Chicken dinner...

Today we harvested the last of hedge hen's cockerel chicks.  This boy is about seven months old and only just started crowing -- we didn't even realise he was a cockerel until a few weeks ago -- is this because this lot of chicks grew up over winter and therefore grew up more slowly?

Deadweight of 1.6 kg which is the biggest so far -- based on weight and body shape, we think that the pheasant may have had a hand in some of the other cockerel chick as well as the phicken -- but this one we are fairly sure is the offspring of the big black Jersey Giant cockerel.  Now, as we get ready to start hatching eggs again this year, how on earth can we be sure that the pheasant hasn't been in with the hens again???!

It never fails to amaze me how the feathers get EVERYWHERE...  Including up my nose!  They are so nice and compact on the bird, but once you pluck them...!

And here's Cookie, in yet another absurd sleeping pose...  :)

Lamb-a-palooza!

Following on from Black ewe kicking things off last Saturday, it has been a week of lambs!

On Monday it became evident that both Curly and Brown ewes were pretty close.

Curly had these two unassisted Tuesday afternoon...

...and the thing that has most made my week is that both of these are girls -- so I finally have an all black girl lamb!  Woo hoo!  Black sheep for the win!  :)

Brown ewe was still acting like she was going to have a lamb but by last light on Tuesday nothing had started.  I was particularly worried about her as she was the only one I had to assist last year plus the weather overnight Tuesday was wet & windy, so I prayed to the lambing gods to let her hold on until morning when I could be there...

Turns out there was no need for my concern as I went out at first light on Wednesday to find that she'd also had twins and they were dry and up on their feet!

These are both boys, so that's potentially two black tups that will be looking for new homes come autumn...

On a side note, the fact that Brown ewe was in my face the whole time I was tagging her lambs is definitely progress on the taming front -- last year, the ewes came nowhere near us when we were tagging!

So that's just Greedy left to lamb now as we didn't put Shy ewe or White ewe with Pete this year. 

Couple of interesting observations thus far:

1.  The ewes are lambing in exactly the same order as they did last year.

2.  Each of them has had one black lamb and one not black lamb.

No idea if there's any significance to either of these....

And here's Cookie -- who came out to help us with the tagging -- NOT!  :)

Lambing 2024 is here!

Black ewe was the first to lamb again this year, but two weeks earlier than last year (same tupping start date).  No warning at all -- on Friday evening she was acting perfectly normal.  On Saturday morning, she'd separated herself from the flock and didn't come for food.  I left her to it and came back an hour later to see this little beauty, already up and on its feet -- and then, as I was photographing them, she turned around and I saw little feet on their way -- twins!

Went away again to give her a bit of privacy and about 10 minutes later the second one was out -- and a beautiful black lamb!

They survived a horrible first night of wind and rain, but the weather is looking a bit calmer and more settled for the next week.

This morning at feeding black ewe came to the bucket and brought her twins with her -- which really amazed me as last year it was a few days after giving birth before the ewes would come to the bucket.  Hopefully this is another step forward towards the goal of friendly sheep!  :)

The mostly white lamb is a girl, and the black lamb, sadly, is another boy!  What is it with me and black tup lambs?!  I want a black ewe lamb please!  :)  But they both seem fit and healthy so that's good.

Three more ewes to go; hopefully none of them have twins or else I will have more sheep than I know what to do with!  :)

Bag the Bruck

Bruck is the Orcadian word for rubbish, and so Bag the Bruck is an annual beach clean event...  

The Selkies did a fairly small area of beach and managed to collect a TON of rubbish in not very much time, the vast part of which is marine waste from the fishing industry...

Spring update

The weather has been a bit back and forth -- not as nice as I want it to be, but plenty of nice days scattered throughout.  I've been swimming more frequently now -- hopefully it won't be long before that's a daily possibility -- had my 18th swim of 2024 today!

We've been taking advantage of the weather as much as we can -- Danny is today replacing the very rotted frame on the back door:

 

The barn doors are also getting rotten wood replaced and a fresh coat of paint.  I considered bright pink but on reflection thought it might be better to stick with blue!

It is fairly amazing how quickly the driving rain removes paint from surfaces -- it's like having everything powerwashed all winter long...

On the egg front, the ducks have finally decided to start laying and the hens have finally gotten into their swing...

After eating several goose eggs, we decided that we want to see if they will hatch us some little goosies -- so Danny built them this little shelter out of pallets and presto, she's started laying in it and they are being VERY aggressive if we try to go near it.  Hopefully in about another week she'll decided that she's laid enough eggs and start sitting on them. 

I did make hamantaschen last week for Purim but totally forgot to take a photo at the time.  Here are the last three -- I am showing such restraint!!!  Once upon a time I would have eaten the whole batch within 24 hours...  :)  Not to worry though -- hot cross buns are about to go into the oven, so we won't starve to death...  :)

We've got a new cover on the polytunnel -- fingers crossed we get a good few years out of this one as getting it on is a major PITA...

And last but certainly not least -- my favourite vegetable(!) is poking its head up!  :)

Spring equinox

Beautiful day for the equinox yesterday -- sunny, no wind -- it really felt like spring was finally here!

I had a lovely solo swim -- first of the year...

We are not at peak daffodil yet, but they are starting to come out...

And we FINALLY got to have a fire!  We didn't have one for autumn equinox because Danny had just had his hernia op and wasn't up to it, and we tried to start one for winter solstice but a sudden hail storm put a stop to that, so I'm glad we finally succeeded this time -- and we had nearly a full moon watching over us!

But now we are back to the 40+ mph winds and rain and tomorrow morning's boat has been cancelled so I guess it is not really spring yet!  Fingers crossed it comes soon!  :)

Mend & Make Do

I bought this coat sometime in the early 90s at Dollar a Pound in Kenmore Square.  It's quite light really, so maybe it cost 50 cents?  I've just spent an hour or so mending and reinforcing tears and seams and it's good as new again -- ready to give me another 30 or so years of use -- and remember -- it was second hand to start with! 

I think the label says it all really!