Integration for the poultry nation!!!

Chickadees are about 12 weeks today and I'm desperate to mix them with the main flock and give them more space.

They are showing signs of boredom like flying at me every morning when I let them out. Black pudding and glen coco are the main culprits.

 We set about making a separate pen within the main coop so they can just look at each other and still be safe. 

We then made sure they had water and food and moved them in. As soon as we put them down they started foraging and scratching around.

I'm I'll keep checking on them every hour or so as their still a bit small and could get got at!

The worms are in!

My big bag of wriggly worms arrived and the wormery is ready to go!

Cardboard for bedding!

 Mix with newspaper and dampen down with a water sprayer

Empty your wriggly buddies into the nest materials with the compost they come I and a bit of your own if you have some

Add the top tray with your waste food and some more cardboard the put the lid on and let them settle in!

Keep adding waste tray by tray and when you get to the last tray the bottom layer should be ready to go on your garden! 

1 + 1 = aghhhhh!!!!????

The other  weekend we went to one of my besties surprise party. It was lovely to catch up with nearly everyone I love (there were some absentees) and celebrate our friend. I had some chats to some other mums and most of them mainly wanted to know how it was to go from one child to two...I'd had some panics when I was first pregnant mainly about managing a baby and W, I was worried he'd be sad or feel left out, I worried I would feel too torn and not give the baby or W enough....thankfully the human race doesn't work like this and very cleverly allows you space for each and every child you don't love one more than the other; a question we've all wondered of our own mothers.

Time however is a different matter there are times when W needs me just as I've latched E on to nurse, or W wants me to read or watch something with him when I'm cooking. It has and will continue to get easier as they get older so it's just a question of managing expectations till then I think.

Things that make it easier are slings!! I wear E for most of the day, apart from coming down for some food and a change. When he gets a bit wriggly or bored then he goes down for a kick about on his mat with a few toys nearby. 

Now that E can be carried on my back it's even better as I can cook and wash up and bend down! When he's on my front it still feels like being pregnant so is a bit limiting but so nice for cuddles.

Not the happiest face but he was about to nap! The sling is a woven Yaro Wrap

We also bed share so I'm getting so much more sleep this time around so I feel less frazzled which means I have more patience for W. This doesn't work for every family but has been amazing for us.

W's age has made everything easier too he's nearly 5 so is a bit more independent from me and more understanding of E's needs he's also very keen to help and hold E and entertain him when I'm tied up with something. The downside to have such

 a gap in age is that W is desperate to play with E bit he's still too little, a friend with older kids also pointed out that when on holidays you won't be able to please everyone with whatever activity it we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!

Another oh shit moment...

A few weeks ago I had a Rayburn service booked and a sweep booked for the following week.. When they arrived they started poking around and making the Dreaded noises no one wants to hear.. Sucking in of air and tutting...after more poking and frowning they decided they couldn't touch it and it was classed as ID....  As in immediately dangerous!!

The whole of the stove pipe was blocked and at an illegal 90deg and Ray needed some new fire bricks. They also said they couldn't be sure what else might be needed until they took the pipe down... I could honestly have cried it all sounded so expensive.

They suggested that if the pipe work was to be moved around you may as well move Ray over to the chimney wall.

We had always thought that day was in a weird kind of place so it's kind of fated and forced out hand to jiggle it about a bit (although it's about 5 years earlier that our bank account would have wanted!)

Here is ray's original spot..

(The angle of the death-pipe just out of shot!)

Day One

Day Two

You can see the original arch of the fireplace from when the downstairs would have been one room... It huge!

This is now the third week of Ray being off and I don't like it! We're lucky I didn't book the service in January I couldn't have coped giving birth at home without the warmth of Ray! We have the back up boiler but the water doesn't get that hot and we wouldn't have managed to fill the pool.

The garden

Our botched together nursery coop!

The babies!

The Swiss chard has since been decimated by a few of the chickens after wilco left the gate open... His young farmers membership has been revoked

And some of the feathery ladies

Get out of my kitchen and Rattle those pots and pans!!

I've had a set of beloved pots and pans from my mum but they've been getting used less and less and ive been sad about them just hanging around the cupboards and in the spirit of the Marie kon method* I found a use for them somewhere else.

Wilco is very percussion inclined, it was bound to happen with 3 generations of drummers in the family, so daddio set up some outdoor drums for him!

We used super strong cord cut to size and will soon suspend the lids as well for some make do cymbals!

* the Marie kon method, put simply is to ask yourself if something sparks joy if it doesn't get rid! The book is  great and I've completed a massive de-cluttering because of it  

Chicks man!

About 4 weeks ago we bought 6 baby chicks from Welsh poultry gorgeous feathery 5 week old chickadees!! 

They are super funny and growing pretty fast they've moved from our lounge to the workshop and are now residing in their very own shed outside. In another 5 weeks I think they'll be big enough to be put in with the older mamas.

Wether they'll be able to keep up with Wilcos egg demand is yet to be seen...

Backstory 1

I kind of wish I'd started keeping this blog back in November before we moved and documented the whole story but to be honest those last few months of 2014 were pretty tear filled and raged and would have made no sense! 

I was very very pregnant and was moving from my beloved Bristol to the very unknown pontypool...so many unknowns made it pretty stress filled.

We moved here on December 22nd a day before the solicitors and everything else besides tesco were due to shut for Christmas! Luckily we had help from a dream team of friends and family so the actual move itself went really well very well for me as being preggo I didnt have to lift a single box! (Every cloud and that...)

Muka shutting the van on the last load!

That first week is a bit of a blur really.. We had a lovely Christmas considering, spent Christmas Day breakfast at my brothers and we hosted Boxing Day breakfast we had our first (of many)'oh shit!' Moment when wilco pressed the panic button alarm we had just found in the bedroom this resulted in Muka wearing just his pants stood on a stool above my fathers head (hilarious image for me.. Not so cool for my dad or Muka) trying to find the right wore to rip out of the right alarm box... We had no code for either alarm. 3 wires severed later we had no alarm system and a severe ringing in our ears.

This also meant my first meeting of my new neighbour involved  a very egg like me wearing just a long vest sans underwater...great.

Worms!

The other day while at Wilcos school I was staring into the skip that was in front of reception (I was well trained by my mother never to ignore a skip)

Under a lot of crap I spied something on 'the list'... The list is an ever changing and growing compendium of bits and bobbins I need (not want, definitely need)

Not one but 2 wormerys were in the skip! I got permission from the headteacher to dive in and rescue them she very kindly told me to help myself (dangerous words...I could have easily filled the car up!) So into the back of the car they went!

The way it works is your worms go in the bottom try with lots of nest materials.. Newspaper and cardboard shredded some wood shavings compost/leafy stuff all slightly dampened.

Then the tray that goes above them is for you food waste.. Just a little bit at first, with some more compost then when most of the food is gone you add another tray of waste food and so on until you run out of trays, by then the bottom tray will be lovely wormy waste that you dig into your soil. You also get the bonus of worm tea (that's what the tap on the bottom tray is for not some weird kind of worn whippy dispenser which is what wilco thought it was)

The next step was to get some worms and reading lots and lots about my new wriggly pets and looking online (it was a bit baffling) I found http://yorkshire-worms.co.uk/ their website is quite lovely considering what they sell! I ordered 1kg of dendrobaena Worms and am ridiculously excited, You'd think I'd ordered a fancy bag or shoes the way I keep on about it!

High flying birds

Today's walk was filled with death and danger! Well... Not quite as dramatic as that but I did have a huge wobble half way climbing up the quarry side!

I was wearing E and hadn't realised how steep and narrow the climb back up to the top was... W was running ahead full pelt as usual and was giving me the heebeejeebees... As usual...

The view was gorgeous at the top I'm still in that early stage of new-baby-crazy where death and tragedy is everywhere so constantly saw everyone falling to their deaths so couldn't quite enjoy the vista.

Note the relaxed grimace!

ceffyl da y bore

This morning we got to feed the horses before school. 'Cow horse' 'milky' 'george' and ' bacon' A lovely start to the day lets hope it lasts 

 *names have been changed ;)