Monday

Some weeks just start off brilliantly...

A group of youngsters were due to arrive for a visit and a picnic, later in the morning. We got up bright and early, the animals and I, in order to have everything ship-shape and ready for action. By 6am I was on my second mega mug of coffee and almost able to focus on the day ahead, when I saw that our lovely sheep were in the paddock. This happens once in a blue moon so I went over to tell them about the day’s events and check on them. I stood mumbling about visitors and happy dispositions when all four sheep stood to attention, eyes rolling and generally looking a bit odd. I tried to calm them, telling them all about the fun factor of picnics, but to no avail. In the end it finally dawned on me that something was amiss so I turned to look behind me and there stood a huge elk. The elk stood stock still, big ears pointing forward, clearly wanting to hear all about our day, thinking it makes sense to be on top of things in the village. It must have been one of the elks that have been eating hay in the yard all winter because it did not seem to be afraid of me at all. Slowly the elk started munching on a nearby rowan bush and our sheep started blinking in a normal fashion again. That's when Monty and his ladies turned up.

Hens are a constant danger to themselves. They walk around grazing, looking for worms and sometimes just pottering about. What they seldom do is look up to see where they are heading. This little habit took Monty almost all the way up to the elk’s hoofs, before he noticed the stranger in our midst. Looking up to see such a huge animal must have thrown our sweet cockerel because he started making such a racket. Unfortunately he got mixed up and started with the series of yodelling sounds he makes when a hen has laid an egg. This did not only startle the elk but all the hens as well. They responded by yelling at poor Monty, telling him to get his facts straight. Not an egg in sight and there he was waking up the village with his nonsense, was the general opinion. In the middle of all this, four sheep backed away slowly to the safety of the stable and the magnificent elk bid us all farewell and calmly walked away. I just stood clutching my coffee mug, feeling blessed to be part of all this. I am contemplating earplugs, though....

The gang of youngsters arrived and they were lovely and thankfully loved our animals. Our pink dog was admired and food was made and shared with the hens. Yes, Mr. Chip has at the moment a slightly pink furry coat. On Monday his colour was more chocking pink but he took it well. As I had planned, we did the summer bathing shampoo flying everywhere and the result was a very clean, fluffy dog. In my eagerness to groom him, I grabbed the first brush I could find, forgetting I had borrowed it for the sheep. As they are always wearing red paint, scraped off the barn, the brush contained some of the paint. Red, dust like paint on a wet dog and hey presto! a pink terrier. I tried to convince our visitors that I always dye our animals in this bright fashion but they did not believe me. I clearly looked too boring to pull that one off...

Lotta the hen is still planning to become a mother. She is guarding three eggs and a nest egg - in this case an egg shaped stone from Scotland. With our luck she will present us with three baby cockerels and a lot of pebbles. We can only hope for hens, so we don't have to part with them. Time will tell. It's now two weeks since she started nesting. It will be interesting to see how the famous five chicks will react if we do get tiny babies to add to our lot. Time will tell...

Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

Dear husband has picked up a summer cold to add to his pollen allergy. We can hear him coming from miles away, bless his little cotton socks. There is nothing worse (yes there is, actually...) than a cold when it's hot but he struggles on and he never ever complains. At least our very hot and dry spell is over and they are forecasting cooler, nicer weather. Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My will be in heaven as this hot spell has taken all their energy. It's not easy being a sheep in a hot climate. It's not a bundle of laughs for a gardener either. So we all sit, eagerly awaiting cool air and rain.        Mr. Chip is happy either way as we alter walking timetables to fit in with the weather. These last weeks our morning walks have been happening very early in the mornings. There's not a crowd out there, apart from elks, deer, birds and one or two frogs. No cars, no noise, other than Monty's yodelling and it all feels rather special. Morning mist and a happy dog....

Elks are good swimmers and can dive. That's impressive when you think of how big the beautiful animal is.

Text by Nina

Next blog post on the 12th June. 

The flowering season

Spring came and went in what seemed like constant rain. We then had a few days of glorious spring and now summer arrived. Apple trees are covered in blooms, bushes that usually blossom at midsummer are in full swing and the pollen from the pine trees is colouring everything green. Mr. Chip sports green nostrils and our dear sheep keep turning up from the wilderness covered in green pollen. It makes a change from their reddish look but just watching them makes you want to sneeze. The hens are getting more active by the minute and can be seen heading off on long walks around the countryside. All the blossoming weeds provide them with snacks along the way and as worms are currently easily accessible, the ramblers usually end their outing on a lawn somewhere. I do believe that one of the reasons for all the trekking is the fact that our hens still feel a bit shy around the chicks. Our five super chicks could not care less as they are having a brilliant time taking over the henhouse, the yard, the village, and the world... Chicks are not very melancholy creatures and life for them is a full on eating party. Strawberries are now high on the list of "tastiest food items," right at the top with bilberries.

Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

This week we had one day of heavy rain. While I kept checking on the chicks, as I was worried that they would float away, never to be seen again, I dropped the ball. I completely forgot about Lotta the hen and her broody disposition and now she is hogging eggs and staying put. She has not left the nest for three days and I only hope she eats and drinks when left alone. I have no idea how many eggs she is guarding but I am pretty sure if anyone plops out, it will be a cockerel. And then it's young Eric all over again... All this because I forgot to collect the eggs. At least Lotta stayed indoors and did not make a nest out in the forest. Maybe we have the rain to thank for that small mercy?

Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My love the whole concept of summer. Whatever you do around the place, you can count on them turning up in no time at all, to check on your progress. They also make regular pit stops by the house and if you miss them, they inform you by calling out. It's not a rude shout, just a friendly "Hello!" so you'll know to bring some dry bread for them, out on to the step. The animals around our parts are very organised and put us to shame....

Monty impressed me the other day just by being Monty. I arrived home from work (I do some hours of gardening, now and again...) and found Monty, Darya and Henrika busily turning over the manure heap. I looked for the other two hens, Lina and Pippi and could not find them anywhere. I knew Lotta was staying put but the two other stars were missing. In the end I went to Monty and asked where his ladies had gone. To my immense surprise Monty started walking in to the forest and proceeded to show me the two missing hens, digging away behind a spruce. Then he went back towards his beloved manure heap. I told him what a brilliant and extremely clever cockerel he was and somehow he realised it himself, so he celebrated it with a little dance in the middle of the road. I think we were both equally impressed by the whole thing, while the hens thought we were silly and just a little strange. It's difficult to impress a hen, anyway...

Mr. Chip is having his "summer shampoo and rinse" session today, which means that I will be much cleaner, when we are done. You know it's time for a bath when you can tell our dear dogs whereabouts just by using your sense of smell. Mr. Chip is a reluctant bather, to say the least, so it will not be a fun filled event. Hopefully we will come up smelling of roses...

We are still celebrating the year of super important, new knowledge so here goes; Butterflies have taste sensors located on their feet so they can taste food by standing in it, on it. Maybe our hens have the same ability and that's why they jump into the food bowl?! Could explain a lot. Clever butterflies, all the same! Happy June, everyone, not long now...

Text by Nina

Next blog post on the 5th June. 

Chicks in the yard.

Good morning! The sun is shining, it's 6am and the coffee I made is strong enough to support a flagpole. Just how a Sunday morning in May should be.

Our dear hens have had their morning ramble, with me as a visiting guest. They still insist on going in to the forest, every morning, to check if there are any foxes around. So I follow, coffee mug in hand, ready to step in if we do meet any threats to their lives. I have tried to get them to forget this little habit but to no avail. Hens are stubborn creatures so I just had to give up on that one and join in, instead. Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My are in the forest eating bilberry blooms. It's probably good for them and as it is their first morning off since the chicks arrived, I'm really glad for them.

Four days after our five very active and quite small chicks arrived, they ventured out into the yard. The moment they put one little green foot out into the sand, their nannies turned up. Whatever the chicks did after that, wherever they went, four big noses followed them around. Cross-eyed and calm our lovely sheep have done their babysitting duty with pride and precision.

The chicks thought it a bit odd at first but soon rallied around to the fact that four big sheep provided shade, security and flies. A nanny service with a snack bar... As the month of May decided to behave like midsummer this year, shade has been a very welcome feature to all and everyone.

Our hens still choose to ignore the chicks, most of the time. Monty looks surprised when he comes upon one of the little fellows, so I think he tends to forget their existence. Monty has figured out that I come bearing gifts in the form of Marie biscuits, so he concentrates on that right now. Marie is a dry wheat and vanilla biscuit – similar to a Rich tea biscuit - that used to be a good children's treat, as it hurts no one, being quite boring. This little biscuit has now become a bit of a passion for dear Monty. As the hens don't get to eat so much of the food served to them, at the moment, it might all be down to hunger. Hard to say but this particular brand is selling well around here.

The chicks are eating machines. They eat their own food, the hen’s portions, and all and everything they can find outside in the yard. I now serve the hens and Monty one main meal outside, away from the chicks, just to make sure they get enough nutrition. The older ones behave as they should, letting the small ones eat first but there is no end to these five munchers! They do grow in front of our eyes so they need all the food they can get, they just don't like to share outside their little team of five.

Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

I started thinking about hen keeping in general, the other day. We don't have extra stuff lying around in the yard. No building materials or rubbish to get tangled up in. This is partly because it's not nice to look at but also partly because we had horses for many years. (A loose horse can always be counted on bolting in to something sharp and hurt itself...). With chicks around, this is a blessing. Small birds find amazing places to get stuck in, just by being themselves. They don't seem to have a reverse gear either so they need help at times. Still, I have seen yards full of stuff and amongst it all hens picking their way, happy and unstuck. Maybe it's just me worrying too much... I do remember little Eric getting stuck in amongst some extra tuff grass one time but he was very small at the time. He did not know how to reverse, either.

All in all, it's been a nice first week with our chicks. A bunch of happy souls, it seems. They are kind to all and everyone and they seem to adapt quickly to their new surroundings. All we can do now is provide tons of food and hope for the best.

It's 8 am and Mr. Chip has had his medicine. Now time to get going with the day. The theme for today will be the vegetable patch so the hens will step up and help out. Worms and Marie biscuits on the menu this fine Sunday....

Have a nice day and take care. Hope the sun shines nicely everywhere, today. It does help to get the day going....

Text by Nina

Next blog post on the 29th May. 

Here and Now

While writing this I have to move my feet at times as hens want to dig under my chair. It might be good to point out, that I am sitting outside on the lawn. Our lovely hens have taken it upon themselves the task of food controllers. Anyone sitting outside eating will only be able to enjoy the meal for a short time, after that it's hens asking to join in and to be served some of the food. Our breakfast granola has been eaten by hens as they realised they love the taste of that. They leave the raisins for us to enjoy witch means that Mr. Chip eats that plus anything left by the happy hens. As you can see, Mr. Chip's diet is not proceeding briskly.

It's been a waiting week. Monday started with a spring-cleaned stable, everything ready for the new arrivals.  On Wednesday Mrs. Woolly and her two adorable lambs arrived. There are few creatures cuter than lambs and an exhausted ewe usually nurtures them. Mrs. Woolly was happy to settle down and have an evening meal, while her young ones bobbed about.

Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

Our dear sheep got sheared and are once again sporting a nice, tidy spring look. And boy had they put on weight! The early spring has done nothing to help their already round figures. How do you keep a happy sheep on a diet?

It turned out that weight watching was the least of our worries. Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My could not understand why we had to have new sheep moving in to their home. They were not only frightened of the lambs, they were completely petrified by them. Poor Mrs. Woolly tried to make friends with our lot, but got nowhere as four barrel sized animals fled far and fast. In the end the new arrivals stopped trying and did forest ramblings on their own. On the third day their owners came and took them home. Home to their own flock where everyone knew them and where Mrs. Woolly could hang out with other mothers and discuss her children's progress. It was the right thing to do, as sheep need a flock and our lot already felt theirs was a perfect one. All the sheep did meet indoors and the four M's were kind, polite and stiff with fear, they just did not understand the situation at all.

On Thursday dear husband brought home five young hens. At least we hope they are all hens, one of them is a bit bigger and very feisty so that might be a little male. Time will tell. They are a wild bunch, already starting their career as the Kings Knights, duelling and jumping about. The constant beeping is one of the nicest sounds you can hear, opening up the stable in the morning. They spent their first night tucked up in the stable sofa. The next morning they had their flying lessons by jumping off the sofas armrest. Every short flight was accompanied by a long beeeeep, and then thump. That was the landing. This went on forever and I still heard the beep sound in my head later on while driving in to town. Chicks are funny, full stop. And they eat like horses.... They now live in their own loose box where they do mountain climbing on a big heap of hey. I guess they will paraglide down from that so more beeps to come.

Our lovely sheep are back to their normal, calm selves. Mindy has a bad limp from all the running, Molly has the look off someone who could take on round two and Mandy has the bewildered expression on her face. She was the one who fell in love with the lambs when they were indoors but could not understand why they were here, at all. My liked the company and would have been fine with some sporty friends, in the end. But they all told me that what I tried to do was wrong and this is how things should be. Happy animals plodding along, new hens now and again and lovely naps under the apple three. Leave well alone and all that... Our sheep lost some weight, though...

Mr. Chip hardly registered the lambs so he's happy and as long as no one removes his bed, we can do what we feel like doing. As summer has arrived early this year our dear dog is in his element, looking for snakes and keeping us on high alert at all times. Terriers do not learn from being stung by a snake. They have Molly's view on life, looking for round two, Mr. Chip with the adders. The fact that he almost lost round one a few years ago does not stop him at all. "Snake hunter subprime!", that's our old dogs working title at the moment. Dear husband bought home more headache pills for us.

All in all a mind-boggling week. It did not go as well as we expected but I guess that's life with animals. The hens met up with the new arrivals and had a meal together with little ones, last night. We will keep them in separate lodgings until the young once join them outside in the daytime. Hens can be funny about new birds in the flock so better take it one small step at a time. I now run a Meet and Greet club for hens. Fingers crossed.

Text by Nina

Next blog post on the 22nd May. 

It's finally the month of May

The end of April rained away, our lawns were so water logged we could have started a swimming school for hens. Our lovely sheep did their usual plodding along, wearing their damp woolly jumpers with grim expressions on their, otherwise, sweet faces. They spent time indoors when the rain turned Monsoon-like as they can't abide getting soaked. Understandable as it takes forever for them to dry. It will be shearing time next week and they cannot wait!

Monty turned up one evening after one of his ramblings, soaking wet and trailing his tail feathers along in the sand. It looked very sad but he was happy as Larry, telling me all about his day. Monty is an old Finnish hen breed, the same as all his lady friends. We can now officially register our feathery lot as a gene bank for this old "Alhon kanta" breed. (That's the name in Finnish.) As I have told before, their hen ancestors date back to the Bronze Age and they are a no fuss gang. A little rain can't stop Monty and his ladies and when faced with a puddle, they wade through. As a whole, our hens can take all kinds of weather but they do enjoy a warmish stable during the winter months. As they say "don't we all?!”

We still have to wait some days for our new chicks to arrive. Suggestions for good names are very welcome, as my mind has gone a bit blank, on that front. The other piece of good news is, that we are getting two lambs and their mother to stay with us. The lambs are the most beautiful animals, sporting a mixture of black and white, like someone splattered them with a paintbrush. They also have black circles around their eyes, so they might be super heroes. Time will tell... The twins will spend the summer with their mother and hopefully grow big and strong from milk, grass and fresh air. Mindy, Mandy, Molly and My will get the shock of their life and we will take it from there. One lamb will be called Milly and the other one will probably be called Maja. The difference between the twins so far is a small black spot on Milly's nose. Let's hope all goes well and that we can send their mother home later in the year and that the youngsters can stay with us forever and ever.

All this rain has made the grass grow even faster so our sheep are now the size of small Beetle cars. Molly has started speaking with a dark, rumbling voice and My is very jumpy and wild. Spring affects everyone, somehow. Mindy continues to sounds like a foghorn and Mandy goes the opposite way and never speaks out loud. Thankfully her expressions speak volumes, so we know what she thinks, most of the time.

Swallows. Credit: Dasha Dimitrova

The family's of white wagtails have returned to us and are spending their time around the animals; hanging out with the hens and feeding near the sheep. They are friends helping each other out and benefitting nicely in the process. The month of May is a bit magical, the way everything comes together. I guess we are still living in Easter time, so to speak. New beginnings, new life... Whatever it is, we cannot complain, especially today, as the sun came out this morning and everything is misty and hopefully starting to dry up, a smidgen. The swallows that build their nest in the garage arrived yesterday and come July, the car has to be parked outside. Bird droppings on a car are not good. We love our swallows and it's always heartwarming when they return.

Just read about the Lincoln Longwool sheep in this month’s County Living magazine. It's one of the many sheep listed on Britain's rear breed list and it looks brilliant. Next time when Molly complains about her coat of wool I will show her a picture of a Longwool. To have a jumper made of that wool.... Will stick to supporting our local farmers though, but one can dream, can't one?! Molly tells me one can get a grip and come out and feed them some nice bread. So I will do just that. It is sunny, after all. Be well and happy May to everyone.

Text by Nina

Next blog post on the 15th May.