Dog Days

well after thinking and re-thinking and loads of procrastinating, we're getting a dog.

Lizzy is an 18 month old Border Collie who belonged to a lovely family in Lahinch, but needed a new home as they're out most of the day and felt it wasn't fair on her.

I'm a bit nervous as I haven't had a dog since I lived at home....

Here she is.....

Visitors...

Our very first visitors came for the weekend. Dad & Lyn caught the ferry to Dublin and then the train across to Ennis via Limerick.
They stayed for a long weekend and even helped chop firewood and stack it.

We had a couple of trips to the pub (one to celebrate my birthday) and generally a very pleasant time.
They can now see why we chose to live here. It was lovely to have them

The Prodigal Hen

Around 4pm we tend to round up the hens as it starts getting dusk and the foxes are about... Did the head count, and only 7 instead of 8. Bum. One of the new girls is AWOL.

Steve & Ellie start searching - the woods, the fields, the sheds, the usual hiding places - no hen.

Go out onto the road.... no hen.

Ellie eventually hears a faint "bock.... bock" coming from the front hedge - a fabulous and prickly mess of hawthorn, couch grass and brambles, and there's our hen, looking a bit confused and frightened.
She can't get out. We can't get to her because of the growth and a deep water-filled ditch on the other side, so after about 2 minutes of gentle coaxing and a bit of poking with a long stick, she's out and returned to the henhouse....

Trip back to the UK

Seeing as school's closed for 2 days, I decide to take Ellie to the UK to visit her grandparents who haven't seen her in months. We fly from Shannon to East Midlands and spend a couple of days shopping (new clothes and shoes for Ellie) as all the girls clothes I can find in Ireland seem to be terribly "girly" and "too pink"

Luckily Matalan's Spring/Summer range relies heavily on khaki and purple. This is a big hit with Ellie, so we manage to make a few purchases to bring back.

Together with the bits & bobs I ordered from Amazon to be delivered in the UK (saving on postage costs) our hand luggage that we brought over half-empty is at its maximum weight limit for coming back. Plus I get searched at East Midlands Airport on the way back. Ellie just laughs at me....

Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Had a letter from the Teagasc (forestry) saying that the 4 year inspection of the woodland was now due (when we bought the house, we also bought 0.75 hectares of grant-maintained broadleaf woodland)

This came as a bit of a shock to us - even more so when we read the conditions that would be inspected !!! We met some, but the part about "taking steps to minimise animal damage" - er.... well...... basically the deer have trashed almost all of the ash trees at the centre of the plantation.

Rang a local independent forester who agreed to come and assess the extent of the damage and give us a few pointers. Well a bit of sighing and teeth-sucking later, it became clear that we wouldn't pass the inspection without some considerable input - shaping (hard pruning) what was left of the ash, but replanting over 500 new trees.
We settled on alder trees - still a native species, but one that the deer don't seem to nibble quite as much.

It came as a bit of a blow.... on first hearing the news, planting 500 trees seems a gargantuan task.
We now have to decide if all the work will be worth the grant - or do we opt out of the grant system and maintain the forest as best we can... decisions, decisions

St Brigid brings the Spring

1st February - Saint Brigid's Day and the first day of Spring according to tradition.

See here and here for more background.

The girls at Ellie's school carry on the tradition of making the "Saint Brigid" doll from a sheaf of corn. They then take it in turns to bring her home and bless the land in the hope of ensuring fertility and a good harvest for the forthcoming year.

Below is a picture of the doll made by the girls of Dromindoora National School - and a photo of Ellie blessing the land with her.




(She also blessed the woods, the polytunnel and the chickens !!)

Oh no - it's world war 3.

Up nice and early to let all the hens out.... Jean and Twinkle the 2 "oldies" start jumping on the new girls, 2 onto 1 and tearing out beakfuls of feathers as well as pecking at their combs. Whilst this is normal and we expected a bit of a scuffle while the pecking order was established, the sight of poor bleeding chickens was enough to prompt a bit of a Berlin Wall in the pen.

1 piece of netting segregating old from new, with food and water each side, and we left them to taunt each other through the netting.

Hooray hooray. It's chicken day today...

The new "point of lay" hens are ready at the market (point of lay is about 16-20 week-old hens) so today we're getting another 6 Rhode Island Red hens to go in with Jean & Twinkle. Steve's finished the new hen-house "Chicken Hilton" and is off to pick them up today. We'll put them all in the house together at bedtime and see what happens.


Chicken Hilton

More snow.....

...becoming a bit of a habit this.
Pretty though. This is the veg plot under some snow.

and the obligatory snowman