Days 33 to 44 in isolation at Tony and Nicky's

Making more home brew - another 22 litres!

It’s all more of the same really, lots of work, though a more gentle week as Tony was in Aberdeen on Monday and Tuesday, which did a good job of wiping him out! Brian and I built a truss as we’d decided an extra one would just make everything easier and stronger. Precision angle cutting was the main challenge. We’ve finished installing the trusses, put on the sarking (rough wood to which the slates are added) and the paper to make it nearly waterproof.

Built wigwams for tomatoes and structures for beans in the polytunnel and set up the irrigation system. It looks amazing in there, though most of the hard work is down to Nicky.

Brian has spent time helping Tony writing for his iCheme chartership, and I’ve done the final corrections on the PhD write up. It was decided that I was good for proof reading and Brian was good for ‘padding out’.

Helen commented in a message that eggs were slightly in short supply, so she was being careful... we sent half a dozen through the post, in an egg box, then an ice cream tub, they all arrived in one

Brian on the porch roof marking out and fitting trusses

piece including the one we’d wrapped in a cream egg wrapper that she dutifully carried up to Ian before realising actually it was a bit big, so perhaps not!

The work is still great, but what has really happened this weekend is chicks.... we were expecting them on Sunday, but about 11.00 on Saturday, just before going out to work I popped by to say hello and there was a damp scraggly little black chick. I couldn’t decide if it was alive or dead and then it cheaped and tried to stand! It managed this remarkably quickly, though not necessarily steadily while making lots of noise, which amazingly seemed to kick start the whole hatching process. Eggs were moving and rocking with little holes appearing, and that was it, Nicky, Brian and I were fixated. A little beak came out of a hole that we assumed would be number two. In the end she was number six or seven, but seems absolutely fine, not exhausted as we worried. (They will all be referred to as she, as they don’t want a cockerel (unless it’s very good), so keep everything crossed!) Real number two was also dark, but has some white patches on her, so we can still identify her, she and number one were pecking at each other before she was fully out of the shell, it comes instinctively then. Bacon and egg rolls for lunch, seemed wrong, but the arrivals were a day early, so I’d banned eggs for Sunday....

Brian went out help Tony after lunch but Nicky and I remained on hatch watch. Number three

Here's the truss we built. It may not look much but its precision!

appeared, also dark, but with a big head which she struggled to hold up. By the time I’d looked it up on the internet though she was doing much better and without comparing them now it’s not obvious which one she was. Number four was blonde, but dark underneath and number five blonde on ginger. After that they have all blurred into one a bit.

We cleared out the empty shells but decided to leave the seven of them in the incubator overnight, all warm and snuggly (37 degrees and 60% humidity). They were so funny, they’d all blunder about, pecking each other’s feet, or at shells, or each other, and then, like Derren Brown had entered the room, “and sleep” and they all would, heads just falling to the floor.... We came down to nine chicks, five dark and four blonde, a great mix and 75% for eggs that have been sent through the post is pretty good going. We moved them into their pen, with heated lamp, Brian and I having to carry them individually from the utility room to the office (what a hardship) so soft and fluffy with very big, very hot feet. There did

The polytunnel. Lots of planting out going on

seem to be tiny movements from one of the remaining three eggs, but was I imagining it? Nicky called me in from the garden, so we were both there to witness the hatching of number 10, another blonde, but very pretty and distinctive. Would she fit in? Arriving alone and almost 24 hours later than most? I put her in about 5 o clock, and you wouldn’t know. The blondes are the bravest, in fact I’ve just had to help one down from on top of the heating pad.....

Oh my goodness they are so cute, we are all quite obsessed, except, fortunately, for the cats....

View of our hard work from the road. The porch is the building sticking out just where the main roof is tiled to and you can see the green waterproof paper where tiling is yet to be done

Here's a closer view of it. We've now got the green waterproof paper on and have done the lead flashing joining it into the main building wall

View into the porch after we had fitted the trusses but before we completed the roof. The main door into the house will be the opening on the right and theres a window on the left. The end will contain hot water tanks, heated from solar thermal panels and there'll be a gas boiler in there too for backup

An amusing (to me) photo of a fish in one of their fish tanks

And three of five pussy cats lounging on our bed

I thinks this was a bit more than one days haul of eggs (I think the larger goose eggs at the back were from previous days, but the rest were laid in a day! 

Chickens need attending to as well, here's Jackie changing their hay bed and, as usual, they are very interested and getting in the way

It didn't last long though. This is the gooses house the day after their new hay bed

And here's some of the incredibly cute little chicklets. The one at the back looking a bit like a penguin is the last born. But she's doing very well

Here she is in Jackies hand looking very photogenic

They are quite inquisitive, this one had just pecked my camera

Outside by the old cat pen we found this scruffy looking nest that appears to be a blackbird. Think she needs lessons in tidy nest building 

More chicklet photos, they're a bit shy in this one. Obviously we have a huge number of photos and just can't help taking more. We'll finish with another short video taken a few minutes ago...