Happy but weary - a great day

Eggs - Total to date: 250 - Day 111

KoKKo 83 (86grms) 29.11.2005 Personal best
Adelaide 83 (77grms) 13.02.2006 Personal best
Ginger 84 (78grms) 22.2.2006 Personal best style="font-weight:bold;">

I sit before my computer a very sore woman. I have done too much today (you don’t get me confessing that too often) and tomorrow I might not be able to move – but I got so much done.

Firstly I have to mention that I did not sleep from 2.14 am until gone 6.23 am when I last looked at the clock, and I had read a book in bed up until almost midnight.

Pat wanted to go into the city – but I couldn’t be doing with it on a sunny but freezing cold day.

Instead I looked up on the web a couple of the things we needed and ordered a new steamer from Argos. I have used an electric steamer for more years that I can remember. This last one lasted 6 years and still works, but as usual it costs more money to replace the baskets which have literally broken in two, than it does to get a new one. The old one’s reservoir is pretty stained too – just from the juice of carrots etc. I hate throwing something away that works. Still that’s the way of the world these days.

Our electric toothbrush finally died too before Christmas – hence the need for a trip to the city – but I found a chemist that sold them in the same town where I was able to order the steamer for collection (13 miles away) so I was persuaded to go there. Apparently I don’t get out enough! But I know what he means.

So, apart from getting the steamer and now toothbrush, I got some plastic lawn edging, and some bedding for the chickens. It was way too cold to go looking around. I did go into a health food shop in the hope of getting cocoanut oil and a large bottle of eucalyptus oil for my soap – but no luck again.

Lunch was home made sausages – Somerset apple and pork – will have to make some more as they were the last! We had parsnip, carrot, roasted pumpkin and potato mash – so bright and colourful and tasty.

After yesterday’s soaking allotment experience – whilst Pat was sitting in the car – I did not want to miss a minute of the sunshine, so soon changed back to Worzel Gummidge, and went out to do a bit of gardening – just for an hour – well that was my intention.

I ended up on my hands and knees 'installing’ for want of a better word, 27 metres of lawn edging. It involved a lot of work, but you can imagine the digging, weeding, hammering etc that went with it – all in the biting wind – but the sun shone.

The chickens were so curious to see what I was doing when I reached the other side of their pen.

They took it in turns to be at the front of the fence to have a look, and then reported back what they saw.

When they saw me digging along the edge of the grass, they decided to 'help' me and started digging their side of their pen.


They do their funny walk forward then shuffly back scratching the soil as they go and repeat the same thing over and over again. I never tire of watching them!

I also cleaned out the chickens and put in fresh bedding – with them jumping all over me as usual (here is a photo just to prove what I am talking about)



Here are Adelaide and Ginger doing their inspection.



Adelaide inspecting the shredded woodchips that I had emptied out and refusing to get off until she was ready!

I then had the silly brain wave of clearing out some of the woodchips in the pen, as they have gone dark now – not smelly – but I thought I would clear them out and let the girls have a scratch in the soil before putting down some fresh bags.

The wheel barrow is up at the allotment, so I had to fill up a large bucket and carry it to the flower beds and empty it and rake it. The girls kept getting in my way all the time and got so excited at every shovel full. They scratched away looking for insects and stuck their heads in the bucket and just in front of the spade. With hindsight I should have just locked them in their Eglu run, but they were having so much fun. It made it a really hard task and from all the rain yesterday a heavy one too.

I did 100 buckets full, by which time I could hardly move a muscle. The flower beds that I have mulched (weeding as I went) look fantastic! I then saw one more bed to edge before coming in – and did something unheard of – I actually asked Pat if he would put away the tools for me, as I could hardly walk! Which he did bless him, then I swept all the paths and patio so it looks great.

I can't get any more photos to load for some reason, so will do them on a seperate page.