The beginnings of a new coop

for our mammoth heard of chickens! They’re growing up quickly, and beginning to create havoc and destruction wherever they go …. so a HUGE coop and run is required quickly.

When we moved in there was a pile of stuff with a roof sitting on top hiding in the long grass beneath the walnut tree…

Turns out there was a complete garage (a small single sized one) sitting under that roof. Wall framing complete with windows, a door and wiring along with tin sheets for cladding. BONUS!

So the boys dragged sections of it, piece at a time, down to the back of the paddock by the Avery. And they began construction….

 

I know, it’s a bit ugly looking right now… but once complete it will be a chicken palace! Hubby finished off some nest boxes for it last night and next weekend it should be clad and roofed (he’s looking forward to the roof party!) And then we’ll be using all of the old trellis we ripped down from around the backyard to construct the “front* side of the run – which means when you’re looking down the paddock from the gate you’ll see a lovely trellis area with sun flowers and a chook garden of silverbeet and other yummy greens… rather than a manky looking coop. That’s the plan anyway!

Lay down Sally

Meet our latest chicken…. she’s called Sally.

Sally is a very boring brown shaver. I wasn’t that fussed on her. In my humble opinion brown shavers are the *white sneakers* of the chicken world. Plain, practical and deadly boring. But friends came for a BBQ the other day, and along came Sally  in a cat cage… (we’re discovering people do stuff like that in the country – like the neighbour who came for a beer with three Bantam chicks in a shoe box!) …

Sally is settling in well. She’s very friendly. VERY friendly. So friendly in fact that she’s now called “lay down Sally”. When ever you go anywhere near her she flops to the ground in a squatting pose so you can pick her up. So I spend a fair bit of time carrying her around with me in the garden. But I’m worried it’s giving her a big head… if there is such a thing in the chicken world. It seems that since she started spending more time with me she’s decided she’s *boss* of the young chickens … and now pecks / chases and generally is mean to them constantly.

 

The other problem with Sally is she has decided that she has a *thing* for the boy next door (the rooster over the fence). He comes over every morning to *assert himself* with my girls. Sally, well she just can’t get enough! She literally leaps in front of him at every opportunity. Yesterday she hassled him so much he went home. So she’s a mean cow, and a skank as well? Hmmmm.

while I’m back in blogging mode… Some knitting

I should show off some knitting.

 

Here are the hobo mitts knitted up using wool hand spun by the lovely Lou and received as part of a TNN yard swap….

Super cute. And yes – those beads (if you can see them…) are spun into the yarn

I’m using the leftovers for embellishment on another pair … and have grovelled for more!

And I recently (a couple of months ago.. but hey, it’s summer!) the longest scarf I’ve ever knitted. And for once it wasn’t a bore! It’s just plain old garter stitch, using left over bits and pieces (including some much treasured Noro Silk Garden), knitted sideways on my 150cm size 6mm vintage purls circulars and it’s LOVELY. The stretch is in the length, it drapes and is light but warm. And did I mention LONG? It must be nearly 3 metres! I like a scarf that wraps a few time

The moving of the avery….

A huge mission undertaken this week by Hubby & “Pappy John” …. I gave them a brief. Clear the backyard, and make me a chook house. So they did! They decided that the Avery in the backyard would made a great chook run… if they could move it down there. They then decided they were far too lazy to pull it apart and move it … so they moved it in one piece!

So here’s what used to be in the backyard. Lots of trellis, funny little paths and pergola’s and a big Avery with nothing in it.

 

Here’s the grand journey of the Avery…. right to the back of the paddock. It was so heavy the boys had to roll it *roman style* on old pipes hubby found behind the shed. I guess buying a junk yard sometimes has it’s uses!!!

They snuck it through the small gap between the garage and gate…

Through the gate and into the paddock….

And then they cleared the rest of the backyard….

before….

After

Phew!

Where have I been?

Most likely I was lost under a big pile of junk in the back yard of our new house …

Yep – that pile….

or maybe it was this one

Yes. We are the proud new owners of a half an acre of lovely Templeton loam in rural Canterbury. Fab growing dirt, but unfortunately it came complete with lots (and lots) of old junk. Actually to start off with (while we were still in the blissful glow of new house ownership) we thought that some of it wasn’t *really* junk. Some of it might be quite useful. In the essence of *reuse and recycle* we imagined all sorts of fabulous things that could be made from the trash so thoughtfully left behind. We could have a lovely glass house, made from all of the old windows left behind. We could recycle the old appliances and toilet bowls into garden features. We could build a chook house from the old tin sheets from a discarded pool. And then we came to our senses and called the scrap man. Sadly for us due to the *global financial crisis* meant that the price of scrap metal had plummeted … so our hopes of the scrap metal profit paying for the removal of the rest of the rubbish were quickly dashed.

Then we turned our hands to the paddock. When we arrived it had been unloved and unmown for months. Hubby stood at the gate…. daily…. and surveyed the knee height growth for about a month… and then it became waist height. And the children started getting lost. A weekend and a hired, self propelled lawn mower mission later and we had it under control… for the moment at least. We decided at that point it would be a good idea to get some *yummy* mobile lawn mowers…

and we welcomed our two *unnamed* little guys to keep the grass under control and to eventually fill the freezer. They were unnamed because I thought it would be much easier to transition them onto the dinner table if they weren’t *pets*. Sadly the smaller of the two died on the weekend – he was never that *well* and we think he had some kind of digestive issue going on. The big one is thriving, and after a couple of days of grieving decided that the chickens were company enough and got back to the all important task of eating and growing nice and chubby.

And speaking of chickens… we now have 23 of them, plus three hens sitting on another 18 eggs. We nearly had none after they got into my lovely little *start of a garden* and scratched out ALL of my new little vege seedlings!

But luckily for them I forgave their cute little fluffy selves and they live to scratch another day

A rainy Sunday

The girls are sleeping, Ethan is at a friends house and I’ve managed to convince Jason that he should do the supermarket trip… so what better thing to do than sit down and update my long neglected blog!

So what’s been happening? Lots. We’re trying to buy a house. It has a paddock. I want a nanny goat. But more about that later – when we know if we’ve actually managed to buy it….

In the meantime – between phone calls to agents, banks, councils, lawyers and daily updates to all and sundry… I’ve been busy with other stuff too.

“Auntie Sian” came to visit – what a wonderful time we had. Lots of brain stretching conversing about life and love and other intense stuff – just the exercise session that my poor neglected intellect needed. We made Kefir from grains she gave me (yes the starter is still sleeping in the back of my fridge a month later – but hey – I’ve been busy!) and ate lots of yummy food. We watched “what a way to go”…. got a bit depressed about the state of the world and the fate of humanity and then ate a lot of chocolate and felt much better. And to celebrate I knitted her some fingerless gloves…

Ethan had his big Rugby Final – he scoured the first four trys of the game (is that how you spell it? I don’t know – I don’t actually follow…or even like… Rugby!…shhh – don’t tell!)

So player of the day trophy in hand he announced that “yes mum, I’m pretty good, next year I’ll start being an all black”…

Of course he has been busy learning the haka in his school kapahaka group in preparation for his imminent selection to the squad…

Yes – I know – it’s the whitest kapahaka group I’ve ever seen too… ;) But the passion is there!

Just finished a vest for Rhiannon – it is a single ball of Tekapo – dyed by putting a centre pull ball in a pot of dye and pulling it out slowly – goes from light to dark with some cool effects I kept a bit of the light aside to edge the neck and armholes, and to edge a hat I’m going to make out of the leftovers (well – maybe a hat – maybe a headband!).It’s knitted on circulars, with a bobble hem and crochet edging on the neck/arm holes – was really quick to knit up – I think it took maybe two or three evenings?

 

 

 

Stella keeps trying to claim it – makes a cute midriff top on her!

And Rhiannon is the proud new owner of a Noro Silk Garden Beanie (colourway 251) – just lovely stuff to knit… but eeek the price of it! Must be the most expensive baby hat ever…

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Hard to believe that six years ago today I was in hospital waiting to be induced so I could meet my first child. I remember that night like it was yesterday, and yet it feels like a million years ago! I was filled with fear – I’d managed to not think about how this baby was going to come out for nearly nine months – and an induction, with hospitalisation the day before meant I had one very very long night to make up for lost time – and I barely slept a wink! The birth, well I don’t remember a lot of that (good drugs!) but I do remember them heaping this little swalking lump onto my chest and the first thing I thought was “thank god, he’s really here!”. And I’ve thought the same thing almost every morning since. It’s a wonderful thing. Someone recently said of their child on their birthday “I didn’t know I could love someone this much” and I’m going to shamelessly plagiarise that line – because it’s true. I didn’t know.

So enough of the sentimental stuff. Here’s a quick picture history of my big little man

 

And here are shots of his big day today! He really really wanted to go to Clip’n'climb for his birthday – I was a little dubious about it – thinking that he might not be strong enough, or it might be a bit scary for him – but no – he was in there boots and all – scampering up walls like a little lizard.

And then there was the “leap of faith” – should be renamed “how to make your mother cry”! Seriously – I was watching my little boy climb up what was effectively a 40 foot telephone pole, only to stand on the top of it and leap off onto a trapeze several feet away.

He was amped until he stood on the top – then he froze for a minute. I could see he was terrified and I could feel my eyes starting to tear up… One of the staff climbed up behind him to help him down and that seemed to give Ethan the push he needed to jump. He refused to go – there was no way he was going back down that pole defeated! So after another (very very long minute) he pulled himself together and on the count of three leapt out toward the trapeze!

He managed to grasp it with one hand , and then slipped – but I was so proud! He was so incredibly brave.

Later this evening we were talking about it – I was telling him I would have been too frightened to climb up that high, let alone jump off. He said “mum, I just kept saying over and over in my head – if anyone can do this I can… and then I believed it and I could jump off”. And then he started talking about the NEXT time we go (yes he loved it so much he wants to go back!) and said to Jas “dad – remember just tell yourself you can do it in your head and you’ll be fine”.. and then he paused and added thoughtfully “Why don’t I go first and show you how to do it – then you won’t be scared”.

Happy birthday baby xxx

By the way – he decorated the cake.

Peak Oil Funnies

I was browsing this evening, catching up with the news as you do, and found these little funnies (especially for you Ness )

Now I don’t remember snow, but I do remember walking through frosts that crackled with every step you took. They were fun!

This one I particularly like – it reminds me of that morning commute I used to have to do back in Auckland. I seriously don’t miss spending 12 hours a week in my car! These days if I get stuck behind three cars at the lights it’s a traffic jam.

And my favourite

Courtesy of peakoil.com of course – I have too much knitting to do to actually go find this stuff myself

On a more serious note, I briefly flicked into a thread over there which was discussing “doom”. In it there were three questions:

1. What is ‘doom’?
2. According to your own definition, are you a ‘doomer’?
3. Why or why not?

I’m going to have to think on it.

The jersey grows

So sleeve one is nearly done – I’m not sure how to transition from the sleeve to the body… that’s my mission tomorrow

And yes… I did write down every row as I went… so hopefully the other sleeve will look vaguely similar….

Off to the scrap heap :(

Today we said a sad goodbye to “car car bluey” (as named by Ethan a few years ago) – sadly she failed her warrant last week. The mechanic called to give us the bad news, and in the most sympathetic and diplomatic of ways said “It’s time to cut the cord guys, she’s destined to become tea-spoons”. We knew it was coming – she’s limped through each of the last 3 warrants – I’m sure only because they felt sorry for us, but this time the issues were starting to become “unignorable”. So I dutifully phoned around to find some one to come and take her away. The last time we needed to get rid of a dead car it cost us $25 for a towie to come and take it away…..Imagine my surprise when they not only removed her for free – but gave us…. $150!!!!! Go the world resource shortage! (just kidding!)

And she was so cheap to run! We’ll miss not being able to fill the car from the lawn mower gas can… and have it last for days!

And now we’ve waved goodbye to car car bluey, we have officially become a one car family. Interesting prospect living out in the country – but I’m hoping we’ll manage.