Our First Egg

 How proud ( and excited) is this little farmer?

Our chooks ( well one of them at least) has started to lay eggs.  They are so quiet that the kids are able to go and pick them up and carry them around the yard.  I have made the rule that if they are in thier pen then we need to respect thier sanctuary and leave them alone.  (a pity mummies don't have that sort of space!)

Not sure if its getting though to the chooks tiny minds - but they know to run if I come outside and see them on my verandah.  The dog has also taken a vigilante approach and chases them off as well.

Ahh happy days of a suburban farmer.. ha ha ha

Snake bite?

This morning when I did my rounds on my suburban farm ( ha ha) I might have been bitten by a snake and not noticed till about 8 hours afterwards.

What? How could you not know? you shriek.

Well.....

As I was wandering in the chook pen - sans shoes, I thought I stood on a stick and it flicked up at me and snapped me on the ankle. it hurt a bit, but then I forgot about it. Less than an hour later, I had to sit down quickly as I got a bit dizzy and felt the room spin abit. But it was pretty hot and I put it down to dehydration and the fact I don't get much sleep in anycase - so probably just tired.

The whole day I have had a bit of sweats and just not feeling right - but then again - it was a hot humid day - so I just drank some water and put the air con on and when Age got home, got in the pool.

He was actually the one who noticed the two puncture wounds as I stepped into the pool.  Upon closer inspection - slight bruising/ inflammation and its only when touched that it hurts.  I have a slight headache - but again - its a hot day... dehydration all that stuff....

I have drunk a fair bit of water today, and reckon that if I haven't had a reaction by now, I'm unlikely to. There are plenty of non venomous or low venomous snakes about at the moment. Its probably a grass snake or a little black snake. This was backed up as while I was in the pool, Adrian found some tiny ( baby) snakes - about the length of two pencils and as thick.  Its head was wide - so that means its non venomous - and likely to be a whip snake or a tree snake.  In anycase - the kids are on alert not to pick up things without kicking them over first.

Not worrying about seeing a doctor - its just past 9 pm at the moment - besides - emergency wards round here are likely to see me still sitting and waiting till tomorrow morning... however.. just in case - this might be my last post ....(hand thrown dramatically over my brow......sweep off into the distance.)

So to answer your horrified question - how could you not know? Umm - not really sure if I have been bitten - but all indicators would lead me to that conclusion.  I do remember the sting of what I thought was a stick jabbing into me - but thats about it.

I actually feel a bit miffed.. a bit ripped off.

I've seen plenty of snakes, shot some, run away from alot with the old 'chuck the hat' on the ground trick, nearly been chucked off a horse as a huge python slide under its legs, forced myself to touch a giant python in the Thailand Zoo, but never been bitten by one.

I'd have thought that if I did, I'd see it, you know - let out some sort of shriek and kill it as it lunged fangs dripping with venom at me..... NOT look down at my leg 8 hours later and think - humm I reckon that wound is a snake bite.

Am I wrong to feel ripped off???

A dogs breakfast.. or is it a chookshed?

We have had a space beside our garage which is virtually unusable as it is overlooked by a 6 foot fence - making it useless for a garden ( no sun).  Adrian and I have long pondered its possible transformation - from fernhouse, to cubby house, to dog house, to tank stand.  It has grown a multitude of weeds and been the dumping ground for overly large bits of cardboard, and garden tools, the wheelbarrow and broken tiles.

This picture was taken after I had ripped out most of the weeds, discovered a half dozen rocks and rolled them out and pulled away all the other crap and either binned it or put it somewhere else.

The large rock still there needed a crow bar, digging out and alot of heaving to get it to the grassed area.  Its still there.

SO - one of my projects after new year was to transform it into a chook yard and shed.

Fact 1.  I have never built a thing.  Nothing. I have knocked a few nails into walls to put pictures up and been responsible for drilling holes into walls for shelving.. thats the extent of my massive experience with the building trade.  so - why let a little inexperience hold you back when you have lots of enthusiasm?

Fact 2 - it was a secret project - so I couldn't spend any money on it and had to hide all the bits, tools etc and ask no advice while I was doing it.  No matter I've never used power tools before and it took me half an hour to put a blade into a jigsaw.( because I was trying to do it upside down.)

Fact 3 - I had no plan on how to build a chook house... and no idea, and no budget, and little good or new materials to work with.

Fact 4 - I am enthusiastic and resourceful, strong with  good endurance and perseverance levels.  now thats got to count for something hasn't it?????

Fact 5 - I had a great little builders mate - Lilly - who carried things and gave me lots of advice on what I should be doing.  Morgan had more sense and kept away.

Fact 6.  I had a very old, woodwormed, rotten rabbit hutch, two rolls of chicken wire and an assortment of planks, poles, garden stakes, edging and bits of wood and a bag of quick set cement.. what possibly could go wrong?

The first thing I did was do a  fanciful sketch of a chook palace suing the rabbit hutch as its base. the hole into the box needed enlarging and a hole needed to be made so they could get into the side ( enter the jigsaw fiasco)  It might not have been so bad if the jigsaw hadn't been a cordless one and I had to keep plugging the battery in to get recharged.  However, a bad tradie will blame his tools.. so I won't....

I know chooks like secure high places to roost - so made them two - one in the corner up the back and one in the hutch - which I put on stilts so we didn't have to bend to see if there were eggs.. and out of the way of the brown snakes we sometimes get here.

I enclosed one side at the bottom for a cool spot for them to hide during the day and they have a perch with a view - netted sides.

I used a heavy duty motorcycle ramp ( thanks Frazer - you want it back - you'll need to speak with the girls)  so the chooks can get up into the hutch.

The rotting wood and rusted nails made it interesting to keep it all together. The floor fell out so I had to reinforce and build it in again, one of the side planks crumbled in my hand so I had to replace it..... and I think its standing on sheer will power and fear - it doesn't dare move.

so - what you see before you is the product of sweat and hard labour and is undergoing an organic stage of renovation - it. I find another bit of wood or netting and think.. hummm I can use this......

I haven't gotten to the gate yet  - well to swing it anyway - the star pickets are there as is the gate.... but the chooks are held into their pen with a piece of lattice... and fear..

They love their little house at least - so its all worth it..  They get let out for an hour or so in the mornings and an hour or so in the evenings - so they have have a scratch and a peck around the grass and yard.

yes - its a bleeding mess and I hope my Dad never sees it - and I'm sure my carpenter great grandfather is spinning in his grave... however - who taught me, took any time to help me hold a hammer or how to knock in a nail?  yep - no-one... girls were not meant to learn anything other than drudgery manual labour and certainly nothing as specialized as manufacturing anything.. so I and damned proud of it....as bad and terrible that it is.....