Bing Crosby - Busy Doing Nothing

I have also been singing this song for most of the afternoon!
I love the harmony achieved in the last "time"
The red faced farmer called in this afternoon and kindly dropped me off some chicken fencing....he almost caught me bouncing around in the grass trying to reach that last note!
I am such a dick sometimes!

Les Miserables

I found myself humming One Day More from Les Miserables for most of the afternoon and I cannot quite believe that I first saw this musical over 23 years ago now!
Much has been said by critics about how Les Mis was a heavyhanded and popularist musical, but I have always loved it , because of the quality of the songs.
I always remember the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end, when the original cast belted out ONE DAY MORE at the end of the first act.
The audience went wild!

A hen only her mother could love

Mildred Pierce has never been a pretty hen. Two years ago she lost her feathers after a moult and never really regained them. She also pecks her own feathers (despite having gallons of anti peck spray and violet antibiotic spray covering those sore bits) and has red bald spots all over her body. I have treated her for mites,lice,skin irritations and every poultry illness and disease known to man, and she still looks as though she has been run over by a ten ton bus!
Having said that, she eats well, produces a good amount of eggs and will take on all comers if she feels at risk or in danger, so I have been in a quandary about what to do for the best, to improve her condition.
The vets couldn't come up with anything new, so today, in the warmth of the afternoon, I have treated her with a bath of warm water laced with tea tree oil, then I have treated her sore wings with betnovate. She seemed to enjoy the attention
I cut the lawn and started to clear the huge backlog of hedge cutting and shrub clearing, before Chris and I called in to drop off my brother-in-law's birthday gift. The whole family are getting together tomorrow night for a bash, so Steve, from down the road has kindly taken on hen duties!

My catch up

I have found the last two day shifts pretty busy and very tiring. Today, sudden admissions and trauma cases mean that everyone has to be on their toes, and sometimes I feel I am slightly behind everyone else as I am physically not in the swing of things as much as others, but at least I am cheerful!
The dogs especially feel my absence and were desperate for their walk when I eventually got home mid afternoon.The weather has improved so it actually feels a little like summer, so with the alarms of the intensive care monitors. still ringing in my ears we had a glorious 90 minute walk around the hills and fields.
I didn't get into the field until late afternoon, and after the general jobs were completed, I took the camera around to capture the animals themselves, in the peace and stillness of the afternoon.
The pigs with their "extra" feeds from the locals have now put on a little too much weight, so I have had to limit their treats to vegetables and fruit only ( and NO rich tea biscuits!)....the rest of the hundredweight of burger buns have been shared with the hens. Strangely enough the runners don't like bread too much....it gives them the squits!

The 11 young hens in the main enclosure are approaching point of lay, and seven of them are hens which is encouraging! Five of these will take over egg laying duties from the older hens, and the two others , which are buffs will join the 5 strong group of buff females. Seven girls and one cockerel will be a good breeding colony.

Halleh, is a delight and remains firmly part of the small hen flock. He doesn't always seems to understand why the hens are acting the way they do, but gamely joins in with any activities. Above he is running alongside Linda and his mother Blanche as they chase Nonnie who had managed to grab herself a large beetle

Kate Winslett and her chicks have been moved into the movable outdoor run and I have relocated them to fresh ground. One little Black chick looks a little quieter than the others but all are eating and drinking well, so I will keep a general eye on him/her

I have not had much of a chance to bond with Boris for a while, so when Albert uncovered a nest of baby mice ( which he very cruelly killed), I spent a grizzly (but for Boris a delicious ) time feeding him these little danties whole! He sat at my feet afterwards and belched quite happily!

The five other new girls that survived the fox attack in Lloc, have settled down brilliantly and are great little egg layers!! Below is Araucana Patty, with her posh head feathers.

She lays pretty blue eggs

I watched the animals pottering around until dusk!

Helen and Hazel

Helen (2008) was supposed to be an interesting indie film. The lead,-Helen is a teenage girl who, when asked by the police to play the stand-in for a reconstruction, realizes it gives her a chance to confront her own troubled past and reinvent herself into the sort of girl she would like to be (ie. the victim, who to her had everything in her life)
Yeap sounds a potentially fascinating study of unhappiness...in reality it was a pile of sh*te.
Hazel and I walked out after a long half hour of stilted acting and even more plodding writing. It was ok though, as we spent a jolly hour with a coffee and a beer in a local pub garden discussing Hazel's return to the dating scene after her recent divorce.
She looks great, has just bought a spiffing new sporty car and is enjoying a new job and an even more enjoyable decorated house.....dating at 40, we decided is an exciting new venture for her!....yeap the discussion was a very Sandra Bullock and Stanley Tucci rom com moment
Working tomorrow morning YET AGAIN........hope the shift is better than this morning's!

Nature is very cruel

A wasp got into my pants today through a rip in the crotch
I was stung on the inner thing and right buttock
Nature can be deadly.....
.....and painful

Being a bitch

I can be such a bitch!
William and I sat at the vets (yes again~!) for nearly an hour today. One vet didn't turn in for work and with the new appointment system in full flow, the clients just kept a coming!
Now every time I go to the vets surgery, I always seem to get lumbered with a fellow customer with, shall we say, questionable social skills and today was no exception. A man with an inner city accent, too much bling and an overactive collie held court in the waiting room, and as we were all waiting for our appointments we got lumbered with him for the duration.
His dog was beside itself and was constantly on the go, he, shouted a great deal, huffed and puffed about the wait and shouted at his dog some more and had that annoying habit of talking loudly at the animal asking it "why are you acting like this?- you are doing my head in!...will youuuuuusittttttstillllll?", and after 45 minutes I literally could have ripped his face off, but as politeness would dictate, I studiously ignored all of his comments and read the notice board time and time again!.
While all this was going on William sat beautifully on my knee, watching the proceedings quietly and with interest, and just before we were called in the see the vet, the loud man bellowed over "How do you get him to be so well behaved?"
I could resist it, and as I smiled sweetly I said
"I always think that a dog will reflect it's owners calm quiet behaviour, don't you?"
...result.............

A Sick Chris,Belle goes Broody, too many buns, a welcome change of plans , the Chicken course grows and a cracking blog read

Chris thinks he has swine flu....his symptoms suggest a heavy cold, but his temperature IS up, so he has gone to bed early with Miss Marple and some Night Nurse tablets that I have just brought for him.
Another day has brought forth another broody hen. This time Belle has caught the mommy bug and has found the most exposed nest in which to raise her brood! This morning, quite by accident I caught sight of her sat sternly on top of the lane wall, inches from passersby and farm traffic! and she had been there all night! Bless her! I moved her into a spare rabbit hutch complete with a new set of eggs to sit on, and she has taken to broodiness with some gusto! More mouths to feed! (sigh)

As I was moving Belle into her new safer home, one of the girls that regularly visit the pigs (as a diversion after the sad death of her mother) called around with 7 huge boxes of bread buns and cheese, which were leftovers from a village wedding! It was 8am and raining, and I was very touched by her kindness and effort! The pigs, even after the 100th bread bun thought they were in heaven!
This afternoon I made the decision not to go to Sheffield at the weekend, of course it wold be lovely to catch up with Nu , Kathryn, and Mike and Bev but all too late I realised that it clashed with my Brother''s summer party! I won't go into details why, but I think that just now, family has to come first and we are all looking forward in sharing a minibus and going up to his party en masse! Can't wait.,...Jayne (sister-in-law does LOVELY FOOD!)

Tonight was the second of my four Poultry course sessions, and I was pleased that all the "students" turned up for a second lesson. In actual fact I now have 9 participants, and all of them seem to enjoy the teaching.

I have forgotten just how enjoyable it is, having a group that really wants to learn something and as usual I also learnt just as much as I taught as a lot of the time we discussed their experiences rather than just mine. They are a nice bunch of despots!
Anyhow I will close today's blog with a nod to another highly entertaining blogweb site called PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVENOTES.COM (http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/)

This witty blog basically Chronicles the pithy, often "last chance" work based notes posted by stressed work colleagues and family in reply to minor slights and tribulations....it makes hilarious reading!

we have all been there!