Blue Belle and Baubles

Yesterday was another lovely autumnal day, and after a much-needed roast dinner and half pint of Black Dog at the Green Man, I pootled over to Nicky's for a CCG meeting. Lots to show and tell and she kindly furnished me with a 6mm crochet hook and some cream DK, among other things. We also started making plans for our CCG Christmas Party :-) I got to work with a reindeer bauble and finished my little mitts that I had started on the train. Oh and I made a little knitted heart tree decoration too:

The children arrived back from their father's and proceeded to spread gloom and arguments over my nice tranquil knitting-during-Countryfile scenario but after bringing the guinea pigs in to the lounge for a bit and then letting the rabbits hop around on the sofa, equilibrium was restored.

It was really chilly last night so I'm pleased I thought to put Maud in with the chicks for some extra insulation. Ida keeps flying out of the pen so I clipped her wings this morning but I'm still letting her and Mary out with Maud and the chicks during the day as they get picked on by the older hens and are a bit young for the full brunt of Henry's er, demands.

Ida the Blue Belle

Rosie started her Ocean Giants maths book this morning (by TickTock books) having finished Dinosaur Dig and we did a few pages of that and looked at my big Ocean book. She then copied a picture of an orca breaching, which I thought was very good in its simplicity:

This afternoon we went to town to try and get Amber some shoes but they were all horrible but I did get her a Pukka Pad for her farming lessons. I have asked her to research different types of livestock and she went on to the DirectGov website and looked up all about poultry. I am going to go over all the various crops and animals and management issues with her and hopefully build up a comprehensive 'textbook' for her to use. I have also been looking at the National Trust's MyFarm which we might enjoy...

Wet

We met some other home-ed families at the woods for a picnic and chat but the steady drizzle meant it was a huddle with pinched faces and flasks of hot coffee under the trees before heading home with filthy wet children and dogs. Scruff loved it. So did the children. I didn't.

We called in at the hen shop to purchase two replacements for Ida and unfortunately Mary who has also disappeared and I don't feel it's very likely that she'll reappear with chicks given the whetted appetite of the local fox.

Bit camera-shy

Anyway, Ida is on the left - another Blue Belle and Mary is another Speckledy but with a lot of white on her so hopefully we'll be able to tell the difference between her and Emily.  There wasn't a huge selection but I really felt for Maud's sake and the other hens that I needed to get the count back up as Henry is really a no-less-than-six-girl guy and Maud needed some friends who were also young. I have the new ones and Maud in the extension run with the rabbit house to shelter in. So we are now at Ida II, Emily III, Peggy II, Maud II, Mary II and the original Daisy. I'm not going to work out how much it's cost me to maintain my grandmothers' namesakes!

Henry was overjoyed to see some more females and strutted around the run exuding testosterone but he wasn't looking his best, being so damp:

Still quite a chick-magnet

The bunnies have been moved from the warren and seem happy to be in some longer grass:

but apart from that the day has been so wet and dreary we've done nothing really.  I must go and put the new chickens in to roost with the others as it's too wet and not secure enough for them to be in all night.