D-rat!

I had a visitor yesterday, just at the end of the garden where the hen house is.
I am slowly working through the patch of ground that we'd trodden all over when putting up the fence. Our soil is heavy clay and feels wet underfoot (I know as I have padded around the garden barefoot) so I have been working to remove the masses of pebbles, boulders and the occasional brick. So far I have put in over eight hours of digging and collected over thirty bucketfuls of stones! How can there be so much in such a small amount of soil? Ahhh, but I digress. The visitor!
So, there I was, up at the hen house with my fork, ready to start digging again and suddenly under the fence comes a rat! It squeezed under the fence, saw me, whizzed one way and then the other and was back under the fence within seconds. It was only about two foot from my own two feet but such an intriguing and unexpected sight that I didn't do a girl thing and scream my head off. In fact, weirdly enough, I rather liked it's audacity; four in the afternoon and popping into a domestic garden when it has a huge field to dart about in behind us.
As my chitting potatoes lasted less than one singular night in the shed before being munched by rodents I knew something was coming into the garden and the shed but I didn't expect it to come around in the afternoon. Neither did it expect to find me here judging by it's swift exodus.
The one thing I've changed since seeing the rat? I don't walk around barefoot any longer!.

A burning issue.

I'm not happy about having a bonfire but it's one way to get rid of the roots and wood and produce nitrogen for the soil.

Luke pretending to blow it, of course it meant I couldn't put my washing out till the smoke had cleared!

Once it had died down it could be dug in.

So, here goes, time to dig the entire veg patch to get it ready for planting up.

The parsley has been all but ruined by the hen's continual pecking; fortunately I had picked and frozen some of it before I allowed them to have some. It has good digestive properties so I didn't mind them having it - too much! It can also be dug in as a green manure but I'm too mean not to transplant it into the herb garden that is slightly protected from the hens by the box edging.

I wasn't expecting to find buried treasure. A sprouting potato left over from last year.

Whilst I get sweaty with hard digging, the girls did some digging of their own. Here Lola and Shaksta look like a PushmePullyou with a head either end! 

Buck Bucky gets in on the act.

So does Socks, our next door neighbour Jack's cat warms herself on the wood chippings that I'd taken from the chicken run to make a dry walkway in front of the greenhouse. Seems like everyone else is enjoying the sun and lazing about whilst I work hard.

Blue skies and aeroplane trails.

Whilst Luke does the fence.

I haven't given this border any attention for a year and what with the roots from the shrubs and the tree plus the hens stomping over it to peck at the seeds the wild birds dropped. It was completely compacted and needed some decent compost to feed the plants and sand to help with the drainage. So before adding almost six bags of sharp sand and a large bag of compost l had to dig up the original plants so I could properly dig the area over without damaging anything too much.

Lola decided that the opportunity to eat worms was too good not to get involved.

A casualty; the first trowel I used bent in half so it was onto the next one!

Putting on a front.

 The little wheelbarrow has a change of colour, from last year's orange to this year's pink.

Primroses and pansies after their shower.

From start to finish.

Here is the fence project, from day one on Monday till the last bit of featherboard nailed in on Sunday.
Luke has cleared teh ground, dug out dead trees, levelled the land, dug down 70cms six times for the posts to be embedded, cemented in the posts then made a framework with Arris rails and - after being let down at the eleventh hour by our featherboard supplier - packing the car full of featherboard before cutting it all down, nailing it up, making a gate and tidying up.


Monday.

Two weak fence panels and one gate nailed into a post. This is what we started with.

Me cleaning up the brambles at the back of the fence.

 It's a big ole job!

Mud pie!

Luke getting stuck into the hard work.

The leggy tree, long dead but holding on by it's roots.

The ground, cleared and levelled at the end of the first and long day.


Tuesday.

The fence posts, painted with a water repellant substance. Chickens, digging for worms in my veg patch!

50cms down and Luke hits an obstacle, not the first and not the worst....., digging these six holes took him all day - I made myself scarce at the front of the house, well out the way..

Not only were there new holes to dig but there were the same amount of posts to remove.

Luke lines us up with the other fence boundaries.

The first posts are cemented in along the boundary line.

Wednesday.

The Arris rail is screwed into place as a framework for the featherboard.

Thursday.

Luke makes a gate.

The gate in place.

Friday.

After being let down at the last minute by the timber supplier we bought some from the local timber supplier, drove it home and here is Luke nailing the first board into place.

As fast as Luke secures the featherboard I am treating it on the other side.

Luke has to cut the correct shape for the gate in order to cover the hinges.

I also painted the side we see with a paint colour, Willow in order to soften the appearance.

Saturday.

Luke reaching the final section.

Joining up the fences.

Luke finishes off the gate and it's done.

Wash and brush up.

Every so often the girls have a spring clean, we give them a warm bath with diluted Dettol, check their vent is clean and then Vaseline their legs to stop scaly leg. They don't like it and seem to lose all their dignity with straggly feathers and bare behinds.

Later the hens have a drink together.