to work out where the bus stop was.

I considered, for about a nano-second, whether or not to just walk the last few miles home. I walked past a taxi rank. No. I had got this far, I was going to get the damned bus.

I walked through the town, checked the helpful map at a bus stop (not my stop, sadly, but a helpful stop nonetheless), and walked towards the correct stop. As I got close, I could hear a bus coming up behind me. I looked, it was my bus.   Remembering the village bus that was only one an hour, I managed to run. Well, jog. Luckily for me, there were quite a few people spilling out of the bus, and two older people waiting to get on. I got there. I got on. It took me to within 200m of my house.

I was home just over 3 hours after setting out.

Feet hurt.

Calming Down

2011-08-29T16:38:00.000+01:00

All allotment chickens in the right place this morning, so the wing clipping had the desired effect.

DH popped back from his holiday, brought petrol, emptied the lawnmower tank and refilled it. I've now been able to mow most places, including the Hen Pen, and I have strimmed too. Rain prevented me finishing, but it all looks better.

DB1 got in touch and we went through and sorted out the soft drinks.

Girls' Cube has been cleaned out.

Coffee is wonderful. Very happy with machine.

My day continues.

2011-08-28T19:28:00.000+01:00

So. DH phoned to see how I had got on with the chickens. I told him. I went on to tell him about the scotch eggs, about DB1 and the phone, and then how DB2 had had to unscrew the lawnmower filler cap for me.

"Be careful which petrol you use", he said.
"Why?" I asked.

"There are two sorts in the shed, 2 stroke and normal" .
"There was only one can with petrol in. The other was empty.Does it matter? How do you tell?"

"Yes. The mower will smoke and will get gunged up"
"So what was in the can with petrol in?"

"One of them is lighter than the other. Not the can, the petrol"
"Ri-ight. So how can I tell?"

"One of them is lighter than the other."
"Right. So how do I tell what it is when only one of the cans has petrol in?"

"I don't know. It's probably 2-stroke."
"If it matters, why didn't you write on the can?!?!"
"Leave it. I'll drain the mower when I get home"

So. That's another pre-FG (Family Gathering) job that I can't do!

Never mind. These are all small things, and they will pass.This time next week it will all be over with and normality will have resumed.

MIni Scotch Eggs

2011-08-28T18:31:00.000+01:00

I tried one of each, and the flour-and-egged scotch eggs were infinitely better than the ones just rolled in breadcrumbs.

Both of them fell apart as I ate them, but that could be because they'd only been out of the overn for about 2 minutes before I started to try them.

I've got the 2 remaining ones cooling now. I'll try them when they are cold.

Despite being small eggs, the finished scotch eggs are still much bigger than the M&S party eggs I'd been modelling them on. I wonder if I could have compressed the eggs a bit while they were still warm? Right when I shelled them, I mean. Hmm. I have a meatball utensil, maybe it's worth giving that a go?

Also, if I use cling film to flatten the sausagemeat, maybe I can get it thinner? I used my hands (wetted first so that the sausagemeat didn't stick) to press it thin and then rolled the egg up in it.

I'm sure deep frying would give the best taste of all, but I'm trying to go for a healthier option.

If the little girls lay weeny eggs in the next day or two, I'll definitely make some for the FG (Family Gathering). It's no good using really fresh eggs as the hard boiled eggs fall apart when shelled if too fresh.

I've had better days

2011-08-28T17:45:00.000+01:00

Coffee machine is fab. Really good. I'm very happy with it, and I am feeling sheepish about my irritation with it.

This morning, I went to do the chooks as DH and OC (other chap) are, somewhat inconsiderately, away at the same time. All fine, two cockerels were in with the Big Girls and were a bugger to catch. Lots of weeny eggs, which I collected up and decided to try making into mini scotch eggs.

On the way home from the chooks, my automatic car lurched as it changed gear. I looked at the instrument panel, and one of the warning lights was on. Bother. I pulled over and got the handbook out of the glovebox. It's the Multi function warning light, which comes on when a whole range of things are going wrong. "Take to an expert", was all it said.

Well, I didn't have any easy way to get home, so i decided to carry on driving, carefully. The car continued to lurch as it changed gear. I coasted in neutral wherever possible.    As I drove home, I reasoned that it might be something easy, like transmission fluid.   i pulled over and got the manual out again.

I couldn't find anything about transmission fluid. I looked under transmission, I looked under gearbox. I looked at the engine diagram which helpfully showed me where to check oil, coolant, brake & clutch fluid - but nothing about transmission fluid. I phoned my darling brother (DB2), who very kindly said he'd come and help. I drove home.

While I waited for him, I looked in the manual again. Nothing. I decided to go and cut the grass while I was waiting.I've been waiting for it to be dry enough for days, I have people coming next week and I need to get this out of the way. I put the Girls in their run, hoiked the mower out of the shed, put the grass bag on, primed it, it wouldn't start. I tried again. Same thing.

I went to the shed and eventually found some petrol. I couldn't get the petrol cap of the lawnmower. I gave up and went inside the house.

DB arrived. He read the handbook. Nothing about it. He eventually found some stuff uder automatic transmission. But nothing about fluid. He looked at the engine diagram. I looked at the engine diagram again. Definitely no mention of it.

So, we went and had a look. It's there, right at the front (and is definitely missing from the engine diagram). The level of fluid was fine. Coolant was fine. Oil was fine. Everything that was linked to the sensor light was fine.     I said I'd take it to the garage on Tuesday.

Typical that it had to go on the blink while DH was away (or, specifically, while DH had his car). And on a bank holiday, so I won't be able to get it looked at until Tuesday at the earliest. Did I mention that we are having a large family gathering here next week, and that's what I'm doing today and tomorrow?

While I made tea, DB2 got the cap of the mower and filled it with petrol, and he even started to mow for me. It rained. My washing got wet.

We had a chat, a cup of tea, and he left.   I looked at options for getting to the Allotment tomorrow and Tuesday. Could I cycle? Not really. Maybe I could get a bus into town, with my bike, and then cycle from there. Buses run hourly on bank holidays. It might be doable, but it would take me about 4 hours in total. Well, I am where I am. Worst case, I could get a taxi there and back but it would be hideously expensive.   Then I remembered the tour bus. I could walkto the nearest stop, it would take me part way and I could then walk the last mile or so to the Allotment. I could then walk back into town, do some shopping for the party, and get the tour bus home again.   Perfect.

DH, who is away at the mo, phoned me to say that a neighbouring allotment holder had called him to say that the cockerels were on the shed roof.   DH was over an hour away and had had too much to drink to drive home. I decided I'd just get a taxi, but I wsn't quite sure what I'd do if the cockerels had flown over the fencing. They are like little roadrunners, hard to catch. I phoned my other brother, DB1, to see if he would come and help. Unfortunately he was tied up, and so I decided against asking him. So I phoned DB2 to see if he would come back and help.    Bless him, he did.

Four cockerels were in their pen. We caught each cockerel and I clipped one wing on each. We then had to catch the two that had got in with the Girls. I'd taken my chicken net, not to use to catch them - normally freaks them out so much there isn't a hope in hell of catching them - I was thinking I could use it to shoosh them off the roof, or like an arm extension while walking them into a corner.    In fact, I ended up catching the two in the Girls pen by using the net, so that's actually paid for itself now.     Hopefully the wing clipping will solve the problem.

When we got back there was an answerphone message from DB1. He'd finished what he was doing so he had phoned back to see what I had wanted. I phoned him back, and we started to do some preparation for a family get together. I'm doing the food, DB2 is buying the alcoholic beverages, and DB1 is buying the soft drinks. I was helping him choose.

A few minutes into our call, and he couldn't hear me. His home phone went kaputt. I tried his mobile (which I know he never uses) and of course it was on voicemail. We exchanged emails: the other hadset isn't charged, it'll take an hour to charge. I emailed back saying "charge your mobile, you can use it while its charging. Or do you have Skype?". Email back "its in my car. I haven't used it for ages.Technophobic".    Email from me "can't you go and get it???!"

Not my day today.

Still, I've made some small scotch eggs using some of the tiny eggs from the young girls and some of our home made sausages. I'm testing out oven baking them. Two of them are just rolled in breadcrumbs, two of them are flour/eggbreadcrumbs. They are in the oven now.

Coffee headaches.

2011-08-26T20:36:00.001+01:00

Many years ago, I purchased a Gaggia espresso machine. I forget the model name, but it cost a small fortune. It worked really well, and packed up shortly after the guarantee expired. I vowed never to buy Gaggia again.

Quite a few years ago, I bought a Krupps espresso machine. It was their then top of the range machine, and it worked really well. It was one where you had to start it espressing and stop it espressing, and it took a while to recover enough to produce steam for the milk. DH and I have a double espresso each every morning, with milk done in the antipodean "flat white" style. Eventually I got fed up with overfilled coffee cups (attention span of a...), and the time it took to produce 2 coffees so, I bought a Gaggia Baby Class D.

Another small fortune (to me). But, it stopped automatically when it has dispensed the right amount of water, it had a pre-infusion feature which made better espressos.   I bought the cappuccinatore accessory, which helped me make "flat whites", and we were in coffee heaven. For a short time.

The machine went seriously wrong. Helpfully in-guarantee. Gaggia, meanwhile, had disappeared to be rescued by Philips. I called them. They sent packaging. I packed the machine, arraged a courier to collect it from me and take it to the service centre. We waited. It came back to us. It went wrong again. I phoned the service centre. I had to wait for them to send packaging (even though I still had the previous lot), because it wasn't possible to send only the labels & paperwork. it went back to the nice people at Philips,we waited, it came back to us.   It went wrong a third time. I phoned. I waited for packaging. I packed it, arranged a courier, it went back to Philips. We waited quite a long time. It came home.   It went wrong a fourth time. I phoned and arranged for packaging. The packaging arrived, I packed it up it went back to Philips. We waited. It came back, having had some major surgery, and it worked beautifully for about a year. Then it packed up again. A bit outside the guarantee period.

I was going to chalk it up to experience, and buy something else. But I really liked the coffee we'd been getting out of it.   And when I considered how much it had cost and how it had lasted just over 2 years (less the time away), I really felt that we hadn't had good value out of it. WIthout much hope, I emailed Philips and asked if they would consider a final go at fixing it, as a gesture of goodwill given the machine's chequered history.

Philips customer service chap, Tim, phoned me. We talked about my machine and the experience I had. He said, fairly enough I thought, that it wasn't really worth trying to repair the machine again. He then surprised me by saying they would send me a refurbished machine as a replacement, and would arrange to uplift my broken machine. We left it that he would try and arrange for them to happen at the same time.

Joy! Surprise! Singing Philips' praises!

I didn't hear anything about my existing machine for a while, but I did receive a call to arrange delivery of the replacement.    It arrived, we unpacked it, suffering somewhat from decent coffee withdrawal. The machine was well wrapped, but I could see through the packaging that it was different to my current machine.

Never mind, I thought. But as I looked at the fascia, I had a horrible feeling that this machine was going to be like the Krupps - no automatic dosing. I opened the instructions and pored through them. Yup. Manual start and stop.

At least it's a coffee machine, I told myself. But then I rmembered how annoying the Krupps had become. And I know myself well enough to know that I would be buying a replacement very shortly.   So, I emailed Tim. I thanked him for the machine, apologised for being ungrateful, and explained that it didn't have the automatic dosing facility which is why I had bought the Baby Class D. Did he have another machine available by any chance? And. by the way, I hadn't heard anything about my broken machine being picked up. Tim was brilliant. He said he'd arrange to have the machine picked up and a replacement delivered.

Some time after I received a phone call from someone arranging to deliver packaging so that they could subsequently uplift my machine. I checked which machine they were uplifting, and it seemed to be my old machine.

The packaging arrived, no replacement. The packaging referred to a machine going back into stock. I emailed Tim to clarify.     Tim phoned to say that actually the packaging was for the refurbed machine,    they hadn't realised I still had my old machine, and a new replacement was on the way. I asked him to send me a label for the old machine so I could send it back at the same time. It would take 3-5 working days.

Time passed.   Eventually a call from the service centre arranging to deliver the second machine. The label arrived. It mentioned going back into stock. I crossed it out and wrote on there that it was the broken machine. I packed up my old machine, I now had two huge boxes sitting in my hallway. On Wednesday morning, I arranged for them to be collected on Friday. Later on Wednesday, the new machine arrived.

Much joy, much caffeine-withdrawal-induced excitement.   I opened the box. I looked at the fascia. It was the same sort of machine that they had sent the first time. I emailed Tim.   He phoned back to say he was sorry, but there were no other machines available.    We both decided that it was time to give up.

I decided that I would buy a new machine, selling the remaining incorrect machine to part fund it. I decided I'd buy Gaggia again, even though it hadn't worked out, because I thought Tim had really tried hard to resolve this for me. Besides, I was planning to sell the second refurbed machine to part fund it, and it seemed only right that I should therefore buy Gaggia again.

I couldn't find my machine in stock anywhere. DH was away. Yesterday, in a moment of extreme frustration at not being able to find the damn machine I wanted, I gave in and ordered a bean to cup machine (having phoned a Gaggia Specialist shop to check that the cappuccinatore would fit) I ordered it on next day delivery. I then began to wonder if I had done the right thing. What if, after all this, it didn't work as well as my Baby Class D?

All morning I waited. The Yodel man arrived to collect the two other machines. The Postman delivered another set of labels, this time referring to the broken machine. Too late to use them.   I scratched my head. Are they expecting the second machine back? They can't be. The label that arrived came before they knew the second machine wasn't suitable.      I realised that the packaging they sent originally must have been for the broken machine after all. Oh well, I'm sure they'll work it out when they get them.

And then, mid afternoon, It arrived. I unpacked it. I was nervous.   I couldn't find the power supply. I went through the packaging. It wasn't there. I was a bit cross at this point, how on earth could "they" send a machine without a blummen power supply?!    I decided not to phone and complain yet. (a) I wasn't in a good mood and that is never a good time to make a complaint, and (b) I wanted to test the darn thing first in case something else was wrong.

I started working through the pre-first-use checks. I got to the bit where i had to fill the water reservoir..and I found the power supply. Tucked inside.

Grateful that I hadn't phoned and made an idiot of myself, I carried on. The first-use thing is a bit of a palaver. It involves making 3 large coffees without any coffee, and discharging the contents of the water reservoir through the steam nozzle.    Eventually, having run water through the machine, I was ready to make a coffee with real coffee.

Now, I have several tins of Illy Long, ready ground. But only 1 tin of coffee beans of some other brand, bought in error when I had decided Illy was too expensive.     As I was trying the new machine, I used the beans. And I used the supplied panarello frother instead of my cappucinatore.    It was OK, not great. I don't mind using a panarello occasionally, but I like the laziness of the cappucinatore.

I increased the strength and tried again. Better. It looked like a proper double espresso now.    But it didn't taste as good as Illy.

The digital display was really difficult to see, very dark. I moaned about it. I decided to try the ground coffee mode. I had deliberately chosen a machine that could use ready ground espresso as well as beans. I was a bit surprised to read that you can only put in one spoonful of coffee at a time. Any more, and it gets rejected by the machine. Hmmm. Bit irritating. Never mind, at least I could use the Illy we had in the cupboard and in the fridge. I made a coffee with it. It was OK. Not great tasting. Maybe a month wuthout proper coffee has meant my tastebuds have changed.

Next, I fitted the cappuccinatore. Not a great fit, but OK. It's a bit kack-handed, the wand is really on the wrong side for the design of the cappuccinator, but it's workable. I made steamed milk as I adjusted the air inlet. Mmm. Think I might do it this way instead of heating milk in a saucepan, in future.

The display was annoying me. I could see what I needed to, but the icons were difficult to make out. It was OK while I had the destructions in front of me..but, I guessed, I'd get used to it. And the coffee was OK; I knew it would take me a while to adjust the cappucinatore so it worked properly - it took a few goes on the old machine as well

I pushed the machine back into the corner where it was going to live, and I noticed that a bit of the fascia had come away. My goodwill was evaporating. I was now rather cross.   I was cross about the display. I was cross about the cappucinatore. I was cross that I could only put in one spoon of ground coffee at a time (stupid machine!). And, mostly, I was disappointed that the coffee was OK but not fantastic. I flicked the bit of broken fascia to see if I could put it back in place. I couldn't. It was very floppy. I couldn't believe it could be such a crappy design. .

I looked closer, and it was hanging off!   The final straw! I pulled it (as you do), and that's when it came right off.   Turns out it was actually a piece of darkened protective film, which was protecting the display during transport.

The display itself is quite bright.

Daft woman.

I'm sure coffee tomorrow will be grand.

Milly

2011-08-23T12:55:00.000+01:00

Milly is up and about and eating well.

She let me pick her up and stroke her, so I suspect she isn't feeling quite back to normal, but she's looking OK. She laid an egg today, which got crushed. I'm hoping that was just a weak-shelled accident, probably resulting from yesterday's heat stress.

Fingers crossed she continues to improve.

I found an interesting tip on the Omlet Forum for dealing with heat stressed hens: wrap them in a cool damp towel. I'll remember that next time.

Cheeky girls

2011-08-23T12:52:00.000+01:00

My turn to do the Allotmenteers yesterday and today.

This morning, 3 of the young Girls were in with the Boys. Couldn't see how they managed it as the fencing is secure. They had to get over their fence into no-hens-land, and then over the fence into the Boys area. Two of them were desperate to get back in with the Girls and were easy to catch; one Girl didn't really want to be caught, thank you very much. I'm not overly bothered if the Girls want to be stupid enough to go in with the Boys, that's their choice. What I want to make sure doesn't happen is that one of the Boys gets in with the Girls.

Found a small egg on the ground in the Girls pen.   At first I assumed that one of the inexperienced Girls had got caught short... but then I found a smashed egg near the ladder to their nest boxes, and another one in the Big Girls pen. Looks like the thieving magpies are at it again.

The rollaway nestbox had an egg sitting on the shelf, upright. I saw one of the girls in there yesterday with her bottom wedged firmly in the corner, so I guess it was hers.   When I reached in to get it, I noticed that the rollaway part of the nestbox was jammed with bedding. I hoiked it all out, so hopefully the eggs will be able to roll away from now on, and the magpies won't be able to get them.

Looks like I'll have to start moving the Girls on to layers pellets soon. I would guess that half of them are laying now, and it'll be some months before they are culled (the Boys go first).   They will be 20 weeks old on Monday, so I'll start switching them over then.

The Boys were well behaved; three of the Big Girls are broody, 2 of them in one next box (we have 8 nestboxes for 6 girls, so they really don't have to double up).

They were all delighted to have yet more apples to eat.

Sick Chick

2011-08-22T21:28:00.000+01:00

Went out this evening to give the Girls some pasta, and Milly came bounding our from under the pampas and stopped. She looked dazed, and was being barged into by the other 4 girls.

Worried, I oicked her up and sat her on my lap in the garden. She looked very unwell. Her eyes were closed, her breathing a bit laboured, and at one point she seemed to pass out with her beak resting on my arm.

I brought her in to the kitchen, put her on a towel on the draining board, and stroked her. She was limp, and looked like she was dying.    I had two thoughts in my head: sunstroke, or a blocked crop from eating that damned jacket on the jacket potato yesterday. I rummaged in the cupboard, found a syringe, and syringed some water into her beak.

I then found the nutri drops, and syringed some of those in. I stroked her, she looked like she passed out again. I then got out the Avipro, dissolved some in water, and fed that to her. She panted a lot, and looked uncomfortable.    I was convinced it was a stuck jacket.

I tried massaging her crop, but it was very empty. Attempts to look down her beak were futile, I needed DH to help but he was out.    I found some liquid paraffin, from another crop problem a couple of years ago, and attempted to syringe that into her beak.    I syringed, massaged, stroked. She looked close to death, wings and tail down, no interest in anything, eyes closed, with moments where her beak was propping her up.

In case it was heatstroke, I soaked cotton wool in water and put some under her wings, her breast, her bottom. After about an hour, DH phoned to say he was on his way home; I didn't mention Milly as I didn't want to worry him. Milly and I continued like this for the next hour.   I stroked her, I talked to her. I told her that she couldn't go now, she'd only just started being a friendly (ish) hen, and she couldn't leave me now that we had started building a relationship.

When DH arrived he was pressed into service, holding Milly and trying to force her beak open so I could shine a torch down her throat. No obvious obstruction, no foul smell. I still had visions of a jacket being stuck to the insude of her throat or crop and sucking moisture out. I syringed more water in.    Heatstroke seemed more likely; websites warned against bringing the temperature down too suddenly, so we trickled water on her comb, her wattles, her head, her neck.

Suddenly, she sat up.   She wasn't interested in moving, but she did look a bit more awake.    I suggested putting her in a box, DH said she'd be OK sat on the floor. So, I put her on some newspaper with some water, and a few pieces of corn, then I scrubbed and disinfected the sink area, scrubbed and disinfected my hands, and started to make dinner.

She ate some corn. I put some chick crumb on the newspaper. She ate it. I put chick crumb in a bowl. She ate it About 20 minutes later she staggered to the door and jumped out. DH followed her to the Run, and let her in. She started to eat from the feeder and drink from the superglug.

She took herself to bed about 20 minutes later.

I hope she's OK tomorrow.

Baked potatoes

2011-08-22T12:02:00.000+01:00

Now that Marfona are back in season, we've been eating lots of baked potatoes. I like smaller potatoes. I always bake lots. Any unused baked potatoes are turned into sort of oven-wedges the next day.

The Girls lurve baked potatoes. I try to save them a potato usually, but they usually end up getting eaten by us.

On Saturday I also had a couple of potatoes that were a bit past their best, but I baked them anyway - for the Girls. As well as pricking the skins (of the potatoes, obviously, not the Girls), I carved a little C into them. Just in case the difference that was so obvious when they were uncooked was lost when they were cooked.

Potatoes were lovely. No, I didn't eat the Girls potatoes by mistake. I left the girls potatoes under a food net to cool overnight, and then yesterday, I cut the potatoes up and took them outside. Rather than puttingthem in the Run I caught each Girl in turn, sat her on my lap, and let her munch the potatoey goodness. A fair reward for putting up with being petted.

Everyone - except Florence - wanted to participate. Florence wanted to participate in the eating of the potato, but not in the being picked up and sat on my lap part. We went round twice, with each Girl being returned to the others in between.

Milly, my cream legbar, doesn't really like being picked up. When she's in egg laying mode she crouches for me, and I can see as I stroke her that her natural instinct to crouch is fighting with her chickeny nature to just scoot out of my way.

Since Lily and Daisy died, I have been putting more effort in to seeing if I can get Milly to not mind being handled. Every time I pick her up, she gets a treat. I don't hold her for long etc. A couple of times now when we've been doing individual treats, she's only half-heartedly run away from me, and hasn't run out of my arms' reach (I'm leaning over netting, so I can only reach so far).

Yesterday was one of the days when she only tried a bit to get out of my way. In fact, when I didn't pick her up, she "accidentally" moved back in to range. So, I scooped her up, sat down with her on my lap, and offered her some potato. She went mad for it.

Milly became very greedy. She tried to swallow a large chunk of potato and jacket in one go. She couldn't quite do it, so made that gurgutating movement that chickens (and alligators and crocodiles and snakes) do when trying to swallow something whole. I was concerned that this might cause crop problems, so I decided to help out.

I tried to hold on to the end of the jacket that wasn't actually in Milly's beak. For some strange reason, she seemed to object to this. I pulled, she pulled back. Fearing that she might swallow it in an even larger piece, and haunted by the image of Milly with a jackjet potato shaped bulge in her crop (like the shape one might imagine when a snake eats something whole), I let go. I watched in a mixture of horror, disbelief, disgust and admiration as she managed to get it all in.

The Girls all had very potatoey beaks afterwards, and were very happy.

Here's a quick pick of Tilda, with potato all over her beak.

Cat and Mouse

2011-08-22T08:09:00.002+01:00

My cats hunt occasionally, and often they hunt as a team.

This morning I went into the garden to collect some lettuce and chickweed to take to the Allotmenteers, and the cats were nonchalantly Doing Nothing. Usually this means they are hunting and pretending not to, to lull wildlife into a false sense off security. Sure enough, when I got back to the house, Wash was no where to be seen.

In the kitchen I stuffed the lettuce into a carrier bag and I could hear a strangled squeaking sound. I stopped and strained to work out where it was coming from. It stopped. I walked towards the living room and it started again, but it wasn't getting any louder.

I stopped. Silence. Utility room - nothing. Went to the bottom of the stairs in the hall, and it was really loud and clear - I realised Wash must have a mouse (or worse, a Big Mouse) behind the sofa in the living room. I opened the connecting door, which is a bit of a feat as the sofa is wedged against it in the living room. I must have shocked Wash, as it was all quiet.

I waited. Nothing. I assumed that it was now too late to save the poor mouse (or the horrible Big Mouse, which was just as well as I would have had to deal with that one myself). But then I heard it again.

It must be upstairs. But it didn't sound like it. I turned round, and heard it again. Maybe it was outside the front door? No.

Was it the Japonica squeaking against the front window glass? No. I stood in the hall,, scratching my head. In the end, I couldn't solve it, I was running late, and I decided I'd have to leave the poor mouse to it.

I walked down the hall and heard it again. I stopped. It stopped. I turned round. It made a horrible long squeal. I stopped. It stopped.

"How bizarre!" I thought. The bloomin cat must be watching me. But I realised that was very unlikely. I looked along the floor as I turned and walked back to the kitchen.

And I saw it.

It was the hard sole of my moccassins, with some squishy wet leaves in the treads. I hadn't changed into my garden shoes when I went to get the lettuce, and I'd brought some lettuce in on my slippers.

Squeak squeak.

Birds and Bees

2011-08-20T13:12:00.000+01:00

On the allotment, Hive 2 bees are still very happy little bees, and Hive 1 bees are still very angry bees. Last night, we removed the spent combs from the Eke (a shallow super tray which goes on top of the hive to add food etc) and replaced them with the last of the extracted frames and all the remaining wax cappings. We'll remove these in a week or so.

The Young Chooks are doing well. The cockerels are mostly well behaved, with some squabbling and jostling for position but, so far, no real nastiness. One of them, "Yellow Ring", is very frustrated and is desperate to get in with the Big Girls. He managed to squeeze past me when I was moving between pens, and he was like a cockerel possessed. He was literally chasing down the girls, running all round the pen (like Roadrunner) with the poor girls running away from him as fast as they could. He was an absolute s*d to catch.

Eventually, he managed to grab Ruby by the neck... it wasn't very pleasant, and I managed to grab him and wrench him away before he did any damage. I put him back in his pen, and I saw him eyeing up the gap between two fence posts, lining himself up so that he could breathe in and ooze through. We're having to be extra rigorous. I know he can't help it, but I think it means his card is marked.

The Little Girls seem happy, and we have two of them laying now.

The Big Girls are toodling along, and seem to be getting on reasonably well. To my surprise, "Mrs " (Mrs Roo, the original Sasso hen) is still going, still looking well. When I say "well", I should probably rephrase that as "She's looking well for Mrs Roo". She's a strange, brick shaped, hen with very short stubby legs, rather tubby, gets breathless easily. I don't think she's going to appreciate having a new cockerel around...but it won't be for some time, so we'll see what happens in the meantime.

Stuff everywhere

2011-08-20T12:56:00.000+01:00

It's been a funny (odd) few days. The house is completely topsy turvy and I'm busy ignoring it. Or trying to ignore it. I'm going to write it down here, and then I'm going to forget about it.

DH picked a couple of crates of apples yesterday. I wrapped them and put them in crates, so we can press them in a week or so. DH otherwise engaged until then, and it's one of those busy activities which is definitely more fun with two. They are sitting on the kitchen table, waiting.

The apple crusher, the apple press, the apple picker, a step ladder, and folded crates are standing by the french windows, waiting.   Because I can't get to the cupboards that side of the kitchen, the stuff that needs to be put away is being piled up on the worktop.

Lots more tomatoes, and lots more Passata. The new Weck jars are working well, and I think I prefer them to Kilner jars now. I like Kilner jars but I find that the screw caps tend to rust; sometimes they are difficult to open. I've almost run out of the 500ml jars now, so I'll have to go back to Kilner for the rest of the tomato crop. I'm debating whether to buy some more Weck jars - but I have so many Kilner jars, I'm not sure I can justify it. I do have some 250ml and 500ml Weck flasks, but I'm saving those for apple juice.    Picked tomatoes, which will go into the next batch, are overfowing from a large bowl on one of the worktops.

We had to fire up the spare freezer in the garage. We moved some of the bulky items from the house freezer, plus the corn on the cob in there, and I started making bags (and bags. and bags. ) of ice cubes. We're having some family over for lunch soon and, in the anticipation of it being a warm day, we're stocking up on ice.   It's not particularly about ice in drinks (although we do need some for that), we also want ice for buckets to cool wine and beer.    We will probably end up buying some bags of ice, but it's definitely cheaper to make our own with ice cube bags, so that's what I'm trying to do. Bit tedious though, frankly, standing by a slow running tap filling the bags. I do about 10 in one batch.

The new hive arrived (Modern Beekeeping were having a sale, and we wanted to have a spare hive for emergencies. And we wanted to get a Nucleus sized box, for next year, so we can raise a spare Queen. All these have needed painting, and we've had bits of hives in various states of painting, all over the kitchen. They are finished now and stacked up neatly.   We're going to put them in the spare bedroom next week (after flying visit from DD and family).   And then we can move the spare brood boxes and all the supers - currently forming a tower in the only bit of unused floorspace behind DH's desk in the study - into the spare bedroom as well.

Under the stairs - the space is open to our hall - is crammed with bee related paraphernalia, including the saucepan and sieve DH used to melt and purify the wax. We've got another batch of wax to do, so the stuff is sitting under the stairs for now.    There is also a huge box containing a Baby Class machine waiting to go back to Gaggia.

In my living room, I have another huge box containing another coffee machine, a Baby Class D, which is also waiting to go back to Gaggia. This was in the utility room, but that space was needed for the pastueriser. It was in the kitchen, but it got in the way. It was under the stairs, next to the other one, but that space was needed for the bee stuff.

A third machine should be delivered next week. Hopefully before then I will also receive the returns paperwork for the machine in my living room, and then I can arrange for them both to go back.

I had a new companion bench delivered yesterday.   It came wrapped in two huge pieces of bubble wrap. It seemed a shame to bin the bubble wrap (I have lots in store already), so I posted it on Freegle.   There was a surprising number of enquiries, so I picked someone who was working nearby and who could pick up yesterday afternoon.     Bubble wrap was then placed in the middle of the hall, ready.      Chap didn't show up.   I assume that he was on auto pilot going home, so probably just forgot...but I didn't get an email or phone message from him.     I was going to go to the next person on the list, but decided I'd at least email this chap and give him this afternoon to reply.      Having a bubblewrap mountain to negotiate isn't helping!

Right. I've finished moaning now. I'm going to get on and clear away anything and everything that can be cleared away, and then I'm sure I'll feel better!

Cob on

2011-08-16T14:11:00.000+01:00

We ended up with a reasonably large number of Corn on the Cob plants this year, and most of the plants had 2 cobs on.

One fantastic thing about growing your own CotC is that you can eat it, raw, straight from the plant. It is DELICIOUS.    Don't try it with shop-bought fresh cobs though - the sugars start to turn to starch as soon as the cob is picked, and the window for eating it raw is very short.

I've also been grilling cobs. Turn your grill as high as it will go, and leave it for a length of time to get reall, really hot. Put a bit of olive oil on the cobs, maybe a bit of salt/pepper, then stick under the grill, really really close. Turn them as they start to colour - a few kernels will go black and some will pop. When you've cooked it all the way around, serve with butter.

We still have lots of corn left, so the other day I tried blanching and freezing some. A few days later, I tried some of my frozen cobs (defrosting them first), and they were great.

So today, I picked almost all the remaining corn cobs. I then blanched them in batches according to size, plunging each blanched batch into iced water*, dried them, put them in the fridge to finish cooling (they really hold the heat!), then I bagged them and froze them.   I haven't counted them, but there are a lot. DH doesn't indulge, so it looks like I'll have lots of summery corn to brighten up the winter!

*I ended up having to stick jugs of water in the freezer to use. And I used my ice packs. And my therma med thing for my back. And any bagged ice cubes we had. I had no idea they would take so much effort to cool down!

Other business as usual

2011-08-15T14:30:00.000+01:00

Ran out of butter over the weekend and had to buy some. First time in, literally, years.

This morning I turned 8 litres of double cream into a lot of butter. I didn't think to weigh it. Butter now in freezer, and everything is cleared up. It's much harder making butter when its hot, very hard to get properly cold water out of the tap. In the end I had to put some jugs of water into the freezer, and use those for final rinsing. Note to self Make bigger batches of butter before summer so I don't have to make it when weather is hot. Or, if stocks are low, make butter when weather less good - and don't run out.

We're having another half pig from Shirley in September. I've been looking at what we did last time, and I've been starting to make a list ("more mince", "less loin of pork", "fewer pork chops - make bacon instead?"). As a result of looking at what we have left in the freezer, I'm having brawn for my dinner, along with Focaccia (that's proving as I type) and the cottage cheese we made on Saturday. DH is having one of the many pork loin chops.

I need to watch the video I took, to see if we will be able to do the butchering (not the slaughtering!) ourselves this time.

Time's Up

2011-08-15T13:55:00.000+01:00

Today the babies were 18 weeks old, and it was "Time's Up" for 4 of them.

Last week, when all three of us had been at the allotment sorting out separate runs for the girls and boys, we had taken a look at the boys to see who would be going. It would be much easier if we knew that they were all going in the end but, because we'll be keeping one of them, it's means that we have to make the decision each time.

Firstly, we decided that the two more "runty" boys should go. Neither of them were going to make the grade. They are also quite aggressive, partly because of their lowly place in the pecking order.    We also earmarked one of the big Welsh Black X boys, as he had been caught pecking a couple of the hens for no obvious reason.    For the fourth...well, that was a lot harder.

We have 2 boys (not counting the "runty" pair) who are the spitting image of their dad. We haven't decided yet whether we want to keep one of them, or one of the Welsh Black crosses.    Personally, I think it'll come down to temperament.    One of these 2 is top cockerel. We aren't sure that he has the right temperament, but we realise that taking him out will just cause a lot of in-fighting as the biys then jostle for top place.

We debated whether to take the second Roo lookey-likey, or one of the Welsh Blacks. In the end, we decided to take out the second Roo lookey-likey.   The Top Cockerel will be "safe" now until we come to a final decision, unless he demonstrates that he has too aggressive a temperament.

DH and OC (Other Chap) did the deed this morning, and DH came back with our 2 chickens.   DH always finds this difficult and time really hasn't made it easier.

Once again I console myself with knowing that
(a) They had a fantastic happy life
(b) They had a quick and pain free death
(c) They lived until they were 18 weeks, whereas if we were buying free range chicken that chook would have been only 8 - 14 weeks old...
(d) ...and we would not know for certain exactly what sort of free range life that chook would have had.

So, we're down to 9 Girls and 6 cockerels (plus 2 of a different breed being raised for us on a neighbouring plot).

Bit of a spurt

2011-08-13T15:33:00.000+01:00

D(S)D and family came to stay last night. Always great to see them, the children are lovely and even the youngest DGC (darling grandchild) is now old enough to have a conversation with. (=I can understand what she is saying, which is a big step forward).
They are all really good natured happy children, so when we get the inevitable over-tired tears, I don't mind.
Anyway. Late night last night, very busy morning this morning. Breakfast in shifts, games with the little GCs (which involved me getting out a play set which can be used as a swingball or a volleyball net or a badminton net, and attempting to teach two inexperienced children to get a shuttlecock over it, DH taking eldest GC to the allotment to see the chooks..etc, etc.

Anyway, they left just before lunch, and I was thinking about having a nap this afternoon to catch up on my sleep. Not quite sure what happened, but suddenly we've:

Canned (heat processed) the latest batch of tomato passata
picked dozens of corn cobs, stripped them, blanched them, chilled them, put them in to freeze
stripped and eaten the sugarsnap peas while I was picking the corn
picked chillies, prepped them, put them in to freeze
made (well, making as I type) 4 pints-of-milk's-worth of cottage cheese
ordered a load of bread flour to top up our supplies
inspected Ouch's head and attempted to soak off the dried bits of powder an and purple spray (she didn't like that too much)
put Ouch and her sister on one of our flower beds so they could have a rook around and dust bathe, and watched them for half an hour while they did so, to make sure they didn't (a) wander off, (b) eat my lettuces, (c) eat the polystyrene container which the lettuces are growing in, (d) get attacked by the Big Girls

Just starting to clear up now.

Ouchy update

2011-08-12T17:13:00.000+01:00

So, Ouch and her little friend have been in the spare Cube since Thursday evening. Tehy spent a hapy enough day yesterday munching fresh grass, and eating the various treats we gave them. Last night, I noticed that Little Friend gave Ouch a darned good peck on the back of the head.

So, first thing this morning, DH was dispatched (despatched? I can't remember which is correct) to our ffriendly neighbourhood horsey place to by some anti peck spray. It said "wear gloves", and I am soooo glad he did. It smells like...well, like tar I suppose.

We're hoping that with this new parfum de tar, Ouch's head will not seem so appealing. If it works, then we can get the two of them back to the allotment. Before I get attached to them.

By the way, Ouch laid 2 soft shelled eggs. She's far too young to be getting her egg laying tackle ready.

And this evening, I shut the Big Girls in their run and let the two young girls out for a bit. They don't need the space, but I thought they might want to have a rook around in some dirt, or have a dust bath.

Attached? Of course not.