It's been so long....

Hi Everyone,

Gosh, it has been quite a while since I updated my blog!

Well, since I last wrote I have made a major purchase (for me anyway). I got fed up pressing all of the linen for our holiday let at Rosia Cottage as it took about two to three days to get it all washed, dried and pressed. So, I have invested in a steam roller press and it is worth it's weight in gold! Yesterday I cleaned the cottage, washed all of the linen and had it dried and pressed by 5 p.m. - Time is money as they say, so instead of finishing the laundry today/tomorrow, I can now list new items on our website Trewhellows Gift Shop (provided they are delivered today!).

So much time on my hands, so why have I not been blogging more?

Chickens! Eggs and even more eggs, that's why!!

The last time I twittered, I said that the hen house had arrived - flat packed and ready to build.

Well, I had the hen house as a birthday present (my request!) It was bought on e-bay - good place to buy.

Clive and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary in the usual romantic style - we bought 12 young chickens on the 31st March - ok, not romantic but far more practical than 12 red roses and they will last much longer (provided Mr Foxy does not decide to eat them). They were 17 weeks old when we got them and they started to lay exactly two weeks after.

We had our first egg on 14th April. Since then, we averaged about 10 eggs a day - until this week that is! Now they are laying around 12 eggs per day.

What to do with so many eggs! Because the hens are running around the field eating worms and fed corn, the eggs are well and truly FREE RANGE! Delicious, almost orange yolks - so we have no problem selling them! But I don't sell them all - believe it or not, I have been baking!

I am getting quite domesticated in my old age - all this pressing laundry and baking my own bread, cakes and desserts. What ever next? Dusting and vacuuming maybe??? (No, don't think so ;-0 ).

Poor Clive in all this excitement has been rushed off his feet - repairing the chicken shed every 5 minutes. Just don't mention the word GOATS to him.

Last night was a bit like a scene from Fawlty Towers - Basil would have been proud of Clive!

Probably best I start at the beginning. The chickens are kept in the same field as the goats (mistake number one!). As they seem to be rather partial to chewing a bit of wood, the first thing we did when the chicken shed was assembled, was to give it a good coating of creosote.
Once this was finished we thought it safe enough to eat our tea. How wrong could we have been!

Next thing to do - cover the outside of the shed with wire fencing - that will keep their little gnashers away from the wood (what was left of it!). Ha! That bit worked!

Once the chickens had settled, we wanted them to roam the field - but how do we keep the door open and keep the goats out? - Erect yet another little bit of fencing with a hole in, of course.

Initially we tied it up with string - hmm, who ever thought that a goat would leave that alone?
No sooner we had put it up and left them alone - Twix, Twirl and Polo ate the string and got in the hen run.

Wire was the next solution. Well, that lasted a bit longer, but it didn't take the goats too long to work out how to break that down too.

Last week they managed to get in and tried to walk up the ramp - sorry goats, it was designed to take the weight of chickens not goats, so it broke into pieces. Clive was not too impressed at having to repair it - especially when they got in for the 2nd time that day and broke it again.

For obvious reasons, I can't write down the words that he used - but I will leave it to your imaginations the *blue* words used!

Well, to get to the point - Clive *Basil Fawlty* Richardson was not a happy man yesterday! He had spent quite a lot of the day repairing little bits - like the door to the house etc. After tea he decided to go up and clean then house out, but he was not gone long before he came marching back............."advertise those *******goats! They have got to *****go!"

I don't think I need to tell you really - but they had broken down the fence again - according to Clive, they had totally wrecked the hen house this time. *arms flapping, pacing up and down*.

Unfortunately for Clive - the word *sympathy* is not part of my vocabulary and it was all I could do to contain myself - until that is, Clive said in a stroppy voice "DON'T LAUGH AT ME" - well, that did it! I had to walk away as I could only giggle and make the matter far worse!

Well, I think I have probably bored you long enough, so will say goodbye for now...........


Kathryn
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