Well the babies are growing nicely! They moved out of the dining room into the greenhouse until I could sort out a run for them. They have been sleeping in the dog crate in the greenhouse but go out into a run on the lawn during the day. They enjoy this tray of compost!

I finally managed to find a house that I liked. The wood looks nice but all those gaps and cracks are a haven for redmite so it needed modifying.

 Several coats of undercoat, polyfilla and gloss, a roosting bar added, and it is now habitable.

 They can move out of the greenhouse at last!

 Don't look too impressed do they?

New Babies!

  Of the chickeny kind that is! Meet Miyun, Liulimiao and Changping, the Pekin Babies: (they will be known as Mimi, Lulu and Ping for convenience sake!)
Here they are on arrival - looking a bit stunned!

I am down to only 5 large girls at the moment so definitely needed more! A friend found out about a supplier who was selling up and getting rid of the last of his stock at a discount price - well it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it? I have been thinking about getting something different for a while, and one day I would still like to do some hatching under a broody. Pekins are supposed to make good pets and are more friendly than hybrids. Not bad layers, but prone to going broody. They sound ideal!

I still need to sort out housing - at the moment they are living in the dog crate in the dining room. I am planning to split the large run into two and give them their own quarters, but they will have a couple of weeks indoors, in quarentine, first! The oldest (Mimi) is 10 weeks old, the other two are only 8 weeks. They are so tiny! And cute!

 They have adjusted very quickly and have already trashed their quarters! They bustle about cheeping and scratching. I'm not sure what colour they are yet - Mimi, the largest, looks to be too dark for a lavender but too light for a blue. Lulu is darker still, but has lots of white feathers on her chest. It also looks like she may develop white feathers round her face. Possibly a mottled or splash? And Ping the tiny one looks like an explosion in a paint factory! Black, white and buff feathers in no discernible pattern. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she may be a Mille Fleur as it is such a pretty colour.

 

 I have ordered a small wooden house for them and am hoping it will arrive today as I have a day off so I can get on and start building them a run!

Busy Busy Busy!

I've just realised how long it is since I last posted anything here! I do apologise :0)
Well in my defence I have been working hard - several days of 'real' work this month, combined with trying to get the greenhouse up and running, the allotment, hen parties and a craft fair this coming weekend and I have been busy indeed!

The allotment is coming along slowly but nicely. Not as well as others on the site, despite my early start, I have lagged behind. But I've noticed that those who have dug over the whole plot in one go now have couch grass reappearing. I have been adding raised beds slowly as I have obtained wood. My Dad has also been building me smallmetre square beds and bringing them over when he can. As I put them into place I dig them over and go through the soil literally with a fine tooth comb to grub out the couch roots. This large bed in the foreground was dug over, thick layers of newspaper applied, then a layer of compostible material, then a layer of topsoil. It is currently growing onions and broad beans. The idea is that by the time the newspaper has composted, any couch roots wll also have died.

The large bed on the right is waiting for some rain to soften the soil so I can tackle it. The deeper bed in the background on the right has also had the newspaper treatment and just topsoil added. It has now been planted with carrots and parsnips.

There are three more small raised beds in that area that are in the process of being dug and sifted. One has already had manure added ready for the courgettes.

At the far end, in open ground, are the spuds - coming up nicely. That was the first patch of ground I manured and I planted the potato tubers in two trenches. I noticed that the other plot holders have also used trenches for their potatoes, but theirs are planted in the ridges, rather than the furrows. Hmm, I wonder if I'm doing it right!

Down the right hand side is another manured strip which now houses raspberries and gooseberries and a rhubarb. I still need to work on my paths - the ones between the raised beds are done, weed suppressing membrane and bark chips, but this side still looks messy.

As well as making some bags for commissions lately (see the Recycled Bag Lady blog!) I have been busy with some projects purely for myself. This was a mystery quilt project posted on the Omlet forum. I love how it is turning out! I still have to back it and add hanging bits, but for now it is sellotaped to the wall so that I can enjoy it!
And this is a new cushion cover from a piece of fabric I bought on ebay. No technical skill required here - just a simple envelope flap on the reverse. But it does look lovely in my lounge!

On a sadder note, I had to make the hard decision to part with a couple of my hens this week. Pom was one of my original Omlet hens and much loved, but she was an old lady and had gone off her legs :0( Cinnamon was younger, but was a feather pecker and had developed a massively impacted crop that would not shift. RIP little ladies.

More sewing!

After building up all my bag stock for the Preston Craft Fair, and only selling a fraction of it, I've been getting itchy fingers! Pointless making anymore bags just for the sake it - better to wait for inspiration to strike.

I've had some lovely chicken fabrics sat around for a while, so put them to good use as Kenwood Chef mixer covers.


Then I managed to make another Jean Genie bag out of some old levis - the denim is lovely and soft. But I wasn't happy with the top stitching, so I kept it for myself - all in the interests of product testing you understand! I'm glad I did because I've realised the handles are far too long! So now it has a knot in it as a temporary measure while I decide how to make adjustable handles!

I've also started a patchwork class in the evenings - run by a lovely lady called Jenny and based at East Carlton Park, near Corby. Jenny not only teaches patchwork, but is a font of knowledge on all things fabric related. She's taught me so many little tips and wrinkles - even how to find out whether a fabric is man made or natural by setting fire to it! (I had great fun experimenting, I can tell you!). So far we have done some hand pieced hexagonal patches and have now started on some Japanese folded patchwork. I'll post pictures at a later date!

As if that wasn't enough, a friend sent me a pattern that she couldn't get to grips with, on the proviso that I made the first lot for her! It was for chicken pot holders. So I had to invest in some decent wadding, and voila! More chickens! Must admit I am really pleased with them, despite them needing a little more hand sewing to really finish them nicely.
These will be winging their way to my friend, and I've put a pic of them on my shop website - I may do them to order only, unless I am desperate for something to sew again!