I told you so

…but I still don’t believe it!!!

It’s a bit cooler today (and very windy) but still nice and sunny, so I decided to sort the compost out. Having worked up a nice “glow” decanting 1 cubic metre of ready to use compost into bags (for dryer storage and easier transportation), I made a start turning the half-done cubic metre into the newly vacated bay.

About a foot down, out the corner of my eye, I saw the dog looking quizically through the fence at the chooks (collies have a perculiar way of looking that means you can actually see the cogs turning). It took a while to register in my own head, but sure enough there were 3 chooks also looking quizical (a permanent state for a chook), but not at the dog. Being quite good at maths puzzles at school, I joined the dotted lines – followed the line of sight of the dog, and that of the chooks, to see where they’d cross.

X marked the spot right enough – chook number 4. Where? In the bloody veg beds of course!!!

I still can’t work out how she got there (tunnel I suspect – the request for an exercise horse should have been a clue!), but she obviously knew she wasn’t suppose to be there, as when I opened the (6 foot high) gate, she shot out. All 4 chooks then retired for a dust bath under the tree – no doubt to compare notes.

Whoever thinks chickens have very small brains are so wrong!

Finished at last

[Well, nearly there, but "Nearly finished at last" didn't sound as good]

Having started work on the re-arranging of the veg beds late last year, I’m please to report significant progress.

I started with 3 beds – 4ft x 12ft and then work commenced:

Work started, with the bed on the right already dug out

By day 3, I’d already reached this stage:

All beds dug into one large one, with post in place and fencing started.

Then rain stopped play… along with snow, heavy frost, more snow, more rain, more frost, a holiday, oh yes, and that other little thing called work.

But, with recent good weather and a renewed spirit from the holiday, we now have this:

And from another angle:

There’s a bit too much exposed soil there for my liking, but hopefully that will be rectified this weekend by the addition of some mulch and manure and some plants – I have broad beans up and ready to go in.

The chooks didn’t seem over impressed, but were happy to watch and snack on the freshly dug weeds – though I’m sure I caught them furtling away at a plan to break IN to the new Fort Knox