November 2011 - blogging re-starts?

November sees the start of NaBloPoMo, a blog post each day for a month. I have posted every day, in the past, and it would feel good to get back to doing so!

But...I have had a very long and tiring and stressful day today; I am still feeling very unwell and also my longstanding back injury is flaring up; it is very late and I am very tired...so today the post will just be one of announcing I am hoping to join in...

I may also this month even manage to finish of the August alphabet post which I ( cough) still have yet to complete ( sorry Chiots Run!) 


I can hope...!

I am now a no show at the Compost Awareness event in Hereford

I agravated a long standing back injury lifting tables and trays of plants last weekend..and now I can't drive, or do much at all...so lovely Compostman drove me to school today and helped at Eco Club this afternoon...

because today I was scheduled to be teaching in the organic garden at School, I had Reception class scheduled to be out in the veg garden, planting potatos, carrots, beetroot and shallots.

Yesterday I had Gardening Club (juniors) out in the garden over lunch break planting potatos, beans, carrots, peas and beetroot. Then during the afternoon I was showing year 1 children how to plant up their raised veg bed with onions, carrots, turnips, potatos and beetroot, all with the theme of "purple"

I also, today had Eco Club and we did some pond dipping , which was great fun!

But, painful....and I wouldn't have managed it without Compostman's help.

Unfortunately due to my ( very painful) back injury I will also not, now, be at the Compost Awareness Week event in Hereford Fri.

Sorry! especially to Kim, who was going to come and say hello I know..

so...its rest, and recovery, and NO digging for me...

This is a really bad time for me to have an injury, as apart from all the stuff needing to be done here at Compost Mansions, there is a major re vamp of the school garden this weekend as well...moving the fence out to make the plot bigger, a new greenhouse, new raised beds..oooh all sorts of stuff ...and I am meant to be there digging and moving and dismantling compost bins and laying terram sheet and mulch and all sorts...

but I suspect I will be making the tea, instead :-( Grrr, bluddy back injury, I have had this for 40 years now, am Sooooo fed up its not true...mumble mumble mutter curse........)

Cock fighting!

I went out yesterday to put the chickens to bed and found Long John Silver Dorking with a bloody throat, looking very sorry for himself in the corner of the Broody Ark. His beautiful speckled white neck feathers were covered with blood, it looked dreadful and at first I feared the worst,( fox, cat, mink attack etc)

So, I picked him up, tucked him close up under my arm for comfort and carried him over to the garage, where there was better light and the chicken first aid kit lives. I examined Long John Silver and it transpired he only had a small wound on one of his wattles (the red bits of skin which hang down underneath the beak) and was fine everywhere else. Phew!

We put on some surgical gloves (I had a job as its hard to do with a chicken under your arm!) then Compostman opened the sterile saline sachet and wipes for me (as I had my hands full of Long John Silver!) and then I gently cleaned away all the blood and had a good look at the wound. It was actually not bad, a small nick only, just it had bled a lot! I puffed some Veterinary Wound powder on to the area and made sure there was no blood visible any more (as the other chickens will go for any bloody wound and peck at it). I wondered about putting on some Gentian Violet but decided not.

I then gentled poor old Long John Silver a bit, gave him some corn in my hand and petted him till he had calmed down, then put him in his run (with Ruby and Buffy to snuggle up to for company) for the night.

Compostman said he had seen Long John and Cap't Flint squaring up to each other earlier on, so it must have been as a result of a fight. I had already separated out the two cockerels a few days ago into separate runs and houses at night time because of their increased aggressiveness to each other. I had put Cap't Flint in the Eglu with Violet and Willow, Long John Silver had the Broody Ark with Ruby and Buffy

This did seem to have worked as they are only in there overnight and the rest of the time they have LOADS of space to avoid each other and the "big" hens!




My problem at the moment is the cockerels are still too young to dominate the big hens, who chase them and laugh at them, quite frankly!

My long term plan is to put let one cockerel have a harem in Cluckingham Palace and the other have a harem in the Eglu, and they can all just work it out! As there is plenty of space and enough hens this should work OK, I have seen it work quite happily before....but not until the cockerels are big enough to actually "persuade" the older hens that they WANT to be part of the harem!

So...in the meantime Cluckingham Palace is off limits because it is occupied by the "big girls" and I have to sort this out for myself...and make sure the cockerels are separated out at night.

Teenagers! Honestly!

Kittens return and a rather rough few days.

Well....it has been a rather fraught couple of days here....

The kittens went down yesterday to the Vets to be neutered and micro chipped..I rang at 2 pm to make sure they were OK, and they were fine and in recovery...and all the nurses agreed they were SO cute!

I arranged to go and get them at 5 pm, spent the rest of the afternoon calming a very stroppy Compostgirl down and cleaning out hens.....and I sat down at my computer at 4 pm with a mug of tea to do some catch up emails, a bit of blogging, try and sort out an issue on a forum I frequent AND have a look at a bit more of my Forest School portfolio, before I went to collect the kittens.

My right eye felt a bit itchy, so I rubbed it , as you do when you get an eyelash in it or something...and I carried on working.

I went to my car at 4.45 pm to drive to get the kittens...Compostman commented that my eye looked rather sore and red...and by the time I got to the Vets it was REALLY hurting. The nice Veterinary nurses in my Vets said that it looked sore, too! I collected Tom and Tabitha, groggy and grumbling from their ops...( ah poor things..) and drove home.

I had to stop to move a fallen tree ( really!) which was blocking the whole road near to Compost Mansions...it was big, but old and dead so quite light BUT I was surprised I had the strength to heave it out of the way! I must be getting more fit and strong now BUT it made my eye throb...

I got home at 6 pm and I soon realised my eye was REALLY hurting, I was photo phobic and, on looking in the mirror, I had a bulge in the conjunctiva ( which was a nasty yellowy pink colour!) which meant I couldn't actually close my eyelid over the bulge....( ouch!) it all looked rather alarming, quite honestly. Various worried thoughts flitted through my mind, that's the trouble with having an Anatomy and Physiology qualification and being a First Aider...you have an idea of all the things it could be, and they tend to scare you a bit! (or a lot!)

Compostman took charge "WE ARE going to the Hospital NOW!" He knows me of old, I will delay and postphone and prevaricate like hell...rather than "make a fuss" even though we have had enough serious medical dramas with me that I REALLY ought to know better by now....

So..instead of sitting down at 6 pm to eat slow cooked local free range home grown sausage, apple and cider casserole, we were dashing to our local minor injuries unit...the nurse there was really good ( THANK YOU Jenny!) and rapidly arranged for an on call Opthalmologist Consultant to come in to Hereford A and E to see me....as the Eye A and E had already closed...

So then Compostman drove Compostgirl and I to Hereford where *I* went into A and E and *they* went searching in Hereford to find some supper for poor old Compostgirl as by this time it was her bedtime and she hadn't YET had her supper.. (I AM the original BAD MOTHER..I know I know!)

In the mean time *I* was being examined...The consultant was excellent and very nice ...I came away with some antibiotic ointment AND a script for steroid and antibiotic drops, with strict instructions as to what to do over the next few days depending on how I felt.

It rather looks like I may have shingles.......(!) ....I feel terrible, my eye hurts like hell, I ache all over...

BUT ..the trouble is, with CFS/ME...just going through an upset like the last few days would make me feel like that ....so..I really DO NOT know if I DO have Shingles..YET..........I really hope not!


Oh...and to all who have asked...the Kittens are fine! and were manic all last night ( mainly on top on me, so I didn't get much sleep!)

AND they disgraced themselves last night by pooing and weeing ( both of them!) on the bath mats....despite having perfectly good, accessable litter trays...so I am still pondering on why they did that...maybe they were just still stoned from the drugs they had?

Ho hum...I think we have just had a generally carp day at Compost Mansions..lets hope it was the start of an upturn in our life!

Some good vibes would be very gratefully recieved right now blog friends.........especially that I do NOT have shingles!!

Hmm where has the week ( and September!) gone?

Hmm where has the week ( and September!) gone?

It hardly seems a few days since I posted a Mabon related post....(!)

I have been very busy preparing for my second Forest School session as Leader with Year 1 children from my local Primary School...the first session was SUCH fun! We played hiding games in the copse and made wood cookies...slices of wood ( from our wood at home...Cherry actually!) which the children decorated and hung around their necks, learning to tie a reef knot in the process.... :-)) I LOVE doing this sort of thing with children, showing them how they can learn to do things outdoors, helping them to learn about the wonders of our beautiful world..... :-))))

Unfortunately, however, I have aggrevated a longstanding back injury and have been considerably incapacitated all this week, JUST when I need to be at my most efficient and busy, harvesting, preserving and generally preparing everything for the soon to come winter months! I guess moving bedroom furniture around was NOT the brightest idea I have had recently.....( roll eyes...)

Compostman is much improved after his operation BUT still has 3 weeks minimum before he can go back to anything like "normal" levels of a activity/lifting etc. So I am still on "lifting stuff " duty, however much he protests I am *NOT* letting him undo all the good the operation will eventually do him, by letting him lift stuff before he should.

At the moment we are picking the apples and it means *I* am having to do all the lifting of the full big baskets of apples we have just picked..ow ow ow my aching back!

Ah well....I can rest in a few weeks time as by then the apples will have been stored ( if blemish free), turned into chutney, cider, dried or eaten and any left will be on the ground and the Hens will be eating them ( they LOVE Apples!)

Its all go here at this time of year!

Ginger the bashed Hen.....

The evening before yesterday Ginger struggled free when I was holding her to check her over. She landed a bit awkwardly and slightly ( it seemed!) bashed her side on the corner of an empty cardboard box.

She semed a bit stunned at the time and limped off to hide under a bush, but by bedtime was walking around ( with a bit of a limp) but with a droopy tail.

She is eating, pooing, drinking and laying normally and looks ok, apart from obviously being a bit "stiff" and slow now...her limp has nearly gone and I can't feel any problem with her ( although she is now very wary of me... ) ...BUT her tail is still droopy?

I sort of feel she has bashed her back...but I am a bit surprised her tail is still so immobile...

Musings on "living a self sufficient (ish) life"

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Being green and self sufficient can be hard work!!!

A large rural plot/wood/chickens etc is NOT all it is cracked up to be when you have a bad back, a duff immune system, are totally dependent on your car to get anywhere( nearest shop 2 miles..nearest smallish town 5 miles.)

Its a hard slog sometimes..I love where I live..I wouldn't want to live in a town again BUT I have a bad back at the mo and compostman has hurt his shoulder doing major restoration on our 100 year old house...BUT the spuds need to be in NOW..the onion patch needs to be dug over NOW...the hedge has to be cut NOW or the birds will be nesting...and the orchard MUST be pruned NOW ...

but what do you do if you are ill??? or tired...or you just "do not feel like it..."

well the answer is you just have to get on with it... regardless of aches and pains and GP saying "go to bed"......

Being self sufficient is WONDERFUL...I LOVE that we can grow most of our food...BUT if you are thinking of doing what we have done, be aware it IS a huge burden as well as a HUGE delight.

Holidays are non existant!( you try to find a hen and other stock sitter and someone who can water the polytunnel so the crops actually thrive in July/August!!!!)

And some years the delight is a bit thin on the ground as well............... especially if one of you has a major illness/operation.............

sorry I didn't mean to bring in a down note on my blog...but " the good life " is actually bloody hard work!!!!!

BUT

STILL I get up in the morning and think " aaahhhhhhhhhh" as I open my bedroom window to air the room ...and I breathe in the sweet, fresh air.... and the days are wonderful ........and the night sky is magical.... and I get to see the stars in the dark night sky.....listen to nightingales in the summmer to the extent that they become a major pain in the butt!!

I can go and pick food and be eating it within 15 mins...I can go into the garden and just "be" for 10 mins and listen to a skylark doing its thing above my head....I can be blessed to see a hare living in our wood for the winter.......

So..I moderate my previous comments.........it IS great...but it IS still hard work.......