And he puffed and he huffed...

and he put the fence up!

Three weeks later and we're all back to normal. We've dug in two new posts

Cut notches in them to accommodate the cross pieces of the fence panels (that was hard work!)

Added some bracing to a rotten patch

And finally put the fence panels back in place.

(and hooray for the sunshine - we were outside in tshirts all day, brilliant!)

p.s. The next challenge in The Great Swift Bake Off is approaching. This month two dozen biscuits are the order of the day. We'll open Mr Linky on Wednesday - what will you make?

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February in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop...

... its been cold, wet and windy. On many days the girls have got up, had something to eat, and gone back to bed and I can't blame them! We can't let them out into the rest of the garden unsupervised at the moment leaving them with not much to do except snooze the day away. I think they're probably hoping for spring as much as the rest of us!

... they've been supervising us sorting the fence. (From a safe distance of course!)

Lemon, Pepper and Fizzy with Joe digging in the background.

Needing to stay out of the way while the gap in the fence is unattended.

... laying, ish. Frog and Pepper are now producing five or six eggs a week between them. Compared to February last year this is really low (and last year there was snow!). I think this might be the difference between hens approaching their first spring - which was always going to be their best laying season - and those enduring their second winter.

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And he huffed and he puffed....

.... and he blew the fence down.

I know many many people are having a rough time with the weather and the flooding, our own story is tame in comparison. We noticed yesterday morning that some of our fence panels were flapping in the wind, and when we looked closer we found two of the posts had snapped. They hadn't come down completely, but a few more huffs and I think that would have been the case.

We were lucky that the rain wasn't as heavy as forecast yesterday meaning we could get out into the garden and get the panels off before they became damaged as we're hoping to reuse them. The posts then lifted out fairly easily. This afternoons job is to dig fresh holes for new posts, and then hopefully we can get the panels back up next weekend. In the meantime the chickens will have to put up with the mud bath that is their run - meeting next doors dog would not go down so well!

First loosen the nails holding the panels to the posts....

... at both ends. Joe used a chisel and a sledgehammer for this.

The wriggle the two apart, 

and get the fence panel out of the way.

Next the gravel board needed removing.

Finally the rotten posts came out.

All clear and ready for the new posts.

On a similar note, remember the drip we were struggling with a month ago? For several weeks we had no problems, and we were really hopeful that reshaping the leading had done the trick. But alas, this week the wind has blown from whatever direction it is and we've had more water coming through the roof of the bay window. We now need to get an expert eye in to take a look at this one for us.

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