Ups and Downs

This week has been a mixture of ups and downs. 

On a positive note the paperwork for the woodland work has been authorised; work can now begin in earnest, raising tree crowns and clearing sycamore and other saplings.  In terms of timing we couldn't have asked for better; the children return to school in the next few days so I am hoping to be able to spend longer hours there midweek.  I began feeling a little selfish expecting the children to spend all their time down at the land.  Yes they have fun and enjoy it there, but equally they have heaps of other things they both love and need to do as well.  Some days they want nothing more than a 'down day' where they can chill out at home.  Now the initial excitement of acquiring the new land has faded (albeit only a little) and the first major necessary task (the Balsam) has been completed I  am attempting to regain some balance.  I always find balance and routines disappear over school holidays at the best of times, so having this new project was bound to create a stir. Of course, we want to be there as much as possible but I am now thinking that this project, being a lifelong venture, will naturally become part of our routine and we will gain a perfect workable balance; one that is dictated by our needs and those of the children, plus the need to spend time at the woodland-dependant on various factors, season, growing, animals etc. 

So, husband is in the process of acquiring a chainsaw and we have penciled in the weekend to making lots of noise and a massive improvement to the woodland-Yay! In the meantime, I will forsake housework (what a shame!) and spend the majority of the school day chopping at some of the smaller branches.

 

The sad news is that we were visited by sly red fox who has taken 5 out of our 6 hens. We have housed the girls in our garden for the past 20 months.  They have a large walk in, aviary type space with their coop enclosed so they are not totally free range, but have lots of space to roam, dirt to scratch, trees to roost in, and have been free to come and go as they please; so semi-free range seems the appropriate term.  They were excellent pets.  Ok, they sometimes got a bit smelly and messy, especially in the wet weather, when they would scratch and churn up the mud looking for tasty bug snacks. BUT, they were great egg layers and never failed to provide us with a constant supply of eggs.  Which I might add, I am sorely missing and despite only previously buying free-range, cannot bring myself to once again purchase from the supermarkets; maybe this is some strange mourning or odd loyalty I'm not sure! Plus they made an interesting addition to the household; being quite friendly creatures they happily chirped away whilst we worked in the garden and never failed to hustle and bustle between themselves in an attempt to get nearest to whatever edge of the pen we were closest to, eagerly waiting for us to throw in the odd worm, dandelion leaf or other tit-bit.  The garden is certainly a lot quieter without them; it feels strange cutting up veg, or weeding the garden and not putting the scraps to one-side for the girls.

Sly red fox has been spotted in our area for years.  The milkman regularly comments on early morning sightings of foxes as he is doing his rounds.  Our neighbours' hens became victim of a fox raid over two years ago and he believes there is a den on a small patch of wasteland a few streets away.  We have also seen the fox in our garden several times; one time was no more than a fleeting glance af a red/brown streak running across the lawn.  One early morning visit had the children shrieking with excitement and concern when they spotted the fox stalking close to the rabbit hutch; The noise they created had scared it off before I got to the door. The most recent visit occurred mid-afternoon when myself and a friend ran shouting into the garden and came within a foot of it before it thought best to flee.  Never before have we seen any signs of attempted entry to the chicken coop.  As I have mentioned previously we are hoping to keep animals at the woodland.  We certainly were not about to rush into this and would have spent considerable time etc making sure the housing was both adequate and secure.  However, this recent visit has certainly made us more wary.  The terrible thing about a fox attack is that they do not simply kill to eat-the horrific sight that we awoke to that morning can only be described as a massacre, that the fox killed for what seemed like the sheer fun of it.  Only one bird had been taken; maybe the fox was disturbed before returning for the rest.  However, clearing away the mess of four killed birds was quite upsetting and seemed unjust.  I would have more respect for the animal if it had taken just the one bird and left the rest unharmed.  If, for example, it had been a new mother, desperate to feed her cubs then I would not begrudge her one bird.  But, to cull most of the flock and leave it to waste is not natural to me as a human.  How the one girl managed to survive is a mystery.  Several months after settling into their new home, the girls stopped going into the coop at night and began roosting in the branches of one or the trees.  They used the coop to lay eggs so this was not due to any infestation (I regularly check and de-lice the house!).  All we can think is that this lucky hen ran into the coop and escaped the attack.  After several days of TLC she appears to be making a full recovery.  She suffered a small skin wound on her back and she was obviously in shock at first as she would not let me near her. Thankfully, the wound has healed and she is now back to laying regular daily eggs.  She is however, lonely; she spends a lot of her day stood in a bush where she can look into the shed window.  All the girls used to battle to be the first to do this whenever anyone went into the shed, as this is where their feed is kept, though the amount of time she spends there has led me to believe that she is actually looking at her own reflection in the glass for company-poor girl.