Where We Are Now
That's it! A week's holiday is over - it always goes so quickly. We've both still been working so I guess you could call it a working holiday... Meh! I think it's probably about time for a little summary of what we've been up to... Paul's been really busy making the fence out the back safe for when we finally get to let the chickens go free range out the back. He's done a grand job on the chicken ark, too, and it's only going to be a couple of weeks before we can give them their space. They've been laying a lot this week so we think they know what's coming, and it's really nice to have a lovely load of fresh eggs once again. The rogue chicken - Agent C as we have come to call her - from our landlord's house still comes to us every single day and walks around the garden like she owns it. She's a very pretty chicken but unfortunately we get no benefit of eggs as she lays them all in her own hen house before trotting over here! We keep her fed with scraps of vegetables and the odd bit of corn, but we are told she is very well fed over the road so we're being careful not to pay out and lose money feeding her. The new fence foxed her, (excuse the pun...), but she's learned how to get in again quite quickly - it only goes to show that we must clip the wings of our birds when we let them out to stop them running riot in the neighbour's - or our own - veg patch! Clipping their wings isn't as horrific as it sounds, by the way. It's actually just taking away part of their flight feathers on one side and is just like clipping cats claws or your own nails so it shouldn't cause them any distress. We got our first lot of seeds planted too! We had one good day of weather so we were both out there fence-erecting and sowing frantically! I was careful not to put too much in though because where we are we are very likely to have more frost. So far we have strawberries, cucumbers, mint (still waiting to be planted out from last year), hot peppers, chives, salad bowl mix and a few flowers; morning glory and canterbury bells. Fingers crossed for the weather improving so we're able to get a bit more in. I've been practising my driving, which is going very well, and I am pleased to say I passed my theory test this week with 50/50 for the multiple choice section and 59/75 for my hazard awareness! Trying not to think about my actual driving test yet as I've still got at least 20 hours more practise to do with my instructor. I'm getting on much better in the Landrover now but still saving up for a little car to practise in in the meantime! I've also been working on winding down The Krafty Lady - we're closing in April and starting a new business venture selling our own handmade products. Primarily we'll be on Etsy but we're hoping to start taking part in local farmer's markets and festivals soon... I can't give too much away at the moment as we're still frantically getting things ready, but we're both really excited and feeling very positive about the change! I'm sad to see The Krafty Lady go as we've had a really good year, but we can no longer compete in the Fair Trade market and I flatly refuse to sell unethical products. We're also tired of selling things other people have made when we know we can produce some lovely unique hand crafted items of our own. Exciting stuff for the year ahead, but I fear it will be another busy one! It was also my birthday this week and we were supposed to be catching up with old friends but unfortunately only two of about 30 invited turned up. I felt a bit sad about it but we had a good day. I'm just disappointed that people didn't let me know sooner than on the day (or in some cases not showing up at all..) because I'd rather have booked a table for the four of us at a nice restaurant than wait around all day. I was thoroughly spoilt though with money to go towards driving, a beautiful necklace and Tatty Teddy off my gorgeous sister and a huge amount of books on witchcraft from Paul. He also made me the most beautiful rosewood staff - the amount of thought that went into it just blew me away completely. I must Tumble a photo! It was lovely to see Dan and Martyn - I'll be posting some links to Dan's new book very soon so watch this space! It's available on Kindle and not only has a great storyline but some fantastic drawings/graphics in it too. I'll be downloading my copy later today! It's lovely having such a good friend who is such a talented and enthusiastic writer. I think that pretty much sums up a fabulous week. The sun is currently shining even though the wind is blowing away and it's really cold out there, so I'm going to take a brew out to the potting shed for a bit and give these chickens some veggies! On with my knitting projects this afternoon if I get time and *hopefully* some painting over the weekend.