Spring is on its way.

Oh dear, 6 weeks since my last post, it has been very busy with work for both of us and just no time to keep this up to date; must do better (reminds me of my school reports!).

Been trying to get the veggie plots up to scratch again, lots of compost from our own little heap and some lovely well rotted chicken do dos that has been maturing for over a year in plastic bags in an outbuilding - nice! Had I heard about it in time we would have done the no dig method of gardening - look it up. It's too late now, but will definately look at it for next year, but will need to start collecting the chicken do dos again! Have planted marigold seeds out and getting ready to do peas, runner and french beans soon. I would have done this a while ago, but up until less than a week ago we were having severe frosts and night time temps of minus 5. Have to say mind you that we have very impressive coriander going in the porch which has survived the cold nights very well.

Been on some lovely walks round Hartland way and M bought one of those silly foil kites (the ones that lift you off the ground) so we have been flying that from the fields (in amongst the silage, yes it's spreading time again and they always seem to do it when I have the washing out, some of our clothes have a lovely 'eau de countryside' aroma about them!). The kite is great and can really pull you around, you have to keep tight hold of it as if it crashes it can seriously damage it (and anyone standing underneath it I expect), it certainly makes your arms and shoulders ache. We also took it to the beach yesterday, but the wind wasn't really strong enough and you do have to keep an eye out for stray small children or dogs that might get swept off the ground if it flys too low... lots of fun.

The snowdrops are out and have been for a while, and we have crocuses. In the last couple of days the first primroses have poked their faces out, they obviously think Spring is here, but I do wish it would get a bit warmer, we are still very cold with a fierce (most of the time) easterly or northerly wind; really had enough of being cold now. The cats are enjoying the sun though. This is a picture of Charlie enjoying some rare spring sunshine!

The yellow hammer is also back, he/she disappeared for ages, so its really nice to hear it again, only not so early in the morning. We also have a chaffinch, this is a newbie as I haven't heard him/her before round here, so the word has obviously got round that this is a nice place to stay. On the subject of birds we still have only one hen we just haven't had the time to go and get any more; it looks as though the two Easter weeks are going to be quiet on the work front as most of my work at the moment is with people in the tourism and leisure industry (not surprising really bearing in mind where we live) and they won't want to see me over the Easter hols; so it should be a good time to introduce some more birds to our hen house. We are not sure that our current incumbent will be very pleased as she gets all the food and all the treats, but it will be good for her to share again!

Meanwhile I have been trying to get on top of my wine collection and have now bottled the banana (15% ABV) and racked off the gorse (25% ABV - that can't be right) and the primrose (our own flowers, I didn't destroy the wild ones of course). The banana looks good but tastes of just alcholol, maybe it needs to be treated like a vodka, but it is a bit disapointing, I think I left it on the lees (the yeast and bits) too long.

I have also restarted to use my bead loom, something I learned from my sister who in turn learned it from the native Cree in Northern Canada. Sadly my eyesight is not what it was and even with glasses it is difficult. I am going to get myself a proper loom and some slightly larger beads and keep at it. I do find it quite relaxing. Photos will follow.

Right must stop procrastinating and go back to some work.

Still no more chickens

I went to look at some hybrids last week so that our poor little girl isn't lonely after her friend went to the great hen house in the sky. Hybrids are generally bred for egg laying and lay more eggs than pure breeds, however they are sometimes not as hardy as pure breeds and don't live as long. You can get hybrids bred for meat birds too. Most eggs that you buy from a supermarket come from hybrid layers whether these be from the nasty battery hen system or free range. Most commercial egg businesses tend to replace their hybrids after 18 months, even the free range ones. That may or may not be true if you buy your eggs from the farm gate or from farmers markets (I don't know to be honest). After about 18 months the shell quality of some of the more commercial hybrids can not be as good as with younger hens.

So you may ask why am I looking for hybrids and not pure breeds? Well it comes down to cash in some ways, as hybrid pullets (pullets; or POL, point of lay; - hens of about 18 weeks that are just coming into lay for the first time) are not as expensive to buy as pure breeds, however of course the pure breeds may last longer (as long as they don't get eaten by Mr Fox or get egg bound or develop other problems). Some hybrids are bred specifically for free ranging and lay more eggs (not as many as some of the really commercial hybrids such as the ISA's, warrens etc) and are good hardy birds that can live good long lives and these are the ones I was looking for/at. Problem is that I have rather fallen in love with a pure breed, the Welsummers, they are so so beautiful so now I am not quite sure what to do. The most hardy of the hybrids (the Black Rock) seems to be difficult to come by at the moment and their nearest relatives that I can fine are mostly very black!! (some have lighter head and neck feathers than others). I thought I liked this but when I went to see some similar hens I did think that I do really prefer the brown hen; you can get brown hybrids (I am thinking here of the Calder Ranger, also known as the Columbian Black Tail) that are hardier than the ISA's (these are the ones we got first time), but I am not sure if they are as hardy and long lived as the Black Rocks. What of course we could do is get a couple of the Calder Rangers and a couple of Welsummers. Need to put my thinking cap on about this one. The other option would be to raise some chicks, but this takes a lot of time and care and attention and we currently are not set up for this logistically, so something for the future perhaps.

It's quite fun looking at all the different breeds and there is a poultry auction at the agricultural market next Saturday so I might go for a look. I am not sure that I would buy from auction as you can get caught out and end up with cockerels rather than hens if you don't know what you are doing, sorry to say that there are some unscrupulous folks out there who will try to pass off a young cockerel as a hen. Also you really need to know that the hens have been vaccinated against the nastiest hen diseases, mareks for one. I will go and have a look anyway and report back. Who knows by this time next week we may be the proud owners of more girls.

A glorious end to a funny day

Been feeling a bit low all day after the hen affair last night and the remaining one does seem a bit lost today, poor thing, she'll be OK.

We were told when we came here that there was a barn owl, but I have only really seen an owl type flying thing a couple of times (it is very quiet on the owl calling front at night), then tonight I saw him just as the sun was going down, as I saw this thing flying towards me I thought it was one of our resident buzzards, but as he flew past I saw his white tummy and head and he was most definitely owl shaped.

Secondly, we have a clear night and I have just seen the biggest blood red moon rising over the horizon, at first I thought someone had a huge fire, it was that colour and then very very slowly it rose, just lovely. So a nice end to an otherwise odd day.

Sad day

Our lovely 'Librarian', so named because she was very intelligent and inquisitive (probably should have called her the Professor), has finally gone to the great hen house in the sky. I think I have related how she had a prolapse last August and never laid an egg since but seemed generally happy enough most of the time. She ate well, ran down the drive for food, scratched about and generally did what chickens do. Then when the cold weather came she seemed to go downhill and started sleeping in the nest box (mind you it was the warmest place to be). She still seemed OK apart from this and the fact that she couldn't jump like she used to. Then two days ago she stopped comming out of the nest box and was limp and sad looking (if you know what I mean), she was still eating and drinking but just stood around in the hen house looking really fed up. I guess we should have done the decent thing then but couldn't bring ourselves to do it. Yesterday she was no better and wasn't really eating at all; so after dark (so as not to distress her too much and not to distress the other one who was asleep on her perch), we gently took her out of the hen house, gave her a cuddle and put her to sleep (I won't go into details).

We are both sad as she was a lovely hen, but at least now she is not suffering anymore. The other hen does seem a bit distracted today but she has been running about on her own for a while (the other one kept herself to herself) and sleeping on the perch on her own for about a month. We still don't feel the run we have is terribly fox proof and the bad fox time is comming up in the spring when they have cubs, so we have to decide whether to get more hens or wait until we find our own place and can put something permenant in (we don't really want to put a permenant run in here when we don't know how long we will be here). If we don't get more we will have to think what to do with the remaining hen (Houdini as she can escape from anywhere if she wants), as having one hen on her own is probably not a good idea, although aparently my Grandmother had one hen for years as a pet. It must be said, that the remaining hen is fit and healthy and still lays lovely eggs.

Sad times, but in a sense not, we have done the right thing and it was over very quickly, she would have felt no pain or anxiety, so the only creatures really suffering are us as we miss her.

They think its all over

Now the snow has finally gone and the land has gone all mushy again, everything seems to think its spring time. The birds are singing like there is no tomorrow and the bulbs are pushing green spears through the sodden (and still slightly chilly) ground. But... last year we had a lot of snow in early Feb and again in March, so think some prudence would be wise.

The cats are much happier and whereas Charlie would only go out for calls of nature (and I don't mean the birds) with company when we had snow (no idea why, odd cat), he is now out and about at all hours bringing us nice presents! The Chickens are happy too, one was looking decidedly ill while we had the snow but she is a new chicken now, tail and head up, scratching about and looking good. The only hangover from the snow is that when it was cold she stopped perching at night and took over one of the nest boxes (full of straw) as her new boudoir, she has clearly decided that this is a much nicer place to sleep and hasn't perched since (think we might need to keep an eye on this and encourage her back again as sleeping in the nest box isn't good for hens). She also seems to have lost the ability to hop; chickens can jump quite high if they want to (ie if you dangle a nice worm in front of them they get achieve quite a height, will try to get a picture but usually over very quickly); since the snow this hen can't seem to do this anymore and for a bit this meant that she couldn't get onto the ladder leading to the hen house; she has now learnt how to get onto this without jumping up to it. Don't know why this should be, but other than that she is back to normal.

Getting interested in sheep now and hope for a good book on sheep for my birthday. Lamb prices are going up and will get even higher when we new spring lamb comes on the butchers slabs at Easter. You can also milk them (probably not the same breed, hence wanting the book to find out more). Milk is also quite an interesting idea; there was a good programme on Radio 4 last Sunday/Monday about micro dairies (we have heard of micro breweries, why not micro dairies), when small producers have a small herd and sell direct; we have an old dairy here so could we turn this farm back to how it was - interesting times.

Still got snow

I think as for many people the novelty is now wearing off. We have done sledging in the sheep field, trying to dodge the do dos; we have been shopping for our elderly neighbours (twice as we forgot to ask one couple and they rang up to ask if we could get into town for them); we check the sheep; we try to persuade the hens that it is OK to come out of the hen house; and we are trying to persuade one of our cats that outside is OK - for some reason he is very reluctant, not sure why); we have thrown the snowballs, but not yet made a snow man. But it is cold, no central heating here and although the woodburner does a good job we don't want to burn all our wood and sometimes it needs emptying so we can't have it going 24/7. It is also a pain to go out in the car; can we get out onto the main road, will we get up the nasty hill that lies between us and the main road, will we slide into the ditch as a friend did the other day and has now damaged the power steering of the only vehicle that they have that can get them up their half mile drive which is a nice hill too.

We did have a nice snowy walk to the pub yesterday though through virgin snow. No-one had been down our lane at all apart from on foot. On the way back there was one set of tyre tracks but that was all. The pub was packed (and hot) and most of the folks in the village had been having lots of sledging fun, which for some seemed to have resulted in alot of hand injuries (I have also damaged my right hand forgetting to move it out of the way when I had to slam one of the outbuilding sliding doors shut - clever girl; I have a ring on this finger and really should get it cut off, but that would involve a 30 minute drive, possibly longer, to our nearest minor injuries unit and just can't face it). M bought me one of those lightweight walking sticks for walking on Dartmoor for Christmas and it was useful yesterday if only to find the icy bits beneath the snow.

I was supposed to be going to St Austell for work tomorrow but have put that off. It is my Mums birthday on Sunday and I would like to go to see her but have to cross Dartmoor and that really doesn't seem like a good idea at the moment. Thankfully both of us do have enough work to do from home, but I find it difficult to concentrate on it. More snow forecast tomorrow and then we will see, the forecasts change all the time and no two are the same, even the BBC local and nationwide forecasts are different. Hopefully it will all go soon, but our next issue will be ice even if it does rain. Wish we lived somewhere where you got snow all the time, then I think we would be better set up for it, would certainly have snow tyres if we thought we would get every winter like this. Also is it over, it might rain next week, but last year we got more snow in Feb and March, will just have to wait and see.

Winter pics