Spring

Well if Christopher is taking a break from talking about the weather – I will talk about it instead.  Today was the first springlike Sunday we’ve had – and much appreciated it was.  We spent the whole day outside.  I had my usual animal mucking out duties to perform and the rabbits which have been housed in the greenhouse over winter were returned to their grassy runs.  They looked relieved to be outside again – George even did a sort of dance when we let him loose.  Having claimed the greenhouse back I caught up with seed sowing.  The broad beans are coming along nicely so I should be able to plant those out soon.

The pigs spent the afternoon sunbathing in the orchard and I let the goats out of their paddock into the garden while I mucked out their huts.  They are very amusing to watch – lots of mad running around, followed by some horn-jousting with each other, and then a pit stop at the (cold) bonfire for a snack of some charred old newspaper.  The dogs stayed inside while the goats did their thing – they have learned the hard way that Sid plays rough and that dog paws are no match for his horns!

I was attacked by Geoff the cockerel as per usual when putting fresh hay in the nesting boxes.  He’s such a bossy bastard, he can’t stand anyone else being around his hens, talk about control freak.   Roy fed the chickens for me the other day and was treated to some equally brutal behaviour from Geoff – thinking quickly, in order to prevent further personal injury and get the job done – Roy put an upturned bucket over the cockerel until he’d finished feeding the hens.  On exiting the chicken coop he freed Geoff from his plastic prison.   Excellent solution to the problem and the only damage – one bruised cockerel ego.