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Bank Holiday here tomorrow, a brand new one. 1st February here is "St. Brigid's Day". The Christian Church, in ancient times, sort of adopted/co-opted the old feast of Imbolc, a fertility and renewal feast, marking the first day of Spring, the return of light, and the hope of provision in...

Everyone's awfully quiet recently- hope it's only that you're all enjoying festivities!

Wishing you all a very Happy , healthy & prosperous New Year!

With the multiple "crises" (crisises?) we find ourselves facing no matter where we're based at the moment - cost of living, energy, fuel etc - I thought a gathering place of frugality might be good. So here's the spot for posting your energy and fuel saving tips and your tastiest frugal...

Oh wow - I'd just posted asking if we were done with using Tapatalk, and here, I find we seem to have our own App! Brilliant! ??

Hope everyone had a good festive season. Here, little went according to plans! Nevertheless, a good, happy and peaceful time was (safely) enjoyed by all the family. Plans were for mum and I to go to my daughter for lunch on Christmas day. I will admit, I had my doubts about this...

My last remaining 3 elderly hens are being despatched this weekend. One by one, over the last year, the others have succumbed to illness - well, not actually succumbed to the illness, I sent them on their way rather than prolong their suffering. Now, 3 remain, and one is starting to...

Lost another hen yesterday. She was showing signs of being unwell last week, but I was very unwell myself last week, so I didn't have what it takes to deal with it. I did pick her up one evening, and some murky liquid came from her beak, so I thought it might be a crop problem, although...

Reports on the farming news here today of a pedigree Suffolk ram being sold for a record price. An eye-watering €44,000! Lovely looking animal, by his photos. But, y'know - it's a sheep! Mind you, it's not that long since a sheepdog fetched around 26,000. Valuable animals, in the world of...

I'm so happy! There used to be a lot of bats around my place, but they disappeared 4 or 5 years ago. But I'm ridiculously thrilled to see that they're back! Saw several flitting around outside tonight. I'm assuming that their return is linked to my "rewilding " efforts here - the...

I've had my current batch of hens for over two years now, and they were already laying when I got them - commercial type laying hybrids, the "little brown girls", which is all I ever keep. This batch have been super healthy and 4 of them are still laying, which at now 2 1/2 years old...

I'm sure you've all noticed the huge upsurge in new chicken keepers since covid? In one way it's great. In other ways, not so much. Seems so many just jump in, with no research and not much thought. One chicken group I'm in, a woman got some hens and then asked us what she needed for them...

Several times now, I've had a very cheeky fox out on the lawn by my back door, any time from mid morning to afternoon. Grubbing holes in the lawn. My hens are in a large pen (approx 70×45 ft), with a galvanised chain link fence. However, the fence is only around 5ft. I know zero about electric...

Yesterday, I went with dau and her two little boys (just turned 3 and 4 months) for an outing. Mostly, it was to give the 3 yr old a trip on a train, because he's currently obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, and all the other engines, carriages, etc. in that series. He can identify every...

For the first time in all my years keeping chickens, I've lost one. No, I don't mean it's the first time a chicken had died! I mean I have, actually, lost one! Yesterday, I was working in the veg garden, which is toward the front of the property. I looked up, and there was a chicken on the...

So, how's everyone coping with weather? From what I see on t'interwebs, the UK seems to be getting quite extreme weather? Floods, and now a blast of cold? Here, November was the wettest for decades, but around here anyway, we had no floods. This morning is frosty, but not too bad. We've had...

This year, I've decided to have a go at making wine from my fruit glut! plum wine has been started, and is bubbling away (very!) merrily, and I'm hoping to do an apple wine too. Shame you have to wait so long to taste the results, but fingers crossed! I've always wanted to try wine making! But...

Every year, the village has a Festival of Food. I've never gone, until this year. This year, I was determined to go. So yesterday morning (when the sun was shining, it was a lovely day.) I walked to the village. From home, to where the festival site was would I suppose be around 4 1/2 to 5km...

I've always had an interest (of necessity! :roll: :mrgreen: ) in living simple living, and trying always to live well with less. Actually, I've come to think that the less you can live with, the better you can live, if you follow. My late husband, in his head, felt the same, but definitely...

My new girls, when I got them just over a week ago, I had assumed were on pellets. TBH, over all the years I've got pullets from the su pplier, they've always been on pellets, so it never occurred to me to ask. However, after a few days, I noticed that the feed wasn't disappearing, and the hens...