Freezing

It's freezing overnight, and two of thre three drinkers are frozen each morning.  The 3rd one is on a heated pad, which throws out just enough heat to stop it freezing.

This waterer has just plain water in, as I don't like the idea of constantly heating cider vinegar or oreganico.  The hose was frozen today, so I had to bring it in the house to scrub it and refill it.

I don't do all the drinkers on the same day.  I do one drinker every other day.  It's not particularly efficient,  but it means that the Hens have access to fresh water every two days, and I throw less supplemented water down the drain.   They choose what to drink, and they don't always choose the fresh water. 

When they had access to the garden to free range,  they would often drink out of muddy puddles.     I had a couple of bucket-on-the-side drinkers, which I only changed every couple of weeks,  and they liked those.

It's harder for them now as they don't have so much choice. 

Every morning I go out to say Hello, and to do a comb count.   My first priority is locating Nora,  who is our oldest hen.    I'm relieved every day when I see her.   Next priority are the triplets, Gloria, Poppy and Katy.   They are only a year younger than Nora,  and were hatched from bought-in eggs from Castle Farm Eggs.  We had 8 of them hatch that year, and we kept them all.  Poppy was always a Garden Girl.  Gloria was an allotmenteer until we lost all but Poppy to a Fox;  Gloria came back from the Allotment to be a friend for Poppy.    Katy was a harem girl at the allotment,  but I can't imagine her not being in my garden flock now.

The Girls spend a bit of time in their "outside" area,  and then they sit around in the covered run or dustbathe.   There are plenty of perches,  and some use them, some sit around on the floor.      They investigate the vegetables I've hung up,  of peck feed from the treat feeders.    There are a few squabbles, but I guess it's too cold for them to do too much.    

I wonder if they are bored, or if they are reasonably content just sitting around?

Kimchi

My last lot of Kimchi is coming to its end.  It's a little salty, so I decided to try a different recipe for my next lot.

I was organised enough to draw water from the tap and leave, covered owth a food tent,  so that the metals could disperse.  We have filtered water, but I wonder if the filter takes too much out of the water.  The plants do better on unfiltered water.

Then I made brine,  and then I added my mountain of chopped chinese leaft,  spring cabbage, carrots, mooli and spring onion.  I put a plate in the bowk, and out weights on the plate,  and left it overnight.

Stupid.

When I came down, of course the brine had crept up over the plate and the weights were partially submerged.   They were just cast iron weights for a balance scale.    I looked at the kimchi, anbd looked at the weights.   I couldn't risk it.  I hadn't thought to sterilise them, so I've no idea what might be on them.  I just hadn't considered at all that the brine would come in contact with them. Of course I shold have done,  but I didn't.

Because Kimchi is a fermented product, I didn't want to risk fermenting anything undesirable.  I binned it all.

I'm not going out shopping, I have a delivery on Monday so I'll try again then.

In the meantime, I "gave in" and bought a Kimchi tub from Amazon.  I'd been waiting months for the Crazy Korean version to come back into stock, but I decided to order some other version instead.  I'm not particularly happy about fermenting in plastic,  but the info said it was BPA and lead free so I'll try it.

The reason I'm interested in this is because it has a 'plate' which seals the inside top totally, and which can be pushed down as you eat your way through the Kimchi.

I got the small size.

 

Foot muff

I bought a new wool duvet from the lovely people at Devon Duvets.   My previous wool duvet was 10 years old, and I'd planned for some time to buy a new one at the end of the year.

I had planned to trim the old one down to King Size, for the guest bedroom, and to use the offcuts to make a footmuff for DH.  He suffers from cold feet, and I thought this would be a lovely surprise for him.

Except when I laid the old duvet out to measure it for cutting, it was a bit smaller than I expected.   I realise it has to be smaller than the duvet cover, but this was a bit smaller still.    It's a little too big to go into the King Sized duvet cover,  but not really big enough for me to trim off what I need.

It's not the end of the world.  I have a wool pillow soewhere, and I can use that. 

I need to recover the edges of the old one, which are showing their age,  and I've been busy planning how to do it.  I've got some Shaun te Sheep duvet cover left somewhere, and I might be able to use that :-)

We don't have any visitors planned, so no rush.

 

Up the garden path

The constat rain has made parts o fthe garden into a quagmire, and I've been slipping a lot as I go and see to the Girls.

Today DH decided to clear the overgrown path for me.    All the  grass that was on the path has now been placed around the pampas.   There is an additional, still overgrown, path which leads to nowhere now.  It used to lead to the door of our original walk in run.    There wasn't any point in DH clearing it, so it'll stay buried for now.

 

The Grls are making good use of their outside bit of grass.    I may have to shorten the time a bit, set the opener to open later,  as it isn't going to last long with 15 beaks and 30 feet on it. 

I didn't get to the feed merchant.

 

Chipper

The woodchips finally arrived yesterday

 DH barrowed some into the run and I raked them out.  I had to remember to do only a thin layer, as they tend to get slimy and smelly.    If we just do a thin layer,m we can rake out and dispose if necessary  

 We had lots left, so these have been stored in the greenhouse, and we can refresh or replace those in the run easily.  

Or use them for kindling next year, I suppose 

That part of the run looks lovely.  I sprinkled some sunflower seeds around to encourage the girls to rook.

No more changes for the girls for a couple of weeks   The next planned change is changing the panels which divide the main run in half.  But we haven't agreed a date for that yet.

My eldest brother arrived to collect his  Christmas  Dinner. 

Long before Tier 4, we could see that things might well change, so I had  ordered some individual beef wellingtons for Christmas lunch.  The goose can wait until we are able to get together.

I'd prepped and frozen carrot and swede mash, and red cabbage.  I had roast potatoes already done.   I'dmade infividual puddings. He went off with everything,  including gravy, Brussels sprout ketchup, stuffing ketchup,  and some cheese and some ginger beer.

The raw food lady dropped off the kittens food for the next 3 weeks, so they will be fine.

I'm not going to the shops now until..... next year

 I do need to go to the feed merchant to get  bag of pellets for the Girls. That could wait,  but with all the Brexit uncertainty, I'd rather do it I think. 

Maybe tomorrow .

    

clockwork

I've just realised that my evening hot flushes start at the same-ish rime each evening. 9.20pm. Or thereabouts.

Corny

I'm still waiting for the woodchips.

Actually I'm still waiting for a call back, to let me know what time to expect them.  

In the meantime,  I drilled out some corn on the cobs for the Girls.   I hung some up,  some - those which disintegrated during the drilling process - were scattered,  and some were wedged in the benches.  The idea of the wedging and the hanging is that several girls can have a go at once, it's hard for any one Girl to monopolise.

 

Ticks

Tree up, tick.

Tree mostly decorated. Tick.

Cut DH's hair. Tick. We bought the clippers the day before Lockdown1,  and I think they've paid for themselves by now.

Girls' outside netted area completed. Tick.

Order woodchip for outside inside area. Tick.     Follow up late on delivery day to find out why they haven't arrived. Tick.  Follow up this morning to find out why they didn't arrive last Friday afternoon. Tick.

Empty old feed from feeders and replace with new feed. Tick.

Disinfect waterers. Tick.

Card with gift for postman. Tick. (I was going to make him a postie Ginger,  but I just have no  enthusiasm for making stuff at the mo). Tick.

Christmas cards written and posted. Tick. 

I thought the list was going to be longer than that.  We've been doing lots of bits and pieces.

I've got a few things left on my mental "to do before Christmas" list.  Some of them WILL get done.  Some of them MIGHT et done.  Some of them probablu WON'T get done.

I've already dropped from my list those things which definitely won't get done - like sending Christmas Puddings to my parents.  I was originally going to drive there and back at the beginning of the month.  I was unwell on the day I'd planned to go.    Then the numbers were getting worse, and I hesitated.   And then we were Tier 4.    I'd only been planning to see them at a distance,  but given the unknown nature of the new  virus, it's probably been a good thing that I didn't go.

One day, this will all just be a memory.

 

In the meantime....

We've just finished Day 19 of the 21 day challenge.  It turns out that "allocated rest days" are extra, so the challenge doesn't finish today,  it carries on up to and including Wednesday.       I'll be glad when it's done.   We've saved up this month's Pilates classes to do between Christamas Eve and whenever classes resume in January.   Our Pilates Instructor is talking about another, shorter, challenge in January.   It depends what sort of challenge it is.

 

 

 

Magic Mushroom Powder

I'm making Ox Cheeks, pressure cooked,  in the Instant Pot.  Normally I make them with red wine and slow cook them,   but Maria at Feistytapas.com posted a recipe for pressure cooked in Guinnes.  I thought I'd try it.

I realised, too late,  that I didn't have any mushrooms.  I couldn't dfind the pot of dried muahrooms, which was puzzling.

I then found I was out of Knorr Mushroom Stock Pots.  I did have some Geo Watkins Mushroom Ketchup, which was nothing like ketchup, so I thought I'd use that.     While I was getting some paprika out of the spice cupboard,  I remembered that I had used the entire tub of dried mushrooms to make something called Magic Mushroom Powder.   

I can't for the life of me remember what recipe it was for, I can't remember what ws in it even.  I found the pot, and put it on the worktop. I put the Mushroom Ketchup back in the cupboard.     I'd pulled lots of things out of the dried foods cupboard, in search of the original mushrooms, so I started putting them back.

And then something fell out, hit the Magic Mushroom Powder (MMP) pot, smashed the jar on the floor, and I had glass and MMP everywhere.

The kittens came to investigate, and I had to shoo them away while carefully sweeping everything up with a foam broom.  It's surprising how far glass travels.

Mushroom Ketchup it is, then.

Meh!

I like Fraser Firs,  they are lovely compact trees that fit in and don't take over the whole of a room.  They are usually sold out locally by the time we want to put a tree up, so a few years ago, I started ordering online, and that usually works really well.    This year,  the company wasn't happy with the Frasers that were coming off,  so they emailed at the beginning of December to ask if we'd be happy to have a Nordmann, or we could have a refund.  I went for the refund,  as I can get Nordmann's really easily round here.

I wasn't going to bother at all though.

I was quite happy to have Christmas without the hassle of putting up a tree etc, but DH was inistent that we shouldn't just not bother.

I was a bit surprised at this,  he's never seemed particularly bothered before. 

So, I phoned round and eventually found somewhere about 10 miles away that had Frasers.  Only small ones though.

So we went, and we bought the smallest Fraser Fir I've ever had  It's smaller than me.  We'll only need one set of lights. And probably half the box of decorations.

We left it outside in a bucket of water last night,  and we've just brought it in.  DH cut the bottom off, and put it in the stand, and it's currently standing getting acclimatised to being indoors.  We'll decorate it tomorrow. 

DH also insisted on Christmas Cards (Who is this man, and what has he done with my husband?), so we did those this afternoon and walked to the Post Office together to send them off. 

I've still got to get a plain wreath to decorate,  which was the one thing I was still planning on having.   We looked in a couple of garden centres on our way home with the tree,  but they only had these teeny tiny things.  

I'm only going to two public places tomorrow:  another garden centre, to look for a wreath,  and the feed merchant to get a bag of feed for the Girls.

Small wins

We've been sorting things out so that we have a covered "outside" area for the Girls to go into for a few hours each day.  We're a bit behind, and didn't get it copleted in time for today (which is the start of Flockdown).

DH found all the old fruit cage netting frame, and re made it into a frame to fit a particular area of the back garden.    We trimmed the shrubs right down so that the frame fits over the top.   DH also went to the allotment and retrieved the scaffold netting.   He also fitted a new auto opener so that the Girls can go out without having to use the main door (which won't be in the netted area).

Hopefully we'll get it up tomorrow, or Wednesday.     

In the meantime, I "ran up" a hanger to suspend veggies.   Previously I've just used string (which is unsightly and wasteful) or chains (which are unsightly and a bit dangerous to have dangling down).   I used some ripstop fabric and used one of my new acessories to fold the edges over and stitch down the middle in one go.   I then used many kam snaps to create a loop at the bottom, and an adjustable loop at the top to suspend it from the mesh roof. 

I suspended it in one side of the big Run, to see whether it would withstand hens playing swingball. 

It did.

It worked a treat!   I'll make some more tomorrow, so that I can suspend more items in other areas of the inside run.

The Girls are lucky that they have 3 garden chairs, which make fab perches,  plus 3 long perches at different heights.  And they have wooden nestboxes that they can sit on.

That part of the Run is currently divided in two, with floor to ceiling mesh.  We did this when we had two flocks sharing the same inside space,  and kept it when we added the Allotment Girls into the mix.

We may look at changing it around a bit.  The Girls are sort of getting on, at least a truce seems to have been called.  But having the two sections provodes more interest, and enables them to keep out of each others ways.

I'd like to keep that ability, but maybe reduce the height of the divider; perhaps put a perch along there or something.  

I've suggested we wait and do it in a few weeks when the Girls are even more bored of being inside than they are now.

 

 

Best laid plans

I had plans for Sunday. I'd got everything ready on Saturday for an early start on Sunday.  

Sunday had other ideas.

I woke up with a splitting headache. Not a migraine,  so that was a plus,  but a headache that was too bad for me to drive anywhere.    I spent the morning and early afternoon in bed, dozing and dosed up.

I got up at about 1.30, still feeling a bit rough.  I was worried about not sleeping at night if I stayed in bed any more.    I felt better after having something to eat and a shower, and I decided to try and make the best of things and brought Monday's tasks forward. I was hoping that Sunday migh happen on Monday instead.

I made the Christmas swede and carrot, blitzed it with butter and pepper and portioned it in pots. I even saved the cooking water to use in gravy.  Then I prepped the  Christmas red cabbage and put it in the Instant Pot on the Slow Cook function.  I usually cook it in the oven,  and this way was a much more efficient use of power.  

I did domestics like geting Raymondo the Roomba to vacuum the bedroom, bathroom, and landing, which I then washed. I did washing.   I made dinner.

I prepped again last night to today, but when I woke up, I just wasn't right.      I've had to put it back for a few days now, my window of weather opportunity has gone.

On the plus side,  we realised I - well, my car -  had a slow puncture.  I went to a tyre place in the nearby town, and got seen almost immediately. I was lucky, there was a bit of a rush on just after I arrived.

We're also prepping for the Girls to be on Flockdown from the 14th.  DH did a lot of pruning yesterday,  and I did some this morning.  We'll be putting up poles and netting over part of their free range area, and creating an auto opener/closer in their run, so that they can still "go outside" for part of the day. 

It's going to be a bit of an ugly mess,  but it's better that than have the girls going stir crazy.  With 15 of them, it's hard to provide enough stuff to keep them occupied.    Fortunately, the days are quite short anyway.  Last  time we we had a FLockdown,  most o fthe choosks were at the allotment and we managed to cover most of it in netting. We had to close off part that couldn't be netted, but there wasn't much change for them.   At home we only had 5 girls, and we used the fruit cage as an "outside" for them.   Now, with so many at home, the fruitcage contains 2 coops and is just part of their enclosed run anyway.

 

 

Challenging

Day 3 of the 21 day challenge.  We're doing 18 reps of everything today.

Afterwards it was pouring with rain,  but we still went for a walk (about 1.8 miles).  We did a route which included a slight incline, which wasn't horrendous, so we may well do that again.

Today I made some headway in clearing the guest bedroom (which doubles as my sewing room).  I managed to make a stack of fabric which I'm going to destash*.   This required a loft visit to get some boxes, and I took the opportunity to put some other stuff up there.  It always looks better when the pile of "put in the loft" stuff disappears.

I also finally dealt with the box of thin jersey fabric that I had bought from Textile 9 in September.  I'd planned to share it with my brother.  It contains some lovely halloween fabrics,  some great girly fabrics, and more besides.    He was banned from bringing any more fabric into his house though, so the box has been sitting in my hallway for months.

I've now emptied it and started washing the fabric so that I can get it all sorted, boxed, and put away.I've reated a space for the halloween stuff, and I can't (well, won't) put some of the sewing room drawers back in place until I've done that.

I'm also wondering what to do about my child sized adjustable mannequin.  It's not the right size for Miss T now,  and I don't sew for anyone younger.   I'm sure my brother would love it, but I think he will not  be able to have it.     I could sell or donate it.... but it took me a long time to get one, and I'm not sure I'm ready to part with her.    She may end up in the loft, I guess.

Yesterday evening, the lovely Jane White from Jane White Tuition and from Baby lock UK owners Group very kindly did another stitchalong by Zoom  This time we made little Christmas Trees to be used as bunting, or tags, or whatever. 

Jane had blinged hers up with crystals and stuff.  I pushed the boat out and used gold embroidery thread in the upper looper, lol.  I didn't know what we were making, so I didn't think about my fabric choices.  

It was a very quick make, and it's much more effective in real life.

My Christmas puddings are stored in the guest room, which is unheated.   I made some for a friend (one of which she's giving to her in laws who are keeping separate at Christmas), and I whipped up a couple of Jane White's quick overlocked gift bags.

She's a dog lover, the fabric is Christmas dogs, so I'm sure she'll chuckle. 

I tried photgraphing them, but it proved impossible for me to do them justice.    I'm including the photos anyway, as a reminder for me.

When I was doing them, I thought how this might be a good way to use up my stash,  so when I said "destash*" earlier,  it might be that I end  up destashing by using some of the fabric like this.

Some of it will go to my sewing granddaughter, as it will be good for her to have stuff to practice on.

 

It's been a good day

 

 

21 Day Challenge

Our Pilates instructor offered a 21 Day Challenge as an addition to our Zoom classes.  The fee was a donation to charity, it's a good cause, so we signed up. Today was day 1.

Today's routine was designed to get us into the swing of things, and was a series of fast paced warm up and exercises (not the usual Pilates stuff).  It took about 15 minutes, plus cool down time.      Later in the morning we went on a longer walk than usual,  going via our local Farm Shop  and coming back the long way round.     We've still got steps to do,   but I'll do them easily just through the normal bustle of the day.

We had half a pork pie between us for lunch.  We'd bought it in the Farm Shop. .  We don't normally eat lunch,  fortunately the challenge is about fitness not fatness.   On the plus side, we only ate half the pork pie. 

Minor decluttering going on, and I've been advertising items which I'm giving away. 

I've almost finished reorganising the filing system,  and I even started making a bit of headway with the stuff in the guest bedroom.    I had a minor backwards-ish step when I decided to repurpose the ancient rattan chest of drawers that has acted as the bedside table there for years.  I now have all the contents piled on the bed, and an empty space.   I'll put a small side table there until I work out what to do long term.

I've got a couple of parcels to send back to Amazon. They are unused files,  and I have to pay postage for each of them.  I thought about selling the contents instead of returning them,  but I'd probably not get any more than I'm getting having paid the postage.  And this is less hassle - or it will be, once I've taken them to the drop shop.

Last night I decided to try and make myself aware of exactly how many times I am waking up, and when in the night it happens.   I woke up twice before the radio turned itself off,  and 8 times after that.  I didn't look at the clock as I'd have to wake up more to do so, and then I might find it harder to doze off again.

I found my previous pair of glasses in a drawer. They are very very similar to my current glasses,  just slightly smaller frames.  At one point, they both had the same prescription in, but with my last rescription changem I'd sent a pair off to be relensed.     I could have sworn that I'd sent the smaller pair off to be relensed.... but the smaller pair was in the drawer, and I'd labelled the bag "2017 prescription" label stuck on.      I was sure that I'd decided to have the smaller pair done.   

Of course I tried them on, they seemed better - but the lenses were cleaner and brighter, so that wasn't a surprise.  I switched between them as I tried to read things at different distances.  Sometimes one was betterm sometimes the other.    I've been switching them for a day and a half, and I'm still not sure. 

If I can clear the area in front of Orla, I'll see if trying to read music helps.  Last time I played I really struggled, and I realised I needed new glasses. 

 Otherwise, I'm going to have to go to the optician at some point to find out.     On the plus side, if I have been wearing the wrong glasses,  then it means that I am not in as desperate a need for a new pair as I had previously thought.

Such larks.