This weekend

Friday we went to Gateshead. Ian had an appointment in Gateshead in the afternoon so I thought I’d go to the Metrocentre. I only had an hour or so there, and it would have taken much more than that to have seen the whole place – its massive. But then I seem to remember that it was once the largest shopping mall in Europe which I guess means I shouldn’t have been surprised at the size.

Got my haircut when I was there. First time since I started growing it, and I came out looking sleek. Of course, three minutes later and I was back to normal.

Saturday we had people view the house. It looked good, certainly at its best. We gave them some time to look at it on their own, so as long as they didn’t open any cupboards then they were fine. If they did then they would have disappeared under a deluge of ‘things’. Of course, now every sentence starts “do you know where we put….”.

Tonight one of the ducks, instead of going away with the rest, put herself away under the chicken shed. This was very strange and unusual behaviour. We got her out and are wondering if this means that she has started laying, or at least thinking about it. It was very strange anyway so we’ll see if there is anything in the cellar when we let them out tomorrow. I can’t remember when they started laying last year (if only I had been keeping the BLOG!). Trouble is they are inclined to be very secretive with where they lay.

I put clean straw in the chicken shed this week, and we haven’t had any eggs since! The first day after I did this, they spent the whole day pulling the hay out of their nesting box and trampling it into the floor. We use the ‘deep litter’ system with the chickens, which is where, during the winter new straw is put onto the old, and as the very old stuff at the bottom starts to rot it keeps the shed warm. And being winter it doesn’t rot too quickly.

One of the Welsomers has started to moult. She looks terrible, I am glad that I know what it is now, as she looks as through she has been drawn through a hedge backwards. But in a couple of weeks – if she is the same as the others, she’ll be a lovely gleeming hen again.

Quails have managed to peck through the divider I had put between their cages, but they weren’t fighting. Seem to be getting a steady supply of eggs again. Although only six, which seeing that we have 12 quails would give us a 50/50 split, which would be about right.

Still not sure about Bluebell, her coat grows at an inch a month so she is two inches wider each month, so could this be her bulge? Read a really sad thing about goats, apparently it is quite usual for them to have phantom pregnancies called ‘cloud bursts’ where they give birth to water (don’t understand the ins and outs) and then cry as they see their ‘baby’ drain away. I was almost crying as I read this. Hope that this isn’t going to happen to Bluebell.

Basil has been groomed and defleaed. He didn’t like it but we’re trying to get into the habit of grooming him weekly, so that when his coat grows back after his Xmas shearing, we’ll be able to keep him brushed.

Ian drove a tractor yesterday, well sort of. Farmer Mikes tractor ran out of deisel outside the house and it had to be towed back. Ian steered and Mike towed. Ian was quite impressed by the selection of pedals, and I did note him looking with renewed interested at the classified section of my smallholder magazine.