RIP TILLEY

Tilley has been poorly for quite a while and we have had the vet and farrier to her for the last 8 months or more. It came to a point where keeping her going was cruel and not in the best interest of Tilley, rather for us not wanting to loose her, so Tilley fell asleep on Thursday now pain free and remembered with love. Sleep well our little Tilley XXXX she looks like she has been rolling in the hay here, she was always full of fun and love.

GOATS DRIVING ME NUTS

As soon as I open the lid of the feed Rocky and Ringo decide to see who can drive me in sane but biting bits of paper off of the feed bags and running off with it so I cant catch them, dear little cherubs!!!!They think that everything is a game and are really excited when someone comes in to play, wheres that Kait!!!

FINAL BIRTHDAY FOR FEB!

And then there was Steves birthday, I have never made so many cakes so quickly!!! Me and Laura made a penguin this time for Steven who was 15 on the 22nd, now 5ft 9 and size 10 feet hes a little way off the little boy he used to be, still sweet and loving though!!!. He wanted a pool table for his birthday so we got one that could double up as a dinning table as there isnt really room for both, it has a top that you can use as a table and then take it off and there you have a pool table! The penguin was possible the hardest cake we have made 3 hours of cooking 24 eggs later and 4 hours of decorating it was ready! We had our usual thing, all the family over, I feed them, play pool and bobs your uncle another birthday treat!

HAPPY AS PIGS IN MUCK

Pixie and Woody, Pixie is deaf and Woody daft so they make a great couple. (reminds me of someone????) They have been moved back down for the woods which is a bit muddy now!, they go there in the winter as its warmer up there it does seem to get as frosty. But now we have moved them back down to the spring/summer paddocks, which has got grass, they love the adventure! I am just hoping that the weather realises it should be warmer now and hurries up and gets into the swing of Spring!

THEN ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

Auntie Lou was 21 again in Feb and we thought only a welly boot cake was the way to go, so we made her a pair of welly boots in cake. She invited us over for a great beef roast, must ask when we get to go again it was lovely and I didnt have to cook....great! SO Happy Birthday!!

PETE FIXED THE SQUEAK!

There was a minute squeak that didnt offend anyone but Pete, but it drove him nuts, so when I got back one day he was in the kitchen looking pretty pleased with himself. I asked what was going on, he said quite happily "I fixed that darn squeak" wont be happening again......and this is what I saw when I went in the room, the staircase and step that cost us a fortune.....this is what it looked like! YEAP OMG the man has gone in sane!! It took a little while to fix but all is well nad Pete hasnt been sectioned so thats good! ha ha

MY ACE WHEELBARROW!

My other wheelbarrow that dad made years ago for Steve to be Bob the Builder sort of disintegrated! So Dad made me another one for my birthday, another plan for JC Housing, or should that be JC transport a sister company??? MMM might have to get thinking, I can hear Dad now....NOOOOO NOOOO more plans just stick a plant in it!!

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

And next was Lauras birthday, she came back from Uni for a few days for mine and her birthdays, and then went back and had another party with her friends at uni. I made a cake which if you play it will sing Happy Birthday! Took me ages!... I thought it was a little dull in colour on the outside so I used food colour to make the sponge bright pink! It tasted better than it looked!!!!! So 20 Laura I am not sure she likes that number, I wouldnt mind being that number instead of mine, but it is only a number eh!

BARRICADES

The chickens and ducks are usually causing me grief....as soon as I mulch or move something the chickens are there scratching and messing it up, so I came up with a plan, I used some of the wood we chopped down to build a barricade to stop the chickens from kicking the mulch about 20 foot all over the car port area. They are only little and its great they are truly free range in every sense, but dot hey really have to trash everything??? At one point I felt like Victor Meldrew off one foot in the grave and him moaning any going bonkers at the moles in his garden, I was a bit like that with my flowers and much and the chickens, frightened myself really!!!

SPRING IS IN THE AIR?

I see a glimmer of hope, some snowdrops and a few shoots are a welcome sight after the 5 months or what seems forever of mud, I cant wait until the Spring, some flowers and greenery again. I think I say this every year, but this winter was a hard one.

FINALLY!

We finally after 16 months of trying...have got a piece of balustrade to stop me falling down the hole! The hole is supposed to be there as its double volume staircase but I seem to head right for it each time, but now we have balustrade all will be fine, and its a one off.....you didn't really expect anything else did you! Keith Babb made it for us, so I can really recommend him, he only does one offs but they are well worth it.

BIRTHDAY SEASON

Just realised I am way behind with all the news.... Well it was my birthday first in Feb and Laura, Steve and Aaron made me a great cake I loved it and we had pizza for tea! One of those takeaway expensive ones that you know its your birthday when you pay the bill!! nice and quiet after a really hectic week.

HAIRCUT 100!

Well if you remember them you must be old!! ha ha only kidding. Lucky and Gem keep getting really lagged in mud and I thought it would help if I cut their hair a bit, Lucky sort of obliged but was feeling a bit sick with the cheesey treats and wouldn't stand up, and Gem was a real baby. I did try to catch Shadow but as soon as she sees the scissors or clippers she goes and hides in a really ridiculously small place! So the photos are Gem and Lucky clipped and Shadow sitting pretty as if to say I am far to posh for this carry on, just feed me grapes! She loves to sit and listen to the football on a wednesday night and the train when it occassionally crosses, very strange dog, she also love to sit and watch the stars, quite bazaar!

AND THEN MORE!

On my birthday Western Power in their wisdom decided to turn the power off all day! No cups of tea!!! whilst they cut some major trees down to protect the power lines...not happy bunnies!! but at least we were able to have more wood as we didn't have much did we!!! So as the 12 man cutting crew left a tractor arrived with great big chunks of wood to be axed up, Dad offered to start as I had quite spectacularly collapsed at the vets the day before and was tested for a stroke it appeared it wasn't a stroke, luckily but a really nasty virus which gives you all the symptoms and leaves you with vertigo for a few weeks, not very nice at all, I still keep falling over now!......., he was axing and I was shifting, he got through most of the pile and then the dreaded tractor came again with another huge load!!! It will be handy to keep warm, but somehow soul destroying to think you have finished a really hard job and then be back to square one!. So thanks Dad and great Gonzo face you made in the wood by accident but we are keeping him!

LUMBER JACKS!

We had a 5 day stint of chopping and tidying the top paddock behind the house and general tree cutting, ANt and Andys hands must have been shaking for a far while after that, I was out there dragging the stuff to burn and sorting out all the loggable tree bits and dad spent a whole day in soot on one of the many mamouth burning days, I didnt see him through the smoke for the whole day, just kept feeding him bushes! It does look a lot better now and ready for things to grow in a good way! We filled the log store and the firewood store.

OUR SQUIRREL

Not sure if I shared this with you before, but Laura and I made a mosaic out of some old bathroom and porch floor tiles, so whatever was around we had to use, and came up with this squirrel, It was better than we expected so might have to go into production!!!

MORE HOT TUB

And finally into position, I think it loks great another 3 week project, really need this one to be our last or we might find ourselves living in a tent!

THE ARRIVAL OF THE HOT TUB!

Its arrived, had to get a dirty big crane though to lift it over the wall as we couldn't get through the narrow arch! Here's a few of the installation photos, you probably aren't that interested but I was amazed at the precision of the lift, sad really aren't I!!!!