March 2012 at FTC

Its another one of those occasions when I'm so far behind with my blogging that its time for something of a picture dump and a catch-up!

This is largely caused due to Bill and I fishing on the 17th where I tried out the HD video setting on the 'point and click' Canon I had recenly purchased.  Now into April I still find myself trying to edit the numerous video clips!

March was the month Tash officially became unemployed, but it also meant it was another lovely month we could all spend together as a family.  Both she and Esme were discharged from hospital, with Tash being told her heart was fine amongst rumours spreading through Bedford hospital that Esme might now be in line for a role in the next Michelin advert!
 
The start of the month was nice and warm and I took the opportunity to get cracking with the garden.  It always seems to go that I spend March and April working in the garden, and then once everything is planted and summer arrives I just enjoy what we've got until the following March rolls round.

To be honest the raising of the beds in the garden would have been completed a while ago but for my drill going MIA at the Gathering in August.  Since using Bills cordless Bosch I knew I had to go cordless and treated myself to a new toy from DeWalt.

I set about cutting, drilling and nailing the scaffold boards in place alongside the path outside the barn.  Following that I sorted the placement of where the step was going to locate.

 

And of course Alfie was close by to lend a hand suring up the location of some crucial nails.

 

 

Over the next few weeks I laid countless kilos of concrete outside the barn to level off the path and raise the path to within a few inches of the step - giving me a suitable platform for the gravel.

I'm lacking photographic evidence, but the gravel is now down in place and it all works a treat!

Meanwhile, Alfie has enjoyed chasing chickens...

Harry has enjoyed laying in the sun ...

 

and with the chickens frequently enjoying freedom in the garden Harry has become best of friends with one of them.  Seriously, he even lets her peck at his back!

and when not cuddled up with a chook the poor dog had a two year old trying to show his love!

Come the end of the month I'd removed the old smashed caravan window, and had hoped to have a plastic replacement sorted by the end of that week.  Sadly I was quoted close on £100 and so thats on hold at the moment.  I either need a cheaper quote or else I'm going to get a sheet of 4mm plastic and do it myself.

Of course Esme is groing up fast, hitting 4 months old during March!  Her personality is really starting to shine now, and her face simply glows when she smiles.  Its wonderful to see her with Alfie too, its so clear to see how much the adore each other.  She simply can't take her eyes off him, and he loves to give her kisses and help where he can by replacing a dummy or giving her a 'ssshhhh ssshhhh sssshhh' when she's upset.

 

Oh yeah, and Sherlocks happy to be home and feeding well!

The Sherlock Returns!

I seem to have been asked quite frequently "have you found that snake yet?" to which my reply has always been that I didn't expect to until the weather warmed.

I had a suspicion he was curled up somewhere and was keeping himself nice and snug whilst our house was a bit chilly.  The past few days things have started to warm up though, and the sun has started to show a little more during the day.  It has been so nice I had actually meant to jump into the loft and turn the heating off!

Maybe I was right too, cos on Tuesday Tash turned to walk up the stairs and stopped dead in her tracks.  "Should there be a snake on the stairs!?" she called out!

And there was Sherlock, just sat there halfway up the staircase.  Tash found an ice cream tub and we gathered him up so I could get his viv back up to temperature before he was reintroduced to home.  I took the opportunity to grab some photos of him too, something I really wished I had done when we bought him.  He had been missing almost exactly 2 months!

Once the viv was nice and warm I put him back in with just his warm hide, a bowl of water, and a furry.  Snakes can go ages without food so I wasn't too worried about his hunger but water is more crucial for them.  He went straight for the water bowl and proceeded to drink like a fish!

 

Happy that he was OK I left him alone for a while.  I popped my head back in to check on him about an hour later when Alfie went to bed and I managed to catch him just finishing off the furry!  Happy that he had eaten and drunk I reassembled his viv ... and made sure the new roof was 100% escape-proof!


I am so chuffed to have him back, it was the best way to start my birthday!  I'm gonna leave him alone for a few weeks and let him settle back in.  I imagine its been quite stressful for him.  Then I'll start to get him used to being handled which I cannot wait for!

A Few More Squeezed Into The Ark!

I write this update with somewhat mixed emotions.

We had been down to one chicken since the end of last summer when one of our last birds was diagnosed with having mites.  Sadly, and obviously, she didn't make it and with the whole chicken run to herself our final bird went off the lay.  That is not why I am a touch sad though, that part comes later.

And so for a number of weeks I spoke about us acquiring a few more birds, and with winter approaching I wanted them not only for eggs but also for warmth for our current lone girl.  I was aware that a change in EU legislation regarding keeping battery hens was coming into force, but I didn't really know much about it.  But then just a few weeks before Christmas I got an email from the Battery Hens Welfare Trust saying something like "you've had chooks from us before, and due to the change of legislation we have a load of birds becoming available - would you consider taking on a few more?"  And of course I jumped at the chance, it was just what we were after!

And so we drove (the Benz scraped/ploughed) our way across the B roads of Britain to Bishops Stortford to grab our three new birds.  They settled in pretty quick, and have been on the lay since day 1!  With the coop now being cleaned out regularly with this anti-mite stuff I am hopeful they will be our longest surviving birds yet!  They only thing is that with three new scrawny birds (though they are much healthier than the three we got a few years back) it makes our 'resident' bird look exceptionally fit and healthy ... and plump and tasty! ;o)

Here the all are!

They get quite regular free time around the garden now too as Harry proved my earlier suspicions that he would be fine with chickens, if maybe a little excitable at times.  Though seeing a dog trying to sniff a chickens arse is a bizarre sight!

That period between Christmas and New Year can often be a bit 'nothing'.  Not really festive, but nothing really to do.  This year seemed really different though, and on December 28th we made a visit to the Koi centre which is just up the road from us.  We go there fairly often, previously when Neo (my Leopard Gecko) was alive for his food, and now just to show Alfie all the cool fish and reptiles.  There must be something about the inter Xmas/New Year period that leads me to have a desire to make rather impulsive reptilian purchases.  I acquired Neo at that time back around 1999, and on this day we walked out with a Anerythristic Corn Snake.  Alfie loved he, he actually chose it, and they are great pets for kids - and I really fancied a snake.  We had the viv, heating, hides etc ready to go and so went home to get it set up before collecting him that evening.

I then did a load of research and learnt how to let them settle, and most importantly that they are proper escape artists!  They can even flatter their heads which means they can get through gaps just a few mm big - and with ours being just 6 months old he's pretty small!  The viv is an old fish tank and so I made the lid temporarily escape proof before making a new lid.  I did this on Saturday (Jan 7th), but clearly there must have been a tiny gap somewhere as the bugger had packed his bags and gone to see the wider world by Monday morning!  I'm pretty gutted about it, and I'm preying he makes an appearance soon.  There are many tales of Corns disappearing for days/weeks/months on end so I am trying to keep positive that he'll reappear somewhere.  In the meantime there are water dishes everywhere, his viv is on the floor, his hide is on the floor with the heat mat under it, and there are many bottle traps been set.  The bottle traps have a furry in each one and as he is due to be fed today I hope he'll come out in the search for food soon!

And so if you happen to visit FTC please keep your eyes out for a snake who looks something like this chap.