Blimey - doesn't time fly!

I hadn't realised it had been sooo long since my last blog entry!
I started a new job working for London Underground in May which I am enjoying very much. The only down side is it is shift work and I have therefore spent most of the last couple of months saying "What day it is and what meal am I supposed to be eating next?"
Youngest son came home from spending time with his dad and has completely hogged the computer (he's currently asleep on the sofa!)
My feeble attempts to go green have turned into a kind of sludgy brown. The veg garden consists of 1 potato plant, 2 turnips, a handful of onions, a pumpkin plant and a very bedraggled looking rhubarb patch. This is what happens when you let chickens roam free in your garden. You'd think that as thanks for giving them all this freedom and saving them from becoming chicken nuggets that they would gratefully lay lots of eggs for me - but no! On a good day I get 4 eggs from 8 hens. I've spoilt them you see. They turn their beaks up at their proper food, ie layers pellets, and prefer pasta and cream cheese. What is needed is tough love - no more goodies until they have eaten all their pellets. And no more free roaming in my veg patch!!!

What a load of rubbish

A strange thing has been happening to my wheelie bin - it's been getting lighter and less full. I don't understand where all the rubbish is. Usually there are 3-4 black bin bags of crap per week hauled off to a landfill site somewhere but for the last 2 weeks only 3 supermarket plastic bags. Now is it because we ran out of black bags and those little plastic bags don't hold as much so therefore look alot less rubbish, or could my family finally have got the message about recycling and reusing?
I voiced my amazement to my little darlings who were able to solve the mystery in a flash. They're all broke so they are not buying take-aways and crap that comes in lots of packaging! I have been reassured that normal services will resume on payday.

Time Out

When was the last time you went for a walk just for the fun of it?

I took the dog, Coby, out for a walk this morning. Not to the usual place, but to the woods near us. i love walking in the woods at anytime of the year, but this has to be my favourite time - bluebell time.

Would you look at that colour, truely beautiful. We also walked along the river, well I walked BY the river whilst Coby was IN the river. Then we strolled across Croxley Moor.The sun was shining, the birds were singing. All was right with my world.

Then, to my horror, I read a notice attached to a tree on the edge of the wood the read - Private Property. Keep Out. etc, etc. £500 fee for walking in the woods. This woods have been there long before man set foot in Croxley. Generations have grown up playing and walking in these woods. What is going on I wondered. So I asked another dog walker. Apparently, the chap who owns the wood (I always thought it was council owned) wants to build on the land after all these years (property prices encourage greedy landowners) and our local council is preventing him. Therefore, out of spite no doubt, he will no longer allow people to use his wood.

Still, I went in as I wanted to see the bluebells and take some photos. Now being a responsible dog owner I cleared up after Coby using free doggie bags from my local library. How I wish I'd had the courage to smear the contents of said bag all over that bloody sign!

On the bright side, it's nice to know that Three Rivers District Council are prepared to fight to protect this natural beauty spot enjoyed by generations.

Keep your cool

It's a glorious sunny Easter Sunday and my thoughts have turned to how to keep the house cool in the summer. If the last few years are anything to go by, then I think the forecasters are right when they say that this summer is going to be another hot one. I don't like the heat and would be quite happy to have a summer home in the Arctic Circle! But, as that is not an option, I try to keep the house as cool as possible without resorting to high energy consuming air-cons.
The one method that I have used for the last few years that works well, is to shade the south facing windows. I tape greenhouse shade cloth over the outside of the windows, just applying the tape at the top so the window can still be opened. It's important to shade the outside of the window as this lessens the amount of sunlight/heat entering the room.
Another tactic I've employed the last few years, is to grow runner beans in front of Mikey's (no.2 son) bedroom window. His room is downstairs, faces south and is a testosterone filled oven during the summer months. So, every spring I position bamboo canes about 4' in front of his window. Then run shorter canes from a batten fixed to the wall above the window to the others, forming an upside down L. The runner beans are then planted next to the canes where within a few weeks they have formed, what has been dubbed 'the bean shed'. This provides us with a lovely cool place to sit, cools Mikey's room considerably and provides us with yummy, fresh runner beans.
This summer, I want to take this a step further and grow stuff on the flat roof (Mikey's room is an extension). The problem is, I'm going to have to get a longer ladder to be able to get up there. A few years ago it wouldn't have been a problem for me to haul myself up the last few feet of wall but, well, I'm abit older now and the body just doesn't bend like it used to!

Chickens at last

Well, the chickens are all established in their new home. They came from a free range egg farm in Sussex and, apart from one which has a dodgy foot, they are in very good condition. I was expecting scrawny, featherless almost oven-ready hens so it was a nice surprise to see that these hens had been treated well. As with all eggs farms, battery, barn or free range, once a hen reaches about 72 weeks of age they are slaughtered to make room for the next batch. Egg production drops after this age and therefore are not financially viable for the farmer, which I totally understand. This particular farmer was more than happy for some of his hens to go to new homes rather than the slaughter-house.
So my 8 'ladies' are laying on average 3 eggs a day (they even laid 4 eggs in the car on the way back from Brighton!). It is an absolute joy to go down to the shed in the morning, let them out into the run and come back with eggs for breakfast.
They all have names - Clara, Louisa, Susannah, Hannah, Anastasia, Lily, Malaika and Tasneem. The last 2 are named after friends at work whilst all the others are named after various ladies in my family tree.
I found out about the Brighton hen rescue on the friendly and informative forum http://www.ex-battery-hens.com

If you are thinking of keeping a few hens in your garden then consider rehoming some ex-batts. After all, it's just another form of recycling.

The picture is of one of my hens sporting a rather fetching, rather too large red jumper. As I have said, I was expecting featherless oven readies so had been knitting 'hen cosys' for them. These were not required after all but, well, you just have to take a photo of a chicken wearing a jumper don't you!

Quick, quick the chickens are coming

I'm sooo excited, I'm getting chickens tommorow (it doesn't take much to excite me!). They are ex-battery/barn/free-range hens, not sure which, that the farmer has allowed to go to new homes as opposed to ending up as chicken nuggets.

So, this has meant an onslaught of hard work getting their house in order. On Monday there was just a hole in the ground. On Tuesday there was shed - and alot of muttering from the labourers about "bloody chickens". The aforementioned muttering labourers were my youngest son Chris and my DOH (darling other half) Steve, without whom the chickens would be living in a cardboard box.

There was lots of talk about "why can't you just wait until the shed and run are finished BEFORE getting chickens?"

My response was "well how long does it take to put up a shed, for goodness sake."

Fortunately, the chickens have to stay inside for a few days to acclimatise to their new surroundings, which is just as well as the run won't be built till Monday.

I have recycled an old shelving unit and some seed trays for nest boxes, and an old fence post into a roost/perch.

I still have to find something to put food and water in. Something they can't tip over. For the time being they'll have to put up with old dog food bowls.

I can't wait to find the first egg, although I think in the spirit of good will, it should be my long suffering DOH who should eat the first one. Better make that 2 eggs girls!

The Adventure Begins

Have you ever watched one of those TV shows about how we should all be doing our bit to save the planet, and thought, "it's alright for them to say that but they don't live on my income and have an uncooperative family"?
Well, I did! I have a disposable income of about £20 a month, 4 adult children, a dog and 2 cats. And we all live together in a very small council house in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire. If I were to ask the council if I could install solar panels on my roof, I know exactly what they would say! Of course, I can't afford solar panels and therefore must think of other ways to reduce my families carbon footprint as cheaply as possible.
My children think 'green' is a dirty word, one to be avoided at all costs. They like the house lit up like the Blackpool Illuminations and turn the central heating up as soon as I walk out the front door.
I think getting them on board is going to be my biggest adventure.