We have decided to have hens - i didn't realise just how difficult having hens could be. I have bought all the mags - and read some books, I have read the do and don'ts, the red mites and the chopped straw. The pen is built alongside the lazybeds and I am looking forward to having chicken manure for my veggies but we need a hen palace for them to live in - one is under construction it has to be suitable for hens and also for the egg collector - me. I have a balance problem (due to surgery rather than alcohol) and have been known on occasions to end up in the bottom of the fridge or the beetroot patch headfirst. The hen house has turned into a mammoth task - as it needs to be accessible for me to clean and to collect the eggs without falling in. The plan initially is for 6 hens - no cockerel too noisy and can't cope with more (baby) cockerels, I don't see myself as a neck wringer! The hens have been ordered and should be available by February or March 2008 well that gives the mink trappers plenty of time to rehouse the little tinkers elsewhere and away from my tasty chooks. Anyway here is the palais de poulets in it's naked stage, it will be painted a yummy mummy blue.
Todays happenings - the builders merchant's lorry arrived in the pouring rain to deliver plasterboard, sounds okay but it was the big lorry and that can't get down the drive - so mr shortlegs and joiner have to leg it up and down the drive carrying 2 sheets of plaster board (tinfoil side out), the lorry had brought 13 sheets when we only wanted 6. This is for the lining of the new remodelled harris tinsheds - more about them later. Hamish the westie delighted at the frenetic activity in the yard and driveway took advantage, as terriers are prone to doing, and chased a cat through the drainage ditch, does anyone remember that song - mud mud glorious mud ..... mmmmm
The palais de poulets has survived the weather - I am a bit surprised as it is in it's draft form - the screws haven't been tightened yet as it has to be dismantled and placed in the hen pen. The hens will have a pen as I have read they are partial to veggies and things in the garden, they will be let out in the main garden occasionally but to start with they will have their pen and a bit of lazybed to do whatever hens do. When I can fathom how to put pics on I will unveil le palais.
When we moved into this house great fuss was made by the vendor of the 'island' - we gave each other 'knowing looks' scratched our heads and thought it was a great pile of undergrowth and neglected willows, anyway after much hardwork, falling in the stream and midges an island has been unearthed nearly big enough to build on..... well a summerhouse anyway, but the problem was access so a big plan was hatched and a big bridge has been built from wood and metal. It arrived on a boat trailer and has been pushed and shoved into position, again in draft form, as it has to have the bridgey bit put on, it has rails and the base of the bridge but the planking came .. yes, on the too big lorry from the builders merchant. We thought that a party might be in order to open the bridge for visitors to the island so more plans afoot but as the new tinsheds are also nearly complete then perhaps it should be 'tinshed and bridge opening party' and as it is unlikely the house will be completed before christmas it is one too many party opportunities to miss !
dozing in the chair - well it was that time of late afternoon when there was a tap on the door - woke with a start to find two drenched cyclists asking if they can pitch their tents, it was one of those situations where you think am I still asleep? No, They had seen the tinsheds from the road and had thought they would be able to shelter here - I offered them the only flat non boggy bit of garden next to the henpen on which to pitch their tent. Fortunately I had been very productive in the kitchen that morning and there was lentil soup and savoury scones made, of which the cyclists were very grateful. Katerine and Ruud are from Belgium and are island hopping, heading back to the mainland on Monday, they stayed last night and again tonight - soup today was sort of leek and potato. They are off tomorrow, pitching around Callanais. It's odd they should pick us - maybe they saw the palais de poulets and mistook it for a 5 star hotel!
Last Thursday wasn't so good and this one was even worse - the washing machine died last week and we had a big hot water leak in the kitchen, this Thursday we had another water hot leak in the same place - the kitchen is being stripped out in a few weeks time so the pipe had been temporarily/emergency fixed pending the pipework being renewed. Anyway the pipe is now capped off so no hotwater in the kitchen for the next few weeks. Then the electrician didn't arrive to do rewiring and new installation work and is now on a long weekend so maybe next wednesday - no breath being held here! And the palais de poulets and bridge builder lost his timing belt so the party is looking less likely!
The council are coming tomorrow to do a 'special collection', they came last week too but the rayburn hadn't been broken up - but when it came to it - it was so rusty it fell to bits anyway, the pile has been growing through the week in anticipation of the yellow flatbed arriving. It's easier than going out looking for skips to put stuff in, no sooner do you spot a likely looking big green thing than it is full with the mandatory mattress, broken chair and bedsprings sticking out the top and I am just useless at chucking stuff in - it all comes back and bonks me on the head, as I've already told you I have a balance problem so being bonked on the head by errant rubbish is not good. Mr Shortlegs is useless at climbing up the laddery thing on the side, he has to use both hands to get up to the top so I still have to chuck the rubbish up to him and he's not a very good catcher! When we first moved here we had a big skip - a green community skip, everyone thought 'aha an empty skip', the first evening there was gridlock as people stopped to lob their rubbish into it! The second evening it had 'private hire' painted all over it and it worked.
Early this morning a heron was sitting on one of the islands in the river, it sat hunched for about 30 minutes before striking out and grabbing a fish, it then took off lazily flapping it's huge wings and flew off down the loch, I am in awe!
Apologies everyone I have failed dismally to get pics on for you all to ooooh and aahhhhhh at. The technology has beaten me, daughter home on thursday and IBHQ working on it too so maybe they can crack it!
One thing I miss from the mainland are skips - you know the sort that get parked outside houses with those little lights on so that cars don't crash into them - not the huge big green things that we have here. I think I must be quite sad as whenever I saw a skip it would have to be investigated - some of my best finds have been in skips, big wooden chair, lovely wood and mouldings, chests of drawers, gateleg table. My husband and daughter would cringe in embarrassment and use diverting tactics - anything to avoid me examining the contents of a skip e.g 'look at this lovely lamppost' or 'shall we turn left here' you know that sort of thing - so obvious! In my rummagings I have often wondered if I might find something really worth something to anyone apart from me - like a jewel encrusted crown thrown away by mistake, no, all I find are others cast offs which I am more than happy to claim and rejuvenate with a bit of elbow grease and steel wool and my favourite shade of wishy washy blue paint - very similar to the lovely ethereal light we get in the islands - I bought a very large can of it from one those twee lifestyle stores and am still only half way through it - but I shall save the rest for the palais de poulets.
The hot water is still off in the kitchen, the plumber is away on the mainland, he'll be along on thursday to start the replumbing and to install a new pressurised water heating system. The dead washing machine has gone in the special collection, all our stuff is in store and has been for a year nearly however what with my skip raidings, car bootings and charity shop collections I don't think we need to get the stuff out but the washing machine would be useful! The storage man says he know which container the washing machine is in but he's too busy right now to get it out - I have offered him money but I think I will have to resort to threatening him with my dirty smalls (or in my case dirty bigs!).
The 'special collection' took place today at 11.30am my neighbour up the road tells me (I was out), she came down to shut the gates earlier as a likely looking sheep was eyeing up the herbage in the garden thinking breakfast lunch and tea all in one go or maybe she had some rubbish to add to the pile! Tthe belgian girls had left the gates open after they struck camp and headed off up north to callanais. The yard is looking very clear but now there are the bits and pieces from inside the new sheds to clear out - bits of wood and insulation, have heard there is a new skip today, nearby, I'm not going to say where in case you get there first! Did you hear about the car in the skip in south harris? It was in the paper - needed 'special handling' (the skip that is) to lift it and get rid of the car. How do you get a whole car in a skip? It's not like a garage with doors at ground level I bet that took special handling to get it in there!
The heron has been visiting again today along with some very large herring gulls who lurk about on the rocks in the river. The salmon are about but the mink seem to prefer the grey mullet in the loch - I hope the trappers manage to clear the area before the chooks arrive! I'll tell you about the daleks arriving later!
Well the fog has lifted, the garden doesn't seem to have changed too much, the hen house is still sitting there unfinished but hopefully there will be progress on that this week.
It's going to be exciting this week, the plumber is coming on wednesday which means hot water in the taps... you take it so for granted until it isn't there anymore and you have to resort to boiling kettles - fortunately the shower is electric so have been able to keep ourselves pong free. Half the kitchen floor is still up because of the leaky pipe and I have got used to doing floor exercises - Olga Korbutt like, around the holes in the floor. It is a bit worrying to look down the hole and realise the house is resting on boulders, the plumber was talking about diving suits and snorkels last time he was here looking down the hole, as I am a bit deaf I wasn't sure if he was talking about the work he is going to do here or a hobby!
Someone left the gates open and in came the sheep, you can always tell cos the dog starts being sick. He is partial to a bit of sheep poo, off I go with my compost prodder to prod a few sheep out of the garden, they hide behind the hedge which is why i don't usually see them but the dog does. It's that ewe and her lamb, who is nearly as big as she is. She fixes me with her beady eye and stamps her foot saying 'bring it on..' in a sheep sort of way however, it must have been the compost prodder that did it she took one look and dashed followed by the lamb. This ewe has attitude, she snorts and stamps and would not be out of place in a bull ring, she regularly invites herself in usually over the wall but today was a gift, in through the gate, she must have thought it was red carpet day! I feel I have to point out the compost prodder is a plastic thing rather like a spade handle and I use it to add more width to myself in a worzel gummidge way to herd the sheep out gently.
I haven't forgotten about the daleks .. maybe next time.
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