The painting continues

Luckily we have had a few sunny days this October so good progress has been made on the painting. Again it was Beth who did the lions share of the job but the Eoin and Anna took turns as well.

The other children decided that they would join in with a more artistic type of painting.

However if I thought I was going to fob Tiarnan off with painting a picture instead of getting stuck in with the 'grown up' painting I was very much mistaken!

Project Pygmy Goats

 This is what our fridge looks like at the moment. In pride of place are photo's of Ron, Hermione, Harry and Neville. Every day I am asked 'How long before we can bring them home?, Can't we get them now?', to which the answer is 'No we are not ready!!'. We therefore have a very keen workforce and are beginning to make good progress. We had lovely weather at the weekend so the painting of the sheds began in earnest. After much measuring and deliberating we decided that the bigger of the sheds is going to be the hay, straw and feed store and then the children's playhouse is going to become the goats house.

Eoin and Beth painting the playhouse which will become their house and is apparently to be named 'Hogwarts'.

 
 All the children took turns painting. The little children only lasted about 20 minutes each but Beth stayed with me all afternoon until we had achieved what we could for the day. Beth is a trojan worker and will always stay till a job is done. Grandma always likes Beth to help her in the garden or in the kitchen making tea as she is such a willing worker and always sticks it out until the finish.

Justin busy sanding the shed ready for painting so we're hoping for some dry weather this weekend!

Our Chickens

These are our chickens; Maisy, Hettie, Lily, Flora, Jessie and Whitney. They were our first pets and are really lovely. We got them when they were between 2 and 3 weeks olds, each of our children choosing one chicken to have as their own. As they were so small we had them in the garage under a heat lamp for a few weeks until they were old enough to go out into the coop in the garden. We then had to wait about 5 months for them to begin laying but there was huge excitement with the first egg!

As the hens are different breeds they lay different colour eggs. This makes for great variety and the children feel real ownership of their own hens eggs. The only problem is when you suggest cooking some for breakfast and you get requests like 'yes please, Flora's egg'. They are not so easily identified once not in their shells!
We have had a higher rate of egg consumption as well because an egg straight from the garden, laid that morning is in a different league from shop bought eggs.

This is our coop and run which then opens onto a larger area with a 50m length of netting. When we are home they roam around the larger area and then when we go out they go into the fully enclosed run which is fox proof.  At night then we shut their coop door and let them out first thing in the morning.

On a Saturday the coop is cleaned out and then every 2 weeks it gets jet washed as it is made of plastic. The plastic makes it easy to wash and means it won't harbour red mites like wood can. While their coop is being cleaned the children go on a 'chicken walk' letting them have free range of the whole garden.

Feeding is easy too. The children are responsible for all the day to day care of their hens, with Daddy helping out with Saturday cleaning. They feed them layers pellets first thing in the morning, filling up their feeding pots  ( called Grubs ) and their water pots ( Glugs!). Any treats, like leftover vegetables or pasta are then given later in the day.

The children love their hens and spend a lot of time with them. Beth sometimes baths her hen, Henrietta, putting her in a bucket of warm water and then carrying her around the garden wrapped in a towel until she's dry. As this has been a reasonably regular occurance since she was young, Hettie has no qualms about this experience and happily sits in the water taking in her surroundings. Hettie is also the hen who has come into the house the most. This is not something we particularly encourage for the obvious reason but Beth has special dispensation on her birthday to bring Hettie in at the end of tea and it has now become a tradition. 

This is Beth and Hettie this June as Beth turned 11. Hettie was very well mannered, partaking of some corn and raisins without any mishaps.

The chickens turned 2 this July so the children made them a little birthday tea including a cake. We did insist on having it in the garden though, six chickens in the kitchen would be pushing things even by our standards!

Beth brings Hettie in to listen to one of Anna's guitar lessons.

 The hens have been a great success and I can't imagine a garden without hens now!