Days 45 to 52 in isolation at Tony and Nickys

How big a piece of cake? Oh, mine's the same size on the sofa arm

The chicks are now 10 days old, and they seem to change between morning and evening, let alone day to day, gone are the little fluffy things, now we have wing feathers and tail feathers giving more colour variation. They stand up tall, stretching wings and legs, there’s lots of flapping and jumping, though it’s probably not really flying, they do almost try. Number 10 grew fluffy yellow down on her legs, but her legs have grown and it seems to have been left behind. Their feet are huge, and although they both have two, anyone else’s seem like fair game for pecking at. Anything and everything gets pecked at, favourite at the moment seems to be the blood blister on my finger.

Just look at those wings and tail feathers!

Its a hot day, I'm going to have a bath!

In theory they should be able to stay in this pen until they get brought outside, but this seems to be in doubt, not only are they growing ridiculously, they have completely manic moments. After which they still all go “and sleep”. I can hear nothing from them just now. Perhaps if it goes warm again (we’ve had snow and/or hail every now and then for quite a few days) we can somehow let them play in the trailer with a piece of fencing over the top to keep them in and let them tire themselves out.

The outdoor birds have also been providing us with entertainment, and eggs. Laying seems to be up, and people are keen to buy, so that’s good. I’m currently collecting, goose, hen, duck and now guinea fowl eggs, though possibly not enough from the three

And we're going for a paddle

wandering hens and the three guineas, are they laying wherever they fancy? It wouldn’t be the first time. These six are also visiting the farmers field next door, (hopefully they won’t get shot) pecking at the green shoots growing. The chickens seem to make their way under or through the fence, not sure how, but they do make their own way back. The guinea fowl however get there, but don’t make their own way back. They can fly, but they are a bit wayward and never seem to quite know where they are going. Trying to get them back is not easy, if approached they will run away, so a pincer movement has to be carried out. Getting round both sides of he property is a trek but it has to

Look at the porch, roof on and papered, leadwork done on left, Velux windows in, gutters and downpipes fitted

be done. A hole in the fence is probably how they got out, but never how they get in, they have to be encouraged to fly, in the right direction and not into a fence! They are very stupid and chasing them can take a while! Last time we had a problem, it was all three guinea fowl, they flew into the orchard and have moved back into the duck house!

Here's  the long awaited delivery of 40 planks of timber for the first floor joists. They are 220mm x 75mm x 6m long and weigh a lot. Tony and Brian had to carry them all in, one by one. They had been stuck in Glasgow from the start of the lockdown and have sadly deteriorated, quite a few have split, some have twisted. Hopefully Tony can use most of them, but some will have to go back.

Brian setting up the camera trap in the orchard

The geese have no access to their house during the day so if they need to lay an egg they have to use a nest, we know where this is so it’s not a problem, except that twice now, an egg in there has been compromised. The first time during the day and the second overnight. (I had been collecting when birds went to bed, but after playing ‘chase the guinea fowl’ I’d got distracted.) Who is the guilty party? Rat? Pine marten? Crow? Otter? (They lost five ducks to an otter the other year). So, out with the camera trap (yes, they have one), and attach it to the tree, cracked hen egg in the nest. First night, nothing, but no Brian setting it up either, second night (yes, we had to sacrifice a second egg) a mouse, but no, and then, just at dawn a crow, good news as they are not protected and can be discouraged!

The first siting didn't work as it was too far away, but here it is for the second night strapped to a big post and right in front of the nest area that had an egg placed there ready

There is some light relief to the hard work, but that is still continuing, velux windows, lead flashing, gutters, all take time. Brian has spent three days taking plaster off the walls. I started, and he’s finished, but what a mess, we’ve been absolutely filthy, dust from him and cement that we’ve been using to fill various holes round the walls. Thank goodness it’s over and we can begin to think about building woodwork in the opposite end to where we started last year. Today was meant to be fitting the floor plate, which sounds easy, but always takes more time than expected as it has to be right! 



And here's the results - a little Youtube of what we recorded

Lots of measurements to be taken and calculations done to work out where this will put the ceiling and the upstairs floor. We are just waiting now for Tony to angle grind the concrete of the floor to make it perfectly flat. Imagine the effect a little pimple on the concrete floor could have on a four metre length of wood and then all the verticals going up from it? It’s his job, and he will come in looking like a snowman and be put straight in the wash! So I’m writing, though I might go and look at prepping the kedgeree for dinner later....

Here's Gummy cat perched on top of some roof trusses right in the top of the Steading

He climbed up those insulation boards to get there

Genghis cat taxing his brain with a crossword. Three letters, an anagram of tac. Mmmmmm

Here is a photo of the far end of the Steading. Why have I shown you this? Well, Jackie and Tony are at the far end pointing with lime plaster and I had been breaking the plaster off the walls. The far end is done, but there's still plaster on the left wall just by the porch entrance. Over the next few weeks we'll be building the framework for the kitchen, utility and lounge and filling that lower bit in the foreground (where the lounge will be) with 12 tonnes of concrete. Future pictures should show a big difference

Here's a pphoto from the other end, about wherre Jackie was standing in the above photo. I took that one from the top of those temporary stairs. The green bin marks where an island unit will be in the kitchen. See that timber? That's the first floor joists Tony and I carried in from outside. The remainder we carried round the back into the garage. 

The final bits of plaster bashed off with the drill. Clearing up the debris was almost worse than bashing it off. Can you imagine how dusty I was?

The beautiful warm weather has gone for a while and that, you might be able to see, is a thin layer of hail stones giving a light white cover. We've got night time temperatures of 1 or 2 degrees and daytime of 5 or 6 with a bitingly cold north wind. What happened to the calm, blue skies and warm temperatures? Typical Scottish weather, warm and sunny one day, cold and snowy the next. It can't last long though surely, it's mid May after all with sunrise at 04:53 and sunset at 21:25 now