Disheartened

I have been remiss. Updates are not appearing on here as thick and fast as they should probably be. But there, look, I only posted once last October, so this is a vast improvement. And anyway, not much has been going on this month. Or at least, not much has been going on that I've been tempted to blog about.

We're onto chicken no. 5. A couple of weekends ago Lola had a cough on the Saturday, wheezed on the Sunday, and was dead on the Monday morning. Even as we were discussing the possibility of finding a chicken-certified local vet. And Lola! Good ol' faithful, had-since-the-beginning Lola! There were tears, as I wrapped her in newspaper...

I've put off blogging about it this long because our apparent lack of ability to keep chickens alive had me feeling somewhat ashamed, embarrassed, guilty, sad, angry... they were never supposed to be pets, exactly, but then they're not supposed to blimmin' well die so fast either. What are we doing wrong?!! Ah well. We discussed getting rid of Peggy Sue and becoming chickenless again (after all, where the run had been would make a fantastic veggie patch - all that poo!), but then a Saturday impulse led to us getting as-yet-unnamed-but-possibly-called-Alice.

I know. Don't say anything. I'm still not entirely convinced it was the right thing to do. At least they have a fairly pampered life with us while they plot their numerous escapes and pop out eggs every day before their untimely demise.

And I can keep working my way through the cupcake recipe book my sister got me for my birthday...

Toms!

The yellow tomatoes are ripening - I picked a big mixing bowl full yesterday, along with a few red ones and a few cherry tomatoes from our grow bags in the garden. Yum. Now I have to decide what to do with them. I'm thinking about making some tomato sauces to freeze and maybe some chutneys too - the local shop is selling sacks of onions at a ridiculously low price (I'm not so bothered about our lack of onion success this year now, seeing as how they're so cheap to buy down the road!) so some tomato and onion chutney could be just the thing. And it'd be nicely matured by Christmas.

Did lots of weeding yesterday, tackled the four worst beds which had the biggest weeds on. What's the phrase? 'One year's weeds, seven year's seeds'? In that case, we're doomed... we're going to be weeding forever.

Adam's away this week so I took it nice and easy, had the radio on, and stopped for an egg mayo sandwich and a cuppa for lunch in the sunshine.

Peggy Sue's managed to find a way of escaping the chicken coop. We saw her jump up onto the top of the cage door, so we put some bamboo canes across the top to stop her begin able to flap and flutter up there, but she's still found a way to get out into the garden. Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye on her...

Egg-cellent stuff

Our trusty Lola's still popping out one egg a day. Gosh she's a handsome ol' bird! Little Peggy Sue should start laying any day now. (She looks a lot smaller in the photo than in the flesh...). And they're still getting on fine.

Fab :)

Eggsies

When eggs seem to be getting more and more expensive in the shops, it's nice to have our own supply.


We fenced off half of the garden this week to re-sow the grass. This the hens did not like.

Angie (possibly THE most stupid chicken In The World) tried to climb through the plastic netting. The holes are about 1"x2". Her head and feet could fit though ok - through seperate holes, obviously - but she seemed confused as to why the rest of her body then wouldn't follow.

She didn't get through.

Stupid chicken.

We also put a board across at the top of the garden to stop them getting to the pots by the back door (these plants are especially interesting and peck-able now that the majority of the garden is off-limits). Lola then decided to try and fly over this barrier. It seems no one has told her that chickens' wings are less than useless. She made it about a foot into the air - mainly by jumping - then decided to hold onto the top edge of the board with her neck, while frantically flapping her wings, scrabbling her feet, and with a slightly manic look in her eye.

She didn't make it over.

Stupid chicken.

Hello Angie

Meet Angie, our new hen.

And yes, she's laying (rounder, pinker eggs than Lola), so we're now a two-egg-a-day family again. Hurrah!

Goodbye Ruby Tuesday...

Adam went to check on the hens this morning to find that Ruby had died unexpectedly in the night. She'd been a bit wheezy on and off since we first got her, and we'd been giving her some medication, but she still seemed perky and she was eating and drinking, scratching around and pestering us for treats like normal only yesterday...

But we seem to have done quite well in maintaining the view that our chickens are egg providers rather than pets, and there were no tears. Lola seems completely nonplussed by the whole event, even - somewhat morbidly - clambering over her deceased friend to lay her egg early this morning. (Sorry if that's too much information.)

Anyway, we toddled off to get Lola a new friend, as chickens are companionable sorts. She's not named yet, and I'll post some pics once it's stopped raining and she's settled in.

Curiouser and curiouser

The chooks are getting mischievous.

Curious.

Cocky, even, if you'll permit the pun.

We were tidying the garden (hence the state of the kitchen floor in the pic below) and not only were they determined to get their heads between the sledgehammer and the stake we were removing from the ground, or underneath the spade and the dirt we were attempting to shovel, but Lola then tottered into the house to see if Adam had found any treats while he was doing the washing up.


Oh, and you really should see them jump for worms (or spaghetti). I'll try and post a video one day.

In the bleak mid-winter...

...frosty winds, earth hard as iron, water like a stone? I wonder if whoever wrote that carol was a gardener?

Anyway, I'd better bring you up to date on the plot, hadn't I? Obviously the chooks have been the most exciting thing of the past few weeks in terms of producing our own food, but the allotment is still chuntering away in the background.

Looks a bit bleak though, doesn't it? And that front left bed definitely needs weeding before the grass takes over completely... (add to To Do list...)

At home, we're still eating our own potatoes, onions and shallots, although supplies of each are starting to get a bit low. We've got two small pumpkins left, and Adam is working through a batch of courgette chutney in his cheese sandwiches for lunch. In the freezer we've still got frozen broad beans and runner beans too. All in all, most pleasing. The damsons were the main disappointment - a distinct lack of them anywhere in the world (it seems) means we'll have no damson gin this Christmas. Apparently it was A Bad Year for damsons...

We went to the plot last weekend and did a bit of tidying. And pillaging, if I'm to be truthful. The plot next door had been paid for but (as you can just about see on the picture above - to the left of out plot) nothing's been done. Now their rent has expired the secretary can re-let the plot, which shouldn't be too hard - it's got a shed and everything! - but also said people could take any of the 'stuff' the previous occupants had left behind. There was some wood and some corrugated metal sheets which went to be recycled into someone's new shed, and we nabbed a gargantuan water tank (with a hole in, as it happens, but we'll patch it, oh yes). Plus there is a compost bin half full of luscious, crumbly goodness which *might* work its way over to our patch. I feel slightly guilty about taking things, but maybe that's part of what allotmenteering is all about - making use of other people's unwanted 'junk'. You should see some of the sheds going up on the plot- one of them is - so far - tied together with old rags (I kid you not!).

My dad brought us three large drums to use as water butts (Dad - we still owe you a beer) so now we can set up a nice system round the back of the shed and we'll have no problems with water storage. It's not really something we've had to worry about so far. Since we've had the plot we haven't even really had to think about watering in the summer, as the summers have been, well, wet, to say the least. But it's always been on our minds that we don't have quite enough water butts about.

Our garlic and onions are doing ok, all poking their little pointy shoots through the soil. Our different types of garlic have shown an obvious difference. The garden centre bought bulbs emerged first, with bright green shoots, but only now have the bulbs we bought from Pat's deli on the corner put in an appearance. The garden centre bulbs were white, so we tried to buy pinker bulbs from Pat's and, indeed, the shoots do have a pink tinge.

And here's the cauli. Beautiful curly whirly shapes. Some of the others - the yellowish varieties - are looking a bit sick, and slightly browned. Maybe they got frosted a couple of weeks ago? I'm not sure what's up, never having grown cauliflowers. But we've tied up the leaves which is supposed to protect them so hopefully they'll be decent enough for us to eat. The purple ones are still looking good. Oh, and we should have just enough brussels sprouts for Christmas. After trying to be so careful and grow more plants this year, we've actually ended up with less than last year! Damn slugs... Watch out, or we'll set the chickens on you!

Here come the girls

Well, the chickens are named... Lola and Ruby Tuesday. Thanks to everyone who gave us ideas - lots of food for thought. Henna was a particular favourite...

Here's Lola, scrummaging around in the garden...

"Her name was Lola,
she was a showgirl,
with yellow feathers in her hair,
and a dress cut down to there... "

...no dress, but she's got the yellow feathers. She's very friendly, and will always come over and see what you're up to. She seems to think that fingernails and rings are edible.

Here's Ruby, striking a pose in the run. She's much more reddish around the head than Lola, with less gold on her front. She seems to be the bossy one of the two. She's a bit more wary of us humanfolk but is always first to the food and treats.

Lola lays her eggs in the morning, and Ruby seems to lay about lunchtime.