January 2012

We returned to our new section on 4th January and this times things were not so good. Bold Wally had died - she had not been looking so well before we left - and one of the other chooks was being pecked and had bald and bloodied wings.

The weather had been extremely wet and windy so everything was well watered, especially the willow house. The clockwork timer on the hose for this had stuck and so the dribblers had been on the whole 10 days we were away. No wonder the grass around the hut was waist high. It was all rather ironic as we had employed another worker, Sleepy Bunny, to monitor our water pump activity and she sits patiently on the bookcase above our fridge and her head torch lights up every time the pump comes on. Dave had spent hours designing this system and the very time she was being useful, we were not there to listen her!!

Sleepy Bunny

Anyway, everything else was fine if very overgrown and our electricity bill was way higher than when we there. There was produce aplenty though...

... and flowers that just made you smile (even despite that electricity bill).

And Dave was soon back in the swing of things, literally, as we noticed a new pile of wood down by the river. It was about 350m away from the nearest road access, with one hill in between, but with Dave and his wheelbarrow, me with the carrier on the back of my bike, and lots of helpful comments from passers-by, we soon got the wood home. So the wood drying on the stands was moved into the wood shed ...

... and he set to chopping up the rest.