Getting Clucky

Well, it's been a fun week but not a particularly productive one. Hmmm... we will have to make up for it this week.

Pete and Rach came up on Monday which was great. They both took a week off work to come and hang out with us. There were a few board games as well as impromptu Trivia question readings and quite a few glasses of wine. It felt a bit like a holiday for us as well.

Tuesday was the snow which I have already written about, Wednesday I had to work and also had a meeting to discuss further work which was great. Rach and I went up to Napier briefly to do that and didn't end up getting home until the evening. Thursday seems to have been erased from my memory and Friday all hell broke loose.

Friday, as usual, mum and Richard came up but this week there was a twist. Angus had just arrived (literally that morning) back from Canada and had arranged to come and visit us because his parents were going up to Hastings anyway meaning they could drop him off. So Mum decided to get a lift with them as well leaving Richard to come up on his own after work.

Pete, Rach, Marty and I spent all morning cleaning the house because Mum wanted to 'show it off' to the visitors and when they finally arrived at about 1pm, Sherry and Roger didn't even step foot inside the house. They dropped and ran (very wise).
It was great to see Angus and we gave him a tour of the land after there was some confusion over how big 25 acres is. It was easier to just show him.

The rest of the day faded into night and Richard arrived later on after Angus had passed out on the sofa and the game of Trivial Pursuit had become tiresome.

Saturday proved to be a little more interesting. The boys (Marty, Pete and Angus - not the horses this time) woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed realdy for a mission up into the Ruahines. Rachael and I headed off to the paddock to tack up Dino for Rach to have a ride. It was all going quite well when she first got on bgut something happened and to cut a long story short we ended up driving to Waipuk to find a doctor but were told that the closest place was Hastings for a possibly dislocated shoulder. So Rach was dosed up with pain killers and bundeled into an ambulance which I followed to Hastings. Once there, there were more painkillers and a lot of waiting before finally getting x-rays done and surprising us with the results which showed she had broken her shoulder in 4 places and had a severely bruised ankle from Dino's hoof. So they got her plastered (in more ways than one) and shuffled us out the door 5 hours later. Poor Rach. It's her right arm as well so I think she'll be off work for a while.

Sunday saw Marty and I leave before everyone else. Mum was driving Pete and Rach home because Rach couldn't drive but Marty and I had a meeting with our new chickens in Lower Hutt at 3pm so we took off at about midday. We got to Lower Hutt and were offered plenty of chickens but we ended up with 4 hens and 5 two day old chicks. We almost couldn't find the last brown chick but he started cheeping loudly just as we were about to leave so we spent another 10 mins crawling around in the bushes trying to find him amongst the undergrowth even though he was completely camouflaged. But we got him in the end. I would have felt awful if we'd left him behind! But thank you to Judy and John for providing us with such lovely chooks. They will be well cared for

Here is Rita in front with Babi just behind and Dinky further back

God they are cute. I just want to squeeze them.

This little chickadee looks a bit bewildered

Maybe the one that almost got left behind

L - R Blanche, Dinky and Babi.

So we have their mother, Rita, and 2 other brown hens, Babi and Dinky, and one beautiful grey and gold girl called Blanche. The chicks don't have names yet as we don't know if they are really chicks or if they're dudes.

We got them back to the farm and it was raining and dark so we piled the 3 chickless girls into the coop and kept Rita and her brood in the laundry in a box overnight. Rita doesn't seem to mind us too much but it may be because she's more worried about her little ones.

This morning we reunited her with her friends and watched a frazzled Babi wander around in search of a good egg laying spot. She finally kicked Rita and the babies out of her nest and within a minute had laid an egg. Our first home laid egg! Blanche had been making a bit of a fuss for most of the morning and so at about midday she produced our second. Eggs for breakfast tomorrow!

We got back into the farm work today with a bit of a touch up on the chicken coop and a massive poo pick (I am astounded at how much poo those horses produce). We actually had too much to fit in the trailer. What are we going to do with it all!? It took us most of the day.

While I was gardening, Marty cleared all the wood in the back paddock and found this beautiful, enormous native slug. He was about 12cm long. Very pretty though and apparently they don't eat garden plants. Only fungus and stuff so he can stay. He's back in his homely wood pile now.

The Mighty Boosh is about to start so I must be off.

Au revoir :)