May so far......

All 3 hens are layin an egg a day.

 We have visitors - some days but not all.

 Joan and Dot continue to grow.

Had some nice weather - a spot of sunbathing.

Foraging for worms.

A favourite spot in the field next to our house - usually around 4pm

Noodles for lunch

Library campaign continues 

Local school on our campaign

Planning for 2017 Scarecrow Festival has begun

Bing continue his healthy eating campaign - a frozen bottle of milk

 Our eggs have featured in most meals.

Not your standard jam!

Healthy discovery in the back of my cupboard.

 Healthy eating continues..

  Coffee morning and lunch recently raised £462

So...........busy as ever!

Saturday...a week to go.

The past few days have been quiet - a good rest has been on the cards for a while - and I have made the most of it.

Like other hen owners our four are in restricted conditions. We have rigged up a run from the hen house and will attach some netting tomorrow.

I lift up their hatch which leads into the temporary run and hang the day's treat for them - whilst they are busy eating the treats, in this case noodles, I shut the hatch and use the main henhouse door to go in, clean the henhouse, put fresh wood shavings in, wash their feeding bowls and fill the water bowl. Once all this is done I lock the main door shut and lift up the hatch. The hens then make their way into the henhouse, when they are all in I close the hatch.
They are currently eating corn mix, mealworms and sunflower seeds - all high protein to help them keep warm.

Our visiting birds are making the most of the treats we leave out for them - woodpecker back again.

Tide times allowing we get out most days with Bing and Sadie - whilst the sky looks blue it is very cold.

Bought the Christmas Radio Times so the holiday season approaches. A quiet time for us, just what we need after a hectic few weeks. Must get the tree up tomorrow and sort out the Christmas cards......

Watch this space!

Bev update.

Up to about a week ago Bev continued to sit on the eggs

Early morning would often see her have a quick walk round the paddock and have a dust bath.

She has her favourite spot in the sunshine.

She would come to the kitchen patio and enjoy a spot of weeding.

The mint had gone wild so she helped with a bit of pruning.

As the 21 days of incubation dawned she stayed in the henhouse, on her eggs.

On Thursday evening we noticed one chick - Friday morning a few more.

Bev is now mum to 6 chicks - all doing fine.

I am keeping an eye on matters - watch this space!

August!

Where has time gone? The enormity of the task of catching up leaves me quite speechless so here's a whistlestop tour/account ramble!

April - one of our most successful weekends so far—the book folding workshop and lunch was a great success, those of us who attended found it relaxing and very therapeutic. We will certainly be planning another one later in the year. Ally Miles from Margrove ran the session—seeing us all make hedgehogs from old books—next time we will be making a fairy house. The following day, Saturday we held a coffee morning.

The May Coffee Morning was well attended and together with the proceeds from the workshop, raffle and games saw us make an astounding profit of £437.17

Following on from last year's Scarecrow Competition we decided to run another this year - but thought other villages may want to have a go...so as a result of regular scarecrow workshops held in our village hall a new inter-village initiative was launched!

We celebrated the Queen's Birthday in our village hall.

As a result of our "Clean for the Queen"  it was noted that we don't have a bin in the village. With the new legislation and council initiatives regarding both litter and dog waste it seemed  an ideal time to check out the possibilties of Liverton having a bin. The idea was put  forward at a Neighbourhood Action Partnership meeting and it has been confirmed that we are indeed getting a "Barnsley Bin" - similar to the photograph below, from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. It will be situated at the road end of Handale and will be emptied regularly. A full inspection/survey will be carried out by the council as will the siting of the said bin.

On a sadder note, in late May as I pulled up outside our house I saw our cat had been ran over.

By the extent and nature of her injuries we felt it was a result of a vehicle travelling at an inappropriate speed - quite possibly speeding. At our scarecrow workshop I mentioned this to Councillor Mary Lanigan who is going to organise some flashing 30 mph signs for our village.

A positive outcome of little Puss's death but hopefully it will mean cars do slow down and respect our village life…

We can only hope!

June saw our annual pilgrimage to the Isle of Man TT Races - as ever the weather was awesome, the company exceptional and the hotel superb - we are all booked up for next year.

June was a special event - my 60th! Lunch out with my pals and later a steak with Jon at our favourite restaurant.


 A BASH was in order! Ofcourse I did my own invitations :- 

Wording as follows:-

On Saturday 2nd July I am havinga bit of a bash to

celebrate my 60th birthday.

The fun will commence at 10am in our village hall  with a coffee morning

/mid day lunch and lots of my amazing baking!

At 2pm we will be having a party on our paddock, 

where the very wonderful Chris Middleton will be twinkling the ivories,

 whilst my lovely guests will enjoy Afternoon tea—

featuring even more of my

wonderful baking.

At some point we will stagger over

to the village hall for a bit of a knees up involving music, alcohol and fun.

I am blessed with good family, friends and neighbours and request no presents,

instead I will have a donations box

for a charity close to our family’s hearts.

I had an amazing day and raised just under £1,000 for Leuka charity - for research and development for the treatment of Leukemia.

July continued to be busy with village life and sadly we lost one of our hens, Mabel.

It was all so quick - one minute she was pottering round the garden, the next thing we knew she had taken ill, declining over the weekend. A trip to the vet confirmed she had suffered a stroke which had left her paralysed. 

Needless to say we ended her suffering.

August saw the launch of the East Cleveland Scarecrow Festival - here in our village.

Great success -  we have received great backing from our local radio station Zetland FM and I have been interviewed on a couple of occasions specifically about the Scarecrow Festival and I am talking next week about keeping chickens 

- speaking of which....

Bev is 9 and a broody girl so we have just placed some fertile eggs under her 

- the adventure has begun as we await the results.