New hens (and other things)

Right, we'll start with the other things first... We have been building a greenhouse:






We've actually got rather further than this -- all the glass is in now -- but it is raining today, so I'm not too motivated to go outside to take a picture of the glass now -- but more photos of it in a more completed state will follow by early next week...

We planted some rhubarb -- one of these plants we found growing in the back garden here, and we've transplanted it to give it more space -- and the other four are from Greg's parents' garden, from a rhubarb plant that originally belonged to Greg's GRANDPARENTS -- so this is HISTORIC rhubarb!


Three of the apple trees we bought some time ago are now in the ground and I hope to get the other three in by the end of the week.


And, the photos you've all been waiting for -- the new hens! A friend of a friend of mine was concerned about bird flu and decided that she wanted to get rid of her hens so rather than having them slaughtered unnecessarily, I brought them here and we are now averaging something like 10 eggs a day! Please buy some!!! :) They are Black Rock x Leghorns and are MUCH smaller then the Light Sussex hens... I apologise for the sheer number of photos here -- I have edited, believe me!




















And of course there are the eggs -- the eggs from the new hens are much darker than the eggs from the old hens...

Hen vs Cockerel

Before our hen died the other week, we used to call her "sex-change chicken" because her comb had grown much larger and her body had got larger and she had started to act a bit more male -- no crowing yet though -- but we just thought we were being silly -- I had no idea it could actually happen!

Hen Autopsy Update

Sorry -- meant to post this ages ago but have been busy -- we have had the autopsy report back from the lab now -- the hen died of an ovarian tumour most likely caused by lymphoid leukosis. So the upshot of this all is that there's nothing we could have done to help her, and it's not contagious, so we don't have to worry about the other hens getting it. You can all stop panicking now -- it wasn't bird flu... :)

WWOOF

We are now officially a WWOOF host farm -- if you would like to come spend some time here and help us do things, join WWOOF.

Egg Prices

Have heard varying opinions recently about what is a fair price for me to be charging for eggs -- I've put a poll in my sidebar, so if you could please tell me what you would be willing to pay, it would be a great help. Many thanks...

Bird Flu Humour

Thanks to Janet for this one:

Wyau

Which one of these eggs is not like the others?


We had a particularly odd egg last night -- I went out to put the chickens to bed and one of the hens came out into the run and when she turned around it looked like she had an egg stuck to her bottom. I thought this was odd as I've seen them lay eggs before and pretty much they just fall straight out. So I bent down to have a closer look and then it fell out -- and it was two soft-shelled eggs sort of connected together with a little tube -- like Siamese eggs or something! One half broke when it fell which is the bit that looks rather like a deflated balloon here:


But both halves had yolks in, so it was two fully formed eggs somehow stuck together! Poor hen!


One of the other students in my Welsh class has ducks and we traded half a dozen of my hen eggs for his duck eggs -- they are delicious but VERY rich -- I wouldn't want to eat them every day!



I also made mayonnaise today -- with hen eggs -- and British rapeseed oil -- what a lovely colour -- so much better than Miracle Whip! Yummy!

Mae fy iar tost wedi maru...

On Sunday morning, I went out to let the chickens out, and found that the hen that has been poorly recently was dead. The other chickens were a bit disturbed but they seem to have forgotten about it now. As this was the third chicken that has been ill (the first one we killed, and the second one we cured with antibiotics) we decided to pay for a post-mortem to be done in the hopes that we can find out what is going on here to prevent it happening with any more of the chickens. I should have a preliminary report back from the vet by Wednesday.



In other news, we are finally buying a trailer -- so we can move sheep, muck, and other large things... I put down a deposit yesterday and we should have the trailer in 4-6 weeks time.



I baked some lovely bread with seeds in from flour that Dorothy gave us -- not quite sure why as I did it the same way I always do, but it was particularly good!



And last night the toilet broke, so first thing this morning I am off to the builders' yard to buy a new syphon so I can flush again! :)

Catching up again...

It is supposed to be spring, but I don't think anybody has remembered to tell the weather! The daffodils have started to come out only to be bashed about by the horrendous gales and storms we have been having. At the entrance to the big field, there is a stream that runs under the gate -- yesterday morning when I was crossing the stream (normally less than an inch deep) the water came over the tops of my boots!

It's been a while since I posted any gratuitous egg photos, so here's one in case you were missing your fix. It never fails to amaze me the endless variety of sizes and colours of egg we get from seemingly identical hens!

In other news, we bought some fruit stocks the other week -- these are black currant, gooseberry, raspberry, and strawberry. We have planted out the strawberries already, but need to wait for a few good dry days before we can do the rest as it is just too wet to dig right now.

And this last photo has got nothing to do with anything really -- I found it on the internet while looking for something else -- and it really made me realise how much my life has changed over the last few years. For those of you who don't know, this is the building I lived in when I lived in New York! Apologies to the unknown photographer who I have stolen this from.

Mae fy iar wedi bwyta broga!

No, your eyes do not deceive you, that is a photo of one of the hens eating a frog...

In other chicken related news, yesterday we had 7 eggs for the first time this year -- spring is definitely here -- the daffodils will be opening any day now and there are lambs in the field above ours!



Also, on Saturday, we bought our first six apple trees. Now we just need to plant them!

Scrabble yn Gymraeg

As many of you probably know, I have been playing Scrabble for more years than I can count now -- most recently with the London Scrabble League and before that in New York with Xina at Mona's -- but I have never before played Scrabble in Welsh -- it is VERY hard!!! The CYD group in Ammanford organised a Scrabble night on Monday and I went along -- I am pleased to report that although my team lost, I was personally responsible for the single highest scoring move in our game -- COR for 20 points!

All Small Engines

I would like to highly recommend All Small Engines in Manordeilo to anybody in the area needing work done on chain saws, strimmers, lawnmowers, etc. I took our chainsaw in to Roger on Monday and just got it back -- he stripped and cleaned the carburetor, checked the motor, decoked it, refitted the throttle, sharpened the chain, replace the spark plug & fuel filter, gave me a new screw for where I was missing one on the top cover, and a general tune up -- all for a total of £36.72! I personally think this is an absolute bargain and am well pleased... :)

RIP Sunshine

Gone but not forgotten...





And in a bizarre twist of events, the dealer who bought her was the same one I bought her from in the first place! So in a way she's gone back home...

I know it's silly to get emotionally attached to a bit of plastic and metal, but I miss her already... :(

What we did with our Saturday...

So in our house we only have one power point in each room. This sort of reaches its worst point in our study where we have 3 computers, etc., and power strips and cords draped across the floor everywhere... So yesterday, Greg said that he thought that if he ADDED one more power strip to the mess, he could then re-route it so it ran across the top of the door frame rather than across the middle of the floor and it would make the room tidier and life simpler. I said that sounded like a great idea... So Greg was trying to neatly fasten this power strip around the top of the door frame with cable clips when he drove one of the clips into one of the central heating pipes (which are NOT behind the walls)... With the help of a very helpful little book which Calcot gave us for Xmas several years ago (thank you!), we have now managed to successfully repair our central heating system and gain a thorough understanding of it's workings in the process...

And because I haven't posted one in a while, here's a gratuitous photo of the kitties...

Welsh in New York

Did anybody in New York see this on Wednesday???

Dim Dwr Eto...

So this morning, yet again, the water is frozen. Two things I don't understand:

1. There was a cold snap a while ago where it was colder than this for a longer period and the water never froze, so why is it freezing now?

2. Doesn't the hot water tank hold a quantity of water? I understand that the cold water which only has a very small header tank inside the house freezes because it's basically coming straight from outside, but shouldn't I have a bathtub full of hot water? Or is there something in the tank that prevents the water dropping below a certain level, so if there isn't fresh cold water coming it, it won't let me take the hot water out?

All answers and suggestions gratefully accepted...

Dwr

And the water is back again. I know what Greg means now when he described it to me last time -- there is suddenly a "thud" and then a whooshing sound as the toilet tank refills...! Off to make a cup of tea...

Ac eto...

By the end of the day yesterday, the snow had melted off the muddy bits, but, as if by magic, it all reappeared in the night again! :)



Now this is obviously some sort of little bird...



But what is this? A fox???



Oh, and did I mention, I have no water again... :( But I guess that is a small price to pay for all this beautiful snow! Yay!!!

Mae hi'n bendigedig iawn...

This is so much better than the pathetic dusting we had the other day!





You can really see now the contrast between the (allegedly) white chickens and the pure white snow...





As Shiva tries to go outside without getting cold feet...







This is the view down the valley from the top of the top field...



I got confused when I went into the porch to go out -- normally it is very bright in here as there are windows on three sides and clear plastic sheeting on the roof -- and it was very dark this morning -- because of the snow on the roof!!!